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TENT-MEETINGS

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1859

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 13, No. 19.

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TENT-MEETINGS.

By James White

FROM the experience of a few years we may now form a very correct opinion of the tent enterprise. In winter, people are more at leisure to attend public lectures, read and meditate, and the history of the cause shows that this is the season to go into the “highways and hedges,” to invite, yea, compel men to come in to the Lord’s great supper. Those who have run from city to city at this season with their little hand bills, and unpopular Bible truth, have hardly been noticed. Those who have preached from church to church have done but little better. About six months of the coldest weather of the year is the time to enter new fields, and at present, country places are far preferable. Here you will find intelligence, candor and stability which is not always found with the masses in our Western villages and cities.
But what can be done in the warm season of the year without a tent, when farmers, mechanics and almost every body are driven with labor and business? Preachers can visit the brethren, and preach Sundays in the school-houses to about one hundred persons. Some good may be accomplished in this way. The history of the past shows it, while it shows at the same time that the same amount of preaching has accomplished ten fold more with a tent.
A tent wakes up an interest in the people throughout the community, draws them out in a crowd to hear, and wakes up opposition and investigation. Many decide to keep the truth, and the influence is left on the community for a long time, and the fruits of such a meeting are afterwards seen, in others, one after another joining the ranks.
Especially in the West tents are needed, and we do hope there will be two tents, well manned in the West, one in Wisconsin, the other in Iowa. A united effort from all the friends of the cause west will well sustain the enterprise.
Bro. Sanborn writes from Monroe, Wis.:
“Bro. Ingraham must have help, or he will have to go to work to support his family. But I think there will be some way provided for him that he may be free.
“Sabbath-keepers in the West have generally to learn yet how to sacrifice to the Lord to help forward his cause. People who have not been in the first two messages are hard to understand their duty as they should. But I am satisfied that with proper care and labor there will be a large company raised up here around Monroe, who will make a covenant with God by sacrifice, and stand stifly for the truth. The cause is onward, which gives me great courage to persevere, and labor on in this cause.”
It was a tent-meeting that aroused the people of Monroe and vicinity, and gave the truth influence on the public mind.
Our dear Bro. Ingraham must be sustained in the field. The brethren in the fields of his labor the past year are abundantly able to support five such missionaries, and we have confidence in them to believe that they wish to do their duty in support of the gospel. Their duty should be faithfully set before them. Ministers should do their duty here.
The work must not stop. Our ministers should be free from worldly embarrassment. We shall send relief to Bro. Ingraham, and shall look to those interested in missionary labors for the extension of the cause of Bible truth, to replace the means. Send your donations to the REVIEW office, and they shall be receipted in the REVIEW.
The friends in Illinois and Wisconsin must excuse us for the interest we take in their Missionary. We are sure they will not long let others help them, while they are abundantly able to help themselves. A faithful and patient exposition of the whole matter of missionary labor, and the duty to sustain the laborers, and a proper system of action, will lead the church to see and feel their duty. J. W.