The Brookhaven leader., 1889-06-27

treading its golden pathway, wants to be
the balance wheel, aud the sparrow, with
chagrin, drops into the brook, because it
can not, like the eagle, cut a circle under
the sun. In the Lords army we all want
to be Brigadier Generals. The sloop
says: 'More mast; more tonnage; more
canvas. q, that were q tOpsail
schooner, or a full rugged brig, or a
Cunard steamer" And so the world is
fill@l with cries of discomfort, because
we are not willing to stay in the place
where God put us and intended US to be.
My friends, be not too proud to do any
thing God tells you TO do. For the lack
of right disposition in this respect the
world is strewn with wandering Hagars
and Ishmaels. God has given each one
of us work to do. You carry scuttle
OF coal up that dark alley. You distrib-
ute that Christian tract. You give ten
thousand dollars to the missionary cause.
You, for fifteen years, sit with chronic
rheumatismy 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 ont of the ditch;
whether it be to preach on a Pentecost
or to tell soms wanderer of the street of
the mercy of the Christ of Mary Magda-
lene; whether ii be to weave a garland
for laughing child on a spring morn
ing, and call her a May queen, or to comb
out the tangled locks of a waif OF the
street and cut up one of your old dresses
to fit her out for the sanctuary-do it. and
do it right away. Whether it be crown
or q yoke, DO not fdget. Everlasting
houors 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 dis
contented Hagar and Ishmael.
Again, | find in this Oriental scene
lesson of sympathy with woman when she
goes forth trudging in the desert.
What great change it was for this
Hagar. There was the tent and
all the surroundings of Abraham's
house, beautiful and luxurious, no
doubt. Now she is going out into the hot
sands of the desert. o, what a change it
was! And in our day we often sec the
wheel of fortune turn. Here is some one
who lived in the very bright home of her
father. She had every thing possible to
administer TO her happiness. Plenty at
the table. Music in the drawiug-room.
Welcome at the door. She is led forth
into life by some one who can not appre-
ciate her. A dissipated soul comes and
takes her out in the desert. 1niquities
blot out all the lights of that home circle.
Harsh words wear out her spirits. The
high hope that shown out over the mar
rage altar while the ring was being set
and the vows given and the benedictiOn
pronounced, have all faded with the
orange blossoms, and there she is to-day,
broken hearted, thinking of past joy and
present desolation and coming anguish.
Hagar in the wildernessl
Here is a beautiful home. You can not
think of any thing that can be added to
it. For years there has not been the sug-
gestion of a single trouble. Bright and
happy children fill the house with laugh
ter and song. Books to read. Pictures
to look at. Lounges to rest on. Cup of
domestic JOY full and running over.
Dark night drops. Pillow hot. Pulses
futter. Eyes close. And the foot whose
well-knOwn step on the door-sill brought
the whole household ont at eventide cry
ing, "Father's comingw will never sound
on the door-sill again. A long, deep
grief plowed through all that lightness of
domestic life Paradise lost! Widow
uOOu. l1dRdF III llle WlIuSEucSo'
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 morn
ing pale with eXhausting work, not half
slept out with the slumbers of last night,
tragedies of suffering written all over her
face, her lusterless eyes looking far ahead
as though for the coming of some other
trouble? Her parents called her Mary, or
Bertha, or Agnes on the day when they
held her up to the font, and the Christian
sprinkled on the infants face
the washings of a holy baptism. Her
name is changed now. | hear 1t in the
shuttle of the worn -out shoes. | see it in
the figure of the faded calico. l find it in
the lineaments of the Woe begOne cOun-
teuance. Not Mary, nor Bertha, nor
Agnes, but Hagar III the wilderness. May
God have mercy upon woman III her tolls,
her struggles, her hardships, her desola-
ton, and may the great heart of Divine
sympathy inclose her forever.
Again: l fluid in this Oriental scene the
fact that every mother leads forth tre-
mendous destinies. You say: THAT
isn't an unusual scene, a mother leading
her child by the hand" Who is it that
she is leading? Ishmael, you say. Who
is Ishmael: a great nation is to be
founded; nation so strong that it is to
stand for thousands of years against all
the armies Of the world. Z ,ypt and As
syria Numbered against it; but in vain.
Gaulus brings up his army; and his
army is smitten. Alexander decides
upon a campaign, brings up his hosts,
and dies. For a long while that nation
monOpolizes the learning OF the world. 1t
is the nation Of the Arabs. Who founded
il? Ishmael, the lad that Hagar led into
the wilderness. She had no idea that she
was leading forth such destinies. Neither
does any mother. You pass along the
street and see boys and girls who will
vet make the earth quake with
their influence. Who is that boy at
Sutton Pool, Plymouth, England, bare
footed, wading down into slush and
slime, until his bare foot comes upon a
piece of glass and he lifts it, bleeding
and pain struck? That wound in the foot
decides that he be sedentary in his life,
decides that he be student. That wound
by the glass in the food decides that he
shall be John Kitto, who shall provide
the best religious encyclopedia the world
has ever had provided, and, with his
other writings as we'll, throwing light
upon the Word of God such as has come
from no other man in this century. @
mother, mother, that little hand that wan
ders over your face may yet be lifted to
hurl thuuderDolts of war or drop bene-
dictions. That little voice may blaspheme
God in the grog shop or cry Forward"
to the Lords hosts as they go out for
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