The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-09-24

STAY in the place where God put US and in
tended us to be. Ny frien Is, be not too
proud TO do any thing God tells you to do.
For the lack of a right disposition in this
respect the world is strewn with wander
ing Hagars and Ishmaels. God has given
each of us a work to do. You carry
scutue Of coal up that dark alley.
You distribute that Christian tract. You
give ten thousand dollars to the missions
airy cause. You for hfteen years sit
with chronic rheumatism, displaying the
beauty Of Christian submission. What
ever God calls you to, whether it win
Kissing or huzza; whether to walk under
triumphal arch or lift the sot out of the
ditch; whether it be to preach on a pen"
tecost or tell some wanderer of the street
of the mercy of the Christ, or Of Mary
Magdalene; whether it be to weave a gar
land for a Laughing child on spring
morning and call her May queen, or to
comb out the tangled locks of a waif of
the street, and 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 yoke, do not fdget. Ever
lasting honors upon those who do their
work, and do their whole work, and are
contented IN the sphere in which God has
put them; while there is wandering, and
exile, and dssolation, and wilderness for
Discontinued Hagar and IshmaeL
2. Again, find in this Oriental scene a
lesson Of sympathy with woman when
she goes forth trudging in the desert.
What a great change it was for this
Hagarl There was the tent and all the
surroundings of Abraham's house, beauti-
ful and luxurious, no doubt. Now she is
going out into the hot sands Of the des-
ert. Oh, what a change it wasl And in
one day we often see the wheel of fortune
turn. Here is some one who lived in the
very bright home of her father. She
had every thing possible to admin
ter to her happiness-plenty at the
table, music in the drawing
room, welcome at the door. She is led
forth into life by some one who. can not
appreciate her. A dissipated soul comes
and takes her out into the desert. Cruel
! ties blot out all the lights of that home
circle. Harsh words wear out her spirits.
The high hope that shOne out over the
marriage altar while the ring was being
/ set, and the vows given, and the bsnedic-
| ton pronounced, have all faded with the
orange blossoms, and there she is to-day,
| en-hearted, thinking of past joys, and
present desolation, and coming anguish.
/ Hagar in the wildernessl
| Here is a beautiful home. You can not
/ lhlnk of any thing that can be added to
it. For years there has not been the sug-
| restion Of q single trouble. Bright and
happy children fill the house with laugh
IFter and song. Books to read. Pictures to
/ look at. Lounges to rest on. Cup Of do
| nestle Joy full and running over. Dark
night drops. Pillow hot. Pulses fiutter.
| Eyes close. And the foot whose well known
i. LII 4s~N.k AZ III, IL
| household out at eventide, crying: Gath
er's coming" will never sound on the
door sill again. A long, deep grief plowed
! through all that brightness of domestic
| life. Paradise lost. Widowhood. Hagar
| in the wilderness.
How often is it we see the weak arm of
woman cOnscripted for this battle with
the rough world. Who is she, going down
| the street in the early light of the morn
! ing, pale with exhausting work, not half
| slept out with the slumbers of last night,
| tragedies of suffering written all over her
| face, her lusterless eyes looking far ahead,
! as though for the coming of some other
| trouble? Her parents called her Mary, or
! Bertha, or AGNES, on the day when they
! held her up to the font and the Christian
minister sprinkled on the infants face the
washings of a holy baptism. Her name is
| changed now. I hear it in the shuttle of
| the worn -out shoes. / see it in the figure
OF the faded calico. find it in the Inca
ments of woebegone countenance. Not
| Mary, nor Bertha, nor Agnes, but Hagar
in the wilderness. NJ God have mercy
upon woman in her tolls, her struggles,
| her hardships, her desolatiOn, and may
the great heart of divine sympathy inclose
her forever
8. Again, / flend in this Oriental scene
the fact that every mother leads forth tre-
mendous destinies. You say:
"That isn't an unusual scene, a mo Their
leading her child by the hand"
who is that she is leading? Ishmael
YOU say. Who is Ishmael2 A great ma
ton is to be founded; a nation so strong
that il is to stand for thousands OF. years
against all the armies of the world
| Egypt and Assyria thunder against, il
but in vain. Gaulus brings up his army
and his army is smitten. Alexander
decides upon a campaign, brings up his
| hosts. and dies. For a long while thai
nation monopOlized the learning of the
world. 1t is the nation of the Arabs. WhC
founded it? Ishmael, the lad that Hagal
led into the Wilderness. She had no ides
she was leading forth such destinies
Neither does any mother. You pass aIong
bAN SlI6Gt anu HGG ttAANA pass 10y anu =
who viii yet make the earth quake with
their influence. s Who is that boy at
Sutton Pool, Plymouth, England, bare
footed, wading down into the sIush anc
! slime, until his bare foot comes upon {
piece of glass and he lifts it, bleeding and
| pain-struck2 That wound in the foot de.
cides that he be sedentary in his life, de.
cides that he be a student. That wound
| by the glass in the foot decides that be
shall be John Kitto, who shall pro-
vide the best religious encyclopedias
the world has ever had provided
and with his other writings as well
throwing light upon the word of Goo
such as has come from no other man il
this century. o mother, mother, that little
hand that wanders over your face may YET
be lifted to hurl thunderbolts of war OF
drop benedictionsl That little voice may
blaspheme God in the grog-shop or cry
"Cowardl' to the Lords hosts as they &c
out for their last victory.
My mind this morning leaps thirty years
ahead. and I see a m reliant prince Of New
York. One stroke of his pen brings a ship
out of Canton. Another stroke of his per
brings a ship into Madras. He is mighty
in all the money markets Of the world
Who is he? He sits this morning beside
you in the Tabernacle. My mind leap,
thirty years forward from this time, and
! find myself in a relief association. A great
multitude of Christian women have me-
together for a generous purpose. There i.
one woman in that crowd who seems t
have the confidence Of all the others, and
they all look up to her for hel
counsel and for her prayers. Who is she
This afternoon you viii find her in the
sabbath school, while the teacher tell:
herof that Christ who clothed the naked
and fed the hungry, and healed the sick
My mind leaps forward thirty years from
now, and find myself in an African jun