Public Labors in 1877
179
expelled from the midst of them. These being crowded out, increased
knowledge will be the result.
Our school is to take a higher position in an educational point
of view than any other institution of learning, by opening before the
young nobler views, aims, and objects in life, and educating them to
have a correct knowledge of human duty and eternal interests. The
great object in the establishment of our College was to give correct
views, showing the harmony of science and Bible religion.
The Lord strengthened me and blessed the efforts made in behalf
of the youth. A large number came forward for prayers. Some of these,
through lack of watchfulness and prayer, had lost their faith and the
evidence of their connection with God. Many testified that in taking
this step they received the blessing of God. As a result of the meetings,
quite a number presented themselves for baptism.
Temperance Meetings
But my work was not yet done in Battle Creek. We were earnestly
solicited to take part in a temperance mass meeting, a very praise-
worthy effort in progress among the better portion of the citizens of
Battle Creek. This movement embraced the Battle Creek Reform Club,
six hundred strong, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,
two hundred and sixty strong. God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the
[221]
Bible were familiar words with these earnest workers. Much good had
already been accomplished, and the activity of the workers, the sys-
tem by which they labored, and the spirit of their meetings, promised
greater good in time to come.
It was on the occasion of the visit of Barnum’s great menagerie to
this city, on the 28th of June, that the ladies of the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union struck a telling blow for temperance and reform
by organizing an immense temperance restaurant to accommodate
the crowds of people who gathered in from the country to visit the
menagerie, thus preventing them from visiting the saloons and grog-
geries, where they would be exposed to temptation. The mammoth
tent, capable of holding five thousand people, used by the Michigan
Conference for camp meeting purposes, was tendered for the occasion.
Beneath this immense canvas temple were erected fifteen or twenty
tables for the accommodation of guests.