Experience and Labors
277
late in the season for camp meetings, every preparation was made for
cold weather that could be made. There were seventeen tents on the
ground besides the large tent, which accommodated several families;
and every tent had a stove.
Sabbath morning it commenced snowing, but not one meeting was
suspended. About an inch of snow fell, and the air was piercing cold.
Women with little children clustered about the stoves. It was touching
to see one hundred and fifty people, assembled for a convocation,
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meeting under these circumstances. Some came two hundred miles
by private conveyance. All seemed hungry for the bread of life and
thirsty for the water of salvation.
Elder Haskell spoke Friday afternoon and evening. Sabbath morn-
ing I felt called upon to speak encouraging words to those who had
made so great an effort to attend the meeting. Sunday afternoon there
was quite a large outside attendance, considering that the meeting was
located so far from the thoroughfares of travel.
Monday morning I spoke to the brethren from the third chapter of
Malachi. We then called for those to come forward who wanted to
be Christians and who had not the evidence of their acceptance with
God. About thirty responded. Some were seeking the Lord for the
first time, and some who were members of other churches were taking
their position upon the Sabbath. We gave all an opportunity to speak,
and the free Spirit of the Lord was in our meeting. After prayer had
been offered for those who had come forward, candidates for baptism
were examined. Six were baptized.
I was glad to hear Elder Haskell present before the people the
necessity of placing reading matter in private families, especially the
three volumes of Spirit of Prophecy and the four volumes of Testi-
monies. These could be read aloud during the long winter evenings
by some member of the family, so that all the family might be in-
structed. I then spoke of the necessity of parents’ properly educating
and disciplining their children. The greatest evidence of the power
of Christianity that can be presented to the world is a well-ordered,
well-disciplined family. This will recommend the truth as nothing else
can, for it is a living witness of its practical power upon the heart.
Tuesday morning the meeting closed, and with my daughter Emma,
Elder Haskell, and Brother Stover, we went to Topeka and took the
cars for Sherman, Kansas, where another camp meeting had been