Dodge City times., 1889-07-04

own Sphere in Lilo and Then to Keep
LIN II.
Subject-People Who Have Lost Their Way
Text-And God opened her eyes, and she saw
| Q well Of water; and she went, and filled tho
bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
| Gen. xxi, 19.
Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba
There is an early stir in the house of
old Abraham. There has been trouble
among the domestics. Hagsr, an as
sistant in the household, and her son, q
brisk lad of 16 years, have become i'm
pudent 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 mp some bread
and o bottle with water in it. It is o
but l warrant you there would have been
enough of it had they not lost their
way. God be with your said old Abra-
ham as he gave the lunch to Hagar. and
. good many charges rs to how she
should conduct the journey. 1shmael,
the boy, suppose bounded away in the
morning light. Boys always like q
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 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 insuferable suffocation.
Ishmael, the boy, begins to complain,
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 just q little
ahead, inviting the travellers to come
ever, or seemingly SO. Night drops upon
less. Ishmael, very weary, I 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 the desert.
A star looks out, and every falling tear
it kisses with a sparkle. A wing of 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, "Isbmael! 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 bottle.
What shall she do? As she puts her
fainting Ishmael under stunted shrub
of the arid plain, she sees the blood
shot eye, and feels the hot hand, and
watches the blood bursting from the
cracked tongue, and there is q shrek in
the desert of Beer-shebs: we shall
die! we shall die!" Now, no mother was
ever made strong enough to hear her son
cry in vain for q drink. Heretofore she
had cheered her boy by promising
speedy end of the journey, even smiled
upon him when he felt desperately
enough. Now there. is nothing to do
but place him under a shrub and let him
sit there and watch until the spirit of
her boy would go away forever, and then
she would breath out her own life ON
his 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 endure
the spectacle. She puts him under a
shrub and goes off a bow shot, and be-
gins 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 leoks
down upon the appalling grief and
cries: "Hagar, what aileth thee?" She
looks up and she sees the angel point
ing to we'll of water, where she fills
the bottle for the lad. Thank God!
Thank God!
learn from this Oriental scene, in
the first place, what a sad thing it is
when people do not know their place,
and get too proud for their business.
Hagar was an assistant in that house
hold, but she wanted to rule there. She
ridiculed and jeered until her son,
Ishmael, got the same tricks. She
dashed out her own happiness aud
threw Sarah into q great fret; and if she
had stayed much longer in that house,
hold she would have upset calm Abra-
hams equilibrium. My friends, one
half of the trouble in the world to o-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 ready
for us. A place for Abraham. A place
for Ishmael. A place for you and
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 intends
us. Sextus V was born on the low ground,
anu was q swineherd; God called him up
to wave q scepter. Ferguson spent his
early days in looking after the sheep;
God called him up to look after stars,
and be o shepherd watching the focks
of light on the hillsides of Heaven. Ho-
garth began by engraving pewter pots;
God raised him to stand in the en-
chanted realm of q painter. The shoe
makers bench held Bloomfield for q
little while; but God called him to sit
in the chair of philosopher and Chris
tian scholar. The soap boiler of London
could not keep his son in that business,
for God had decided that Hawley was to
be one of the greatest astronomers of
England. On the other hand, We may
be born in q sphere little higher than
tnat Tor Wnlch GOd intends MS. We
may be born in castle, and play in q
costly conservatory, and feed high bred
pointers, and angle for gold fish in
artificial ponds, and be familiar with
princes; yet God may have fitted MS for
q carpenters shop, or dentists forceps,
or q weaver's shuttle, or blacksmith's
forge. The great thing is to find Just
the sphere for which God intended MS,
and then to occupy that sphere and oc-
cupy it forever. Here is q man God
fashioned to make plow. There is o
man God fashioned to make constitu-
tion. The man who makes the pillow is
Just as honorable as the man who makes
the constitution, provided he makes the
pillow rs we'll as the other man makes the
constitution. There is . woman who
was made to fashion q robe, and yonder
is one intended to be q queen and wear