St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-04-23

ever. Here is man God fash
ioned to make plow. There is n maj
God fashioned to make constitution
The man who makes the piow is jus
as honorable as the man who makes
the constitution. There is a woma.
who was made to fashion robe, ant
yonder is one intended to be queer
and wear it. 1t seems to me that il
the one case as in the other, God ap
points the sphere, an1 the needle is JUS
as respectable in His sight as the scep
ter. do not know but that the worlt
would long ago have been saved i
some of the men out of the ministry
were in it, and some of those who art
in it were out of it. / really
think that one-half Of the world may
be divided into two quarters who
have not found their sphere and those
who, having found it, are not willing
to stay there. How many are strug
Cling for 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 its 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 a 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 I were topsail schooner,
or a full-rigged brig, or a Cunard
steamer And so the world is filed
with cries of discomfort. because we are
not willing to stay in the place where
God put us and intended US to be. NY
friends, be not too proud to do any
thing God tells You to do; for the lack
of a right disposition in this respect the
world is strewn with wandering
Hagars and Ismaels. God has given
each one of us work to do. You
carry scuttle of coal up that dark
alley. You distribute that Christian
tract. You give 81 Q, 900 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 of
the mercy of the Christ of Mary Magda-
lene; whether it be to weave a garland
for La lghing child on a spring morn
ing and call her a 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 sane
it, and do it right away.
Whether it be crown or yoke, do
not tidget. 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 wandering, and exile,
and desolation, and wilderness for dis
Hagar and Ishmael.
Again, find in this oriental scene
! lesson of sympathy with woman
when she goes forth trudging in the
iesert. What great change it was
Tor this Hagar! There was the tent,
and all the surroundings of Abraham's
house, beautiful and luxurious, no
ioubt. Now she is going out into the
not sands of the desert. Oh, what
change it was! And in our day we
,ften see the wheel of fortune turn.
Here is some one who lived in the very
bright home of her father. She had
possible to administer to
ler happiness-plenty at the table,
music in the drawing-room, well
.ome at the door. She is led
orth into life by some one who can not
appreciate her. A dissipated soul
comes and takes her out in the desert.
;ruelties blot out all the lights of that
home circle. Harsh words wear out
Ter spirits. The high hope that shone
tut over the marriage altar while the
ing was being set and the vows given,
md the benediction pronounced, have
Ill faded with the orange blossoms,
md there she is to-day broken hearted,
of past joys and present desc
alton and coming anguish. Hagar in
he wilderness!
Here is beautiful home. You can
lot think of anything that can be
Idded to it. For years there has not
oeen the suggestion of single trouble.
Bright and happy children fill the
louse with laughter and song. Books
o read. Pictures to look at. Lounges
0 rest on. Cup of domestic joy full
nd rnnning over. Dark night drops.
'illow hot. Pulses futter. Eyes close.
Ind the foot whose w.ll-known steps
n the door-sill brought the whole
ousehold out at eventide crying,
Fathers coming!r will never sound
n the door-sill again. A long, deep
rief plowed through all that bright
ess of domestic life. Paradise lost.
Hagar il the wilderness.
How often is it we see the weak arm
+ woman conscripted for this battle |
nth the rough world. Who is she,
DING down the street in the early light |
t the morning, pale with exhausting
FORK, not half slept out with the slum-
ers of last night, tragedies of suffer
1g written all over her face, her lus- |
erless eyes looking far ahead, as
hough for the coming of some other
rouble? Her parents called her Mary.
+ Bertha, or Angnes, on the day when
hey held her up to the font and the |
minister sprinkled on the in
ants face the washings of a holy bap-
ism. Her name is changed now.
ear it in the shuttle of the worn-out |
hoes. l see it in the figure of the
AIDED calico. / find it in the linea-
aents Of the woe-5egone countenancc.
lot Mary, nor Bertha, nor Agnes, but |
[agar in the wilderness. May God |
ave mercy upon woman in her tolls,
er struggles, her hardships, her deso,l
alton, and may the great heart of Di- |
inc sympathy inclose her forever!
Again, l find in this oriental scene
ne fact that every mother leads forth
destinies.
You say: THAT isn't an unusual
Gene. q mother leading her child by
he hand" Who is that she is leading?
shmael, you say. Who is Ishmael? A /
reat nation is to be founded-a nation
} strong that it is to stand for thou
ands of years against all the armies of
ne world Egyptand Assyria thunder
gainst it, but in vain. Gaulus brings