[LAKESIDE ASSEMBLY.]
A regular “C. L. S. C. Day” was provided for in the program at the Lakeside, Ohio, Sunday-school encampment, and the “recognition of the Class of ’83” arranged for. The absence of Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., was an unexpected and greatly lamented interruption to our plans. But the inspiration of the “Chautauqua Idea,” which Lakeside has caught and thoroughly incorporated into its own fiber, did not allow a dampening of ardor, and so the “day” went on as days will, and especially such sunny days by Lake Erie as that was. Happily Lewis Miller, Esq., President of the C. L. S. C., was persuaded to remain a while and lend his cheery face, his wise words and his authoritative presence to the occasion.
A large audience, filling the capacious Auditorium, assembled, the members of the Class of ’83 took seats on the platform, and President Miller occupied the chair. After opening exercises in the use of the responsive services provided, copies of which were distributed among the audience, addresses were delivered by Rev. Dr. Hartupee, Rev. Dr. Worden, Prof. Frank Beard, and Rev. B. T. Vincent. After these had concluded, President Miller called the members of the class to their feet, and in a neat and appropriate address “recognized” them thereby as graduates of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, as part of the great class of fourteen hundred for the current year. A round-table was also held, conducted by Rev. B. T. Vincent, at which the subject of C. L. S. C. work was taken up by those present, and treated in a most practical manner. Representatives from several local circles gave outlines of their plans of work, and questions from interested students as to methods, etc., brought forth suggestive answers, awakening new interest in the subject of study, and stirring the uninitiated, of whom many were present, into an interest in the work. A Sunday evening C. L. S. C. vesper service was also most interesting. On the last evening of the encampment, Bishop Hurst, who was present, applied the subject of general reading as represented in the C. L. S. C. in its relation to a firmer religious texture in Christian character, in a ringing address which did much toward awakening new interest in this great work. The enthusiasm excited by the meetings in this behalf was cordially felt by Lakeside people, and it is determined to make the “recognition” of the class of the current year, and also the round-table, features of the annual program hereafter.
Surrounded as Lakeside is by an immense area filled with studious and enterprising people who are taking hold of the C. L. S. C. readings, and who are finding their special center of summer gathering there, this provision will be a source of great gratification to them, and a means of extending these benefits to many who only thus are brought into contact with this agency of Christian intelligence and popular culture.
[MOUNTAIN LAKE PARK ASSEMBLY.]
The fifth annual session of this Assembly lasted ten days, August 7-17. Some will recall the fact that the institution was established in the Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, and was held there for three successive years. Last year the experiment was made of holding the meeting in the Glades, at the new resort called Mountain Lake Park, Maryland. The new field was so full of promise and hope that it was at once determined to make it the center of the movement henceforth. The place is unique in some of its features, situated in the midst of a series of table-land glades, between the peaks of the Alleghenies, in the vicinity of some most romantic and stirring scenery, and possessing an atmosphere abounding in stimulation and vigor. Two years ago the region was an uninhabited wilderness, with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad resort, Deer Park, on one side three miles away, and Oakland, the county seat of Garrett County, two miles to the west. Now it is a summer settlement abounding in picturesque cottages, beautiful drives, and linked to a Sunday-school Assembly and to “summer schools” of various sorts for all time to come.
The lecture course of the session just past was of a high order. It included three superb addresses from Dr. Lyman Abbott, full of vigorous thought, religious ardor, and primed and charged with suggestiveness—“Why I believe in God, in Christ, and in the Bible.” Prof. Cumnock gave two magnificent entertainments in the shape of readings and recitations. Prof. Young, of Princeton, delighted us with three illustrated astronomical lectures; and the Rev. Jesse Bowman Young gave three tours, illustrated also with the stereopticon: “The Marvels of Colorado,” “London and Paris,” and “From Dan to Beersheba.” Prof. Harris, on the “Wrong side of the Moon,” Dr. Huntley, on the “Amen Corner,” Bishop Andrews, on “The Method of the New Testament Law,” and Dr. Payne, with two lectures, all did their best work, and earned and received high appreciation.
The normal classes were under the instruction of Rev. J. B. Young, Rev. J. T. Judd, Rev. J. Vance, and Prof. Elliott of Baltimore. The lessons were chosen in part from Dr. Vincent’s “Normal Outlines,” and in part were prepared by Mr. Judd.
Rev. Mr. Young conducted two enthusiastic and interesting services during the closing days of the Assembly, developing the “Chautauqua Idea.” Drs. Frysinger, Van Meter, and Leech, Messrs. Judd, Vance, Baldwin, Lindsey, and others, made capital addresses, bringing out as phases of this “Idea” the following elements: home study, Bible study, normal work, study of the classics, of literature, of the sciences.