Minnesota Camp-Meeting by Dudley Marvin Canright

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 11, 1878

Minnesota Camp-Meeting.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WE have just closed one of the most successful camp-meetings I have ever attended. We enjoyed a very pleasant time in our school. Tuesday and Wednesday the brethren arrived at camp in large numbers, so that most all were present at the commencement of the regular camp-meeting. It was cheering to see them come, load after load, some coming from fifty to two hundred miles. Others came twenty miles with ox teams. Brother Harlow, seventy-six years old, drove his team three hundred miles, from some place in Dakota. This shows a commendable zeal. There were eighty-one tents on the ground, and a count showed that there were nearly eight hundred persons encamped. This was the largest meeting that I have attended outside of Michigan.

Having the business well out of the way, we began our religious meetings early in the week, and kept them well ahead. Friday morning over a hundred came forward to seek the Lord. Sabbath morning was entirely devoted to this work, and one hundred and forty-five made a start in the Christian life. We then enjoyed a very interesting season in hearing them speak. After preaching upon baptism, a large number signified their desire to be baptized. Their names were recorded and their cases examined; then a day having been given in which to present objections, if any existed, one hundred and thirty-three were accepted as candidates for baptism. Sunday afternoon we repaired to the river, a short distance from the camp, where these were baptized by Elders Grant, Dimmick, Curtis, and Ells. A large mill-dam above, a bridge just below, and rising banks on each side afforded the crowd a good view, and they were all well lined with spectators. It was estimated that there were twenty-five hundred people present. Everything passed off in good order. A sister who has been confined to her bed twenty-seven years, a cripple, was taken by the administrators and carried into the water, and baptized. It was a very affecting scene. This was the largest and most affecting baptism I have ever witnessed. In several cases the ministers would lead mother and son, husband and wife, or sometimes husband, wife, and children into the water together. Elder Babcock's twin daughters, about eleven years of age, were baptized together. It was a scene never to be forgotten.

The grasshopper scourge has passed away, and Minnesota crops begin to look up. However, as the Conference had a large list of ministers to pay, we found our systematic benevolence fund short. Evidently the brethren have not been doing their duty in paying their tithes.

An expression made by rising showed that about one-fifth of those present had embraced the truth the past year. With more than one-fourth of the audience this was their first camp-meeting. This Conference now has fifteen ordained ministers, and twenty-two licentiates. Several were licensed for the first time at this meeting. At our last session, three brethren were ordained to the work of the ministry. There are three or four preachers in the Conference who labor among the Scandinavians. A special effort will be made for that people this year.

I was deeply impressed with the fact that this is becoming a very large Conference. When I came to this State six years ago, there was not a minister laboring in the State. There were only about two hundred Sabbath-keepers in the Conference. Now they have about fifty churches, thirty-seven ministers, and twelve or fourteen hundred Sabbath-keepers. And all this has been done by men raised up in their midst. Truly the Lord has blessed Minnesota. It is probably one of the richest fields in the cause. But with prosperity and increasing numbers, I can see a chance for many dangers. It is difficult to educate so rapidly these new converts soundly into the principles of this message. There is great danger that some of them will endeavor to bring in new ideas and ways of their own, which will work evil to the cause. Where there are so many laborers, there is also danger of ambition and rivalry among ministering brethren. This should be promptly discountenanced by every one. It has come to be a great responsibility for the president to oversee the entire work of the Conference. Brother Grant has been very successful in this position in the past. He still needs the hearty co-operation of all his brethren to successfully carry on the work. This we believe he has.

Personally, it was a great pleasure to me to attend this Conference, and see so many of my old brethren. This is the spot where I first began to realize success in Minnesota. We began with a small handful of about twenty-five. From that day to this the church here has steadily grown, till now it has eighty members, and is the largest church in the Conference. Twenty-five from this place were baptized at this meeting. These will be added to the church at its next quarterly meeting.

It was specially gratifying to us to find that the brethren here have the respect and confidence of the community in so large a degree. Everybody was friendly to us, and showed us all the favors possible. The hotel-keeper made a free dinner for a goodly number of our ministers. Our old landlord of former years visited us frequently, bringing food and hearty greeting. The county paper gave us the following unsolicited commendation:—

"Whatever may be thought of some of the peculiar tenets of this denomination of Christians, it is generally admitted that the system makes its followers honest, and wiser and better people."

Sunday it was with great difficulty that I could speak on account of hoarseness. After that I had to give it up entirely. Brother Stone took my place, and rendered valuable assistance. At this date, it is entirely uncertain what we shall do this summer.

D. M. CANRIGHT. Hutchinson, June 26.