Camp Meeting
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Let the message for this time be presented, not in long, labored
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discourses, but in short talks, right to the point. Do not think when
you have gone over a subject once that you can pass right on to other
points, and the hearers will retain all that has been presented. There is
danger of passing too rapidly from point to point. Give short lessons,
in plain, simple language, and let them be often repeated.
* * * * *
Do not immediately follow one discourse with another, but let a
period of rest intervene, that the truth may be fastened in the mind,
and that opportunity for meditation and prayer may be given for both
ministers and people. Thus there will be growth in religious knowledge
and experience.
* * * * *
Keep the mind concentrated on a few vital points. Do not bring
unimportant ideas into your discourses. God would not have you think
that you are impressed by His Spirit when you fly from your subject,
bringing in foreign matters that have no connection with your text.
By wandering from straight lines, and bringing in that which calls
the mind off the subject, you lose your bearing, and weaken all that
you have previously said. Give your hearers pure wheat, thoroughly
winnowed.
Be careful never to lose a sense of the presence of the divine
Watcher. Remember that you are speaking, not only before an assem-
bly of men, but before One whom you should ever recognize. Speak
as if the whole heavenly universe were before you.
* * * * *
One night, previous to an important meeting, I seemed in my
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sleeping hours to be in meeting with my brethren, listening to One
who spoke as having authority. He said: “Many souls will attend this
meeting who are honestly ignorant of the truths that will be presented.
They will listen and become interested, because Christ is drawing
them; conscience tells them that what they hear is true, for it has the