The southern argus., 1891-10-08
PURPOSES In LIFE.
Dr. TalmaRe Discourses on Mans
Usefulness.
al Human Beings Constructed For Good
Uses-Choosing the Path Through Life
Preparing For the G1ories Of
the Hereafter.

lie WIN almdpe LOOK MS text from
John xviii 81: ITO this end was /
born" He said:
After PLATE had suicided tradition
says that his body was thrown into the
Tiber, and such storms ensued on and
about that river that his body was
taken out and thrown into thu Rhone,
and similar disturbances swept that
river and its banks Then the body
was taken out and removed to Lau-
same, and put in deeper pool, which
Immediately became the center Of sim
ilar 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 full Of life and power that Christ
was arraigned as in court Of oyer and
terminer, PLATE said to his prisoner:
|'Art thou king, then?" and Jesus
answered: ITO this end was born. {"
Sure enough, although all earth and
hell arose to keep him down, He
is to-day einpalaced, enthroned and
coroneted 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 child's destiny; but by the time he
or she reaches the age Of fifteen years
of age the question is on the child's
Ups: What am to be? What am I
going to do? What was | made for?"
1t is sensible and righteous question,
and the youth ought to keep on asking
1T until it Is so fully answered that the
young man, or the young woman, can
can say with as much truth as its
author, though on a less expensive
scale: ITO this end was | born"
There is too much divine skill shown
In the physical, mental and moral con
struction of the ordinary human being
to suppose that he was constructed
without divine purpose. 1t is impos-
sible for me to believe that any ordinary
human being who has in his muscular,
nervous and cerebral organizations
more wonders than Christopher Wren
lifted In St. Paul's, or Phidias ever
chiseled on the Acropolis, and built in
such way that it will last long after
st. Pauls cathedral Is as much 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 condition where you can
say with certainty and emphasis and
enthusiasm and triumph: TO this end
was born"
First, | discharge you from all re-
sponsibility for most Of your environ
ments. You are not responsible for
your percentage or grandparentage.
You are not responsible for any of the
ancestral line, and who a hundred
years before you were born may have
lived style Of life that more or less
affects you to-day. You are not re-
sponsible for the fact that your tenn
permanent is sanguine, or melancholic,
or bilious, or Emphatic or nervous
Neither are you responsible for the
place Of your nativity. Neither are
you responsible for the religion taught
Ia your fathers house, or the irreligion.
Do not bother yourself about what
you cannot help, or about circum-
stances you did not decree. Take
things as they are~and decide the ques-
ton so that you shall be able safely to |
saya ITO this end was | born" How |
viii you decide it? BY direct applica-
ton to the only being in the universe
who is competent to tell you-tbe 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, though |
the grave be eighty years off. |
The only Being who can take all |
things that pertain to you into con
is God, and He is the one |
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 children themselves, wrought on by |
some within or fancy. decide for them |
selves without any imploration Of |
divine guidance. So we have now in |
pulpits men making sermons who |
ought to be in blacksmith shops max |
ing plowshares, and we have In the law |
those who instead Of running the cases |
Of their clients ought to be pounding |
shoe lasts, and doctors who are the |
worst hindranccs to their patients CON
and artists trying to paint |
who ought to be white
board fences. While there are
others making bricks who ought to be
constitutions, or showing |
planes who ought to be transforming |
There are children who early develop |
natural affinities for certain styles Of |
work. When the father of the astron-
omcr 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 astronomer cried
out: Bring me a 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 draughts-