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FINLAND

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 50.

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FINLAND.

BISHOP VINCENT, who attended the Methodist Episcopal Conference in Finland last year, gave a report to the New York Christian Advocate, from which we take the following:—
"The population of Finland is about 2,500,000. Of these 2,200,000 are Finns and Lutherans. There are, perhaps, 50,000 Russians. There are more than 250,000 Swedes, who are also Lutheran. In Finland there are dissenting Christians. Among them are the Baptist, who have been here ten years longer than the Methodists, and the Salvation Army. There are also the 'Free Church' people, who do not leave the State church, but who enter into the warmer life and adopt the more active methods of the traditional Methodists, hold meetings of their own, build chapels or mission houses, where laymen may officiate and set a good example to the State church folk and their 'priests.'"
"Helsingfors is the chief city of Finland, and is situated on the Gulf of Finland, two hundred and seventy-four miles from St. Petersburg. The town is well laid out, with long and wide streets running at right angles. The houses are large and well built, and the principal square contains several fine buildings, as the senate house, the university, and a magnificent church."
"The Methodist Episcopal Church is a feeble factor in Finland church life. But it came here in a legitimate way. Norwegian and Swedish emigrants and sailors long ago learned a blessed lesson in Christian faith and experience in the Bethel ship in New York. They came back to Norway and Sweden and told the story and illustrated the life. It became a contagion in Sweden. What is once in Sweden gets over to the Swedes in Finland, and so Methodism came here. The Free Church acknowledges it. The ministers of the State church—many of them—acknowledge it. It is just beginning to organize itself for systematic work."
"I have not seen such an intelligent looking congregation at any conference session in Europe as I found at the opening session of the Finland Mission annual meeting in Helsingfors."