The Introduction of Christianity into Denmark

Taking the Bible into the Homes. - The American Bible Society at present has about 3,200 workers. They distribute nearly 10,000,000 copies of the Bible annually. One colportcur, seventy-five years old, has tra.veled 65,000 miles, visited 185,000 homes, and distributed more than 110,000 volumes of the Scriptures in the mountains of West Virginia. Recently a ]lrazilian colporteur in oue month visited 841 homes, spoke to 8,335 persons, and sold or gave a.way 1,748 Bibles; Testaments, and gospels.

Abyssinia. -- A year ago nine missionaries opened a mission-station at Addis Ababa, Abyssinia. Some months later two more stations were opened in Soutl,iern Abyssinia. In October last seven more workers went out to enter this :field. The missionaries e:\.-pect to open s.everal new stations in the nea.r future. ·

What One Bible Did. - l\'.Iany years ago a Jew bought a Bible in a Bible house in Constantinople. He wanted only the Old Testament, but because he could buy the whole Bible for less than he could get the Old Testament alone from the Je,vish publishing house, he made the purchase. He became interested in the New Testament and in due time accepted .Christ. His wife did the same. About twenty-five years ago . this couple removed to San Francisco. · Th~ir ruling passion was to· spread the Bible among the Jews. When the man died se,•eral years ago, he left all he had to .the San Francisco agency of the Bible Society, reserving for his aged wife· no more than an annuity during her life.

Missionary ~nterprise of the Mormons. - The Mormons of Utah are annually spending $10,000,000 for missions. They are very busy in ·GermaJ;J.y and Austria, where 300 active missionaries are working and are said to have made 15,000 converts. N. L. O.B.

Those Jr{inisters' Children. - At a commencement of the Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., President J. R. McCain said that, while only ten per cent. of the students of the school were the daughters of ministers and missionaries, more than fifty per cent. of all the honors had been carried off by them. What Dr. W. T. Ellis says is probably truE!, "It is better to be the child of a minister than of a millionaire." Dr. Ellis is not a minister I ·

Leprosy in Porto Rico. - This beautiful island has no less than 60,000 active cases of ·leprosy and tuberculosis out of a population of ~ess than one and a half million. The government has established a camp for lepers and a sanitarium for tubercular ~tients. A missionary is supervising the religious

work.

The Introduction of Christianity into Denmark.

Far up towards the North, cradled upon the waves, lies Denmark, a little country, but rich and beautiful, a free country, inhabited by a free-born and noble people, the only land aud race in the world which from the earliest times has never been vassal to another power or has bowed down before a foreign ruler. In the olden days the race that · lived in Denmark was a warlike people; from it the

Cimbrians set forth, ,,,ho ravaged Rome; from it the Vikings set sail to harass t]1e coasts of England and Frauce. They worshiped various gods, among them the war god Thor, who was greatly esteemed; and the Danes considered it to be the greatest happiness to die in battle in order thereby to go forth to the highest of the gods, Odin, who hospitably regaled the brave warriors. Also upon this land the eye of God rested, and the time came for His messenger to journey there in order to plant the Cross upon Danish soil.

The man to whom Goel gave His call was a Benedictine monk by the name of Ansgar, a Frank, born 801 A. D. at Corbie, on the river Somme, in

Northern France. '.rhe son of an officer in Emperor

Charlemagne's army, J1e lost his ~other when he was five years old .and, while still a boy, entered a monastery in the neighborhood. Later, as a young monk, he lived in the monastery: Corvey, on the river Weser, in Germany, founded by the monks from Corbie. He is called the Apostle of the North because he labored not only in Denmark, but also in Sweden. Altho~gh he was not the first missionary in these lands, :- since missionary work had already been done in 822 by Bishop Ebbo, of Reims, - Ansgar is entitled to the name, as it was owing to him that the Gospel obtained a firm footing in the North. . The original cause of his journey to Denmark ,vas that one of the Danish petty kings, Harald, who was at loggerheads with other chieftains, sought help from the German emperor Ludwig, whose land adjoined Denmark on the ·south. The emperor, who was a Christian, promised to help King Harald, but made it a condition that Harald and his fellows be baptized and take Christian priests with them to

Denmark.

Since nobody at the emperor's court cared to undertake the journey to the land of the warlike and pagan Danes, attention was focused upon the pious Ansgar; and! when he was asked whether he was willing' to go, despite the fact that his brother

monks ach·ised him agai11st it and pointed out how comfortable the conditions were in the monastery, he replied that he was willing to serve God in anything that involved the duty of obedience. Ile gave the emperor a clear and happy affirmative to the query whether he dared, nncl would, accompany King Harald. Another Frankish monk, Autbert, joined him, and in the year 82G these two set foot upon Danish soil. · Ansgar was a noble man, not strong physically, but strong in faHh anc1 love, n serious, pious man.

As soon as he and Autbert arrived in Denmark, they began their work, partly at the king's court, where they found misunderstanding and got very little encouragement from the king, partly by means of preaching the Gospel in places about the country where the people assembled, and partly by educating children born in bondage, but ransomed by them from the Danish warriors in a. little school, which they founded in the town of Iledeby, now Slesvig, one of the most southerly towns in the Denmarl~ of that time. Autbert soon became ill and was compelled to return to Germany, but Ansgar faithfully continued his work, and by his mild and lovable nature he little by little succeeded in spreading the Gospel in the hearts of many.

It was painstaking work which Ansgar carried on, and great were the obstacles he met. Not only opposition from the pagan chiefs, warriors, and · priests, but also disturbing conditions of war between the various petty kings caused serious hindrances. And when King Harald, who should have· been his greatest support, was obliged to ffee from Denmark, Ansgar sorrowfully had to go with him.

But he did not give pp. A messenger from

Sweden came to the Christian German emperor to tell him that up there were people who desired to ·hear the Gospel, and Ansgar was at once ready to go there. His mission was so successful that the

Swedish King Bjoern as well as many great Swedish nobles consented to be· baptized.

In order to give the Northern mission a firmer basis, the emperor founded an archbishopric at

Hamburg, in Northern Germany, near the Danish frontier, and Ansgar was made the first archbishop there. · With untiring energy he directed the mission· in the North and ransomed prisoners and children, whom he ca-:ised to be brought up in the service of God, and in the ensuing years many were won for Christ.

But in 845 Danish warriors broke into Hamburg, burned the town and its churches, and harassed the. countryside, and Ansgar had to fiee, robbed of everything. But Ansgar did not lose courage. "He did not sin with his lips, but repeated Job's words: 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Bies cd be lhe name of the Lord, ' " his biographer writes.

Despite tribulations he perseYered in faith and patience and hoped to win the crown of martyrdom, which Goel, however, did not grant him.

When the bishopric at Bremen became vacant in S49, .Ansgar became archbishop. The bishopric in the dangerously situated city of Hamburg had been abandoned. ,vith renewed power he again took up his work for Denmark. He endeavored to win over the Danish King Erik by friendliness and gifts, and he succeeded in obtaining permission to build the first Danish church, of wood, in Sleswig, lhe Church of Our Lady [M:ar'y]. Now Christianity gained a foothold in Denmark. But no more· than that; for although somewhat later another church was built in Ribe (860) and small chapels. were erected here and there throughout the country, for about two hundred years the fight between heathendom which had its roots fastened everywhere, more especially in the remote districts - and the Gospel was waged. It was not until the reign of the Danish King Knud (Canute) the Great (1014---1035), who also became the powerful King of England, that the Christian Church obtained its fixed form 11,Jld order and the Inst vestige of paganism disappeared.

But the honor of having started the missionary work belongs to Ansgar, who in ·s65 died quietly and peacefully in Bremen and was buried in the cathedral there. He was no saint in the Roman Catholic sense of the term. On the contrary, be once said to some one who praised him for his gracious gifts and work : "If I could prevail upon my God for one miracle, I would pray Him by His grace to make a good man of me." He w3:s an ttvangeZico.Z . Catholic and therefore a useful servant in God's vineyard. F. FRANDSEN, in N. L. 0 . News Bulletin.

Contributions Received b:y the Treasurer. December 1-31, 1928.

Received for Colored Miaaiona from the following col• ored congregntiona: Alabama Luther College, Selma, $006.77; Auguatana., Alexandria, 20.00; Bethany, Nyland, 5.93 ; Bethany, Yonkera, 00.00; Bethlehem, Holy Ark, 9.86; Bethlehem, Monroe, 3.00; Bethlehem, New Orleana, 67.60; Bethel, Conover, 1.50; Bethel, Rocle West, 28.24; Christ, Roaebud, 15.47; Concordia, Lowentone, 2.00; Concordia, New Orleana, 16.00; Holy Crou, Camden, 1.21; E~uer. Atmore, 7.40; Faith, Mobile, 3.75; Gethsemane, Hamburg, 13.17; Grace, Concord, 80.00; Grace, Greensboro, 10.77; Grace, Ingomar, 28.99; Grace, St. Louis, 25.00; Hope, Kings Landing, 23.66; Immanuel, Cincinnati, 10.00 J Im· manuel, Pensacola, 4.00; Immanuel, Shankleto'WJl, 6.00; Immanuel Lutheran College, Greensboro, 666.40; Luther