Some Good Omens in Our Camp-Meetings by B. G. Wilkinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 22, 1907

Some Good Omens in Our Camp-Meetings

By B. G. Wilkinson

HAVING met in the spring camp-meetings many tokens of the rising wave of consecration to the message, I shall briefly mention some.

The Southern New England camp-meeting which was the first I visited, was held on a high spot in the city of New London, Conn., overlooking the harbor. A good attendance both of our own people and from the city was present. This young conference, only lately separated from the New England Conference, has made good progress, especially the last year.

Elder Westworth, who has charge of the field, and his coworkers are of excellent courage. Several revivals, notably one on the last day of our visit there, testified to the presence of God's Spirit in large measure. The labors of Elder Farnsworth and Professor Machlan were greatly blessed and well appreciated.

On the last afternoon of our visit, I spoke on the question of church organization. The hearty assents of the brethren showed how thankful they were for this splendid piece of work God is building in our midst.

The combined New Jersey and Greater New York camp-meeting at Elizabeth, N. J., was a spiritual feast from beginning to end. In addition to the laborers already mentioned, Elders Daniells and Thompson, who had just returned from Europe, were present part of the time. Their messages were inspiring.

Here I was profoundly impressed with the deep desire of the youth to enter into God's service. One morning I had arranged to visit the famous prisons of New York City, the Tombs and Blackwells Island, with Sisters Kershaw and Rasmussen. I had planned to give the young people a short service from eight to nine, and leave for New York. But while speaking, the Spirit of God rested on the youth. In response to a simple invitation, they crowded forward, and with broken heart and contrite spirit many gave themselves to God.

Though delayed, I still had time to visit that great city prison of New York, the Tombs, before it closed at noon. Before the grating of one cell I saw a young mother, sitting upon a stool, weeping, having a little babe in her arms. I passed on to the guard, and asked him if she was the wife of the young man behind the bars. The guard replied that she was, and that very day the man must be taken to Sing Sing and separated from her for seven years of penitentiary life. Later I saw Harry Thaw and his wife, Evelyn, and stopped to talk with them. Besides the faces of these youth behind prison bars, I saw nearly eight hundred more in the boys' prison on Blackwells Island. The contrast was a strong lesson to me as I returned to the camp at night and saw our youth still rejoicing in God, from the revival service of the morning.

The Massachusetts camp-meeting, held at Fitchburg, was another manifestation of God's work for his people. On the last Sabbath, following a sermon by Elder Evans, the Spirit of God came near, and about thirty-five hundred dollars was raised for mission work. For Sunday night I had advertised a meeting in French, as there were ten thousand French-speaking people living within car distance. The Spirit of God worked in that little meeting, and four men, strangers to me, bowed in prayer to consecrate their lives to God. Their names were passed over to a Bible worker for further instruction.

Similar manifestations of the working of God's Spirit were witnessed in the Maryland camp-meeting held in Baltimore. To many who will read these lines, similar visitations of God's Holy Spirit have come in their yearly camp-meetings. But the testimony is that God has come nearer this year than ever before, and in greater power. It is now time to gird up the loins of our mind and prepare for great things; for the Saviour “will do great things for those who trust in him.”—“Ministry of Healing,” page 115.

The camp-meeting in Elizabeth, N. J., did much to uproot the evil influences brought upon souls who had suffered the attacks of those who had departed from the faith. B. G. Wilkinson.