NMH Magazine : Fall 2006

Heaven on Earth

Given Moody’s worldwide fame, Christians eagerly flocked to his pastures. Gatherings included the United Presbyterian Youth Conference, the Women’s Foreign Missionary Conference, the Christian Endeavor, and the YMCA Conference. The Northfield General Conference for Christian Workers, held each August, brought the biggest crowds and the most illustrious speakers.

Northfield native Janet Mabie, whose father preached at the conferences, describes the atmosphere in her 1951 memoir Heaven on Earth. “From June to September; in the rose-colored brick Moody Auditorium; outdoors under the trees; on a hilltop under the evening star of early twilight, Bible expositions, song services, sermons, and prayer meetings trod on each other’s heels. People called it a corner of Heaven on earth.”

Delegates could stay in dormitories, the Northfield Inn, or, for the budget-minded, in tents provided by Northfield. These distinctive white tents, some jauntily personalized and decorated, lent a festive aspect to the campus. Regular attendees—mostly ministers—bought tiny lots on nearby Rustic Ridge and built summer cabins, many of which still stand today.

Famous Christian speakers, as well as guests such as Woodrow Wilson and Booker T. Washington, held forth at the conferences. During his lifetime, D. L. Moody himself was a fixture, speaking from the platform in the Auditorium or addressing the rapt masses from a smaller side venue. Lesser figures spoke at Round Top, where a 6:30 service took place each night. Mabie describes the evangelists as “big, awesome men…who were apt to bound up out of chairs on the platform or under the trees, throw back their heads, shut their eyes, and thunder out at God with praise and requests.”

For Northfield and Mount Hermon students, the conferences provided summer jobs and socializing opportunities. Baseball, barrel races, rope pulls, and other games took place on the rolling lawns, and moonlit evenings were conducive to quiet strolls. Families, ministers, college students, missionaries, foreign delegates, and children all mingled, linked by their piety.

With World War II, however, came gas rationing and wartime duties; fewer people attended the conferences, and the tents were packed away for good. As postwar America grew increasingly secular, the Northfield conferences lost their early momentum—although the campus continued to host a small number of Christian conferences. Today a small-scale version called the Northfield Conference remains. This multifaith family conference, which offers community gatherings, prayer, and activities, meets for one week every June. This summer marked its inaugural gathering on the Mount Hermon campus.

Meanwhile, the Northfield campus carries lingering fame from its summer heyday. Fitting final words come from Mabie: “The time always came when the conferences ended. Once father remarked at breakfast absently, ‘The tumult and the shouting dies; the Captains and the Kings depart.’”

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