Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-10-16
kEi. DIR. TALMAGE.
TIE BROOKLYN DIVINES Sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: What Were We Made For"

After Plate had suicided, tradition says
that his body was thrown into the Tber,
and such storms ensued on and about that
river that his body was taken out and
thrown into the Rhone, and similar dis
turbances swept that river and its banks.
Then the body was taken out and re-
moved to Lausanne and put into a deeper
pool, which Immediately became the centre
OF similar atmospheric and aqueous dis
turbances. Though these ara fanciful and
false traditions they show the execration
WITH which the world looked upon Plate. It
WIGS before this man when he was in full life
ana power that Christ was arraigned as
In court OF oyer and terminer Plate said
to his prisoner. Art Thou a king, them
and Jesus answered, "To this end was I
born" sure enough, although all earth and
hell arose TO keep Him down, He is to-day
empaiaca J. entnronei and coronated king Of
earth and king of heaven. ITO this end was
born" That is what He came for and that
was what He accomplished.
By the time a child reaches ten years Of
age the parents begin to discover that chiId's
destiny; but by the time he or she reaches
ntteeu years OF age the question is on the
chilG's lips: What am | to be? What am
going 10 De? What was [ made for?' Ii
IS sensible and righteous question, and the
youth ought to keep on asking it until it is
so fully answered that the young man or the
young woman can say with as much truth
as It's author, though less expansive
scale, ITO this end was born"
There is too much divine skill shown in the
physical, mental and moral constitution Of
the ordinary human being to suppose that
he was constructed without any divine pur-
pose. IL you take me out on some vast plain
and show ME pillared temple surmounted by
dome like ST. Peters, and having a floor
of precious stones, and arches that must have
taxed the brain of the greatest craftsman to
design, and walls scrolled and niched and
paneled and wainscoted and painted, and
should ask you what this building was put
up for. and you answered, For nothing at
all" how could believe you?
And it is impossible for me to believe that
any ordinary human being who has in his
muscular nervous and cerebral organization
more wonders than Christopher Wren lifted
in st. Pauis, or Phidias ever chiseled on the
Acropolis, and built in such a way that it
snail last long after ST. PauPs cathedral is
as much rGin as the ParthenOn-thaU such
a beng was constructed for no purpose and
to execute no mission, and without any di-
vine intention toward some end. The object
OF this sermon is to help you to find out what
you are made for. and help you to find your
sphere, and assist you in that con Iition where
you can say with certainty and emphasis and
enthusiasm and triumph, ITO this end was [
born"
First, discharge you from all response.
blllty tor most OF your environments. You
are not responsible for your parenJege or
grandparentage. You are not responsible
for any Of the cranks that may have lived
IN your ancestral line, and who hundred
years before you were born may have lived
style Of life that more or less affects you to-
day. You are not responsible for the fact
that your temperament is sangulne or meian-
choHC or bilious or Emphatic or nervous.
Neither are you responsible for the place of
your nativity, among the granite hills OF
New England, or the cotton plantations of
Louisiana, OF on the banks of the Clyde, Or
the Dnieper, or the Shannon, or the Seine.
Mott +Ho 1inri0
taught in your fathers house, nor the ire
hgion. Do not bother yourself about what
you cannot help, or about circumstances
that you did not decree.
Take things as they are and decide the
question so that you shall be able safely to
say, ITO this end was [ born" How will
you decide it? By direct application to the
only Beingin the universe who is competent
to tell you-the Lord Almighty. Do You
know the reason why He is the only one who
can tell? Because He can see everything be-
tween your cradle and your grave, though
the grave be eighty years off. And, besides
that, He is the only Being who can see what
has oeen happening for the last five hun
dred years in your ancestral line and for
thousands of years clear back to Adam, and
there is not one person III all that ancestral
line of six thousand years but has somehow
affected Jour character, and even old Adam
himself Will sometimes turn up III your dis
position. The only being who can take all
things that pertain to you into consideration
is God, and He IS the one you can ask. Life
is so short we have no time to experiment
with occupations and professions.
The reason we have so many dead failures
is that parents decide for children what they
shall 90, OF children themselves, wrought on
by some whim CT fancy, decide Tor them
selves without any importation OF divine
guidance. So we have now i'll pulpits men
making sermons who ought to be in black
smith shops making plOwShareS and we have
in the law those who instead OF running the
cases OF their clients ought to be poundlng
shoe lasts, anu doctors who are the worst
hindrances to their patients convalescence,
and artists trying to paint landscapes who
ought to be whitewashing Coard fences.
While there are others making bricks who
ought to be remodeling constitutions, or
showing planes who ought to be transform
ing nteratures. Ask God about what worldly
business you shall undertake until you are
so positive you can in earnestnesS sInlte your
hand on YOUR plOW handle, or your carpen-
terS bench, or your Blackstones 'Commen-
taries." OF your .ledicai dictionary, or your
DR.. Dicks ''Didactic Theology" saying,
"For this end was | born"
There are children who early develop nat.
ural atfinitieS Tor certain styles OF work.
When the father of the astronomer Forbes
was going to London he asked his children
what present he should bring each one OF
them. The boy who was to be an astron-
omer called out, Bring me telescope!'
And there are children whom you find all
by themselves drawing on their states, or on
paper ships or houses or birds, and you know
they are to be craftsmen or artists OF some
kind. And you find others cypherlng out
difficult problems with rare interest and sue
cess, ana you know they are to be mathema-
tic.ans. AMI others making wheels and
strange contrivances, and you know they
are going TO be machiuists. And others are
found eyparimenting with hoe aud pillow and
sickle, and you know they will be farmers.