The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-08-27
TIE Gospel In the Wssds-The Herald's
Advice Taken.

| comment freely and plainly, as we felt 1t 10 De
our duty, upon tho ''sanctifcation hobby"
which our camp meeting ministers and friends
were riding at these Christian gatherings in
the woods and we advised the committees of
such as were then to come off that they might
improve on this style and give all the people
their portion Of spiritual meat in due season.
The Sing Sing camp meeting has been held
since, and has been wondrously successful on
the principle which we indicated. But very
few of the recognized generals of division OF
the sanctiied hosts of the Lord were present,
and some of those were disappointed, If not
little chagrined, that the meeting had not been
conducted In accordance with their pro-
gramme. One of them, indeed. in public
address exctedly remarked that had the meet
ing been run on the line of holiness its sue
cess would have been double and quadruple
what it was But the presiding elder very
pertinently replied that the meeting was not
to be carried on in the interest or on the line
of anybody's hobby, but that the Word of the
Lord should be fully ministered, the subject Of
holiness, according to the Bible standard,
coming in for its share of exposition and COM
ment, but not excluding other topics of equally
vital Importance. And the sympathy Of five
| thousand people present with those remarks
! of DR.. Brown was Enthusiastically manifested.
The success of the meeting was great, the con-
versions numbering over one hundred and
twenty, and very large number protested to
have sought and obtained the higher blessing
Of sanctiication.
While many ministers and great many lay
men and women in the churches profess holi-
ness Of heart, an experience Of thirty mine years
has convinced the managers of the Sing Sing
camp meeting that the greatest success comes
on the line of practical religion, and hence
almost all the preaching was of that kind.
Preaching the doctrine Of holiness or sanctif-
cation to miscellaneous congregations of i'm
penitent persons and easy-going religious pro-
fessors is like teaching the people Greek be-
fore they have learned the vernacular. And,
as proclaimed by some Of the leading cham
pions of the higher life, it is too ethereal and
visionary to be apprehended easily and
adopted readily by practical men and women.
The higher spiritual life, like the higher intel
lectual life follows as the result of consecra-
ton and of study. Man is ever developing
from the lower to the higher, from the grosser
animal nature into the purer spiritual nature,
and the true object of Christian teaching is to
develop this growth after natural and
healthy manner, and not after the fashion of
dollhouse plants. And we are glad to know
that most of the Sing Sing camp meeting
preachers took this practical view of the
subject, and fed the people with food con-
venient for them during the ten days of the
encampment which ON Friday morning was
broken up.
The very hest sermons delivered on the
ground were one on the nature and philosophy
of prayer, by the Rev. Dr. Miley, of Sing
Sing and one on the nature and attainment of
salvation, by the Rev. Dr. Foss, of New
York. They were masterpieces of theologi-
cal and philosophical argument in illustration
and support of their respective themes. A
very able discourse was preached also on
Sunday last by Rev. DR.. Crawford, of New
York. But very many of the ablest preachers
in the Church and in the Conference who were
present either shrked the duty Of preaching
or were not invited, and some ministers in
dulged in great deal of ''small talk" from
the stand. There was, viewer, on the
whole, greater display of earnestness and
erudition and a more manifest inspiration
resting upon the preachers there than is ap-
parent in their pulpit discourses at home.
And it seemed to us that if they showed as
much zeal and interest in the conversion Of
the impenitent among their several local con-
gregations, especially in the city, we should
not hear so much Of the cry of laxity and
deafness among the churches here as we do.
And now that they have returned home we
hope they will not allow the revival spirit to
die within them, nor wait until November for
God to display His saving power among their
people.
The older this Sing Sing meeting grows the
, more interesting evidently it becomes, and,
notwithstanding the establishment of SO many
other camp meetings in the vicinity of New
York, this has held its place in the hearts and
affections of the Methodists of this city and
of the regions along the Hudson River. And
from the opening to the close Of the meeting
there were probably not less than five thousand
people on the ground at any time, and the
number varied from that to twenty thousand,
which number it was estimated were present
on Sunday. The Camp Meeting Association
add some new attraction or Improvement to
the ground every year, and the Christian
people who have the leisure and the money to
spend week or month in the country spend
it there more agreeably than they could else
where. The members of the Washington
square Methodist Episcopal church inaugurated
an important movement in this direction.
They organized a camp meeting association
among themselves, purchased large tent,
about twenty-five by forty feet and fitted up
nm ord IF n with heda in aena m IN orts