The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-19
GET YOUR RIGHT VOCATION.
The Trouble Caused by People Who Do
Not Know and Keep Their Places.
Responsibility and Duty of Motherhood
Taught by the Lesson of Hagar and Ishmael
DIR. Talmage's Tabernacle Discourse.

The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D.. has re-
sumed services in the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
His tabernacle was reprinted and re-upholstered
and otherwise improved during the vacation that
ended last Sunday, when the vast throngs greet
ing the return Of their pastor responded literally
to his appeal on behalf of the sufferers by the
earthquake at Charleston. DR.. Talmage's sub
ject was: "Cast out, but rescued and the text,
Genesis, CHI. xxi, v. 10; "And God opened her
eyes, and she saw we'll of water: and she went
and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad
drink" The preacher said:
Morning breaks upon Beersheba There is
an early stir in the house of old Abraham
There had been trouble among the domestics
Hagar, an assistant in the household, and her
son, bright lad of sixteen years, have become
lmpudent and insolent. and Sarah, the mistress
Of the household puts her foot down very hard
and says that they will have to leave the prem
1seS They are packing up now, Abraham, know
ing 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. It 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'll" said old
Abraham, as he gave the lunch to Hagar and
good many charges as to how she should conduct
the journey. Ishmael, the boy, | suppose,
bounded away in the morning light. Boys al
ways like change. Poor Ishmael He has no
idea of the disasters that are ahead of him.
Hagar gives one long, lingering look on the fa
nliliar place where she had spent so many happy
days, each scene associated with the pride and
JOY of her heart, young Ishmael
The scorching noon comes on. The air is
sitting, and moves across the desert with insult
ferable 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-trudg e-trudge. Crossing the
dead level of the desert, how YEARLY and slowly
the miles slp 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 powerless
lshmael, very weary, | suppose instantly falls
asleep Hagar-as the shadows of the night be-
gin 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 the desert
A star looks out and every falling tear it kisses
with sparkle. A wind comes over the hot
earth and lifts the locks from the fevered brow
of the boy. Hagar sleeps ftfully, and in her
dreams travels over the weary day, and half
"Ishmael Ishmae"
And so they go day after day and night
after night; for they have lost their way. No
path in the shifting sands; no sign in the burn
ing sky IT," Jack empty of the flour; the water
she puts her fainting Ishmael under a stunted
shrub of the arid plain, she sees the blood-shot
eye. and feels the not hand, and watches the
blood bursting from the cracked tongue, and
there is a shrek in the desert of Beer-sheba:
1--WE shall die! We shall die!" Now, no mother
was ever made strong enough to hear her
son cry in vain for a drink. Heretofore she
had cheered her boy by promising speedy
end of the journey, and even
smiled upon him when he felt desperatsIv
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, and
then she would breathe out her own life on his
silent heart; but the boy begins to claw his
tongue in agony of thirst, and struggle in dis
torton, and begs his mother to slay him, she can
not endure the spectacle. She puts him under
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 cloud, and looks
down upon the appalling grief and cries: "Hacar
what aileth thee?' She looks I'D and she sees
the angel pointing to we'll of water, where she
fills the bottle for the lad. Thank God! Thank
God!
First-I learn from this Oriental scene in the
first place what sad thing it is when people do
not know their places, and get too proud for
their business Hagar was an assistant in that
ridiculed and jeered until her son, Ishmael, got
the same tricks. She dashed out her own happi-
ness, and threw Sarah into q great fret; and if
she had stayed much longer in that household
she would have upset calm Abrahams 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 it. When we come into the world there
is always place for us. A place for Abraham
place for Sarah A place for Hagar. A place
for lshmael. A place for you and a place for
me. Our first duty is to find our sphere; our
second is to keep it.
On the other hand, we may be born in a
sphere little higher than that for which God in
tended us. We may be born in a castle, and
play in costly conservatory, 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 carpenters shop,
or dentists forceps, or weaver's shuttle or a
blacksmith's forge. The great thing is to find
just the sphere for which God intended u.s. and
then to occupy that sphere and occupy it for
ever Here is a man God fashioned to make
pillow. There is man God fashioned to make
constitution. The man who makes the pillow is
just as honorable as the man who makes the
constitution. There is o woman who was made
to fashion robe, and yonder is one intended to
be queen and wear it. It seems to me that
in the one case as in the other God
appoints the sphere, and the needle is Just as
respectable in his sight as the scepter. do not
Know DuC Lnat the WOrlQ would long ago have
been saved, If some OF the men out of the minis
try were in it, and some of those who are in it
were cut of it. really think that one half the
world may be divided into two quarters-those
who have not found their sphere, and those wno
having found it, are not willing to stay there
How many are struggling for position little
higher than that which God intended them The
bondwoman wants to be mistress. Hagar keeps
crowding Sarah. The small wheel of q watch
which beautifully went treading its golden path
way, wants to be the balance wheel and the spar
row with chagrin drops into the brook because it
cannot, like the eagle cut circle under the sun.
In the Lords army we all want to be briga-
dier-g generals The sloop says: more mast
more tonnage. more canvas Oh, that were
topsail schooner or a full-rigged brig, or Gu
'nard steamer" And so the world is filed with
cries of discomfort, because are not willing
to stay in the place where God put us and in
tended US to be. My friends, be not too proud
to do anything God tells you to do For the
lack of a right dispostion in this respect the