Review and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 9.
THE DIFFICULTIES WITH WHICH THE POPULAR VIEWS OF THE MILLENNIUM ARE EMBARRASSEDPage 1
Earlier text: THE DIFFICULTIES WITH WHICH THE POPULAR VIEWS OF THE MILLENNIUM ARE EMBARRASSEDA WORD FOR THE TRUTH.
By M. A. Whalen
As the Review is placed in our hands from week to week, a “thank God” goes out from the heart, that, although entirely alone here, we have this means of knowing of the advancement of the work through the reports of those who have labored long and faithfully to establish the truths for this time. Eagerly are its dear pages scanned, to mark the progress from week to week; and we are never disappointed. The work is onward, regardless of the opposition of those who would crush it. The trumpet tones ring out with no uncertain sound; and soon the alarm will have been heard throughout the length and breadth of the earth. The precious will be separated from the vile; the work done. With intense interest we read the articles from the pen of Bro. White. God pity the soul that is not thrilled and stirred to its depths as the important duties and mighty responsibilities of the hour are thus presented. The foundation of this work standeth sure; for the Lord holds and supports it. It is founded on the Rock. Dear reader, if we would have a part in the glorious triumph which is soon to be revealed, we must be awake, earnestly intent upon our Master's business, walking carefully before the Lord daily; for the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Soon the faithful ones will be gathered home. For ages they have been trodden down by oppression,—have been pilgrims and strangers in the earth. But soon these wicked kingdoms shall be destroyed, driven away like the chaff of the summer threshing floor; and “the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.” No lonely ones will be there, no aching hearts left behind as the saved go up to worship before the Lord from Sabbath to Sabbath. They will all be there, crowned with glorious immortality. Courage, lone one. Toil on, though faint and weary. The Lord knows all thy sorrows. In him there is help, and the day of thy rest is at hand. FAST-DAY, AUG. 11, 1877.
By M. E. Archer
What a good day this has been! I feel truly thankful that the Vermont Conference Committee appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and can but believe, from the blessing God has bestowed upon me, that our united petitions will be heard and our request granted, in our Father's own appointed time and way. I have been reading “The Sufferings of Christ” this afternoon, and have felt to say, as did Jesus in the hour of trial, “Father, not my will, but thine be done.” “Though we suffer now, we shall triumph then;
Though we die for the Master here,
In that better world we shall live again,
A conqueror’s crown to wear.”
Dear friends, let us be faithful in the discharge of every duty, and make sure work for eternity. Let us not half live, but wholly follow the Lord, and very soon we shall enter the promised land; and oh, what joy to find ourselves safely there! I believe the cause demands holy lives and self-sacrifice, not self-gratification, and as I read how Bro. and Sr. White leave home and friends to work for Jesus, I feel to extend to them, and all the laborers, my heartfelt sympathy; and I often remember them at the throne of grace. May God greatly bless his truth in Vermont, and everywhere. What Think Ye?
By Charles P. Whitford
The word of God being reliable, the time must come when the first, the second, and the third angels’ messages of Rev. 14: 9-12 will be proclaimed. It is not possible for the time to come, and the messages not be given. And as God always guards his prophecies from having a false fulfillment, we may reason that when the messages are heard, they will be genuine. They will be the fulfillment of his word at the right time and in the right manner. When any special truth needs to be brought before the world, God always provides the right persons to preach it. There was a special message for the antediluvians, and he raised up Noah to give it; and John the Baptist was called to go before the Messiah and herald his coming. Moses had a special work to do, and a warning message was entrusted to Jonah. Coming down to our own time, we find that the events foretold by our Saviour as signs of his second coming, and of the end of the world have transpired or are transpiring. The signs of the times admonish us that “the end of all things is at hand.” But now, at the right time, in addition to the “signs” come the promised Judgment messages. In the providence of God, Wm. Miller was led to proclaim the first message, “The hour of his Judgment is come;” then the second, “Babylon is fallen,” was announced; and now the third message is stirring the hearts and minds of people in all parts of the world. It says, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” It says, “Cease to acknowledge the authority of earthly powers, but acknowledge God; worship him; obey him.” And, thank God, thousands are heeding the solemn warning. Soon the work will be done. Soon the Judgment will sit, and the books be opened. Soon we must all pass the solemn, searching test. Oh! how does it stand with us to-day? What record will the angels bear to Heaven? Shall we be willing to meet it when “every work will be brought into judgment, with every secret thing”? May the Lord help us, and may we engage heartily in the service of our Master. The system of redemption from first to last is one grand system of giving. God loved the world, and gave his only begotten Son to save it from eternal ruin. The Son loved us, and gave himself to die for us. This giving does not rest at the point of bounty, but passes on to that of inconceivable sacrifice. Every man, on whose spirit the true light of redemption breaks, finds himself an heir to an inheritance of givings, which began on the eve of time, and will keep pace with the course of eternity. To giving he owes his all; in giving he sees the substantial evidence he can offer that he is a grateful debtor; and the self-sacrifice of Him to whom he trusts says, far more pathetically than words can say, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Christianity ordains that giving shall be both bountiful and cheerful. It does not satisfy the demands of our religion that we give; we must give much. “He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly.” This refers to the amount of gifts. But Christianity is not content here; that unsparing amount must be given with a cheerful heart, “not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth the cheerful giver.”—Wm. Arthur. PET THE OLDER ONES.
By Sel.
It sometimes occurs to us that the babies get more than their share of petting. Not that anybody can help it; the dear little dimpled things, with their sweet ways and their helpless dependence, and the charm of some new revelation every day, invite our caresses, and our whole store of complimentary adjectives. Darling and treasure, and the common stock of nouns of endearment and approbation, come easily to our lips when we talk to the little ones. How often we drop these pretty forms of speech as they grow older. They leave the cunning age behind, and graduate into the awkward one. Girls and boys alike pass through a period when they are shy, sensitive, morbid, and self-conscious, yet perhaps withal arrogant, conceited, and opinionated. With what matchless confidence sixteen and eighteen adopt and parade notions on subjects which have puzzled prophets and sages! Then their fathers and mothers too often feel impatient and disappointed. They do not remember that this queer husk will fall away, and from it emerge a flower by and by. So gradually and insensibly do mothers lose the habit of caressing their older children, that the latter would often look very much surprised at a kiss bestowed out of the regular way. The habit of a morning and evening salute is kept in families where it is merely mechanical and perfunctory; yet that is better than no kiss at all. The magnetism of mother-love shown to the boy or girl, however unamiable their transitory mood may be, is strong enough to save them from much unhappiness, or from the attacks of temptation. Do not slight so strong a power. Even though you feel it difficult to take up what should never have been laid aside, begin again, and pet your big sons and daughters.—Sel. God Governs Barns: Honoring the Lord with Substance
A WEALTHY capitalist, who had made most of his own fortune, and, what was harder, taken care of it, gives the following as the secret of his success: “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses burst forth with new wine.” The philosophy of the matter is simply this, God governs barns. We are willing to allow that he governs nations, and guides congresses, and directs battle fields. But Solomon knew, moreover, that he presides over wheat fields. We know that God is to be worshiped in church with prayers and psalms; but Solomon will have it that he is to be praised also with threshing implements and grain wagons. The Tree-Frog and the Influence of Association
The tree-frog acquires the color of whatever it adheres to for a short time. If it be found on the oak, it is a brown color; on the sycamore or cedar, it is of a whitish-brown color; but, when found on the growing corn, it is sure to be green. So a man is sure to be influenced by those with whom he associates. FAITH AND WORKS AGAIN.
By James White
SERMON PREACHED BY ELDER JAMES WHITE, AT BATTLE CREEK, SABBATH MORNING, AUG. 18, AND REPORTED FOR THE REVIEW AND HERALD. Last Sabbath our subject was faith and works. We stated that a man's works are the measure of his faith; or that a man will show what faith he has by his works. We presented the testimony of the apostle James where he makes the emphatic statement that “faith without works is dead, being alone.” Again he says: “I will show thee my faith by my works.” And what a biting rebuke there is in that very same connection in his reference to the believing devils that do not hold to good works. “Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble;” as much as to say, If you simply have faith without works, that faith will not save you any more than the faith of the trembling devils will save them. Not one of these devils, poor fellows, hold to good works. And with these the apostle has classed those Christians who are all faith and no works. A backwoods preacher once represented them by frogs who have large mouths and small hands, always croaking about the power of faith to save, while doing little or nothing. Paul speaks of the heroes of faith in the eleventh chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews. And did these cherish the easy doctrine that they were to do nothing, but believe themselves into Heaven? In the first verses of chapter twelve the apostle speaks of these men of God under the figure of a cloud of witnesses. They are set forth as examples, as far as holy men may be examples to those who live after them. With these men before us as examples, the subject becomes an easy one. How do these heirs of glory obtain the eternal reward? In this chapter Paul goes on to speak of Abel and Enoch and Noah. “And Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” Did Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all those ancient worthies, just sit down and believe, and let the Lord work out the problem for them, without any special effort on their part? They are presented as our pattern. Do they, in this way, believe themselves into Heaven? or did they take hold and work? “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” In this verse we have Cain and Abel brought before us. Abel was accepted and Cain was rejected. They both brought their offerings. Abel's was accepted because he united works with his faith in the Redeemer to come. “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Now suppose that Noah should have sat down and said, There is a flood coming, but I cannot do anything. I believe the flood is coming; I have full faith in this, but all my efforts would be in vain; God would not accept them. Preposterous! Noah believed that the flood was coming; and he showed how much he believed it by his works. We have a measure of Noah's faith in this matter. He had a faith that moved him, that bore him right out to build the ark. There was mental effort in planning, and work in building that immense ship, which was to endure for a year or more the rough winds and waves of the flood; and to contain the beasts that God was to send into it to preserve them. But if Noah had taken the position which some take at the present time, that is, merely to believe and live, and not to do and live, he would not have built the ark, and have saved his family. Supposing, however, that Noah had folded his hands, and said, I cannot do anything; I will leave this for the Lord to do, and there waited as though he expected a balloon to come, and take him up and suspend him in the air until the flood should have passed, and then let him down upon the earth again. Do you suppose that this faith would have saved him without works? Oh, no! But Noah had faith. He was warned that the flood was coming, and he was wise enough to know that for his own safety, and for the safety of his house, he must prepare an ark. And he built it; and in the act of building the ark he showed his faith in what God had told him about the approaching flood. Now Paul presents another grand character, and remember, my friends, these have been put here for examples to us who should live after them. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” There was some labor in that tent life. “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.” Was there not an effort in the offering up of Isaac? Please read the history. God points out a mountain where Abraham is to offer his only son, his beloved son. He is required to take him and go to that mountain, and there offer him. Now what could have been done if Abraham had just sat down and said, I cannot do anything. I believe God, but I have nothing to do in this matter. Abraham was required to show his faith by his works. He had fallen, through polygamy, and he had an opportunity to redeem himself. The circumstances in the case are all recorded in the Old Testament. He could not see how the promise of God, in reference to the promised seed, could be fulfilled. He had not implicit confidence in God; and when he heard those foolish pleas of Sarah, that he should take one of her handmaids to wife, that the promise might be fulfilled, he was led astray. What an astonishing weakness that marred the life of the patriarch! But God gives him the privilege of redeeming himself; and he has orders to take that son, his very son Isaac, who had been a subject of promise; a subject of that promise over which he had stumbled, and offer him as a burnt sacrifice before the Lord. How much more trying was this than if Abraham had believed God and left the promise to be fulfilled in God's way! That must have been a terrible scene for the patriarch. Imagine the struggle that the fearful test which God brought to bear upon him must have caused him! That terrible test wrung the patriarch's soul. Under what a weight of mental agony must Abraham have taken Isaac, taken his servants, taken the wood, etc., and passed up that mountain to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice before God! Was there not work in all this? Imagine the patriarch on his way up the mountain. What is this for? It is to show to the world, and to future generations, that he believed in God. Would the character of Abraham have been redeemed if he had refused obedience in this matter? If Abraham had had no sense of his duty as regarding God, and taken a sort of easy position, and said, the Lord must do all this, and bring it all about, he would never have redeemed himself; he would never have stood out so prominently on the page of sacred history as God's faithful servant. He took his son, he took his servants, he took the wood, he took the fire, he took the knife; and he marched up the mountain; he made all the preparations necessary for the sacrifice, and he there perfected his faith in the eyes of all who knew him then, and in the eyes of all future generations. And he stands out as a father of the faithful. Why? It was because he did not simply believe, but he went forward and did. By works he perfected his faith. God save us from this sleepy lullaby doctrine, that the Lord will save us if we only believe on him. The apostle next mentions Moses. “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” How convenient for Moses would the doctrine of faith without works have been! He might then have had the pleasures and honors of Egypt; he might then have avoided the care, perplexity and toil of leading the hosts of Israel from Egypt to Canaan. If he could only have believed himself into Heaven what a blessed thing it would have been for him! but he refuses to remain in the house of Pharaoh. Now Moses was a financier. “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of reward.” What! the reproaches of Christ in the days of Moses! Moses figured upon the value of the reproaches of Christ in his day. No Christ in the Jewish age, some people will say, and no law in the Christian age. It is all law in the old dispensation; and in our dispensation it is all gospel, it is all Christ. My friends, I am happy to know that Moses sat down and estimated the reproaches of Christ in the Old Testament—the same blessed Christ of the New Testament. The blessed Saviour was with his people in Moses' day the same as he is with his people in our day. The Son of God was and still is in perfect harmony with the moral code. He says, “Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” But time will fail me if I dwell longer upon this eleventh chapter of Hebrews. I wish to call your attention to the words of the Saviour upon this subject. We have his first address recorded in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew. It is his inaugural address as he enters upon his public ministry. I wish you would all read that address. You will, doubtless, find time to do so this afternoon. The Lord Jesus in this address lays out a great deal of work for the church. I can only refer to the summing up of that address, chapter 7:21, and to its closing part. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven.” It seems to me that this text is a rebuke to that class of persons who cry, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and at the same time trample the commandments of the Father under their feet. He continues,—“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, [Mark the doing] I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” Now there is work in building. “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them; [Doeth them by faith? Doeth them by sitting down and doing nothing? No.] I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” He built; he went to work. There is the figure. And so hearing the words of Christ and doing them is represented by the putting up of a building. “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,”—you may hear the sayings of the Lord and you may believe; you may believe in the gospel and in Christ; you may have all the faith you please; but if you leave out the doing you shall be like what? “He shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand [he could not stop to dig deep and remove the sand to get down where he could find a solid foundation]. It is work to lay a good foundation; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it.” The men who are building their hopes of Heaven upon faith without works, are building upon a sandy foundation that will not stand the storms of the coming day. The apostle Peter speaks of Christian works as follows: “And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” In order for this scripture to suit those who trust to faith without works, it should read: (Giving all diligence, believe that the Lord will add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; etc. Here is work for the church in adding grace to grace. “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things [that does not work; that does not add these graces one to the other] is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” Thank God, we have not got to go our whole journey, our whole pilgrimage, before we find that we are among the elect; that we were elected from the foundation of the world for Heaven; or that we were reprobated from the foundation of the world for perdition. We have not got to go clear through the Christian life to find this out, but it is our privilege now to make our election sure. Here is the true doctrine of election. The apostle explains this in another place—“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Yes! God foreknew and God fore-elected that all the obedient and believing should be saved. This is how men were elected. You are to go about the work yourself, and make your election sure by obedience of the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus Christ. God bless you. Every one of you may be among the elect. But how is our election made sure? It is through obedience and the blood of sprinkling. With this agrees that remarkable statement in the Revelation, that the redeemed millions on the shining shore had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The Spirit of God will come down and sanctify every soul that believes and works. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” How shall we make our calling and election sure? “Oh! how can I make my calling and election sure?” says one, “I would go to Jerusalem, or I would go to Mecca, I would spend this short life in afflictions and tortures if I could only make my calling and election sure; if I could only have eternal life, a life that will run parallel with the life of God.” But you do not need to go to Jerusalem; you do not need to go to Mecca. You may worship God in the Spirit and in the truth, and he will accept that worship; for he says that where two or three are gathered together in his name, he is with them. We cannot believe our way into Heaven while doing nothing. If you try to get there in that way you will fall. Peter is my authority. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” Now, brethren, do you want to be saved? Do you want to make your calling and election sure so as not to fall? This morning, dear brethren, I feel very anxious to enter the city of God, and to see for myself how it looks inside the pearly gates. I want to see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob there; I want to see all the redeemed there; and I want to see my blessed Lord there; and I am determined that by the grace of God I will make my calling and election sure, by the way of the old apostolic line of obedience, and the blood of sprinkling. Will you meet me there? “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Take the pledge, brethren, on this Sabbath morning before Heaven, that you will do these things, that you may never fall; that we may all meet within the pearly gates of the city of God. Amen. MATTERS AND THINGS.
By James White
It is an interesting fact that our camp-meetings are increasing in numbers, in importance, and in their influence, each year. Mrs. White returned from the Indiana Camp-meeting with the report that the Kokomo meeting just passed was the largest and best ever held by our people in that State. Not less than three hundred brethren and sisters camped on the ground. The Sabbath services, and the social meetings generally, were very excellent. The congregation Sunday was variously estimated at from five to fifteen thousand. Mrs. White, who has had considerable experience in numbering crowds, puts the number of the Sunday congregation safely at eight thousand. Only about five thousand could be seated, leaving three thousand on their feet. She spoke eighty minutes on the subject of Christian Temperance, holding even the standing crowd in motionless silence. The order was perfect. No people has ever given Mrs. W. a better hearing than the citizens of Kokomo and vicinity. We were not able to attend this meeting, and were very glad that Elder Waggoner could be present from first to last, and that he could join Elder Smith the last week of the Ohio Camp-meeting. Elder Smith’s report of the first half of the ten-days’ meeting in Ohio is given in this issue. Our readers will doubtless hear from the last half of that meeting next week. Mrs. W. designed to be at that meeting; but she returned from Indiana with a fearful cold, and up to this writing has been a great sufferer, and fears are entertained that she will not be able to attend the eastern camp-meetings.69 A little care on the part of the good brethren in Indiana, and an hour’s work in properly staking Mrs. W.’s tent, and making trenches about it, would have saved this sickness, and other States could have her labor as well as Indiana. No one saw the necessity of wall stakes and good trenches about the tent until the storm struck the camp when it was too late. The storm blew in the walls of the tent, and the rain drenched carpet and clothing. Then a good heating stove, which should have been provided as soon as she took up tent quarters, was needed to dry out the tent. But for want of these preparations and comforts, and in consequence of the tremendous effort before eight thousand people during eighty minutes, which left her weary and an easy subject to cold, other thousands are deprived of her labors. Such things have so often occurred in our camp-meeting experience, and in most cases have resulted from want of a little extra care and effort, that we fear, at our age of life, to risk ourselves to the careless care of our brethren. Last year our able reporter took cold at the Ohio Camp-meeting. A good stove in the tent from the first would have saved this. Her cold was greatly aggravated at the Vermont meeting, from the effects of which she has not fully recovered, after losing several months’ labor by sickness. A good stove from the first would have saved this also, and would have been of great service to the whole tent company, weary from holding a camp-meeting each week. But these comforts and safeguards to health and life of those who must speak in earnest camp-meeting style four or six times each week cost the brethren in the several States so much that they could not run the risk of losing what they would cost in case of warm and pleasant weather. So the risk is run, and health is sacrificed; and pain, feebleness, and sadness of heart are experienced by those to whom the people look for help. Our good people mean to do their whole duty. But they are not able to see the difference between the fatigue of preaching, and exhorting, business sessions, and morning and evening, and sometimes midnight, committees, during fifteen camp-meetings in succession, and the rest of the one only they attend each year, sitting and hearing, or strolling about the grounds with minds and hearts as free from anxiety and care as the gentle breezes that fan the groves. Many of these good people come to camp-meeting, expecting to enjoy good long visits with Bro. and Sr. White, and when they find us overwhelmed with labor and care from the commencement of the meeting to the close, they go home disappointed, and sometimes grieved, because we did not give them more personal attention. If these dear souls would come to camp-meeting under a sense of duty to help us, and not to burden us, to look after our wants, instead of feeling neglected unless we give them attentions, they would take home with them more of the blessing of God, and remove from us much of the dread we have of attending the camp-meetings. We have labored long and hard. Mrs. W. has stood by our side in the tug of battle for thirty-one long years. We are growing old, yet with care can do as well, if not as much, as in younger days. But if our brethren call the old folks out to meet them in camp, they must treat us tenderly, and not cast their burdens upon us. Beloved brethren, we have labored long, and with care and solicitude for you. We have given more than thirty years of the best of life in laboring to bring the truth of God before you and to build up the cause of God. We have suffered privations willingly to serve you. We have seen but little in this life but toil, sorrow, and feebleness from overwork. And we had hoped that our young brethren before this time would have taken the burdens we have borne and divided them among them, and thus let them drop from our weary hands. We have looked forward to the time when their tender care would be towards us, as ours has been towards them. Sustaining such relations to our people, and enjoying their loving care, we should be very happy to meet them in all their camp-meetings, and teach “them the way of the Lord more perfectly.” J. W. THE OHIO CAMP-MEETING.
By Uriah Smith
We can hardly say that this meeting commenced on the day appointed, Aug. 10, 1877. Eld. H. A. St. John, the president of the Conference, was detained by an unusual interest in Van Wert, Ohio, where some sixty have embraced the truth, and the arrangements were consequently very far behind on the opening day. It was found just possible to hold a meeting without a tent, in the open air, on the evening of that day. The attendance of brethren and sisters is quite small. The location of the camp-meeting so far south, the failure of crops and the hard times, are assigned as the probable causes. There are but eighteen church and family tents erected. But the attendance from without is unexpectedly large. On Sunday, there was a heavy thunder shower in the morning, lasting till after nine o’clock A. M. Yet in the afternoon there were, it is estimated, some two thousand teams on the ground, and about five thousand people. We have never been in a place where there seemed to be less prejudice, and where such a spirit of inquiry was manifested. A very excellent class of people, apparently, are in constant attendance, and the questions they have to propose after almost every discourse, show the interest they feel in the subjects presented. Large congregations are present both day and evening. We have now reached the fifth day of the meeting; the social seasons are growing in interest, and we anticipate that the meeting will be very successful in the end. U. S.