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. 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. On the last night of the Assembly at Mountain Lake Park the C. L. S. C. was organized, with over fifty members, Rev. J. T. Judd, of Harrisburg, Pa., being elected president, and Miss Jennie M. Jones, of the same city, secretary. Thus from the tip-top of the Alleghenies we send out greetings to other Chautauquans, and join in the glorious work which is in marvelous measure leavening the land. decorative line
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