The Salvation Army.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 106, 19 May 1883, Page 3

The Salvation Army.

i There was a good attendance at the * Wesleyan Church last evening, when the s Rev W. Morley gave a very interesting ; and eloquent lecture on tlie Salvation Army. The l.cv W. Worker, of Sanson, presided, and introduced the lecturer, who soon convinced his audience that ho was a speaker of no mean order, that he had thoroughly studied his subject, looked at it. from all sides, and was prepared to give it a fair and impartial criticism. He commence Iby tracing the origin and history of the movement, dating from tbe secession of the Reverend, now " General" Booth, from the ministry of the Methodist New Connexion to the present time, and gave statistics of the marvellous number of members, army corps, officers, meetings, publications, &c. One of the largest skating rinks in London had been purchased, and was crowded, although it seated 6,300 persons, while in the country 34 other rinks had been secured, and were now used by the members, and 6,000 meetings were regularly held. The Church had not been slow in recognising the movement, and the Queen, Archbishop Tait, and many other leading persons had patronised it. The army had been fined for marching in procession through the streets but the judgment had been reversed in the Court of Appeal. 'Ihe Press, too, had taken up the subject very warmly, and daily gave extensive and impartial reports of its doings. Lord Shaftsbury, Mr Spurgeon, and other leading men, once its warm admirers, had recently spoken very cautiously about it, and described some of its official utterances as blasphemy. The latter gentleman had said it was time to speak out when religion was being turned into a game of soldiers. The opinion of such men showed that there was something wrong in the movement. The lecturer said he would deal briefly with the lessons and the warnings which he thought were clearly shown by the present doings of the Salvation Army. The first lesson it taught was the power of individuality, which he instanced in the case of General Booth, who, though not a man of great' talent or culture, was a man of very strong will and determined opinions. W hatever he took in hand "it mun go," as the Lancashire said said, which originated the name of a fabric called " mungo." Another lesson to be learned from the Army was the immense power of organisation. This was a great age for organisation. Everything was done by committees, which was just as it ougl't to be. Churches expected too much of ministers single-handed, which was not so in the Salvation Army, where no member was allowed to be idle. The importance of teaching the gospel to the poor was taught too by this movement. Religion had got to be very much a matter of a man having a second coat. By the Salvation Army some of the very vilest, degraded and criminal had been reclaimed The good done had been acknowledged by the police authorities, whose work it had considerably lessened. [The remainder of the report will appear in our next issue.]