Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, Vol. 2

386 Pages·2013·13.56 MB·English

Origin and History
of
Seventh-day Adventists
VOLUME Two
J< !? 4L
These happy faces of Solomon Island natives from
the Batuna Training School, traveling to a mission
conference in their former headhunting canoes,
testify to the converting power of the gospel.
COPYRIGHT © 1962 BY THE
REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, D.C.
(OFFSET IN U.S.A.)
Origin and History
of
Seventh-day Adventists
A revision of the book Captains of the Host
VOLUME TWO
by
Arthur Whitefield Spalding
REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, D.C.
CONTENTS
Chapter (cid:9) Page
1. Tent and Camp Meetings (cid:9) 7
2. Successors to the Pioneers (cid:9) 21
3. Instructing the Youth 61
4. Tract and Colporteur Work (cid:9) 79
5. Christian Education (cid:9) 91
6. Extending the Educational System (cid:9) I11
7. Hymns of the Advent 129
8. Pacific Coast Evangelism (cid:9) 141
9. Into the Southland (cid:9) 167
10. The Wider Vision (cid:9) 191
11. The Fateful Eighties (cid:9) 213
12. Reception in Russia (cid:9) 225
13. Religious Liberty (cid:9) 239
14. Subversive Elements 263
15. The Issues of 1888 (cid:9) 281
16. The Southern Hemisphere 305
17. Founding Medical Institutions (cid:9) 327
18. American Negro Evangelism (cid:9) 341
19. The Church School Movement (cid:9) 353

CHAPTER 1
TENT AND CAMP MEETINGS
T
HE holding of evangelistic meetings in tents was an
early Seventh-day Adventist enterprise. They had the
example of Miller and Himes in the 1844 movement, and
of other Adventist lecturers since. Indeed, the first such tent
used by Seventh-day Adventists was purchased from the first-
day Adventists, who found it difficult to support and meager
in results.
In May of 1854, James and Ellen White, Loughborough,
Cornell, Frisbie, and Cranson were holding meetings in Wash-
tenaw, Ingham, and Jackson counties in Michigan. At Locke,
Ingham County, the schoolhouse they used would not hold half
the audience, so the speaker stood in the open window and
spoke both to those in the house and to a larger crowd on the
grass and in their carriages. The next day the ministerial com-
pany, en route to Sylvan, in Washtenaw, were discussing the
large crowd and what they would do if the weather were bad.
James White suggested that by another year they might venture
the use of a tent.
"Why not now?" This from the eager, brisk young Cornell,
but two years a convert.
"We-e-ell---" They debated it pro and con, until they
arrived in Sylvan, at the house of C. S. Glover, an early con-
vert and one of the two first deacons in Michigan. As they put
the idea before him, Glover asked, "What would it cost?"
"About $200," they said.
"Here's what I think of it," said Glover, handing out $35;
"I'll venture that much on it."
Before night they were in Jackson, and saw Cyrenius Smith,
Dan Palmer, and J. P. Kellogg. These brethren likewise began
to contribute, until, seeing the goal yet some distance ahead,
Kellogg declared that he would lend the remainder and wait
7
PAINTIN,, BY RUSSELL HARLAN(cid:9) © 1901, BY REVIEW AND lit RALD
The first Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting, 1868, at Wright,
Michigan, on the farm of E. H. Root. The primitive bookstand
shown here was the beginning of a worldwide distribution of
literature, grossing tens of millions of dollars annually.
8(cid:9) Origin and History
until Michigan brethren should make it up.' Near sunset of
that day White, Loughborough, and Cornell retired to a grove
near Cyrenius Smith's and on their knees decided to purchase
the tent. The next day Cornell took the train for Rochester,
New York, where he made the deal.
As narrated in chapter 15, this tent was first used in Battle
Creek, Michigan, in June, 1854, by J. N. Loughborough and
M. E. Cornell. In accordance with the practice of short visits,
the example of which was set by Joseph Bates, Battle Creek saw
this tent for only two days, when Grand Rapids had the same
privilege, and so on around the State. A year or so of these
brief stands, however, convinced the workers that permanent
results could be secured only by a longer series of meetings,
and the tents were then pitched a week, two weeks, and as
long as six weeks in a place.
The success of Michigan induced Vermont to purchase a
tent in July of that year. The next year five tents were in
the field, and from this time the number grew, the "tent
companies" proving the first nucleus of organization, the initial
magnet in "systematic benevolence." They were so much of a
novelty, especially in the Western country, and they proved so
profitable a venture in evangelization, that they became a great
feature of Seventh-day Adventist work for sixty years, until the
emphasis on the great city campaigns induced the hiring of
halls and theaters for evangelistic efforts, though the tent is
still used in small and more rural efforts.'
Likewise, the tent company became the first school for
ministers. As in the medical profession in early times a pro-
spective doctor took his course in study and practice under an
older physician, so now in Adventist ranks the budding evan-
gelist associated himself with a minister, acting as his "tent
master," and like Elisha, "which poured water on the hands
of Elijah," he found his succession through the service of his
hands. And when in 1872 the second European representative
of Seventh-day Adventists, Ademar Vuilleumier, arrived in the
United States to receive training, he was, in the lack of any
Tent and Camp Meetings(cid:9) 9
Seventh-day Adventist school, attached for a time to a tent
company in charge of E. B. Lane and David H. Lamson, where
he learned English, theology, and evangelistic science together.3
Fourteen years of this use of the tent passed before the
idea obtained to use tents as the housing for general meetings
of the constituency. At first, all the believers who were likely
to attend could be contained in the meetinghouses, or, as at
Battle Creek in the first General Conferences, could be accom-
modated in gatherings, by the pitching of one great tent.
Later, district meetings of a few churches each were held in
different sections. The time came, however, when, sensing the
need for a deepening of the spiritual life and instruction in
the faith, the leaders were desirous of gathering each whole
conference together, or several conferences. Should they resort
to the camp meeting, such as in the 1840's had been so promi-
nent a feature of the first angel's message?
At first they took counsel of their fears. First-day Adventist
camp meetings had not encouraged them, for there was much
of disorder and confusion; nor were the Methodist camp
meetings wholly reassuring. It was felt that to hold a camp
meeting might be risking much from the public, and possibly
from irresponsible campers, and might gain less than the ef-
fort should warrant. However, in 1868 they ventured upon the
experiment.
At a meeting held in the Wright, Michigan, church in July
of 1868, attended by James and Ellen White and Uriah Smith,
the subject of camp meetings was introduced. At first Elder
White's idea seemed to be a camp meeting for the whole field,
at least of the lake States—Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, In-
diana, and Ohio, perhaps New York and Lower Canada. How-
ever, he thought the season was too far along to make this
effective, and so the general camp meeting must be postponed
to another year. However, he suggested regional camp meet-
ings: one for western Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois; one
for eastern Michigan, New York, and Canada; and one for
southern Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.