Introducing George Daniel Hall — Pastor-Journalist
What follows is a selection from an unpublished document entitled G.D. Hall Pastor-Journalist Reports Mission Meetings 1895-1911. The accounts have been translated from Swedish by his son George F. Hall and this selection is printed here by permission of Dr. Hall. G.D. Hall (1878-1927) was a Covenant pastor and a journalist. Fifty years after his father’s death, translator, editor, and son Dr. George F. Hall discovered that his father was a journalist for Swedish-American weeklies. In his preface Dr. Hall writes:
The sheer volume of [father’s] published writings amazed me. I began to translate them. Soon I had to make a judgment about which kind of articles were the most useful for current historians. I decided upon these travel diaries because they reflected the excitement and joy of a young immigrant in his first years at work in his adopted country serving a very vital and rapidly growing church composed of Swedish immigrants like himself. That is why within these pages many congregations may find small reminders of past leaders and events set in a living milieu of high expectations.
These materials come to Pietisten through Rev. Glen Wiberg. He came into possession of the memoirs in late February, 1995, when they were sent to him by Dr. Hall. The communication from Dr. Hall to Glen was triggered when Dr. Hall read Pastor Wiberg’s reflections on the Advent texts which were published in Christian Century (December 7, 14, 21-28, 1994 and January 4-11, 1995).
A few weeks ago, Glen read from these memoirs to a Twin Cities Pastor’s Study group taught by David Hawkinson who in turn alerted the rest of Pietisten’s editors to this “great stuff.” Glen readily responded to an invitation to come to a Pietisten editorial meeting. Our attention was riveted as he read to us from these memoirs.
Glen also read a letter from Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, President Emeritus of Augustana College, written to Dr. Hall. In the first paragraph of his long, thoughtful letter Bergendoff writes:
Thanks for the MS (G. D. Hall Reports) which has occupied me for the past two days. I compliment you on the translation, and especially for your desire to preserve these valuable documents. They are of importance for they give us a reporter’s view of what was happening. In a sense they do for the Mission people what Norelius did a generation earlier for Augustana. Here one gets to understand the feelings and ideas of a group by one who is a part of it and yet sees his experiences in a wider perspective. (September 19, 1990)
Dr. Bergendoff is about to be especially honored in the coming issue of The Swedish-American Historical Quarterly in anticipation of his 100th birthday, December 3, 1995.
It is our hope to present more of G.D. Hall’s writings in Pietisten. There is so much more to the story and there are many interesting connections. — Ed.
Mission Meeting in Nebraska
Missionsvännen, June 13, 1899
How amply the light shines in Sweden!
Soon it will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
There is no great distance between houses of prayer
And this is better than the old pagan cults.
This is the way the humorist Carl Boberg describes the situation in Mother Svea and if he came over to “Uncle Sam’s” land, this pleasant man would find many prayer houses, and, they would not be lacking in Phelps County, Nebraska.
If you go ten miles northwest from Moses Hill, you will come to the Westmark mission house which can seat about 400 persons. Here, as elsewhere, our mission began humbly and poor but it is now vigorously led by Brother Quist in a strong program. The congregation this last year built a pleasant and practical parsonage by the church, which during the same period of time, was re-decorated.
The Countryside around the church is flat and very rich. People around here with few exceptions are Swedish and many of them are well-to-do and have well-built and pleasant homes. They had to survive suffering and privation as they began to break this soil but now they are comfortable in their own properties. Our people have a great appreciation of their own homes without debt and farm people seem to gain this goal sooner than city people. Swedes are the majority in Phelps County, perhaps in time the majority in Nebraska.
The meeting began Friday evening the 19th of May under a cloudy sky holding rain and under that sign the Western farmers reflected joy in their faces. While city people say “it rains and the weather is terrible,” the farmers say “this weather today is a blessing.” For that reason farmers are not frightened by rain which came intermittently during our meeting days but the came out in good number for the meetings. Sunday night the church could not accommodate them all no matter how tightly they were literally packed into the building. Now the congregation needs to consider another extension of the building in length, as was done once before, but long churches are very difficult to preach in because the people are too far away from the preacher. It is easier to hit a target close by.
The pastors present were many and very different, young and old, but they had one universal theme: Jesus and salvation through Him. Whether they all succeeded in this most precious message, will be judged by the listeners for certainly there are those who hear and enjoy the sermon but forget to live accordingly. The door to the Word was opened and many drank up the Word as the thirsty earth accepted the rain outside. God’s Word always has power and it is received now even as in former times. We do not need another or a new Gospel but we ought to understand our present needs and bring that Word to bear in new ways and forms. The thorough going emphasis must indeed be a deep sense of awe and a sincere belief in the Word that can cleanse us from carnality, egotism, and foolishness which are like tares in the wheat.
The mission meetings did not close as usual on Sunday evening but went on until Wednesday afternoon and the listeners did not tire but stayed to listen. Yes, the more one hears God’s Word, the more eagerness to hear more. “Listen that your soul may live!” Much of the Gospel was sown and as the rain and snow fall upon the earth from heaven and do not return without bringing fertility and fruit to the earth and more seed to be sown again, and bread to eat, so shall God’s Word be that comes forth from his mouth. It will not return void but do what God pleases and have success in that which it is sent to accomplish.
While God’s good seed sprouts and develops roots in the souls of men, we leave Westmark and return to Moses Hill, the first and oldest mission house within the beautiful, rich, and well-groomed Phelps County. Many weather systems have gone over the “hill” and there is found a corps of old noble champions who under all seasons have raised the banner of the cross and cried out: “Now there is salvation for every sinner in Jesus alone!” Some suspect that the mother church is tradition and slow in some matters but she has in store the rich experiences of a mother and the mother’s heart beats warmly strong strokes for the salvation of her constituency. “Dear old Mother” is always valued most in time of need. — G.D. Hall