The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-22
OFF THE TRACK.
DR.. Talmage breaches to "People
Who Have Lost Their Way"
There is Well in Every Desert and
Christ Stands at Its Brink, that All
Who Will May Find It--A
New AstroIogy.

S4HA 6Ou OptHeu uer eyes anu Sn6 saw q wen
OF water; and she went and filled the bottle
with water, and gave the lad drink.-Gen.,
XXI, 10.
Morning breaks upon Beer.sheba.
There is an early stir in the house of old
Abraham. There has been trouble
among the domestics. Hagar, an assist
ant in the household, and her son, brisk
lad OF sixteen years, have become impu-
deAt and insolent and Sarah, the mis-
tress of the household, puts her foot
down very hard and says that they will
have to leave the premises. They ARE
packing upnow. Abraham, knowing that
the journey before his servant aud her
son will be very long and across desolate
places, in the kindness of his heart sets
about putting up some bread and bottle
with water in it. 1t is a very plain lunch
that Abraham provides, but l 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. Ishmael,
the boy, suppose bounded away in the
morning light. Boys always like a
change. Poor Ishmaell He has no idea
OF the disasters 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 asso-
clated 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 insufferable
suffocation. Ishmael the boy, begins to
complain, and lies down, but Hagar
rouses him up, saying nothing about her
own wearings 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 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 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 it kisses with a sparkle. A
wing of wind comes over the hot 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 Ishmaelw And
so they go on day after day and night
after night, for they have lost their way.
Nopath 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 dor AS she puts her
fainting Ishmael under a stunted shrub
OF the arid plain she sees the bloodshot
eye, and feels the hot hand, and watches
the blood bursting from the cracked
tongue, and there is shrek in the desert
Of Beer-Sheba: eve shall diei We
shall die"
Now, no mother was ever made strong
enough to hear her son cry in vain for q
drink. Heretofore she had cheered her
boy by promising a speedy end of the
1ourney-even smiled upon him when he
felt desperately enough. Now there is
nothing to do but place him ulEder the
shrub and let him die. She had thought
that she would sit there and watch until
the spirit of her boy would go away for
ever, and then she would breathe out her
own life on the silent heart; but as the
boy begins to claw his tongue in agony of
thirst, and struggle in distortion, and beg
his mother to STAY him, she can not en-
dure the spectacle. She puts him under
shrub and goes of a bow shot, and be-
gins to weep until all the desert seems
sobbing, and her cry strikes clear
trough the heavens; and an angel of
cd comes out on a cloud and looks
down upon the appalling grief, and cries:
''Hagar, what aileth thee?" She looks
up, and she sees the angel pointing to a
well of water, where she fills bottle for
the lad. Thank Godl Thank Godl
learn from this Oriental scene, in the
first place, what sad thing it 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 q great
fret; and If she had stayed much longer
in that household she would have upset
calm Abraham's equilibrium. Ny
friends, one half of the trouble in the
world to-day comes from the fact that
people do not know their place, or, find
ing 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
place for Sarah. A place for 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
a sphere far off from the one for which
God finally intends us. Sextus v. was
born on the ground and was a swine
herd; God called him up to wave scep-
ter. Ferguson spent his early days in
looking after. the sheep; God called him
up to look after stars, and be a shepherd
Watching the hocks of light on the hill
sides OF Heaven. Hogarth began by en-
craving pewter pots; God raised him to
stand in the enchanted realm of apainter.
The shoemaker's bench held Bloomfield
for little while; but God called him to
sit in the chair of a philosopher and
Christian scholar. The soap boiler of
London could not keep his son in that
business, for God had decided that Haw-
ley was to be one of the greatest astron-
omers of England. On the other hand,
we may be born in a sphere little high
er than that for which God intends US.
We may be born in castle, and play in
q costly conservatory, and feed high-bred
pointers, and angle for gold fish in arti-
fetal ponds, and be familiar with Princes: