The Message in a Tent by Bertha Iliff

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 5, 1914

The Message in a Tent

By Bertha Iliff

I HAD my first view of a tent meeting when my mind was clouded with discouragement and nothing struck me forcibly but my own misery. However, there is a camp scene in my mind that will never be effaced—not as long as I remember my "first love."

This camp was located on a vacant corner lot. There were only three tents. The two in the rear were the dining tent and bedrooms of the gospel workers. These were small and screened, and scrupulously clean. The audience tent faced both streets. The ground was sodded with clean sawdust. Under the neatly arranged, canvas-folding benches were tufts of green grass. About the organ and the pulpit were house plants and green foliage. The altar was draped in blue and white, and suspended from the tent above and back of the pulpit was a chart representing the image of a man with a head of gold. Above the altar, written in white on blue, were these startling words: "Behold, I come quickly," and above these was the solemn inscription, "Prepare to meet thy God." These words seemed to burn into my soul. The solemnity, the simplicity, the spotlessness of this place seemed heavenlike. To my tired soul, here was something new under the sun. Yet the message delivered from the pulpit was the old, old story told in a new setting; told by unlearned lips, but lips touched with a living coal from off the altar.

The peace and quiet confidence of that minister's face, his plain clothes, and his simple, earnest manner revealed a life of faith that impressed me deeply. I shall never forget the first Sabbath spent on that tent ground. It was the brightest day of my life. The sun seemed brighter than I had ever seen it; the grass seemed a living green and the tents glistening white. There was a corresponding light on the faces of the gospel workers, reflected, perhaps, from the faces of the new converts.

Six years have passed since that blessed day. The cares of life have been allowed to cast their shadows. My Lord has tarried longer than I expected. But though he tarry, yet I know that he will surely come; and as the camp meeting season draws near, the desire grows strong to meet again with those whose faces shine with the blessed hope, and I long to hear again the gospel message in a tent. BERTHA ILIFF.