Southern California Camp-Meeting
By Clarence Santee
This meeting was held at the time and place appointed. From the first, the attendance was larger than at any meeting previously held in this part of the State. The number of our own people was one-third greater than at any time before, and the outside attendance was more than double that of any previous meeting. This was, in part, owing to the systematic effort made, that portion of the city having been divided into sections for personal invitations and the handing out of literature. An excellent spirit prevailed throughout the meeting. The laborers took hold earnestly, and in several special services many who had become discouraged renewed their consecration, while others gave their hearts to the Lord for the first time. Twenty-six were baptized. Others decided to be baptized at their home churches. When consistent, we believe this to be the better way, as there is more time for consideration, and the influence in the home church is encouraging. The public ministry was clothed with unusual power. The burden of the whole meeting was a call to missionary zeal and effort, connected with a series of lessons on the direct points of our faith as a distinctive people. Aged brethren and sisters testified that they had never realized the beauty and power of the truth as now. Among the visiting ministers, Elders W. T. Knox and M. C. Wilcox took a prominent part in the public instruction, while Prof. M. E. Cady held a class each day in the interests of education. Other laborers from the Arizona and North California Conferences visited our meeting, and their assistance was appreciated. More than three hundred and fifty dollars' worth of literature was taken by the brethren and sisters to open anew the tract work among their neighbors. The Fernando school was considered, and although the dormitory has been enlarged to more than double the capacity of last year, yet at the close of the camp-meeting, students came in numbers that have filled it to overflowing. It was decided to follow the interest created, with the house-to-house Bible work. Altogether, this meeting has been the most important, in many ways, of any ever held in this part of the State, and as all leave the grounds, it is with a feeling of courage and added confidence in the leading of God in this message.