Red-cross knights of the Salvation Army [microform]

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RED-CROSS KNIGHTS

OF

THE SALVATION ARMY,

BY "FIDELIS.

>>

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Reprinted by permission from the "Andooer Review,

TORONTO :

WILLIAMSON & COMPANY.

1884.

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CANADA

NATIONAL LIBRARY
BIBLIOTH^QUE NATIONALE

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•.•'

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,

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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-

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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

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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-

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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-

•(

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f,

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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-

'^

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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

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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>

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*21

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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

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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-

'

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^SBisammm

Itftiii'iii

"

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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-

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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

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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

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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.