Rumania and Austria-Hungary by Louis Richard Conradi

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 4, 1906

Rumania and Austria-Hungary

By Louis Richard Conradi

L. R. CONRADI

May 22 I took the fast mail steamer from Constantinople, and after a pleasant passage through the Bosporus and the Black Sea, reached Constantza, Rumania, in a little less than twelve hours. En route I had an interesting conversation with a Swedish gentleman and his wife, and I was not a little surprised the other day to meet the gentleman as a customs officer at Malmoe when entering Sweden; he recognized me, although for the moment I did not remember him, for he was now wearing his Swedish uniform.

A number of the German brethren in Constantza awaited my arrival, and next day we had some good meetings here. Quite a number of our brethren have left Rumania for South America and Germany, since my last visit, so that the Constantza membership has been reduced from seventy to about twenty. But I feel sure that if we put forth the proper efforts here, our membership could be increased.

With two of the brethren we went to Bucharest, the twenty-fourth, where we met Elder Enseleit and Brother Hinter. When I visited Bucharest last, we had a church of about twenty-five, and our meeting was prohibited by the police, for we were called before the mayor of the city, and the lecture was forbidden. I was surprised this time to find that Brother Hinter had secured a nice hall for the church, and that at every meeting he was having from sixty to one hundred present. Our church-membership here has increased to sixty-five. Brother Hinter, who has been laboring here, has surely done good work among the Rumanian- and German-speaking people. He had just recently baptized sixteen, and next day after I left, he intended to have baptism again. The city of Bucharest was all decorated, celebrating the king's forty-years' jubilee, as it had been that long since he had entered the country as a Hohenzollern prince, to take the throne at the request of the people. Then this land was a Turkish principality, while it has since developed into a strong, independent government. I was pleased to see so many good, strong men in the Bucharest church. We more fully organized this church, supplying the necessary elder and deacon and church committee. We have every reason to hope that the work in this city will continue to grow.

Elder Enseleit, who entered Bulgaria last fall, has put in hard work studying the Bulgarian language, and has made good progress. He has recently baptized three there. Thus the cause is slowly but steadily making progress in the Balkan States.

Sunday night we had a meeting in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, where I was glad to meet Elder Huenergardt. They had secured comfortable quarters, and while the work in Budapest goes slowly, we are pleased to report that throughout the country it never went better. They had just organized the second Servian church, a substantial one of twenty-three members. This last quarter has been the best they ever had, for they report no less than seventy-one additions, bringing their membership up to about three hundred, most of whom were formerly Roman Catholics, representing the Hungarian, Rumanian, Servian, Slavonic, and German nationalities. We are thankful that God has given us so much success among these various tongues. Our Hungarian paper is steadily increasing in usefulness, and has a growing list.

Our next visit was to Vienna, where we have a few faithful believers. I had quite a conversation with one of the rabbis in this city.

On the twenty-ninth I reached Nymburg, a small town, near Prague, where we have lately been working. I met here one of our brethren, a photographer, with whom I spent most of the day making arrangements about the beginning of our proposed Bohemian paper, Herald of Truth. He is to assume the legal responsibility for its editorial management, as he is a citizen of the country.

We then went into Prague, where we held an evening meeting, and I was pleased to see that the work is growing here. In spite of many difficulties, and the lack of liberty in Austria, we are glad that our membership has reached about seventy, most of whom were formerly Catholics. We hope that the publication of our Bohemian paper, which appears first in the early part of August, will assist us in spreading the truth far and wide. The difficulty we have thus far had is not only that in most parts of the empire we could secure no permission to hold meetings openly, but we have also been unable to circulate our books and publications through the canvassers. Thus everything has had to advance rather slowly and tediously; but yet the Lord is opening hearts, and we are glad that at last we have secured some legal rights to do colporteur work. Brother Markowski, the future Bohemian editor, has reached Hamburg, and will spend a number of weeks in getting acquainted with the work there, and will arrange for getting out the first paper. We also expect him at Friedensau during our camp-meeting.

As there are thousands of Bohemians and Slavonians in the States, who can read Bohemian, we would be very much pleased if our people would help us to circulate the Bohemian literature among them. We shall gladly send from our Hamburg office sample copies of either the Russian, the Hungarian, or the Bohemian papers. Any correspondence to the International Tract Society, Grindelberg 15a, Hamburg, will be gladly attended

to. The Hungarian and Bohemian papers are printed quarterly, but they are sent out as monthlies; we print three numbers at a time, and mail them at once, to save postage; they are so arranged that a copy each month can be distributed, where this is found best. They generally contain thirty-two pages each quarter.

After spending a short time in Leipzig, and then visiting Friedensau, where we had a full school, and twenty-five patients in the sanitarium, I reached Hamburg, June 1, where I met Brother Peter Nyambo, our colored brother from Nyassaland, who spends a little time with us in Hamburg, and then goes on to Friedensau, after having visited some of our German churches. He expects to return with the brother whom we shall choose for German East Africa, and then will go on to British East Africa, if nothing prevents, to help open the mission for the British Union Conference.

Thus is the truth going from land to land. The field is everywhere ripe for the harvest, but the great cry is, “Where are the reapers?”

Hamburg.