The California Camp-Meeting by Stephen N. Haskell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 9, 1908

The California Camp-Meeting

By Stephen N. Haskell

THE general camp-meeting for the California-Nevada Conference was held at Melrose, a suburb of Oakland, June 4-14. This meeting was one of unusual interest; and the attendance of our own people was much larger than at any previous camp-meeting held here since California was divided into two conferences. This was owing in part to the fact that a special session of the California-Nevada Conference was held in connection with the camp-meeting. About two hundred tents were pitched on the grounds, and a large number of our people occupied rooms in the vicinity of the camp.

Among the speakers present was Mrs. E. G. White, who spoke six times to the large company with as great clearness and power as in early times. Elders H. W. Cottrell, J. N. Loughborough, Luther Warren, H. Schultz, W. T. Knox, J. O. Corliss, E. J. Hibbard, G. A. Snyder, Fred Brink, and others were also present, and spoke to the people. Elder Warren labored for the young people, and Elder Schultz for the Germans.

The entire plan of this camp-meeting was unique, and departed in some respects from the usual customs. There were four distinctive features in this meeting; namely, Bible studies, missionary meetings, health and temperance meetings, and social meetings.

One hour each day was wholly devoted to Bible study throughout the entire meeting, and the large attendance at all these studies witnessed to the fact that the earnest study of God's Word will build up the church of God. The hour from nine to ten o'clock each morning was devoted to good, old-fashioned missionary meetings; and many took hold of the work, and went out into the city and sold tracts, books, and papers during the camp-meeting.

As the importance of the tract work was presented to the people, packages of tracts were offered for sale, and the brethren and sisters purchased quantities of these tracts to take home with them to distribute. In the two days devoted to the tract work, over two hundred fifty dollars' worth of tracts were purchased by the brethren at wholesale prices. By special arrangement, packages containing $9 worth of assorted tracts were sold for $5 each; cash; also $4.17 worth for $2.50 each; and $1.50 worth for $1. It was a glorious sight to see the people coming forward and laying down their money,

and going to their tents with packages of tracts in their arms.

One missionary meeting was devoted to the importance of distributing “Great Controversy” among the people, and nearly two hundred copies of this book, bound in cloth, were stacked up on the stand. These were offered in lots of four for five dollars to all who would buy them to use as a circulating library in their homes, or to sell to their neighbors. In a few minutes all the books were taken by the brethren and sisters. Additional orders were given, making over two hundred copies of “Great Controversy” sold and taken to be scattered. As the people left the tent with their arms filled with these books, I think the Lord was pleased, as well as the leaders of the missionary meeting.

When the importance of the periodical work was presented in the missionary meeting, there were large quantities of our different periodicals stacked up on the stand, and the people bought thousands of them to take home, while others went out and sold them in the city. In one meeting a special offer was made that any who would take ten copies of the one-dollar edition of “The Story of the Seer of Patmos” could have them for $5. Over six hundred books were taken on this proposition. Many remarked, as they saw the brethren and sisters carrying away armfuls of literature from the large tent, “Surely, this is the loud cry!” The sales of literature, and the subscriptions taken for the various periodicals on the camp-ground, amounted to about eighteen hundred dollars.

Every evening at five o'clock an old-fashioned health and temperance meeting was held by Dr. Maria L. Edwards and others from the St. Helena Sanitarium. Instruction in simple treatments, fomentations, foot-baths, etc., was given; also much practical instruction in caring for the health, and on the subject of diet. These health and temperance meetings were greatly appreciated by the strangers who came on the ground, as well as by our own people.

In the young people's meetings the old-fashioned pledge cards were presented by Elder Warren and Sister Augusta C. Bainbridge, and many signed them. There were two pledges, one to abstain from the use of all alcoholic drinks, and another requiring abstinence from alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and tea and coffee.

The plan for the camp-meeting was to hold a Bible study, a missionary meeting, a health and temperance meeting, and a social meeting every day; but owing to the fact that it was necessary to spend a good portion of two days in conference meetings, the plan was somewhat broken. Many testified to the blessing received, and said it filled them with a new desire to work for souls.

It was voted by the conference to close Healdsburg College, and to remove it to a more rural district. Our people pledged liberally to pay off the old indebtedness, and also to establish a new college. It was unanimously voted that the new college should be established on a strictly cash basis. Besides the money given, and the pledges made, about three thousand books were given by different individuals toward the college enterprise, on the condition that others would volunteer to sell them for that purpose. A large number pledged themselves to canvass for a certain length of time, and thus turn these books into money for the school. Sister White and the writer each donated one thousand dollars' worth of books for this work.

Several hundred dollars was also raised for the foreign mission work by individuals paying $5.20 each in advance to carry out the plan recommended by the General Conference of ten cents a week per member. Some donated much more than the $5.20. This does not excuse any from the payment of the regular weekly Sabbath offerings for this purpose. Much interest was manifested in foreign mission work, and, besides the offerings mentioned above, the Sabbath-school offerings at this meeting and the Lodi camp-meeting amounted to over three hundred dollars.

Much of the preaching was clear and well-defined argument on different phases of present truth. As the meetings proceeded, the interest increased, so that before the close, meetings were almost continuous in the large pavilion, and also in the smaller tents, where instruction on different lines was given to the people. A number made a start in the Christian life for the first time, and many backsliders were reclaimed. It was a common expression that this camp-meeting was the freest and best meeting they had ever attended. Union and harmony prevailed throughout the entire meeting. Reports were given in the different city papers, and so great was the outside interest that the meetings have been continued with a large attendance.

Seven tent-meetings and one hall effort had been conducted in the conference before the camp-meeting, and, in nearly every case success attended the effort. A larger number of tent-meetings will be held after this camp-meeting. Two churches that had lately been organized were taken into the conference; and other companies are ready to be organized as the fruit of the efforts put forth during the present season.

It is evident that we have reached a new era among our people. The Spirit of God is moving upon hearts to arouse them to scatter the truth “like the leaves of autumn.” Our cities must be worked, and nothing is better to meet the business men than our periodicals filled with the message. Many will not take time to read a large book, neither will they become subscribers to any of our periodicals; but they will buy papers and magazines containing short articles on present truth. Our periodicals should be filled with short, clear articles on different points of the truth, so that each one will preach the whole message. Then, different periodicals can be taken and sold, going over the same ground again and again. The forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel will yet be fulfilled by our people scattering a variety of our books and periodicals.

It has been demonstrated here in California that a variety of books and papers is demanded by the people, both by those who sell and those who read. To concentrate all our strength upon one or two books or papers will not meet the minds of those who dispose of the publications, nor the mind of the reading public.

During the past three and one-half months about forty-seven thousand copies of the Signs, Liberty, Life and Health, and Special Bible Training-School have been sold in Oakland, San Francisco, and neighboring cities. The more papers sold, the greater the demand.

There is every indication that we are in the closing of this work. This is shown by the way our people, as individuals, are distributing our literature, and also by the demand of the public for it.

S. N. HASKELL, President California Conference.