labors, cares, troubles, pleasures, and meet with the thousands of Israel who have agreed to come together for a spiritual banquet on the marrow and fatness, the milk, the wine, and the honey of the kingdom of God, and to have a feast of the soul; to listen to the Master in the true sense and meaning of his strong appeal to his betrothed spouse, in the picturesque and beautiful imagery of the song of songs, in the words following:

"Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse,

With me from Lebanon;

Look from the top of Amana,

From the top of Shenir and Hermon;

From the lion's den-from the mountains of the leopards.

Thou hast captivated my heart, my sister, my spouse;

Thou hast captivated my heart with one glance of thine eyes,
With one turn of thy neck.

How beautiful is thy love, my sister, my spouse!

How much better is thy love than wine!

And the smell of thy garments than all spices!

Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honey comb:

Honey and milk are under thy tongue;

And the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse;

A spring shut up-a fountain sealed.

Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits;
Camphor, with spikenard and saffron;

Calamus and cinnamon, and all trees of frankincense,

Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

A fountain of waters, a well of living waters,

And streams from Lebanon."

And how happy we, when, in the true spirit of this beautiful invitation, we have met in Christian affection, to tune our hearts to the response of the bride, couched in the following appropriate and beautiful poetic effusion:

"Awake, O north wind! and come thou south;

Blow upon my garden,

That the spices thereof may flow out.

Let my beloved come into his garden,

And eat his pleasant fruits."

In answer to this prepartion of the heart, how delightful to hear

him respond

"I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse;

I have gathered my myrrh, with my spice;

I have eaten my honey comb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk;

Eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved.'

We have been made to understand this passage by a spiritual discernment of the blessings of the meetings of Christian brethren,

* Solomon's Spiritual Songs, chap. iv. 8-16; v. 1.

better than from all the comments we have ever read or heard upon it. This is one of the fruits of that Christian experience, which gives to the mind a spiritual perspicacity from which all worldlings are necessarily debarred. In their eyes, it is true-" He has no form, nor comeliness, and when they see him, there is no beauty that they should desire him." "He was despised," they may say, "and we esteemed him not."

But the conventions for which we now plead are very unlike ecclesiastic, synodical, or hierarchical conventions of church judicature. Our's are meetings of Christians "in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ," when they assemble to congratulate one another as members of the great family of God, and of the household of faith, and to "exhort one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in their hearts to the Lord."

True, as in duty bound, we also, on such occasions, invite our fellow-citizens to bow to the sceptre of grace; to be reconciled to God, through the merits and glory of the great Master of assemblies; and thus we endeavor to persuade mankind to be happy. In this we are generally successful, in the ratio of our own spirituality and conformity to the statutes of the great King. So it comes to pass that the word is spoken, as a general law, with most success, in those communities where the church is most exemplary in the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope, and when the speakers are themselves spiritually minded and in good earnest.

Neither logic nor rhetoric, neither great learning nor great eloquence, can supply the place of great spirituality and Christian earnestness and sincerity. Whole heartedness, with humble parts and limited attainments, will always succeed better than the most studied style-the purest diction--the most graceful periods--the most beautiful imagery, and the most fascinating mannerism, without Godly sincerity and unaffected piety. Every arrow from the bow of truth, properly aimed, will strike the object in the eye of the archer. Does he aim at the imagination, at the taste, at the head, or the heart, then will he strike the imagination, the taste, the head, or the heart of his auditory. If, while aiming at the imagination, he strikes the heart, or while aiming at the heart he strikes the imagination, it is because of some aberration of his hand or his eye. The great success of all preachers is greatly owing to favorable auditories, to honest hearts, and to spirituality and devotion to the truth as it is in Jesus. Both are essential to eminent success.

But besides these conventional meetings, there are those for the

business proper to the Christian community. These are conferential meetings on the whole affairs of the Christian kingdom. There are fields of labor to be selected, evangelists or missionaries to be sent abroad, and the ways and means of accomplishing these objects are to be considered and provided for. Brethren, as individuals, nor churches as individual communities, cannot, in their individual capacities, accomplish these objects. There must be church, as well as individual co-operation, in order to the accomplishment of our obligations to the Lord and his cause in the world.

The churches in a county, a province, or a State, may, indeed, by their joint consultation, contributions and co-operation, do much to evangelize their respective districts. But the world is the field of the whole church, and the whole church ought, as far as in its power, to co-operate in the great cause of sending the gospel to all nations. She fails in her duties to her Lord, and in the fulfilment of her mission into the world, unless she puts forth her whole power, according to her means, in this transcendent enterprize.

Stated conventional meetings, for legislation or ecclesiastic jurisdiction, are unknown to the Christian Scriptures. But that cases amongst brethren and churches may and do occur, requiring the aid, the counsel, or the abitriment of difficulties, on the part of a convention, is a matter so evident and so common in all communities, as to need no demonstration. A case of this sort occurred before the New Testament was completed, and required the wisdom and authority of apostles and elders, in convention assembled, to adjudicate and decide. Conventions of this character constitute a part of the Christian dispensation, and the experience of all ages shows how important it is to have such tribunals, on certain occasions and emergencies, well selected and ordained.

There never was an extended community on earth without such conventions; and while human weakness, folly and perversity continue, such conventions will be indispensible to the peace and prosperity of the Christian church in its general and aggregate character. But this only in passing.

Our present aim has special reference to those grand conventions of the brethren for mutual edification and comfort, and for the conversion of sinners, sometimes called anniversary, or yearly meetings, of whole districts of churches; and to give some account of these, I have recently attended in the Western Reserve portion of the State of Ohio. A. C.

OHIO ANNIVERSARIES.

On Thursday, the 21st of August, myself and lady, and a portion of my family, left home for the Ohio anniversaries. We ascended the Ohio to Wellsville that day, and enjoyed the Christian hospitalities of Bro. Mahlon Martin, of that place. Bro. Walter Scott, now of Kentucky, on his return from Pittsburgh, to our great satisfaction, simultaneously arrived and participated with us the pleasures of our sojourn in Wellsville. I had an appointment to address the citizens of the town that evening, and after tea immediately met a crowded house of attentive hearers. They were addressed on the great Salvation.

Next morning, before departing from Wellsville for New Lisbon, Bro. Scott and myself visited the new Union Schools, in a very superior edifice recently erected, much to the honor of the enterprising citizens of Wellsville. The building is large and most happily adapted, in its position and in its spacious and tastefully furnished rooms, to accommodate, with much comfort, some five hundred pupils. Its present number, though but a few months in existence, is about four hundred. Its principal, Mr. Parsons, admirably accomplished for his office, assisted by Bro. Regal, a graduate of Bethany College, and several eminently qualified female teachers. from the best eastern academies, has under his care this very large school. The pupils are the entire uneducated children of the village, embracing all ages, sexes and conditions, from five years old to manhood and womanhood. Here there is neither aristocracy nor democracy, rich nor poor. They are neither more nor less than pupils. We visited every room; and after witnessing several recitations, were requested to deliver a short address to each department. This we did at the impulse of the moment.

I may say of myself and Bro. Scott, that we were never more gratified with a visit to any elementary school, as respects the appearance, demeanor, and order of the different classes of this real seminary of learning.

We understood the streets of Wellsville were clean swept of all its children, for they were all at school, well attired, and occupying each his chair and table in mathematical precision, under an admirable training adapted to that beautiful thing called the genius of human nature, in all its buddings and dawnings from infancy to majority.

The sublime silence that reigned, not merely on our entrance, but

during our visit through all the classes, except when called to recite, and then the order and proficiency of the recitations, from the monosyllabic class up to those midway the hill of rudimental and primary school literature, was indicative of a very strict discipline and of a thorough training. These recitations were mingled with the charms which music, "heavenly maid," when young, by sweetly tuned infant voices imparts, and greatly assists to please and interest, to soothe and refresh, teachers and pupils.

We could suggest no improvement in the modes and forms of communicating instruction, as we could not regard it as a mere Lancasterian display of ready movements, by the mere force of memory, at the ringing of a bell or the nod of fugleman, but as an index of perceiving and reflecting minds, in their first sallies in the acquisition and communication of knowledge.

Its acute and discriminating principal, Mr. Parsons, after visiting the best schools of New York and New England, as well as from much experience in teaching, has, as far as we could judge from a transient visit, admirably succeeded in giving one of the best model schools of the parish, town, or district order, that we have seen. And this, too, without calling to his aid the barbarous rod of "the ferule fingered boy popes" of the times of John the Thirteenth. He has made his school so very attractive, that expulsion from it is more terrible than the club of Hercules; more poignant than all the corporeal inflictions of the reign of terror.

The streets of Wellsville, since the opening of this school, are not like many other villages, filled with squalid, filthy urchins, with lips full of cursing and profanity; but, in the evenings and mornings, with well clad, well bred, well schooled, smiling boys and girls, going to and returning from that great centre of attraction-the Wellsville Union Seminary. I would invite attention to this noble pyramid of humanity, and urge every philanthropist, who has leisure and taste, to pay this seminary, when in session, a generous and candid visit.

On Friday, the 22d, we made our way to New Lisbon, accompanied with Bros. Scott and Martin, and were most kindly received and entertained during the meeting at the house of our excellent Bro. Pritchard, under whose hospitable roof we, and many preaching brethren, were wont, some five and twenty years ago, to meet and discuss all the great elements of the current Reformation; and in that same town where, at the commencement of the great movement in Ohio, Bro. Scott immersed so many persons into the faith of the original gospel of our salvation..