p. 361 | THE KANSAS CAMP-MEETING by George I. Butler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · June 3, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 23

THE KANSAS CAMP-MEETING.

By George I. Butler

BY ELD. GEO. I. BUTLER.

This meeting was held at a small country station on the Atchison and Santa Fe Railroad, about fourteen miles from Topeka. The grounds were more pleasant than those of any previous camp-meeting that I have attended in this State. The weather was mostly very favorable. About two hundred of our people were in attendance, just about half as many as at the Emporia camp-meeting last summer. Services commenced promptly Wednesday night. Through the efficiency of the President, the business of the State Conference, and of our various societies was dispatched quite rapidly, so that it was not in the way of the closing meetings. Friday afternoon, Eld. Corliss came from Colorado, and took hold with earnestness to help make the meeting profitable. His labors were acceptable to those in attendance.

On the Sabbath our meetings were quite interesting and profitable. A solemn feeling pervaded the grounds. About forty came forward for prayers in the afternoon. Good confessions were made, and we trust much good was done. Our social meeting, about the close of the Sabbath, was a very precious occasion, and there was evidence that the good Spirit of the Lord was present in power. On Sunday we had a tent full of interested listeners, who paid the best of attention. Everything seemed favorable for a most profitable meeting Monday; but when morning came, quite a number left for home, and this affected the interest very unfavorably. However, we did the best we could; and about as many came forward for prayers as on the Sabbath. Six were baptized. Our meeting closed Tuesday morning, with the ordination of Bro. W. E. Dawson to the work of the ministry. It was one of the most precious seasons of the kind I ever enjoyed. The Lord came very near, and witnessed by his Spirit to the act which was being performed. It was good to be there. The people left for home in good spirits.

This Conference is making a steady growth. It numbers seven or eight hundred in its membership, and is in a better condition financially than ever before. It is able to pay its laborers better than it has previously done, and has money left in its treasury after paying all claims and the tithe to the General Conference. Kansas is a good field for labor, and persons are more easily brought into the truth here than in many of the older Conferences. Many Sabbath-keepers have moved to the State, and there is no good reason why it should not become a strong Conference.

The brethren seem to be of good courage. The wants of the College and Sanitarium were presented, and pledges were made to the amount of several hundred dollars, and partly paid. This meeting left a good impression upon the minds of the brethren concerning the importance of our institutions, and the relation our people should sustain to them. Many who stayed at home suffered a great loss in not being present at this good meeting.

Salisbury, Mo., May 27, 1880.