The Salvation Army.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 16 December 1890, Page 2

The Salvation Army.

What is the Salvation Army ? asks Mr Stead in the Review of Reviews and answers — It is a miracle of our time. Twenty five years ago the Salvation Army consisted of one man and one wife, without money, without influential friends, without even a place of worship they could call their own. Today the Salvation Army, built up out of the poorest members of the community, has good officers, who carry on operations at 2,864 centres of population scattered all over the word, and who raise every year for carrying on the Salvation War no less a sum tbnii £7f>0,000. No religious organization born in these late years can show anything approaching to such material results within so short a time . . . How came it that two unknown, insignificant units in the East-end of London, in no way distinguishable from any ordinary commonplace Methodists, should be able to show over 9000 picked men and women in the flower of their youth, and in the ardour of an enthusiastic zeal, who are devoting their lives on mere subsistance wages, to preaching and teaching in all parts of the world the faitli that was taught by the Booths ? The Church Times (May 23rd 1890) says —What a poor story is the glowing chronicle of the Tablet in comparison with the glowing chronicle of the War Cry. In the vulgar and imposing category of mere quantity the Pope lags far behind the General. . None are more ready to do honour than we are to the devotion of so many Roman clergy and sisters to the service to the poor. They have done as the Calvinists and Methodists have also done much for the poor. But the Pope cannot boast in his Tablets triuinpli-song,'as the General can boast in his fV<.r Cry, that he has done almost everything for the poor by the poor. Lord Wolesly states — If a couple of girls can come into a place like Grantham, and, for the space of a whole fortnight, practically suspend the sale of drink in the town, they are not people to be despised. It is very wonderful. Such work cannot fail, in the long run, to command universal recognition, even from those who now, from ignorance and prejudice, are mong those who sneer at Salvationists. Mr Stead says, no one could have been more predjudiced against the Army than I. But when 1 went in and out among the people in the East-end I had to give up- There was no getting over the evidence of the work they did, which no one else even seemed to try to do. I have been filled ever since with such immense admiration for General Booth, that I almost believe he can do anything he decides to take in hand. . . . A journalist career of twenty years has brought me into close quarters with an immense number of the ablest men and women of our time, and I have no hesitation whatever in saying that in the whole sweep of my acquaintance I have not met more than half a dozen men — British, European, or American — crowned or uncrowned, prelates, statesmen, soldiers, or workers, whom I wonld rank as the superiors in fores, capacity, and initiative with General Booth. Mr* Booth, and their eldest,

son. Whether ov not General Boot'u bo, a'? Lord Wolesley declared, the greatest organizing genius of our time, he and his family constitute tin 1 most remarkable group of men and women that I know. The extent to which the Salvation Army has imployed women in every department of its administration In s been one of the great secrets of its ■strength. No religious body, with the exception of the Society of Friends has ever accorded to both halves of the human race equal rights in the affairs of religion. The Army did this from the first, but it was not till 1875 that the absolute equality of the sexes in all the departments of the administration of the Army was solemnly and formally affirmed,. It may be only a concidenee, but if so it is a curious one, that that year marks the beginning of what may be called the phenomenal expansion of the Salvation Army. Mr Stead took the late Cannon Liddon to a Holiness meeting of the Army and when they had left Canon Liddon said. It fills me with shame ! I feel guilty when I think of myself. To think of these poor people with their imperfect grasp of the truth ! And yet, what a contrast between what they do and what we are doing ') When 1 compare all the advantages we enjoy, we who possess the whole body of truth, and see what little use we make of it, and how little use we make of it, how little effect we produce compared with that Avhich was palpable at that meeting, — I take shame to myself when I think of it. Of course, I did not like the women speaking, although I was prepared for it. 1 have the misfortune, you know, to agree with the Apostle Paul onlthat question. The Salvation Army has been constructed from the first on the principle that when the soul goes out the thing must die. " 1 do not want another ecclesiastical <\)rpse cumbering the earth," said deiieral Booth. When the Salvation Army ceases to be a militant body <T red-hot men and women whose supreme business is the saving of souls, I hope it will vanish utterly." The Army has the very large sum of £644, G18 now vested in it, and the Trade effects, stock, machinery, and goods on hand Avill be worth £130,000. It has at this moment Rescue Homes, with officers and inmates ; it has at established Prison Brigades, who look after the discharged criminal ; it has opened Food and Shelter Depots for feeding the hungry and and lodging the destitute ; it has a hundred Slum-sisters living in the heart of the worst districts. It is planning how io establish inehri«h< 1-otTTat.r, anil /Ciias already opened a factory for the employment of the out-of-works. The whole organization bristles with life, and it is instinct with vitality at every pore.