J
VOLUME 3
WINGATE, N. C., OCTOBER 31, 1915.
NUMBER 3
REMEMBERING LIFE’S TRUE END.
A Sermon Preached at First Baptist
Church, Dallas, Texas, by Rev. Geo.
W. Truett.
Text:—“She remembereth not her last
end; and, therefore, she came down won
derfully; she had no comforter.”—Lam
entations 1:9.
Those of you who have carefully read
this little book of five chapters will recall
that it is devoted to a discussion of the
downfall of the city of Jerusalem, and the
lessons attendant upon such downfall. This
book of Lamentations, from first to last,
is the cry of a stricken people. The ex
planation of it all is given in the book it
self. Here was a people who abused their
privileges, who forgot their opportunities,
who despised a right religious life, and
who, in due time, plunged into the gulf
of irretrievable woe. Hear the prophet as
he speaks of this doomed city, explaining
the cause of her doom in the language of
the text: “She remembereth not her last
end; and, therefore, she came down won
derfully ; she had no comforter.” I do not
need to pursue the story of the downfall
of ancient Jerusalem and the reason there
for, as I have just indicated; but simply
take the fact, as indicated in the text, and
let it point for us the lesson which it has
for us.
What is the lesson? It is that it be
hooves us all to consider the end of life;
that is, the ultimate and highest design
of life, what life is for, how we are to use
it, how we may so behave ourselves as not
to abuse it, how we may redeem it and
make it noble rather than make it ignoble
and rather than waste it. It is an all-im
portant matter that we thus consider the
last proper aim and end of our lives. The
true design of life, the high meaning of
life, the serious aim and import of life,
is a matter of such infinite importance
that we all need to lay it directly to heart.
For men to include the future in their
plans, is always a mark of superiority.
Forethought marks the difference between
the child and the man. The little child
lives in the present. What cares it for
the future? The little child prefers the
small bag of candy today to a carload to
morrow. It does not want any tomorrow
at all. All along the differences between
the child and the man is marked by fore
thought. The difference in the fore
thought of the two marks the difference
between the savage and the civilized man.
A savage cares only for today. If his
simple tastes may be gratifiecl today, that
is enough. He will not plant, he will not
sow, he will not provide for tomorrow. If
his appetites may be gratified today it is
all he cares for or thinks of. The civilized
man looks on to the future, and has an eye
to sowing, and planting, and providing for
tomorrow. The difference between the
savage and the civilized man is the dif
ference in forethought. The difference be
tween men who succeed and men who do
not is expressed just here. Some men live
for the future largely, while others live
only for today and think only for today
and build only for today. Men look about
and wonder how certain men have come
into prominence, how they ever reached
that place where even one sentence from
their lips is a thing of power. The rea
sons are plain and at hand. “The heights
by great men reached and kept, were not
attained by sudden flight; but they, while
their companions slept, were toiling up
ward in the night.”
All true success is paid for. That is a
sham success, disappointing, unsubstan
tial, that will not abide, if it be not paid
for in the highest and deepest sense. The
difference between the successful man and
the unsuccessful is that one budded for
the future, and the other did not; one
looked beyond the present, one laid the
foundations that had to do with tomor
row’s life; and, therefore, when the mor
row came, the foundations were so stable
that upon them it was easy for him to
mount to success. Now the highest type
of manhood, the highest type of wisdom,
is that which looks on and .sees the ulti
mate end and high design, the glorious
import of life. That is the highest ex
pression of wisdom. Here men make ship
wreck. Here the soul misses the mark,
and just here is the soul overtaken and de
feated and finally lost. Every man should
ask: “To what purpose shall I direct my
life; how may I so live as to make it count
for the most ?”
These are the far-seeing men, for they
consider the latter end, the ultimate and
highest aim of human life. Men who
live this way do not live a haphazzard life,
or a disjointed and random sort of life.
Men who ernestly inquire: “How may
we make our lives what they should be?”
are the men whose lives are not disjoint
ed and haphazard, and who live to the
noblest end. No great picture would ever
have been brought to completion if the
artist had not considered it before he ever
began his work. No noble painting would
ever have been brought to completion if
the painter had carelessly daubed his
paints here and there, without any regard
to the latter end. No entrancing music
would ever be improvised, if the organist
should sit down and, without any sort of
form or order, go about the matter of im
provisation. No life is ever worthily lived
when a man forgets its high design, its
ultimate end.
That brings us to consider the question,
what is that high design, what is that ul
timate end, to what are we to strive, for
what cause are we to live, upon what
foundation are we to build?
Look about you and you will see the’
various ends towards which men and wo
men are striving. Some of you may have
read a clever little book in which is de
scribed one of the brightest of women,
who stood at midnight, musing, as the old
year died and the new year came in. Just
as the old year passed out and the new
year came in, the brilliant, fashionable,
ambitious woman, with her watch in her
hand, said: “If I could put all the desire
of my life into one wish, I would utter it
in one word, ‘fame., ” Oh, how she has
missed the ultimate end of life! She
writes well, she is clever, people may read
her writings, here and there she may be
quoted, but how she missed the sublime
end of life! All about us men are missing
life like this brilliant woman. If men
were asked to put in one word their wishes
for life, various answers would be given.
One man would say, “The highest ambi
tion of my life is to possess gold.” How
he is missing the noble end of life! ■ He
will die at last, and will go out into the
blackness of despair, and his money will
pierce him through with many sorrows,
and will drown him in the depths of per
dition. Another would say, “If ray deep
est wish w'ere gratified, it would be that I
may have pleasure, just worldly pleasure.”
At the last, at the bottom of that cup
there is a serpent with awful sting and
fatal poison. Another would say: “The
deepest wish of my heart is for popular
ity; I want pre-eminence, I want promo
tion, I want my name heralded through
out all the land; want popularity.” What
a miserable thing is that! There is noth
ing so unsubstantial, unreal and uncertain
as popularity. The same crowd that to
day may cry out for a man, “Hosanna,”
tomorrow may shout concerning the same
man, when the man has not changed at all,
“Crucify him.” It was so when the Mas
ter was in the flesh. It is ever so. It is
so in politics. It is so in all positions
among men. Oh, if there ever was a
fickle thing in this world it is human ap
plause.
To what end, then, shall a man direct
his life? There is one certain, true and
abiding end. There can be but one. The
chief end of hum.an life is to glorify God.
A life spent in glorifying God, glorifie.s
itself, dignifies itself, Mfts up itself and
saves itself. Cut oft from God, any life
is degraded and doomed. No man can
possibly read life’s ultimate design, life’s
highest aim, if he leaves God out of his
plan. “I have set the Lord always before
me,” was the cry of one in the Bible,
which is the proper cry for us all. “I have
set the Lord always before me.” No mat
ter for the fluctuations of feeling, no mat
ter for the changes of custom and thought,
no matter for all the transitoriness of
earthly things, “I have set the Lord al
ways before me.” Now, the life that has
that ideal is the life that reaches the high
est design and its nobles end.
In Jesus Christ is absolute satisfaction
for every want and for all hungering of
the immortal spirit. Christ is our model
for consecration. He is the pattern for all
holiness. What infiinte patience, what
purity, w'hat sweetness, what sympathy,
what unselfishness there was in Christ!
Having Him before us always, w'e shall
become more and more like Him. Then,
Christ is the pattern for service, world
helping service, Christ-honoring service,
humanity-uplifting service. The selfish
man goes down to dishonor. However
brilliant may be his outlook today, tomor
row he will be in the ditch. Selfishness is
always suicide. The only life that meets
its ultimate aim and highest design is the
life reconciled to Jesus Christ apd con
formed to the doing of His holy will.
When one’s life is like that, however hum
ble, such a life is like the dawning sunlight
in the morning, driving away the dark
ness. Such a life is like a noble river, mak
ing everything to live whither the river
goes. Such a life is like a beautiful flow
er, emitting its fragrance on the passing
beautiful and'glorious is any life, however
humble, when conformed to Jesus Christ!
breezes, for the good cheer of ail. How
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