News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-10-07
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
DIR. TALlTAGE DISCUSSES MODERN
HAGERS AND lSHMAELS.
low Mothers MOuld the Desfinies of Taeil
ChiIdren-The Reward.

from the story of Hagar and lshmael IN
| the wilderness. Here are some OF the
things he said during his forty minutes
talk:
l learn first from this Oriental scene
what pity it Is that some people do not
know their place and get too proud for
| their business. Hagar was an assistant
| in that household. She wanted to rule
| it. She ridiculed and jeered until Ish-
mael learned the same trick. She dashed
her own happiness, threw Sarah into a
great fret, and if she had stayed much
longer in that household would have
destroyed the calm of Abraham's equi-
librium Well, now, that is the trouble
now with the word. People, many peo-
pie, do not seem to know their place, or
getting their place they do not want to
STAY in it. When we ale born there is a
place for each one of us in the world-a
place for Abraham, place for Sarah, a
place for Hagar, place for lshmael, a
place for you and place for me. The
great thing is for us to find out what it
is and then to stick to it. We may be
born in a sphere below that which we
were intended for, or we may be born in
a sphere above that which we were in
lCuuCu. plAIuS was DOlH luC
swineherds, his father a swineherd, but
he was raised to wave n sceptre. Bloom
field sat on q shoemaker's bench, but
God called him to sit in the chair of
Christian scholarship. The soap boiler
of London could not keep his boy at that
business, for God called Hawley to be
one of the great astronomers of England.
HOgarth was busy engraving pewter
plates. God called him into the en-
chanting realm of a painter. On the
other hand, we may be born in sphere
a little above that for w hich we were in
tended. We may be bd IN in a castle
and play IN costly conservatory and
feed high breed polntefs and angle for
gold fish in artificial ponds and be famiI-
lar with princes, and yet be really in
tended for the carpenters shop or the
dentists forceps or the weaver's shuttle
or the blaCksmith's forgP. | do not say
a man shall stay in the sphere in which
he is born-it may be above the one for
which he is intended, OF below it; but
find out what it is and be satisfied with
that. Here is a man whom God made
to fashion a plow. Th ere is a man
whom God made to fashion a constitu-
ton, and the man who makes the plOw
is just as honorable as the man who
fashions the constitution, provided he
makes the plOw as well as the other
makes the constitution Here is a wo-
man who was lrtended to make robe,
there was woman who was to be a
queen and wear it, and the needle in
Gods eye, is just as respectable as the
scepter. | do not know but that long
ago the world would have been convert
ed if some of the men W ho are out of
the ministry were in it, and some of
those who are in it we're out of it !
Each one having a work tb do. really
believe that the human race, half of the
human race, may be divided into two
quarters, and one quarter, all those who
have NOS found their sphdrc, tie other
quarter, those who have i'd dund it but do
not want to stay in it. That is what
fills the world with wandering Hagars
and Ishmaels Go find your sphere and
keep it. Don't be too proud for your
business. Anything that God calls us
to do is honorable. Great shall be the
reward in the last day for those who
have seen their duty and have done it,
but alas ! for the Hagars and the Ish-
maels tur ed out in the dismal desert.
This ORIENTAL scene also impresses me
with what a sad sight it is to see wO-
man trudging out into the wilderness.
Oh, what a change for Hagarl There
was all the luxuriance of Abraham's
house Now it is exile and wandering.
And it is often so now. a woman is
brought up amid all elegance of sur
roundings, all the advantages of a
IL. l. i
takes her by the hand and leads her out
in % the wilderness. Crueltics despoil
her life All the Joy that hpvered over
her on the day when the ring was put
on and the VOWS taken and the benedic-
ton pronounced, have faded with the
orange blossoms. Cruelties and out
rage. Broken hearted thinking of
past JOY, present wretchedness, COM
ing SUI! ering. Hagar in the wilderness
You and | have often seen a home in
which there has not been a single sor-
row since it was founded. Domestic
Joy full Pictures on the wall Music
in the drawing room. Welcd me at the
door. All prosperity, all success. But
there is a hot pillow, and the pulses
fiutter, and the eyes close, and the heart
stops. The we'll known foptstep that
sounded on the doorsll un til all the
household went out crying ''Father's
coming!" will be heard on the doors1ll
no more. A deep grief has plowed
long furrow through that garden of
domestic bliss. Paradise lostl Widow
hood! Hagar in the wilderness Oh,
how often it is we see the weak arm OF
the woman conscripted for this battle
with the world This Oriental scene re-
minds me OF the fact that every mother
leads forth tremendous destinies. You
say that it is no unusual scene to see
mother leading a child by the hand.
Who is she leading? Jshmael. Who is
Ishmael! A great nation is to be estab-
hshed that for thousands of years shall
defy the armies of the world. That
nation is for many years to monopo
the learning of the world What ma
ton? Nation of the Arabs. Who
founded it3 Ishmael, whom Hagar led
out into the wilderness. She did not
think it, neither does any mother think
so. Oh, mother, mother, that foot, that
little hand that wanders over your face
may yet hurl thunderbolts of war or
drop a bencdiction. That voice NAV
yet bIaspheme God in a grog shop, or
1t may cry forward y to the hosts OF
God as they march on to the last victory.
l close my eyes and my mind leaps for
ward thirty years, and l ana in a New
York business office, and a gentleman
sitting at the table with one scratch of
his pen brings a snip out of Canton d
with another scratch of his pen takes
ship into Madras. His name is mighty
In all the markets of the world. Who
IS he? This morning he sits by you,
lad, in the house of God. / close my eyes
and my mind leaps forward thirty years
ana am i'll great refOrmatory meeting
hundreds of women have assembled to
gether for the alienation of some great
suffering; but there is one woman to
whom they all look for counsel, and
there IS especial interest in her prayers.
Who Is she This afternoon, in the
Sabbath school class, her teacher will
tell her OF that Christ who clothed the
naked and fed the hungry and healed
the sick. | close my eyes and my mind
leaps forward thirty years and am
standing In an African Jungle and
hear missionary of the cross preach.
and the dusky faces are illumined with
the joys of pardon and peace and heav-
en-. Who is he You heard his voice
in the opening song this morning in the
house of God. The lad that sits by YOU.
| close my eyes and my mind leaps for
ward thirty years and I stand at the
wicket of prison. look in and see
1