Christiania
Friday morning, October 30, we reached Christiania, Norway, and
were soon in the home of Eld. A. B. Oyen, a retired and pleasant
location in the suburbs of the city. Here the household language was
our own familiar English, and it almost seemed that we were once
more in our native America.
At Christiania we have a church of one hundred and twenty mem-
bers, and here is located our Scandinavian publishing house. The new
mission printing-house and meeting-hall were not completed, and part
of the old building which Eld. Matteson bought six years ago, and in
which were the printing-house and meeting-hall, had been torn down
to give place to the new; therefore we had no hall of our own that was
suitable for meetings. But the Good Templars very kindly gave us the
free use of their hall, which would seat over three hundred.
About two hundred attended the meeting Sabbath forenoon, and in
the afternoon one hundred assembled to celebrate the ordinances of
the Lord’s house. A large hall belonging to a workingmen’s society
had been hired for Sunday forenoon, and I addressed an attentive
congregation of about fourteen hundred. The hall was crowded, and
many went away, unable to obtain an entrance.
Tuesday we went about thirty miles from Christiania, to Drammen,
a city of several thousand inhabitants, where there is a church of twenty
members. Here, as in other places, it was difficult to obtain a good hall.
But the best in the place was secured, a hall used for balls and concerts,
about thirty-six by eighty feet in size, with a narrow gallery on each
side, and a huge stove in each end. There was no pulpit nor place for
one. Six beer tables, brought in from an adjoining room, served to
make a platform. A square carpet was thrown over this platform, and
another table set on top for light-stand and pulpit, while steps were
made with chairs and stools. We doubt if the hall or beer tables were
ever put to so good use before. The people came and filled the seats,
the galleries, and all the standing room, and listened with the best of
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