The same year a camp-meeting was held at Black Creek, near Belfast, New York, and not far from the author’s early home, which was historic in its character. For more than half a century we have heard people refer to “the Black Creek camp-meeting” as the beginning of their experience either in conversion or in entire sanctification. The author’s own father was one of the latter class. He little knew, however, that his attendance at that meeting would cost him his ecclesiastical home; yet such was the case. The next Sabbath he attended the Methodist Church as usual at Cadiz, New York, and there heard his own name “read out” with fourteen others as having withdrawn from the Church, which he had never thought of doing, and all because of attendance upon the so-called “Nazarite camp-meeting.”

     Two reports of that meeting are worthy of insertion here, the first written by a member of another denomination, and the second by a local preacher from New York City.
 

     I have lately attended a Laymen’s camp-meeting, which was held near Belfast, Allegheny County, New York, ably conducted by Rev. C. D. Burlingham. I sat under the preaching of Rev. B. T. Roberts and Rev. J. McCreery, who are charged with fanaticism and enthusiasm. They are in earnest to have the Church gain heaven, and seek full salvation from all sin. These men are blessed of God. I arrived on the camp-ground Sunday evening. The stars shone brightly on the smiling earth; the voice of prayer rang with music from the leafy temple; a flood of celestial light came down from heaven; the spirit of praise inspired each Christian with the fullness of divine melody; a solemn awe pervaded the hearts of the people; a voice from heaven spake to the impenitent, and rent the veil of sin. Scores were reclaimed and converted to God. Great and powerful manifestations were made. These men of God were conformed in their instructions to the wisdom of God, which flowed down upon them like a golden stream of light from heaven. “Shall they prevail in the combat of evil elements?” In spite of all opposition, and the secret combinations of men, “They shall prevail.” Jesus says, “Fear not, I am with you.”
PHILLIPSVILLE, July 25, 1859.

IRA A. WEAVER,
A Wesleyan.

     The following report of the same meeting, and also of the Bergen meeting, was written by a New York local preacher:
 

     The above is the most proper name I know of to give to the preaching and exhortations and exercises I heard and saw at a camp-meeting which commenced on the sixth and closed on the thirteenth of this month, near Black Creek, in Western New York, and also at a meeting in Bergen, N. Y., which commenced on the twenty-third of last month. I attended both meetings, and heard the blessing of entire sanctification preached and enforced as it used to be by Wilbur Fisk, B. C. Eastman, A. D. Merrill, Asa Kent and others of the old time. Perfect order was observed, and the wicked, as they came on the ground with their large cudgels, seemed to be awed into reverence by the power of the Spirit which prevailed. Many found the Savior, some of whom told us they came to make fun, but God answered prayer, and convicted and converted them; and many heeded the warm invitations of God’s servants, and sought and found full redemption in the blood of the Lamb. Oh! that the religion of Western New York may spread over these lands.

J. PALMER.

     Another laymen’s camp-meeting was held in the autumn of 1858, this time within the bounds of the Niagara district. A preacher, said to have been from the Philadelphia Conference, published the following report of it:
 

     September 2, 1858. We arrived at Gasport about one o’clock, and took private conveyance to the great, mammoth camp-meeting, about two miles from the depot. This meeting had commenced the day previous, and was in Niagara County, about twenty-five miles from Niagara Falls. Some sixty or seventy tents were pitched on the ground, which has a fine elevation, and is finely shaded with beautiful sugar maple and highland oak.

     I had the pleasure of introductions to numerous brethren, and spent some profitable moments with Brothers Roberts, McCreery and Jenkins, and also Brother Johnson of the Wesleyan Connection.

     The preaching of the brethren was eminently experimental and practical. Prayer, praise and shoutings were heard from every part of the ground. On Sabbath it was supposed that ten thousand persons were on the ground. I saw no rowdyism during the meeting. I was surprised to learn that camp-meetings were a new thing in that immediate neighborhood. On Sabbath morning, after Brother Roberts had concluded his sermon, Miss Hardy, a member of our Church, and a graduate of Genesee College, arose and delivered an affecting exhortation before the vast auditory. I am glad to see this feature of Methodism revived among us. When Methodism was young and vigorous, we had female class-leaders and exhorters. Brother Ives preached in the afternoon, and notwithstanding the strong wind, his splendid, camp-meeting voice arrested the attention of thousands. On Monday morning we left for Niagara Falls, and the meeting was to continue till Wednesday. I have not heard the final result; but no doubt It was glorious.

J. D. LONG.

     The following is a detailed account of the dedication of the Congregational Free Methodist Church at Albion, New York, which was published in the Buffalo Morning Express:
 

     We rejoice in every provision that is made for preaching the Gospel to the masses. The tendency of the exclusive system upon which most of the Churches in the cities and large towns in Western New York are conducted, is to alienate the masses from religious worship. In a Church where a few have their pews which they occupy, as a right, the many will not feel like intruding, nor will they consent to advertise their poverty, from Sabbath to Sabbath, by occupying seats reserved for the poor. Hence, we are glad to chronicle the success which has crowned the efforts to build a Free Church in Albion. The Rev. L. Stiles, who, with others, was expelled by the Genesee Conference, at its last session, for doing his duty as a Christian minister, was invited by the great majority of the Church at Albion, which he had served with great acceptability for the two previous years, to continue his labors among them, as a minister of Jesus Christ, and he accepted the invitation. Rather than have any disturbance, they gave up the Church property, to which they were legally entitled, and proceeded at once to purchase a lot, and erect a house of worship. This house was yesterday dedicated to the worship of God by the Rev. E. Bowen, D. D., of the Oneida Conference of the M. E. Church. His sermon, on holiness, founded upon 1 Cor. 6: 20: “For ye are bought with a price,” etc., was most able, and impressive, and made a profound impression upon the vast congregation in attendance. In the evening, the Rev. B. I. Ives delivered one of his powerful appeals from the words: “We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” The thrilling shouts of the people showed that the truth fell upon ears capable of appreciating it. The house was crowded to its utmost, some 1,300 being present, and many left, unable to get in. The house thus dedicated is a substantial structure, 101 feet by 55. The audience room—the largest in the place—pleasant and commodious, will seat about one thousand persons. A basement, the whole size of the building, entirely above ground, affords pleasant and convenient rooms for class and prayer-meetings, and Sabbath-school. The lecture room in the basement will hold six hundred persons. The house is plainly and neatly furnished, and lighted with gas. The cost of the whole has been In round numbers about $10,000. The whole has been paid or provided for. About $4,500 was raised yesterday and last evening. For this result, credit is due to Rev. B. I. Ives, through whose indefatigable exertion, the whole amount called for was secured. Mr. Stiles has collected a large and intelligent congregation, a devoted, pious, working Church, and with their present facilities for doing good, the best results may be anticipated. The meeting was continued over the Sabbath, the Rev. B. I. Ives preaching with more than his usual power. The sacrament was administered to some four hundred or more communicants, and the season was one long to be remembered. In the evening, the altar was filled with penitents.

     With reference to the general charge of fanaticism made against those engaged in the work of revival and reform within the Genesee Conference the Rev. Asa Abel! published the following in the Northern Independent:
 

     I have been a member of the M. E. Church for over forty-three years, and an unworthy preacher of the Gospel for nearly or quite forty years, and whether I do or not, I am sure I ought to know what Is that form of Christianity called Methodism; and although the pressure which some have felt upon them from the strange and unhappy circumstances existing among us for several years past, has, as I have thought, unfavorably modified, in a few instances, (but so far as I recollect, in a comparatively slight degree,) the spirit manifested by some, yet am I constrained to declare that to my apprehension, there is nothing among us where I am acquainted, which justifies the charge of a new type of Methodism. I regard the charge as false and unkind, unless beyond the limit of my acquaintance sentiments are held and acted on, very different from any I know of. I desire, while God lends me breath, to do what—with my feeble powers I can do—to preserve undegenerate and in full force and virtue the true Wesleyan views of Christian doctrine, experience and practice, and help propagate the same as extensively as may be among mankind.

     I know of no ecclesiastical political designs. If any persons have such designs they have not seen fit to entrust them to me. I have often been associated with those who I suppose are meant in the charges, to have such designs, and I cannot call to mind any expression looking in that direction. I think the one grand design of these earnest people, preachers and others, is to spread vital religion among mankind—that is, a real, not a diluted and powerless Christianity.”

     The Rev. B. T. Roberts in “Why Another Sect ?“ says:
 

     Men of God from a distance, seeing so much published in the papers against us, came to suspect that the cry of “fanaticism” was only a new form of the old opposition to vital godliness, and many came among us to see and hear for themselves. Thus the venerable Dr. Elliott, author of “Elliott on Romanism,” though an entire stranger, came on purpose to see us and attend our meetings. He spent several days with us, in our family, and gave the work his most hearty, public endorsement; and helped it on by preaching and exhorting in the demonstration of the Spirit.

     The representations of the religious services of the so-called Nazarites, given in this and the preceding chapters, were written by those who were not of their number; who were not, unless in a single instance, members of the Conference to which they belonged; and some of whom were decidedly bitter against them. Excepting the first four, which are manifestly gross caricatures and contemptuous flings, they bear on their very face the marks of truthfulness. No effort appears to exaggerate or to conceal anything. Moreover, these meetings were the most offensive to the “Regency” power of any they ever complained of; and, if they were merely scenes of senseless ranting, of wild fanaticism, and of such generally indecent performances as has been charged upon them, is it not strange that none of the writers from various Conferences and different denominations who reported them for the religious periodicals thought it worth while, to mention such excesses and excrescences?

     Take even the article from the Medina Tribune, which was written by a Regency Doctor of Divinity, and is not the sneering, bitter, and contemptuous tone of the article, as also its scurrilous and indecent language, and the fact that its author concealed his identity by a fictitious name, at least presumptive proof that it was a case of Cain persecuting Abel, of Ishmael persecuting Isaac, of him that was born after the flesh persecuting him that was born after the Spirit, which is to be the invariable order until the Millennial dispensation dawns? The article reads much like the many coarse and base assaults that were made through the public press against the Methodists of John Wesley’s time, and which were provoked by that fearless faithfulness which made the early Methodists such a mighty band in the exposure of formalism and false religion, and for the rebuke of sin both without and within the nominal Church. Such faithfulness spares no man’s idols; and when the vanity, falsity, and diabolical character of a man’s idolatry is exposed, whether it be the idolatry that worships gods of wood, stone, brass, or other material, or the idolatry of wealth, fame, fashion, pleasure, society, or fraternity relations, that man is either going to break with his idolatry, or, “joined to his idols,” become a malicious persecutor of those who have exposed his idolatrous wickedness.

     Consider also that many of these persecuted brethren lived for years after these slanderous things were published. During those years they held such prominent positions as brought them into general recognition. Moreover, some of them are still living and filling such positions; and during all this time, neither those who are now dead nor those who are still alive betrayed any tendencies to ranting fanaticism or wild enthusiasm. Their work was ever constructive and permanent, of which the Free Methodist Church is in evidence in our own and other lands. These things, we contend, have proven the false and slanderous character of all such allegations and publications as that of the article quoted from the Medina Tribune and others similar.