function get_excerpt( $count, $more='' ) {
$permalink = get_permalink($post->ID);
$content = get_the_content();
$strip_content = strip_tags($content);
$excerpt = substr($strip_content, 0, $count);
$excerpt = substr($excerpt, 0, strripos($excerpt, " "));
$excerpt = '<div class="article_excerpt"><p>'.$excerpt.'...</p></div><a class="article_more" href="'.$permalink.'">'.$more.'</a>';
return $excerpt;
}
// calling the function
get_excerpt(150, 'more')