News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-06-27


coming of some other troubles Her parents
,slled 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 hear
it in the shuttle of the worn out shoes. | see
It in the figure of the faded calico. find it
N the lineaments of the woe begone
sountenance. Not Mary, nor Bertha, Tor
Agnes, but Hagar in the wilderness. May
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.
Again: 1 find in this Oriental scene the fact
that every mother leads forth tremendous
iestinies. You say: THAT isn't unusual
scene, mother leading her child by the
hand" Who is it that she is leading?
Ishmael, you say. Who is Ishmael? A great
nation is to be founded; a nation so strong
that it is to stand for thousands of years
against all the armies of the world. Egypt
and Assyria thunder against it, but IN
vain. Gaulus brings up his army,
and his army is smitten. Alex
ander decides upon campaign, brings up his
hosts and dies For a long while that nation
monopolizes the learning of the world 1t IS
the nation of the Arabs. Who founded it? Ish-
mael, the lad that Hagar led into the wilder
ness She had no idea she was leading forth
such destinies. Neither does any mother.
You pass along the street. and see pass boys
and girls who viii yet make make the earth q, quake
Sutton Pool, Plymouth, England,
oarefooted, wading down into the
lush and slime, until his bare foot
comes upon piece of glass and he lifts it,
| bleeding and pain-struckt That wound in
the foot decides that he be sedentary in his
! life, decides that he be q student. That
wound by the glass in the foot decides that
de shall be John Kitto, who shall provide
the best religious encyclopedia the world has
sver had provided and with his other writ
ngs as well, throwing light upon the
| Word of God such as has come from no other
man in this century. mother, mother,
| that little hand that wanders over your
face may yet be lifted to hurl thunderbolts
Of war, or drop benedictions That little
voice may blasphen.e God in the grog shop,
or cry: ''ForwardT to the Lords hosts, as
! they go out for their last victory. My mind
! to-day leaps thirty years ahead, and l see a
merchant prince of New York. One stroke
his pen brings ship out of Canton. An
other stroke of his pen brings a ship into
Madras He is mighty in all the money mar
kets of the world. Who is he? He sits to-
lay beside you in the Tabernacle. My mind
leaps thirty years forward from this
time, and I find myself in a relief as
ISOLATION. A great multitude of Chris
tian women have met together for generous
purpose. There is one woman in that crowd
who seems to have the confidence of all the
others, and they all look up to her for her
To-day you will find her in the Sabbath-school,
while the teacher tells her of that Christ who
clothed the naked and fed the hungry and
healed the sick. My mind leaps forward
5R1rfy an from African Hnd and
there is missionary of the cross ad-
dressing the natives, and their dusky
countenances are irradiated with the glad
tidings of great joy and salvation. Who is
he Did you not hear his voice to-day in the
first song of the service? My mind leaps for
ward thirty years from now, and I find nv
self looking through the wickets of a prison.
l see a face SCARED with every crime His
chin on his open palm, his elbow on his knee
"a picture of despair. As opened the wick
es he starts, and hear his chain clank. The
jail keeper tells me that he has been in there
now three times. First for theft, then
for arson, now for murder He
steps upon the trap door, the rope is fastened
to his neck, the plank falls, his body swings
into the air, his soul swings off into eternity.
Who is he, and where is he? To-day playing !
kite on the city commons. Mother, you are |
to-day hosting throne or forging chain |
yen are kindling a star or digging dungeon. |
A good many years ago Christian mother |
sat teaching lessons of religion to her child; |
and he drank in those lessons. She never /
knew that Lamphier would come forth and |
establish the Fulton street prayer meeting,
and by one meeting revolutionize the de-
yotions of the whole earth, and thrill the
eternitieS with his Christian influence.
Lamphier said it was his mother who
brought him to Jesus Christ.
She never had an idea that she was leading
forth such deStinies. But O, when L see
mother reckless of her influence, rafting on
toward destruction, garlanded for the sacri-
fee with unseeTlly mirth and godlessness.
gayly tripping on down to ruin, taking her
children in the same direction, | cannot help
but say: There they &C. there they go
Hagar and Ishmaeln' tell you there arc |
wilder deserts than Beersheba in many of the |
domestic circles of this day. DlSsl-
pated parents lea1ing dissipated children
Ayaricious parents leading avarlclous chill
dren. Prayerless parents leading prayerless
children. They go through every street, up
every dark alley, into-every cellar, along
every highway. Hagar and Ishmaell and
while pronounce their names, it seems like
the moaning of the death wind-Hagar and
Ishmaeli
l learn one more lesson from this
Oriental scene, and that is, that every
wilderness has a well in it. Hagar and
1shmael gave up to die. Hagar's heart sank
within her as she heard her child crying;
Water water water p "Ah," she saws, INV
darling, there is no water. This is desert'
And then Gods angel said from the cloud:
''What aileth thee, Hagar?" And she looked
up and saw him pointing to a well of water,
where she filled the bottle for the lad Blessed
be God that there is in every wilderness a
well, if you only know how to find it-fount-
aims for all these thirsty souls to-day. ''On
that last day, on that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried: IF any man thirst,
let him come to Me and drink"
All these other fountains you find
are mere mirages of the des-
'eTt Paracelsus, you know, spent his time i'll
trying to find out the elixir of life-a liquid
which if taken, would keep one perpetually
young in this world, and would change the
aged back again to youth Of course he
vas disappointed; he found not the elixir
But here l tell you to-day of the elixir of
loo f,,rr 49,,
of Ages" and that drinking that water
you shall never get old, and you will
nj Der be sick, and you viii never die. "Ho,
every one that thirsteth come We TO the
waters" All, there is man who says;
II have been looking for that fountnin a
great while, but can't find it," And here is
some one else who says: II believe all you
say, hut | have been trudging along in the
wilderness and can't find the fountain" Do
you know the reason? | will tell you. You
never looked in the right direction. 60" you
say, 81 have looAed everywhere. / have
looked north, south, east and west, and l
haven't found the fountain Why. you are not
looking in the right direction at all. Look up
where Hngar looked. She never would have
found the fa-ntain at all. but when she
eeard the voice of tho angel she looked up,
and she saw the finger pointing to the supply.
And o, SOUL if to-day, with one earnest, in
tense prayer you would only look up to
Christ, He would point you down to the sup
ply in the wilderness. Look unto Me all We
ends of the earth, and be We saved; for l am
God, and there is none else.n Look! look as
Hagar looked.
Yes, there is a well for every desert of be-
reavement. Looking over the audience to-
day, notice signs of mourning. Have you
found consolation 0 man bereft, o woman
bereft, have you found consolation Hearse
after hearse. We step from one grave hillocf
to another grave hillock. We follow corpses,
ourselves soon be like them. The world
is in mourning for its dead. Every
heart has become the sepulcher
of some buried joy. But sing We to God,
every wilderness has well in it; and come
water from that well. If you have lived in
the country, you have sometimes taken hold
of the rope of the old well sweep, and you
know how the bucket came up dripping with
bright, cool water. And / lay hold of the
rope of Gods mercy to-day, and | begin
to draw on that gospel well sweep,
and l see the buckets coming
up. Thirsty soull here is one buckef
of hfei conre and drink of it: whatsoever
life freely pull away again at the rope
and another bucket comes up. 1t is this prom
ise Weeping may endure for a night, but
joy cometh in the morning. 1 lay hold of
the rope again, and 1 pull away with all my
strength, and the bucket comes up bright
and beautiful and cool. Here is the promise:
g Come unto Me- all We who are weary and
hr Wy laden, and will give you rest
The old astrologers used TO EueaO tho
people with the idea that they could
tell from the position of the stars what
of stars stood IL. one relation, that would be
a prophecy of evil; If cluster of stars
stood in another relation, that would be n
prophecy of good. What superstitionl