The Adventists by OLD SUBSCRIBER

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1873

The Adventists

By OLD SUBSCRIBER

[We have not yet received a report from the California Camp-meeting, but, in advance of it, the following from a San Francisco paper, which may be of interest to the readers of the Review.]

The Adventists.

THEIR RECENT CAMP-MEETING NEAR YOUNTVILLE.

Editor Morning Call—Dear Sir:—The Seventh-day Adventists have been holding their camp-meeting near Yountville during the past week. The actual count a few nights since of those occupying tents was 485, though many others came in from day to day from the neighboring towns and villages. Last Sunday, the estimated number was 1,500. It was a strange sight to me, never having been at a camp-meeting before, to see timid men and women getting up at the meeting and speaking so rapidly and eloquently—one hundred and fifteen spoke in fifty-five minutes. The meetings have been particularly orderly—not a hoodlum on the ground the whole time—and the general arrangement reflects great credit on the managers. The bell rung at 5 A. M. for prayers, and at 9 P. M. to have all the lights extinguished, and frequently through the day for meetings. There were sixty-three tents pitched, some coming from as far south as Santa Cruz. San Francisco was ably represented by the occupants of three tents.

Some important matters were considered, and preliminary arrangements made for the erection of a Health Institute and Publishing House somewhere on this coast, modeled after those at Battle Creek, Michigan. Several well-to-do members pledged considerable of their means toward enlarging the usefulness of this church when necessary, and over eight hundred dollars was subscribed in one evening toward a missionary fund, etc.

Twenty-nine persons were baptized yesterday. There has been no excitement or fanaticism exhibited at these meetings, but the greatest good will.

Seeing an inquiry a short time ago in The Call from an eminent minister as to what course could be pursued to encourage the people to take more interest in religious matters and to observe the Sabbath more strictly, I will say that, judging from the rapidly increasing numbers and the good order displayed on last Sabbath, this people seem to possess the secret. The San Francisco branch meet at the hall next to Dr. Scudder's old church on Mission Street. Yours truly,

OLD SUBSCRIBER.

Yountville, Napa Co., Cal.