Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-10-05
A POWERFUL SERMON.
PREACHED BY DR. TALMAGE ON
SUNDAY. OCT 4


What We're You Made For?-An Tmpor-
tant Question Asked and Answered.
''To This End Was Born"-,John xviii,
-, the Text.
BROOKLYN. Oct. /. A most impress
sive scene is that witnessed in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle when at the open
ing Of the morning service seven thou
sand persons on the main floor, in the
two galleries and tie ad Joining rooms rise
and sing the Doxolo-y This morning.
in addition to the congregational sing
ing. Professor Henry Eyre Browne rem
dered From the organ. Theme and Va
riations in a" 10y Kramer. DR. Tai
IMAGES text was taken from John xviii,
81, To this end was born"
After PLATE had suicided. tradition
says that his body was thrown into the
I Tiber. and such storms enSued on az
about that river that his body was
/ taken out and thrown into the Rhone,
and similar disturbances swept that
river and its banks Then the body
was taken out and removed to Lau-
same, and put in Il deeper pool, which
Immediately became the center of sim
liar atmospheric and aqueous disturb
/ ances. Though these are fanciful and
false traditions, they show the eXecra-
ton with which the world looked upon
PLATE 1t was before this man when
he was in full life and power. that
Christ was arraigned as in a court of
oyer and terminer. PLATE said to his
prisoner, art thou a king. then?" and
Jesus answered, ITO this end was |
born" Sure enough, although all
earth and hell arose to keep him down
He is today empaIaced. enthroned and
coronated king of earth and king of
heaven. TO 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 childs destiny; but by the time he
or she reaches fifteen years of age the
question is on the child's lips: What
am I to be? What am going to be?
What was | made for?" 1t is a 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 its author, though on a
less expansive scale, ITO this end was
born
There is too much divine skill shown
in the physical, mental and moral con
stitution of the ordinary human being
to suppose that lie was constructed
without any divine purpose If you
take me out on some vast plain and
show me pillared temple surmounted
by a 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 I
should ask you what this building was
put up for, and you answered, For
nothing at all. how could I believe
you.
And it is impossible for me to believe
that any ordinary human being, who
bral organization more wonders than
Christopher Wren lifted in st. Pauls
rPhidias ever chiseled on the AcrOpolis,
and built in such a way that it shall
last long after st. Paul's cathedral is
as much a ruin as the Parthenon-that
such a being was constructed for no
purpose and to execute no mission and
without any divine intention toward
some end. The object of this sermon
is to help you to find out what you are
made for, and help you find your
sphere, and assist you into that condi-
ton where you can say with certainty
and emphasis and enthusiasm and
triumph, ITO this end was | born
WHAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO AN
swER FOR.
First, l discharge you from all re-
sponsibility for most of your environ
ments You are not responsible for
your parentage or grandparentage.
You are not responsible for any of
the cranks that may have lived in
your ancestral line, and who a hun
dred years before you were born
may have lived style of life that
more or less affects you today. You
are not responsible for the fact that
your temperament is sanguine or mel
anchOlic or bilious or Emphatic or
nervous. Neither are you responsible
for the place of your nativity, whether
among the granite hills Of New Eng
land, or the cotton plantations of Lou
isiana, or on the banks of the Clyde,
or the Dnieper, or the Shannon, or the
Seine. Neither are you responsible for
the religion taught in your fathers
house or the irreIigion. 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 APP
plication to the only Being in the uni
verse 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
between your cradle and your grave,
lI1OUS5l4 IA4O S5ISOFO NC Ci5liOy yCc1Io O1I.
And besides that he is the only being
who can see what has been happening
for the last five hundred years in your
ancestral line, and for thousands of
years clear back to Adam, and there
is not one person in all that a<lcestral
line of six thousand years but has some
how affected your character, and even
old Adam himself will sometimes turn
up in your disposition. 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 do, or chill
dren themselves, wrought on by some
whim or fancy, decide for themselves
without any importation of divine
guidance. So we have now in pull
pits men making sermons who ought
to be in blacksmith shops making pillow
shares, and we have in the law those
who instead of running the cases of
I Il.