The Russellville Democrat., 1889-06-27
OFF THE TRACK.
Dr. Talmage Breaches to People
 Who Have Lost Their Way"
There is a We'll in Every Desert and Christ stands at It's Brink. that All Who VIII May Find It--A
 New Astrology.

Dr, Talmage, in a recent sermon in the
 Brooklyn Tabernacle, talked to back sliders. or People Who Have Lost Their
 Way" His text was.
 And God opened her eyes and she saw ( seli
 Of water; anu she went and filled the bottle
 with water land Eave the lad drink.-Gen., XXI, 1A
 Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba. 1 There is an early stir in the house of old Abraham. There has been trouble
 among the domestios. Hagar, an assist
 ant in the household, and her son, a brisk
 lad of sixteen years, have become impu-
 dent and insolent and Sarah, the mis- tress of tho 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 putting up some bread and bottle
 with water in il. It is a very plain lunch
 that Abraham provides, but 1 warrant
 you there would have been enough of 1t
 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, l suppose bounded away in the
 morning light. Boys always like a
 change. Poor Ishmael! 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- ciated with the pride and joy of her
 heart-young Ishmael. The scorohing
 noon comes on. The air is stifing and
 moves across the desert with insufferGble
 suff0cation. Ishmael, the boy, begins to
 complain, and lies down, but Hagar
 rouses him up, saying nothing about her
 own wearings or the sweitering heat; for
 mothers can endure any thing. 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 littlo ahead, inviting the travellers to come
 under it's shadow, now is as far off as ever, or seemingly so.
 Night drops upon the desert, and the
 travellers are pillowless. Isbmael, very
 weary, l suppose, instantly falls asleep
 Hagar, as the shadows of the night begin to lap over each other-Hagar hugs her
 weary boy to Der 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. A
 wing of wind comes over the hot earth
 and lifts the locks from the fevered brow of the boy. Hagar sleeps htfully, and in
 her dreams travels over the weary day,
 and half awakes her son hy crying out in
 her sleep: "Ishmaell Ishmaelin And
 so they 20 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 do, As she puts her
 fainting Ishmael under stunted shrub l 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 a shriek in the desert
 of Beer-Sheba; "We shall diel We
 shall diew
 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 a speedy eud of the iourney-even smiled upon him when he felt desperately enough. Now there is nothing to do but place him under 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 slay him, she can not en- dure the spectacle. She puts him under a shrub and goes of bow shot and be- gins to weep until all the desert seems sobbiug, 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, what aileth thee?" She looks
 mp, and she sees the angel pointing to a well of water, where she fills bottle for
 the lad. Thank God! Thank God,
 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 l jeered until her son, Ishmael, got the same tricks. She dashed out her own | happiness and threw Sarah into q great 1 fret; and if she had stayed much longer in that household she would have upset
 calm Abraham's equilibrium. My 1 friends one- half of the trouble in the world to day comes from the fact that | people do not know their place, or, fnd- l 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
 A place for Sarah. A place for Hagar, 4 place for Ishmael. A place for 1 you and place for me. Our first duty is to find our sphere; our second is to keep it. We may be born ill 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 10 wave a 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 ; graving pewter pots; God raised him to stand in the enchanted realm of painter.
 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 q sphere a little high CT than that for which God intends us.
 We may be born in a castle, and play in
 a costly conservatory, and feed high h-bred pointers, and angle for gold fish in arti-
 hcial ponds, and be familiar with Princes yet God may have fitted us for a carpen- | aI a. weayer's shuttle, or blacksmith's forge. The great thing is to find just the sphere for which God intended us, and then tc occupy that sphere and occupy it forever. Here Is a man God fashioned to make a plOw There is a man God fashioned tc make constitution. The man who makes
 the blow is just as honorable as the mar
 who makes the constitution, provided he
 makes the blow as we'll as the other mar
 makes the constitution. There is a woman
 who was made to fashion a robe, and