Small but Attentive Crowds

On Friday night, October 9, she spoke for the first time to the infant church in Copenhagen. Believers from nearby companies had come in, swelling the “crowd” to about 35.EGWE 95.2

The meeting hall was close to Matteson's apartment. “We ... turn the corner of the block, then pass under an arch into a court and begin to ascend until we mount four pairs of stairs into the hall.”—Ibid. It was a small, cold, and damp place for a meeting, and Ellen White shivered while her tortured teeth rattled, but she did not hold back her message. She addressed her eager audience, composed of “intelligent, noble looking men and women—Danes.” She spoke on the parable of the fig tree.EGWE 95.3

“We are grateful that a few in Copenhagen have accepted the truth of God. Missionaries are needed to spread the light of truth in these great cities, and the children of God—those whom He calls the light of the world—ought to be doing all they can in this direction. You will meet with discouragements, you will have opposition. The enemy will whisper,EGWE 95.4

What can these few poor people do in this great city? But if you walk in the light, you can every one be light-bearers,^{*In her early childhood, the well-known Adventist author and youth leader Matilda Erickson Andross, born in Denmark, heard the Seventh-day Adventist message preached by J. G. Matteson in the meetings held in her childhood home. Shortly thereafter she emigrated to the United States and received a liberal education. In 1907 with the organization of the Young People's Missionary Volunteer Department, she was called to be first secretary under the chairmanship of M. E. Kern. She wrote a number of helpful books. In 1920 she married E. E. Andross, General Conference executive, and shortly became a missionary to Inter-America, as he led the new division. Here, then, was one devoted Dane among many who became a successful “light-bearer” for Jesus Christ.} to the world.”—Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 181.EGWE 96.1

The youth present were stirred when she challenged them to enlist in the service of Christ:EGWE 96.2

“Young men should be instructed that they may labor in these cities. They may never be able to present the truth from the desk, but they could go from house to house, and point the people to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.EGWE 96.3

“The dust and rubbish of error have buried the precious jewels of truth; but the Lord's workers can uncover these treasures, so that many will look upon them with delight and awe.”—Ibid.EGWE 96.4