Title:  The Good Time Coming

Author:  T.S.  Arthur

Edition:  10

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

Release Date:  November, 2003 [Etext #4632] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 20, 2002]

The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Good Time Coming, by T.S.  Arthur *******This file should be named gdtmc10.txt or gdtmc10.zip*******

Corrected editions of our etexts get a new number, gdtmc11.txt versions based on separate sources get new letter, gdtmc10a.txt

This etext was created by Charles Aldarondo (Aldarondo@yahoo.com)

Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the us unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition.

The “legal small print” and other information about this book may now be found at the end of this file.  Please read this important information, as it gives you specific rights and tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used.

THE GOOD TIME COMING.

By T. S. Arthur.

Boston: 
Philadelphia: 

1855.

PREFACE.

Life is a mystery to all men, and the more profound the deeper the striving spirit is immersed in its own selfish instincts.  How earnestly do we all fix our eyes upon the slowly-advancing future, impatiently waiting that good time coming which never comes!  How fast the years glide by, beginning in hope and ending in disappointment!  Strange that we gain so little of true wisdom amid the sharp disappointments that meet us at almost every turn!  How keenly the writer has suffered with the rest, need not be told.  It will be enough to say that he, too, has long been an anxious waiter for the “good time coming,” which has not yet arrived.

But hope should not die because of our disappointments.  There is a good time coming, and for each one of us, if we work and wait for it; but we must work patiently, and look in the right direction.  Perhaps our meaning will be plainer after our book is read.

THE GOOD TIME COMING.

CHAPTER I.

There was not a cloud in all the bright blue sky, nor a shadow upon the landscape that lay in beauty around the lovely home of Edward Markland; a home where Love had folded her wings, and Peace sought a perpetual abiding-place.  The evening of a mild summer day came slowly on, with its soft, cool airs, that just dimpled the shining river, fluttered the elm and maple leaves, and gently swayed the aspiring heads of the old poplars, which, though failing at the root, still lifted, like virtuous manhood, their greenest branches to heaven.