Recollections of the Past: Tent Meetings in Michigan by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, February 24, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 8

Recollections of the Past: Tent Meetings in Michigan

By John Norton Loughborough

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PAST.—NO. 11.

In my last article I spoke of the wreck of the railway train near Jackson, Mich., and of the escape of Bro. and Sr. White. May 24 they spent at the home of Bro. Cyrenius Smith in West Jackson. By the regular train time that evening the track was so far cleared of the wreck that the trains ran as usual. Bro. and Sr. White again entered the cars, and made a safe passage to fill their appointment in Wisconsin.

June 8 Bro. Cornell returned from Rochester, N. Y., to Battle Creek, Mich., with a 60-foot circular tent. It was erected on a point of ground situated on Van Buren Street, just above the railroad, near the planing mill. Here, June 10, the writer opened the tent meetings with a discourse on Dan. 2. This meeting continued only two days, and then we took our tent to Grand Rapids. Bro. and Sr. White, having returned from Wisconsin, joined us in this our second tent meeting, which was held at Grand Rapids, June 16-18. On the evening of June 18, Sr. White had a vision at the house of Bro. Fitch. This vision was full of instruction, reproof, and counsel, for the church present, and also encouragement of success to the tent enterprise.

The use of tents for meetings was a new business to us, and we had some things to learn by experience that may look a little strange to those now engaged in tent labor. First, we did not then so fully realize that when an interest was first awakened in a place it was best to follow up that interest with a thorough effort, or with a full series of discourses, bringing as many as possible of the interested ones to a decision. Secondly, we did not suppose people would be interested to come out evenings through the week, and so the most of our meetings were held only over Sabbath and first day of each week. Thirdly, we looked upon tent meetings as a means for the general arousing of the public mind; and, with this idea, we tried to visit as many different places as possible in one season.

The first summer's tent campaign in Michigan we pitched the tent in eleven different places. In most of these places the tent would be down during the week and erected every Friday. So it was pitched that season fourteen times. In one of the places we kept the tent erected for several days in succession, and in one place we had it up for three consecutive Sabbaths and first-days. At the end of the season we had a good opportunity to compare results of the different meetings. It was not, however, until the Lord gave us instruction through the spirit of prophecy that we fully understood the best mode of prosecuting “the work of the ministry” (Eph. 4: 12) in connection with tent labor.

It may be of interest, especially to our Michigan brethren, to know the times and places where the tent was pitched the first season: Battle Creek, June 10, 11; Grand Rapids, June 16-18; Delhi, Ingham Co., June 24, 25; Tyrone, Livingston Co., July 1, 2; Shelby, Montcalm Co., July 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23. As the result of the Shelby meeting about twenty embraced the truth. Our next meeting was in Jackson, July 29, 30, Aug. 5, 6; the next in Hastings, Barry Co., Aug. 12, 13; and next at Waverly, north of Paw Paw, Aug. 19, 20. Then it was erected again in Battle Creek, Aug. 26, 27, on the same spot as in the June meeting. Then we had the tent in Saline, Washtenaw Co., Sept. 2-10. In this place the meetings continued each evening, as well as in the daytime on the two Sabbaths and first days. A few embraced the truth as the result. Sept. 16, 17, we erected our tent again at Shelby, Montcalm Co., about four miles south of where we held the July meeting. And thus closed our first season's tent labor.

In almost every place where our tent was erected there were some to obey the truth, but we saw the best results where we tarried the longest. In our two day's meetings, however, we gave a condensed view of the prophecies, sanctuary, messages, and Sabbath, earnestly urging the people to obey. This, with the blessing of God, moved some to act, so that our efforts were not all in vain.

At the close of the summer's tent campaign I returned to Rochester, N. Y. I spent the months of October and November holding meetings in Western New York, at Olcott and Wilson, Niagara Co., at Barre and Orangeport, and at Clarkson and Rochester, Monroe Co. Dec. 16 I first met with the friends in Oswego. While holding meetings there, I learned some interesting things concerning the first introduction of the Sabbath doctrine into that place, and also some important facts connected with the first visit of Bro. and Sr. White to that city. As our opponents have tried to make some capital out of a vision given at the time of this visit of Bro. and Sr. White in the winter of 1849-50, I will here take the liberty to relate some facts connected therewith as they were related to me.

Let it be borne in mind that in 1843 there was a great stir in Oswego on the question of the Lord's coming, and that after the time passed, some of those who were in the movement gave up their faith in the doctrine, and joined in a warfare against it. At the time of the above visit of Bro. and Sr. White there was a member of one of the churches who was of the above class, and who was at that time earnestly conducting a revival. He was also acting as the treasurer of the city.

When Bro. and Sr. White opened their meetings in Oswego, there were some young persons, who were not in the '43 movement, who were nearly convinced of the Sabbath truth. These persons were also attending the revival, and were somewhat perplexed by the zeal manifested by the leader thereof. In one of our meetings, at which those young persons were present, Sr. White had a vision, in which she was pointed to Hos. 5: 6, “They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord; for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.” Sr. White said it was shown her that those so active in this revival had rejected the truth, and that this was not a revival from error to truth; but, represented in the above text, they were begetting strange children. She said to those young people, “I was told to tell you to wait a month; for within one month you will know the character of the persons who are so active in this revival.” They concluded to wait before deciding to join the revival company, and see how the case would turn.

Two weeks from that time the man who was conducting the revival, while earnestly praying in one of the meetings, ruptured a blood-vessel, and bled so profusely that he was taken home and put to bed. This left his accounts to pass into the hands of the sheriff and his assistants, who found on counting the money in the safe that it was $1,000 short of the balance demanded by the bank account. They hesitated about charging the shortage to one who had labored so earnestly in a revival. Finally the chief constable went up and hid himself in a rough board shed back of the treasurer's house. The sheriff soon followed, entering the front door of the house. On entering he observed a woman passing swiftly out of the back door. The constable, through a crack of the shed, observed the wife of the treasurer come out at the back door, and go to a snow bank, dig a hole in the bank, and put something in it, which she hastily covered up, and then returned to the house. The constable went to the snow-bank, dug out what she had hidden, which proved to be a bag containing the missing $1,000. As the constable stepped into the house the man and his wife, both with uplifted hands, were protesting before the sheriff, and calling on God to witness that they knew nothing about the lost money. The constable shook the bag of money, and said, “Madam! I saw you come out of the house, and hide this in a snow bank.” The short of the matter was that the revival suddenly came to a close, and the young people above mentioned took their stand with the Seventh-day Adventists.

I fail to see where there was anything in the vision to give rise to the claim made on the Oswego vision, that Sr. White taught that there was “no more mercy for sinners.” She was there laboring for the conversion of sinners; and the very result of the vision and its fulfillment was that at least two were converted, and united with our people.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.