Ellen G. White: The Lonely Years: 1876-1891 (vol. 3)

A Banner Camp Meeting Year

As D. M. Canright reported in the Signs of the accomplishments of the Illinois camp meeting, the last of the season in the East, he gave particular attention to the work of Mary Clough as a press secretary. He noted the results of her labors in introducing the denomination to the general public through her reports of the work of the church furnished to the public press. He observed: 3BIO 47.1

Our indispensable reporter, Miss Mary Clough, was also on hand with her genial good nature and ready pen, keeping a half-dozen copyists busy sending the reports each one copied by hand of our meetings to papers in all parts of the State. If anyone in the Northern States doesn't know who Seventh-day Adventists are by this time, it is not because the papers haven't done their duty in the case! So closes another camp meeting season, by far the best we have ever had.—The Signs of the Times, October 19, 1876. 3BIO 47.2

The issue of the Review and Herald of the same date carried James White's appraisal of this new method of outreach. 3BIO 47.3

Our camp meeting reporter, Miss Mary L. Clough—Mrs. White's niece, much respected and beloved by our people, not only for her ability as a writer, but for all those qualities and accomplishments which make her a refined lady—has done a work with her pen which but few of our people comprehend.—The Review and Herald, October 19, 1876. 3BIO 47.4

When the camp meetings were over and the Whites and Mary Clough returned on Wednesday, October 4, to Battle Creek, they were utterly worn and exhausted. They had succeeded, but for it they paid a price—the price mortal man pays for overwork, a price paid gladly to see the cause of God prosper. 3BIO 47.5