ng hymns in a loud voice.

The major portion of those not in the area were cooking the dinners.
Fires were burning in every direction, pots boiling, chickens roasting,
hams seething; indeed there appeared to be no want of creature comforts.

But the trumpet sounded, as in days of yore, as a signal that the
service was about to recommence and I went into the area and took my
seat. One of the preachers rose and gave out a hymn, which was sung by
the congregation, amounting to about seven or eight hundred. After the
singing of the hymn was concluded he commenced an extempore sermon: it
was good, sound doctrine, and, although Methodism of the mildest tone,
and divested of its bitterness of denunciation, as indeed is generally
the case with Methodism in America. I heard nothing which could be
offensive to any other sect, or which could be considered objectionable
by the most orthodox, and I began to doubt whether such scenes as had
been described to me did really take place at these meetings. A prayer
followed, and after about two hours the congregation were dismissed to
their dinners, being first informed that the service would recommence at
two o'clock at the sound of the trumpet. In front of the pulpit there
was a space railed off; and strewed with straw, which I was told was the
_Anxious seat_, and on which sat those who were touched by their
consciences or the discourse of the preacher; but, although there were
several sitting on it, I did not perceive any emotion on the part of the
occupants: they were attentive, but nothing more.

When I first examined the area, I saw a very large tent at one corner of
it, probably fifty feet long, by twenty wide. It was open at the end,
and, being full of straw, I concluded it was used as a sleeping-place
for those who had not provided themselves with separate accommodation.
About an hour after the service was over, perceiving many people
directing their steps toward it, I followed them. On one side of the
tent were about twenty females, mostly young, squatted down on the
straw; on the other a few men; in the centre was a long form, against
which were some other men kneeling, with their faces covered with their
hands, as if occupied in prayer. Gradually the numbers increased, girl
after girl dropped down upon the straw on the one side, and men on the
other. At last an elderly man gave out a hymn, which was sung with
peculiar energy; then another knelt down in the centre, an