The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-08-30
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE,s SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: people Who Have Lost
Their Way"

IS an early stir in the house of old Abraham
1here has been trouble among the domestics
hagar, an assistant in the household, and her
son, a brisk lad of sixteen years, have become
nnpudent and insolent and Sarah, the mis-
tress Of the household, puts her foot down
very hard, and says that they win have to
leave the premises. They are packing W
now. Abraham, knowing that the journey
before his servant and her son viii 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 u 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 - said old
Abraham as he gave the lunch to Hagar, and
good many charges as to how she should
conduct the journey. Ishmaei the boy. I
suppose, bounded away in the morning light
Boys always like a change Poor Ishmael
de has no idea OF the disasters that are ahead
oil nun. Hagar gives one long, lingering look
on the familiar place where she had spent 50
many hapTI5 DAYS each scene associated with
the pride and JOY Of her liesrt-Toung Ish-
mael
The scorching noon comes on. The air is
stltiing and moves across the desert with in
suiferable sufocation. Ishmael the boy. be-
gins to complain. and lies down, but Hagar
rouses nm up, saying nothing about her own
WEAKNESS or the sweltering heat: for mothers
can endure anything. Trudge. trudge. trtldgs
| Crossing the dead level of the desert how
YEARLY and slowly the miles slip. A tarna-
rind that seemed hours ago TO stand only lust
a little ahead: inviting the travellers to come
under its shadow now Is as far of as ever, or
seemingly So Night drops upon the desert
and the travellers are pillowless Ishmael,
very weary, suppose instantly falls asleep.
| Hagar, as the shadows of the night be-
gin To lap over each other Hagar
hugs her weary boy to her bosom and thinks
OF the fact that it is her fault that tiies are
IN the desert A star looks out, and every
falling tear it kisses with sparkle.
wing OF wind comes over the hot earth
| ana Lifts the locks from the fevered
| brow OF the boy. Hagar sleeps fitfullv.
ami in her dreams travels over the weary
Gag, aud half awakes her son by CRYING out
In her sleep: 'Ishuiaell Ishmaelfa And
SO they go on, day after day and night after
nlght, for they have lost their way. No
pata III the shifting sands, no sign in the
6uralng sky. The sack empty of the
1oer the water gone from the bottle
/ Wat shall she dog As she puts
her fai1ting Ishmael under a stunted
shrub af the arid plain, she sees the
! blopdsa0t eye, and feels She hot hand
and watches the blood bursting from the
cracked tongue, and there is Shrek in the
| desert Of Beer-sksha: eve shall die we
shall dieP Now, no mother was ever made
strong enough to hear her son cry in vain for
drink. Heretofore she had cheered her boy
by promising speedy end of the journey,
even smiled upon him when he felt desper-
ately 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 20
away forever, and then she would breathe
out her own life on his silent heart; but as the
boy began TO claw his tongue in agony
Of thirst, and struggle in distortion and beg
his mother to slay him, she cannot endure
the spectacle. She puts him under a shrub
and goes of 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 a cloud and looks
down upon the appalling grief and cries:
''Hagar, Whit aileth thees' She looks up
and Sue sees the angel pointing TO a well of
water, where she fills the bottle for the lad
Thank Godl Thank Coz
l learn from this Oriental scene in the first
place, what a sad thing it is when peopl do
not know their place, and get too prou for
their business. Hagar was an assista 1t in
that household, but She wanted to rule t aere. /
She ridiculed and jeered until her son Ish-
mael, got the same tricks. She DASHED out
Ter own happiness and threw Sarah ID to
great fret; and if she had stayed much longer
In that household she would have upset calm
AbrahaIn's equilibrium. Ny friends, one
hah of the trouble In the world to-day comes
from the fact that people do not know their
pace: or, finding their place, will not stay in =
~ 4silell tie lVOTIl- L0eIe Is
always q place ready for US. A place for
Abraham x place for Sarah A place for
| Hagar. A place for Ishmael place for
you and place for me. Our first duty is TO
| find our sphere; cur second is to keep it.
/ We may be born in a sphere far
of from the one for which God
finally intends US. Sextus Y was born on the
! low ground. and was swineherd, God called
/ him To
/ his early days in looking after the sheep; God
ed him up to look after stars and be q
init frerd watching the fiOcks of light on the
7es Of heaven Hogarth began by en-
part OF pewter pots; God raised him to stand
coed Hnst6sd 5 5sam B Of PaIteF o The i9s
nosse in hGod called him to sit in the chair
9her and Christian scholar. The
ring leadsof London could not keep his son
usiness, for God had decided that
this ne Syas to be One Of the greatest asrono-
o,.,;,sf England. On the other hand. we
PolS31be born in sphere little higher than
f-eildt for which God intends US. We may be
born in castle, and play in a costly con-
servatory, and feed high bred pointers and
angle for gold fish in artificial ponds, and be
familiar with princes; yet God may have
fitted US for carpenters shop, or dentists
forcepa, or a weaver's shuttle, or black
smiths forge. The great thing is to find lust
the sphere for which God intended US and
then to occupy that sphere and occupy 1t for
ever. Here Is man God fashioned TO make
a pillow. There is a man God fashioned
TO make constitution. Inc man
who makes the plow is just as hon
Orable as the man who makes the constitu-
ton, provided he makes the pillow as well as
the other man makes the constitution. There
is a woman who was made to fashion robe
md yOnder is one intended to be queen and
wear it. It seems to me that in the one case
as in the other, God appoints the sphere; and
the needle IS Just as respectable is His sight as
the scepter / do not know but that the world
would long ago have been saved if some Of
the men out of the ministry were II It, and
some of those who are in it We're out Of it.
l 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 posi-
ton little higher than that for which God
intended them. The bondswOman wants TO
be mistress Hagar keeps crowding Sarah.
The small wheel Of a watch. which beautiful
" went treaGing its golden pathway, wants
70 he the balance wheel. and the sparrow.
with chagrin, drops INTO the brook, because
it cannot, Ike 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
Oh, that / were tOpsaf schooner, or a full
= kulltEu blculI64. @aAlu -
the world is filed with cries of discomfort,
because we are not willing TO stay in the
place where God put US and intended US TO be.
Ny friends be not too proud to do anything
God tells you to do. For the lack Of a right
disposition in this respect the world is strewn
with wandering Hagars and Ishmaels. God
has given each one of us a work to do
You carry a scuttle Of coal up that dark al.
ley. You distribute that Christian tract
You give ten thousand dollars to the mission
airy 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 a Pentecost, or tell some wanderer
of the street Of the mercy Of the Christ of
Mary Magdalene: whether it be TO
weave a garland for n laughing child on a
spring morning and call her May queen, or
to comb out the tangled locks of "A waif Of the |
street and cut up one Of your old dresses to
at her out for the sanctuarY-do it. and do it
right away Whether it be a crown or a
yoke, do not fidgit 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 discontinued Hagar and Ish- |
mael.
Again, find in this Oriental scere lesson