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At the Camp-Meetings

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 12, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 19.

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At the Camp-Meetings

By Editor

Editorial

At the Camp-Meetings

OUR people will soon begin to gather for these annual convocations. There will be a large expenditure of time and means in order to attend these meetings, and they ought to be seasons of great blessing. Would it not be well for both ministry and people to bear in mind the one great object to be attained in the camp-meetings? The gospel message for this generation is to be so proclaimed that many who have never heard this truth shall be brought to a saving knowledge of it, and the spiritual life of our own people is to be renewed. “Business matters should be attended to by those specially appointed for this work. And as far as possible they should be brought before the people at some other time than the camp-meeting. Instruction in canvassing, in Sabbath-school work, and in the details of tract and missionary work, should be given in the home churches, or in meetings specially appointed. The same principle applies to cooking-schools. While these are all right in their place, they should not occupy the time of our camp-meetings.” The program of these gatherings ought not to be so full of a variety of meetings that the people have no time to pray and to meditate. This is necessary in order to assimilate the spiritual food which is imparted to them. We urge our ministers and conference officers, as well as our people generally, to read again the instruction upon the conduct of camp-meetings which will be found in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, pages 31-86, and we hope that the counsel there found will be heeded both in preparing for these meetings and in carrying them forward. We need to wait before the Lord with confession and repentance, seeking a deeper spiritual experience than we have ever known before. “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach.” Let all unite in an earnest and heartfelt consecration to God and his service, and let the arm of faith reach up for all needed blessing. Thus will the camp-meetings prove to be a means of great good to all who come within the sphere of their influence.