The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-17
OFF THE STRAIGHT ROAD.
TALMAGE TALKS TO PEOPLE WHO
HAVE LOST THEIR WAY.

TOO Proud for Their Business
tremendous Destinies Led Forth by
the Mother.
BROOKLYN, June 16-The Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage, d. D., preached at the Tab
ernacle to-day. A vast congregation filed
the spacious building to overfowing. After
making an exposition OF scripture, the pas.
tor gave out the hymn beginning;
Glory to God on high,
Let heaven and earth reply,
which the great body OF worshippers sang
with majestic effect. The subject of DIR.
Talmages discourse was: people Who
Have Lost Their Way" He took for his
text: sand God opened her eyes, and she
saw well of water; and she went, and
tilled the bottle with water, and gave the
lad drink" Gen. xxi, 10. The elooueut
preacher said:
Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba. There
| Is an early stir in the house Of old Abra-
| ham. There has been trouble among the
domestlcs. Hagar, an assistant In the house,
hold, and her son, a brisk lad of 16 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 the promises They are
! packing up now. Abraham, knowing that
the journey before his servant and her SON
| will be very long and across desolate places.
in the kindness of his heart sets about put.
| ting up some bread and bottle with
water in it. II 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 youn said
old Abraham as he gave the lunch ia
Hagar, and good many charges as to how
she should conduct the journey. IshmaeI.
the boy, suppose bounded away In the
morning light. Boys always like a change.
Poor Ishmael lie 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--young Ishmael
| The scorching noon comes on. The air Is
| sitting and moves across the desert with
| insutferable sutfocation 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 can endure anything. Trudge.
trudge, trudge. Crossing the dead level OF
the desert, how wearily and slowly the
miles slip. A tamarind that seemed hours
ago to stand only just little ahead, invit-
ing the travellers to come under its shadow.
now Is as far off as ever, or seemingly so.
| Night drops upon the desert, and the trayel-
ers are pillowiess. Ishmae, very weary Isup.
pose, 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 10 Is her
fault that they are in the desert. A star
looks out, and every falling tear 1t kisses
| with sparkle. A wing of wind comes over
the hot earth and lifts the locks from the
feverei brow of the boy. Hagar sleeps fit
fully, and in her dreams travels over the
| weary day. and half awakes her son by cry
1 faKs fs,h hats Iak. IL e44
And 80 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 the -four the water gone from
the bottle. What shall she dos As she
| puts her fainting Ishmael under a stunted
shrub Of the arid plain, she sees the blood.
watches the blood bursting from the
cracked tongue, and there Is a shrek In the
| desert of Beer4sheba. 1--WE shall diel wa
shall dep Now, no mother was ever made
strong enough TO boar her son cry in vain
for a drink Heretofore she had cheered
her boy by promising speedy end of the
| journey, even smiled upon him when he
felt desperately enough. Now there
is nothing to do 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 forever, 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 distor.
| ton, and beg bis mother TO slay him, she
| cannot endure the spectacle She puts him
| under shrub 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 a cloud and looks down upon the ap-
| erria "a ff.4f
| theeq 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 a sad thing 1t is when peo-
pie do not know their place. and get too
| proud for their business. Hagar was an as
sistant in that household, but She wanted to
rule there. She ridiculed and jeersd until
her son, lshmael, got the same tricks She
| dashed out her own happiness and threw
Sarah into great fret; and if she had
stayed much longer in that household she
| would have upset calm Abraham's equilib-
| rum. My friends, one-half Of the trouble
in tire world to-day comes from the fact
that people do rot 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 Tor 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 up to wave a scepter Fer
gusou spent his early days in looking after
the sheep; God called him up to look after
stars and be a 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
realm of a painter The shoemaker's bench
held Bloomfield for little while; but God
called him to sltin the chair of philosopher
and christian scholar. The s0apboiler Of
London could not keep his son in that busi-
ness 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 sphere a II, tie higher than that for
which God intends US We may be born in
castle. and play in a costly conservatory,
and feed high-bred pointers, and angle for
goldfish in art fetal ponds, and be familiar
with princes; yet God may have fitted US
for carpenters shop, or dentists forceps.
or weaverfs shuttle, or blacksnith's
forge. The great thing is to Fl i'd just the
sphere for which God intended US, and then
10 occupy that sphere, and occupy it for
ever. Here is a man God fashioned to make