Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-29

Tabernacle today. A vast congregation
filled the spacious building to overflow
ing. After making an exposition OF
scripture, the pastor gave out the hymn
beginning:
Glory TO Goo on high,
Let heaven and earth reply,
which the great body Of worshipers sang
majestic effect. The subject Of DR..
Have Lost Their Way" He took for his
text: And God opened her eyes, and
che saw q pail Of water; and she went,
aud filed the bottle with water, and gave
the lad drink" Gen. xxi, 10. The elo'
quent preacher said:
Morning breaks upon B~eer-sheba.
There ia an early stir in the house Of old
Abraham. There has been trouble among
the domestics. Hagar. IN assistant In the
household, and her son, q brisk lad of IL
years, have become impudent end in
solent, and Sarah, the mistress OF the
household, puts her foot down very hard,
and says that they will have 70 leave the
premises. They are packing up now.
Abraham, knowing that the journey be-
fore his servant and her son will he very
long and across desotate places, in the
Kindness CT 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 | 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
aow she should conduct the journey.
Yshmael. the boy, l suppose. bounded
away in the morning light. Boys always
like a change. Poor Ishmael! He has no
idea of the disasters that are ahead OF
him. Hagar gives one long, lingering
look on the familiar place where she has
spent so many happy days, each scene
associated with the pride and JOY OF her
heart-young lshmael.
The scorching noon comes on. The
air is sitting md moves across the desert
with insufferable sufocation. Ishmael,
VIC DDy, DtRlbS " Iobi pam, ID Htc
down, but Hagar rouses him up, saying
nothing about her w WEAKNESS or the
sweltering heat; for mothers can endure
anything. Trudge, trudge, trudge. Cross
ing the dead level of the desert, how
YEARLY and slowly the miles slip. A
tamarind that seemed hours ago to stand
only lust a little ahead, inviting the
travellers TO come under its shadow. now
20 or Gov off q a avar nr Capmirp1U CIV
Night drops upon the desert, and the
travellers are pillowless. Ishmael. very
weary, ! suppose, instantly falls asleep.
Hagar, as the shadows Of the 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
in the desert. A star looks out, and every
falling tear II kieses with q sparkle. A
wing of wind comes over the hot earth
and lifts the locks from the fevered brow
of the boy. Hagar sleeps ftfully, and in
her dreams travels over the weary day,
and half awakes her son by crying out in
her sleep, "Ishmaell Ishmaelr' And SO
they go on. day after day and night after
night, for they have lost their way, No
oath in the shifting sands, nc sign IN the
burning sky. The sack empty OF the
-four, the water gone from the bottle.
What shall she do? AS she puts her
fainting Ishmael under a stunted shrub OF
the arid plaln, she sees the hlOod-sh0
eve, and feels the hot hand, and watches
the blood bursting from the cracked
tongue, and there ia q shrek in the desert
Of Beer-sheba: eve shall die wc shall
diep' Now, no mother was ever made
strong enough TO hear her son cry in vain
for u drink, Heretofore she had cheered
her boy by promising asDeedy end to the
tourney. ever smiled upon him when he
felt desperately enough. Now there is
nothing TO do but place him under O
shrub and let him die. She had thought
that she would sit there and watch until
the spirit Of her boy would go sway 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, end
beg HIS mother to slav him, che cannot
endure the spectacle. She puts him I'M
der a shrub and goes of q bow shot, and
begins to weep until al the desert seems
sobbing, and her cry strikes clearthrough
the heavens; and an angel Of God comes
out on q cloud and looks down upon the
appalling grief and cries: "Hsgar, what
aileth thee2' She looks up and she sees
the angel pointing 20 a well Of water,
where she fills the bottle for the lad.
Thank Godi Thank Godi
learn from this Oriental ecepe, in the
first place, what q sad thing 1T 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 jeered until her son, Ishmael, got the
same tricks. She dashed out her own
happiness and threw Sarah into 4 great
fret; aad il she had stayed much longer
in that household she would have upset
calm Abrahsm's 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 q
place ready for Us. A place for Abrs-
ham. A place for Sarah. A place for
Hagar. A place for Ishmael. A place
for you and a place for me. Our first
duty is TO find our sphere; our second is
to keep it. We may be born in q sphere
far off from the one for which God finally
intends us. Sextus V was born on the
low ground. and was a swineaerd; God
called him up TO wave q scepter. Fergu-
son spent his early DAYS in looking after
the sheep; God called him up TO look
after stars, and be a shepherd watching