Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-06-27
PEOPLE OUT OF PLACE.
DR.. Talmage on the Hagars OF
This Life.
The Lessons Taught BY the Experience of
the Bond Woman-The Duty of Keep
ing the Proper Place-A Well
For Every Desert.

For Every Desert.
The subject upon which Rev. De Witt
Talmage recently preached sermon at
Brooklyn was: people Who Have Lost
Their Way" He took for his text: sAnd
God opened her eyes, and she saw a well
OF water; and she went and nlled the
bottle with water. and gave the lad
drink" Gen. xxi 10. DR.. Talmage said:
Morning breaks upon Beersheba. There
is an early stir in the house of old Abra-
ham. There has been trouble among the
domestics. Hagar, an assistant in the
household, and her son, a brisk lad of
sixteen years, have become impudent 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 be-
fore his servant and her son will be very
long and across desolate places. in the
Blindness of his heart sets about putting up
some bread and a bottle with water in it.
1t Is q very plain lunch that Abraham
provides, but l warrant you there would
have been enough Of it had thew not lost
their way. God be with you!" said old
Abraham as he gave the lunch to Hagar,
and good many charges as to how she
should conduct the journey. Ishmael, the
boy, l suppose, bounded away in the
morning light Boy always like change.
Poor Ishmaeli He had no idea of the dis
asters that were ahead of him. Hagar
gives one long, lingering look on the
familiar place where she bad spent so
many happy days, each scene associated
with the pride and joy Of her heart
young Ishnael.
The scorching noon comes on. The air
is sitting and moves across the desert
with insufferable suffocation. Ishmael,
tue boy, begins e. complain, and lies
down, but Hagar Souses him up saying
nothing about her own WEAKNESS or the
sweltering heat; for mothers can endure
any thing Trudge, tIudge, trudge.
Crossing the dead level of the desert, how
wearily and slowly the miles sipl A
tamarind that seemed hours ago to stand
only just little ahead, inviting the trav-
elers 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. lshmael, very weary,
suppose, instantly falls asleep. Hagar, as
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
ol-o H., ~,
'Ishmael! Ishmael!" Aud 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 -four. the water
gone from the bottle. What shall she do?
As she puts her fainting Ishmael under a
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 a shrek in
the desert of Beersheba. 1--WE shall die
we shall die !" Now, no mother was ever
made strong enough to hear her son cry
in vain for a drink. Heretofore she had
cheered her boy by promising a speedy
end of the journey, even smiled upon him
when he felt desperately enough. Now
there is nothing toN but place him under
a shrub and let him die. She had thought
that she would sit there and watch until
the spirit of her boy would go away for
ever and then she would breathe 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 stay him she can not endure
the spectacle. She puts him under a shru b
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 cloud and looks down upon the apall-
ing grief and cries: ''Hagar, what aileth
thee:" She looks up and she sees the
angel pointing to 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 sad thing it is when
people do not know their place. and get
too proud for their business. Hagar was
an assistant in that household, but she
wanted to rule there. She ridiculed and
ieered until her son Ishmael got the same
tricks. She dashed out her own happiness
and threw Sarah into a 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-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
Sarah. A place for Hagar. 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 sphere far off from the one for which
God finally intends US. Sextus V. was
born on the low ground, and was swine-
herd; God called him to wave scepter.
Ferguson spent his early days in looking
after the sheep; God called him up to look
after stars and be a shepherd watching the
flocks of light on the hillsides OF Heaven.
Hogarth began by engraving pewter
pots; God raised him to stand in the en-
chanted realms of painter. The shoe
makers bench held Bloomfield for little
while; but God called him to sit in the
chair of a 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 astronomers OF England. On
the other hand, we may be born in a
sphere little higher than that for which
God intends US. We may be born in a
castle, and play in costly conservatory.
and feed high bred pointers, and angle for
gold fish in artificial ponds, and be famil-
lar with princes; yet God may have fitted
Us for a carpenters shop. or dentists
forceps, or a weaver's shuttle, or a black
smiths forge. The great thing is to fad
Just the sphere for which God intended us,
and then to occupy that sphere and occupy
it forever. Here is a man God fashioned
- v,aHa vla- Thora il a man God