CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5
SCANDINAVIAN AWAKENING
Edwin Orr's first book? had received a warm welcome from the reading public, continuing edition by edition until after a decade there were more than 100,000 copies in circulation and not a few translations into other languages.
One of the earliest criticisms made was that, Britain being a Christian country, it was easy for a "faith" evangelist to live off the kindness of the Christians in the country. Edwin Orr believed that God could answer prayer anywhere, so he began to plan to go farther afield and visit Soviet Russia—surely not a Christian country in the accepted sense of the term.
The first stage of Orr's journey took him to Scandinavia, where he witnessed the phenomenon of nation-wide revival for the first time in his life, for an evangelical awakening had already begun in Norway under the preaching of Frank Mangs.
Orr met in Cardiff a coal-exporter who gave him a free passage in a tiny collier to Oslo.? It sailed bravely up the English
Channel through the Straits of Dover into the North Sea.
The month was January (1935) but it was warm enough for sunbathing on deck in the English Channel.
Then broke a fierce storm which raged in the North Sea for three days and two nights. For forty-eight hours, the captain held to his bridge. His face showed considerable anxiety. The ship was in danger. With the Londonderry Air in mind, Orr wrote the following verses :* To follow Thee— My heart's desire, O Saviour!
Close by Thy side, as near as one could be, That men may see, By every day's behaviour, That "to abide in Christ" is following Thee.
How can I swerve
If Thou art guiding all the way, Providing all and watching over me!
I'm undeserving!
But *tis true that every day My greatest joy, O Lord, is following Thee.
The path is steep, The road is rough, oft where I go, But 'tis the pathway Thou, O Lord, hast trod;
One need not weep— There's joy enough to learn and know That every step is upward, home to God.
The winds may blow, Or clouds befog with icy breath, And storms may whip us in an angry sea; But this I know, In sunshine, shadow, life or death, My greatest joy, O Lord, is following Thee.
During the second night, Orr woke up. The engines were no longer throbbing. The winds were howling. The waves were dashing against the ship. The storm raged in all its fury.
Seas were pouring over the deck, for the ship was lying at the mercy of wind and wave. The captain feared that his lifeboats would be smashed if he steamed farther into the tempest.*
North-east were the snow-clad mountains of Norway, too far away. The little coal-boat was tossed on the mountainous seas, but Orr felt that he was in the hollow of God's hand. The danger passed and the little ship limped into port.
A newspaper account indicated that the young unknown evangelist had arrived in Oslo without a friend, but had preached in the Tabernacle and Bethlehem Church and Albert Lunde's
Assembly Hall in Méllergaten. Welcomed by leaders of the various denominations, he had exercised a busy ministry with great results. So great was the demand for his first book that Norwegian and Swedish translations were being rushed.®
Among those who impressed the young evangelist was Albert Lunde, the Lutheran preacher who had led the revival movement of 1905 in Norway, the most remarkable work of God
ever witnessed by Eivind Berggrav, as the latter told Orr after forty years' consideration, when Bishop of Oslo and a worldrenowned figure. Lunde, like Jakob Obrn and Ludwig Johnson, gave Orr a hearty welcome.
Edwin Orr's visit to Norway proved to be quite an important event in development of his spiritual life. He had heard much about revival movements. He had read a good deal about what happened in times of revival. But for the first time in his life he actually saw a revival in progress, confirming and deepening his longing for revival in all parts of the world.
Nightly, there were meetings in the churches of Oslo. In one church where he spoke on revival, he was followed by Karl Andersson, a Swedish evangelist who spoke with great power.® "And now,' said Andersson, "we will leave this meeting open for confession of our failure..."
Something irresistible forced Orr to his feet again, and he hesitatingly told them (through an interpreter) that besetting sin had kept him from blessing for years, adding that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us . . . "if we confess our sin"'.
There followed a long period of waiting, then a young lady walked to the platform and in a low voice confessed that she had been a hindrance to revival. She burst into tears and many in the audience began to sob. The Irish evangelist had not till then ever seen such deep emotion in a meeting, certainly not in the British countries.
One after another, members of the church and visitors stood to request the prayers of the people. Sometimes the Swedish evangelist challenged this one or that. The meeting closed at quite a late hour.
The remarkable thing was not so much the unusual meeting, but that scenes like these were being witnessed in many churches round about at the same time. It was a movement of revival.
Orr addressed meetings in various places. One of his interpreters, certainly the most skilful, was Arnold Ohrn, afterwards General
Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance with its 20,000,000 members. They became life-long friends.
At the end of the week, on Sunday night, Edwin Orr had retired to the little guest room above the Baptist Tabernacle we
and was praying about his journey next day by train and ferry to Copenhagen, capital of Denmark. He had received various small gifts from Norwegian friends but not enough for his journey to Denmark. He rose from his knees to procure a handkerchief from his overcoat, and with it pulled out a roll of Norwegian banknotes.
His augmented funds being sufficient for the train ticket, with approximately five kroner or five shillings over, he proceeded east and south from Oslo through Goteborg in Sweden to Denmark, He found the Danes much the same sort of people as the Norsemen, although their glottal accent seemed an incomprehensible one after the clarity of Oslo diction. Many
Danes spoke English.
That same day, risteligt Dagblad published a long interview; the editor asked Orr: "Do we stand on the verge of a world-wide revival?" It concluded with the question :7
"What, in your opinion, is the greatest hindrance to world revival?"
"It is not Rationalism, Communism, or the like, but the indifference of believers themselves. Revival will come to us— only by the way of obedience to the Word, of living faith, and of unceasing prayer—when, as Paul writes in Romans xii. 1,
'we present our bodies as a living, holy and God-acceptable sacrifice'.''® When Orr arrived in Copenhagen, the temperature was down to zero, his funds were five kroner and he knew no one in Denmark:® But he had been given the name of a Mr. Sérensen, a Christian businessman, who could arrange meetings for the Lutheran and Free Church people. Orr looked up the name in the telephone directory, and found to his dismay that Sdrensen was the commonest name in Denmark.
Back of his mind came the recollection that the man's first name was Nils, so he looked up the directory again, and found five thus listed. Making a note of the first address, Kleinsgade 2, he walked in the bitter cold to the apartment house. He rang the bell. A lady came to the door.
"Good day,' said Orr. "Be so kind as to tell me is Herr Sdrensen at home?"
The lady replied in incomprehensible Danish to Orr's under-
standable Norwegian. Orr repeated the question, the lady her answer. Orr was about to ask again, when the lady closed the door on him.
© As Orr descended the staircase, the lady opened the door again and called him back. In her hand was a copy of Orr's first book, published only five weeks before, printed in English, but with a photograph upon the cover. She pointed at the photograph and at Orr. Orr replied in faultless Danish:
"Ja. Ja, ja. Ja, ja, ja."
She invited him in. She talked to him in Danish which he could not understand and he talked to her in English which she could not understand. She telephoned her husband, who spoke business English.
"This sounds impossible," said Herr Sdrensen. "A Danish lady missionary in the China Inland Mission sent me your book the other day. So I prayed that you might come to Denmark. But I did not expect that you would come. And now you telephone me from my own house. This is the hand of God."
Orr was invited to stay for lunch.. His hostess could speak no English and he could speak no Danish, but both could eat, so they ate. He was invited to return for supper. Orr secretly was hoping that this kind couple would ask him to stay for the night as well, but it proved that they were a married couple without children and had.no extra bedroom in their apartment.
Sérensen then asked Orr to address an evangelistic rally in the ballroom of the Technical Institute, the evangelist Eric Larsson giving way for him.?° At ten minutes after 10 o'clock, the meeting was over. It was bitterly cold outside as Orr lifted his heart in prayer for something that had preoccupied his. mind throughout the day—a place to sleep. As if in response, Sérensen said to him:
"I want you to do me a favour. I want you to change your hotel. Down by the City Hall, there is an excellent hotel,
Missionshotellet, to which we take all ministers and missionaries."
"Now," he went on, noticing the puzzled look on Orr's face, "I will go with you to the hotel where you are already staying
—to apologize for you for changing your plans so late at night."
Orr had left his single suitcase at a little shop, so he waved off his friend's proffered assistance, ran a couple of blocks and returned with his bag."
"You were not long," said Sérensen. "Did you have any trouble? Were they not disappointed that you did not sleep there for the night?"
Orr suppressed a smile and observed that they did not seem a bit disappointed. Sdrensen carried the suitcase, and presented its owner at the desk of the hotel, taking his farewell before Orr was checked in. The booking clerk looked down his list of rooms and then observed that they did not have a single room vacant!
"Don't misunderstand," he said. '""We have double rooms, and apartments, and suites of rooms but the single rooms are all occupied. Ja, vel, Herr Sérensen is such a good friend of ours that we shall be glad to let you have a more expensive room for the cheaper price. Come upstairs."
Orr had been praying all day for such a room, so as they walked along the corridor, he was already thanking God in his heart for the bed. The man threw open a door and switched on the light.
"This is a family apartment," he explained, waving his hand over a sofa, a table, a writing-desk, a reading lamp, an easy chair, four other chairs, and four beds!
"You may sleepin all four beds if you like," he went on.
'"'We shall charge you the same price."
Edwin Orr reverted to Irish type and slept in all four beds that night, turn about. He believed that his heavenly Father had a sense of humour.
Orr's final meeting in Copenhagen was unforgettable. The Sunday evening congregation had crowded out the ballroom, with 700 seated and many standing inside and outside the vestibule doors.
Orr's interpreter was his good friend Herr Sérensen. They prayed for a breath from heaven. Orr first attempted to speak and sing a little in Danish. Then followed the message on the text "He shall be satisfied''.1* It was getting late when the closing hymn was sung. Orr appealed to all who desired blessing to remain behind. Scarcely
a score went home. The meeting remained as crowded as before as listeners outside made their way in.
Then followed an appeal to all who were either unhappy or dissatisfied to come forward to the platform to confess sin, or backsliding, or some spiritual need. At first, nobody moved.
Then one, then two, then a dozen, then a score, came to the front, coming up the aisles weeping and praying. The pastor prayed with them. After a second invitation, another score of Christians penitently took their place. Then another group, and another.
Someone began to sing softly a hymn about the sufferings of Christ. Nearly everyone joined in. A young man stood before the platform for ten minutes and would not return to his seat.
"Tam not a Christian," he said, "'and I want to be."
Pastor Eric Larsson made a hurried exit with the young man to a little prayer room, used as an inquiry room. A dozen people seeking salvation followed. Many found their peace in Christ and returned to the meeting with real joy written on their faces.
When at last a young woman came forward to say something sotto voce, the people seemed more deeply moved. About 100 endeavoured to come forward at once, so a young man spoke up:
"Many of us here still want to confess our need of revival.
Let us confess Christ where we are. There is not enough room at the platform for all whose hearts are being touched. We mean quite as much as those who have found enough space to go forward.'}8 Altogether, about 500 people thus confessed or witnessed that night.
There was an interesting sequel to that visit to Denmark, short as it was. The editor of a large Danish daily paper professed experience of conversion, left the journalistic field for the ministry, and became a leading Lutheran priest noted not only for his faithfulness to God but for his loyalty to Denmark during the Nazi occupation when he became a leader of the Underground.
From Denmark, Orr travelled by ferry and train to Orebro in middle Sweden. In Stockholm Edwin Orr preached upon
arrival in the famous Bethlehem Church which had housed the congregations attending the ministry of George Scott and his successor, Carl Olof Rosenius, the leader of the mid-Century
Awakening in Sweden which paralleled the revival of 1859 in Great Britain. Orr met many local leaders in Stockholm, including the saintly Prince Oscar Bernadotte, brother of King
Gustaf and a humble Christian man as well as an outstanding Christian leader.
Edwin Orr lived a life of faith in Sweden also.
I was writing in my bedroom at the hotel. A knock came to the door. It was the guest from the room at the end of the corridor, bringing a postcard (or something like that) for me. He spoke good English.
"Give him some of that money," said a voice in the depth of my heart. I hesitated. I needed the money. "Freely you have received, freely give."' I called him back.
''That is from the Lord," I said, reaching him a banknote.
"What?" Bewilderment was.written on his face. I repeated what I had said. Tears came to his eyes. Hurriedly he said:
*"No, oh, no! You must not. You are a foreigner here. You will need the money. You have no friends. Oh, no! Thank you! No!"
"That is very strange," said I. "I am quite sure that the Lord told me a moment ago to give it to you ... May I ask you a question? Are you living by faith? And did you pray for this today?"
"prayed for this this morning," and he seemed broken down as he took it.
The man told Orr his story. He was a minister who had suffered a breakdown in health. With a friend, he embarked upon a cycle tour of Europe and the Holy Land. At that moment, he was busy writing an account of his adventures. He had run short of funds, and had prayed earnestly that the Lord would show him His approval of the project by sending him ten kronor that day.
They had a delightful time of fellowship together. He rejoiced that the Lord had provided for him, thus showing His sign of leading. And Orr rejoiced that the Lord had used him as a channel, showing His seal of approval.
Orr continued his travels through Finland, finding open doors in that country as well as in the other Scandinavian countries. It was in the depth of winter, with not only the streets of the cities snowbound but even the sea frozen twenty feet thick. The evangelist used English or words in Swedish to make himself understood, not even attempting to learn the difficult
Finnish language.
In a restaurant in a town now within the Soviet Union, Edwin Orr ordered fried eggs for breakfast, first in Swedish, then in German, then in French, then in English—all to no avail, for the giggling waitress spoke only Finnish and Russian.
Giving up, Orr told her to bring him anything she liked: but this too went by not understood. As a last resort, the Irishman stood to his feet, waved his arms and cackled like a hen. There was much laughter in the dining room and in the kitchen, but the waitress returned with a well-cooked omelet.
Although Edwin Orr did not attempt to learn Finnish, he succeeded in becoming fairly fluent in Norwegian and understandable in Swedish. He mastered what little he learned of the language by the most practical method, everyday use.
In the Bedehus Cafe in Alesund, the evangelist ordered a pastry with cream for which Norway is justly renowned. The waitress brought the delicacy together with a cake-knife. The latter seemed unsuited to cutting the creamy pastry, so Orr asked in his best Norwegian:
"Be so kind and bring me a fork!"
Every word was in good Norse except the word "fork"' which was in English. The waitress could not understand the English word, nor could Orr recall the Norwegian for "fork". The impasse continued until Orr finally said in good Norse:
"Be so kind. Bring me the wife of the knife."
That is how he learned the word 'gaffel, and many another word came the same way.
Scandinavian customs appealed to him just as much as did the viking people. He developed such an enthusiasm for them that he went out of his way to speak to Scandinavians anywhere in the world. Marriage then was far from his thoughts, but deep down in his heart he resolved to marry some typical Scandinavian beauty, other things being equal—culturally and spiritually."
Twenty years later, he brought his African-born, Norwegiandescended wife to the land of her forbears. Carol Carlson Orr spoke English as her family language, Afrikaans as a telephone operator, and Zulu as the language of the people on the borders of Pondoland. She had learned French but no Norwegian.
The Orrs were greeted on arrival in Alesund by cousins who spoke Landsmal, the language of western Norway, which differed from Riksmal, the language of eastern Norway, as much as broad Scots differs from King's English, Landsmal was incomprehensible to Edwin Orr, who had learned what little he knew in Oslo dialect; but Mrs. Orr found to her surprise that she could understand her cousins talking the same language as did her grandmother, though of course she was unable to reply. Conversation continued one-way until Orr hit upon the idea of asking his wife to translate their remarks into English, to which he replied in Norwegian Riksmal, the language of Oslo. The local newspaper heard of it and reported:
A remarkable couple is visiting Norway. Mrs. Orr can understand Norwegian, but cannot talk the language. Dr. Orr can speak Norwegian, but does not understand what he says!
It was the beginning of many visits to Norway and the rest of Scandinavia, for Carol Orr had many cousins and a host of second cousins who overwhelmed their kinfolk from far away with a gracious hospitality. Edwin Orr conducted his preaching and teaching missions not only in the Baptist and other Free
Church congregations but also in stately Lutheran churches of the Church of Norway, with episcopal goodwill and support.
Half a dozen of his books were translated into the Scandinavian languages, and he lectured in many Scandinavian schools of higher learning. Norway held the place it had won in his heart.
In 1962, Edwin Orr visited Norway, Sweden and Denmark, accompanied by Mrs. Orr. His first campaign was conducted in the big State Church of Volda, a college town near which his saintly mother-in-law had been born. This was. followed by a series likewise interdenominationally supported in the bigger town of Alesund. This 1962 visit to Norway concluded with a meeting of clergy in Qslo presided over by the Bishop of Oslo. Orr also preached in his old haunts in Denmark and he lectured in four theological colleges in Sweden.