The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-03-23


On the other hand, we may be born
in sphere 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
carpenters 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 forever. Here is man God
fashioned to make a constitution. The
man who makes the plow is just as
honorable as the man who makes the
constitution. There is a woman who
was made to fashion a robe, and yonder
is one intended to be queen and wear
it. 1t seems to 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 scepter. do not know
but that the world would long ago
have been saved if some of the men out
OF the ministry were in it, and some of
those who are in it were out of it. l
really think that one-half the world
may be divided into two quarters
those who have not found out 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 for which God in
tended them! The bondswoman wants
to be mistress. Hagar keeps crowd
ing Sarah. The small wheel of a watch
which beautifully went treading it's
golden pathway wants to be the bal
ance wheel, and the sparrow with
chagrin drops into the brook because
it cannot, like the eagle, cut 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 topsail schooner
or full-rigged brig, or Cunard steam
er" 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 Ishmaels. God has given
each one of us work to do. You carry
a scuttle of coal up that dark
alley. You distribute that Chris
tian tract. You give $4,000 to
the missionary cause. You for
Is years sit with chronic rheuma-
tism, 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 be 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 laughing child on spring morn
ing and call her 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 sane
tuary-do 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 discon-
tented Hagar and Ishmael.
Again, find in this oriental scene a
lesson 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 surroundings of Abraham's house,
beautiful 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 appiness-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.
Cruelties blot out all the lights of that
home circle. Harsh words wear out
her spirit. 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 to-day broken-hearted,
thinking of past joys and present desc
lation and coming anguish. Hagar in
the wilderness!
Here is beautiful home. You can
not 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. 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~ will never sound
on the door-sill again. A long, deep
grief plowed through all that bright
ness of domestic life. Paradise lost.
Widowhood. Hagar in the wilderness!
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 Ishmael?
A great nation is to be founded-a na-