In Sweden a school was founded on a farm of 500 acres, near Nyhyttan, in the late nineties, which has been a means of training a number of workers. Karl Mattson had a large share in building up this institution. Until recently, nearly all the evangelistic work has been done in the central and southern parts of the country. There are excellent treatment-rooms in Stockholm; and also in the summer the school buildings at Nyhyttan are used for the accommodation of patients. Colporteurs are carrying our denominational works to every part of the country. The 1925 Year Book reported forty-four churches in Sweden, with an aggregate membership of 1,483.

Denmark has as its leading institution a large and wellequipped sanitarium at Skodsborg, north of Copenhagen, with a patronage of the best people of the country, including members of the royal family. The institution has a history in which are recorded many divine providences. It was in the year 1897 that steps were taken to start a medical institution in Denmark. The committee looking for a proper location found on the sea road leading out from Copenhagen a large villa formerly occupied by King Frederick VII. It, with an adjoining house and the land surrounding them, was for sale for 70,000 kroner (about $17,500). The owner was a widow, and when she learned what the place was wanted for, she ultimately reduced the price to 50,000.

Friends of the enterprise came forward with gifts large and small, with which the necessary alterations were quickly put under way; but reliance was placed upon a promise of very substantial assistance from a friend in America with which to pay the contractors and meet the first payment on the property. When the word came that the promise could not be fulfilled, it looked as if the enterprise was ruined; but the workers took the matter to God in prayer; the contractors made better terms for payment, and the work went on. Meanwhile the first payment, deferred six months, was almost due. Once more money was promised; but two weeks before it was to be paid, the word came again that it could not be sent. There followed days of earnest prayer for deliverance. Then four days before the money had to be paid, the whole sum came as a gift. Thus it was possible to open our first sanitarium in Scandinavia May 1, 1898.

Almost from the beginning the institution was filled to its utmost capacity, though little or no advertising was done. Workers gave up their rooms to patients, and crowded together where they might. Among the guests were persons of great influence. Parish and city councils sent patients at public

expense, though other hospitals were available, and physicians in the large hospitals sent their patients, declaring that the results of the treatments given were surprising.

The institution has been enlarged from time to time by the erection of a number of substantial buildings with all modern improvements. It also owns and rents cottages. It has trained a large number of excellent nurses. The number of patients in the summer months runs up to 350. At that time of the year there has to be a waiting list. The institution has been from the beginning under the supervision of Dr. J. C. Ottosen, supported by Drs. N. P. Nelson, A. Andersen, and Miss Jensine Iversen, and other members of the staff.

It

The union school for Norway and Denmark, also located at Skodsborg, has an annual enrolment of about 100, and is doing excellent work in training laborers for the two countries. occupied at the first a substantial building at Frederikshavn, on the northern coast of Jutland, M. M. Olsen being the principal. Later it was moved to Skodsborg, the Frederikshavn building being used for sanitarium purposes. At Skodsborg, E. Arnesen was in charge for many years. The school now occupies buildings of its own at Naerum, a village near Skodsborg.

In 1912 the Danish Conference, originally organized in 1880, was divided into two, but later was again united into a single conference, with forty-four churches, and 2,375 members. J. C. Raft, who returned to Denmark from America in the nineties, was for many years closely connected with the work in Denmark, conducting from time to time series of meetings in Copenhagen and elsewhere.

Finland

Work in Finland was begun in 1892, when O. Johnson and two Bible workers from Sweden went to Helsingfors to labor among the Swedish-speaking people in that city. Meetings were first held in Elder Johnson's private house. Later an interest was awakened in certain country districts, so that by 1898 three churches had been raised up. In that year John Hoffman took general charge of the work. Already some of the denominational books had begun to be printed in the Finnish language. Colporteurs enjoyed good success. Institutes for their encouragement and training were held in Helsingfors and Abo.

A missionary boat, which cruised among the islands off the Baltic Coast, was maintained for some time, and proved useful in circulating literature. In 1901 Fred Anderson joined the

group of workers, and A. Boettcher, of Hamburg, was placed in charge of the publishing work in Helsingfors, where books and tracts and a periodical were issued. Finland was organized as a conference in 1909, and from that time on the work has taken a wider range, being no longer confined mainly to the Swedish-speaking portion of the population. At the end of 1912, L. Muderspach, then conference president, reported three new churches organized that year, and twice as many colporteurs in the field as in the previous year. About this time Prof. V. Sucksdorff. of the National University, accepted the Adventist Views, and for a time served as president of the conference. A. Rintala, a Finnish laborer, has been directing the work in recent years. In 1924 Finland had twenty-one churches, with an aggregate membership of 1,051.

Iceland

Iceland has an area nearly equal to that of Ireland, and though it lies just below the arctic circle, it is surrounded by the Gulf Stream, so that the climate on the coast is not very severe. The winters are mild, but the summer temperature is so low that grain will not grow to any extent, and potatoes are about the only vegetable that can thrive. The population is small, Reykjavik, the metropolis, having a little over 6,000 inhabitants, the other cities being mere fishing villages.

The inhabitants are chiefly descended from the Norwegians who went to the island in the ninth century because they resented the rule of Norway's first real king, Harald Haarfagre. They have kept their customs and their language almost unchanged for a thousand years, their isolation making this possible.

Seventh-day Adventists began their work in Iceland in November, 1897, when David Ostlund with his family reached Reykjavik. His first task was to learn the language, which is an extremely difficult one. He then began to preach and to translate and to issue a paper. In 1901 he was able to report sixteen Sabbath keepers, and a flourishing monthly periodical, besides two books translated and published. In the autumn of 1905 a meeting house seating about 250 people was finished in Reykjavik.

In 1911, Olaf F. Olsen took the superintendency, and his labors have been blessed to the building up of the work on a strong basis. Nils Anderson, of Denmark, has been prominent in the colporteur work, traveling on horseback and afoot into the most remote parts of the country, and circulating a large

number of denominational books. As many as 10,000 copies of the Icelandic edition of "Christ Our Saviour" have been sold in a single year.

The Faroe Islands are in a sense an outlying mission field for Iceland. O. J. Olsen visited the Faroes from Iceland during the World War, and organized a church there.

The Scandinavian Union as a Whole

The Scandinavian Union Conference was organized in 1901, P. A. Hansen being elected president. He was succeeded by J. C. Raft. During the World War the work progressed in all three of the Scandinavian countries, the membership increasing by 2,712, and the tithe rising from $31,700 to $118,000. During the war period the union committee voted $20,000 as a gift to the General Conference for its missionary operations.

In the plans laid following the war the Scandinavian Union had the Abyssinian Mission assigned to it, and was also asked to exercise a fostering care over the Russian Baltic States.

Germany

There were in Germany in the year 1908 a little over 7,000 members. By 1914 the number had doubled. Evangelistic work in the large cities has been very successful, there being twenty organized churches in and around Berlin. In 1908 the first tent-meeting was held, with such good results that a year later eleven tents were in use, some of which had been donated by American conferences. The field is grouped in two main divisions, the East German and West German Unions, with an aggregate of 606 churches and 24,524 members.

The Hamburg Publishing House issues some fourteen periodicals in various languages, and books and tracts in a still greater number of tongues. In 1912 a large four-story building was erected to provide additional accommodations for the growing business of the Hamburg house. Nearly a thousand colporteurs in various parts of Europe are engaged in selling the denominational publications. F. W. Spies led out in the colporteur work in 1905 before he was called to South America. H. Böx has been longest in the field. Even during the World War he was at times released from his noncombatant duties in the army, and allowed to hold institutes in various places. On these occasions he carried a paper from the military authorities to the effect that "all persons should give aid and assistance to Herr Böx, leader of the Seventh-day Adventist colporteur work."

The Friedensau school reports seventeen different languages represented among its pupils. Until the Great War, it had a regular department for the training of Russian workers. In recent years the school at Friedensau has been serving particularly the needs of the East German Union. A new training school was opened in 1921 at Kirchheim-Teck, near Stuttgart, with O. Schuberth as principal. The school property thus acquired was furnished, having been used before the war to house a commercial school. In 1921 there was also bought a hotel property at Neandertal, near Düsseldorf, where a school for West Germany is carried on, with W. Müller as principal in 1925.

Holland and Belgium

Work was begun in Holland when Elder R. G. Klingbeil began canvassing among the German river boatmen of Rotterdam, at the same time studying the Dutch language. Believers sprang up in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leyden, and The Hague. Jacob Wibbens began to labor in 1901. In the following year, when the general outlook was encouraging, heretical teaching concerning the sanctuary crept in, resulting in the loss of a number of believers. The movement shortly came to naught, however, and some returned to the fold. In 1909, Holland and Flemish Belgium were separated from the West German Conference, and a year later were made a separate mission field. The largest church in Holland is at The Hague. Churches are also to be found at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Leyden, Leeuwarden, and Utrecht. Captain Christiansen engaged in ship missionary work for years at Rotterdam.

The work in Belgium has progressed but slowly.

Russia

In Russia the work has continued to make progress in spite of great opposition. Permission was obtained in 1908 to establish a publishing house in Riga, which proved of great advantage to the colporteurs who had previously been obliged to obtain their books from Hamburg. In 1909 the Greek Church held a Congress in Kief, attended by a thousand priests, at which resolutions were adopted, condemning the work of Adventists. J. T. Boettcher, who was then in Kief, obtained permission to address the Congress, and occupied an hour and a half in explaining to an attentive audience the fundamental principles of our faith.