No Night | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 15, 1874

“No Night.”

DAY without a night would seem very strange to us. Yet it is well known that in extreme northern countries, during a portion of the year, the sun never sets. A writer in the Bible Class Magazine, tells its readers how strange this seemed to him, as he saw it in northern Sweden.

“We arrived at Orebro on the 23d of June, two days after the longest day, and on midsummer eve. The greatest peculiarity, and the one that was most difficult to understand, was the ‘no night.’ I was constantly reminded of the description given by John, in Patmos, of Heaven—‘And there shall be no night there.’ And this ‘no night’ became even more apparent the farther we traveled north. Hour after hour passed by, and no shades of evening came over us, day after day. ”

“It is true the sun just dipped below the horizon at ten, eleven, or twelve o’clock at night, according to where we were, but only to rise again in two or three hours’ time. At midnight it was broad daylight, only mellowed down through the sun having disappeared for a short season. I would look at my watch to see if I had not mistaken the hour; but no, it was quite right, and it was difficult to know when it was time to retire. Indeed, it seemed absurd to go to bed in the broad daylight, but this I did night after night.

“It is impossible to describe the peculiar sensation that is caused by this constant daylight. It is the one source of astonishment every night. It banishes sleep; and at eleven o’clock at night, at midnight, at one o’clock in the morning, one wanders out into the garden or into the street, looking in vain even for twilight, as a slight indication that it is time for rest.

“This constant daylight in a country like Sweden, where the season is so short, is very useful; because the sun setting for so short a time never allows the air to grow cold, and the constant heat of the atmosphere, together with the constant daylight, enables vegetation to grow through the whole twenty-four hours; and thus the crops will spring up and ripen in a few weeks. Merchants in their offices, steamers on the rivers, laborers in the fields, even children I saw at work up to twelve o’clock at night. This certainly must require a constitution peculiarly adapted for such a state of things.

“Dr. Macmillan thus writes of it: ‘The long daylight is very favorable to the growth of vegetation, plants growing in the night as well as in the day in the short but ardent summer. But it is peculiarly trying to persons not accustomed to it. It prevents proper repose, and banishes sleep. I never felt before how needful darkness is for the welfare of our bodies and minds. I longed for night; but the farther north we went, the farther we were fleeing from it, until at last, when we reached the most northern point of our tour, the sun set for one hour and a half. Consequently the heat of the day never cooled down, and accumulated until, at last, it became almost unbearable. Truly, for a most wise and beneficent purpose did God make light and create darkness.’”