"ARE you going to the California Camp Meeting?" This is the question that is now being passed around in this State. While most are answering, "Yes, if the Lord will," some few, who need the benefit and encouragement to be derived from just such a meeting, are saying, "I don't see how I can go, my business is such this year, I don't see how I can leave home." My brother or sister, whoever are making such excuses, just listen to a kindly admonition. Don't let the devil lay a snare for your feet, by causing you to lay plans for temporal interests that directly conflict with your spiritual interests.
It is said of Luther, that on days when cares and business pressed him heavily he would say, "I have so much business to-day, I shall have to spend two or three hours praying." Most professors, in these times, under such circumstances, would say, "Oh, I am so busy, and have so much to attend to to-day, I shall not have time for prayers this morning." So we say of the Camp Meeting. Are you, my brother, pressed with cares more than usual this year, you need the Camp Meeting, and must have it, or be wounded by over much care.
Don't listen to Satan's suggestions, "Oh, you can't go this year, you must do just so much towards getting out of debt this year, wait, and go to the Camp Meeting next year." How do you know that you will live to see the next year's Camp Meeting? Remember our Saviour's admonition, "Seek first the kingdom of God," and decide at once to come to the Camp Meeting, to obtain just those spiritual blessings you need to refresh your mind from the pressure of those carking cares.
With the rest of body and refreshment of mind you may there receive, you will have clearer heads and stronger hands to prosecute your lawful duties of life after you return to your homes. Don't make excuses, but come and share the benefits of this Camp Meeting.
Probation's hours are fast winding up. The last saving truth for perishing mortals is being proclaimed. We each have an influence to exert, a part to act, a place to fill. The world takes too much of our thoughts, our time, our attention, and our affections. Break away from it. Come to the meeting, asking God to wake you up as never before to a sense of the times we are in, and the solemn, short work that is to be done here, and to a sense of the fearful responsibility that rests upon us individually to act our part in the work faithfully and well.
To this Camp Meeting we assemble, not simply to go through its forms, but to dedicate ourselves and our all to God as never before. My brother, my sister, begin the work of consecration and preparation for the meeting now. Don't think you have got to do just so much manual labor any way before you can go to the Camp Meeting, and so rush on covering yourself up with cares, exhausting your physical and mental energies, and neglecting a preparation of mind.
Instead of doing every thing you can before Camp Meeting, put off all that can reasonably be put off till after Camp Meeting; at least sufficiently so as to take time each day for calm reflection, and prayerful seeking of God. Seek him earnestly, not as a mere form, but chasten your own hearts before him till you realize for yourself that God hears you pray, and that he will come with you to the meeting.
If we have a good Camp Meeting this year it must be the presence and power of God that will make it so. We came together last year, disappointed in relation to the ministerial help we expected. Two feeble mortal men as ministers, did not make that Camp Meeting, but when we as a people aroused to a sense of our needs, sought mightily to God for help, he was pleased to meet with us to that extent that many who came to the ground with an opposing spirit were obliged to say, "God is with you of a truth."
Begin now to seek God. Open the door of your hearts. Let the Saviour in. Be sure you enjoy his presence before you start for the meeting. Come, praying as you come. Don't come with any spirit of lightness on you to this solemn meeting. It is an important time for the cause of God in this State. May the deliberations and decisions of the meeting be right.
Let us meet, individually, with the solemn inquiry in our hearts, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" How can I so devote my talents of influence, ability, strength, or means that this solemn truth of God can be advanced? Leave your farms, your stock, your merchandise, your grain, your cares, at home, and let the all-absorbing theme on the Camp Ground be, God's cause, and its advancement. We may say (and I feel as I write), as was said anciently, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us?" Ex. 33: 15, 16. Let us seek God earnestly, and when we shall assemble in his name we shall feel indeed that God cometh into the camp.