A TOUR IN EUROPE by George C. Tenney

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 25, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 46.

A TOUR IN EUROPE.

By George C. Tenney

IN my last letter we were at Copenhagen, in attendance upon the last week of the general meeting and council. This meeting is considered by those acquainted with the facts to have been the best for spiritual interest, and the most important in its relation to the cause, of any ever held in Denmark, or perhaps in Scandinavia, by our people.

From this point our way led to Hamburg, thence to Switzerland, to attend the annual camp meeting and session of the Central European Conference. As it did not take us particularly out of our way, and having two days to spare, we chose a route which took us to several interesting points. A ride of four hours on a fast train brought us to Berlin. The way is across a level country, the soil of which is generally not very fertile and some of it is very sandy. Nevertheless, the most of it is made to produce something,—potatoes, buckwheat, or, in many cases, pine forests. Tree planting on the Continent is almost universally and systematically carried on. When a tree is cut from a grove or forest, another is planted in its stead. And here and there dense groves are being reared, and the crop is considered sure to render a good return in time to those who can wait.

Berlin is a city of 2,000,000(?) people, and is situated in the midst of a wide level plain that extends from east to west through Germany and Russia to the mountains of Siberia.

Its streets are wide, regular, and clean, the principal one being the celebrated Unter den Linden, Under the Lindens, along which we were driven twice. Commencing near the Reichstag, or Parliament house, it extends through the most fashionable part of the city, lined with brilliant shops on either side, and past the houses of princes and emperors, past and present. On this street are situated the great art gallery, one of the most famous in the world, and the new Rathhaus, or City Hall. To the top of the tower of the latter building we climbed and there obtained a view of the beautiful Prussian and German capitol, which the lack of time forbade our taking in detail.

Traveling southwest from Berlin about two hours brought us to Wittemberg, for many years the home of Luther, and the scene of some of the most stirring events of his life. Naturally our steps were first attracted to the old monastery, into one of whose dark cells the light of the Reformation first broke, and the school building connected therewith. But little remains of the interior arrangement of the monastery, for the same movement that reformed the religion of its occupants resulted in the transformation of the building. It was presented to Luther for a study and a home. Some of the rooms remain in their original form. Of these the chapel is perhaps the most interesting; and the interest of this place centers especially in the quaint pulpit and rostrum, from which the great reformer taught the burning truths of the message given him of God. But no place in the building possesses near the interest that the room which was Luther's own room possesses. The window of this room is the same as three hundred years ago. The panes are mostly circular, three inches in diameter, in metal sashes. Before the window is a rude double seat, where Luther and his Katharine sat facing each other, and in a convenient position each had a sliding pane of glass about ten inches square for observation, through which they looked out upon the garden that filled the courts. Near the window is the old table on which he wrote, marred by the whittling of relic seekers. In a corner of the room is the old stove, and upon its walls are portraits and pictures of interest. We sat in the seat, looked out of the window, and wrote upon the table, with a peculiar sensation of pleasure, which almost seemed to connect for a moment our lives with those thrilling times. In 1520, on Luther's 57th birthday, Katharine had a new entrance made to their residence and study. It still remains, with its inscriptions and rude sculpture, an interesting relic of their lives and a testimony of their mutual love.

The next point claiming attention is Luther's church, distant ten or fifteen minutes' walk. It was on the doors of this church that the theses were nailed. The original doors were burned and their places are now filled with metal doors bearing the theses in casting. Within the church the hero and Melancthon lie buried. The structure has been partially renewed and is now in good repair. The old City Church, dating from more than six hundred years ago, and in which the first evangelical services were held, still remains in good repair and is still in use. It contains a baptismal font erected in 1457. The town itself is partly antique, with curious old houses, while another portion is modern, well built, and attractive. About one-fourth of a mile from the monastery in the corner of a wealthy citizen's garden is a wide-spreading oak, beneath which it is said Luther burned the pope's bull. G. C. TENNEY.