The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-20
'uAMPMEETINGs" HAVE
 BECOME ASSEMBLIES
tooati.aea from Pase Five)

To a great body of the rank and file
 of the American people they take the
 place of the fashionable summer re-
 sort. because. for one practical reason.
 they are less expensive lin most re-
 spects and they do not maintain the extreme fashion of elaborate dressing
 and spending in vogue in some places.
 Nevertheless, it is probably true that
 Northfleld, Moody's home in Massachu-
 setts and a famous place of religious
 assembly. attracts c greater number
 of wealthy and aristecrtic people than
 does Saratoga or Bar Earbor.
 The forerunner of this new type of
 summering place, which has crowded
 out the camp-meeting and also de- manded elbow room of certain fash ionable resorts which thought them
 selves immovably established, was the
 Chautauqua idea by Bishop John H. Vincent. This started originally as
 Sunday school summer assembly, and gradually developed into a general ed- ucational enterprise. always tinged by religious atmosphere. The mother" Chautaukua on Lake Chautauqua. in Northwestern New York. has been enormously successful from every standpoint. Hundreds of other Chau- tauquas have sprung up in all other parts of the land. While the religious element Is not lacking in these, they have come to be primarily educational. The best lecturers and the best enter tainment talent find the Chautauqua as- sembies their most successful fields. Metamcrphosis of Ocean Grove. The transformation of the camp meeting is we'll illustrated by the case of the well-known Methodist resort on the New Jersey coast, Ocean Grove. This property Is owned by the Ocean Grove Campmeeting Association. The
 day Is well remembered by many resi- this resort was primarily camp meeting. Now the great aTditorium concerts, with the foremost operatic singers, the lectures, carniyals. moving picture shows and other entertain
 ments. quite overshadow the ten days
 of camp-meeting in the latter part of the summer. Primarily, ocean Grove is a religious resort: incidentally, 1t Is
 a modified camp meeting. Therein It resembles scores of similar resorts. Quite distinct from Ocean Grove Is the college summer assembly. It IS a noticeable fact that the largest gath erings of the American students that meet from year to year are under dis i tinctively Christian auspices. The Student Volunteer Conventions. every three years. are the greatest under KTaQukLe kAlncFAhBS HI bhO WOAA0s NAaS summer conferences of young men and young women at Northheld, Silver Bay, Lake Geneva, Asheville and Seaside, ore, bring together more students than any other occasion. and practi- | cally all the American educational in-
 stitutions of prominence are repre-
 scented.
 The changing trend of the times is indicated by the prominence now given | to subjects that are uppermost Tn con l temporary religious thought. The so- biological aspect of Christianity nave | A conference all for themselves, one which has sprung into vitality and prominence within two or three years past. This Is the Sagamore Social Con- | ference at Sagamore Beach, Mass. Here
 at the end of June a company Of the | foremost sociological experts in the | land meet as the guests of MT. George 1 Coleman, the well-known Boston pub
 lished, to discuss the various phases | of the social question, especially in lts
 relation to religion. Similarly there is
 no more popular figure on the Snan. | tauoua platform than Charles Stelzle | of New York, the church and labor expert, whose big meeting of labo'
 men at Denver was the feature of the l Presbyterian General Assembly twS | weeks ago.
 Sagamore also has a Sunday-schoo institute, a Christian Endeavor tnsti
 tute, and the first summer conference of the Emmanual Movement. Most O these big summer religious resorts ruI 1 conferences in series. Northheld hal | first its Young students Conference 1 July 2-I1; the Young Women's Con- | ference July 1929; the Home Mission | Conference. July 14-20. and the Wo' mems Foreign Mission Conference