Evening Meetings
As the meeting-room occupied by our people was small, and at
a distance from the central part of the city, it was thought best to
secure for our Sunday and evening services a hall in a more favorable
location, and one capable of accommodating a larger audience. It is
difficult in Copenhagen, as in all the cities of Scandinavia, to obtain
a suitable place for meetings. The halls are mostly used for dancing,
concerts, and theatrical entertainments, and they are rented at a high
price. After some effort, however, the brethren secured a hall which
they assured us would meet the requirements. What was our surprise,
upon going to the place for service, to find it in the basement of a
building, in the upper stories of which were halls for dancing, and
places for drinking. The room was large enough to accommodate two
hundred persons, but contained seats for only half as many. It was
quite damp, the moisture at times being plainly seen on the walls. One
evening, while I was speaking, some young men from the drinking
halls above, half intoxicated, gathered about the windows of our hall,
and by loud talking and laughing endeavored to interrupt the meeting.
They even thrust their heads through an open window, shouting into
the room. If it is necessary to speak in such places, we will do so
cheerfully. If in this rich and beautiful city there is no suitable room
where the truth can be presented to the people, we remember that there
was no room in the inn at Bethlehem for the mother of Jesus, and that
the Saviour of the world was born in a stable.
There were some in the audience who seemed deeply interested,
persons of talent whose countenances I remembered, for they had
been presented before me. These persons had been pleasure-lovers,
enshrouded in darkness and error, but God was permitting beams of
light to shine upon them from his world. The arrows of the Lord
were wounding the heart, that the sin-sick soul might turn to the great
Physician. I felt such an intense interest while speaking to these
souls that I lost sight of my surroundings; I felt that some were in the
valley of decision, and I longed to see them take their stand fully and
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