The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-03-19

opher and Christian scholar. The soap
boiler OF London could not keep his son
in that business for God
had decided that Hawley was
to be one of the GREATEST astronomers of
England. On the other hand. we may
be born in q sphere q. little. higher than
that for which God intended us. We
may be born In a castle and play in cost
" conservatory, and feed high bred point
err, and angle for goldfish in artificial
ponds, and be familiar with princes; yet
God may better have fitted us for car
penter's shop, or dentists forceps, or
weayer's shuttle, or blacksrnith's forge.
The great thing is to find just the sphere
for which God intended us, and then to
occupy that sphere, and occupy it forever.
Here is man God fashioned to make a
plough. There is a,man God fashioned
to make constitution. The man who
makes the plough is just as honorable as
the man who makes the constitution.
provided he makes the plough as we'll as
the other man makes the constitution.
There is woman who was made to fash
ion robe, and yonder is one intended
to be queen, ana wear it. It seems to
me that in the one case as in the other,
God appointed the sphere, and the needle
is just as respectable in His sight as the
scepter. do not know but that the
world would long ago have been saved,
if some of the men out of the ministry
we're in it, and some of those who are in
itwere out of it.. 1really think that one
half of the world NAV be divided into
two quarters who have not found
their sphere, and those who, having
found IT, are not willing to stay there.
How many are struggling for position
little higher than that for which God
intended them? The bondswoman wants
to be mistress. Hangar keeps crowding
Sarah. 9 The small wheel of watch
which beautifully went treading it's
golden pathway, wants to be the balance
wheel, and the sparrow, with chagrin,
drops into tile brook because it cannot,
like the eagle, cut a-circle under the sun.
In the Lords army we all want to be
brigadier generals! The sloep says,
"More mast; more tonnage, more canvas
Oh, that were top sail schooner, or a
full rugged brig. or Cunard steamer"
And so the world is filed with cries of
discomfort because we are aot willing to
stay in the place where God put US and
intended us to be. Nv friends, be not
too proud to do anything God tells US to
do. For lack of right disposition in
this respect the world is strewn with
wandering Hagars and 1shmaels. God
has given each one OF us work to do.
You carry scuttle of coal up that dark
alley. You distribute that Christian
tract. You give $4,000 to, the mission
| airy cause. You, for Is years, sit with
chronic rheumatism, displaying g the
| beauty of Christian Submission. What
ever God calls you to do; whether. it win
| kissing or huzza, whether to walk un1er
| triumphal arch or lit the sot out of the
ditch; whether it be to preach on
| Pentecost or tell some wanderer Of the
| street of the mercy of the Christ of Mary
Magdalen; whether it be to weave
garland for laughing child on spring
morning, and cali her May queen, OF to
comb out the tangled locks of waif of
| the street, and to cut up one of your old
dresses to fit her out for the sanctuary
do it, and do it right away. Whether it
be crown or a yoke, do not fdget.
Everlasting honors upon those who, do
i their Work, and do their whole work, and
are content in the sphere inswhich God
has put them; willie there is wandering
and exile and disolation and wilderness
for disconted Hagar and Ishmael.
Again: I find in this Oriental scene s
lesson of sympathy with woman wher
she goes forth trudging in the desert.
What great change it was for this Ha'
gar? There was the tent and all the sur
roundings of Abraham's house, beautiful
and luxurious, no doubt Now, she il
going out into the hot sands of the
desert. Iniquities blot out all the light;
of that home circle. Harsh words veal
out her spirits. The high hope tina
, shone out over the marriage altar while
e the ring was being set, and the VOWS CIV
, en-, and the benedictions pronounced
: have all faded with the orange blossoms
e and there she is to-day, broken-hearteo
: thinking of past Joy and present desela
r ton and coming anguish. Hasar ID tn
: wilderness! Here IS beautiful home
j. You cannot think of ANYTHING that ca
y be added to it. For years there has nc
: been the suggestion of q single trouble
o Bright and happy children fill the nous
n with laughter and song Books to read
III Pictures TO look at, lounges to rest or
e Cup of domestic joy full and runn ~
It over. Dark night drops. Pillow no
n Pulses hutter. Eyes close. And the toe
n whose we'll known steps on the door 81
e drought the whole household out at ever
IS tide, crying, Fathers come, will nevt
v sound on the door-sill again. Ion!
j. deep grief ploughed through all tn
3 lightness ofdomestic life. Paradise les
i Widowhood. Hagar in the wilderness:
3 How often it is we see the weak ar
J. of woman conscripted for thissbattle wit
n the rough world. Who is she, going dow
II the street in the early light of the NOR
e ing, pale with exhausting work, not ha
s. slept out with the ~slumber Of last, nigh
e tragedies ofsuffering written all over b
n face, her lustreless eyes looking far ahea
1t as for the coming of some other trouble
IS Her parents called her Mary, or Berth
le or Agnes, on the day when they held h
d up to the font, and the Christian minist
,e sprinkled on the infants face, the wasl
i ings of a holy baptism. Her name
t: changed now. I here it in the figure
at the faded calico. / find it in liReamen
:. | of Tho xuno hepone rcOuntepance, M