News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-06-27
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: "PeopIe Who Have Lost
Their Way"


she salU q a0eu of Igater; and she ,oent, and
.fstted the bottle loith IUdter, and gaze the lad
drink. "-Genesis xxi, 49,
Morning breaks upon Beer-sheba. There
is an early stir in the house of old Abraham.
There has been trouble among the domestics
Hagar, an assistant in the household and her
son, a brisk lad of sixteen years have become
impudent and insolent, and Sarah, the mis-
tress of the household, puts her foot down
very hard, and says that they viii 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 put
ting up some bread and a bottle with water
IN IT. IL is very plain lunch that
Abraham provides, but l warrant you there
would have been enough of it had thew not
lost their way. God be with you 70 said old
Abraham as he gave the lunch to Hagar, and
a good many charges as TO how she should
conduct the journey. Ishmael, the boy, 1
suppose, bounded away in the morning light
Boys always like change. Poor Ishmael
He has no idea of the disasters that are ahead
or him Hagar gives one long, lingering look
on the familiar place where she had spent so
many happy days. each scene associated with
the pride and joy of her heart-young Ish-
mael.
The scorching noon comes on The air is
Sitting and moves across the desert with in
siderable suffocation. Ishmael, the boy, 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
YEARLY and slowly the miles slip. A tama-
rlnd that seemed hours ago to stand only Just
little ahead. inviting the travellers to come
under Its shadow, now is as far off as ever or
seemingly 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 be-
gin 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 A star looks out, and every
falling tear 1t 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 fitfully,
and in her dreams travels over the weary
day, and half awakes her son by crying out
in her sleep: ''Ishmaell Ishmael" 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
burning sky. The sack empty of the
flour, the water gone from the bottle.
What shall she do? As she puts
her fainting Ishmael under stunted
bloodshOt eye, and feels the hot hand
and watches the blood bursting from the
cracked tongue and there is a shrek in the
desert OF Beer-sneba: I'VE shall die we
made
strong enough TO hear her son cry in vain for
drink. Heretofore she had cheered her boy
by promising speedy end of the journey,
even smiled upon him when he felt desper-
ately enough. Now there is nothing to do
but place him under shrub and let him die.
She had thought that she would sit there anil
watch until the spirit of her boy would go
away forever, and then she would breathe
out her own life on his silent heart; but as the
boy began 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 a shrub
and goes off a bow shot and begins to weep
until all the desert seems sobbing 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:
'sHagar, what aileth theey' She looks up
and she sees the angel pointing to well of
water, where she fills the bottle for the lad
Thank Godi Thank Godl
learn from this Oriental scene, in the first
place, what a 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 jeered until her son, Ish- |
mael, got the same tricks She dashed out |
her own happiness and threw Sarah into a |
great fret; and if she had stayed much longer |
In that household she would have upset calm |
Abraham's equilibrium. NY friends one |
half of the trouble in the world to-day comes /
from the fact that people do not know their |
place; or, finding their place. will not stay in |
1t. When we come into the world, there is |
always place ready for us. A place for
Abraham. A place for Sarah. A place for
-Hagar-A- place for -Ishmael place for
you and place for me. Our first duty is to |
find our sphere; our second is To keen n II
We may be born in a sphere far
of from the one for which God
finally intends us. Sextus was born ON fine |
low ground and was "a swineherd God called
IN i've
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
h1lsIdes of heaven, Hogarth began by en-
craving pewter pots; Godraised him to stand
IN the enchanted realm of a painter The shoe
makers bench held Bloomfield for a little
while; but God called him to sit in the chair
OF philosopher and Christian scholar. The
soap boiler of London could not keep his son
In that business. for God had decided that
BawIey was to be one of the greatest astrono-
merS OF England On the other hand We
may be born In sphere little higher than
that for which God Intends us. We NAV be
born IN castle, and play in costly con-
servatory, and feed high bred pointers, and
angle for gold fish in artificial ponds, and be
familiar with princes; yet God may have
fitted US for carpenters shop, or dentists
torceps, or weaver's shuttle, or a black
smiths forge. The great thing is to find lust
the sphere for which God intended us. and
then TO occupy that sphere and occupy il for
ever. Here is a man God fashioned to make
a plow. There is a man God fashioned
TO make a constitution. The man
who makes the plow is Just Us hon
orable as the man who makes the constitu-
ton. provided he makes the plow as well as
the other man makes the constitution There
is a woman who was made to fashion q robe,
and yonder is one intended to be queen and
wear 1t. 1t seems to me that in the one case
as IN the other, God appoints the sphere; and
IL IL
the scepter do not know but that the world
would long ago have been saved if some of
she men out of the ministry were in it and
some of those who are in it wers out of it.
really think that one-half of the world may
be divided into twO-duarters-those Tho
have not found their sphere and those
who having found it are not willing to STAY
there. How many are struggling for posi-
ton little higher than that for which God
intended them. The bondswoman wants to
be mistress. Hagar keeps crowding Sarah
The small wheel of a watch, which beautiful
ly went treading its golden pathway, wants
to be the balance wheel, and the sparrow.
with chagrin, drops into the brook, because
IL cannot, like the eagle, cut a circle under
the sun. In the Lords army we all want to
be bTigadier generals. The sloop says:
More mast; more tonnage; more canvas.
On, that were a tOpsal schooner, or full
rugged brig, or a Cunard steamer And SO
the world is filed with cries of discomfort,
DSCduse we are not Wiling 10 stay In the
place where God put US and intended us to be-
My friends, be not too proud to do anything
God tells you to do. For the lack of a right
disposition in this respect the world is strewn
with wandering Hagars and lshmaels. God
has given each one of US a work to do
You carry a south Of coal up that dark al
ley. You distribute that Christian tract
You give ten thousand dollars to the mission
airy cause You, for fifteen years, sit with
chronic rheumatism, displaying the beauty
OF Christian submission. Whatever God
calls you to, whether it win Kissing or huzza;
= whether to walk under triumphaI arch OF
hit the sot out of the ditch whether it be TO
preach on Pentecost, or tell some wanderer
OF the street Of the mercy of the Christ of
Mary Magdalene; whether it be to
weave garland for a laughing child on a
spring morning and call her Nav queen or
to comb out the tangled locks of a waif of the
street and cut up one of your old dresses to
Mt her out for the sanctuarY-do it. and do it
right away. Whether it be crown or
yoke, do not fidgit. 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, ard desolaton and
wilderness for disconnected Hagar and Ish-
mael
Again, I find in this Oriental scene q lesson
OF sympathy with woman when she goes
forth trudginc IN the desert What a great
change 1t was for this Hagar. There was the
tent and all the surroundings of Ahraham's
house, beautiful and luxurious no doubt
Now she Is going out into the hot sands of
the desert. 0, what change it vast And in
our day we often see the wheel of fortune turn
Here is some one who lived in the very bri. hit
home of her father. She had everything pos
slble 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 apDreciate her