As editor of this book, what would I not give for an exact report of the heart-refreshing conversations and sweet interchanges of thought and sentiment enjoyed by this group of heavenly-minded brethren, during their sojourn here!  As a relief, however, to this thought another comes to mind, that this same group are again together, not for a “Yearly Meeting,” but for an eternal meeting.  The last one has been called to glory.  The cross then; the crown now.

The interviews of brethren with each other fifty or sixty years ago present a striking contrast when placed side by side with those of the present day.  The native simplicity, the artless manners, and the honest motives of all betokened a purity of heart and life that was truly charming.  We mourn the absence of these marks of genuine piety, when at the present day, we see artistic display, formality, stiffness, and a “putting on” of studied courtesies and civilities on the part of many.  The exterior of the hive is more ornamental now than it was then, and the swarm may have the appearance of better order in some of its workings, but it is a question whether there is as much pure honey inside.  The robe may be more showy, but there is less wool in the “nap.”

FRIDAY, May 12, and SATURDAY, May 13, were spent at the meetinghouse preparing to have everything in order.

YEARLY MEETING BEGINS.

Introductory Sermon by Elder George Hoke, of Ohio, Sunday, May 14.

    TEXT.—­And it came to pass, that while they communed together and
    reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.—­Luke
    24:15.

To the true child of God no conceptions of bliss are worthy of being compared with those that flow from an ideal companionship and association with our Lord Jesus Christ.

  “To dwell with him; to feel his love,
  Is heavenly bliss enjoyed above: 
  And the sweet expectation now
  Is the same bliss begun below.”

The text selected is suited to the occasion that has brought many of us together.  We have met to commune in our thoughts with each other, and to reason together.  Since the first hour of my arrival here I could but notice the delight, and even joy, on the part of many at meeting former acquaintances and renewing the ties of love, both social and Christian, that have bound us together in one common Brotherhood for years in the past, and which are still to bind us and our children’s children together in the future on earth and the eternity in glory.

The subject for to-day naturally divides itself into three propositions: 

    I. They communed and reasoned together.
   II. Jesus himself drew near.
  III. Jesus himself went with them.

We readily enough, at the start, inquire who they were that communed and reasoned together.  This we never can know with certainty, until the scales of mortality drop from our eyes.  One, we are told, was Cleopas by name.  It may have been the same Cleopas whose wife had stood by the cross.  Some think the other was Luke, the writer of the Evangel, whom Paul calls the beloved physician.