Mothers' Meeting at Camp-Meeting
By Mrs. W. E. A. Aul
WHY do we go to the camp-meeting each year? — To promote our spiritual life. In "Testimonies for the Church," Vol. VI, pages 32, 33, I read: "God has committed to our hands a most sacred work, and we need to meet together to receive instruction, that we may be fitted to perform this work. . . . We need to meet together and receive the divine touch that we may understand our work in the home. Parents need to understand how they may send forth from the sanctuary of the home their sons and daughters so trained and educated that they will be fitted to shine as lights in the world." Again, on page 49: "Parents who come to camp-meeting should take special heed to the lessons given for their instruction. Then in the home life, by precept and example, let them impart these lessons to their children. As they thus strive to save their children from the corrupting influences of the world, they will see an improvement in their families." Is it not time that this work received special attention? Is there anything of more importance than our children? They are God's own heritage. At this special time when there are so many things to lead our children and youth from the path of right, we must put forth greater effort to save them from the snares of Satan. Many parents come to the camp-meeting realizing their insufficiency for these things, and then go home no better prepared for lifting these burdens than when they came. It is to be hoped that conference committees will consider this subject, and see if they can not arrange in their program an hour a day for mothers' meetings. I have attended camp-meetings where this was done, and much good was accomplished. If the meeting could be held at the same hour in the afternoon that the meetings for the young people and children are held, and could be well advertised, there would be a good attendance from the city. Let practical subjects be taken up at each meeting, and presented by paper, by discussion, by questions, etc. It is none too soon to begin now to arrange for the work. Let a competent woman or, better still, two women be selected to take charge of the work, they to arrange with others to assist. We have in College View a regularly organized department of the church called the Mothers' Association, with the president a member of the church council. The object of this association is to create a bond of union among our mothers, to educate ourselves along the lines of temperance, proper conduct of our homes, and the highest obtainable perfection in the development of our children. Much good has been accomplished through the efforts of this association.