The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-21


| sight as the sceptre. 1 do not know but
that the world would long ago have necn
| saved il some of the men out of the minis
| try were in it. and some of those who are
! in it were out of il. I really think that
! one-half 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 struggling for position a little
| higher than that which God intended them.
| The bondswoman wants to be mistress.
| Hagar keeps crowding Sarah. The small
wheel of a watch which beautifully went
| treadng its golden pathway wants to be
the balance-wheel, and the sparrow. with
| chagrin drops into the brook because 1t
! cannot, like the eagle, cut a circle under
| the sun.
! In the Lords Army We all want TO be
! brigadier generals! The sloop says: More
| mast, more tonnage. more canvas. Oh, that
| / were a topsail schooner. or a full-rig
| ged brig, or a Cunard steamer" And so
the world is filed with cries of discon-
! tent, because we are not willing to stay
! in the place where God put us and in
| tended 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 wan
| dering Hagars and Ishmaels God has
! given each one of us a work to do You
| carry a scuttle of coal up that dark alley.
| 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 il win kissing or huz-
! "a; whether to walk under triumphal arch
! or lift the sot out of the ditch; whether
| it>be to preach on a Pehtecost or tell some
Wanderer of the street of the mercy CT
the Christ of Mary Magdalene; whether
| il be TO weave a garland for a laughing
! child on a spring morning and call her
| a May Queen, or to comb out the tangled
locks of a waif of the street, and cut up
one of your old dresses to fit her out for
| the sanctuary-do it, and do it right away
| Whether il be a crown or yoke, do not
| fdget 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 disconnected Hagar and
Ishmael
Again, find in this Oriental scene a les
son of sympathy with woman when she
goes forth trudging in the desert What
a great change It was for this Hagar!
There was the tent, and all the surround
ings of Abrahams house, beautiful and
luxurious, no doubt. Now she is going out
into the hot sands of the desert. oh,
what change il was! And in our day
we often see the wheel of fortune turn.
Here is some one who lived in the very
bright home of her father. She had
everything possible 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 appreciate her. A dissipated soul
comes and takes her out in the desert.
Crueties blot out all the lights of that
home circle. Harsh words wear out her
spirits. The high hope that shone out over
the marriage altar while the ring was be-
ing set, and the VOWS given, and the ben
ediction pronounced, have all faded with
the orange blossoms, and there she is to-
day broken hearted, thinking of past joys
and present desolation and coming an
gush Hagar in the Wilderness.
Here is a beautiful home. You cannot
think of anything that can be added to it.
For years there has not been the sugges-
ton of single trouble. Bright and happy
children fill the house with laughter and
song. Books to read. Pictures to look at.
Lounges to rest on. Cup of domestic joy
full and running over. Dark night drops.
Pillow hot Pulses flutter. Eyes close. And
the foot whose well-known steps on the
door-sill brought the whole household out
at eventide crying; Fathers coming!'
win never sound on the door-sill again.
long deep grief ploughed through all that
brightness of domestic life. Paradise lost.
Widowhood Hagar in the wilderness.
How often is it we see the weak arm of
woman conscriDted for this battle with
the rough world. Who is she, going down
the street in the early light of the morn
ing pale with exhausting work, not half
slept out with the SAUNDERS of last night,
tragedies of suffering written all over her
face, her lustreless eyes looking far ahead,
as though for the coming of some other
trouble? Her parents called her Mary, or
Bertha, or Agnes, on the day when they
held her up to the font and the Christian
minister sprinkled on the infants face the
washings of a holy baptism. Her name is
changed now. hear it in the shuttle of the
WORKOUT shoes. see it in the figure of the
faded calico. l find it in the lienaments
Of the woe begone coun tenance Not Mary,
nor Bertha. nor Agnes. but Hagar in the
wilderness. May God have mercy upon wo-
man in her tolls, her struggles her hard
ships her desolation and may the great
heart of divine sympathy inclose her for
ever
Again, I find in this Oriental scene the
| fact that every mother leads forth ire
mendous destinies.
| You say: THAT isn't an unusual scene,
a mother leading her child by the hand
| Who is it that she is leading? Ishmeal,
| you say. Who is Ishmeal? A great nation
| is to be founded-a nation so strong that
/ il is to stand for thousands of years
| against all the armies of the world. Egypt
| and Assyria thunder against it, but in
vain. Gaulus brings up his army and his
army Is smften. Alexander decides upon
a campaign, brings up his hosts, and dies.
| For a long while that nation monopolizes
| the learning of the world. 1t is the nation
| of the Arabs. Who founded it? Ishmael the
| lad that Hagar led into the wilderness. She
had no idea she was leading forth such
! destinies. Neither does any mother. You
| pass along the street and see and pass
| boys and girls who will yet make the
! earth quake with their influence
Who is that boy at Sutton Pool, Ply
mouth England, barefooted. wading down
| into the slush and slime, until his bare
foot comes upon a piece of glass and he
lifts it, bleeding and pain-struck? That
| wound in the foot decides that he be sed-
entary in his life, decides that he be a stu
dent. That wound by the glass in the
| foor decides that he shall be John Kitto,
who shall provide the best religious encyc-
| lopaedia the world has ever had provided,
and with his other writings as well, throw
ing a light upon the Word of God such as
has come from no other man in this cen