The Penn's Grove record., 1891-10-16
REV. DR.. 1ALMAGES SERMON.
~sfssEsxza For,

TEXT: ITO this end rps I born."Johr
xviii, 81.
After PLATE had suicided, tradition say
that his body was thrown into the Tiber.
river that bis 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 q deeper
pool, which Immediately became the centre
Of similar atmospheric and aqueous dis
turbances. Though these are ~fanciful and
false traditions, they show the execration
with which the world looked upon Plate. 1t
was before this man when he was in full life
and power tina Christ was arraigned as
In a court OF oyer and terminer. PLATE said
to his prisoner, Art Thou a king, theny'
and Jesus answered, ITO this end was !
born" Sure enough, although all earth and
hell arose to keep Him down. He is to-day
empalaced, enthroned and ~coronatedk king OF
earth and Ring of heaven T this end was
l 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
fifteen years of age the question Is on the
child's lips: what am l to bes What am
l going to be? What was I made fory' 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 mt 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. II you take me out on some vast plain
and show me a pillared temple surmounted by
o dome like st. Peters, and having q floor
Of precious stones, and arches that must nave
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 l believe you?
And 1t is impossible for me to believe that
any ordinary human being who has in his
muscular, nervous and Ger ebral organization
more wonders than Christopher Wren lifted
In st. Paul's, or Phidias ever chiseled on the
Acropolis, and built in such a way that it
| shall last long after st. Paurs cathedral is
as much a ruin as the Parthenon that such
1 being was constructed for no purpose, n
TO execute no mission, and without any di-
vine intention oward some end. h OBJECT
VI this sermon is to help you to find out what
you are made for, and help you to find your
sphere, inc assist you in that condition where
tyou can say with certainty n emphasis and
enthusiasm and triumph, 'To this end was 1
|born.n
First, I discharge you from all response.
bility for most of your environments. You
are not responsible for your p~arentage or
grandparentage. You are not responsible
Tor any of the cranks that may have lived
n your ancestral line, and who a hundred
years before you were born may have lived
4 style OF life that more or less affects you to-
day. You are not responsible for the fact
that your temperament is sanguine or melan-
.holie or bilious or Emphatic or nervous.
Neither are you responsible for the place or
your nativity, among the granite mills OF
New England, or the cotton plantations of
Louisiana, or on the banks Of the Clyde, OF
the Dnieper, or the Shannon, or the Seine.
Neither are you responsible for the religion
taught in your fathers house, nor the ire
igion. Do not bother yourself about
Fou cannot help, or about circumstances
hat you did not decTae.
Take things as they are and decide the
question so that you shall be able safely to
ay, "To this end was 1 born" How will
you decide it9 By direct application to the
only Being in the universe who is competent
10 tell you-the Lord Almighty. Do you
know the reason why He Is the only one VINO
fan 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 SEQ what
has been happening for the last INV hun
lred years in your ancestral line and Tor
thousands of years clear back to Adam, and
there is not one person in all that ancestral
lHne Of six thousand years but has somehow
Effected your character, and even old Adam
himself will sometimes turn up in your dis
position. The only being who can take all
things that pertain to you into consideration
B God, and He is the one you can ask. Life
5 so short we nave no time to experiment
with occupations and professions.
The reason we have SO many dead failures
b that parents decide for children what they
hall do, or children themselves, wrought on
BY some within or fancy, decide for them
telves without any tmploration of divine
Euidanca. 80 we have now in pnlpits men
making sermons who ought to be in black
ninth shops making plowshares. we have
In the law those who instead Of running the
eases Of their clients ought to be pounding
Jhoe lasts, and doctors who are the worst
Ihindrances to their patients convaleocence,
and artists trying to paint landscapes who
ought to be whitewashing board fences.
while there are others making bricks who
ought to be remodeing constitutions or
moving planes who ought to be transform-
ing literatures. Ask God about what worldly
business you shall undertake until you are
70 positive YOU can in earnestness smite your
hand on your pillow handle, or your carpen-
ter's bench, or your Blackstone's "Commen-
~.ariesn or your medical dictionary, or your
"For this end was / born"
There are children who early develop nat
ural ~afinities for 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 N OF
them. The boy who was to be an astron.
omer called out Bring me a telescope
And there are children whom you lind 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 cyphering out
difficult problems with rare interest and sue
cess, and you know they are to be mathems.
ticians. And others making wheels and
strange c~ontrivances, and you know they
are going to be machinists. And Others are
found experimenting with hoe aud pillow and
sickle and you know they will be farmers
And others are always swapping Jackkniyes
or balls or bats and making something by
the bargain, and they are going to be mer'
chants.
When Abbed de Rance had so advanced in
studying Greek that he could translate
Anacreon at twelve years OF age, there was
no doubt left that he was intended for q
scholar. But in almost every lad tnere
comes a times when he does not know h
he was made for, and bis parents 10 not
know, and it is a crisis that God only can
decide. Then there are those bora for some
especial work., and their fitness does not de-
velop until quite late. When Philip bod
bridge whose sermons and books have har-
vested ~uncounted souls for glory, began to
study the ministry, DR.. Caiamy, one Of the
wisest and best men, advised him to turn his
thouchts to some other work Isaac Barrow.
an eminent clergyman and Christian scien-
tist-his books standard now, thought he
had been dead over two hundred years-was
J the disheartenment of his father, who used
to say that IL it pleased God to take any OF
his children away he hoped 1t might be his
SON Isaac. 30 some Of those who have been
characterized for their stupidity in boyhood
or girlhood havo turned out the mightiest
bepefactors e. benefsctresses OF the human
| race. -
These things being 20. am I not right In
saving that in many cases God only know
what Is the most appropriate thing for you
20 do, and He is the One to ask. And let ali
parents and all schools and all universities
and all colleges recognize this. and a large
number of those who spent their best years
in stumbling about among businesses and
occupations, now trying this and now trying
that, and failing in all, would be able to 90
ahead with a definite, decided and tremend-
o,,- -x~~-no aarsor leTrn &kt. -~ -. 4