He loves, he is
beloved; he can make people feel happy, he is himself happy."
Truly had my Wilhelmina described the present; and, animated by
feelings which are gay and delicious as the beams of the spring
sun, I will now, as hitherto, let my little troop of light hopes
bound out into the future.
I hope, too, that my sermon for the next Sunday may not be without
benefit to my hearers; and even if the obdurate should sleep, I
hope that neither this nor any other of the greater or the less
unpleasantnesses which can happen to me may go to my heart and
disturb my rest. I know my Wilhelmina, and believe also that I
know myself sufficiently, to hope with certainty that I may always
make her happy. The sweet angel has given me hope that we may soon
be able to add a little creature to our little happy family, I
hope, in the future, to be yet multiplied. For my children I have
all kinds of hopes _in petto_. If I have a son, I hope that he will be
my successor; if I have a daughter, then--if August would wait--
but I fancy that he is just about to be married.
I hope in time to find a publisher for my sermons. I hope to live
yet a hundred years with my wife.
We--that is to say, my Wilhelmina and I--hope, during this time,
to be able to dry a great many tears, and to shed as few ourselves
as our lot, as children of the earth, may permit.
We hope not to survive each other.
Lastly, we hope always to be able to hope; and when the hour comes
that the hopes of the green earth vanish before the clear light of
eternal certainty, then we hope that the All-good Father may pass
a mild sentence upon His greatful and, in humility, hoping
children.
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