I am glad to say that this persecution resulted in a wonderful outbreak
of spiritual life in Scandinavia. Hundreds of people came out to the
meetings and a large number of souls were saved. The State Bishop, a
very influential man, was called upon to oppose the meetings. In a
public discourse he mentioned my name twenty times, but this only
aroused a greater curiosity in the hearts of the people to hear the
word, and in this way people were brought under the influence of the
gospel who would never have been reached any other way.
I shall never forget an experience I had in a revival in Hjorring,
Denmark. We had rented a large hall, and the first evening there were
about five hundred people present. I had been passing through some very
hard trials just before this meeting, but the trial reached its climax
as I stood before that audience. I did not feel the help of the Holy
Spirit at all as I was preaching. I went to my room that evening with
a heavy heart and spent some time on my knees in earnest prayer.
Later it was made clear to me why God permitted me to pass through this
trial. The following Sunday evening the power of the Holy Spirit was
poured out upon that audience in such a measure that it was almost
impossible for the people to resist it. There were about 750 people
present, and most of them stayed for the altar-service. There was not
room at the altar for those who wanted to seek God, so the people fell
on their knees and began to pray, and all over the hall one could hear
sinners crying to God for mercy. Many of them were saved. The meeting
did not close until after midnight. I then saw that the reason why God
had permitted me to pass through that test was that he might prepare me
for the great blessing presently to be poured out upon the meeting.