Chapter XIII: Women And Scandinavia

For a number of years it was The General's custom to conduct the annual review of our Swedish troops at Sodertelge, a beautiful seaside spot, near enough to Stockholm to make it easily accessible, and yet far enough down the Fjord to make the journey thither a very delightful excursion.

The sight of from fifteen to twenty steamers crowded with Salvationists making their way, with streaming banners, music and song, to the camp ground, was almost like a glimpse of the coming glory when the whole earth should rejoice before the Lord. But, of course, there came always to that great gathering a sufficient number of the unconverted to furnish abundant opportunity for conquests to be made, and the great Meetings, lasting throughout the day, never broke up without the ingathering of many souls.

The Councils for Officers which followed during the next few days in Stockholm and elsewhere, gave The General great opportunities to confirm and extend the influence of his teachings throughout the whole of these Northern countries.

Some of The General's earlier visits to Sweden were, however, still more interesting, and perhaps even more permanently effective, because, as we shall see, they helped the newly-rising force, enlisted under their first leader--a devoted woman--to gain some liberty for demonstrations and other work outside their own buildings such as they had not had before, and strengthened them in their resolution to fight, whilst almost all their fellow-countrymen still looked down upon them with disdain if not with hatred. It is difficult to realise now what a dreadful thing The Army in those days must have appeared. Huge crowds gathered from the very first to the Meetings, convened in theatres and other public buildings by Major, now Commissioner Ouchterlony, a Swedish lady who had been appointed by The General to inaugurate the Work in her own land; but the bulk of the population seemed to regard her as though she was a suffragette, advocating window-breaking or something worse. This will explain some of the facts The General records in his diary of his visit seven years later. The journey began with a great Meeting at Hull, after which the traveller went on board his steamer for a miserable two days' voyage to Gothenburg. After Meetings there he proceeded to Sundsvall, a city from which point his Journal reads:--

"At the conclusion of the evening Meeting the dear Soldiers flocked
to the station, crowding the platform and expressing, as far as
opportunity served them, their love for me, and their desire that
God should bless me. I spoke to them for a few minutes; then came
the signal and the start, and then as we slowly moved off
handkerchiefs were waved, volleys of 'Amens' were fired, the Band
played, and away we were borne out into the darkness. All this was
like a dream to my comrades, as neither the railway officials nor
the police had hitherto allowed a word to be spoken or a note of
music to be played outside our Halls.

"All that night and all the following day we travelled to
Stockholm, which we reached at 6 p.m. Crowds awaited our arrival.
The Soldiers had come down in force, wearing sashes on which the
words, 'God bless The General,' 'Welcome,' and other devices had
been worked. The police had come too. There were 200 of them--some
mounted and some on foot. Our people had been formed into an avenue
down which I passed to an open space. Every face wore a smile, but
there was comparative silence. The Police Master had insisted that
there should be no volley firing or shouting. But hands and
handkerchiefs were waved, and every one appeared delighted. We were
soon in a carriage, galloping off to the Headquarters where we were
to stay."

If all that The General has done for the attainment of a larger liberty by the peoples of every land were recorded, one might easily make him appear as a great political reformer. But whilst consistently aiming at the one great purpose of all his journeys and Meetings, the Salvation of souls, he has, incidentally, done more to stir the humblest and least capable to great nation-rousing efforts than any mere political reformer can hope to do.

During this first visit of twelve days to Sweden, he travelled by rail over 3,000 kilometres (say 2,000 miles), held twenty-eight public Meetings, besides a number of private ones with press interviews, and wayside gatherings at railway stations. Five nights were spent in the trains, mostly in crowded compartments, for the days of comfortable "sleepers" on all lines had not yet come. He had, besides his interpreter, a young English companion, who paid his own expenses, and he could seldom be persuaded to take any refreshment whilst travelling that could not be got in the carriage. It must not be forgotten that in winning and retaining the enthusiastic affection of such multitudes of persons, The General has had to face the difficulty of only being able to speak through an interpreter, and that he has had to endure campaigns of opposition and slander, of which we can say very little, but which, founded so largely as they have been upon his being "a foreigner," have had so good a chance to build up walls of difficulty before him.

After this tremendous journey and reception, The General continues:--

"In the night Meeting I felt a little nervous. The Riding School
was nearly full, another 100 persons would have filled every seat,
although a charge had been made for admission, in order to help
with the heavy expenses.

"Many had stayed away for fear of the crush. The audience, which
was most respectable, included the Police Master. I was very tired,
and no particular topic had been announced. However, I spoke an
hour and a half, and all seemed intensely interested.

"Sunday.--The Riding School was full for the morning Holiness
Meeting. Much power. About 100 stood up to make a full surrender of
themselves to God.

"In the afternoon the Hall was again full. The police, of whom
there were twenty present, would only allow persons to stand in the
end aisles. Spoke an hour or more.

"Night. Full an hour before the time. Many convicted. About twelve
pressed forward.

"Monday.--Inspected new Hall and Training Home--building to cost
£5,000. Also visited present Training Home and attended to
correspondence.

"At night the Riding School was full long before we arrived. Spoke
two hours. Immense impression seemed to be produced.

"Tuesday.--Morning, addressed Officers and Cadets. One o'clock,
Meeting of Clergy and Evangelistic workers, at which 300 were
present. Spoke an hour, and answered questions for an hour. Was
enabled, I think, to answer all objections, putting every one to
silence.

"Dined with Lieutenant Lagercrantz of the King's army. He is a dear
fellow, and he has a dear wife. They are in deep sympathy with us.
She put on a bonnet and riband that night.

"I was determined to have a free Meeting for the poorest, a charge
for admission having been made for all the Meetings yet held in
Stockholm. So called one at 6 p.m. in our own Hall in the south of
the city. At six we were quite full. I spoke an hour or more, and
some twenty or more came out for a clean heart. Closed at 8.15 p.m.

"At 8.30 p.m. Soldiers' Meeting. Some 500 were present. Spoke for
nearly two hours. At the close cleared the front as a Mercy Seat,
and nearly all in the place--Officers, Cadets, and Soldiers--went
down in company after company. The wonderful Meeting closed about
midnight.

"Wednesday.--Rose at 6 a.m., not having had much sleep. Away in
Norrköping at 7.30 a.m. Arrived at 2.30 p.m. Meeting at 3.30 p.m.
in a great church, where 800 were present. Good time. Very tired.

"Night. I,500 present. Talked two hours. Afterwards, at 10.30 p.m.,
had a Meeting for Soldiers. Got home about 11.45 p.m.

"Thursday.--Meeting at 10 a.m. to say 'Farewell.' Spoke about an
hour, and left at one o'clock for Lynköping, arriving at 2.30 p.m.
Meeting in our beautiful Theatre at 2.30 p.m. Fine audience."

Mere lack of space forbids further quotation. But surely enough has been said to show with what marvellous exertion The General managed in one brief journey to do so much for all classes, and so much not merely in the way of Meetings but of organisation and administration in every way.

And the diary tells us nothing of his talks with Officers between Meetings, which have formed so important a part of all his travels. By means of such conversations, especially in the case of Officers who are not English, The General has gained a close knowledge of them and their difficulties as they have of his thoughts and wishes.

Between his arrival at Gothenburg and his Sundsvall Meetings came a rough journey to Norway, where we had as yet no Officers, yet where, nevertheless, a great Meeting had been arranged for by friends, who later helped in the establishment of our work in their country! The General passed on to Denmark, where our work was in its first year.

On the afternoon of his arrival he tells us he rested, wrote up correspondence and journal, and had some little thought about the coming Meetings.

"Night. Welcome Meeting in the Methodist Church. Packed. There must
have been nearly 1,300 people present. The admission was free, and
there were many Philistines, some socialists, and some lads bent on
mischief. To add to our difficulties, my interpreter did his work
so miserably that we had some confusion and restlessness. After an
hour's talk, I paused for the collection to be taken, and changed
interpreters. The second one did very much better. His voice,
however, was feeble and his manner very quiet, so that things were
not very much better for a time. Then we had a little quiet, and a
decent finish. It was a considerable disappointment, however, and
next door to a defeat. I retired to rest very sad, and with awkward
forebodings about the coming Meetings.

"The great funereal vault of a church, the interpreting, the
mocking young fellows void of any sense of honour or conscience to
appeal to, or any respect for a stranger, the intense anxiety of
the Officer in command to have good Meetings, and above all my
longings to meet the needs of the hungry crowd, only wanting to
hear, and many of them equally willing to obey: these and other
troubling thoughts haunted my mind and spoiled my night's sleep.
But I fell back on my old remedy, and, comforting myself in the
Lord, resolved to do what could be done and left myself in His
hands.

"Sunday.--11 a.m. Had a local minister to translate; he did well.
Some fifty or sixty stood up at the close as seekers for a clean
heart.

"Afternoon. The great church packed. Interpretation went fairly
well. Began at 3 p.m. and went on till 5.20 p.m.

"Night. Police sent up word soon after six that the street was
filling up, and the doors must be opened. When this was done the
young fellows who had made so much trouble on Saturday night--or at
least some hundreds of this class--forced their way in through all
else, leaving hundreds more outside. They talked and laughed, and
although now and then a policeman marched a row of them out,
their game went on, spoiling everything.

"The voice of the interpreter was weak, and the confusion flustered
him. So my dreams of a smash and of a hundred seekers were not
realised, and we terminated with some six or seven gathered out of
the crowd immediately near to the platform.

"It was a great disappointment. I felt beaten, and went home
confessing it. And yet what could be done? My tongue was all but
tied. I was helpless without an interpreter capable of conveying my
meaning to the people. Such a man was wanting. Commending the whole
matter and the anxious crowds of people so eager to hear to my
Master, I retired at midnight.

"Monday.--Breakfast, 8.30 a.m. 9 a.m., spoke with a gentleman from
Kiel, who is anxious to see The Army open there, and is building us
a Hall. Saw his plans and arranged terms.

"9.30 a.m., saw the Officer from Stuttgart. He has a heavy
struggle. 12 noon, drove round the city. In summer time it must be
a very pleasant place.

"3.30 p.m., Meeting. Fine audience, very nearly filling the church.
Commenced with a new interpreter, a student--execrable! I soon had
to fall back on one of the others.

"7 p.m., as full as the police would allow. Continued till 10 p.m.
And then had a Soldiers' Meeting till 11.30 p.m.

"Left Copenhagen the next morning at 8.30 a.m."

We who have since seen some of The General's greatest triumphs in that city, and have watched the steady growth of The Army in Denmark till it has won the sympathy of the Royal Family and of every other decent family in the country, must rejoice in this record of his first desperate battles there, and can guess how much of all the subsequent victory is due to what his people learned in those days.

But the record has a far wider interest, for it lets us see, as we have little opportunity ordinarily, the inward conflicts through which The General passed in so many places where, out of his weakness, or the weakness of his forces, he, or they, were "made strong."

Few achievements of The General's lifetime will, I fancy, impress future generations more than his establishment of The Army in Finland at the very time when all the former liberties of that country were gradually being taken away.

Formerly recognised by treaties as a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, with its own Parliament and laws, which were supposed to be permanently guaranteed, Finland found itself looked upon with a growing jealousy just when a new constitution was slowly changing the governmental arrangements of Russia. It is, as yet, too early for outsiders to understand how it came to pass that the country was regarded as a centre of disaffection, or why, ever and anon some new step was taken to nullify its Parliament, and to place it more and more under military control. What we are concerned with is the simple fact that these things interfered but little with the steady progress of The Army, and that this proved at every step the soundness of The General's principles, the completeness with which he succeeded in planting them in the hearts of his most distant followers, and the marvellous way in which God guided, protected, and blessed his work, just where he could do the least for its development.

The very beginning of the Work was due entirely to one of his most daring decisions, for it may well be doubted whether any attempt, under the leadership of a foreigner, would have been tolerated at that time. But when a young lady, who had become acquainted with The Army in Stockholm, devoted herself to its service, and after passing some time in Training in London, was sent back with two or three subordinates to begin work in Helsingfors, who could look upon her with suspicion?

The moment she succeeded, however, in inducing a few of her first Converts to put on our uniform or insignia, the police came down upon them, took away all their badges, and declared that the formation of a Corps there must be regarded as for ever prohibited. Even when the Converts were provided with a second supply of badges, they were called to the police-station, and again deprived of them. But the leader had learnt from The General too well the lessons of patient endurance and continuance to give way. And when the police saw her followers supplied a third time with the signs of union with us, having in the meantime had so many opportunities to learn more both of the leader and of her people, they concluded that it would be, after all, the best for the public interest to let them alone.

Two newspapers in the two languages of the country were issued and sold in all the public-houses. Congregations were gathered in all the cities, and even small towns, and everywhere the authorities could see that no spirit of discontent with anything but sin and evil habits was being created, but that the police would find their tasks lightened, and the life of the poorest of the people brightened and bettered, if they let the work go on.