The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-07-03
LOST THEIR WAY.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage, D. D.
Lessons Drawn From the Sending Away Of
Sarah's Servant. Hagar-Importance
OF People Staying In the sphere
For Which They Are Intended.

The subject of Dr. Talmage's recent dis
course was "People who have lost their
way" He took for his text: "And God
opened her eyes, and she saw well Of
water, and she went and filled her bottle
with water, and gave the lad drink"-
Genesis xxi 10. The eloquent preacher
said:
Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba There
Is an early stir in the house Of old Abraham.
There has been trouble among the domes-
tics. Hagar, an assistant in the household,
and her son, brisk lad Of sixteen years,
have become imprudent 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 before his servant and her son
will be very long and across desolate places,
in the kindness of his heart sets about put
ling up some bread and bottle with water
in it. 1t is 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 you'll" said old Abraham
as he gave the lunch to Hagar, and good
many charges as to how she should conduct
the journey. 1shmael, the boy, l suppose
bounded away in the morning light. Boys
always like change. Poor lshmael! he
had no idea Of the disasters that are ahead
him. Hagar gives one long, lingering
look on the familiar place where she had
spent SO many happy days, each scene asso-
ciated with the pride and Joy Of her heart
young Ishmael.
The scorching noon comes on. The air -
sitting and moves across the desert with in
suffera BILE 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 can endure any thing. 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 1shmael, very weary, suppose,
instantly falls asleep. Hagar, as the shad-
ows of the night begin 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 it kisses with
sparkle. Awing of wind comes over thehot
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 the
| flour, the water gone from the bottle. What
shall she do! AS she puts her fainting
| Ishmael under stunted shrub of the arid
plain she sees the bloodshot eye, and feels
the hot hand, and watches the blood burst
| ing from the cracked tongue, and there is a
| shrek in the desert of Beer sheba: "We
shall die we shall dep 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 q speedy
| end to 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 distortion, and beg his mother
to slay him, she can not endure the spec
tacle. She puts him under shrub and goes
off a 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 appalling grief and cries
"Hagar, what aileth thee!" She looks up
and 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 peo-
| pie do not know their place. and get toe
proud for their business Hagar was an as
| sistant 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 great fret; and if she had
stayed much longer in that household she
would have upset calm Apraham's equilib
rum. 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 WI
come into the world there is place ready
for us. A place for Abraham. A place fol
Sarah. A place for Hagar. A place fol
Ishmael. A place for you and place fol
| me. Our first duty is to find our sphere
onr second is to fill it. We may be born il
sphere far off from the one for which Goo
finally intends US. Sextus V. was born or
the low ground and was swineherd: Goo
called him up to wave scepter. Ferguson
spent his early days in looking after tn,
sheep; God called him to look after thu
stars, and be shepherd watching the hock'
of light on the hillsides of heaven. Hogartl
began by engraving pewter pots; God raise(
him to stand in the enchanted realm of
painter. The shoemaker's bench hell
Bloomfield for little while: but God callet
him to sit in the chair of philosopher ant
| Christian scholar. The soap boiler of Lon
don could not keep his son il that business
for God had decided that Hawley was to b,
one of the greatest astronomers of England
On the other hand, we may be born in
sphere a little higher than that for whicl
God intended US. We may be born in a cas-
tie, and play in castle conservatory, an,
feed high-bred pointers, and angle for gol,
fish in artificial ponds, and be familiar witt
princes; yet God may have fitted us for
carpenters shop, or dentists shop, or
weaver's shuttle, or blacksmith's forge
The great thing is to find just the sphere 70
which God intended us, and then to occup,
that sphere, and occupy it forever. Here
a man God fashioned to make pillow. Their
Is man God fashioned to make constitu
ton. The man who makes the pillow is jus
bln DC tho bp hoe tha
stitution, provided he makes the pillow a
well as the other man makes the cor
stitution There is woman who was mad