Year: 1875

An ungodly fellow at Essex Junction,
VT, has had camp-meeting in his door
yard, and writes as follows to the Bur-
hngton Clipper;


The camp-meetlng has ended (thank
God y To praise God is well, but nev-
er before have / felt the full significance
OF that phrase. | am not camp-meet-
ing man, nor can | now ever become one.


We have had camp meeting here in
Essex, MIR. Editor, and your correspond
ent has been one of its nearest neigh
bors. Think of that-an ungodly man
compelled by the force of circumstances,
to be near neighbor to camp-meet-
ing for whole week Now do you
wonder that when the thing has broken
up, and, like the Arab, folded its tents
and silently stole away, the expression
''thank God P' would be uttered. and
that from the bottom of even our un-
gOdly heart We read much of mar
tyrs, much of men, who have suffered,
done and died in the work, and for the
cause of freedom, reform and Christian
ity but time with all its embellsh-
ments has never in recorded ages pro-
duced one whose sufferings, whose an
guish, whose despair, are equal to him
L.. r. L Il L Al
neighbor to a camp-meeting" The
sanctity of our home is invaded, the
quiet domestic tranquility of your fami-
ly is broken up, and in spite of your
every precaution your house is not your
house, but the haunt of all the old fee-
BILE men and women. the haunt of all
the young women with babies, the haunt
of all who in their zeal and frenzy have
lost their strength and tainted away, the
haunt of all who from exposure and ex-
cess have contracted the collie, and the
haunt of all the dead beats and beggars
which usually follow up and go to COM
prise the great galaxy of human souls
that make up camp-meeting. Do you
wonder that when the thing is ended,
when the cOmplainings of the old, the
screeching of the babies, the frenzy of
the excited, the groans of the colicky
ones. the opportunities of the dead beats
and beggars, have passed away that one
exclaims from the bottom of his heart,
thank God And all this which have
written is real and not the creation of
fiction and fancy and is but the drop in
the bucket to the real curses of being q
near neighbor to camp.meeting What
would be your feelings in casting your
eye out of your window into your gar
den and seeing a hoary-headed old tres
passer hitching his horse to your pet
grape vine, and on demonstrating with
him for his freedom upon your premises.
his telling you that you we're an ungod-
ly man, trying to throw obstacles in the
way Of the Lords work? What would
be your feelings in seeing seventeen Sec
tions Of your garden fence felled to the
earth at one fell swOOp, by reason Of the
concerted pull of as many half famished
horses hitched there, and then not have
even one of them run away? In the
spirit Of prophecy verify believe that
the God Of the universe and the God of
the Camp-meeting are two distinct and
separate deities, but now the thing is
ended and nothing is left to show the
fight but the Uttered battlefield, no more
is the fair face of nature made hideous
by the frenzied din The chick-a-dee,
unmolested by the turmoil of battle.
fits among the trees with merry song;
once more the whip-poor-will sighs forth
a melancholy refrain in his quiet nook.
Peace and quiet reigns supreme, for
which / say. Thank God