The Maine Camp-Meeting by Uriah Smith

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Sep 23, 1875

The Maine Camp-Meeting.

By Uriah Smith

THIS meeting was held at Richmond, Me., at the time appointed, Sept. 2-6, 1875. And as we write this heading we are almost tempted to omit the letter e from Maine, and write it "the main camp-meeting;" for it has been one of the best of the season.

Twenty tents were erected, and about two hundred brethren and sisters were present, men and women of substantial worth, as sound and solid as the granite of their native State.

Fifteen discourses were given in all, and the speakers from the first enjoyed freedom in presenting the truth. The social meetings increased in interest from the beginning to the end; but especially towards the close were they excellent. The cheering testimonies brought in, in rapid succession, showed an intelligent standing in the truth, a great appreciation of its value, and a joy in the hope of soon-coming deliverance, when the storms and trials of the way will all be past, and we shall meet the loved and lost in the kingdom of our God, a kingdom peaceful, perfect, and eternal.

The place of the meeting this year was a new place for such meetings of our people, and the announcement of it had not gone out so fully as it will go another year; yet on Sunday the crowd was large, numbering probably not far from twenty-five hundred people. Bro. and sister White had most excellent freedom in speaking to them. And in their testimony on this day, and the many other occasions upon which they spoke, a good impression was made, and much prejudice was removed. We do not believe that the prejudice raised by the low and bitter work of opposition carried on by some against sister White and her labors has been able to survive a single discourse of hers, when the person affected has been present to see and hear for himself. At any rate, we have known of many who came with prejudice and went away confessing that they had been deceived, that their prejudice was gone, and that the spirit of opposition manifested against sister W. was not of God. In no State probably has her name been more meanly handled than in Maine. Hence it is especially gratifying that here she should have the opportunity to speak for herself, that the nature of her work may be seen, and the deceptive and unchristian character of the opposition against her may be exposed.

The crowd was very orderly and attentive during Sunday, and no disturbance was experienced at any time during the meeting. The people of Richmond and vicinity are entitled to our thanks for the respect and courtesy shown to this gathering of our people.

A good number came forward for prayers on the Sabbath. On Monday two were baptized by Bro. Corliss in the Kennebec River, near by the camp-ground. This was not a large number, but as it was the first scene of the kind that has occurred in connection with the S. D. A. Camp-meetings in this State it was an item of no small encouragement.

Among the features of interest connected with the meeting the singing should not be passed by. There are good voices among the brethren and sisters here, and they gave us some rare and excellent songs of Zion calculated to inspire joy and a spirit of devotion in all our hearts.

To understand the good this meeting is calculated to produce, it is necessary to understand the state of things in this Conference more fully than those not living or laboring here can do. Quite a feeling of discouragement has prevailed here during the past year. It was evident that much was depending upon this camp-meeting. If it should prove a failure, the result would be disastrous; and on its success seemed to depend very largely the future prosperity of the cause in this State. Hence much anxiety was felt by those who have at heart the interests of the cause here, in this meeting. The relief of such at the success that has attended this effort cannot well be described. But the existing state of discouragement kept many from the meeting who would otherwise have been present. Such lost much by staying away.

It would be interesting to give the different words that were used in describing the meeting by the brethren and sisters present. One says, "It has been a smooth meeting from beginning to end." Another says, "I have always had pretty good courage, but my courage has been greatly increased by this meeting." Another says, "They who have not been here, do not know what they have lost." Another, "This has been not only the best camp-meeting but the best meeting I ever attended." And so we might go on.

In the parting meeting at 5:30 Tuesday morning sixty spoke in the hour allotted to that exercise, all testifying to the blessing and encouragement they had received from this occasion, and that they were determined to show it in their lives the year to come.

The brethren who labor in this Conference will now take hold of the work with renewed courage, and the brethren, according to their resolution passed in Conference session, will take hold with greater interest to second their efforts. There is a feeling and hope that the cause is destined to rise in this part of the field; and the workers in Maine have this to stimulate them in their efforts, that they have as precious souls here for whom to labor as can any where be found. U. S.