The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1874-07-16
The Camp Meeting Season.

y; this season Of the year tht religious
portion OF the community betakes itself t.
woods and the sea as naturally IA the
worldly, and il may be questioned Whetl-
CT worship is not crowding barren,
pleasure seeking fashion by the happy
association Of natures beauties With rev
erence for natures God. The canvas
walls Of the camp meeting CLEAN among
the trees in the most picturesque spots on
the continent. The voice OF devotion is
from the shady groves which border ouI
Western Lakes to the cliffs and sandbanks
of the Atlantic coast In the East the
camp meeting season has already com
menced. and soon the tented nelds OF
exhortation and prayer will be raising in
all parts OF the Country. Even wicked
Long Branch will again catch the echo OF
HYMNS and of shouts OF ejaculatory prayer
from the neighboring Ocean Grove. Sing
Sing has long been known as widely for lis
camp meeting as for its prison, and New
England has actually built in Martha 5
Vineyard a summer city on foundation
of religious services. Tents no longer
contain these ardent worshipers. The
camp Of d few years ago has become a
town. Houses range along wellwatercd
streets, municipal governments are formed
and of the score of incorporated camp
meeting associations that rule over sum
mer communities, there is not one but
finds its real estate rising in value on its
hands Each succeeding season brings Il
new population to settle amid the quiet OF
its Enclosure, and TO build around lis cen
trail preaching stand.
Massachusetts, has taken the lead this
year, and New York will follow in the in
ternational camp meeting at Round Lake,
which will, perhaps, be the feature Of the
season in this direction, beginning the Sth
of July and extending through two weeks.
As this year will constitute the seventy
first anniversary of the birth Of this system
of conducting religious exercises, the
camp meetings will be even more numer-
Gus than usual, and we should not be
surprised if the tent-life of the Methodists
and some other denominations were to
continue until far into September.
Outdoor religion has become so efficient
and attractive, that ii will grow in popu-
larity as long as the lumbernen can be
kept from utter destruction of Gods first
temples" There are no more attractive
spots for religious services than the
groves, the forests and the high. breezy
bluffs near the lake or the sea. Religion
ought to be broad, liberal, and healthy
under such conditions and influences.
There is no chance for the spiritual gam
creme of an ill-ventilated study to operate
here, and the cool breeZes of sea. lake,
and forest, are refreshing and vivifying
substitutes for the somnolent forces
of church in midsummer. The fields
and the woods are the best illustrations
Of religious truth, and the reviyaiist
IL, II: hav, no
them for his heaviest campaigns. But
entirely apart from the religious clement,
there is so much in these gatherings to
attract the quietly disposed, that their
growing popularity is in no manner
strange They eliminate the dissipation
ofthe watering place and retain all its free
and airy flavor. The daily preaching SER
vice is an innocuous substitute for the
horse-race; the evening prayer meeting
for the ballroom hop. The excitement OF
the revival season-with its shouts, its
frenzy, and its hysterics-may well be
thought better choice than the feyerish
play of the clubhouse and of the two
classes of summer enjoyment. It is evil
dent that the camp meeting, with its SER
mons and its love-feasts, its early hours
and its quite life, is gaining in favor upon
the whirling gayety Of the fashionable
hotels by whose side its tents are often
pitched. While our camp meetings are
taking on more and more Of the manner
of the secular summer resort, they are yet
by prevailing religious
earnestness that gives them distinct
coloring and while Irritation and croquet
may invade their shady precincts. there is
that in the atmosphere of sincere devotion,
in the continuous mingling of prayer and
praise with the sound Of the surf and the
rustling of the trees which preserves
intact the character Of this most pleasing
form Of religious service Inter Ocean.