p. 117 | THE ORION CAMP-MEETING by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 3, 1878

THE ORION CAMP-MEETING.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

This meeting was held Sept. 18-23 at Orion, Michigan, forty miles north of Detroit. The location was very good, the ground was dry, shade ample, good green grass, and everything pleasant. However, the railroad gave us no advantage whatever, not even a reduction of fare. Neither did it run any Sunday trains.

As the village was very small, our outside attendance was small all the time. Probably two or three hundred attended evenings, and perhaps five hundred on Sunday.

We were much disappointed also in the attendance of our people. There should have been four hundred or five hundred camped on the ground, whereas there were less than two hundred, and nearly one-half of these came Friday, and many went home Sunday. This threw a discouragement over all the meeting. It indicated a lack of interest on the part of our brethren.

A good many within twenty miles never attended at all. Evidently our brethren are losing their interest in the camp-meeting, for which we are sorry.

There were some very good things about the meeting. The preaching was done by Elds. Waggoner, Lamson, Kenyon, Corliss, Lane, and the writer. All these brethren had good freedom, and spoke well. We had some very good social meetings, one or two excellent. About thirty came forward to seek the Lord, some of whom made a very good start. Twenty-three were baptized by Bro. Corliss in a beautiful lake.

Sunday afternoon we presented the subject of the Tabernacle, toward which nearly all pledged $1.20. Then there was $180 raised for the expenses of the meeting, and pledges were taken up for the English mission. One thousand dollars was pledged and a part of it paid.

On Sunday we selected five brethren and five sisters, with two little children, the most active we could find on the ground, to canvass for our periodicals. Part of them went among our own brethren and a part among the outside crowd.

Nearly every one had some measure of success. Something like forty subscribers were obtained for our periodicals. Such an effort should be made at every camp-meeting. We had a supply of our small tracts, which were distributed among the crowd on Sunday. Twenty-five hundred pages were eagerly taken; also many copies of our periodicals.

We were overtaken by a very severe gale and hail storm, which did our large tent much damage. Otherwise the weather was good.

D. M. CANRIGHT.