The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-10-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
ADiscourse on the Lessons Taught
by Hagars Exile.

The Duty OF Finding Ones Sphere ana
Keeping 1.-THE Dangers of Over
weening Pride-The Well in
Every wilderness.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in a recent SER
mon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took the
story of Hager's exile as his theme in lie
Gods ability and readiness to
rescue the outcast. HIS text was:
And God opened her eyes. and she saw a
well of water, and she went and filled the
bottle with water, and gave tbs 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, 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 a. bottle
with water in it. 1t Is a 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
you" said old Abraham as he gave the
lunch to Hagar, and good many charges
as to how she should conduct the journey.
Tel nj fho hnx I
away in the morning light. Boys
always like change. Poor Ishmael! 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
ISOLATED with the pride and joy of her
heart, young Ishmael. +-s
The scorching noon comes on. The air
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 mothers 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 off as
ever, or seemingly so. Night drops upon
the desert and the travellers are pillowless.
Ishmael, very weary, suppose, instantly
falls asleep. Hagar, as the shadows
of the night begin to lap over
each other, hugs her weary boy
to her bosom and thinks Of the
fact that it is her fault that they
are in the desert. A star looks out, and
every falling tear it kisses with 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: "Ishmael! Ishmael!"
And SO they 60 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 -four; the water gone from the bot.
tie. What shall she do2 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 a shrek in the desert of Beer.
sheba:@ $50
"Weshall diei We shall dep
Now, no mother was ever made strong
enough to hear her son cry for drink
Heretofore she had cheered her boy by
1 promising speedy end of the journey
and even smiled upon him when he fell
desperately enough. Now there is moth
ing TODD but place him under shrub ant
let himdie. She had thought she woul,
sit there and watch until the spirit of he
boy wonldsgo away forever, and then sh
would breathe out her own life on hi
silent heart; but as the boy begins to clay
his tongue in agony of thirst, and strug
gle in distortion, and begs his mother t
slay him, she can not endure the spectacle
She puts him under a shrub, and goes OF
bow-shot, and begins to weep until al
the desert seems sobbing, and her or,
strikes clear through the heavens; and al
angel of God comes out ON a cloud an,
looks down upon the appalling grief, an
cries:
"Hager, what aileth thee?"
She looks up and she sees the ange
pointing to the well of water, where sh
fills the bottle for the lad. Thank God
Thank Godl
1. learn from this Oriental scene il
the first place, what sad thing it is whe
people do not know their place and get to
proud for their business. Hager was al
assistant in that household, but she want
ed to rule there. She ridiculed and jeere
until her son, Ishmael, got the same tricks
She dashed out her own happiness, an
threw Sarah into a great fret; and if sh
had staid much longer in that Household
she would have upset calm Abrah ann
equilibrium. My friends, one half of tn
trouble in the world to-day comes fror
the fact that people do not know thei
place, or, finding their place, will not sta
in 1t. When we come into the world Their
is always place ready for us. A plac
for Abraham. A place for Sarah. A plac
for Hagar. A place for Ishmael. A plac
for you and place for me. Our first dut
is to find our sphere; our second is to kee
it. We may be born in a sphere far O
from the one for which God finally intend
US. Sixtus v. was born on the low groun
and was swineherd; God called hi,
up to wave scepter. Ferguson spent hi
early DAVIS in lookinp after shaw. III