The New England Camp-Meeting by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 25, 1907

The New England Camp-Meeting

By I. H. Evans

So far as our own people were concerned, the location of the camp for the New England meeting was everything that could be desired. It was in a cleared spot, with a heavy sod, on nice level ground, only a little way from a beautiful lake which is used as a resort for the people in the vicinity. It was just off the trolley line which connects Fitchburg, a city of about twenty thousand people, with Leominster, Worcester, South Lancaster, and Boston. The weather throughout the meeting was most favorable. It would be difficult to think of more favorable conditions for a good meeting than we enjoyed at this place.

The attendance was not large, but ran from three hundred and fifty to five hundred, including a nice class of young people, who took a deep interest in the meetings. Elder E. W. Farnsworth and wife, Elder S. N. Haskell and wife, Profs. B. G. Wilkinson and B. F. Machlan, and the writer were the visiting brethren present during all or a part of the meeting. Most of the conference laborers were also present, and rendered most efficient help. No session of the conference was held in connection with the camp-meeting, but will be held sometime in the autumn of the present year.

Sabbath, June 29, was a good day for the camp. It was understood that no donation would be taken up for missions, as the General Conference had consented that the New England Conference should make their offering for the Melrose Sanitarium, instead of for the $150,000 fund, inasmuch as this conference had already paid its full quota of the fund. So it had been arranged that the donation for the midsummer offering should be taken up on Sunday, when it was earnestly desired that a good donation be given to help equip the Melrose Sanitarium. However, before the discourse was concluded Sabbath morning, a brother arose in the congregation, and said that he would like to have fifty men line up with him and lay a five-dollar bill on the desk for foreign missions. More than fifty people were on their feet in a short time, and were anxious to contribute to the support of foreign missions. The president of the conference thought it was wise to allow the people to give, inasmuch as they demanded the opportunity, and in a short time a donation was taken in cash and pledges for the foreign work, amounting to more than twenty-five hundred dollars.

After this, nearly the whole congregation, dedicated themselves to the service of God, pledging to lay their lives, their property, their children, and every earthly consideration upon the altar, and give themselves to God’s work for its completion. It was indeed a most remarkable meeting, the like of which I hope to see often repeated in days to come.

In the afternoon a call was made for young people who would dedicate their lives to the work of God in giving this truth to the world. It was made very specific that those who answered to this call should lay all their future upon the altar, placing themselves in the hands of God for him to use them in any part of the wide world, wherever they could be of the most service. In answer to this call, seventy young people consecrated their lives to the cause of God. It was a most solemn meeting, and the Spirit of God was present in a marked manner.

On Sunday more than fifteen hundred dollars was pledged and raised in cash to be devoted to equipping the Melrose Sanitarium. The Sabbath-school offerings for the two Sabbaths during the meeting exceeded one hundred dollars, all of which was donated to the foreign mission work.

We rejoice with New England that she has already turned in her quota on the $150,000 fund, the same being $2,623.61. The New England Conference has turned into the General Conference treasury during the last seven months, an amount exceeding six thousand dollars for the general work.

We rejoice in the liberality of the New England people. They remind us of the experience of which Paul wrote concerning the Macedonians, that they were liberal beyond their means; but God loves a cheerful giver, and we believe that the New England Conference will prosper as long as it continues in its liberal attitude toward the cause of God.

We have seldom enjoyed a meeting more than we enjoyed the one at Fitchburg. The Christian love and unity that prevailed in the meeting made it a delight to be present. We wish the conference a large measure of success in the great closing work in which we are all engaged. I. H. EVANS.