Zacharias Topelius

“ In our country, the new truth came silent and fruitful as a spring rain. No liand got up there. And yet, no people are so stubborn about old habits and old faith as the Finnish people. How, then, do we want to explain the quiet, gentle victory of the new teaching? First, through the power of God's Word and God, which bends the hearts of men as a waterbuckler. But then we must remember that almost all worship has taken place in Latin. Now Luther's disciples began to trade, preach and learn in the mother tongue, Finnish and Swedish. ”

“ When these refugees regained the place of their former farm or town, the houses were burned, plundered or without windows and roofs, the well filled with soil, forest grew on the fields, birds had their nest in the neglected abandoned church. Children asked in vain for their parents and parents after their children. No one knew their unknown fate; only rarely was anyone found to be lost forever. And yet, these poor refugees tore joy when they regained the land of the dear hometown. ”

“ And so, teaching goes like a beam of light through all parts of the people, from folk school and toddler school to university, offering all the knowledge and good practices worth more than silver and gold. ”

“ What does it make for men if she gains the whole world and hurts her soul? We sat down in peace and quiet to enjoy the abundance of the new age, or forget God, to praise only the men's nose, though, the trauma of a new dust with all evil suffering will have power over us, and we shall be despised as perceived as many other people are forgiven before us in their vigilance or their courage. ”

“ How many, many thousands have she not met in the bitterest need, and in better days led their way to the knowledge of truth and all good! And also the Finnish priest, how often did he not share the poverty of the people, broke his bread with the hungry and in playfulness, as in other things had been a good counselor, a goalkeeper for the formation and all the prosperous progress, sometimes the ignorant people whom he stood closer than anyone else! ”

“ But when we clean the dry twigs, when we get it air and light and wide fresh, new soil around its roots, see, then it will shoot green peaks, then it will flourish in healthy youth. When I think of what this people were going through, without dying, what it burst, without bursting and forsaking without despising; then I imagine that it can never be broken, as long as its root is healthy. There is only one enemy who can kill it by embracing its core, and his name is Veklighet. But see, then, the hard, cold, poor country stands around and says: work! ”

“ It is true that the railroad takes even more away, that the seaman can no longer tamper with the sewing machine and that the diligent spinning knife is in vain spinning his yarn at the cutting edge of the factory. During the transition period, it is difficult for many. But soon, now the breadless work will throw elsewhere, the machine can not be confused with the human being. She will surrender to the machine the mechanical work, requiring only body power or diligence, and retaining the chores that her thinking spirit may be with in the work. ”

“ Savonian is more sensible and more calculating man than the good-natured Karelian. His trade usually succeeds better, and he laughs at his neighbors, who today eat more than they deserve yesterday.
Besides the sweat and the forest, Savonian farmer devotes the greatest care to the stable and the barnyard. His horse is the best trawler in the country; his cow gives him so much butter that he carries out many thousands of kilograms a year. ”

“ Nobody is excluded from a higher education. But for the big crowd of people's children, boys and girls, Finnish and Swedish talents, the folk school is now open. To this end, the states have granted special contributions, whereby the state also finances seminars for the education of folklore and folklore teachers. In addition, every place provides for their higher or lower colleges. This great work for the people's education is still in its place since 1863. Some towns have hurried to set up as many colleges as possible; others have been shown to be contented or unfaithful. ”

“ Around the whole of Sweden, such a crusade was preached to the heathen in Finland. It would be a holy war, where every warrior would receive the forgiveness of sins, and the one who died would receive eternal salvation. The Swedes were fierce and now had peace in their own country, they were always ready to fight for honor and profit. ”

“ Simplicity and diligence are your best ornamentation; Only the work makes us all rich, only godliness, modesty and quiet domestic virtues make the Finnish girl a treasure for her home and a worthy daughter of the foster country. ”

“ How our country grows in prosperity through the living forces of the new age, we see it in our eyes, and it says today's state of affairs, or political science. As history presents to us a past and already completed time, the statistics record the present conditions that are still in the process, and treat them with each other, or in earlier times. This is instructive. It shows us with illustrative figures if a country goes forward or back in prosperity, population, good practice, knowledge or more. ”

“ They believe that folk school makes their disciples to masters and teaches them to despise agriculture as well as the simple practices of the home. They forget that no profession in our day can transform knowledge. They do not know that in other developed countries, which are older, such as in Sweden, the most diligent farmers, the most respected farmers, the most intelligent housewives are those who, in their youth, have gained better insights and education in the primary school. ”

“ She demands, as always, of them a good conduct, diligence, obedience and order; but she does not sharpen, as before, her teaching with the rice. She punishes with gentleness, she pleads with patience, she appeals to her disciples own sense of justice and is pleased to see them, bold, happy, strong to body and soul, fighting for the truth. ”

“ But the art of being rich does not consist in having large incomes, but having small expenses. We must also know that the country paid the most honorable years 100 to 140 million marks and demand for foreign goods. We have not received our salt, our cotton, our flour mats or railways for nothing. We pay annually with large stretches of shredded forests, our coffee boiler, our sugar, our wines, our foreign fabrics and all our neighbor's clothes. It is natural that when the foreigner buys a lot of us, we buy a lot of him. ”

“ But since the law allows divorced warriors of Jewish descent to entertain their families in their country, there are a few hundred Jews in Helsinki and Wiborg, who trade in old clothes and furniture, and have their own synagogues, where they celebrate their worship after Moses' law. Most are poor and low-minded, not rich and mighty, like the Jews in other countries; but everyone acknowledges in them the remarkable people, as before God's people, that the punishment of God came upon them. ”

“ God has put such power into nature that it hurts to replace great devastations. In every household that time a strange number of children grew up. And then the crowd grew rapidly, so that within less than one male age, the country had returned as many inhabitants as before the Great War. ”

“ Many fear them, and the crown service has a lot of trouble with them; but we must not forget that they are poor refugees, like the Jews. Therefore, we must have compassion on them; because of Jews and Gypsies we learn what great disaster it is to have no fatherland. Then there is a man like the wide sea: he sees no beach, he has no harbor, he lives and dies like a stranger on earth. ”

“ At the beginning of his government there were difficult war. The young king fought with his father's bravery and managed to win a honorable peace. After a hundred years of consecutive war, a happy peace of peace, which lasted for the remainder of the government of Karl XI, now followed.
Finland had given half of its crops and half of its combatable men to the long war in foreign countries. Now it got rest and breathe out. The tired people are feeling a sense of well-being and new power. Many fate of the home was repeated again, the population grew, prosperity increased, taxes were reduced. ”

“ In time, God sends a great misunderstanding, to awaken a slumbering faith. Often, the reasoning Finnish people, in their desire to explore the depths of God's word, have come to the detractors of swarmers. ”

“ Christianity, society and free, human cultivation, it carries both East and West within. Of such people God can do something. When the time was complete, God loosened the former band with Sweden, knocking the people into a new bond with Russia, as well as referring it to its origins. For it seems that the meaning of God is quite obvious, namely that the Finnish people will be a teacher and advocate for many lost progenitors, while it makes the stupidity of their stomach fertile to humanity. ”

“ During good and ordinary years, the crowd increases, by which more people are born, than die in the country; but during war, famine and hunger years, it is reduced by the fact that more people die than are born. If you count everything together, you will find that the country's population doubles in 60 or 70 years. ”

“ There is our own pastoral garden, where is our field. I can see the farmyard, the gate, the barnyard and the well. There she is left, the old ripened ridge with the sooty door, where I used to jump evenly in the straw. ”

“ Another stranger and alienated people have traveled all the way to Finland. These people are the Gypsies, which of the Swedes are called Tattars and of the Finns Mustalaiset. Of these, here are a few hundred, recognized by their brown skin, their black hair and their dark southern eyes. You have been forgiven sought to make them permanently settle in one place and seek their income with farming or other bourgeois nutrition. They prefer to walk in inner and eastern Finland from farm to farm and from town to town, have no own houses and sofas sometimes in the woods. ”

“ Many of those returning found their farms occupied by new inhabitants, and it was a long time before ordinance and law before the preaching of the Word of God and the teaching of the schools again. But it went on forever: hope and confidence relieved all the delays. Turku Academy returned to business, and five or six years after peace, the devastated country began to flourish again.
As the war broke down the younger men, you first saw the people of the country, mostly of boys, women and children. After a while the children grew up, married early and raised themselves home. ”

“ The people south of the Baltic Sea were severely overwhelmed by the Nordic Vikings, and therefore wanted them to be converted to Christianity, which teaches people to love each other. From Germany and England, godly, brave men performed the preaching of the cross's teachings for the Gentiles in the north. These men had a hard life-threatening work; many among them suffered death for their faith, but in their place there were constantly new teachers who watched their lives call only they could win souls for the kingdom of God. Finally, a king in Sweden baptized. ”

“ But he did not like the Polish war, allowed permission to return to Sweden, and became the foremost man in the council of the kingdom. He had a hard and unobtrusive work during the difficult times when King Karl was far away and everything was in the wildfall. He helped many unfortunate Finnish refugees in Sweden; He knew when most believed the kingdom was unreasonably lost. Little did he fear the smiles of the king's wickedness or the enemy, only he could save the kingdom from destruction. ”

“ The rule is that all schooling is voluntary, except for the school of writing. The state is paying its school education, in some Finnish, in others in Swedish, but teaches the jungles pay annual fees, except a limited number of medals. The lycees are taught schools, which, after completion of teaching, send their disciples to the university. Polytechnic schools and real schools, called real-lyceum, give their disciples the skills needed for technical or bourgeois professions. ”

“ In times of major accidents, God often calls powerful tools to restore the slain people and the distressed hearts. Such a powerful God's instrument was Arvid Horn, the greatest and best statesman, who Finland has made so far. ”

“ The more nature's powers are her boys and girls, the more the human time and the habits of cultivating the forces of his soul, which are so often obscured by the bodily work. She will more and more get rid of the trash of the dust, to serve God, her Creator, as his free children, and make his will on earth. ”

“ With wonderful deeds you obey us in righteousness, you God of our salvation, who is a refuge for all the ends of the earth and for the sea in the distance. Ps. 65: 6. Those who are tears shall reap with joy. They go crying and carry their seed; they come back with joy and carry their own vessels. ”

“ Many Germans have taken part in Finland and they have been actors, craftsmen or artists. They are the most splendid in Wiborg, the German language is still spoken, Finnish, Swedish and Russian, but also in Helsinki, Turku and some of the town's cities. The Germans are working and have introduced German merchandise, but also many useful skills. Some of them move home to their country again, when these accumulated wealth ”

“ Those who avoided death fled to the forests or were caught. It is said that when the king watched the bloody battlefield, he had tears, not over his own dead, as the salvation of the cross of the doctrine of the cross, but over the fallen heathens, who were not partakers of the salvation of faith. ”