FURTHER SKODSBORG EXPERIENCES.
By J. C. Ottosen
We have had many especially encouraging experiences since we started this branch of the work, a few of which I will mention in this connection. First, let me speak of the influence that our work has had in a religious line. Before we started the medical missionary work, the public opinion in this country was that we were some intractable fanatics and sectarians. Many of the denominations condemned us severely. The division within the State Church known as the Mission Friends, which condemned us the most severely, cannot be said to favor us in any special sense even at the present time; but still many of their members have been at our institutions, and as they have been relieved of their diseases, they have recommended us to their friends; and in this way the number of those who come has been increasing. And they have even gone so far as to publish notices in their papers, asking for funds to help poor individuals that ought to take a course of treatment at our institution. This they would not have done formerly. Also the Methodists are much more friendly to us. Several of their ministers have visited our institutions, and some of them adopted the vegetarian diet after I explained the matter to them. We have also had some of their members with us as patients, and with excellent results. Also from other directions we have gained great favor, especially from people within the State Church. A lady author and lecturer of considerable reputation in this country, asked me, upon her first visit, “Are you an Adventist?” and when I answered in the affirmative, she said, “I am glad of that.” After she had been at the sanatorium a few weeks, she wrote about the institution as follows:— “When one believes that sickness, sorrow, and pain are the results of sin, a turning away from the original sacred laws of nature, then it will make him glad to hear of a sanatorium whose watchword is, ‘Back to nature!’ But it will make him still more glad when he finds, by personal experience, that this sanatorium is, truly, a little health-spot, where are pouring the fresh waters of nature’s fountain, and when he from day to day feels that those who are working at the institution have made it the object of their lives to help suffering man back to health and joy. “During my eight weeks’ stay at the Skodsborg Sanatorium, I have fully realized how beneficial it is to live in beautiful natural surroundings, and on a vegetarian diet. But that which had the best effect upon my nervous system, sensitive as it was, was that I always felt that those who nursed me with such care, both those in charge of the institution as well as all the helpers, did not perform their work from a cold sense of duty, but from the most tender love to suffering fellow beings, and from zeal in the exalted aim of the institution. “By these lines I desire, therefore, to express my gratitude to all the workers for the friendly words, the tender looks, and the loving hands that always were willing to comfort and soothe when discouragement came, and the diseased nerves refused to work. I earnestly wish that the sanatorium may succeed in accomplishing its great object. “Those believers in the natural method of curing who have, with so great sacrifices, started the sanatorium, also deserve great appreciation. And I do hope, for the good of the cause, that among those to whom God has intrusted means in this world there always may be found such as are willing to assist the philanthropic Society with money, so that the Skodsborg Sanatorium may continue and extend its work: “We can think of no act of love more noble than this; for to lead men back to nature is to lead them back to God.” One of the greatest business men in Copenhagen, a well-known wholesale dealer, came into my office one day and said to me, “How glad I am to be here, I feel as if I were at home. And I am so glad that you believe in God. Other physicians I may like as men, but I have no confidence in them, because they are unbelievers.” And he said to his wife, without545knowing that he was heard by anybody else, “You cannot imagine how glad I am to have found a place like this. It is so pleasant to be among these folks.” I had several seasons of prayer with him, and we were both greatly blessed. He told me how God had prospered him in his business, and he promised to send us many patients. He has already done so. Two prominent authors from Finland, husband and wife, both of them well known for their great labors for the temperance cause and for their philanthropic work, have been with us. Among other things, the lady has established a large rescue home in the capital of Finland, the money for which she has obtained from the government. They were both astonished at the spirit that pervaded this institution. He had visited many health institutions, but had never seen one where everything passed off so smoothly and so pleasantly; and he could not understand how it could be that all worked together in such beautiful harmony (expressions of similar kind we have heard from many other sources). But one evening they both attended a meeting conducted by Elder O. A. Olsen, in which he spoke of our principles and of the motives that should lead us to engage in this work. After this meeting they said, “Now we understand it all, but all do not understand it, and they ought to know about this.” And he expressed the desire to have a copy of a Testimony that Brother Olsen had been reading. He wanted to publish it. This was in the religious line. But the institution has also gained great favor from the public. Many parish and city boards have had poor patients at our institution at public expense. When we remember that all these have hospitals of their own, and that they pass these by and bring their patients to us, it is a strong evidence of their confidence in our work. And, thirdly, it is an encouraging fact that many physicians have great confidence in us. Some of the most prominent physicians in this country, the chief physicians in the large hospitals in Copenhagen, for instance, have sent patients to us, and they have repeatedly declared that the results have been astonishing. Some of them have personally promised to send patients to our institution. It is also a fact worthy of notice that while a certain sanatorium that has just as good a location as ours, and that is under the direction of one of the best nerve specialists in this country, has to work with almost an empty house, our house is well filled all the time, although he is doing far more advertising than we. Many of the patients are greatly interested, and are glad to come to our Bible readings. Some have accepted the truth, and others are well on the way. This is indeed encouraging. That they have this interest is also seen by the fact that when we, a short time ago, took up a collection among the employees to help the sanatorium work along, one patient brought fifty kroner, another one hundred, and still another three hundred, as donations.