American Missionary Association. * * * * * ANNUAL MEETING. Preparations for our forthcoming Annual Meeting, to convene in the Central Church, Brooklyn, October 30, are progressing favorably. The indications are that we shall have one of the most important meetings ever held by this Association. We hope to be able to announce through the religious press and otherwise, in good season, such particulars relating to speakers and accommodations as will be of interest to our readers. For the present we refer them to the announcement on the 4th page cover of this MISSIONARY. * * * * * GOOD AS THREE WEEKS REVIVAL. The value of the annual meetings of our great missionary societies is not measured chiefly by the amount of business transacted, important and necessary as that is. The information imparted might be gathered otherwise, but the full benefit to mind and heart can only be had by participating in the devotions, the instructions in righteousness, and, indeed, the arousements that are found among the vast throng that assemble on these occasions. Dr. Withrow said, at the Saratoga meeting of the Home Missionary Society: “These three days are worth as much as three weeks revival in giving a spiritual uplift to the churches.” We believe this to be no extravagant assertion. Great religious gatherings of some sort have been common from time immemorial. These have varied according to the developments of the age. The problem of the church to-day is the world’s conversion. All other questions are but side issues. The wonderful developments of our modern civilization have been preparatory. They have made it possible for the church to make rapid strides in hastening the triumphs of the Redeemer’s kingdom. The facilities are ready. Young men and women with trained faculties for the work are being graduated from our schools of learning by the thousands. Nothing is lacking but the disposition—the mind to work. The chief value of these meetings is seen in their potency to impart this disposition. It is not many years since there was but one truly great and grand distinctively missionary annual meeting in our land—the meeting of the American Board. Then there came well up to the front the annual meetings of the American Missionary Association, and latest, the meeting of the Home Missionary Society, which, in point of attendance from abroad, possibly, outnumbered any one ever held by the Congregational brethren. Other denominations are progressing in this direction. There is a wonderfully encouraging development all along the line. The morning cometh; they who turn their thoughts to our great missionary enterprises are looking toward it, and not toward yesterday morning, as men blinded by misbelief continually look.