Camp-Meeting Board by William Covert

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 1, 1907

Camp-Meeting Board

By William Covert

WM. COVERT

It is scarcely possible to please everybody with the camp-meeting board. Even if the food is very good and prepared in the best of style, some one whose judgment regarding such matters is imperfect, and whose appetite is out of line with normal conditions, may complain. However, since there are a great many minds and tastes to be dealt with, it is best to provide the table with a good variety of good hygienic dishes, so that as many as possible may be satisfied.

The writer desires it to be distinctly understood that he has no disposition to complain about this matter, for he personally knows that cooks, stewards, and waiters sincerely desire to satisfy all with an excellent menu served in good order. He can therefore with kindness to all consider this subject. The desire is that in harmony with the Lord’s advice, all our eating and all our drinking be done to the glory of God.

Perhaps the first item for consideration at any American table is bread. This is wanted in abundance. Our people, if they can get it, will use more brown bread than white. Soft bread is better one day old than fresh. Sour bread is a serious offender when it appears at the camp-meeting, or at any other table. Some of its worst qualities can be removed by toasting in an oven. The various toasted foods should have a place on the camp table, as they are easy of digestion, and many want them.

Beans, peas, lentils, fresh cooked potatoes, beets, squash, apples, peaches, pears, plums, oranges, prunes, cherries, apricots, grapes, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, melons, sweet corn, cooked grains, salads, dairy products, eggs, nuts, and other healthful articles of diet may all very properly be placed before our people to be eaten at the camp-meetings.

These things in their seasons, suitably prepared and well served, leave no reasonable room for any dissatisfaction regarding the camp-meeting board.

If places were assigned and held for all who eat at the camp table, some unpleasant features would be avoided. Such an arrangement would go a long way toward preventing the unkind and improper rush for the table which is often seen. Surely something should be done to institute a proper course in this respect. None of us conduct ourselves after this unpleasant manner in our homes, and why should it prevail in the sacred camp of the Lord? It is not done anywhere else by us, and it is high time that this method cease at our camp-meetings. This manner of rushing to the table to get possession of any seat that can first be reached, crowds out those who are busy, and those who are infirm,—a thing that never should be done anywhere. Every properly regulated boarding-house has a place assigned to each individual, and his right to that place is respected by all. This is done in many of our camp-meetings. It should be done in them all.

As a rule, there should be a table provided for the ministers attending the meeting, because they are often detained from getting to the table at the ringing of the bell. This is not because they desire it to be so, but because the call to some duty has made it so. By arranging a separate table for them, they can be saved from embarrassment and inconvenience when these irregularities occur. It is only intended by these few suggestive remarks that we all as Christians endeavor to follow the golden rule, and thereby do more acceptable service for the Lord.