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TIME TABLE IN EFFECT DECEMBER .'list, 1886.
Flag Mat ions arc marked thus t
trains south bound—read down. trains north bound—read up.
No. 1. | No. 5. [ STATIONS. i No. 2. i No. G.c
7 mam 810 pit! I.v Cincinnati .Tr ac; p m (ltd am
Ju 22 am 11 80 pin Lv Lexington At 415 pm tOO am
31 85 am 1- 98 pm Lv Juncfioii City Ar 848 pin’ 240 am
630 pm 015 am Lv Chattanooga Ar, 750 am 555 pm
050 pm 035 am Lv Wauhuteliie Lvl 730 am 535 pm
♦7 #7 pin. Mi 55 am Lv Morgunville Lv + 7 05 am +5 15 pnt
47 25 pm 10 ll'atn Lv Trenton: Lvl 16 44 am 455 pm
♦7 42 pm +lO 32 am Lv Rising Fawn Lv 031 uni 43. pm
7 56pm lo 44 am l.v Sulphur Springs Lv 620 am 425 pm
48 22 pin 11 17 pm Lv Valley Head Lv +550 am 355 pin
+8 65 pm II 65 jun Lv .. .Fort Payne Lv, '5 14 am 318 pm
49 36 pin| US 48 pm Lv Colliiigsvlllo Lv 425 aliU 230 pm
10 31pm, 2 15 pm Lv Attalia Lv + 3 82 am 126 pm
2 35 pin Lv Socle L\ 112 60 pm
2 6S pm !.v Whitney Lv 12 28 pm
11 69 pm 337 pm Lv Springville Lv 215 am 11 48 am
12 40 uni 422 pm‘Lv .Trussville Lv 133 >tti i 1 02 uin
140 am 635 pin Lv Birmingham Lv 12 8U am 10 15 am
+6 03 pm Lv Wheeling Lv +9 37 am
+6 12 pm Lv Jonesboro Lv 930 am
+2 46 am 659 pm l.v Woodstock I.v+l] 32 pin 851 am
47 06pm Lv Uibbville Lv 14845 am
7 15 pm Lv Vance Lv 837 am
7 35 put Lv Coaling Lv 1 8 17 uni
7 54 pm Lv Cottondale Lv lo 47 pm 800 am
347 am 815 pin l.v Tuscaloosa....... Lv 1030 pm 748 am
+8 58 pm Lv Carthago Lv +7 12 am
I to 20 pm Lv Akin »..Lv + 9 30piti 645 am
+5 08 am 952 pm Lv El I'AW Lv 9 11pm 620 am
632 uni 10 ID pm Lv Boligee Lv 849 pm 532 am
10 25 pm Lv Miller Lv 840 pm
547 am lo 32 pm Lv Epos Lv 835 pm 514 am
005 am 10 53 pm l.v Livingston Lv 810 pm 453 am
625 am 11 15 pm Lv York Lv 755 pm 430 am
+6 40 am 11 .cl pm l.v Cuba Lv +7 38 pm 414 am
+7 02 am 11 55 pm i.v Toomstilm Lv +7 15 pm 351 am
1 7 40 am 12 30am]Ar Meridian. Lv 640 pm 315 am
843 Hin 119 am Ar Enterprise Lv 520 pm 218 am
300 pm 735 am Ar... Now Orleans Lv R) 40 am, 800 am
2 40 pm Ar Monroe Lv |l2 20 pnt
6 45 pm Ar Shreveport I.v 815 am
■ 7 10 pm ! Ar Texas and Pacific .liinetion Lv I 7 50 urn
R. CARROLL, General Sup't, Meridian, Miss. A. GRIGGS, Sup't, Birmingham, Ala.
JOHN C. GAULT. H. COLLBRAN, It. K. RYAN,
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THE GREAT CARRIAGE MANUFACTURING HOUSE OF THE WORLD.
THE
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CINCINNATI, OHIO, Wholesale Manufacturers of
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TRENTON, DADE COUNTY GA., FRIDAY, MARCH 4. 1887.
TROUBLES.
8m all Ones That Come Only to
Harass and Annoy,
Tending to Weaken One's Faith In the
Rare for Heaven— Sermon Delivered by
Rev. T. DeWltt Talmage, D. D.
The subject of Dr. Talmage’s sermon
on Sunday February 27 was: “The
Swelling of Jordan,” and bis text Jere
miah, eh. xii, v. 5:
“If thou hast run with the footmen, and
they have wearied thee, thon how eanet
thou contend with horses? And if in the
land of peace, w heroin thou trustedst,,
they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do
in the swelling of Jordan?”
Jeremiah had become impatient with his
troubles. God says la him: “If you can
not stand these small trials and persecu
tions, what are you going to do when the
greater trials and persecutions come? If
you have been running a race with foot
men and they have beaten you, what
chance is there that you will outrun
horses?” And then the figure is changed.
You know, in April and May, the Jordan
overflows its hanks, and the waters rush
violently on, sweeping every thing before
them. And God says to the prophet: “If
you are overcome with smaller trials and
vexations which have assaulted you, what
Will you do when trials and annoyance
fetid persecutions of life come in a freshet?”
“If in the land of peace wherein thoii
trustedst they wearied thee, then how wilt
thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?”
I propose, if God will help me, in a very
practical way to ask—if it is such a diffi
cult thing to get along without the relig
ion of Jesus Christ, when things are com
paratively smooth, what will we do with
out Christ amid the overpouring misfor
tunes and disasters of life that may come
upon us? If troubles, slow as footmen,
surpass us, what will we do when they
take the feet of horses ? and if now in our
lifetime we are beaten hack and submerg
ed of sorrows because we have not the re
ligion of Jesus to comfort us, what will
we do when we stand in death, and we feel
all around about us “the dwelling of Jor
dan?” The fact that you have come here,
Iny brother, my sister, show’s
that you have some things you
believe in common with my
self. You believe that there is a God.
There is not an atheist in all this house.
Ido not believe there ever was a real
atheist in all the world. Napoleon was on
a ship’s deck bound for Egypt. It was a
bright starry night, and as he paced the
deck, thinking of the great affairs of the
State and of battle, he heard two men on
deck in conversation about God;one saying
there was a God and the other saying
rraTtS imno. iprovl
looked up at the starry heavens and then
he turned to these men in conversation
fend said: “Gentlemen, I heard one of
you say there is no God; if there is no God
Will you please to tell me who niade all
that ?” AVe, if you had not been persuaded
of it before you are persuaded of it now;
for the shining heavens declare the "glory
of God and the earth shows His handiwork.
But you believe more than that; you be
lieve that there was a Jesus; you believe
that there was a Cross; you believe that
you have an immortal soul; you believe
that it must he regenerated by the spirit
of God, or you can never dw’ell in bliss
eternal. I think a great many of you will
say that you believe it is important to
have the religion Of Jesus Christ every
day of our life to shiooth our tempers and
purify our minds, and hold us imperturba
ble amid all the annoyance and vexations
of life. You and I have seen so many
men trampled down by misfortunes be
cause they had no faith in Jesus, and you
say to yourself: “If they were so easily
overcome by the trials of life, w’hat wiil
it be when greater misfortunes come
upon them heart-breaking calamities,
tremendous griefs?” Oh 1 if we have no
God to comfort us when opr fortune goes,
and we look upon the grave of our chil
dren, and our houses are desolate, what
will become of us? AVhat a sad thing it
is to see men all unhelped of God
going out to tight giants of trouble;
no closet of prayer in which to re
treat, no promise of mercy to soothe the
soul, no rock of refuge in which to hide
from the blast. Oh,when the swift cours
ers of trouble are brought up, champing
and panting for the race, and the reins are
thrown upon their necks, and the lathered
flanks at every spring feel the stroke of
the lash, what can we do on foot with
them ? How can we compete with them?
If, having run with the footmen,
they wearied us, how can we contend with
horses?
We have all yielded to temptation. We
have been surprised afterwards that so
small an inducement could have decoyed
us from the right. How insignificant a
temptation has sometimes capture i our
soul! And if that is so, my dear brother,
what will it be when vve come to stand in
the presence of temptation that pros
trated a David, and a Moses, and a Peter,
and some of the mightiest men in all God’s
kingdom?
Now.we are honest, hut suppose we were
placed in sortie path of life.as many of God’s
children have been, where a!! the forces of
earth and hell combine to capture the soul?
Without Jesus we would go down under
it. If already we have been beaten by in
significant footmen we would be distanced
ten thousand leagues by the horses. Ah,
1 don’t like to hear a man say: “I could
not commit sireh a sin as that. I can’t un
derstand how a man could he carried away
like that.” You don’t know w lat you
could do if the grace of God lets you.
Yt»u know what John Bunyan said when
he saw a man staggering along the street,
thoroughly imbruted in his habits. He
•aid: “There goes John Bunyan but for
the grace of God.” 1 can say when I see
one utterly fallen: “There goes DeWitt
Talmage but for the grace of God.” If we
have been delivered from temptation it is
because the strong- arm of the Lord Al
mighty has been about us, and not because
' we were any better than they.
. It is a great folly "to borrow
trouble. If we can meet the misfor
tunes of to-day, we will be able to meet
the troubles of to-morrow; but suppose
now if through a lack of the religion of
Jesus wo are overthrown by small sor
rows, does not our common sense teach us
that wo can not stand up against great
ones? If we can not carry a pound, can we
carry a thousand pounds? If we are discom
fitted coming into battle with one regi
ment. a brigade will cut us to pieces. If
we are unlit to cope with one small-trial,
won’t we be overcome by greater ones?
If the footmen are too much for us,
won’t the odds be more fearful against us
when we contend with horses? I thank
God that some of His dear children have
been delivered. How was it that Paul
could say: “Sorrowful, yet always re
joicing poor, yet making many rich;
rhaving nothing, yet possessing all things?”
And iffvid, the psalmist, soars up into
tho rock of God’s strength and be
comes thoroughly composed amid all his
sorrows, saying: “God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in the time of
trouble; therefore will not we fear though
the earth be removed, though the moun
tain he cast into the midst of the sea,
thohgh the waters thereof roar and he
troubled, though the mountain shake with
the swelling thereof. Selah.”
But my text suggests something in ad
vance of any thing I have said. We must
all quit this life. However sound our
health may be, it must break down;
how ever our title may he to
houses, land and estates, we must sur
render them. We will hear a voice bid
ding us away from all these places. We
will have to start on a pilgrimage from
which vve can never come back. We will
have seen for the last time the evening
star, and watched the last summer cloud,
and felt the breath of the spriug wind for
the last time. Hands of loved ones may he
stretched out to hold us back, but they can
not —go we must. About all other exits and
changes we may trifle, but not about this.
Stupendous moment of life-quitting!
Oh, when the great tides of eter
nity arises about us, and fill the soul and
surround it, and sweep it out toward rapt
ure or woe—ah, that will be the “swelling
of Jordan 1” I know people sometimes
talk very merrily about the departure
from this life. lam sorry to hear it. But
men do make fun of the passage froin one
world to another. Byron joked a great
deal about it, but when it came he shiver
ed with horror.
Many an infidel has scoffed at the idea
of fearing a future world, hut lying upon
his pillow in tho last hour his teeth have
chattered with terror. I saw, in Westmin
ster Abbey, an epitaph which a poet or
dered to be put upon his tomb:
“Life is a jest;
And all things show it;
I thought so once,
, But now I know it.”
i thougto. Uow lniuti that, in a.place of
sepulcher, men should try their witticisms.
A great German having rejected Christ, in
his lost moment said: “Giveme light, give
me light!” Oh, we may be smart with our
witticism lasthour; but When it
comes, and are the surf
is heating, ana the winds are howling, we
will each one. my brethren, find for himself
that it is “the swelling of Jordan.” Our
natural courage won’t holdout then. How
ever familiar we may have been with scenes
of mortality, however much we may have
screwed our courage up, we want some
thing more than natural resources. When
the north-east wind blows off from the
sea it will put out all earthly
lights. light of the Gospel, God-
} jilted, is the only lamp that can stand in
Lat blast. The weakest arm holding t at
iall not he confounded-.the strongest one
rejecting that shall stumble and die. When
the Jordan rises in its wrath the first of
its waves will swamp them forever. We
feel how sad it is for a man to attempt this
life without religion. We see what a dole
ful thing it is for a man to go down
into the misfortunes of life without
Christian solace; hut if that be so, how
much more terrible when that man comes
face to face With the solemnities of the
last hour! Oh, if in the bright sunshine
of health and prosperity a man felt the
need of something better, how will he
feel when the shadow of the last hour
gather above his pillow? If, in the warmth
of worldly prosperity he was sometimes
dismayed, how will he feel when the last
ehill creeps over him? If, while things
were comparatively smooth, he was dis
quieted, what will he do in the agonies of
dissolution? “If, in the land of peace in
vv’hich he trusted they wearied him, what
will he do amid the swelling of Jordan?”
Oh, I rejoice to know that so many of
God’s children have gone through that
pass without a shudder! Home one said
toadying Christian! “Isn’t it hard for
you to get out of this world?” “Oh, no,”
he says, “It is easy dying, it is blessed dy
ing, it is glorious dying!” and then he
pointed to a clock on the wall and he said:
“The last two hours in which I have been
dying, I have had more joy than all the
years of my life.” A General came into
the hospital after the battle, and there
were many seriously wounded, and there
was one man dying, and the General said;
! “Ah, my dear fellow, you seem
very much wounded. I am afraid
I you are not going to get Well.”
; “No,” said the soldier, “I am not
| going to get well, hut 1 feel very happy.”
Oh. 1 have seen them, and so have you, go
! out of this life without a tear on their
I cheek! There was weeping all round the
room, but no weeping in the bed; the
cheeks were dry. They were not thrown
j down into darkness; they were lifted up.
, Wo saw the tides rising around them, aDd
| the swelling of the wave. It washed them
' off from the cares and toils of life; it
washed them toward the beach of heaven,
i They waved to us a farewell kiss as they
i stood on the deck, and floated down further
a-nd further, wafted by gales from heaven,
until they were lost to our sight—mortali
ty having become immortality—
“ Life's duty done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies;
While Heaven and earth combine to say,
How blest the righteous when he dies I”
What high consolation to you that your
departed friends were not submerged
in the swelling of Jordan. The Israelites
were just as thoroughly alive on the
western banks of the Jordan as they
had been on the eastern banks ot
the Jordan; and our departed Chris
tian friends have only crossed over—not
sick, not dead, not exhausted, not extin
guished, not blotted out, but with healthier
respiration and stouter pulses, and keener
eye-sight, and better prospects, crossed
over, their sins, their physical and mental
disquiet, all left clear this side, an etern
ally-flowing, impassable obstacle between
them and all human and satanic pursuit.
Crossed over! Oh, I shake hands of con
gratulation with all the bereaved in the
consideration that our departed Christian
friends are safe!
Why was there, years ago, so much joy
in certain circles in New York when people
heard from their friends who were on
board the City of Brussels? It was thought
that vessel had gone to the bottom of the
sea; and when the friends on this side heard
that the steamer had arrived safely in
Liverpool, had we not the right to con
gratulate the people in New York that
their friends had got safely across? And
is it not right this morning that I con
gratulate you that your departed triends
are safe on the shore of heaven? Would
you have them, back again? Would
you have those old parents back again?
You know how hard it was some
times for them to get their breath in
the stifled atmosphere of the summer;
would ycu have them back in this summer?
Didn’t they use their brain long enough?
Would you have your children back again?
Would you have them take the risk of
temptations which throng every human
pathway! Would you have them cross the
J ordan three times in addition to crossing
it already, and cross it again to greet you
now, and then cross back afterward? for
certainly you would not want to keep
them forever out of heaven. If they had
lived forty or fifty years longer, would
they have been safe? perhaps so, perhaps
not.
“Pause and weep, not for the freed from pain,
But that the sigh of love would pull them back
again.”
I ask a question, and there seems to come
hack the answer in heavenly echo: “What!
will you never bo sick again?” “Never—
sick—again.” “What! will you never be
tired again?” “Never tired again!”
“What! will you never weep again?”
“Never—weep—again.” “What! will you
never die again?” “Never—die —again.”
Oh, ye army of departed kindred, We hail
you from bank to bank! Wait for us when
the Jordan of death shall part for us.
Come down and meet us half way be
tween the willowed hanks of earth and
the palm groves of heaven.
“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wjal ful eye
To Canaan's fam and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
O, the transporting, rapturous scene
• That rises on my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight.”
But thevo i* one step still ip advance sug
gested by this -subject. If this religion of
Christ is so important in life, and so im
portant in the last hours of life, how much
more important it will he in the great
eternity! I need not stand here and argue
it. There is something within your soul
that says now, While I speak: “I am im
mortal. The stars shall die, but lam im
mortal.” You feel that your existence on
earth is only a small piece of your being.
It is only a mile up to the grave, but it is
ten thousand miles beyond. The slab of
the tomb is only the milestone on which
we read of infinite distance yet to be
traveled. The world itself will grow old
and die. The stars of our night will burn
down in their sockets and expire. The
sun, like a spark struck from an anvil,
will flash and go out. The woods will ut
ter their last wisper and ocean heave its
last groan. But you and I will live forever!
Gigantic, immortal. Mighty to suffer or
enjoy. Mighty to love or hate. Mighty to
soar or to sink. Then what will be to us
tho store, the shop, the office, the applause
of the world, the scorn of our enemies, the
things that lifted us up and the things that
pressed us down! What to John Wesley
are ail the mobs that howled after him!
What to Voltaire are all the Nations that
applauded him? What to Paul now the
dungeons that chilled him? What to Lati
mer now the flames that consumed him?
All those, who, through the grace of
Christ, reach that land will never be dis
turbed.
None to dispute their throne, they shall
reign forever and ever. But, alas! for
those who have made no preparation for
the future. When the sharp-shod hoofs of
eternal come up panting and swift
to go overjhein, how will they contend
with And when the waves of
their wretchedness rise up, white and
foamy, under the swooping of eternal
storms, and the billows become more
wrathful and dash more high, oh, what
will they do “amid the swelling of
Jordan?”
If 1 could come into your heart this mo
ment, 1 would see that many of you, my
dear friends, had vowed to he the Lord’s.
1 know not what sickness it was, or what
trial; but 1 verily believe there is not
a man in the house but that ho has some
time vowed he would he the Lord’s. It
might have been at the time when your
child lay sick you said: “O, Lord, if Thou
wilt let this child get well 1 will be a Chris
tian.”
Or it might have been in some business
trouble, when you have said: “O Lord, if
Thou wilt let me keep my property I will
be a Christian.” You kept your property,
your child got well, the peril passed. Are
you a Christian ?
History says that long ago it had been
announced that the world was coming to
an end, and there was great excitement in
London. It was said that the world would
perish on a certain Friday. On Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the peo
ple were in the cathedral, praying and
weeping. It seemed as if the whole Eng
lish nation was being converted to God,
for it was announced as certain by philos
ophers that on that coming Friday the
world would perish. Friday came, and
there were no portents, no fires in the
air, no earthquakes. The day passed
along just like every other day, and
when it was passed and the nigLt
came, it is said that in London there
VOL. IV.—NO. 2.
was a scene of riot, anrt wassailf and
drunkenness, and debauchery, such as had
never been witnessed. They forgot their
vow, they forgot their repentance, they
forgot their good resolutions. Oh, how
much human nature in that! While trials
and misfortunes come to us, and we are
down deep in darkness and trouble we
make vows. We say: “Oh, Lord, do so,
and I will do so.” The darkness passes,
the peril goes away. We are as wo were
before, or worse; for, oh! how often I have
seen men start for the kingdom of God,
come up to within arm’s reach of it,
and then go hack further from God than
they were before, dropping from the
every moment of their privilege into dark
ness forever! Oh, how ungrateful we
have been! Do you know how much God
has done for ycu and for me? Have you
never felt it! How much He did for you
to-clayi Who spread the table for you?
Who watched yifli last night? Who has
been kind and good to you all your life
long? Oh how ungrateful we have been i
Methinks the goodness of God ought
to lead this whole audience to repentance.
I know not your individual history. Soma
of you I never saw before, some of you I
will never see again; but I know that God
has been good to you. What return have
you made?
There was a steamer on one of the Wes
tern lakes heavily laden with passeagers,
and there was a little child who stood on
the site of the taffrail leaning over and
watching the water, when she lost her
balance and dropped into the waves. The
lake "vas very rough. The mother cried,
“SaM* my child! Save my child!” There
seenifil none disposed to leap into
the f’ater. There - was a Newfound
land dog on deck. He looked up
in hit master’s face, as if for orders. His
master said: “Tray, overbo.rd, catch
’em!” The dog sprang into the water,
caught the child by the garments, and
swam back to the steamer. The child was
picked up by loving hands, the dog was
lifted on dock, and the mother, ere she
fainted away, in utter thanksgiving to that
dog, threw her arms around its neck and
kissed it; but the dog shook himself off
from her embrace and went and laid down,
as though he had accomplished nothing.
Shall a mother be grateful to a dog that
saves her child, and be ungrateful to the
Bon of God, who, from the heights of
heaven plunged into the depths of dark
ness and suffering and woe that He might
lift us up out of our sin and place us on
the rock of ages? Oh, the height, the
depth, the length, the infinity, the horror
of our ingratitude!' Don’t you treat Jesus
like that any more. Don’t you thrust Him
back from your soul. Ho has been
the best friend you ever had. You
will want him after a while. When
the world is going away from your grasp,
and all the lights that shine on your soul
are going out, and the friends who stand
around you can do no good, and you feel
you< feet slipping away from beneath
you—oh, then you will want Him—the
loving Jesus, the sympathetic Jesus, the
pardoning Jesus—to stand close by you
and hold you up “amid the swelling of
Jordan.”
CHARACTER OF OUR WORDS.
By Them Wo Shall Be Jutiflud, or By
Them We Shall Be Condemned.
What, then, is the character of our
words, the tenor of our speech? Are you
a strictly truthful mail? Do your words al
ways and exactly represent your opinions,
your purposes, your feelings? Do you
avoid the prevarication, false suggestion,
double meaning, ambushes of words; and
this not only in business, but also in every
walk of life?
Again, aro you in the habit of speaking
kindly of others? Do you speak generously
of those whose reputation is under a cloud
of those who have in
jured you! Again, what are your favorite
themes of conversation? Are they the
things which are true, and honorable, and
just, and pure, and lovely, and well-re
puted, and virtuous, and praiseworthy ? Is
your speech always with grace, seasoned
with salt—not the salt of biting, attic wit,
but the salt of society, conserving and up
building? In short, does your conversa
tion tend to edification—that is to say, to
character-building? If conscience permits
thee to answer Yes to these questions,
blessed art thou; for by these words of
thine thou wilt be justified.
Do you ever allow yourself to fall into
thecritical mood, speakingdisparagingly of
others, painting out their faults, making
them the butt of your ridicule and sarcasm
and wit? When a fair and honored nama
is clouded, do you ever join in the popular
hue and cry “Guilty, guilty!” Do you
ever indulge in innuendoes or ambiguous
hints, or allow to pass unchallenged sur
mises about your rivals in business or those
who have injured you? Do you over listen
to a tale of slander, a vagabond hint ef gos
sip, and without stopping to inquire into
its truth, thoughtlessly repeat it? Again,
what are the things about which you may
easily and naturally tend to talk? Are
they the things which are untrue, and dis
honorable, and unjuat, and impure, and un
lovely, and slanderous, and wicked, and
despicable? Do you generally find it easier
to talk about health and rank and fashion;
about what is idle and frivolous and gos
sipy? In short, does your conversation lack
in edification—that is to say, in character
and society building? If conscience com
pels thee to answer Yes to these and sim
ilar questions, wretched art thou, for by
these words of thine thou wilt be con
demned. — lieu. George Dana Boardman, D. D.
In ourselves, rather than in material nat
ure, lie the true source and life of the beau
tiful. The human soul is the sun which
diffuses light on every side, investing cre
ation with its lovely hues, and calling forth
the poetic element that lies hidden in every
existing thing. — ltaMaini.
CoMroRT thyself in life as at a banquet.
If a plate is offered thee, extend thy hand
and take it moderately; if it be with
drawn, do not detain it. If it come not to
thy side, make not thy desire loudly known,
but wait patiently till it ba offered thee.—
EpicUtu, a,
■ ■ ■■■mom
Hope is always liberal, and they that
trust her promis >s make little scruple of
reveling to-day ou the profits of to-morrow.
— Johnson,
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