The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-04-28
Hagar. A place for Ishmael. A place
for Won and a place for mo

our second is to keep it. We may be
born in sphere far Off from the one
for which God tilally intends Us. Six
tus V. was born Oh the low ground,
and vas a swineherd; God called him
up to wave scepter. Ferguson spent
his early days in looking after sheep;
God called him up to look after stars,
and be a shepherd watching the fiocks
of light on the hillsides of Heaven.
llogarth began by engraving pewter
pots; God raised him to stand in the en-
chanted realm of a painter. The shoe
makers bench held Bloomfield for
little while: but God raised him to sit
in the chair of a philosopher and Chris
tian scholar. The soap boiler of Lon
don could not keep his son in that busi-
ness, for God had decided that Hawley
was to be one of the greatest astrono-
mers of England.
On the other hand we may be born
in sphere a little higher than that
for which God intends us. We may be
born in castle, and play in costly
conservatory, and feed high bred point
ers, and angle for goldfish in artificial
ponds, and be familiar with princes;
yet God may better have fitted us for Il
carpenter shop, or dentists forceps, or
weaver's shuttle, Or a blacksmith's
forge. The great thing is to find
just the sphere for which God
intended us, and then to occupy
that sphere, and occupy it for
ever. Here is a man God fash
ioned to make plow. There is man
God fashioned to make constitution.
The man who makes the piow is just
as honorable as the man who makes
the constitution. There is a woman
yondcr is one intended to be a queen
and wear it. 1t seems to me that in
the one case as in the other, God ap-
points the sphere, and the needle is just
| as respectable in His sight as the scep-
ter. l do not know but that the world
would long ago have been saved if
some of the men out of the ministry
in it were out of it. | really
think that one-half of the world may
be divided into two quarters those who
have not found their sphere and those
| who. having found it, are not willing
to stay there. How many are strug-
Cling for a position little higher than
that for which God intended them.
The bondswoman wants to be mistress.
Hagar keeps crowding Sarah. The
small wheel of watch which beauti-
fully went treading it's golden pathway
wants to be the balance wheel, and the
sparrow, with chagrin drops into the
brook because it can not, like the
egle put circle under the sun.
| In the Lords army we all want to be
brigadier generals! The sloop says:
| More mast, more tonnage, more can
vas. Oh, that were a topsail schooner,
or a full-riggei brig, Or a Cunard
| steamer And SO the world is filled
| 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 Ismaels. God has given
each one of us a work to do. You
carry scuttle of coal up that dark
alley. You distribute that Christian
tract. You give 81 O,Ooo to the mission.
ary cause You for Is wears 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 triumphal
arch or lift the sot out of the ditch
whether it is to preach on Pentecost
or tell some wanderer of the street o
the mercy Of the Christ of Mary Magda
lene: whether it be to weave a garland
for a la alghing child on spring morn
ing and call her a May queen, or to
comb out the tangled locks of a wall
of the street, and cut up one of youl
old dresses to fit her out for the sane
tuary-do it, and do it right away
Whether it be a crown or a yoke, dc
not fidget. Everlasting honors upor
those who do their work, and do theil
whole work, and are contented in thu
sphere in which God has put them
while there is wandering, and exile
and desolatioa, and wilderness for dis
contented Hagar and Ishmael.
Again, l find in this oriental seem
a lesson of sympathy with woman
when she goes forth trudging in tn
desert. What great change it wa
for this Hagar! There was the tent
and all the surroundings of Abraham
house, beautiful and luxurious, NJ
doubt. Now she is going ont into tn
hot sands of the desert Oh, what
change it was. And in our day W.
often see the wheel of fortun, turn
Here is some one who lived in the yer
bright home of her father. She ha
everything possible to administer t.
her happiness-plenty at the table
music in the drawing room, wei
come at the door. She is le
forth into life by some one who can nc
appreciate her. A dissipated sou
comes and takes her out in the deser
Cruelties blot out all the lights of tina
home circle. Harsh words wear ou
her spirits. The high hope that shon
out over the marriage altar while tn
ring was being set and the vows give1
| and the ban a1iction nronounced hav