The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-10-21
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: what Were We Made For" I"

xviii, 81.
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 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 that Christ was arraigned as
to his prisoner, "Art Thou king, then%
and Jesus answered, $50 this end was
born" Sure enough. although all earth and
hell arose to keep Him down, He is to-day
empalnced. enthronei and coronated king of
earth and king Of heave. ITO this end was
I born" That is what He came for and that
was what He accomplished.
By the time 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 to be? What am
I going to be9 What was I made for." 1t
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 q 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. II you take me out on some vast plain
and show me pllared temple surmounted by
q dome like st. Peters. and having 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
al," how could believe you?
y. And it 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. PauPs, OF Phidias ever chiseled on the
.AcropoliS, and built in such way that it
shall last long after St. Paups cathedral is
as much ruin as the Parthenon-that such
q being 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, ana help you to find your
sphere, and assist you in that condition where
you can say with certainty and emphasis and
enthusiasm and triumph, TO this end was I
born"
First, discharge you from all response.
ibility tor most OF your environments. You
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 sanguine or melan-
cholic or bilious or lymphatic 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, 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, nor the ire
igion. 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, 10 this end was l born" How will
you decide it? By direct application to the
only Being in 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 cen happening for the last five hun
drei years in your ancestral line and for
thousands OF years clear back to Adam, and
there is not one person in all that ancestral
line Of six thousand years but has somehow
affected 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
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 children themselves, wrought on
by some whim 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 black
smith shops making 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
hinGrances 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
ing literatures. Ask God about what worldly
business you shall undertake until you are
30 positive you can in earnestness smite your
hand on your plow handle. or your carpen-
ter's bench, or your Blackstone's "Commen-
itaries," or your medical dictionary, or your
DR.. Dicks "Didactic Theology" saying,
+.For this end was born"
There are children who early develop nat
ural affinities 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 one OF
them. The boy 6vho was to be an astron-
omer called out, Bring me telescopem
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 cyphering out
difficult problems with rare interest and sue
cess, and you know they are to be mathena-
ticians. And Others making wheels and
strange contrivances. and you know they
are going to be machiuists. And others are
found Experimenting with hoe aud plow and
sickle, and you know they will be farmers.
And others are always swapping jackknives
or balls or bats and making something by
the bargain, and they ara going to De mer.
chants.
When Able 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 a
scholar. But in almost every lad there
comes times when he does not know what
he was made for, and his parents do not
know, and it is a crisis that God only can
decide Then there are those born for some
especial work, anu their fitness does not de-
velop until drite late. When Philip Dod-
dridce whose sermons and books have har
vested uncounted souls for glory, began to
study the ministry, Dr. Calamy, one of the
wisest and best men. advised him to turn his
thoughts to some other work. Isaac Barrow,
as. ora;na,t clornrrman and Christian Sf.ien-