Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-17
LOST In THE DESERT.
DR.. De Witt Talmage Talks of People
Who Have Lost Their Way.
SEEKING OUR PROPER SPHERES.
Men Who Have Wrought Out Their Des-
TIMES, While Others Are
ADRIFT ON LIFES TRACKLESS WASTES


ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH.i
BROOKLYN, June 16.-The Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage, d. D., preached at the Tab.
ernacle to-day. A vast congregation filled
the spacious building to overAowing. After
making an exposition of Scripture, the
pastor gave out the hymn beginning:
Glory to God on high,
Let heaven and earth reply,
which the great body of worshipers sang
with majestic effect The subject of DIR.
Talmage's discourse was: People Who
Have Lost Their Way" He took for his
text: "And God opened her eyes, and she
saw well of water; and she went and filed
The bottle with water and gave the lad
drink" Genesis XXI, 19. The eloquent
preacher said:
Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba- There is
an early stir in house of Abraham. There has
been trouble among the domestics Hagar, an
assistant in the household, and her son, brisk
lad of l6 years, have become impudent and in
solent, and Sarah, the mistress of the house
hold, 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 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
very plain lunch that Abraham provides, but
warrant you there would have been enough of
il had they lost their way. God be with your
said old Abraham as he gave the lunch to
Hagar, and good many charges as to how she
should conduct the journey. 1shmael the boy,
suppose bounded away in the morning light.
Boys always like morning change. Poor Ish-
maelf q Of he Il hot
ahead OF him. Hagar gives one long, lingering
look on the familiar place where she had spent
so many happy days each scene associated wirh
the pride and joy of her heart-young Ish-
mael.
ADRIFT ON THE DESERT.
The scorching noon comes on. The air
Sitting and moves across the desert with in
Bufferable suffocation. Ishmael, the bow be-
gins to complain and lies down, but Hagar
rouses him up, saying nothing about her own
WEAKNESS or the sweltering heat; for mothers
can endure anything. 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 a lit
tie ahead, inviting the travellers to come under
Its shadow, now is as far off as ever or seeming
~ 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 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 ftfully, and in her dreams
travels over the weary day, and half awakes
her son by crying out in her sleep: -tIshmael!
1shmaelr
And SO they go on, day after day and night
after night, for they have lost their way. No |
path IN the shifting sands no sign in the burn
ing sky. The sack empty of the -four the |
water gone from the bottle. What shall she |
do? 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: I'VE shall die! we shall dier' |
Now, no mother was ever made strong enough |
10 near her son cry IN vain for drink. Here |
tofore she had chaered her boy by promising a |
speedy END OF the journey, even smiled upon |
him when be felt desperately enough. Now |
there is nothing to do but place him under |
shrub and let him die. She had thought that |
she would sit there and watch until the spirit |
of her boy would 60 away forever, and then |
she would breath out her own life on his 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
CANNOT ENDURE THE SPECTACLE.
She puts him under shrub and goes off a
bow shot and begins to weep until all the desert
seems sobbing, and her cry strikes clear through
on 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 the bottle for
the lad Thank Godl 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. HRgRr was an assistant in that |
household, but she wanted to rule there She |
ridiculed and jeered until her son, Ishmael, got
he had onf hos |
piness and threw Sarah into great fret; and
If she had stayed much longer in that house
hold she would have upset calm Abraham's
equilibrium My friends, one-half of the
trouble in the world to-day comes from the
places or, finding their place, will not
world, there is always place ready for us. A
place for Abraham. A place for Saran. A
place for Hagar. A place for Ishmael A
place Tor you and place for me. Our first
keep it. We may be born in sphere far of
from the one for which God finally intends us.
SeXtus V. was born on the low ground and
was a sWineherd; God called him up to wave a
scepter 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 hillsides of heaven.
Hogartb began by engraving pewter pots: God |
3 painter. The shoemaker's bench held Bloom
held little while; but God called him to sit
I'D lne cnalf OF philosopher and Christian
scholar. The sOapOoiler of London could not
keep his son in that business, for God had de-
cided that HaW'ley was to be one of the great
est astronomers in England. On the other
hand, we may be born in a sphere little
higher than that for which God intends U.S.
We may be born in a castle, and play in a
costly conservatory, and feed high bred point
,rs: and angle for gold fish in artificial ponds,
md be
FAMILIAR WITH PRINCES;
Yet God may have fitted us for carpenters
hop. or dentists forceps, or weaVer's shuttle,
II blacksmith's forge. The great thing is to
ind just the sphere for which God intended
ls. and then to occupy that sphere and occupy
{ forever. Here is man God fashioned to
make plow. There is a man Gcd fashioned
o make constitution. The man who makes |
he plOw is just as honorable as the man who
makes the constitution, provided he makes the
,loW as wei as the other man makes the con-
utution. There is a woman who was made to
ashton a robe, and yonder is one intended to 4
,e queen and wear it. 1t seems to me that
n the one case as In the other God appoints
he sphere; and the needle is Just as respecta- {
lie in his sight as the scepter. do not know
tut that the world would long ago have been I
aved IL some of the men out Of the ministry ,
Fere in it, and some of those who are in it were
ut of it. really think that one-half of the
Forld may be divided into otwo-quarters-those
rho have not found their sphere and those
rho, having found it are not willing to stay
here.
- s&r,, For q ~.