p. 1 | TENT-MEETINGS by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 29, 1876

TENT-MEETINGS

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

(Concluded)

STRAINING THE TENT.

Unless proper care is exercised, a tent may be easily ruined in one day. As soon as it begins to rain, the ropes and canvas commence to swell and tighten. Then the top should be gradually let down, every little while, as fast as it tightens. It is not necessary to loosen the guy rope; lowering the top is sufficient if the tent is properly pitched. The big guys, however, which hold up the center pole, will have to be loosened, as you cannot let them down. If the tent is allowed to stand during a rain till it becomes too tight, it will stretch the threads in every seam; then ever after that it will leak like a sieve, and will be good for nothing. But a tent should be kept stretched tight all the time in the dryest weather. It looks much better, and is not injured by the wind so much as it is when allowed to hang loose and flap around.

Again, care should be taken not to allow the tent to mildew after a rain. What ruins a tent the quickest of anything is to have a heavy shower of rain come, and then have the sun come out on it, clear and hot. This is what mildews and rots a tent. To avoid this, just as soon as the rain is over, the wall should be put up all around the tent, so as to allow a free circulation all through it. This will soon dry off the dampness before the tent has time to mildew.

ADVERTISING.

What we want is to get the attention of the people; and to secure this object every reasonable effort should be made. This is an age of advertising; everybody expects to advertise. We must do it. Still, circumstances make a difference. In the country, or in a small back village, where everybody knows all that is going on, after the first bills are scattered the neighbors will advertise the meetings enough. But in the larger villages and cities, where there are so many things to attract the attention of the people, a large amount of advertising must be done.

In the first place, we always have a bill of our meetings, setting forth what we shall lecture upon, when, where, etc. One of these should be put in every house, hotel, post-office, shop, and store, in the place. Usually, this will bring you a good audience to start with. Then if there is a daily paper published in the place, a stirring notice of the meeting should be inserted in the paper every day. This will cost but a very little. If there is no daily, make the best use of the weekly paper. Usually the editors of these papers are glad to have anything that is news, anything that would interest the people, written out as articles for their papers; hence the very first thing to be done is to go to the editor or publisher, state plainly what you want, and obtain the privilege of writing short articles, of perhaps one-third of a column to a whole column in length, in each issue, setting forth the substance of your lectures. You will find the publishers much more ready to grant you this privilege than you would naturally suppose. I have never been denied yet. Of course, you want to make them believe that you are going to stir things, that the people will be interested, and that you have something important to say. Then be on hand with just as pithy and spicy articles as you can write.

In a large town you want to make use of a bulletin-board to be put in as many prominent places as you can obtain the use of. Obtain a set of cut letters; then with a brush and a little India ink and white pasteboard or paper, you can print the headings of all your subjects; and put on the bulletin-board each day the subject for the evening. You can have one in front of the tent, at least. Other modes of advertising can be taken advantage of, according to circumstances. Do not be afraid of advertising too much.

SELLING BOOKS.

There is a right way and a wrong way of doing everything. After much careful observation, I am satisfied that the best way to sell books is to put them out as early as the second lecture; i. e., all the books treating upon the prophecies, signs of the times, saints’ inheritance, and those subjects which will be in no danger of creating prejudice ahead of you. Of course I would not put out books upon the Sabbath or nature of man; but you can select about a dollar’s worth of our best publications and offer them separately, or the whole in a package together. Generally you will sell more the first three nights than you will the next ten days. You will find a great many persons who will buy a dollar’s worth immediately, whereas if you put it off a week they will buy none at all.

Always keep on hand a good assortment of books; and every time you introduce a new subject or a new phase of the subject, call attention to some new book or tract. Another excellent way to dispose of books is to put up our smaller tracts in packages worth twenty-five and fifty cents each. These will always go readily. In about two or three weeks put up a $2.50 package of our best pamphlets and tracts. Toward the close of the meeting you will generally sell a good many of these. Hymn books and English Bibles will always sell well, especially at the close of the meeting.

When is the best time to introduce our paper for the purpose of obtaining subscribers? My answer is, The sooner the better. Have a neat, clean copy on hand. Exhibit it in full size, explain all its features, and then try to obtain as many subscribers as you can for six months. You will get several the first week whom you will not get if you wait till after that.

There is always a large mass who will attend on Sunday evening, when some special subject is up, who do not think of buying. They will come from many houses, and from all conditions of life. Among these some of our small and most pointed tracts should be freely distributed. This can best be done by having a brother stand by the door and give a tract to each person as he enters the tent. In this way every one can be supplied with a tract. If you wait till the meeting is closed, many will have gone out during the meeting, and these you will miss. Then where there is a crowd they always go out in such a rush that you will miss many; but take them as they come in quietly, one at a time, and you will reach all. This also gains their confidence on the start. They feel that you are not after their money, and they will be more likely to buy something, or to contribute if you take up a collection. By doing this you will scatter thousands of our little tracts everywhere through the community. Nearly every family will be reached, and persons who do not and would not attend the meetings will read these little tracts at home; and thus seeds will be sown which may bring forth much fruit. This should be done several times during a tent-meeting. Perhaps twice a week would not be too often; at least, whenever you have a large crowd. I hope we shall soon have some tracts prepared especially for this purpose.

Last summer, while in California, we tried an experiment which proved a perfect success. After we had been in the place about a week, our tent master took the Family Physician and canvassed the town for it, just as a regular canvasser would do. He not only sold quite a number of copies, but found many families who were interested in the meetings. They wished to have a talk with us, but for various causes did not feel free to invite us to their houses; but when he came there they were ready and glad to talk with him. Some he supplied with tracts, and others he interested to come again. Some were led to embrace the Sabbath in this way. It worked so well that I became satisfied that it was a good plan, and would recommend it to our brethren generally. We are too afraid of ourselves. Let us have more faith in God, more confidence among the people, and then we shall do more.

WHEN TO INTRODUCE THE SABBATH.

How early in a course of lectures should the Sabbath question be introduced? Of course, circumstances will make a great deal of difference about that, as about everything else; but of one thing I have become satisfied, viz., that it is not best to put it off very long, and allow the people to become wearied out with other things before introducing the Sabbath. Generally speaking, the Sabbath should be introduced within one week; commencing with the prophecies, run down through the messages and strike the Sabbath just as soon as you can. If you put it off two or three weeks, you do not know what may happen to break your interest, and draw off a good share of your audience before you get to the main question. Generally you have the largest audience the second and third weeks, and that is the very time you want to discuss the most important question.

There is a great deal in taking the people by surprise, and by storm, as it were, by pouring in the truth so thick and so fast that they have not time to bring forward or collect their list of objections, while you are going from one subject to another. Keep ahead of them. If you allow a questioning, debating spirit to come in first, you will lose much.

There are so many things to say upon the Sabbath question that it is necessary to begin early. After you have spoken on it two or three times, you can introduce some other question for an evening or two and then return to the Sabbath, always keeping that as the main question before them.

When a man has decided upon the Sabbath, generally speaking, he will promptly receive all the rest; but if he should receive all the rest and then reject the Sabbath, your whole labor is lost. I have been strongly impressed of late that our very long drawn-out courses of lectures are many times a mistake. If we would start in and make sharp, short work we would often have better success than we do with three times as long an effort. Or if it becomes necessary to stay a long time in a place it is not wisdom to put off our main points till a late day. I have known some of our brethren to labor three or four weeks in a place, with a good interest, before presenting the Sabbath at all; and in almost every instance they have failed to accomplish anything. I am not opposed to holding on, and sticking to the work just as long as anything can be gained; but I am opposed to introducing everything but the main question first. Very frequently a good large church has been raised up in less than three weeks’ time; still, no definite rule can be given which will govern under all circumstances.

DISCUSSIONS.

Should we hold discussions during a course of lectures? I answer, No, decidedly; that is, not a regular, set, lengthy debate. I have seen it tried a great many times, and in almost every single instance it has hurt the interest of the meeting. The reason is very evident. A debate, to amount to anything, must take up four or five days. It will call out the whole community; and by the time the debate is over they are all tired and worn out, and hence will not come again for some time, even if they have an interest. They naturally feel, too, that they have now heard all that can be said on the question, both sides of it; hence they do not care to come and hear one side any further. In the next place, a debate will always create a party spirit, and people will take their stand on one side or the other; and this will be against you. It gets up a spirit of controversy which is very unfavorable for the development of a Christian spirit. Then a host of objections will be handed out by your opponent which the wavering will use to excuse themselves for not obeying an unpopular truth.

But it is always a good thing to get your opponent to preach a sermon or two against you, and then take plenty of time to review him. You will naturally have the sympathies of the people this way. They will feel as though he was interfering with you, rather than you with him, and this will throw their sympathies on your side; besides, you will have the last word, which is always a great deal.

If a regular debate must be entered upon during a course of lectures, make it just as short as possible—one or two evenings—then it will not amount to much anyway. If you think it necessary to have a debate, put it off till after your regular course of lectures is over.

COLLECTIONS.

Should we take up collections in new places? I think we have sometimes been too delicate upon this subject in the past. Where we go into a new place, hire our board, furnish our own meeting-house, and pay all our expenses, right-minded people will always esteem it a privilege to contribute something toward our expenses. Most always they ask the privilege of doing this. I think it is perfectly proper and right to make a statement of our circumstances, and then say that whatever any one chooses to give will be thankfully received. We have always done this in California, taking up a collection as often as once in ten days or two weeks. In most places we have received enough to pay all our running expenses.

Nor is it at all necessary to go week after week to a hotel or boarding-house, and pay a high price for your board. A simple

statement of your circumstances will almost always bring out plenty of invitations to visit; or the people will bring food to the tent for you. Instead of injuring you or the people, this always brings them nearer to you. When you spend a day in a family they regard you as one of their personal friends, and will be much more likely to come and hear you, and to interest others to come.

Sabbath meetings should be started just as soon as you have spoken two or three times upon the Sabbath. It is a good thing to appoint prayer-meetings pretty early. Get the people to work just as soon as you can. It will show that you mean work. You can even start a Sabbath-school with good success. As soon as you can get two or three clear cases for baptism, attend to this ordinance. It will give people confidence in your work, and they will see that you are Christians, the same as other people.