At Stockholm

It was a weekday, but in Stockholm all traffic led to church while flags of all nations fluttered against the blue of Swedish skies.

From the palace to church, to the City Cathedral went King Gustav V, incredibly tall, hiding a princely reticence behind a beard, under a high-hat, beneath a long-coat, a stand-up collar, a glittering pincenez. With him rode his Queen, golden-haired in buxom middle age.

From the best hotels rode ecclesiastics of the U. S. and other strong-currencied nations.

From mean boarding houses walked poor Greeks and other underpaid theologs.

All 625 delegates to the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work and as many spectators as possible having collected within the Cathedral space, a bold Te Deum, specially written, resounded from the choir. Its words were Latin.

As the eye accustomed itself to the religious dim, it caught the gleam of many a fair garment. There were the snowy ruffs of Danish bishops. Here was a strip of crimson across an Anglican back. There was an emerald twinkling from a Bulgarian chest.

Every great branch of the Christian faith except the Roman Catholic was officially represented --the Greek Orthodox, the Anglican, the Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, etc.

The sermon was by the Bishop of Winchester. His text, Matthew 4:17, declared the "imminence of the Kingdom of God." His theme etched a contrast between old church councils which debated dogma and this conference which concerned itself with the practical good which Christianity should attempt to achieve in the world today; his crescendo, "the sovereignty of Jesus in everything pertaining to human affairs." The Patriarch of Alexandria uttered the benediction.

Then, in innumerable languages, choir, prelates, congregation sang Martin Luther's militant hymn "Ein Feste Burg" ("A Mighty Fortress").

Thence delegates followed swiftly behind King Gustav's motor to the palace. They listened to words from Archbishop Soderblom, Sweden's primate, to words from the King who concluded:

"May it be given to us during your stay to see clearer than before what way the church must go in order to bring to power the spirit of Christ in a modern world rent with unrest and strife.

"It is important that the churches be brought nearer together. With these words I declare the Council for Practical Christianity opened."

The reply for the U. S. sections was delivered by Arthur Judson Brown, who for two generations has given the command to Presbyterian missions to "fling out the banner" that "nations waiting to be born" might "baptize their spirits in its light."

At the buffet luncheon which followed, the Crown Prince, an earnest Christian, was seen everywhere chatting with delegates.

Finally the sessions began-- speeches, discussions, aspirations, resolutions.

It was a great day for Stockholm, and according to Bishop Charles H. Brent, who is acting as correspondent for the New York Herald-Tribune, "this has been a notable day in the history of Christendom."