St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-12-17
WHAT WE LIVE FOR
Dr.. Talmage breaches on What Our
Lives Should Be.
The Object Of Our Existence Down
10 the End Should BE Action
.>ParaAise II Only fer
the Workers.

Washington, Nov. IS. 80 To all those
who feel that they have no especial
mission in the world, this sermon OF
DR.. Talmage will come as cheering
revelations; text, John xviii, 81: 10
this end was born"
After plate has -suicided, tradition
says that his body was thrown into the
IT:ber, 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
.iver and its banks. Then the body was
taken out and moved to Lausanne, and
put into d deeper pool, which immedi-
lately became the center of similar at
lmospheric. and aqueous disturbances.
Though these are fanciful and false
traditions, they show the execrafion
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 in the court OF oyer
End terminer. PLATE said TO his prison
err: "Art thou a 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 empalaced, enthroned and coro-
| neted king of earth and king OF Heav-
en-. 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 chiId's destiny, but by the time he
or she reaches Is years of age, the ques-
ton is on the child's lips: What shall
/ do? What am going TO be? What
was / made for?" 1t is a sensibl. and
righteous question. and the youth ought
to keep asking it until it is so fully an
.wered that the young man or young
woman can say with as much truth as
its author, though on less expansive
scale: ITO :hie end was born"
There is too much divine skill shown
iL the physical, mental and moral con-
stitution of the ordinary human being
to suppose that he WIS constructed
without any divine purpose. TX you
take me out on some vast plain and
show me pillared temple surmcurted
by dome like St. Peters and having
floor OF precious stones and arches that
must have taxed the brains Of the great
est draughtsElan to design, and walls
scrolled and niched and rsneied and
wainscoted and painted. and should
Gsk you what this building was pat up
for and you answered For nothing at
ell," how could believe you? And it is
impossible for me TO believe that any
ordinary human being who has in his
muscular, nervous and cerebral or2ani-
cation more wonders than Christopher
Wren lifted in St. Paul's. or Phidias
ever chiseled on the Acropolis. and built
in such a way that 1t shall last long
after ST. Paul's cathedral is as much a
ruin as the Parthenon-that such be-
ing was constructed for no purpose and
tc execute no mission, and without. any
divine intention toward some end. The
object of this sermon is to help y.,u 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 enthusi-
ksm and triumph: ITO this end was I
born"
First discharge you from al: re-
gponsibility for most of your environ
ments. You are not responsible for
your parentage or your grandparents
age. 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 |
Eved style Of life that more or less |
effects you to-day. You are not re-
sponsible for the fact that your temper
ament is sanguine, or melanchol;c, or |
bilious, or Emphatic, or nervous. !
Neither are you responsible for the |
place Of your nativity. whether among
rhe granite hills of New England. or the |
cotton plantations of Louisiana. or on
the banks Of The Clyde. or the Dneiper.
or The Shannon. or the Seine. Neither
Are you responsible for the religion
taught in your fathers house, or the ;r-
.eligicn. Do not bother yourself about
what Jon cannot help or about circum-
stances that yen did not decree.
Take things as they are and decide
the question so that you shall be able
safely to say: ITO this end was
hcrn.' How will you decide 1t? BY
direct application to the only Being
in the universe who is competent to
tell you-the Lord Almighty. Do you
knew 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 so
years on. And besides that He Is the
OILY Being who can see what has been
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
aMected your character, and even old
Adam himself will sometimes turn up
in your disposition. The only Being
who can take all things that pertain
to you into consideration is God, and
BE 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 them
selves. wrought on by some whim or
fancy, decide for themselves, without
my imploration Of Divine guidance.
So we have now il pulpits men max
Ing sermons who ought to be in black
smith shops making plowsharcs. and
re 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 convalescence, and
artists trying to paint landscapes who
ought to be whitewashing board fences,
while there are others making bricks
Who ought to be remodeling constitu-
lions or showing planes who ought to
be Transforming iteratures. Ask God
about what worldly business yon shall
undertake until You are 50 positive you
can in earncstness smite your hand on
Tour pillow handle or your carpenters
Dench. or your Blackstone's 'Com-
or your medical diction-
Try, or your DR.. Dicks ''Didactic The
)lOgv," saving: "For this end was