will bear in mind that such singular incidents do occasionally occur in the current of commonplace events-that the present examples are not given as specimens of average events, but are professedly sought out as anomalous. Though the writer has discreetly (as he thinks) used his imagination, in a few instances, for the illustration of important subjects, yet most of the extraordinary cases referred to, so far as they are related on his own authority, he knows to be substantial facts; and those related on the authority of others are well authenticated. 2 SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS. THE LOVE-FEAST. 'Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another."-Malachi. THE old quarterly conferences and lovefeasts! what was more characteristic of practical Methodism than they? The horses and carriages, and groups of men, women, and children plodding the highways on foot, for twenty miles, or more, as on a holy pilgrimage; the assemblage of preachers, traveling and local, from all the neighboring appointments; the two days of preaching and exhorting, praying and praising; the powerful convictions, and more powerful conversions; and especially the Sunday morning love-feast, with its stirring testimonies and kindling songs; its tears and shoutings-how precious their reminiscences! Alas, for the changes which are coming over us! An accurate description of one of these occasions would be among the best pictures of primitive Methodism. Shall I attempt to draw, not to paint, one which took place, not in the earliest times, yet at a period when the first generation of Methodists, ripe in their Christian experience, still lingered among us? It was held in, a rural neighborhood. The locality was favorable for the assemblage of very various characters; and a more diversified company I have seldom met than were brought together at that quarterly love-feast. It was a bright June morning; the adjacent fields were fragrant with the fresh hay; the orchards were vocal with the melody of birds; long lines of horses and Jersey wagons, interspersed with an occasional chaise, or carriage, of higher pretension, ranged along either side of the road, while saddle horses crowded the shady retreat of a neighboring forest. The church was an old frame structure, unpainted inside or out, but thoroughly neat and clean, and looking, on that warm day, with all its sashes out, most comfortably cool and airy. No dull blinds darkened the windows, and threw, as in city churches, a sepulchral gloom over the worshipers; but long, snow-white, cotton curtains flapped in the breezy air, as if playfully willing to admit an occasional gleam of sunlight, provided it would treat respectfully the eyes of the multitude. The pulpit (a |