A Visit From Brother Russell

Expectation had begun to grow among the Bible Students about what would happen when the Gentile Times ended. Would Armageddon follow immediately? Would the congregation be taken away before Armageddon? All of this occupied the minds of the brothers. They knew, of course, that the gospel of the Kingdom should first be preached to all nations as stated at Matthew 24:14, but this, they thought, might already have happened, since all nations were represented in America, where Russell’s sermons were printed in newspapers.

Despite these anxieties, the work grew and was stimulated by visits of brothers from world headquarters, located in the United States. On May 24, 1909, Brother Russell arrived in Copenhagen. About a hundred people heard him speak on the subject “The Covenants.” In the evening another audience of 600 listened intently to his talk “The Overthrow of Satan’s Empire.” Two years later his public discourse “The Judgment of the Great White Throne” was heard by 800 people.

Brother Russell’s next visit was in August 1912. For the first time, but not the last, the brothers rented the auditorium of the Odd Fellows Hall, which had 1,600 seats. But so many people came that last-minute arrangements had to be made for an extra meeting in a smaller hall of that same building. So the talk “Beyond the Grave” was given simultaneously in both places. Because both halls were packed out, several hundred disappointed individuals had to be turned away.

[Picture on page 75]

Schoolyard in Ole Suhrs Gade, Copenhagen, 1909. Brother Russell is in the middle of the second row;