Virginia Camp-Meeting by H. W. Cottrell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Sep 10, 1903

Virginia Camp-Meeting

By H. W. Cottrell

The annual camp-meeting of the Virginia Conference was held July 31 to August 9, in a beautiful grove in a country place called Wellington, D. C. The location was all that could have been desired, except that we were not near the multitude.

The meetings were well advertised for miles around the place, and from the opening service were well attended. On Sunday there were fifteen hundred people present, besides the two hundred of our own people who were encamped on the ground. The good order maintained by the visitors surpassed that of any other public gathering I have ever seen.

Present truth, the message of reform that called us out as a people, was clearly presented from the beginning to the close, and was gladly received as the word of God by eager listeners. A company of workers was left at the place to follow up the interest awakened by the camp-meeting.

Elder L. S. Wheeler and his wife had charge of the young people's services, and a good work was done for them, several of whom gave their hearts to the Lord for the first time.

The business meetings were just as spiritual in their nature as the praise meetings, which was a characteristic of the spiritual presence of the Lord upon the encampment. I am sure such should be true in every business meeting.

The conference has been struggling for several years under the burden of debt, and this has greatly hindered aggressive work. The General Conference having recently appropriated two thousand dollars to this field, which freed it from debt, the brethren are now prepared to give their attention and means to extending the work into new fields. The people of Virginia greatly appreciate the help the General Conference has rendered them.

Elder R. D. Hottel was again elected president of the conference by unanimous vote. Other officers of the conference remain about as last year.

Unity prevails among the workers and people to the glory of God's grace. All were filled with new life and courage to press the work on to victory, which we are assured will be realized in this generation.

Elder Wheeler and his wife, who have been laboring in this conference for some time past, will now take up work in connection with the Melrose (Mass.) Sanitarium, as Bible instructors.

H. W. COTTRELL.