Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-10-01
VOL. XIV.
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOST
THEIR WAY.


THEIR WAY.
Text: "And God opened her ewes and she
saw well of waters, and she went and filled
the bottle with water and gave the lad
drink" Genesis xxi, 10.
Morning breaks upon Beer-Sheba. There
Is an early stir in the house of Abraham
There has been trouble among the domestics.
Sarah, the mistress of the household, puts
her foot down very hard and says that they
will have to leave the premises They are
lacking up. Abraham knowing that the
journey blfore his servant aud her son will
be very long and across deso!ate places. in
the kindness of his heart sets about putting
up some bread and bottle with water in it.
IL is very plain lunch that Abraham pro-
Vldes, but warrant you there would have
been enough of it had they not lost their
way God be with you" said old Abra-
ham as he gave the lunch to Hagar and a
good many charges as to how she should con-
duct the journey. Ishmael, the boy, [ SUD-
pose bounded away in the morning light
Boys always Ike : change. Poor lshmael
de 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 asso-
clated with the pride and joy of her heart,
young lshmael.
The scorching noon comes on. The air is
stlHlng and moves across the desert with in
sutferable suffocation. Ishmael the boy,
begins to compain and lies down, but Hagar
rouses him up, saying nothing about her own
weariness or the sweltering heat: for mothers
can endure anything. Trudge-trudge-
trudge crossing the dead level of the desert,
how wearily and slowly the miles slip. a
tamarind that seemed hours ago to stand only
1IIEf tln oh
come under its shadow, now is as far off as
ever, or seeming SO. Night drops upon the
desert and the travellers are pillowless. Ish-
mael, very weary l suppose, instantly falls
asleep. Hagar-as the shadows of the night
begin to lap over each other-Hagar hugs
her weary boy to her bosom and thinks of
the fact that it Is her fault that they are in
desert. A star looks out and every falling
tear it kisses with sparkle. A wing of wind
comes over the hot earth and lifts the locks
from the fevered brow of the boy. Hagar
sleeps tittully and in her dreams travels over
the weary day and half awakes her son by
crying out in her sleep: "Ishmael! Ishmaelh
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 bottle. What shall
she do! AS she puts her faintng Ishmael
L,
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: I'VE shall de! We shall diel "
Now, no mother was ever made strong
enough to hear her son cry in vain for
drink. Heretofore she had cheered her boy
by promising speedy end of the Journey
and even smiled upon him when he felt des-
perately enough. Now there is nothing to
do but place him under shrub and let him
die. She had thought that she would sit
there and watch until the spirit of her boy
would go away forever AMI then she woull
breathe out her own life on bis silent heart;
but as the boy begins to claw his tongue in
agony OF thirst and struggle in distortion and
beg his mother to slay him, she cannot en-
dure the spectacle. She puts him under q
shrub and goes off 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 q cloud and
looks down upon the appalling grief and
cries: "Hagar, what aileth thee!" She looks
up and she sees the angel pointing to a well
OF water, where she fills the bottle for the
lad. Thank God Thank Godl
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 fer their
business. Hagar was an assistant in that
household, but she wanted to rule there. She
r1dlculed and jeered until her son, Ishmael,
got the same tricks She dashed out her own
happiness and threw Sarah into great fret
and il she had stayed much longer in that
household she would have upset calm Abra-
hams equilibrium Ny 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 it.
When we come into the world there is always
a place ready for us. A place for Abraham.
A place for Sarah. A pla e for Hagar A
place for Ishmael. A place for you and a
place for me. Our first duty is to find our
sphere, our second is to keep it. We may be
born in a sphere far off from the one for
which God finally intended us Sixtus V.
was born on the low ground and was a swine
herd. God called him up to wave a sceptre.
Ferguson spent his early days in looking after
the sheep; God called him up TO look after
stars and be shepherd watching the flocks
OF light on the hillsides of heaven. Hogarth
began by engraving pewter pots; God raised
him to stand in the enchanted realm of q
painter. The shoemaker's bench held Bloom
field for little while but God callel him
to sit in the chair of philosopher aud Chris
tian scholar. The s,gD boiler Of London
could not keep his son in that business, fer
God had decided that Hawley was to be one
Oh the greatest astronomers OF England.
On the other hand we may be born in a
sphere little higher than that for which
God intends us. We may be born in castle
and play in a costly con ervatory and feed
high-bred pointers and angle for goldfish in
artificial ponds and be familiar with princes;
yet God may better have fitted us for O car.
penter's shop OF dentists forceps or a weav.
er's shuttle or a blacksmith'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 plow. There
is man God fashioned to make a constitu-
tion. The man who makes the plow is just
as honorable as tie man who makes the con-
stltutlon. There is q woman who was made
to fashion robe and yonder is one intended
to be queen and wear it. 1t seems to me
that ID the one case as in the other, God ap
points the sphere; and the needle is just as
respectable in his sight as the sceptre. dc
not know but that the world would long age
have been saved, if some of the men out of
the ministry were in it, and some of those who
are in it were out of it. really think that
one half the world may be divided into two
quarters-those 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 which God intended them The
bondswoman wants to be mistress Hagal
keeps crowding Sarah. The small wheel Of
watch which beautifully went treading it.
golden pathway, wants to be the balance
wheel and the sparrow with chagrin drop
into the brook because it cannot, like
the eagle, cut circle under the sun
In the Lords army we all want to bt
brigadier-g r-generals. The sloop says: "Mort
mast, more tonnage, more canvas Oh, tha
| were a topsail schooner or full-riggeC
brig, or Cunard steamer" And so tin
world is filed with cries Of discomfort be
cause we are not willing to stay in the place
i where God put us aud intended US to be
My friends, be not too proud to do anything
God tells you to do. For the lack Of a righ
disposition in this respe t the world is strewI
with wandering Hagars and Ishmaels. Co
has given each one Of us a work to do Yo
carry a scuttle of coal up the dark alley; yo
distribute that Christian tract; you give TEL
| Thousand dollars to the missionary cause