The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-07
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE.
Camp Meetings and Sunday Trains.

Camp Meetings and Sunday Trains.
To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
The course you have pursued in regard to the
running of Sunday trains to the Acton camp
grounds is approved by all sincere, devout, God
tearing Christian people. The time was when
camp meetings were necessity, but that was
in the days of our grand and at-grandfathers
Then churches were not so numerous that the
ringing of the bell in one would echo the sound
OF the ringing of another, as is the case now.
In the good old days" when the pioneers"
would meet together under the inviting shade of
the primeval forests, they came together for the
purpose of true worship; for the purpose of
communing with their God and to draw from
personal religious contact that ul-strengthen-
ing spirit that marked their daily walks in life
They met together in the woods because they
had no church, and their devotion has never
been questioned From those ''camp meetings."
of early days have sprung the alleged
camn meetings of to-day. AS "a rose would
smell as sweet by any other name" so would the
Acton camp meeting In this day of churches
there is no need of these yearly comings together
under the disguise of religious creeds, and there
Is, possibly no good reason for defying the laws
of God and man by running Sunday trains to
this moral dime show. There is not consistent
Methodist minister III the Southeastern Indiana
Conference who will not acknowledge that this
camp meeting is detriment to his church, and
that it requires his congregation from two to
four weeks to recover and put themselves back
where they were previous to the opening of the
camp" The big day" Sunday works more
harm in this direction than the remaining six
small days" All persons, knowing that
great multitude of people will be present on Sun
day. commence preparations about Thursday to
receive their friends They come pouring in on
thp t1ain inc tba ho1 a,,1 ,v,I,
in ten will perhaps hear a service of some kind
during the day, while the other ninety
are cut having time" The men guy
one another, the girls firt with anybody and
everybody, and especially with that class of
dudes designated as ''mashers." They never
hear prayer, never think of sermon, never
stop their frivolity long enough to hear a sacred
song but all day long they engage in trashy
conversation, make remarks about those oddly
and peculiarly dressed people, laugh at the in
firm, and make light of the few Christian minded
who attend the morning sermon. These are I'M
deniable facts. That the Sunday trains take
this conglomerated aggregation of mixed human
lty to Acton is also fact; and am here to make
the assertion that more harm comes from one
Sunday at these meetings than they do good i'll
five years. If trains were not run on Sunday
these great crowds would not congregate conse-
quently the opportunity would be lost for all
this mockery The argument that the people
will go whether trains are run or not is sheer
nonsense. Who is there who is willing to say
that the maudlin crowds that are carried from
Cincinnati, Lafayette and other distant cities
could reach Acton if the trains were discontin-
ued Every one of them would be forced to re-
main at home.
True, this would cut down the revenue of the
association, but as camp meetings are got up
for the purpose of Laying up treasure in
heaven" and not for making money, this decrease
in receipts should cut no figure. If the associa-
ton not live without the Sunday trains,
then the association had better pay off its debts
AN hneiD hot hoe 70
its main support from Sunday work is evil is
an abomination in the eyes of God and will sooner
or later be forced to suspend. The Methodist
Church has lost ground this matter and the
sooner it takes decisive steps towards stopping
the existing evil the better for it. 1t can apply
the old quotation: You are either for God or
against Him, and this association is either for
or against Sunday trains. If in favor of
this wholesale dissertation; say so then keep
still about Sunday base ball If against it and
in favor of quiet peaceful Sunday. say to the
c., l., st. L. q G. railroad managers, Gentlemen,
you can not run Sunday trains to the camp any
longer, and if you persist you will have to run
the meetings. yourself, for we do not propose to
trail our religion and the cause of God in the
dust to fill your pockets
There is no neutral ground in this matter; for
be it remembered, that you can not serve God
and mammon. The old worn-out argument that
if the rabble do not go to camp meeting they
will go some place else that is worse, is to say
the least, silly. In the first place, the managers
can not assume where this crowd would go, or
what it would do, if the camp gates were closed
on Sunday; but one thing is certain, if it went
to the "bow-wows, the Methodist Church would
not be responsible but it is responsible for every
sin committed by each and every individual that
patronizes Acton Sunday train. By running
these trains men are not led FROM but into,
temptation and as they are run at the dictation
of the association. the association becomes a
party to the crime, and the crime on their part.
is the greater, because they commit it disguised
in the robe of Christianity. When the trustees
meet to settle this question it would be well for
them to call to mind the injunction, Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy"
T. E. GOODRICH.
SHELBYvILLE Ind, June ..
Motion of the Earth.