The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-06-27
LOST THEIR WAY.

LOST THEIR WAY.
4 New Astrology...Al Things Working for the
Good Of Christisas.. Evils Of Ambition and
the Necessity for Fortitade.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, June 18.-Rev. r. De
Witt Talmage preached to-day on people
Who Have Lost Their Way" He took for
his text:
And God opened her eyes and she saw o
well of water; and she went. and filed the
bottle with water, and gave the lad drink
[Gen., xxi, 10.
Morning breaks upon Beer sheba. There
is al early stir in the house of old Abraham.
There has been trouble among the domestics.
Hagar, an assistant in the household, and
her sol, q brisk lad of 16 years. have become
insolent and impudent, and Sarah, the mis-
tress of the household, puts. her o down
very hard and says that they will have to
leave the premises. They are packing up
now. Abraham, knowing that the journey
UCAOA0 W 6eTVduL duu uSE OOA Will no NC1y
long and across desolate places, in the kind
ness OF his heart sets about putting up some
bread and O bottle with water in it. 1t is o
very plain lunch that Abraham provides,
but l 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 a good
many charges as to how she should
conduct the journey. 1shmael, the
boy, l suppose bounded away in the morning
light. Boys always like q change. Poor
1shmaell He has no idea of the disasters
that ore 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 insuffera-
bic suffocation. Ishmael, the boy, begins to
complain, and lies down, but Hagar rouses
him up, saying nothing about her own wear
ings or the sweltering heat; for mothers al
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 a little ahead, inviting the travellers to
come under it's shadow, now is it as far off as
ever, or seemingly so.
Night drops upon the desert, and the tray
elers are pillowless. Ishmael, very weary !
suppose, instantly falls asleep. Hagar, rs
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 fe-
vered brow of the boy. Hagar sleeps ftfully
and in her dreams travels over the weary day,
sleep, "Ishmael! Ishmaell" And so they GO
OF day alter day and night after night, for
they have lost their way. No path in the
shifting sands, no sign in the burning sky
Tho sack empty of the -four, the water gone
from the bottle. What shall we do? AS she
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: I'VE shall die! We shall die!"
Now, no mother was ever made strong
enough to hear her Sol cry in vain for q
drink. Heretofore she had cheered her boy
by promising a speedy end of the journey,
even smiled upon him when he felt Desperate
ly enough. Now there 10 nothing to do but
place him under the 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 wodld breathe
out her W 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 STAY him. she can not endure
the spectacle. She puts him under a shrub
and goes off q 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 Town upon the appalling grief and
cries: "Hagar, What aileth thee?' She looks
and she sees the angel pointing to q we'll of
water, where she fills tho bottle for the lad,
Thank Godl Thank Godl
l learn from this Oriental scene, in the first
4 place, what a sad thing it is when people do
not know their place, and get toe proud for
their business. Hagar was an assistant in
that household, but she wanted to rule
there. She ridiculed and jeered until her son,
Ishmael, got the same tricks. She dashed
out her own happiness and threw Sarah in
to a great fret; and if she had stayed much
Hlonger in that household she would have up.
set calm Abraham's equilibrium. Ny
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 a place ready for us
A place for Abraham. A place for Sarah. A
place for Hagar. A place for Ishmael. A
place for you and q place for me-. Our first
duty ia to find our sphere: our second is to
keep it. We may be born in a sphere far Of
from the one for which God finally intends us.
SextusV ". was born or the low ground and
was a swine. herd; GOD called him up to
wave seepter. ferguson spent his early
n VIC IN 10oLinu N nftnp S$ho shear. n~l n.lloa
him upto1o after stars, and be O shepherd
watching the docks OF light on the hillsides
Of heaven. Hogarth began by engraving
pewter pots; God raised him to stand in the
enchanted realms OF 9 painter. The shoe.
makers bench held Bloomfield for q little
while; but God called him to sit in the chair
Of q 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 as
tronomers of England. On the other hand,
we may be born in q sphere q little higher
than that for which Goo intends US.
We may be born in q castle, and play in a
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 us for a capenter's shop, or
dentists forceps, or o weaver's shuttle, or q
blacksmith's forge. The great thing is to
find just the sphere for which God intended
us, and then to occupy that sphere and oc-
cupy it forever. Hereis q man God fashioned
to make a constitution. The. man who
makes the plow iy just as honorable as the
man who makes the constitution, provided
be- makes tho pillow as we'll as the other man
makes the constitution. There is o woman
who was made to fashion q robe, and yon-
deris one intended to be a queen n wearit.
1t seems to me that in the one case as in
the other, God appoints the sphere, and the
needle is just Of respectable Il his sight az
the scepter. l do not know but that the world
would long 9 have been saved il some OF