The Indiana Camp-Meeting by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 3, 1908

The Indiana Camp-Meeting

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE meeting at La Fayette was the largest ever held in the conference, it was said, and the best also, according to the testimony borne generally in the closing meeting. Every year, and practically in every place, the meetings are better than ever—because the prize is nearer, and the believers are receiving deeper and deeper experiences in the things of God.

By the close of the meeting over five hundred were in the camp. Others will report the earlier part of the meeting, as I was not present. There was a good spirit in the meetings, and day by day the believers drank deeper, and souls made surrender to God. Twenty-one were baptized, and others await baptism at home. The attendance from the city was not large, but there was apparent a deep interest on the part of those who did attend, and it was planned to follow up the meeting with a brief effort.

One day the camp met for the morning session on the grounds of the Wabash Valley Sanitarium, the new conference institution on the banks of the Wabash. All were evidently pleased by what they saw here; and well may the believers in Indiana rally with courage to make this institution a training center for missionary workers as well as a place where the sick are healed. Already the patronage is good, and success is assured.

In the earlier part of the meeting the people responded to a call for help from the South, and made an offering for missions. I did not learn the amounts given. A call was made for further financial help for the sanitarium, to put it where it can readily thereafter care for its obligations by its own earning capacity. Some hundred-dollar pledges were made, and many pledges of less amounts. Even more will be realized, surely, from the pledge made by many to devote one day’s work a month to the sanitarium during the coming year. This pledge was gladly made by many present, and surely many more who were not at the meeting will join this effort.

Two thousand believers in Indiana, praying and working, and doing business for God, can quickly place every home interest on vantage-ground, and at the same time pour an ever-increasing stream of means and workers into the mission fields. The reports from the laborers showed that the truth is winning converts wherever evangelistic efforts are made in Indiana. And the Indiana believers are “home folks” in the faith of the message. I was glad to meet with them for the first time, and to see their earnestness in the truth. In the earlier part of the meeting a number of general laborers were present, some for a short time only, on the way to other meetings. Thus the La Fayette meeting, in addition to the local laborers, had the services of Brethren K. C. Russell, F. Griggs, H. R. Salisbury, M. E. Kern, and C. P. Bollman, as well as of Elder Allen Moon of the Lake Union Conference. And the blessing of the Lord was in the camp throughout.

W. A. SPICER.