Perspectives on America, Essay Example

Long ago, before there was a Glendale, the Mill Creek Valley was established by the Cook family and family connections – the members of the family even nearer to Noah’s Ark. The farms had been carved out of the wilderness by this distant kin when the hostile Indian attacks were still occurring. The amount of large families was increasing and it was a common thing to marry your cousin. One of the major complaints among these people was the lack of churches in the wilderness. Some home family devotions did not do any good in feeding their hungry souls. Eventually the Pentecost in the Back Woods appeared. In all matters, as well as in religious ones, East and West, metropolis and frontier, did not really war the opposites. They simply nourished one another, thus each of them impacted the other.

The Western retreat consisted of acclimatizing the camp meeting. It may sound odd, but Presbyterians were not the ones who did that, for at the beginning of the 19^th century they had drawn back from it, afraid of its unpredictable qualities. Therefore, the Methodists made use of revivalism welcoming zealous backwood preachers, even with grammatical deficiencies, for there was no educated conservative wing that they had. Such men were worked into organization and sent out under the name of ‘circuit-riders’, who travelled to every single settlement in the wilderness. As a result, the Methodists eventually became the leading party in evangelizing the frontier. The Methodists’ formal theology did not recognize the limited election, thus they did not pay attention to any claims regarding it. Their plain-spoken and far-reaching ministry offered salvation to all true believers, thus they needed only an authorized harvest season to bring all the converts together. As a result, they decided to organize camp meetings, and by 1811 they had held about five hundred of them within the country. The permanent sites for these camp meetings were chosen, regular dates picked, thus preachers and flocks had more than enough time to prepare for the meeting. The worshipers were coming in wagons and were given parking and tent spots, along with a place for pasturing their teams. They were cooking food over open fires provided time to listen to preaching all day long – form early in the morning until late night. The preaching area was equipped with solid benches and preaching stands, surrounded by the rows of worshipers’ tents. The Pentecost sermons were organized according to certain plan – dawn prayers, eight o’clock sermons, eleven o’clock sermons, dinner, afternoon sermons, meal, and candlelight ceremony. As a result, the camp meetings greatly advanced in a relatively short period of time, thus replacing jarring bawling of the primitive era with regular rhymed hymns. There were candles, lamps, and torches on the trees to keep the area well lit. Also there were guards patrolling the circumference of the camp keeping alcohol out. Planned meals, with hams, gravies, turkey, biscuits create satisfied worshipers, thus developing a certain sense of loyalty and gratitude.

Churchmen from the East had to accept defeat to some extent as well. Steadily, though cautiously, they carried on the revival and turned it into part of their spiritual life. In tiny eastern towns and villages it developed into a regularized yearly custom, just like the election or the harvest. Nevertheless, it could not possibly be held inside the tidy, white-painted meeting halls. As time went by, certain things were undervalued. The principle of voting was avoided and, in actual fact, allowed to decline.

In addition, an innovative sort of religious leaders, the admired evangelists including Charles G. Finney, Dwight L. Moody, and Billy Sunday appeared and burst into national fame. Their meetings and gatherings could not be bounded by the church buildings and overran halls, lecture rooms, and specially built tents. Surprisingly, these men came from unqualified ranks (lawyers and salesman) and became preachers. The secret of such popularity was hidden in their down-to-earth language when approaching their massed listeners, reducing the Bible to fundamental sayings and proverbs, and drawing their allegories from the markets and courtrooms. These preachers turned salvation into the one and only objective of their service, and at end of the meetings summoned the repentant forward to recognize the acceptance of grace. In brief, they had preserved the camp meeting practice.

Nonetheless, by the end of the nineteenth century the previously active campgrounds were mostly deserted. Emerging cities consumed the camps and speedy transportation system ruined the initial reason for extended meetings. However, the meetings were still held. Mass religious revival had pushed the followers indoors and assembled them into an enduring element of American Protestantism. The meetings in question contributed to religious depth, spiritual learning, and dignity. Taking into consideration that there was not much choice and that the American churches of those times were deficient in both the support of supreme state and the ancient traditions, it is not surprising that their history is marked with numerous heretic symptoms.

Works Cited

Trickle, J. Perspectives on America. American Heritage Publication Co, 1997