True Sabbathkeeping Taught
The question of Sabbathkeeping, too, was a difficult one. The idea of a spiritual rest was entirely new in those lands. Not only had the people to be taught to observe another day, but they had to be taught that the Sabbath was not to be kept in the same way of pleasure and worldliness as was Sunday. All through Scandinavia this question brought perplexities. Some Sabbath keeping businessmen had their places of business open on the Sabbath, and hired men who were not Sabbath keepers to care for their work. In other countries, the question of sending our children to school on the Sabbath was causing difficulty. This seemed very trying in Switzerland. Many of our members were inclined to think that their children might attend school on the Sabbath. Mrs. White gave definite and full instruction on this matter. But a few sentences will be quoted here:FSG 165.1
“Some of our people have sent their children to school on the Sabbath.... Had these dear brethren possessed greater spirituality, had they realized the binding claim of God’s law as every one of us should, they would have known their duty, and would not have been walking in darkness.... Our brethren cannot expect the approval of God while they place their children where it is impossible for them to obey the fourth commandment.”—Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists, 216.FSG 165.2
If it had not been for her clear-cut instructions, Adventists in Europe would not have observed the Sabbath in the right way, but would rather have kept it as others keep Sunday. Those who have seen the Continental Sunday understand what this really means. We would have been a sort of Saturday-keeping people rather than real, confirmed, genuine Sabbath keepers. But Mrs. White explained the Sabbath commandment as spiritual law that must be kept from the heart, not only by a mere outward observance.FSG 166.1
The labors of Mrs. White in the interests of health and temperance also meant much to our work in Europe. In Norway, J. G. Matteson had begun a health journal, which was well received and still prospers. In other lands a small beginning in temperance and health reform had been made. Mrs. White gave many lectures on the subject to our people, and also a few in public. For one of these, the church had secured the largest hall in Norway, and Mrs. White spoke on “Bible Temperance.” Fortunately she had a capable translator, a doctor from Oslo. The hall was crowded to the doors, and the meeting lasted nearly two hours.FSG 166.2
A Norwegian Methodist minister told us personally about this meeting. He said: “That an American woman should come over to Norway to lecture was a novelty; that she, a godly person, should speak on temperance was also strange; and that she called the subject ‘Bible Temperance’ was even more usual. Temperance, we had thought, was a matter of politics and police and prison, not of the Bible. Hundreds came because the speaker was a woman, and hundreds more were curious to hear what she could find in the Bible about temperance.”FSG 166.3
When the people saw Mrs. White, they whispered, “What does that little lady know? How many in this large hall will be able to hear her?” But she had not spoken five minutes, before the entire crowd, many of whom understood English, were thrilled by her voice, her deep spiritual fervor, and sound, homely sense. They had never heard such a practical and convincing presentation of the great subject of temperance. Scores of hardheaded businessmen present listened intently as to something worth while. As a mature, motherly woman, she spoke beautifully of purity of life in the home, with parents and children. She emphasized the sanctity of the human body as the temple of the Spirit of God. Earnestly and in deep tenderness she challenged the husbands present to protect their wives and children from the fearful inroads of intemperance and impurity, and to live clean, strong lives themselves.FSG 166.4
This solemn appeal won the entire audience. At the close of the lecture, one of the prominent men proposed a vote of thanks to this “noble mother from America,” who had told them “the best things they had ever heard” on “what they ought to be and do.” She was urged to speak again, but declined. Her first burden was for our own people. The great Norwegian poet Bjornstjerne Bjornson wrote a personal letter to Elder Matteson and thanked him for his health journal and for the help this was to the cause of temperance. He said, “These ideas are new to us; and while they sound American, we, over here, need them.”FSG 167.1