The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1823-08-19
CAMP MEETING.

OAMF MEEAING.
A camp meeting of the Methodists was held at
Gorhsm last week, at which il was estimated,
there were about three thousand persons col
lected. They separated on Friday morning at
O'Clock, having preserved through the confer
ence great degree of propriety and decorum.
The following extracts from Southey's life of
Wesley showing the origin Of this outdoor preach
ing, may not be uninteresting. The occurren
ces noticed took place in the beginning OF the
year 1889
"Many societies had by this time been form
ed in London, but tie central place of meeting
was large room in Fetter-lane. Here they
had their love-feasts, at which they ate bread
and water in the intervals Of singing aud pray
ing, and where they encouraged each other in
excuses of devotion, which, if they found the
mind sane, were not likely long to leave it so.
son the first night of the new year" says Wes-
lev, Mr.. Hal, Kinchin, lngham, Whitefeld,
Hutchins, and my brother Charles, were present
at our loVe-feast, with about sixty of our breth-
rem. About three 10 the morning, we were
continuing instant in prayer, the power OF God
came nightly upon US, inSomuch, that many
cried out for exceeding JOY, and many fell to
the ground. As soon as we were recovered
little from that awe and smazement at the pres
ence OF his majesty, we broke out with one voice,
NE praise thee, o God; NE acknowledge thee 10
BE- The Lord"
{. Meetings of this kind prolonged far into the
midnight, and even through the night, were
what neither the We-ieys nor w bitne d 4pprov
ed in their cooler age. They gave just onenLe
10 the better part Of the Clergy; ana meu VINO
were neither deficient in piet, nor IN zeal. prop
erlv refused to lend their pulpits to preachers
who seemed to pride them elves upon setting
prudence al defiance. But if tbs ad not drIy-
en- them to field preaching, they would have Ia
ken to that course, from a necessity Of a oiieT
ent nature. One Sunday. when Whitfield was
preaching at Bermondsey church, he tells US,
with great freedom in bis heart, and earness
in his voice" to crowded congregation, near
thousand people stood ia the church, ard dur
ing the service, hundreds went away who could
not find room, and he had strong inclination to
GO out and preach to them from one Of the tomb
stones. This" he says, "put me first upon
thinking Of preaching without doors. men
toned it to some friends, who looked upon It as
a mad notion"
About a fortnight afterwards be went to Bris-
toll. Near that city is tract of country called
Kingswood formerly, as its name implies, il had
been a royal chase, containing between three
and four thousand acres, but ii had been gradu-
ally appropriated by the several lords whose es-
tates lay round about its borders and their title
which for a long time was no better than what
possession gave them, had been legalized. The
deer had long since disappeared, and the great
er part Of the wood also; and coal mines having
been discovered there, from which Bristol de-
rives its chief supply of fuel, it was now inhab
tied b. race of people as lawless as the forest
ers. their forofathers, but far more brutal. and
differing as much from the people of the sur
rounding country in dialect in appearance.
They had at that time no place Of worship, for
Kingswood then belonged to the Out-parish Of
ST Phillip and Jacob; and if the Coliers had
been disposed to come from a distance of three
and four miles. they would have found no room
IN the parish church of populous suburb. When
upon bis last visit to Bristol, before his embarca
ton, Whtefield spoke of converting the sava-
ges, many of his friends said to him, I" What need
Of going abroad for this? Have we not Indians
enough at home? you have mind to convert
Indians, there are golfers enough in Kingswood.'
"Toward these golfers, Whitefeld, as he says,
had long felt his bowels yesrn, for they were
very numerous, and yet as sheep having no shep
herd. On the afternoon, therefore, ofSaturday,
Feb. IL, 1888, he stood upon mount, in pace
called Rose Green, his " first field pulpit" and
preached to as many as came 70 hear, attracted
by the novelty of such an address g thought"
says he, I" it might be doing the service of my
Creator, who had mountain for his pulpit, and
the heavens for sounding board; and who,
when bis gospel was refused by the Jews, sent
his servants into the highways and hedges" Not
above two hundred persons gathered around him,
for there had been no previous notice of his in
tenton; and these perhaps being no way pre-
pared for bis eKhortatiens, were more astonish-
ed than impressed by what they heard. But the
first step was taken, and Whitfield was fully a.
ware of its Importance. "Blessed be God" be
saws in his journal, that the ice is now broke
and have now taken the field. Some may Gen.
sure me; but is there not cause PulPits are
denied, and the poor golfers ready to perish for
lack of knowledge"
Soon afterwards, Wesley entered upon the
same course although at first with some reuct-
ance he says " | could scarce reconcile myself
at first to this strange way" One day after
Wesley had expounded the 4th Chapter of Acts,
the persons present " called upon God TO con-
firm his word. " Immediately" he adds, " one
that stood by, to our small surprise, cried out
aloud, with the utmost vehemence, even as in the
agonies of death but we continued in prayer,
until nelO song aOas pat IN her mouth. Soon
after, two other persons we're seized with strong
pain, and constrained to "TsaT for the disgaaes-
ness Of their heart"