The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-01-01
JOHN BAPTISTdAT THE JOR
RaF13 j DAM ID ,

A spontaneous camp-meetipg, will
DO presidents, and no committee o
arrangements. There are no we'll
adjusted seats for hearers: there are
no convenient cottages for visitors.
Iney are all IN the open air, in the
open country, where most of them
never we're before. Many of them
are living as they never lived before.
All OF them believe that, this time.
something is to happen. and, from
east, west, north, and south, they
have locked together here, first to be
baptized by this prophet John, and
then to follow wherever he chooses
to lead them.
From the uncultivsted, plain, dry
and desert indeed, yeu descend over a
line OF white, clayey hills to a fat
or terrace, which seems toe basin OF
an old lake. This is C. vered Nth low
shrubs of the ''sgnus castus." A
second descent brings you upon an
otner terrace, which is q thick Jungle
OF willows and tamsrisks With ors
more descent you come to the river
bed. The river itself is not broad,
sometimes Dotbmore than sixty feet
wide, aud the depth, except in floods,
from Six feet to tour. On the eastern
side OF the river, as il would seem, IN
q country without villages, where
men must camp if they stay at all,
are gathered these crowds, who sre
called together by the announcement
that Elijah has appeared. It was
from this very wildernt 8, hat Elijah
disappeared. And NOW no nas come
agsinl
We are apt to read tbs Boo ID
that stupid. Gradgrind way which O
suits in keeping the whole story on !
level. We take it as all wonderful
and all q matter OF course st the same
time. So the average feeling about John
Bsptist--if people take the trouble C
have any feeling about him-would
be, suppose, that it was the most
natural thing in the world for him &C
90 out into the desert, 10 dress like
q b. douin, and live like one. But
10 fact, it was just as much q thing
OF course, and just as little, "a &
would be to-day for the only son of q
manufacturer in Akron, or Q lawyer
In Pilts6eld, to leave his fathers
house and family, leave ali the asso.
Citations to which his father and
mother were bred, Lave all his "rea-
sonable prospects for life," end 90
up into the Upper Missouri country.
or the wild lands OF Lake Superior.
or the forests around Kstahdin, and
1--we there alone in the fashion OF
Indians. The distance of removal
Is greater In these modern illus.rs-
lions, but the contrast between the
Lille OF Johns father, which in the
natural order of things he would have
inherited. and the life which ne chose
10 not greater. To ell which Ne shut
our eyes. and plunge on, mumbling,
Oriental CUSTOM" Eastern ways
are 80 different from our ways" But
if ever there were peopls OF set ways,
they were priests of the regular course
OF Alba. 30 tlst when q young gen.
tleman OF one of thess hierarohical
families went of alone into 9 wild
country, and took upon himself the
costume and the life of Bedouin
Arab, the matter was not such hum
drum and every day business but
what people should inquire about it.
And those people who found be was
dead in ca nest came together to
know what bad happeDe d and wha
was going to happen..- Edward
E. Hale--in January atlantic.