INDIANA CAMP-MEETING by Stephen Haskell Lane

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 3, 1881

INDIANA CAMP-MEETING.

By Stephen Haskell Lane

THIS meeting was held according to appointment Sept. 21-27, 1881, at Marion, Grant county. The location was a desirable one, being a grove of second-growth maple, one mile only from the center of the city of Marion, with its four thousand inhabitants. The ground was nicely prepared, and, with its well of living water, afforded all that is necessary to a first-class ground.

There were thirty-seven family and church tents on the ground, in which were camped three hundred and sixty Sabbath-keepers. The meeting commenced on the day and hour appointed, and the majority of all who attended the meeting were present at the first service, and remained until the last sermon was preached and prayer offered.

The business sessions of the Conference, Tract Society, Health and Temperance Association, and Sabbath-school Society, all passed off quietly and harmoniously; officers were elected, and all seemed to be inspired anew with zeal and energy to carry on the work during the year to come.

The devotional exercises were solemn and impressive. The preaching was of a practical nature, with the exception of two discourses given on first day, when nearly two thousand were present not of our faith.

The ministers were all present belonging to the Conference. All took part in the preaching, which gave much better satisfaction than would have been given had the speaking been done by two or three of the more able speakers. Eld. Corliss, who was sent to aid us by the General Conference, did much to add to the interest of the meeting; and all of his sermons, and of others, seemed to be blessed of the Lord.

The social meetings were truly feasts to the soul. Sometimes as many as three or four would stand up to speak at once. At one meeting, one hundred and twenty-seven spoke in less than half an hour. The order and quiet on the ground were complete. A holy quiet seemed to pervade the ground from the first to the last. Not a murmur or a complaint was heard; and when the parting meeting came many said, as the tears were falling, "This is one of the best meetings I ever enjoyed. To the Lord be all the praise." S. H. LANE.