The Florida Camp Meeting by George Ide Butler

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 26, 1916

The Florida Camp Meeting

By George Ide Butler

I HAD the privilege of attending the first part of the Florida camp meeting, and I wish to tell the readers of the REVIEW some of my impressions of it. The general report will doubtless be given by others.

This was the largest camp meeting ever held in Florida by the white brethren. The colored camp meeting, held half a mile away, was also the largest of its kind ever held in the State.

The meeting was held on the same ground as last year, and when I saw more of our brethren present than last year, saw the orderly way in which the camp was laid out, and the nice array of the many new tents, my heart was filled with gratitude to God. I had attended the summer camp meetings in Massachusetts, in Buffalo, N. Y., and in Eastern Pennsylvania, and the fall meetings in White River Junction, Vt., and Foxcroft, Maine. These were all good meetings, but I was rejoiced to see that our meeting in Florida was the largest one I had attended this year.

My mind went back to the time when the Florida Conference was organized. It was a “little flock” indeed that gathered for that purpose—perhaps twenty-five or thirty in all. Yet we were glad at the time to see an organized work in Florida. The growth in this far Southern State has been gradual. The membership in 1915 was 1,001. The tithe for the same year was $15,361.96, an increase in four years of nearly $5,000. The Twenty-cent-a-week Fund in 1915 amounted to $8,685.96. This was $1,340.96 above the quota for the conference. One hundred and eighty-six persons were baptized in 1915, and the increase in membership for four years was nearly 200. I think the growth in Florida is greater than in any other Southern State.

The brethren and sisters are all of good courage, and harmony prevails throughout the conference.

The meetings were excellent, and the Spirit of the Lord was present from the beginning. Elders F. W. Paap and J. L. Shaw were present from the General Conference. Their labors were much appreciated, and their instruction was most spiritual. The first Sabbath of the meeting the whole congregation arose and expressed their determination to press forward in the spiritual life.

The writer gave three discourses at the white camp meeting and five at the colored. His theme was the work of the Spirit of prophecy. The believers seemed to be impressed with the importance of the subject.

May God especially bless Florida, my home State.

GEO. I. BUTLER.