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Show 114 THE GOLDEN IIOUll. How long have the opponents of this nation's cri1ne been 1110t wiLh the co1nplaint that they were trying to hurry God? "Cannot you lcL Proviclcncc do its own "\York ?" "ProYiucncc will do a'va.y \vith the cYil in its own goo<.l tn. ne." To all of which, uot \viLhout a suspicion of its hypoc-ri y, the anLi 'lavery 1nan could only reply, with Luther, ,, God is a good worker, but loves to be hclpcu." · J t. 1 1 · " <) But 110,v, if ever " prov1 en 1a lOtH u.n d " G od ' s own bo ·ood ti1nc " n1cant anything, they arc here. Tho hour ha arrived ·when Slavery comes out ·iuc of con-stitutional and legal intrenchment , and 1nakcs its death the alternative of the death of the nation. The hour has come when the lives of our be t and LraYcst, and the bread of the poor, arc dcpcuclcnt on its overthrow. The hour has come when for the fir 't ti1nc we haYc an arn1y gathered ufficicnt in nutnbcrs and appointments to secure us infallibly again t tho c fancied dangers which have been held up to affright the timid, as followino · in the train of emancipation. 0 But w11crc arc all our Providcntialists '? Whore are those who bade us await God's own good ti1ne? 0 yo resigned ones, who so piou ly supprc sed your cnthusiasln for frecdo1n lost you shoul<l upset God's plans, do not all speak at once ! IIow doc· God's " own good ti1ne " passing over our heads find us? Behold, the Bridcgroo1n co1noth. At the altar of J u ticc, Liberty woulu ·wed An1crica. \Vherc are the lamps, filled, trimmed, and ready ? TliE GOLDEN HOUR 115 Foolish virgins, \vhil t yo go to buy, the door shall be shut ! What avails all our toiling, suffering, pleading, - what avails the rcud.cnc<l soil of Kan.·a ·, what the Lloo<l of the n1artyrs, -if now the golucn 1 or tal of opportunity to which these have brought us shall be shut in our faces ? An old. journal had this singular advcrti ·cmcnt in the column of " ·Los cs " : - " Lo T.- Yesterday, so1newltere between sunrise and Sltnset, a Golden Hour, set 'With sixty diamond minutes." No reward was offered, doubtless becau c the loser knew that the priceless jewel was gone forever. Golden is every hour ; but there arc period when n1omcnts arc hours, and hours years, and. years ages. \Vho can apprai c the hours which arriYc, one by one, ibyl-likc, each proffering the acrcd vohuncs in which the victorious destiny of a Free Republic is written ? Who can hear the full mournfulness of the word "Lost," but they who know that, as each hour departs, it goes to burn another of those volumes ? 1tfeanwhile, the stcadfa t oracle proclai1ns that, when the last hour which gives us the opportunity of c1nancipation pas c , the doom of this Union is scaled. Not one hour passes over this nation, but in itin that one hour- the nightn1arc of ages might be hurled from its breast. This hour a decree that henceforth the United States ignores utterly the rela- |