The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-05-05

because it seems to me one OF the
most essential conditions of salvation
and constitutes the major part of
what is by many considered to be the
evidence of true religious character.
In fact, | have known individuals
who appeared to have no religious
character independent of it, and who
if you should smooth out their solemn
countenances and cut off their pious
twanging noses would be entirely des-
titute of any religious character or
any hope of salvation whatever. And
so won't say anything about the
horses only that they hung down their
heads and dropped their tails and
stared at you out of a blind eye and
tried hard to raise one ear and
couldn't--and withal looked very
pious. And certainly if long faces
are any conclusive evidence of piety
then horses have the advantage Of
the rest of us mortals in the race after
glory. But it happened as it some
times does with human beings like
ourselves, that upon more familiar
acquaintance, we discovered that it
wasn't SO much piety that troubled
one horse as it was a sore back and
with another it was SPAWN or the
heaves or the glanders or some other
physical distress and with still others
We were made acquainted with the
fact after we mounted them that what
we had mistaken for apparent piety
was only a clear case of possession
OF the devil in disguise. And usually
it didn't take long to find it out. AT
length however we made a selection
and were off bright and early on the
way to Damascus. Our road led
across the plain under the shade of
the cypress and mulberry and poplar
until we,reached the foot of Lebanon.
There as we looked up the steep sides
of the mountain and saw only the
bare strata of white limestone and
the piled up terraces glistening in the
sun we could easily understand why it
should have been called Lebanon-or
the "white mountain we could
not understand how it could have
been said of that vast heap of rocks
towering against the sky, "the fruit
thereof shall shake like Lebanon"
But as we ascended the mountain and
looked down from the summit and
saw no rocks but only the luxuriance
of vegetation, olive groves, and mul-
berry and palm and rich vineyards,
invisible from below, we began to re
alize the force of that expression and
the marvellous fertility Of soil that
should cause mere handful of corn
in the thin earth on the very top of
the mountain to shake with such
abundance of fruitage.
We passed on the way a troop
of Turkish cavalary, and have seen
soldiers before, rebel prisoners who
came from Gettysburg with stains of
powder still fresh on their faces, hag-
CARED, emaciated with long marches
and hard fighting, without hats or
shoes, the best dressed man among
them in pair of calico pants-but
such a company of sunken eyed, hol-
low checked, half-famshed and utter
ly dispirted inhabitants of the grave
yard / thought | had never seen be-
fore. 1t reminded one of that ia.
nous company which Jack Falstaff
led to the wars when a mad fellow
met him and accused him of unload
ing all the gibbets in England and
pressing the dead bodies into the SER
vice, and yet we say, eight like
Turks" But perhaps they do-and
they explain to us that the reason
why they hghtto valiantly, is the hope
they have of being killed and getting
out of this present world into better
one. And it certainly looks very
plausible. One would think they
might, they couldn't do worse GER
tainly. But SO far as my own exper-
ience goes, and what have heard Of
them, in the capacity of military
escort among the. robber infested
i ~o.-a To,,r,c tlo., .oo.x.