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riRARST’S SUNDAY AML.ilCAN, ATLANTA, GA., SUNDAY, AUGUST 24, 1918.
Old-Time Religion Thrives ai a Georgia Camp Meeting
Shouts and Sobs, and Cries of Joy, Mingle
With Prayers as Devoted Band Seeks
Sanctification Early and Late at Indian
Springs Where ‘Uncle Jim’ Williams Sings.
By TARLETON COLLIER.
Miss Ruth Gamble,
of Macon, deep
in one of the
worldly joys of
a Georgia Camp
Meeting.
Miss Abbie Clements, of Cullodeu, Ga., „in earnest
gtndy under a camp-ground tree.
—— Photon —-»*• \
“5u.nAo.vi> 5Vn\«.rvcQA\
S'to.jj Yhoto^TavpVverj
oaken bucket.
buggies.
L*ome
U NCLE JIM WILLIAMS, who has saved
nearly 17,000 souls, in sin^inR, and his
song is a sermon. To every verm* there
is a prelude, serving as a sort of text.
“Listen, you girls/* he shouts. And then—
‘'You fashion bidden Christian. your fate is very
sure,
You must unload, you must unload;
Whirr'll be no hobble skirts in that land so pure,
You must, you must unload.'’
“And listen again,** he says, holding out n
hand. Then, in his wonderfully clear singing
voice—
*You theater-going Christian, ynnr fate is very
sure,
You must unload, you must unload;
There’ll be no mmring pictures in that land so
pure.
You must, you must unload.”
The song probably has no end. It is as long
as the list of sins that Enclo Jim has spent
twenty-five years in fighting.
“You card playing Christian, your fate is very
sure,
You must unhtad, you must unload;
There’ll be no progressive euchre, in the land
so pure,
You must, you must unload”
You are hearing the old time religion now.
It is everywhere around you, and Uncle Jim
Williams is only one of its apostles. You are
at the Indian Springs Holiness Camp Meeting,
where the old time religion, with all the tire
and exaltation that John Wesley found in it,
Williams’ song You come at once to know
that tlie modern conveniences are installed
merely that the institution 1m* made permanent.
Not from any essential desire for luxury. The
old time religion lias a strong hold here.
The Holiness eamp meeting is for members
of all denominations' Not Methodists alone,
although most of its prominent, workers are
Methodists; not Baptists, nor Presbyterians,
nor Nazarene can elaim the camp as its own.
It was organized in 1891 out of the desire of
leaders in several churches to preach the doc
trine of sanctification. It was organized that,
there may be some place to which people might
come in the summer for a week or ten days
of spiritual uplift and spiritual teaching.
“Church workers feel the need of members
who have had the divine experience of sanctifi
cation,** said Charlie Tillman, of Atlunta, who
leads the singing of the camp meeting, in ex
plaining the organization of the grounds. “It
was the realization ef this feeling that prompted
the organization of this permanent meeting.**
And so they teach at this camp ground that
holiness can lie attained on earth. That is,
sanctification can be attained, and sanctification
to them means the lack of a tendency to do
wrong.
“Sanctification as the second office of divine
grace is our belief,” explained Mr. Tillman.
“Regeneration or conversion is the first office,
ami means merely the forgiveness of sins lx*-
cause of a desire to do right. We want to teach
our people that sanctification is possible to those
that fulfill the requirements.**
If was on this faith that the camp meeting
started in 1H91. Its lM*ginnings were small;
now thousands come to the meeting. The popu
lation of the community during the period of
the meeting is more than 2,0t)0, which Is swell
ed each day by the arrival of residents of the
Miss Ruby Wall, of Kirkwood, caught as she sampled the contents of “the old
with all its abandon and sincerity, is finding
fret* expression. There the fire of religious
fervor seems to hover, striking down suddenly
through such simple songs as Uncle Jim’s upon
this man or that woman, or upon an entire
assemblage of hundreds. And men and women
are shaken with storms of tears and sobbing,
and moved to unconscious shouts. Under the
spell of the tire, they become rapt creatures
crying out prayers and thanksgiving, and testi
fying to miracles of salvation.
The camp meeting is one of the most re-
mnrkable institutions of its kind in the Unit'd
States, in size and substantial air. a young
Zion City. The Indian Springs Holiness Camp
Ground, an interdenominational corporation,
has established a small city on the railroad
line between Flovilla and Indian Springs, in
Butts County. The temporary tents and the
makeshifts of the ordinary camp meeting are
displaced by substantial cottages, with water
pipes, mosquito nets and screened doors and
window’s.
Instead of being the loose organization that
the typical country camp meeting is. this insti
tution is governed by a Ixrnrd of trustees, who
control the 8(1 acres in the grounds, make
regulations for the community, and enforce
them by the employment of a police force. The
policemen, however, have little to do beyond
seeing that no one smokes, and that no one
litters the ground with paper, melon rinds or
anything else that might tend to untidiness.
Cleanliness being next to godliness is held in
great reverence at the Holiness eamp ground.
Every tree bears a warning either against
smoking or against trash.
The streets of the little city are laid around
& great oj>en tabernacle. The main street, from
the tabernacle to the railroad station, runs lx*-
tween a hotel and a postotfiee. Against the
hotel is an office of the telegraph companies.
All this is part of the camp ground establish
ment.
Other streets are torn up by intrenchments
at present, where sewers are being laid. A
part of the sewerage system already lias been
completed by the management of this unusual
jeamp ground.
Modern? Y’es. Rut the spirit of the eamp
bund is orthodox enough, being represented
ftothing else quite so well as by
surrounding country who
wagons and automobiles.
Time was when the country folks unhitched
the team of mules from the plow, put them to
the wagon, and rode behind them to the eamp
meeting. Now they come i.\ automobiles. But
that fact seems not to have affected the eamp
meeting spirit of old.
On Sundays during eamp meeting season, it
is estimated, more than 10,000 persons attend
the meeting.
Each day the meeting follows a regular pro
gram. The meetings are held in the large taber
nacle, which is well roofed against the rain, but
open everywhere around the sides, and carpeted
with straw. It is a shady, pleasant place, this
tabernacle, where breezes find their way under
the great roof, where the smell of the outdoors
is as plain as the sight of the woods in which
the camp ground is set. where l*ees and birds
and hornets ily jieueefully and undisturlxxi and
undisturbing.
The crowd under the wide roof is the camp
meeting crowd that you all know, plainly clad,
serious of face, armed with handkerchief and
fan. The whole family is there; everybody goes
to camp meeting. The children still in rompers
are there to dawdle on the straw’, and to walk
and run a round the tabernacle w ithout re
straint. Tin* babies in arms are brought along.
There is no affect ion at a camp meeting in
Georgia. It is the homeliest, simplest, most
natural affair in the world. No one is clad in
Sunday finery no one except the girls, and the
starched, immaculate old negro women, who
till the seats in one corner and who are de
voutly vociferous.
Early in the morning the meetings begin
with prayer at 6 o’clock. The sun is not up,
aowovor, before the people of the Holiness
city. The cottages are alive at dawn, and
•veryone is making his way to the tabernacle.
A few couples of lovers linger outside, on the
rough launches under 1 the trees. Camp meetings
are most logical and strategic places for court
ships. and everywhere you may see them
“a-co’tinV*
At the early morning service there are pray
ers, a text is read, and hymns are raised w’lth
a mighty swell of melody. They are the old
staunch hymns—the “jingle” h^mns that the
hlghbrowed musicians like Hr. Percy Starnes
rail at. But it is more than likely that I>r.
Starnes and his esthetic reformers never went
to eamp meeting, never saw men and women
stand in the Cool, early morning with faces
radiant, and open their mouths wide, wide, to
make passage for what is more a glorified shout
than a song, a shout in which devotion and
praise are mingled, and which wakes achpes for
miles everywhere to testify to the power of God.
Breakfast is served, and back again to the
tabernacle go the 2,000 who are seeking sancti
fication. Then begins the real event of the
day, praise sendee and “experiences.” These
men and women—and boys and girls as well—
on whom the fire of holiness has descended, tell
of their experiences. As they tell it, the expe
rience is divine. They tell it with a break in
their voices, the simplest men and women grow
eloquent with telling it. and there is everywhere
a chorus of hearty “Amen’s” and sobs.
The first to testify on this particular day is
Sister Bridgers. Mrs. Bridgers, a gray-haired,
sweet -faced woman, is one of the tieloved fig
ures of the camp meeting. She tells of the
peace that has come to her, of the satisfaction
that nothing else but sanctification and abso
lute faith can bestow.
“Glory,” shouts a man nearby. In the course
of her narrative she tells of her husband’s
work, and as an accompaniment to her tears
there sounds the hard, racking sobs of a man
at her side. She ends the story with a “hal
lelujah.” 4
An old man, older than she by far, is on his
feet lx*fore she has well finished.
“Many years ago.” he tells you and the others,
“God led me to the light. I have always
trusted Him. In my trust and faith I have
given up everything but Him.”
The next is an old man. who tells that he
has converted 11.000 men into the Methodist
church.
“I would gladly give $1,000 a year to preach,”
he said. “Pray for me, brothers and sisters,
that I may continue in grace.”
A woman is on her feet.
“I want to testify to what God has done for
me.” she cries, but a storm of tears prevents
her.
A girl in the choif and opens her
‘Unele Jim” Williams, who by his singing and preaching has saved 17,000 souls.
mouth, hut there is no sound. She sits down
to cry Into her handkerchief. A stout woman
in the rear of the tabernacle springs to her
feet. She waves her hands, and in exultant,
high pitched voice, cries out:
■Tin to the Highlands bound. My heart is
in the mountain tops.”
A fervent chorus of “aniens" greets this,
which is interrupted by the trembling voice
of a young woman.
“I just want to say that God is more to me
tha'n all else besides,” she says. The last
word dissolves in tears, and the sound of her
crying is echoed by sobs everywhere. A dozen
men are on their feet, hut their attempts to
speak are drowned by the shout of a starched
and turbaned negro woman. She flings her
hands up.
“I live way up on the mountain tops, where
I can see the Lord,” she cries, “and l ain’t com
ing down if it costs my life. I’m saved and
saved to the ut-Ter-MOST.”
A camp meeting is a democratic institution.
The “amens” and “glor.vs” that follow the tes
timony of the woolly-haired negro woman are
ns warm ns any. Her words have their effect,
too. A young girl stands up.
“I understand now ” she says, fighting vainly
against the tears that stream down her face.
“For a long time I couldn't, but now I see.”
She sits down to cry.
Others testify, and another negro woman,
who lias just hobbled in on her stick, claps
her hands. She has been a preacher’s wife for
35 years, she says, and knows what salva
tion is.
“We uster couldn’t say sanctification.” she
says. “We had to say ‘high life.’ But God
has taken the pip off our tongues, and we can
say that blessed word.”
It is a homely, familiar atmosphere in the
tabernacle, no restrain, no abashment, no reti
cence anywhere. It is spiritually tonic. The
mission of the Holiness camp meeting is being
fulfilled, because men and women are hearing
from other men and women of the blessings of
sanctification and the relief from sin and the
power to sin.
Uncle Jim Williams testifies in song. Sing
ing lias been a powerful agent in his work of
saving souls, and serves him well. His voice
is clear and sweet and soft-toned, and as he
sings a hundred men and women, already
moved by the “experience” narratives, break
into frank tears.
Uncle Jim sings one of his own hymns. He
has written many, and ills hymnbook is the
most popular on the grounds. This hymn,
which he selects to tell his experience. Is par
ticularly plaintive, and it is with difficulty that
lie controls his voice through it all.
The hymn is the signal for others. The
praise service becomes a song service, and one
after another the old gospel tunes are raised.
A piano, two violins and a cornet sound the
melody for the singvrs to follow, and the thin,
human quaver of their notes makes a pleasing
combination with the rumble of voices.
Then there is preaching. All the morning
the services continue, without perceptible break
between one and the other. The principal
speakers are Rev. Joseph H. Smith, of Pasa
dena. Cal., who came to the Holiness camp
ground at the request of the trustees, Rev. Jo
seph Owens and Rev. J. I>. Brasher, both Meth
odist ministers, of Boaz, Ala. Their sermons
always are of absolute faith, and always are
ended with an exhortation to sinful man.
“We must have a Pentecostal revelation,”
says Dr. Smith. “We must strike the agony
of prevailing and prayer. We must have a rev
elation that will send you back home with
power to work in your church for the good of
your brother, and the glory of God.”
Follows then the altar call. Here is an in
stitution known only to the orthodox and to
sincere believers. Hundreds of men and women
come to the front of the tabernacle, kneel
around the altar, or as near the altar as they
can get, and pray.
Their devotion is not hidden. They pray
aloud and not singly. At. first their voices min
gle in an unintelligible murmur, as they launch
into their stream of praise and appeal. Then
the more devout lift their voices louder, and
unconsciously the others become more frank ia
their prayer. Soon a conversational tone is
the lowest, and the voices of many are lifted to
the pitch of shouting. They pray as the spirit
moves them, and the words of no two are alike.
The result is a stupendous rhapsody, which
lasts until no eye is dry, and no voice clear.
And when the tears come, ecstatic tears they
are, the voices subside to the murmur at which
they started, and silent prayer is made for sev
eral minutes. Then the voice of the preacher
breaks in. the worshipers arise to file silently
out of the tabernacle. It is past noon.
All arise except one young woman. Sancti-
Continuod on Pa.,0 3, Column 5.