The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-10-09
PURPOSES IN LIFE.
DR.. Telmage Disoourses or Mans
Usefulness.
An Human Beings Constructed For Good
Usss-ChoesIng the Path Through Life
Preparing For the OIoFIss OF
the Hereafter.

IN q Ee-LS sermon AT brooklyn Kew l.
Dewitt Talmage took his text from
John xviii 81: ''TO 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 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 a deeper pool. which
Immediately became the center OF sim
liar atmospheric and aqueous disturb
Guces. Though these are fanciful and
false traditions, they show the execFa-
ton with which the world looked upon
PLATE. It was before this man when he
was full of life and power that Christ
was aEraigned as in a court of oyer and
terminer, PLATE said to his prisoner:
Art thou a king, then?" 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 empalaced, enthroned and
coroneted king of earth and king of
Heaven TO this end was ] born. q"
That is what he came for, and that was
what he accomplished
BY the time u child reaches ten years
of age the parents begin to discover
that child's destiny; but by the time he
y
Of age the question is on the ehild's
lips: ''What am 70 be2 What am
going to do? What was ! made for?"
It 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
can say with as much truth as its
author, though on a less expensive
scale: ITO this end was 1 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. It is impos-
sibIe for me to believe that any ordinary
human being who has in his muscular,
nervous and cereb ral organizations
more wonders than Christopher Wren
lifted in St Pauls, Phidias ever
chiseled on the AcroPOlis, and built in
such "a way that it will last long after
st. PauI'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 AID assist
you into. that condition where you can
say with certainty and emphasis and
enthusiasm and triumph; TO this end
was born"
First, I 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 hundred
years before you were born may have
lived "A 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 lymPhatic or nervous
Neither are you responsible for the
place of your nativity. Neither are
You responsible for the religion taught
in your fathers house, or the irrelgion-
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-
tion SO that you shall be able safely to
say: ITO this end was 1 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 betweeI
your cradle aud your grave, though
the grave be eighty years off
The only Being who can take al
things that pertain to you Into con
sideratiou is God, and He Is the one
YOU can ask Lie Is SO snort we nave
no time to experiment with occu Pationi
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 o
divine guidance. So we have now il
pulpits men making sermons wh'
ought to be in blacksmith shops max
ing ploWshares, and we have in the Law
those who instead of running the case
OF their clients ought to be pounding
shoe lasts, and doctors who are tn,
worst hindrances to their patients con
-valcscence, and artists trying to pain
landscapes who ought to be white
washing board fences While there ar,
others making bricks who ought TO b,
remodeliBg constitutions, or Showing
planes who ought to be Transforming
Iteratures. Ask God about wha
worldly business you shall undertake.
until you are positive you can Is
earnestness snlite your hand on you
pillow handle, or your carpenters bench
or your BiackstOne's Commentaries, o.
your medical dictionary, or you
Doctor Dicks Didactic Theology, say
ing: For this end was 1 born"
There are children who early develop
natural affinities for certain styles o
work. When the father of the astron
asked his children what present n,
should bring each one of them The
boy who was to be an astronomer criet
out: Bring me a teiescOper' Ant
there are children whom you find al
by themselves drawing on their states
or on paper, ships. or houses, or birds
and you know they are to be draughts
men or artists of some kind And yOl
find others eipheriRg out difficult prob
lens with rare interest and success
aud you know they are to be mathema
ticians- And others making wheel
aud strange contrivances, and you know
they are going to be machinists An,
others are found experimenting witt
hoe and pillow and sickle, and you know
they will be farmers And others ar
always swapping jacIS-lgnivss or ball
and bats and making something by tn
bargain, and they are going TO be mel
chants
But in almost every lad there come
Z time when he does not know Wha
he was made for. and his parents d
not know. and it Is q crisis that Go