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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
The Eastern Camp Meetings
When we arrived at the camp ground at Groveland, Mass., we
found an excellent meeting in progress. There were forty-seven tents
on the ground, besides three large tents, the one for the congregation
being 80 x 125 feet in dimensions. The meetings on the Sabbath were
of the deepest interest. The church was revived and strengthened,
while sinners and backsliders were aroused to a sense of their danger.
Sunday morning boats and trains poured their living freight upon
the ground in thousands. Elder Smith spoke in the morning upon the
Eastern question. The subject was of special interest, and the people
listened with the most earnest attention.
In the afternoon it was difficult to make my way to the desk through
the standing crowd. Upon reaching it, a sea of heads was before me.
The mammoth tent was full, and thousands stood outside, making a
living wall several feet deep. My lungs and throat pained me very
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much; yet I believed that God would help me upon this important
occasion. The Lord gave me great freedom in addressing that immense
crowd upon the subject of Christian temperance. While speaking, my
weariness and pain were forgotten, as I realized that I was speaking to
a people that did not regard my words as idle tales. The discourse oc-
cupied over an hour, and the very best attention was given throughout.
Monday morning we had a season of prayer in our tent in behalf
of my husband. We presented his case to the Great Physician. It was
a precious season; the peace of heaven rested upon us. These words
came forcibly to my mind: “This is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith.”
1 John 5:4
. We all felt the blessing of God
resting upon us.
We then assembled in the large tent; my husband met with us, and
spoke for a short time, uttering precious words from a heart softened
and aglow with a deep sense of the mercy and goodness of God.
We then took up the work where we had left it on the Sabbath, and
the morning was spent in special labor for sinners and backsliders, of
whom two hundred came forward for prayers, ranging in years from
the child of ten to gray-headed men and women. More than a score
of these were setting their feet in the way of life for the first time. In
the afternoon thirty-eight persons were baptized; and quite a number
delayed baptism until they should return to their homes.