them. The preachers who interpreted these lessons were Fowler, Hines, Hill, Kennoyer, Conner, Driver, Elledge, and others precious to the memories of many who under their instructions have rejoiced to see within our own valley the dewy rose of Sharon bud midst showers of blessings, and blossom 'neath the sunshine of Heaven.
When a man fails to solve a difficult problem with his head he instinctively undertakes to solve it with his heart. Accordingly this was a season of heart culture especially needed by those who had wrestled with the difficulties incident to pioneer life—such difficulties as no one but the immigrant, the pioneer, or the soldier, can fully understand. It was the great social and religious meeting place of the people, and it grew to be a part of pioneer life. But, in the course of time, when the pioneers began to pass away, the campmeeting gradually came to be a place hallowed only in memory and in religious literature.
The ancients who learned to worship the trees told us that eloquence belongs only to the gods and the groves. With such magnificent groves along our templed hills, we might have easily become druids or tree worshippers like them; but instead, we have cultivated the thought and developed the themes that will yet flower out into a literature not unlike that of the old time camp-meeting dissertation.
