UBIIiEE 
 
^ PRINCETON, N. J. ^* 
 
 Division.. .^A.X>.0\ 
 
 Section t. ~).H ..^..O 
 
 Shelf Number . 
 
aui3ii^EK Er>iTio:v. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 IN 
 
 SWEDEN AND AMERICA. 
 
 Being an Account of the Origin, Progress and Results 
 
 of That Missionary Work During the Last Half 
 
 of the Nineteenth Century. 
 
 BY / 
 
 CAPT. GUSTAVUS W. SCHROEDER. 
 
 PVBLISHED BY THE AUTEOE. 
 
 GREATER NEW YORK 
 1898. 
 
Copyright. 
 BY GUSTAVUS W. SCHROEDER. 
 
 Printed by 
 
 THE EVANGELICAL PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 15 Vandewater St., New York. 
 
TO 
 THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 COMPOSED OF 
 
 The churches of God in Christ Jesus, who, "hold- 
 ing the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience" and 
 ever contending "earnestly for the faith which was once 
 delivered unto the saints," have maintained in practice 
 the ordinances of the Gospel as instituted by Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 To this Union of Churches, who, from the days of 
 Roger Williams, have been the first and foremost de- 
 fenders of the true principles of religious liberty; and 
 who, without being subject to any ecclesiastical synods 
 or legislative assemblies, have continued in matters of 
 faith independent of all human authorities; and, never- 
 theless, have proved to be the best and safest guardians 
 of the doctrines taught by Christ and His apostles. 
 
 To all those churches "that have obtained like pre- 
 cious faith" and have manifested so much interest in 
 the Swedish Baptist Mission is very gratefully and 
 humbly dedicated the compilation of facts contained in 
 the following pages by 
 
 THE SAILOR AUTHOR. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM 
 
 LETTERS OF BAPTIST MINISTERS 
 
 COMMENDING THIS HISTORY. 
 
 FROM REV. HALSEY W. KNAPP, D. D. 
 
 "I became so absorbed with interest in the narrative that 
 I could not easily lay it aside, even when other duties de- 
 manded it. That such a work should be given to our denom- 
 ination and circulated broadly in all our churches seems to 
 me imperative." 
 
 FROM REV. R. B. KELSEY, D. D. 
 
 "It is to me for the most part deeply interesting and in- 
 structive." 
 
 FROM REV. G. W. McPHERSON. 
 
 "It is full of information and inspiration, and will be of 
 great service to the denomination and kingdom of Christ. 1 
 have read it with great profit and delight." 
 
 FROM REV. J. L. HODGE, D. D. 
 
 "I am persuaded that the American Baptists would greatly 
 appreciate this history." 
 
 FROM REV. W. H. P. FAUNCE, D. D. 
 
 "The story is most interesting, and I trust may awaken 
 new zeal on the part of all who may read it." 
 
FROM REV. S. GIFFARD NELSON, D. D. 
 
 "The story is told in a very fascinating manner. He 
 writes in a pl^in, forcible, idiomatic English, and presents his 
 subject as one thoroughly informed and competent to speak." 
 
 "It has special interest for Baptists of every clime, and 
 for all who love the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 FROM REV. R. S. MACARTHUR, D. D. 
 
 "I examined with much interest the typescript of your 
 'History of the Swedish Baptists.' " 
 
 "Parts of this history were, even to Baptist historians, and 
 still are to the great majority of our people, a terra incognita. 
 You have been an explorer, you have brought back rich fruits 
 as a reward of your toil." 
 
 FROM REV. JOHN HUMPSTONE, D. D. 
 
 "The examination I have bestowed upon it, cursory as it 
 has been, leads me to say that I should welcome its publica- 
 tion. I believe it would be a valuable addition to our mission- 
 ary literature." 
 
 FROM REV. R. B. HULL, D. D. 
 
 "With very great pleasure and interest T read Captain 
 Schroeder's history of the Swedish Baptists. I believe it to be 
 an important contribution toward the better understanding of 
 the trials and triumphs of the faith and principles of the Bap- 
 tists." 
 
CONCERNING 
 MISSIONARY LITERATURE. 
 
 Dr. E. E. Chivers writes in "The Examiner," March 
 28, 1895: 
 
 "The providence of God points to a general advance 
 in worldwide missions. To meet these demands we need 
 to know the history of the past and the conditions of 
 the present. The love of Christ is the great motive to 
 missions. Personal vision and knowledge of Christ 
 quickens the missionary impulse. Information is needed 
 to sustain and guide that impulse. Knowledge is the 
 fuel which keeps the fire burning. Books on missions 
 ought to have a place in the library of every Christian 
 household. A Sunday-school library is sadly deficient 
 without them." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "When at the first I took my pen in hand 
 Thus for to write, I did not understand 
 That I at all should make a little book 
 In such a mode; nay, I had undertook" 
 Some articles on mission work to write. 
 And in that way to bring- them forth to light 
 In columns of some paper widely spread 
 Amoiig- the Baptist folks, and so be read 
 By many thousands, who would like to know 
 How from a rill, a river great did flow. 
 
 But like John Bunyan, a few of whose lines of 
 Apolog-y for writing his "Pilgrim's Progress" have been 
 lini:ed with mine, I found also that 
 
 "In more than twenty things, which I set down. 
 This done, I twenty more had in my crown; 
 And they again began to multiply, 
 Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly." 
 
 In fact, the luminous sparks from my memory's 
 magazine did multiply quite as profusely as in Bunyan's 
 crammed-up cranium, and as a result of that sparkling 
 superfluity, the editor of the paper for which the articles 
 were designed, hesitated to allow the requisite space for 
 them as a consecutive series, remarking that the pre- 
 liminary matters especially, and the religious history of 
 Sweden in general, was found to contain more than he 
 had expected, although he admitted that the same would 
 be "useful to enable readers more fully to comprehend 
 the situation." And as I could not, without injury to the 
 subject, abridge so much of its contents as might prove 
 acceptable for any periodical, I concluded to prepare the 
 
10 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 whole of it for publication in book form. By so doing 
 free course could be given tO' all pent-up fires, the sparks 
 of which might fly and multiply, and be available for use- 
 ful illumination. 
 
 I was convinced, also, that a narrative of such 
 statistical as well as historical importance for the future 
 could not in the necessarily limited space and scattered 
 numbers of a newspaper answer the expectations or 
 needs of the denomination for a comprehensive account 
 of such facts as were most desirable to throw sufBcient 
 light on the subject in all its ramifications and connec- 
 tions. 
 
 Consequently, the only way that seemed open to 
 me was to attempt to gather the ever-increasing mate- 
 rials and have them booked in a convenient and most 
 suitable collection. 
 
 I have for a long time felt and been deeply im- 
 pressed with the need ol an authentic narrative being 
 presented to the public while God spared my life; but the 
 undertaking of such important work appeared too great 
 for me to grapple with, conscious as I was of my inability 
 to do the subject such justice as a fastidious literary 
 taste would demand; a taste that reflects more on some 
 imperfections in grammar and style than on the facts 
 presented, especially when the latter are too bitter for 
 swallowing or difficult to digest. These considerations 
 made me hesitate to launch forth on the threatening 
 and hazardous sea of conspicuous publicity, where so 
 many frail crafts, guided by more skillful skippers, have 
 been literally wrecked on the rocks of a cruel and often 
 crude criticism. 
 
 Having in my early profession as a sailor been 
 trained to handle the marlinspike and not "the pen of a 
 ready writer,'' to manage a ship of the larger dimensions, 
 and not an historical work, although of the smaller pre- 
 tensions; and, besides, not having had the advantage of 
 any high school or college education, nor ever received 
 any instructions in the English language, the reader, hi 
 
consideration of these facts, will please to kindly over- 
 look the many idiomatic errors which will no doubt be 
 noticed in several parts. 
 
 For convenience and in accordance with Scripture, 
 and a great many ol the best writers, the pronoun 1 has 
 generally been used without any thought of ostentation 
 instead of the circumlocutory he, the author or we. 
 Macaulay commences one of his works with "I purpose 
 to write the history of England," etc. Bunyan's first 
 six lines in "Pilgrim's Progress" contain the pronoun 
 "P' seven times. The lines of his Apology, eight of which 
 are quoted, have the same pronoun six times; or 
 throughout the same on nearly every line. How much 
 and how often the Psalmist and the apostles thus write 
 of themselves is well known, and all the more acceptable 
 for being inspired. 
 
 The reader will no doubt admit that hitherto no his- 
 tory or account of the Swedish Baptists, either in English 
 or Swedish, has ever been published containing such a 
 variety of historical information, more or less in connec- 
 tion with the mission, as this work now ofifered to the 
 Baptists in all parts of the world, so I may well lay 
 clami to its being in many respects of a unique character. 
 
 Reasons will be given in the course of reading the 
 book why such subjects as "The Thirty Years' War'' 
 and the State "Church Convention" have been com- 
 mented on so extensively. 
 
 I am well aware of the fact that Swedish Lutherans 
 of State Church propensities, whether in this country or 
 Sweden, into whose hands this volume may possiblv 
 come, will stigmatize me for having exposed the insti- 
 gators and supporters of the persecutions referred to. 
 They will say that if I could not consistently throw a 
 veil over or cover up altogether the ill-doings of those 
 misguided rulers, I ought to have, in view of "the pecu- 
 liar institution," charitably mitigated the evils acknowl- 
 edged, so that the disgrace on otherwise respectable men 
 would not be so great and glaring before all English- 
 
12 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 speaking people. To such critics I would say that any 
 history that for charity's sake will diminish to a mini- 
 mum any known crimes fails sadly in its avowed mission 
 of benefit to mankind. If the ill-doings of God's people, 
 as related in the sacred volume, were not by inspired 
 writers in the least degree veiled over or coverd up, then 
 surely the enemies of God's people, as all persecutors 
 must be, have no claim, right or reason to expect their 
 black deeds of darkness to be whitewashed. Besides, 
 nothing would be gained by such a charitable course, 
 for, travelers of observation, while publishing broadcast 
 their impressions of Sweden, cease not to let it be known 
 what cruelties have been inflicted on God's people. Thus 
 the late professor, E. P. Thwing, a Congregational min- 
 ister of Brooklyn, writes in his "Rambles from Russia to 
 Spain," published in 1889, ^^^w at Stockholm, in com- 
 pany with Rev. Dr. T. Cuyler, he visited the Baptist 
 Missionary Conference, and after speaking of the pastors 
 and missionaries, says : "Some of them bore in their own 
 body the marks of fetters, ball and chain worn for 
 Christ's sake; others have the sentence of imprisonment 
 with bread and water fare hanging over them." 
 
 Furthermore, the best of the Lutheran priests have 
 not hesitated in letting the world know all about the 
 ignominious state of their own church government, but 
 have even named the guilty parties, whether bishops, 
 archbishops or ecclesiastical ministers, who did all in 
 their power to resist the progress of God's kingdom, not 
 only among dissenters, but the most pious of their own 
 creed, of which creed one of themselves, like Arch- 
 bishop Reuterdahl, was known to be skeptical. Read, 
 for instance, the records from 1847 in . "Evangelical 
 Christendom," the organ of the Evangelical Alliance, 
 whose readers in all parts of the world have been more 
 numerous by thousands than can ever be expected or 
 hoped for this history.* 
 
 ♦Concerning' the sk soticism of Reuterdphl, see the merHoned 
 mag-azine. volume VI., for 1852, page 181. 
 
PREFAUK. 1 
 
 It will be shown also in the following pages that the 
 Swedish authorities themselves have so abused the 
 powers vested in them that their efforts, and the friendly 
 efforts of all their apologists, to escape from the just 
 condemnation of the civilized world will ever prove futile 
 and ineffectual, especially so long as the government 
 shows no disposition or intention to grant by law any 
 reasonable religious liberty. Therefore, to use the his- 
 torian Dr. Cramp's words in referring to persecutions: 
 "These things must not be concealed. I hold it to be the 
 special duty of the historian to record with impartial and 
 scrupulous accuracy the atrocities perpetrated by those 
 who professed the principles of the Reformation."* 
 
 When Fryxell, the great Swedish historian, realized 
 the importance of relating the real facts and unvarnished 
 truths about the kings and governments of former days, 
 their wrong-doings as well as meritorious actions, his 
 work was ignored during a whole year without a line 
 of review or criticism, and he met with contempt and 
 reproach on every hand, some stigmatizing him as a 
 mere compiler (compilator). And even the king, 
 Charles XV., rebuked him in his royal way. The his- 
 torian having, as part oi a delegation, been ordered to 
 dinner at the palace, the king, after the repast, led 
 Fryxell to a place where a portrait of Charles XII. hung 
 on the wall. Pointing to it, the king said: "That one 
 there was, after all, a devil of a fellow" ("Han var dock 
 fan till karl, den der!") "Yes, your majesty," answered 
 Fryxell, "that I have never denied." The king laughed, 
 but threateningly raised his finger, saying: "You had 
 better take care" (Jaja, du!'' Pronounced as Yah Yah, 
 doo) and left him.** 
 
 I have mentioned that episode merely to show what 
 freaks of fate some impartial historians are subject to. 
 So what can I expect? 
 
 •Cramp's Baptist History, pp. 261, 262. 
 •♦FryxeU's own account in liis "Histoiias Historia," pg. 105. 
 
t4 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "Show the Swede," said Bishop Tegner, "what has 
 been, and he shall often thank God for what is." 
 
 Considerate Swedes will consequently be grateful 
 for truthful records of old and new things, while unre- 
 flecting ones may feel like Charles XV. 
 
 Throughout this work (which by some may not in- 
 appropriately be called a church historical bric-a-brac 
 as well as a history of Swedish Baptists) I have en- 
 deavored to carry out Paul's injunctions to "Prove all 
 things." 
 
 The adoption of that principle has, however, made it 
 necessary from time to time to deviate from the main 
 object of the undertaking. 
 
 If it is true that "variety is the spice of life" it may 
 be equally true when applied to history. Thus this pro- 
 duction may become suitable to some readers' taste, 
 while others may think the spices are too pungent. 
 
 With these prefatory remarks this little volume of 
 missionary information is sent forth in the hope that 
 the many Christians who will read it may be encouraged 
 to "attempt great things for God and expect great things 
 from God," and for all good results ascribe all the praise 
 and glory to God. 
 
 "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus 
 Christ in sincerity. Amen." 
 
 GUSTAVUS W. SCHROEDER. 
 
 Greater New York, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 (Page 27.) 
 
 Introductory Remarks — Proposed Plan of the Work — 
 Satan's Two Masterpieces — A State Church and 
 Infant Baptism — In Hoc Signo Vinces — Satan's 
 Success — How Christmas Originated — The Scrip- 
 tures Purposely Perverted — Yule-Tide — Assyrians 
 Probably Ancestors of the Swedes — The Asa Tem- 
 ple — The Viking Age — The Land of the Midnight 
 Sun — Ihor, Odin, and Frey — The Fountain of 
 Blood — The Blood of the Atonement — The Sacred 
 Hog — Daring Deeds Recorded in Sagas — A New 
 Heaven and a New Earth — The Religious Views of 
 the Vikings — The Mighty One from Above — Ask 
 and Embla — Valhalla and Nastrand — Rob Roy's 
 Rule — Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. 
 
 (Page 44.) 
 
 Ansgarius — The First Catholic Missionary — His Recep- 
 tion in Sweden — First Bishop of Sweden — Religious 
 
1 6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Liberty Granted— St. Sigfrid from England— Bap- 
 tism of Olof, "the Most Christian King," and His 
 Family— A Succession of Saints— Pompous Pro- 
 ceedings-Methods of Royal Romanists— Methods 
 ot Rome s Missionaries— Conversion of Clovis— 
 Eldest Son of the Church— Comico— Dramatical 
 Conversions — Mass Conversions — Temples to 
 Apollo and Diana— Now, Westminster and St 
 Faul_s--Speech of Coifi— His Conversion— Roman- 
 ism in Power— Priests Only Pope's Subjects— Ig- 
 norance of the Clergy_A Royal Saint, His Crusade 
 to Finland— The Crusader's Success— Let America 
 Appear— And the United States. 
 
 CHAPTER HL 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 (Page 56.) 
 
 Rampant Royal Reformation— Policy of Gustavus Vasa 
 Luther's Name Odious— King Abdicates— Mean 
 Methods of Success— Pliant Priests— Vicar of Bray 
 —Concordia Pia— Legalized Unity— Methods of 
 Conversion— Gustaf Vasa's Church. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 (Page 62) 
 
 Baptist Sentiments Suppressed — Baptist Martyr's 
 Views— A New Era— A Witcliy Wiseacre— Luther 
 and Calvin Complain of Ungodliness— Philip Jacob 
 
CONTENTS. j,_ 
 
 Spener— England Aroused— Times of Whitefield— 
 We Are Men! We Are Swedes!— Bohemia and 
 Peter Waldo— Papal Titles of a Reformer— Christ's 
 Verdict— Sweden's Protestant Prelates— Solomon 
 in His Days. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 REIGN OF LUTHERANISM 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 (Page 7^.) 
 
 The Swedish Witches — Riding on Broomsticks to Blo- 
 kulla — Wm. Penn and Witchcraft — Sweden's Great 
 Historian — Easter Fires on Hill Tops — Lives of the 
 Swedish Priests — A Powerless Bishop — The Dark- 
 est Smoland — The Swedish State Church — "Baby- 
 lon the Great, the Mother of Harlots" — Lutheran 
 Churches Dependent on Princes — Luther's Descrip- 
 tion of Christian Churches — Could Not Institute 
 Such Assemblies — Good Reasons Given — Church 
 Rights Sold for a Mess of Pottage — Lambert's La- 
 mentations. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS. 
 (Page 89.) 
 
 The First Swedish Baptist — John Asplund — Published 
 in 1791-94, the First Year Book — My Conversion — 
 
THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Advice to Young Converts — Baptism in East 
 River — Jubilee Day — State Lutheranism Not At- 
 tractive — A Typical Pharisee — Character of My 
 Teacher- — As a Priest, He Had to Confirm Me — 
 Signal Failure of Confirmation — Desires to Go to 
 Sweden — Mrs. Putnam's Bible Class — Great Priv- 
 ilege to Attend It. 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 
 
 (Its Mission to Sweden.) 
 
 (Page 97.) 
 
 Women, a Great Host — Opposition to the Enterprise — 
 Wonderful Providence- — Call of a Pastor — A Mis- 
 sionary Church — An American Mission — If Christ 
 Were on Earth — Going to Sweden — First Baptist 
 Meeting, in My Home — Proselytism Not Attempt- 
 ed — Interview with Rosenius — Picnic in Stock- 
 holm's Suburbs — Providence Points the Way — 
 Meeting with Rev. J. G. Oncken — A Spiritual Revo- 
 lution in Sweden — Pushed Ahead by the Lord — 
 First Christian Church in Sweden — First Christian 
 Church in Europe — Europe Not for Christ — 
 Sweden Not for Christ — The First Swedish Baptist 
 
CONTENTS. ig 
 
 Preacher Before Oscar I. — Revolutions Subserve 
 Christianity — A Cow for Sprinkling an Infant — 
 Satan Chuckling — The Adversary of True Religion. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 (Page III.) 
 
 Wiberg's Baptism in the Baltic — Nelson's Letter of In- 
 troduction — Wiberg^s Address — Cordial Welcome 
 to Br. Wiberg — Labors for the Baptist Mariners' 
 Church — Ordained as a Baptist Minister — Connec- 
 tion with the Publication Society at Philadelphia — 
 Publishes a Book on Baptism — Calls from Sweden — 
 G. Palmquist, Missionary of the Mariners' Church — 
 His Ordination — The First Swedish Baptist 
 Churches in America — Organization of the Work 
 in Sweden — Baptismal Controversy — A New 
 Watery War of Words. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 
 
 (Page 125.) 
 
 1 he Mother of Swedish Baptist Churches— First Swed- 
 ish Baptist Church of New York— Spiritual Help 
 from England— Methodists Did Not Dance — Help 
 from Scotland — Free Church Principles — "Vain 
 
THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Man Would Be Wise" — Norrland and Dalarna — 
 Help from America — Religious Aspect of Sweden — 
 Failure of State Christianity — Not One Famed 
 Theologian — Three Centuries of Lutheranism — 
 Fruits from the Trees of Knowledge — Billing on Re- 
 fusal of Infant Baptism — Ullman on the Lord's Sup- 
 per — Satan's Finest Arts — The Lutheran Legacies 
 of Views and Hard Words. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SAILOR MISSIONARY WORK IN SWEDEN. 
 
 (Page 137.) 
 
 God Made Use of Sailors — Report of Charles Mollers- 
 ward — Large Congregations — Great Opposition — 
 The Preacher Fired At — Dr. Edgren, Translator and 
 Commentator — Progress of the Mission in 1858 and 
 1867 — Mrs. Putnam on the Swedish Mission. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE LORD'S WORK AT GOTHENBURG. 
 
 (Page 143.) 
 
 Mv Return to Sweden — No Concession to Rome's 
 Daughter— Effectual Petitions and Protests— Perse- 
 cution led to Emigration — First Work at Gothen- 
 burg—Baptists Charged with Doing Things in a 
 
CONTENTS. 21 
 
 Corner — Bought a Lot, Built a House — Baptist 
 Meeting Hall — A Significant Signboard — Meetings 
 Advertised, First Time in Sweden — Dedication Sub- 
 ject, " The Baptists, What Are They, and What Do 
 They Want?" — The First IJaptist Church of Goth- 
 enburg — Persecution Started — Kings and Bishops, 
 Dead — "The Accuser of the Brethren" — Fifty Dol- 
 lars for Liberty of Worship Unto This Day. 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 (Page 151.) 
 
 Ode to Bigotry — Fox's Book of Martyrs — " Ostriches in 
 the Wilderness " — An Archbishop and the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance — Unexpected Episode — Interces- 
 sions of Foreign Governments — Swedish Lion 
 Wakes L^p — Priests in Paris — Pleasures and Profits 
 of Persecutions — Satan's Rage Against the Bap- 
 tists — Wiberg and Palmquist Before the Courts — 
 Blind Bigot's Zeal or Spite — The Devil's Horns and 
 Hoofs. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PERSECUTIONS (Continued). 
 
 (Page 164.) 
 
 Franson and Waldenstrom — Efforts to Deceive Foreign- 
 ers — Saints Abroad, Devils at Home — No Room in 
 the Inn — Heresies in High Places, Geijer and Teg- 
 ner — Tegner at Sea in a Fog — "The Children of the 
 
22 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Lord's Supper" — Trial of Heresy at Gothenburg — 
 Another Clerical Troubler — A Variety Case of Per- 
 secution — Persecutions, Best Policy of Despots — 
 Gustavus Adolphus Beheaded His Subjects — Policy 
 of Charles V. — Remedies for Apostacy — Remedies 
 for Ungodliness — A Penetential Performance — 
 Preparations for Repentance — Barbarian Methods — 
 Priestly Prescripts Proposed — Inquisition Ghosts of 
 1726 Stalking Abroad in 1896 — Intolerant State Lu- 
 theranism — Sweden's King a Doctor Quadruplex. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NONCONFORMITY AMONG LUTHERANS. 
 
 (Page 183.) 
 
 The Fosterland Institution — " Sweden to Be Evangel- 
 ized " — First Lutheran Free Church in Sweden — 
 Congregational Churches — A Wind from the Holy 
 Spirit — A Free Church of Many Creeds — The Mis- 
 sion Covenant — Objections to the Union — A State 
 Church No Place for Puritanism — Evils of State 
 Churches. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 
 
 (Page 188.) 
 
 The Dissenter Law of i860 — Bombastic Act of Tolera- 
 tion — " A Shadow of Good Things to Come " — Pub- 
 
CONTENTS. 2'\ 
 
 lie Opinion Enlightened — " Forbidding to Marry " 
 — Civil Marriage Law — Infidels Must Remain in the 
 Church — Question of Separation — Religious Lib- 
 erty Union — Question of Right Repeated — Bour- 
 bons of Sweden — Egypt Glad of Israel's Departure 
 — Religious Liberty Popular — Celebration of the 
 Birthday of Gustavus Adolphus — "Beware Cal- 
 vinist " — Orthodox Zeal — The Era of Orthodoxy — 
 Reward of Bishoprics — Doctor Armitage on Swe- 
 den's Dissenter Laws. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION (Continued). 
 
 (Page 204.) 
 
 Early Toleration Acts Attempted — A Royal Attempt — 
 Gracious Edict of Oscar I.- — Comments on the Ig- 
 noble Statute — Comment by " The London Free- 
 man " — The Mountain Brought Forth a Mouse— 
 The Free Press of Sweden — Constitutional Relig- 
 ious Liberty — " Great Is Diana " — Luminous Legal 
 Lore — From " The Signs of the Times " — Bungling 
 Bllmders in Legislation — The " Blood Stains Will 
 Not Out "—Seneca Varnishing Nero — Liberal Ef- 
 forts in 1862 — Napoleon on Religious Liberty. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 (Page 222.) 
 
 Preliminary Remarks — Some Facts About the War — 
 Queen Christina's Incredulity — Protestant England, 
 
24 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Holland, and Denmark Remain Neutral — Jealousy 
 Between the Scandinavian Kings — Catholic France, 
 an Ally of the Protestants — Turks and Tartars Greet 
 the Conqueror — Czar of Russia Rejoices — The 
 Pope Pleased with the Protestant Victories— Cath- 
 olic Pilgrims Pray for His Success — Selfishness of 
 the German Protestant Princes — Fryxell on Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus — Real Reasons for the War — Fare- 
 well Address of the Warrior — Pope and Turk Com- 
 bined — Impeachment of the Pope — War Maxims of 
 the Swedish King. 
 
 CHAPTER XVHI. 
 
 THIRTY YEARS' WAR (Continued). 
 
 (Page 233.) 
 
 European Balance of Power — John Bauer's Call — Right 
 Actions Better than Right Words — Weapons of 
 Baptists Not Carnal — The Swedes Are Coming — 
 Sweden's Ingratitude to France — War for Sectarian- 
 ism — Barbarous Bourbon Butchers — Differences of 
 Creeds — Prominent Catholic Historians — A De- 
 fender of Religious Liberty — Milton's Appeal to the 
 Lord — Temporary Treaty of Toleration — Princely 
 Preserves or Royal Reservations — Earth's Liberty in 
 the Bastille — Clinching the Climax. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 
 
 (Page 246.) 
 
 A Peculiar Institution — The Bible's Doctrine of Christ — 
 A Complex Assembly — The Church in No Danger — 
 
CONTENTS. 2S 
 
 Opening of the Convention — Questions Discussed 
 in 1893 — Extraordinary Power of the Convention — 
 Revision of the Prayer Book — Caught a Tartar — 
 Augsburg Confession — Sweden's State Rehgion — A 
 Roval Proposition — Concordia Pia — Church Dis- 
 cipline—A Bill of Imbecility— The Title of the Bill- 
 Wasting Time to No Purpose — Old Papal Perse- 
 cutor. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 REVIEW AND RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH 
 
 MISSION. 
 
 (Page 259.) 
 
 America's Benefit of the Mission — Former and Latter 
 Days — Night and Day in Rarotonga — Live or Die, 
 Put Me on Shore — Rarotonga's Night — Rarotonga's 
 Day — Swedish University Fruits — The Evil of the 
 Times — " Manufactured Christians " — Diana's Sil- 
 versmith's " Craft in Danger " — Temperance Re- 
 form — A Revised Bible — The Royal Bible Commis- 
 sion — Simony of Gustavus III. — Significant Facts 
 and Figures — Annual Progress of Baptist Churches 
 — Baptist Mission Statistics — Swedish Baptists in 
 the United States — Comparative Facts — Free Fields 
 Favorable to Baptist Growth — -Sunday Schools — 
 Sunday School Work in Sweden — Baptisms — Bap- 
 tisms in Proportion to Members — Churches and 
 Preachers — Decennial Additions — Letters of Dis- 
 missions "to America" — Scattered Sheep Without a 
 Pastor — Education for the Ministry — Comparative 
 Blessings — The Baptists in Denmark — Overturning 
 of Royalty — " I Will Overturn, Overturn, Over- 
 
26 . THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 turn It " — " Beware of Dogs " — Year of Jubilee in 
 Denmark — Small Cost of the Swedish Mission — 
 Methodist Appropriations for Scandinavians — Luth- 
 eran Non-Conformists — Lutheran Puritans in Swe- 
 den — A Royal Preacher — Stiftelsen's Financial 
 Status — The Salvation Army — Recapitulation for 
 1896 — Lutheran Christians at the Polls — Christian 
 Representatives at the Diet — The Baptists at Stock- 
 holm — Swedish Baptists in Illinois. 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 27 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SWEDES IN OLDEN 
 TIMES. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set 
 forth in order a declaration of those things" that concern 
 the Baptist Mission in Sweden, "it seemed good to me 
 also, having had perfect understanding of all things from 
 the very first, to write" for the benefit of God's people, 
 especially those of the Baptist denomination, an accurate 
 account of the wonderful works of God in that country 
 from the year 1845 — when the writer first made known 
 those truths "which are most surely believed among 
 us" — unto the present time. 
 
 Of the many who have written on this subject in 
 papers, periodicals and pamphlets, very few have had 
 any personal knowledge of the truthfulness or otherwise 
 of the accounts thus gathered from various sources. It 
 is well known that the plainest truths are in danger of 
 being distorted and misrepresented when passing 
 through the hands of only three or four dififerent per- 
 sons. Thus it has happened that nearly all accounts of 
 my conversion, baptism and connection with the work 
 of God in Sweden have been more or less mixed with 
 error, which now, by a statement of facts, may be cor- 
 rected. 
 
 Ml. PresGOtt, the historian, says tnily that "One 
 makes little progress in history before finding that it is 
 much easier to repeat an error than to correct it."* 
 
 •History of Philip II., vol. III., p. 177. 
 
28 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 PROPOSED PLAN OF THE WORK. 
 
 In order to obtain an intelligent understanding of 
 religion in Sweden since the year mentioned, it will be 
 necessary to give some account of the previous periods 
 of religious life and ecclesiastical institutions of that 
 country. 
 
 The proposed plan is to "set forth" what kind of 
 soil was found for the dissemination of gospel seed and 
 Baptist sentiments; the obstacles in the way; how 1 
 became a Baptist; and to give an account of my in- 
 cidental connection with the rise and progress of the 
 doctrines of Christ and His Apostles in that land, with 
 an account of my periodical visits to Sweden, and, finally, 
 to review the wonderful results of God's work in that 
 field, from which it will be seen that in no other coun- 
 try, whether in Europe or America, has there ever been 
 during half a century, such a moral, social and re- 
 ligious transformation as in that land. "What hath God 
 wrought?" did Israel say, when Jordan rolled its flood 
 away. And "What hath God wrought?" well might we 
 sav, since God in Sweden opened the way. 
 
 SATAN'S TWO MASTERPIECES. 
 
 What are they? I answer: a State Church and in- 
 fant baptism! The one a travesty on a Christian 
 Church, the other a parody on Christian baptism. 
 
 When Satan's plans for the destruction of Chris- 
 tianity were frustrated by the resurrection of Christ, 
 he determined on some revenge to accomplish his hell- 
 ish purpose. Alas! too well did he succeed. But it 
 required nearly three hundred years before he thought 
 it safe to carry out his designs. Hence he waited till 
 the Christians generally should have become so luke- 
 warm and worldly minded, filled with "bitter envying 
 and strife," petty jealousies and ambitous hopes of 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 20 
 
 preferment so tliat they naturally vvovikl more readily 
 "fall away and have their minds eorrupted from the 
 simplicity that is in Christ.'' 
 
 He knew from what Paul had written to Timothy, 
 that at such times they would be "giving heed to seduc- 
 ing spirits and doctrines of devils." At such times liis 
 plans are always successfully carried out. 
 
 He found it quite easy to make not only the credu- 
 lous pagans but the credulous Christians also, believe 
 that the deceiving, or deceived Constantine had actu- 
 ally seen a sign in the sky shaped like a cross, with the 
 words 
 
 "IN HOC SIGNO VINCES!" 
 
 The deluded people, therefore — both Christians and 
 heathens — hastened to enroll themselves under his ban- 
 ner, whether he went forth as a Christian or conqueror. 
 It was a great calamity when he thus proclaimed him- 
 self a Christian; but the climax was reached a little 
 later, when the Church, as it was still called, introduced 
 infant baptism and became allied to the state. 
 
 SATAN'S SUCCESS. 
 
 So completely did Satan succeed that for about thir- 
 teen centuries almost every vestige of apostolic Chris- 
 tianity was swept away from the face of the earth, and 
 where the Caesars' conquering hordes went forth they 
 set up the pretended sign of Constantine, making the 
 poor, vanquished and deluded heathen believe it was a 
 sign of Christ. 
 
 Sweden received her share of this mockery of Chris- 
 tianity. It was introduced by emissaries from Rome, 
 Germany and England, who were politicians enough to 
 know that if they could only gain the kings and rulers, 
 and induce them to accept the new religion, the work 
 would be comi^aratively easy and Romanism trium- 
 I)hant. It can. however, be readily imagined, that as the 
 Swedish Vikings on their piratical expeditions to the 
 
30 TPIE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 eastern parts of the Mediterranean, had observed the 
 wealth and imposing grandeur of the Roman and Gre- 
 cian Churches'^ and described it on their return home, 
 with admiration to their wondering countrymen, they 
 would not raise much opposition to the introduction of 
 such a rehgion among themselves, while they could still 
 keep up their own sensual heathen festivities. As these 
 Viking chieftains were the richest and most influential 
 people in Sweden, it is natural to suppose that the 
 change from heathenism to Romanism, from heathen 
 rites to Roman rites, was in their case comparatively 
 easy. It is a remarkable fact that the heathen Swedes, 
 over a thousand years ago, granted what neither Ro- 
 man Catholics nor Swedish Lutherans have yet al- 
 lowed, viz., religious liberty. And as to tolerance, the 
 Catholics showed more of that spirit, while in power, 
 than the Lutherans. For, even before Gustavus Vasa 
 had decided to proclaim the Lutheran religion, Swedish 
 preachers from Germany went about unmolested, preach- 
 ing the new doctrines in Sweden. No accounts of ban- 
 ishments, fines or imprisonments, weapons which the 
 Lutheran authorities have so long and shamefully used, 
 are recorded. Probably it was secretly known that the 
 King favored the introduction of Lutheranism. Had it 
 been otherwise, persecutions would doubtless have fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 As in Rome, England, and other countries, so in 
 Sweden, it was found necessary to compromise with the 
 converted heathen regarding their customs, festivals, and 
 ceremonies. The priests virtually said: If you will only 
 assent to the new religion and be baptized with your 
 children (it was then mostly by immersion) you may 
 retain your holidays and carry on all your orgies as 
 hitherto. We, on our part, will only give to them some 
 Christianlike names and we shall expect you to come to 
 our Christianized temples, where we will celebrate some- 
 
 *L,ecky relates how the invaders of Rome were overawed by the 
 Christian clergy. 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 31 
 
 thinj,^ that we call mass, after which you may enjoy 
 your festivals as usual. Thus, heathen holidays were 
 changed into Roman Catholic, and at the Reformation 
 into Protestant, though in later years some have been 
 given up. 
 
 Thus: "Austin (the Roman monk sent by Greg- 
 ory the Great in the sixth century to convert the Eng- 
 lish king, Ethelbert, and his people), had been instructed 
 to adapt the ceremonies of Christianity to the usages of 
 the idolators, that they might not be shocked by too 
 great a change. And this was done. Bede tells us that 
 there was often an altar for the sacrifices of paganism 
 and one for Christianity in the same temple; and Pro- 
 copius, his contemporary, adds, that some who em- 
 braced Christianity, continued to offer human sacri- 
 fices."* 
 
 HOW CHRISTMAS ORIGINATED. 
 
 Equally cautious was the sagacious king, Gustavus 
 Vasa, in introducing Lutheranism among his Roman 
 Catholic subjects, as will be related in Chapter III. 
 
 When the early Christians, about the third cen- 
 tury, had thus fallen av^^ay from the truth of Christ and 
 began to hanker after holidays, and the amusements con- 
 nected therewith, so as to be like other people, they 
 wanted among others to commemorate the birth of 
 Christ, but not knowing on what day, or even what 
 month he was born (and no one knows to this day) 
 they or their bishops, as they commenced to call them 
 hit upon a strange device. They said, that as the Old 
 Testament gives the birthday of only one person, viz., 
 Adam, which was on the sixth day, and as the Nev/ 
 Testament gives the death of Christ on the sixth day 
 of the week, Friday, therefore must the birth of Christ 
 be also on the sixth day, reckoned from the first of 
 the months, viz., January. Thus the sixth of that month 
 
 ♦Dr. Armitage's History of the Baptists, page 229. 
 
^2 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 was fixed upon for the birth of Christ. It was not called 
 Christ's mass, however, till the Roman Catholics changed 
 the name of religious services into masses; and the Luth- 
 eran Swedes, like the Episcopal English, do the same 
 to this day. The early Christians called it by the Greek 
 word, "Epiphania," Christ's revelation day. But after 
 some time the western Christians, having changed it 
 to the twenty-fifth of December, the eastern Christians, 
 to avoid strife, decided on having the same day. 
 
 THE SCRIPTURES PURPOSELY PERVERTED. 
 
 The method by which they came to settle upon the 
 twenty-fifth of December is the most ingenious I have 
 ever seen derived from Scripture. It is based on the 
 prophecy of Haggai 2: 18 verse, which reads thus: "Con- 
 sider now from this day and upward, from the four- 
 and-twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day 
 that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, con- 
 sider it." Now, as the twenty-fifth day commenced at 
 6 p. m. of the twenty-fourth, and Nisan, or April, was 
 the first month of the Jewish calendar, it follows that 
 December must be the ninth month, and the twenty- 
 fifth of December the day to be celebrated, the day that 
 the foundation of the temple was laid. As Christ was 
 the true temple, it was concluded, after much discu'-- 
 sion, that Christ's birthday was as stated, and so the 
 Emperor Theodosius decreed during the latter part of the 
 fourth century that for all Christendom that day should 
 be kept. But as the old day w^as observed as a little 
 Christmas, both Catholics and Lutherans keep also the 
 sixth of January, and on that day, called thirteenth day, 
 they celebrate the baptism of Christ, at which time 
 the Lutheran priests in Sweden generally embrace the 
 opportunity of attacking in their sermons the doctrines 
 of the Baptists; the texts for which, as for every sub- 
 ject during the year, are furnished them by the King, as 
 head of the Church. 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. o-y 
 
 YULE-TIDE. 
 
 HOW THE SWEDES CELEBRATED CHRIST- 
 MAS A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. 
 
 The ancient Swedes had their great mid-winter feast 
 on the twelfth of January, which was changed to the 
 twenty-fifth of December after they had embraced the 
 Catholic religion to correspond with the assumed birth- 
 day of Christ. But all their heathenish practices and 
 ceremonies continued for a long time unchanged, in 
 wliich the hog of Frey^ — pertaining to their deities — 
 played a prominent part, and the head of a hog does so 
 unio this day, as in all families that are not too aris- 
 tocratic, a whole or half of a hog's head must be boiled 
 on Christmas eve for cold cuts (with other things} for 
 the holidays. 
 
 To some readers who know only how Christmas is 
 kept in this country, the following account may be in- 
 teresting: 
 
 The Swedish heathen could not be prevailed upon, 
 like the English, to change the name ol their mid-winter 
 festival to any name signifying the birth of Christ. Their 
 name Jul, pronounced as Yule, and as such known also 
 in English literature, comes from jollra, having a jolly 
 time. The words jovial, jollity, are no doubt derived 
 from the same source. 
 
 To the Swedes it meant, and in some parts means 
 yet. a time for all kinds of wild amusements at social 
 gatherings, during the three weeks of holidays, though 
 much modified in these latter years. 
 
 The celebration in this case was kept in the year 
 893, 63 years after Ansgarius, monk, missionary, and 
 at last bishop, had, with the aid of the King Bjorn (Bear) 
 introduced the Catholic religion. 
 
34 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 ASSYRIANS, PROBABLY ANCESTORS OF THE 
 SWEDES. 
 
 The ancient Swedes, who orig-inally came from the 
 northern parts of Asia, and of whom nothing is histor- 
 ically known till about lOO years before Christ, had no 
 doubt carried with them, besides their own, many re- 
 ligious rites and ceremonies of Jewish origin, which pre- 
 sumably they had derived from their Assyrian ances- 
 tors, who had mingled with the Jews in their wars and 
 conquests over them. Tlie fact that they called them- 
 selves Assars or Asars, from Ashur or Assur, second 
 son of Shem, the son of Noah and founder of As- 
 syria, may confirm the conjectures as to their ancestry. 
 I'he Scriptures describe the Assyrians as a powerful and 
 warlike people, who probably, when conquered by the 
 Medes, rather than submit to those hated victors, would 
 flee to countries farther north and westward, where they 
 could be independent and carry on freely their propen- 
 sities for war. 
 
 Without a supposition of this kind, it is impossible 
 to account for the peculiar pagan-Jewish rites performed 
 at this celebration, or for the Oriental display of their 
 gold-covered temple and the gorgeous magnificence of 
 their apparel, with their gold and silver hilted weapons of 
 warfare. 
 
 THE ASA TEMPLE 
 
 which afterward gave way to the old Church of Upsala, 
 was the place where the feast was kept. Thither, very 
 early on the morning of the twelfth of January, the mul- 
 titudes gathered from far and near. The higher dig- 
 nitaries, with their wives, came in procession, riding on 
 stately and richly caparisoned steeds, all of them, both 
 men and women, most gorgeously attired for the grand 
 occasion. Among the many, one of the ladies seemed 
 to surpass the rest in stately bearing and splendor of 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 35 
 
 array. All eyes are directed to that beautiful light- 
 haired patroness, whose long ringlets adorn her graceful 
 form. She manages her magnificent steed with the ease 
 of an expert. Her scarlet dress is of the costliest ma- 
 terial and fastened around her waist by a silver belt 
 covered with jewelry, the whole of it embroidered with 
 gold, most tastefully arranged, and of exquisite work- 
 manship more befitting some Oriental queen than the 
 wife of a Swedish landowner; the headdress is orna- 
 mented with a golden diadem, glistening with pearls and 
 diamonds; her wide necklace is of wrought gold embel- 
 ished with pearls and beads. In her hair are orna- 
 ments of gold and all kinds of precious stones, man- 
 ifesting not only an exquisite taste but a most advanced 
 development of art. 
 
 This account, strange as it may appear, is, how- 
 ever, fully confirmed or verified by Mr. Paul du Chaillu's 
 work on 
 
 "THE VHvING AGE" 
 
 wherein he says that "beautiful vessels of silver and gold 
 also testify to the taste and luxury of those early times. 
 The knowledge of the art of writing and of gilding is 
 clearly demonstrated; in some cases nearly twenty cen- 
 turies have not been able to tarnish or obliterate the 
 splendor of the gilt jewels of the Northmen. 
 
 "We find among their remains, either of their own 
 manufacture or imported, perhaps, as spoils of war, 
 repousse work of gold or silver, and woodwork cov- 
 ered with sheets of gold. The filigree work displays 
 gfreat skill, and some of it could not be surpassed now, 
 
 "Alanv objects are ornamented with niello of so 
 thorough northern pattern that they are incontestably of 
 home manufacture. The remnants of articles of clothing 
 with graceful patterns, interwoven with threads of gold 
 and silver, which have fortunately escaped entire destruc- 
 tion, show the existence of great skill in weaving. En- 
 
26 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 tire suits of wearing apparel remain to tell us how some 
 of the people dressed in the beginning- of our era." 
 The same author says also, in his work 
 
 "THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN" 
 
 that "during the middle of the iron age, there must have 
 been an abundance of gold in Sweden, as shown by the 
 ^reat number oif ornaments found in different places 
 and now preserved in the National Museums of Stock- 
 holm and Christiania. Byzantine gold coins of this age 
 have been found in Oland. The largest and most valu- 
 able treasure ever heard of in Sweden, and perhaps in 
 Europe, is one found in 1774 near Trosa; its weight was 
 twenty-eight pounds, and it consisted of several gold 
 rings, larger and smaller, of a large necklace, in its thick- 
 est part the size of a finger, besides several ornaments 
 the metal of which was remarkably pure, containing 
 ninety-eight per cent, of gold." 
 
 "The most beautiful of all the gold finds from the 
 heathen era are three large, wide necklaces, at present 
 preserved in the Historical Museum of Stockholm, 
 weighing one and a half to two pounds each."* 
 
 Had such accounts come from Peru or Mexico, it 
 would have appeared more probable than when related 
 of a country known to be so poor as Sweden; wherefore, 
 I broke off the account of the festival which will now be 
 again resumed. 
 
 In the rear of the procession came the animals for 
 the sacrifices led or driven by slaves; and as the train 
 moves along a terrible din, caused by clashing of arms 
 and slamming together of silver-covered shields, is kept 
 up to announce their coming; guns and firecrackers were 
 not known then, but the blowing of horns made noise 
 enough, and the boys' Christmas trumpets are memories 
 of those days; so are also the confectionery hogs seen 
 in the shop windows at Christmas. 
 
 •Pag-es 368 and 369 of the book quoted. 
 
THE SWEDES IX OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 Z7 
 
 At the temple where the roof and parts of the walls 
 are covered with gold everything has been carefully ar- 
 ranged, and as the wors'hippers enter aJl take the places 
 assigned them, according to rank and positions in life. 
 On one side of the great hall at the upper end is 
 prepared a high seat for the King, and on the other 
 side a similar seat for the most distinguished guest who 
 happens to be present. In the rear of the altar is built 
 a costly alcove, covered with gold and pearls. Tliere, on 
 pedestals, are placed the tJiree deities. 
 
 THOR, ODIN, AND FREY. 
 
 Thor is the central figure; he holds in 'his right hand 
 the far-famed hammer, or, rather, sledge, called Mjolner. 
 In his left hand he holds seven stars. On one side of 
 him is Odin; on the other, Frey, with the sacred hog 
 Gullenborst (Goldenbristle). In front of them is the 
 iron-covered altar on which holy fire is kept burning; 
 there is placed also the holy oath-ring or bracelet, 
 around which oaths were administered or taken by 
 placing the hand on the ring, as now is done on the 
 Bible. All the utensils for the sacrifices are also placed 
 in front of the deities. 
 
 It is from the names of those three Scandinavian 
 deities that we have our three week-day names, Wednes- 
 day, Thursday and Friday. The Swedes changed 
 Odensdag to Onsdag. The English or Anglo-Saxons 
 changed, in course of time, the Woodinsday to Wednes- 
 day. 
 
 Inside the hall of the temple where the feast is kept, 
 the walls are covered with costly embroidered hangings; 
 the hght is what some call "dimly religious," openings 
 being made only in the roof for the smoke of the fires 
 to pass through. Along the sides are placed benches 
 for the congregation. The floor (except near the fire- 
 places) is covered with straw about a foot in thickness. 
 
38 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 This custom is yet in use in some parts of Sweden. As 
 a boy, I used to play at a neighbor's house on such 
 straw-covered floor in the only room in daily use. 
 
 After all are seated the animals for the sacrifices are 
 led to the altar and there killed by the officiating priests. 
 The blood is carefully gathered in a tank, called 
 
 "THE FOUNTAIN QF BLOOD." 
 
 (Do not these words put us in mind of the words in 
 the hymn by William Cowper, "There is a fountain filled 
 with blood?") 
 
 When the animals have all been killed the priests 
 take consecrated besoms, if not of hyssop, of some twigs 
 v/ith leaves, and, after dipping them in the blood, sprinkle 
 the pedestals of the deities, the altar and the whole con- 
 gregation; and it is called 
 
 "THE BLOOD OF THE ATONEMENT." 
 
 The meat of the sacrificed animals is brought to .the 
 different fires and boiled for the feast, and while boil- 
 ing the people take bread which they bring with them 
 and dip it in the boiling broth and eat it. (This custom 
 also is continued at noon on Christmas eve in many 
 parts of Sweden, and constitutes the dinner for that day.) 
 When the meat is well done it is taken out and blessed 
 by the chief priest before being distributed to the people. 
 
 After the preliminary sacrificial ceremonies are con- 
 cluded and all have enjoyed their dipped morsels, while 
 telling each other of the heroic deeds of the past year, 
 in which they had been engaged, and of their visits to 
 many strange countries, then, suddenly, the blowing of 
 horns is heard. They all seem to know what it means, 
 for a general silence reigns and all eyes are directed to 
 the incoming of 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEX TIMES. 30 
 
 THE SACRED HOG 
 
 or the hog of Frey, a large, living hog which is led to 
 the altar in front of the deity. But before the animal is 
 sacrificed men and youths go forward and place their 
 hands on the head of the hog and make loud and solemn 
 vows of their determination to carry out during the com- 
 ing summer most wondrous and daring deeds. They all 
 promise that they will accomplish such mighty deeds or 
 perish in the attempt. And they are men who mean 
 what they say. 
 
 DARING DEEDS RECORDED IN THE SAGAS. 
 
 Many of such promises are found in the Sagas.* 
 When the hog has been ceremoniously offered and 
 killed, three official toasts are drunk to the deities, ap- 
 propriate speeches being delivered by the priests; hence, 
 no doubt, the custom at present of toasts and speeches 
 on festival occasions Then they drink to the memory 
 of deceased friends and warriors fallen during the year 
 in battle. All the drinking is out of silver-mounted 
 horns. Between ever\^ toast the silver-bearded bard 
 strikes his harp and sings of battles, conquests, and de- 
 feats, of hope and reconciliation, of eternal reward or 
 punishment, and of the final triumph of the good in 
 
 A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH. 
 
 Such sentiments in the hearts of heathen worshipers 
 may require a brief account of 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE VIKINGS. 
 
 Their ideas of the creation of the world, as pre- 
 sented in Swedish histories, are too ridiculous and ab- 
 
 •The poetical records spoken or sung: by the Vikings. The words 
 fiaKe. sagacious, etc., are probably derived from the Scandinavian 
 word, sag-a. 
 
40 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 surd to deserve recording in this work. They have been 
 found in two old books of Saga songs, called Eddas, 
 published in the twelfth century; one by a priest named 
 Simunder, the other by a Judge Sturleson; both from 
 Iceland. But, aside from those puerile ideas thus de- 
 scribed, it is known that the old Northmen thought of 
 and believed in, some Divine being, which they spoke 
 of as 
 
 "THE MIGHTY ONE FROM ABOVE" 
 
 whose name they did not dare to mention; who ex- 
 isted before anything else, and will exist after the de- 
 struction of the world, who is of eternity, without be- 
 ginning or end. 
 
 These views they must certainly have received from 
 the Jews; and, strangely enough, like them, would not 
 pronounce the Deity's name, Jehovah. 
 
 They believed that after the struggle in this world 
 between the good and the evil, and the subsequent de- 
 struction of all, a renovation "of the earth would take 
 place, bringing with it a transition to a purer and ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 They believed that all mankind have sprung from 
 one pair, which they called 
 
 ASK AND EMBLA. 
 
 And when, by missionaries told of the Son of God hav- 
 ing become man and walked among men, they did not 
 think such doctrine strange at all, knowing how their 
 own gods, Odin and Thor, often revealed themselves to 
 their worshipers. 
 
 Besides, these ideas of their gods and religion were 
 not of the exclusive kind, but left room for other gods 
 to be worshiped as well as their own. in this respect 
 being like the pagans of the Roman Empire, 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 41 
 
 Wlicii rellectiiig- on these religious traits, one can- 
 not hell) regret that such hopeful fields, as all the 
 Scandinavian countries were, for true missionaries of the 
 Gospel of Christ, should first be taken up by the corrupt 
 and soul-destroying church of Rome, and the subse- 
 quent modified or reformed Romanism for nearly a thou- 
 sand years, making the entrance and reception of true 
 Christianity in this century tenfold more difHcult than if 
 the old Northmen had been left alone. And the same 
 may be said of the whole of Europe, South America, 
 Mexico, and every land where state policy has intro- 
 duced an injurious, debasing and false Christianity. 
 
 The difference is seen in the easier conversion of 
 people in the islands of the Pacific; in the Asiatic fields 
 like the Telegus, and other lands where previous con- 
 ceptions of religion have not been of a kind to keep up 
 a barrier against the Gospel. 
 
 The assertion may safely be made that more con- 
 versions to Christ from heathenism have taken place 
 during this last century than during all the centuries 
 together, since the time of Constantine, from all the Cath- 
 olic and Protestant state church countries in the world, 
 England, perhaps excepted, where religion has been 
 comparatively free during two centuries. And for the 
 hundreds or thousands that probably may have become 
 converted to Christ during those centuries, tenfold, if 
 not hundredfold more, humanly speaking, would have 
 embraced Christ if, in the meantime, a true Christianity 
 had been preached and religion been as free for accept- 
 ance or refusal as the noble Bereans of the north had 
 proclaimed it. 
 
 People may say what they will about the spifitual 
 fruits and benefits arising from persecutions; still, the 
 fact remains that it was when "the churches through- 
 out all Judea and GaJilee and Samaria" had rest, that is 
 from persecutions, "they were multiplied." The same re- 
 sults have followed in this country since the establish- 
 ment of religious liberty. 
 
42 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 VALHALLA AND NASTRAND. 
 
 The early Scandinavians had a strong faith in a fu- 
 ture life, which enabled them to look upon death with 
 contempt, knowing that it was only the gateway to their 
 Valhalla, or future blissful abode, where they should for- 
 ever enjoy a continual feast; and for diversions go forth 
 to tournaments and games for championships, belts, etc., 
 and on returning, to be waited on by beautiful Valkyries 
 filling their cups or horns with choicest beverages. In 
 fact, it was to them a heaven of sensual bliss and pleas- 
 ures, such as they had most enjoyed here, without any 
 admixture of earth s troubles or sorrows. To obtain an 
 assurance of this, it was only necessary to be bold and 
 brave in battle or die some violent death. For the 
 mean-spirited and cowardly, or those who died natural 
 deaths on a straw bed, a place of never-ending misery^ 
 disgrace, and torment was prepared, called Nastrand.* 
 
 ROB ROY'S RULE. 
 
 Questions of right or wrong were decided, not by 
 any moral axioms, but by might; their mottoes or max- 
 ims being the same as those of the celebrated chieftain 
 and freebooter, Rob Roy, viz.: 
 
 "The good old rule sufflceth us, 
 The simple plan, 
 
 That they may take, who have the power, 
 And they may keep who can." 
 
 Compunctions of conscience, at the thought of all 
 their»robberies on land or piracies at sea, never seemed 
 to have troubled them any more than their present de- 
 scendants, the Lutheran legislators, are troubled about 
 robbing dissenters by way of taxes for the support of 
 the priests of the government. Li the sight of God and 
 
 'The Viking-s looked with such contempt on those who Indulged 
 In the luxury, as thev called It. of a straw bed, that people dying 
 on them were scornfully said to have died the straw-death. 
 
THE SWEDES IN OLDEN TIMES. 
 
 43 
 
 all just and honorable men, such robberies are even 
 g^reater in the latter case than in the former, for the 
 promoters of them sin against better light and knowl- 
 edge and are expected to have clearer perceptions of 
 truth, right and justice. 
 
 ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL. 
 
 It is strange enough that in enlightened England 
 the rulers could have been guilty of such robberies in the 
 name of church rates, until the year 1868, and with the 
 poor pretext of thereby serving God. 
 
 There is hope, however, that during the next cen- 
 tury these robberies of God's people will cease, even in 
 Sweden. If not by the slow and sluggish actions of 
 self-interested legislators ruling at the diets and church 
 conventions, the reforms may come by the more sure 
 and radical political uprising of the people, clamoring 
 for the downfall of Sweden's Bastille, her state church, 
 as the Parisians in 1789 clamored for the fall of the 
 French Bastille. 
 
 How things, touching religious reforms, are done in 
 those assemblies is described in chapters xv., xvi. and 
 xix., under heads of "Religious Liberty" and "Chtirch 
 Convention." 
 
44 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. 
 
 "Jumping o'er times; 
 Turning the accomplishment of many years 
 Into an tiour-glass." 
 
 —Shakespeare. 
 
 THE FIRST CATHOLIC MISSIONARY. 
 
 At a general church council held in Rome in the 
 jear 817, and at a following one in 822, it was decreed 
 to send missionaries to Sweden. Young Ansgarius of- 
 fered his services, even though it should cost his life. He 
 had previously taken monastic orders and became a very 
 zealous monk. The Emperor, Louis the Pious, had given 
 him many costly gifts to King Olof of Sweden, evidently 
 to make the new religion more acceptable. Historians 
 differ in their accounts of his appointment. 
 
 He set out on his north-bound journey, accompa- 
 nied by several attendants and the monk Whitram. But 
 while crossine the Baltic, he was attacked by Swedish 
 pirates, who took from him everything of value, includ- 
 ing the gifts to the King. But they let him keep his life 
 and his religion. They did not, like the Swedish King 
 St. Erik in Finland, say "Worship our God or die." 
 
 After landing on the Swedish coast he continued his 
 travels on foot through woods, wilderness and dangerous 
 dismal swamps. He arrived at last, in the year 827, at 
 Biorko, near the present Stockholm, where he was kindly 
 received by the King, who permitted him to preach and 
 teach the new religion, and whose minister of State, Her- 
 gier, with several others, consented to be baptized. With- 
 
INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. 45 
 
 out any known cause or reason he left Sweden in 831, 
 and on arriving at Hamburg was promoted to an Arch- 
 bishopric, though only thirty years old. In 857, he again 
 visited Sweden, but the heathens were then so provoked 
 by the innovations of the Romanists that his life was 
 in danger, and some of his friends advised him to pay 
 a sum of money for his life, and escape, but he nobly 
 answered: "I will not give anything for my life, as I am 
 ready, if my God so willeth, here to suffer and die." After 
 some discussion among the people, it was decided to 
 allow the preaching of the new religion, and the teacher 
 was to be left unmolested. 
 
 Besides this permission, the King gave a fine lot on 
 which to build a church, and Ansgarius (called also "The 
 Apostle of the North") built, close by, a parsonage. 
 
 Some time afterwards he again left Sweden, and the 
 work not being yet compulsory, progressed quite slowly. 
 He died in 865, having lived an exemplary life and sub- 
 jected himself to many rigorous customs in vogue among 
 devoted Catholics. While absent from Sweden, he had 
 appointed several zealous priests to carry on the work 
 at Birka (Bjorko). One of them by the name of Gaut- 
 bert, became the 
 
 FIRST BISHOP OF SWEDEN 
 
 and his relation, one Withard, his assistant. Probably 
 owing to their aggressive and provoking measures, 
 which all the Roman missionaries adopted, an uprising of 
 the people took place, at which Withard was killed, and 
 Gautbert, with his companions, had to leave the country. 
 Seven years afterwards, a priest called Ardgar was sent 
 to Birka, and he was soon followed by several others; 
 consequently, the work progressed safely. By a decree 
 established both at the lesser court and at the Storthing 
 (Diet), the King Olof permitted churches to be built, 
 Christian priests to be allowed to preach, and whosoever 
 would to have a right to accept the new doctrine. 
 
46 * THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 
 
 was thus, over a thousand years ago, granted by law to 
 the Swedes, a boon denied by a Lutheran Government 
 during the whole nineteenth centurv*. 
 
 About the year i,ooo a great battle was fought at 
 a place called Swoldern, after which a great number be- 
 came Romanists. One Earl Erik had, during the fight, 
 made a vow that if he gained the battle he would be a 
 Christian. The battle was gained and he, with his fol- 
 lowers, became Romanists. 
 
 Temporal advantages had much to do with the ac- 
 ceptance of Roman Catholicism; thus a Swedish Earl, 
 Ragvald Ulfson of Westergothland sent messengers to 
 King Olof Tryggvason of Norway requesting his sister 
 Ingeborg for wife. It was granted on condition that the 
 Earl should become a Christian and allow its spread in 
 his earldom; and so^ baptism and wedding were cele- 
 brated at the same time. And everybody in Westergoth- 
 land was soon afterwards converted through the labors 
 of a missionary sent from England at the request of 
 King Oloi, who had been converted in that land. His 
 name was 
 
 ST. SIGFRID OR SIGURD. 
 
 He came either via Denmark or Norway to Swe- 
 den and worked with great success in the western part 
 of the land. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival he met with Olof Skot-king 
 of Sweden, and so well did he succeed in persuading the 
 King to embrace the new religion, that he, with his 
 queen and children, consented to be baptized in Husaby 
 fountain in Westergothland, in the year 1007. "And 
 thus," we are informed, "Sweden got its first Christian 
 King." He was, no doubt, better than most of them, for 
 the historian, Adam of Bremen, who lived in the elev- 
 enth century, calls him "the most Christian King." 
 
INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. 47 
 
 A SUCCESSION OF SAINTS 
 
 from England and Germany came about this time into 
 the land: St. Eskil, St. Bothvid, St. David, St. Stefan, 
 etc. Cities, villages, churches and springs are named 
 after them to this day. Their Roman priestly successors 
 have left some lying legends of their doings whereby 
 they imposed on the credulous people by pretended mir- 
 acles, too silly and absurd to be here recorded, though 
 historians give a minute description of them. 
 But with all their 
 
 POMPOUS PROCEEDINGS, 
 
 extravagant manner of life, domineering demeanor, de- 
 struction of ancient temples and sacred groves, they did 
 not, like Gustavus \^asa, convert the Swedes in a day. 
 
 The early Catholic Kings did not, like all the Luth- 
 eran rulers, compel their subjects to be of one creed; so 
 we find "that 250 years after the arrival of Ansgarius to 
 Sweden, sacrifices in the sacred groves near Upsala were 
 still kept up after the manner of the fathers.* 
 
 METHODS OF ROYAL ROMANISTS. 
 
 In Norway, however, under the victorious Kmgs, 
 Olof Tryggvason and his successor, called St. Olof. the 
 Romanizing process was carried on as cruelly and in- 
 considerately as in Sweden when Lutheranism was forced 
 on the people. The former had not, like most of the 
 northern Vikings, accepted baptism as a pure matter of 
 business, but in sincerity and devotion, being fully con- 
 vinced of its superiority over heathen rites, proof of 
 which he had seen both in England and Ireland. 
 
 St. Olaf's zeal, on the other hand, had more of a 
 selfish and worldly stamp upon it, calculating how he 
 
 •Starback's History, vol. I., page 226. 
 
48 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 could bring about the change of reUgion in such a man- 
 ner as to derive the greatest pohtical benefit thereby. 
 Both of them adopted the most violent means in connec- 
 tion with the most refined cunning. And as Archbishop 
 Angermannus, with whips, did beat Lutheranism into 
 the Swedish Romanists,* so did Olaf Tryggvason beat 
 Romanism into the Norwegian pagans. 
 
 The historian and lecturer, A. U. Baath (Boat), who 
 has related the above, says, "he culminated at last his 
 zeal at Hogolaland, where, with the assistance of his big- 
 gest dog, Vige, he carried on his work of conversion." 
 
 The lecturer, in reflecting on such methods, adds, 
 "that as a natural result, the conversions brought about 
 with such aids, must have been of the most superficial 
 kind." 
 
 Such a King would naturally be almost idolized by 
 the Catholic missionaries. His biographer, a monk by 
 the name of Odd, tells of him, "that he had fair wind to 
 whatever place he sailed, and that fortune favored him 
 more than any other man." 
 
 METHODS OF ROME'S MISSIONARIES. 
 
 They were the same in Sweden and Norway as in all 
 other parts of Europe; the sagacious missionaries of 
 Rome knew how to avail themselves of the well-known 
 weaknesses of royalty, and had well studied the power 
 and influence they exercised over their ignorant subjects; 
 they knew how, as a historian tells, "the barbarian tribes 
 usually followed without inquiry the religion of their 
 sovereign; and it was to the conversion of the King and 
 still more to the conversion of the Queen, that they de- 
 voted all their energies. Clotilda, the wife of Clovis; 
 Bertha, the wife of Ethelbert, and Theodolinda, the wife 
 of Lothaire, were the chief instruments in converting 
 their husbands and their nations. Nothing that could 
 
 •Menlioned in the next chapter. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. 
 
 49 
 
 affect the imagination was neglected ; it is related of Clo- 
 tilda, that she was careful to attract her husband by the 
 rich draperies of the ecclesiastical ceremonies; in another 
 case the first work of proselytizing was confided to an 
 artist, who painted before the terrified Pagans the last 
 judgment and the torments of hell; but especially the be- 
 lief which was sincerely held and sedulously inculcated 
 that temporal success followed in the train of Christian- 
 ity, and that every pestilence, famine, or military disaster, 
 was the penalty of idolatry. 
 
 The theory was so wide that it met every variety of 
 fortune, and being taught with consummate skill to bar- 
 barians totally destitute of all critical power, and strongly 
 predisposed to accept it, it proved extremely efficacious; 
 and hope, fear, gratitude and remorse drew multitudes 
 into the church.* 
 
 Of Clovis, King of the Franks, it is related by Greg- 
 ory of Tours, that he would be a Christian if the God of 
 his wife would grant him victory over the Germans, say- 
 ing in his prayer, "O, Jesus Christ, whom Clotilda de- 
 clares to be the Son of the living God, thou art said to 
 give help to the struggling and victory to those devoted 
 to thee and hoping in thee. I entreat the glory of thy 
 assistance; and if thou wilt indulge me with victory over 
 these enemies, I shall believe upon thee, and I shall be 
 baptized in thy name." 
 
 He gained the victory, but doubting whether the 
 people would permit him to forsake his former gods, 
 he consulted wath them, and found that they were willing 
 to follow their King, "shouting, 'we are prepared to 
 follow the immortal God.' " 
 
 He was immersed on the 25th of December, 495, 
 being the only orthodox monarch in Europe, and re- 
 ceived the title of 
 
 •Lecky's History of European morals. 
 
50 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "ELDEST SON OF THE CHURCH." 
 
 With him were baptized, besides his two sisters, the 
 nobles, the court-attendants, and no less than three thou- 
 sand of his warriors. 
 
 For a fuller account of this Roman mass-conversion, 
 see Armitage's "History of the Baptists." 
 
 Lecky, in his history of European morals, tells how 
 "a Bulgarian prince was driven into the church by the 
 terror of the pestilence, and he speedily effected the con- 
 version of his subjects." 
 
 "In England, the conversion of North Umbria was 
 partly, and the conversion of Mercia was mainly, due to 
 the belief that the Divine interposition had secured the 
 victory of a Christian King.'' 
 
 COMICO-DRAMATIC CONVERSIONS. 
 
 Dickens, in his "Child's History of England," re- 
 lates how King Etheibert of Kent was converted "and 
 the moment he said he was a Christian, his courtiers all 
 said they were Christians; after which ten thousand of 
 his subjects said they were Christians, too." 
 
 "Austin (called by some Augustine) built a little 
 church close to the King's palace, on the ground now oc- 
 cupied by the beautiful Cathedral of Canterbury. Sebert, 
 the King's nephew, built on a muddy, marshy place near 
 London, where there had been a temple to Apollo, a 
 church dedicated to Saint Peter, which is now West- 
 minster Abbey. And in London itself, on the foundation 
 of a temple to Diana, he built another little church, which 
 has risen up since that old time to be Saint Paul's." 
 
 After the death of Etheibert, Edwin, the good King, 
 allowed his child to be baptized, and held a great coun- 
 cil to consider whether he and his people should all be 
 Christians or not. It was decided that thev should be. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. ci 
 
 COIFI, THE CHIEF PRIEST 
 
 of the old religion, made a great speech on the occasion. 
 In this discourse he told the people that he had found 
 out the old gods to be impostors. "I am cjuite satisfied 
 of it," he said. "Look at me. I have been serving them 
 all my life, and they have done nothing for mc; whereas, 
 if they had been really powerful, they could not have 
 decently done less, in return for all I'have done for them, 
 than make my fortune. As they have never made my 
 fortune, I ajii quite convinced they are impostors." 
 
 "W^en this singular priest (who had sagacity 
 enough to see from what quarter the religious wind was 
 to come) had finished speaking, he hastily armed himself 
 with sword and lance, mounted a war-horse, rode at a 
 furious gallop in sight of all the people to the temple, and 
 flung his lance against it as an insult. From that time 
 the Christian religion (falsely so-called) spread itself 
 among the Saxons, and became their faith."* It is rea- 
 sonable to expect that such a dramatic, shrewd and far- 
 seeing chief priest would be promoted tO' the highest 
 office in the Roman church of England, and as such 
 could well say that he had made his fortune. 
 
 No doubt but that most of the Kings and great 
 men of Europe, with their priests and people, were con- 
 verted to Romanism on such slight and unscriptural 
 grounds; and no exception is known in Sweden. 
 
 From the time that King Olaf w'as baptized, the so- 
 called Christianity spread with increasing success, so that 
 in the time of King Sverker the First, at a Church Coun- 
 cil held at Linkoping in 1153, it was ventured to decree 
 that a yearly tax of Peter's pence should be paid to the 
 Pope. 
 
 ROMANISM IN POWER. 
 
 Hierarchism was by this time all-powerful, defying 
 the very Kings w^ho had assisted the bishops and priests 
 
 •Dickens' Child's History of England; pp. 1". 18. 
 
52 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 in obtaining their great power. Here it may be said, 
 "Give Romanism an inch of State Church power, and 
 she will take, not only the proverbial ell, but a whole 
 fathom, and the same may be said of all her State Church 
 daughters. Whether they are, or have been Protestant 
 daughters of Europe or America, history has placed 
 them all under the people's righteous condemnation. 
 
 The banns of excommunication were now hurled at 
 the Kings as well as their subjects, if they dared in any- 
 thing to cross the plans and purposes of the papal plen- 
 ipotentiaries and cross-carrying prelates of Rome. 
 
 PRIESTS, ONLY POPE'S SUBJECTS. 
 
 At a council held at Skeninge in 1248, the clergy 
 were absolved from all obedience to the civil power, and 
 were thenceforth to be considered only as servants and 
 subjects of the Pope. In the meantime the people were 
 purposely kept in the grossest darkness, ignorance, idol- 
 atry and superstition; the religious services and ceremo- 
 nies were all conducted in Latin, or some kind of gib- 
 berish supposed to be Latin. 
 
 IGNORANCE OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 So ignorant were these religious teachers, that even 
 in the times of Gustavus Vasa, many of them could not 
 read the Swedish language, much less any foreign 
 tongue, and so violent and outrageous were they in their 
 conduct that two of Gustavus Vasa's court chaplains 
 killed each other at his table. 
 
 And the case was not better in Germany. With a 
 desire to reform many evils pointed out, it is said Luther's 
 "hands were tied, for the condition even of the German 
 clergy was much like that of the Swiss, of whom BuUin- 
 ger honestly confesses that only three deans in Switzer- 
 land could read the Old Testament, some did not know 
 
INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. 
 
 53 
 
 of the Bible at all, and not all of them could read the 
 NcAv Testament." 
 
 A ROYAL SAINT. 
 
 King Erik of Sweden, canonized as Sweden's patron 
 saint, who lived in the twelfth century, was a remark- 
 ably good man. He lived a very austere, pious and self- 
 denying life. Having heard of the holy enterprises of 
 the Crusaders, he wished to distinguish himself on nearer 
 fields than Palestine in making converts to the cross of 
 Rome, and by such conquests adding to the boundaries 
 of his kingdom. And so, saying like Jehu, "Come and 
 see my zeal for the Lord," he, with his cross-marked war- 
 riors started off on an expedition to Finland, accompa- 
 nied by the proselyte maker. Bishop Henry. Being a 
 valiant man, and his followers equally brave, he attacked 
 the Finns in battle because they would not receive the 
 religion he offered them. After conquering the Finns, 
 he shed bitter tears, and cried like a child, when he looked 
 on the slaughtered enemies, whose souls had been lost 
 because they would not be Christians like him and his 
 followers. 
 
 But the worthlessness of his sorrow soon became 
 apparent. The conquered and trembling captives, in 
 irons and chains, were brought before him, and had the 
 merciful alternative offered them either to become bap- 
 tized or die on the spot. The frightened Finns, seeing 
 themselves surrounded by fierce-looking, so-called Chris- 
 tian crusaders with long-handled, broad battle axes on 
 their shoulders, ready at the signal of their King to cut 
 their heads off if they refused to be converted, they, nat- 
 urally, of the two evils chose the least, and were by 
 equally ready tools of the King converted and baptized. 
 His Bishop Henry became the patron saint of Finland. 
 For this heroic and missionary deed, he was canonized 
 by Rome as a worthy saint. 
 
54 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 THE CRUSADER'S SUCCESS. 
 
 He had now the long-desired and looked-for satis- 
 faction of having christened the Finns and Estlanders. 
 Having achieved this — in his, the Pope's, and all 
 Europe's estimation — wondrous exploit, he returned to 
 Upsala and met with a Nemesis Divina, for while sitting 
 in the church on Ascension Day, May i8, 1160, he was 
 informed of the approach of a Danish army commanded 
 by Prince Magnus Henrickson, a pretender to the Swe- 
 dish throne, who came to attack him. 
 
 Such surprises by unexpected enemies were common 
 in those days when they had neither suitable roads nor 
 postal communications. The men, consequently, went 
 to the churches fully armed, where, at the entrance, was 
 a special armory provided, and here they piled or hung 
 up their most cumbersome weapons. 
 
 When the King heard the sad news, knowing that 
 he was unprepared for battle, he determined to die like 
 a Christian, and would not leave the church till the ser- 
 vice was finished. Then, with so many warriors as he 
 could get together, went forth to battle. He was soon 
 conquered; and he, who with misguided zeal had cut 
 off so many heads, now in the same manner lost his 
 Own, thus verifying the Saviours words, "They that take 
 the sword, shall perish with the sword"."* 
 
 From that time till the decree went forth by Gus- 
 tavus Vasa, that all the Swedes should become Luther- 
 ans, the Church of Rome had undisputed and undis- 
 turbed possession of Sweden, its kings, its people, and 
 its wealth; and there, as everywhere else in Europe, the 
 world's black midnight, without a star or ray of hope in 
 the firmament, hung like a pall over the deluded priest- 
 ridden people during three long centuries more. At 
 last God said: Let there be a little light, and there was a 
 little light. He said, moreover, 
 
 •Note.— At the place where he fell, a fountain is said to have sprung 
 up, and it was called St. Eric's Fountain. It is there to this day. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF ROMANISM. cc 
 
 LET AMERICA APPEAR, 
 
 and out of it the United States, to enlighten the world. 
 And America did appear, and in the fullness of time 
 the United States. 
 
 Without the latter, the Reformation in Europe 
 would not have been productive of any spiritual bless- 
 ings; and the few poor and persecuted people of God 
 would only have exchanged one slavery for another; one 
 master in Rome for another in whatsoever country they 
 happened to live in; and the meaning of the words "re- 
 ligious liberty" would have continued as hidden to-day 
 as in the days of Luther, Calvin, or Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 Owing to the right of religious liberty which the 
 heathen nobly adhered to while in power, it required 
 three centuries before the Roman Church with all its 
 State policy, intrigue and cunning could call itself se- 
 curelv established in Sweden. 
 
56 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 "A system cannot be 
 true which destroys 
 personality." 
 
 RAMPANT ROYAL REFORMATION. 
 
 When the great undertaking of Luther to reform 
 the papal system of rehg-ion became known to the 
 strong-willed King of Sweden, it was no unwelcome 
 news to him, and he sincerely wished for its success, as 
 he had with the eye of a patriot seen what calamities 
 had been brought on his country by its subjection to 
 Rome, in all matters pertaining to religion. He there- 
 fore watched with great interest the progress of Lu- 
 ther's work in Germany. He saw plainly that the only 
 chance of success the reformer could have, was in win- 
 ning over to his cause, the rulers of the different king- 
 doms and principalities of Germany, and he found with 
 satisfaction, that many of them gladly embraced the op- 
 portunity of becoming free from the control of a Papal 
 sovereign, so that they could each in their own state, rule 
 independently, and they themselves become heads of 
 their respective churches. 
 
 POLICY OF GUSTAVUS VASA. 
 
 The King, Gustvus Vasa, who like all other Euro- 
 pean princes and potentates, had naturally asked himself 
 the question whether, from a political point of view, he 
 
INTRODUCTION OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 57 
 
 would gain or lose by declaring in favor of the Reforma- 
 tion, was not slow in forming his decision to advocate 
 for himself and his country the acceptance of the new 
 religion. By such a course he would become the head of 
 the Swedish Church, and consequently independent of 
 all Papal interference. Besides this self-aggrandizement, 
 he saw as a patriot, that the country, which was in 
 danger of a terrible war, would be completely ruined by 
 continuing in subjection to the Papacy. Two-thirds 
 (some historiajis say three-fourths) of all the real estate 
 and lands in Sweden had got into the possession of the 
 clerg^'. All this could be, and was confiscated by adopt- 
 ing Lutheranism. He had no doubt that by threats and 
 promises he could soon convert his Catholic into Luther- 
 an priests; so he concluded, at the famous Diet of West- 
 eros, 1527, to lay before that assembly his plans, purposes 
 and prospects. 
 
 He therefore encouraged the dissemination of Lu- 
 ther's doctrines by two brothers, Olaus and Laurentius 
 Petri, who, as missionaries, had returned from the uni- 
 versity at Wittemburg, one of whom the King after- 
 wards made Archbishop of Upsala; the other, his Ec- 
 clesiastical Councilor of State. It is possible that these 
 men had gained some adherents, by conversion as well 
 as conviction. 
 
 LUTHER'S NAME ODIOUS. 
 
 At that time, the very name of Luther, known only 
 as an arch-heretic, was held so odious by members of 
 the Diet that not one of them dared to even men- 
 tion it. 
 
 The purposed Royal "coup d'eglise" (church stroke) 
 was, therefore, the more revolutionary and daring, and 
 nothing but the financial wretchedness of the country 
 and its dependence on the King's ability as a statesman 
 and a soldier in case of an expected war, could ever 
 have made his ambitious and selfish though patriotic, 
 policy succeed. 
 
58 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 The famous Diet met. Over it hung threatening 
 war-clouds. The ecclesiastical atmosphere for weeks had 
 been charged with papal thunder and lightning, and the 
 minds of the people were filled with forebodings of some 
 terrific storm of revolution. It came as expected. 
 
 Policy and Papacy, King and Priest, in combat 
 faced each other; each represented power, each repre- 
 sented cunning state-craft. But one obnoxious bishop, 
 by the name of Brask (they have many of the same kind 
 yet) had so well laid his schemes and planned his op- 
 position, that the King's bill at first was rejected. But 
 this temporary defeat was only the forerunner of a final 
 and overwhelming victory. 
 
 GUSTAVUS VASA ABDICATES. 
 
 He abdicated at once, after saying that the devil 
 himself could not rule over suoh a people, and they 
 would now gladly see the axe at his neck if they could 
 only find somebody to hold the handle. 
 
 He then retired with his friends and courtiers to the 
 palace, and gave himself up with them, not to prayer, 
 but to feasting and carousing, in which he continued 
 for several days, well knowing that he would soon be 
 wanted. 
 
 In the meantime, the Diet saw in what a plight they 
 were left, and, as in all State Church countries where 
 policy demands a change, State reHgion, which is only 
 maintained for State purposes must not be a barrier in 
 the way. So in this case; and the result was that they 
 sent deputation after deputation, who with tears and re- 
 pentance, on their knees, begged him to return, assur- 
 ing him that all would go as he wanted. He finally re- 
 lented, returned to the" Diet, and carried out his plan 
 of declaring Lutheranism the State religion of Sweden, 
 and it was so accepted by the Diet. But, as a measure 
 of precaution, the common people were to be told that 
 nothing but some needless ceremonies should be given 
 
INTRODUCTION OF LUTHERANISM. eg 
 
 Up as not in accordance with the Bible. So well did he 
 succeed, that, as the historian Geijer informs us, fifty 
 years afterward the people did not know that they had 
 become converted, but thoug-ht that they were still 
 Catholics. 
 
 MEAN METHODS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 To accomplish this rehgio-political master stroke, 
 it is evident that recourse was had to foul measures. 
 All had been taught that the end sanctified the means, 
 and now this Jesuitical doctrine was turned against its 
 own teachers. Great temptations were held out by the 
 King to the nobles, showing them the great advantages 
 they would have in receiving such great shares of the 
 confiscated church and convent property by favoring 
 the adoption of the new religion. Those noble lords 
 were consequently soon converted and their descendants 
 are rich from the spoils to this day. 
 
 PLIANT PRIESTS. 
 
 To the priests, also, our sagacious Gustavus Vasa 
 knew very well how to present matters so as to win them 
 over, and the majority of them were soon profession- 
 ally, if not heartily, converted. To gain the royal favor 
 and promotion, they became as zealous Lutherans as 
 they had been papists; showing, that like their English 
 confreres in the times of Henry VIII. and his three 
 successors, on sober second thought, they would have 
 the religion of the King, or, as the time-serving Pendle- 
 ton is said to express it in the ditty : a caricature of the 
 
 "VICAR OF BRAY." 
 
 "That this is law, I will maintain 
 
 Until my dying day, Sir, 
 That whatsoever king shall reign 
 
 I'll be Vicar of Bray. Sir." 
 
6o THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Thus matters went on, royal and priestly cunning 
 prevailing, till in 1593, they succeeded at the Council of 
 LIpsala, by the strong hand of Charles IX., a son ot 
 Gustavus Vasa and father of Gustavus Adolphus, in de- 
 creeing the formal acceptance of the whole Lutheran 
 system of religion, that is, all the books connected with 
 it, called 
 
 CONCORDIA PIA: 
 
 and without this bulky bulwark of theology, Lutheran- 
 ism was not then, nor is it to this day by some consid- 
 ered complete in Sweden. Different views of which will 
 be found in Chapter XIX. on "Church Convention." 
 
 When that memorable council had passed the de- 
 cree, the chairman, Dean Nicolas Olaus Bothniensis, 
 was so carried away with enthusiasm that he exclaimed 
 in ecstasy, "Now has Sweden become one man, and wc 
 all have one Lord and one God." 
 
 But this conformity in doctrine, by which all were 
 made thus united in one form of worship of God, was 
 only at Upsala, The 
 
 LEGALIZED UNITY 
 
 did not extend over the country, which was now to be 
 evangelized by force according to royal Lutheran meth- 
 ods. The mask of deception was from that day thrown 
 away, and the work of compulsory conversion estab- 
 lished by law. 
 
 In order to impress the minds of the more devoted 
 Romanists with the majesty of the law and Lutheranism, 
 the Archbishop Angermannus was sent out through the 
 land with the aid of one hundred soldiers to beat the 
 new religion into those who were not willing to accept 
 it on easier terms. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF LUTHERANISM. 6i 
 
 METHODS OF CONVERSION. 
 
 Floggings with whips were resorted to, and buck- 
 ets of cold water were also thrown over the so-called 
 obstinate, if their zeal was too hot for the old religion. 
 
 With these historical facts before us, we can no 
 longer wonder that three centuries should elapse with- 
 out perceiving any spiritual fruits from the conglom- 
 erate tree of the Ro)^al Lutheran State Church of Swe- 
 den, called also, 
 
 GUSTAV VASA'S CHURCH. 
 
 Chevallier Bunsen says truly, "The eternal laws of 
 Providence forbid us to gather grapes ofY thistles, or the 
 fruit of freedom from the tree of despotism."* 
 
 To Germany, but mostly to the free countries of 
 England and America, it owes, under the blessing of 
 God, the little life which has lately, in spite of opposi- 
 tion, been infused into it. 
 
 'Signs of the Times," page 
 
62 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 "The end of all hypocrisy, 
 of all attempts to patch 
 up corrupt and worn- 
 out systems is at hand." 
 — Bunsen. 
 
 BAPTIST SENTIMENTS SUPPRESSED. 
 
 Until the early part of the present century, very few 
 signs of spiritual life could be observed in any part of 
 Sweden, here and there, during- the last century, a few 
 of the people would come together in private meetings 
 for edification; but as all such gatherings had a tendency 
 to godliness, different from what .the Government al- 
 lowed, such meetings were by law quickly quenched 
 by the conventicle-placard published in 1726. So^ dan- 
 gerous for the peace of the State Church, were these 
 conventicles considered to be, that the placard was not 
 abolished till the year 1857. But in the mean time, people 
 would come together to read the Bible or some ser- 
 mon ; sing and pray, and be fined or imprisoned for their 
 piety. No wonder that the flesh and the world, the 
 priests and the devil, flourished. Among the many im- 
 prisoned, were some in the northern-most parts of Swe- 
 den, who, from reading the Bible, and the Bible alone, 
 had imbibed Baptist sentiments, both as to Baptism and 
 the Lord's supper. This was about the latter part of 
 the last century. But they were considered so dang-er- 
 ous, that they were kept in prison till shortly before 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 63 
 
 their death, being denied even the rights of a trial before 
 the courts. The priests would occasionally enter their 
 cells to harass them, and from their reports, the public 
 has come in possession of these 
 
 IJAPTIST MARTYRS' VIEWS. 
 
 The name of the principal sufferer was Simon Od- 
 man, A full account of their persecutions and the law- 
 less proceedings against them, can be found in the ar- 
 chives of the First Baptist Church at Gothenburg, with 
 numerous other accounts of the ill-doings of the Swedish 
 State Church — some of which will be referred to in 
 chapters XII. and XIII. 
 
 A NEW ERA. 
 
 Many have agreed that the decade of 1830 to 1840 
 was a turning point in religious life in Sweden. Dur- 
 ing the three centuries of Lutheranism previous there- 
 to, spiritual religion was almost unknown, both by 
 priests and people, and where any signs of it appeared, it 
 was immediately trampled down and stamped out. And 
 yet. both kings and bishops complained continually of 
 the low and inmioral state of the people.* 
 
 INGEBORG, A WITCHY WISEACRE, IN SMO- 
 LAND. 
 
 Carl von Linne in his journal of August 7, 1741, 
 says the people believed in a witchy wiseacre woman 
 near \^exio, to w-hom they came from all parts of the 
 country to be healed of their diseases. He found out 
 what she believed about Lucifer, and how and where he 
 ruled in this world. Those who hoped to be cured, were 
 not asked to see her personally but send some stock- 
 ing, garter, or garment worn nearest the body, and then 
 
 •See Sven Baelter's Kyrko-Ceremonier. 
 
64 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 she informed them what to do. She prescribed a long 
 list of rules for the bewitched people if they desired 
 to be happy, especially in their marriage relations. Some 
 twenty-five such ridiculous superstitions are recorded by 
 that learned man. But as she went to church, and prop- 
 erly kept all religious ceremonies, she was not disturbed. 
 
 One may ask what had the priests been doing dur- 
 ing the centuries of so-called pure evangelical Luther- 
 anism, that belief in such a state of witchcraft could gain 
 any adherents? 
 
 Fifteen years later, or in 1756, Bishop Benzelius at 
 the Diet complained "that a perfect heathenism seemed 
 to be before them," and at the next Diet, three years 
 later, his successor Bishop Troilius, speaking on the 
 same subject, said that "the customary sins of the coun- 
 try, such as contempt for the word of God, infidelity, etc., 
 have year after year grown to such a height, all fore- 
 boding, that we before long shall see the community 
 changed from Christianity tO' heathenism." 
 
 LUTHER AND CALVIN COMPLAIN OF UN- 
 GODLINESS. 
 
 In like manner, Luther complained in his days 
 about the immorality and Godlessness of the people in 
 the various Protestant countries of Germany, saying, 
 they were even worse than under the, papacy. In both 
 countries, conversions had touched the head but not the 
 heart. 
 
 Now read what Calvin said, and how he complained 
 of ill-doings in his church — par excellence, called — Re- 
 formed. See Memoirs by Mackenzie, page 203. 
 
 His biographer says that he could not "behold with- 
 out the most lively grief, the vices of his liock, any 
 more than he could permit them in himself." "If you de- 
 sire," said he, "to have me for your pastor, correct the 
 disorders of your lives. If you have with sincerity re- 
 called me from exile, banish the crimes and debauch- 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 65 
 
 ery which prevail among you. I certainly cannot be- 
 hold, without the most painful displeasure, within your 
 walls, discipline trodden under foot, and crimes com- 
 mitted with impunity. I cannot possibly live in a place 
 so grossly immoral. Vicious souls are too filthy to re- 
 ceive the purity of the Gospel, and the spiritual wor- 
 ship which I preach to you. A life stained with sin is 
 too contrary to Jesus Christ to^ be tolerated. I consider 
 the principal enemies of the Gospel to be^ — not the Pon- 
 tiff of Rome, nor heretics, nor seducers, nor tyrants — 
 but such bad Christians; because the former exert their 
 rage out of the Church, while drunkenness, luxury, per- 
 jury, impurity, adultery and other abominable vices 
 overthrow my doctrine, and expose it defenseless to the 
 rage of our enemies. Rome does not constitute the prin- 
 cipal object of my fears: still less am I apprehensive 
 from the almost infinite multitude of monks. The gates 
 oif Hell, the principalities and powers of evil spirits, dis- 
 turb me not at all. I tremble on account of other ene- 
 mies, more dangerous; and I dread abundantly more, 
 those carnal covetousnesses, those debaucheries of the 
 tavern, of the brothel, and of gaming; those infamous 
 remains of ancient superstition, those mortal pests, the 
 disgrace of your town, and the shame of the reformed 
 name. Of what importance is it to have driven away 
 the wolves from the fold, if the pest ravage the flock? 
 Of what use is a dead faith without good works? Of 
 what importance even truth itself, where a wicked life 
 belies it, and actions make words blush? Either com- 
 mand me to abandon a second time your town and let 
 me go and soften the bitterness of my afflictions in a 
 new exile, or let the severity of the laws reign in the 
 church. Re-establish there the pure discipline. Re- 
 move from within your walls and from the frontiers of 
 your state, the pest' of your vices, and condemn them to 
 a perpetual banishment." 
 
 The quoted historian says, page 68: "The true re- 
 ligion w^as indeed established, and the faith of the church 
 
66 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. '' 
 
 of Rome was abolished. But many atrocious crimes 
 were still committed, which had long reigned, and which 
 the example of the clergy had contributed to maintain." 
 
 Calvin, Farel and Corout "preached with energy 
 against the vices of the times; the warmth of their zeal 
 was complained of. Corout was forbidden to preach, 
 and being disobedient to the injunction, was imprisoned.'' 
 Farel was got rid of some way; and Calvin banished; he 
 was commanded to leave the town in three days." 
 
 It was when the spiteful party in power lost their 
 influence and majority, that the sentence of exile was 
 revoked, and he was most anxiously requested to re- 
 turn. It seems, with regard to the state churches that 
 everywhere the reformation was only in the doctrine not 
 in the lives of either people or priests. 
 
 PHILIP JACOB SPENER 
 
 who was Pastor Primus of the church at Frankfurt am 
 Mayn and with Aug. Francke, founders of the pietistic 
 movement in Germany over a hundred years after Lu- 
 ther's decease, "complained in his "Pia Desideria" which 
 was published in 1675, about the sad state of the church, 
 and of the evils of the times generally with regard to re- 
 ligion, and especially concerning the clerg}% of which 
 he said, that they needed very much a reformation," etc.* 
 I have referred to these things purposely, to prove 
 that neither in Sweden nor any other of the Protestant 
 countries had the professedly evangelical doctrines, pro- 
 claimed by preachers under state control, changed the 
 lives of either people or priests who professed them. 
 
 ENGLAND AROUSED. 
 
 The state of morality was not much better in Eng- 
 land till the Wesleys and Whitefield stirred up the 
 masses of that highly favored country. 
 
 •Cornelius* Kyrko Historla, page 205. 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 ^7 
 
 Bishop Butler in his charge to the clergy of the 
 diocese of Durham, said in 1751: "It is impossible for 
 me, my brethren, to forbear lamenting- with you the gen- 
 eral decay of religion in this nation." 
 
 "It was the time of the supremacy of the English 
 deists, Bolingbroke, Collins, Tindal, Toland, and others. 
 Tlie existence of God was admitted, but everything su- 
 pernatural was denied. Reason was the source and guar- 
 antee of all thoug"ht, revelation was an impossibility, and 
 whatever in Christianity claimed to be miraculous was 
 ipse facto false."* "As Butler, whom none will suspect 
 of exaggerating the fact," said "It is come, I know 
 not how, to be taken for granted by many persons that 
 Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry; but 
 that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious, and 
 accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this 
 were an agreed point among all people of discernment; 
 and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal sub- 
 ject of mirth and ridicule; as it were by way of re- 
 prisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of 
 the world.''* 
 
 TIMES OF WHITEFIELD. 
 
 At his time, "serious and practical Christianity in 
 England was in a very low condition, scriptural experi- 
 mental religion had become quite unfashionable. 
 
 About the Wesleys it is said that "God in mercy de- 
 livered them from conformity tO' the habits and feelings 
 of an age of abounding impiety."** 
 
 It seems furthermore, that the improvement of the 
 times was hardly perceptible during the labors of the 
 celebrated Rowland Hill, who died in 1833. His bi- 
 ographer says: "Most of the clergy were ignorant of the 
 Gospel, and were content to add to a liturgic service, 
 
 •Review of the works of Bishop Butler, by L. Moss, In "The 
 Examiner," April 9, 1S96. 
 
 **Dr. Gillies' Memoirs of G. Whitefield, pp. 13 and 14. 
 
6g THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 neither understood nor appreciated, a brief moral essay, 
 instead of preaching Christ and Him crucified." 
 
 "This state of things was not without exceptions in 
 the zeal and characters of some, whose light rendered 
 more vivid and brilHant by surrounding darkness, was 
 an object of hatred in the eyes of the immoral, who would 
 gladly have put it out if they could. To profligacy and 
 vice, the inhabitants of our large towns added a thor- 
 ough abhorrence of the solemn warnings, which de- 
 nounced the awful consequences of ignorance and 
 sin, and formed ready combinations with our villagers, 
 to insult every faithful witness who protested against 
 their abominations." 
 
 Even officers of the army at Lowestoft in Suffolk 
 were so ill-bred as to insult preachers of the Gospel. Wes- 
 ley had occasion to "inform their commandant of the 
 fact, and asked for redress with becoming firmness. "Be- 
 fore," said he, "I use any other method, I beg of you, 
 sir, who can do it with a word, to prevent our being in- 
 sulted any more. We are men; we are Englishmen; as 
 such, we have a natural and a legal right to liberty and 
 conscience." * 
 
 WE ARE MEN: WE ARE SWEDES. 
 
 Such a plea could never have occurred to the minds 
 of any of the persecuted preachers in Sweden, to be 
 presented to anybody in high authority, even the high- 
 est. 
 
 As a proof of ignorance of the clergy, Rowland Hill 
 said, wlien preaching at Lady Huntingdon's College: 
 "A worldly wise divine absolutely said, 'I am sure that 
 fellow Whitefield is mad now, for I heard him say with 
 my own ears, "When I am weak, then I am strong." 
 
 Stranger still, that even so late as 1849, ^^ the meet- 
 ing of the "Baptist Home Missionary Society of Eng- 
 
 ♦Sidney's Life of Rowland Hill, pp. 3S9, 390, 391 and 107. 
 
REIGN OP LUTHERANISM. 
 
 69 
 
 land," a writer in the 'Independent' (of New York), 
 giving an account of the anniversaries in London, says 
 of this Society, that it 'gave occasion to exhibit, though 
 but in an imperfect degree, the ignorance and practical 
 heathenism which so largely prevails, particularly in the 
 rural districts of this country (England). A volume 
 would be necessary to do justice to this painful subject.' 
 In view of the case, the Chairman said: "I can assure 
 you that unless we individually, as members of a Chris- 
 tian church, feel it our duty to extend thr, cause at home, 
 we shall not prosper abroad."* 
 
 BOHEMIA AND PETER WALDO. 
 
 In that country, the state of things morally and spir- 
 itually, was somewhat better, owmg to their connection 
 with the exile Peter Waldo and the Waldenses; men who, 
 though living over three hundred years before Luther 
 was born, had "not bowed the knee to the image of 
 Baal," or Rome's Pope, or any other State church auto- 
 crat. 
 
 The Bohemians, or rather a part of them, had also, 
 through John Huss, imbibed the principles of John 
 Wicklifif. 
 
 These men, who were correspondents, lived and ex- 
 erted their influence about a hundred years before 
 Luther's time. 
 
 PAPAL TITLES OF A REFORMER. 
 
 The latter of the two had the distinguishing honor 
 of being called by the Papal Archbishop of Canterbury 
 by the following names — "that limb of the devil, enemy 
 of the church, deceiver of the people, idol of heretics, mir- 
 
 *"New York Chronicle" for 1849. Bound vol., p. 205. 
 
70 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 ror of hypocrites, author of schisms, sower of hatred, and 
 inventor of hes!"* 
 
 CHRIST'S VERDICT. 
 
 Any man who serves God faithfully may be happy 
 in receiving from either Papal or Protestant State church 
 prelates such vile epithets. For, as it is written, "Blessed 
 are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and 
 shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my 
 sake." "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your 
 reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets 
 which were before vou." 
 
 SWEDEN'S PROTESTANT PRELATES. 
 
 It is a sad fact that since the introduction of Baptist 
 doctrines into Sweden, her prelates have not been less 
 lavish or extravagant in their opprobrious aspersions 
 against the leaders of the Baptists than were at any times 
 their papal confreres. The reader of history will readily 
 recall similar cases in other Protestant State-church 
 countries. 
 
 Erroneous impressions have been current in the 
 minds of many persons and writers, that in the early 
 state of the Lutheran church in the dififerent countries, 
 things were better than in subsequent times.** The 
 "Freeman," the London Baptist newspaper, said in 1857 
 about the Swedish church, that it was "as cold as if 
 built of her thick-ribbed ice," and referring to her former 
 state, says, "The blossoms were so thick, and the two or 
 three grapes on the topmost twigs are so poor," and 
 further that, "it did not suffer from the evils that usually 
 
 ♦Jones' Church History, Volume 2. page 165. 
 
 The Swedish state-church organ, "Svensk Kyrko-Tldning," 
 called Spurgeon a scoundrel ("en skurk"). See the firsit years of its 
 •dition. 
 
 **See Dr. Waddington's views aljout this in next chapter, 
 quoted from Schenkel. 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 71 
 
 (Ic-spiritiialize a church. It was ncitlier corrupted by 
 wealtli, nor stifled with pompous ritual, nor spHt by her- 
 esy. It simply let go its hold of Christ's hand, and was 
 petrified where it stood. The people and the clergy alike 
 were dry bones." Whereas the fact is, it never did in its 
 early state ])roduce anything but leaves; no "thick blos- 
 soms" could be seen, that is, spiritual blossoms, forebod- 
 ing spiritual fruits; and as to letting go its hold of 
 Christ's hand, I afifirm that Christ never held it by the 
 hand; and the church never took hold of any hand but 
 the King's, who is its head and who guides it by his 
 hand to this day. 
 
 Similar errors as to degeneracy of the times in cer- 
 tain aspects have been common in all ages, which cynical 
 fogyism gave occasion to 
 
 SOLOMON IN HIS DAYS 
 
 to write the following verse: "Say not thou, What is the 
 cause that the former days were better than these? for 
 thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." 
 
 I have related how that during the decade 1750-60, 
 two successive bishops at two successive Diets in Swe- 
 den complained of the sins of the country, and that a per- 
 fect heathenism seemed to be before them. And yet, sin- 
 gular as it may appear, a Swedish church historian, Cor- 
 nelius, says, page 220, "not without reason has it been 
 afifirmed, that the middle of the eighteenth century was 
 the best time for the Swedish church." The same his- 
 torian records, page 218, that Bishop Jacob Benzelius, 
 brother to the one I have quoted, sent to the Diet at 
 Stockholm, in 1734, a statement with a petition concern- 
 ing the "Godless doctrines that were spread in the king- 
 dom." The efifects of them could not very well have 
 ceased some sixteen or twenty years afterwards; neither 
 could the efifects of the hated and despised pietistic 
 movements brought in from Germany (by him regarded 
 
n 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 as evils), and which were spread all over Sweden, have 
 suddenly ceased. It was for stamping them out that the 
 conventicle placard of 1726 was promulgated, when, with 
 punishment of fines, imprisonment and banishment, all 
 meetings in private houses for prayer, preaching, or edi- 
 fication, were forbidden. The same historian says, on 
 the same page, that "at the close of the decade, 1730, the 
 pietistic movements in Sweden gradually commenced to 
 subside.'' 
 
 At the same time the Swedish State church was 
 confronted with the appearance and spread of the so- 
 called Hernhutism — the doctrines and practices of the 
 Moravian brethren — which, on account of some promi- 
 nent priest advocating them, could not easily be put 
 down. And simultaneously were introduced the doc- 
 trines of Swedenborg, which were attacked by the 
 Bishop of Gothenburg. When to the above is added 
 the still continued proceedings against the witches and 
 the bewitched in several parts of Sweden, it is difficult 
 to understand wherein consisted the so-called "best time 
 for the church." 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 73 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 (continued.) 
 
 "The Lutheran type of 
 the Hierarchy is the 
 most narrow-minded 
 and unfruitful of which 
 history furnishes an example." 
 — Bunsen. 
 
 THE SWEDISH WITCHES. 
 
 Having mentioned something about these deUided 
 and unfortimate victims of ignorance and superstition, 
 it may be interesting to learn something more of those 
 wondrous phenomena of brain illusions among the high 
 and low, learned and unlearned classes, of Sweden. And 
 to those who have studied the peculiar legal proceed- 
 ings against witchcraft in Salem and the trials in Phila- 
 delphia and Hartford, the account from Sweden may- 
 prove of some interest. 
 
 The superstition appeared first in the province of 
 Dalarna, in 1668, from which it spread to Norrland and 
 thence to Stockholm and other parts of the kingdom. 
 
 RIDING ON BROOMSTICKS TO BLOKULLA.* 
 
 Several hundred persons acknowledged how at 
 night time they had been carried away by witches 
 through the chimneys and out into the air on their way 
 
 •The Blue Hills. 
 
y4 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 to the evil spirit in Blokulla, riding on broomsticks and 
 oven-rakes, and that on their aerial journey they scraped 
 metal off the church bells and silver off the priests' orna- 
 mental robes, and how they were by Satan compelled to 
 abjure Christ, tear the Bible in pieces, and say the Lord'? 
 prayer backwards, etc. The most enlightened men of 
 the times believed in the reality of such travels to Blo- 
 kulla. 
 
 The authorities considered it their sacred duty to 
 punish most severely the witches for their pretended cov- 
 enant with the devil. Special witch commissions were 
 appointed in several places, and so commenced those 
 famous witch-trials, which, instead of putting a stop to 
 the evil, only served to put oil on the flames. Over a 
 hundred persons were by their own confessions and those 
 of others sentenced to death, and submitted to it withoul 
 any recantation. The very Archbishops Svebelius and 
 Troilius* seemed to have believed in the trips to Blokulla, 
 and approved of the death sentences. A few more en- 
 lightened men tried to bring their contemporaries to bet- 
 ter views of the matter, explaining that it was all owing 
 to hallucination, but in vain. The trials continued, one 
 witch after another was executed, and the whole land 
 was filled with noise, alarm and consternation. At last a 
 doctor of medicine. Urban Hjarne, succeeded in proving 
 how, at least at Sockholm, the accusations were founded 
 on simplicity, wickedness, and deception. After which 
 some persons were still executed, but not for witchcraft, 
 but for false accusations."** Consequently witchcraft 
 subsided in Sweden. 
 
 WILLIAM PENN AND WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 It seems that those evils had affected the Swedish 
 colonists who had come to New Sweden, near Philadel- 
 phia, to settle. Bancroft, in his Colonial History of the 
 
 •Fbr Troilius. see Hofberg's Biographical Lexicon. 
 ♦♦Cornelius, pp. 198, 199. 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 75 
 
 United States, volume 2, pp. 41 and 42, says: "The Scan- 
 dinavian emigrants came from their native forests with 
 imaginations clouded by the gloomy terrors of an invis- 
 ible world of fiends; and in February, 1684, a turbulent 
 woman was brought to trial as a witch.* Penn pre- 
 sided, and the Quakers on the jury outnumbered the 
 Swedes. The grounds of the accusation were canvassed, 
 the witnesses calmly examined; and the jury, having 
 listened to the charge of the Governor, returned this 
 verdict: "The prisoner is guilty of the common fame of 
 being a witch, but not guilty as she stands indicted." I 
 doubt if Solomon could have rendered a wiser judgment. 
 It would seem that if the Swedes had had their way, the 
 fair fame of Philadelphia w^ould have been shared with 
 that of Salem in this respect. The historian adds, that 
 "in Penn's domain, from that day to this, neither demon 
 nor hag ever rode through the air on goat or broom- 
 stick; and the blackest arts of conjuration went no farther 
 than to foretell fortunes, mutter spells over quack medi- 
 cines, or discover by the divining rod the hidden treas- 
 ures of the buccaneers." 
 
 Such comparatively harmless prognostications have, 
 of course, continued in Sweden unto this day, many in- 
 stances of which could be given, but the cases below will 
 suffice. 
 
 SWEDEN'S GREAT HISTORIAN 
 
 Mr. Anders Fryxell, tells how in his childhood, during 
 the early part of this century, peculiar customs and su- 
 perstitious practices were prevalent among the country 
 people; how on Easter nighl they painted with tar the 
 figure of a great cross on all barn doors as a protection 
 against the sorceries of the Easter witches; several cases 
 
 *In East Hampton, Long- Island, Goodwife Garlick was tried 
 for witchcraft in the vear 1657, but her case was referred to the 
 General Court at Hartford. Conn. Accusation probably ignored.— 
 Documentary History of the State of New York, vol. I, p. 683. 
 
76 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 of most ridiculous habits are related in the introduction 
 to his history's history.* 
 
 EASTER-FIRES ON HILL-TOPS 
 
 or mountains are to this day seen burning and blazing, if 
 possible made up of tar barrels, but although having 
 originated from the same cause, now serve only as 
 amusement for boys instead of prevention against 
 witches. 
 
 When it is remembered that the facts here related 
 are the heathenish relics of the whole of the eighteenth 
 century, it may seem very strange how the church his- 
 torian before quoted could consider "the middle of last 
 century as the best for the Swedish church." The explan- 
 ation, however, is very easy, for the civil, political and 
 clerical rulers of a State-church always consider their 
 establishments as most flourishing and on the high wave 
 of glory and prosperity when they are strong enough to 
 put down by the arm of the law every appearance of 
 evangelical dissent. In that respect, Sweden succeeded 
 very well during the middle of the last century, and 
 hence the boasted satisfaction with that period. That the 
 church, with most of its priests, was at the same time 
 spiritually dead did not in the least trouble the authori- 
 ties. That the lives of the priests were not better one 
 hundred years before Mr. Ahnfelt in his days referred to 
 their scandalous doings, may be taken for granted. Yet, 
 in all the Protestant countries, Sweden included, some 
 noble and pure-minded men in the clergy lived and la- 
 bored. Many names could be given of priests who did 
 what they in their position could do to improve the 
 morals of the masses and their confreres; but they had to 
 stem a tide that was too strong for their well-meant ef- 
 forts to make any progress against it, encumbered as 
 they were with the tight-laced doctrines and harness of 
 
 •Min Historias Historia, page 9. 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 77 
 
 the State-clnirch and opposed by all parties in high and 
 low places, they generally became discouraged or gave 
 tip in despair. 
 
 LIVES OF THE SWEDISH PRIESTS. 
 
 The bad examples in Sweden were set by the priests 
 themselves. A very prominent dean, Rev. P. Ahnfelt, 
 says in his "Student Minnen," "priests who preach lies 
 and nonsense, who swear, drink, distill and sell whiskey, 
 who play cards and gamble, who dance and behave un- 
 seemly, who cheat and steal, etc., should be, according to 
 the laws of the church, deposed; but," lie asks (during 
 the year 1859), "how many of that kind are not left even 
 without a warning by our bishops and coadjutors?" 
 When he wrote the above, he was informed that a young 
 priest, a son of a priest, lived in his father's house with a 
 woman, with whom he had a child, though they were 
 not married. 
 
 He mentions several such cases of awful ungodli- 
 ness among the priests. Speaking of one of them, he 
 says: "Terrible things were said of this man and several 
 of the priests of Blekinge in those days." How they 
 raved against the godly of their congregations, and for- 
 bade them to read certain sermons of Luther, in one of 
 which Luther says, that "the road to the abodes of dark- 
 ness is paved with the skulls of ungodly priests." This 
 author says further that bad as the lives of the priests 
 were, their church members complained, however, most 
 about "the rusty, mouldy, misty, uncertain, unsalted, un- 
 spiritual, and unbiblical doctrines which by our miser- 
 able 'seven sleepers' are served up in so many pulpits." 
 As a consequence, he continues, "the people remain away 
 from the churches, hold private meetings, baptize their 
 own children, distribute the Lord's supper among them- 
 selves, and when p.unished for that, emigrate in great 
 flocks to America." 
 
yg THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Had any Baptist, Methodist, or free-church Luth- 
 eran published such accounts as this Dean of the State 
 church did, there would have been a general outcry 
 against it, as unqualified falsehoods or exaggerations. 
 
 A POWERLESS BISHOP. 
 
 His superior. Bishop Faxe, could not stop him, but 
 did what he could to show his vengeance when oppor- 
 tunity offered. He cited him to appear before him and 
 the congregation to answer for having allowed laymen to 
 talk temperance in his pulpit. He, Mr. Ahnfelt, how- 
 ever, only turned the episcopal proceeding into ridicule. 
 
 Similar accounts came from all parts of the land in 
 those dark days. 
 
 And marie, this was not in the middle ages, but dur- 
 ing the middle of the present century. The same Dean 
 says "that though the consistories were negligent about 
 the lives of the priests they paid strict "attention to the 
 sacredness of the conventicle-placard, to the prescribed 
 length of the sermons, to the laws against heresies and 
 enthusiasm, the proper wearing of the surplices, etc." 
 But, notwithstanding all this, those immoral priests were 
 not hypocrites, like those our Saviour denounced, for 
 they did not "indeed appear beautiful outward," nor did 
 they "outwardly appear righteous unto men." 
 
 Now, it may be asked if the priests about the time 
 of the introduction of Baptist doctrines into Sweden were 
 such as described by Ahnfelt, a reformer, and one of the 
 best of priests in the country, what might be expected of 
 the people generally? I state these things that the Bap- 
 tists in America may know to what kind of people the 
 Gospel was preached. 
 
 The Swedes needed, and need yet, the Gospel as 
 much as any other people on earth. To this day, parts 
 of Sweden (and they are many) where the influence of 
 neither Baptists, Methodists, nor free-church Lutherans 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 79 
 
 has been felt, are described by pious Lutherans them- 
 selves as "dark districts and hard fields." 
 
 In such places, unconverted priests reign and rage 
 undisturbed over the superstitious people, as their church 
 fathers did hundreds of years ago. 
 
 Several Lutheran papers in Sweden published quite 
 recently an article under the head of 
 
 "THE DARKEST SMOLAND," 
 
 setting forth the evil doings of some wicked people com- 
 mitted against some people of God. The place thus dis- 
 graced is called Urshult, and its priest is named Vider- 
 strom. 
 
 Subsequent chapters will describe this state of affairs 
 more fully. 
 
 THE SWEDISH STATE CHURCH. 
 
 What is it? I answer: It is not a Christian church, 
 nor even a Christian institution, but, as before stated, 
 a parody on such, and a poor parody at that; it is, how- 
 ever, all that could be expected from such foundations as 
 Luther laid, and on which Gustavus Vasa built. It is 
 said of some persons, when the results prove better than 
 their plans, that they built better than they knew; as in 
 the case of 
 
 "The hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
 ****** 
 
 He builded better than he knew; 
 
 The conscious stone to beauty grew." 
 
 But Luther built worse than he knew, for he knew 
 very well that a Christian church was not one composed 
 
80 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 of all people born in a certain country because some- 
 body preached the Gospel there. He knew also, very 
 well, that sprinkling or baptizing infants, as practiced by 
 the Church of Rome, was not baptism as instituted by 
 Christ and practiced by his Apostles. He knew also that 
 a Church of Christ was not to be upheld by military force 
 and priestly persecutions even unto death, as both he and 
 Melancthon advocated. I say he knew better than that; 
 yes, and much better than he practiced or encouraged 
 his royal patrons to practice in their several kingdoms 
 or States ; but having once set out to follow the example 
 set by Rome in church building, the consequences have 
 been as bad as could be expected; and the world suffers 
 from the evil effects thereof unto this day. But, to pre- 
 sent the matter more properly and in accordance with 
 his own words, he was no builder at all; for he says: "I 
 am born to be a rough controversialist; I clear the 
 ground, pull up weeds, fill up ditches, and smooth the 
 roads. But to build, to plant, to sow, to water, to adorn 
 the country belongs, by the grace of God, to Melanc- 
 thon."* 
 
 One need only read his writings to be struck with 
 the palpably glaring inconsistencies between his better 
 views and worse practices, or his encouraging the Luth- 
 eran rulers by the Machiavellian motto of doing evil 
 that good may come; the world has seen the evil of such 
 temporizing for policy's sake; the good has not yet ap- 
 peared, and never will. 
 
 Dr. John Waddington, in his "Congregational His- 
 tory," quoting from "Schenkel in Hertzog," says "Luther 
 proposed to look to the foundations after he had raised 
 the superstructure, and, in the meanwhile, to construct it 
 with a certain leaning to the surrounding Roman fabric. 
 The consequence was a crack in the building that no 
 skill could ever repair. The Lutheran church has 
 lost her independence, her peculiar vital activity, her 
 
 •Milner's Church History, abridged by Jesse Townsend, p. 736. 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 8 1 
 
 authority in spiritual and temporal thinf^s, and, worst of 
 all, her sense of dii^nity, and her desire for its restora- 
 tion." 
 
 To give an idea of what the Swedish state church is, 
 it has been necessary to trace it to its origin in Germany, 
 where the results were no better than in Sweden. What 
 the doctrine of the church of Sweden is, has not yet, after 
 three hundred years, been legally decided. 
 
 Some of its learned men hold that it is only a part 
 of the "Concordia Pia," such as the Augsburg Confes- 
 sion and Luther's Catechism; others, ecjually learned, 
 maintain that it is composed of all the writings in the 
 same book, such as "the apology for the confession of 
 Augsburg," the "Smalcald Articles," with several others. 
 But, as it has not made any difference hitherto, it will 
 not hereafter, whichever way it may be decided by the 
 King or Diet.* 
 
 I have said that, whatever the state church is, it is 
 not a Christian church. And I am fully warranted in 
 making such an assertion by referring to some prominent 
 churchmen, and also to a learned judge. 
 
 Dean Ahnfelt. in one of his books, says that, "in the 
 time of Charles XI., the Swedish monarch-episcopal 
 state-church became full-fledged, and its progeny thrives 
 among us yet." 
 
 The same dean at a public conference of thirty 
 priests and many laymen, for discussion on religious 
 questions, held at Christianstad, July 22, 185 1, advanced, 
 on the subject of religious liberty, the following resolu- 
 tion, viz.: "No persecuting church can be a Christian 
 church; for in the same degree as it is persecuting it 
 ceases to be a Christian.** After some slight modifica- 
 tion it was passed. 
 
 I hold the same views, for the following reasons: 
 
 ♦This subject will be presented in Chapter XIX., under the title 
 Church Convention. 
 
 **Evang-elical Christendom, for 1831, page 439, London. 
 
82 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 When Chris.t foretold to his disciples of the perse- 
 cutions even unto death, saying, "The time cometh that 
 whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God serv- 
 ice." He added, "And these things will they do unto 
 you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." 
 Some persons will ask: Has not this and that great 
 man, though his reputation was stained with the crime of 
 persecution, known the Father or the Son? I consider 
 it needless to answer such question ; for one plain saying 
 of Jesus is of more weight than thousands of men's opin- 
 ions. But if persecuting individuals or councils cannot 
 scripturally be said to know the Father or the Son, how 
 much less can a persecuting church, ruled by ungodly 
 kings, ofificers and priests, and composed chiefly of un- 
 godly men, lay claim to know the Father or the Son? 
 And if not knowing them, surely their State Church can- 
 not properly be called Christian. 
 
 Furthermore, Bishop Thomander, who was one of 
 the chief bishops in Sweden, writing on the state of the 
 Church in 1853, says: "The church of Sweden is a world- 
 ly papacy, a state institution; the evangelical Lutheran 
 clergy are the chaplains of the Swedish kingdom. This 
 relation between state and church is by law fully de- 
 termined and defined; the contract is written and signed. 
 The state can break the contract, and turn the whole 
 church out of doors whenever it pleases. The church, as 
 such, has no independence. The state determines over 
 her life and death; it does so, not by reason of being the 
 strongest, as in some countries, but according to written 
 agreement." 
 
 Men of such high positions in church would not 
 write or speak thus about any institution really Chris- 
 tian. Many other clergymen could be quoted if neces- 
 sary who have expressed themselves in a similar manner. 
 
 A highly esteemed and learned lawyer, Judge Hen- 
 schen of Upsala, said, in 1853, at a conference on relig- 
 ious liberty, that "The term 'Christian church' for our 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 83 
 
 State church was very confusing- and bewildering; as they 
 are entirely different things; the one dates from Christ 
 and his apostles, the other from the Diet at Westeros; 
 the one is composed of persons voluntarily believing in 
 Christ and his doctrines, the other is composed of every 
 one born in Sweden, Jews excepted." And in this man- 
 ner he continued to contrast the two. He was for many 
 years a member of the Diet, and had his seat in the cham- 
 ber of the Burghers. 
 
 I have never seen or heard any statement purport- 
 ing to contradict what either of these prominent men 
 dared to affirm concerning the state church. But many 
 Lutherans have been even more outspoken in their opin- 
 ions about that institution, calling it in their religious 
 periodicals "the daughter of 
 
 BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF 
 HARLOTS," 
 
 and many other both unsuitable and unsavory words. 
 
 In conversation with free church Lutherans it is 
 very common, or used to be, to hear the expressions, "the 
 harlot church," "the harlot service," "the harlot priests," 
 "golden calf service," etc., applied to the state church, 
 her religious service and her priests. None but thought- 
 less and unreflecting Baptists will ever join with them in 
 such epithets. If with papal Rome is meant "the daugh- 
 ter of Babylon," then all the protestant state churches 
 as a body must be, not the daughter, but the grand- 
 daughter of Babylon. But even thus interpreted, the 
 appellation "harlot church" is inappropriate, for it im- 
 plies the existence of what was once, or is now, a Chris- 
 tian church, though corrupt, having for support hired 
 herself to a worldly state and entered into an illegitimate 
 union and connection with such a state. But as there 
 never was any Christian church in Sweden till the year 
 
84 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 1848, not even a corrupt one, it is evident that no illegit- 
 imate union ever took place. 
 
 The people in Sweden were subjects only of the 
 king, and by him and his subordinates were commanded 
 to assent and conform to certain creeds, rites and cere- 
 monies pertaining to religion, sometimes of one kind and 
 sometimes of another; sometimes under the name of 
 Romanism and later under the name of Lutheranism. 
 That the orders, laws, or decrees came through the hands 
 of bishops or priests, made no difiference, for they, like 
 the people, were only subjects and servants of the king; 
 therefore, I say, the terms "harlot church," etc., are in- 
 applicable. 
 
 I said that in Sweden there was not even a corrupt 
 Christian church with which "the kings of the earth" 
 could enter into a forbidden union; for a corrupt church 
 implies the idea of a previous existence of a sound and 
 healthy Christian church, as a rotten fruit implies the 
 idea of a fruit previously sound. And as not even a 
 gardener can make fruit artificially either sound or rotten, 
 no more can "the kings of the earth" make a Christian 
 church, which must be composed of men "being born 
 again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
 the word of God which liveth and abideth forever." 
 
 LUTHERAN CHURCHES DEPENDENT ON 
 PRINCES. 
 
 I have purposely digressed from the general tenor 
 of this work to advert to this subject, and in order to 
 present clearer views on this matter, often misunderstood 
 or misrepresented by great historians. Thus, Dr. Wad- 
 dington, before referred to in this chapter, quoting from 
 Schenkel, says "The Lutheran church has lost her inde- 
 pendence," etc., "and her desire for its restoration." 
 Whereas, the truth is, she never had any independence, 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 85 
 
 ami, consequently, could not, according- to connnon sense, 
 desire a restoration of what she never had. 
 
 No period of time during the Reformation, either in 
 Luther's times or afterwards, can be pointed to when the 
 German Lutheran state churches, any more than the 
 Swedish, could establish a title to an independent Chris- 
 tian church. 
 
 LUTHER'S DESCRIPTION OF CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 In his "German Mass of 1526" he says: "The real 
 evang-elical assemblies (meaning thereby Christian 
 churches) do not take place pell-mell, admitting people 
 of every sort, but they are formed of serious Christians, 
 who confess the gospel by their words and lives, and in 
 the midst of whom we may reprove and excommunicate 
 those who do not live according to the rule of Jesus." 
 Then he adds: "I cannot institute such assemblies, for 1 
 have no one to place in them; but if the thing becomes 
 possible, I shall not be wanting in this duty.* "The 
 thing," as he calls it, never became possible, either in his 
 time or his successor's. And he and they made it hot 
 enough to those for whom it was possible. 
 
 That he was not anxious to establish anything Uke 
 such Christian assemblies (churches) he proves two 
 years later, or in 1528, when he writes: "You are about 
 to organize the church of Koenigsberg (Prussia). I en- 
 treat you, in the name of Christ, to make as few changes 
 as possible. You have in your neighborhood several 
 episcopal towns, and it is not desirable that the ceremo- 
 nies of our new church should vary in any marked 
 degree from the old ritual. If you have not already abol- 
 ished the Latin mass, do not abolish it, but merely intro- 
 duce into it a few German hymns. If it be abolished, at 
 all events retain the old order and costumes.** 
 
 •Congreg-ational History by Wadding-ton, 1200-1567, page 349. 
 ♦♦Ibid. 
 
86 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Could Luther really suppose that Christ, in whose 
 name he dared to give such advice, would have advised 
 anything like it? 1 answer, No! 
 
 In fact, Luther never tried or made the slightest at- 
 tempt to organize a Christian church. Having, with his 
 coadjutors and nearest followers, once made up their 
 minds to form the sinful alliance between the throne 
 and the altar, as assuring the best guarantee for mutual 
 strength and support, everything had of necessity to be 
 subservient to the former, and so it remains to this day 
 in every country where their doctrines were accepted 
 under the patronage of the state and the artful smile of 
 the sovereign. 
 
 CHURCH RIGHTS SOLD FOR A MESS OF POT- 
 TAGE. 
 
 Instead of looking to God for strength (as in theory 
 only they did*), they looked for it in the promises of 
 princes, on which broken Egyptian reeds they leaned, 
 and their hands were incurably pierced. Or as Cheva- 
 lier Bunsen says of the Lutheran hierarchy: "It sought 
 for strength where it saw the power to lie, but received 
 from this power its deathblow."t 
 
 Thus they determined most sh'amefully to sell the 
 protestants' first-born — a new church institution — for a 
 mess of state pottage of policy. As a result and natural 
 consequence, the progeny became lame and crippled on 
 account of the bargain. 
 
 The motto at the head of this chapter is in accord 
 with such views. 
 
 When the Bohemian Christians wrote to Luther in 
 1524 — having previously "assured him of their deep and 
 
 ♦Nothing can be more beautiful for trust in God than the well- 
 known so-called "Luther's Hymn." 
 
 "A migrhty fortres.=i is our God, 
 A bulwark never failing." 
 
 ■ tSigns of the times, page 370. 
 
REIGN OF LUTHERANISM. 
 
 87 
 
 friendly interest in liis work, and their fervent prayers 
 for liis success — urging the necessity of combining Chris- 
 tian order and disciphne with that of soundness of doc- 
 trine which he had introduced," he rephed: "We have not 
 yet arrived at that state in which we are able to estabhsh 
 amongst us those regfulations, and the maintenance of 
 holy conduct which we are informed exist among you. 
 With us things are in an immature state, and proceed 
 slowly, but pray for us." In the following year, when 
 "the brethren inquired of him how far he had advanced 
 in the introduction of Christian discipline into the church, 
 when they found that as yet no steps had been taken, 
 they observed to him that this neglect operated against 
 the Brethren's church." "Luther, somewhat ofTended 
 by their persistence in the matter, gave them no satis- 
 factory reply, and intimated that he disapproved of some 
 of their regulations." As Dr. Waddington says, "He 
 committed himself to the variable and uncertain course 
 of accommodation, adapting the temporary forms of the 
 church to local circumstances or prejudices."* 
 
 LAMBERT'S LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Dr. Lambert, one of the early French reformers, 
 while laboring at Wittenberg, "felt deeply concerned be- 
 cause of the slow progress of the Reformation." "When 
 will the time come," he says, "when we shall see our- 
 selves instructed in the divine Word? We have over- 
 thrown and destroyed many things; what have we built 
 up in their places?" 
 
 But the trouble was that "The views of Lambert on 
 ecclesiastical polity were not in accordance with those of 
 the great Saxon reformer. Luther hoped for restoration 
 to the Church of Rome by the mitigation of abuses,'' 
 etc. 
 
 •Congregational History from 1200 to 1567, pp. 34S, 349. 
 
88 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Consequently, "The position of Lambert as that of 
 antagonism, in some respects, to his friends and patrons 
 at Wittenberg was one of considerable trial."* 
 
 Such accounts as these about Luther and his con- 
 stantly shuffling policy have never appeared in Swedish 
 books, histories or sermons, generally translated by 
 priests; but the day will come when Swedish as well as 
 English or German readers will have impartial records 
 and undisguised facts placed before their wondering eyes. 
 
 ♦Congregational History by Wadding-ton, pp. 379, 380. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS. gg 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS. 
 
 "Wake the song- of jubilee! 
 Let it echo o'er the sea! 
 Let it sound from shore to shore! 
 Jesus reigns for evermore!" 
 
 THE FIRST SWEDISH BAPTIST, 
 JOHN ASPLUND. 
 
 In a note on page 360 of "Semple's History of the 
 Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia" is found 
 an account of one "John Asplund, a Swede by birth, who 
 went to England in 1775, and served in the British Navy, 
 from which, having deserted, he came to North Carohna, 
 where he joined the church at Ballard's Bridge, and soon 
 afterwards removed to Southampton County, where he 
 was ordained. After extensive travels, chiefly on foot, 
 for the purpose of obtaining the desired information, he 
 published (i79i-'94) the "Baptist Register," an invalu- 
 able work on the statistics of the Baptist denomination 
 at the above dates. He settled lastly in Maryland, and 
 was drowned in attempting to cross Fishing Creek, Vir- 
 ginia, in 1807." 
 
 Another account of this John, the first Swedish Bap- 
 tist, is found in "The Baptist liome Mission Monthly" 
 for July, 1893, page 217, from a report by Rev. A. P. 
 Ekman, pastor of the First Swedish Baptist Church in 
 New York City. It was presented in connection with the 
 celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organ- 
 
90 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 ization of that church on December 22nd, 1892. It reads 
 as follows: "New York City will ever be held dear in 
 the memory of the Swedish Baptists on both sides of 
 the Atlantic. It was here that John Asplund, "A Swede," 
 as he usually signed himself, spent much of his time and 
 labor. More than one hundred years ago, when George 
 Washington served his first term as the President of the 
 United States, he traveled seven thousand miles in 
 eighteen months, mostly on foot through all the States 
 and Territories of the newly-formed Union, and collected 
 facts and statistics of the Baptist churches, which he 
 published in a year-book in the year 1790, and which he 
 afterwards issued in revised editions for several years in 
 succession." 
 
 Of his first published Register or Year-Book, only 
 two copies, so far as is known, are in existence. They are 
 in the archives of the Colgate University; and of those for 
 the following years, very few copies can be found. 
 
 As many have supposed that I was the first Swedish 
 Baptist known, it is a matter of satisfaction to be able 
 hereby to correct such error. 
 
 During the fifty years after the publication of Mr. 
 Asplund's Register, until I became a Baptist, it is possi- 
 ble that in some American or English Baptist Church 
 one or more Swedes may have been members, but I have 
 not heard of it. Consequently, when I became a Baptist 
 I did not know of the existence of another Swedish Bap- 
 tist in the whole world. 
 
 Very few people in Sweden, except those interested 
 in religious progress, had ever heard of any Baptists at 
 that time. As an instance, I will mention when Colonel 
 Broady told my mother it was his intention to emigrate 
 to America, she informed him that she had a son there 
 who was a Baptist, and predicted that he also would 
 become one. "Baptist!" he exclaimed with surprise. 
 "What is that?" My mother told him thar he would 
 find out when he came to America. This incident was 
 
Biographical items. 
 
 91 
 
 related by Colonel Broady at a great party in Gothen- 
 burg some years ago — the first time I heard it. 
 
 MY CONVERSION. 
 
 In April, 1844, while on a voyage as sailor before 
 the mast from New York to New Orleans, in the Packet 
 Ship Vicksburg, Captain Berry, it pleased the Lord, at 
 the latter place to convert my soul while associating with 
 a Methodist friend and his family and accompanying 
 them to their meetings.* At the Sabbath morning ser- 
 vice the preacher's text was Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call 
 heaven and earth to record this day against you, that 
 I have set before you life and death, blessing and curs- 
 ing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed 
 may live." Those words were winged as with an arrow 
 of conviction, and appeared particularly aimed at me. 
 They struck me with uncommon force, and seemed to 
 say: "Now is the time to choose for life and blessing." I 
 passed the afternoon partly in company with my Meth- 
 odist friends in solemn meditations; and in the evening, 
 after going with them first, to a class meeting where the 
 leader requested me to state my feelings, which I did, I 
 went to the church they attended. The pastor preached 
 from Isaiah, 45:22, which have become so famous in re- 
 lation to the conversion of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. 
 The words were: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all 
 the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none 
 else." Here the light shone forth, illuminating my dark 
 mind; and all things were from that day new to me. For 
 I chose life; I looked to God, and was saved. 
 
 "ADVICE TO YOUNG CONVERTS." 
 
 Leaving New Orleans for New York, one of my 
 shipmates, a pious sailor, put into my hands a little book 
 
 *His name was Paul Bruere, and, like myself, had belongred to 
 the Gothenburg navy yard. 
 
9^ 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 with the title "Advice to Young Converts," in which a 
 convert was urged to unite with the denomination under 
 whose auspices he had been converted. 
 
 In those days I looked upon all religious writings as 
 eciually reliable with the Word of God. Consequently, 
 my duty seemed clear that I was to be a Methodist. After 
 arriving at New York, I soon shipped for England, and 
 decided to unite with some church on my return. I 
 reached New York again in October, 1844, and found 
 myself with a religious sailor as room-mate, in Capt. Gel- 
 ston's sailors' home, Franklin square. I told him my 
 intention of uniting with a Methodist Church, and asked 
 him i'f he knew one suitable. He asked me what reason 
 I had for doing so. I told him of the advice in the book 
 referred to, and after he had asked me what I w^ould do 
 if I had been converted in a theatre, handed me the "Ar- 
 ticles of faith and practice" of "the Baptist Seamen's 
 Bethel," and told me to compare them with the Word of 
 God. Light on the subject of baptism broke in upon my 
 mind at once. On my room-mate's return, I told him 
 that my duty was clear enough, and accepted his invita- 
 tion to go with him to the Bethel, corner of Catherine 
 and Cherry streets, of which he was a member. After re- 
 lating my experience, I was, on November 3, 1844, 
 
 BAPTIZED IN THE EAST RIVER, 
 
 near the so-called Corlear's Hook, or upper end of Cherry 
 street. In those days there were neither wharves, ships, 
 nor warehouses in that neighborhood; nor even proper 
 streets nearby. The place looked more like a country 
 village than a part of New York. A sloping beach af- 
 forded a suitable place for Christian Baptism. It was 
 a beautiful Sabbath day. I had never seen anybody bap- 
 tized; nor was it needful to be impressed thereby to do 
 my duty, as some historians have erroneously stated. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS. 
 
 93 
 
 At distances of four to six hundred or a thousand 
 feet from the river's front, were scattered Httle frame 
 houses, in one of which rooms were kindly let for the 
 changing of clothes.* 
 
 JUBILEE DAY. 
 
 From that day of happy memory (which, as a clay of 
 jubilee, was duly celebrated at the New York Swedish 
 Baptist Church on the third of November, 1894,) I was, 
 of course, a member of the Baptist Seamen's Bethel, its 
 name afterwards changed to "The First Baptist Mariners' 
 Church," its house of worship now called "The Mariners' 
 Temple." I was baptized by the Rev. Ira R. Steward, 
 twelve days before he, with his family, were received as 
 members of the church by letters from Mystic. 
 
 I have been somewhat explicit in this account, so 
 that, if any future references to this act should be made, 
 whether in histories or otherwise, the truth without mix- 
 ture of mistakes may be known. Some have supposed 
 that if I had united with a Methodist church my whole 
 future religious course would have been changed. In 
 reply I may say that had I at first become a Methodist, 
 it could not have been long before my attention would 
 have been called to the claims of the Baptists. My mind 
 was, happily, so constituted, that where truth was pre- 
 sented, I was determined to accept and consistently fol- 
 low w'here it led, even to going down into and under 
 the water. 
 
 I have ever loved my Methodist brethren for their 
 real in winning souls, and particularly mine, and think I 
 can say that those of them wdio know me, love me in 
 return. It was my happy privilege while in Sweden to 
 show on various occasions my interest in their success. 
 
 ♦The place has lately been laid out as a beautiful park, called 
 Corlear's Hook Pack, presenting a fine view over the East River 
 and the Navy Yard. 
 
g4 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 STATE LUTHERANISM NOT ATTRACTIVE. 
 
 Here it may seem strange to some readers that, 
 notwithstanding the advice to young converts contained 
 in the book previously referred to, it did not occur to me, 
 as a Swede, to unite with some Lutheran Church hold- 
 ing the historic faith of the Fatherland, so famous from 
 the Thirty Years' War on the battlefields of Germany. 
 To such I would say, that I had never seen anything 
 either pure, lovely, or attractive about Lutheranism that 
 could induce me to accept it as a religion of choice; I had 
 had enough of it as a religion of force, having been com- 
 pelled to go through all its forms prescribed as a con- 
 firmed Lutheran, while knowing nothing whatever of 
 genuine Christianity. Besides, while in Sweden (until at 
 the age of seventeen, when I went to sea), I had never 
 seen a single Christian, or ever heard of any; conse- 
 quently, "no one cared for my soul," nor cared I for it 
 myself. 
 
 The priest, Mr. Ljungberg, who was appointed as 
 chaplain to the navy yard near Gothenburg, where I was 
 brought up, was a man who could only inspire me with 
 fear of ancl hatred to him ; he was so austere in his looks 
 and demeanor, that before I went to his school, for he 
 was also the schoolmaster of the place, I used to avoid 
 meeting him whenever possible. 
 
 During the years that I was compelled to attend his 
 school, or afterwards when he had to prepare me by 
 heartless lessons for the compulsory confirmation and 
 so-called Lord's supper, I cannot remember that he ever 
 spoke one kind word to me or to any one else, or that I 
 ever saw a smile on that man's face. I have ever thought 
 of him as 
 
 A TYPICAL PHARISEE. 
 
 In his life, so far as I or others could observe, there 
 was nothing to find fault with; and so long as he re- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL ITEMS. 
 
 95 
 
 mained as chaplain in the navy, he had his stipulated sal- 
 ary, so that he had no rig-ht to exact or extort a penny 
 from any one. But a greedy desire after lucre and greater 
 income caused him to look for a more profitable field, in 
 which also he succeeded, and while in possession of it, 
 he proved himself to be a curse and burden to his parish- 
 ioners, who ever complained of his miserly methods of 
 extortion. 
 
 Such was the man on whom it devolved to make me 
 a confirmed Lutheran. No wonder that I never felt any 
 desire or duty to become one; neither could I ever say 
 that I had voluntarily been one, nor be charged with 
 having changed one religion for another, as the case has 
 been represented in some published statements. 
 
 And, further, what I afterwards observed, or while 
 going to sea among professors of Lutheranism, was not 
 any more conducive to make me think favorably of a 
 religious system that consisted in mere legal forms and 
 useless ceremonies. 
 
 PRAYERS ORDERED AT SEA. 
 
 According to the laws of Sweden, it devolved upon 
 the chief officer of every vessel while at sea, to go down 
 into the forecastle, every morning and evening, and read 
 from the prayerbook certain prescribed prayers; after 
 which performance he would go on deck and curse and 
 swear more earnestly than he had ever prayed; as if par- 
 ticularly anxious to let the crew know that while saying 
 his prayers previously, he did not, for his part, mean 
 anything serious thereby. He certainly succeeded in 
 convincing me especially, that all was a farce. 
 
 I had noticed, also, before I went to sea, similar 
 heartless observances at the Gothenburg navy yard. But 
 they never impressed me, or anybody else, so far as I 
 know, with any feelings of seriousness or solemnity. At 
 that navy yard, the men were ordered not only to listen 
 to the said prayers, but also to sing a hymn. 
 
0)6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Many other instances could be adduced why I could 
 not feel any desire, when it became a question of choice, 
 to be a Lutheran. Of Lutheranism, apart from state 
 service, I had not heard or seen anything. 
 
 LONGING TO GO TO SWEDEN. 
 
 Having become a Christian and a Baptist, my first 
 desire was to go to Sweden, to make known my new 
 views of religion among relatives and friends, but not 
 having the means to do so, I continued until the follow- 
 ing Spring making short trips between New York and 
 City Point, Virginia. This enabled me to occasionally 
 meet with the dear church, and receive such instruc- 
 tions as were needful for a young convert. An especial 
 privilege it was, at such times, during the Sunday-school 
 sessions, to sit at the feet of that noble-minded and Chris- 
 tian lady, Mrs. C. H. Putnam, and at her Bible class 
 learn such wonderful spiritual truths, as were till then, 
 altogether new to me. 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 97 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 
 
 ITS MISSION TO SWEDEN. 
 
 "The Lord g-iveth the word: 
 The women that publish 
 the tidings are' a 
 great host." 
 
 —Psalms, 68: II., N. V. 
 
 WOMEN, A GREAT HOST. 
 
 To the ladies of several Baptist churches of New 
 York and vicinity is due, under the blessing of God, the 
 organization of that church and consequent spread of 
 Gospel truths extending not only to Sweden, which has 
 been most marked, but also to many other parts of the 
 world. 
 
 Whether the verse above quoted is historic or pro- 
 phetic, or both, the fact remains that they are foremost 
 in all good works. And one of them who was especially 
 instrumental in organizing the above-named church, 
 Mrs. Catharine H. Putnam, was alone "a great Host." 
 
 As early as ''in the Spring of 1841, the New York 
 Domestic Missionary Society first conceived the idea of 
 adding to their other operations an interest for the 
 special benefit of the seamen. Their intention w^as to 
 make it a denominational effort and appeal to the liber- 
 ality of Baptists to sustain it. A proposal was accord- 
 inglv made to thg ladies of the Oliver Street Church to 
 forn'i a liethel Society, which should embrace the female 
 
q8 the SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 members of sister churches in New York and its vicin- 
 ity. This request was promptly responded to, and a gen- 
 eral meeting held, which resulted in the organization of 
 the New York Baptist Female Bethel Union, with object 
 as above stated. 
 
 After many preliminary arrangements, they "hired 
 and furnished a hall, situated over a clothing store, on 
 the corner of Catharine and Cherry streets," and ap- 
 pointed Mr. John Wivil as preacher for that field, who 
 commenced his labors there in 1841. 
 
 OPPOSITION TO THE ENTERPRISE. 
 
 After more than two years of labor with more or 
 less, both of success and discouragement, having in the 
 meantime been deprived of the use of the hall, these 
 indomitable ladies again succeeded in getting possession 
 of it in April, 1843, ^"^ it was "re-opened for the special 
 benefit of seamen, on the first Lord's day in May." 
 
 Their secretary, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, daughter of 
 Mrs. Putnan". and wife of the Hon. Isaac T. Smith, ex- 
 pressed the feelings of the Bethel Union at that time in 
 the following words: 
 
 "If ever the eyes of servants looked to the hand of 
 their master, if ever the disciple saw the propriety of 
 walking softly before the Lord, or the simple felt the 
 necessity of watching at wisdom's gates, thus did this 
 Board feel, in venturing forward in this important work!'' 
 
 "So far as trials and difficulties were concerned, we 
 had counted the cost; the temerity of the undertaking 
 would rather be an object of censure and reproach than 
 of commendation. We looked not to achieve great 
 things, and we might, after all effect nothing, but we 
 were willing under all these discouragements, to 'com- 
 mit our way to the Lord,' believing that he could 'bring 
 it to pass.' " 
 
 Having realized the necessity of forming themselves 
 into a Church, "The little band of thirfeen met together 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 
 
 99 
 
 for the purpose of being organized" into an independent 
 church, under the name of the Baptist Seamen's Bethel. 
 (Afterwards changed to the Baptist Mariners' Church). 
 The council called for this object "met at the Bethel 
 room, on the fourth of December, 1843. Dr. Cone was 
 called to the chair." 
 
 "After considerable discussion (some members of 
 the council having come there, as they afterwards con- 
 fessed, strongly opposed to the recognition of the church, 
 and thinking it would be their duty to vote against it), 
 an unanimous resolution was passed to give to the new 
 body the hand of fellowship as a sister church." A week 
 afterwards a public meeting for this object was held in 
 the Oliver Street Church. "At this meeting the pastor 
 of the church, the Rev. E. Tucker, introduced a pro- 
 posal for adopting immediate measures to build a house 
 of worship for seamen, which should accommodate the 
 new church in carrying forward the object of their or- 
 ganization. More than eleven hundred dollars were sub- 
 scribed on the spot, which sum, in a few w^eeks was in- 
 creased to between four and five thousand." The board 
 of the Female Bethel Union collected shortly after some 
 fourteen hundred dollars from among females of the Bap- 
 tist churches in New York and Brooklyn. 
 
 WONDERFUL PROVIDENCE. 
 
 While that little band of thirteen devoted members 
 were assembled for recognition in that beautiful and 
 comfortable house of worship, how little could they sup- 
 pose that within twenty years the church of which thev 
 were the pioneers, would own it as the home of their op- 
 erations, being at the time without pastor, influence, or 
 money; and their great imdertaking looked upon bv 
 many well-meaning brethren with expressed distrust and 
 misgiving. But He who "moves in a mysterious way" 
 brought it to pass through many w'onderful changes, 
 which no one at that time could contemplate. 
 
lOO THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CALL OF A PASTOR. 
 
 This little ship of Zion, being now successfully 
 launched into the waters of Gospel church life, with her 
 volunteer crew of thirteen (nine of whom had enlisted 
 from the Macdougal Street Church, two from the Oliver, 
 one from the Cannon, and one from a church in Brook- 
 lyn*), needed for its suitable management a skillful and 
 experienced Captain to guide it in its assumed world-wide 
 field of missionary operations on land and sea. It was 
 proposed to offer the charge to Dr. J. L. Hodge, but he 
 suggested in his stead Rev. Ira R. Steward of Mystic, 
 Conn., who in his early days had been in the fishing and 
 coasting business and knew all about sailors. He ac- 
 cepted the call, and commenced his labors with the 
 church about the middle of April, 1844, and continued 
 his arduous and successful work till February, 1865, 
 when, through failing health and strength, he resigned 
 and recommended Dr. Hodge to take his place. He 
 agreed to take up the work on condition that the church 
 debt then remaining should be paid. 
 
 A MISSIONARY CHURCH. 
 
 Verily, such was this First Baptist Alariners' Church 
 of New York. It is especially on account of its connec- 
 tion with the Swedish Baptist Mission that its origin and 
 unique history has been, though only partly, here related. 
 
 Several missionaries, both in Sweden and Denmark, 
 were supported by this church until 1855, when the Bap- 
 tist Publication Society overtook the Swedish mission 
 and later passed it over to the Missionary Union. And 
 may the benevolent Baptists of America enable that So- 
 ciety liberally to support that mission so long as neces- 
 sary. 
 
 *Their names are recorded in "A Concise Historj' of the First 
 Baptist Mariners' Churcli," by Mrs. C. H. Putnam, publislied in 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. jqi 
 
 AN AMERICAN MISSION. 
 
 The Mission in Sweden is eminently an American. 
 Mission, as much as any in the Asiatic parts of the world. 
 After having- presented previous statements, it ought not 
 to be necessary to prove the correctness of such an as- 
 sertion. 
 
 The Mission there, is not, as was stated in 1892 by a 
 prominent clergyman, of "a spontaneous growth," if by 
 such words should be implied that Baptist doctrines 
 sprung up of themselves in Sweden, by the light only of 
 the Word of God. Such cases are rare, but as before re- 
 lated occurred in the north of Sweden about one hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 There seems to be among some Baptists a disposi- 
 tion in these days to withdraw all financial aid hitherto 
 granted to the missionaries in the nominally Christian 
 countries of Europe. If, unfortunately, such short- 
 sighted policy should be adopted and prevail, the effects 
 on the Missions there, would be very disastrous. 
 
 IF CHRIST WERE ON EARTH 
 
 and should renews his mandate to make disciples of all 
 nations, it is my firm belief that He would not make any 
 exceptions of such parts of the world as had, by the de- 
 vices of Satan, been deceived into acceptance of Chris- 
 tian forms for Christianity. 
 
 Surely the conversion of souls in such lands is as 
 important as in any other; and after being converted, it 
 is very important also that they should be taught "to ob- 
 serve all things" that Christ has commanded his dis- 
 ciples. 
 
 Concerning the comparative cost and the compara- 
 tive results of the missions to Sweden and other parts 
 of Europe, with the missions in Asia and Africa, the Mis- 
 
I02 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 sionary Union must be the judge of where withdrawals 
 or reductions may be most advisable in view of future 
 emergencies. 
 
 GOING TO SWEDEN. 
 
 Having in the preceding pages given an account of 
 the First Baptist Mariners' Church, and digressed some 
 by referring to the uncertainty of future support of the 
 Missions in Europe, the biographic items will be again 
 resumed. 
 
 In the early part of May, 1845, I started for Sweden 
 by way of London, and arrived a month later at Gothen- 
 burg. After the home salutations were over, the first call 
 was on Mr. F. O. Nelson, the American Seamen's Friend 
 Society's Alissionary, to whom, and to his wife, I related 
 at our first interview my Christian experience and how 
 I had become a Baptist. 
 
 The following Lord's Day they were invited to my 
 home, about three or four miles from the city, for private 
 worship. Besides my mother and sister, several old 
 friends and neighbors had gathered together in a large 
 parlor, and there Nelson preached the Gospel. After 
 the meeting was dismissed, I spoke to all of them about 
 the doctrines and practices of the Baptists, etc., and was 
 surprised to find how they all assented and agreed with 
 me. They said, "Well, that is just as it reads in the 
 Bible." Nelson made no remarks to the contrary. Con- 
 sequently, in that house, my childhood's home, was first 
 made known in a public meeting the Baptist doctrines 
 in Sweden. 
 
 PROSELYTISM NOT ATTEMPTED. 
 
 In my several visits to Nelson, no effort was made 
 to win him over from his Methodist to Baptist views. 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 
 
 103 
 
 As the sequel proved, letting him and his wife know 
 why I was a Baptist, was sufficient. The same course 
 was pursued in my intercourse with the Christians at 
 Stockholm, to which place I went from Gothenburg. 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH ROSENIUS 
 
 who was then the most prominent Pietist in Sweden. 
 
 To him I was introduced by the sailor missionary, 
 Olof Peterson. Mr. Rosenius had taken up the mantle 
 and labors of Rev. George Scott — referred to in Chapter 
 IX. In speaking with him about my Baptist sentiments, 
 he offered no remarks against them, thinking probably, 
 it was not worth his while to lose any powder on crows, 
 expecting, as I was a sailor, I would soon be ofif to sea 
 again. 
 
 PICNIC IN STOCKHOLM'S SUBURBS. 
 
 While tarrying in Sweden's beautiful capital, "The 
 Venice of the North," I had the pleasure of meeting with 
 quite a number of Christians who had assembled together 
 in a park-like place, just outside of the city. Mr. Rosen- 
 ius expounded to them the parable of "the prodigal son." 
 Most of the time was taken up by edifying words and 
 prayers; at the close of which the contents of the heavy 
 baskets were revealed and the physical "inner man" well 
 supplied. All were happy and joyful, but with perfect 
 decorurn, as "becometh saints." 
 
 I have no doubt but several of those present became 
 Baptists in the course of time. The two brothers, Pehr 
 and Gustaf Palmquist, were converted the year before, 
 and it is very probable that they were in the company. 
 
 Leaving Stockholm, I continued my travels by sea 
 to the northernmost parts of Sweden, and back again to 
 Gothenburg via Stockholm. 
 
104 ^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 PROVIDENCE POINTS THE WAY. 
 
 On my arrival at home, I learned that my t\yo 
 brothers, one master the other second officer, of a Chil- 
 ian bark, were at Hamburg on a voyage from Valparaiso. 
 I went to meet them, and the chief officer's place was 
 tendered me, which, after much hesitation, was accepted. 
 The bark returned to Valparaiso via Bordeaux. 
 
 AIEETING WITH REV. J. G. ONCKEN. 
 
 During my stay at Hamburg I had several oppor- 
 tunities of conferring with Br. Oncken; and told him of 
 my experiences in Sweden. He gave me some tracts on 
 the subject of Baptism, which I sent to Nelson, advis- 
 ing him, by writing, to study the same, adding that I 
 thought it of greater importance than he had supposed, 
 or words to that efifect. These words, with the advice 
 acted on, were the means in the hands of God of pro- 
 ducing 
 
 A SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION IN SWEDEN 
 
 as important as that caused by Luther's ninety-five 
 Theses which he nailed on the church doors at Witten- 
 berg. 
 
 On my arrival at Valparaiso I was immediately of- 
 fered the charge of a new vessel belonging to the same 
 party that owned the bark of which my brother was 
 master. 
 
 Much as I hesitated in accepting a chief officer's place, 
 still more did I hesitate in accepting a captain's, but was 
 prevailed upon by urgent pleas till I concluded to take it 
 as the Lord's will. Thus within six months' time, with- 
 out any efiforts or desires on my part, I was 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 105 
 
 PUSHED AHEAD BY THE LORD 
 
 from before the mast to Master — an advancement of rare 
 occurrence. 
 
 In a subsequent voyage to Hamburg in 1848 I found 
 to my joy and surprise that Br. F. O. Nelson had been 
 in Hamburg, and by Br. Oncken been baptized in the 
 River Elbe on the first of August, 1847, a^"<^^ ^^ter 
 being ordained, returned to Gothenburg to commence 
 his labors as the first Baptist Preacher in Sweden. 
 
 Previous to this, Br. Oncken had baptized C. M. 
 Bjorkholm, another Swedish brother, who, in September, 
 1845, returned to his home in Carlshamn, in the south 
 of Sweden, where, for several years he suffered great 
 opposition, and was threatened with banishment. In 
 1856 he came to this country, and now lives at Everett, 
 Mass. 
 
 Nelson's labors in the neighborhood of Gothenburg 
 among his relations and friends resulted in several ad- 
 herents to Baptist views, so he requested Br. Oncken to 
 send a minister to baptize them and organize them into 
 a church. This honor was conferred upon Brother For- 
 ster from Copenhagen, who, on the twenty-first of Sep- 
 tember, 1848, near midnight, baptized five converts in 
 the sea of Cattegat, at a place called Valler's Vik. 
 
 Together with F. O. Nelson, who became their pas- 
 tor, they were the same night organized into the 
 
 FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF SWEDEN, 
 
 "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 
 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Two 
 brothers of F. O. Nelson were among those baptized, and 
 the first one baptized was Sven Christian Nelson. He 
 also, like his brother, had been in America, and both were 
 converted among the Methodists. He is yet living at 
 Wastedo, Goodhue Countv, Minn. 
 
I06 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Owing to the prevalence of false and injurious 
 doctrines, so-called Christian, but invented by anti- 
 Christian popes and priests, and accepted and defended 
 by emperors, kings and princes. Catholic and Lutheran, 
 it required eighteen centuries from the time that Paul, 
 with the assistance of Silas, organized at Philippi the 
 
 FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN EUROPE 
 
 until such a church could be, though still contrary to 
 law, formed in the northernmost part of Europe and 
 then, first, after the doctrines had crossed and recrossed 
 the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 There seem to be many analogies in the two cases: 
 Great demand for the Gospel and great resistance to it. 
 
 EUROPE NOT FOR CHRIST 
 
 seemed, in the year A. D. 52, to have been Satan's motto. 
 
 SWEDEN NOT FOR CHRIST 
 
 was his motto in the year 1848. 
 
 In both cases the authorities, high and low, ranged 
 themselves on Satan's side, and did his bidding. In both 
 cases, plain and obscure people, in plain and obscure 
 places, by sea and river sides, were the first pioneers and 
 disciples of Christ, who were destined, in spite of Satan, 
 to grow and multiply so mightily. 
 
 In both cases the leaders were imprisoned, the one 
 beaten and killed, the other banished. 
 
 When Christ's Kingdom had thus been set up in 
 Sweden, a Christian church formed, Christian ordinances 
 instituted, and the church of Gustavus Vasa forsaken by 
 the Christian converts, the news thereof spread through 
 the length and breadth of the land that the heretical Ana- 
 baptists, as the priests insisted upon calling them, had 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 
 
 107 
 
 come into the country from America and Germany to 
 trouble the Swedish Israel. And now commenced a se- 
 ries of persecutions, both legal and illegal. Nelson was 
 tried before the courts and sentence of banishment was 
 passed upon him. The news thus spread all over the 
 land, led many serious Christians to search the Scrip- 
 tures on the subject. The obnoxious Baptist preacher 
 had been banished, but the truths he had proclaimed were 
 all the more spread through the land. In a letter to Pas- 
 tor Steward, he writes: 
 
 "From this day the Baptists and their doctrines were 
 no longer confined to an obscure corner of the land, and 
 to a few poor despised laborers. The truth was witTi 
 trumpet voices proclaimed on the housetops, and the 
 sound thereof re-echoed from cottage to palace through- 
 out the length and breadth of the land. Thus my ap- 
 pearance before the High Court at Jonkoping was the 
 public introduction of Baptist principles into Sweden. 
 Let now the poor, sailor be banished from the realm! 
 What matters that! The truths that by his trial have 
 been disseminated in Sweden can never be banished. Soli 
 Deo Gloria! 
 
 THE FIRST SWEDISH BAPTIST PREACHER 
 BEFORE OSCAR I. 
 
 "Ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my 
 sake." 
 
 Although sentence of banishment had been passed 
 on the Baptist preacher, he still had a right to appeal to 
 the King for its revocation by royal grace or clemency; 
 but this could only be granted on condition that Nelson 
 would promise not to preach the Gospel of the Son of 
 God; this, of course, he could not do, so the King told 
 him in a fatherly manner, that there was no other rem- 
 edy left, as he must, as a ruler, execute the laws of the 
 land. 
 
I08 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 REVOLUTIONS SUBSERVE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 As revivals are a refreshing necessity to dormant and 
 stagnant churches, so revolutions are equally needful and 
 stimulating to dormant and despotic States. In the lat- 
 ter case, though like all afflictions they may seem severe, 
 "in mercy oft are sent," and serve God's purposes Divine. 
 Thus, one of the fruits of the Danish revolu- 
 tion in 1848 — when so many tyrants trembled on 
 their threatened thrones — was an act of ' toleration de- 
 manded by the people. Consequently the more enlight- 
 ened kingdom of Denmark offered an asylum to the per- 
 secuted of the neighbor nation. Therefore, Nelson, with 
 his wife, on July fourth, 1851, departed from Gothenburg 
 and his weeping friends, for Copenhagen. In that city 
 he continued as pastor of the little Baptist church until 
 the year 1853, when he was asked to accompany some 
 of the little flock he had left in Sweden to America. They 
 numbered some twenty to thirty believers, who, on ac- 
 count of the persistent persecutions against them, were 
 determined to seek in the United States a shelter from the 
 raging storm of Lutheran despotism. With them he ar- 
 rived at New York in June, 1853. 
 
 It should be borne in mind that emigration from 
 Sweden in those years was something quite different 
 from what it is in these days. The passage had to be 
 taken in sailing ships requiring from two to three 
 months' time. The emigrants had to provide themselves 
 with food, and cook it as well as they could. On arrival 
 they had no friends or relations in any part of the coun- 
 try to receive and assist them. 
 
 These pioneer Baptists were, however, on their ar- 
 rival kindly received by the mother of the Swedish Mis- 
 sion, the Baptist Mariners' Church, and assisted with 
 their leader to proceed to Minnesota. In that State, Nel- 
 son organized and became pastor of several churches. 
 From that time Minnesota has been the most attractive 
 point to the Swedish emigrants. 
 
THE BAPTIST MARINERS' CHURCH. 
 
 A COW FOR SPRINKLING AN INFANT. 
 
 109 
 
 One of the many diabolical acts which had driven 
 them to such exile was the compulsory sprinkling of the 
 first child born of Baptist parents — a niece of F. O. Nel- 
 son. As neither bishop nor priests could induce the 
 parents to allow the infant to pass through the ordeal of 
 so-called pure evangelical Lutheran Baptism, the Bishop 
 sent a sheriff with four policemen to take the infant by 
 force from the crying mother's arms to the consistory, 
 to be there sprinkled according to law; and, as they could 
 not without torture, compel the mother to be "churched," 
 they, by the King's mercy, let her alone. A cow was 
 taken in payment for that barbarous service, called "Holy 
 Baptism." Another such case is reported to "Evangelical 
 Christendom" for 1851, p. 428. 
 
 SATAN CHUCKLING. 
 
 When reading such an account of a professedly Pro- 
 testant church, one can almost imagine how the devil 
 must have chuckled over his success from the time of the 
 Reformation in persuading all protestants of Luther's 
 doctrines, that they, and they only, were right. 
 
 THE ADVERSARY OF TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 Satan has always in a marked manner manifested a 
 special spite against all, who, in any part of the world 
 were the first to proclaim and preach Christ's doctrines 
 as held by the Baptists. Thus John the Baptist, the first 
 in Asia, was beheaded. 
 
 Paul, the first Baptist preacher in Europe, suffered 
 martvrdom in the time of Nero. 
 
 And whoever was the first Baptist preacher in 
 Africa''' could not have escaped martyrdom. Roger 
 
 *That honored Instrument in the hands of God was probably 
 either the Ethiopian eunuch, who. on his return home, was the 
 means of Queen Candace's conversion and the promulgration of the 
 Gospel through her kingdom; or, it may have been one of the men 
 from Egypt I>ybia, or Cyrene, who were present at the great Pen- 
 tecostal meeting in Jerusalem. 
 
no THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Williams in America, as well as F. O. Nelson in Sweden, 
 and Munster m Denmark were banished. It seems to be 
 uncertain whether Munster actually went into banish- 
 ment or not. Carey was driven out of India, and we 
 all know how Judson was treated in Burmah. and 
 Oncken in Germany. 
 
 From time to time Nelson reported to Rev. Ira R. 
 Steward, pastor of the Baptist Mariners' Church, how 
 the work of God progressed at and near Gothenburg. 
 Under date of March fifth, 1849, he writes as follows: 
 "We are now twenty-eight." Mind, twenty-eight Bap- 
 tist believers in Sweden! Two years ago, as I and my 
 wife were talking about Baptist principles, we said to 
 one another, 'Yes, it is right, if the Bible is true, the 
 Baptist principles are the only Apostolic, the only true 
 ones, but no one in Sweden will ever embrace them be- 
 sides ourselves, but, he adds, "Praise be to God, we 
 were mistaken." 
 
 His sentence of banisliment was dated April 26, 
 1850, but being allowed to appeal to higher courts and 
 also to the King, he did not leave for Copenhagen till the 
 first days in July, 1851. 
 
 In the meantime he had already gathered a little 
 flock of fifty-three believers, scattered along the coast 
 near the place where the first were baptized. His brother, 
 B. N. Nelson, afterwards pastor in Torpa, was chosen 
 as their overseer. 
 
SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 CHAPTER VJII. 
 
 SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 Seeing the big, blue Baltic, Wiberg said. 
 "See here is water; what doth hinder 
 
 me to be baptized?" 
 Nelson said, "Thou mayest." 
 •'And he baptized him," 
 "And he (Wiberg) went on his way rejoicing. 
 
 REV. A. WIBERG'S BAPTISM IN THE BALTIC 
 
 When the news reached the Pastor of the Baptist 
 Mariners' Church of New York that Wiberg had been 
 baptized by Nelson in the Baltic, he said, "It was the 
 most important transaction that had ever occurred in 
 that 'Eastern Sea.' ". It was, no doubt, the first Chris- 
 tian baptism of any Swede in those waters. It was a 
 very remarkable providence of God that while Nelson 
 was at Copenhagen, in exile, he should have the happi- 
 ness of baptizing the Rev. A. Wiberg, who was on his 
 way to New York, passenger in a vessel that had to stop 
 there a few days on account of head winds. This memor- 
 able event took place on the twenty-third of July, 1852, 
 and was subsequently related by himself at a meeting in 
 the Oliver Street Church, where, shortly after his ar- 
 rival at New York, he was introduced to an audience, 
 who had come together to hear the eleventh annual re- 
 port of the New York Baptist Female Bethel-Union. 
 
 Besides an introductory letter from Brother Oncken, 
 Wiberg had also one from Nelson, which was read on 
 the occasion and will here be recorded, as well as the 
 
112 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 account given of Wiberg's experience as told by himself. 
 As this occurred forty-six years ago, and very few of 
 the Baptist denomination now living have had an op- 
 portunity of reading it, I hereby present it to the read- 
 ers of this book, knowing the time will come when mem- 
 ories of such departed worthfes will be cherished by those 
 who may have heard or seen some very short account of 
 them. 
 
 LETTER OF F. O. NELSON. 
 
 Copenhagen, July 24, 1852. 
 Mr. Ira R. Steward : 
 
 Reverend and Honored Sir — The Lord has wonder- 
 fully ordered, in his holy providence, that brother A. 
 Wiberg, the bearer of this, was detained here over yes- 
 terday; consequently he asked for, and it was made my 
 unspeakably honorable duty — even me the sinner, the 
 worm, the banished §ailor — to immerse him (Brother 
 Wiberg) into Christ's body, in the holy ordinance of Bap- 
 tism; which was done in the Baltic Sea, near to Copen- 
 hagen, last night at eleven o'clock. 
 
 The ways of Jehovah are past finding out! Let 
 us worship in the dust. Let me tell you. Sir, and 
 through you may it be told to all American Baptists, that 
 Brother Wiberg is known very extensively within Swe- 
 den, among the professors of piety, as a very eminent, 
 exemplary and evangelical Christian. He has been 
 turned away from his office and living as minister of 
 the State Church of Sweden for the same reason why 
 unworthy I have been banished the country, namely, for 
 his Baptist sentiments. He burns with holy desire to be 
 allowed the privilege of proclaiming the truth through 
 the length and breadth of Sweden, his beloved father- 
 land, in spite of all opposition and threatening prospects. 
 But, brethren, he comes to see if American Christians 
 will not and cannot take him up and employ him as a 
 Missionary to Sweden. What will you do^ brethren? 
 
SWEDExN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 113 
 
 God sends him to you, he has awakened him and raised 
 him up for that purpose; this is evident. Then it is plain 
 here you have the honor and happy privilege of doing 
 something for Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Come 
 forward, then, honored American Baptists, and do your 
 duty. The Mormons send us dozens** of ** their false 
 apostles; shall not the many thousands of American Bap- 
 tists be willing and able to send one single missionary? 
 What if he should share the fate of this poor creature? — 
 I mean to be banished (which, after all, is not likely); he 
 has Norway and Denmark open before him. 
 
 Dear Brother Steward, do all you can for him to- 
 lielp him, and recommend him to our brethren and to 
 this purpose. He is himself very humble and modest, 
 as you will soon see; but I doubt not you will rejoice 
 in having made his acquaintance. 
 
 Yours in Christ Jesus, 
 
 F. O. NELSON. 
 
 REV. A. WIBERG'S ADDRESS BEFORE A MEET- 
 ING IN THE OLIVER STREET BAPTIST 
 CHURCH. 
 
 • "I w^as born in the northern part of Sweden, very 
 near a little town named Hudiksvall, on the seventeenth 
 of July, 1816. My parents were peasants. In my child- 
 hood I had some religious impressions. When about 
 fourteen years of age I was near being drowned, but by 
 almost a miracle was saved from death. I then felt great 
 gratitude to God for his kindness and mercy. In con- 
 sequence of this event I became anxious for the salva- 
 tion of my soul, and began to read the Bible, with other 
 religious books, among which was "The Holy War" of 
 John Bunyan. I was at this time a shopkeeper's clerk- 
 in Hudiksvall: but in consequence of my religious im- 
 pressions I felt an irresistible desire to study, and to be 
 useful, if God would, in his kingdom. I placed myself 
 under the guidance of a pious clergyman in the country. 
 
jj. THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 in whose house I remained about a year. During this 
 time I had many good impressions of divine grace. But 
 for the furtherance of my studies, I left this pious clergy- 
 man, and was under the teaching of a more learned but 
 ungodly man. Thus thrown under worldly influences, I 
 soon lost all my seriousness. After this I became a 
 scholar in a learned institution, where I stayed two years. 
 During this time, between 1833 and 1835, I was again 
 awakened to anxious concern for my salvation; but hav- 
 ing fallen into sin, I despaired of the grace of God, and, 
 again became careless. In the year 1835, I entered the 
 University of Upsala, and for my subsistence engaged as 
 a teacher in the families of several of the gentry. I now 
 studied till the year 1849 for the degree of Master of 
 .A.rts. Partly from the nature of my studies, and partly 
 from conversation with infidel and ungodly men, I be- 
 came an infidel. I might say much about my miserable 
 condition during this time, but think it best to draw a 
 veil over that which it is so painful to remember. This 
 I can say from my own sad experience, that it is a most 
 unhappy thing to be an infidel. But the Good Shepherd, 
 notwithstanding all this, ceased not to seek his lost sheep. 
 Through the summer of 1849, h^ suffered me to have no 
 rest in my spirit. One night I awoke with a fearful sense 
 of the terrors of annihilation. I rose from my bed, 
 clasped my hands, and cried out: "O God! why hast 
 thou created me to die as a beast?" 
 
 In the autumn of this same year it happened that a 
 pious friend came into my room, where I was indulging 
 in a light, trifling disposition of mind, and said to me, 
 among" other things: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the 
 hands of the living God." At these words I paused; they 
 were as darts in my heart. I began to think: "If the Bible 
 is really the Word of the living God ; if there is really after 
 this life a state of rewards and punishments which shall 
 endure forever, how dreadful would it be for thyself to 
 have the Word of God against thee. Thou hast not been 
 on the other side of the grave, and it may be possible that 
 
SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 115 
 
 the Bible is right and thou art wrong." I now determined 
 to take the safe side of this great question, and be a be- 
 liever in the Word of God. I fell on my knees, and with 
 tears sought the "living God." From this hour the Lord 
 has continued to carry on his good work in my soul. 
 But it was long before I came to a knowledge ot salva- 
 tion through Christ. I was under Moses, seeking justi- 
 fication by the works of the law, until the year 1842. In 
 this time I read many German books of a mystical and 
 theosophical character, from which I imbibed the notion 
 that I must become perfect, principally through means of 
 prayer. I consequently became diligent in prayer and 
 could continue in praying whole hours. But instead ot 
 attaining my object, I became more and more acquainted 
 with the power of sin through the corruption ot my own 
 heart. At last I was quite near to a state of despair, f 
 saw nothing but death and hell before me. I had "the 
 sentence of death in myself." But God, even Jesus, who 
 raises the dead, "passed by me, and said unto me, when 
 I was in my blood. Live." By means of a German 
 writer, John Arndt, and through the riches of divine 
 grace, I was enabled to look upon Him who was lifted 
 up on the cross for my sins, as the Israelites looked upon 
 the brazen serpent in the wilderness, and I was healed. 
 I believed on him who justifieth the ungodly, and, being 
 justified by faith, I had peace with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 In the spring of 1843 I became a priest in the State 
 Church of Sweden. This church, like the jNIethodists, 
 sends her ministers from one place to another; conse- 
 quently, I was sent to several stations as helper to aged 
 pastors. At all these places the Lord was pleased evi- 
 dently to bless my labors in his vineyard, and I was per- 
 mitted to see many fruits of the preached Word. But I 
 soon began to have scruples about admitting ungodly 
 men to the Lord's supper, as is the custom in Sweden. I 
 was persuaded from the Scripture that this practice was 
 not right. My health was at this time much impaired 
 
Il6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 from too great exertion of my strength in preaching, 
 and as I did not know what steps to pursue in regard 
 to my scruples, I asked and obtained from the Consistory 
 of Upsala permission to suspend my labors for a sea- 
 son. For about two years I was now at leisure, and 
 occupied myself in translating and publishing some 
 works of Dr. Luther. I also edited a newspaper called 
 "The Evangelist." 
 
 In the spring of 185 1 a friend of mine in Stockholm, 
 where I then resided, was going to Hamburg on busi- 
 ness, and requested me to accompany him as an inter- 
 preter of the German language. In Hamburg I visited 
 the Baptist church and made acquaintance with the 
 beloved brethren Oncken and Kobner; also a mission- 
 ary by the name of Elvin. The constitution, discipline, 
 and the spiritual and pious life which I discovered in 
 this church very much pleased me. I thought I saw 
 in them the true apostolic order. To their doctrine 
 of baptism, however, I could not assent, as I had been 
 trained up in the Lutheran Church, and was much at- 
 tached to the writings and system of Luther. I had 
 warm disputes with the above-named brethren, and left 
 them without being convinced of the errors of infant 
 sprinkling. But at my departure from Hamburg, Broth- 
 er Kobner presented me with several tracts about Bap- 
 tism, among which was a German translation of Pen- 
 gilly's tract on this subject. This treatise I read on my 
 return to Sweden, and when I saw the exposition which 
 he gives of I. Cor., VII., 14V., my former confidence in 
 infant baptism began to be shaken. From this passage 
 I saw that the apostle could have known nothing of 
 this practice or he would not speak of the children of 
 the Corinthian church being unholy, because baptism 
 would have made them holy without their being made 
 holy or legitimate by the believing parent. I now began 
 with eagerness to read Hinton's "History of Baptism," 
 but it was long before I could be fully persuaded. . 
 
SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 117 
 
 1 must here state that before my visit to Hamburg 
 a number of pious Christians in the North of Sweden 
 had left the State Church from conscientious scruples 
 about its doctrines and ministers. As these Christians 
 knew my sentiments in regard to the errors of the State 
 Church, and put confidence in me as an evangelical and 
 orthodox minister of the Gospel, they applied to me 
 to separate myself from that church and become their 
 pastor. I was just about to comply with their request, 
 when I went to Hamburg and became acquainted with 
 the Baptists, as I have before related. But now, as I 
 had begun to be a Baptist, I was obliged to send them 
 word I could not sprinkle their children, because 1 
 thought it not right. My friends were much shocked 
 and amazed at this. They knew not what to make of 
 the matter, but wrote to a clergyman in Finland, a man 
 of learning and high esteem among them. This good 
 friend satisfied them by describing "the Anabaptists" in 
 a manner which brought to remembrance the cruel de- 
 nunciation of Luther: "They are not only devils, but 
 devils possessed of worse devils." Thus I was made 
 to appear in the eyes of my former friends a noxious 
 heretic and an apostate, not only from the Lutheran 
 faith, but from the Lord Jesus Christ. What was I to 
 do? I wrote to them letter after letter, but without 
 seeming efifect, because they also received, on the other 
 hand, fresh supplies of Lutheranism from their learned 
 friend in Finland. At last I promised them I would write 
 a book about the matter, in reply to the false state- 
 ments and calumnies of this man; but I was in great 
 straits about it, being but partly persuaded in my own 
 mind. However, as I believed the truth to lie on the 
 side of the Baptists, I began to write this book, con- 
 fiding in Him who has said, "If any lack wisdom, let 
 him ask of God." I needed help upon many things, and 
 wrote to Brother Nelson telling him I had become a Bap- 
 tist in sentiment, but wished to read more works upon 
 the subject. He sent me Dr. Carson's valuable work, 
 
Il8 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "Baptism in Its Mode and Subjects," and also several 
 tracts. Having studied these and compared the argu- 
 ments and statements with the Greek New Testament, 
 I became fully satisfied upon all matters belonging to 
 the Baptist question. My own work upon the subject 
 was completed before I left my native country for Ameri- 
 ca, and was left in the hands of the printer. 
 
 Soon after my return from Hamburg, I became dan- 
 gerously ill and remained so for about three months. 
 It pleased the Lord, however, to call me again from the 
 gates of the grave. As soon as I had recovered so 
 much strength that I was able to write I sent to the 
 Consistory, and requested my dismission from the State 
 Church. Before this tribunal I had been twice sum- 
 moned to answer to the charge of adhering to those 
 Christians in the North who had separated themselves 
 from the Church. The first time, I had long disputes 
 with several members of the Consistory about Church 
 discipline and order. They contended that I ought to 
 be submissive to the Church and comply with all its 
 statutes, for it is written, "Submit thyself to every ordi- 
 nance of man, for the Lord's sake." To this I replied 
 that in religious matters we should obey God rather than 
 man. After this I was suspended for three months for 
 not being in subjection to the Church. The second 
 time, my accuser, a dean in the town of Hudiksvall, 
 urged that I should be banished, because I had written 
 an apology for the brethren in the North who were un- 
 der persecution for their separation from the Church. 
 I appealed from the ecclesiastical tribunal to the secu- 
 lar power; but in the meantime my accuser and perse- 
 cutor, a man of age and learning, put an end to his 
 own life by hanging himself, and I was thus freed from 
 further persecution. 
 
 While slowly recovering my strength, I was now 
 occupied partly in writing my book and partly in hold- 
 ing meetings to preach Jesus Christ, Even this preach- 
 ing the Lord was pleased to bless with success, so that 
 
SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 
 
 119 
 
 several souls were awakened and comforted through 
 faith in the redemption which is in Christ. These meet- 
 ings, however, the Government sought to prevent. The 
 Grand Governor, or Lord Mayor of Stockholm, twice 
 forbade us to assemble. As my health was still infirm, 
 the physicians advised a sea voyage as the best means to 
 restore my strength. Meanwhile the Lord had so won- 
 derfully ordered things that several of my friends in 
 Stockholm had built a vessel for transporting emigrants 
 to this highly favored country. Hearing that these 
 friends intended to give a few emigrants a free passage 
 to America, I told them about the advice of my phy- 
 sicians, and my wish, if it could be the will of God, to 
 make a voyage, partly for my health and partly to visit 
 the United States. My application met with no hin- 
 drance. This was more than I ever had hoped for. It 
 was indeed my strong desire to go anywhere to be bap- 
 tized, but where should I go, as I was without means? 
 
 I left Stockholm on the seventeenth of July, on my 
 thirty-sixth birthday. I hoped in this country to have 
 my desire to be baptized, and here also the Lord did 
 more for me than I had hoped for. The vessel was 
 obliged to stay at Copenhagen two days waiting for 
 wind. Meanwhile the captain and myself went on 
 shore. While on my way from the vessel to Copen- 
 hagen several passages of Scripture ran through my 
 mind, reminding me of my duty to obey the command- 
 ment of our Lord without delay. Therefore, when I 
 came to Copenhagen, I told Brother Nelson about the 
 thoughts that had arisen in my mind. We spoke a lit- 
 tle about the matter, and it was agreed that, if the cap- 
 tain would stay over night "in the city, my request should 
 be gratified. I was accordingly immersed in the Baltic 
 Sea the twenty-third of July last, at eleven o'clock in the 
 evening, in presence of many brethren and sisters. This 
 hour was the most solemn in my life; I went on my 
 way "rejoicing," and shall praise the Lord forever that 
 his grace was thus granted to lead me to follow the foot- 
 
120 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Steps of my dear Saviour in the baptismal waters. From 
 Copenhagen we had a happy and very pleasant voyage, 
 and I arrived in New York the eighteenth of September 
 last. The Lord be greatly praised for all his mercy and 
 goodness to his feeble and most unworthy worm! 
 
 At last, it may be added, that many of my brethren 
 in Stockholm are inclined to embrace the true doctrine 
 of baptism, but are yet in want of sufficient scriptural 
 knowledge to be fully persuaded. I hope, nevertheless, 
 that when they shall see the truth plainly laid before 
 them they will be fully satisfied, and ready to receive the 
 holy ordinance of baptism whenever a Baptist minister 
 shall be sent to them. Yea, one of my dear brethren in 
 Stockholm, a tailor by trade, has a very strong desire to 
 be baptized. And even in the country there are several 
 friends who long for light on this subject, and for free- 
 dom from the yoke of the State Church. May the Lord 
 let his true light shine over my benighted native country! 
 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!" 
 
 CORDIAL WELCOME TO BROTHER WIBERG. 
 
 After the delivery of the above appeal to the Baptists 
 of America by Brother Nelson, and the address "of 
 Brother Wiberg, a suitable missionary hymn, composed 
 by Mrs. C. H. Putnam for the occasion, was sung by 
 the audience, after which a general welcome was most 
 heartily extended to Brother Wiberg; he was also cor- 
 dially invited to make his home at the residence of 
 Brother Isaac T. Smith, where he remained a guest for 
 several weeks. The Baptist Mariners' Church employed 
 him as a colporteur and missionary, and he succeeded 
 in gathering together Swedes, Danes and Norwegians, 
 and preached to them, in their "own tongue, the wonder- 
 ful works of God." He was consequently the first Swe- 
 dish Baptist Home Missionary preacher in New York or 
 the Eastern States. 
 
SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. 12 j 
 
 Brother Wiberg, having united with the same 
 church, was ordained on the third of March, 1853, ^s 
 a regular Baptist Minister. In the summer of that year 
 the Pubhcation Society of Philadelphia invited him to 
 come and prepare his work on baptism, and when ready 
 it was sent to Sweden and distributed in great numbers 
 among the Christians, many of whom were studying the 
 subject by the help of the Bibje. 
 
 The news quickly spread over all Sweden that a 
 very pious and learned priest had not only left the estab- 
 lished church, with all its allurements of promotion, com- 
 petence, and honor, but had united with the despised 
 Baptists, a sect "everywhere spoken against," that Nel- 
 son was in banishment for the same doctrines, and that 
 half a hundred baptists were preparing to leave Sweden 
 on account of the persecutions against them near Goth- 
 enburg. These things had a tendency to cause the be- 
 lievers to search the Scriptures for truth; the truth was 
 found, many were made free, and were baptized. 
 
 CALLS FROM SWEDEN. ^ 
 
 Calls from Sweden for Brother Wiberg to return 
 there were now becoming frequent and urgent from 
 Brethren Heidenberg, Forssell and others; consequently 
 he, after being married in Philadelphia, August 23, 1855, 
 to Miss Caroline Lintemuth, started for Stockholm, 
 where he arrived in October. A short time afterwards 
 he was joined and greatly assisted in his labors by 
 Brother G. Palmquist, who had labored as a city mis- 
 sionary in New York in connection with the Baptist Mar- 
 iners' Church since 1854. He was converted in the early 
 part of 1844, and in 1851 set out for America via London, 
 and brought with him a godly company of emigrants 
 from Helsingland. After their arrival they scattered into 
 different States; G. Palmquist went west and preached 
 the Gospel to the scattered Swedes in Illinois; he was 
 baptized in an American church in Galesburg, 111., June 
 
122 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 2'j, 1852; twenty-six days before the baptism of Wiberg 
 in the Baltic. 
 
 About a month afterward he was ordained to the 
 ministry; and subsequently organized 
 
 THE FIRST SWEDISH BAPTIST CHURCHES IN 
 AMERICA, 
 
 at Rock Island and Moline, 111. He was partly supported 
 by the Baptist Home Mission Society, a society which 
 has done, and continues to do, so much good for the 
 Swedes. 
 
 Before Palmquist returned to Sweden he handed to 
 the American Baptist Publication Society the following 
 statement of the Swedish Baptists in the United States : 
 
 PLACES. MEMBERS. 
 
 Rock Island, 111 45 
 
 Chicago, 111 25 
 
 New Sweden, Iowa 13 
 
 Boone County, Iowa 25 
 
 Allamakee County, Iowa 45 
 
 Scandia, Minn 45 
 
 Chisago Lake, Minn 20 
 
 Houston County, Minn 17 
 
 Red Wing, Minn 1 1 
 
 246 
 
 At the same time there were twenty-six Swedish 
 Baptists united with the following American churches, 
 viz.: In New York City, 14; in Galesburg, 111., 8; in 
 Keokuk, Iowa, 4. 
 
 The above statement can be found in the Baptist 
 Family Magazine for December, 1857. 
 
SWEDEN'S APOSTLE. I23 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK IN SWEDEN. 
 
 From Wibcrg's arrival in Sweden the work that had 
 gone on there assumed a more organized form, as he had 
 gained much experience in America, and learned haw 
 Christian churches carry on and conduct Christian work. 
 
 BAPTISMAL CONTROVERSY. 
 
 From the time that the Baptist question began to 
 trouble the zealots of the State Church, but especially 
 since Wibcrg's book on Baptism was circulated and he 
 himself appeared on the scene of conflict, 
 
 A NEW "WATERY WAR" OF WORDS 
 
 was started by a host of clerical writers in favor of infant 
 sprinkling. Most of them chose, besides the convenient 
 pulpit, the pamphlet form of attack and apology, but 
 great numbers manifested their knowledge on the sub- 
 ject by articles in their religious papers, which teemed 
 with the usual torpid and threadbare arguments. Of 
 course, they could not be anything but mere reiterations 
 of the thousands of writers who had preceded them in 
 generations and centuries past, who, though generally in 
 a fairer spirit, had thrown away their products of thought 
 to the wind, and by the wind they were carried away. 
 
 _ The titles of their books and pamphlets would often 
 be in spirit and style an imitation of Mr. De Courey's 
 advertisement, as follows: "J^st published," etc., etc., 
 
 "A bouncing answer, sharp as nitre, 
 To every anabaptist writer; 
 Which clearly proves the word baptizing 
 Doth not mean dipping, but rantizing."* 
 
 These writers, when not successful enough in their 
 efforts, would import from Germany something new and 
 novel-like; consisting in the sad and dreadful experience 
 
 •Benedict's History, page 259. 
 
124 '^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 of some put-up individual; giving only an initial for the 
 name of the person or place, so as to defy all efforts of 
 verification. Thus it would be about a Mr. A. from the 
 city of R., who, after relating how he had been allured 
 into the Baptist community, had found himself in a sea 
 of boisterous billows and destructive waves; but, when 
 having returned to the bosom of the mother church, all 
 was serenity, pure joy, and peace; which experience 
 should serve as a warning for others not to leave the 
 quiet repose of.the State Church. One of these precious 
 pamphlets is in the Baptist archive at Gothenburg. 
 
 Something similar has of late been circulated among 
 the Swedish pedo-Baptists in this country; but although 
 the name is given in full, all efforts to identify such a 
 pretended author have failed — so much more singular, 
 as the supposed writer was said to have been, like his 
 prototype in Germany, a Baptist minister. 
 
 As in England and ^'Vmerica, so in Germany and 
 Sweden, "the watery war" clouds of vapid vapors, con- 
 taining so much sprinkling or pouring matter, have sea- 
 sonably dried up or decreased in their frothy frequency 
 and been dispelled by a clearing-up wind from the Holy 
 Spirit; causing a more cheerful and healthy atmosphere, 
 fragrant with a more reasonable and sweet savor of 
 . united good will of one to another. 
 
 "While thousands, unconcerned to know, 
 If scripture prove their creed or no, 
 Embrace what has been handed down 
 From father to succeeding son, 
 "Well pleased to walk In custom's way, 
 Nor from tradition ever stray.* 
 
 During the few years of Br. Wiberg's visit to the 
 United States, "fourteen pamphlets had been published 
 against the Baptists."** They were only the beginning 
 of the pedo-baptist pent-up pen pictures. 
 
 ♦Benedict's Hi-story. page 260. 
 
 **Armitage's History of the Baptists, page 453. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX.' 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 
 
 125 
 
 THE MOTHER OF SWEDISH BAPTIST 
 CHURCHES. 
 
 From the Baptist Mariners' Church, the Mother of 
 Swedish Baptist Churches both in Sweden and America, 
 was sent also a sailor Missionary to Denmark by the 
 name of F. L. Henrickson. He labored chiefly in Odcn- 
 see, where, after a few years, he gathered a little band 
 composed of "three brethren and three sisters, and on 
 the twenty-sixth of April, 1852, organized the First Bap- 
 tist Church of that city. Brother Kobner, the associate 
 laborer with Brother Oncken in Hamburg, and otheis 
 from Copenhagen, were present upon this interesting 
 occasion, and gave the hand of fellowship to the new 
 church. Brother Henrickson was elected for their pas- 
 tor and in the May following, he was ordained by the 
 Baptist Association, meeting in Copenhagen."* 
 
 The above, though not in connection with the 
 Swedish Mission, has been related in order to show the 
 missionary character of the Baptist ^Mariners' Church 
 and its world-spread members. 
 
 Another of the church's sailor members, the be- 
 loved brother, Victor Vierow, for many years Deacon of 
 the North Baptist Church, New York, who, while sail- 
 ing with me, rose in the ranks from a sailor before the 
 mast to Captain of the vessel I left in his charge, has 
 not only built a Baptist church at Wisby in Sweden, his 
 
 ♦Eleventh Annual Report of the New York Baptist Female 
 Bethel Union'. 
 
126 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 native town, at a cost of four thousand dollars, but also 
 for many years has contributed largely to the support ot 
 its pastor, the North Church and its Sunday School hav- 
 ing also assisted in the latter object. 
 
 FIRST SWEDISH BAPTIST CHURCH OF NEW 
 YORK. 
 
 As from the old South Church in the year 1847 the 
 First German Baptist Church of New York was organ- 
 ized, so, twenty years later-, from the Baptist Mariners' 
 Church was organized the First Swedish Baptist Church 
 of New York, composed of about thirty members, which. 
 in 1897, had multiplied tenfold. From the same church 
 has also sprung up the First Swedish Baptist Church of 
 Brooklyn, with a membership of nearly five hundred. 
 Both of these churches own very pleasant places of wor- 
 ship, and have been blessed with the watchful care of 
 most devoted and excellent pastors, Rev. A. P. Ekman 
 of the former and Rev. O. Hedeen of the latter. He has,^ 
 however, accepted a call as Professor in the Swedish 
 Theological Department of the Chicago University. His 
 place in Brooklyn, fortunately, has been well filled by 
 Rev. O. J. Engstrand, one of the Chicago pastors, who 
 has proved to be a great blessing to the church. Since 
 the above was written, a Second Swedish Baptist 
 Church, a branch of the latter, has been formed. Their 
 location is in a fine and favorable part of Brooklyn, and 
 good progress is expected. 
 
 The organizer of the Swedish church in New York 
 was the beloved brother, R. E. Jeanson, who, as agent 
 of an emigrant institution, was enabled to do a great 
 amount of good to his countrymen. He was one of the 
 members of the Gothenburg Baptist Church, but, like 
 many others, on account of being a Baptist, had to leave 
 the country. Space will not allow of referring more to 
 his extensive labors and influence. He is now settled at 
 Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 127 
 
 SPIRITUAL HELP FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 Early in the present century an engineer named 
 Samuel Owen from England went to Sweden and set up 
 a foundry. He built the first little steamboats that plied 
 on the waters near Stockholm. Seeing the low spiritual 
 state of the Swedes, he, himself a Methodist, sent for a 
 preacher of the same denomination in the year 1826 to 
 come and labor among the Swedes. His name was Ste- 
 vens. He returned to England in 1830, when George 
 Scott took his place. He proved himself to be a good 
 and devoted missionary, who soon acquired the Swedish 
 language so that he could preach in the same, and suc- 
 ceeded at Stockholm in gathering quite a company of 
 pious people who met in private houses. Faithful to 
 Wesley's views- of adhering to the State Church, no mat- 
 ter how bad, he did not encourage any separation from 
 the Church. He labored, also, to promote temperance 
 and distributed Bibles among the people. His labors 
 met with such success that in 1834 it was proposed to 
 build a church. The application for a license to do so 
 was sent to the magistrates, who referred it to the ven- 
 erable Consistory of Stockholm. They opposed the ap- 
 plication, saying "that they (the Methodists), according 
 to the ideas of the State Church, could not very well es- 
 cape to be counted as fanatics," and the reasons given by 
 these "right" or "wrong" reverends were "that they, 
 
 THE METHODISTS, DID NOT DANCE, 
 
 go to theatres, or indulge in other innocent amusements 
 which God has given us for a revival* betw-een our labors. 
 One of them said, or rather asked: "Is not, then, our 
 evangelical doctrine a divine truth and the true way to 
 salvation? And when we took the clerical oath that we 
 should with life and blood defend the pure evangelical 
 
 •Swedish ■word, vederquickelse. 
 
128 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 doctrine, did we then mean some other doctrine, or was 
 the oath only an empty phrase?" 
 
 For the information of the readers, I will state that 
 the priests never were required to take such an oath. If 
 they ignorantly imagined that they had, they were in- 
 genious enough to change the cards, and with the life 
 and blood of others, not of their own, defend the evan- 
 gelical doctrine. 
 
 In spite of their remonstrances, however, the civil 
 authorities, being more enlightened, consented to the 
 church being built. It was opened in 1840 (being built 
 apparently for a prominent Englishman, Mr. Owen, 
 whose chaplain Mr^ Scott was considered to be), and 
 called the English Church. Mr. Scott escaped for a 
 short time any legal persecution, but on his return from 
 the United States, whither he had gone to collect funds 
 for the meeting house, he was set upon by the mob as 
 service was about to begin in the church. He fled, how- 
 ever, to a room in the rear, where his enemies could not 
 find him, and thus escaped with his life. Hearing that 
 the mob, that is, the subordinate tools of the priests or 
 their defenders of the faith, intended to kill him, he se- 
 cretly managed to get aboard of a steamer bound for 
 England. The cause of the uproar was a report that 
 while in the United States he had told something about 
 the immorality and drrmkenness of the Swedes, which 
 report, with additional lies, was exaggerated in the Swe- 
 dish papers of America and sent to Stockholm, where, 
 both in the theatres and the press, he was ridiculed. 
 
 Had Mr. Scott, when coming to Sweden, bravely 
 proclaimed Christianity as held by the Methodists, and 
 organized, lawfully or not, Methodist churches, he conld 
 not have fared worse. And there would probably have 
 been three times as many Methodists in Sweden as there 
 are now. 
 
 The company he gathered and instructed to stick to 
 the church, under the leadership of Mr. Rosenius, a 
 learned and eloquent man, became the most bitter op- 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 120 
 
 posers of free relij^ion, whether held I)y Lutherans, 
 Methodists, or iJaptists, especially the latter, thoiiji^h they 
 did not encourag-e persecutions by fines or imprison- 
 ment, but only by pen and tono^ue. Mr. Rosenius, who 
 for some time was supported by the Foreit^ni Evansi^elical 
 Society of the United States, did, nevertheless, in public 
 debate, as well as privately, speak against religious lib- 
 erty, w^anting it only, puritan like, for himself and his 
 party. 
 
 The church, which had been built chiefly by English 
 and American Methodists, came into the hands of a State 
 Church party most inimical to free relig-ion. But from 
 those intolerant puritans has sprung up another Lutheran 
 party with nobler plans and purposes, of which an ac- 
 count will be given in chapter XIV. 
 
 SPIRITUAL HELP FROM SCOTLAND. 
 
 Among the priests in southern Sweden were several 
 right-minded and evangelical men who had observed 
 with interest the grand secession of the free church party 
 in Scotland, and watched with admiration the good re- 
 sults of that movement. They felt the need of, and be- 
 came anxious to start a similar movement in Sweden, 
 and in order to do so, one of them, Dr. Hafnmar, issued 
 a weekly paper called the "Church Friend." advocating 
 religious liberty and denouncing persecutions, exposing 
 also the intrigues of the high-church party. To encour- 
 age them, came a clergyman named, Lumsden, from the 
 Free church of Scotland, who preached in different 
 places of the country and kept up the interest in a Free- 
 church direction. The plan was that when about thirty 
 thousand persons had become converted and enlightened 
 enough about 
 
 FREE-CHURCH PRINCIPLES 
 
 they were to secede from the State Church. They wished 
 to make sure of a free-church loaf before they gave up 
 the loaf of the State Church. 
 
130 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "VAIN MAN WOULD BE WISE." 
 
 But, in the meantime, Baptist principles had become 
 known, and the few enhg-htened Lutherans became Bap- 
 tists, Then the Free-church movement under priestly 
 leaders was dropped for about twenty years or until 1878, 
 when the puritan State Church movement proved un- 
 satisfactory to the greatest numjjer. 
 
 As an illustration of how cautious and careful those 
 would-be seceders were, I will mention that when 
 Brother Mollersward, who was an intimate friend of 
 theirs, on a visit to the editor of the new paper, asked 
 why he did not separate himself with his friends from 
 the State Church, and form themselves into free churches, 
 he answered only in the following distrustful but sig- 
 nificant and laconic manner: "I have a wife and nine 
 children." 
 
 Although the objects of those well-meaning priests 
 were not realized, yet God used them for a good purpose 
 in advancing and promoting His cause and king-dom. 
 
 The information which through their paper was 
 spread through the land, was of great benefit to all 
 God's people there, and can never be enough appre- 
 ciated. The persecuting high-church party were en- 
 rag'ed against it, and called it the "church enemy," in- 
 stead of the "church friend." 
 
 NORRLAND AND DALARNA. 
 
 In these two northern provinces, a work of grace 
 was in progress during the middle of the century. It 
 was strictly Lutheran in character, but not in strict har- 
 mony with the forms of the State Church. All who par- 
 ticipated in the movement w^ere subject to fierce per- 
 secutions by the clerical authorities, and were obliged to 
 leave the country and flee to America. 
 
 The Lutheran despotic government did, however, 
 more harm to itself than to the hated exiles. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 
 
 SPIRITUAL HELP FROM AMERICA. 
 
 131 
 
 During the decade of 1840 there was a sailor mis- 
 sionary in each of the two seaports, Stockhohn and Goth- 
 enburg-, appointed and supported by the American Sea- 
 men's Friend Society of New York. Their names were 
 F. O. Nelson and Olof Peterson. Both of them had 
 been converted in America while following the sea, and 
 embraced Methodist views. Together with their wives, 
 they exerted a good influence on friends and neighbors 
 as well as on the men of the sea. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF SWEDEN. 
 
 The decades of 1830 and 1840 may be called a hope- 
 ful period, during which much "faflow ground" was 
 broken up, so that the Gospel seed afterward sown by 
 the Baptists did not wholly fall "among thorns." 
 
 An evangelical priest by the name of Sellergren 
 preached the Gospel in Smoland, and drew great crowds 
 from neighboring places. This was also during the 
 transition period, and wherever such men preached they 
 had many hearers. 
 
 FAILURE OF STATE CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 In view of the utter failure of establishing Chris- 
 tianity by law, either in one country or another, it may be 
 interesting to meditate upon what higher position, both 
 temporally and spiritually, Sweden, in comparison with 
 other countries, would have occupied if Gustavus Vasa 
 had proclaimed full religious liberty, instead of a com- 
 pulsory acceptance of one form of religion for another. 
 Her preachers would now have been as renowned as any 
 in the world — a Swedish Moody would have been as 
 natural as an American; a Swedish Whitefield or Spur- 
 geon, as natural as any in England. It is religious lib- 
 erty which has produced such spiritual giants. But 
 
1^2 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 how has it been in Sweden? History proves that the 
 condition has been sad indeed. 
 
 NOT ONE FAMED THEOLOGIAN. 
 
 Although Sweden has in all the higher branches of 
 life, in science and art, produced some far-famed and 
 renowned men, yet she has never produced a single 
 theologian whose products of thought or pen. from pul- 
 pit or press, were ever thought worthy of being pub- 
 lished in a foreign language. 
 
 She has had her warriors, Gustavus x\dolphus and 
 Charles XH.; her statesman, Oxenstjerna; her botan- 
 ist, Linneus; her chemist, Berzelius; her archaeologist, 
 Hildebrand; her zoologists, Nilson and Loven; her en- 
 gineer, Ericson; her sculptor, P'ogelberg; her discoverer 
 of the Northeast Passage, Nordenskjold; her poets, Teg- 
 ner and Wallin; her historians, Fryxell and Geijer; her 
 seer, Swedenborg; her literary celebrities, Victor Ryd- 
 berg and P'redrika Bremer; her singers, Jenny Lind and 
 Christina Nilson. All these and many others are well 
 known in foreign lands. Is it not strange that 
 
 THREE CENTURIES OF LUTHERANISM 
 
 has not brought to the knowledge of the world, one sin- 
 gle theologian? 
 
 This sad proof of poverty of thought, genius, or 
 spiritual insight, is a natural consequence of the fet- 
 tered state of mijid in which the State has kept the heads 
 and hearts and souls of its willing victims and tools for 
 political purposes. So that on the barren church fig- 
 tree, with all its boasted beauty, when anybody looked 
 for fruit, he "found nothing thereon, but leaves only." 
 The drivers on the State's overdriven and dilapidated 
 church chariots, with their woefully worn-out wheels, 
 run in the ruts of Romanism, have in their Jehu-like zeal 
 driven down and away every semblance of spiritual life 
 that grew up or ever came in their way. For such zeal, 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 133 
 
 thcv have s'<-'ii^'i"ally been promoted to the highest places 
 in the church. 
 
 FRUITS FROM THE TREES OF KNOWLEDGE 
 PLANTED AT UPSALA AND LUND. 
 
 As specimens of theology acciuired at the universi- 
 ties may be mentioned one of Jiishop Billing, who, a 
 few years ago said: "It was a greater sin to refuse 
 liaptism to fhe infants than to dash their heads against 
 a stone, and thus kill them." 
 
 And about the same time, Ullman, also a promi- 
 nent bishop, said concerning the celebration of the 
 Lord's Supper by the free church Lutherans, that "it is 
 Satan's finest arts." Such are the fruits that grow on 
 the highest and most cultivated branches of Lund's and 
 Upsala's celebrated trees of knowledge. When such 
 are the mental products of the very learned and right 
 reverend superiors of the Church, what may then be 
 expected of the less learned and less reverend inferiors, 
 wiio feel in duty bound in all things to imitate the 
 higher orders of the Church, so as to be thereby more 
 quickly promoted? 
 
 l)'ut whatever hard words they have used, or are 
 still using, and they are terrible, they cannot surpass or 
 exceed in hatred or vituperation their doctrinal church 
 fathers, Luther and Melancthon, in whose minds and 
 words everything that differed from their views was all 
 of the devil. Melancthon, speaking of the Baptists, said: 
 "One anabaptist is better than another, as much as one 
 devil is better than another," "It is the devil that makes 
 them callous to death." He looked upon them "as a 
 diabolical set not to be tolerated." About the Zwing- 
 lians, Luther said that they "are a set of diabolical fa- 
 natics, they have a legion of devils in their hearts, and 
 are wholly in their power." But Zwingle could retal- 
 iate and said about Luther that he "was not possessed 
 by one pure spirit, but by a legion of devils," and when 
 
134 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 attempts were made to reconcile them, Luther replied, 
 "No, no, cursed be such alliance, which would endanger 
 the cause of God and men's souls. Begone! you are pos- 
 sessed by another spirit than ours."* 
 
 So that in consideration of such legacies of views 
 and words of the church fathers, due allowance must be 
 made in passing judgments on their most zealous and 
 dutiful sons of the same church. 
 
 LUTHER'S "HAILSTONES AND COALS OF 
 FIRE." 
 
 Some historians, among them Robertson, in his 
 "Life of Charles V.," have strangely enough endeavored 
 to make apologies for the harsh and abusive language in- 
 dulged in by the reformers on account of the spirit of 
 the times in their days, which, as they thought, required 
 such denunciatory and violent expressions "for better 
 effect." But no more than the red bloody stains of per- 
 secution can be got out by apologies can the black 
 stains of blackguardism be removed by vain efforts of 
 historical whitewashers, though with the best of mo- 
 tives. What is wrong in one century must be wrong in 
 another, else wrong is not always wrong. 
 
 We do not read anywhere of one good effect on the 
 minds of those against whom the reformers aimed their 
 poisoned arrows. 
 
 Waddington says that Luther sent out a "volley 
 of words" against Oecolampadius and Zwingle, terrible 
 as "hailstones and coals of fire," but they had little or 
 no effect on the Zurich reformer.** He rebuked Luther 
 in a letter for his taking "counsel of anger, self-con- 
 ceit, obstinacy, and ill-humor, and other passions," say- 
 ing, "with what boldness and insolence they pass them- 
 selves off as justice, courage, firmness, and dignity. 
 Give up, I pray you, your scolding which is disreput- 
 
 *Armitage's "History of the Baptists," pages 403, 404. 
 **"Congreg'ationaJ History," pages 433, 434, 435. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 
 
 135 
 
 able, and cease to overwhelm us vvilli hard words. Not 
 as though 1 cared for such blasts." He lets Luther 
 know that the use of such "unmeasured language gives 
 cause to suspect there is pride at the bottom." 
 
 The historian adds that "this impressive and digni- 
 fied rebuke Luther unhappily met with scurrility too 
 coarse to repeat." He ridicules the idea of being at 
 peace with Zwingle, and says, "Listen to this, you low 
 dog or fanatic, you who are but an unreasonable ass." 
 
 If Luther had thought he was right in his use of 
 abusive epithets as applied to the Pope or Henry VHL 
 (the latter of whom he called both "swine" and "block- 
 head") he would not, as he did, in the most abject and 
 self-abasing manner have asked pardon of both of 
 them. To the Pope he writes, "I fully admit that I have 
 been violent, hostile, insolent toward the Pope. 1 
 should have treated so grave a matter with more rev- 
 erence. I am penitent for my conduct. I solicit your 
 pardon for it in the eyes of all men, and I promise 
 you that henceforward I will speak and act in an en- 
 tirely different manner." And again, "Most Holy Fa- 
 ther, necessity once more compels me, refuse of society 
 and dust of the eartli that I am, to address your exalted 
 majesty; and I implore Your Holiness to listen to the 
 bleatings of the poor lamb that now approaches you." 
 And further on, "I have been filled with grief at the 
 misfortune of being suspected of disrespect toward the 
 pillar of the church — I, who have never had any other 
 wish than to assert and defend its honor,"* 
 
 LUTHER'S ABJECT APOI^OGY TO HENRY VHL 
 
 Luther's "own friends, offended by the tone of his 
 address to Henry VHL," finding that he "gained 
 nothing by mere invective and vituperation" induced 
 him to write an apology to his majesty, it being under- 
 stood that he was about to establish the reformation 
 in England." 
 
 ♦Congregational History, pages 302, 303. 
 
136 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 If Luther's friends disapproved of his coarse out- 
 bursts, in the second century, why should his friends 
 or any historians extenuate them in these latter cen- 
 turies? 
 
 "Most serene king," writes Luther to Henry VIIL, 
 "most illustrious prince, I should be afraid to address 
 your majesty when I remember how much I have of- 
 fended you in the book, which, under the influence of 
 bad advice, rather than of my own feelings, I published 
 against you through pride and vanitv."* "I blush 
 now and scarcely dare raise my eyes to you. I, who 
 by means of these workers of iniquity, have not feared 
 to insult so great a prince, I, who am a worm and cor- 
 ruption, and who merit contempt and disdain." 
 
 "Prostrate in all humility at your feet, I beg and 
 beseech your majesty, by the cross and glory of Christ, 
 to pardon me my offences, according to the divine pre- 
 cept. If your majesty thinks proper that in another work 
 I should recall my words and glorify your name, vouch- 
 safe to transmit to me your orders. I am ready and full 
 of good will. What is Luther compared with your ma- 
 jesty? Nothing," etc.""* 
 
 As the king only vouchsafed him a disdainful and 
 scathing reply in return for his contemptible sycophancy 
 and fulsome eulogy, it is probable that Luther repented 
 more sincerely for writing the letter to the king than 
 for writing the book against him. It would have been 
 well if he had not written either book or letter. Truly, 
 "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of 
 God." And Luther's wrath was no exception. Nor has 
 the wrath of his followers in Sweden or elsewhere, by 
 their attacks on all who differ from them, accomplished 
 anything for the coming of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 Thanks be unto God that many in Sweden have 
 seen the error of their former blustering ways, and have 
 had grace given them to acknowledge publicly their of- 
 fenses against certain brethren. 
 
 ♦Like Adam, he blames somebody else. 
 ♦Congregational History, iiages 466, 467. 
 
SAILOR MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 137 
 
 SAILOR MISSIONARY WORK IN SWEDEN. 
 
 "The abundance of the 
 sea shall be convert- 
 unto thee." 
 
 —Isaiah. 
 
 GOD MADE USE OF SAILORS. 
 
 It is a remarkable and unique circumstance that 
 the first known Swedish Baptist and ordained minister 
 of that denomination in America, should have been a 
 sailor; that the first Baptist minister in Sweden, Rev. F. 
 O. Nelson, should have been a sailor; that the one 
 whom God in His providence made instrumental of mak- 
 ing known the principles of the Baptists to the Swedes, 
 should have been a sailor; that the first Swedish Pro- 
 fessor and Doctor of Divinity in the United States, Rev. 
 J. A. Edgren. should have been a sailor; that the first 
 President and Professor of the Baptist Seminary at Stock- 
 holm, Col. Broady, should have been a sailor (he be- 
 longed to the marine of the Swedish navy as a subaltern 
 officer, called cannonier, before he came to America); 
 and last, that the first one baptized in Sweden in 1848, 
 Rev. S. C. Nelson,brother of F. O. Nelson, should have 
 been a sailor. 
 
 And it is very remarkable also, that a sailor, Cap- 
 tain Tubbs, of Philadelphia, was the appointed means 
 
138 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. '■ 
 
 su])ject of baptism, while sojourning" at his home in Ham- 
 burg during the winter of 1830-31 (?) which intercourse 
 between them subsequently resulted in the baptism of 
 Br. Oncken and six more believers, by Rev. Dr. Barnas 
 Sears, in the river Elbe on the night (for fear of the 
 Lutherans) of April 22, 1834. 
 
 Several other cases ol sailors being sent out by the 
 Baptist Mariners' Church as preachers and missionaries 
 to Sweden and Denmark have previously been recorded, 
 or will be, in this chapter. The above mentioned are 
 only such as were the first in those several spheres. 
 
 REPORT OF CHARLES MOLLERSWARD, 
 
 who, like Edgren, was converted in America and united 
 with the Baptist Mariners' Church. He was second of- 
 ficer in the same ship that brought Wiberg to New 
 York. 
 
 Some time afterward he was appointed as mission- 
 ary in Sweden, and preached with great success in many 
 parts of the land, as the following letters, written dur- 
 ing the year 1859, will manifest: 
 "To Rev. Ira R. Steward: 
 
 "You will doubtless be much encouraged to hear 
 that the cause of righteousness and truth is making great 
 progress in this, my native land. It is not by those 
 great awakenings of large masses instantaneously, as we 
 hear has been the case in America, England, and other 
 parts of the world; but in a still, quiet, and unobtrusive 
 way. Throughout our whole country the spirit of inquiry 
 upon the subject of religion pervades tO' an encouraging 
 extent, while many have been led to choose that better 
 part which cannot be taken from them. We can truly 
 say the Lord has done great things for us, and it would 
 be the height of ingratitude, if not a great sin, in us, 
 to refuse humbly and thankfully to make it known. My 
 'fears arc that my feelings of joy shall be permitted to give 
 
SAILOR MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 139 
 
 too brio-ht a picture of the progress of the good work, as 
 I contrast the present with the past. J'Inveloped in spir- 
 itual darkness a few years ago, there is now scarcely a 
 jirovince in the whole country where may not be found 
 clustered together little bands of believing disciples, 
 avowing allegiance to the Heavenly King; and the de- 
 velopments are more and more that this is a season of 
 the gracious visitation to our land and people. I have 
 spent much of my time in the south of Sweden, trav- 
 eling from place to place, preaching the Gospel to large 
 congregations, who willingly assembled day after day. 
 From many of the priests of the State Church I have, 
 unaccountably to me, been courteously received; while 
 from many others I have been violently persecuted who 
 have zealously endeavored, in all ways, to hinder my 
 work, rendering it at times exceedingly difificult to es- 
 cape the grasp of infuriated enemies, who oppose the 
 spread of vital godliness. 
 
 "My dear friends in America, where no barriers are 
 thrown in the way of the Gospel, can form no idea of 
 the difBculties encountered by those who, in this land, 
 are striving to extend the knowledge of the dear Re- 
 deemer; yet is God pleased to smile graciously upon our 
 labors, and to give great success to his truth. I am 
 continually receiving the gladdening evidences that the 
 word of tiie Lord is not bound, and does not return 
 void. 
 
 "May we continue to be remembered in your 
 prayers !" 
 
 Another letter, written later in the same year, con- 
 tained the following: 
 
 LARGE CONGREGATIONS. 
 
 "I have made visits in thirty parishes in Sweden, 
 and two cities in Denmark. I have generally preached 
 twice, and sometimes three times a day; my congre- 
 gations have invariably been large, sometimes numbering 
 
140 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 two thousand or three thousand. I have preached in 
 farmers' houses, barns, blacksmiths' shops, and in the 
 open air, and I have witnessed in an unusual manner 
 the mig-hty power of the word of the Lord, and, at the 
 same time, much opposition from enemies to the truth; 
 but, under all the vicissitudes, the Lord has man- 
 ifested his love, and the riches of His grace to my heart. 
 He has permitted me to rejoice over the conquests ot 
 truth every day." 
 
 GREAT OPPOSITION. 
 
 "Opposition has been great at Roke. Being in- 
 vited to preach, I had not spoken over a quarter of an 
 hour, to a very large congregation, when from thirty to 
 forty ruffians, half drunk, entered the room, and forbade 
 me to speak any longer. To fall into the hands of 
 these ruffians was by no means desirable. I therefore 
 quietly dispersed the people, while I made an attempt 
 to escape into an adjoining room; six or seven men 
 seized me to drag me away by force; some friends as- 
 sisted me into a room and I barred the door; a most 
 terrible uproar was now raised outside. After a time, 
 the church council and the priest's servant were an- 
 nounced, to whom I immediately opened the door. They 
 now read to me the new conventicle placard, and forbade 
 my preaching any more in that parish, as I was a 
 Baptist. While the ruffians were engaged with the 
 church council, I made my escape; and, traveling through 
 mud and darkness, I reached safely a farmer's house in 
 a neighboring parish, while the ruffians sought me in vain 
 during the night. 
 
 THE PREACHER EIRED AT. 
 
 "At Mala I preached in the open field. A pistol 
 shot was fired at me, but I proceeded with preaching, as 
 though nothing had happened." And while speaking of 
 
SAILOR MISSIONARY WORK. 14I 
 
 Other instances of persecution, he closes by saying: "The 
 glory be to the Lord I can say that my witness for the 
 truth has been richly blessed, and that souls have been 
 converted; how many, shall be revealed in that day." 
 
 DR. EDGREN, TRANSLATOR AND COMMEN- 
 TATOR, 
 
 another sailor missionary before referred to, was one 
 of the first teachers in the Theological Seminary at 
 Stockholm; his works, as the first Swedish teacher in 
 the Theological department at Morgan Park for Scan- 
 dinavians, are well known by American Baptists. He has 
 published several exegetica'l works, both in English and 
 Swedish; his latest efforts being the translation of the 
 New Testament into Swedish, with comments. 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE MISSION. 
 
 In 1858, the pastor of the Baptist Mariners' Church 
 reported, in a letter to the New York Baptist Asso- 
 ciation held in ]^)rooklyn, the following, as showing the 
 progress in Sweden; after referring to its origin, he says: 
 "There are now forty-five churches and 2,105 members. 
 There have been baptized in that field the last year 
 1,292 persons." He reported in the same letter con- 
 cerning Brother Nelson, that "he had baptized in Minne- 
 sota 150 Swedes, and organized four small churches." 
 
 In 1867, nearly ten years later, there were in Swe- 
 den 10 associations, 191 churches, and 7,478 members. 
 
 ^IRS. PUTNAM ON THE SWEDISH MISSION. 
 
 "As we trace the progress of Baptist principles in 
 Sweden (writes Mrs. Putnam in 1868) we must remem- 
 ber all the obstacles which impede their onward course. 
 All the wealth and power and influence of tlic hierarchy 
 
142 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 were employed to crush out this heresy and to silence 
 the voice of the preacher. Blows, fines and imprison- 
 ments were meted out to pastors and people. Men cast 
 out their names as evil, and often friends and rela- 
 tives disowned them. Yet, notwithstanding all these 
 trials and dif^culties, we find the cause of God and of 
 truth, steadily advanced." 
 
 "Thus the streams of the river of life are making 
 glad the city of our God, nor is the humble channel 
 through which these streams were first issued left to 
 barrenness and drought. Replenished with the rain and 
 dew of heaven, it still continues to send forth healing 
 waters, by which 'the parched ground becomes a pool, 
 and the thirstv land springs of water.' " 
 
THE LORD'S WORK AT GOTHENBURG. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE LORDS' WORK AT GOTHENBURG. 
 
 "He who in the .sphere 
 assigned him; whether 
 it be high or low, 
 labors faithfully for 
 right and freedom, is 
 laboring for the over- 
 throw of the enemies 
 of the kingdom of God over 
 the whole earth." 
 
 I MY RETURN TO SWEDEN. 
 
 In the month of May, 1861, accompanied bj my 
 wife, a daughter of Rev. Ira R. Steward, I returned to 
 Sweden, having sold for the Chihan owners, the ship, St. 
 Vincent de Paul, at Bordeaux. I visited first the breth- 
 ren at Stockholm, found them packed away up in a hall, 
 where they did not dare to hold their services, during- the 
 hours that services were held by the State Church, for 
 fear of being fined. I thought then, and have thought 
 ever since that they conceded too much to the claims of 
 the Swedish Diana, great as she was. 
 
 When Luther and Melancthon set up their creeds, 
 Melancthon asked Luther: "How much shall we con- 
 cede to Rome?" "Nothing!"' was Luther's quick reply, 
 Alas! he conceded too much, as the reader will have 
 noticed in the fifth chapter of this history. 
 
144 "^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 NO CONCESSION TO ROME'S DAUGHTERS. 
 
 Ill discussing the subject, whether at Stockhohii or 
 Gothenburg, I held fast to the principle, cost what it 
 would, that Baptists should never concede anything to 
 Rome's daughters or their progeny, and this principle 
 was carried out at Gothenburg in practice as well as in 
 theory For my motto was as follows: 
 
 •'On the field of battle! 
 
 Be earnest in the fight; 
 Stand forth with manly courage. 
 
 And struggle for the right." 
 
 My subsequent doings at Gothenburg, to which 
 place I went, proved my views to be correct, and the 
 brethren at Stockholm and all over Sweden, lovingly and 
 gratefully approved of my course as all were benefitted 
 thereby. 
 
 I found at Gothenburg, F. O. Nelson, who, on ac- 
 count of the law of banishment having been abolished, 
 had by royal grace been permitted to return to Sweden. 
 
 EFFECTUAL PETITIONS AND PROTESTS. 
 
 The petitions, prayers and protests of the whole civ- 
 ilized world had at last brought about that change, but 
 not till 1855 or 1856, when six Catholic women were 
 banished. That capped the cHmax; but the voluntary 
 exile of the best people of Sweden by thousands was no 
 doubt a stronger reason for its abolition, as the Govern- 
 ment found she injured herself more than the hated 
 Christians. 
 
 PERSECUTION LED TO EMIGRATION. 
 
 As in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries, so in Sweden during the nineteenth century, 
 it was found that tormenting and harrassing the Chris- 
 
THE LORD'S WORK AT GOTHENBURG. 145 
 
 tians led to emigration, as figures relating to the flight 
 of the Swedes will show. 
 
 Before 1850, there were only a few hundred Swedish 
 settlers in America, but during- the following decade, or 
 during the years of the most violent rage and mania of 
 persecution, they had already increased to more than fif- 
 teen thousand, although their transit was by the slow 
 sailing ships, requiring a])out two months for the pass- 
 age. 
 
 There are many causes besides intolerance, for the 
 great increase of later decades. The present number is 
 1,200,000 — about half of whom were born in Sweden, the 
 other half in this country, who, with their children, are 
 rapidly assimilating with the American people. 
 
 FIRST WORK AT GOTHENBURG. 
 
 I found Brother Nelson with his wife and from six 
 to a dozen persons holding private meetings in various 
 homes. The prospect looked doubtful and dreary enough. 
 I felt it a duty to assist them, and so concluded to give 
 up my business at sea for some time. 
 
 BAPTISTS CHARGED WITH DOING THINGS IN 
 A CORNER. 
 
 Shortly after my arrival, I attended the funeral of a 
 little nephew. Two priests were present, who, in conver- 
 sation, said that the heretic, Nelson, with some of the 
 same sort held meeting-s in out-of-the-way places so as 
 not to be found by the authorities. This hint was suf- 
 ficient. These priests did not know me then. Their 
 words were reflected upon, and on meeting with Nelson 
 I told him that I would build a house with a hall for 
 worship, in a prominent place, where everybody could 
 see it. On one side of the Alameda, a public promenade 
 for the City of Gothenburg. I found, providentially, a 
 
146 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 vacant corner lot fronting forty-six feet on the prome- 
 nade, and sixty-seven feet on the side street. The lot 
 had been vacant a long time, becanse the price was con- 
 sidered too high — $1,350. I bought it immediately, and 
 in July commenced building a two-story house, the hall 
 for worship being thirty feet, by forty-five feet in front. 
 While the building was going on, remarks about the 
 proposed use of the hall troubled the builder — some say- 
 ing it was for Catholics, some for Mormons, and some, 
 better informed, said it was for Baptists. I told the 
 builder if it troubled him, to make at once a signboard, 
 the whole length of the house, a foot wide, and have 
 painted on it in big letters,* the words, 
 
 BAPTIST MEETING HALL, 
 
 and have it placed over the five windows of the hall. 
 When it was ready, Nelson, who at first thought it was 
 all right, now came and begged me, for fear of the con- 
 sequences, not to put it up, but I told him I had put my 
 hand to the plow and ahead it must go. 
 
 "Well," said he, "God's will be done," and it was 
 done. 
 
 A SIGNIFICANT SIGNBOARD. 
 
 People could now read for themselves what was ex- 
 pected, and great was the consternation of the priests 
 and the Bishop. I had stopped them from saying that the 
 Baptist doings "were done in a corner." And they felt 
 now more like the Philistines to say: "The Hebrews come 
 forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves." 
 
 On the eighth of December, 1861, the hall was ready, 
 for "the King's business recjuircd haste." Advertise- 
 ments had been put in the papers, among the church 
 
 *One paper stated spitefully that they were two feet high. 
 The truth was, eight inches. 
 
THE LORD'S WORK AT GOTHENBURG. 
 
 147 
 
 notices, making- known that preaching would be held in 
 the Uaptist Hall, forenoon and evening.* In the fore- 
 noon it was during the time oi the High Mass of the 
 State Church. Only once before had such a thing oc- 
 curred, and the result was a fine, and we expected the 
 same. 
 
 That forenoon Nelson spoke on the following sul)- 
 ject: 
 
 THE P.AITISTS, WHAT ARE THEY, AND WHAT 
 DO THEY WANT? 
 
 There was present a priest who, I ol)served, when 
 Nelson read the articles of faith, took notes thereof. After 
 the service I gave him a copy in print, telling him he 
 would have it so much more complete. 
 
 In the evening the Hall was full of people, but only 
 fifteen or sixteen were Baptists, six of whom had, on 
 the fourth of August, in the same year, been organized 
 into a church, in my hired rooms. That was and is 
 
 THE FIRST BA:^TIST CHURCH OF GOTH- 
 ENBURG, 
 
 now numbering from five to six hundred members, wor- 
 shipping in a fine building called the "Tabernacle," cost- 
 ing about twenty-five thousand dollars, ten thousand of 
 which was given by Americans. To Dr. Bright, Mr. 
 Rockefeller and many others great gratitude is due for 
 that generous help. 
 
 THE FIRES OF PERSECUTION 
 
 were soon started by the bigoted Bishop Bjorck of Goth- 
 enburg, a man, whom to look upon, one would take for 
 a typical saint, kind and mild-mannered in expression, 
 
 *It was the first time that meetings for dissenters were ever 
 advert isefl. 
 
148 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 his face always beaming with a smile most benignant. He 
 had, however, at the Diets become known as urging the 
 most exacting fines and severest punishments for dis- 
 sent. So we knew well with whom we had to deal and 
 what to expect. 
 
 "Yet in his lineaments you could not trace, 
 While gentleness her milder radiance threw 
 
 Along that aged, venerable face 
 
 The deeds that lurked beneath and stained him with 
 disgrace." 
 
 Those lines of Byron were written in the present 
 tense; I have changed them to the past, for of him, the 
 Bishop, as of thousands of others in Sweden, one can 
 say: "They are dead which sought the voung child's 
 hfe." 
 
 THREE PERSECUTING KINGS AND THREE 
 PERSECUTING ARCHBISHOPS DEAD! 
 
 Where are the three heads of the Swedish State 
 Church? The kings, Charles XIV.; Oscar I., and Charles 
 XV., all three Bernadottes which sought the young 
 child's life? They are dead! Where are the three arch- 
 bishops of Sweden, Wingard, Holmstrom, and Rcuter- 
 dahl, who were foremost in seeking to slay the life of 
 the young Baptist child? "They are dead!" 
 
 Nelson and I, by the demands of the Bishop, 
 
 "THE ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN," 
 
 were first cited to appear at the Police Court. Nelson's 
 crime consisted in the charge of preaching the Gospel 
 of the Son of God, mine for allowing such preaching in 
 my house.* Both charges, of course, served up in legal 
 
 *I was there as a foreign citizen, and, as such, had a risht 
 to admit people to worship with me. The appeals to higher 
 courts were decided against me on pretense of some informality 
 about the security. 
 
THE LORD'S WORK AT GOTHENBURG. i_^(j 
 
 phraseology. The judg-e, however, after hearing us, 
 referred the case to the City Court. On account of Nel- 
 son's former punishments, that Court acquitted him, but 
 contrary to law, sentenced me to a fine of twenty-six dol- 
 lars, which, however, by costs of appeals to the hig-her 
 and highest courts, became doubled. But the popular 
 cry of shame and disgrace to the country on account 
 of that trial (a full account of which is in the archives 
 at Gothenburg) was such that they never troubled us any 
 more, even unto this day. We could meet when we 
 pleasetl, advertise the meetings, and do everything in ac- 
 cordance with God's Word as we thought best, "none to 
 molest us, or make us afraid." All these blessings and 
 exemptions from perseciitions, which others suffered in 
 other places, were certainly worth fifty dollars, when 
 five thousand had been spent in building the house, 
 which was a free home to the Baptist Church from 1861 
 to 1875, when a much bigger hall was required. Conse- 
 quently, the Workingmen's Union Hall was hired for 
 services at certain hours. No objections were made to 
 having a baptistery arranged under the platform. This 
 hall served the purpose of the Church during nine years, 
 till God opened the way for the more suitable "Taber- 
 nacle." 
 
 HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF. 
 
 Before this narrative was sent to the press, the infor- 
 mation had come announcing that the First Church at 
 Gothenburg, like a prolific mother, had given birth to 
 twin Baptist churches, now named the Second and Third. 
 And it is very remarkable, that one of them, the Second 
 Church, with a membership of sixty persons, has rented 
 the same hall built in i860, for the use of the First 
 Church. 
 
 Not only in that respect has history repeated itself, 
 but also in the formation of that church, which, like the 
 
ISO 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Second Ohnrch of the City of New York, sprung into 
 existence through a trifling misunderstanding, the latter 
 church having in the year 1770 adopted a change about 
 giving out the hymns during pubhc worship, a minority 
 of fourteen rebelled against the innovation and formed 
 that year the Second Church.* 
 
 In Gothenburg, the minority objected to the exclu- 
 sion of the only rich and prominent member of the 
 church, and consequently separated and formed the Sec- 
 ond Church. 
 
 In that city of more than 120,000 inhabitants, widely 
 scattered, there should have been three or four Baptist 
 churches many years ago. The Third Church, in more 
 pleasant communion with the first, has at the same time 
 been organized for the occupation of an outlying district 
 of the city. 
 
 Thus God sometimes makes his children's foolish- 
 ness as well as "man's wrath'' to praise him, and to in- 
 crease his work. 
 
 CHURCH DISRUPTIONS. 
 
 As rocks and shoals, marked or unmarked by bea- 
 cons are carefully put down on the charts in order that 
 navigators may avoid them, so a compilation of church 
 ruptures ought to be, if not already, published, to serve 
 as a warning and guide to inexperienced churches 
 throughout the world. 
 
 *See "Sketches of the First and Second Baptist Churches of 
 the City of New York" in the "New York Monthly Chronicle" 
 for 1S49. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 151 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 "Tho men who ignite tiaemselves 
 with coals from the altar of Hades 
 in order the more furiously to do 
 the work of the Lord, are the men 
 of whom Hades alone has cause 
 to be proud." 
 
 —Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 ODE TO BIGOTRY. 
 
 "Crowned with a garland stcep'd in tears, 
 The monster, Bigotry, appears! 
 Offspring of hell, and death's all}'; 
 Thy music is the orphan's cry; 
 The widow's blighted heart thy feast, 
 Thine agent the cold-blooded priest. 
 The nations' annals thou hast stain'd, 
 The feeling heart, how deeply pain'd! 
 But thou, destroyer, shalt be slain 
 And freedom reign on earth again." 
 
 : FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. 
 
 To give an adequate account of the persecutions in- 
 dulged in by the Swedish Lutheran State Church from its 
 incipiency to the present time, would require a volume 
 written as big as "Fox's Book of Martyrs," which, of 
 course, is out of the question in this general account of 
 the Baptist mission in that country. So much, however, 
 must be reported as to let the readers know that the cry 
 which has gone forth to all civilized nations about the 
 Lutheran ill-doings, has not been without cause. 
 
152 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 The cases of persecution, herein related, were most 
 atrocious from 1840 to 1880, yet not so bad as in England 
 two hundred or three hundred years ago, nor worse than 
 in England's colonies before they became the United 
 States. The disgrace to Sweden consisted in the fact 
 that her persecutions and crimes (for persecutions are 
 crimes) were committed during an enlightened century, 
 when nearly all other civilized nations accepted the prin- 
 ciples of Roger Williams, and detested petty persecutions 
 for religious opinions. 
 
 An anomaly in the persecutions in Sweden was that 
 they were as violent against the Christians of the pre- 
 scribed creed as against Baptists or Methodists, and for 
 the most unnatural reasons. In the provinces of Norr- 
 land and Dalarna were thousands of Lutheran Christians 
 who preferred the old hymn and prayer-books to the 
 new ones, which were formerly forced on the people by 
 law. Thus Sweden, 
 
 "LIKE THE OSTRICHES IN THE WILDER- 
 NESS," 
 
 has proved herself cruel to her own brood. This cruelty 
 was urged on by Archbishop Wingard, and afterwards 
 continued by his successors so long as they had the law 
 in their favor. And it was not merely isolated cases, but 
 it was carried on to such an extent, that in Falun, the 
 chief city of the province of Dalarna, the prison was so 
 crowded with Lutheran Christians, that if the royal epis- 
 copal heresy hunting was to continue, new and larger 
 prisons must be built, especially for the incarceration of 
 the most orthodox Lutherans in Sweden. 
 
 Chevalier Bunsen, in his "Signs of the Times," says: 
 "A constitutional government, and especially a Protest- 
 ant one, should never condescend to make itself the ex- 
 ecutioner of ecclesiastical censures." In Sweden, how- 
 ever, this rule could not be applied, for the government, 
 
rERFllJIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 
 
 153 
 
 represented as it was, both in eabmet and congress by 
 th-e priests, was as thoroughly saturated with bigotry as 
 the priests themselves. There were individual excep- 
 tions, of course, in both bodies. Fearing to be charged 
 with exaggeration, I will quote some extracts from a 
 Lutheran periodical called "The Church Friend," pub- 
 lished as before stated by a Lutheran priest in favor of 
 more liberty and toleration. 
 
 "In the year 1854 at Bergsjo Court, sixty-four per- 
 sons were fined Crowns* 1920, which sentence was by 
 "Svea Royal Court of Appeal' nullified, but by the King 
 confirmed." 
 
 Further, at the same place, Bergsjo, twenty-seven 
 persons were sentenced to pay fines. Crowns 810, con- 
 firmed by both Court of Appeals and the King. Again 
 in Glimstad, a town in north Helsingland, seventy-three 
 persons fined Crowns 2,190, and one hundred and eight 
 persons fined Crowns 3,184. This was certified to by 
 the Sheriff, February 7, 1854. 
 
 Here, in only two places and four cases, two hundred 
 and seventy-two persons had been sentenced to pay 
 Crowns 8,104. When it is considered that for those Chris- 
 tians, a Crown was of more value than a dollar to the 
 people of this land, we may judge of their troubles and 
 distresses. If they had property and would not pay, it 
 was levied on; if they had no property, they were sent 
 to prison. 
 
 It will be noticed in the previous extract that, when 
 a case first came before the Court of Appeals, they did 
 not sanction the sentence till they found that the King 
 sustained the lower Court's decision, thus showing their 
 deference to the will in the highest place. 
 
 It should be understood that a sentence by the King 
 means not himself alone, but that of his cabinet, the Min- 
 isters of the various departments, among which is also 
 an Ecclesiastical Minister, to whom is in the first place 
 
 *A crown is equal to twenty-six and one-half cents. 
 
JC1 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 referred matters of a religious aspect, and as he and a 
 majority of the Cal^inet decide, the King signs the de- 
 cree. The blame must therefore rest on him, not for sign- 
 ing what the majority may think best, but for having such 
 priest-ridden bigots in his Council. The present king, 
 Oscar II., chooses generally better material. One would 
 have supposed and expected that in the King's Council 
 in 1854, men could have been found as enlightened as 
 the several judges in the "Svea Court of Appeals." But 
 alas! such was not the case. 
 
 When the persecutions were carried on in such a 
 manner against Lutherans, we may well cease tO' wonder 
 at the way in which the despised Baptists were malicious- 
 ly maltreated — the cases of which would be too numer- 
 ous to mention. 
 
 A SWEDISH ARCHBISHOP AND THE EVAN- 
 GELICAL ALLIANCE. 
 
 In 185 1 when the Alliance met at London, a sensa- 
 tional case of unexpected episcopal inconsistency came 
 before it. The Swedish dignitaries in church and state 
 had supposed that their misdeeds against God's people 
 could be carried on unknown or unnoticed by the civilized 
 part of the world, as if Sweden had been on some other 
 ])lanet than the earth. And being a Protestant kingdom, 
 Sweden was very anxious to be ranked among the fore- 
 most for Protestant principles. So, when the Archbishop 
 Wingard heard of the Evangelical Alliance, that it was to 
 meet at London, he sent a letter to that body, express- 
 ing "his heartfelt sympathy with and well wishes for the 
 Alliance, and how painful it was for him that, owing to 
 his great age and poor health, he was unable to be pres- 
 ent at the meeting." 
 
 How little did this prelatical pretender of sympathy 
 know how his heartlessness would be exposed. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 155 
 
 AN UNEXPECTED EPISODE. 
 
 After the letter was read, the Ijanished Paptist, F. O. 
 Nelson, who had been invited to be present, was intro- 
 duced to the audience, and related his experience and 
 how he had been persecuted and banished from his home 
 and fatherland. This was an unexpected episode, and 
 great was the surprise and indignation felt by all pres- 
 ent, who "fell on their knees and prayed for the King, 
 for the country and for the many persecuted Swedes." 
 
 "And here at home," says the Swedish "Church 
 Friend," we know nothing of all this. Lullabies must 
 be sung to keep the poor people from waking up." 
 
 The editor closed his comments with the following 
 prayer: "May the Lord give us grace that we may soon 
 wake up, and with love meet the innumerable eyes, 
 which from all parts, visible and invisible, lovingly look 
 upon us, and are solicitous for our awakening.'' 
 
 INTERCESSIONS OF FOREIGN GOVERN- 
 MENTS. 
 
 The result was that Lord Palmerston sent a petition 
 to the Swedish Government to alleviate the intolerant 
 legislation against dissenters. France sent a similar pe- 
 tion in 1851. 
 
 During the years 1853 to 1856, petitions were sent 
 to the Swedish Government from different countries la- 
 menting the intolerance existing in Sweden. 
 
 In 1854 it was recorded in the minutes of the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance which met that year in London, "That 
 this meeting with feelings of great pain and humiliation 
 has received information about the persecutions, which at 
 this time continue in Sweden." 
 
 Sir Culling Eardley, a member of the Alliance, re- 
 quested Lord Clarendon, then England's prime minis- 
 
156 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 ter, "that he would send a petition to King Oscar I. to 
 promote toleration for dissenters." 
 
 In a pamphlet, the same year, it says: "The religious 
 persecutions in Sweden are becoming more and more 
 objects for comments in nearly all newspapers and peri- 
 odicals of France, England and the United States." 
 
 And further, from New York in the year 1856, was 
 sent a protest from a mass meeting of dififerent denomina- 
 tions to the King of Sweden about the banishment of six 
 Catholics. 
 
 ROUSING THE SWEDISH LION. 
 
 Like the English, so the Swedish nation has a lion 
 for its symbol. It is represented in a national song as 
 resting, sleeping with open eyes, and dreaming (of the 
 past) of its "broken arrows" ("brutna pilar"), and such 
 things of ancient warfare. Consequently, it cannot see. 
 And it could not see how it made any difiference to for- 
 eigners, how God's people were treated. But after all 
 these petitions, protests and demonstrations abroad — es- 
 pecially the protest from America on account of the ban- 
 ishment of the Catholics — it roused itself from its sleep, 
 and at last woke up with a growl, a howl, and a roar, to 
 think that foreigners should trouble themselves so much 
 about the persecuted subjects of its own lair; and, as a 
 result, at the next Diet, banishment for dissent was abol- 
 ished, and to members of the Lu'theran Church was 
 granted the right of worshipping God in private places, 
 at certain hours.* Those hours on Sundays were the 
 same as when grog-shops, theatres, dancehalls, etc., 
 were allowed to be open. So the meeting together of 
 God's people for private worship, was by the authorities 
 looked upon as on a par with such places and considered 
 as a great concession. 
 
 ♦Chap. XV. on religious liberty, contains a full account of that 
 change. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. icy 
 
 SWEDISH PRIESTS IN PARIS. 
 
 At the EvcUii^-clical Alliance held at Paris in the 
 year 1855. one of the Swedish prominent priests of free- 
 church proclivities, was present to represent the liberal 
 element of Sweden. That was Dr. l>er<:^man, one of the 
 leading- pastors in the southern parts of the land. He 
 related to the Alliance how, at a private meeting of Luth- 
 erans, "A student was reading Luther's Commentary on 
 the Ejpistle to the Galatians, when in rushed three police- 
 men with drawn cutlasses, and drove the people out of 
 the house. A father with his frightened child was sit- 
 ting in a corner, when the child, crying and convulsed 
 with fear, asked: "Father, Father, are we all to be killed?"' 
 After this story was told, one of two priests, also from 
 Sweden, who had come there as defenders of the State 
 Church policy, spoke up and said that he had not heard 
 of any priests being- persecuted. At this impudent ex- 
 pression, a general hissing commenced, and some spoke 
 out and said: "Here is no question whether the priests 
 are persecuted or not. The question is, if they perse- 
 cute." Then the chairman of the Alliance, the excellent 
 French pastor, Monod, gave a short lecture about per- 
 secutions generally, during- which shouts of applause al- 
 most hindered him from speaking; but when he came to 
 the closing words, and roared out "Shame on papal per- 
 secutions, but three-fold shame on all protestants who 
 persecute!" it seemed as if the acclamations would never 
 cease. 
 
 The two Swedish priests, Nejdel and Lundbergson. 
 were not heard from any more, and probably packed up 
 their trunks and took the first train home to more con- 
 genial quarters. 
 
 All the above was published in "The Church Friend" 
 in Sweden and by Dr. Hammar, as before stated, a priest. 
 The periodical was published for nine years in behalf of 
 religi(nis liberty, and did great service. 
 
158 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 I have taken great pains not to present anything 
 of these matters, so degrading for the Swedish Govern- 
 ment, without absokite proof of their correctness. All 
 of them were pul^licly stated in a lecture at Gothenburg 
 in 1872, which was printed by thousands, and no one 
 charged me with any mistake or exaggeration. 
 
 For additional and corroborative proof of the views 
 presented in connection with this subject may be quoted 
 a few lines from Mackenzie's Life of John Calvin.* He 
 says: "It should seem that there is connected with the 
 act of persecution a certain undefinable pleasure, which 
 is at once the luxury and reproach of a bigoted and 
 malignant mind. The real ground of persecution, what- 
 ever specious forms it may assume, is the native deprav- 
 ity of human nature; in decidedly wicked characters, it 
 selects for its object vital Christianity; but where it un- 
 happily obtains amongst religious persons, it must cer- 
 tainly be ascribed to ill-regulated zeal, and a mistaken 
 apprehension of the genius of Christianity." 
 
 PLEASURE AND PROFITS OF PERSECUTIONS 
 
 are the real motives at the bottom of all State persecu- 
 tions. Think of the many millions of confiscated prop- 
 erty that has thus come into the possession of unprin- 
 cipled rulers, and also of the rewards offered to accusers 
 and prosecutors. Add to that the "undefinable pleasure," 
 and how some rulers have been "delighted to inflict" 
 "terrible penalties." 
 
 One instance of a thousand may suffice to show how 
 the rapacity of rulers has occasioned the most direful 
 persecutions. 
 
 In the times of Edward I. (one of the great number 
 of England's unprincipled kings), the Jews had suc- 
 ceeded in amassing great wealth which the King wanted. 
 
 ►Pages 140, 147. 
 
rERFIDIOUS. PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 159 
 
 He did not, as in these days, wish to borrow their 
 hoarded gold. No, he had an easier way under the garb 
 of piety and as a defender of Christianity, to take by 
 force all the treasures from them and then turn them out 
 of his land. Or, in the words of an historian, speaking of 
 the Jews in this case he says: "On this people the hand 
 of the remorseless Edward' was instantly laid. By im- 
 prisonment, by tortures, by death, he extorted the miser- 
 able earnings of their avarice and deceit; and finally, to 
 jiii-tify his conduct by placing it under the protection 
 of Christian feeling, he banished the impoverished sur- 
 vivors as enemies of the Christian faith." 
 
 "When Edward robbed the Jews, he pretended to 
 be taking vengeance on the enemies of God." 
 
 In commenting on such diabolical acts, the same 
 historian says that'"all his sternness and cruelty in the 
 administration of what he thought justice, sink into in- 
 significance when compared with his bloodthirsty fury 
 in the peri)etration of what he must have known to be 
 wrong." And again, "Edward, the soldier, the states- 
 man, and king, was now rich with the spoils of the un- 
 fortunate Hebrews."* 
 
 In this chapter, I will only mention a few cases out 
 of the many hundreds that the bigoted civil and priestly 
 authorities were "delighted to inflict" on the Baptists. 
 
 The words "delighted to infiict" are purposely used 
 as most applicable; they were so used by the editor of 
 the Evangelical Christendom, the organ of the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance, when in 1863, referring to the death of 
 Sir Culling Eardley, the president of the Alliance, he 
 says that "his name' is associated with some of the most 
 noticeable instances in our own times in efforts that have 
 been made to rescue the persecuted from the terrible 
 penalties which a lingering but still powerful intoler- 
 ance seems delighted to inflict." 
 
 *T^andmark9 of tho History of England, by J. WHiite, pp. 54, 
 55, 56. 
 
l6o ^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 There is no doubt but that in this case the editor had 
 in his mind the outrages committed in Sweden. 
 Dr. Armitage relates in his history how "at the Baptist 
 anniversaries in Chicago, 1855, a letter was read, dated 
 from "a cell in Stockholm prison, January 25th, 1855," 
 and signed by a pastor, telling of the imprisonment of 
 fifteen brethren and sisters, on bread and water diet, for 
 taking communion outside of the State Church. The 
 reply of the American Baptists was the appointment of 
 Mr. Wiberg as a missionary of the Publication Society 
 to Sweden." "The court preacher had entered the house 
 of Forsell, with a policeman, and by force had sprinkled 
 the forehead of a six months' child." Doctor Armitage 
 puts the question within brackets: "Was he a Pedobaptist 
 fanatic?" to which I say, not more so than 900 of the 
 I, GOO priests and bishops in Sweden at that time, and 
 not more so than the Kings and the highest officers of 
 the Government, who insisted on carrying out such laws 
 and practices, regardless of all shame. 
 
 SATAN'S RAGE AGAINST THE BAPTISTS. 
 
 Illustration of this may be seen in a report in 1857, 
 by Brother Wiberg to the American Baptist Publication 
 Society, in which he says: "Satan is raging mightily, and 
 instigating the enemies of the truth to throw as many ob- 
 stacles in the way as possible. This is especially the case 
 in Skone. There the authorities seize upon the Baptist 
 preachers, and imprison them whenever they are found 
 without the limits of their own parish^a course never 
 pursued before in this country. Six of our colporteur 
 brethren have at various times been confined in the cell- 
 prison at Christianstad, and some of them treated very 
 harshly. One of them, a blind colporteur, by name of 
 Nils Hokanson. was confined in this prison for eight 
 days for circulating religious books and tracts. After 
 he was released, an iron chain was attached to one of 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. i6l 
 
 his ankles. After this, he was driven on a prison cart 
 to another station, where new irons were placed upon 
 him. In this condition he was sent to his home and com- 
 pelled to pay a considerable sum to the authorities, which 
 they claimed for their trouble in bringing him home. As 
 he had no money of his own, they took that which he 
 had received from book sales, and also a watch he wore, 
 but which was not his own. 
 
 Sven Svenson was stripped of all his clothing, and 
 his whole body washed in cold water; he was then severe- 
 ly buffeted, his hair cut close, and in a prisoner's dress 
 thrown into a cold damp cell. Being thinly clad, he was 
 seized with severe chills, and old Adam began to rebel; 
 but calling to mind that all we have better than hell is 
 by the grace of God, all became peace and light and 
 joy." 
 
 In another letter he writes: "Klockar Lars Person 
 has just returned from the prison of Falun, after having 
 been imprisoned on bread and water, because he had 
 allowed Heidenberg to read the Bible in his cottage; Nas 
 Per Person has also again been fined one hundred rix- 
 dollars for holding meeting, and his mother twenty-six 
 rix-dollars for taking the Lord's Supper out of the State 
 Church." 
 
 Brother Heidenberg, one of the earliest preachers, 
 went to Hamburg shortly after his conversion, and was 
 there baptized and ordained in 1854. He suffered per- 
 secution often and severely; was before the courts on six- 
 teen occasions; and with the worst of criminals trans- 
 ported like a felon from one prison to another; his child 
 was taken from its parents by force, by a priest with the 
 aid of two policemen, and Lutheranized by sprinkling.* 
 
 *This hig-hly esteemed brother, who, in business has been very 
 successful, celebrated his 70th birthday Nov. 18, 1897, on wliich 
 festival occasion, in the Elim Church of Sundsvall, reminiscences 
 of his past and checkered life, were the order of the day, or 
 the evening. 
 
1 52 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 WIBERG AND PALMOUIST BEFORE THE 
 COURTS. 
 
 The leading brethren at Stockholm, who so long and 
 &o submissively had conformed to the requirements of 
 the State Church, as to times of service, did .not escape 
 persecutions any more than I did at Gothenburg. For 
 in 1870, Brethren Wiberg and Pehr Palmquist were 
 brought before the Courts (this was eight years after 
 the shameful, shabby, and scandalous case at Gothen- 
 burg); Wiberg, for baptizing a person under eighteen 
 years, Palmquist for teaching a Sunday School. The 
 prosecutions, however, were contrary to law, and this 
 saved both the brethren from fines or having their homes 
 plundered — this word, although strong, has been fre- 
 quently used by Lutheran priests in published accounts 
 for similar occasions. 
 
 BLIND BIGOTS' ZEAL OR SPITE 
 
 in this case was greater than the prosecutor's legal eru- 
 dition. Fortunately, the same has proved to be the case 
 in most religious lawsuits during these last thirty years 
 or more, whether against Lutherans, Methodists, or 
 Baptists. 
 
 The question of age had no significance, for there is 
 no law against anybody, not a dissenter, baptizing who- 
 ever he pleases, nor was it then. Neither was it illegal for 
 Pehr Palmquist, considered as a State Church member, 
 to teach a school, Sunday or weekday, made no differ- 
 ence. 
 
 THE DEVIL'S HORNS AND HOOFS. 
 
 The malignant effort in this case, to strike a blow at 
 high quarters, served, however, to reveal the covered-up 
 spirit of the previously enacted dissenter laws referred 
 to in the fifteenth chapter. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 163 
 
 All the Baptists and their friends could now plainly 
 see — what they had known all the time — how they 
 would constantly be harrassed if they had sought recog- 
 nition as a denomination in accordance with the paltr)^ 
 laws which had been passed in order to entrap them. 
 
 The Baptists had only to choose between two evils, 
 and they naturally chose the least. 
 
 By conforming to the dissenter laws, a child of God 
 could not be baptized under eighteen years of age, nor 
 would Lutheran children, though with their parents' de- 
 sire and consent, be permitted to attend any Baptist Sun- 
 day School. 
 
 These are only a few of the many objections against 
 the pio{\osed dissenter law. 
 
164 '^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 PERSECUTIONS. (Continued) 
 
 "The strug-gle of the hierarchy 
 for dominion is always the 
 eame in principle." 
 
 "It is with conscience and 
 Its liberty that the hierarchy 
 wages the most implacable 
 and deadly warfare." 
 
 — Bunsen. 
 
 FRANSON AND WALDENSTROM. 
 
 Although the persecutions indulged in were most 
 severe and frequent from 1840 to 1880, nevertheless, since 
 that time many disgraceful cases have been yearly befort; 
 the Courts. 
 
 Not to mention the many Baptist cases, I will liere 
 refer to two others, showing, in each case, how the 
 priests in their blind zeal, lacked common sense. The 
 first was in the year 1882, against an evangelist by the 
 name of Franson, who had labored in connection with 
 Mr. Moody in America; he traveled from country to 
 country for the spread of the Gospel, and established 
 missionary schools He was a man who never said a 
 word encouraging or advising people to leave the State 
 Church, and he had legal rights to preach anywhere;* 
 yet the priests and the sheriffs set upon him in several 
 places, and dispersed the meetings, just as if the conven- 
 
 *For it is only when preaching can be considered as leading 
 to separation that church councils, through the courts, have a 
 right to forbid It 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 1 65 
 
 tide placard of 1726 had been in full force. He was most 
 shamefully treated, and violent hands were laid upon him 
 by lawless officials. In one place he let them know that 
 he was an American citizen, which deterred them from 
 further ill-treatment. The places where he sufifered most 
 were Skenninge, Halmstad, Falkenberg and Wisby. In 
 the last place he desisted from preaching as soon as for- 
 bidden, but olTered up a prayer, for which he was fined 
 although the laws, intolerant as they are, do not forbid 
 praying. But the priests considered the praying to be 
 as injurious as his preaching. No doubt but it was so 
 to their institution. 
 
 The other case was in 1885 against an ex-priest, a 
 Professor (Lector) Waldenstrom, a most prominent man 
 and leader of the free-church party in Sweden, also a 
 member of the Diet. He had been accused before the 
 Consistory of Upsala by Dean Forsman, for having at 
 the request of the parents, at a town called Sala, sprinkled 
 two children. The case was too ludicrous to deserve 
 comment. His appeal to the King against the unlawful 
 sentence of the Consistory, whose chairman w'as the 
 narrow-minded archbishop, Sundberg, a prelate to the 
 core, is a very long and masterly piece of defence. 
 
 Of course, in all such cases against such leading 
 men, the priests and bishops only become laughing 
 stocks on account of their spite and jealousy. For Wal- 
 denstrom is a bold, able, and successful man, who will not 
 patiently stand any trifling or nonsense from any prics^, 
 high or low, and if hit, can and will hit back with tenfold 
 force. 
 
 EFFORTS TO DECEIVE FOREIGNERS. 
 
 In view of such disgraceful proceedings as those 
 against Franson in 1882, it is strange to see it reported 
 that such a prominent man as Bishop G. von Scheele, 
 could have the temerity at the meeting of the Evangelical 
 
1 66 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Alliance in Basle, 1879, to say that "Sweden had full re- 
 ligious liberty." 
 
 And so far back as in i860, Baron O. Adelsward, 
 Swedish Ambassador to France, wrote while at Nantes 
 a big book in order to deny the charges of Swedish in- 
 tolerance which had appeared in several French papers; 
 as also in a book published by two priests, Abbe Cognat 
 and Bernard. The Baron asserted that in Sweden was 
 excellent religious liberty, especially when comparing it 
 with that of France two hundred years ago, and how it 
 was in Spain at the time he wrote. Many such apologists 
 has Sweden had. 
 
 Concerning the book which Abbe Cognat, with the 
 help of Bernard, wrote, the "Aftonbladet" (the chief 
 paper at Stockholm), in commenting on it, said "touch- 
 ing many things in it, they are really warranted (verkli- 
 gen befogade)." 
 
 It should be remembered that the book was pub- 
 lished shortly after the banishment of several Catholics 
 from Sweden.* 
 
 At the same time, while the Ambassador in a for- 
 eign land felt it so incumbent on him to praise the relig- 
 ious freedom of Sweden, a Lutheran member of the 
 Diet, Mr. Lallerstedt, said in the House of Burghers, 
 "that Sweden was, as regards protestant Christendom, 
 what Spain was to the Roman Catholic; and that Swe- 
 den then (in 1863) was behind most other countries with 
 regard to religious legislation." 
 
 SAINTS ABROAD —DEVILS AT HOME. 
 
 It has often been remarked how friendly to religious 
 liberty many prominent Swedes have expressed them- 
 selves in foreign lands, altogether inconsistent with their 
 known characters at home. 
 
 As an instance may be mentioned, how in 1854, a 
 nobleman, by name Carlheim Gyllenskjold, who at Lon- 
 
 *Its title was "La Suede devant d I'Europe." 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PBRSECUTIONS. 167 
 
 don took part in the meetings of the Ev^angeiical Alh- 
 ance; where, in a long speech in favor of reUgious hberty, 
 he expressed the hope that it would not be a century 
 before Sweden would have the same liberty which Eng- 
 land had. In that speech he did not venture to make the 
 assertion that religious liberty was granted in Sweden, 
 but he undertook the equally foolish thing, to whitewash 
 the Government from the blame of the severe persecu- 
 tions — attributing all to the local authorities. And yet, 
 that same man, having a seat in the House of Nobles, 
 did all in his power to oppose religious liberty both at 
 the Diet of 1863 and the preceding ones. Yea, even at 
 the Diet of 1854 (the year that he spoke so saint-like in 
 London) he insisted upon it, that "the Government, in 
 order to promote the welfare of its subjects, has the right 
 to use what means it chooses and considers most suit- 
 able."* 
 
 This was with reference to compulsory means in favor 
 of uniformity. 
 
 Mr. Hanimar, a priest, and editor of "The Church 
 Friend," says "such inconsistencies are common." 
 
 As a further proof of Mr. Carlheim Gyllenskjold's 
 inconsistency, the reader will please remember what is 
 stated in the first part of the previous chapter: — how, 
 touching the persecutions at Bergsjo, the Court of Ap- 
 peal, in one of the two cases, nullified the lower Court's 
 sentence, but the King approved it, as he also did the 
 second case, at which time the Court of Appeal, having 
 learned the King's pleasure, also confirmed it. And those 
 cases must have been before the several courts at the lat- 
 est in 1853. for they are certified to by the Sheriff in Feb- 
 ruary 7, 1854, and ought to have been known by Mr. 
 Carlheim Gyllenskjold at the May meeting in London of 
 that vear, when he tried to exonerate the Government. 
 
 *Kyrko-Vannen. No. 10, for 1854. 
 
1 68 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "NO ROOM IN THE INN." 
 
 When, in 1884, the same x-Yhiance through prelatical 
 intrigue, was shut out from Stockhohn, a priest, an ex- 
 ception to the many, referring to the sentence of fine on 
 Franson, says: '1 am exceedingly ashamed of being 
 priest in such a church, within which priests act in this 
 manner, and protest most solemnly against it. It is cer- 
 tainly shameful for a priest to live notoriously in sin, but 
 to persecute the believers in Christ is still more shame- 
 ful," and adds, "There was certainly need ot the Evan- 
 gelical Alliance holding its meeting in Sweden to pro- 
 mote tolerance towards dissenting Christians, but now 
 that such a conference has been opposed by the highest 
 men in the Swedish Church, and at the same time infor- 
 mation is spread through the foreign press that, by the 
 efforts of the priests, persons in Sweden at the close of 
 the nineteenth century are sentenced to fines, and for 
 want of money imprisoned for making known their 
 Christian belief, what then will foreigners think of the 
 civilization and Christianity of Sweden?" 
 
 "Priests," he continues, "let us wake up to a due 
 consideration of the state of the church, and not reveal 
 her ungodliness more than is necessary, and thus become 
 detested by the people so that when we have gone to our 
 fathers and no longer need her bread, the coming gen- 
 eration may not say, we will not give bread to the ser- 
 vants of a church who have proved themselves serving 
 only for the sake of the loaves, and persecuted those who 
 could not agree with them on questions of traditional 
 dogmas." 
 
 This progressive as well as aggressive priest. Per 
 Nymanson, offered legal help to the victims of the State 
 Church voracity, and had, when this appeal was printed 
 in the Kristianstads-Bladet* seven to eight cases on hand 
 to defend before the courts. 
 
 *The paper is in the Baptist archive at Gothenburg. 
 
PERFIDIOUS. PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 169 
 
 HERESIES IN HIGH PLACES. 
 GEIJER AND TEGNER. 
 
 Very different from the alcove and from all the pre- 
 viously related cases of persecution, was one of extraor- 
 dinary interest that occurred at Upsala during the year 
 1822, which, on account of the prominent position of the 
 accused, created an unusual sensation and indignation 
 all over the land. 
 
 It concerned no less a personage than the far-famed 
 and well-known Professor, E. G. Geijer, of the Univer- 
 sity — the philosopher, the famous historian, the musician, 
 the poet, and "the eloquent orator." The trial was insti- 
 gated by the Lord Chancellor of the Court at Stockholm. 
 The charge preferred against him was that he had pub- 
 lished in a pamphlet called "Thorild, also a philosophical 
 or unphilosophical confession," certain views aboiit the 
 Trinity and the Atonement, considered to be very dan- 
 gerous, as in conflict with the doctrines of the Church, 
 and equivalent to a denial of the same. The penalty for 
 which was banishment in those days. 
 
 Against these charges, however, he defended him- 
 self so skillfully and masterly by quotations both from 
 the Bible and Luther's writings, that the Consistorial 
 Attorney became quite bewildered, and the jury, of 
 course, acquitted him, at the news of which, the joy, sat- 
 isfaction, and exultation all over the country was as great 
 as the anger and indignation had been before; and the 
 students, who during the trial had daily thronged the 
 ante- room of the Academic Consistory till there was hard- 
 ly standing room, broke forth in the wildest acclamations 
 of excitement, and carried their admired and beloved 
 friend to his home in triumph. 
 
 The same Professor was afterwards offered one of 
 the Bishoprics in two different provinces, and later a 
 place in the King's Cabinet, but declined all those great 
 
170 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 honors, preferring to continue his Hterary labors and his- 
 torical works.* 
 
 The favorable result of the trial was no doubt in 
 some measure due to an intercessory letter to Archbishop 
 Rosenstein from the equally celebrated Professor, after- 
 wards Bishop, E. Tegner, a poet, whose "Frithiof's Saga" 
 and "The Children of the Lord's Supper," both trans- 
 lated into English by Mr. Longfellow, has made him well 
 known in this country. 
 
 He was not only a friend of Geijer, but his contem- 
 porary, within a few months, from the cradle to the grave. 
 He wrote to the Archbishop, saying: "For my part I 
 don't know of any man who has a more profound and 
 serious feeling for the very truths of Christianity than 
 Geijer; and if he has expressed a thought which can be 
 proved not to be in conflict with the Bible, rationally ex- 
 plained, he ought not therefore to be condemned as a 
 heretic."** 
 
 It may be taken for granted that the Archbishop 
 did all in his power to secure an acquittal of Geijer. As 
 he took a most noble stand at the Diet in 1809 in favor 
 of religious liberty, his name is referred to in the six- 
 teenth chapter as one of the three mighty champions in 
 behalf of human rights. 
 
 TEGNER AT SEA IN A FOG. 
 
 The interposition of Tegner was not to be wondered 
 at, for he had taken passage over the troubled sea of 
 uncertainty in the same frail and leaky boat, drifting 
 about on the misty ocean of philosophical speculation, 
 without compass, chart, rudder, or mast. He had called 
 the doctrines in question as "blasphemous, both against 
 God and reason," and he was called by others "a 
 
 *His "History of the Swedes" has been translated into English 
 by Mr. J. H. Turner, M. A. 
 
 **See "Philosophy of Nyblaus" about these men. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 171 
 
 heathen," or, in gentler words, by some, "a non-Chris- 
 tian." 
 
 Yet, later on, with the object of securing- for Hfe a 
 more Hberal and reliable income than he could have as 
 Professor at Lund's University, he chose to become 
 Bishop of Wexio Diocese. 
 
 It is true, and well known, that with all his specula- 
 tive theology, his "soul refused to be comforted" or feel 
 at ease on board the rickety ' boat in which he had 
 launched out, and no doubt longed for a safer craft to 
 ferry him over. "He admitted, also, that the doctrine of 
 the Atonement was good and satisfactory in the hour of 
 death." 
 
 The reader who wishes to know more about this 
 gifted man's theology, will find it in his poem 
 
 "THE CHILDREN OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 
 
 a grand poem, but to my mind, more sublime, beautiful, 
 and poetic than scriptural, sensible, or true to either tem- 
 poral or spiritual life. Of Christ, it says he "atones ever- 
 more." The children, when first receiving the Lord's 
 Supper, are called, "denizens newcome in heaven," and 
 who saw the heaven opened as of old, and all what 
 Stephen saw there, etc. 
 
 I said that Tegner chose to become a Bishop; this 
 may seem strange to American readers, but as he was a 
 man of such rare gifts and literary abilities, not only 
 would the King honor him with an appointment to any 
 vacant Diocese, but the people of such would feel proud 
 of having him for their Bishop. 
 
 TRIAL OF HERESY AT GOTHENBURG. 
 
 Another case for similar cause, occurred at Gothen- 
 burg in 1862. One of the Consistorial members, Mr. 
 Ljungberg (read Youngberg), also a Professor at the 
 College there, had written some anonymous articles in 
 
1^2 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 one of the daily papers, denying the Divinity of Christ. 
 When cited to appear before the Consistorial Court, on 
 being- asked if he was the author of the articles, he ad- 
 mitted that he was, but defended himself by asserting that 
 he was not a priest, while the Bishop insisted upon it that 
 he was.* And as the law did not clearly define whether 
 he was one or not, he could not be sentenced to either 
 loss of his professorship or his seat in the Consistory, to 
 the great chagrin of the Bishop and some of the other 
 members. The Bishop, however, being entitled to a seat 
 in the Diet, promised to send in a bill, which, if passed, 
 would clear the matter. But some time afterwards the 
 Professor died, and the new representative system 
 changed the order of things, and no more was heard 
 of it. 
 
 ANOTHER CLERICAL TROUBLER. 
 
 About the same time another such case was before 
 one of the Consistories in the interior of Sweden. The 
 ofifender, Mr. Hallin, was also a professor in a college; 
 but while the trial was pending, he died in a very accep- 
 table time. 
 
 Full accounts of these last-mentioned trials can be 
 found in the archives of the Baptist Church at Gothen- 
 b"rg. 
 
 These various instances, having nothing in common 
 with the previously recorded cases, are presented only in 
 order to give the reader an idea of ecclesiastical doings in 
 Sweden. 
 
 In commenting thereon, I would remark that if the 
 Swedish State Church had been a Christian Church, all 
 the four men mentioned would certainly have been in 
 the wrong to remain in her service; but, as they knew 
 that she was only a political institution, they, of course, 
 
 *If he was not a priest, he was not amenable before the Con- 
 sistorial Court. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 173 
 
 concluded that questions of doubtful dogmatism did not 
 make so much difference; hence, they could not see why 
 they should be required to give up their comfortable po- 
 sitions with a good income while they knew that the most 
 ungodly priests, such as Mr. Ahnfelt has described them, 
 quoted in the fourth chapter, were not molested in the 
 exercise of their several official functions. 
 
 A VARIETY CASE OF PERSECUTION. 
 
 This is one of the many which, if it was not for the 
 serious consequences, would be justly called not only ex- 
 tremely ludicrous, but disgraceful to the whole legal pro- 
 fession of Sweden. 
 
 A poor, pitiable man, by the name of Victor Lenn- 
 strand, the IngersoU of Sweden, though neither a lawyer 
 nor a demagogue, conceived it his calling to inform as 
 many as would listen to him in different meeting places, 
 that Christianity was all wrong and that he was all right. 
 But although many, for fun or curiosity, went to hear 
 him, they did not pay him enough for such information 
 to keep his poor body and poorer soul together; and not 
 being an orator nor an expert, he could not charge a dol- 
 lar admission for what he had to say; so that, at last, after 
 many distressing struggles with poverty and sickness, his 
 soul left his body to ascertain whether he or Christianity 
 was right. 
 
 Had the authorities had sense enough to leave him 
 alone, it is probable that he would have turned his atten- 
 tion to some more useful and profitable occupation. 
 
 He was accused of breaking a part of the sixteenth 
 article of the Swedish Constitution of 1809 — an article 
 which grants full religious liberty to all in Sweden, with 
 the exceptions only as recorded in Chapter XVI. 
 
 Though that article has always been ignored, and 
 no common law ever framed on the basis or in the spirit 
 of it, yet the authorities, for the sake of showing their 
 
74 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 zeal, pick out the conditional part of it which forbids caus- 
 ing "general scandal or provocation." 
 
 The case was tried in 1889, at Frosokra, near Stock- 
 holm. He was called upon to answer some seven or eight 
 special charges, one of which, number six, was for say- 
 ing "that the crucifixion of Christ was the greatest crime 
 ever committed.* 
 
 The prosecutor, after vainly fumbling among his 
 heaps of papers for something of a reasonable charge, 
 urged the court to inflict the severest punishment that 
 the law provided; viz., a year's imprisonment — especially 
 as the offender had three times before been sentenced to 
 prison, by which he ought to perceive that his views are 
 not right.** 
 
 During the trial, Lennstrand, who had brought n 
 Bible with him, quoted some passages which he supposed 
 were in his favor. The ignorant judge remarked that 
 the meaning could not be as Lennstrand contended for, 
 but must be owing to some erroneous translation ; but he 
 was informed that the words were the same in all the 
 translations, including the last revised by the royal Bible 
 commission. The contested point was Christ's reasons 
 for speaking to the multitudes in parables as per Mat- 
 thew, chapter XIIL*** 
 
 As he has since died, the case concerning him may 
 be dropped. 
 
 Some of his atheistic admirers who would not fur- 
 nish him with the necessaries of life, have lately proposed 
 to collect and spend money for the erection of a statue 
 to his memory. By such post mortem memorials one is 
 
 ♦It may well be imagined whajt the readers will think of such 
 defenders of Christianity in the office of prosecutors, and in a 
 court of justice. 
 
 They did not seem to know that Peter openly accused the 
 Jews of having taken Jesus, "and by wicked hands have cruci- 
 fied and slain" him. 
 
 **Such a lawyer must have considered Paul very obstinate for 
 not perceiving that his views were not right, after being five 
 times sentenced to stripes and three times beaten with rods. 
 
 ***The above is only a short extract from a long article by 
 The Gothenburg Journal of Commerce for September 23, 1889. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 1 75 
 
 reminded of the neglected Homer, of whom some poet 
 has written: 
 
 "Seven cities claimed great Homer dead, 
 Through which the living Homer begged his bread/' 
 
 PERSECUTIONS, BEST POLICY OF DESPOTS. 
 
 From a political point of view, despotic State Church 
 Governments act consistently, when they carry out their 
 intolerance, as they know it is easier to rule over ignorant, 
 deluded and superstitious subjects, than over an enlight- 
 ened people, as people will be in proportion as they be- 
 come truly Christianized and religiously free, but then 
 nothing short of the death penalty will answer the polit- 
 ical purpose. If a ruler is not prepared to be a Nero or 
 a Philip II., he comes short of his aims; half-way meas- 
 ures by banishments, fines, or imprisonment as in Swe- 
 den, are inefficient to stop spiritual progress when the 
 Gospel ball is once set in motion. 
 
 In pursuance of the more effective pohcy 
 
 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS BEHEADED HIS SUB- 
 JECTS, 
 
 after which he had no trouble with them. Thus they w'ere 
 
 "Without reprieve, adjudged to death 
 For want of well pronouncing Shibboleth." 
 
 He did it, of course, from a principle of pious pre- 
 text, viz., that the Swedish State body was Evangelically 
 sound, and that if any member thereof showed signs of 
 dissent, he was to be treated like a gangrenous part of 
 a human body, it must be cut off for the good of the 
 whole body. 
 
 While acting on that principle, he would not think 
 it right for a Catholic Emperor to act on the same for 
 his subjects, because forsooth, the Emperor's religion was 
 
176 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 wrong, but the Emperor thought so also about the rehg- 
 ion of the Swedish King; hence, the devil's wars for polit- 
 ical purposes but with religious pretenses. 
 
 POLICY OF CHARLES V. 
 
 When the doctrines of the Reformation had spread 
 over the Netherlands, Mr. Prescott says: "It is not to be 
 supposed that Charles the Fifth could long remain insen- 
 sible to this alarming defection of his subjects; nor that 
 the man whose life was passed in battling with the Luth- 
 erans of Germany could patiently submit to see their de- 
 tested heresy taking root in his own dominions. He 
 dreaded this innovation no less in a temporal than in a 
 spiritual view. Experience had shown that freedom of 
 speculation in affairs of religion naturally led to free in- 
 quiry into political abuses; that the work of the reformer 
 was never accomplished so long as anything remained 
 to reform, in state as well as in church. Charles, with the 
 instinct of Spanish despotism, sought a remedy in one 
 of those acts of arbitrary power in which he indulged 
 without scruples when the occasion called for them.* 
 
 In his "edict" or "placard," as it was called, it was 
 ordained that all who were convicted of heresy should 
 suffer death "by fire, by the pit, or by the sword;" in 
 other words, should be burned alive, or be beheaded." 
 It was the latter method that was most approved of in 
 Sweden, and for the same purpose, viz., to stop "inquiry 
 into political abuses." 
 
 LUTHERAN REMEDIES FOR APOSTACY. 
 
 In this chapter has been shown the various methods 
 used by the authorities of a church boastingly calling 
 itself "pure evangelical'' for deviating from prescribed 
 forms and creeds. But severe, cruel and painful as they 
 were, they may still be called refined in comparison with 
 the earlier 
 
 "Prescott's History of Philip II., Vol. I., pp. 222-223. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 1 77 
 
 LUTHERAN REMEDIES FOR UNGODLINESS, 
 
 called church discipline, which consisted in being publicly 
 whipped standing in irons naked before the congregation 
 entering or leaving the church;* sitting in stocks during 
 the service by the entrance to the church as a disgrace 
 to the culprit and a terror to the spectators; also sitting 
 or standing on a shame-stool (skampall) in the center 
 aisle of the church during the whole service, with an 
 armed soldier standing behind to keep him in dutiful 
 position. This act was invented or intended as 
 
 A PENITENTIAL PERFORMANCE 
 
 and reconciliation with the church if he confessed his 
 sin on being asked by the priest, who, at the closing part 
 of the service, stepped down to him. If he said he re- 
 pented, he got absolution; if he would not confess, he 
 would be sent back to prison till he conformed to the 
 law. When this and the above-mentioned church pen- 
 ances were inflicted, the culprits had previously suffered 
 the sentence of the civil law passed upon them. The 
 Lutheran legislators assumed that if they could compel 
 people to be converted, they could also, on the same prin- 
 ciple, compel them to repent. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR REPENTANCE. 
 
 A church historian, Sven Baelter, tells of a case 
 when such, for penitence prepared criminal, during the 
 service, took out a bottle of whiskey and swallowed his 
 sorrow in a drink in the sight of all the people, but in- 
 stead of any absolution that day, he got eight days more 
 in prison for his hardness of heart. 
 
 *U is probable that only the upper part of the criminal was 
 naked, though the historian Cornelius does not modify the 
 word. 
 
178 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 BARBARIAN METHODS. 
 
 These reprehensible and barbarian methods of keep- 
 ing the church orthodox by such discipline, have now 
 ceased since the entrance of Gospel light in this century. 
 I remember, however, while a boy, in the decade of 1830, 
 to have seen a man doomed to penitence sitting on such 
 a shame-stool in the cathedral of Gothenburg. The 
 church whippings which the church, through its Consis- 
 tory or Chapter, had a right to inflict, were probably 
 abolished in the seventeenth century, as it was found how 
 the priests abused their power. When Archbishop An- 
 germannus, mentioned in the third chapter, went about 
 converting the Catholics by the aid of this church 
 weapon, the King, Charles IX., had to restrain him in 
 his zeal for orthodoxy and call him back, telling him "he 
 had gone through the land more like a beadle than a 
 bishop." 
 
 PRIESTLY PRESCRIPTS PROPOSED. 
 
 In 1684, when the clergy, as a state in the Diet, had 
 sent in a proposition for a new church law, the King, 
 Charles XL, appointed a committee to examine it, which 
 committee "blamed the authors thereof for wishing to 
 repress and compel the faculty with all kinds of so-called 
 church discipline, and to such extent as not only to have 
 the right to excommunicate them, but also to punish 
 them with capture, imprisonment, whippings, fines, and 
 similar things."* 
 
 The consequence was, no doubt with the opposition 
 of the clergy, that the civil law alone should be applied 
 in criminal cases, so that the church whippings and other 
 severities were by the church law of 1686 taken from the 
 hands and power of the priests. But they still had power 
 to "place men in the stocks on Sundays in front of the 
 Church for such offenses as the civil law did not provide 
 
 *Corneliu.s' History, pp. 189-190. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. 1 79 
 
 any punishment." This shameful kind of so-called 
 church discipline is first mentioned in a royal edict of 
 1687, so it seems to have been a Lutheran and not a 
 Catholic invention. 
 
 With these accounts I will close this chapter on per- 
 secutions in Sweden during the saddest, most disgrace- 
 ful, and darkest period of its history as a nation pro- 
 fessing a protestant religion. And it is to be hoped that 
 the finger of scorn that has been pointed to that land 
 during these last fifty years, may have the efifect of de- 
 terring her priestly rulers from carrying out the laws of 
 1868, which are yet in force. 
 
 As it is now, the fires of persecution are only 
 '^banked up," and may be stirred up into a blazing flame 
 at any time when state policy requires it. 
 
 INQUISITION GHOSTS OF 1726 STALKING 
 ABROAD IN 1896. 
 
 Hardly had the ink dried from the sentence pre- 
 viously stated, containing fears of future fires being 
 stirred up again, before news arrived of the Swedish state, 
 through its church menials, setting the engine of its per- 
 secuting machinery at full legal speed. It seems the old 
 ghosts and hobgoblins of former times and ideal State 
 Church life will not be put down by common sense so 
 long as they arc encouraged and sustained by conven- 
 ticle placards and laws not yet thirty years old. Thus 
 I read without surprise in "Wecko-Posten," the Baptist 
 organ in Sweden, for July 9, 1896, a long account of 
 three columns, giving full particulars of how in Ramsele 
 in the north of Sweden, the parish priest, John Palm- 
 blad,=*= with his duly chosen seven church wardens,** took 
 it into their churchly-wise heads to summon before 
 them, as a legally constituted church council, two un- 
 
 *It is .suitable that such a name be historically knovv'n to 
 coming- g-enerations. 
 
 ♦*To correspond with the number of deacons in apostolic times, 
 whereby the burlesque is more complete. 
 
lg(, THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 offending Baptists, forbidding them to preach or hold 
 meetings within their judicial district, on the ground 
 that they, being Baptists, their meetings would lead to 
 separation from the Church; besides, they were not 
 known by the august Church council, and their meet- 
 ings were held too late in the evenings. Not a single 
 charge was laid against them of causing disorder of any 
 kind, still they were threatened with fines if they did not 
 stop preaching.* 
 
 As the case was referred to the Consistory of Herno- 
 sand and will probably come before the Court of Appeals 
 and lastly, before the King (the Supreme Court), conse- 
 quently, "the end is not yet." • 
 
 These statutory outbursts of Lutheran "pure evan- 
 gelical" State Church zeal and indignation must be given 
 vent to, occasionally, by way of examples, in order to let 
 the Baptists know that though the Gothic Lion may 
 for a time, slumber or sleep it is not dead yet, nor in- 
 tends to die without a terrific struggle to enable it to 
 not only growl at, but to tear and rend, God's elect. They 
 may also be considered necessary in order to keep the 
 Church officials in practice, so that the persecution ma- 
 chinery may not rust from temporary disuse. 
 
 In recording a case of this kind, a few years 
 before the closing of the nineteenth century, it is difficult 
 to know whether to treat it with the consummate con- 
 tempt it deserves, or to expose the actors in such a drama 
 to the equally deserved lash of satirical sarcasm. By the 
 latter course, an Erasmus in the sixteenth, and a Vol- 
 taire in the eighteenth centuiy, rendered great service 
 in immasking church shams, and achieved thereby per- 
 haps more for the cause of reform than did many more 
 seriors grapplers with political priest religions. 
 
 If the disgrace is great on all the members of such 
 Church councils as in this case recorded, still greater dis- 
 
 *Only one of them, N. A. Bergstrom, had preached. The 
 other, J. Nordlund, had only prayed, and testified of Christ, in 
 the Church's eyes, equally criminal. 
 
PERFIDIOUS, PERSISTENT PERSECUTIONS. i8l 
 
 ^I'ace must he attached to a £^overnment which will not 
 in si)ite of aU protests (hiring forty-eii;ht years, abohsh 
 all laws from the statute book, by which arbitrary and 
 bij^oted priests with their equally big^oted subservient 
 coadjutors, called church w^ardens, are enabled to worry 
 and harrass God's people, when for lack of legal skill they 
 fail in doing worse. 
 
 Still another case recorded eight months later in 
 the "Swedis)i Messenger" (Svenska Budbararen) of 
 March 25, 1897, how the church council of Gideo has for- 
 bidden Mr. C. R. Lundberg, a minister of the United 
 Brethren, to preach in their parish. 
 
 The editor of the paper comments on the council's 
 doings, and says "that they seem anxious to revive the 
 old days of the conventicle-placard." 
 
 I have stated in other parts that this priestly placard 
 is in full legal force yet, though under a modified form. 
 It is left to bigoted councils to effectually carry out the 
 law. 
 
 INTOLERANT STATE LUTHERANISM. 
 
 Wherever Lutheranism is supported by the State, 
 there it is the same, whether in Sweden or Germany. 
 Luther's intolerant ghost through four successive cen- 
 turies still stalks abroad, sternly and stubbornly scatter- 
 ing the sixteenth century's seeds of bigotry and oppres- 
 sion. Such being the case, a writer in the "Standard" of 
 January 2-^, 1897, makes the following apt comments: 
 
 "It seems strange that religious persecution still per- 
 sists in Germany, the land of boasted enlightenment, 
 where freedom of thoughi and instruction are the pride 
 of universities and theological faculties. But the fact re- 
 mains that in some parts of the empire, especially in Sax- 
 ony, the Baptists arc not allowed to worship God a? 
 organized churcl'ies. are forbidden to have any signs or 
 placards on the buildings where they meet, or to adver- 
 tise their serA ices in the newspapers. These things hap- 
 
1 82 THE SWEDInH BAPTISTS. 
 
 pen not only in the rural districts but in Dresden itself, 
 one of the greatest centers of literary, artistic and musical 
 culture in Europe. The Baptists are told that if they 
 do not care to go to the state churches, they will have 
 to get along without religious meetings. The persecu- 
 tion has been going on for years, and no satisfaction can 
 be had from the Government ofificers in charge of relig- 
 ious worship." 
 
 SWEDEN'S KING A DOCTOR QUADRUPLEX. 
 
 Indeed, "it seems strange" that such rulers as Oscar 
 II. and William II. can endure such state of things in 
 their respective countries. The former being praised 
 throughout the civilized world as the foremost of all 
 ruling monarchs, for his enlightened views, statesman- 
 ship and learning, for which at the celebration of his 
 twenty-lifth year's reign, September i8, 1897, the Uni- 
 versity of Vienna made him a "Doctor Quadruplex," 
 which is a conspicuous honor, and has never before been 
 done by that institution. The degrees are those in the- 
 ology, law, medicine and philosophy. In order to confer 
 these honors on the same person, permission must he 
 obtained from the Emperor. So rare is this distinction 
 that the only parallel occurred in 1825, when the Uni- 
 -versity of Jena conferred the four degrees at one time 
 on Goethe. 
 
NONCONFORMITY AMONG LUTHERANS. 183 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NONCONFORMITY AMONG LUTHERANS. 
 
 'Watchman! tell us of the night, 
 What Its signs of promise are. 
 For the morning seems to dawn, 
 Doubt and terror are withdrawn." 
 
 THE FOSTERLAND INSTITUTION. 
 
 Such was the name of the Christian Lutheran So- 
 ciety founded at Stockhohu in 1856 by the pious part 
 of tiie State Church. Some converted priests and others 
 feh that something extraordinary must be done to get 
 hfe into the dead body of the Church. That was one 
 object; the other was to keep such Hfe from separating 
 from the State Church. The leaders of that movement 
 were the former followers of the before-mentioned Meth- 
 odist Missionary, Mr. George Scott. 
 
 They constituted themselves all over the country as 
 pillars and bulwarks for the effete church.* They pub- 
 lished a paper called "Vaktaren" (Watchman). It might 
 properly have been called "The Church Watch Dog," 
 for such barking against the Baptists was hardly heard 
 before. All manner of lies and vituperations were hurled 
 at them, so as to make them appear as black as possible, 
 with the intent, that no spiritually minded Lutherans 
 should feel like entering such black sheepfolds. 
 
 ♦They were also called pitprops. 
 
1 84 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "SWEDEN TO BE EVANGELIZED. 
 
 The chief State Church organ, pubUshed at Lund 
 by three professors, Flensburg, Bring, and Sundberg (af- 
 terwards rewarded with episcopal titles) ridiculed the 
 undertaking to "Evangelize the Church," saying sarcas- 
 tically that "Sweden with her Christianity of a thousand 
 years, and wdth her pure evangelical doctrine of three 
 hundred years, is now at last to be evangelized." For 
 the proffered help against dissenters, these State Church 
 editors did not thank the promoters of the new institu- 
 tion, but said "They certainly promise to stand by the 
 Church and oppose separation; but what guarantees do 
 they give?" and, further, that "History does not show 
 one single proof of such self-made and self-constituted 
 societies ever proving faithful or beneficial to an estab- 
 lished church."* 
 
 It is natural to suppose that after such sarcastic and 
 unfriendly hits by such influential men, that war between 
 the two parties w^ould break out, and the Watch Dog at 
 last barked as loudly against the dead part of the State 
 Church clergy, as before against the Baptists ; but as they 
 increased in power, influence, and pious members, all 
 over the country, many of them got tired of being bound 
 hand and foot in the fetters of the State Church, so that 
 a great majority left the Institution in 1878 and formed 
 the 
 
 FIRST LUTHERAN FREE CHURCH OF 
 SWEDEN, 
 
 each church of which accepted such articles of faith as 
 suited herself. They have now accomplished what the 
 friends of a free-church movement, after the Scotch pat- 
 tern, hoped to introduce in 1850. They have adopted 
 everything which they formerly blamed the Baptists for 
 
 *Full accounts of the organization of the institution with crit- 
 icism on the same can be found in the "Svensk Kyrko-Tidning" 
 for 1856, in the Baptist archives at Gothenburg and Chicago. 
 
NONCONFORMITY AMONG LUTHERANS. jg^ 
 
 doing, viz., separatiiii;^ themselves from the State Church, 
 baptizing by immersion if the candidates so require, cel- 
 ebrating the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and choos- 
 ing their own ministry. They own church buildings all 
 over the country — some very fine and commodious, the 
 one at Gothenburg seats about three or four thousand 
 persons, and has double rows of galleries and a bap- 
 tistery. 
 
 They are, in fact, as will appear, 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES, 
 
 and, as such, have attracted the attention of several prom- 
 inent men of the denomination of that name in Amer- 
 ica, with a view to form a closer alliance, both in name 
 and organization, for mutual strength and assistance. 
 
 With this object. Rev. W .W. Montgomery, author 
 of the book "A Wind from the Holy Spirit in Sweden 
 and Norway," visited the country twice. He saw many 
 of the party's leading men, and broached the subject, but 
 thus far without any success or result. He died in Feb- 
 ruary, 1894. 
 
 A FREE CHURCH OF THIRTY CREEDS. 
 
 He found by inquiry during his travels in Sweden, 
 that these churches had some thirty different articles of 
 faith; consequently, not at that time an organized body. 
 They call their association 
 
 "THE MISSION COVENANT," 
 
 (Missions Forbundet) and themselves members of it. 
 
 Some years after Mr. Montgomery's visit, or in the 
 year 1886, Rev. Dr. Dexter, editor of the Congregation- 
 alist, in company with Dr. Day, of Yale University, also 
 visited Sweden with the same object. As thev called at 
 the United States Consulate, it was the writer's pleasure, 
 as United States Vice-Consul, to introduce them to the 
 leading brethren of the Free Church at Gothenburg. 
 
1 85 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 I believe it would have been to the interest of both 
 parties if such a union had been consummated. 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO THE UNION 
 
 were, however, not easily overcome. They were partly 
 personal, partly doctrinal, and partly nominal, and need 
 not here be stated. 
 
 Although the propositions from the American Con- 
 gregationalists have failed, a time may come when the 
 brethren in Sweden will find it to their interest to enter 
 into such union. As an instance, if it should be desir- 
 able for them to become legally recognized as a church 
 organization, which they could as Congregationalists, but 
 not so long as they retain the name of Lutherans, for 
 the law provides only for such as have Christian doc- 
 trines that are not Lutheran. 
 
 There is not, however, for either Baptists or these 
 Free Church Lutherans any motive for legal separation 
 from the State Church, as all must pay church taxes, 
 whether belonging to the church or not. For in this 
 "there is no difference between the Jew or the Greek," 
 the Baptist or the Lutheran, the infidel or the faithful — 
 all must pay for Diana's service, or else the great Diana 
 would soon be small enough. But so long as the State 
 wants the Church for political purposes, money to sup- 
 port it must be pressed out in an unjust manner. All 
 protests and propositions at the Diet against this evil 
 have so far failed, even though honorable and fair-minded 
 priests have raised their voices against it, as also against 
 the law compelling anybody contrary to his wishes and 
 convictions to be a member of the State Church. That 
 subject, belonging to the question of religious liberty, 
 will come under treatment in the next chapter. 
 
 Other motives might also induce them to unite with 
 a body which for similar reasons came into existence in 
 Bridewell Prison in England, three hundred and eleven 
 years before the Mission Covenant was formed. 
 
NONCONFORMITY AMONG LUTHERANS. l8/ 
 
 A STATE CHURCH NO PLACE FOR 
 PURITANISM. 
 
 Those English brethren and sisters, some twenty- 
 eight in number, called Puritans, had, like the Swedish, 
 become heartily tired of their inconsistent connection 
 with a soul-destroying State Church. They found, what 
 is the universal experience, that no State Church is ever 
 reformed by any party within itself — it must be by pres- 
 sure from without. 
 
 An account of the origin and formaiion of the Con- 
 gregational Church in England in 1567, with the names 
 of the brethren and sisters composing the same, with 
 the name of their pastor, Richard Fitz, who, "with his 
 dying hand, sketched their simple" "order" is found in 
 the "Congregational History," 1200-1567, by J. Wad- 
 dington. 
 
 EVILS OF STATE CHURCHES. 
 
 Here it may be appropriate to record what Profes- 
 sor A. T. Jones said on the subject in a lecture delivered 
 at San Francisco in June, 1896. 
 
 "Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establish- 
 ments, instead of maintaining the purity and efiticacy of 
 religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost 
 fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christi- 
 anity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More 
 or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; 
 ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, 
 bigotry, and persecution. Inquire of the teachers of 
 Christianity for the ages in which it appeared in its great- 
 est lustre; those of every sect point to the ages prior to 
 its incorporation with civil polity. Propose a restoration 
 of this primitive state, in which its teachers depend on 
 the voluntary regard of their flocks, many of them pre- 
 dict its downfall. On which side ought their testimony 
 to have greatest weight — when for, or when against, their 
 interests?" 
 
[gg THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 
 
 "The love of religious liberty 
 brought thousands to this country and 
 made it what it is. Many of the 
 500,000 Huguenots who were driven out 
 of France by Louis XIV. sought refuge 
 in this country. This love of re- 
 ligious liberty has grown out of the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ." 
 
 THE DISSENTER LAW OF i860. 
 
 Repeated efforts to promulgate an acceptable dis- 
 senter law have unsuccessfully been made at several 
 Diets since i860; at which time a cunningly devised en- 
 actment of eighteen articles, framed by the before-men- 
 tioned Bishop of Gothenburg ,was passed, at a time when 
 the clergy formed one of the four wheels that made the 
 cum'brous and sluggish legislative state-coach tri- 
 ennially move by fits and starts in some direction but sel- 
 dom in the right. The whole abortive attempt was a 
 mere trap, in which it was hoped to catch the Baptists 
 by enticing them to accept the shackles of abject slavery 
 under the delusive semblance of freedom. But they said: 
 "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any 
 bird." In this case the net was so clumsily framed, that 
 if it had been titled "An act of toleration whereby to 
 catch unwary dissenters so as to bring them more easily 
 into the meshes of the law," it could not have more plain- 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 189 
 
 ly exposed its inwardness. The very first sentence was a 
 glaring- insult to any Christian dissenters, if they had 
 foolishly accepted the terms of that law. It read thus: 
 "If professors of other doctrine than the pure Evan- 
 gelical ,wish to form a community,* they must apply to 
 the King, giving him their articles of faith and rules. If 
 he finds'best to grant the application, then, observing the 
 following rules, the community will be legal." 
 
 Now, as Baptists consider their doctrine pure and 
 Evangelical as much so as the Lutherans do theirs, they 
 would, if accepting such law, admit in the first instance 
 that their doctrine was impure and unevangelical. What 
 sensible Baptists would submit themselves and their ris- 
 ing denomination to such an inferential insult? 
 
 Another foolish article of that law contained a de- 
 mand of the pastor of a recognized church, that if in any 
 respect the doctrinal views of such dissenting church 
 were changed, it should be his duty to report the same 
 to the authorities in order that t'le rig'hts of such church 
 to legal recognition should be annulled. He was thus 
 expected to be an "accuser of the brethren." It did not 
 enter the mind of the episcopal framer of the article that 
 if any change took place, the chief promoter of such 
 would generally be the pastor. 
 
 The chief object, aside from the entrapping part, 
 seemed to be to trumpet forth through all the world in 
 tones of thunder, that Sweden had religious liberty, and 
 that if the Baptists would not dance according to the 
 new music, on them should rest the blame and shame, 
 and that the Government had by this 
 
 BOMBASTIC ACT OF TOLERATION 
 
 washed its hands and atoned for all past misdeeds. 
 
 Most of the other articles were both too foolish and 
 unreasonable for any Baptists to accept. I use in this 
 
 *In Swedish, Samfund. 
 
[QO 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 connection the word Baptists, for they were the only ones 
 it concerned at that time, except a few CathoHcs. 
 
 To give some reasons why they could not accept 
 liberty of worship on such terms, they drew up a peti- 
 tion to the King signed by five thousand members, set- 
 ting forth their objections and proposing such alterations 
 as would make the law of any service to them. But the 
 King, in an illogical manner, as will appear later, 
 spumed their petition, thus losing the opportunity of 
 proving to the world that there was in the passing of 
 that law any desire to benefit the Baptists or any other 
 dissenters that, in the course of time, might wish to come 
 under the hide-bound restrictions of the priestly law. It 
 was a case in which, when the Baptists asked for their 
 constitutional right to a piece of bread, a stone was given 
 them, or rather thrown at them, with as much apparent 
 feeling of contempt as was manifested by Louis XIV., 
 King of France, who, when he received a petition from 
 the Marquis de Ruvigny "in behalf of his brethren in 
 the faith" (the Huguenots), the King indorsed that 
 "noble document" with the contemptible word only 
 "Neant" (Trash)! and took no more notice of it.* 
 
 The sum and substance of the verbose answer to 
 the Swedish Baptists by their king might as well have 
 been condensed into the French king's word, "Neant!'' 
 
 The consequence was that the whole law became a 
 dead letter; still, that law, bad and impracticable as it 
 was, produced one good effect. It led the people to 
 suppose that religious liberty was granted, and, conse- 
 quently, it put a stop to a great many petty persecutions 
 by the mob and policemen. 
 
 "A SHADOW OF GOOD THINGS TO COME." 
 
 Besides the above effect, the law had " a shadow of 
 good things to come," so that some years later it became 
 
 ♦Baird's History of "The Huguenots and the Revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes" or notice thereof by the "Independent" for 
 MajTch B, 189€. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 19! 
 
 necessary to change the phraseology of the first dissenter 
 law, and remove the most obnoxious terms, but the new 
 act contained so many un-Christian conditions, that the 
 Baptists could not consistently accept it, and as nothing: 
 would be gained by it, they have to this day continued 
 their worship as members of the State Church. As such, 
 they have a right to meet together, provided they do not 
 teach anything that may be considered by the priests and 
 their parish church councils as leading to separation. 
 
 That law was promulgated in 1868, since which time 
 no change has been made with respect to meetings in 
 public or private places. 
 
 PUBLIC OPINION ENLIGHTENED. 
 
 On account of the general aversion to persecutions 
 deterring the priests and their subservient church coun- 
 cils from doing what the law entitles them to do, the 
 people of all beliefs, infidels as well as orthodox, can, in 
 all cities and large towns hold their meetings undis- 
 turbed, and at any time they please. But in smaller 
 places where the priests exercise an almost unlimited in- 
 fiuence and authority, the preachers are now and then 
 forbidden to preach the Gospel, and if still persisting, 
 sentenced to fines or imprisonment on bread and water. 
 This can be done, though the preacher may not use a 
 single word in his sermon or prayer that can be con- 
 strued as leading to dissent. 
 
 Such was the case in Warberg, where in 1872, a 
 Methodist preacher, by the name of John Nilson, wa.% 
 incarcerated for eleven days on bread and water; and 
 although the sentence was contrary to law, yet no repri- 
 mand or indictment followed the council's illegal action. 
 Nor has it ever been known in cases of persecution, that 
 the higher authorities have called the clerical councils to 
 account for their many blunders and mistakes commited 
 against their defenseless victims. 
 
19:^ 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Fortunately the cases are growing fewer every year. 
 
 See the cases for 1897 in the last part of Chap- 
 ter XIII. 
 
 "FORBIDDING TO MARRY" 
 
 as foretold by Timothy, was till lately a choice 
 weapon against dissenters. As they had not been ac- 
 corcling to law sprinkled or confirmed, no legal marriage 
 could be allowed to an engaged couple, until, finally, 
 civil marriage became an institution of the land, for such 
 parties of which one or both belonged to a dissenting 
 community recognized by law. Before that, it was cus- 
 tomary for the Baptists, either to be married in Denmark 
 or have the ceremony performed at their meeting house 
 by their pastor. Such marriages, however, as the last 
 mentioned, not being legal, subjected the officiating pas- 
 tor to imprisonment for three years with hard labor for 
 offering up a prayer and asking God's blessing upon a 
 young couple. The beloved Brother G. Palmquist bare- 
 ly escaped that punishment. 
 
 CIVIL MARRIAGE LAW. 
 
 According to such law, neither two Lutherans nor 
 two infidels can have the option of it; and in the case of 
 the Baptists, it is necessary that at least one of them sep- 
 arates from the State Church, which they can do, al- 
 though the church or the denomination of which they 
 are members have not separated. The reason for this is 
 as follows: 
 
 Some thirty years ago, a Baptist church in Dalarna 
 foolishlv tried to conform to the obnoxious dissenter 
 law of i860, and thus be recognized as a church of legal 
 existence. By that step, which they have since repented 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 
 
 [93 
 
 of taking, the whole denomination was considered as en- 
 titled to recognition if any church chose to apply for it. 
 
 At the Diet of 1896, two bills were presented by Lec- 
 tor Waldenstrom, the Lutheran Leader of the Free 
 Church party, to the intent that — first, a Lutheran might 
 be allowed marriage according to Church forms with- 
 out having previously taken the Lord's Supper; second, 
 that a Lutheran who had taken the Supper in the church 
 should be granted the right of marriage according to 
 the civil law of such tenor. But, as might be expected of 
 such a church-bound Diet, both bills were rejected and 
 the prophesied prohibition of marriage persistently pro- 
 longed. Thus proving that the majority of the Diet, 
 being wrapped up in the folds and cloaks of clericalism, 
 have, like the Bourbons, nothing learned of the new 
 times or forgotten any things of the old.* 
 
 INFIDELS MUST REMAIN IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 The State Church partisans haye since the dissenter, 
 laws were enacted, always been very anxious to get rid 
 of Christian dissenters and always equally anxious to re- 
 tain in the bosom of the Church the worst infidels and 
 atheists of the Tom Paine or Ingersollian type, such 
 as the renowned blasphemer, Lennstrand and his follow- 
 ers. Neither they nor free-church Lutherans can sep- 
 arate from the Church without telling a falsehood; that 
 is, they can go before the priest and say that they in- 
 tend to enter the Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic denom- 
 ination, without intending to do so. Of course, ungodly 
 men would not be received if they applied. And no man 
 of right principles would try it, as nothing could be 
 gained thereby. 
 
 *The undaunted Lector has presented a similar bill this year. 
 
Tr,^ THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 194 
 
 QUESTION OF SEPARATION. 
 
 That question whereby persons may separate from 
 the Church without the condition of uniting with some 
 other Christian denomination is now an old one. It has 
 been before the Church convention at every meeting 
 since 1877, and three or four times before the Diet. Never 
 before has a rehgious question been more thoroughly 
 ventilated. The reason why it is opposed so long is be- 
 cause it is a salary or bread question for the priests. • The 
 fear being that sooner or later, dissenters may not be 
 taxed with Church rates. To the honor of the conven- 
 tion, I am happy to say that in handling this question 
 before us, it has proved itself in proportion to its mem- 
 bers more just, true, and lil)eral than the usually progres- 
 sive second chamber of the Diet, and altogether eclipsed 
 the conservative first chamber — a chamber wdiich, on all 
 questions of reform, applies the brakes to the wheels of 
 progress, and even puts their beams and spars (nobility 
 names, Bjelkar och Sparrar) in front of the wheels. Thus, 
 Count Sparre (governor of a province and a most con- 
 servative man),- in speakfng on the question of separa- 
 tion from the State Church by others than those who 
 professed some Christian doctrine different from Luther- 
 anism, said that "religious liberty (in Sweden) was now 
 as perfect as it could be, and he would not take one step 
 forward or backward to bring ?bout any change." 
 
 He is mentioned only as a specimen of the many 
 great men of whom the first chamber is composed, and 
 on whom depends the rights and liberties of the dissent- 
 ing Swedes. In this case, as might have been expected 
 after such bombastic and sensational words, the like- 
 minded chamber in which he sits, without deigning to 
 discuss the question, voted against it with only one or 
 two reservations; while in the second chamber more 
 than half voted against it in accordance with the com- 
 mittee. This was in 1882. At the Church Convention 
 the following year the committee favored the proposition, 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. iq^ 
 
 and nearly one-half voted for it, several bishops, deans 
 and other clergymen having spoken strongly in its favor. 
 The prominent churchmen in favor of its adoption were 
 Beckman, Charleville, Johanson, Grafstrom, Scheele, and 
 others; against it spoke Bishops Bring, Anjou, and 
 Rundgren, also Governor Bergstrom (formerly prime 
 minister in the King's Cabinet), who, ignorant of the 
 law, thought that "if the free-church Lutherans formu- 
 lated a confession of faith, nothing would hinder them 
 from seceding." 
 
 In favor of the bills presented was, besides the whole 
 press, secular and religious, the "Vaktaren" (Watch- 
 man) — at that time the chief organ and pillar of the State 
 Church before alluded to in Chapter XII. That paper 
 took the ground "that the state had no right to compel 
 those to remain in the Church who wish to leave it be- 
 cause they could net profess to enter some other denom- 
 ination acknowledged by the state." And that "such ac- 
 tion is a crime against the Church, and if the state, 
 though it may be well meaning, persists therein, it 
 proves itself in reality to be not a support or defender of 
 the Church, but, on the cont-ary, an opposer of its true 
 interest." Those were plain and strong words, and well 
 might the state say, "Save me from my friends," but the 
 words fell on ears so deaf that they would not hear. At 
 the Diet held in 1882, the leader of the free-church party, 
 Mr. Waldenstrom, referred to in Chapter XL, spoke 
 ecjually strong words which the Diet was compelled to 
 hear though set against them. He said: "If the state 
 Church understood its own welfare, her leaders would 
 rise as one man, and exclaim: "In the name of God; away 
 with a law, which year after year makes us and our 
 church with her service a contemptible spectacle to all 
 right-minded men." And further, "If under present cir- 
 cumstances antichrist turned up in our land and desired 
 to leave the Lutheran church, his application would be 
 refused; because the right to secede is only granted to 
 those who have embraced other Christian doctrine; and 
 
196 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 antichrist could not be expected to embrace any Chris- 
 tian doctrine; he must, therefore, remain a Lutheran." 
 Then "he wondered what Luther would have said about 
 such proceedings," and asked, "When shall the men of 
 the State Church learn to understand what is for her 
 own good? That time seems verily far off. Li the mean 
 time do they labor with all their might to convince those 
 wlio do not yet believe it that the State Church neither 
 is nor intends to be a Christian church." 
 
 This is one of the many opinions of prominent men 
 connected with the State Church who corroborate my 
 assertion in Chapter IV., that the institution called a 
 church is not a Christian church. The account, with its 
 context of compulsory retention in the State Church of 
 not only all free-church Lutherans, but also the most 
 ungodly infidels, is from an address delivered at Goth- 
 enburg by me as president of the 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY UNION, 
 
 and was published entire in the "Dagens Nyheter" 
 ("Daily News") on April i, 1885. 
 
 That Union, which for its ol^ject took the same 
 ground as the Nonconformists "Liberation Society" of 
 England, was organized in 1882, November 6, the day 
 when Sweden celebrated the memory of her great king, 
 Gustavus Adolphus, who, on that day, two hundred and 
 ftfty years before, fell on the battlefield of Lutzen. 
 
 QUESTION OF RIGHT REPEATED. 
 
 Like all questions of right, though they may from 
 lime to time be stamped down to the ground, yet they 
 will not stay down; so with the right of secession from the 
 State Church by either godly Lutherans or ungodly in- 
 fidels; the question rose again with renewed and re- 
 doubled force at the church convention in 1888, and also 
 at the Diet in 1891. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 197 
 
 At the convention, the previous arguments, pro and 
 con, were again presented and reiterated, but still the 
 friends of the measure failed in obtaining a just majority. 
 
 At the Diet, however, some necessary and beneficial 
 lessons had been learned by the popular chamber during 
 the elapsed years. Coflsequently, when Mr. E. J. Ekman, 
 a leading minister of the free-church party, and Mr. J. 
 M. Ericson, editor of the Methodist paper, presented 
 their bills, both with the same object, they (the bills), 
 were, after much deliberation, approved by the commit- 
 tee of law, and recommended to the favorable action of 
 the Diet. And then in 1891 the second chamber dis- 
 tinguished itself above all its previous actions, and took 
 a stride in the way of progress, gratifying to all the 
 right-minded people of the whole country. 
 
 It was passed, after considerable opposition, by a 
 majority of one hundred and five against eighty-three. 
 The chief opposer was a priest named Redilius,* who ex- 
 pressed great anxiety about the results of such radical 
 changes. 
 
 Both of the bills were quite as radical as the one pre- 
 sented in 1882 by Mr. Arnoldson, an editor, represent- 
 ing the Unitarian element, which bill was then so shame- 
 fully defeated.** 
 
 But in spite of such majority in favor of allowing 
 the worst as well as the best to leave the State Church, 
 the first chamber, faithful to its well-known reputation of 
 stagnancy, rejected the bill without even putting it to 
 the vote. It is true that nothing better was expected of 
 that body, for the most part composed, as I have said 
 before, of such conservative if not retrograde elements, as 
 well to deserve the appellation of the 
 
 *Some districts cannot get weaned from the old custom of 
 ohoosin.g- priests for the Diet. And, as the law does not forbid 
 them to leave their pastoral duties to meddle in politics and 
 questions of finance and trade, some of them are only too glad to 
 secure a seat in the Diet, so as the better to use their influence 
 in retarding- reforms of a religious tendency. 
 
 **The bill is again before the Diet this year, presented by Mr. 
 K. G. Carlson, a new member from Gothenburg. 
 
jog THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. j 
 
 BOURBONS OF SWEDEN. 
 
 And yet, in that chamber, sit sometimes as excep- 
 tions to the general rule, men of the most liberal and 
 progressive principles, as, for instance. Dr. S. A. Hed- 
 lund, of Gothenburg — referred to more particularly in 
 Chapter XVI., under the head of "The Free Press of 
 Sweden." 
 
 To some of the old men of that Diet it must have 
 been with feelings of peculiar chagrin that such reforms 
 were demanded in these days; and to think that the bills 
 should have been presented by several of the formerly 
 despised separatists. No doubt, but many of them wished 
 that they had lived in the seventeenth instead of the lat- 
 ter part of the nineteenth century. 
 
 In this case the bills did not contain a definite law 
 to be passed, but only that a memorial should l^e sent 
 to the king requesting his majesty to send to the Diet 
 a proposition in conformity with tlie spirit and intent of 
 the two bills. But even in that humble and modest 
 form it was rejected. 
 
 EGYPT GLAD OF ISRAEL'S DEPARTURE. 
 
 As Egypt, after much resistance, was glad when the 
 children of Israel departed, so may a time come when 
 Sweden will find it most to her interest to let God's peo- 
 ple as well as infidels depart from the bondage of her ec- 
 clesiastical institutions, where they have been held al- 
 ready nearly as long a time as the Israelites were in 
 Egypt. 
 
 In 1877 Bishop Grafstrom very consistently pre- 
 sented a bill at the Diet which proposed that Baptists 
 should be compelled to leave the Church. Perhaps be- 
 fore many years, an equally consistent bill may appear 
 demanding that all infidels and atheists should also be 
 excluded. The Church would still have left within its 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. I99 
 
 bosom besides her faithful adherents, all the thieves, rob- 
 bers, murderers and other evildoers in the land profess- 
 ing the Lutheran doctrine. 
 
 The decisions of the Diets thus far prove what I 
 have often asserted, that the maintenance of the State 
 Church is for political, and not for any spiritual interests. 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY POPULAR. 
 
 In the minds of the people the question of religious 
 liberty has made rapid strides since the Baptists set up 
 their banners for that principle in the name of the Lord. 
 Fifty years ago, when a secular daily paper, the "Journal 
 of Commerce" of Gothenburg, came out in a series of ar- 
 ticles in favor of the subject, the author almost apol- 
 ogized for doing so. The articles were afterwards pub- 
 lished in pamphlet form and the anonymous author at 
 that time did not dare to hope that his views would find 
 any sympathizers among the Swedish people. 
 
 CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTH OF GUSTAVUS 
 ADOLPHUS. 
 
 Such fears may seem strange among a people who 
 boastingly claim that Gustavus Adolphus fought for re- 
 ligious liberty. He was born December the twentieth, 
 1594. The tricentenary celebration of his birth took 
 place in December, 1894, in all Lutheran countries and 
 communities. 
 
 Whether he fought for religious liberty or not is a 
 question of doubt ,and may be answered by some in the 
 affirmative, by others in the negative. Chapter XVIII., 
 on the Thirty Years' War, will throw some light on the 
 c|uestion. Ikit, at all events, the certainty remains that 
 neither he, nor his princely coadjutors, nor Luther, nor 
 Calvin, nor Zwingle, nor any of the foremost preachers 
 or influential reformers in Europe, knew, or acted as if 
 
200 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 they knew, what rehgious Hberty was. All were perse- 
 cutors and pretended to believe, if they did not, that by 
 condemning people of dififerent creeds from their own, 
 they were doing great service to God. Melancthon, 
 Bucer, Bullinger, Beza, Farel and Viret all approved the 
 sentence of death passed on Servetus.* Bucer said that 
 "Servetus deserved something worse than death;" and 
 Melancthon, the gentle Melancthon, writing to Calvin, 
 remarks, "in my opinion, your magistrates have acted 
 justly in putting to death a blasphemer, convicted by 
 due process of law;" and in a letter to Bullinger he ex- 
 pressed astonishment "that any one can be found to dis- 
 approve of this proceeding; but I have transmitted you 
 a few papers which will sufficiently explain our senti- 
 ments." 
 
 With the words "our sentiments" is evidently meant, 
 besides his own, Luther's and the other chief leaders. I 
 have mentioned this to show that the principle of per- 
 secution in Lutheranism is inborn, natural, and inher- 
 ited with the system, especially when supported by state 
 power. The aid of that power it has always sought, as 
 Bunsen says: "The alliance of the altar and the throne 
 was held up as the strongest guaranty of the stability 
 of the latter, and the surest pledge of its triumph over 
 democracy, which was depicted as the common enemy of 
 both." These views advanced by the ultra Lutheran 
 party of Prussia, represented by such men as Stahl and 
 Hengstenberg during the middle of this century, serve 
 to solve in part the problem of state and church opposi- 
 tion to the Baptists, who have ever been known to stand 
 for popular rights and liberty versus despotism. And 
 whatever principles swayed the rulers of Prussia were 
 equally acceptable and acted upon by other Lutheran 
 royal confreres. 
 
 It would seem that during the decade of 1850-60, 
 the Lutheran priests were as by contagion rampant in 
 
 ♦Mackenzie's I^ifo of Calvin, page IIC. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 2oi 
 
 all the countries uiuler tlieir sway; so much carried away 
 by their zeal that they may be said to have enjoyed quite 
 a revival of intolerance, which led Chevalier Bunsen in 
 1856 to write his 
 
 SIGNS OF THE TIMES, OR DANGER TO RE- 
 LIGIOUS LIBERTY, 
 
 in which he expresses his "fears for religious wars un- 
 less the progress of the priests can be checked," page 
 177, and adds, that Germany was in danger of sinking "to 
 the verge of barbarism, almost as much through the con- 
 tentions and priestly narrow-mindedness of the Lutheran 
 theologians as from the attacks of the Pope and the 
 Jesuits," page 194. Speaking of the hierarchal system, 
 he says, "It calumniates toleration as the child of unbe- 
 lief and indifference and makes war on it in the name of 
 God and the Gospel," page 196. 
 
 Mr. Bunsen belonged to the reformed church, and 
 must have felt thankful to God that the Lutheran priests 
 through their royal allies and executioners could not use 
 on his neck the sword, on which he mentions that the 
 words 
 
 "BEWARE CALVINIST" 
 
 are inscribed; and says it can "be seen at Dresden." 
 
 He knew, however, the reason why he escaped,. For, 
 he says, "If they do not persecute with the sword like 
 their predecessors it appears to be rather owing to want 
 of power than of will," page 35. 
 
 Had the ecclesiastical Lutheran lords, Stahl and 
 Hengstenberg, succeeded in forcing on Prussia their in- 
 tolerant tenets, there would have been a cry of wailing 
 and of woe heard all over the land similar to what took 
 place in Sweden in those days. "What is Stahl aiming 
 
202 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 at?" asks Mr. Bunsen. "The most dangerous form of 
 an absolute state church!" (page 334) which, of course, 
 inckides persecution. 
 
 ORTHODOX ZEAL. 
 
 A Swedish church historian, giving an account of 
 the terrible penalties, even unto death, intiicted during 
 the seventeenth century for non-conformity, says "That 
 they were by no means anything unique for Sweden; but 
 belonged so much more to the whole Lutheran church, 
 and that, according to the records of this (the Swedish) 
 church, the seventeenth century can reasonably be 
 called 
 
 "THE ERA OF ORTHODOXY." 
 
 So wrote a churchman in Sweden, not in 1675 when 
 nothing better could have been expected, but in 1875.''' 
 Not a word of extenuation or excuse for such crimes is 
 offered, although in the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, in 
 the year 1617, or one year before the commencement of 
 the war for the so-called religious liberty, death was de- 
 creed by law if non-Lutherans did not leave the country. 
 
 It follows as a consequence of such sentiments, that 
 the Catholic Church was most orthodox in the time of 
 the inquisition under Philip H., and that the Christian 
 church was least orthodox in tlie times of the apostles 
 and primitive Christians. 
 
 REWARD OF BISHOPRICS. 
 
 It has been the custom in Sweden during the last 
 half of this century, and perhaps before, to bestow bish- 
 oprics on all narrow-minded ecclesiastical writers, 
 whether of religious periodicals, essays, papers, or his- 
 
 *Cornclius' Church History, pag-e 1G5. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 203 
 
 tories. All the three editors of the "Kyrko-Tidning" 
 ("Church News"), Sundberg, Bring, and Flensburg, be- 
 came bishops. Both editors of "Tidskrift for Christlig 
 Tro Och Bildning," Ullnian and Scheele, became bishops 
 — not to mention several others, as Thomander, Land- 
 gren and Reuterdahl, the latter also a church historian, 
 embracing in his work the whole Christian church; and 
 so, according to precedents, Professor Cornelius, the 
 writer above quoted, also became bishop. If he was pro- 
 moted for attributing to "Orthodox Zeal'' the most se- 
 vere persecutions ever enacted in Sweden, or for calling 
 that age in which they occurred, an "Era of Orthodoxy," 
 or for any other ecclesiastical views, considered by the 
 rulers of Sweden as meritorious, I will leave for others 
 to determine. I will say, however, that his account of the 
 Baptists in Sweden is erroneous, being founded probably 
 on hearsay instead of truth. 
 
 DOCTOR ARMITAGE ON SWEDEN'S DIS- 
 SENTER LAWS. 
 
 In his "History of the Baptists," he says, concern- 
 ing those laws, very aptly, that, "Under the pretense o^ 
 relief, it (the Government) made a Dissenter Law in i860, 
 full of obnoxious restrictions, and in 1873 amended it, 
 under the further pretense of removing them; but still 
 it exacts from them conditions to which they cannot 
 yield and retain their self-respect." 
 
 And further he says: "By a comical construction of 
 the law, the State holds them all as members of the State 
 Church, unless they comply with these provisions," and 
 "Thus kee])ing a clear head and clean hands, it is a mat- 
 ter of indifference to them whether the law counts them 
 hi or out of the State Church."* 
 
 *Armitage's Hist, of the Baptist.'?, revi.sed edition of 1S03, pp. 
 454, 455. 
 
204 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 "Whoever promotes oppression 
 of conscience and mental 
 slavery, is working for Jesu- 
 itism, and as much as in him 
 lies, for the downfall and de- 
 struction of his own church 
 and nation. But if he be a 
 Protestant, he deserves a double 
 measure of our abhorrence 
 or compassion." 
 
 Bunsen. 
 
 EARLY TOLERATION ACTS ATTEMPTED. 
 
 Owing to the violent persecutions against the Luth- 
 eran separatists during the early part of the decade of 
 1840 and 1850, a pious member of the Diet, Mr. Jons 
 Palmquist, eldest brother of the three mentioned, had 
 the temerity, at the Diet of 1844, to present a bill of 
 Toleration for the persecuted Christians! But it was 
 received with such a storm of opposition, that nothing 
 came of it. Still, it is possible that it might have given 
 occasion to the appearance of the articles on religious 
 liberty, which, during the same year, appeared in the 
 Gothenburg Journal of Commerce, mentioned in the pre- 
 vious chapter. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 205 
 
 A ROYAL ATTEMPT. 
 
 Strange as it may appear, King Oscar I., in the 
 opening speech of the Diet, on October 17, 1856 (no 
 doubt urged thereto by the petitions and demonstrations 
 of the freer nations of the civihzed world) presented the 
 following proposition : 
 
 "Toleration, founded on individual, immovable con- 
 viction, and respect for the religious faith of others, be- 
 longs to the essence of the Protestant Church, and ought 
 to be accepted among a people whose heroic king, Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus, by brilliant victories and the sacrifice of 
 his life, laid the foundation of freedom of thought in 
 Central Europe. Those laws, therefore, which hinder re- 
 ligious liberty and freedom of worship, ought to be 
 abolished, and the general law be brought into agreement 
 with the sixteenth section of the constitution."* 
 
 This speech, like a flash of lightning, flew all over 
 Europe and the United States, as well as over Sweden, 
 causing the friends of religious liberty to hope that at 
 last some toleration act would be the result. To expect 
 religious liberty and freedom of worship in accordance 
 with the Constitution, though those words were men- 
 tioned, no one could or did expect. The suffering, 
 hunted and imprisoned Lutherans and Baptists in Swe- 
 den had certainly their hopes raised high, but these were, 
 alas! soon to be dashed to the ground. For, as in 1844, 
 so in 1856, the temper of the Diet was hostile to any at- 
 tempts to ameliorate the conditions of those who did not 
 conform in every particular to the rule of the State 
 Church. Yet some concessions were made to the mem- 
 bers of the establishment so that some time afterwards 
 they could, with certain restrictions, meet in private 
 houses to edify one another with reading or praying. 
 
 *The words of that section will be quoted farther on under 
 the head of "Constitutional Religious Liberty." 
 
2o6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 GRACIOUS EDICT OF OSCAR I. 
 
 In order that the reader may get a clear idea of the 
 mountain-born mouse brought forth to the Hght of the 
 civiHzed world, I will give the whole statute as pub- 
 lished at the Court of Stockholm, October twentieth, 
 1858, the translation of which into English was pub- 
 lished by Mrs. M. F. Anderson in her account of the Bap- 
 tists in Sweden. 
 
 "We, Oscar, by the grace of God, etc., make known 
 that we, in conjunction with the States of the Kingdom, 
 have resolved, while abolishing the royal placard against 
 religious meetings of January 12th, 1726, and what in 
 other respects has been enacted on the subject, to make 
 the following decr-ee: 
 
 "Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church shall 
 not be prohibited to meet for social devotional exercises, 
 even though the priests are not present to conduct them. 
 But such meetings may not take place without special 
 permission, during the time when public services of the 
 State Church are being held. Neither shall admittance 
 to such meetings, as cannot be considered family worship, 
 be denied the parish priest, members of church council, 
 or the public authorities in the region; which last-named 
 authorities, in case of any unla\\ .ulness or disorder, are 
 empowered to break up the meeting. Should there stand 
 up any one who is not a priest, or duly authorized by the 
 ecclesiastical laws, to preach at such meetings, and de- 
 liver religious discourses which are considered as teach- 
 ing separation from the Established Church order, or a 
 disregard for the public services of the Established 
 Church order, or to the undermining of the sacredness of 
 religion, the Church Council are authorized to forbid 
 him to stand up, in the parish, in the above-named ca- 
 pacity. He that appoints such a meeting as has been 
 mentioned, at a time when it may not take place or at 
 such a time opens his house for such meetings, or fails 
 to obey the Church Council's prohibition against exer- 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 207 
 
 cising- the functions of a teacher, shall be compelled to 
 pay a fine of from fifty to three hundred rix-dollars, 
 which sum is to be divided between the accuser and the 
 poor of the parish. If the person fined is not able to pay 
 the fine, the sentence shall be reversed to imprisonment, 
 on the same princi[)les which are valid for changing fines 
 according to the chai)ter of execution." 
 
 COMMENTS ON THE IGNOBLE STATUTE. 
 
 Mr. Wiberg, in commenting on that decree, wrote: 
 "By the enactment of this law, the power to prevent re- 
 ligious meetings is placed much more in the hands of the 
 priests than heretofore. The parish priest is always the 
 chairman of the Church Council, which consists of only 
 a few members, who are selected by the priest himself. 
 Thus the word of the priest is almost invariably the law 
 by which the others are governed. The priest has only 
 to "consider" a discourse as leading to a separation from 
 the State Church to be empowered to forbid any meet- 
 ings being held in his parish, to subject them to the 
 above-named fine, or in case of inability to pay, impris- 
 onment." 
 
 COMMENT BY THE LONDON "FREEMAN." 
 
 After referring to the persecutions in Sweden and 
 Denmark at that time. The Freeman says: "The persis- 
 tency and bitterness with which these humble Christians 
 are hunted from the hiding ])laces in which they meet to 
 worship God, remind us of the days of the Restoration, 
 of the Puritans, and of the Covenanters. Lutheran 
 Europe is now fighting the same battle against the rights 
 of Christ and His people which was unsuccessfully 
 fought hundreds of years ago by the Anglican Church. 
 But it will, we trust, be briefer and less bloody." 
 
2o8 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "In Sweden the imposing flourish of toleration in the 
 King's late speech, which deceived our hope for a mo- 
 ment, already proves but a hollow sound. The Ministe- 
 rial measure has been brought forward, and barely pro- 
 poses to soften the rigor of the existing laws and penal- 
 ties against dissent, without touching their principle, but 
 rather fortifying it with a number of compensating pro- 
 visions on the other side." 
 
 Such was the final issue of that bombastic speech at 
 the opening of the Diet, which, for its bringing forth to 
 the birth, required two whole years after its royal con- 
 ception. Truly can it be said in this case, 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN BROUGHT FORTH A MOUSE. 
 
 It seems from the statute as thus promulgated, or 
 the restrictions referred to, that the Swedish Lutheran 
 Evangelical Government in 1858 was more intolerant of 
 its own God-fearing members than the French Catholic 
 government was of Protestant dissenters in the sixteenth 
 century. For, in a letter which the preacher Sebville 
 wrote to the Chevalier Anemond de Coct, dated Gren- 
 oble, December 28, 1524,* he says: "I am forbidden to 
 preach on pain of death. We may meet in secret to con- 
 fer together on the Gospel, and nothing is said; but we 
 may not speak publicly except to be burnt."** 
 
 By the words "nothing is said," it is evident that 
 the authorities were aware of such meetings. 
 
 To think of a church that claims to be Christian, 
 Protestant and evangelical as well as Lutheran, having 
 ever forbidden its members the privilege accorded to 
 them in the above statute, is such a shameful admission 
 of its non-Christian character as could ever be produced, 
 
 *That was 334 years before the Royal Edict of Oscar I. was 
 Issued, and three years before Gustavus Vasa decreed that all 
 Swedes should be Lutherans. 
 
 ♦♦Waddington's Congregational History, page 386. 
 
RELlGlOqS LIBERTY QUESTION. 2O9 
 
 even if the other proofs presented in Chapter IV. should 
 be considered insufficient. 
 
 At that time, the Diet was composed of the four 
 houses or states— the nobles, clergy, burghers, and peas- 
 ants. The two first mentioned represented always stag- 
 nation, while on the two latter depended the nation's 
 hope; but nothing could be done without the affirmative 
 votes of three states. 
 
 This cumbrous state of legislation was the cause of 
 Sweden's crab-like progress in civil as well as religious 
 matters. 
 
 Owing to the petitions and protestations of the civ- 
 ilized world, the punishment of exile for apostacy from 
 the Lutheran creed was about the same time abolished. 
 
 In view of the sad failure of King Oscar's proposi- 
 tion, I may say that if he had manifested the determina- 
 tion of will that characterized Gustavus Vasa, and let 
 the priest-ridden Diet know that he would sooner abdi- 
 cate than rule over a people who were denied their most 
 natural rights in their worship of God, and denied by a 
 Diet of whom not one in a hundred represented the 
 people — a Diet which, by its priestly prejudices and big- 
 otry, brought such a disgrace on his adopted country, had 
 he "taken such a bold stand, letting the people know that 
 it was the Diet that hindered him in his desires for tol- 
 eration and reform, the whole country would have risen 
 as one man, to clamor for a new representative system, 
 which question had already then been during many years 
 agitated and discussed by the press and the people. And 
 it was well known that but for the Diet, the reform would 
 have been accepted and become the law of the land. But 
 being a question of constitutional change, it required the 
 majority of all the four states to pass such a bill. 
 
 To expect the no1)les and priests to favor it was like 
 asking them to cut ofT their own hands or fingers. Yet 
 it was with the determination of his son, Charles XV., 
 accepted in 1865. He was a popular king, and with the 
 help of the people would have known how to quell and 
 
2IO 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 curb both nobles and priests if they had dared to oppose 
 him. It is said that, being questioned what he would do 
 if the nobles and priests opposed his reform proposition, 
 he answered that "he would make so many new noblemen 
 as would be required for a majority in their house, and 
 as for the priests, in such case, he would send them 
 
 to ." 
 
 Being- head of the church, he might have thought 
 himself entitled to dispose of them in such a way. If 
 the saying was not true, it was still characteristic of 
 the man. His father, Oscar I., was, however, neither so 
 bold nor popular, and the great flourish of great words 
 resulted in a deplorable fizzle, or a contemptuous act. 
 But it must also be considered that he had reasons on 
 personal grounds why he would not press his proposition 
 on the Diet too strongly. Josephine, his royal consort, 
 a very noble woman, was a Catholic, and the opposition 
 party might have hinted at, and perhaps did, that he de- 
 sired to favor ^ler and her co-religionists. 
 
 THE FREE PRESS OF SWEDEN 
 
 has, during the last fifty years, been a great instrument 
 in the hands of God in promoting free religion. Almost 
 every paper has advocated religious liberty, and espe- 
 cially the leading papers in the greatest cities of the 
 country. They did indeed 
 
 "Help us "save free conscience from the paw 
 Of hireling wolves, whose gospel is their maw." 
 
 — Milton. 
 
 Honorable mention must especially be made of 
 Gothenburg's "Handel's Tidning" and Stockholm's "Af- 
 tonblad." To the aged and in politics, war-worn editor 
 of the former, Doctor Hedlund, was sent in 1894, a dep- 
 utation from the Baptist Conference, which then met 
 at Gothenburg, to thank him for his many services in 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 211 
 
 favor of the I'.aptist cause and relii^ious freedom gen- 
 erally. 1 shall never forget nor cease to be grateful for 
 the many kind services he did for the struggling infant 
 Church of Gothenburg at a time when the priests came 
 swooping down on her, like hawks on a dove. And yet 
 he, and nearly all the representatives of the press, are of 
 Unitarian predilections, so that between them and the 
 priests is very little sympathy; the latter calling the 
 editors of the press "Antichrists." But that is an appel- 
 lation that they give freely to all who oppose them, 
 whether Unitarians or Baptists. 
 
 It is a providential and remarkable fact that, while 
 the Christian Lutherans, until of late, have been the 
 greatest opposers of the Baptists and religious liberty, 
 the so-called 'infidel Unitarians have mostly proved 
 friendly to our cause in Sweden. 
 
 Some honorable exceptions I have already men- 
 tioned, and their names deserve to be recorded, viz., 
 Hammar, Ahnfelt, Nymanson, and Bergman, all in 
 Skone. Only a few of the older ones could be men- 
 tioned, whereas now there are hundreds in all parts of 
 the country, truly pious priests who are on terms of 
 friendship with the dissenters, and even preach in their 
 pulpits. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 After all the previous accounts, it may seem strange 
 to be informed that since 1809, in accordance with the 
 Swedish constitution religious liberty has been granted 
 to the Swedes, as plain and distinct as to any people in 
 the world. . But Kings and authorities have purposely 
 misconstrued every word of it; it has been quoted thou- 
 sands of times in favor of religious liberty, but all in vain. 
 It reads thus: "The King shall not coerce anybody's 
 conscience or allow it to be coerced (or violated), but 
 protect every one in the free exercise of his religion, pro- 
 
212 1'HE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 vided the peace of the community is not disturbed 
 or general scandal caused thereby." Such is the six- 
 teenth article of the Swedish constitution, and no legisla- 
 tors could make it any more plain. And yet to this day 
 it has been a dead letter, and the article trampled under 
 foot by unjust, illogical and senseless misconstructions. 
 
 "Certain it is," writes Mr. Ahnfelt, the dean before 
 quoted, "that the Swedes have, according to law, relig- 
 ious liberty, but equally certain is it that both the legis- 
 lative and executive powers ignore such law." Dr. Reu- 
 terdahl, afterwards archbishop, commenting on it, said 
 it was only a "fine guidepost (or ideal) that a Swedish 
 King should have before his eyes."''' 
 
 The Baptists, in their petition to Charles XV., in 
 1861, referring to the same constitutional article as one ot 
 the reasons why they expected some favorable attention 
 to their request, received after a long time the following 
 illogical answer, drawn up by the Attorney General: 
 
 "If that article which contains a limit to the power 
 of the King could also be considered as limiting the pow- 
 ers of the legislature, then it will stiH belong to them 
 and to nobody else to judge of in what measure the proc- 
 lamation of strange doctrines may be considered danger- 
 ous for the peace of the community or cause general 
 scandal." 
 
 That, and the following part of the unjust answer, 
 showed plainly that the government had no sincere dis- 
 position or intention to promote toleration, at least so 
 far as Baptists were concerned; proving the truth of the 
 poet, who said that 
 
 "It is the curse of kings to be attended 
 
 By slaves that take their humors for a warrant 
 
 To break within the bloody house of life, 
 
 And on the winking of authority. 
 
 To understand a law." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 ♦In Swedish "Vackra anvisningai-." See "Kyrko-Vannen." 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 213 
 
 Here it may be asked, did not those narrow-niinded 
 state and church dignitaries know what was the real 
 purport or intentions of the legislators who in 1809 
 framed the constitution, whether they meant religious 
 liberty or a sham? Yes! verily they did know! but it 
 did not answer their political purposes and persecuting 
 propensities to acknowledge it. 
 
 When Professor Reuterdahl, D. D., before referred 
 to, had his attention called to the spirit as well as letter of 
 the legislators, he had the audacity to say in a pamphlet 
 "that the sixteenth article should not be interpreted in 
 accordance with the incontestable meaning of the men 
 who framed the law, but according to the connection ol 
 the words with history and anterior laws."* 
 
 Dr. Hammar, editor of the "Church Friend," in his 
 comments on such Jesuitical and Machiavellian interpre- 
 tation, remarks: "That is, if the law says, every one shall 
 l)e protected in the free exercise of his religion, and 
 older laws prescribed banishment for such exercise, then 
 it would follow, that the protection should consi.st in ban- 
 ishment." And yet 
 
 "GREAT IS DIANA," 
 
 and great were all these men. So great was the last- 
 named interpreter of a plain constitutional law, that the 
 King, Charles XV., called him to his Cabinet as eccle- 
 siastical councillor; and later elevated him to the arch- 
 episcopal chair. 
 
 Having presented a few of the many incongruous 
 interpretations of the article in question, it will seem as- 
 tonishing how, in a serious lawsuit, involving the banish- 
 ment of seven Catholics, the district attorney at Stock- 
 holm, the public prosecutor in the case. Sergeant Bajur, 
 pleaded with reference to the same law. 
 
 ♦"The Concerns of the Church" (Do Kyrkliga Ansolag-cnhe- 
 terna"). 
 
214 '^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. [ 
 
 LUMINOUS LEGAL LORE. 
 
 "Although, according to the sixteenth article, re- 
 ligious liberty is granted to all Swedes with the exception 
 of the King, the successor to the throne, and the civil 
 officials, and I consequently act contrary to the consti- 
 tution of the land when I accuse the parties of being 
 guilty concerning the crime laid to their charge, and, 
 therefore adjudge them to exile; yet, as it has been shown 
 that all prosecuting attorneys have acted in the same 
 way, and their decisions have been confirmed by the sen- 
 tences of not only the Court of Appeals, but also of the 
 Supreme Court; therefore, I demand, though contrary to 
 the determinate and plain words of the constitution 
 (which the states of the Diet during forty-three years 
 have not yet been willing to either see or understand), 
 that the accused be banished; and that on account of a 
 law which by. the constitution was abolished forty-three 
 years ago." 
 
 Words would only be wasted in reflection on such 
 puerile jurisprudence. 
 
 Many cases could be mentioned where the judg- 
 ments pronounced against Christians " have been even 
 more illogical and illegal. 
 
 The wonder in this case was that the prosecutor him- 
 self was not banished for daring to reflect on the al)ility 
 of the Diet, as in the time of Gustavus IV., a philos- 
 opher by the name of Thorild was banished for proposing 
 in a humorous way the overthrow of the whole four 
 states of the Diet, on account of their incompetency to 
 legislate for the benefit of the land.''' 
 
 Of those men who so liberally favored the principles 
 of religious liberty in 1809, no speakers could better ex- 
 press the true sentiments of the Diet than two bishops 
 and one doctor of divinity. Their names deserve to be 
 recorded. They were Rosenstein, Bjurback, and Wick- 
 
 *Hofberg's Biographical Lexicon. See Thoiild. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 21 5 
 
 man. One of them, Bishop Jljurback, even went so far 
 as to say: "I wish that the sixteenth artiele of the pro- 
 posed eonstitution might be altogether exi)unged, for it 
 appears only as an echo from barbarian times, a relic 
 only for ornament; not for necessity. The first principles 
 and conceptions of the eternal laws of nature, incontro- 
 vertible to all common sense and human sentiment, ap- 
 pear to me not to require any sanction of written law." 
 
 What a contrast between those noble words and the 
 wretched nonsense which has been expressed at the Swe- 
 dish Diets during these last fifty years by bishops of an- 
 other stamp and nature. The former were of course 
 members of the state of the clergy ; one of the four states 
 that composed the Diet. 
 
 It may seem strange that such liberal sentiments 
 were expressed by those and most of the other men of 
 the Diet during "the early part of this century; but it 
 must be remembered that nearly all of northern Europe 
 was given up to indifiference of all religions during those 
 and the preceding years. And in Sweden there were no 
 dissenters at that time to claim any religious liberty; be- 
 sides, the dreaded Baptists had not even been heard of. 
 The so-called freethinking elements of France, Germany, 
 and England, which had been so generally received in 
 those countries immediately after the French Revolution, 
 had found their way also to Sweden and Denmark, and 
 were especially embraced by the higher classes and men 
 of learning. 
 
 FROM "THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES." 
 
 Chevalier Bunsen, probably in consideration of sim- 
 ilar difficulties in Prussia as have been mentioned about 
 Sweden, says in his treatise of the above title, page 237: 
 "It is singular in countries where intolerance has had its 
 sway, how difficult it is to make the plainest law granting 
 Religious Liberty to be of any use; it is a dead letter." 
 
2i6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 To enable a people to derive any benefit from such 
 "plain law" he mentions six different conditional con- 
 comitants as requirements for making "the plainest law" 
 of any validity. 
 
 Very traly has Zephaniah said: "They have done 
 violence to the law;" "but," he adds, "the unjust know- 
 eth no shame." 
 
 The reader after having perused this chapter, will 
 recognize the truth of Mr. I>unsen's very apt observa- 
 tions, and how remarkably well it illustrates the case in 
 Sweden to the end of the nineteenth century. 
 
 BUNGLING BLUNDERS IN LEGISLATION. 
 
 Such may be called the crude and crooked efforts 
 made by the Diet to legislate for Christian dissenters 
 during these last forty years. Their motley measures 
 stintedly meted out in the form and name of dissenter 
 laws, have not met with approbation of right-minded 
 men in either church or state, any more than of the Bap- 
 tists. Thus the Burghers, one of the four states compos- 
 ing the Diet, voted against the first and flimsy effort in 
 i860. One of the leaders of that state, the well-known 
 author, August Blanche, condenmed it in the strongest 
 terms as "barbarian." 
 
 Per Nymanson, a priest of uncommon prominence, 
 said of a later effort: "When did you ever hear the like 
 of such law, and yet one must suppose that it is meant in 
 earnest, though anything similar is unheard of."* And 
 a writer in another paper said of one of the progenies: 
 "It is vain to suppo<;e that the law will in any case solve 
 this great and important question." 
 
 The editor of the "Daily News," one of the best 
 
 papers in Stockholm, said of the last product of 1868, 
 
 since which time no change has been made: "So long as 
 
 the state church can persecute those who publicly make 
 
 •This is the same Per Nyman«on as is mentioned in Chapter XI. 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 21/ 
 
 known or preach their rehgious views, so long is there no 
 rehgious Hberty." 
 
 And the state or the state church, for they are both 
 the same thing, "they are not twain, but one flesh," can 
 thus persecute unto this day whenever it pleases. Now, 
 for fear of the people, as in the time of Herod, they may 
 not please to indulge in their legal rights, so much as 
 before. 
 
 I have quoted the above because the State Church 
 party has persistently blamed the Baptists as unreason- 
 able and rebellious spirits, because they would not con- 
 form to a law that it was hoped would give some credit 
 to a country that had been so long disgraced before the 
 world for its intolerance. 
 
 Some Lutheran priests to this day endeavor to apol- 
 ogize for or palliate the persecutions that were inflicted 
 on dissenters. That such should be the case in Sweden 
 is natural enough, but that any among the so-called Mis- 
 sion Covenant preachers in this country (men whose con- 
 freres in Sweden have suffered nearly as much as the 
 Baptists) should do so and publish the same, witnesseth 
 only against themselves, that if they had the power they 
 would walk in the ways of their Church Fathers, Luther 
 and INlclancthon, and their Church Mother Svea. 
 
 But we find that the same has been the case con- 
 cerning the Protestant inquisitorial persecutions of the 
 Baptists in the time of Zwingle, which were approved by 
 him. 
 
 Concerning those ill-doings. Dr. Armitage, in his 
 "History of the Baptists," page 332, says: "AJl sorts of 
 flimsy pleas have been created to cover these barbarities, 
 but their 
 
 "BLOODSTAINS WILL NOT OUT." 
 
 If the "flimsy pleas" did not avail to take away the 
 "bloodstains" of the sixteenth century, much less will 
 they serve the objects and designs of curry-favoring 
 
2i8 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 preachers of these days in removing the stigma of the 
 barbarities inckilged in by the Swedish Government dur- 
 ing the middle part of the nineteenth century. 
 
 SENECA VARNISHING NERO. 
 
 Such efforts are hke a Seneca lending his pen to con- 
 ceal or varnish the worst crimes of his former beloved 
 pupil, Nero. But it did not save him from falling a prey 
 to the cruel monster, nor the monstrous tyrant himself 
 from the conspiracy of Galba. 
 
 LIBERAL EFFORTS IN 1862. 
 
 Besides the before-mentioned acts and efiforts to 
 bring about some toleration or more satisfactory liberty 
 of worship, two bills were presented in 1862 — one by 
 Judge Henschen, the other by Mr. Rosenquist, both 
 members of the Burghers' state — the only progressive 
 party of the four states of the old slow-coach Diet. Both 
 of these champions for reasonable liberty, having found 
 how futile and ill-suited for the purpose the obnoxious 
 and deceitful dissenter law of i860 had practically proved 
 to be, prepared more equitable measures in the hope of 
 having one of them passed. But neither government 
 nor a majority of the Diet were prepared in 
 those years to lend a listening ear to any bill or measure 
 of a liberal tendency. Nor were they at that time will- 
 ing to acknowledge that their puny and paltry episcopally 
 conceived and royally nourished off-spring of policy 
 should so soon be opprobriously stamped as abortive for 
 all future purposes. Yet, six years afterwards, they were 
 compelled with much chagrin and little grace to swallow 
 the bitter pill ; and as an effect of that, they have felt in- 
 disposed ever since. 
 
 The law of 1868, however, as before stated, has not 
 proved to be a' boon or benefit to Baptists or other dis- 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 219 
 
 senters, as the opposers to it feared it might be. It is by 
 the express diction of that law, left in the hands of the 
 priests and their \villin<^ tools to harass and^ persecute as 
 inclination and policy suggest froni time to time, in ac- 
 cordance with the disgraceful proceeding mentioned in 
 the last part of Chapter XIII. Neither of the pastors 
 of the Mrst Baptist Churches at Gothenburg or Stock- 
 holm has any more right to preach or hold meetings 
 than the parties mentioned in that case. Yea, every 
 15a]:»tist preacher in the land is liable to be a victim of the 
 same legal prohibition. 
 
 NAPOLEON ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact worthy of special notice, that 
 up to the present time not a single Protestant monarch 
 of continental Europe has ever advocated and adopted 
 the principle of religious liberty,* w^hile in Catholic Italy 
 during the latter part of this century and in Catholic 
 France, about a hundred years ago, religious liberty was 
 granted so long as the great warrior ruled that land. 
 
 An article from the "Examiner," October 22, 1896, 
 in connection with the Emperor's views on the subject, 
 as well as those of Portalis, his minister of public wor- 
 ship, is worthy of being fully transferred to this part of 
 the history. 
 
 "There is some reason to fear that Napoleon was 
 not very much of a saint; but the keenness and penetra- 
 tion, of his intellect have never been disparaged. The 
 Code which bears his name attests the breadth and clear- 
 ness of his views as to the scope of law. He had the 
 wisdom to see what few rulers before his time had seen, 
 the folly of undertaking to constrain by law the thinking 
 and believing of men. He saw the measureless folly of 
 driving from the country an industrious farmer, an in- 
 genious mechanic, an enterprising merchant, a i)rosper- 
 
 *\ViHi;im, Prince of Orange, may be an exception. 
 
220 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 OLis manufacturer — creators of wealth, who brought pros- 
 perity to muUitudes of people, because their religious be- 
 lief did not accord with that of the rulers of the State. He 
 recognized the absurdity of refusing to allow a man to 
 serve the country in a civil or military capacity because 
 he happened to be a Calvinist, a Lutheran, a Huguenot, 
 or a Jew. Over against his undeniable crimes, history 
 will take pleasure in placing the fact that he never per- 
 secuted for religious belief, that he removed the disabil- 
 ity under which the Jews had labored in France, that he 
 was the first ruler to give religious liberty to the Jews 
 in Germany, and that he restored to the Huguenots all 
 the rights and privileges of which they had been deprived 
 by the infamous revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 
 
 His Minister of Public Worship, Portalis, presented 
 a report to the P^irst Consul in 1802, which has recently 
 been published for the first time, a summary of which is 
 given by Baird in "The Huguenots and the Revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes." In common and secular affairs, 
 said the minister, the will of the majority should rule, 
 but not in worship and doctrine. Protestants, although 
 a minority, are entitled to protection and independence 
 the more especially as they have been everywhere the 
 champions of liberal principles, and have promoted edu- 
 cation, investigation, science. But, while they should be 
 protected in the enjoyment of their worship, the Minister 
 held that, being but a small majority, they should not 
 claim pecuniary support from the government, and, on 
 the other hand, they should be left in the enjoyment of 
 absolute liberty in the control of their internal affairs. 
 
 Most unwisely, the Protestant bodies were not will- 
 ing to purchase absolute independence at the price of 
 self-support. They appealed to the Government for such 
 a union of Church with State as should assure their 
 churches pecuniary support from the latter. This wish 
 Napoleon gladly granted, as it gave to him the same 
 control over the Protestants which he had already over 
 the Roman Catholics. Accordingly the reformed churches 
 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY QUESTION. 221 
 
 of France, like the Roman Catholics, the Jews and Mo- 
 haniniedans of Algiers, have received support from the 
 State up to this time. 
 
 After the coronation of Napoleon the deputies of 
 the Protestant churches waited upon him witli an ad- 
 dress of congratulation and thanks. In his response, the 
 Emperor expressed sentiments which will be remembered 
 with honor long after the brilliancy of his victories shall 
 have become dinmied by time and the changing senti- 
 ments of men. "I am desirous," he said, "that it should 
 be known that my intention and my firm purpose is to 
 maintain religious liberty. The domain of law ends 
 where begins the indefinite domain of conscience. The 
 law and tlie monarch can do nothing against that liberty. 
 Such are my princii)les, and the principles of my nation; 
 if any one of my blood, succeeding n\e, were to forget 
 the oath I have taken, and, deceived by the suggestion of 
 a perverted conscience, were to violate it, I devote him 
 to public condemnation.''* 
 
 Thus, so far as religious liberty was concerned, the 
 Emperor was far in advance of the beliefs and the con- 
 ditions then prevalent in Europe." • 
 
 And to Portalis must be accorded the praise of being 
 the first Minister of a Royal Cabinet in continental 
 Europe, who has officially declared himself in favor oi 
 religious liberty. 
 
 *So should Oscar I. have spoken in 1856, and acted accord- 
 ingly. 
 
THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 "My kingdom is not of 
 this world: if my king- 
 dom were of this world 
 then would my serv- 
 ants fight, that I 
 should not be deliv- 
 ered to the Jews." 
 
 —Jesus. 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 To some persons it is yet an unsolved problem what 
 were the chief motives that induced Gustavus Adolphus 
 to take part in that ungodly war. It may. therefore be 
 interesting, as well as necessary, to present before the 
 minds of impartial readers certain historical facts in con- 
 nection with the subject. 
 
 A subject so closely connected with the question of 
 religious liberty that it ought to be presented in this as- 
 pect before the readers, most of whom will, no doubt, 
 prove to be Baptists, who, as a denomination, have ever 
 by word and pen struggled for and advocated the 
 Heaven-inspired principle of freedom to worship God. 
 
 The reader will observe that in these chapters about 
 the war, as well as throughout the work, where any opin- 
 ions have been expressed or assertions made, though un- 
 favorable to the spirit and theory of State Church Luth- 
 eranism, they hav^ always been substantiated by refer- 
 ences to well-known historians. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 SOME FACTS AIUJUT THE WAR. 
 
 223 
 
 Ouceu Christina, the Kinj^'s daughter, though a 
 volatile and frivolous woman, yet nevertheless, one of 
 the most learned and intelligent of Europe's sovereigns, 
 could never believe that the object for vvhich her father 
 fought was chiefly religious liberty. She knew how he 
 encouraged persecution even unto death, in his own 
 country, and that during his reign three Swedes, who 
 had secretly become Catholics, were beheaded in the 
 year 1624; and how another suffered the same fate in 
 1619, for having embraced Jewish doctrines and spoken 
 blasphemous words about Christ.* 
 
 To her it seemed strange that while the King 
 should claim religious liberty for the Germans, he would 
 not grant it to his own subjects. 
 
 She scorned the manifold tricks and cunning insin- 
 cerity of all engaged in the deceptive statecraft of diplo- 
 macy, in which truth has no place and words are only 
 used to cover up the thoughts and lead the victims 
 astray. She despised such intrigues and methods so 
 much more when hypocritically advanced in favor of 
 Christ's religion, of one name or another, under the 
 cloak of which the vilest self-interested politics were car- 
 ried out. 
 
 During the war, while the Danish King Christian 
 YV. helped the protestant princes and was defeated, Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus took no part in it. And when he con- 
 cluded to engage in that war. twelve years after it broke 
 out, the Danish King, excused perhaps by treaty, ab- 
 stained from any part he might have taken, and "from 
 jealousy" did "all in his power to hinder the progress of 
 the Swedish arms."** 
 
 The question ever uppermost in the minds of those 
 Kings was, which of them should be the greatest. 
 
 And before the close of the war, or in 1643, ^ P^^^ 
 
 ♦Cornelius' History, pp. 165, 198. 
 **Schiller's History of the War, page 359. 
 
224. THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 of the Swedish army, ostensibly raised to fight the Cath- 
 ohcs, were, under the leadership of General Torstenson. 
 brought suddenly and secretly against protestant Den- 
 mark. 
 
 Schiller says, "jNIatters were in fact arrived at last to 
 that extremity that the war was prosecuted merely foi 
 the purpose of furnishing food and employment to the 
 troops; that good winter quarters formed the subject oi 
 contention; and that success in this point was more val- 
 ued than a decisive victory. But now the provinces oi 
 Germany were almost all exhausted and laid waste. The}- 
 were wholly destitute of provisions, horses and men 
 which in Holstein (Denmark) were to be found in pro- 
 fusion."* 
 
 In that war neither protestant England nor Hol- 
 land, as nations, took any part, though some volunteers 
 were enlisted chiefly from Scotland. 
 
 In that war Catholic France, through its ultra-Cath- 
 olic Cardinal and Regent (Richelieu) entered into a treaty 
 with Gustavus Adolphus and paid subsidies for the war 
 expenses of the Swedish army, amounting to four hun- 
 dred thousand riks dollars a year, as long as the war 
 lasted.** and finally declared o])en war against the Em- 
 peror of the same faith, when Iris successes seemed too 
 great. 
 
 During that war, "the Turks, the enemies of Chris- 
 tianity, sought friendship with the defender of the Chris- 
 tian faith." 
 
 "The Tartars sent him their congratulations; and 
 the Czar of Russia (Catholic Russia) arranged festivals 
 in celebration of his victories won over the German 
 Catholics, and ofifered his army to assist him ; and at the 
 Holy Sepulchre prayers were ofifered for the success of 
 his arms.*** 
 
 *For further reasons for the attack on Denmark, see History of 
 the War, page 360. 
 
 **Schiller says, 400,000 Dollars. 
 
 ***Hofberg's Biographical Lexicon, see Gustaf Adolph. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 
 
 225 
 
 Furthermore, strange as it may appear, the Pope 
 himself was secretly pleased with the moderate success 
 of the protestant king. Why so? Because it was con- 
 trary to his interest and dangerous for his own safety, 
 that the Austro-German Emperor Ferdinand, with his 
 ambitious designs and aspirations to universal empire, 
 should become too powerful in Europe, fearing that he 
 would, like Henry VIII. , proclaim himself head of the 
 church, and use the Pope as a mere tool in his hands. 
 "And thus it becomes intelligible how the Pope should 
 first combine with Austria for the destruction of heresy 
 and then conspire with these very heretics for the de- 
 struction of Austria.'"* 
 
 Referring to the double character, as well as to the 
 double dealing of the i^ope, in his capacity as church 
 ruler on one hand and state ruler on the other, the his- 
 torian remarks how "Strangely blended are the threads 
 of human affairs !" 
 
 In view of the preceding, one may reasonably assert 
 that the whole war, from beginning to end, was chiefly 
 a matter of policy, with religion for pretext, and without 
 a particle of principle in it. The only exception was in 
 1618, when the war first broke out in Bohemia on re- 
 ligious account. 
 
 The state of Europe with its bewildering and en- 
 tangling alliances, was so complicated with abstruse and 
 intricate questions that to both parties it seemed most 
 expedient, in order to promote their ends, to hoodwink 
 and stir up the masses of ignorant subjects by calling it 
 a war for their respective religions. 
 
 "Each party maintained that every step taken by its 
 opponent was an infraction of the peace, while of every 
 movement of its own, it was asserted that it was essen- 
 tial to its maintenance. Yet, all the measures of the 
 Catholics did not, as their opponents alleged, proceed 
 from a spirit of encroachment — many of them were the 
 ♦"Thirty Years' War," page 91. 
 
226 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 necessary precautions of self-defence. The Protestants 
 had shown unequivocahy enough what the Romanists 
 might expect if they were unfortunate enough to become 
 the weaker party. The greediness of the former for the 
 property of the church, gave no reason to expect indul- 
 gence — their bitter hatred left no hope of magnanimity 
 or forbearance."* 
 
 V'ery naturally, as according to Schiller, "nothing 
 but political considerations could have driven the Prot- 
 estant Rulers to espouse the reformation," so the same 
 motives made them go to war "to defend what they had 
 thus espoused." 
 
 "Princes fought in self-defence or for aggrandize- 
 ment, while religious enthusiasm recruited their armies 
 and opened to them the treasures of their subjects. Of 
 the multitude who flocked to their standards, such as 
 were not lured by the hope of plunder, imagined they 
 were fighting for the truth, while in fact they were shed- 
 ding their blood for the personal objects of their 
 princes."'''''' 
 
 "Had not Charles V., in the intoxication of success, 
 made an attack on the independence of the German 
 States, a Protestant league would scarcely have rushed 
 to arms in defence of freedom of belief. "*'''* 
 
 Besides the "political considerations" above referred 
 to, as inducing them to embrace the reformation, there 
 was, as the same historian says, "The charm of independ- 
 ence, the rich plunder of monastic institutions, made the 
 reformation attractive in the eyes of princes, and tended 
 not a little to strengthen their inward convictions." 
 
 So much of spoils was taken by Gustavus Vasa that, 
 as historians say, his cellars were literally filled with sil- 
 ver; and, of course, his noblemen and adherents took 
 their share of the confiscated property. 
 
 *Schiller's History of the War, pag-e 21. 
 
 **Tbi(l. Pases 282, 283. 
 
 ***SchiIlcr's History of the War. Page 7. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 227 
 
 SELFISH MOTIVES OF THE GERMAN 
 PRINCES. 
 
 With regard to Gustavus Adolphus, no mercenary 
 motives can be laid to his charge, but, both he and Ox- 
 enstjerna had to make promises of land possessions, 
 fiefs, and bishoprics from the conquered countries to the 
 German princes in order to encourage them to hold out 
 in a war of their own. Their demands were sometimes 
 shameful, but from public policy had to be complied with, 
 and, "What prudence had suggested to the king, neces- 
 sity now prescribed to his successor. If it was his object 
 to continue the war, he must be ready to divide the spoil 
 among the allies, and promise them advantages from the 
 confusion which it was his object to continue. Thus he 
 promised to the Landgrave. of Hesse the abbacies of Pa- 
 derborn, Corvey, Munster, and Fulda; to Duke Bernard 
 of Weimar the Franconian bishoprics; to the Duke of 
 Wirtemberg the ecclesiastical domains, and the Austrian 
 countries lying within his territories, all under the title 
 of fiefs of Sweden. This spectacle, so strange and so 
 dishonorable to the German character, surprised the 
 chancellor, who found it difficult to repress his contempt, 
 and on one occasion exclaimed. "Let it be writ, in our 
 records for an everlasting memorial, that a (jcrman 
 prince made such a request of a Swedish nobleman, and 
 I hat the Swedish nobleman granted it to the German 
 upon German ground."* 
 
 "The other allied princes received proofs, though at 
 a later period, of the gratitude of Sweden, which, how- 
 ever, she dispensed at little cost to herself." 
 
 ''Impartiality, the most sacred obligation of the his- 
 torian, here compels us," says Schiller, "to an admission 
 not much to the honor of the champions of German lib- 
 erty. However, the Protestant princes might boast of 
 the justice of their cause, and the sincerity of their con- 
 viction, still the motives from which they acted were 
 
 •Schiller's History, page 283. 
 
228 I'HE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 selfish enoui^h ; and the desire of stripping others of their 
 possessions had at least as great a share in the commence- 
 ment of hostilities as the fear of being deprived of their 
 own. Gustavus soon found that he might reckon much 
 more on these selfish motives than on their patriotic zeal, 
 and did not fail to avail himself of them. Each of his 
 confederates received from him the promise of some pos- 
 session, either wrested or to be afterward taken from the 
 enemy."* 
 
 If those selfish motives referred to were greater 
 than the confederates' patriotic zeal, they no doubt were 
 greater than their zeal for Lutheranism or religious lib- 
 erty. Gustavus does not at this period seem to appeal 
 to their nobler natures, if they had any, and let them 
 understand that he had come to assist them in the free 
 exercise of their adopted new religion, and not to enrich 
 them with the enemy's spoils. Noble words to such ef- 
 fect he did say to the professors and students on enter- 
 ing Wittenberg, shortly after his arrival in Germany, — 
 "From you, we Swedes have received the light of the 
 Gospel; and as a proof of our gratitude we have now 
 come to protect you against the prince of darkness and 
 his adherents."** 
 
 On account of the assertion before made, viz., that 
 the war, though ostensibly for religious liberty, was 
 chiefly a matter of policy, I find it necessary, in order 
 to support such views, to digress somewhat from the 
 purport of this work. 
 
 FRYXELL ON GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 
 
 As one proof of such assertion, I will state what Mr. 
 Fryxell, Sweden's most impartial and reliable historian, 
 v/rote. After mentioning the unjust intrigue and design 
 formed "between Sweden and Poland to phmder and cut 
 
 ♦Thirty Years' War. Pages 282, 283. 
 **Almquist's Catechism, supplement. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 229 
 
 Up Russia into pieces,"* alluding to the thirty years' war, 
 he says, "how likewise Sweden and France provoked the 
 German States against one another, that they themselves 
 might he profited or enriched at tho expense of all. In 
 neither case did 1,'' says Mr. h>yxell, "cover up my con- 
 viction ahout tile ignoble policy Sweden carried out in 
 those days."** 
 
 But after all expressions of such impartial historical 
 views, it is probable that the great historian, succumbing 
 to the exigencies of the times, while the bi-centenary 
 celebrations of the death of Gustavus Adolphus were yet 
 fresh in the minds of the people, wrote more favorably 
 about the hero than unvarnished truths would warrant. 
 The publisher of his "History's History" says in a note, 
 ]iage 52, that in his later days Fryxell said many times. 
 "I should not now write the history of Gustavus Adol- 
 phus as I wrote it in 1S33, but he should still be pre- 
 sented as a royal hero and a great man, as he also was." 
 
 REAL REASONS FOR THE WAR. 
 
 Leaving out all questions of pretended danger to the 
 exercise of the Lutheran religion in Sweden or other 
 countries, Gustavus Adolphus had, as a king, certain, if 
 not ambitious, at any rate political reasons for engaging 
 in a war against an insulting emperor, who would not 
 even recognize his royal title; and who was ever stirring 
 up the ill feelings of Sigismund, the Catholic King of 
 Poland, to revolt and rise against his cousin, the Swedish 
 King.*** Only inferiority and weakness kept Sigismund 
 in his place with all the moral aid and support of the 
 Emperor Ferdinand, who might, if successful in Ger- 
 
 *Yes, "plunder" is the word. In Swedish, "plundra." 
 
 **Min Historias Historia. Pages 62, 63. 
 
 ***Gu.stavus Adolphus was the son of Charles IX. and Sig-ismund 
 of John III., both kings of Sweden and sons of Gustavus Vasa. 
 Singularly enough, the two grandsons of the latter died during the 
 same year, 1632. 
 
230 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 many, have sent his troops to assist Sigisniund against 
 Sweden."^ 
 
 FAREWELL ADDRESS OF GUSTAVUS ADOL- 
 PHUS. 
 
 The very touching address of the king, at his de- 
 parture from Sweden,, dcuvered before the assembled 
 States, refers to this matter as the real reason for Uie 
 war. 
 
 "Not lightly or wantonly," said he, "I am about to 
 involve myself in this new and dangerous war. God is 
 my witness that I do not fight to gratify my own am- 
 l)ition. Sut the emperor has wronged me most shame- 
 fully in the person of my ambassadors. He has supported 
 my enemies, persecuted my friends and brethren, tram- 
 ]:»led my religion in the dust, and even stretched his re- 
 vengeful arm against my crown. The oppressed states 
 of Germany call loudly for aid, which, by God's help, 
 we will give them." 
 
 "I am fully sensible of the dangers to which my life 
 will be exposed. I have never yet shrunk from them, 
 nor is it likely that I escape them all. Hitherto Provi- 
 dence has wonderfully protected me, but I shall at last 
 fall in defence of my country. I commend you to the 
 protection of Heaven. Be just, be conscientious, act up- 
 rightly, and we shall meet again in eternity."** 
 
 Then he addressed each of the four States sepa- 
 rately, closing his speech with the following words: *T 
 bid you all a sincere, it may be, an eternal farewell."** 
 
 The reader will please notice that in this affection- 
 ate, and as touching his life, prophetic address, to the 
 leading men of Sweden, no allusion is made to defence 
 in behalf of religious liberty, but in defence of his coun- 
 try. And, as before stated, that the grievances were 
 chiefly of a personal character. 
 
 *His political and personal reasons are more fully given in 
 Schiller's "Thirty Years' War," page 132. 
 ♦♦Schiller's History. Page 139. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 23! 
 
 POPE AND TURK COMBINED. 
 
 A similar political war, though of short duration, 
 took place in the middle of the sixteenth century, when 
 the Pope, Paul IV., partly from fear of the increasing 
 power of Philip II. of Spain, and partly from hatred to 
 tiie Spaniards, "whom he denounced as the scum of the 
 earth, a race accursed of God, heretics and schismatics, 
 the spawn of Jews and Moors"* "through the French 
 ambassador at his court, opened negotiations with 
 France, and entered into a secret treaty with that power, 
 by which each of the parties agreed to furnish a certain 
 contingent of men and money to carry on the war for 
 the recovery of Naples."** 
 
 After many difficulties which had to be surmounted 
 "it was finally arranged that Henry II. should invite the 
 Sultan Solyman to renew his former alliance with France 
 and make a descent with his galleys on the coast of Cala- 
 bria. "Thus," says the historian, Prescott, "did his most 
 Christian Majesty, with the Pope for one of his allies, 
 and the Grand Turk for the other, prepare to make war 
 on the most Catholic power in Christendom." 
 
 "Like Julius II., of warlike memory, he, Paul IV., 
 the Pope, swore to drive out the barbarians (the Span- 
 iards) from Italy."*** 
 
 IMPEACHMENT OF THE POPE. 
 
 But Philip II., politically wise, as he was naturally 
 cruel and cunning, "before conunencing hostilities 
 against the church, determined to ease his conscience." 
 So, "He assembled a body composed of theologians and 
 jurists from his several councils." 
 
 Before them he put several questions as to what he 
 might do, and asked, "whether inquiry might not be 
 
 •History of Philip II., volume I., page 92. 
 
 **Ibld, page 94. 
 
 ♦♦♦Prescott's History of Philip II. Vol. 1, page 97. 
 
232 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 made into the gross abuses of ecclesiastical patron- 
 age by the Roman See; and effectual measures taken to 
 redress them?"* The council, favoring his views, en- 
 abled him to carry on his war conscientiously against the 
 so-called viceregent of Christ. 
 
 WAR MAXIMS OF GUSTAVUS. 
 
 "All the decisive advantages of the war had been 
 violently gained by a barbarous sacrifice of the soldiers' 
 lives in winter campaigns, forced marches, stormings, 
 and pitched battles, for it was Gustavus' maxim never to 
 decline a battle so long as it cost him nothing but 
 
 men. 
 
 '**: 
 
 It is difificult to discover any spark of Christian or 
 moral principle in such maxims. After the king's death, 
 however, when neither spoils "won by their own blood" 
 were shared by them, nor their salaries paid; "murmurs 
 were loud and universal, and the soldiery seized the 
 most dangerous moment to impress their superiors with 
 a sense of their importance." They solemnly bound 
 themselves to obey no orders till these arrears, now out- 
 standing for months, and even years, should be paid up, 
 and a gratuity, either in money or lands, made to each 
 man, according to his services," etc. 
 
 "Four weeks were allowed to comply with these de- 
 mands," and in case of refusal they announced that they 
 would pay themselves, and never more draw a sword for 
 Sweden."*** 
 
 Their eyes had now become opened to see that it 
 was not religion, but for Sweden, that they fought. 
 
 ♦History of Philip II. Vol. 1. page 100. 
 ♦♦Thirty Years' War. Page 285. 
 ♦♦♦Ibid. Pages 285, 286. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 233 
 
 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR (Continued.) 
 
 "O poor mortals, how 
 ye make this Earth 
 bitter for each other. 
 Such agonies and ragings 
 and wailings ye have; 
 
 and the salt 
 
 sea is not swollen 
 with your tears." 
 
 -Carlyle. 
 
 EUROPEAN BALANCE OF POWER. 
 
 In these words is found the sohition of the whole 
 princely and barbarian war. For such imaginary safety, 
 Catholic did fight against Catholic; protestant against 
 protestant; princes, nearly all of them, whether Catholic 
 or protestant, without principles, would fight on either 
 side as interest dictated. All of them would disgrace 
 Christianity by using it for show and pretence, and there- 
 by hoodwinking their poor subjects, whom they looked 
 upon as herds of cattle, and on their soldiers as mere 
 beasts, willing to follow their masters whichever way 
 they led them, for the sake of pay and the expected plun- 
 der or spoils. 
 
 JOHN BANER'S CALL. 
 
 Thus, at a time when the Swedish warriors were 
 somewhat discouraged at the confusion of the situation. 
 
234 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Count Baner, General-in-Chief of the army, after hav- 
 ing imprisoned the discontented German generals, called 
 out, "He that will be faithful to the evangelical doctrine, 
 to Sweden, and his honor, let him follow me."* It was 
 then to fight the protestant Saxons, the chief of the 
 protestant parties, who, with Brandenburg had become 
 allied to the Catholic imperial army, and were now at 
 war with those of the same faith, who had come, as the 
 story goes, to protect them in the exercise of their re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Just previous to that singular call, the protestant 
 elector of Saxony in urging the Swedes to get out of 
 Germany and return home, said that "Sweden commit- 
 ted a crime when it commenced to partake in the war," 
 and if now they would retreat, "he promised to forget all 
 the evils that the Swedish ministers and armies had com- 
 mitted since 1630."** This took place in 1635. 
 
 The evils spoken of during that war were so atro- 
 cious that even Baner, though himself a most dissolute 
 man, when hearing of the excesses of his evangelical sol- 
 diers at Thuringia, said, "It would not be astounding if 
 the earth were to open and through the righteous judg- 
 ment of God, swallow up those dishonorable perpetrators 
 of violence." "In Naumberg, which city had previously 
 with great enthusiasm received Gustavus Adolphus, the 
 churches as well as private houses were plundered."*** 
 although a great sum of money had been paid by the 
 vanquished to the conquering protestants that their city 
 might be spared from fire and pillage. 
 
 The same historian, speaking in another place about 
 the conduct of of^cers and men in those times, says, 
 "They manifested generally a singular mixture of piety, 
 bestiality, and ferocity, which pervaded through this war. 
 The General would begin the day with reading the Bi])le, 
 and from time to time quote texts from the same, and 
 
 ♦Starback's Swedisli Hisitory, volume 5, page 65. 
 **Ibid. Volume 5, page 63. 
 »**Ibid. Vol. 5, page 70. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 235 
 
 in the evening take part in the wildest bacchanalian rev- 
 elries and debauchery, while his soldiers would commit 
 the most dreadful atrocities to press out the last farthing 
 from the unfortunate victims who happened to fall in 
 their hands." He also describes how the so-called Swed- 
 ish drink was applied, but it is too disgusting to be here 
 copied, and he says, "The coarse riots of the soldiers de- 
 fies all description."* 
 
 "Generally speaking, the state of things and disci- 
 pline was better among the Swedes than among the Im- 
 l)erials. But the disorders even among them could not 
 be checked, and Gustavus Adolphus had to complain of 
 their plunderings, though unable to put a stop to them— 
 his complaints, however, were mostly against the Ger- 
 mans in his army. The pattern of the great king as a 
 Christian warrior was in many cases distorted. Such 
 misdeeds were then committed that the memory of_ the 
 conquests is mingled with blood and tears. Especially 
 hateful was the remembrance of the Swedish proceed- 
 ings in Bohemia under the leadership of Count John 
 Baner."'''* 
 
 By the above historical facts I hope I have proved 
 that whatever those misguided protestant warriors, with 
 all their bigotry and zeal fought for, it could not be for 
 a "pure gospel," as they pretended, or for any kind of 
 the religion of Jesus Christ, or for that liberty which His 
 religion requires. 
 
 "The ground on which Richelieu vindicated himself 
 for lending aid to protestants was, that the war was not 
 a religious, but a political one."*** 
 
 ♦Archbishop Trench In the preface to his "Lectures on Gus- 
 tavus Adolphus in Germany," says that during the last century 
 "the ugliest features of the conflict were imperfectly known." 
 
 **Starback's History. Vol. 5, pages 140, 141. 
 
 ***"The Reformation," by Dr. Fisher. Page 429. 
 
236 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 RIGHT ACTIONS BETTER THAN RIGHT 
 WORDS. 
 
 That Gustavus Adolphus. like most of the reform- 
 ers, could and did say many things in favor of true re- 
 ligious liberty on certain occasions, is admitted, but docs 
 not alter the case; for men must be judged by what they 
 do and not by what they say. 
 
 Who can attribute any good motives to the Spanisli 
 friar, Alfonso de Castro, confessor of Philip II., who, 
 while his cruel master, the husband of bloody Mary, was 
 at London, and without doubt encouraged the murders 
 of the martyrs at Smithfield, "preached a sermon in 
 which he bitterly inveighed against these proceedings. 
 He denounced them as repugnant to the true spirit of 
 Christianity, which was that of charity and forgiveness, 
 and which enjoined its ministers not to take vengeance 
 on the sinner, but to enlighten him as to his errors, and 
 bring him to repentance."* 
 
 Nobler words of toleration if not of religious liberty 
 could not have been spoken by any evangelical preacher. 
 The words were probably suggested by Philip himself, 
 so as to make the English suppose that he was not in 
 any way responsible for the cruelties of bloody Mary. 
 So the fine words were only the product of a subtle and 
 very finespun policy. 
 
 In Sweden it has been customary for the advocates 
 of religious liberty to quote Luther's words on the sub- 
 ject, but as all the world knows, that in every instance 
 his actions belied his words, all such appeals have been 
 futile. His words in favor of immersion as a rite, have 
 fallen equally worthless. 
 
 Quotations from men using liberal phrases without 
 corresponding actions could be given by thousands. 
 They are no exceptions to the great king or the great 
 reformer. 
 
 •History of Philip II., volume 1, page 82. 
 
The thirty years* war. ^32 
 
 Whatever ambitious views the king entertained, he 
 wisely kept them to himself. In all cases, the actions 
 spoke louder than words. It is only in these days, over 
 two hundred and sixty years after the death of the great 
 king, that his countrymen in Sweden have dared critic- 
 ally to sift iiis actions and venture to affirm that his fu- 
 ture plans consisted in "a united protestant Germany, 
 as a free confederation under the (lirection (ledning) of 
 the Swedish State."* 
 
 "The control of the provinces bordering on the Bal- 
 tic as a safeguard for his own peninsula; and then the 
 union of the whole of Scandinavia under Sweden's 
 crown, w'ere undovibtedly planned in his mind."* 
 
 Mr. Charnace, ambassador from France, in behalf of 
 Richelieu, i)resented as inducements to Gustavus "the 
 great honor and advantage that would accrue to him if 
 he, as an ally of France, would go to war against the 
 emperor, saying, also that the King of France, Louis 
 XIII., would be satisfied with seeing his friend, Gusta- 
 vus Adolphus, admired in the world, and that if he de- 
 sired, would assist him to the empire in the East."** 
 The king, however, was too wise a man to appear as if 
 such prospects of future glory made any impressions on 
 him. He preferred to have the world believe that he 
 would fight for the right of Lutherans to maintain their 
 religion. 
 
 That the so-called religious liberty was not intended 
 for any other religion, protestant or Catholic, was evi- 
 dent enough. In behalf of 
 
 THE PERSECUTED HUGUENOTS, 
 
 who sufifered so much for their evangelical faith, neither 
 wprd nor sword was offered, by either him or any other 
 Lutheran prince. And two years before the edict of 
 
 *Profes.sor Ij. Stavenow of the Gothenburg High School. Ad- 
 dress at the celebration in 1S94, page 52 of "Folkskrifter," Nos 16, 17. 
 **Starl>ack's History, volume 4, page 272. 
 
238 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Nantes, while the Huguenots were besieged in La Ro- 
 chelle, or in 1628, "Gustavus, through his special envoy, 
 Lars Nilson, was anxious to make it appear to the chief 
 men of France, and especially to Richelieu, that the king 
 was in favor of the war against the Emperor."* 
 
 In the many interviews which Lars Nilson had with 
 the ultra-Catholic cardinal, he, of course, did not say 
 that Gustavus would fight for religious liberty. If he 
 had, Richelieu would have stared at him with surprise. 
 ]>ut suppose he buckled on his sword for a certain kind, 
 by diplomatists understood, religious liberty? Wherein 
 consisted the merit thereof in the sight of God or right- 
 minded Christians? 
 
 Where has Christ ever required his people to use 
 any other weapons than those described in Ephesians 6? 
 
 Have not all the Lutheran Protestant writers and 
 preachers blamed the Anabaptists for defending them- 
 selves by force? It shows that, according to Lutherans, 
 war for religion is only meritorious when the warriors 
 are strong and powerful enough to succeed. 
 
 WEAPONS OF BAPTISTS NOT CARNAL. 
 
 The weapons of warfare of the Baptists in Sweden, 
 as everywhere else, have not been carnal, "but mighty 
 through God to the pulling down of strongholds," and 
 God has blessed their battles more than he ever did the 
 carnal battles on the fields of Germany, where, and in 
 the cities thereof, Swedish Protestants, as well as Ger- 
 man Catholics, as before stated, disgraced their man- 
 hood, by acting worse than brutes, and quite as badly 
 as the Turks or Kurds ever did in Armenia. 
 
 For a long time afterwards mothers would frighten 
 their children into obedience as by a bugbear, with the 
 words 
 
 ♦Starback's History, volume 4, page 272. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 239 
 
 THE SWEDES ARE COMING, TAKE CARE. 
 
 It is related that in memory of the terrible suffer- 
 ings and ruin of the Bohemians, a national song was 
 composed, called "Schwedenlied" (Swedish Song).* 
 
 And as to the result, the greatest of Swedish states- 
 men and the best friend of the king, Axel Oxenstjerna, 
 said, after the war, "that the expenses of the same, by 
 which Sweden became impoverished and lost many lives 
 along with that of the King, could have been expended 
 to better purpose nearer home, for securing a more in- 
 dependent Scandinavia." Showing that he did not think 
 the danger of having the Lutheran religion taken from 
 them by force so great as it had been pretended, for 
 then he would certainly not have begrudged the spend- 
 ing of money or loss of lives for its object. 
 
 The historian Geijer says, "If fixing our eyes on the 
 many years' devastation of this war, we inquire whether 
 it were mainly urged on account of religion, we must 
 answer with Axel Oxenstjerna, No!" 
 
 That wise statesman said in the council, 1637, that 
 the principal aim of the German war was by no means 
 the (Icf ^- sc of religion."** 
 
 SWEDEN'S INGRATITUDE TO FRANCE. 
 
 One would have supposed that a sense of gratitude 
 to France, as well as a feeling of consistency, would have 
 induced the Swedish as well as other protestant govern- 
 ments to open up its country to the Huguenots, who, 
 after the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685, less 
 than forty years after the close of the war, professedly 
 for religious liberty, sought, but were refused an asylum 
 in Sweden, except on most debasing, humiliating, and 
 unchristian conditions. Concerning that shameful treat- 
 
 *Starback's History, volume 5, page 79. 
 
 **Historv of the Swedes, by E. G. Geijer, translated by J. H. 
 Turner. Page 332. 
 
240 
 
 tME SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 ment of a worthy class of protestants, who, wherever 
 they went, brought God's blessings and prosperity with 
 them, I will quote the words of the historian, Henry M. 
 Baird, in his work on "The Huguenots and the Revoca- 
 tion of the Edict of Nantes." 
 
 "It might have been expected that Sweden, the coun- 
 try of Gustavus Adolphus, would range itself with Bran- 
 denburg as a hospitable refuge for the Huguenot exile. 
 As a matter of fact, Charles XI. was an exception among 
 the protestant sovereigns of the period. He announcecl 
 tliat French Protestants, if they entered Sweden, would 
 be expected to change their creed and forms for those 
 of the Lutheran church, and that every child bom to 
 them must be baptized by Lutheran ministers. The 
 course pursued by the King of Sweden was owing to 
 views which he held in common with many of the Swed- 
 ish clergy, who, far from recognizing the claim of a com- 
 mon protestantism, viewed Calvinists with undisguised 
 aversion, and were scarcely more tolerant of them than 
 of the members of the Roman Church. In consequence 
 of this state of things, the emigration to Sweden never 
 became considerable. A very different reception was 
 given to the Huguenots by the Queen of Denmark, who, 
 not content with relieving the necessities of all that threw 
 themselves upon her compassion, provided for their 
 spiritual interests by fostering the establishment of a 
 flourishing church."* 
 
 WAR FOR SECTARIANISM. 
 
 As Gustavus Adolphus held the same narrow-mind- 
 ed views as Charles XI. and all the succeeding kings un- 
 til the free-thinking Gustavus III., it is evident that the 
 war he engaged in, ostensibly for religious liberty, was 
 not for the cause of Protestantism in general, but for 
 
 *Copio(l from a notice of the work in the New York "Sun," Sep- 
 tember 29, 1895. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 
 
 241 
 
 sectarianism in particular, under the Lutheran name, so 
 far as rehgion came in for any consideration at all. 
 
 The same narrow-minded views of Charles XL, as 
 just related, as well as of Gustavus Adolphus, were held 
 also by Charles X., the next male successor of the world- 
 renowned hero. In the year 1655, or only eight years 
 after the treaty of peace at Westphalia, Cromwell, 
 through his secretary, Milton, the poet, sent a letter to 
 Charles X., of Sweden, as also to other protestant po- 
 tentates, asking aid in behalf of the persecuted Wal- 
 denses.* History does not record any intention or 
 readiness of the Swedish King to unsheath his sword for 
 protestants of Calvinistic views as held by those for 
 whom help was asked.** 
 
 It is true that Cromwell did not ask him, or any 
 of the other protestant princes, in a direct manner, to 
 unite with England in defense of the sufifering victims 
 of the 
 
 BARBAROUS BOURBON BUTCHERS 
 
 of Savoy. But, that such armed intervention was in- 
 tended is evident from the tenor of the letters collectively. 
 Supposing, probably, that Charles X. of Sweden would 
 himself take the initiative, he leaves it to his "wisdom and 
 zeal" to do what "shall be most conducive" to "whatever 
 may tend to their succor, and for the support of the 
 Protestant interest in the world." 
 
 In his letter to Frederick HI., King of Denmark, 
 he writes in plainer and more unequivocal terms. There 
 he says if "he — the Duke of Savoy — chooses rather to 
 persist in his purpose, we declare that, assisted by your 
 majesty and the rest of our allies of the reformed re- 
 ligion, we are prepared to have recourse to such meas- 
 ures as may, to the utmost of our power, relieve the dis- 
 
 *Jones' Church History, volume II., pages 334, 335. 
 ♦♦That the Waldenses held Calvinistic views is proved by sev- 
 eral authorities. See Jones' Church History, volume II., pp. 83, 84. 
 
242 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 tress, and provide for the safety and the liberty of so 
 many poor at^icted people.''* 
 
 THE DIFFERENCES OF CREEDS 
 
 between the Lutherans and the Waldenses were not 
 so great as to constitute any reason why the latter 
 should not have been aided. For more than a hundred 
 years before the writing of the letters to the different 
 protestant princes (or in 1533), Luther himself had "pub- 
 lished the confessions of the Waldenses, to which he 
 wrote a preface. Li this preface he candidly acknowl- 
 edges that in the days of his popery he had hated the 
 Waldenses as persons who were consigned to perdition. 
 But having understood from their confessions and writ- 
 ings the piety of their faith, he perceived that those good 
 men had been greatly wronged whom the Pope had con- 
 demned as heretics; for that, on the contrary, they were 
 rather entitled to the praise due to holy martyrs." 
 "Moreover," he adds, "having read the Waldensian con- 
 fessions, he returned thanks to God for the great light 
 which it had pleased Him to bestow upon that people; 
 rejoicing that all cause of suspicion being removed which 
 had existed between them and the reformed, they were 
 now brought together into one sheepfold, under the 
 Chief Shepherd and Bishop of Souls."** 
 
 PROMINENT CATHOLIC HISTORIANS, 
 
 such as Cardinal Hosius, Bishop Lindanus, Mezeray, 
 Gualtier, Walden, Ecchins, Eneas Sylvius and John de 
 Cardonne, all agreed in holding that the doctrines of 
 Luther, Calvin, Huss, and Wicklifif were all synonymous 
 with those of Peter Waldo and the Waldenses. Cardinal 
 Bellarmine said that "Wicklifif could add nothing to the 
 heresy of the Waldenses." 
 
 "Ecchius reproached Luther that he only renewed 
 
 •See Jones' Church History, volume IT., pp. 335, 336. 
 **See Jones' Church History. Vol. II., pages 75, 76. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 243 
 
 the heresies of the Waldcnses and Albigenscs, and of 
 Huss, etc." Claude Rubis, adverting to the heresies of 
 Luther, calls them "the relics of Waldo.'"*' 
 
 A DEFENDER OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 If Milton, whom I have quoted, was not in all re- 
 spects a thorough Baptist, he at least advocated all their 
 principles of religious liberty and church government. 
 It is refreshing to record that while all the reformers and 
 their supporting kings were violent persecutors, as 
 mentioned in the previous chapters, he was among the 
 foremost of any influence in England, whether under 
 king or protector, to clamor and write for that liberty 
 which is the natural right of every man. For the claim 
 of which, his contemporary, Roger Williams, writes, 
 "Never was there a more decided enemy to persecution 
 on account of religion than Milton. He appears to have 
 been the first of our countrymen who uiiderstood the 
 principles of toleration ; and his prose writings abound 
 with the most enlightened and liberal sentiments. The 
 sufferings of the Waldcnses touched his heart, and drew 
 froiu his pen the following sonnet:"** 
 
 MILTON'S APPEAL TO THE LORD. 
 
 "Avenge, O Lord, thy slauffhter'd saints, whose bones 
 
 Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; 
 
 Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old. 
 When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones. 
 Forget not, in thy book record their groans 
 
 Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 
 
 Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that roll'd 
 Mother with infant down the rocks. Ttieir moans 
 "The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 
 
 To Heaven. Theie martyred blood and ashes sow 
 O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway 
 
 The tripled tyrant;— that from these may grow 
 A hundredfold, who, having learned thy way, ■ 
 
 Early may fly the Babylonian wo." 
 
 ♦Jones' Church History. Vol. II., page 83. 
 
 •♦Benedict's History of the Baptist Denomination. Page 40. 
 
244 "^"^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 TEMPORARY TREATY OF TOLERATION. 
 
 As the views presented in these last chapters will 
 be found clashing with many preconceived ideas of 
 prejudiced persons, who have been taught differently by 
 superficial school-masters and speech-makers for festival 
 and anniversary celebrations, it may be necessary in clos- 
 ing the subject to state wherein consisted the so-called 
 religious liberty for which Gustavus, among other 
 causes, may have fought. 
 
 When the protestant princes of Germany had be- 
 come a power too important and strong to be either de- 
 spised or destroyed, a "treaty of peace," or rather a tem- 
 porary truce, was effected by the Diet of Augsburg, ac- 
 cording to which, "every secular state should have the- 
 right of establishing the religion it acknowledged as su- 
 preme and exclusive within its own territories, and of 
 forbidding the open profession of its rival." "But the 
 sovereigns alone were to determine what form of re- 
 ligion should prevail within their territories."* 
 
 PRINCELY PRESERVES OR ROYAL RESERVA- 
 TIONS, 
 
 would be an appropriate name for such territories, as 
 heretics Were the chief game the princely hunters chased 
 with greatest zeal. The abbeys and bishoprics, with all 
 their lands, were called "Ecclesiastical Reservations" 
 ("Reservatum Ecclesiasticum.") 
 
 Well has some one said, "O! Liberty, what crimes 
 are committed in thy name." 
 
 Had such liberty been accepted through the world, 
 enabling the rulers of it to establish all religions, then 
 would a brave little Dame de Staal's answer to the 
 question be true, who, when asked where on this earth 
 could be found the nearest approach to liberty, answered, 
 "after mature computation" 
 
 ♦Schiller's History, pages 13, W. 
 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 245 
 
 "IN THE BASTILLE."* 
 
 Such concessions to the rulers of the several Lutii- 
 cran States received the name of religious liberty. If it 
 was for the continued security of such liberty that the 
 war was waged, I wull not deny the claims of those who 
 assert that Gustavus Adolphus fought for such chimeri- 
 cal idea. And surely, they will not after more mature 
 investigation, consider such a reprehensible state of 
 things, as worthy of the name of Religious Liberty. 
 
 For a fuller understanding of the intricate working 
 of that cunningly devised "Treaty of Peace'' machinery, 
 the reader is referred to Schiller's History, pages 13-22 
 ♦French Revolution by Cartyle, volume II., page 33. 
 
246 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 
 
 "Associate yourselves, -■ — ■-- and 
 ye shall be broken to pieces; 
 Take council together, and it 
 shall come to naught; speak 
 the word, and it shall not stand." 
 —Isaiah. 
 
 A PECULIAR INSTITUTION. 
 
 The Swedish State Church, or Church State, is in 
 many respects a unique and pecuhar estabhshment. But 
 the Church Convention is a more unique and most pecul- 
 iar institution within it. On account of which a special 
 chapter has been assigned to a description of its origin, 
 composition and legislative power. 
 
 When Charles XV., in the decade of i860, supported 
 by the press and all liberal and progressive men in 
 Sweden, determined to introduce the present representa- 
 tive system, being aware of the opposition that the clergy 
 would niake against such a radical change — a change 
 which, if carried through, would deprive them of one- 
 fourth of the legislative power — and knowing also that 
 without their consent no reform bill could be passed, he, 
 with his councilors, hit upon the expedient of reconciling 
 the clergy with the change, by the compensation of a 
 church convention, where every fifth year they could still 
 have the privilege to meet and consult about such church 
 
THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 247 
 
 matters as tliey would consider of i^reatest importance. 
 The clergy, consequently, at the Diet of 1865, knowing 
 the determined will of the King, and that the people 
 would no longer submit to any ancestral nonsense, made 
 
 A VIRTUE OF NECESSITY, 
 
 and without much ado the reform bill was passed. And 
 so the royal church egg was, in due course of time, 
 hatched out into a living fact, and became a legislative 
 assembly of sixty members; not, however, of priests only 
 but composed of thirty laymen and thirty clergymen. 
 Among the latter, all the bishops and the chief pastor ot 
 Stockholm (called pastor primarius) are entitled to seats. 
 The convention meets during the Autumnal months in 
 the session hall of the first chamber of the Diet, the Arch- 
 bishop being the chairman. 
 
 Of the clergy, only seventeen can be chosen in the 
 different dioceses, the deans of which are generally 
 elected, and some prominent professors from the univer- 
 sities. Of the latter, it is yet an unsettled question 
 whether they belong to the lay or clerical class. 
 
 The laymen for the convention are generally chosen 
 from the most reactionary and conservative church pil- 
 lars, such as governors, ex-governors, mayors, etc., al- 
 though strange exceptions to the rule have occasionally 
 taken place. Thus, to the first convention, in 1868, was 
 chosen one of Sweden's most prominent men in literature, 
 a man who had published a book, 
 
 "THE BIBLE'S DOCTRINE OF CHRIST," 
 
 containing the most pronounced Unitarian views. 
 
 That the reader may know from what class of peo- 
 ple the laymen are chosen, I will present as an illustra- 
 tion the composition of them, for the convention of 1893, 
 as follows: 
 
248 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 The chancellor of justice, one counsellor at law, five 
 governors or ex-governors, one chamberlain, three doc- 
 tors of medicine, two military officers, three mayors, five 
 school inspectors, one merchant, one secretary of agri- 
 culture, several land proprietors — some of whom are also 
 members of the Diet. No less than ten belonged to the 
 conservative first chamber, but only two to the second. 
 
 A COMPLEX ASSEMBLY. 
 
 From the above it will be seen that the convention is 
 a very complicated gathering of diverse elements. And 
 complicated must of necessity be its doings. With all 
 the predominant priestly prerogatives, they may still 
 have, as in 1893, a layman, Mr. von Ehrenheim, in the 
 chair of the most important committee, viz., that on law. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN NO DANGER. 
 
 So far as it depends upon the laity, there would 'je 
 no fear if the whole convention were composed of such 
 laymen who generally represent the church. For some 
 of them, like Mr. Liedholm, M. D., are more state- 
 churchly in their contracted views than even the bishops 
 themselves. Others, of course, though very few, launch 
 forth occasionally their defiant and unbridled views in 
 direct opposition to the legally accepted doctrines of 
 Luther and the church. They thus create for *:he time 
 being some singular sensations. But nobody ventures 
 to call them to order or account for their heresies. 
 
 OPENING OF THE CONVENTION, 
 
 which is always held at Stockholm, is a very imposing 
 state pageantry, t3o unimportant to describe" cnlculated 
 to impress on the minds of the members a feeling of awe 
 and solemnity, as well as a great responsibility for what 
 is to be done, or, more often, undone. 
 
THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 249 
 
 The Archbishop, hi his opening speech, generally in- 
 dulges in some doleful, direful and despairing pessimisms 
 concerning the state of things from an hierarchal point 
 of view. 
 
 The usual orations are best illustrated by the roll of 
 the book, spread before the prophet Ezekiel, on which 
 "was written within and without" "lamentations and 
 mourning and woe." 
 
 In the speech of 1888 he said, among other things, 
 "that the situation of the church gave cause for great 
 anxieties. The confusion and disorder resulting from a 
 liberty tvholly too extensive, had come to a point that 
 could not be passed without the bursting of all connect- 
 ing bands" that "the question in the first place would be, 
 what measures and steps should be taken, best adapted 
 for the prevention of grievous difticulties."' After which, 
 he more hopefully expressed his ronfidence in the con- 
 vention that "with their mature judgment and harmony 
 in considerations, they would know how to manage the 
 questions that were to be laid before them." 
 
 The other addresses at the opening of the conven- 
 tions have generally been in the same spirit. 
 
 SOME QUESTIONS DISCUSSED IN 1893. 
 
 In the following pages will be presented to the 
 reader some subjects which the convention of that year 
 thought most worthy of their time and consideratiow 
 for serious debate. 
 
 Before proceeding, I will state that whatever 
 changes in the church laws are passed by the convention, 
 must be approved by the Diet and king before they be- 
 come laws. So, also, must all laws enacted by the Diet, 
 pertaining to ecclesiastical matters, be approved by the 
 convention, and though signed by the king, may be 
 vetoed by that priestly minded assembly. But, the prob- 
 ability is almost a certainty, that the convention, for fear 
 
250 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 of its own existence, would not dare to do it, though it 
 has dared, as will be noticed further on, to vote against 
 a royal proposition, which aimed at having the doctrine 
 of the State Church at last made plain and duly defined 
 by law. 
 
 EXTRAORDINARY POWER OF THE CONVEN- 
 TION. 
 
 From the above, it will be seen that the church con- 
 vention, composed chiefly of the country's most narrow- 
 minded men, is, in fact, mightier than the king, cabinet, 
 and Diet, all combined together, supported by nearly 
 all the people in all matters pertaining to religion. Thus, 
 if the Diet should pass a law granting some additional 
 religious liberty, and the king should accept and sign 
 it, the convention could say, "It shall not become a law." 
 Besides, any bill of a religious title, passed after the 
 closing of the convention, must wait five years for that 
 body's decision. 
 
 REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK. 
 
 During the debate on that subject, the question of 
 "eternal damnation," as contained in tlie prayer-book, 
 brought about a long discussion. A proposition to 
 modify the words having been made, Governor Trefifen- 
 berg, favoring the proposed milder view of the words, 
 protested against the awe-inspiring dogma (hair-upris- 
 ing, as he denoted it) and said, 'Tf Jesus had preached 
 such a doctrine then should I, gentlemen, (Mina herrar) 
 apostatize from Christianity. He would not be a party 
 to a new sanction of such unheard of dogma as eternal 
 damnation." Many other and still stronger terms were 
 used for the occasion, and, as a paper states, they "were 
 thrown forward with the whole force of the most power- 
 ful voice that has ever been echoed forth in our public 
 life, and very naturally created the greatest sensation in 
 that assembly." 
 
THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 25! 
 
 CAUGHT A TARTAR. 
 
 Those who elected him to the convention, had done 
 so in the hope that he would jirove to be in church 
 (juestions as in politics, where, at the Diets, he was 
 known to be the "very incarnation of an unreasonable 
 conservatism." 
 
 Mr. Rosell, the Dean of Gothenburg, after the ef- 
 fect of the shock had somewhat subsided, got the word, 
 and characterized Mr. Treffenberg's views as "very 
 strange, indeed." He, in vindication of the contested 
 words, referred to the 
 
 AUGSBURG CONFESSION 
 
 as containing the same words, quoting them verbatim 
 in Latin. At which Mr. Fehr, chief pastor of Stock- 
 holm, objected, saying, "it was a Catholic method to 
 refer a Bible question to confessional creeds," and add- 
 ing that "the whole thing about which the opinions are 
 so divided cannot be included among those which de- 
 cide whether a person is an adherent of Christ's religion 
 or not; the (luestion was doubtful."* 
 
 Yes, so uncertain was it considered by the conven- 
 tion, that Professor Norrby arose and said that "if we 
 shall continue with dogmatical discussions, we will have 
 to stay here the whole winter." 
 
 Fortunately for the solution of the question, all were 
 in a hurry to close it on account of the convention going 
 to a grand dinner given to the Archbishop, at which 
 punch was indulged in, to the exclusion of alL fears of 
 eternal damnation. 
 
 At the closing of the dogmatic debate the result of 
 the vote was 37 as against 20 for retaining in the prayer- 
 book the words "eternal damnation" in connection with 
 the article on "confession of sin." 
 
 ♦Pastor Fehr has lately died. 
 
252 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 The above is recorded so that the reader may form' 
 an idea of how the Church of Sweden's chief representa- 
 tives view that question, which in America and England 
 h.as attracted so much attention.* 
 
 Many years ago, Mr. Bostrom, Professor of the 
 university at Upsala, a teacher of theology, did not hesi- 
 tate in avowing his disbelief of the same doctrine; still, 
 no one troubled him. This shows how impotent the 
 Church authorities are to grapple with prominent men, 
 whether civil or ecclesiastical office-holders, who dare 
 to sling forth in the face of the Archbishop himself their 
 defiantly avowed heresies. How different is the case, 
 as before noticed, when a question of baptism occurs 
 out of the order of the Church; then earth and hell 
 has to be raked over to make out a case for the courts, 
 in order to manifest a zeal for Lutheran orthodoxy. 
 
 SWEDEN'S STATE RELIGION. 
 
 What is it? In chapter IV. it has been mentioned 
 that the views are very dififerent on that subject; but, 
 although of no interest or importance to outsiders, yet 
 one would suppose, that to the members and authorities 
 of the Church it would be desirable to have the question 
 decided. 
 
 Many pamphlets have, from time to time, been pub- 
 lished about the subject, each author presenting dififerent 
 views. One, Dr. Wieselgren, late Dean of Gothenburg, 
 published his views under the form of a question, witti 
 the title, 
 
 WHAT IS SWEDEN'S RELIGION? 
 
 The fact that a learned and prominent man. as he 
 was, would in that way present the subject, is proof 
 enough that it was not settled when he wrote about it 
 
 *The report is from Stockholm's Daily News of October 14th, 
 
THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 
 
 253 
 
 some forty years ago. And until 1893 no legislative 
 etifort has been made to have it decided. In that year 
 the King sent 
 
 A ROYAL PROPOSITION, 
 
 l)reviously accepted by the Diet, to the convention, in 
 ortler to have the matter definitely decided by a distinct 
 law. 
 
 It was concerning the first article of the first chap- 
 ter of the Church law, which contains a full description 
 of all the books, big and small, besides the Bible, which 
 are held by some to be the undisputed creed, while others 
 deny it. The King's bill declared that "the Swedish 
 Church's doctrine is the pure evangelical", as founded on 
 God's Holy word, the Old and New Testaments, as ex- 
 plained in the unchanged Augsburg Confession, and ac- 
 cepted by the Council of Upsala in 1593." 
 
 This definition of the State religion, as proposed, 
 contained only one-third of the verbiage of the old one, 
 and it certainly seemed sufficiently bound up and limited 
 for all narrow-minded men's purposes; for, according to 
 the same, no one would be allowed any more than before 
 to believe doctrines of the Bible in a different way from 
 that which Luther and the reformers in the year 1530 had 
 intcr]>rete(l and explained them. 
 
 IMie convention, however, was not satisfied with 
 those limits, but proposed as a substitute another bill, 
 which changed somewhat the formula of the article in 
 the Church law, but retained still all the books of the 
 so-called 
 
 CONCORDIA PIA. 
 
 It was introduced by Governor Sjokrona*, one of the 
 many conservative Church pillars, but probably formu- 
 lated by a priest. 
 
 *A nobility name, and signifies Seacrown. 
 
254 "^^^^ SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 That substitute, being more in accordance with the 
 taste of men of mouldy minds, who love creeds, by medi- 
 aeval meddlers muddled up and mystified, was accepted, 
 thus rejecting the King's bill, by a majority vote of thirty 
 against twenty-eight. 
 
 Great must have been the interest in the long de- 
 bate, as only one was absent at the time of voting. 
 
 Concerning this priest-begotten victory over the 
 Plead of the Church, the press expressed its alarm and 
 wonder in very plain and bold words, by no means com- 
 plimentary to the lay element of the convention, and 
 "lamented that the choice of men for the same is left 
 from a feeling of indifference too much to the desires and 
 dictations of the priests." "But this indifiference seals 
 also the fate of the institution."* 
 
 The above act of the convention is an instance, be- 
 fore referred to, how it can, though by so small a major- 
 ity, defy and oppose the will of the King, the Diet and 
 the people; for to the latter can hardly be reckoned the 
 few conservative men in high stations, who, by the dic- 
 tations of the priests, are chosen to represent the Church. 
 
 The convention's next subject was 
 
 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 
 
 On that delicate, and for every State Church trou- 
 blesome subject — the words of which are not to be un- 
 destood as members of Christian churches generally un- 
 derstand them — the most bigoted part of the convention 
 undertook to bring about something satisfactory to them- 
 selves and their admiring friends throughout the country. 
 The object aimed at by the bill was no doubt to check in 
 some measure "the confusion from too much liberty" 
 referred to in the Archl^ishop's address. 
 
 They had succeeded in procuring from the King a 
 proposition having for its object what they considered 
 
 *So closes an article, commenting on the result, in the Gothen 
 burg Journal of Commerce for Oct. 2, 1S93. 
 
THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 
 
 255 
 
 necessary for the rcpiilalion of the Church, some regula- 
 tions by vvhicli, if they could not reform or reclaim the 
 delinquents, they could at least have some pretexts for 
 harrassing them by fruitless worry. 
 
 It was by no means intended as an attack on vice 
 and innnorality, as a Christian would suppose from such 
 words ; but on Christian liberty in connection with the 
 ordinances of the Ciospel. 
 
 The vain efforts of putting- the Church's dial back 
 some forty years were so out of time and place, and so 
 despairing, that the more sensible and prudent men of 
 the convention, even such conservative and influential 
 men as Risliop Rundgren and Dean Rosell, opposed the 
 measure with all their reasoning powers. The latter 
 stvling it 
 
 "A TilLL OF IMBECILITY." 
 
 In vain did Baron Barnekow show "that among 
 those who were to suffer the consequences of such law 
 would be often found the most pious members of the 
 Church." Those considerate words were criticised by 
 Bishop Billing* as implying "that only those who de- 
 spised the Church's order were true Christians," "which 
 words he uttered with more than usual acrimony and 
 sharpness of voice." 
 
 But in spite of all remonstrances the l^ill was passed 
 by a majority of one vote. 
 
 It nnist, however, ])c noticed that several of the 
 members were absent when the ballots were presented. 
 Among those absent was an influential member of the 
 diet, Mr. A. P. Danielson, who, during the forenoon, had 
 very powerfully opposed the project. It was supposed 
 
 ♦This man. with many others of that convention, came Into 
 (ho world four hundred years too late. The reader may remember 
 that it was he who said, "it were better to dash the child's head 
 against a stone than to refuse it baptism " 
 
256 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 that he, and others, did not care how it was decided, as it 
 would be rejected at the Diet.* 
 
 THE TITLE OF THE BILL 
 
 as it was laid before the convention by the King, was 
 simply "Law concerning Church discipline," but the Law 
 Committee of the convention, wishing to make out of it 
 as much as possible, changed it to "Law concerning pro- 
 ceedings against those who cause provocation within the 
 Church or violate its order." 
 
 The reasons given for such change were that "in 
 consequence of the dead state of the Church, which in 
 many respects has prevailed for a long time, the heath- 
 enish and dissolute tendencies manifest in our times, as 
 also the fact that many of our religious people have been 
 drawn from the Church by sects and parties. These 
 things have worked together so as to make the Church 
 discipline very lax and inefifective, and in many places 
 quite impracticable in its application." 
 
 A Stockholm paper** in commenting on the above 
 lamentations, says: "Thereby is published in still plainer 
 words to the country that Church discipline either from 
 New Testament or Church historic point of view can no 
 longer be carried out in the Swedish Church. Because 
 this Church is a State Church, into which one comes, not 
 by regeneration h-om above, but by the natural birtii, 
 and in which one is kept, not by love to Christ or to 
 the Church, not by believing its doctrines, or the need 
 of spiritual care by the Church, but by tax bills, the 
 amount of which are extorted by the police power when- 
 ever necessary. The effort even to try to )iave disci- 
 pline in accordance with the Bible in such a church is as 
 unbiblical as it is unreasonable." 
 
 The above remarks from the most orthodox and 
 Lutheran paper in Sweden show what a blessing and 
 advantage to the people has been a free press. 
 
 *Mr. Danielson has lately died. 
 
 **Svenska Morgonbladet (Swedish Morningleaf), Oct. 7, 1S93. 
 
THE CHURCH CONVENTION. 257 
 
 The items of the bill, as prepared to suit the con- 
 ention, were as follows: 
 
 1. Any member who neglects to have his child bap- 
 tized; 
 
 2. Or, allows himself to be baptized; 
 
 3. Or, in any other way than the Church pre- 
 scribes, distributes the Lord's Supper; 
 
 4. Or, receives the same of a layman; 
 
 5. Or, administers baptism; 
 
 6. Or, allows a layman to baptize his child; 
 
 7. Or, neglects to have his child confirmed; 
 
 8. Or, ofBciates at a marriage; 
 
 9. Or, officiates at a funeral." 
 
 shall be punished according to section — , chapter — , of 
 the Church law. 
 
 A section which prescribes certain punishments for 
 blasphemy against God, mockery of His holy word, de- 
 rision of the faith, or the Church service, or for leading 
 a vicious life causing provocation. 
 
 WASTING TIME TO NO PURPOSE. 
 
 The discussion of such fruitless and futile puerilities 
 was kept up during a whole day with the result as men- 
 tioned. 
 
 It is astonishing that any, in other situations, sensi- 
 ble men in the last years of the nineteenth century could 
 remain in such priestly atmosphere to either listen to or 
 take part in measures that they knew beforehand would 
 neither benefit the Church nor intimidate the hated and 
 despised free church people, whether Lutherans or Bap- 
 tists; against whom, one of the sections, if not the whole 
 bill, was especially aimed. One feels inclined to com- 
 pare their latter-day noisy ravings and roarings to the 
 growls of the chained lions at the pilgrims in their prog- 
 ress; or to the 
 
258 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. ' 
 
 OLD PAPAL PERSECUTOR 
 
 mentioned in the same book, the "Pilgrim's Progress/' 
 who has "grown so stiff in his joints that he can now do 
 httle more than sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pil- 
 grims as they go by, and biting his nails, because he 
 cannot come at them." But, still in his imbecility in- 
 sulting them by saying, "You will never mend till more 
 of you be burnt," and mad, because "he could not go 
 after them." "But (as the pilgrim in Bunyan's dream) 
 held his peace, and set a good face on it, and so went 
 by, and catched no hurt." So the Swedish pilgrims pay 
 no serious attentions to the threatening trash of men who 
 for want of some better employment can waste their 
 time away by sitting every fifth year at the Church's 
 "cave's" mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they go by, or, 
 growling at them, as the chained lions did. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 259 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 REVIEW AND RESULTS OF THE 
 SWEDISH MISSION. 
 
 Eternity alone can fully 
 reveal the results, 
 for good or evil, of 
 a single act of man. 
 
 AMERICA'S BENEFIT OF THE MISSION. 
 
 As the Declaration of the Independence of the 
 United States contained in its essence the germs of ines- 
 timable blessings to all mankind, so the declaration of 
 Gospel principles by the Baptists in Sweden has proved 
 a blessing, not only to that country, but to neighboring 
 nations also; and this country has in particular reaped 
 a hundredfold more than the cost of the few seeds sown 
 or the expenses incurred for cultivating that field and 
 assisting in its improvements. Such outlay can l)e 
 easily estimated, but who can realize the value to this 
 land physically or morally by the ingathering of such a 
 thrifty people who have come from Sweden numbering 
 over a million, to develop its vast resources east and 
 west, north and south, one-third of whom are of Chris- 
 tian character, and the remainder, by previous instruc- 
 tion, prepared to accept the truths of the Gospel by one 
 denomination or another. 
 
 The American Baptist Home Mission Society has a 
 work in this important field in part already entered upon, 
 
26o THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 but requiring many more laborers. The Methodists, 
 Cong-regationahsts and EvangeHcal Lutherans reahze the 
 need of such work and their labors are being blessed 
 with success corresponding to the outlay in money for 
 the support of laborers. 
 
 FORMER AND LATTER DAYS. 
 
 These words aflford almost daily, choice topics for 
 discussions and reflections in Sweden, both in print and 
 at public meetings, by Christians of all evangelical views 
 as well as by Baptists. The change, morally as well as 
 spiritually, has been so great and unexpected as to pro- 
 duce mingled feelings of surprise and gratitude, similar 
 in effect to that wondrous transformation wrought by 
 the reception of the Gospel at Rarotonga, concerning 
 which, in an article called 
 
 NIGHT AND DAY IN RAROTONGA, 
 
 is a description of the state of the Islanders in the year 
 1823, and afterward in 1855. During the former year 
 a missionary, with two native assistants, visited the isl- 
 and. He himself could not land, as only a few weeks 
 before a vessel's whole crew were murdered and eaten 
 by the cannibals. The native teachers landed, however, 
 but returned next morning and reported the horrid and 
 savage state of the people.* One of them said it was 
 impossible to stay in such a place, but the other, when 
 asked whether he would also give it up, replied: 
 
 "LIVE OR DIE, PUT ME ON SHORE." 
 
 He gathered together a few clothes, and having 
 bound up in his handkerchiefs a few extracts from the 
 
 *Had it not been for a Rarotong-an woman, by name Tapaeru, 
 brought from Tahiti, they would have been killed. God used her 
 as a mediator. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 261 
 
 'J'aliitian Scriptures, he descended into a boat. The 
 boat approached as near the shore as they dared, and 
 then the teacher jumped into the surf and swam ashore 
 and thus flung' himself into the midst of seven or eight 
 thousand savages. 
 
 That Jesus Christ's man's name was Papehia. He 
 proved ])y his resohition that the spirits of the old-time 
 martyrs are not dead yet. 
 
 That period was 
 
 RAROTONGA'S NIGHT. 
 
 Thirty-two years passed and a missionary tells of 
 a scene at a communion season where about sixteen hun- 
 dred persons assembled in a neatly built chapel. He 
 says, 'Tt was a hallowed day! After the elements had 
 been distributed, the people got up and spoke. They 
 all referred to the great change that had taken place. 
 Last of all, a man, amidst a noble band of deacons, got 
 up. He was the first native Christian who landed at 
 Rarotonga. He rose, and, pointing to an old man, said: 
 "O! I remember the day I landed, when you tore the 
 shirt from my back and wanted to tear my flesh from my 
 bones. What have I lived to see? Then you were 
 naked, savage, cannibal men; but now you are "clothed 
 and in your right mind." He then pointed to a man at 
 his side, and said: "Rei, O, Brother Rei, do you not re- 
 member when you stood on yonder reef and poised your 
 spear at me when I landed? You meant to thrust it into 
 me, and you did not know why you did not. But here 
 we are." He then took up a Bible which had just come 
 from England. Overcome by emotion, and tears run- 
 ning down his cheeks, he could not speak for a minute 
 or two, but at length he said: "When I look at this book 
 I feel like saying, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant de- 
 part in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. " 
 That was 
 
262 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 RAROTONGA'S DAY. 
 
 The contrast between night and day, spiritually 
 speaking, has been equally striking in Sweden as at 
 Rarotonga. 
 
 1 know that some Lutheran Swedes will object to 
 the comparison on account of the state of civilization in 
 which Sweden was held to be even two hundred years 
 ago. And they will point with pride to the seats of 
 learning at Upsala and Lund, to the literary attainments 
 of her learned men, to the ceremonials of a Lutheran 
 Evangelical Church, and its supposed Christianizing in- 
 fluence, though not realized in the lives of the people 
 fifty years ago. These and many more objections will be 
 made, and anathemas hurled at my head. The compari- 
 son, however, is not relating to civilization, but refers to 
 spiritual and moral manifestations of life and progress. 
 No impartial observer will deny that the morality of the 
 Swedish people has kept pace with the spiritual and on- 
 ward march initiated during the latter half of this cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Civilization, without a corresponding state of moral- 
 ity, as the natural effect of the true religion of Christ, is 
 nothing but the veneering, varnishing and polishing of 
 an inferior and less valuable material, made to represent 
 something which it is not. It is the sham jewelry in 
 imitation of the real, and the glitter of gold on baser 
 metals for the pure gold. 
 
 Reference to statistics in this respect, especially 
 touching licentiousness and drunkenness, would speak 
 volumes. 
 
 SWEDLSH UNIVERSITY FRUITS. 
 
 As to the advantages of the colleges, academies and 
 seats of learning, it may be asked, "What fruits have they 
 
RESULTS OP THE SWEDISH MISSION. 263 
 
 produced?". Who were they that stirred up the ".lewd 
 fellows of the baser sort" to attack preachers- of the 
 Gospel in all parts of the country?" They were the men 
 who had received their learning at the very universities 
 of which they boast! whether priests or civilians! Who, 
 even in the university city of Upsala, attacked and threw 
 stones at the beloved German missionary, Gutslaff, while 
 visiting there and telling what God had done by the 
 preaching of the Gospel in China? He certainly could 
 not have said or intended anything causing dissent or 
 separation. The common people could not have thought 
 of attacking him, had they not been stirred up thereto 
 by the men of learning. It is evident that it was the 
 enmity at heart against all Gospel teachings that caused 
 the onslaught. Ihe account of this was published by a 
 priest of the State Church. It occurred about the years 
 1847 or 1848. And what did I see between the benches 
 in the hall for Baptist worship in the year 1862 at Gothen- 
 burg, but stones, evidently intended to be thrown at the 
 preacher? But the power of God to restrain the evildoer 
 was greater than the power of the priests to stir him up 
 to such diabolical deeds. 
 
 Who were the instigators of all the violent persecu- 
 tions that have disgraced the Swedish nation or the 
 Lutheran name? The men of learning, legislating to such 
 effect at the diets! Who were they that beat and kicked 
 a Baptist sister, the venerable and aged Mrs. Broberg 
 (called by all the Baptists of Gothenburg "Grand- 
 mother"), so that her blood flowed from her wounds in 
 one of the streets of the city as she came out from a 
 meeting? They were only the tools of the learned 
 divines who, from their pulpits, stirred them up to such, 
 deeds! Hundreds of such Lutheran misdeeds could be 
 given. Where is the difference in the sight of God, be- 
 tween a heathen poising his spear at a missionary, or a 
 Lutheran tool of a priest in a Lutheran land, arming 
 himself with stones to hurl at a preacher of the Gospel? 
 
264 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 If there is any difference, it is in favor of the heathen. 
 From him it might be expected. 
 
 In the previous pages it has been shown how that 
 a Protestant rehgioji, when under State control and not 
 stirred up by dissent, is in no sense better than a Pagan 
 or Catholic religion so far as spiritual results are looked 
 for. Such results are not wanted, nor desired, in a 
 State church, and history proves that they are resisted 
 as long as possible even unto death. It has been so in all 
 countries, and Sweden is no exception. 
 
 Having often referred to the marvelous moral 
 change for the better, since the introduction of a free 
 Gospel, about fifty years ago, into my native land, such 
 statements will now be corroborated by referring to an 
 article lately republished in one of the best papers in 
 Sweden, "The Gothenburg Journal of Commerce." The 
 article is called "Tidens Ondska." 
 
 'THE EVIL OF THE TIMES." 
 
 The priests, who can no longer control the times, 
 and stop the onward progress of religion and reform, are 
 the only ones who use the lamentations. It is in contra- 
 diction to their slogan and outcry, that the article went 
 from paper to paper. The writer says, "That the time 
 is evil, awfully evil, has so long time been poured into 
 the ears of old and young from the pulpits, that it has 
 become like an article of faith, of which no one must 
 doubt." 
 
 "And yet we doubt it. 
 How was it in our land about fifty years ago? 
 
 Ignorance prevailing among the people generally, 
 and with its customary accompaniment of brutality and 
 superstition, presented a most sorrowful picture. From 
 almost every farmhouse, rose the steam of the whiskv 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 265 
 
 distilling process, spreading its rivulets of misery, crime 
 and destruction all around. The popular plays or sports 
 were often coarse, and led to violence and scenes of 
 uproar and riot. Great masses of beggars tramped 
 through the land. Temperance was ridiculed, and seri- 
 ous piety was looked upon as madness. The feeling 
 consciousness of human worth was all shriveled and 
 shrunk up; and a low and mean system of cringing was 
 kept up between the higher and lower classes." 
 
 CONTRAST. 
 
 "But," asks the writer, "how is it now?" 
 
 "A well-ordered school instruction, although ham- 
 pered and checked by its dependence on the State- 
 Church ofificials, yet affording good instruction, which 
 has, during the last decades, raised our people to a state 
 of intelligence and elevation of manners. The thralldom 
 of superstititon has vanished before a better judgment 
 and knowledge of things generally sought after beyond 
 the instructions imparted in the schools. Limits have 
 been set to the flood of whisky, and a mighty tem- 
 perance movement has spread its blessings all over the 
 land, counting its adherents, active and passive, by 
 hundreds of thousands; the customary drinking, though 
 not yet called shameful, as it ought to be, is no longer 
 looked upon as praiseworthy or necessary. The plays or 
 sports of the people have, in a great measure, changed 
 with the times ; carried on as they now are among the 
 temperance folks, could not have been thought of half 
 a century ago. The people have woke up to a general 
 interest in all the questions of the day. Public benevo- 
 lence has advanced with giant strides. Temperance is 
 no longer a subject of mockery, except by the thought- 
 less and vicious. And, say what you will, piety has in- 
 creased and advanced, though we may have less num- 
 ber of 
 
266 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 MANUFACTURED CHRISTIANS ("FABRIKS 
 KRISTNE") 
 
 we have more of serious faithful men of deep and fixed 
 convictions, the best proof of which comes from certain 
 quarters about heretical and "sectarian movements." 
 
 P^or abbreviation's sake, many more comparisons in 
 the same line have been left out. In closing, the writer 
 of the article adds: "We must consider who they are that 
 raise the cry about the evil times. It is generally those 
 who feel their churchly position threatened, and, in con- 
 sequence, also their temporalities. But especially comes 
 this cry from those State-Church priests who neither can 
 nor will comprehend, that religion, as to its forms, like 
 everything else, is subject to development; and that the 
 civil power, by which they, in ages of ignorance and 
 darkness, have kept the masses under control, is ill- 
 suited for a people who now understand that Christ's 
 'kingdom is not of this world,' — a doctrine which the 
 priests themselves have proclaimed." 
 
 DIANA'S SILVERSMITH'S "CRAFT IN 
 DANGER." 
 
 The priests who thus bewail the new times, like the 
 Ephesian silversmiths of old, "have," says the same 
 writer, "an interest at stake in their efforts to keep up the 
 old, as foreseeing only damage to themselves in the new 
 order of things, which, in spite of all their obstacles, have 
 broken their way through." 
 
 In the above sentence by the writer referred to, we 
 have, so far as priests are concerned, a sufficient explana- 
 tion for all their persecutions, and their opposition to all 
 free religion, whether orthodox or not, makes no differ- 
 ence. It is to them always a "bread question." whether 
 they attack Baptists or Lutherans. They have no more 
 sympathies for free Lutherans than for any other claim- 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 267 
 
 ants of free religion. The question ever uppermost in 
 their minds is, Where shall we get our bread if the 
 state should stop it, and tell us to trust God for it; or 
 where shall we get our fine clothes if the sheep refuse to 
 let us shear them? We cannot dig, to beg we are 
 ashamed. 
 
 TEMPERANCE REFORM. 
 
 The Baptists in Sweden, in connection with other 
 laborers, have done a great work for the promotion of 
 temperance, a reform which ever had its bitterest oppos- 
 Ors in the clergy of the State Church, until the years of 
 1840 to 1850. But even to this day there are some shame- 
 less priests who advocate the cup and the saloon. Among 
 such is Pastor Janson of Sundbyberg, near Stockholm. 1 
 should not have mentioned his name or place had he not 
 published a pamphlet in favor of drinking, wiiich the dis- 
 tillers and whiskey dealers do their best to circulate. And 
 recently, at the close of an installation of a pastor at 
 Spanga (Sponga), arranged by the same Janson as Dean, 
 a large company was invited to dinner and dance at the 
 parsonage, where a most shameful carousal of drunken- 
 ness took place. 
 
 Had such a thing occurred some fifty years ago, very 
 few would have made any remarks about it. 
 
 The above is from Stockholm's "Svenska Morgon- 
 blad" and Chicago's "Nya Wecko-Post," for October 9. 
 1895, where full accounts are given. 
 
 A REVISED BIBLE. 
 
 Among the many blessings conferred on the Swedish 
 people as a fruit of the spiritual progress since the intro- 
 duction of Baptist doctrines may be recorded the late 
 publication of a verv much improved translation of the 
 Bible. 
 
268 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 This great work would in all probability, judging 
 from what had been done during these last hundred 
 years, not been finished in three or four hundred years 
 more, had not the commissioners been stirred up or 
 spurred on to unwonted activity by the several efforts of 
 private translators to publish new^ versions. And in con- 
 nection with this, I will say, that translators of the Word 
 of God in Sweden, whether private or offtcial, have never 
 met with any opposition or prejudice in their efforts to 
 give their countrymen the Bible as free from errors as 
 possible. No one ever seemed to have venerated the im- 
 perfectly translated Swedish Bible any more for being 
 
 "The old fashioned Bible, 
 The dear, blessed Bible, 
 The family Bible, 
 That lay on the stand." 
 
 It was first translated in the year 1540, not from the 
 original languages, but from the German translation of 
 Luther, and not revised till the year 1703. But, being 
 still found to contain many obsolete words and errors, 
 the king, Gustavus III., in 1771, recommended and or- 
 dered a new translation, for which important work, after 
 much discussion and legislation on the subject, a commit- 
 tee called. 
 
 THE ROYAL BIBLE COMMISSION, 
 
 was appointed, composed of the most learned men in 
 Church and State that Sweden could produce. It con- 
 sisted of the archbishop, many bishops, lots of lectors and 
 professors, the chancellor of justice and secretary of the 
 Royal Academy of Science, with assistant secretaries, 
 clerks, copyists, etc., who commenced their work in 1773 
 — the end of which no one of them evei saw — but, as 
 one by one of this learned conclave or assembly dropped 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 269 
 
 off and was gathered to his fathers or mother earth, 
 others, equally or more learned, took their places in this 
 standing, or on the Bible, sitting committee, till, in the 
 year 1863, or ninety years afterwards, they had succeeded 
 in producing the proof sheets of the five books of Moses, 
 and some two or three proposed translations of the New 
 Testament. A great deal of the labors of the ancient com- 
 mittee were rejected by the more modern. 
 
 A Dean by the name of A. Lignell, in the year 1853, 
 reviewed their united labors, and spoke of them in a sar- 
 castic manner. They having translated the words "re- 
 deeming the times," etc., into "buying the times," says, 
 "They certainly seem to have bought the time, and made 
 a good bargain of it.'' 
 
 In the old translations it is "conform or adapt your- 
 selves to the times," or, in other words, when in Rome, 
 do as Rome does. This error has been very much rel- 
 ished by worldly-minded people, and even Christians in 
 favor of conformity to the State Church. 
 
 The Dean says, "that in the commission had been 
 sitting, up to that year, no less than eight archbishops, 
 ten bishops, twenty-four professors and a few more great 
 men, in all, forty-five of the most learned men of the king- 
 dom, of which, with reason, much might have been ex- 
 pected. They had then, in the aggregate, as members of 
 the Commission, spent four hundred and fifty years." So 
 that, in 1878, when they presented the work for the 
 King's approval, carr>'ing out the same proportion, five 
 hundred and ninety years had been consumed in their 
 efforts; while Luther, with a few devoted helpers, accom- 
 plished his translation in twelve years; and the English 
 translation, ordered by King James the First, published 
 in 1611, required only four or five years. 
 
 By these comparisons it will plainly be seen how 
 little interest was manifested by those learned men, arch- 
 bishops, bishops and professors, in presenting to their 
 countrymen an improved version of the Word of God. 
 
270 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 How different, and with what greater zeal and dis- 
 patch do the same men work, when preparing conventi- 
 cle placards, penal codes for church discipline, regula- 
 tions about their church services, dissenter laws, etc. 
 Then they "redeem the times." 
 
 Thus it is shown what free religion may accomplish 
 in reviving even a dead State Church Bible Commission. 
 
 SIMONY OF GUSTAVUS III. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that the Swedes should be in- 
 debted for their present excellent version of the Bible to 
 a free-thinking and dissolute king, an admirer of Vol- 
 taire, though head of a Lutheran church. A king, who, 
 in order to raise money for his lavish expenses, openly 
 sold clerical benefices or church livings to the highest 
 bidder, regardless of the qualifications of the purchasers. 
 The transactions were carried out through his favorite, 
 Elis Schroderheim, who, as Secretary of State, also pock- 
 eted a good share. Thus, "Bishop J. Wingard, in Goth- 
 enburg, secured from the king several church livings, so 
 that at his death, he had four good benefices (pastorates) 
 containing eleven parishes," which gave occasion to a 
 sarcastic ditty, showing how these prelates were not satis- 
 fied with being fishers of men, but of whole churches.* 
 
 Bishop H. Schroderheim, a brother to the King's 
 favorite boon companion, was rewarded with no less than 
 nine benefices, of which he had the charge and the in- 
 come.** 
 
 During the reign of the same king, the country was 
 flooded with whiskey distilleries and grog shops, the lat- 
 ter "scattered along the roads close to one another, and 
 
 ♦The ciuotation in this sentence is from "Bidrag till Sveriges 
 Historia efter 1T72." by A. Fryxell, pages 96, 97. 
 **Hofberg's Biographical Lexicon. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 27 1 
 
 especially near the churches," so as to be convenient for 
 the worshippers. 
 
 It was said in equivalent words: 
 
 When the farmer gets his drink, 
 Then in spirit he can think, 
 
 or, literally, according to the Swedish, 
 
 "When the farmer gets a drink, 
 His gift of thought becomes deep." 
 
 SIGNIFICANT FACTS AND FIGURES. 
 
 From what has previously been written, it has been 
 shown that fifty years ago there was a shaking up of dry 
 bones in the valley, significant of the Lord's plans of rais- 
 ing up from the dead, "an exceeding great army" of 
 evangelical Christians, Baptists, Methodists and Luther- 
 ans — the latter divided into two parties of Free and State 
 Church principles. 
 
272 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 ANNUAL PROGRESS OF BAPTIST CHURCHES 
 
 with the number of members and Sunday-School 
 pupils in Sweden, from 1855 to 1896, was as follows: 
 
 Year. 
 
 Churches. 
 
 Members. 
 
 S. S. Pupils. 
 
 .1855 
 
 9 
 
 476 
 
 
 1856 
 
 21 
 
 986 
 
 339 
 
 1857 
 
 45 
 
 2,105 
 
 502 
 
 1858 
 
 69 
 
 3.487 
 
 860 
 
 1859 
 
 96 
 
 4.3 1 1 
 
 1,007 
 
 i860 
 
 125 
 
 4,930 
 
 673 
 
 1861 
 
 150 
 
 4,873 
 
 No report 
 
 1862 
 
 161 
 
 5,.S44 
 
 1,295 
 
 1863 
 
 171 
 
 6,172 
 
 1,706 
 
 1864 
 
 172 
 
 6,411 
 
 2.098 
 
 1865 
 
 176 
 
 6,606 
 
 1,457 
 
 1866 
 
 183 
 
 6,877 
 
 1,719 
 
 1867 
 
 191 
 
 7,478 
 
 1,731 
 
 1868 
 
 201 
 
 7,902 
 
 2,052 
 
 1869 
 
 207 
 
 8,120 
 
 2,896 
 
 1870 
 
 217 
 
 8,617 
 
 4,450 
 
 1871 
 
 219 
 
 8,780 
 
 6,073 
 
 ■ 1872 
 
 221 
 
 9,336 
 
 8,684 
 
 1873 
 
 222 
 
 9,678 
 
 10,533 
 
 1874 
 
 225 
 
 10,160 
 
 13,479 
 
 1875 
 
 234 
 
 10,490 
 
 16,183 
 
 1876 
 
 242 
 
 11,645 
 
 17,383 
 
 1877 
 
 253 
 
 13,773 
 
 17,769 
 
 1878 
 
 271 
 
 16,467 
 
 17,090 
 
 1879 
 
 300 
 
 18,928 
 
 16,336 
 
 1880 
 
 303 
 
 19,297 
 
 14,776 
 
 1881 
 
 314 
 
 19,666 
 
 16,751 
 
 1882 
 
 331 
 
 22,891 
 
 18,564 
 
 1883 
 
 371 
 
 25,277 
 
 23,310 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISFI MISSION. 273 
 
 ANNUAL PROGRESS OF BAPTIST CHURCHES (Coiuinued). 
 
 Year. 
 
 Churches. 
 
 Members. 
 
 S. S. Pupils. 
 
 1884 
 
 39S 
 
 27,135 
 
 24,929 
 
 1885 
 
 434 
 
 28,766 
 
 27,581 
 
 1886 
 
 460 
 
 31,062 
 
 30,882 
 
 1887 
 
 473 
 
 31,849 
 
 31,273 
 
 1888 
 
 497 
 
 32,305 
 
 32,765 
 
 1889 
 
 516 
 
 33,479 
 
 32,266 
 
 1890 
 
 524 
 
 34,814 
 
 33,825 
 
 1891 
 
 539 
 
 36,713 
 
 35,935 
 
 1892 
 
 539 
 
 36,585 
 
 37,808 
 
 1893 
 
 550 
 
 37,291 
 
 38,800 
 
 1894 
 
 555 
 
 37,601 
 
 39,800 
 
 1895 
 
 555 
 
 38,094 
 
 40,924 
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 The greatest increase of members was from 1881 to 
 1882, when 3,325 were added, nearly 16^ per cent. 
 
 The greatest increase of Sunday-school pupils was 
 from 1882 to 1883, when 4,746 were added, or 25 2-3 per 
 cent. 
 
 Assuming that in Septeml^er this year, at the celebra- 
 tion of the Jubilee, there should be 40,000 Baptists in 
 Sweden ; then the increase during the fifty years past has 
 been 770 per annum. 
 
 The additions to the Sunday-schools during the last 
 forty years have been still more wonderful, averaging 
 1,066 scholars per annum. 
 
274 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE BAPTISTS IN SWEDEN. 
 Report of Nineteen Associations for 1896. 
 
 Churches 562 
 
 Members 38,321 
 
 Pastors and Preachers 599 
 
 Pupils in Sunday-schools 43.007 
 
 Teachers in Sunday-schools 3,266 
 
 Baptisms by Baptist Churches 1,916 
 
 Members received on experience, but baptized 
 
 bv Pedobaptists 103 
 
 Received by letters* 1,888 
 
 Dismissed by letters i ,954 
 
 Of the dismissed, to America 165 
 
 Meeting houses 321 
 
 Valued at $661,084 
 
 Mortgaged for $203,884 
 
 Meeting houses built in 1896 14 
 
 Valued at $27,000 
 
 Contributions in all $126,630 
 
 Receipts for Foreign Missions in Spain, Rus- 
 sia, Africa and China $3,667 
 
 Expenses for said Missions** $4,280 
 
 *How many from America is not stated. 
 
 **0f the expenses the Missionary ITnion contributed $540. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 275 
 
 STATISTICS OF SWEDISH BAPTISTS IN THE 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Report of Thirteen Conferences for 1896. 
 
 Churches 280 
 
 Members 18,902 
 
 Baptisms i ,348 
 
 Pastors and Preachers 235 
 
 Pupils in Sunday-schools 13,467 
 
 Sunday-school Teachers, about 1,600 
 
 Meeting houses 183 
 
 Valued at $677,824 
 
 Mortgaged for $150,149 
 
 Contributions in all $194,972 
 
 Of which to Home Missions* $5,429 
 
 Foreign Missions $6,421 
 
 Amer. Bapt. Publ. Soc $647 
 
 '* " The General Conference $638 
 
 Or in all for only four classes of recorded be- 
 nevolence $13,135 
 
 ♦That is to the American Baptist Home Mission Society. 
 
276 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 COMPARATIVE FACTS. 
 
 Owing to the better circumstances in life by which 
 the Swedish- American Baptists are favored above their 
 brethren in Sweden they have been enabled, though not 
 half so numerous, to pay considerably more for the four 
 specified classes of benevolence, and for contributions, in 
 all $68,342 more — showing a per capita of contributions 
 of $10.68 in America and $3.11 in Sweden. 
 
 FREE FIELDS FAVORABLE TO BAPTIST 
 GROWTH. 
 
 Assuming the number of Swedes in America to be 
 about 1,200,000, and in Sweden 5,000,000, it will appear 
 that in America is one Swedish Baptist out of every sixty- 
 three Swedes, while in Sweden it is only one out of 
 every 131 of the people, or only half as many in propor- 
 tion to population as in this country ; showing that where 
 people are free from State Church constraints and other 
 disqualifying conditions they are much more inclined to 
 receive Gospel doctrines and obey Christ's commands. 
 
 It is probable that 14,000 Swedish Baptists have 
 united with American Baptist churches, thus bringing up 
 the total in Sweden and America to about 70,000, mak- 
 ing an average gain since 1848 of 1,400 per year to the 
 Baptist denomination.* 
 
 How many thousands during the half century have 
 received calls to "come up higher," and moved into the 
 Baptist home and mansions above is, of course, beyond 
 computation, but may be estimated at 10,000. 
 
 During the year 1896 the number of deaths were 420 
 in Sweden and 169 in America. 
 
 *This estimate is based on the Home Mission Society's supposi- 
 tion that there are as many Germans in the American as in the 
 GeTman churches. See their condensed report for 18f)G-97. I deduct 
 from that estimate 5,000 less of Swedes In the American churches, 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH li^SSION. 
 
 277 
 
 Before proceeding with the review of the results of 
 the Swedish Mission it may be of great interest, espe- 
 cially for the future, as a source of reference to insert in 
 these pages, from "The Home Mission Monthly" for 
 November, 1897. 
 
 A RECORD OF BAPTIST MISSION WORK 
 
 AMONG THE SCANDINAVIANS OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 By W. M. Haigh D. D.* 
 
 "Among the various nationalities composing the im- 
 mense tide of immigration which in these recent years has 
 swejit over our shores, some of the most interesting and 
 important are those which pass under the general name 
 of Scandinavians, representing the people from the King- 
 doms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, with a small 
 contingent from Iceland. Whatever may be said about 
 the undesirability of certain classes of immigrants, it is 
 acknowledged on all hands that these people are among 
 the most desirable of all those who come to us. They are 
 near of kin to the fathers of the country; and, indeed, 
 their fathers sighted this land, and antedated in their bold 
 exploitations the coming of Columbus. They have a 
 noble history. The names of their distinguished men in 
 government, in war, in peace, in discovery and travel, in 
 science and religion, stand high on the roll of honor, and 
 indicate the blood and temper and promise of the people 
 whom they represent. Trained to simple habits, accus- 
 tomed to a severe climate, they are hardy, industrious, 
 thrifty, not afraid of hard work, but know how to sub- 
 due both land and sea in pursuit of their ends. They are 
 eminently domestic, loving home and family, accus- 
 tomed to and honoring government and law; they are in- 
 telligent, with a minimum of illiterate among them, and 
 seeking the best education for their children. They are 
 
 •This eminently useful and highly honored servant of God. received on the 
 first of January, ISnS, a call froni his Master to "come up higher," and in 
 two hours after the call "he was not," for God took him. 
 
278 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Protestant through and through. As one of their repre- 
 sentatives writes, "No foreigners have ever passed 
 through Castle Garden who are more free from the taint 
 of Romanism than are the immigrants from Sweden and 
 Norway."" They easily and rapidly assimilate to the 
 country of their adoption, identify themselves with all its 
 interests, take their share of its burdens, avail themselves 
 of its privileges; and in the pulpit, in legislative halls, in 
 schools and colleges and universities, occupy a distin- 
 guished place. In the great struggle a generation ago 
 they shed their blood as freely as the native born, and my 
 own heart was stirred to admiration and love, as in my 
 own regiment I saw them die for a country whose lan- 
 guage they could scarcely utter. 
 
 "Of these remarkable people there have come among 
 us, according to the census of i8yo, 933,249 who, with 
 their families, according to the ordinary method of reck- 
 oning, make up a population of at least 2,250,000, being 
 of Swedes 1,220,000, Norwegians 700,000, and of Danes, 
 330,000. This vast number is below rather than above 
 the exact facts, inasmuch as it makes no allowance for 
 the immigration since 1890, which, though considerable, 
 has not been as large as between 1880 and 1890, when the 
 increase was something like 145 per cent. 
 
 "Most naturally these people have gravitated toward 
 the agricultural regions and industrial centres of the 
 country. The largest masses are to be found in the great 
 Mississip])i and Missouri valleys. In the following list 
 of fourteen States, we can see where their numbers are 
 largest: 
 
 Minnesota 538,037 North Dakota 85,540 
 
 Illinois 322,342 South Dakota. .. . 78,340 
 
 Wisconsin 249,345 Pennsylvania .... 58,985 
 
 Iowa 182,182 Massachusetts . . . 56,637 
 
 Nebraska 115-852 CaHfornia 55>972 
 
 New York 108,175 Kansas 55-045 
 
 Michigan 103,740 Was'hington 53.532 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 279 
 
 "Then follow, with constantly diniinishint;- numbers, 
 Utah, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Missouri, Ore- 
 g-on, Texas, Ohio, etc. 
 
 "The mechanical skill of the Scandinavians, Swedes 
 especially, leads many of them into the manufacturing 
 and industrial centres, so that they form an important 
 element in the railroad, furniture and construction works 
 of many cities, as, for example, in — 
 
 Chicago 182,135 New York 25,347 
 
 Minneapolis..... 83,910 San Francisco... . 16,908 
 Brooklyn 40,1 11 Boston 1 1,567 
 
 and equal, and, sometimes, larger numbers in cities of 
 less size, as St. Paul, Omaha, Worcester, Duluth and 
 Denver. 
 
 "Among these interesting people the Lord has 
 opened a wide and effectual door for preaching the 
 Gospel. 
 
 THE SINCERITY AND DEPTH OF THEIR 
 EVANGELICAL CONVICTIONS. 
 
 Trained up in the cold and rigid orthodoxy of a State 
 church, the Gospel of the crucified and Hving Christ 
 comes to them with the vividness of a direct revelation. 
 They pass literally out of the kingdom of darkness into 
 the Kingdom of God's dear Son, and the completeness 
 of the transformation and the joy of the new life fill them 
 with a wonder and delight, which even time does not 
 pale or wither. The memory of what Christ has done for 
 them seems to remain fresh and vivid as the years go by, 
 and. like Paul, they cannot ider to the time of their con- 
 version without profound emotions of penitence and love. 
 
280 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 THE SWEDE AND DANO-NORWEGIAN DE- 
 PARTMENTS OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOLS. 
 
 "One of the most important aids in preparing our 
 missionaries for tliework is the theological semmary. This 
 department was opened in 1872, with Rev. John A. Ed- 
 gren as instructor. In 1881 Rev. N. P. Jensen, a Danish 
 minister, was appointed to assist him. When the Union 
 Seminary became a part of the University of Chicago, 
 the Swede department and the Dano-Norwegian depart- 
 ment became parts of the Divinity School. Under the 
 leadership of Professor Edgren, 129 students had been 
 connected with the classes, 89 of whom had gone out into 
 the work, some from a full course, some from a special 
 course. During the last eight years fifty-nine students 
 have graduated. Of these are three missionaries, one 
 in Assam and two in China. During the same time fif- 
 teen students in the lower classes have gone out and are 
 now working as pastors or preachers. The present num- 
 ber is thirty. Rev. Carl Lagergren is dean of the Swe- 
 dish department, with Profs. O. Hedeen and Wm. A. 
 Peterson as assistants. 
 
 "In the Dano-Norwegian department the attendance 
 was quite small up to the time of the formation of the 
 department in 1884. Only six are now ministers. Three 
 or four more who for one school year or less visited the. 
 school. But from the year 1884, 103 young men have 
 either fully or partly received their education here. 
 There are at present twenty- two students. From this 
 seminary there has come a stream of blessings to Danish 
 and Nonvegian Baptist churches. The dean is Rev. H. 
 Gunderson, and Prof. C. J. Olson and Prof. N. I. Lau- 
 dahl are his assistants." 
 
 In reviewing the above articles, parts of which are 
 only here inserted, the editor of "The Home Mission 
 Monthly" says: "A people in whom such qualities as 
 these prevail, no matter what their language or material 
 surroundings, are a people whom the Lord delights to 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 281 
 
 hear and promises to bless, while they also secure tht 
 sympathy and aid of earnest and consecrated hearts 
 everywhere. It is impossible to resist the earnest en- 
 treaty of such spirits, and the Home Mission Society, 
 even when pressed above measure, has found itself some- 
 times unable to turn away importunities so manifestly 
 supported by the blessing- of (rod and the sacrifices of the 
 supi)liants. In this way the one Scandinavian missionary 
 in Illinois, 1848; the one Swede missionary in Illinois, 
 1853, and the one in Minnesota, 1854, have become the 
 149 missionaries of 1897." 
 
 In the same article, which all readers are advised to 
 procure in its entireness, is found statistical accounts 
 of both the Swede and Dano- Norwegian conferences, in 
 the different States, from which it appears that the lat- 
 ter Iiad collectively as follows: 
 
 Churches 70 
 
 Pastors 56 
 
 Members 4,587 
 
 Church property $105,300 
 
 Contributions 27,909 
 
 On the following- page will be resumed the review 
 and results of the mission in Sweden. 
 
282 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 In the year 1857 Brother Wiberg reported to the 
 American Baptist Pubhcation Society a full statement of 
 the Mission up to January ist of that year, giving the 
 names of the pastors, the places where the churches were 
 located, the number of members, and the number of the 
 baptized. In addition to that statement, he reported the 
 formation of eight Sunday Schools, having 339 scholars. 
 
 To the Baptists belong the honor of having perma- 
 nently organized the first Sunday Schools in Sweden. 
 For, when Brother Wiberg arrived there during the lat- 
 ter part of 1855, he reported that there was not one Sun- 
 day School in the whole country.* 
 
 By late researches I have found that Mr. Roentgen, 
 pastor of the Moravians at Gothenburg, started a Sun- 
 day School in 1847 of 70 children. Probably soon stopped 
 by opposition of the priests. 
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK IN SWEDEN. 
 
 It is estimated that 200,000 pupils attended the dif- 
 ferent Christian Associations in 1895, having 15,000 
 teachers, in a country where oiily fifty years ago not a 
 Sunday School was found. Another cause for admira- 
 tion and praise. 
 
 A glance at the columns of yearly growth will show 
 how, from the small beginning of pupils in 1856, they 
 have outgrown in numbers the membership of the 
 churches. 
 
 *See the July number of the Baptist Family Magazine for 1S37. 
 
 Per Palmquist, the father of Swedish Sunday Schools, had, 
 however, opened his private home for Sunday instruction to chil- 
 dren at Christmas, 1851. About which, see "Evangelical Christen- 
 dom" for 1852, page 252. Possibly, it may not have continued. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 
 
 283 
 
 Tlic number of Sunday School teacliers was not re- 
 ported until 1863, from which time they have been num- 
 erous enough to average one to every twelve or thirteen 
 pupils. 
 
 BAPTISMS 
 
 have not been recorded for every year, as all the net ad- 
 ditions to the churches, with few exceptions, have been 
 by baptisms. 
 
 To what extent Christian baptism, in accordance 
 with the New Testament, is observed among the other 
 free-church denominations in Sweden, may be under- 
 stood from the fact, that, during the year 1896, no less 
 than 103 believers were received in the Baptist churches, 
 who had previously been baptized by Lutherans or Meth- 
 odists. 
 
 The table on the following page has been worked out 
 from various sources, and may be of some purpose 
 in future reviews. Collectively, the percentages may also 
 be ascertained from the Baptist Year Book. 
 
2^4 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPT^iTS. 
 
 
 ) ^ 
 
 S O c 
 
 ::? 
 
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 r- lo M Tt r~- 
 
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 M^ liO Os fO°0^ 
 
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 a 
 
 a, 
 
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 M M f) l-H M 
 
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 M 
 
 r^ r^ -+ 
 
 O ON 
 
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 o 
 
 VO t-.vO 
 
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 M vo fo ooo 
 
 MD^ 
 
 h« M 1^ 
 
 ^ r- 
 
 
 
 
 
 On O 00 CO m 
 
 rC 
 
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 I-. -^ 
 
 ON O ro " t^ 
 
 
 ro M " 
 
 o 
 
 
 ^^55 CI "(a oT"^ 
 
 
 ^.S c 9 
 
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 C "^ (U 
 
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 5 se 
 
 ►j. C t« en 
 
 c rt ^ ^ 
 
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 c c > *- 
 
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 ;5 *^ ao 
 
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 3 C C 
 
 C G C 
 
 S£a 
 
 -c -c ^ ^- Ji "3) 
 
 " " " O.!) C 
 
 '•3 ^ '-3 t; ° c 
 8 8 8 o-c 2 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 285 
 
 ADDITIONAL STATISTICS. 
 
 Owing to the unexpected delay in publishing this 
 history the readers will have the benefit of receiving the 
 statistics of the Swedish Uaptist churches up to date, or 
 for the year 1897, as published during the month of 
 April. 
 
 LAST REPORT FROM SWEDEN. 
 
 Churches 564 
 
 Members 39> 1 33 
 
 Pastors and Preachers 703 
 
 Meeting houses 341 
 
 Sunday school children 43>905 
 
 Contributions in all $141,620 
 
 In Stockholm's six churches were 3.659 members. 
 
 LAST REPORT FROM THIS COUNTRY. 
 
 Churches 294 
 
 Members 19,402 
 
 Pastors and Preachers 248 
 
 Meeting houses 205 
 
 Pupils in Sunday schools 13,666 
 
 Value ot church property $730,196 
 
 Mortgaged for 155435 
 
 Contributions in all 206,265 
 
 Thereof to The Missionary Union 4,916 
 
 " W. B. F. Mission Society 798 
 
 " " other foreign missions 573 
 
 " " Am. Bpt. Home Missions 2,491 
 
 " " W. B. Home Mission Society 660 
 
 " " other home missions 3>29i 
 
 " " Am. Bpt. Pbl. Society . 505 
 
 Thus, for home and foreign missions 13,234 
 
 Observe. — For comparison with the previous year the 
 reader is referred to pages 274 and 275. 
 
286 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 DECENNIAL ADDITIONS. 
 
 The annual net additions to the Baptist churches in 
 Sweden have, since 1890, fallen off very much, in com- 
 parison with the increase of the two previous decades. 
 Thus ; 
 
 Period 1850-60, both included, 5 years, average. 
 Period 1861-70, both included, 10 years, average. 
 Period 1871-80, both included, 10 years, average. 
 Period 1881-90, both included, 10 years, average. 
 Period 1891-96, both included, 6 years, average. 
 
 CHURCHES AND PREACHERS. 
 
 789 
 
 374 
 
 1,052 
 
 1,515 
 276 
 
 Pastors and preachers were not regularly reported as 
 to numbers until 1882, from which year they have always 
 in the aggregate been more numerous than the churches. 
 The report for 1895 gives the number of preachers as 655, 
 being one hundred more than the churches. The dis- 
 parity among the nineteen different associations is very 
 striking. Thus, while six or seven associations report 
 churches and preachers about alike in number, others re- 
 port nearly two to three times as many churches as 
 preachers, and four of the associations report for 147 
 churches no less than 237 preachers. 
 
 LETTERS OF DISMISSION "TO AMERICA" 
 
 have thus far, contrary to Baptist polity and better 
 customs, been given to emigrants in conformity to 
 the State Church, wdiich has no interest in its members 
 after leaving the shores of Sweden. Accounts of such 
 dismissals commenced to be reported in 1869, when the 
 number was 244, which has increased, except during 
 years of panic in this country, to 679 in 1892, or in twen- 
 ty-three years, 7,008 Baptists. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 287 
 
 SCATTERED SHEEP WITHOUT A PASTOR. 
 
 What becomes of them is a problem, for the Swedish 
 Baptist churches in this land do not admit in their re- 
 ports anything like corresponding receptions. It is not 
 probable that any great number of them are received in 
 the American churches; consequently, there is great fear 
 that some of them who come to the many thousands of 
 places where there are no Baptist churches, scatter in 
 some way or other, till oppportunities may offer for a 
 proper church life. 
 
 EDUCATION FOR THE MINISTRY 
 
 was very early considered as of great importance. Dur- 
 ing the meetings of the Conference, held at Stockholm 
 in 1896, the beloved and well-known Colonel K. O. 
 Broady, president of the Theological Seminary, under 
 whose leadership the institution was opened in 1866, re- 
 ported that in the meantime 298 preachers had graduated 
 from the school, of which number 51 had gone to this 
 country; 5 to Norway; 3 to Spain; i to Africa; 3 to 
 China; 3 to Russia and Finland; the rest have remained 
 in Sweden. 
 
 During the same year, 36 students had received free 
 instruction; of which number 12 were prepared to go 
 forth to new fields of labor, in home or foreign missions. 
 
 The expenses during the year had been $4,487, and 
 receipts to the same amount. 
 
 The real estate value of the building was $21,300, 
 mortgaged for $2,700. 
 
 The professors who had assisted Col. Broady were 
 Adolph Drake, C. E. Benander, J. Cederoth, with assist- 
 ant teachers K. A. Vinell and A. Lindstrom, the first for 
 studies in physiology and chemistry and the latter in- 
 structing in singing. 
 
 During the early years of the seminary Dr. J. A. 
 Edgren was the co-laborer of President Broady. 
 
288 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 COMPARATIVE BLESSINGS. 
 
 In comparison with the work done among the Ger- 
 mans and Danes in Europe or America, it will appear 
 how wonderfully God has blessed the Swedes. In Ger- 
 many, where the Baptist work commenced in 1854, out 
 of a population six times greater than that of Sweden 
 there were, according to the Handbook of 1897-98, 34,- 
 187 members,* against 38,321 in Sweden. And the con- 
 tributions were $2,598 more in poor Sweden than in Ger- 
 many. 
 
 And in this country, where the Germans also out- 
 number the Swedes in the same ratio, we find that, after 
 a period of fifty-six years, the membership was only about 
 2,100 more than that of the Swedish churches, the first of 
 which was not organized till 1852; and until 1867 there 
 were not more than nine in number, whereas, in 1854, the 
 German Baptists had already twenty-three churches, the 
 first having been organized in the year 1840, and the first 
 in New York City in 1847. 
 
 The Germans had, moreover, the advantage of hav- 
 ing men trained for the ministry at Rochester as early as 
 1858, while such advantages, even on a small scale, were 
 not enjoyed by the Swedes till 1870, at Chicago. 
 
 DANO-NORWEGIAN BAPTISTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 Although the Danes and Norwegians are nearly as 
 numerous as the Swedes, and a Norwegian church was 
 organized in Illinois in 1848, several years before any 
 Swedish Baptist church existed, yet it must be noticed 
 with wonder how comparatively small results have 
 crowned their efforts. 
 
 This year, 1898, is also to them a year of jubilee. 
 
 *That number, however, includes the Baptists in seven other 
 countries, viz., Holland, Switzerland, Poland, Hunprary, Roumania, 
 Bulgaxia and Ga,licia, 
 
RESULTS OP THE SWEDISH MISSION. 280 
 
 THE BAPTISTS IN DENMARK. 
 
 God's work of enlightening the Danes commenced 
 in 1839, or only five years after the work at Hamburg. 
 
 On the coronation day of King Christian \ III., Oc- 
 tober 31st of that year, the first Baptist church was or- 
 ganized at Copenhagen. 
 
 The Danish brethren were assisted by the Baptists 
 both of England, the United States and Germany. In 
 1840, July 28th, ten converts were baptized by Brother 
 Oncken, and violent persecutions arose in consequence 
 against the feeble church. Their pastor, Munster, was 
 sentenced to banishment, and was in prison two years 
 out of the five, while he served them. Owing to the per- 
 secutions several petitions from foreign lands were sent 
 to King Christian, one of them being signed by Queen 
 Victoria, beseeching the king to ameliorate the sufferings 
 of the Baptists, which, however, proved as unavailing as 
 the petitions to the Queen Regent of Spain in behalf of 
 Miss Evangelina Cisneros, or to King Oscar I. of Swe- 
 den in behalf of the banished Baptist preacher, F. O. 
 X^elson. 
 
 OVERTURNING OF ROYALTY. 
 
 Fortunately for the cause of God and his people, the 
 revolution of 1848 touched the royalty of Denmark as 
 well as other despotic kingdoms and the popedom of 
 Italy. As a consequence. King Frederick VTL, to save 
 his life and crown, was compelled to grant a new consti- 
 tution, which should contain religious toleration, thus 
 showing that when the people have their way religion be- 
 comes free; and, furthermore, that it is only royal rulers, 
 wealthy noblemen and aristocrats, who, under the sway 
 of popes and priests, for political purposes, kindle the 
 fires of inquisitions and persecutions and keep them blaz- 
 ing and burning till God says 
 
2gC) 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 "I WILL OVERTURN, OVERTURN, OVERTURN 
 IT." 
 
 Thus, "by terrible things in righteousness," did the 
 Lord answer his people's prayers, and taught the Euro- 
 pean rulers the necessary lesson that they were but men. 
 
 Many instances could be given to prove that when a 
 people are left to carry out their better instincts of right, 
 unmtiuenced by priests or priestly rulers, they generally 
 manifest principles of toleration. Thus, Count A. De 
 Gurowski, says of some persecuted dissenters in Russia, 
 after speaking in high terms of their views and their lives, 
 that "Dispersed and scattered through the empire they 
 find the people more tolerant towards them than the 
 Government."* 
 
 In Sweden, wherever the people gather in political 
 conventions (Juntos) and set up their platforms, religious 
 liberty is generally demanded as one of the first things in 
 the articles. No government platform in Sweden has yet 
 contained any sound plank on that subject.** 
 
 It was when the people wrested this country from its 
 royal rulers that liberty, religious as well as civil, for the 
 first time in the world's history became a fact. 
 
 Herod, we all know, was a bad man, but would have 
 been still worse had he not feared the people. 
 
 "BEWARE OF DOGS." 
 
 Whenever we read of violence done to Christians by 
 mobs, it is when "certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," 
 who, forgetting their nobler manhood, allow themselves 
 to degenerate into canine characters and become a State 
 clergy's dogs to be by unbelieving priests, "moved with 
 envy," set upon unoffending believers, to bark at, bite 
 and tear them, and thereby, according to well*planned 
 
 ♦"Russia as It Is," page 136. 
 **An exception occurred in the Constitution of 1809, unheeded 
 and ignored by all kings from that time. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 29 1 
 
 priestly programs, attracting turbulent multitudes, and 
 then, as at Thessalonica, bring the Christians "unto the 
 rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the 
 world upside down, are come hither also." 
 
 Many such spectacles have occurred in Sweden as 
 well as in most countries where Christianity has been in- 
 troduced, wherefore, probably the injunction of Paul, to 
 "beware of dogs." 
 
 YEAR OF JUBILEE IN DENMARK. 
 
 The jubilee of the Danish Baptists was celebrated in 
 1889 on the 30th and 31st of October. At that time they 
 reported having 21 churches, 17 houses of worship and 
 2,626 members; of these, 500 were members of the 
 Church at Copenhagen. 
 
 At present, according to the Handbook of 1897-98, 
 there are in Denmark 3,449 members, 27 churches and 
 70 preachers. Allowing that the inhabitants of Denmark 
 are not half as many as in Sweden, the disparity is still 
 striking, when contemplating what God has done for the 
 latter country. In all such cases no other cause can be 
 given than that 
 
 "God moves in a mysterious way, 
 His wonders to perform." 
 He makes the kings of earth obey, 
 And rides on revolution's storm. 
 
 SMALL COST OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 
 
 Referring to the Handbook of 1897-98, we find that 
 the number of members of all the churches, supported 
 wholly or in part, by the Missionary Union, amounted to 
 199,886, of which number the members of the Swedish 
 churches were nearly twenty per cent., or one-fifth; and 
 
2^2 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 that all the churches more or less supported were 1,817 — 
 thirty-two per cent., or one^third of which, were Swedish 
 churches; whereas, it is probable that no more than two 
 per cent, of the yearly income of the Missionary Union 
 has ever been appropriated to the Swedish Mission. For 
 the years 1897 and 1898 only one and one-half per cent, 
 of the income was granted, or $8,414. This sum is $3,436 
 less than what the Swedish Baptists in the United States 
 paid to Home and P'oreign Missions during 1896. 
 
 To the mission in France, which reports only 2,115 
 members, was appropriated for the same years $23,832, 
 that is: 
 
 For every member in France, $11.22; in Sweden, $0.22. 
 For every church in France $1,254; in Sweden, $15. 
 For every preacher in France, $794; in Sweden, $14. 
 And yet, with all this striking disparity, Sweden, out of 
 her poverty, returned to the Missionary Union during 
 the year ending March 31, 1897, as donations, the sum 
 of $540 for the cause in general. And the noble Baptists 
 of Denmark, who received only $1,890, donated nearly 
 as much, or $502.65, whereas, from favored France no 
 donations to the Missionary Union are recorded. The 
 Union has, no doubt, good reasons for their several ap- 
 propriations. 
 
 METHODIST APPROPRIATIONS FOR SCANDI- 
 NAVIANS. 
 
 Our Methodist brethren consider it necessary to sup- 
 ply the needs of their Mission in Sweden more liberally, 
 although burdened with a debt of $200,000, and the mem- 
 bership of their churches in Sweden was only 14,500,* or 
 thirty-eight per cent, of the Baptists, the appropriations 
 for the year 1896 were $17,500, or more than twice as 
 much as the Baptists received. For 1897 it was $16,724 
 
 *Not including- those on probation. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 293 
 
 Thus, for every member of the Methodist Mission 
 $1.20 is paid, as against 22 cents for every member of the 
 Baptist Mission. . 
 
 To the other Scandinavian countries, Finland in- 
 chided, the Methodists paid for 1897, $25,599; the Bap- 
 tists, $3,690.=* The Methodist brethren in Northern 
 Europe have, in view of the above, great reason to thank 
 God and take courage, for they can so much better go 
 ahead. 
 
 The Methodist appropriations for the Home Mission 
 among the Scandinavians were on a stiU more Hberal 
 scale, amounting to $54,136; of which, for the Swedes, 
 $31,676; for Norwegians and Danes, $22,460. 
 
 The appropriations by the Baptist Home Mission 
 Society were, for the Scandinavians, from March 31. 
 1896, to March 31, 1897, $29,223. Allowing that a little 
 more than half of the Scandinavians are Swedes, the al- 
 lowance to them would amount to about $15,000, or 
 nearly $7,000 more for the missionary work among the 
 Swedes in America than in Sweden. 
 
 But, whatever help the Swedish Baptists receive, 
 whether in Sweden or the United States, they are truly 
 grateful for it to their more financially favored brethren 
 in this country. They will not accept one dollar in aid 
 when not needed. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it may be observed 
 that people may have what views they please about the 
 efficiency or sufificiency of faith and prayers alone with 
 works, but money has always played a very important 
 part in missionary operations, and it will ever do so. The 
 ravens do not bring food to the missionaries in these 
 days, as they did to Elijah in olden times, nor do the mis- 
 sionaries' larders get replenished so wonderfully as was 
 the case with the widow woman of Zarepta. 
 
 ♦Finland not Included. 
 
294 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 LUTHERAN NON-CONFORMISTS. 
 
 Progress among them since 1878, when, as stated in 
 Chapter XIV., they declared their indepefidence of the 
 State Church, has been marvelous. At the end of the 
 year 1895 they were estimated at 72,600, and 81,771 
 pupils were instructed in their Sunday Schools by 6,371 
 teachers. They carry on very extensive missionary oper- 
 ations in foreign lands, and, like the other evangelical 
 denominations, the whole kingdom of Sweden is their 
 home mission field. Many wealthy and well-to-do peo- 
 ple belong to them, so that means are not wanting to 
 carry on their good work at home or abroad. 
 
 In America they are divided — one party calling 
 themselves Mission Covenanters and the other Mission 
 Friends. And some have even adopted the Congrega- 
 tional name. Taken together, they may be estimated at 
 18,000 in number, and, like all evangelical Swedes, are 
 very active. 
 
 LUTHERAN PURITANS IN SWEDEN, 
 
 who continue to cling to the State Church with the futile 
 hope of reforming it, may, with other pious people in the 
 church, be estimated at 100,000 persons. 
 
 Pious priests, nobles, and even members of the royal 
 family, with many rich men and women, are among the 
 adherents of the Fosterland Stiftelsen, an institution 
 which only forty years ago was so decried and despised 
 by the high church prelates, of which the Archbishop of 
 Upsala, Dr. Sundberg, was the mouthpiece. 
 
 A ROYAL PREACHER. 
 
 Prince Bernadotte, King Oscar II. 's son, preached 
 lately in the hall of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 295 
 
 tion* to as many as the place could hold. Such attempt 
 would, some forty years ago, have subjected the noble 
 prince to imprisonment or fines. 
 
 Among the directors in this now exalted institution 
 (Fosterland Stiftelsen), are found some very influential 
 men. There is the court chaplain, G. E. Beskow; a coun- 
 cillor of the King's court, E. U. Widstrom; a member -of 
 the King's cabinet, Freelord A. E. Rappe; a colonel, G. 
 F. Uggla; a secretary of the King's court, E. L. Wern- 
 stedt. Among the auditors is found a Possessionist, E. 
 Indebetou, and the director of the royal railways, Count 
 A. Taube. 
 
 STIFTELSEN'S FINANCIAL STATUS. 
 
 That an institution which has so enlisted the sym- 
 pathies and co-operation of the higher classes will not 
 fail for want of means is evident ; thus, their latest report 
 states the income to have been $77,513. 
 
 What is cheering and refreshing in these days of 
 general shortcomings is to notice that the income ex- 
 ceeded the expenses by $5,673. 
 
 To foreign missions they paid in all $56,430; to the 
 home mission, or, for evangelizing the members of the 
 "Pure Evangelical Church," for which object the institu- 
 tion was chiefly organized, as per Chapter XIV., they 
 paid $15,408. 
 
 The number of people under the influence of this in- 
 stitution cannot be given, as they, with all their ex-ofificio 
 meetings and operations, cling to the State Church and 
 identify themselves with her. With the number of Chris- 
 tians in the Church, they may be estimated at 100,000. 
 
 ♦The princely sermon was delivered October 13, 1896, at Stock- 
 holm; he has preached in several other places since that time and 
 to large congregations. 
 
296 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 THE SALVATION ARMY. 
 
 This church militant force, which commenced its 
 tactics and attacks in 1885, may, with officers and sol- 
 diers, be numbered at 5,000. 
 
 To the churches of the Baptists, Alethodists and Free 
 Church Lutherans are always attracted a great many 
 people who care not for the State Church, but hesitate a 
 long time before uniting with the dissenting churches. 
 Of this class there will probably be some 50,000 scattered 
 all over Sweden. 
 
 RECAPITULATION FOR 1896. 
 
 of the estimated number of Christians in Sweden : 
 
 Baptists 38,300 
 
 Methodists i4>5oo 
 
 Methodists, on probation 2,800 
 
 Mission Covenanters 72,600 
 
 Salvation Army ... 5,ooo 
 
 In the State Church* 100,000 
 
 Attendants on dissenting churches 50,000 
 
 Total 283,200 
 
 Consequently, it may be assumed, that, by allowing, 
 in connection with the State Church, 16,800 more, it 
 would be found that there are now in Sweden about 300,- 
 000 Christians, where it would have been difficult fifty 
 years ago to have found ten thousand. 
 
 ♦Including- the Puritans of the Fosterland Institution. 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 297 
 
 LUTHERAN CHRISTIANS AT THE POLLS. 
 
 In some places, in connection with the Free Church 
 Lutherans, they are strong enough to choose by ballot 
 evangelical priests for pastors of churches. Thus, in 
 Gothenburg, they lately succeeded in placing three evan- 
 gelical priests as pastors of prominent churches, although 
 both the bishop and nearly all the clergy of his diocese 
 belonged to another party, who call themselves Schar- 
 tauans, from a bishop by the name of Schartau, who had 
 some peculiar views and doctrines about the way and or- 
 der of grace and salvation. Their views are only held by 
 the people in two out of the twelve dioceses in Sweden, 
 and are not called heretical, because the adherents of 
 those view's are strict church-goers, and observe faith- 
 fully the ceremonies prescribed. When that is the case 
 it does not matter what they believe, though ever so con- 
 trary to the scriptural way of salvation. 
 
 CHRISTIAN REPRESENTATIVES AT THE DIET. 
 
 Since 1865, when the new system of representation 
 became law, several dissenters have from time to time 
 been elected as members of the second chamber, chosen 
 for three years at a time. 
 
 In the year 1896 four Baptists (one of whom, Mr. 
 Bystrom, editor of the "Wecko-Posten," the organ of the 
 Baptist denomination), were elected. To counteract the 
 influence of the dissenters at the Diet, priests, of high 
 and low orders, managed to be sent there, though it is 
 readily admitted that some of them do more good than 
 harm. At present, ten of them have been elected, but a 
 greater number of candidates rejected. 
 
 Reflecting on all the changes for good enumerated in 
 the preceding pages, it must be conceded that, by the 
 blessing of God on feeble means and instruments, a great 
 and glorious harvest has resulted from the Gospel seed 
 
298 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 sown in Sweden, so that "a little one" has not only "be- 
 come a thousand," but many times over a thousand. 
 
 Although it would be interesting to some readers of 
 this book to know something of the rise and progress of 
 several of the Baptist churches in Sweden and America, 
 yet the limits of this history debar me from such an un- 
 dertaking. Such a work, however, will be prepared in 
 Sweden, ready for distribution at the jubilee, September 
 21, 1898, fifty years after the formation of the first church 
 in Sweden. "And what shall I say more?" For the time 
 would fail me to tell of "the many earnest, faithful and 
 devoted witnesses for the truth, preachers and laymen, 
 among the Baptists in Sweden and America, whose 
 names have not been recorded in these pages," of whom 
 the greater part "remain unto this present, but some are 
 fallen asleep." But whether asleep, dead or alive, their 
 works do follow them, and will be felt by millions until 
 time shall be no more. 
 
 THE BAPTISTS AT STOCKHOLM. 
 
 I cannot, however, refrain from relating the impres- 
 sions of a Presbyterian minister. Rev. F. E. Clark, D. D., 
 during his visit to Sweden. He wrote in a letter to the 
 "Watchman," of October 22, 1896, about the Baptists at 
 Stockholm, as follows: 
 
 "Before leaving Stockholm I became acquainted 
 with many Baptists, of whom the denomination the 
 world over has reason to be proud, for they have done 
 much to make the Baptist name a power throughout 
 Sweden. Not only in their own denomination, but in all 
 union movements of the churches, they are foremost, and 
 are exerting a powerful influence for good. There are 
 now 40,000 Baptist communicants in Sweden, a marvel- 
 \lous increase within the present generation, and of their 
 churches six are in Stockholm, at least four of which are 
 
RESULTS OF THE SWEDISH MISSION. 
 
 299 
 
 large and strong, with commodious houses of worship 01 
 their own. The oldest of these churches, the Bethel, oc- 
 cupies a large building with enormous galleries, and, bet- 
 ter than all, fills them to overflowing. The first pastor of 
 this church, Rev. W. Lindblom, D. D., has here held the 
 fort for thirty years, and is regarded as a sort of bishop 
 throughout all Sweden — a consecrated bishop, too, 
 though not by episcopal authority. He is well known in 
 America, where he has travelled extensively. Pastor 
 Grytzell, the second pastor of the church, is perhaps the 
 poet of the denomination, and has written many beautiful 
 hymns, some of which have found their way into the 
 hymnals of the church. The Salem Baptist Church has 
 also for many years been a power for good in Stockholm, 
 and the Fifth Church, with its earnest, energetic pastor, 
 is about to break ground for a new church edifice. 
 
 "But not only do the Baptists of Stockholm rejoice 
 in some strong churches and in an excellent denomina- 
 tional paper, but in the best equipped theological semin- 
 ary in Sweden. Never have I seen a more intelligent and 
 promising body of students than assembled in the lecture 
 room of the seminary. They seemed to have caught the 
 scholarly enthusiasm of their instructors, chief among 
 whom are Colonel Broady, the president, and Dr. Drake, 
 who have both been connected with the seminary from 
 the beginning. Colonel Broady won his military title in 
 our own Civil War, and, though he is a Doctor of Divin- 
 ity, and one of the most eminent theologians in Sweden, 
 he is universally known as 'Colonel' Broady. Dr. Drake 
 has never been out of Sweden, but he speaks English with 
 a flawless accent, and in interpreting for me a short ad- 
 dress to the students — and interpreting is the most dififi- 
 cult of all linguistic feats — he showed not the slightest 
 hesitation. He has recently received a deserved '13. D.' 
 from Bushnell University." 
 
 About the seminary and students, he wrote that 
 "most of the students could speak to me in my own 
 tongue, and most of the books in the library were from 
 
300 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 English and American publishing houses. The connec- 
 tion of the Swedish Baptists with America is close and 
 intimate. Men like l*astor Truve, of Goteborg, an emi- 
 nent scholar and translator, and Pastor Bystrom, have 
 studied at Colgate, and (I hope they will pardon me for 
 the complimentj would pass as typical 'Yankees' in any 
 assembly. Among the Baptist laymen, too, are many 
 men of weight and inHuence like my kind host, Bank Di- 
 rector Carlson, a former member of the Swedish Parlia- 
 ment, and a man whom the King delights to honor. Mr. 
 Carlson is president of the Sunday School Union, and is 
 foremost in many good works." 
 
 "This article would not be complete did I not say a 
 word about the beautiful Floragatan Church (Flower 
 Street Church). This Baptist Church was built, and is 
 largely supported by Mr. J. Wallin. It is a fine church, 
 and the centre of much evangelistic efifort. Here the 
 Christian Endeavor Convention was held, and here I had 
 the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Wallin, who had been in Am- 
 erica, conduct the large Sunday School in a most spright- 
 ly and efficient way." 
 
 "Throughout the whole of my visit to Stockholm I 
 felt singularly at home, more as though I was in an Am- 
 erican religious atmosphere than in any country of conti- 
 nental Europe. And the home-like feeling was not dim- 
 inished when I stood up and sang with the great con- 
 gregation, 'Stand up, stand up for Jesus.' " 
 
 SWEDISH BAPTISTS IN ILLINOIS. 
 
 As an ofTset to the Baptists at Stockholm it seems 
 proper to record something about the Swedish Baptists 
 in one of the United States, copied from the "Standard" 
 of January 23, 1897, i^mder head of "An Object Lesson in 
 Home Missions," by Rev. W. M. Haigh. D. D.. concern- 
 ing the Scandinavians. He writes as follows; 
 
 "Among these people the Swedes have made a rec- 
 ord surpassing all the -rest. Reporting in 1881 six 
 
RESULTS OP THE SWEDISH MISSION. 
 
 301 
 
 churches and 523 members, they have now 2'] churches, 
 with 3,334 members, an increase of over fourfold in the 
 churclies, and in members over sixfold. This remarkable 
 showing, due primarily to the grace of God, has also 
 been ett'ected by the unusual responsiveness to effort 
 which marks this nationality, their readiness to listen to 
 and accept spiritual teaching, the simplicity of their faith 
 and the earnestness of their devotion. Much is due also 
 to the leadership of the First and Second Churches in 
 Chicago and their pastors, particularly Rev. A. P. Hjelm 
 and J. Engstrand*, and to the Illinois Swede Conference, 
 which has constantly encouraged the most liberal plans.'' 
 And further: "A prime factor in the Scandinavian work 
 in Illinois has been the presence of the Swede and Dano- 
 Norwegian department of the Divinity School, now a 
 part of the University of Chicago, giving valuable aid of 
 both professors and students."** 
 
 Similar progress could be reported from several 
 other States. 
 
 The preceding two extracts are presented as speci- 
 mens of God's work, which has been in progress among 
 "the Swedish Baptists in Sweden and America," a "his- 
 tory" of which, though very imperfect, is hereby offered 
 to discerning readers for their consideration, and, as I 
 hope, also for their profit and instruction. In review 
 thereof we can only exclaim in humility and adoration 
 that "This is the Lord's doing," and well may we, with 
 the Psalmist, add: "It is marvelous in our eyes." The re- 
 sults afford another illustration of how "God hath chosen 
 the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and 
 the weak things of the world to confound the things 
 which are mighty; and the base things of the world, and 
 things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and 
 things which are not, to bring to nought things that are. 
 
 ♦As before stated, Br. Engstrand is now pastor of the Brooklyn 
 Swedish Baptist Church. 
 
 ♦♦Professor C. G. Lagergren is the efficient head and teacher of 
 that department. 
 
302 
 
 a:"HE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 That no flesh should glory in his presence." "That, ac- 
 cording as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in 
 the Lord." 
 
 And now, in closing, we will exclaim: "To the only 
 wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion 
 and power, both now and ever. Amen." 
 
 And may all hearts of the readers as well as of the 
 writer be attuned to the words of the Doxology: "Praise 
 God from whom all blessings flow." And unite in "Hal- 
 lelujas." 
 
 "Amen and Amen." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. 
 
 EXPLANATIONS. 
 
 305 
 
 Rem. — A star after a name signifies that such a name 
 occurs too often for registry. 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES. 
 
 Bhp. for Bishop. 
 Lect. for Lecturer. 
 Litt. for Literateur. 
 Hist, for Historian. 
 Prst. for Priest. 
 Prchr. for Preacher. 
 Prof, for Professor 
 Phil, for Philosopher. 
 Ref. for Reformer. 
 Repr. for Representative, 
 
 Adam, Bhp 46 
 
 Adelsward, O. Baron 166 
 
 Ahnfelt, Dean.* 
 
 Almquist, Bhp 228 
 
 Anderson, Mrs., Hist 206 
 
 Anemond de Coct, Prchr 208 
 
 Angermannus, Archbhp 48, 60, 178 
 
 Anjou, Bhp 195 
 
 Ansgarius, Missionary 33, 44, 47 
 
 Apollo 50 
 
 Ardgar, Prst 45 
 
 Armitage, D. D 50, 160, 203, 217 
 
 Arndt, J., Prst 115 
 
3o6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Arnoldson, Litt 197 
 
 Ashur 34 
 
 Ask 40 
 
 Asplund, J., Rev 89, 90 
 
 Augustin, or Austin, Missionary 30, 50 
 
 Baath, A. U., Lect 48 
 
 Baelter, J., Dean 63, 177 
 
 Baird, H. M., Hist 190, 220, 240 
 
 Bajur, Attorney 213 
 
 Bancroft, Hist 74 
 
 Baner, J., Gen 233, 235 
 
 Barnekow, Baron 255 
 
 Beckman, Bhp 195 
 
 Bede, Hist 31 
 
 Bellarmine, Cardinal 242 
 
 Benander, Prof 287 
 
 Benedict, D., Hist 124, 243 
 
 Benzelius, H., Archbhp 64 
 
 Benzelius, C. J., Bhp 71 
 
 Bergman, Dean 157, 21 1 
 
 Bergstrom, Gov 195 
 
 Bergstrom, Prchr 180 
 
 Bernadotte, O., Prince 294 
 
 Bernard, Duke 22y 
 
 Bernard, Prst 166 
 
 Berry, Capt 91 
 
 Bertha, Queen 48 
 
 Berzehus, Chemist 1 32 
 
 Beskow, Prst 295 
 
 Beza, Prchr 200 
 
 BilHng, Bhp 133, 255 
 
 Bjurback, Bhp 214, 215 
 
 Bjorck, Bhp 147 
 
 Bjorkholm, CM 105 
 
 Bjorn, King 33 
 
 Blanche, A., Litt 216 
 
 Bolingbroke (ij 
 
 Bostrom, Prof 252 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. ^qj 
 
 Bothniensis, N. O. Dean 60 
 
 Bothvid, St 47 
 
 Brask, Bhp 58 
 
 Bremer, Fredrika, Author 132 
 
 Bright, Ed., Editor 147 
 
 Bring, Bhp 184, 195, 203 
 
 Broady, Col.* 
 
 Broberg, Mrs .263 
 
 Bruere, P. .' 91 
 
 Bucer, Ref ; 200 
 
 Bullinger, Ref 200 
 
 Bunsen, ChevalHer 61, 86, 152, 204, 215 
 
 Bunyan, John 9, 1 1 
 
 Butler, Bhp 67 
 
 Byron, Poet 148 
 
 Bystrom, Editor 300 
 
 Calvin, Ref.* 
 
 Candace, Queen 1 09 
 
 Cardonne, John de., Hist 242 
 
 Carey, Missionary no 
 
 Carlson, Director 300 
 
 Carlson, K. G., Repr 197 
 
 Carlyle, Hist 233, 245 
 
 Carson, A., D. D 117 
 
 Castro, Alfonso de., Prst 236 
 
 Cederoth, J., Rev 287 
 
 Chaillu, Paul du. Hist 315 
 
 Charles V., Emperor 134, 176, 226 
 
 Charles IX., King 60, 178, 229 
 
 Charles X., King 241 
 
 Charles XI., King 81, 178, 240, 241 
 
 Charles XII., King 13, 132 
 
 Charles XIY., King 148 
 
 Charles XV., King 13, 148, 209, 212, 246 
 
 Christian, IV., King 223 
 
 Christian VHI.. King 289 
 
 Charleville. Bhp 195 
 
 Charnace, Envoy 237 
 
308 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Christina, Queen 223 
 
 Cisneros, Evangelina 289 
 
 Clarendon, Lord 155 
 
 Clark, F. E., D. D 298 
 
 Clifford, J., D. D 284 
 
 Clotilda, Queen 48, 49 
 
 Cbvis, King 48, 49 
 
 Cognat, Abbe 166 
 
 Coifi, Prst 51 
 
 Collins, Litt 67 
 
 Cone, S. H., D. D 99 
 
 Constantine, Emparor 29, 40 
 
 Cornelius, Bhp 70, 203, 223 
 
 Corout, Ref 66 
 
 Courcy, de, Litt 123 
 
 Cowper, Wm., Poet 38 
 
 Cramp, J. M., Hist 13 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver 241 
 
 Cuyler, Theo., D. D 12 
 
 Danielson, A, P., Repr 255, 256 
 
 David, St 47 
 
 Day, Prof 185 
 
 ]jexter. Editor 185 
 
 Diana 50 
 
 Dickens, Chas., Author 50 
 
 Drake, Adolf, D. D 287, 299 
 
 Eardley, Sir Culling 155, 159 
 
 Ecchius, Litt 242 
 
 Edgren, J. A., Prof 137, 141, 280, 287 
 
 Edward, L King 158, 159 
 
 Edwin, King 50 
 
 Ehrenheim, Von 248 
 
 Ekman, A. P., Rev 89, 126 
 
 Ekman, E. J., Prst 197 
 
 Elwin, Prchr 116 
 
 Embla 40 
 
 Engstrand, O., Rev 126, 301 
 
 Erasmus, Litt 180 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. 
 
 309 
 
 Eric, Earl 46 
 
 Eric, St. King 44, 53 
 
 Ericson, J., Engineer 132 
 
 Ericson, J.' M., Editor 197 
 
 Eskil, St 47 
 
 Ethelbert, King 4^ 
 
 Earel, Ref 66, 200 
 
 Faxe, Bhp 78 
 
 Fehr, Prst 251 
 
 Ferdinand, Emperor 255, 229 
 
 Fisher, Hist 235 
 
 Fitz, R., Rev 187 
 
 Flensburg, Bhp 184, 203 
 
 Fogelberg, Sculptor 132 
 
 Forsman, Dean 165 
 
 Forssell, D 160 
 
 Forster, Rev 105 
 
 Fox, J., Hist 151 
 
 Francke, A. H., Prst 66 
 
 Franson, Evangelist 164, 168 
 
 Frederick HI., King 241 
 
 Frederick VH., King 289 
 
 Fryxell, A., Hist.* 
 
 Galba, Emperor 218 
 
 Garlick, Goodwife, Witch 75 
 
 Gautbert, Bhp 4.S 
 
 Geijer, Hist 58, 169 
 
 Gelston, R., Capt 92 
 
 Gillies, J., D. D f 67 
 
 Goethe, Litt 182 
 
 Grafstrom, Bhp i95. 198 
 
 Gregory, Pope 31 
 
 Gregory, Bhp and Hist 49 
 
 Grytzell, Rev 299 
 
 Gualtier, Prst 242 
 
 Gunderson, H., Prof 280 
 
 Gurowsky, A. de. Hist 290 
 
 Gustavus, Vasa, King.* 
 
310 
 
 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Gustavus, Adolphus, King.* 
 
 Gustavus, III., King 240, 268 
 
 Gustavus, IV., King ,. 214 
 
 Gutzlafif, Missionary 263 
 
 Gyllenskjold, Carlheim . 166 
 
 Haigh, W. M., D. D 2yy , 300 
 
 Hallin, Prst 172 
 
 Hammar, Dean 129, 157,211,213 
 
 Hedeen, O., Prof 126, 280 
 
 Hedlund, S. A., Editor 198, 210 
 
 Hejdenberg, Prchr 161 
 
 Hengstenberg, Prst 200 
 
 Henrickson, Missionary 125 
 
 Henrickson, Magnus, Prince 54 
 
 Henry II., King 231 
 
 Henry VIII., King 59, 135, 225 
 
 Henry, Bhp 53 
 
 Henschen, Judge 82, 218 
 
 Hergier, Prime Minister 44 
 
 Herod, King 217, 290 
 
 Hill, R., Prst 67 
 
 Hildebrand, Archaeolog 132 
 
 Hinton, D. D 116 
 
 Hjelm, A. P., Rev 297 
 
 Hjarne, Urban, M. D 74 
 
 Hodge, J. L., D. D 100 
 
 Hofberg, Biographer 270 
 
 Hokanson, Prchr 160 
 
 Holmstrom, Archbhp 148 
 
 Homer, i75 
 
 Hosius, Cardinal 242 
 
 Huntingdon, Lady 68 
 
 Huss, John, Ref 68, 242 
 
 Indebetou, E 295 
 
 Ingeborg, Princess 46 
 
 Tngeborg, Witch 63 
 
 Ingersoll, Rob., Lawyer 173 
 
 James I., King 269 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. oji 
 
 Janson, Dean 267 
 
 Jeanson, R. E., Capt 126 
 
 Jensen, N. P., Prof 280 
 
 Johanson, Blip 195 
 
 John III., King- 229 
 
 Jones, Hist.* 
 
 Jones, Lcct 187 
 
 Josephine, Queen 210 
 
 Judson. A., Missionary 1 10 
 
 Jiihus II., Pope 231 
 
 Kobner, J., Rev 116, 125 
 
 Lagerg-ren, C. G., Prof 280, 301 
 
 Lallerstedt. Litt 166 
 
 Lambert, Ref 87 
 
 Landgren, Bhp 203 
 
 Laudahl, N. J., Prof 280 
 
 Leckey, Hist 30. 5° 
 
 Lennstrand. V., Lect 173, 193 
 
 Liedhohn. M. D 248 
 
 Lignell, Dean 269 
 
 Liiid. lenny 1 32 
 
 Lindanus. Bhp 242 
 
 Lindblom. W., Rev 299 
 
 Lindstrom. Prof 287 
 
 Linnaeus, Botanist 63, 132 
 
 Lintemuth, CaroHne 121 
 
 Ljungberg, Prst 94 
 
 Ljungberg, Lector 171 
 
 Longfellow, Poet 170 
 
 Lothairc, King 4^ 
 
 Louis the Pious, King 44 
 
 Louis XIII., King 237 
 
 Louis XIV., King 188, 190 
 
 Loven, Zoologist ^3^ 
 
 Lumsden, Rev 129 
 
 Lundberg, C. R., Prchr 181 
 
 Lundbergson, Prst 1 57 
 
 Luther,* 
 
312 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Macaulay, Hist ir 
 
 Mackenzie, Biogr 64, 158, 200 
 
 Mary, Queen, the bloody 236 
 
 Melancthon, Ref.* 
 
 Mezeray , Hist 242 
 
 Milner, Hist 80 
 
 Milton, Poet 241 , 243 
 
 Monad, Ad., Prchr 157 
 
 Montgomery, W. W., Rev 185 
 
 Moody, Evangelist 164 
 
 Moore, R. W., Prof 284 
 
 Mollersward, Prchr 130, 138 
 
 Munster, Rev no, 289 
 
 Napoleon I., Emperor 219, 220, 221 
 
 Nejdel, Prst 157 
 
 Nelson, F. O., Rev.* 
 
 Nelson, S. C, Prchr 105, 137 
 
 Nelson, B. N., Prchr no 
 
 Nero, Emperor 218 
 
 Nilson, Christina 132 
 
 Nilson, Zoolog 132 
 
 Nilson, Lars, Envoy 238 
 
 Nilson, J., Prchr 191 
 
 Nithard. Dean 45 
 
 Nordenskjold, Discoverer 132 
 
 Nordlund, J., Prchr 180 
 
 Norrby, Prof 251 
 
 Nyblaeus, Litt 170 
 
 Nymanson, P., Prst 168 
 
 Odd, Monk and Biogr 48 
 
 Odman, Simon, Martyr 63 
 
 Oecolampadius, Ref 134 
 
 Olof, King 44. 5i 
 
 Olof, St., King 45. 46 
 
 Olof, Skot!:ing 46 
 
 Olof, Tryggvasson, King 46, 47 
 
 Olson, C. J., Prof 280 
 
 Oncken, J. G., Rev.* 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. 
 
 313 
 
 Oscar I., King.* 
 
 Oscar II., King 154, 182 
 
 Oxenstjerna, Axel 132, 239 
 
 Owen, S., Engineer 127, 128 
 
 Paine, T 193 
 
 Palmerston, Lord 155 
 
 Palmblacl, J., Prst 179 
 
 Palmquist, G., Rev 103, 121, 192 
 
 Palmquist, John, Rev 204 
 
 Palmquist, Jons, Repr 204 
 
 Palmquist, Per., Publisher 103,162, 282 
 
 Solyman, Sultan 231 
 
 Sparre, Eric, Gov 194 
 
 Spener, Ph. J., Prst 66 
 
 Spurgeon, C. H., Rev 70, 91 
 
 Staal, de, Dame 244 
 
 Stahl, Prst 200 
 
 Starback, Hist* 
 
 Stavenow, Prof 237 
 
 Stephan, St 47 
 
 Stevens, Rev 127 
 
 Steward, I. R., Rev* 
 
 Sturleson, Judge 40 
 
 Sundberg, Arch-bhp 165, 184, 203, 294 
 
 Svebelius, Arch-bhp 74 
 
 Svenson, S., Prchr 161 
 
 Swedenborg, Seer ^2, 132 
 
 Swerker, King 50 
 
 Sylvius, Pope and Hist 242 
 
 Taube, Director R. R 295 
 
 Tapaero, of Rarotonga 260 
 
 Tegner, Es., Bhp. and Poet 14, 132, 169 
 
 Theodolinda, Queen 48 
 
 Theodosius, Emperor 32 
 
 Thomander, Bhp 82, 203 
 
 Thorild, Litt 169, 214 
 
 Thwing, Prof 12 
 
 Tindal, Ref 67 
 
314 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Toland, Litt 67 
 
 Torstenson, Gen 224 
 
 Townsend, J., Hist 80 
 
 Treffenberg, Gov 250, 25 1 
 
 Trench, Arch-bhp 235 
 
 Troilius, Bhp 64, 74 
 
 Truve, T., Rev 300 
 
 Tubbs, Capt 1 37 
 
 Tucker, E., Rev 99 
 
 Turner, J. H., Hist 170, 239 
 
 Ulfson, Ragvvald, Earl 46 
 
 Uggla, G., Col 295 
 
 UUman, Bhp 103. 203 
 
 Victoria, Queen 289 
 
 Viderstrom, Prst 79 
 
 Vierow, Victor, Capt 125 
 
 Vige, Missionary Dog 48 
 
 Vinell, K. A., Prof 287 
 
 Viret, Prst 200 
 
 Voltaire. Litt 180, 270 
 
 Waddington, J., Hist* 
 
 Walden, Th., Litt 242 
 
 Waldenstrom, P., Lector 164, 193, 195 
 
 Waldo, Peter, Ref 69, 242 
 
 Wallin, J., Arch-bhp 132 
 
 Wallin, Mr. and Mrs 300 
 
 Papehia, Missionary 261 
 
 Paul IV., Pope 23 1 
 
 Pendleton, Vicar 59 
 
 Pengilly, Rev 116 
 
 Penn, Wm., Gov 75 
 
 Person, K. L.. Prchr 161 
 
 Person, N. P., Prchr 161 
 
 Peterson, O., Missionary 103. 131 
 
 Peterson, W. A., Prof 280 
 
 Petri, Olaus, Ref. and Bhp 57 
 
 Petri, Laurentius, Ref. and Bhp 57 
 
 Philip H., King* 
 
PERSONAL REGISTER. -,jc 
 
 Portalis, Prime Minister 219. 221 
 
 Prescott, Hist 27, 176, 231 
 
 Procopiiis, Hist 31 
 
 Putnam, C. H., Mrs., Author 96, 98, 120, 141 
 
 Rappe, A. E., Col 295 
 
 Redelius, Prst 197 
 
 Rei. of Rarotonga 261 
 
 Reuterdahl, Arclibhp 12, 148, 203, 213 
 
 Richelieu, Cardinal 224, 235, 238 
 
 Robertson, Hist 134 
 
 Rob Roy 42 
 
 Rockefeller, J. D 147 
 
 Roentgen, Rev 282 
 
 Rosell, Dean 251, 255 
 
 Rosenius, C. ()., Evangelist 103, 128, 129 
 
 Rosenquist, Repr 218 
 
 Rosenstein, Arch, bhp 170, 214 
 
 Rubis, Claude, Litt 243 
 
 Rundgren. Rhp 195, 255 
 
 Ruvigny. de, Marquis 190 
 
 Rydberg, V., Litt 1 32 
 
 Schartau. Bhp 297 
 
 Scheele, G. von, Bhp 195, 203 
 
 Schenkel, Hist 79, 80 84 
 
 Schiller, Hist* 
 
 Schroderheim, Elis., Bhp 270 
 
 Schroderheim, H., Bhp 270 
 
 Scott, Geo., Rev 103, 127, 183 
 
 Sears, Barnas, Rev 138 
 
 Sebert, Prince 50 
 
 Sebville, Prchr 208 
 
 Sellergren, Prst 131 
 
 Semple. Hist 89 
 
 Seneca. Phil 218 
 
 Servetus, Litt 200 
 
 Shakespeare ■ . . . 43 
 
 Sigfrid, St 46 
 
 Sigismund, King 229, 230 
 
3l6 THE SWEDISH BAPTISTS. 
 
 Simunder, Prst 40 
 
 Sjokrona, Gov 253 
 
 Smith, I. T., Repr. of Siam 98, 120 
 
 Smith, I. T., Mrs 98 
 
 Washington, Geo 90 
 
 Wernstedt, E. L 295 
 
 Wesley, John 66, 67 
 
 White, James, Hist 1 59 
 
 Whitefield, Geo 66, 67 
 
 Whitram, Monk 44 
 
 Wiberg, Andreas, Rev.* 
 
 Wickliffe, John, Ref 69, 242 
 
 Wickman, D. D 214 
 
 Widstrom, Councillor 295 
 
 Wieselgren, Dean 252 
 
 William II., Emperor 182 
 
 William, Prince of Orange 219 
 
 Williams, Roger 5, no, 152, 243 
 
 Wingard, C. F., Arch-hbp 148, 152 
 
 Wingard, John, Bhp 270 
 
 Withard, Prst 45 
 
 Wivil, John, Rev 98 
 
 Zwingle, Ref 134- 217 
 
 N. B. 
 
 The blank leaves are purposely left in order to en- 
 able the reader to note certain striking sentences in this 
 history with the page on which they appear. As an in- 
 stance what the Pope, Paul IV., said about the Spaniards, 
 page 231. 
 
 The author has always, with great benefit, adopted 
 such methods in book-reading. 
 
BX6310 .S9S3 
 
 History of the Swedish Baptists in 
 
 Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00020 6898