The First Tent Meetings
By J. O. Corliss
The Experiences of Former Days—No. 10
Up to 1854 all the evangelical work done by Seventh-day Adventists was confined to private houses and district school buildings. During winter this method of labor was fairly successful, but in summer, when farmers were busy, and the evenings too sultry to meet in stuffy rooms, work was largely curtailed. This condition led to the consideration of more extended plans, by which work might be carried on throughout the year without interruption. In the spring of the year mentioned above, Elders White and Cornell were in Jackson, Mich., talking over the situation with Brother Dan R. Palmer. During the council Elder Cornell told of tent work having been done in New York State by the First-day Adventists. The year before, two of their ministers had been using a sixty-foot circular tent, and had drawn large audiences. But the two men having disagreed, the tent was likely to remain idle, it being at that time stored in Rochester, N. Y. Elder Cornell then ventured the suggestion that the tent might be purchased for about one half of its original cost. “But,” said Elder White, “we have no money with which to purchase it, so we may as well pass that suggestion by.” Brother Palmer, however, was not so settled in his convictions. He thought that they might raise money enough to procure the tent, and demonstrate the plan of holding tent-meetings in some of the populous towns in Lower Michigan. He said that his blacksmith business had been fairly remunerative, and that he had a little money laid by which he was willing to risk in the enterprise. He then went to another part of the house, and soon returned with a sum of money which was deemed sufficient to pay a man’s fare to Rochester and back, and pay for the tent. Upon seeing this, Elder Cornell, in his characteristic way,8said: “Let me have it, and I will go right off now. I have just time to catch the eastern-bound train.” So saying, he took the money, and hurried to the station, arriving there just in time to swing on to the rear coach as the train was leaving the station. On arriving at Rochester a bargain was soon made for the abandoned tent, and in due time it arrived in Battle Creek. With some repairs it was soon ready for service, and it was decided to pitch it in Battle Creek, then a town of only a few hundred inhabitants. It was accordingly erected at the corner of Tompkins and Van Buren Streets, opposite the Nichols Hospital, on the lot afterward occupied by the residence of Mr. Neal, a shoe dealer. On this spot the tent stood for a short time,— just long enough to tell the message in condensed form, for in those days the messengers had not learned to dwell upon themes foreign to the message they felt commissioned to give the world. The work before them to be done in a single generation seemed so great that no time was lost upon non-essentials. So serious, indeed, did their task seem, that the next year the one tent was erected in almost as many towns as there were weeks with weather favorable for tent-meetings. The method adopted for that year was for the laborers to keep a horse and wagon with them, with which to remove the tent from place to place. Early in the week the tent would be erected in a small town or village, and meetings would begin Friday evening, and continue all day Sabbath and Sunday, and on Monday the tent would be taken down to be removed to another place, where the same number of meetings would be held, and the same topics dwelt upon. The question now would be what could be done in so short a time to get people to decide in favor of the truth? It is true that multitudes did not then receive the truth at any one point, but hardly a place was visited with the tent that year where some good, substantial persons were not left to live the message. Some of those who then received the truth are still alive, and have always been earnest burden-bearers in the message. To accept the truth in those days meant more than it does to many now. Sabbath-keepers of those days laid their all upon the altar, to be used for the Lord, and so were always ready to respond liberally to every call for means to build up the work. Were the Lord’s coming as imminent in the minds of brethren to-day as in those days, matters might be different from what they are. Should the same liberality be manifested now by the entire body of Seventh-day Adventists as was then seen among the few, the Lord’s work might go to all the world untrammeled, so far as funds are concerned.