The Camp-Meeting at Pontiac, Ill.
By Geo. I. Butler
This meeting commenced Thursday night, Oct. 25, and broke up the following Tuesday morning. It was considerably smaller than any other camp-meeting we have attended this year, not excepting even Missouri and Kansas. Had the brethren made one-half the effort to get out to this meeting that the brethren there did last spring to get to the meeting at Centerville, Kansas, we should have had a very different representation. I felt as though it was a disgrace to our cause to have no more of our people together. We had only five tents up besides the large preaching tent and mine; and these, with one exception, were very inferior. Brn. R. F. Andrews and T. M. Steward had just been holding a tent-meeting in Pontiac, and our camp-meeting was designed to close up the work there for the present. These brethren of course had been telling the people all about this great work, this closing message of mercy, this great reform in the last days, to prepare a people for Christ’s coming. They had informed them they were representing the Illinois Conference of our people, and that there was to be a general gathering of our people there, coming from all parts of the State, &c. The meeting was located in the edge of the town, easy of access to all. What an impression must have been made upon the minds of the people to see a forlorn looking company of four or five tents, stuck up on the edge of the prairie, as a representation of this work, when the Conference list shows that 285 Sabbath-keepers were living in the State, as members of churches, while more still were scattered here and there in its limits. I judge from fifty to seventy-five were present out of this number. Sunday, the day that the crowd was expected, was very rainy, so that there were none present all day excepting those actually camping on the ground, and a very few living near. I confess I was very grateful, for I thought the impressions which the people would get that this was a representation of our people in this State would do more injury than all the preaching they would hear would do good. As they did not come out, perhaps they knew little about it. And who was to blame for this? Those especially who stayed away. Had the brethren of Illinois shown as much of a spirit to sacrifice as many of our people in other Conferences, there would have been at least twenty tents there; good, respectable tents. The people of Illinois are not poor. It is one of the richest States in the Union. Its inhabitants are everywhere known as a go-ahead people, second in this respect to no other State. No doubt their go-ahead-ativeness takes too much of a worldly turn. There are many well-to-do Sabbath-keepers there, who should have been present, with family and church tents, and saved us the mortification of such an appearance to the citizens of Pontiac. But probably they could not get time to come. It would have cost them some money, and possibly their sorghum, or cattle, or something else, would not have been so well attended to. If our people choose to have camp-meetings at all the expense which they cost, they should attend them. If they don’t want to be to the trouble of doing this, let them say so, and they shall not be troubled. As it is, when those who have to go from State to State, riding night and day, and holding thirty meetings every week for some two or three months together, appoint meetings at the especial request of the officers of the Conference, as in this case, they hope to see the people present. The call by the President of that Conference was a very earnest one, as all who read it can certify, and his mortification and that of others who attended was very great. But the brethren did not heed it. These lines are designed for those who stayed away, who should have been there. There is no reason why the brethren of Illinois cannot have camp-meetings as well as others if they only think so, and are willing to make sacrifices. They are in the same latitude, and follow the same pursuits, as the people of Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio. Their State is filled with railroads, and they are fully as well off pecuniarily, in proportion to numbers. They will find when they make the sacrifice that God will bless them. The cause has not been making the progress in this State that it has in some others, and I think the cause is not hard to discern. The brethren need to wake up. When they take hold with an earnest spirit of sacrifice, God will bless them. Three hundred Sabbath-keepers in one State can support a camp-meeting. As it was, in spite of all these things, we had an excellent meeting. The weather was the warmest, although it was so late in the season, of any meeting since the eastern camp-meetings commenced. I could not learn that there was any suffering from cold on the ground. Those who did attend, after the unpleasant and discouraging commencement wore off, seemed ready to take hold. We felt it duty to talk plain in reference to existing evils in the State, and to stir up the minds of the people to the necessity of action and sacrifice, yet it was well received and accepted, and many seemed greatly cheered. When the wants of the cause were presented, Sunday morning, there was a general taking hold. Two thousand dollars were pledged on the school, not in very large sums, but the pledging was general; I think, for the size of the company present, there was about as much liberality manifested as in any camp-meeting we have attended. The brethren of Illinois have already subscribed between $2,500 and $3,000, quite a sum being pledged at the meeting by those living in this State. While there are exceptions, as in every State, there seemed to be a general desire to do their part in the cause. The pecuniary affairs of the Conference seem to be slowly getting into a better condition. They have now paid off all their delinquencies on our periodicals, and have quite a fund pledged to start on, in the Tract and Missionary Society. Those who have come into the cause within the last two or three years seem to be more ready to take hold of the burdens of the work than the older ones. Before the meeting closed there seemed to be a good spirit present indeed, and, as far as I could learn, all were very glad they had come to the meeting. The Conference passed a resolution to have a camp-meeting next year, all present voting for it with enthusiasm, showing by this that they thought themselves well paid for their labor. The people went home feeling well, and greatly encouraged. This is as it should be, and we felt very sorry more were not here to share in the same feeling. Nine were baptized by Bro. Andrews in Vermillion river, Tuesday morning, before the people scattered to their homes. This was the first meeting I have attended in Illinois for fifteen years. I see no reason why the cause may not prosper in this State, if there is a taking hold generally among the brethren. I believe the Lord blesses us just in proportion as we make his cause first and uppermost. Nothing can save us from drifting down the current, as all the denominations around us are doing, unless we make special efforts to keep awake and unglue our hands from the world. Our excellent theories will only make our damnation more certain, unless there is excellent practice with them. Great light and terrible ruin always go together, unless practice keeps pace with our light. Here is the rock we as a people shall surely split on if we are not the most earnest people on the earth. Our profession requires it. When we tell the people that this is God’s message of warning for the last days we must act accordingly or we shall simply be hypocritical. Our profession and practice must go together. Oh! that these things might burn into the hearts of our people everywhere. May God wake us up. May the contemplation of the solemn message to the Laodiceans arouse us before it shall be too late. How can we sleep on in such a time as this? The only reason we can, is because Satan’s influence is all around us, and we are in a dozy, sleepy condition from that cause. We hope all will ponder the words of instruction they have heard, and especially the light which God is giving us in the Testimony to the Church, just issued. Martinsville, Ill., Oct. 2, 1873.