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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
You need not weary yourselves with busy anxieties and needless
cares. Work on for the day, faithfully doing the work which God’s
providence assigns you, and He will have a care for you. Jesus will
deepen and widen your blessings. You must make efforts if you have
salvation at last. Come to these meetings prepared to work. Leave
your home cares, and come to find Jesus, and He will be found of
you. Come with your offerings as God has blessed you. Show your
gratitude to your Creator, the Giver of all your benefits, by a freewill
offering. Let none who are able to give come empty-handed. “Bring
ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine
house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
The object of a camp meeting is to lead all to separate from
business cares and burdens, and devote a few days exclusively to
seeking the Lord. We should occupy the time in self-examination,
close searching of heart, penitential confession of sins, and renewing
our vows to the Most High. If any come to these meetings for less
worthy objects, we hope the character of the meetings will be such
as to bring their minds to the proper objects.
Some are sufferers through extra labor in preparing for camp
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meeting. They are liberal-souled people, and want nothing done
with stinginess. Some make large provisions and are thoroughly
wearied out when they come to the meeting, and as soon as they are
released from the pressure of work, exhausted nature causes them
to feel that she has been abused. Some of these persons may never
have attended a camp meeting before and are not informed in regard
to what preparations they are required to make. They lose some
of the precious meetings they had purposed to attend. Now these
mistake in making so great preparation. Nothing should be taken to
camp meeting except the most healthful articles, cooked in a simple
manner, free from all spices and grease.
I am convinced that none need to make themselves sick preparing
for camp meeting, if they observe the laws of health in their cooking.
If they make no cake or pies, but cook simple graham bread, and
depend on fruit, canned or dried, they need not get sick in preparing
for the meeting, and they need not be sick while at the meeting.
None should go through the entire meeting without some warm