The Penn's Grove record., 1889-07-06
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
People Who Have Lost Their Way.

INV lhIJu hO1o ohAshONs
People Who Have Lost Their Way
"And God opened her eyes, and she saws wei
Of water and she went and filled the bottle viii
water, and gave the lad drink" Gen. q: 10.
MORNING breaks upon Beer-sheba
There is an early stir in the house of ole
Abraham. There has been trouble
among the domestics. Hagar, an assis
tant in the household, and her son, {
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 viii
have to leave. They are packing NJ
now. Abraham knowing that
THE
before the servant and her son will be
very long and across desolate places, in
the kindness of his heart sets about
putting up some bread and a bottle
with water in it. 1t is a very plain lunch
that Abraham provides, but 1 warrant
you there would have been enough OF
it had they not lost their way. 'God
be with your said old Abraham as he
gave the lunch to Hagar, and a good
many charges as to how she should ON
duct the journey. Ishmael, the boy, ]
suppose bounded away in the morning
light. Boys always like ~achange. Poor
Ishmael! He has no idea of the dis
asters 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
lyoung Ishmael
The scorching noon comes IN. The
air is sitting and moves across the
desert with insufferable suffocation.
Ishmael, the boy, begins to complain,
and lies down, but Hagar rouses him
up, saying nothing about her own
WEAKNESS or the sweltering heat; for
mothers an endure anything, Trudge,
trudge, trudge. Crossing the dead
level of the desert, how YEARLY and
slowly the miles slip. A tamarind that
seemed hours ago to stand only just a
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,
1 suppose, instantly f~allsasleep. Hagar,
as the shadows of. 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
L 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, 'Ishmael! Ishmael!" 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
-four, the water gone from the bottle.
What shall she do? As she puts her
fainting Ishmael under q 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 Beer-sheba: "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 to do but place him un-
der 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 forever, and then she would
breathe ont 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 spec
|tacle. She puts him under q shrub and
goes off a bow-shot, and begins to weep,
until all the desert seems sobbing, and
her cry strikes clear through the hea-
VEINS; and an angel of God comes out on
Il cloud and looks down upon the appall-
ing grief and cries: "Hagar, what
aileth thee?" She looks up and she sees
the angel pointing to q well of water,
where she fills the bottle for the lad.
Thank Godl
1 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, Ish-
mael, 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 household
she would have upset calm Abraham's
equilibrium. My friends, one-half of
the trouble in the world to-day comes
frnp, fba faof that ,aaonla do not Gpory
heir places; 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. Aplace far Hagar. A place for
Ishmael. Aplace for you, and a place for
me.
OUR rrpsf DUTY
is to find u 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, and was a swineherd;
God called him up to wave a sceptre.
Ferguson spent his early days in look
ing after the sheep; God called him up
to look after stars, and be q shepherd
watching the focks of light on the hill
sides of heaven. Hogarth began by
engraving pewter pots; God raised him
to stand in the enchanted realm of a
painter. The shoemaker's bench held
Bloomfield for a little while; but God
called him to sit in the chair of a phil
osopher and Christian scholar. The
soap boiler of London could not keep
his son at 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 a little higher than that for
which God intends us. We may be
born in a castle, and play in q costly
conservatory, and feed high bred point
ers, and angle for gold fish in artificial
ponds, and be familiar withprinces; yet
God may have fitted nsfor a carpenters
shop, or a dentists forceps, or al
weaver's shuttle. or a b~lacksmith's
forge. The great thing is to find just
the sphere for which God intended us,
and then to occupy that sphere. and