The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-09-24
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse ON the Lessons TAUGHT
by Hagars Exile.

The Duty Of Finding Ones Sphere and
Keeping 1.-THE Dangers Of Over
wsening PrIde-rhe Well In
Every Wilderness.
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage in a recent SER
mon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took the
story Of Hager's exile as his theme in IL.
lustratinZ Gods ability and readiness to
rescue the outcast. HIS text was:
And God opened her eyes. and she saw q
| we'll OF water, and she went and filled the
bottle with water, and 81 We the lad drink
Genesis XXI. 16.
The preacher said: Morning breaks
upon Beer. sheba. There is an early stir
in the house Of old Abraham. There has
been trouble among the domestics. Hagar,
an assistant in the household, and her
son, a brisk lad Of sixteen years, have be.
come impudent and insolent, and Sarah,
the mistress of the household, puts her foot
down very hard and says that they will
have to leave the premises. They are
packing up now. Abraham, knowing that
the journey before his servant and her son
will be very long and across desolate
places, in the kindness of his heart sets
about putting up some bread and bottle
with water in it. 1t is very plain lunch
that Abraham provides, but warrant you
there would have been enough of it had
they not lost their way. "God be with
youw said old Abraham as he gave the
lunch to Hagar, and good many charges
rs to how she should conduct the journey.
Ishmael, the boy, suppose, bounded
| away in the morning light. Boys
| always like change. Poor Isbmael! He
has no idea of the disasters that are ahead
Of him. Hagar gives one long, lingering
! look on the familiar place where she had
spent so many happy days, each scene as
sociated with the pride and joy Of her
heart, young Ishmael.
The scorching noon comes on. The Sir
is sitting and moves across the desert
with insufferable suffocation. Ishmael,
the boy, begins to complain and lies down,
but Hagar rouses him up, saying nothing
about her own WEAKNESS or the sweltering
heat; for m others can endure any thing.
Trudge, trudge, trudge. Crossing the
dead level of the desert, how YEARLY and
slowly the miles slip! A tamarind that
seemed hours ago to stand only just
little ahead, inviting the travellers to come
under its shadow, now is as far or as
ever, or seemingly so. Night drops upon
the desert and the travellers are pillowless.
1shmael, very weary, suppose, instantly
falls asleep. Hagar, as the shadows
Of the night begin to lap over
each other, hugs her weary boy
. her bosom and thinks of the
act that it is her fault that they
are in the desert. A star looks out, and
every falling tear it kisses with a sparkle.
A wing or wind comes over the hot earth,
and lifts the locks from the fevered brow
Of the boy. Hagar sleeps fitfully, and in
her dreams travels over the weary day,
and half awakes her son by crying out in
her sleep: ''lshn,ael! Ishmael"
And so they go on day after day and
night after night; for they have lost their
way. No path in the shifting sands; no
sign in the burning sky. The sack empty
of the flour; the water gone from the bot
tie. What shall she do: As she puts her
fainting Ishmael under stunted shrub of
the arid plain, she sees the bloodshot eye,
and feels the hot hand, and watches the
blood bursting from the cracked tongue,
and there is Shrek in the desert Of Beer.
sheba:
1--WE shall die! We shall dep
Now, no mother was ever made strong
nough to hear her son cry for a drink.
Heretofore she had cheered her boy by
promising a speedy end of the journey,
and even smiled upon him when he felt
desperately enough. Now there is moth
ing to do but place him under a shrub and
let him die. She had thought she would
sit there and watch until the spirit of her
boy would 60 away forever, and then she
would breathe out her own life on his |
silent heart; but as the boy begins to claw |
his tongue in agony of thirst, and strug. |
gle in distortion, and begs his mother to |
slay him, she can not endure the spectacle !
She puts him under a shrub, and goes of |
a bow-shot, and begins to weep until all |
the desert seems sobbing, and her cry
strikes clear through the heavens; and an |
angel of God comes out on a cloud and |
looks down upon the appalling grief, and |
cries:
"Hager, what aileth theew
She looks up and she sees the angel |
pointing to the we'll of water, where she |
fills the bottle for the lad. Thank God |
Thank God!
1. learn from this Oriental scene in
the first place, what sad thing it is when
people do not know their place and get too
proud for their business. Hager was an
assistant in that household. but she want
ed to rule there. She ridiculed and jeered
until her son, Ishmael, got the same tricks. |
She dashed out her own happiness, and
threw Sarah into great fret; and if she
had staid much longer in that household |
she would have upset calm Abraham's
equilibrium. My friends, one half of the
trouble in the world to-day comes from
the fact that people do not know their
place, or, finding their place, will not stay
In 1t. When we come into the world there
is always place ready for us. A place
for Abraham. A place for Sarah. A place
for Hagar. A place for Ishmael. A place
for you and place for me. Our first duty
is to find our sphere; our second is to keep
1t. We may be born in . sphere far off
from the one for which God finally intends
us. Sixtus V. was born on the low ground
and was q swineherd; God called him
up to wave a scepter. Ferguson spent his
early days in looking after sheep; God
called him up to look after stars
and be a shepherd watching the
hocks of light on the hillsides of
Heaven. Hogarth began by engraving
pewter pots; God raised him to stand in
the enchanted realm OF a painter. The
bench held Bloomfield for q