The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-08-13
Tie Growth OF the Camp Meeting.

Tho camp-meeting season 10 now at Its
height and tho time for It's closing ap-
breaches. Never before have the meetings
been so many or tho attendance so great
Instead OF decreasing In attractiveness for
tho public as tho country has grown older,
these peculiarly American gatherings have
taken on new and wider popularity during
the last ten years. They seem 10 have be-
come u permanent feature OF our summer
life. and since secular education has been
linked with their devotional purpose their
endurance is mado the more certain.
The interest In their peculiarly religious ex-
ercises. however, has not declined. Appar-
emily 1t was never liveller than this summer.
The prayer, praise. experience, and preaching
meetings ut Ocean Grove arc crowded be-
yond precedent Brother MooDY's Confer
ence Of Christian Workers at Mortified has
been attended far more numerously than at
any time since its establishment, ten years
ago. The Martha's Vineyard meetings are
OF extraordinary size, the Baptists having
just opened q camp remarkable for mag
nitude and for the zeal of the campaigners.
Last Sunday fully 1900 people pass
ed the gate into the camp ground at
Yarmouth. and more thun one-third Of
that number joined in the love feast The
Chautauqua Assemblies, to the number OF
fifty in different parts Of the Union. have
been having an extraordinarily successful
season. and the study and exposition of tho
Bible have constituted their most important
feature. Throughout tho East, West and
South. camp meetings OF Baptists, Method
lists, and Spiritualists have either come to o
close after an outing Of unusual enthusiasm
or are now proceeding with great interest
At the South even the Presbyterians have
utilized this old-timo method OF arousing
religious feeling. and at Plymouth in Mas
sachusetts Prof. ADLER has employed It with
unexpected success in the teaching and dis
cussicn Of ethical principles md theories.
Tho extension and development of the
camp-meeting plan. so notable during recent
years, will doubtless continue until some
very conservative Churches will adopt 1t as
. powerful means OF religious instruction
and propagation. It Is simply method Of
bringing together people of religious sympa-
thies during their period Of vacation, and
uniting spiritual and intellectual cultivation
with the country and seaside recreations
they Grave. 1t Is giving religious tone to
the picnic. varying sports with devotional
exercises, SO that the health OF both body
and soul shall be promoted. 1t also provides
an outing at small cost and Satisfies tho
social instincts. The number OF people who
can amuse themselves apart from crowd
is not many. The great multitude want to
have tho excitement OF a numerous COM
panionship. and q camp-meeting colony ex-
actly meets the demands OF their habit and
temperament. They enjoy o mass meeting
whether In town or country. the crowd at q
fair or circus. and the sympathetic excite
lnent OF thronged tabernacle within sound
OF the sea waves or amid the rustling Of o
grove. Religious exercises under such cir
cumstances have peculiar attraction for
them, and daily services which they might
never think o; attending at home, become
part OF tho routine Of their camp life.
SO great on opportunity for religious in
struction Is likely to DO improved to an
increasing extent. Other religious families
than the Baptists and the Methodists will
learn from thom its advantages, and we
should not bc surprised to see Episcopal!ans
and perhaps Roman Catholics establishing
religious camps.