HOLLAND AND RHENISH PRUSSIA by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1900

HOLLAND AND RHENISH PRUSSIA.

By John Norton Loughborough

The Hague, Elberfeld.— On the evening of December 27 I left London for a month's trip with Brother Conrad on the continent of Europe. A ride of an hour and a half on the train brought me to Harwick. The boat was appointed to leave in one hour, to cross the German Sea to the Hook of Holland; but a heavy fog came down suddenly upon us, so the careful captain waited four hours. Then the fog partially dispersed, and eight hours of slow sailing brought us to the Hook. A half-hour's ride on the train, and I was in The Hague, the capital city of Holland. This is the city where the czar's Peace Congress of last year was held—“saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”

The trip from the Hook to The Hague took us beside the river Maas, and near to Leyden, whence the “Pilgrim Fathers” embarked for America. We passed through Schiedam, famous for the manufacture of “Schiedam schnapps,” an intoxicating liquor, the use of which will result in the damnation of many thousand souls. There are more than one dozen large factories for making the “schnapps” in Schiedam.

There is one point of special interest to the Advent movement connected with The Hague. That city was the place of residence of Hentzpeter, who there received the light that the twenty-three hundred days of Dan. 8:14 would terminate with our year 1844. It was here that his books were printed, in connection with which he sounded forth to the Hollanders the first angel's message of Rev. 14:6, 7.

At The Hague I met Brethren Conrad and Klingbeil, and the colporteurs and other Holland laborers, and about one half of the Seventh-day Adventists in the kingdom. This gathering was the general meeting for our people in that part of the field. Brother Conrad called the meeting “A true Peace Congress” at The Hague.

The work of the Third Angel's Message was started in Holland about five years ago. There are now five organized churches, and three new, unorganized companies, comprising, in all, one hundred and forty members. Twelve of these were baptized during the last quarter. Their tithe for the same quarter was three hundred and thirty dollars. Contributions for the German school were made during the meeting, amounting to sixty dollars. Their seven canvassers sold and delivered books, during 1899, to the value of two thousand dollars.

Our three-days' meeting was full of interest. Brother Conrad and I spoke five times each, our talks being interpreted by Brother Klingbeil. Dr. Hoenes was to spend one day there after we left. The meeting was indeed a season of encouragement for the workers in that field.

From Holland we came to Elberfeld, Rhenish Prussia, holding a three-days' meeting there over New Years. It was at Elberfeld that the Third Angel's Message was first presented in Germany, in 1875, by Brethren J. N. Andrews and Erzenberger. They heard, in Basel, Switzerland, of a company of forty persons who, under Brother Linderman, had begun to keep the seventh-day Sabbath from the study of the Bible alone, and who supposed they were perhaps the only Christian Sabbath-keepers in the world. This company accepted the truths of the Advent doctrine when it was presented to them. Brother Linderman and many of that first company are now dead; but several are still living, some of whom were in our general meeting.

This Prussian district of our work has five organized churches, and one unorganized company, numbering, in all, one hundred and sixty believers. About twelve of these have joined us during the last quarter, four of them being baptized during the general meeting. The tithe of the district for the quarter was three hundred and fifty dollars. The ministers laboring in that section are Brethren Mathe and Baumann.

Our meeting was attended by one hundred and twenty-five of the members in that part of the field. They rejoiced to hear of the Lord's leadings in the message from the beginning, and were greatly interested in Brother Conradi's talk on the book of Revelation, and in learning of the situation, prospects, and needs of the cause in the German field. Those present contributed about sixty-five dollars to aid the work on the school farm. This was regarded a good contribution, coming, as it did, in a short time after their liberal contributions in the annual offerings. The work is on the onward move in the German field.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.