The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-25
DIVINE DIRECTION
FOLLOW GODS GUIDANCE, SAYS
THE REV. DR. TALMAGE
For the Asking He Will Point Out " on
Sphere of Us' .fuIness-DO Not Bother
About Whit Cannot be Helped-A
ChiId,s De'diny.

AssociatiOn.l
To all those who feel they have no
especial mission in the world. this ser
non OF DR.. Talmage will come as a
cheering revelation; text, John xviii,
81, TO this end was / borE."
After PLATE had suicided, tradition
says that his body was thrown into the
Tiber, and such storms ensued on and
about the river that his body was taxi
en- out and thrown into the RhoDe, and
similar disturbances swept that river
and it's banks. Then the body was TAX
en- out and moved to Lausanne,a and put
in a deeper pool, which Immediately
became the center OF similar atmos-
pheric and aqueous disturbances.
Though these are fanciful and false
traditions, they show the execration
with which the world looked upon Pr
late 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 tho a king, hem" and Jesus
answered, T this end was ! born"
Sure enough, although all earth and
hell arose to keep him down, he is to-
day empalaced, enthrOned and corOnet-
ed king of earth and king of heaven.
That is what he came for, and that is
what he accomplished.
BY the time a child reaches ten years
Of age the parents begin to discover
that the child's destiny, but by the time
he or she reaches fifteen years of age
the question is on the child's lips:
What shall | do? What am l going
to be? What was / made fOr?' 1t is
a sensible and righteous question, and
the youth ought to keep asking it until
it is so fully answered that the young
man, or young woman, can say with as
much truth as it's author, though on a
less expensive scale, ITO this end was
l born"
There is too much divine skill shown
in the physical, mental and moral con-
s|titution of the ordinary human being
to suppose that he was constructed
without any Irvine p If you
take me out on some vast plain and
SHOW me a pilIard temple surrounded
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
w~ainscOated and painted, and | should
ask you what this building was put up
IOE. anu you answered., ToI llclilIllS
at all" how could l believe you? And
it is impossible for me to believe that
any ordinary human being who has in
his muscular, nervous and cerebral or
ganization more wonders than Christie
pher Wren lifted in ST. PauIs or
Phidias eVer chisled 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
c11cb 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 helD 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 I born
SELECTING AN OCCUPATION.
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 100 years be-
fore you were born may have lived
a style of life that more or less affects
YOU today. You are not responsible
for the fact that your temperament is
s%anguin or melanchOlic or bilious or
or nervous. Neither are you
responsible for the place of your ma
tivity, whether among the hills OF New
England or the cotton plantations OF
Louisiana. or on the banks of the Clyde
or the Dneiper or the hanno or the
Seine. Neither are you responsible for
the religion taught in your fathers
house, or the irreligiOn.' 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
safety to say, T this end was [
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 n who
can tell? Because he can see every
thing between your cradle and your
grave. though the grave be so years
off. besides tina he is the only Being
who can see what has been happening
in the last 500 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 5000
years but has somehow affected your
character. and even old Adam himself
will sometimes turn up in your dispo-
sition. The only Being who can take
all things that pertain to you into con-
sideration is God, and he is the one You
can ask. Life is so short we have no
time to experiment with occupation
and professions. The reason we have
so many dead failures is that parents
decided for children what they shall
y do, or children themselves. wrought on
by some whim or fancy, decided for
themselves. without n implOratiOn
of Irvine 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 hindrances to their patients
convalesence. and artists trying to
paint landscapes who ought to be
whitewashing board fences. while
there are others making bricks who
ought to be ~remodeling constitutions
or showing planes who ought TO be
transforming literatures. Ask God
about what worldly business you snail
,,nInrtala until oJn co nnSiTiNp Won