p. 12 | GERMANY by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 27, 1900

GERMANY

By John Norton Loughborough

LEAVING Elberfeld, January 2, in company with Brother Conradi, I arrived in Hanover about 1 P. M. We spent two hours at Stuckrath with Brother Schuberth and other workers. Then we came to Brunswick; and in the evening I spoke, Brother Conradi interpreting, to about fifty of our people, in a hall near the old castle of the Duke of Brunswick.

January 3, we came to Magdeburg, expecting to stop only a few hours, but as Brother Conradi was detained on business connected with the school farm, I went twenty-five miles, with two of the students, to Friedenau, where the German school farm is.

January 4 we arrived in Berlin, about ninety miles east of Magdeburg. Here we met Brother Schubert, of Hamburg, and Brother George Wagner, of Berlin, who is in charge of the work in that city of two million inhabitants. There are two hundred and forty Seventh-day Adventists in Hamburg. Being in different parts of the city, they constitute the membership of four organized churches, and one unorganized company. When I was there in November, 1896, there were only one hundred Sabbath-keepers, with one organized church, and one company unorganized. The tithe paid by our Berlin Sabbath-keepers during 1899 amounted to two thousand dollars.

A hall centrally situated was secured for this general gathering of our people, and nearly every one of them had the benefit of this three-days' meeting. We were told by the proprietor of the hall that ten years ago it was the largest hall in the city. It is now exceeded in size by only three others in that great city. Though the rent of the hall was considerable, it was needful to secure it as a central place for the meeting. The collections, made with true German liberality, met all the expenses during the meeting. The meeting seemed to be one of much encouragement to our people, and will aid in giving permanence to the work in Berlin.

As our readers are aware, Berlin is the capital of united Germany, and the residence of Emperor William. His “guard,” consisting of fifty thousand soldiers, is situated at Berlin, and Charlottenburg and Bellevue, in the suburbs. Here are hundreds of acres of land occupied by soldiers' barracks, parade grounds, and vast fields for the exercise of cavalry. All through the day the ear is greeted with military music, and the eye can behold the hundreds of soldiers going through the military drill. The barracks are no mean structures, but are good buildings of three or four stories. If the cleanliness and taste seen on the outside are as apparent inside,—and I am told that that is the case,—the position of these soldiers, “waiting for war,” must be much more agreeable than life in the camp or on the battle field. These sights forcibly impress one that we are indeed in the time of which the Lord said, “Let all the men of war draw near.”

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.