The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-12-22
WHAT WE LIVE FOR.
Dr.. Talmage breaches on What Our
Lives Should Be.
The Object Of Our Existence Down
to the End Should be Action
-Paradise IL Only for
the Workers.

Washing on, Nov. IL. - 10 all ,hOSe
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: ITO
this end was born"
After PLATE has 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
.iyer and its banks. Then the body was
taken out and moved to Lausanne, and
pu, into a deeper pool, which immedi-
utely became the center of similar at
mospheric and aqueous disturbances.
Though these are fanciful and false
traditions, they show the execra:ion
with which the world looked upon
Plate. 1t was before this man, when
he was in full life and power. that Curist
was arraigned as in the court Of oyer
End terminer. PLATE said to his prison
er: Art thou a king, then" and
Jesus answered.: ITO this end was l
born." Sure enough, although all earth
and hell arose to keep him down, he is
to-day empalaced, enthroned and coro-
Eeted 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 child's destiny, but by the time he
or she reaches IS years of age, the ques-
tion is on the child's lips: "What shall
do? What am / going to be? What
was l made for?" 1t is a sensible and
righteous question. and the youth ought
to keep asking it until it is so fully an
swered that the young man or young
woman can say with as much truth as
its author, though on less expansive
scale: ITO this end was born"
There is too much divine skill shown
IT, the physical, mental and moral con-
stitution of the ordinary human being
to suppose that he was constructed
without any divine purpose. II you
take me out on some vast plain and
show me pillared temple surmourted
by dome like ST. Peters and having a
floor Of precious stones and archie. that
must have taxed the brains of the great
est draughtsman to design, and walls
scrolled and niched and psneled and
wainscoted and painted, and | should
Lsk you what this building was put up
for and you answered For nothing Mt
ELL" how could believe you? An,: it is
impossible for me to believe that any
ordinary human being who has in his
muscular. nervous and cerebral or1ani-
zation more wonders than christopher r
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. Paul's cathedral is as much a
ruin rs the Parthenon-thats such be-
ing was constructed for no purpose and
TO execute no mission, and without: any
divine intention toward some end. The
object of this sern. ON 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-
ssm and triumph: ITO this end was
born"
First. l discharge you from all re-
sponsibility for most of your ENVIRON
ments. You are not responsible for
your parentage or your grandparent-
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
Fved a 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, OF
bilious, or lymphatic, or nervous
Neither are you responsible for the
place OF your nativity, whether among
the 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
hre you responsible for the religion
taught in your fathers house, or the ir.
religion. Do not bother yourself about
what you cannot help or about circum
stances that you did not decree.
Take things as they are and decide
the question so that you shall be able
safely to say: ITO this end I was
born" How will you decide it? By
direct application to the only Being
in the universe who is competent to
tell you--1he 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 sc
years off And besides that He is the
only Being who can see what has beer
happening in the last 500 years in youl
ancestral line. and for thousands Of
years clear back to Adam, and there
Is not one person in all that ancestra
line of 5000 years but has somehow
affected your character, and even ole
Adam himself will sometimes turn W
in your disposition. The only Being
who can take all things that pertain
to you into consideration is God. an(
He is the one you can ask. Life is 81
short we have no time to experimen
With occupations and professions. Th'