p. 102 | California Tent by Merritt E. Cornell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 9, 1873

California Tent.

By Merritt E. Cornell

Twenty-five lectures have been given, up to the present, and the interest is yet rising. More than one hundred voted for the truth, and about forty have decided to keep the Sabbath. The first discourse on the nature of man was given last evening, and it has fanned the interest to a flame. We hear that not much else is talked on the streets to-day. The interest seems now to be extending into the country, and they come in from a distance of from three to eight miles. We are encouraged by what we already see, but the end is not yet. During the first week of our meetings, the St. Helena correspondent of the Napa Daily Register spoke very disparagingly of our prospects, but he seems now to have changed his mind. The following we clip from the Register of last week:—

“The Adventists, who have been here holding their tent meetings during the past ten days, are now attracting the general attention, and causing ‘the dry bones to shake.’ Eld. Cornell is nightly drawing large, attentive, orderly, and appreciative audiences, and is winning golden opinions both for his gentlemanly bearing and the masterly and intelligent manner in which he elucidates the subjects presented. One ‘hot-gospeler’ had the temerity to attack the Elder recently, and, failing to draw him into his rough, brow-beating, undignified style of discussion, straightened the lapels of his coat to the passing zephyrs and no longer intruded his presence upon an order-loving, dignified assemblage of St. Helena’s proverbially quiet and polite inhabitants. The peculiar tenets of these people may be wrong; but the advocates are entitled to respect no less for their self-sacrificing zeal and earnestness than their genial, gentlemanly deportment.”

Since then, Bro. Loughborough came up from Napa, and was with me over Sabbath and first-day, and gave a new impetus to the interest. He brought a good report of the work in Napa. Last Sabbath was the first meeting of the new friends there without a preacher. They had one hundred and fifteen in attendance, and they report a most cheering result.

Many of the new friends of truth, both here and at Napa, are looking forward to the camp-meeting with interest. It is to be just half way (nine miles) between the two places, and many of our hearers, who have not yet decided to keep the Sabbath, will attend the camp-meeting. Oh, how important that meeting! and what solemn responsibilities will rest upon all our people. Let every one turn away from every wrong and doubtful thing, and in a special manner seek God, and earnestly pray that we may share the divine favor and blessing at that time.

M. E. CORNELL.

St. Helena, Cal., Aug. 20, 1873.