Connecticut western news., 1898-03-24

those wnO are 1u lt were out OI IL. 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 will | ing to stay there. How many are strug- gling for position little higher than | that which God intended themi The bondswoman wants to be mistress. Ha- gar keeps crowding Sarah. The small wheel of a watch which beautifully went treading its golden pathway wants to be the balance wheel, and the spar row with ohagrin drops into the brook because it cannot, like the eagle, out a circle under the sun.
 Too Many Leaders.
 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 full rigged brig or Cunard steam er!" And so the world is filled with cries of discontent, 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 anything God tells you to do. For the lack of a right disposition in this respect the world is strewn with wandering Hagars ,, and Ishmaels. God has given each one of us work to do. You carry a souttle of coal up that dark alley. You distrib- ute that Christian tract. You give S10,- 900 to the missionary cause. You for 15 years sit with chronic rheumatism, dis playing the beauty of Christian submis- r;o,, Whofouor God Ia uor1 to xu hat h. CT it win hissing or huzza, whether to walk under t1iumphal arch or lift the sot out of the ditch, whether it be to preach on Pentecost or tell some wan derer of the street of the mercy of the Christ of Mary Magdalene, whether it be to weave a garland for a laughing child on a spring morning and call her May queen or to comb out the tangled locks of waif of the street and out up one of your old dresses to fit her out for the sanctuary. do it, and do it right away. Whether it be a crown or yoke, do not fidget. 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 are wandering and exile and desolation and wilderness for discon- tented Hagar and Ishmaell
 Again, I find in this oriental scene a lesson of sympathy with woman when she goes forth trudging in the desert. What great change it was for this Hagarl There were the tent and all the surroundings of Abraham s house. beau- tiful and luxurious, no doubt. Now she is going out into the hot sands of the desert. Oh, what change it 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 ap- preciate her. A dissipated soul comes and takes her out in the desert. Cruel ties blot out all the lights of that home circle. Harsh words wear out her spir- it's. The high hope that shone out over the marriage altar while the ring was being set and the VOWS given and the benediction pronounced have all faded with the orange blossoms, and there she is today, broken hearted. thinking of past joys and present desolation and coming anguish. Hagar in the wilder nessl
 Here is beautiful home. You cannot think of anything that can be added to it. For years there has not been the suggestion of single trouble. Bright and happy children fill the house with laughter and song. Books to read. Pic lures to look at. Lounges to rest on. Cup of domestic joy full and running over. Dark night drops. Pillow hot. Pulses futter. Eyes close. And the foot whose we'll known steps on the doorsill brought the whole household out at eventide crying, Fathers coming l" will never sound on the doorsill again. A long, deep grief plowed through all that brightness of domestic life. Para disc lost. Widowhocd. Hagar in the wilderness.
 How often is it we see the weak arm of woman oonscripted for this battle with the rough world. Who is she, go- ing down the street in the early light of the morning, pale with exhausting work not half slept out with the slum- bers of last night, tragedies of suffering written all over her face, her lusterless 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 minis ter sprinkled on the infants face tho washings of holy baptism. Her name is changed now. I hear it in the shuttle of the wornout shoes. I see 1t in the figure of the faded calico. find 1t in the lineaments of the woe begone coun- tenanoe. Not Mary, nor Bertha, nor Agnes, but Hagar in the wilderness. May God have mercy upon woman in her tolls, her struggles, her hardships, her desolation, and may the great heart of divine sympathy inolose her forever
 Responsibility of Motherhood.
 Again, find in this oriental scene the fact that every mother leads forth tremendous destinies.
 You say, "That isn't an unusual scene-a mother leading her child by the hand" Who is it that she is lead ing? Ishmael, you say. Who is Ish- mael? A great nation is to be founded "a nation so strong that it is to stand for thousands of years against all the armies of the world. Egypt and Assyria thunder against it, but in vain. Gsulus brings up his army, and his army is smitten. Alexander decides upon cam- paign, brings up his hosts and dies. For a long while that nation monopo- lizes the learning of the world. It 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.
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