Our Camp Meetings
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secret and knoweth all things will enlighten your understanding and
answer your petitions. Plain, simple duties that must not be neglected
will open before you. Make a covenant with God to yield yourselves
and all your powers to His service. Do not carry this undone work to
the camp meeting. If it is not done at home, your own soul will suffer,
and others will be greatly injured by your coldness, your stupor, your
spiritual lethargy.
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I have seen the condition of the people professing the truth. The
words of the prophet Ezekiel are applicable to them at this time: “Son
of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the
stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired
of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus
saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up
his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity
before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him
that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.”
If we love the things of the world and have pleasure in unrigh-
teousness or fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness we have
put the stumbling block of our iniquity before our face and have set up
idols in our heart. And unless by determined effort we put them away
we shall never be acknowledged as the sons and daughters of God.
Here is a work for families to engage in before coming up to our
holy convocations. Let the preparation for eating and dressing be a
secondary matter, but let deep heart searching commence at home.
Pray three times a day, and, like Jacob, be importunate. At home is the
place to find Jesus; then take Him with you to the meeting, and how
precious will be the hours you spend there. But how can you expect to
feel the presence of the Lord and see His power displayed when the
individual work of preparation for that time is neglected?
For your soul’s sake, for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of others,
work at home. Pray as you are not accustomed to pray. Let the heart
break before God. Set your house in order. Prepare your children for
the occasion. Teach them that it is not of so much consequence that
they appear with fine clothes as that they appear before God with clean
hands and pure hearts. Remove every obstacle that may have been in
their way,—all differences that may have existed among themselves
or between you and them. By so doing you will invite the Lord’s
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presence into your homes, and holy angels will attend you as you