The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-11-23
PURPOSE OF LIFE.
Dr., Ta!!?7age on the Ain1 and o.
=
;ect CT Existence.
A MOST HELPFUL SERMON.
The End Of Life Should Be Acton.
The Necessity Of Specializing.
Paradise Shall &c he Re-

" ~ - - --S~- -
y, III ,aase.wno soe sh,y have no
c>pec;.;l risi,,ioa i. Tie worlU, t;.ls SER
mon of pr. Talmage VII come a> a
cheering reyalatio"; text, .lohn XVIII,
81 To this ca& was born.
After PLATE had suiciGeG. tradition
saws thai his body was thrown into the
'riber, and Such storms en>ucG on that
river that his body was taken cut and
thrown Tito the RhoGc and similar dis
turbanccS Swent that river and its
banks. Then the body was taken out
and moved TO housaoae, ana put II
Geeper pool. which Immediately became
the centre Of similar atmospheric and
aqueous disturbances. Though these
are fanciful and false traditions, they
show the exccration wi,h which the
world looked upou PLATE. Il was be-
fore this man. when he was in full lite
and power, th;;; Thirst was arraisned as
in a court c: oyer and termincr. Plate
said to his prisoner. Art thou king,
them" and Jesus answered, TO this
end was born. Sure enough, al
though all earth and he'll aycSe to keep
him down. he is toGay empalaced, en-
throned and coroneted king OF earth
and king Of heaven. This IS what nc
came Cor and that is what he accom-
phshed.
By the time child reaches 10 years
of age the parents begin to discover
that child's destiny, but by the time he
or she reaches . years Of age, the
question is on the child's lips: wv hat
shall do? What am | going to be!
What was I made for?" 1t is sensl-
bic and righteous question, and the
youth ought to keep asking it until 1t
is SO fully answered that the young
man or young woman can say with as
much truth as its author, though on
less expansive scale, TO this end was
/ born
There is too much divine skill shown
in 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 surmounted
by dome ike St. Peters and havlnga
floor Of precious stones and arches that
must have taxed the brain Of the great
est 6rafts.nan to design, and walls
scrolled and niched and paneled, and
waipscotted 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
it is impossible for me to believe that
any ordinary human being who has IN
his muscular, nervous and cerebral or
sanitation more wonders than Christie
pher Wren lifted in St. Pauls. or Phi
dias ever chiseled on the Acropohs,
and built in such way that 1t shall
last longafter St. Paul's cathedral IS as
much ruin as the Parthenon-that
such a being was constructed Tor no
purpose, aud to execute no mission,
and without any divine intention to-
ward some end. The object of this
sermon is to help you to fnd out what
you are made for and help you ind
your sphere and assist you into that
condition where you can say with GER
tainty and emphasis and enthusiasm
and triumph. 80 this end was born. y
First, l discharge you from all re-
sponsibility for most OF your environ
ments. You are not responsible Tor
Your parentage or 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 a style OF
life that more or less affects you today.
You are not responsible for the fact
that your temperament is sangulne,
or melancholic, or bilious, or lymphat-
ic, or nervous. Neither are you re-
sponsible for the place ofyour 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 are you respon-
sible for the religion taught in your
fathers house, or the irreliglon. DO
not bother yourself about what you can
not 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. ''To this end was born.
How Will you decide it? By direct ap-
plication to the only Being in the uni
verse 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
between your cradle and your grave,
though the grave be 50 years off. And
besides that 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 6,O0O years
but has somehow affected your charac-
ter, 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 he IS the one you can ask.
Life is so short we have no time to ex-
pertinent with occupations and profes-
sions. The reason we have so many
dead failures IS that parents decide for
children what they shall do or children
themselves. wought on By some whlm
or fancy, decide for themselves, with
out any impIoration Of divine guidance.
So we have now in pUlpits men making
sermons who ought to be in blacksmith
shops making ploHshares, and ne have
in the law those who instead Of ruin
ing the cases Of their clients ought TO
be pounding shoe lasts, and doctors
who are the worst hindrances to their
patients convalescence, and artists try
ing 70 paint Landscapes who ought to be
whitewashing board fences, while there
are others making bricks who ought to
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