The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-22


yonder is one intended to be 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 respect
able in His sight as the scepter. l 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.
1 really think that one-half 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 a position little higher
than that for which God intended them.
The bondswoman wants to be mistress.
Hagar keeps erowding Sarah. The small
wheel of a watch, which beautifully went
treading its golden pathway, wants to be
the balance wheel, and the sparrow, with
chagrin, drops into the brook, because it
can not, like the eagle, cut circle under
the sun. In the lords army we all want
to be Brigadier- Generals. The sloop
says: more mast; more tonnage; more
canvas. o, that l were a topsail
schooner, or full rugged brig, or a
Cunard steamer" And so the world is
filled with cries of discomfort, because
we are not willing to stay in the place
where God put us and intended US to be.
My friends, be not too proud to do any
thing God tells you to do. For the lack
of right disposition in this respect the
world is strewn with wandering Hagars
and Ishmaels. God has given each one
Of us work to do. You carry a scuttle
of coal up that dark alley. You distrib-
ute that Christian tract. You give ten
thousand dollars to the missionary 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 q Pentecost.
or to tell some wanderer of the street of
the mercy of the Christ of Mary Magda-
lene; whether it be to weave a garland
for laughing child on a spring morn
ing, and call her a May queen, or to comb
out the tangled locks of a waif of the
street and cut up one of your old dresses
to tit her out for the sanctuary-do it. and
do it right away. Whether it be crown
or yoke, DO not fdget. Everlasting
honors upon those who do their work, and
do their whole work, and are contented in
the sphere in which God has put them;
while there is only wandering, and exile,
and desolation, and wilderness for dis
contented Hagar and Ishmael.
Again, find in this Oriental scene a
lesson of sympathy with woman when she
goes forth trudging in the desert.
What great change it was for this
HaOar ThaPa tho nd
all the surroundings of Abraham's
house, beautiful and luxurious, no
doubt. Now she is going out into the hot
sands of the desert. o, what change it
was! And in our day we often see the
wheel of fortune turn. Here is some one
who lived in the very bright home of her
father. She had every thing possible to
administer to her happiness. Plenty at
the table. Music in the drawing-room.
Welcome at the door. She is led forth
into life by some one who can not appre-
ciate her. A dissipated soul comes and
takes her out in the desert. Iniquities
blot out all the lights of that home circle.
Harsh words wear out her spirits. The
high hope that shown out over the mar
riage altar while the ring was being set
and the vows given and the benediction
pronounced, have all faded with the
orange blossoms, and there she is to-day,
broken hearted, thinking of past joy and
present desolation and coming anguish.
Hagar in the wildern essl
Here is beautiful home. You can not
think Of any thing that can be added to
it. For years there has not been the sug-
gestion of single trouble. Bright and
happy children fill the house " it'll laugh
ter and song. Books to read Pictures
to look at. Lounges to rest on. Cup of
domestic joy full and running over.
Dark night drops. Pillow hot. Pulses
futter. Eyes close. And the foot whose
well-known step on the door-sill brought
the whole household out at eventide cry
ing, Fathers coming" will never sound
on the door-sill again. A long, deep
grief plowed through all that lightness Of
domestic life. Paradise lost! Widow
hoodl Hagar in the wildernessi
How often it is we see the weak arm of
woman conscripted for this battle with
the rough world. Who is she, going down
the street in the early light of the morn
ing, pale with exhausting work, not half
slept out with the slumbers of last night,
tragedies of suffering written all over her
face, her lusterless eyes looking far ahead
as though for the coming of some other
trouble? Her parents called her Mary, or
Bertha, or Agnes on the day when they
held her up to the font, and the Christian
minister sprinkled on the infants face
the washings of a holy baptism. Her
name is changed now. I hear it in the
shuttle of the WORKOUT shoes. l see it in
the figure of the faded calico. 1 find it in
the lineaments of the Woe begone coun-
tenance. Not Mary, nor Bertha, nor
Agnes, but Hagar in the wilderness. May
God have mercy upon woman in her tolls,
her struggles, her hardships, her desola-
ton, and may the great heart of Divine
sympathy inclose her forever.
Again: l find in this Oriental scene the
fact that every mother leads forth tre-
mendous destinies. You say: ''That
isn't an unusual scene, q mother leading
her child by the hand" Who is it that
she is leading? Ishmael, you say. Who
is Ishmael? A great nation is to be
founded; nation so strong that it is to
stand for thousands of years against all
the armies of the world. Egypt and As
syria Numbered against it; but in vain.
Gau1us brings up his army; and his
army is smitten. Alexander decides
upon campaign, brings up his hosts,
and dies. For a long while that nation
monopolizes the learning of the world. 1t
&c tlo - L. L