29 heard, believed, and were baptized, and 2 were reclaimed. Bro. Shannon was present, and spoke with general satisfaction for two days; Bro. Wills, also, attended one day; the rest of the time I was the principal speaker, assisted by Bro. Crisman, the resident teacher." Under date of August 26th, Bro. Allen says: Yesterday evening I returned home from the upper end of the Two Mile Prairie, where I had been conducting a meeting for three days, with Bro. Crisman, Bro. Wills being present two days. The Methodists had a camp meeting in progress close to us, yet we had very large congregations and profound attention-6 persons confessed the Lord and were baptized. Bros. Wills and Crisman will continue the meeting to day. This makes 48 additions that have been obtained there and at Friendship, in a short time. Bro. T. N. Gaines, of Lexington, informs me that he had 12 additions at Dover, at a meeting he held, embracing the second Lord's day of this month." INDIANA.-Bro. J Snyder reports 33 additions to the cause of Christ, as plead at New Hope, six miles from Columbus, where he resides. Bro. Hubbard dispersed the good seed on that occasion. ARKANSAS.-Bro. Whitfield, of Camden, reports 31 additions made to the churches in Ouachita, Hempstead and Pike counties, by the labors of Bro. James S. Wade, assisted by his father, Eld. M. H. Wade, aged upwards of seventy years, a veteran in the cause of his Master. WISCONSIN.-Bro. L. P. Correll, of Hazel Green, Grant county, reports 75 additions made in his county, during his labors for the last seven or eight months. The brethren, he adds, are much encouraged, and are also engaged in building a house of worship. MARYLAND.-Bro. J. R. Frame, of Boonsboro', speaks favorably of the prospect of things in Washington county. The audiences were large and attentive-2 made the good confession. The annual meeting for Hartford county was well attended, and 2 there, also, confessed the Lord at our last advices, the meeting still being in progress. He farther adds, "Our State co-operation was brought to a close at this meeting, and it is probable we will soon have two evangelists in the field. Washington City is included in the Maryland. co-operation, and the evangelists will labor regularly at that point. This is an important centre, and so soon as they get a house of worship, the churches generally ought to sustain a speaker there till they are able to do so themselves. A resolution, requesting the elders and evangelists to bring the matter before the churches, of contributing to the erection of a suitable house there, was unanimously passed at our late meeting." OHIO.-Bro. Calvin Smith, writing from Jackson, under date of September 9th, reports 65 additions made during a meeting of some four days at Niles, Trumbull county, and 8 persous reclaimed. Also, 3 have been immersed in Jackson, where a meeting is still in progress. This is our first presentation of the gospel in this place. Prejudice is fast giving way, and the prospect favorable for yet farther conquests. Total number reported since last month, upwards of 328. ** My absence from home during one month, has occasioned the suspension of our series of essays, and accumulated on our files many documents which shall have attention at our earliest convenience. A. C. OHIO MEETINGS. WE had the pleasure and the profit of attending four annual meetings of the Christian brotherhood on the Western Reserve, including the county of Wayne, in Ohio. We were much edified and refreshed by these meetings, and had the pleasure of addressing as many thousands, at each of them, as could satisfactorily hear the voice of one man. The best order I have ever witnessed, obtained at them all. From the intelligence obtained, they have resulted in more than one hundred and fifty baptisms. We intend, in our next Harbinger, to give a more detailed report of them. Not the slightest incident occurred, at any one of them, to mar our enjoyment, or to leave on our memories one painful impression, except that, under circumstances so propitious and so eminently favorable, not more of our fellow-citizens were converted to God and made happy under the reign of the Prince of Peace and of Life. A. C. TRIBUTE OF RESPECT. Died, on Saturday, September 13th, at Bethany, Va., Mr. WILLIAM BERRY, of Clay county, Mo., in the 22d year of his age. At a called meeting of the Students of Bethany College, on Monday, September 15th, 1851, the College duties having been suspended, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: WHEREAS, it has pleased Almighty God to remove by death, from our midst, Mr. WM. BERRY, of Liberty, Mo., who had but recently bade adieu to parents, sisters, friends and home, to enter upon the rugged ascent of the Hill of Science at Bethany College. Therefore, Resolved, That in the death of our fellow-student, Wm. Berry, we are all solemnly admonished of the uncertainty of all terrestrial pursuits, the shortness of human life, and the Omnipotence of that Sovereign who rules in the armies of heaven and executes his own will upon the earth. Resolved, That we, deeply lamenting his untimely death, do sympathize with his parents, as being bereaved of an affectionate son, who, not removed by the hand of death, would have been their comforter and the joy of their hearts in declining years; with his relations, as sustaining the loss of a noble kinsman; and with his friends, as having lost one whose place cannot be supplied: and that we do the more deeply grieve since he was, during his short but painful illness, deprived of the vigilant care of his parents and relatives, and found his final home far from his native State. Resolved, That in token of our respect, we will cherish his memory as one having high and generous aspirations, and that we will emulate the noble traits of character which we, from our short acquaintance, believe him to have possessed. Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to address a letter of condolence to his parents, together with a copy of these resolutions. Resolved, That the Secretary forward a copy of these resolutions, with an obituary notice, for publication, to the editors of the "Millennial Harbinger" and "Liberty Tribune." P. M. TALBOTT, Secretary. F. H. RISLEY, President [The Missouri Republican will please copy.] COME UNTO ME. BY WILLIAM BAXTER. "Come unto me," the Saviour cries, Assume my mild and easy yoke, In meekness strive to do my will, The stores of wisdom all are mine, I am of meek and lowly heart, Through life, then, humbly follow on; Fear not the dark and gloomy grave, OBITUARY. COVINGTON, August 12, 1851. Brother Campbell: Our congregation has recently been called upon to mourn the loss of a valuable and highly esteemed member. On Monday, July 4th, Sister JULIA CHOWNING, wife of John Chowning, Esq., of this city, departed this life, after a painful illness of two weeks, which she endured with Christian patience and fortitude. Sister Chowning, with her family, removed from Harrison county, Ky., to this city, in March, 1847. Having for six years been an exemplary member of the Christian Church, she (as might have been expected from one of her character) promptly united with the brethren here; and by her pious walk and uniform ardent devotion to her Redeemer's cause, she won and retained the confidence and affectionate regard of the faithful. Ever ready to minister to the wants of the afflicted and the destitute, there probably never lived one of whom it might more truly be said, that she was loved most by those who knew her best. An amiable and worthy family share our sympathies in their bereavement. May the promise of the Holy One to those who "die in the Lord," sustain and console them in their affliction. Yours, in the hope of immortality, G. FISHER. CONVENTIONS are as ancient as families, or family meetings. Family worship is a family convention. Two families The second class of conventions were weddings. met to form a union, by a nuptial contract on the part of one member of each entering into covenant to create a new family. These, again, met around a common sacrifice and a common altar, and thus religious, as well as civil, conventions began. As time advanced, and families increased in their number and their membership, conventional meetings, for common purposes, would naturally and necessarily increase. Patriarchs were the princes, or chiefs, or heads of families, and these, in the very olden times, called their descendants together and held an occasional feast of days. This fact is well authenticated in the book of Job-the oldest volume on the shelves of time. Abraham stands out upon the canvass of the patriarchal age a prince of patriarchs, with a household, during his own life, equal to a modern convention. His family, in process of time, became a family of families, and these, by a common blood and a common religion, formed a nation great, and mighty, and populous. That nation was, for a time, the beau ideal of nations, and was always distinguished for grand conventions. During a period of fifteen centuries after their exodus from Egypt, three grand annual conventions were held by the whole nation. These were the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or of the Passover; the SERIES IV.-VOL. I. 51 Feast of Harvest, or of First Fruits, called Pentecost; and the Feast of Ingathering, or of Tabernacles. Besides these three, they had the Feast of Trumpets, on the first day of the seventh month, being the new year's day of the civil year; the Feast of Expiation, or Atonement, held on the tenth day of Tisri, or of our September; the Sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee. Besides these, they had also that of the weekly Sabbath. Of these conventions three were most conspicuous, because all their males were to be convened at the great centre of attraction--the Sanctuary of the Lord. That preparatory institution was superlatively social, benevolently adapted to the genius of human nature, and admirably designed to promote social enjoyment. Christianity is but the true and real antitype of it. It began at a convention held in Jerusalem, and that the most splendid ever held on earth. It was a meeting of days--a protracted meeting--and so long protracted, that Christians resident. in Jerusalem and elsewhere, sold houses and lands, not to institute a community of goods, or a joint stock company, as many have foolishly imagined, but to prolong the feast and protract the pleasures ineffable and full of heaven--the fruits of a copious effusion of the Spirit of God, the Holy Guest of that great festival. Our Lord's days are weekly convocations around the table of the Lord, in the house of prayer, the pillar and stay of the gospel in the world. But these are not all that is necessary to the wants, the duties, and the enjoyments of the Christian age. We as much need annual festivals, conventions, or big meetings, in the Christian Kingdom of God, as they did in the Jewish Kingdom of God. "As iron sharpeneth iron,” or, rather, a better translation, “Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." And if this be true--and who dare question it?--what quickening, animating, enlightening, polishing influence must a protracted convention of a thousand brethren, with a thousand sisters, have upon one another? But I design no work of supererogation, and will not imagine that any Christian brother or sister dissents from me in the utility, importance, and blessedness of large protracted conventions of Christians, assembled to worship God our Father through Jesus Christ our common Lord and Saviour; to exhort and stir up each other to adorn our calling, and to commend, by preaching, teaching, and exhortation, the gospel of our salvation to our fellow-men, that they may freely and cheerfully participate with us in the blessings of the common salvation. It is even advantageous to leave home, with all its associations, |
