The Seventh-Day Adventists of Iowa held their Annual Camp Meeting and Conference at the Evans Grove, near this city, commencing last Thursday and closing on Tuesday. The grounds were admirably arranged; the great pavilion located on the east side, with a semi-circle of tents enclosing an area of nearly two acres, upon which ample seats were spread before the platform, while in the adjacent timber the teams were hitched and fed, a well dug on purpose furnishing the requisite amount of water for all. Upon most of the tents a small board was placed with the name of the location from whence the occupants came, which showed that there was a pretty fair representation from all sections of the State. There were nearly forty tents, some localities having two or three, and among them we call to mind places thus designated:
Hook's Point, Victor, Washington, Pilot Grove, Mt. Pleasant, Sigourney, Waukon, Knoxville, Richland, Woodburn, Kellogg, West Union, Alton, Fayette, Elk Horn, La Porte City, Peru, Adel, Marion, Anamosa, Monroe, State Center, Sandyville, Colona, Winterset.
In addition to these there were small numbers from many other places in Iowa, and some from Nebraska, who came without tents and who made themselves at home and comfortable with the brethren better provided.
It is proper to state right here that no orders were given in regard to deportment on the grounds, no guards or sentinels placed on duty, and that from the opening to the close there was not an attempt at disorder or a symptom of rowdyism manifested. The people who came together for the camp meeting attended strictly to business, and the spectators at all the meetings showed that respect which was due to them as strangers and fellow citizens. We do not mention this fact as being unduly creditable to Newton and vicinity, but it is well known, the country through, that it is not very unusual for camp meetings held by any denomination, to be interrupted by rowdies, and that a kind of police has to be established to maintain order. In fact in years past—we trust not to be repeated—the local officials have had to be called upon to make arrests of this class of offenders.
The rains along through the week made the roads quite muddy, and the grounds were rather disagreeable, but when it was rainy the spectators were few, and the regular attendants could crowd into the pavilion, so the meetings three times a day, with committee meetings, business meetings, &c., went regularly on the same as if the weather had been all the time pleasant.
There were present many ministers of the organization, with Elder R. M. Kilgore as apparent leader of Iowa Elders, and of those from abroad were Elder Geo. I. Butler, President of the General Conference, and Elder S. N. Haskell President of one of the New England Conferences, both the latter being extraordinary preachers, and secured by all the State Annual Camp Meetings and Conferences, when their services can be obtained.
The Tract Missionary Society was held Monday morning and $5,355 was pledged, and nearly all paid down at once.
The Annual Conference was held during the Camp Meeting, and the work assigned for the State the coming year, including Nebraska, which has not yet a membership sufficiently strong to justify the formation of a separate conference.
The conference is held annually with the Camp Meeting, and a committee for that purpose fixes the time and place for the next one, but is not determined till the following spring.
The attendance at these Camp Meetings is voluntary, and we are informed that this meeting had about the average attendance of members.
In nearly all the States the membership is sufficient to make up a conference, the largest being in Michigan, with the publishing headquarters at Battle Creek, where all the books and tracts for the society are issued. There are few so extensive publishing houses in the country, about $100,000 being there invested in the publishing business. At Battle Creek they have a college just fairly started, with an endowment of nearly $60,000, and a Health Institute where chronic diseases are successfully treated without medicines.
This is the first great meeting of the Seventh-Day Adventists here, and it may be the last. They came unheralded, attended strictly to the purpose which brought them together, and went quietly away. Those who attended the meetings regularly obtained a pretty full knowledge of their Articles of Faith, but those who attended only a single service or not at all, can know but little of them. Under these circumstances we feel justified in giving a brief synopsis of portions of their Declaration of Principles:
“There is one God, a personal spiritual being, Creator of all things, omnipotent, unchangeable, everywhere present by His representative, the Holy Spirit.
There is one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal Father, who took on him the nature of man for the redemption of our fallen race; died for us, was raised from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and dwells with God forever.
The Holy Scriptures are a revelation of God's will to man, and are the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Baptism by immersion is an ordinance of the Christian Church, to follow faith and repentance.
The prophecies are now all fulfilled except the second coming of Christ, for which we must be always ready. The fourth commandment of God's law requires us to devote the seventh day of each week, commonly called Saturday, to abstinence from labor, and the performance of sacred and religious duties.”
In appearance these people are neat without ostentation—plain without a cultivated system of apparel. They teach that the use of tobacco in any form is wrong, yet there are no conditions on the subject in admission to membership. But this teaching has its effect. Elder Kilgore told us on Sunday, that probably we could not find a member of the organization on the camp ground who used tobacco. They teach that the use of tea and coffee is unhealthy and unnecessary, and it is a very rare case to find a member who uses either. They teach that the use of meat as a regular article of diet, and especially pork, should be abandoned, and but few of them use meat. Bread, vegetables, and fruits, they claim are sufficiently wholesome, and that diet should be restricted to what is necessary to keep body and mind in full health and vigor, and not to be under the control of a vitiated appetite.
The meeting has been in all respects a success, and while the people of the town and vicinity have every reason to be pleased, we trust that the visitors from abroad will have none but pleasant recollections of the Camp Meeting at Newton.