66

ing, many others assembled; and notwithstanding my shortcomings, my gracious Lord opened a door for me at the footstool of mercy. Two others added something afterwards, and we prepared to depart." Several were saluted in gospel love as they ascended the mountain, "and then," continues the writer, on my little horse, I ascended and descended the steeps with peaceful feelings. We did not arrive at Sand (near the entrance of that fjord) till almost midnight,very weary all of us.-Off again next morning early. As we stood waiting for the boat, my mind was drawn in sympathy and love to a youth who had come with us, in obedience to the powers that be,' summoned to prepare for service as a soldier. One of our company asked him if he would be man's soldier, or a soldier of Jesus Christ? He turned away and wept. I endeavoured to encourage him to be faithful to his God, and not to fear man. (This young man afterwards cheerfully endured imprisonment in Bergen Castle for not serving.) We breakfasted in the boat. A chapter was read, and a very solemn silence followed. Precious was the canopy of love spread over us, as our boat lay at rest on the still waters of the Fjord: and on the bended knee I poured out my full heart in thanksgiving

E

and praise.-Towards evening we turned a little out of our course to see two Friends on the Island Randó. About nine p.m. the moon rose majestically over the hill tops. A fine breeze sprang up; and amidst aurora, sheet-lightning, and beautiful phosphorescence of the waves, we sailed peacefully home."

The first return of Sarah Ann Doeg's birthday after settling in Norway, was marked by a special manifestation of the people's love and Christian regard. "About thirty country Friends with ourselves," she says, "took tea at Endre and Marie Dahl's, and an instructive time we had together." The 29th and 30th chapters of Deuteronomy were read, and after one or two religious discourses, an improving familiar conversation on heavenly things was kept up for some time, till by degrees the company dispersed.

Among a people thus thirsting for religious instruction and fellowship, our friends found continual opportunities in private houses and public assemblies to labour for Christ. With the return of spring, we find them again on the move. In the Third month, 1857, S. A. Doeg records being at TJÓSSEM, accompanied by a native Friend who was clothed with gospel authority, and an able preacher.

Here, and on their return by

water calling at a small island, the time.was filled up with various exercises; neighbours coming in, the Scriptures were read, and spiritual subjects made the topic of conversation, interspersed with reference to elucidatory texts. "It was a lively time, and the people seemed unwilling to depart."

In the Fourth month, she united in a visit to the rugged district of QVINNESDAL, in the south. "We had five public meetings," she says, crowded that it was impossible for the people to sit, and in some instances they could not all stand in the house, but pressed to the windows outside. We parted after one of these opportunities; we to return to Stavanger, the others for further service among the mountains."

During the following month, another journey was made northwards to FINDÓ and the STAR ISLANDS. Sometimes faith and courage sank, then the promises, "I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness," produced calm and confidence. Good meetings were gathered, the people coming in, in one instance for halfan-hour together, till the house was crowded, and four others besides our dear friend, ministered to the assembly:-after which a long row till midnight.

Other voyages and journeys occupied the summer of 1857, and even late in the year two were accomplished, though not without some danger. Approaching TEDNELAND in the Tenth month, and getting a little wrong in the dark, a feeling of fear arose, followed by a sweet sense of gratitude on their safe arrival, with the query inwardly suggested, "Canst thou doubt My kindness and My care?" and the answer rose, "Nay, Lord; Thou hast given me too many proofs of it for that." After a visit to STRANDSOGN (the parish of Strand) towards the end of the Eleventh month, the return voyage through wind and snow was severe, "the waves appearing at times as if they would really swallow us up, and many a wetting we got. I endeavoured," continues S. A. Doeg, “to cast all my care on the Lord, and my mind became tolerably calm, in the remembrance that we were in His hands whom winds and waves obey. I was more than once reminded of the text, 'Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them.'-Wet through and cold, we arrived home in safety, and surely our gratitude is due to the Lord, that no ill consequences to our health have ensued."

In the summer of 1858, an extensive voyage

along most of the broken coast of Norway was undertaken, in company with her husband, and their kind Christian fellow-labourer Endre Dahl, to the remote town of TROMSÓ in the Arctic Regions. The actual distance is 900 miles, but as the steamers called at many ports, some of them considerably within the fjords, as well as at the Lofoden Islands, the space travelled would be 1200 miles or upwards. The journey took nine

days, including delays.

Tromsó had been previously visited by James Backhouse and Lindley Murray Hoag in 1853. Some years after that, a remarkable religious movement took place, from the preaching of one Lammas from Skien in the South of Norway: and what was called The Free Church was established, renouncing the ritualism so prevalent among the Lutherans. Some members went further than their brethren, and met after the manner of Friends: in fact they were called Quakers.

So jealous were the Elders of the Free Church of the presence of these Friends from Stavanger, that they dissuaded their members from any intercourse with them: yet though the door for public meetings was thus closed alike by Lutherans and the followers of Lammas,