New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-17

and equipages were prepared weeks before
hand. Even in the Middle States camp meet
| ing is now quite as much social as relig-
| iOus event.
| II Whitefeld, who hundred and fifty years
ago began this preaching in the open air,
could see the wholesale preparations gong on
to-day, of meats and jams by the housewives,
and of finery by their daughters, how would
he cry out for the decensiOn OF his people
WhIteheld had q message to speak; 1t tore his
soul and would not be quiet When church
was denied him, he went to the fields. My
Lord,n he cried chad the mountains for
L" his pulpit and the heavens for his sounding
board he sent his servants into the high
"ways and hedges" He was surrounded by
thousands peeresses in their coaches, old
scholars from the seclusiOn of the col
leges; "the poor cOlliers came out OF
" their cOalpits in swarmS. the tears making
white cutters down their black faces" The
sound of their voices praising God was heard
alar off like the thunder of the sea. In those
days, as on that of Pentecost, thousands were
converted unto God. There were no prepara-
tons for gluttOnous feeding IN that crowd; no
cards, no finery, no whiskey. Why do we see
nothing like this scene in our modern camp
meetings3 There are souls crying out to be
saved in New-Jersey as there were in Spital-
fields. Life is as awful in its import, death
as near, and the Helper, the only Helper, as
ready to street h ont His.hand. What is want
ingl We have no Whitefeld, plead the lead
ers of our meetings nowadays.
1t does not seem to us, outside secular OBJ
hat ts fol- hut htta
fields spirit that is lacking. Secular observ-
ers and secular newspapers are entitled to
speak in this matter. When any movement is
made which offers to lift us all into higher
life, those whom it offers to help have the
right to Judge 1t, and to decide whether it
does its work or not If camp meetings are
held merely as an innocent social pleas
ure, means of enabling good Chris
tian folk to hold agreeable intercourse in a
kind of prolonged picnic, their object is a
worthy one, so far as it goes, and they have
accomplished it. But if they profess to go
further, and to make Christ and His gospel
more honorable IN the world, we warn them
that they need Whitelield's spirit. Whitefeld
was a man possessed with his message. The
well ordered services of our friends at Chau-
tauqua and Ocean Grove, the carefully studied
sermons, the choirs, the orderly eating ar
rangements, the gigantic schemes for Sunday
school and mission work, are all well enough
in their way. But the voice of one man thor
Oughy on fire with love for his Master would
pass through this conventional machinery like
an electric shock through lifeess matter.
Christians who set going this mechanical en-
emery may be mistaken as to the reality of
their own zeal but the world is never mistaken.
1t does not find Christianity in the hackneyed
hymns sung and SERMONS preached from a sense
of duty, or in the irreverent familiarity with sa-
cred things common on most camp grounds, any
more than in the nervous hystercal frenzy
which ignorant women there mistake for
religious rapture.
The world cries no longer, "LO, here is
"Chrst :" or, "Lo, He is there" 1t begins to
doubt if He is anywhere. To such of our
readers as mean TO attempt to show Him
this month in these outdoor meetings, we
urge that they make ready not by writing
fine sermon or preparing cold meats, but by
betaking themselves to their knees humby to
find out whether they themselves know Him.
Afterward, unless He has given them a mes.
sage to the world, let them keep silent. Let
us have no sermons and prayers in these
camp meetings that come not from the heart.
We can talk politics or sing PinafOre with the
brain and mouth; but it Is only when the
soul itself speaks that we should try to teach
God to others.