The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-13

ure preaching Of the word was the most prominent part. From time to time at each meeting the favorIte preachers of the people often stirred the souls of messengers and visitors to their profoundest depths. %f
 The business feature of our meetings In these latter days is. gradually cut ting down the number and length or the sermons. In some respects this IS not to be regretted, but the tendency to regard preaching as a sort of inter ruption and not one of the chief things of the association is to be deplored | hold the preachers themselves largeIy accountable for this tendency. The brothers and sisters who gather at these annual reunions delight to near the preaching of the gospel if it be even passably well done. It is to many of them distinct disappointment, and to all of them a distinct loss, when they are deprived of 1t, and this too, no matter how interesting the reports or instructive the addresses. It is one of the ominous. signs of the. times that Tn program like the one we begin to day So little room is made for preach ing.
 God planned to save the world by preaching, and people who have been
 
 till time shall be no more. Nor do believe it wise to help push along the business of the association by making the sermons fit in with the various matters under discussion. This assem- hly of messengers from ten to fifty churches. with visitors from all Judea and Galilee and from the parts beyond Jordan make a soil into which the good seed may be sown with the con- fident hope of thirty, sixty or an hundred fold harvest.
 All And All.
 Then there is the social tie All social life is based on congeniaIity, and where can be found more congenial souls than among people who hold in common all the dearest things in life differing widely in temperament, occu- patton, possessions and culture, but all alike concerned in the chief work or man and with the dominant passion of the soul centered in Him who IS All and All.
 For this feature of the meeting to reach the flood tide the association must meet in the country where the messengers may tie their horses to swinging limbs. and where the good women are sufficiently educated to understand the mysteries of Dinner on the Ground"
 Last year our church at Mt. Pleas ant sent up a request for the next meeting of the association. and with or without a contest Ono matter row) we secured the prize.
 Ever since the pastor has been stir ring us up to be able to make a good report when the visitors arrive. Our last conference set time for sweep ing the church yard, building a bush arbor for the crowds the church house could not hold, and cleaning out the spring branch that neither man nor beast should thirst. The small boys have been busy locating and destroy ing in the woods nearby possible nests of 'yaller' jackets and "bumble" bees, which though they be pastmasters in the art of producing enthusiasm. often get in their work at the wrong time and on improper occasions.
 Last but not least, wonder sacred en' closure where sleep our fathers ana mothers. our kindred and friends. and where we hope to rest when our days work is over. that place where we walk softly with him who is the resur. rection and the life, where we go 10 shed our tears over the silent dust that shall yet hear His voice and hearing 1t shall live, that hallowed place is made spotlessly clean and all Is ready for the coming of the messengers ct the churches. All is ready, for mark you, haven't the Daughters Of Zion likewise been busy these days? For a week there have been unwonted pro- cedures proceeding in all the kitchens for miles around, sounds of pounding and beating and rolling and scraping have been coming through door and window to the outer world, and min"