vicinity to enjoy the meeting, as well as those who came from abroad.
The change was deemed a great improvement. There was a good show of
tents, and the attendance was large. The preaching was excellent, as the
good brethren were more intent upon saving souls than ventilating their
great sermons. The meeting resulted in the conversion of many souls,
while the membership was greatly quickened.

In these latter days the question is sometimes raised, "Of what
advantage are these Camp-Meetings, now that we have good Churches in
which to worship God?" The question might be answered by another, "Of
what advantage is it to have picnics and other excursions in the open
air, and pleasant groves, since we have houses to dwell in and
restaurants to supply the cravings of the appetite?" The fact is,
Camp-Meetings are as thoroughly in harmony with the laws of Philosophy
as they are in keeping with the principles of Religion.

To intensify either the mental or spiritual forces, it is necessary to
break up, at times, their monotonous habits, and send them off into new
channels of thought and feeling. A lesson may be learned in this
direction from the picnic excursion. It is not the little ones alone
who, relieved of the confinement of the parlor, gambol in half frantic
ecstasy, but the sedate matron and the grave sire renew their youth, and
in their exhuberance of spirit, join in the recreations with the zest
of childhood. The same law obtains in Camp-Meetings. Why not go out into
the woods, beneath the spreading branches of the trees, or even under
the uncurtained canopy of Heaven, and enjoy a grand unbending of the
spirit? With the shackles thrown off that have so long fettered the
soul, what a Heaven of felicity there is in its conscious freedom. The
eagle, long confined in a cage, after stretching his wings to satisfy
himself that he is really free, gambols in the air with an indescribable
ecstasy. So there are thousands of Christians shut up in the Churches
who are dying for a little spiritual freedom. Their poor souls need a
holiday. Let them go out to a good thorough-going Camp-Meeting, and
obtain a new lease of life. And in saying this, I am not advocating
undue license. I am only pleading for the inalienable rights of a human
soul. Such freedom of spirit is entirely consonant with the highest
culture and absolute decorum. Communing thus with nature in her purest
and most lovely moods, the soul is dwelling in the vestibule of