c and song, to the camp
ground, was almost like a glimpse of the coming glory when the whole
earth should rejoice before the Lord. But, of course, there came always
to that great gathering a sufficient number of the unconverted to
furnish abundant opportunity for conquests to be made, and the great
Meetings, lasting throughout the day, never broke up without the
ingathering of many souls.

The Councils for Officers which followed during the next few days in
Stockholm and elsewhere, gave The General great opportunities to confirm
and extend the influence of his teachings throughout the whole of these
Northern countries.

Some of The General's earlier visits to Sweden were, however, still more
interesting, and perhaps even more permanently effective, because, as we
shall see, they helped the newly-rising force, enlisted under their
first leader--a devoted woman--to gain some liberty for demonstrations
and other work outside their own buildings such as they had not had
before, and strengthened them in their resolution to fight, whilst
almost all their fellow-countrymen still looked down upon them with
disdain if not with hatred. It is difficult to realise now what a
dreadful thing The Army in those days must have appeared. Huge crowds
gathered from the very first to the Meetings, convened in theatres and
other public buildings by Major, now Commissioner Ouchterlony, a Swedish
lady who had been appointed by The General to inaugurate the Work in her
own land; but the bulk of the population seemed to regard her as though
she was a suffragette, advocating window-breaking or something worse.
This will explain some of the facts The General records in his diary of
his visit seven years later. The journey began with a great Meeting at
Hull, after which the traveller went on board his steamer for a
miserable two days' voyage to Gothenburg. After Meetings there he
proceeded to Sundsvall, a city from which point his Journal reads:--

"At the conclusion of the evening Meeting the dear Soldiers flocked
to the station, crowding the platform and expressing, as far as
opportunity served them, their love for me, and their desire that
God should bless me. I spoke to them for a few minutes; then came
the signal and the start, and then as we slowly moved off
handkerchiefs were waved, volleys of 'Amens' were fired, the Band
played, and away we were borne out into the darkness. All this was
like a drea