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268
MEDDELANDEN’ OCH AKTSTYCKEN
here; scruples have arisen touching baptism, the way of administering
the Lord’s Supper, attending church service, etc. which have caused a
great deal of anxiety to myself and many others, but we hope that our
great and wise Head of the Church will lead these movements to the
good of His kingdom, and perhaps through them will break some of
those bonds detrimental to spiritual life, and open a more free course to
the progress of His lifegiving word. When we see the masses of people
who are ignorant of the influence of that word on the soul of man, we
must even prefer much that would seem painful, even the tumult of
strife and a temporary disturbance, to the sorrowful state when so many
immortal souls go on sleeping the sleep of death. Those who work for
the cause of religious liberty have in these days got strong weapons in
their hands, when our State Church has called in the Civil Power to
punish some persons who have broken her rules, led, or rather misled,
by their consciences. They had certainly not only broken through the
order to be observed at the Lord’s Supper, and spoken irreverently of
the Church and the clergymen, carried away by an unwise zeal, they
had interrupted the clergymen at an examination. But they were
punished with the severest bodily punishment, twenty-eight days
incarceration with no other food but water and a given proportion of bread,
considered in Sweden as almost equivalent to the punishment of death,
or next to it in severity.
I now hasten to tell you something concerning brother Ahnfelt.
The most remarkable feature in his experience during these last months
is the awakening at Carlshamn, the most striking occurrence brought
forward by his ministry hitherto. He returned to his home in that town
shortly before Christmas, and intended to pursue his missionary tours
on the commencement of the new year. But during the Christmas
holidays the Spirit of the Lord began to pour out such blessings over his
meetings that he found so much to do there, with consoling and edifying
the newly awakened souls, that he could not leave the town till lately.
Many letters from the neighborhood describe this occurrence to me in
terms of rejoicing. He himself communicates it thus: "After my
arrival here from Smoland, a number, mostly of young persons, have
joined us, so that if it is wise to count in such cases, I should think
that thirty persons have entered the domains of Zion, persons who a
few weeks ago were wandering in the broad way of sin and vanity.
A special grace has been poured out over our little community, such as
I have never before witnessed. ’ It is of the Lord, and is wonderful in
our eyes.’ I must confess that I sometimes feel a holy anxiety at the
thought of my being permitted to take a part in this blessed work of
gaining souls for the Lord, unworthy as I am. More than once have
the words of Peter, ’ Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,’ been on
my lips, but then I have remembered our Lord’s gracious answer to
Peter. I have also, during this time, experienced much of the power
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