The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

CHAPTER THIRTY: Camp Meetings Bring Millerism Before the Masses

I. Canadian Camps Spearhead for Giant Meetings in States

The Millerite leaders had reasoned that some means must be devised to get their message more generally and prominently before the masses. Churches, halls, and theaters were good, and the conferences had been highly successful, but limited. Some more effective and popular means for broadcasting the news of the soon-coming Saviour must be found. This the camp meeting plan, just authorized, might provide. As soon as the Boston Anniversary Meetings were over, Litch started for Stanstead, Canada East (Quebec), to fulfill a speaking engagement. The interest increased steadily from the very first meeting, and within two weeks the country for thirty or forty miles around was aroused over the question of Christ’s soon return. Large “concourses” assembled, the report states. In fact, there was such an interest that Litch decided to try out the camp meeting plan right there, and at once. Ground was secured, the place prepared, and the first Millerite camp meeting was held at Hatley, Quebec, beginning June 21, 1842, and lasted a week. PFF4 642.1

“Waves on waves of people have flowed in upon us, day after day, until our arena within the circle of the tents has been almost crowded with a living mass of beings, eagerly enquiring ‘Watchman, what of the night?’ “ PFF4 642.2

So reported Litch. The general effect seemed so wholesome, along with a hundred conversions, that the people of nearby Bolton requested one for their town. Thus the second camp meeting was undertaken, which ended July 3. ¹ During that month some five hundred or six hundred were converted in these meetings. So the plan, launched experimentally in Canada, proved a success. PFF4 642.3

Meantime, during the last week in June the first camp meeting in the States was undertaken at East Kingston, New Hampshire, where an “immense multitude” likewise “assembled to hear the word of the kingdom.” It was the beginning of a far flung movement which literally “shook the nation.” ² Not only did large numbers of advent believers attend from all over New England, but even larger numbers came from the local scene. The attendance ranged between six thousand and ten thousand. Some six or eight camp meetings were crowded in during the fall. And the obvious success of the plan prepared the way for an impressive series of thirty-one camps during the summer of 1843-with some 130 in the two years of 1843 and 1844. PFF4 643.1

The plan was simple. A suitable tract of woodland would be secured, having an abundance of water. A large oval place of assembly would be fitted out with rough seats, with a platform at one end and a sounding board at the back. The boughs of the trees formed the canopy. And surrounding the place of assembly would be a circle of tents, about thirty by fifty feet in size, each representing a separate community. And each tent group chose a leader, called a “tent master,” who represented them on the general committee of the camp. Here are other interesting details: During the main assembly meetings, the men sat on one side and the women on the other. A long dining tent was erected. And on the outskirts of the camp stable tents were pitched for the horses, while the vehicles stood in the woods. Stages and omnibuses were coming and going constantly. And for the larger camp meetings the nearby railroads sometimes erected a tent as a temporary depot, and trains stopped to discharge and take on passengers. Ministers, incidentally, were usually carried free. PFF4 643.2

Picture 1: CAMP MEETINGS BRING MILLERISM BEFORE THE MULTITUDES
Sometimes under canvas, sometimes in stately groves, an unbroken succession of 130 camp meetings, ranging from four thousand to ten thousand in attendance, reached half a million persons in 1842-1844. (inset) Hiram Munger, Redoubtable camp meeting superintendent
Page 644

As to the general program, there were customarily three main meetings a day in general assembly-morning, afternoon, and evening. During the intermissions, prayer meetings and study groups met in the living tents. At the close of the camp a check was made upon the number of conversions. PFF4 644.1