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193 loathsomeness, of agony, raid of sickening decay, which it is designed to neutralize. While our minds would fain dwell upon mercy and benevolence to man, bruised bodies and aching limbs force themselves upon our imagination or our sight. While we would delight ourselves in the harmonious tones of human joy. our ears are filled with the sighs and groans of men's misery. Indeed, this world of ours, ever since the fall of Adam, has been a scene of suffering and woe. Bodily distress and physical anguish have ever been the common portion of man all over the globe. The condition of man may but too justly be characterized as a condition of suffering. With respect to the body as well as to the sensitive soul, the words of Scripture are erprally true, that "man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward." The frames of but few, born into this world, are whole, and strong, and healthy. Somewhere, in every one's system, there is a tender point, or an infirm organ, or a weakened nerve, or a fractured limb, or a heart not altogether sound, or a lingering cancer, or just the taint of corruption, which will cause a diseased lung, and in the end produce consumption. And thus disease, everywhere, produces sorrow and wretchedness. The air is filled with the shrieks and groans of the suffering. The very sounds of nature are plaintive and mournful. Every breeze that sweeps over the plains, has its tale of pain and anguish. Every wind, in melancholy tones, wails out its agonizing report of disaster and of death. Even in the gentlest gales, we may hear the groans of infants, the shrieks of convulsed children, the moans of agonized men, the