622 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EVOLUTION OF THE CAMP-MEETING. 



By JOSEPH PAEEISH, M. D. 



HALF a century ago, camp-meetings were chiefly the outgrowth 

 of Methodist zeal and enthusiasm. They were a sort of re- 

 ligious holiday, when good men and women who were loyal to their 

 convictions, and earnest to disseminate the truth as they understood 

 and believed it, came from far and near, in sparsely settled regions of 

 country, to kindle afresh in the hearts of each other the fervor and 

 inspiration of their peculiar dogmas and methods. 



Ox-teams and hay-wagons, the old-fashioned chaise and chair, the 

 side-saddle and cart, were among the means employed to reach the 

 place of meeting. Many also went on foot, making a long and weary 

 pilgrimage. Congregations joined each other, employed their own 

 means of transportation, carrying their own society tent and commis- 

 sariat ; and thus thousands came together with but one single object 

 in view, which was, in the language of their distinguished founder, 

 " to spread holiness throughout these lands." Their greatest preach- 

 ers were called to join and help them ; and, with characteristic fidelity, 

 and sacrifice of personal ease, ecclesiastics of highest renown joined 

 in the simplest and rudest methods of tent-life, and labored with power 

 and efficiency to bring the thoughtless and wandering to a better and 

 a higher life. 



The preaching was simple, direct, and powerful, and the result was, 

 large accessions to the church. A camp-meeting was a sort of relig- 

 ious harvest-home, an in-gathering of fruit from seed that had been 

 sown during the year, in local churches, as well as from the direct 

 influence of the special services. In addition to this, old fellowships 

 were renewed and fraternal interests and greetings were revived, and, 

 at its close, thousands of the faithful scattered to their homes again, 

 with renewed assurances that camp-meeting work was a blessing to 

 themselves and to others. Such was the old-time line of thought and 

 expression. But now, times have changed. Population has increased 

 rapidly, facilities for travel have multiplied, the desert and wilderness 

 have been penetrated by railroads, and the adventurous frontiersman 

 is not without numerous companionshrps. 



Towns and churches have grown up, as the migrating crowds have 

 moved on in one continuous caravan, until the mountains, and the 

 Pacific slope beyond them, are already occupied ; and we find pros- 

 perous settlements of miners, farmers, and adventurers of all kinds 

 and grades, dwelling in the midst of each other. The fathers in the 

 olden time would have looked to the West, with its moving multi- 

 tudes, and planted their tents to capture them ; but modern Method- 

 ism plants the churches as the people settle, and, to preserve the 



