The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-08-30

think OF anything that can be added to il
For years there has not been the suggestion
Of single trouble. Bright and happy chill
dren fill the house with laughter and song
Books TO read. Pictures to look at
Lounges to rest on. Cup of domestic
JOY full and running over Darl
night drops. Pillow hot. Pulses flutter
Eyes close. And the foot whose well known
steps on the door sill brought the who'll
household out at eventide crying; Father
coming, viii never sound on the door 81
again. A long deep grief plowed througl
all that lightfieSs II domestic life. Paradis
LOST Widowhoodi Hagar in the wilderness
How often it is we see the weak arm OF
woman conscripted for this battle with The
rough world. Who is she, going down the
street in the early light of the morning. pale
with exhausting work, not half slept out
with the slunbers of last night, tragedies of
suffering Written al over her face her luster-
less eyes looking far ahead as though for the
coming of some other trouble? Her parents
called her Mary, or Bertha, or Agnes on the
day when they held her up to the font
and the Christian minister sprinkled or
the infants face the washings of a holy
baptism. Her name is changed now. Ihem
it in the shuttle of the worn out shoes. Sc,
it in the figure of the faded calico. find i
in the lneaments of the woe bego
cUtntenaDce. Not Mary nor Bertha, L
Agnes, but Hagar in the wilderness. Ma
God have mercy upon woman in her toll
her struggles, her hardships. her desoletio
ana may the great heart Of Divine sympath.,
inclOse her f6TsveTi
Again: findi in this Oriental scene the fact
that every mother leads forth treIdcidqu.
destiHies You say: THAT isn't an unusua
scene, Z trrther leading her child by tn
hand Who Is i that she is leadin.
lshm6el you say. Who Is Iclf7Rael3 A gresiu
nation is to be founded; a nation 50 stronq.
that it is to stand for thousands of yea .
against 2il the armies of the world. Egyl- {
ard Assyria tiltpder against il. but in
and his army is smitfer. 80
ander decides upon a campaign, brings u bis
hosts and dies. For a long while hat nation
monOpOlizes the learning OF the world. It is
the nation Of the Arabs. Who founded it? Ish-
mael, the Lad that Hagar led into the wilder
ness. She had 10 idea she was leading forth
such destinies. Neither does any mother.
You pess along the street., and Sc pass boys
and girls who viii vet make the earth quake
with their influence. Who Is that boy at
Sutton Pool, Plymouth, England,
baref50ted, Hsding down into the,
klush and slime until his bare foot
comes upon a piece of giass end he lifts it, J
bleeding and pain-struck? Ih6t wound in
the foot decides that he be sedentary in his
life decides that he be a student. That i
wound by the glass in the foot decides that
he shall be John Kitto, who shall provide
the best religious encyclopedia the world has
ever had provided, and with his other writ
ings as well, throwing a light upon the
Word of God such as has come from no other
man in this century. o mother, mother,
that little hand that wanders over ySFr
face may yet be lifted to hurl thunderbolts
Of war, or drop benedictions That little
voice may blaspheme God in the grog shop
or cryi "Forwardr to the Lords hosts, as
they go ont for their last victory. My mind
to-day leaps thirty years ahead, and / see
prince Of New York One stroke
Of his pen brings a ship ont Of Canton. An
other stroke of his pen brings q ship into
Madras He is mighty in all the money mar
izets of the world. Who is hes He sits to-
day beside you in the Tabernacle. Ny mind
leaps thirty years forward from this
time, and 1 find myself In relief as
ISOLATION. A great multitude of Chris
tian women have met together for a 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
counsel and for her prayers. Who Is she
To-day you viii 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. Ny mind leaps forward
-uIl9 years run now ana ma
myself in an African jungle; and
here is a missionary OF the cross ad-,
iressing the natives, and their dusky
are irradiated with the glad
idings Of great Joy and salvation. Who Isl
le2 Did you not hear his voice to-day in the I
irst song OF the service2 Ny mind leaps for
yard thirty years from now, and l find my
elf looking through the wickets of prison
see a face SCARED with every crime His
,l,iv, nuar, r,a1rss his afborr-
"a picture Of despair. As Iopened the wick
t he starts, and hear his chain clank The
all keeper tells me that he has been in there
low three times. First for theft, then
or arson, now for murder He
.Sns upon the trap door. the rope is fastened
9 = NIX, rr-5 7-7r7Tz7
into the air his soul swings of into eternity
Who is he, and where is he2 To-day playing
kite on the city commons. Mother, you are
to-day hosting throne or forging a chain
you are ldndhng q star or digging dungeon.
A good many years ago a 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 strest prayer meeting,
and by one meeting revolutiOnize the de-
votions 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 | see u
mother reckless Of her influence, rafting on
toward destruction, garlanded for the sacri-
fee with unseemly mirth and godlessness.
gayly tripping on down 20 ruin, taking her
children in the same direction, l cannot help
but say: There they go, there they go
Hagar and Ishmaelr5 tell you there are
wilder deserts than Beersheba in many of the
domestic circles Of this day. Dissi-
pated parents leading dissipated children.
Avaricious parents leading avaricious chill
dren. Prayerless parents leading prayerless
children. They go through every street, up
every dark alley into every cellar, along
every highway. Hagar and Ishmaeli and
while l pronounce their names, it seems like
the moaning of tine death wind-Hagar and
Ishmaeli
learn one more lesson from this
Oriental scene, and that is that every
wilderness has a well in it Hagar and
isnmael gave up TO die. Hagar's heart sank
within her as she heard her child CRYING:
Water water water ~ ''Ah, - she saws, s'uiy
darling, there is no water. This is deses.b
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 filed the bottle for the lad. Blessed
be God that there is in every wilderness !.
well, if you only know how to find it-fount-
aims for all these thirsty souls to-day. ION
that last day, on that great day of the feast.
Jesus stood and cried: IF any man thirst
let him come TO Nc and drink
All these other fountains you find
lre mere mirages of the des-,
ert. Paracelsus You know, spent his tiIue in
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 1 tell you to-day Of the elixir OF
everlasting life bursting from the Crock
If Ages and that drinking that water
you shall never get old, and you viii
never be sick, and you viii never die. "Ho,
very one that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters" Ali, there is man -.-f1J sgIyF.
Il have been looking for that fountnin q
treat while but can't find its And here is
orne one else who says: Il believe all you
ay. but have been trudging along in the
wilderness and can't find the fountain Do
7ou know the reasonY 1 win tell you. YOU
iever looked in the right direction. 20" you
ay. Il have looked everywhere. l have
ooked north, south, east and west, and T.
haven't found the fountain Why, you are not
ooking in the right direction at all. Look up,
where Hagar looked She never would have
ound the fountain at all. but when she
leard the voice of the angel she looked up,
md she saw the finger pointing TO the supply .
and o, soul, if to-day, with one earnest, IN ,
ense prayer you would only look up TO
christ, He would point you down to the sup :
,ly in the wilderness. Look unto Ne all ye
,nds Of the earth, and be We saved; for am
iod, and there is none else" Looki looki as ,