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REV. DR PAYSON.

the birds pour forth their anthems of gladness; and the wide face of creation itself seems as if awakened and refreshed from a mighty slumber."

3. It is good for the mental or thinking powers to rise early-Solomon says, "Let us get up early to the vineyard; let us see if the vines flourish; if the tender grape appears; if the pomegranates bud forth." The wise man takes it for granted here, that the mind is active at this hour in observation, as it truly

is. There is not a little reason to believe that Solomon devoted this sacred season, as some have called it, to the study of "the hyssop," the "cedar," and other plants and trees; and that it was his morning studies that enabled him to become a teacher of all the kings of the then known world.

son,

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with a fatal disease, and hurried to the eternal world. But, while dying of cholera, he had his reaand conversed about his future state, his hope and prospects, and admonished others to prepare to follow him. His conversation, his influence, were blessed to his wicked father. The natural affections of that ungodly father were lacerated by his affliction, and thus the way was prepared for the application of other influences. The meekness and patience of the little sufferer, and his evident anxiety for the salvation of others, were seen to be the fruits of that new character which he had acquired in the Sabbath school. And when, in addition to all the other

4. It is economical to rise early.—Franklin used to influences that gathered around that dying bed, that

gay,

"Early to bed, and early to rise.

Makes men healthy, wealthy, and wise.'' Exercise of the body, whether in recreation or at labour, is worth a great deal more in the morning than at any other time of the day. An early walk is much more agreeable, as well as more useful, than a later

one. The labour of the farmer and the mechanic is also more agreeable in the morning than at any other time, to say nothing of its usefulness. The lesson of the school or of the family is easier studied, better understood, and more readily retained, than at any other time. Devotion, too, is more spiritual at this hour than at any other hour of the day.

5. It is rational to rise early.-To lie in the morning after the sun is up, or even after early dawn, not only renders us like brutes, but like brutes of the most stupid sort-the woodchuck, the bear, the marmot, and the swine.

6. It is for the profit of the soul to rise early.-The morning is a precious time for prayer, for reading, for meditation, for communion with God. He who lies long in bed seldom remains long on his knees.

THE BOY THAT SAVED HIS FATHER. "By their fruits ye shall know them." There is no demonstration of the value of an institution, which carries such conviction to every mind, as that made by the actual results which it secures. Let us know what the institution has done, and we can easily tell what it is worth. This demonstration of the value of Sabbath-schools, brought out in their results, is elaborate and complete.

It is manifold; the argument is cumulative. It piles up its vast array-its treasury of facts-like mountains upon mountains. Every individual who has been blessed with light, with restraint, or with salvation in the Sabbath school, is a witness of its worth. Every instance of reformation, or of the diffusion of intelligence, or of divine influence by means of Sabbath schools, adds to the pyramid of evidence that commemorates their value. At a late meeting of a general association of ministers, a member, to show the importance of sustaining them, stated the fact, that a little boy, brought into the school with others, found there almost the only religious influence that ever reached his mind. He was there taught the way of life. The seed of the word sprung up and bore fruit unto eternal life. This great result was secured, notwithstanding the most adverse influences at home, opposed to the work of grace. At length he was suddenly attacked

profane and godless opposer of religion heard from the lips of his child, as I e sunk into the arms of death, this last message of affection and piety, "Father, do not grieve so; for if you'll be good, you can come to heaven too," he was convinced of the reality and saving power of his child's triumphant faith, and was pierced with conviction for sin in view of his own want of it, and in view of the conscious fact, that he was not prepared thus to die in peace. This was the means of his salvation.

That child is now in heaven. That father is now in the Church, a useful and consistent member, walking in the strait and narrow way, and blessing by his influence the Christian community with which he is connected.

1. One such fact shows the value of Sabbath

schools. But there are ten thousand of them, bearing witness to the same point.

2. How vast the consequence of the trifling effort that brought that little boy into the circle of these blessed influences !

3. Who can estimate the value of the eternal satisfaction which that faithful teacher will enjoy, by whose fidelity these results were secured?

4. If Sabbath schools had never accomplished any good but what is here recorded, who can say but that these saving results are worth all they cost?

5. Why may not every Sabbath school publish just such successes every year?

REV. DR PAYSON. DR PAYSON seems to have touched the right string, when, writing to a young clergyman, he says:"Some time since, I took up a little work, purporting to be the lives of sundry characters as related by themselves. Two of those characters agreed in saying. that they were never happy until they had ceased striving to be great men. This remark struck me, as you know the most simple remarks will strike us, when Heaven pleases. It occurred to me at once, that most of my sorrows and sufferings were occasioned by an unwillingness to be the nothing which I am, and by consequent struggles to be something. I saw if I would but cease struggling, and consent to be any thing, or nothing, just as God pleases, I might be happy. You will think it strange that I mention this as a new discovery. In one sense it was not new; I have known it for years. But I now saw it in a new light. My heart saw it, and consented to it; and I am comparatively happy. My dear brother, if you can give up all desire to be great, and feel heartily willing to be nothing, you will be happy too.

DR PAYSON was once going to one of the towns in Maine, for the purpose of attending a ministers' meeting, accompanied by a friend, when they had occasion to call at a house on the journey where Dr Payson was unknown. The family had just sat down to tea; and the lady of the house, in the spirit of genuine hospitality, invited the strangers to partake of the social repast. Dr Payson at first declined; but, being strenuously urged, he consented. As he took his seat, he inquired if a blessing had been asked; and, being answered in the negative, requested the privilege, which was readily granted, of invoking the benediction of Heaven. This was done with so much fervour, solemnity, and simplicity, that it had the happiest effect. The old lady treated the company with the utmost attention; and, as Dr Payson was about to leave, he said to her, "Madam, you have treated me with much hospitality and kindness, for which I thank you sincerely; but, allow me to ask, how do you treat my Master? That is of infinitely greater consequence than how you treat me." He continued in a strain of appropriate exhortation; and, having done his duty in the circumstances, proceeded on his journey. This visit was sanctified to the conversion of the lady and her household. The revival continued in the neighbourhood; and, in a short time, a church was built, and the regular ordinances of religion established.

ON another occasion he went to see a sick person, who was very much troubled because she could not keep her mind all the time fixed upon Christ, on account of the distracting influences of her sufferings, and the various objects and occurrences of the sickroom, which constantly called off her attention. She was afraid that she did not love her Saviour, as she found it so difficult to fix her mind upon him. Dr Payson said, "Suppose you were to see a sick little child, lying in its mother's lap, with its faculties impaired by its sufferings, so that it was generally in a troubled sleep; but now and then it just opens its eyes a little, and gets a glimpse of its mother's face, so as to be called to the recollection that it is in its mother's arms; and suppose that always, at such a time, it should smile faintly with evident pleasure to find where it was; should you doubt whether that child loved its mother or not?" The poor sufferer's doubt and despondency were gone in a moment.

THE MINISTER ONLY THE LEADER IN PRAYER.

Ir is related of the late Dr John Breckinridge, whilst the chaplain to Congress, that, observing that several members of that body kept their seats and continued reading whilst he was offering prayer, he one morning arose in his place and said, "Let us pray." Waiting some minutes for them to arise, he repeated the expression, Let us pray-emphasizing in his peculiar way the word us, and then ad led-"I did not say let me pray, but let us pray, all of us.' The rebuke had its desired effect. All of the members, from that time until the end of the session, invariably arose, and stood in a respectful attitude whilst he led their morning devotions. The rebuke might with great propriety be administered to most of our congregations. Many of them regard the prayers that are offered as the duty peculiarly of the ministry, just as preaching is, and their own duty is to listen to them respectfully. We have rejected the practice adopted by some churches of audible responses, expressing our adoption of the petition offered by the ministry; and in doing so it is feared that but too many have with this rejection given up

also the mental concurrence, which is the main thing in all true prayer. With a late writer in the "Biblical Repertory," we must say, that" with all charity we cannot help suspecting that real union in the prayers of our religious assemblies is confined to a very few persons; that many Christians, even of the most lively and conscientious sort, only hear the prayers, and that multitudes do not so much as that. If such suspicions are groundless, we are sorry, and abhor them, and glad that truth does not warrant them. We put it to the consciences of those concerned. In public devotion the assembly prays, and not the minister alone. The prayer is the prayer of the congregation. It is not conceived that the prayer of the pulpit is a mere expression of the sentiments of the speaker, in the name and behalf of the congregation."

The leader does not speak in his own name, or offer his own petitions, but those of the congregation as far as he knows them. Every member of the congregation is supposed to adopt the prayer as his own, and thus it goes up to the throne of grace as the united desire of the hearts of the whole congregation. Wherever this concurrence is wanting, all the advantages from union in prayer are lost. The minister might just as well have offered the prayer in his closet before he left home.-Presbyterian Herald.

A SUNNY SPIRIT.

How beautiful it is! A spirit of cheerfulness and readiness to enjoy, of genial humour, of warmth and gentleness and hopefulness of feeling, of charity and kindliness, of peaceful faith, of brightness of fancy and clearness of thought, and the joyful appreciation of all that is beautiful! What a charm such a spirit sheds about its professor! How tranquil and how happy are the family circles amid which it prevails! How does it make the common words of the soul which it pervades as musical in their flow as brooks in June! How sweetly does it retain its serenity against the strong impulse of opposition! How does it enlighten that portion of life which is overhung and shadowed by sorrow or by peril! How does it imbue with beauty the literature or the art of the mind that is its dwelling! How does it convert even the infirmities of old age, which it cannot dissipate, into occasions of pleasant remembrances and pleasanter anticipations; as the sun at evening lines the thickest clouds with pearls and silver, and edges their masses with golden sheen! And how does such a spirit, as the evidence and the result of faith in Christ, and of delightful trust in our divine Father, correspond with all that is sublime in holiness, and grand in self-devotion, and powerful and uplifting in belief of the truth? How does it find its fitting and natural consummation, after life's day is done, amid the rest and peace of heaven!

Who would not have "a sunny spirit?" that charming effluence of Christianity; that sweetener of life; that beautiful essence, pervading our thoughts, the fruit of gentle submission to the Divine wisdom; that shadow of God's home, as Plato said the light was of his body! No felicity of organization, no effect of the will, no friendly guidance and education alone, can give it-can render it perfect and make it permanent. But in Christ Jesus, through faith in

REPENT FIRST.

him, and the reception of his spirit, and joyful trust in his redemption, we may all find it.-Independent.

LOST AFFLICTIONS.

CHRISTIANS often lose their afflictions as well as their

blessings. "You were greatly afflicted at that time," said one to his friend, in allusion to the death of a child.

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"Yes," was the reply, "but I lost the affliction." "How so?"

"I bore up under it in my own strength, and I sought comfort in the wrong way; and so lost nearly

all the benefit of the trial."

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and kindle and glow with the sentiments the lips are uttering.

Now let the minister make it a rule to spend his Saturday evenings with his God and his sermons for the coming day-let him labour by prayer and by meditation to put himself in the place of the inspired men whose sentiments he is to echo-let him draw

aside the veil, and view the awful realities of the eternity in view of which he preaches, to arouse all the latent sympathies of his soul, and all this in view of the particular topics which he is to discuss on the morrow; and then, if ever, he will be eloquent. After this, he will not "court a grin when he should| concentrated, the people feel, and God has the glory. win a soul." The energies of head and heart are

A SPIRITUAL MINISTRY.

If we would not lose our afflictions we must deal-Morning Star. with them aright. We must not occupy our minds in considering how they happened, or how they might have been prevented. We must give but small space in our thoughts to second causes. No doubt, second causes are connected with all our afflictions; still they are the work of God. In regard to every afflictive event we must say and feel, it is the work of

God.

We must draw our comfort and support in affliction from God alone. We must banish such atheistic sources of consolation as the following-that we are suffering the inevitable lot of man, that our

condition is still preferable to that of many others. We must not trust to our own self-possession and strength of mind. We must say, God has done it, and I am content. It is the work of infinite love, guided by infinite wisdom. We must earnestly inquire wherefore the affliction was sent. We must ask counsel of God in this matter, and fervently pray that we may not fail to secure the benefit designed.

O how numerous have been our lost afflictions! What progress should we have made in holiness had we derived from our afflictions the benefits which they were designed to confer! Let us resolve to suffer no further losses in this respect. When God's band shall again be laid upon us, let us see to it that it draw us nearer to Him.-Observer.

MINISTERS SATURDAY EVENINGS. HOWEVER it may be with others, the minister finds it greatly to his advantage to be at home in quiet retirement on this Christian" eve of preparation." We do not say that he should prepare his sermon or declaim it before a mirror. But we do say that he should be on that evening crowding his discourses for the next day into his heart, and filling his soul with the spirit of them. Eloquence, like man, has a soul. If its body has been prepared during the week, its soul need be breathed into it on Saturday evening, or before. The body of eloquence can be written. The body of a sermon can, and preserved in manuscript for any occasion. But the soul cannot. This admits of no such preservation. This must live, not like ideas in the memory, but in the heart. The fact that it lives here Wednesday, is no certain proof that it will be found there Sunday. But if it be warm there, when the minister closes his eyes Saturday night, it will be very likely to be found there the next morning.

Much is said about studying sermons. And too much cannot be said in favour of it. But it is, if possible, more necessary that sermons be interwoven with the soul's affections, sanctified by prayer, steeped in the heart. Eloquence and declamation are quite two things. The latter is taught in the schools; but the former only where the soul is taught to warm

THE people who enjoy the ministrations of a truly spiritually-minded pastor, have a blessing, the value mating. There is a worth in spirituality for which of which they are in but little danger of over-estino greatness of natural or acquired abilities can compensate. Learning and abilities are qualities much more easily attained, and much more easily judged of. Piety does not lie on the surface; it is developed by the life. But its possession is the best guarantee for that intellectual growth for which piety is too ledge; his very piety supplies the most impulsive and often sacrificed. The man of piety will grow in knowsustaining motives in the universe for labour and study. The richer his experiences in grace, the broader and brighter the fields of knowledge which will open before him, to invite to higher and higher attainments. But if he be not learned or philosophical, he has in his spirituality a source of power far surpassing the utmost scope of influence that learning ever supplied. Preachers in Protestant countries must respect the heads of people; but after all, in any congregation of immortal men who have souls to save, and sins to be forgiven, to affect the heart is the preacher's chief business. The difficulty in the way of the gospel, is not so much the want of knowledge as of feeling. The preacher's desideratum, is not so much the power to instruct as to move; light is needed, but warmth and life are more wanted. Piety-which emits its electric fire from heart to heart, that gathers and wields the pathos and thrill of eternity-gets hold of the moral susceptibilities of the soul, and rouses its latent powers to the mighty business of salvation.

REPENT FIRST.

THE minds of many persons are occupied wholly about the speculative points of religion, while the heart is turned away from it, and all its practical duties are neglected. Religion is a practical matter; it respects chiefly the heart and life. In revealed religion there may be many deep things-truths which respect God and the future state, that may lie beyond our comprehension; but all that respects duty and salvation is perfectly plain to the humblest inquirer, provided he performs his duty so far as he knows it, and comes to the fountains of truth with an humble spirit and a teachable disposition. To repent of sin, to believe in Christ, to love and serve God, to abstain from evil and do good, what can be more simple than these? And yet these are the religion of Jesus; and consequently upon them is the

salvation of the soul. Instead of perplexing themselves about the "difficulties of religion," would men pray for divine enlightenment and renewing grace, and thus enabled, would they perform the great first duties of repentance and faith, all their difficulties

would vanish.

We have heard of an intelligent speculatist, who had long been perplexed about certain doctrinal points in religion, and yet performed none of its duties. The more he reflected, the greater those difficulties appeared. Near him there lived an aged African, in whose piety he had entire confidence; to him he went and stated the case, and sought a solution of his difficulties. To him the old man, simple. ninded, but taught of God, replied: "Master, you begin wrong, and you will never get on in that way. The difficulties you mention are away on in the Ronans; but in the beginning of the Testament, it comnands men to repent. You have never repented, and you cannot get on without repentance. Go and repent, and then all the hard places will become easy." In this reply was great point and appropriateness. It is perfectly accordant, also, with the Saviour's declaration," If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." Again: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Those, then, who would be saved, let them think of these things, and do as is here required. Repent first, and go to Jesus by faith. He is the way, the truth, and the life. All then will be plain and easy.

TRANSPARENCY OF CHARACTER. WE have lying before us upon our table one of those singular globes of glass, into the centre of whose crystalline solid, an art to us entirely mysterious has introduced what look like flowers and beads And the films of lace-work. In itself it is beautiful to look upon, and more than once in the midst of our hurry we have paused to be refreshed by a momentary glance at its varied structure. It is strangely exciting to the curiosity, too, and our fancy has been more busy than ever before, since the hot weather came on, in trying to read the secret of its construction,-a secret known, if we understand aright, to only one or two persons in the country.

But one lesson which our silent friend has breathed into our ear, and which we are fain to share with our readers, is a spiritual lesson, of the beauty of the Character, of which it is not inappropriately the symbol and suggester ;-the character, which is at once firm and transparent, like the crystal in clearness, yet also shaped into forms of symmetry by culture and training; the character, which shelters within itself, in its clear depths, the ornaments of scholarship and the graces of fancy; the character, which, though pure and delicate, can be jostled and overthrown in the conflicts of life without fracture; upon which all soil is but outward and transient, to be washed away by the first touch of the truth; a character which will abide when impurities shall be destroyed. But ah! is it not also true-blessed be God it is true-that such a character, unlike this

inanimate solid, has in it a principle of vitality, and shall grow steadily more precious and more beautiful until transferred to the Celestial, and then for ever!-Independent.

THE PESTILENCE THAT WALKETH IN DARKNESS.

THE attentive student of the Holy Scriptures will frequently find an expansive practical meaning contained in what the careless reader would deem to be a rhetorical figure, introduced merely for the purpose of euphony and embellishment. The phrase," The pestilence that walketh in darkness," has in it more than the mere mention of one of the inflictions to which men are subject. It contains a significant de claration of the particular time when the morbid influence that brings disease and death is more especially virulent and active. The inspired writer, with a wisdom that penetrated beyond the ordinary vision of mortals, declares that it walketh in darkness. The discoveries of modern science give peculiar significance and force to this expression of Holy writ. It is ascertained to be true, that the seeds of epidemic and miasmatic disease are generated, and exert their activity during the darkness of the night, and in places that are unvisited by the purifying rays of the sun. When light is upon the earth, and the sun is hidden from view, then the pestilential vapours arise from the causes where they are generated, and, in the expressive words of the sacred text, walk forth to do the bidding of him who created them, who set bounds to their activity, and fixed the seasons when they should fasten themselves upon their victims.

REV. J. A. JAMES,

"IF the present lecturer," says Rev. J. A. James, "has a right to consider himself a real Christian-if he has been of any service to his fellow-creatures, and has attained to any usefulness in the Church of Christ, he owes it, in the way of means and instrumentality, to the sight of a companion, who slept in the same room with him, bending his knees in prayer on retiring to rest. That scene, so unostentatious and yet so unconcealed, roused my slumbering conscience, and sent an arrow to my heart; for though I had been religiously educated I had restrained prayer, and cast off the fear of God; my conversion to God followed, and soon afterwards my entrance upon college studies for the work of the ministry. Nearly half a century has rolled away since then, with all its multitudinous events; but that little chamber, that humble couch, that praying youth, are still present to my imagination, and will never be forgot ten, even amidst the splendour of heaven and through the ages of eternity."

THE DOOM OF THE LOST. WHO is there that does not know something of the bitterness of self-reproach? We see one burying himself in seclusion from the haunts of men, to get away from the upbraidings of conscience. We see another drowning his voice in intoxication, and preferring the life of a beast to a sense of accountability. A third cries out in an agony of spirit, and reveals his secret murders, and prays that civil justice may execute its sentence as some little atonement for his crimes. A fourth, goaded even to madness by its stings, rushes unbidden into the presence of his Judge, to know the worst of his case! All this is not the fill every pore with suffering at the thought, “Life remorse of hell. This is not that agony which will and death were set before me, and I chose death." In that world there will be no seclusion from the eye

PARENTAL FIDELITY.

of Jehovah. Your naked souls will be continually exposed to his piercing glance. There will be no intoxicating draught, in which you can lose your sense of accountability and become beasts. There is no gallows, to which you can look with the vain hope of expiating your sins. There will be no means of suicide, no escape from the existing torment, no change, nor hope of change. You will know the worst of it, and not have even the poor relief of change. If you open your eyes, you will only see the heaven you have rejected, and the hell you have chosen. If you close them, it will only call home your thoughts again to the same point: "Life and death were set before me, and I chose death." Every new view of the destruction you have brought upon yourselves, will only add to your torment. Every thought of heaven will only bring home with a more withering energy the thought, "I might have been there, but I chose death." Every pang of suffering will but recall to you, " It is my own choice." And there will be no end to this. From the nature of the subject there can be no end. When ages on ages shall bave rolled away, the thought will still be as true as ever, and as bitter as ever: "Life and death were set before me, and I chose death."

THE POOR MAN'S HYMN.

As much have I of worldly good

As e'er my Master had;

I diet on as dainty food,

And am as richly clad

(Though plain my garb, though scant my board) As Mary's son, as Nature's Lord.

The manger was his infant bed;

His home the mountain cave; He had not where to lay his head;

He borrow'd e'en his grave. Earth yielded him no resting spotHer Maker, but she knew him not.

As much the world's good will I share,
Its favour and applause,

As He whose blessed name I bear-
Hated without a cause-
Despised, rejected, mock'd by pride,
Betray'd, forsaken-crucified.

DO SOMETHING.

Yet many

THE most important principle in life is a pursuit. Without a pursuit, no one can ever be really happy. and hold a proper rank in society. The humble wood sawyer is a better member of society than the fop without brains or employment. young men of our great cities strive for the distinction awarded to fools. They are content to exist on the products of other hands, and are, in truth, little better than barefaced rogues. They live on ill-gotten spoils, go on credit, lie and cheat, rather than pursue a calling which would render them useful to themselves and mankind generally. None can be happy without employment, mental or physical. The idler is a fit candidate for the penitentiary or the gallows.

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A RECIPE-TO SHAKE OFF TROUBLE. SET about doing good to somebody; put on your hat, their wants, and administer unto them; seek out the and go and visit the sick and the poor; inquire into desolate and oppressed, and tell them of the consolations of religion. I have often tried this method, and have always found it the best medicine for a heavy heart.-Howard.

PARENTAL FIDELITY.

THE Puritan preachers and writers dwelt much on the importance of the religious education of the young. They were mindful of the injunction, “Thou shalt teach them (God's commandments) diligently to thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Baxter has somewhere remarked, that if parents were faithful in the religious training of their children, there would be but little occasion to preach to adult sinners. Flavel abounded in appeals and expostulations adapted to rouse parents to the duty of bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Would that the following queries, set forth by him, might be seriously considered by Christian parents.

1. "Whether it be likely, if the time of youth. which is the moulding age, be neglected, they wil be wrought upon to any good afterwards? You may bring a tender twig to grow in what form you please. but when it is grown to a sturdy limb, there is no bending it afterwards to any other form than that which it naturally took. Thus it is with children. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

2. "Whether, if you neglect to instruct them in the way of the Lord, Satan and their own natural corruptions will not instruct them in the way to hell? Consider this, ye careless parents; if you will not teach your children, the devil will teach them; if you show them not how to pray, he will show them how to curse and swear, and take the name of the Lord in vain. If you grudge time and pains about their souls, the devil doth not. O it is a sad consideration, that so many children should be put to school to the devil!

3. "What comfort are you like to have from them when they are old, if you bring them not up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord when they are young? Many parents have lived to reap in their old age the fruit of their own folly and carelessness, in the loose and vain education of their children. By Lycurgus's law, no parent was to be relieved by his children in age, if he gave them not a good education in their youth. It was a law in a certain country, that if any child was condemned to die for a capital offence, the parents of that child were to be his executioners. This was to provoke parents to look better to their charge. Believe this as an undoubted truth; that the child which becomes, through thy default, an instrument to dishonour God, shall prove, sooner or later, a son or daughter of sorrow unto thee."

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