ARE YOU GOING TO CAMP-MEETING?
By JOS. CLARKE.
The inquiry is frequently made, Do you intend to go to the camp-meeting? and too often the answer is, “I do not know,” or a negative reply is returned. The reasons assigned are generally lack of time or lack of funds. Now let us see how this is: A. is a farmer of limited means—rents a farm. He knows it will not do to hire team-work; so he runs in debt two or three hundred dollars, knowing that if he gets a fair crop he can easily pay for his team; and if his crops are light, his team will sell in the fall for nearly what he paid for it. Here he trusts in God, and goes on in the order of providence; and, in most cases, success follows legitimate enterprise. Now, if in the fall he needs a few dollars to bear his expenses to camp-meeting, can he not as legitimately borrow a little cash if it is necessary, rather than neglect so valuable a means of grace as an S. D. A. Camp-meeting in 1876? Again, here is a farmer who needs a house and barn. He has but little ready means. His friends encourage him; and, by incurring a few debts, he succeeds in erecting useful and commodious buildings, and very soon ways open to pay for them. Now, if he could risk his credit to the amount of hundreds for these necessary buildings, can he not risk a little to attend such interesting and useful meetings as those in question? Now I will tell you what you had better say when any one asks you if you are going to camp-meeting; say, “Yes; I am going if I possibly can.” Having said this, you will feel better, and more disposed to go; and in a few days or weeks, or in a less period of time, it is very likely that you will see your way so plainly that you will wonder how you could have been so stupid as to say, “I do not see how I can go to camp-meeting; times are so hard, and I have so much work to do; I cannot leave home so long,” etc. The fact is, you cannot afford to stay at home from camp-meeting. It is not every day that you can see the company you will meet at the place we speak of; nor is it every day you can hear such speakers as attend these meetings. Then consider, too, that angels from Heaven, with special power from God, will be present, and if you invest liberally in your camp-meeting outfit, with a loving heart, God will repay you by reviving you at this meeting, and this will be worth to you, and to others, infinitely more than gold or stock in banks. No, you must not look glum, and speak in a minor key about going to camp-meeting; but you must consider it a feast, a day of the church’s glory, a high day, a day of jubilee. Come in humble faith, and do the best you can. If you have but little, your expenses must be less; but if you can get a nice tent do so, and arrange it as pleasantly as possible. Then be on the ground as early as you can, and it will be pleasant all the way through. Have as little care as possible, so as to get the benefit of the meetings. Soon camp-meetings will cease; the year of jubilee is at hand, when the land will rest; and then all will rest, the wicked in dishonorable graves, and the righteous in light ineffable and full of glory. Of what value is wealth now, except to be used in the cause of God? Of what value is life, if not to be used in the work of God? And our time, whose is it but the Lord’s? Under the Mosaic dispensation, general meetings were held three times in the year (see Ex. 23:14–17); and when the people heeded these set periods of time, as they were commanded, God blessed them. We attend these meetings, not as a duty merely, but far more—as a sacred privilege, a holy pleasure. What could make us more unhappy than to be unable, from sickness, age, care, or infirmity, to attend them? No greater pleasure have we here than such occasions as these; let us improve all our privileges.