p. 10 | The Ever-Conquering Message

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 23, 1910

The Ever-Conquering Message

By William Ambrose Spicer

I WRITE from Christiania, where the Scandinavian union and Norwegian conferences are just closing. Others will report the Scandinavian meetings in the Field department. I shall not attempt here to go into the figures and statistics which show that the message is onward in these northern lands.

But it is a cheering message that we can send from Christiania. Ten years ago, “the situation in Christiania” was a phrase that brought anxiety and depression. To-day the suggestion is only of good courage and a strongly developing work. The brethren in America, in those years, and the brethren everywhere, came forward in the time of disaster, and by their gifts saved the good name of this people in Scandinavia. The brethren in charge of the work in Europe and Scandinavia have worked like heroes at the post of duty. And now the old headquarters at Akersgaden 74 is the center of a vigorous work, which is reaching out to all the Scandinavian-speaking world.

Thus there is never any permanent backward movement in this work. It is always onward, out of difficulty and seeming disaster, into greater strength than ever. The Lord is ever giving us even “the valley of Achor,” or of Trouble, “for a door of hope.” Hosea 2:15. Look over the whole sixty-five years of our history, and we shall see this at every stage of the journey.

If those who helped the Christiania institution in the day of its trouble could have seen it during the meetings of the last week, their hearts would have been cheered as mine has been. Akersgaden 74 is splendidly situated in the heart of the city. From just across the street one may look down St. Olaf’s Street to the royal palace, only eight minutes’ walk distant.

In the high basement of the conference building is the printing-office, with the presses running off the pages of printed truth. And the publishing work is showing good financial gains.

On the first floor are well-equipped treatment-rooms, with a vegetarian restaurant; and this department is bringing good returns financially, and proving a strength to the cause. On the second floor are the office of the conference and tract society, and the large meeting hall where our conference was held.

It was the first time I had ever met with the Scandinavian brethren in conference. Day by day I witnessed the rich blessing of the Lord among them. Delegates were present from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and from various parts of Norway, though a large proportion of the congregation was from Christiania. On the Sabbath over four hundred persons filled the hall, and the Lord filled their hearts with the joy and blessing of his good Spirit. The truth is dear to the hearts of these believers, and they are a united band, dedicating their lives and their means to the work.

Only a few years ago the Mission Board was making appropriations to Scandinavia. Now this union is not only carrying its own work, and with a fresh vigor that is bringing increase of membership in every part, but is pouring a liberal and increasing stream of money into the mission fields beyond. Daily it did me good to meet with these believers. They are heart and soul with us for the finishing of the work. Sabbath afternoon, after a talk on Abyssinia, by Elder L. R. Conradi, one hundred dollars was dropped into the collection bags for Abyssinia. And at the closing meeting, Sunday evening, the brethren and sisters united in commending to God a young brother, Emory Lorenz, who is to go to the new mission on the Abyssinian border. His father, Brother John Lorenz — whom workers in the old Review and Herald bindery will remember — said that some had thought he ought to hold his son to help in his large book-bindery, in the city; but that both father and mother had dedicated their son to the cause of missions, and they thanked God they could give him to Abyssinia with glad hearts.

There is a strong, hearty band of young people in Norway, and the brethren are seeking to give them a training for the work. These must carry the message into every far corner of the land. I was glad to meet among them Brethren Gulbrundsen, Olsen, and Wasley, students from Union College, Neb., who have come to Norway for study and service.

There was a delegate present from Tromso, far within the arctic circle; and I was told of believers in Hammerfest, the northernmost city of the world. The message has also rounded the North Cape, and raised up witnesses in Vadso, on the shores of the White Sea. Beyond lie only the silent polar wastes of water and ice. The message is reaching to the world's extremes.

East of Tromso, they told me, is the region where we have some Laplander believers, and we hope to see the message spreading among these people, who are found through northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The Norway Conference appointed Brother O. J. Olsen to go up into the Northland Mission to lead the work. Elder N. C. Bergersen, recently of Iowa, is president of the Norway Conference, and is thoroughly enjoying his work. This local conference has had a good year. One hundred forty-six souls were baptized during 1909, and book sales rose from $7,029 in 1908, to $12,162 in 1909. The tithes and offerings are increasing.

But this is designed not as a report of the conference, but as a word to our brethren declaring the encouraging outlook in this northernmost union. Elder Conradi and Dr. A. B. Olsen, of England, and myself were the general laborers present from outside the union, and we thoroughly enjoyed the meeting.

Needless to say, Christiania is a beautifully situated city. Still more beautiful, I was told, is the country farther round the coast, and in the mountains to the northward. No one can blame the sons of the old Norsemen for singing:— > “Ay, we love this land of ours, > Crowned with mountain domes; > Storm-scarred o’er the sea it stands, > With a thousand homes.”

But with all its rugged beauty, sin and suffering and darkness are here; and our brethren have resolutely set themselves to carry this message of hope and comfort and power into every one of its thousands of homes. W. A. S.

Christiania.