The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-03-26

SUI III LAAS Jus ~
REV. TALMAeE. old A r a h a N
There has been trouble among the do
mestics. HGgar, an assistant in the
| household, and her son, a brisk lad OF
10 years, have become impudent and
insolent. and Sarah, the mistress of the
household, puts her foot down very
hard and says hat they will have to
leave the premises They are pack
ing up now. Abraham, knowing IL a
the Journey before his servant and her
son will be very long and across DESC
late places. in the kindness of his
heart sets about putting up some
bread and n bottle with water In II.
It is . very plain lunch that Abraham
provides, but 1 warrant o there
would have been enough of ithad they
moi lost their way. God be with
your said old Abraham, as he gave the
lunch 70 Hagar and a good many
charges as TO how she should conduct
the Journey. Ishmael. the boy, 1 sup
pose, bounded away in the morning
light Boys always like a change.
Poor Ishmaeli He has no idea of the
disasters that are ahead of him Hagar
gives one long, lingering look on the
familiar place where she had spent so
many ndpPy OdySb SdSA oOOAS oSSOSA
nted with the pride and Joy of her
heart, young Ishmael.
The soorching noon comes on. The
air is sitting and moves across the
desert with i~nsufferable ~suffocation.
Ishmael, the boy, begins to complain
and lies down, but Hagnr rouses him
mp. 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 slipl Atamarind thatseemed
hours ago to stand only just a 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, I
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 il is her fault that they
are in the desert. A star looks out,
and every falling tear it kisses with a
sparkle. A wing of wind over
the hot earth and lifts the locks from
the fevered brow of the boy, Hagar
sleeps htfully. and in her dreams
travels over the weary day, and half
awakea her son by crying out in her
sleep: 'Ishmaell Ishmaell"
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 q 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 a shrek in the
desert Of Beersheba: 1--WE shall dieI
We shall dieP' Now, no mother was
ever made strong enough to hear her
son cry in vain for a drink. Hereto
fore she had cheered her boy by prom
iaing q speedy end of the journey, and
even smiled upon him when she felt
desperately enough. Now there Is
nothing TO do but place him under q
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, n then she would
breathe ont 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 begs his
mother to slay him, she cAnpo endure
the spectacle. She puts him under a
shrub and goes of a bow-shot, and be-
gins to weep until all the desert seems
sobbing, and her cry strikes clear
through the heavens; and an angel of
God comes out on q cloud, and looks
down on the appalling grief and cries,
"Hagar, what aileth theeP" She looks
up, and sees the angel pointing to a
we'll of water, where she fills the bot
tie for the lad. Thank God! Thank
GodI
I learn from this Oriental scene, in
the first place, what a sad thing IL is
when people do not know their place,
and get too proud for their business!
Hagar was an assistant in that house
hold, but she wanted to rule there.
She ridiculed and jeered until her son,
Ishmael, got the same tricks. She
dashed out her own happiness, and
threw Sarah into q great freti and II
she had stayed much longer IN that
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 as. A place for Abra-
ham. A place for Sarah. A place for
Hagar. A place for Ishmael. A place
for you and a place for me.
Our first duty is to find our sphere;
second is TO keep IT We may be
born in a sphere far of from the one
for which God finally Intends us.
Sixtus v. was born on the low ground.
and was a swinsherd; God called him
mp to a scepter. Ferguson spent
his early days in looking after sheepi
God called him up to look after stars,
and be a shepherd watching the focks
light on the hillsides of Heaven.
Hogarth began by engraving pewter
pots; God raised him to stand In the
enchanted realm of a painter. The
Bhoemaker's bench held Bloomfield for
q little while; but God raised him to
sit in the chair of a philosopher and
scholar. The soap boiler OF
London could not keep his son in that
business, for God had decided that
Hawley was to be one of the greatest
astronomers of England.
On the other hand we may be born
in a sphere a little higher than that
for which God intends us. We may DO
in a castle. and play in costly
aud feed high-bred
pointers. and angle for goldfish in
artificial ponds, and be familiar with
princes; yet God may better have fitted
rs for q carpenter shop; or dentists
foroeps, or a weaver's shuttle, or a
forge. The great thing
is 20 Ana Just the sphere for which
God Intended US, and then to occupy
that sphere, and occupy it forever.
is a man God fashioned to make
y plow. There is a man God fashioned
make a constitution. The man who
the pillow Is just as honorable as
the nan who makes the constitution.
There Is a woman who was made to
a robe, aud yonder is one in
to be a queen and wear it. 1t
seems 70 me that In the one case
as In the other, God appoints
the sphere, and the needle Is just
as respectable in His sight as the
1 do not know but that the
world Wonld 1on0 aUo hava haan saUaa