Birthing of the American Camp Meeting and the Cane Ridge Revival
Pentecost to the Present – Book Two: Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: “When McGready announced a similar meeting at his Gasper River Church in July, the response was overwhelming. Some came from as far away as a hundred miles, bringing their tents with them. The crowds grew so large they had to clear some underbrush near the church, build a pulpit, and set up log seats outdoors. The American camp meeting was born. Services lasted well into the night. When McGee preached that Sunday night, the Spirit again fell, and many who were seeking God were slain followed by cries and shouts of joy that seemed to drown out the preaching. In 1801, Barton W. Stone (1772-1844), another Presbyterian pastor, who attended the Red River meetings, decided to use McGready’s principles to start a series of meetings near his church in Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Crowd estimates were reported between 15,000 and 20,000. One minister who was present reported 3,000 slain in the Spirit at once with others breaking into loud laughter and still others running, shouting, barking like dogs, and making other strange sounds. One eyewitness reported, ‘The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most precious accents, while others shouted vociferously. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of mind there collected…At one time I saw at least five hundred, swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.’
