A Visit to Hamburg and England by George B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 27, 1911

A Visit to Hamburg and England

By George B. Thompson

AFTER the meeting in Denmark I spent Sabbath and Sunday, June 10 and 11, in the large and beautiful city of Hamburg, speaking to both churches on the Sabbath and to a large congregation of young people on Sunday. I was glad of the opportunity to visit this important center of our work, where the message is printed and sent out in so many languages. It was encouraging to see so many together on the Sabbath, most of whom are engaged in the work in some way.

From here I returned to England to spend the remaining time in the British Union Conference till the council. I met Elder W. J. Fitzgerald, the union conference president, in the ancient Roman city of Bath, and spoke to the church there in the evening. From this place we went to Cardiff, where, in company with Elder H. E. Armstrong, the president of the Welsh Conference, I met with the churches at Cardiff, Newport, Abergavenny, and Porth. I also spoke twice in a portable tabernacle in Yaysybrook. Here Elder C. E. Penrose is beginning a series of meetings in a new field, and hopes to establish a church. A good spirit pervades the work in this conference, and believers are being raised up.

The Sabbath following my visit to Abergavenny about fourteen, I understand, were baptized. Like other places in Great Britain, Wales has a large population, and needs more workers to respond to the many openings for labor which are found everywhere. I greatly enjoyed meeting with the workers and believers in this conference.

From here, after spending a few days during the coronation in the great city of London, where there are more than seven million souls to be reached with the message, and also visiting for a short time at Watford, I went to the North England Conference. With Elder S. G. Haughey, the conference president, I met with the churches in the cities of Birmingham, Worcester, Manchester, and Leeds. There are about seven hundred Sabbath-keepers in this conference, and aggressive work is being carried forward in as many of the large cities as possible with the laborers and resources at hand. Consecrated labor put forth in this field gathers out souls. The church at Worcester, of more than forty members, has been raised up during the past year.

My visit to this union conference served to impress me more deeply than ever before with the opportunities and needs of this great empire so far as our own message and work is concerned. Here is a great nation of more than forty million people speaking the English tongue. No strange language is to be acquired to labor here. No nation has done so much, in the opinion of the writer, to extend the gospel in all parts of the world as has Great Britain, and the Word of God is perhaps more highly regarded by this people than by any other nation. Her flag stands for freedom; here you can preach and worship God as your conscience may dictate.

A great population is here crowded together in a comparatively small territory. Aside from London, we find cities like Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow, each with its suburbs containing more than a million inhabitants. Birmingham, Leeds, and Sheffield each has half a million or more population. There are many other large cities. Lancashire alone has a population of between four and five millions, or as many as one of our most populous States. The North England Conference has a population of at least eighteen million, a number equal to the population of the largest union conference in the United States. To carry the message to these millions, there are about seven hundred Sabbath-keepers.

The question which came to me over and over was, Are we doing all we should for the work here? The Sabbath-keepers of this union are as faithful as any in the world. They are a sacrificing people. The circulation of Present Truth and the health journal is marvelous, when we consider the number of Sabbath-keepers. But should they be left to work this tremendous population alone?

I do not think they should. I am unable to believe that the instruction which has come to us from the Spirit of God to work the great cities of the United States applies to these cities alone. The principle applies equally to Great Britain. In the United States we have some sixty thousand Sabbath-keepers for ninety million population. In the British Union Conference we have about half this population, and only about two thousand Sabbath-keepers, and these do not have the proportionate wealth that is found in the United States. I feel sure that conferences with a large tithe and a comparatively small population should share their workers and funds with this field as well as other fields.

I was glad of the privilege of witnessing one of the processions at the coronation of the king. It was perhaps one of the greatest national displays seen since the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel. The nation did her best; it was indeed an imposing spectacle, worthy of a great empire. But as I viewed the scene, I thought of all the kings and queens and great men of the past. Where are they?—They, with their unnumbered millions of subjects, are slumbering in the dust. Their pomp and pageantry have passed away forever. It was a sobering thought that all the millions there gathered in the metropolis of the world,—the largest number of human beings perhaps ever gathered in one city since time began,—would, if time continued, pass off the earth forever in a few brief years. I felt glad that the great coronation scenes, and the resplendent glory which will attend the crowning of the King of kings, are drawing near, when the kingdom which can not be moved will be given to the saints of the Most High for an everlasting possession, and death and mourning will pass away forever. May this glad day hasten on!

G. B. THOMPSON.