Meetings in the Good Templars Hall

While their meeting place was being renovated, the 120 members of the Christiania church were meeting in the Good Templars Hall. Not only was this the largest Seventh-day Adventist church congregation in Scandinavia at the time, but when they came together to hear Mrs. White preach on practical godliness Sabbath morning, many of their friends and neighbors joined them, swelling the audience to more than 200.EGWE 117.1

As the week progressed, the Christiania church would discover that in the visions God gave her, Mrs. White had seen more than just printing presses in her visions. She related:EGWE 117.2

“When the mission fields in this new country were opened before me, I was shown that some things in every branch of the mission needed a different mold; there was need of exalting the standard in this church, before a correct and saving influence could go forth to other places.”—Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 211.EGWE 117.3

The distribution of membership in Norway at the time bore out the validity of the vision. Although the Christiania church had 120 members, there were only about 80 other Adventists in the whole country. For some reason, the truth had not been proclaimed to any extent beyond the confines of the one city.EGWE 117.4

On Sabbath afternoon one hundred took part in the ordinance of humility and the Lord's Supper, and all through Mrs. White's visit in Norway crowds continued to be surprisingly large. On Sunday morning a workingman's hall was rented. Every seat was taken, every standing space occupied, and scores of people were turned away for lack of space. An estimated 1,400 heard Mrs. White speak on the love of God. What a contrast this was to the small meetings she had just held in makeshift halls!EGWE 117.5