The Tent-Meeting in Nashville
By Geo. I. Butler
THE meetings continue with no very marked changes. We have been here now over two weeks, holding seven or eight meetings each week. Our congregations have ranged from forty to fifty on rainy nights, up to perhaps two hundred two or three times; usually there are about eighty or eighty-five at an ordinary service. Quite a large number of our own people attend, perhaps from thirty to sixty at a time, many of whom have never heard a course of lectures. There are quite a number of interested persons in attendance, who are there every night. Several have spoken favorably concerning the Sabbath already, and they think we are right on that question, and yet we have not nearly brought out the pointed arguments that lead to decisions being made. We have been ranging over the great prophetic statements of Scripture concerning the nearness of Christ's coming, and other interesting points in the theory of the truth. We shall soon be in the heart of the great principles underlying our faith,—the law, the messages, the sanctuary, the Sabbath, and life and death questions. We have been disappointed in not having a more full and complete attendance. We are still hoping that the interest will increase, and are making great efforts to advertise largely in the city, and we think we can truly say that the truth is being made plain. We shall hope that God's blessing will rest upon our work. Elder Haskell and the writer have been giving the discourses from the stand. We have good music, and the tent is fixed up in a neat and attractive manner. We are well situated, but it is difficult to reach the great masses of people in our Southern cities. The Southern Missionary Society has a tent running in a different part of the city for the colored people. We feel very thankful for this. They speak of having some interest. Their meetings did not begin, however, until very recently.—Geo. I. Butler, in The Watchman.