RULES TO BE OBSERVED IN REFERENCE TO CAMP-MEETINGS.
By MICH. CONF. COM.
- Come to the meeting. 2. Come in season.
- Take hold of the work. 4. Stay till the close.
1. Camp-meetings are important and useful meetings, or they are not. If they are not, they should be given up. If they are, they should be supported. One of the principal ways to support the meeting is to manifest an interest to attend it. A camp-meeting slimly attended, there being only a few present, while others who might attend as well as not, or at most, with a little sacrifice, are at home, still buried up with the cares of this life, shows that the meeting is considered of secondary importance, and the hands of those who come are greatly weakened. If, on the other hand, churches and scattered brethren from far and near are promptly on the ground, it shows that the cause is loved, and the privilege prized. Love begets love; and from such a meeting all will go away loving the cause better than when they came. But to come yourselves alone is not enough. Bring some one with you; not those, particularly, who are utter strangers to what we regard as truth, for such cannot hear the evidences at a camp-meeting; but those who have acquired some acquaintance of our position, and are interested. Perhaps you will say you have no such in your vicinity. Then what have you been doing the past year? How have you let your light shine? Were there no persons before whom you could live such a life as to recommend to them the truth which you profess, to whom you could speak an earnest and judicious word, or at least, into whose hands you could place a tract, and induce them to read it, which would give them some of the evidences of our faith, and perhaps enlist their interest therein? These are the ones to be benefited by camp-meetings. Bring them in. 2. Come in season. One of the greatest drawbacks to a meeting, is a failure on the part of the brethren to do their duty in this respect. And it happens on this wise: The first efforts put forth in the meeting are for the benefit of those already in the truth, are comparatively small; and on Sunday, the object is to work wholly with reference to those who come in from without. If all would come to the meeting with hearts all engaged in the work, ready themselves to take right hold for others, these remarks would not be needed; but it is to be regretted, that, to a very large extent, this is not usually the case, and those who are most poorly prepared to take hold of the work, generally come latest to the meeting. This evil can be remedied by individual reform. Shall we not see it? 3. Take hold of the work. Take hold of it at once. Take hold in earnest. No one ever was found to regret entering into the work too soon; but many have had to regret that they put it off too long. Remember the business of the occasion. It is not to visit, nor trade, nor talk nonsense, nor be idle, nor recreate, but to seek God. And he who does not do this, so far as his own benefit is concerned, might as well not have taken the trouble to come. So when a person has taken the pains to come to the meeting, and to come in season, the next thing is to take hold of the work. 4. Stay till the close. This is as important as it is to come at the commencement. The meeting should not be raveled out at either end. The presence and help of every brother and sister are needed to the close. If it is important for you to come at all, it is important that you stay through. Matters of vital interest come up for consideration toward the close of the meeting. And the parting season is frequently the very best of the whole occasion. Those who leave before the meeting closes, seem to show, that, at best, they have a divided interest. They say to their worldly affairs, Stand aside, while I go up to worship God; and, ere the season of worship is closed, they say to it, Now, you stand aside; for I return again to my worldly pursuits. When we set apart a season for God's worship, can we not give it all to him, and show, that, for a time at least, the whole heart is given to his cause? Therefore stay till the meeting is fully closed. MICH. CONF. COM.