p. 190 | EAST TENNESSEE by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 15, 1876

EAST TENNESSEE.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

MONDAY, May 22, I started for East Tennessee. I came via Nashville to McMinnville. This was the nearest point on the railroad to the place where Bro. Soule is laboring in Bledsoe County, about one hundred miles east of Nashville. It was nearly sixty miles up and over the Cumberland mountains, the worst road I ever saw, Colorado not excepted. In Tennessee I should judge that the cows lay out the roads, and then the roads take care of themselves! There was no public conveyance, so I hired a team, and in company with Bro. Richardson worked hard to reach the place of meeting before the Sabbath. But Sabbath morning we had nine miles to go. This we went on foot.

Bro. Soule, of Michigan, had been lecturing here about six weeks, with a good interest. I found a company of about twenty keeping the Sabbath and having Sabbath meetings. They are some of the most intelligent persons of that neighborhood; three are school-teachers, two are Sunday-school superintendents, one a Baptist deacon, etc. Just now they are passing through the usual persecution from their former brethren; but they are unmoved by it. We find bigotry and bitter hatred to the truth and the law of God here the same as elsewhere. Religion is in a very sad condition here, worse even than at the North. Hence honest souls are prepared for the truth. They have lost confidence in many of their teachers and in the popular churches. They seem to be hungry for the true word of God.

Where Bro. S. has been working, there are many more who are about convinced of the truth and are on the point of deciding. They turned out well and gave me a good hearing. Some came ten miles. This is on the top of the Cumberland mountains, in a dense, endless forest. On the road I saw scarcely a house; yet hundreds came out to meeting, and nearly all on foot. The reason is that they pay no attention to roads here; but every man builds by the best spring on his land, let that be where it may.

I find that the whole country around is stirred about this new doctrine, and hundreds are wanting to hear. There are more calls for lectures in different places than can be filled for many months. Bro. Soule will remain here and carry on the work. Bro. Richardson will also remain and assist him. If these brethren stand in the counsel of God and work with energy, I shall expect that there will be scores of Sabbath-keepers here in a few months.

In view of the situation, I thought it best to ordain Bro. Soule, so that he might baptize, organize churches, etc. So at our last meeting, in the midst of his own children in the faith, he was solemnly set apart to the sacred work of the gospel.

I preached to the people four times with good freedom and a deep interest. Many urged me to remain longer; but we could not now hold night meetings, and for a singular reason, viz., fear of poisonous snakes! They are so thick on the mountains and so venomous that the people will not go out after dark. This is not so, however, in the valleys.

So far as trouble in society is concerned, or opposition to Northern men, with a very few rare exceptions, there is no more of it than there is in Michigan. A man is just as safe, and the people are just as ready to hear him, as at the North. Indeed, I judge that the people would turn out more generally and receive the truth more readily here than there. Nor does it require as much talent to labor here, as the people are far behind in education and general information. The great mass of them are also very much poorer than at the North, though in the valleys there is more wealth.

The prevailing mode of living is anything but inviting, especially to a health reformer. Corn bread, pork, and coffee, are about all a man will see week after week. With very few exceptions, no fruit, no sauce, no vegetables, are seen on the table. And yet this is a land of fruit. Wild and tame fruits grow readily and in great abundance. Vegetables of all kinds can be easily raised. Why people neglect these real luxuries of life when they can be had with so little labor is hard to understand. From what I conversed with those who have embraced the truth here, I believe they will readily see the advantages of a better way of living and soon adopt it.

I am now on my way to Alabama.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

May 30, 1876.