Stockholm
From Copenhagen a small steamer takes us across the strait to
Malmo, Sweden. This has for centuries been a thriving sea port, and
is now the third city of Sweden in population and importance.
The channel which separates the coast of Denmark from that of
Sweden, is in some places but a few miles wide. On both sides of
this channel there are fortifications, and for hundreds of years all the
commerce of the world going through this strait was required to pay
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tribute to Denmark for the privilege of passing. About thirty years ago,
however, our government strongly protested against this demand, and
other governments uniting with it, Denmark was forced to give up this
source of revenue, to which, indeed, she had no just claim.
Hardly a town or hamlet that we have passed on our journey since
leaving Basle but has an interesting history connected with the Ref-
ormation. Malmo was one of the first cities of Denmark—to which it
then belonged—to fully receive the gospel. In 1527 the first Protestant
sermon was preached in a meadow outside the walls. Those who had
listened to the gospel of God’s glorious grace desired to express their
feelings in songs of praise, but there existed nothing in the Danish
language suitable to be used on such occasions. In the Romish church
the people were silent worshipers; the only songs were the chants and
canticles of the priests in an unknown tongue. But such worship could
not satisfy an intelligent faith. A translation of the songs of David into
the Danish language, soon after published, was everywhere received
with great joy. They soon displaced the ballads which had been sung
till then. They were heard in the castles of the nobles, and were used in
the assemblies of the Protestants, and they may be said to have opened
the gates of Malmo to the gospel.
“Louder songs re-echoed day by day round the walls of Malmo,
as the number of worshipers increased. Soon the gates were opened,
and the congregation marched in, to the dismay of the Romanists, not
in serge and sackcloth, not with gloomy looks and downcast heads,
as if they had been leading in a religion of penance and gloom, but
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