The Penn's Grove record., 1889-07-06
GOD APPOINTS TILE SPHERE

and the needle is Just as respectable i
| His sight as the sceptre. | do not kno,
but that the world would long ago hav
been saved if some of the men out ofth
ministry were in it, and some of thos
in it were out of it. / really think tina
one-half Of the world may be divide,
into two quarters-those who have no
found their sphere, and those who
having found it, are not willing to sta,
there. Howmany are struggling for
position a little higher than that TO
which God intended them. The bond
woman wants to be mistress, Haga
keeps crowding Sarah. The SINAI
wheel of a watch, which beautiful
went treading itsgolden pathway, want
to be the balance wheel, and the spar
row, with chagrin, drops into the brool
because it cannot, like the eagle, cut
circle under the sun. In the Lord
army we ell want to be brigadier-gen
erals. The sloop says: More mast
more tonnage; more canvas. Oh that
were q topsail schooner, or a full-rigget
brig, or a Cunard steamer!' And s,
the world is filed with discomfort, be
cause we are
NOT WILLING To STAY
in the place where God put us, and in
tended us to be. My friends be no
too proud to do anything God tells 70,
to do. For the lack of a right DISPOSE
ton in this respect the world is strewI
with wandering Hagars and Ishmaels
God has given each one of us a work t.
do. You carry a scuttle of coal up tina
dark alley. You distribute that Christ
ian tract. You give ten THOUSAND
dollars to the missionary cause. You
for fifteen years, sit with chrouic rheu
matism, displaying the beauty of Christ
ian submission. Whatever God call
you to, whether it win Kissing or huzza
whether to walk under triumphal arcl
OF lift the sot out of the ditch; whether
it is to preach on a P~entecost, or tel
some wanderer of the street of the
mercy of the Christ of Mary Magdalene
whether it be to weave a garland for {
laughing child on a spring morning
and call her a May queen, or to coml
out the tangled locks of a waif of the
street, and cut up one of your ole
dresses to fit her out for the sanctuary
do it, and do it right away. Whether
it be a crown or a yoke, do not fidget
Everlasting honors upon those who dc
their work, and do their whole work
and r contented in the sphere il
which God has put them; while there il
only wandering and exile and desola
ton and wilderness for disconnected
Hagar and Ishmael.
Again: / find in this scene a lessor
of
SYMPATHY WITH WOMAN
when she goes forth trudging in the
desert. What a great change it was fol
this Hagari There was the tent, anc
all the surroundings of Abraham,
house, beautifuland luxurious, no doubt
Now she was going out into the ho'
sands of the desert. Oh what a change
WAS! And in our day we often SCI
the wheel of fortune turn. Here is somt
one who lived in the very bright home
of her father. She had everything pos
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 cannot appreciate her. A dissi
pated soul comes, and takes her out il
the DESERT Iniquities blot out all the
of that home circle. Harsl
words wear out her spirits. The higl
that shown out e the marriage
altar while the ring was being set, and
the vows given, and the benedictioI
pronounced, have all faded with the
orange blossoms, and there she is to.
1axv A~r1an hnartnI fhfpttn~ af -, o.
joy and present desolation and coming
anguish. Hagar in the wildernessl Here
is
A BEAUTIFUL HOME.
You cannot think of anything thai
can be added to it. For years there has
not been the suggestion of a single
trouble. Bright and happy children
fill the house with laughter and song
Books to read. Pictures to look at.
Lounges to rest on. Cup of domestic
Joy full, and running over. Dark nigh
Pillow hot. Pulses fiutter.
Eyes close. And the foot whose we'll
known steps on the door-sill brought
the whole household out at eventide,
Fathers comingp' will never
on the door-sill again. A long,
deep grief, ploughed through all that
lightness of domestic life. Paradise
lost! Hagar in the wilderness!
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 morning, pale with exhausting
work, not half slept out with the slum-
bers of last night, tragedies of suffering
written all over her face, her lustreless
eyes looking far ahead, as though for
the coming of some other trouble? Her
parents called her Mary, or Bertha, or
on the day whent they held her up
to the font, and the Christian minister
.prinkled on the infants face the wash
of q holy baptism. Her name is
changed now. Ihear it in the shuttle of
the worn-out shoes. 1 see it in the
figure ofthe faded calico. l find it in the
of the woe-begone counte-
nance. Not Mary, nor Bertha, nor
but Hagar in the wilderness.
May God have mercy upon woman in
her tolls, her struggles, her hardships,
her d~esolation, and may the great heart
Of Diving, sympathy inclose her for
THIRTY YEARS AHEAD,
and l SEQ a merchant prince of New
ever.
Agoin: I find in this Oriental scene
the fact that every mother leads forth
destinies. You say: ''That
isn't an unusual scene,
MOTHER LEADING HER CHILD
by the hand" Who is it that she is
leading? Ishmael, You say. Who is
[shmael? A great nation is to he found
ID, a nation so strong that it is to stand
Tor thousands of years against all the
of the world. Egypt and Assyria
thunder against il: but in vain. Gaulus
up his army, and his army is
Alexander decides upon a
brings us his hosts, and dies.
For a long while that nation monopollz-
IS the learning of the world. 1t IS the
of the Arabs. Who founded it?
[shmael, the lad that Hagar led into the
wilderness. She had nc idea she was
forth such destinies. Neither
does any mother. You pass along the
and see pass boys and girls who
will yet make the earth quake with their
Who is that boy at Sutton Pool, Ply
Eaolapd harAfaotel wallnp