A great preacher thrilled us in London a little time ago by this story: He said he was composing a sermon from the text, "To this end was I born, end for this cause came I into the world." His nephew, a young man, came into the room and asked casually, "Uncle, what is the text you are taking for next Sunday?"
On being told, he said, "Uncle, what do you think I was born for?"
"Well," said the uncle, "it's more than I know."
"The same with me," replied the young fellow, and flung himself out into the street, wondering as he walked along what on earth he was made for and what opportunities life would bring him. He had not gone very far when he saw a crowd of people outside a theater and asked of a bystander, "What's the matter in there?"
"There's a fire inside, and the passage is choked up SO that people cannot get out."
The young fellow was strong and athletic. Throwing off his coat, he plunged in and dragged out one after another from the seething mass of people and laid them down in the causeway, until there were thirteen people lying there, and the ambulance came and took them to the hospital. He plunged in for the fourteenth time, but was struck by a piece of falling timber and so badly hurt that he lost consciousness. They dragged him out, and he, too, was taken to the hospital. He whispered that they should send for his uncle, mentioning his name. When the clergyman arrived he was just in time to bend over his nephew's lips and catch his last words: "Uncle, 'to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world' -- that I might save those thirteen."
Like a flash some day may appear, if it has not already done so, the thing for which you were born -- a vision of some one thing to be done, or a task taking years for its accomplishment. -- Evangelical Messenger.
By William Moses Tidwell, "Effective Illustrations."