^"
IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3)
■'/
^
{./
^
V.
1.0
I.I
■ 2 2
li£|28 12 5
|
1 **^^ 1 '-"^ ill ' ^ |
||
|
^ |
6' |
► |
V]
v3
V
^
/:
/
HiotDgraphic
Sdences Corporation
33 WEST MAIN STREET
WEBSTER, N.Y. 14510
(716) S73-4503
«1V
CIHM/ICMH
Microfiche
Series.
CIHIVI/ICMH Collection de microfiches.
Canadian institute for l^istoricai IVIlcroreproductions
institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquas
1980
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques
The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy- which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter ariy of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change tfte usual method of filming, are checked below.
D
D
D 0
D D
D
Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur
I I Covers damaged/
Couverture endommag6e
Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur6e et/ou pellicula
j I Cover title missing/
Le titre de couverture manque
Coloured maps/
Cartes gdographiques en couleur
Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)
I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/
D
Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur
Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents
Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/
La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intirieure
Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela dtait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 filmdes.
Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl6mentaires:
L'lnstitut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a M possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sent peut-Atre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reprc^uite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage sont indiqute ci-dessous.
I I Coloured pages/
D D
Pages de couleur
Pages damaged/ Pages endommag6es
Pages restored and/oi
Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicuides
Pages discoloured, stained or foxet Pages dicolordes. tachetdes ou piqu6es
Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es
Showthroughy Transparence
Quality of prir
Qualit^ indgaie de I'impression
Includes supplementary materia Comprend du materiel supplementaire
I I Pages damaged/
I I Pages restored and/or laminated/
a Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
I I Pages detached/
I I Showthrough/
I I Quality of print varies/
I I Includes supplementary material/
Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible
Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc.. ont 6t^ filmdes d nouveau de fapon d obtenir la meilleure image possible.
Th to
Th pc of fill
Oi be th sic ot fir sic or
Th
sh Tl
wl
M d\\ er be
"i re
This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/
Ce document est film6 au taux de rMuction indiqu^ ci-dessous.
|
10X |
14X |
18X |
22X |
26X |
3CX |
|||||||||||||||||
|
4 |
12X
16X
20X
24X
28X
32X
tails du
adifier une Tiage
The copy filmed hare ha* been reproduced thanks to the generosity off:
National Library of Canada
The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications.
L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grAce k tt ginirositA de:
BibliothAque nationale du Canada
Les images suivantes ont At* reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at de la nettetA de l'exemplaire film*, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage.
Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with tho front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. Aii other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression.
The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^> (meaning "CON- TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END "), whichever applies.
Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper Ijft hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method:
Les exemplaires ortginaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimAe sont filmAs en commen^ant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la derniAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmAs en commenpent par la premiAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la derniAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte.
Un des symboles suivants apparaltra sur la derniAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbolo — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie 'FIN".
Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmAs A des taux da rAduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est filmA A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode.
irrata to
pelure, n A
□
32X
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
|
4 |
5 |
6 |
-il
'ii-
V \
l-ij'^^.i
I
RED-CROSS KNIGHTS
OF
THE SALVATION ARMY,
BY "FIDELIS.
>>
q!?
Reprinted by permission from the "Andooer Review,
TORONTO :
WILLIAMSON & COMPANY.
1884.
V
-^-"'^. ^ D^O^C-noJi,^ (XCi-r^C-J m.^ \|
■ Ha.cK
CL(LY\a\-
(^M.
*
CANADA
NATIONAL LIBRARY BIBLIOTH^QUE NATIONALE
/
•.•'
RED CROSS KNIGHTS OF TEE SALVATION
ARMY*
.BY "FIDBLIS."
We have all hoard muci: of ** ChrUtian England,'* with its noble cathedrals and abbeys, its rich ecclesias- tical heritage, its generations of culture, its Christian lives of gentle and ideal beauty. But we are less fa- miliar with the ** Heathen England '^ growing for gen- erations side by side with it, under the shadow of its many churches. That heathen England is nevertheless very real, very coarse, very brutal, constituting an ag- gregate of gross ignorance and vice, which is like a mass of seething corruption in the midst of a fair and lovely garden. In this heathen England, the old traditions of Christianity have been utterly lost ; the men are debased and brutal, often as cruel as their own bull- dogs ; the women have a crushed and down-trodden semblance of womanhood, and the children, alas! a wretchedly stunted and mr)rally deformed childhood. The blessedness of home is unknown, and if, as Dickens delighted to show in his pictures of its abnormal life, *' some flow'rets of Eden they still inherit,'* it is no less certam that *^ the trail of the serpent is over them all." In England there are sharper contrasts than any seen even in America. Between the refined and happy homes of luxury and culture, '* sweetness and light,"
* Reprinted by permission from the Andover B0vi§w,
"r~i
\;-'
(I
and the dark cellars and garrets where wretched men and WMnen, and almost as wretched children, drag out a miserable existence, revealed as
" They look ap with their pale and snnken faces, And their look is dread to see/I
there is '^ a great gulf fixed.'* Little wonder if the eves that look hungrily from the dens of St. Giles' and the Seven Dials to the beautiful homes and parks where " noble lords and ladies ride," should often kin- dle with the baleful fire of jealous hatred and sullen despair, the certain inspiration of Chartism and Ni- hilism.
Into this In/enio, of which it might almost be written, ** Aha'iidon hope^ all ye who enter here" many pitying eyes have lookod, and ministering angels have descend- ed, laden with Christian hope and consolation. And yet, on the mass, but little impression has been made by all the " Missions " which Christian philanthropy has instituted. Into this gloom and misery, nearly twenty years ago, one man, fired with the ardour of a Red-Cross Knight, looked, and as he looked in ineffable pity, there dawned upon him the conception of a new crusade against these powers of . darkness,~a crusade to be fought with no mortal weapons, but with certain pieces of armour described in an ancient Book, the '* breastplate of righteousness," the ** gospel of peace,*' tho ** sword of the Spirit," and all used in the uncon- querable and unfailing might of Christian love These alone were to be the only weapons for either offence or defence. Even where, opposed by physical violence, the crusaders should have to march through mob-fire of mud and stones; accompanied by hootmgs and re-
iWf
Y
V
rV
:i
3
vilings and brutal assault, the assaulters vt ere to be met simply by Christian endurance, meekness and love. The man on whom this noble conception dawned, and gradually grew into more tangible shape, was William Booth, now known all over the world as "General" Booth, of the Salvation Army. Begin- ning his ministry in the Methodist Church in 1853* at twenty-four years of age, he laboured so successfully as an evangelist that, in 1861, he resigned 'his min- istry in that church rather then give up what he felt to be his special life-work as an evangelist, and settle down to a pastoral charge. He held services wherever he found an opportunity, crowds assembling to hear him, arid whole districts being stirred by his intense and powerful preaching. In 1865, being in London, and deeply impressed by the sense of the dense masses of degraded heathenism around him, he began hig^ evangelistic work by preaching in the open air in olio of its lowest quarters — the Mile End Koad. And as he studied the character and the needs of the people, the idea of the new crusade took a more definite form in his mind, and has since been marvellously carried out in the organization which we now know as the '* Salvation Anny.'' For a long time,— some ten or eleven years, — ^the crusaders had no such name, ** no military titles, no bands of music, no tambourines, no blood and fire bills," but the spirit of the fighters was the same, and these peculiarities of outward form were gradually superadded, as their usefulness in pro- moting the Army's objects commended them to the shrewd and active mind of the organizer and command"- er of the force, wlio is certainly a good reader of human nature. People ace astomed from infancy to an orderly
and solemn service, liturgical or otherwise, cannot understand why such ^'fantastical' 'accessories should be introduced into any religious service. But it is because *'one half of the world does not know how the other half lives. " To a half * * civilized heathen, " such as abounds in England, and unhappily in America too, the decor- ous and solemn service is as far above his present stage of spiritual development as a concert of ** classical music" would be beyond the comprehension of a Kaffir. And that is one reason why the Churches have failed to gather in the * * lapsed masses. " For not only are such services ** beyond them," but they are abso- lutely unattractive to them. And just as the church of the Middle Ages appealed to the fancy of half-savage nations by its processions and pageantry, its pictures and object-lessons, and as ritualistic London cler- gymen to-day use some of the same means of attraction, so the Salvation Army put on its military parapher- nalia to gather men and women together by the sound of drum and tambourine and lively choruses, and then preach to them the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. For, this and nothing else, is what they do teach — no mere outward obedience to an organization, no com- plicated system of theology, but the simple elementary truths, acknowledged by all evangelical Christians, that sinful men need a Saviour, and that Christ is the Saviour they need, to deliver them from the guilt and the power of sin. This is true of their teaching every- where, in the New World and the Old. As an English paper describes it : *' The whole points of the creed of the Salvationists are — Man is a sinner, Christ is a Saviour. He died for every one, therefore He died for you. He saved me, therefore He can save
1^
iA
mm
\.
■1 ^
iX
you. Come, then, to the Fountain ; it is free, with- out money and without price. The changes are rung upon these few points again and again, but they are Mver reaswied about. It is so, that is all ; if you be- lieve, you will be saved ; if you disbelieve, you will be damned." This, as a system of theology, may seem very bare and crude to the lovers of long and metaphysical formulas like the Athanasian Creed or the Westminster Confession. It must be admitted, however, that it is enough to live and die by, as the experience of millions has proved.
But though the ** Army " fights with only spiritual weapons, ** in love and the spirit of meekness," this can by no means be said of the assailants it has fre- quently encountered. This record, given on their own official authority, speaks for itself : ** During the year 1882, 669 of our soldiers, to our knowledge, have been knocked down, kicked, or otherwise brutally assaulted, 391 of them being men, 251 women, and twenty>three children under thirteen ! No less than fifty-six of the buildings used by us have been attacked, nearly all the windows being broken in many cases, and in many others even more seri- ous damage being done." This assaulting process has continued through the nineteen years during which the crusade has been going on, though for most of the time it was not marked by any of the peculiar features now regarded as its distinguishing characteristics. The Christian bearing of the soldiers under fire has been frequently acknowledged, as it is in the testimony given by the Mayor of Bath to the Home Secretary : ** The reports received by the magistrates fron: the police indicate that the ^ Sal-
*f>0t»
ai ■iiliT»i*gi
P"
vationists * keep themselves strictly within the law. We find that even when struck, assailed with foul and abusive language, and their property broken and de- stroyed, the \ Salvationists ' do not retaliate." And to understand what thay have had to bear, it is nec- essary to understand something of the brutality of an English mob, perhaps the most stolidly brutal kind of mob in the world 1 With such a record, for one yeaVf as that just quoted, who shall dare to say that there was not need for the Salvation Army ? And again and a.gain it has happened that the ringleaders in the attack have been forced by the constraining power of Christian love to join the ranks they had been attack- ing with bitter animosity. After a barbarous melee at Crediton, in which several officers of the** Army" were severely injured, the confession was made at the next visit, ** Last time you were here, Major, I helped to stone you ; but now, thank God, I am saved ! "
But not only have they to suffer at the hands of the populace ; they have had, again and again, to suffer at the hands of the authorities ! In some cases, indeed, the local magistrates have firmly defended them against attempted oppression by a lawless rabble ; but in others, underlying prejudice and the animosity which in some minds is always excited by any form of aggressive Christianity have taken advantage of the merest pretexts of local by-laws, brokeu by a quiet march through the streets, to condemn them to a longer or shorter imprisonment, in default of the fine which they wUl 'not; pay. For to pay the fine would be to admit the right of the magistrate to punish them lor acts which they maintain to be perfectly lawful and within their privileges as British subjects. And
-1
fK
> .
^A
no Roundhead or Puritan could have been more Btaunch in resisting every infringement of such rights and liberties than are these poor men and women of \humble callings, but heroic hearts. For not only have men suffered in this way, but tender and delicate young women also have been thrown into prison on frivolous pretexts of obstruction, and while there treated as common criminals with more or less barbar- ity. Their rights, thus defended by themselves, have been further endorsed in the House of Lords by such men as the late Archbishop of Canterbury and Chief Justice Coleridge, the latter saying that ''he took it that every Englishman had an absolute and unquali- tied right to go about hU business and perform legal acts with the protection of the law ; and he appre- hended that walking through the streets in order and in procession, even if accompanied with music and the singing of hymns, was absolutely lawful, in the doing of which every subject had a right to be protected. "
In some cases the authorities had endeavoured to have the Red Cross Knights put down by law, for the fitrange reason that they had been assaulted by the organized mob calling itself the " Skeleton Army," on the ground that their peculiar proceedings provoked such violence. This attempt to visit the sins of law- less rioters on peaceful citizens was, however, very decidedly quashed by the English justices before whom the appeal came. Mr. Justice Field, in giving judgment, put this legal point very clearly : ** Was it unlawful to do a lawful act merely because others made it the pretence for raising a riot ? What right have others to resort to force to prevent persons from doing what is lawful? It would
8
come to this, that persons were to be punished for doing lawf nl acts merely because it led others to act unlawfully and create a riot. The authorities do not support or justify any such view of the law." He further met the suggestion that a continuance of such processions would lead to a continuance of disturb- ances, by expressing the ** hope that when the opponents learned, as they would now learn, that they had no right whatever to interfere with these pro- cessions of the Salvation Army, they would refrain from disturbing them." " It was usual," he dryly re- marked, *' in this country, for people to obey the law when it was once declared and understood, and ho hoped that it would be so in this case. But if it were not so, he presumed that the magistrates and the police would understand their duty, and would not fail to do it, and that they would not hesitate to deal with the disturbers and the members of the * Skeleton Army ' as they had dealt with the membe^ of the Salvation Army in this case."
So British liberty and fair play won the day over prejudice and mob tyranny, and the Salvation Army, even in the matter of its processions and music, was taken under the protection of law. But the Army bad still another enemy to encounter, — the unseen spirit of slander. Attacks on the financial honesty of its General, vile slanders against the moral character of its soldiers, especially against the young women engaged in the blessed work of * • rescuing the perish- ing," were circulated, even in religious journals, and believed by thousands. Again and again refuted, they start every now and then into life again. One of these slanders was repeated^ on hearsay, by twa
■o
i^\
tm>
9
ry
A
English bishops, and formally refuted by General Booth himself, in what he calls his Exeter Hall Address, with such a pointed denial as should have led the episcopal accusers to withdraw the charge as publicly as it was made.
In general, however, the dignitaries of the Church of England, as well as her clergy, have extended to the Red Cross Knights of this century much greater toleration and kindness than their representatives of a former one showed towards their predecessors, the Whitefields and Wesleys. This has been due partly to the growing comprehensiveness and catholicity of the church herself and the wisdom learned by past experience, and partly to the feeling that this crusade is a kind of guerilla warfare, not interfering in any way with the regiments of the line, but rather giv- ing them its aid through an unknown and difficult country. Not a few also, both of English prelates and clergy, are animated by the apostolic spirit which led the late venerated Primate of England to say that ** the one impossible, intolerable thing would be to sit still and do nothing in the presence of this great call for increased activity." His successor, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, actually came as the rep- resentative of Convocation to confer with the " Gen- eral," and spoke most favourably to his clergy of the headquarters and the training barracks, which he in- spected. Even the Times, in a remarkable article, in 1882, took up the cause of the crusaders, and re- marked that, ** A cloud of episcopal witnesses to the, merits of General Booth's undertaking is a suggestive sign of the times. The Church of England has taken
10
example by the sagacity of the Church of Rome in re- fusing no aid which religious fervour is willing to offer. It has taken w;aming by the mischief of its own con- duct in expelling from its fellowship the followers of Wesley and Whitefield. As well from an increase of comprehensiveness as from a conviction of its need of strength and substance, it is ready to welcome help which it would formerly have vehemently repudiated. A contribution by the Archbishop of Canterbury towards the purchase of space in which ten thousand mav attend the ministrations of General Booth, and formal recognitions by many other prelates of the gratitude of churchmen for the work the Army is doing, are testimonies that the church wants help, and that no false pride prevents it from accepting help. " Such a testimony from the Times shows at once that the ** world moves,' .and that the crusade of our Red Cross Knights has, on the whole, been conducted in such a way, and with such results, as to win the sym- pathy and co-operation of those to whose natural pre- dilections its methods would be most distasteful. The ** capture" of the Eagle Tavern in London was one of the exploits of Christian daring which insured the sympathy and gratitude of all who ^ ' loved good and hated evil," and deserved a better sequel than it has more recently had. This well-known and seductive haunt of vice was for sale, and was purchased for the Salvatidn Army for £16,750 sterling, somewhere about ^0,000 — ^the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bis- hop of London having promised the assistance of their influence, if necessary, for securing so desirable a transformation as that of the Eagle Tavern into a place of Christian worship. With scarcely any funds
h
n
'D
^l
11
in hand, and but three weeks' time for payment, the bargain was made ; and so great was the satisfaction of the Christian public at the news of the capture, that subscriptions rapidly poured in, until, before the ex- piration of the three weeks, £9,000 was in hand, of which £3,000 came from the ranks of the Army, — chiefly poor men and women, whohad just before been contributing towards the purchase of another property at Clapton, — and the remainder of the money was borrowed ; for, debt or no debt, the Army must have the'' Eagle." And so, one morning at daybreak, a great procession of Red Cross Knights, male and fe- male, to the number of about one thousand, marched to take triumphant possession, overcoming, by sheer endurance and force of numbers, the crowd of "roughs" that had assembled to oppose their entrance. Once inside, they knelt in prayer, to consecrate the build- ing to the service of God ; and, after a brief '* tes- timony" meeting, returned to their homes and their daily work, but not without tasting* the brutality of a London mob outside, both men and women being bruised and beaten by the ** roughs," as they stood on the railway platform waiting for the train to carry them home. But the *' Eagle" was secured, and was fitted up as a hotel and temperance coffee house — the ** Grecian theatre," which formed part of the premises, being transformed into a comfortable hall in which two thousand could assemble for worship ; while the great centre square, fitted up with gas, fountains, and coloured lights, which had been used for open-air dancing, made, of course, an equally available place for open-air preaching to thousands of hearers. The opening day, though the hour was early afternoon.
mhmmM
12
was signalized by another demonstration of mob force ; and the evening meeting, when the *^ unwashed" mul- titude was expectedto muster in force, was looked for- ward to with BO much apprehension that the captain in charge said to his young lieutenant the day before, " Now, my lad, are ymi ready to die, for I expect we may get to heaven to-m,orrow night ?" The hour arrived, but the crowds of workingmen and women who filled the house seemed touched by an irresistible awe, and the solemn service and exhortations closed with penitents confessing their sins and seeking salva- tion. It is a pity that the story should not end here, and that 'there should be any sequel of defeat. But last summer, the legal proceedings, instituted on the ground that the terms of the ground-lease were broken by the discontinuance of the sale of intoxicating liquors, terminated in a judgment unfavourable to the Army, and the property, with all that had been paid and expended upon it, was lost !
This, however, "was only one out of many large com- modious halls or '' Barracks" owned by the Salvation Army. In and abuut London alone there were, by the end of 1882, eighteen such meeting-places owned, and twenty-five more rented, while throughout Great Britain, and in colonial and foreign outposts, there are many more. The " National Training Barracks," at Clapton, is the Woolwich or West Point of the Army. Thither go cadets from all parts of the country, to be trained by a thorough physical disci- pline, and by strong, loving Christian influence, to be the *' Captains" and *' Lieutenants" who are to lead in many a future campaign, at home and abroad. All sorts of hard menial drudgery are included in the
r
•^\
i%
■'%-Bimm».-.
mm
13
f/
r
training, so that personal activity and *' capability" are cultivated to the liighest degree, while all the sol- diers '* endure hardness," as becometh ^* good soldiers of Christ Jesus." The military discipline is of value in several ways ; — in promoting the habit of obedience necessary to the stability and coherence of such an or- ganization, cultivating readiness of action and prompt- ness of decision, and giving to men and women alike the soldier's devotion and endurance, while it effectually obviates any tendency towards religious pretension or ** sanctimoniousness," to which the esprit de corps is sternly opposed. The cadets receive experience in * * active service" by being led out frequently to * * bom- bard" surburban villages in companies under the com- mand of one of them, who is expected to use his troops to the best advantage, and thus acquires the habit of command. The study of the Scripture is, of course, largely promoted at this Training School, and some time is allowed for improvement in writing and other elementary things necessary for future usefulness. But there is no pretension made to giving an ** educa- tion," even a theological one. " The only thing," says an official publication, *' we care to teach as to theological questions is, that they are to be avoided as much as possible. We cannot hope in a few weeks to im- part much knowledge even of the great scriptural truths with which our cadets are supposed to be already acquainted when they come to us, and as to which we have only to refresh and organize their thoughts. But the one thing in which, under the divine guidance and blessing, we believe we can be greatly successful, is the detection and exposure of any lingering element of selfishness and evil, and the production and encour-
v*
1*
agement of a pure, hearty, single-eyed, life-and-death devotion to the good of others. And as to heroism, these Red Cross Knights have all the soldier's loyal devotion to " the service,'* superadded to the strong personal love for the living and personal Saviour in whom they so fully believe. In receiving their com- missions as officers of the Army, they make an abso- lute self -surrender, giving themselves and all that they possess to the service of Christ, and pledging them- selves to be true to the Army's colours, even unto death. That this is no mere form of words, their fear- less daring in real danger and their willingness to en- dure all forms of ill-treatment, when called to do so, have abundantly proved. Indeed it is no light testi- mony to the truth that the vital force of Christianity can never grow old, that these simple, unlettered men and women, many of them from the lowest orders of the people, are willing to-day, either to live or die, as God may order, for Jesus of Nazareth, just as truly as were the Christians of the first cerituiy«
That an army, animated by such a spiritual force, and marshalled under an admirably devised organiza- tion, should, in a very few years, have not only gained such headway in England and France, but should also have stretched ** a thin red line " round the world, is not wonderful. Mr. Talmage made a shrewd guess if he said, as he is reported to have done, at a minis- terial meeting, '' These people will sing themselves round the world in spite of us ! " For the crusade is not only inspired by the realization of Christ as the one need and the one hope of human souls, but is adapted to the special wants of the age and class it addresses. The crusaders speak in ^* a tongue un-
•(
V
r
f,
r'
15
derstanded of the people " who listen to Bradlaugh and IngersoU ; and they oppose to their bold attacks on the faith, not argument, not theology, but the far more easily understood language of the heart, and the almost irresistible example of a faith which seems to see what it believes. Wherever they f(o they make converts of some of the ** hardest cases/* who become missionaries in their turn, and the mere spectacle of ''publicans and sinners" leading transformed lives and becoming ''preachers of righteousness" is in itself a more powerful argument than any sermon. In America the " Army " has already here and there established a footing, growing stronger every day, and probably destined to make a far from unimportant factor in the national life. In New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Mary- land, Virginia, this crusade is at work, with greater or less success, and preparations are being made, at Brooklyn centre, to attack Salt Lake City, which will doubtless be done long before these pages are read. In Canada a strong impression has been made, more especially in Kingston, one of the oldest cities in Canada, and, from its antecedents, one of the least likely to be captured by such means. At this point the interest in the Army has been greatly intensified by the circumstance that an Anglican clergymen, of previous High Church tendencies, but earnest and devoted spirit, was so drawn to it by its success in " rescuing the perishing," that he suffered the pain of severance from a much beloved and attached congre- gation rather than cease to countenance the "Army's" work, as he was required to do by an ecclesiastical superior. The universal sympathy excited by the
16
harsh and abrupt dismissal of a man warmly and deservedly loved and esteemed has of course immensely deepened the general interest taken in the ^* Army " throughout the whole of Canada. In Australia the Salvation Army has had signal success among the rough and heterogeneous population already massed in its great new cities. In South Africa it has had a hard fight for existence and toleration, but has held its ground. All the world has heard how Switzer- land, so staunch in contending for its own liberties, tried to suppress by force this new crusade, in the persons of two young women, in whose behalf, as British subjects, the British government at once interfered. In France its work as an evangelizing agent has made some progress, but is still cast into the shade by the quieter and less startling McAU Mis- sion, which had preceded, and in some measure an- ticipated it. But the trim, tasteful uniforms of the English female ** lieutenants " selling the French War Cry J *^En Avant^" before the Bourse in Paris, excited no little sensation among the wondering Frenchmen. And one of the editors of a French Protestant journal, Le Temoignage, thua vividly describes their bearing in an encounter with the men of the Paris Commune : —
*• But the public which it was the object to gain, — I said to myself — the pubUc, notoriously hostile —the pubHc of our Atheist press, the public of the great political meetings, in whose eyes Victor Hugo himself would pass for a cleri- cal !— that pnbhc I Where is it? How is it to be acted upon?
<< Very well ; this public I have at last seen have seen with my own eyes, at the meetings of the Salvati m Army.
17
And I have been rejoiced and moved, beyond all ex- pression to see it. In all my life I shall not forget the scenes at the opening of a new hall in Rae Oberkampf, and my heart was divided between the very opposite senti- ments of sorrow and joy in hearing these blasphemies and these songs, and these cries of ' Long live the Commune ! * because at last at last ! the assault has been delivered, and the enemy struck in the face ! And yet I had a very lively impression that my sentiments were partaken of by the members of the Army, to whose cold blood, energy, and, I will say, clever strategy, one would not know how to render sufficient homage in this emergency. They did not cease to repeat with a tone of conviction, 'Tour tu- mult will be appeased ; one day, you, who blaspheme the most at this moment, will perhaps be the first to sur- render. We want to plant our colours on this position, and we loill plant them there.^
*'Ah ! you are brave people. I understand how such lion hearts, such valiant souls, should be naturally led to give themselves a military organization. When I ask myself what can be the cause of this success of the Salva> tion Army, here is the answer which forces itself upon me : These people have proved in their own heart the power of tiie Gospel for salvation, and they believe that which has been able to break their own resistance will finally triumph over the same obstacles in their neighbour.
"Now it is said that ' it shall be done to each one ac- cording to his faith,' and this is what every meeting of the Salvation Army shows. One feels that every time they appear before the public, our brethren have the sentiment that they are in the battle. It is not for them a question of variations more or less brilliant to execute on the the- ory of the Gospel, of an hour to be well filled up, or even of the vague sentiment of doing good, but of souls which must be gained. As they have a grain of faith they re- move mountains.*' 2
18
•
Just the saiTie testimony comes from distant India. Thither the Red Cross Knights were led by a special train of circumstances. A magistrate in the civil service, who had been lonsj at heart devoted to the Ohristianization of the natives among whom his lot was cast, came homo especially to judge for himself of the work of the Salvation Army. So great was his satisfaction with its methods and success, that he re- signed a lucrative appointment in order to devote the rest of his life to carrying on the crusade in India, and thither, in August, 1882, he conducted a detach- ment of the "Army.'* The little detachment made a sensational entry into Bombay in one of the native bullock-carts, attired in native costume, waving a flag inscribed with the Army's motto, ** Blood and Fire," translated into the vernacular, and blowing a bugle after the native fashion.
English prejudice at once took the alarm. Such demonstrations might excite and irritate the natives, and might even produce a terrible Mohammedan out- break against British authority ! So the soldiers were at once arrested, summarily tried, and imprisoned. But the natives, strange to say, protested strongly against this injustice, as did also the British and American missionaries, whose interests were supposed to be compromised by the new arrival. An influen- tial public meeting was held. All the native papers supported the protest, so that ere long the accused were set at liberty, and, having been largely adver- tised in Calcutta by the interest which had been there aroused in the trial and imprisonment, Major Tucker was led to carry the work to that city, sending on two of his officers and telegraphing home for rein-
'^
\
f/«^
i-
(^\
19
forcements. Large numbers of natives crowded the meetings, prayers and hymns alternated in English, Marathi, (iujarati, and Hindustani, and ** Cadets," with Hindu names, ere long stood up to '* praise the Lord for having sent the Salvation Army to India." And the Indian and Anglo-Indian journals describe and discuss the **Army" there just as do western ones, and for the most part favourably. The Indian Witness expressed surprise at not finding the cru- saders more eccentric (it may be remarked that their leader was a gentleman) : —
" They are not buffoons," it said, ** much less savages, and they do little to amuse the vulgar. They are modest an<i quiet, and are much less demonslrative in their de- votion than some parties with whom Calcutta has grown familiar. The leader is a young man of exceptional quiet- ness of spirit,, and we believe has never at any time of his life been otherwise than quiet in conducting his meetings. The hymns are with scarcely one exception sweet and simple little songs, with nothing in them to offend aiiy one who combines in moderate measure true religious de- votion with literary taste. The tunes are for the most part appropriate, and some of them very effective. A few familiar ' song tunes ' jar on the ears of some, but ever since John Wesley, or Bowland Hill as some have it, de« cided that the devil should not be allowed to have all the good music, this objection has been diminishing in weight. "
Another well-known journal, the Statesman and Friend of India thus summarizes their religious teaching, and deals with the often repeated accusation of " irreverence," after remarking that the " dread of hostilities arising between them and any class of na- tives in India was due to utter ignorance of their 1 aracter and their ways, and almost equal ignoranco
20
r
of the natives, and that the repressive and watch-doisr measures taken by the Bombay police were a ridicu- lous blunder :" —
' ' The Salvationists never argne or dispute ; they attack no system of religion ; we have not heard one of them utter a word which could possibly excite resistance in any person of another faith. Their creed, as we gather it from their own lips, is extremely simple, and, setting aside mere forms of expression, is essentially and scientifically true. They say to their hearers, ' You are all serving either God or the devil. It is infinitely blesseJ to serve Ood, while to serve the devil is to be infinitely and eter- nally miserable.' And on this simple statement of fact they base their appeal to decide instantly, to renounce the evil and choose the good. And they, of course, declare that Christ is present, ready to save any one that feels he is a sinner, and desires to be saved."
After referring to their evident good-will and friendliness, the writer goes on to say : —
*^ Mere vulgarity, which cannot but be slightly shocking to persons of fastidious taste, we pass by as a trifle. But it is not so easy to get over the shock caused by the very unceremonious way in which these men speak of the most sacred things and names, and their free and easy manner of addressing the Deity. We have sometimes felt so strongly on the subject as to doubt whether the term re- ligious can with justice be applied to the proceedings of the Salvationists. One trained to pious reverence in word and act cannot but ask himself, when he hears and sees these men or reads some of their printed words, ' Is this religion at all ? ' We must confess, however, that it be- comes necessary to modify one's judgment respecting Sal- vationist irreverence when one sees it near enough. It must
^J
i^
I
21
A
be frankly and fearlessly and very closely look'^d at, and when this is done, it is seen, we veutare to think, not to be essentially irreverent. The apparent familiarity, the free-and-easiness with which these men address the Deity, appears to as to result from their extraordinarily vivid realization of his continued presence. Ordinary wor- shippers only approach God oocasioually, and when they do 80 they feel it a solemn thing to enter his presence, and accordingly a thing not to be done without due cere- mony. The Salvationists, so it seems to us, in all their proceedings never for a moment lay aside their conscious- ness that they are in the immediate presence of the Deity. They never enter his presence because they never quit it.'*
Theae quotations are given at some length, because they show the homogeneous nature of the movement and the similarity with which it strikes observers on the opposite sides of the globe. Certainly one of its most marked characteristics is its uncompromising opposi- tion to what Dr. Robertson Smith calls *' a too preva- lent way of thinking, which is certainly not biblical, but which leavens almost the whole life of modern times, and has accustomed us to regard religion as a thing by itself, which ought indeed to influence daily life,«but nevertheless occupies a separate place in our hearts and actions." With them all life belongs to God. Love to Him is their motive power in all spheres of action. Nothing is to be " common or un- clean," and all things, great or small, are to be done with a view to his glory. It is the same thought that Jean Ingelow expresses when she sings : —
" Far better in its place the lowliest bird
Should sing to Him aright the lowliest song, Than that a seraph strayed should take the word, And sing His glory wrong I "
22
But it is time that something should be said as to their modes of working. Their meetings are of vari- ous kinds, those which the converts hold specially for worship being of a very quiet character, and often very solemn. But all are alike distinguished by absolute unconventionality, which is with them a protest against formalism and its chilling and deadening in- fluence. When they first ** attack" a place, the at- tacking force usually forms a procession, large or small, as the case may be, and marches to the place of meeting, playing musical instruments if they have any, singing if they have none, and thus compel the notice of the passers-by and attract them from curi- osity to come and hear what they have to say, which, whatever faults it may have, is sure to have the merits of directness and point. Circumlocution is as much at a discount with them as formalism, and this is one secret of their success.
Their ordinary meetings, held evening after even- ing, are, of course, not conducted on any fixed rule, although there is a general similarity. The presiding oflicer is usually a ** captain," relieved by one or two *' lieutenants," and these are, very frequently, young women. As a rule, they are active, vivacious, thrill- ing with electric energy and personal masrnetism, and speedily make an impression even on the roughest au- dience. He or she is ^* all there f" on duty with hand, voice, and mind, from beginning to end, acting as orchestra-conductor, chairman, prompter, and chief speaker, all in one. Beating quick time, with both hands, to the lively hymns and choruses, feeling the pulse of the meeting, ready with hymn or Bible, read- ing or prayer, as may seem at the moment most ex-
4i>
A
23
*21
)
/^
pedient , supplied with any amount of ammunition in the shape of appropriate impromptu remarks, hymns appropriate to each ** testimony," or adroit admoni- tions when necessary, the "captain" walks up and down the platform, keeping an eye at once on the ** soldiers " there and the audience below, and only sitting down for a few minutes' rest when relieved by a lieutenant, ready, however, to start up again, to all appearance as fresh as when the meeting first began. A "parade" is frequently held before a meeting, when the " soldiers " muster, and after a short round of the streets, singing with great spirit, enter the " barracks " with drums, comets, or tambourines ac- companying the livel; r hymns. The place of meeting, called the *' barracks.," is usually a large plain hall, with benches filling up the body of the room, and a raised platform at one end filled with seats for the converts or " soldiers," the " sergeants " in their neat red-braided uniforms occupying the front row.
When all are seated, the " captain," in her trim uni- form of navy blue and red braid, with a plain black broad-brimmed bonnet, relieved by a small red band, with the words " Salvation Army " printed on it, opens the meeting by reading, with great distinctness, a hymn, verse by verse, which is sung by all standing. Before it is finished perhaps all the "soldiers" are kneeling, in which position they finish it. Then fol- lows a prayer of intense feeling and often of great power,. when perhaps another hymn, such as " Rescue the Perishing," is sung, still in the kneeling position, this being very peculiar and often thrilling in its ef- fect. When the hymns are solemn in their character there is no drum or tambourine accompaniment, this
i
^
''A
being reserved for the lively hymns and choruses. A passage from Scripture is read at an early stage in the proceedings, which is followed by a very few ap- propriate remarks, and then come some of the more joyous songs and choruses, such as, —
*' Oh, rm the child of a King, I am,— I am the child of a King ; Oh, it is, it is a glorions thing To be the child of a King ! " or this, —
" Follow ! Follow 1 1 will follow Jesus, — Follow ! Follow ! I will follow on ; Follow ! Follow I yes, 1*11 follow Jesus, — Anywhere He leads me, I will follow on ! "
These, sung rapidly, vith the lively tambourine ac- companiment, and sometimes clapping of hands, have an indescribably stimulating and touching influence. * Another very sweet and more solemn chorus is^ this : —
»' It's the Old Time religion, lt*s the Old Time religion. It's the Old Time religion.
And it*s good enough for me I "
While a standing favourite, often repeated many times in succession with impromptu variations, has the answering refrains : —
(t
and
Oh, what will you do, brother, when He comes, —
When He comes ? "
'* Oh, the Army will be ready when He comes, —
When He comes ! "
A--:*
Ijlfgammmi^mma
25
^'i
£^
** Roll the Old Chariot " is another great favourite, there being a strong similarity between the Salvation Army choruses generally and the melodies of the Hampton College Jubilee Singers.
But the great charm of these meetings and that, in- deed, which secures for them perpetual freshness and attractiveness, keeping their halls filled, night after night, is contained in the personal testimonies of the converts as to the joy and strength which they have received in the ^* great salvation " from sin and its bondage. After the^^inging has had its effect on both the audience and the '* soldiers," the latter are desired by the *^ captain " to ** fire away," these testimonies being considered, in '*Army" phraseology, the ** red-hot shot," while the music, etc., are the ** powder and cartridges." There is no false shame among the Army converts. Every soldier casts aside that, along with other fear, when he or she takes a seat on the platform. There are usually two or three on their feet, waiting their turn to speak. And they speak with a simplicity, directness, and force which evidently come from the heart, and consequently go to the heart. Each testifies to his gladness in ** being saved," to his daily experience of the life-giving and strength-giving power of the personal Christ received into the soul ; and simple, and often rude and ungram- matical as the language is, there is the power about it that strength of conviction and intensity of feeling always supply. That young men and women, but a short time before as careless or giddy, as reckless or dissipated, as any of their companions, should have the courage and power to stand up before a crowded assemblage of their own class, and declare what a
26
change the accepted love of God has wrought in their own hearts and lives, appears to most of the hearers little short of miraculous ; and when it is not a young man but an old world-hardened sinner who tells the story of this blessed change, the miracle seems even greater. " I once thought,*' a man would say, ** that it would be utterly impossible for me to stand up and talk Christianity from this platform, but as soon as I had it in my heart I found I could do it at once." As all formality is discountenanced, the ** soldiers " may be as unconventional in their phraseology as their hearts desire, and slang is often freely used by lips to which it is second nature, in a way that shocks ears accus- tomed to hear religion talked only in decorous and re- fined language. Frequently a humorous remark, or an odd expression, will set both *' soldiers " and audi- ence laughing, and again by a sudden turn both will be touched almost, if not quite, to tears. As each soldier finishes his "testimony," it is usual for the captain to strike in with an appropriate verse of a hymn in which all join, sometimes repeating a chorus over some eight or ten times, just as the impulse directs, while one or two more stand waiting to speak until the hymn is finished. There is no routine, and, within certain limits, variations are constantly occur- ring, so that at least there is no fear of monotony. After the meeting has lasted for an hour and a-half or two hours, the leaders and soldiers come down from the platform and kneel on the floor of the hall in a perfectly informal prayer-meeting for the salvation of souls. The bulk af the audience retires, and the cap- tain and her lieutenants go about^ talking earnestly to the more interested few who remain, and persuad-
'
iO
^SBisammm
Itftiii'iii
"
^->
^
27
ing one and another to take the decisive steps of com- ing forward to kneel as a penitent confessing sin and asking for salvation, while, all the time, earnest prayers are being offered for theii" souls, in the most direct and simple phraseology. One peculiarity of the prayers of the ^' soldiers." as a class, is that they, like the French, use the conversational *' You," instead of the less familiar ** Thou," which Anglo-Saxon usage has almost invariably adopted in prayer. But after the first novelty has worn off", this does not of itself seem in the least irreverent. These ** after meetings" are the time when, in the **Army" phraseology, *' prisoners are taken," and converts, by taking the step of coming forward, confess their faith and their desire henceforth to serve Christ. To some natures such an external register of an inward resolve is a great help, and certainly in the case of almost all the ** Army's" converts, they henceforth are "not ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and to fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants unto their life's end."
Such is a picture of one of their ordinary evangelis- tic meetings, and it is impossible not to see how true a knowledge of human nature has devised the modus operatidi. The music and the hymns are just of the kind fitted to attract the crowds which fill their halls, and fitted also to touch and soften even the " roughs" who might otherwise give trouble, and who sometimes do in spite of all precautions. But it is seldom, in- deed, that the ready tact of the leader is at fault in checking any incipient disturbance. With a few words, ** Steady lads, back there ! " in a tone of un-
J
c
y
28
questioned command, or an appropriate verse or chorus of a hymn, the noisy spirits are speedily sub- dued, and occasionally the excitement from an attempt to get up a fight is calmed down by a variation of the familiar chorus already referred to, —
*• There'll he no more fighting vrhen He comes, —
When he comes !"
The leaders are trained from the first to expect and meet all sorts of unruly conduct in their rude audi- ences, and they meet it well.
Then, after the singing has had its due effect, and not till then, the most serious work of exhortation and testimony begins, always interspersed and varied with hymns before any tedium can possibly arise. And the perpetual variety and personality of the " testi- monies" has the same advantage over mere abstract exhortation that a personal story always has over general statements. ' Over the audience they certainly exercise a charm which accounts in a great measure for the Army's success. Those whose faces show that they are still held captive in the toils of open sin, come night after night, drawn by a fascination they cannot resist, and listen to the joyous testimony of some of their own late comrades, as if glimpses of a higher and purer life were dawning upon them, until perhaps, in some supreme moment of softening under the realization of an infinite love, they are led to come forward and take the step which surrenders their will ^G Him who has declared that the broken and contrite hr .srt He will not despise. Tired women, heavy-laden "rith the burdens of life, come and listen, through irre- pressible tears, to the sweet tones in which they are
<i>
o
wamm/i
mmsmu
29
so earnestly entreated to come to Him who will give them rest ; and by degrees that rest steals like music into their souls, whether they come forward to the ** penitent form" or not. Young lads come for an evening's entertainment, attracted by the brightness and ** life " of the place, with the evident intention of having ** some fun " in the stirring choruses and the speeches of^the " boys " on the platform ; but occasion- ally some chord that can respond vibrates to a random touch, and the thoughtless boy begins a new life, and becomes an earnest soldier and a Red Cross Knight. Even children come, drawn by the music and the sim- ple rendering of the " Old, old story," new to many of them ; and who can tell how their plastic natures may yet be moulded thus for time and eternity ?
As for the *' soldiers " themselves, most of them are, as has been said, faithful soldiers and servants of Jesus Christ. There is among them many a Dinah Morris as well as many a Seth Bede, although, of course, the intellectual and moral fibre are not often so tine as in George Eliot's gentle field-preacher. But if their purely intellectual knowledge is often small, their love and obedience are great — a love and obedience not at all confined to the meetings, but influencing the whole of their work-day life. If their speech is rude and often " slangy," though, indeed, many of them speak with a power and propriety surprising in men of their class, their hearts at least are generally tender and true, and they speak in the strength of love. If there are many things that jar upon a reverent and culti- vated Christian, it is easy to see that the irreverence is only apparent, arising from defective education, and that the most startling eccentricities which char-
30
acterize their worship are, as has been well said by an English writer, in the Christian fVorldj ** but the surface — the rippling, flashing, perhaps babbling sur- face—of what is, in truth, as far as man can judge, a very deep, strong current of devout feeling and reli- gious life." The very qualities of young men which so often lead them astray, their life and activity and fondness for social pleasures, are enlisted by the *' Army" in its fight against evil. The ** parades" and street marches give an outlet to physical restlessness and an external reality to the ** crusade," while the vivacious airs and hearty singing equally gratify their love of music, and any latent tendency towards *' pub- lic speaking" finds abundant scope in the '* testimo- nies." Indeed, the *^Army" meetings seem to com- bine the benefits of a safe* **club," the old-fashioned singing-school, and a Kitidergarten for ^* children of a larger growth. " At their more special demonstrations doubtful features, unworthy of faith like theirs, are occasionally introduced, such as appeals to mere curiosity for the sake of raising money, a pandering to mere love of amusement in encouraging religious buf- foons to ** perform" and air their oddities to the top of their bent, and the encouragement of mere physical ex- citement, always a dangerous adjunct of religious life. When, on great public occasions the rattling choruses are repeated over and over, with ever-increasing glee, while the jingling of the tambourines and the clang- ing of the drum grow louder and more boisterous, and men and women wildly wave their handkerchiefs above their heads for five minutes at a time, it is im- possible to persuade one's self that mere animal excitement has not, for the time, ousted all de-
SBB
am
^
31
votional feeling ; impossible, also, not to remem- ber that the tendency to fanatical excess and un- bridled license has before now wrecked many a promising movement of religious love and zeal. Some superior ** officers," who ought to know better, and who are largely responsible for occasional outrages on reverential feeling and Christian decency, seek to jus- tify the most offensive antics from that much abused text— "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty !"
The tendency to boast of spiritual power, and to exalt the Salvation Army into almost an object of ador- ation, is also very noticeable at such times, and the converts especially delight to assert their ability to ** lick the devil," with who^e feelings and purposes they certainly claim a very intimate acquaintance. And it is seriously open to question whether the nightly excitement and publicity of crowded meetings is at all a wholesome atmosphere for young girls, es- pecially for those on the platform. Those who are thoroughly earnest and devoted may not suffer harm more than physical, but in this respect at least the "Army " is far from being as safe a school of Christian nurture as the church and the Christian home. But alas ! for many there are no Christian homes, and these are chiefly the class from which come the army 's converts. In many cases the influence of the parents is against all good, and it is probably due to this fact that their authority often seems to be held in light esteem. At the ** all-night prayer-meetings" occasionally held, young men and women are some- times encouraged, under the Influence of strong emo- tional excitement, to take off personal valuables and
1
32
watch-chains and give them to be sold for the benefit of the Army. Of course, if this were done from a calm, deliberate self-renunciation, no one could ob- ject ; but it requires no argument to show the wrong involved in accepting sacritices which are the fruit of sensational appeals and overwrought feelings, and are too often repented at leisure. But such extremes, always ending in reaction, are characteristic of all strong waves of religious enthusiasm, breaking in on a previous icy torpor of dead formalism, from Savona- rola down to the Salvation Army.
We turn willingly from the blemishes which are the result of the large admixture of human clay with the pure gold of truth, to look at the onward march of the movement as a whole, and the power of the crusade against evil. In General Booth's official statement of the Army's work for 1 883, we are told that it now consists of six hundred and thirty corps, of which one hundred and three are abroad, employing sixteen hun- dred and forty workers, male and female, who hold ten thousand meetings weekly without guaranty of any salary. This cannot, of course, mean that they do not receive the means of livelihood, as the officers in active service receive about live dollars a week, cer- tainly no more than is barely sufficient for a mere maintenance. One hundred thousand dollars worth of musical instruments alone have been sent out, and twenty -five million copies of the War Cry, the Army's official organ, have been circulated, along with other publications. ** At the headquarters in London, cashiers, accountants, clerks, architects, and solicitors are continually employed ; and editors toil through piles of manuscript, written in midnight hours by
33
,
noble labourers who cannot spell ? " It is to the de- voted, self-sacrificing, consecrated labours of these illiterate Red Cross Knights of the rank and file that this modern crusade is indebted, under God, for its victories, often in spite of the injudicious and blatant elements introduced by some of its superior oflicers, which discredit it in the eyes of sober-minded men.
As regards the immense property now held by the Army, in buildings, *^ plant," etc., General Booth has explicitly stated that * * all property of the Salvation Army is conveyed to, and held by the general for the time being, for the benefit and use of the Army ex- clusively" ; "the register of the property so conveyed being in the keeping of the solicitors to the army." He also declares that he has ^ ' also made all desirable arrangements for securing all the property of the Army held on its behalf to the same objects, when at his death it shall have passed into the hands of his suc- cessor. "
What shall be the history of this nineteenth century crusade when the large heart and brain which have planned and organized it are taken from it forever, who shall undertake to say ? Some future " historian of enthusiasm," looking back at it in the light of still hidden results, will doubtless trace out its history and appraise it as a factor in the elevation of a degraded humanity, more justly than it is possible to do amid the shifting scenes and varied influences oi the pres- ent. Whether it is to have its brief day of novelty and pass away as one out of many ephemeral move- ments, or whether it is to continue working, an irre- gular force by the side of the ever-permanent Chris- tian Church, until finally, its special work fulfilled, it
34
is merged in the Church as a comet in the sun, adding to its warmth and light — depends, we believe, on no man, or class of men, but on the " divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as wo will." In its organi- zation and character the '* Army" has frequently been compared to the somewhat analogous institution of Ig- natius Loyola. But if there are similarities; there are also great differences. Like Jesuitism, it had its ori- gin in a fervid reaction against coldness and formal- ism. Like Jesuitism, it subjects its recruits to stern discipline, and teaches them to ^'endure hardness," while it demands the absolute surrender of the indi- vidual will of its officers to the authority of the organi- zation, and " absolute unquestioning obedience" from all its recruits, being thus, in relation to the one scrip- tural kingdom of Christ, an impeHvm in imperio, and for this very reason necessarily not permanent. But, unlike Jesuitism, it teaches the pure and simple Gospel to the multitude, appealing to no select corps of ames d^elitej but to all the " weary and heavy laden," with hearts full of sin and lives full of need. Unlike Jesu- itism, it imposes no elaborate ceremonial, though it has its own ways of being ** imposing" to those whom it desires to attract. And unlike Jesuitism, outside the rules which guide the movement of the whole, it allows to *' individualism" a scope which, as has been hinted already, sometimes amounts to license. This would probably not be the case under the personal superintendence of General Booth himself ; but that it is so under some of the officers to whom he has to delegate his authority, there can be no doubt.
But certain it is, that though one man originated this great crusade, and one mind has, in the main,
(^
35
(^
organized and directed it, the Salvation Anny, as it stands to-day, is not one man's work. It could never have been so. With all its aids and attractions — its stirring music — its esprit de corpsj fostered by the neat, attractive uniform, and bright, conspicuous badge — its drills and parades, and its watchful care over the life and habits of every individual soldier, it could never }iave attained its already marvellous success had it not been for the causes lying far deeper below the surface. It is a movement for which the time was ripe, and which was needed by the time. It is a movement -lot merely for the '' masses," but in the '* masses " tht selves, and this is probably the only possible solut of a difficult problem — a " tidal wave of human souls, answering to the slirongest
** primal force, Older than heaven itself, yet new As the young heart it reaches to."
And certainly, from the very lowest point of view, as Mr. Gold win Smith has observed, the gospel of love and self -reformation is at least a safer and more hopeful one for the proletariat than that of nihilism and dynamite! And as a ^* London Artisan" has recently observed in the Fortnightly, the only truly effective culture for the masses is ** that which embraces motives to duty as well as knowledge of facts ; the culture of the heart as well as of the intel- lect." The *^ culture of the heart " is what the Army especially aims at, and it must be remembered that " out of the heart are the issues of life."
That it should be a mixed movement, as has been noticed, is not surprising. There is ^' a great deal of
36
human nature " about it, as there is about most things. And when the previous character of the human nature is taken into account, it is not surprising that it should have features and developments jarring to the sus- ceptibilities of those whose antecedents, moral and religious, have been entirely different. Many of the expressions that have justly shocked a true Christian taste, and been with ju?!tice set down as *' irreverent ". in their character, are simply what might have been expected, in the circumstances, from a stratum of soci- ety which the refining and elevating influence of Christianity seems hardly to have touched. But it would, nevertheless, be deplorable indeed, were the character and phraseology of this stratum to leaven in any degree the religious expression of our time ; and this is a danger which, owing to the very aggressive power of the ** Army," it is by no means superfluous to consider. When we read in the War Cry, pub- lished in Brooklyn, — a somewhat degenerate edition of the English War Cry, — such telegraphic reports from the field as : ** Sunday, glorious smash ; thirteen in fountain, died hard ; — hallelujah ! " we feel that in accustoming men's ears to such rough and ready deal- ings with the most sacred of subjects, the Army's leaders are sacrificino; too much to their desire for sen- sation ! We must feel the same when we read the description of their " Big Goes," and other demon- strations, and of the " War Dances," as they describe the fantastic movements of some of the more hysteri- cal subjects, which, by some of the leaders, are too much encouraged. Indeed, it has been said by mem- bers of the Army themselves, that it is only the earnest consecration of the subordinate officers which
f
m
37
¥
Ji
neutralizes the harm done by such appeals to the lower nature.
The occasi jnal grotesqueness of prayers and hymns, in which ?. ay one may make impromptu variations at pleasure, is, perhaps, scarcely to be dissociated from the thorough freedom, which is one of the Army's great attractions for the undisciplined natures it seeks. But certainly it would be no little descent from the reverent humility of attitude which the Christian Church has cultivated for so many centuries were she to encourage the tone of prayer, however sincere, fre- quently used in the Army's meetings ; as for example : *' I say, Lord, make us all like you ; nothing in our- selves, but mighty in your strength." And to ears accustomed to the sweet and solemn strains of the hymns which have expressed the deepest feelings of so many generations of Christians, such a ** jolly " chorus and air as —
" We've found a wonderful Saviour, Which nobody can deny !"
cannot but seem a lamentable descent. Better that all our secular literature were vitiated, and our poetry degraded, by the coarseness and vulgarity of a ** slangy " age and class, than that these should befoul and clog the wings of the one pure and holy influence vouchsafed to our fallen humanity to lift it up to God Himself !
The cure of such a tendency must be sought, how- ever, not in the ** Army " so much as in the Christian Church. Christ told the unbelieving Jews, that in the event of their rejection, God was able even of the stones to raise up children unto Abraham. But from
38
stones, even if vitalized*, we cannot expect the songs of angels, nor from human beings who have been as clods can we expect the thoughts and expressions of a St. Bernard, or a Bishop Heber. If the Christian church generally will but draw from the indubitable zeal and fervour of these Red Cross Knights — many of them, as they openly avow, but lately rescued from the gutter — a stimulus to return to the ardour of her ** first love," and to the power of a greater and more visible unity, she must, as the greater body, wield over the smaller an influence well-nigh irresistible. And so by the attraction of brotherly love, not by a cold and contemptuous criticism, she can by degrees gather these simple, loving souls into her motherly embrace, and make them an incalculaole addition to her present force in grappling with an unbelieving world. For this let us hope !
Meantime, the Salvation Army stands before us, a living witness to truths to which our age needed wit- ness. It testifies to the power of that " unknown quantity," the "inscrutable something which in- fluences the souls of men," which we call the Holy Spirit ; — to the fact that despite all Positivism and Materialism can say, the religious instinct is still the strongest of all, and that thousands of plain, unsenti- mental men and women are still willing to live or die for Jesus of Nazareth — ^^and to the truth, that under all misery and degradation and brutality, the heart of man still yearns, with an unquenchable yearning, for the love and the smile of the forgiving Father.
/4
//
C. BliACKETT BOBINSON, FbINTEB, TORONTO.