Southern Illinois Camp-Meeting
By E. W. Farnsworth
This meeting was held at Mattoon, according to appointment. The location was beautiful, the weather perfect, and every external circumstance most favorable to its success. The conference is small, hence it was not expected that the attendance would be as large as in some other places. About two hundred of our people were encamped on the ground. The camp was pitched in a beautiful grove of large box-elder trees. These afforded almost perfect shade from the sun, and good protection from the wind. This young conference has already provided itself with a good camp-meeting outfit. Three good-sized meeting tents and between fifty and sixty family tents were pitched on the ground. The tents are of good quality. The whole ground, so nicely arranged and neatly kept, presented a most pleasing appearance throughout the meetings. The brethren provided seating capacity for about seven hundred persons, and much to our gratification the people from the city came out and filled these seats every evening, and on a number of occasions many were compelled to stand. It was indeed an inspiration to see hundreds of people standing listening with rapt attention to the truth of God. The Lord gave great freedom in proclaiming the message, and the message itself created an intense interest in the minds of the people. The brethren planned to carry on the work after the camp-meeting, and so we can not speak of specific results as to the number who will accept the truth. In the conference a good degree of harmony prevails, therefore no serious differences arose at the meeting. The officers elected were nearly the same as the preceding year. Brother J. M. Rees was again elected president, and Brother F. C. Wheeler was ordained to the work of the ministry. The camp-meeting was a success in every way, and will always be remembered as a spiritual meeting. There were not a large number of young persons or unconverted in attendance, and yet twenty-three were baptized. The Christian Church kindly granted us the use of their baptistery for the occasion. In the Southern Illinois Conference one or two institutions are being started in a modest way. A neat and somewhat commodious sanitarium has been set in operation in the city of Peoria, under the management of Dr. J. E. Heald. While this is not a conference institution, all the brethren and sisters manifest a deep interest in its success. We were glad to meet Dr. Heald at the meeting, and to hear him speak of his work in the institution. There is also a small school at Duquoin. It started as a church-school, and has had such good success and has been managed with such discretion that the conference recommended it at this meeting. Brother Moon, the president of the Lake Union Conference, was present at the meeting, and Brother Stone, of Indiana, was with us for a day or two, also Brethren Bliss and Curtis, of northern Illinois. We were pleased to have these brethren with us, and to hear their testimonies. We were glad to hear that in every department of the conference a good degree of financial prosperity has been seen. The tithes and offerings have increased, and prosperity has attended the tract society and Sabbath-school departments. Those of our brethren and sisters who attended the meeting were blessed of the Lord, and returned to their homes strengthened in their determination to do more for the Master in the year to come.