The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-07-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON
The Weekly Discourse of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
s.bj "a; "psoplc Who Have
hYst Their Way"


dffnk,N-Genesis xxi, 10.
Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba. There
Is an early stir In tho house OF old Abraham
There has been trouble among the domestics
Hagar, an assistant In the household, and her
son, brisk lad OF sixteen years, have become
impudent and insolent, and Sarah, the mis-
tress of the household, puts her foot down
very hard, and says that they win have to
leave the premises, They arc 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 put
ting up some bread apd bottle with water
In II; 1t 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 ~ said old
Abraham as he gave the lunch to Hagar, and
a good many charges as to how she should
conduct the journey. Ishmael, the boy,
suppose, bounded away in the morning light
Boys always like change. Poor Ishmaeil
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 Ish.
mael.
The scorchlng noon comes on. The air is
sitting and moves across the desert with In
",
gins to complain and lies down, but Hagar
rouses him up, saying nothing about her own
WEAKNESS or the sweltering heat; for mothers
can endure anything. Trudge, trudge, trudge.
Crossing the dead level of the desert, how
YEARLY and slowly the miles slip. A tama-
rind 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 pillowless. Ishmael,
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
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 awalies her son by crying out
in her sleep: 'Ishmaell Ishmaele' And
so they go 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
What shall she dor As she puts
her fainting Ishmael under a stunted
shrub of the arid plain, she sees the
bloodshot eye, and feels tho hot hand,
and watches the blood bursting from the
cracked tongue, and there is shrek in the
desert of Beer-sheba: "We shall die we
shall dep Now, no mother was ever made
strong enough to hear her son cry in vain for
drink. Heretofore she had cheered her boy
by promising a speedy end Of the journey,
even smiled upon him when he felt desper-
ately 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 as the
boy began to claw his tongue in agony
of thirst, and struggle in distortion, aud beg
his mother. to slay him, she cannot endure
the spectacle. She puts him under shrub
and goes off 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 a cloud and looks
down upon the appalling grief and cries:
"Hagar, what aileth thee? She looks up
and she sees the angel pointing to a well Of
water, where she fills the bottle for the lad.
Thank God! Thank God
/ learn from this Oriental scene, in the first
place, what q sad thing it is when people do
not know their place, and get too proud for
their business. HagGr was an assistant in
thathousehold, but she wanted to rule there
She ridiculed and jeered until her son, Isll-
mael, got the same tricks. She dashed out
her own happiness and threw Sarah into
great fret; and if she had stayed much longer
in that household she would have upset calm
Abraham's equilibrium My friends. one
half Of the trouble In tho world to-day comes
from the fact that people do not know their
place; or, finding their place, viii not stay in
1t. When we como into tho world, there Is
always place ready for US. A place for
Abraham, A place for Sarah. A place for
Hagar. A place for lslimael. A place for
you and place for mo, Our first duty is to
We may be born in a sphere far
off from the ono for which God
finally intends us. Sextus v was horn on the
low ground, and was swineherd, God called
him up to waive q scopter. Ferguson spent
his early days in looking after the sheep; God
called him up to look after stars, and be o
shepherd watching the doclis Of light ON tho
craving pewter pots; God raised him to stand
In the enchanted 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 Christian 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 astrono-
mers of England On the other hand, we
may be born in sphere little higher than
that for which God intends u.s. We may be
born in a castle, and play in costly con-
servatory, and feed high bred pointers, and
angle for gold fish in artificial ponds, and be
familiar with princes; yet God may have
fitted us for carpenters shop, or dentists
forceps, OF a weaver's shuttle, or blach-
smiths forge. The great thing is to find just
the sphere for which God intended us, and
then to occupy that sphere and occupy it for
ever. Here is a man God fashioned to make
a pillow. There is man God fashioned
10 make constitution. The NAH
who, makes the plow is just as hon.
orable as the man who makes the constitu-
ton, provided he makes the plow as well as
the other man makes the constitution. There
is woman who was made to fashion a robe,
and yonder is one intended to be a queen and
wear it. 1t seems to me that in the one case
as in the other, God appoints the sphere; and
the needle is just as respectable is His sight as
the scepter. do not know but that the world
would long ago have been saved If some Of
the men out Of the ministry were In it, and
some Of those who are in it were out of it.
really think that one-haf of the world may
be divided into two-quarters-those who
have not found their sphere, and those
who having found it, are not willing to stay
there How many are struggling for posi-
ton little higher than that for which God
intended them. The bondswoman wants to
be mistress. Hagar keeps crowding Sarah
Inc sinai wheel OIL q WdUcD, winch DeaublIDl-
ly went treading its golden pathway, wants
to be the balance wheel and the sparrow.
with chagrin, drops into the brook, because
1t cannot, like the eagle, cut O circle under
the sun. In the Lords army we all want to
be brigadier generals. The sloop says:
More mast; more tonnage; more canvas.
Oh, that I were topsail schooner, or full
rugged brig, or a Cunard steamer" And SO
the world is filed with cries of discomfort,
because we are not willing to stay in the
place where God put us and intended lis to be.
My friends be not too proud to do anything
God tells you to do. For the lack of o right
disposition in this respect the world is strewn
with wandering Hagars and Ishmaels. God
has given each one of us a work to do.
You carry scuttle of coal up that dark al
ley. You distribute that Christian tract.
You give ten thousand dollars to the mission
airy cause. You, for fifteen years. sit With
chronic rheumatism, displaying the beauty
OF Christian submission. Whatever God
calls you to, whether it win kissing or huzza
whether to walk under triumphal arch or
lift the sot out of the ditch; whether it be to
preach on Pentecost, or tell some wanderer
OF the street of the mercy of the Christ of
Mary Magdalene; whether it be to
weave a garland for a laughing child on q
spring morning and call her a May queen or
to comb out the tangled lockso a waif of the
street and cut up one of your old dresses to
dit her out for the sanctuary-do it. and do it
right away Whether it be a crown or a
woke do not fidgit Everlasting h0nofS upon