LET US PREPARE FOR THE CAMP-MEETINGS.
THE grand secret of a successful camp-meeting, so far as ourselves are concerned, is found in the work of preparation. We need a suitable location in every case. It should be central, accessible, commodious, suitable. It should be fitted up in such a manner as to favorably impress those who come as even mere spectators. This is the business of the committee. Many things are needed during the meeting, which it will be the duty of the committee to be able to furnish at reasonable expense. Also every tent's company should come upon the ground prepared to stay during the meeting, having a suitable shelter for themselves, and proper provisions for their own sustenance. But all these amount to only a small part of the work. The object of the camp-meeting is to seek God. We go out to the tented grove to get away from worldly business, and to wait upon God without distraction. If we desire that our meeting shall be productive of real good to ourselves, we must begin to seek God now. Let us, like the people of God in ancient times, prepare our hearts to seek the Lord. Let us give up our idols before we go to the camp-ground. Let us confess our sins now. If we are overcharged with worldly business, let us cut it down at once by sacrificing to the Lord. If we have been setting a bad example before our neighbors, let us go to them and confess before we go to the meeting, and not merely after our return. Let us break our hearts preparatory to the meeting. Let us 'not think there will be so many at the meeting that we shall be hidden in the crowd, and no responsibility will come on us. Rather than go thus, do not go at all. You will stand as one single individual in the Judgment. Act now as though you had an individual preparation to make. We cannot afford to trifle. Those who are willing to be lost, can be allowed this privilege if they claim it. But we who hope to be saved must be awake and in earnest. The camp-meetings of this fall will be the last ones that many of us will ever attend. With some of us they will be the turning-point, either for Heaven or hell. None of us can afford to waste so precious a privilege. Let us awake to the work of preparation. These meetings will soon be in the past. It is for us so to seek God that he shall come and rain righteousness upon us. But if we are careless and indifferent, the season will be wasted, and in the Judgment it will come up against us. If we wish to have excellent camp-meetings, we can make this sure by entering earnestly into the preparation for them now.