Hundreds flock to Moss, Norway
When Ellen White reached Copenhagen en route to Moss, Norway, and the first camp meeting in Europe, she was surprised to find Danish royalty and dignitaries at the station. "Men dressed in scarlet ... were brilliantly flashing everywhere," and a Brussels carpet was laid down ceremoniously from the car to the station.
Why all the excitement? Someone said that the Crown Prince of Denmark had been on the train. The crown prince, later to be King Frederick VII, was indeed at the station, but had not been on the train.
The crown prince's brother, Valdemar, and his wife, Marie, were there, as well, for Marie's mother, the Duchess of Chartres, had been traveling on the train with Ellen White. The Danish royal family was intermarried with most of the royal houses of Europe at this time, and it is little wonder that the people were confused and Mrs. White misinformed.
The Danish king at this time was called the "Father-in-law of Europe." * Crown Prince Frederick was married to a Swedish princess; the oldest daughter, Alexandra, married the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of England; the next son, William, became King George I of Greece; Valdemar, the other prince Ellen White saw, was married into the French nobility. Dagmar, the next oldest child, was married to Czar Alexander III of Russia; and finally, the youngest girl, Thyra, was married to the British Duke of Cumberland.
The royal entourage passed through an arched doorway to a carriage surrounded by plumed soldiers and was soon on its way to the palace. Ellen White left in a hack and went to much more humble quarters.
No Brussels carpet was spread for her, no assemblage of royal figures received her with honor, but the humble saints of God, the royalty of Heaven's kingdom, were waiting in Copenhagen for her and the message she would bring from the King of kings.
On Friday she took dinner with Edward G. Olsen and his wife, Elizabeth. Olsen, the younger brother of O. A. Olsen, had been in Copenhagen since the previous October. Under his ministry, the church had grown until it now numbered more than fifty members. The Olsens had a new week-old baby, their first child. With such important visitors, Elizabeth did not want to be thought lazy, so she was up and working much earlier than was customary in those days. Ellen White appreciated her loving interest but was genuinely concerned about her "imprudence."
Visible Improvements in Copenhagen Church
Mrs. White was delighted to see so many improvements in the little Danish church. "What a great change in Copenhagen since we first visited them!" she exclaimed. Then she reminisced:
"Our meetings were held in a little damp hall.... Next our meeting was transferred to a basement. Above was a dancing hall and there were saloons all around us.... Nearly a year ago--July 17--I again visited Copenhagen.... We had a hall--an improvement upon the one we had on our first visit.... And there were more than double the number when we were on our first visit, and some of the best quality of people.... And now, June 4, we see many more who have been added to the numbers of Sabbathkeepers and our hearts were made glad to see a respectable, noble, intelligent class of believers assembled in the city of Copenhagen.... We could indeed exclaim, 'What hath God wrought!'"--Manuscript 33, 1887.
And she added with a view to the future:
"And in this great city the work may still progress if the workers will not get above the simplicity of the work, but will keep humble and holy and dependent upon God."--Ibid.
Across by Steamer to Norway
After spending a week in Copenhagen, she left aboard the steamer Melchior bound for Moss, Norway. The voyage began quietly, but about three in the afternoon the water grew very rough. As was her practice in times like these, she spent the hours in communion with God.
"This was one of the most precious nights of my life. I enjoyed sweet communion with God and the presence of the Lord and angels seemed to be in my stateroom.... I had a sleepless night, suffered with fever and pain, yet my soul was filled with thoughts of God's mercy and His precious promises.... I could say with heart and soul--'I love Jesus. I love my heavenly Father.' I felt that I was breathing in the atmosphere of heaven.
"I offered fervent and earnest prayer that I might not be content with momentary flashes of heavenly light, but continually have spiritual illumination."--Ibid.
Because God was to her a never-failing source of light and strength in times of distress, she knew how to encourage others who walked in the shadows.
The Melchior landed at Horten, just across the fiord from Moss, and the travelers had to wait an hour for a smaller boat to take them over. At last the boat came, with S. N. Haskell and William Ings on board to escort them back to Moss. By Thursday noon they had reached their destination.
Camp Meeting Held on an Island
Moss, Norway, situated about 42 miles south of Christiania, was a town of about 8,000 at this time. O. A. Olsen had held tent meetings there the previous October and had succeeded in founding a church of about 30 members. Now Moss had been chosen as the site of the first Adventist camp meeting in Europe, and in connection with the camp meeting, the Fifth European Council.
The camp was set up among the pines of Bellevue Grove on Jel Island,* which had originally been a peninsula about five miles long and four miles wide. For the benefit of Ellen White and visiting ministers, a house was rented on a high rise of ground overlooking the water and the city.
When Mrs. White rose the next morning at four to begin writing, the sun was already shining brightly. Church members arrived from all over Scandinavia, and while everyone was busy that Friday morning getting settled in the family tents or exploring the items at the bookstand, Mrs. White, along with Jenny Ings and Mrs. Olsen, took a carriage downtown.
Sabbath morning found her speaking to the adult Sabbath school in the 60' by 80' main tent.
The camp meeting was attracting wide attention, and on Sunday a reporter from the Christiania Morgenposten was on the grounds. Although the Christiania papers were, at this same time, carrying attacks on Adventists by the Lutheran minister in Moss, the reporter who visited the campground was very favorably impressed. He wrote:
"As far as we know this is the first camp-meeting ever held in Europe, but in America such meetings are very common, and in Michigan, where the Adventists are most numerous, from 2,000 to 3,000 people may be found in such a camp. They hire the ground, arrange regular streets, and appoint everyone a place for his tent. They have a camp directory by which anyone can be easily found. It is a perfectly organized though temporary city.... We received the impression that the people occupying these tents must be an economical and well-to-do people."
The reporter went on to give a glowing report of Adventist work, not only in Scandinavia but in other parts of the world, as well.*
Even before this friendly story appeared in the paper, Mrs. White could see that the camp meeting was a marked success. She was probably aware of the reporter on the grounds, for she noted optimistically that the news of the meeting would be carried throughout the Scandinavian kingdoms. Her diary reports:
"Many came to these meetings with great fear and trembling. They thought it must be at great risk to live in tents, but when they saw the arrangements ... they had naught to fear.... The terror and the dread of camp meeting is all removed and the way is opened for camp meetings in these regions."--Manuscript 34, 1887.
The Fifth Annual European Council
On Tuesday, June 14, as some of the church members returned to their homes, the Fifth European Council opened. Mrs. White was present at the opening session and was thrilled to hear Elder Matteson tell of two successful colporteur schools held during the previous year. In Stockholm twenty had attended, some of whom at first could scarcely read or write. After three months of careful instruction they had been sent out into the towns and villages. Their sales were encouraging. And some were enjoying an additional triumph; they were now able to write intelligent letters to their colporteur leader reporting their activities.
Brother J. Laubhan, who represented Russia at the council, reported 150 Sabbathkeepers in the southern part of that country. Evidently Ellen White could not remain silent in the midst of the many encouraging reports. She rose to bear her own personal testimony of thanks to God, who had strengthened her to speak in several places since leaving Basel. "My heart was broken before the Lord in view of the strength, the presence of the Lord, that had been granted me," she commented.
The next morning even nature seemed to be cheerful. "We are favored of God with a bright, beautiful morning," Mrs. White wrote. "The birds are caroling their songs of praise to their Creator and our hearts are filled with praise and love to God."--Ibid.
As the brief, four-day council closed on Friday, June 17, W. C. White had a marked impression of its success. He pronounced it "the most harmonious, and profitable meeting" that he had ever attended.
Among the actions taken at the session were the following: Each mission agreed to hold a three-month training school for literature evangelists every year. Committees were appointed to select new books for publication, and for translation when necessary. Since the message was to reach all classes of people, it was even resolved that it would be "highly expedient" to encourage select individuals to attend the "best institutions of learning, that they may become acquainted with the theories of those who may oppose the truth, and to act as missionaries." In line with this recommendation, E. G. Olsen was encouraged to take some classwork in Copenhagen. He was also commissioned to improve his language skills.
The council resolved to start a city mission in Hamburg, Germany, as soon as possible--a move that eventually led to the establishment of Hamburg as an important center of Adventist work.
Finally, the Norwegian leaders took the occasion to organize their country into a separate conference with four churches. Christiania, with 144 members; Larvik, 21; Drammen, 21; Moss, 18; plus 40 scattered Sabbathkeepers. It was a small conference, but it was a good beginning. Today in Norway the membership has doubled itself four times.
That Friday, as the council closed, Mrs. White took time to visit Mr. Erickson, the owner of the grounds on which the camp meeting had been held, and the next day, Sabbath, she met the woman who owned the house in which she had been staying. After a pleasant interview, she handed her a copy of her book The Life of Christ in Norwegian.
Contacts With Carl Ottosen
A young medical student from Copenhagen, Carl Ottosen, particularly attracted Mrs. White's attention. She sensed the caliber and potential of this dedicated youth and in several interviews gave valuable counsel and guidance to him. "He is a promising young man," she noted in her diary, "and has fully decided to give himself to the work of the Lord." His parents were not Adventists, but his father was supporting him financially through his studies. A few years later he founded the Skodsborg Sanitarium outside Copenhagen, one of the important Seventh-day Adventist institutions in Europe today.
What a variety of tasks the Lord had entrusted to Ellen White, His servant! There were evangelistic messages presented to the public in tents and halls, large and small; pastoral sermons preached to church members; rich pioneer experiences shared with fellow workers; counsel offered in business meetings; spiritual guidance published in books and articles and sent out in letters. At these important meetings in Norway she had opportunity to function in all these roles.
And her work at Moss was not over yet. On Sabbath, June 18, she and Mrs. Ings took a walk out into the forest. Finding a quiet place, they spread a fur blanket on the grass, and Mrs. White sat down to write a ten-page letter of counsel and encouragement to Elders D. A. Robinson and C. L. Boyd, who were present at the Moss camp meeting, as they left for their work in Africa. The letter was so rich in encouragement and practical counsel that great portions of it have been reprinted in the book Evangelism, 89-91, 94, 97, 132, 142, 248, 553, as well as in other books.
Finally, on Sunday, June 19, Mrs. White left Moss for Christiania. There she parted with W. C. White, as well as Elders Conradi, Whitney, and Haskell. The latter was on his way to England, the others to Germany. The Ingses and O. A. Olsen would stay with Ellen White for two days in Christiania, then, on Wednesday, June 22, they all would journey on to Stockholm, where Matteson was about to begin a series of tent meetings for the public.
First Tent Meetings in Sweden
Mrs. White spent almost a week in Stockholm, staying with the Matteson family in their rented apartment at 52 Upplandsgatan. On her first day in the city she hired a carriage and took a two-hour tour. The tent meetings began that evening, and the next day, Friday, a full schedule of four meetings was conducted.
This was the first evangelistic series Adventists had ever held in a tent in Sweden, and everyone was anxious to see whether it would be successful.
It was also the annual Midsummer's Day holiday, so the crowds were good, and when Ellen White's turn to speak came at five o'clock, every seat was filled and a solid wall of people stood around the edges. People were even crowded onto the platform itself. Though she had been kept awake the night before by the popping of firecrackers and the noisy celebration of the holiday, in the thrill of the successful tent effort she forgot her weariness.
Each day she shared the speaking duties with Elders Olsen, Matteson, and Ings, and as her stay in Stockholm ended on Monday, she wrote enthusiastically:
"Yesterday, Sunday, it was estimated that there were about one thousand people in and around the tent listening with deep interest. These meetings have made Elder Matteson and Brother Olsen so glad they do not know how to express their grateful thanks to God. The truth and work will stand higher in Sweden than it ever has before."--The Signs of the Times, July 28, 1887.
Time to Say Good-by
Finally, it was time to say good-by. That Monday morning, July 27, Mrs. White spoke to the little church in Stockholm, and as she closed, each member greeted her with a warm handshake. The women were especially warm and friendly. But the farewells were not over yet. At Elder Matteson's apartment she found all the colporteurs and workers gathered for a last farewell.
"Each one said a few words of their appreciation of the meetings. They had read the books of Sister White and wanted so much to see her, and as they had listened to her testimony they had accepted the message brought to them and had been greatly benefited and much blessed of the Lord."--Manuscript 35, 1887.
Her heart touched, Mrs. White responded with a short speech of her own, which Elder Matteson interpreted for the workers.
Finally, at the station there was one more round of good-bys, and Mrs. White left Sweden for the last time. There was a brief stopover in Copenhagen the next day, during which she was entertained at E. G. Olsen's home. Here she met Carl Ottosen again, and talked to him further about his plans.
The European Council in Moss had voted that O. A. Olsen should return to America as soon as possible to attend camp meetings, also the next General Conference session. He planned to sail the first week in August, and Ellen White had decided to go on the same boat.
She now headed for England, where she would spend the final month of her European sojourn. Her route took her to Kiel, Germany, and on to Hamburg. From there she traveled west through Germany and a portion of Holland* before boarding the steamer Princess Elizabeth for the trip across the channel.
The final weeks of Mrs. White's stay in Europe were spent in Britain--as her first weeks had been two years earlier.