The Russellville Democrat., 1889-06-27

world is strewn with wandering Hagars and Ishmaels. God has given each one of us a 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. Yon, for fifteen years, sit with chronic rheumatism, displaying the beauty of Christian submission. Whatever God calls you to, whether it win hissing or huzzas whether to walk under triumphal arch or lift the sot out of tho ditch; whether it be to preach on q Pentecost or to tell some wanderer of the street of the mercy of the Christ Of Mary Magda- lene; whether it be to weave garland for laughing child on spring n,orn- ing, and call her May queen, or to comb out the tangled locks of waif of the street and cut up one of your old dresses to fit her out for the sahctdary- 1t, and do it right away. Whether it be crown or yoke, do not fidget. 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 dis coutented 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 il was for this Hagar There was the tent and all the surroundings of Abrahan's house, beautiful and luxurious, no doubt. Now she is going ont into the hot sands of the desert. o, what change 1t was And in our day we often see 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 drawing-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 lniqnities blot out all the lights of that home circle, Harsh words wear out her spirits. The high hope that shown out over the mar- riage altar while the ring was being set and the vows given and the benedietion 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 wilderness
 Here is beautiful home. Y ou can not think of any thing that can be added to it. For years there has not been the sug- gestion of Q 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 out at eventide cry ing Fathers coming!" will never sound on the door-sill again. A long, deep grief plowed through all that lightness of domestic life, Paradise lostl Widow hood! 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 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 troublef Her parents called her Mary, or Bertha, or Agnes on the day when they held her up to the font, and the Christian minister sprinkled on the infants face the washings of holy baptism. Her name is changed now. 1 hear it in the shuttle of the worn out shoes. l see it in the figure of the faded calico. I find it in the ineaments of the woe begone coun- tenance. Not Mary, nor Bertha, nor Agnes, but Hagar in the wilderness. May God have mercy upon woman in her tolls, her struggles, her hardships, her desola- ton, and may the great heart of Divine sympathy inclose her forever.
 Again; I find 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 1t that she is leading? Ishmael, you say. Who is Ishmael? A great nation is to be founded; a nation so strong that it is to stand for thousands of years against all the armies of the world. E ypt and As- syria thundered against it; but in vain. Gaulus brings up his army; and his army is snitten. Alexander decides upon a campaign, brings up his hosts, and dies. For a long while that nation monopolizes the learning of the world. It is the nation of the Arabs. Who founded it2 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
 
 yet 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 a student That wound h, q S,1a in Ina l4at ba 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 a light upon the Word of God such as has come from no other man in this century. o mother, mother, that little hand that wan ders over your face may yet be lifted to hurl thunderbolts 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 their last victory.
 My mind to-day leaps thirty years ahead, and I see a merchant prince of New York. One stroke of his pen brings a ship out of Canton. Another stroke of his pen brings a ship into Madras. He is mighty in all the money markets of the world. Who is he? He sits to-day be- side you in the tabernacle. My mind leops thirty years forward from this time, and I find myself in a relief as- sociotion. A great multitude of Chris tan women have met together for a generous purpose. There is one woman in that crowd who seems to have the con hdenoe of all the others, and they all look up to her counsel and for her prayers. Who is shey To-day you will find her in the Sabbath-school, while the teacher tells her of that Christ who