A BROWN STUDY. The Salvation Army. [From The " London Weekly Echo."]

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 87, 31 January 1885, Page 4

A BROWN STUDY. The Salvation Army. [From The " London Weekly Echo."]

"The Salvation Army " has developed out of a Christian Mission established by the Rev. William Booth. Mr Booth was born in Nottingham in 1829. He became a minister of the Methodist New Connexion, and, finding the life too quiet for him, took up with peripatetic evangelism. Out of his labours in East London the Christian Mission arose. To the Christian Mission the "Hallelujah Lasses" became a valuable adjunct. These young women sang lustily, and marched backward, waving umbrellas, and were capable of " holding forth " in market-places and at the corners of streets. In process of time the organisation ceased to be a " Mission," and became an •'Army." Mr Booth took the title of General ; his more active supporter^, male and female, became Captains j a " Commissioner " was appointed ; a Major was made out of a converted sweep j and Mrs Booth distributed banners bearing the sanguinary motto, " Biood and Eire." General Booth, a tall, hook-nosed, eagerlooking man, with hair and a feeard like separate wisps of straw, not only controls the organisation, but is careful that all its affairs shall be associated with his name. "Heathen England," a book written by i " Commissioner Railton," carries the name oi William Booth on its title page ; "The Salvation Army Song Book " proclaims itself to be " By William Booth," though it only contains the ordinary revivalist hymns, frequently altered for the worse. A series ot "Orders and Regulations," published in red covers, and modelled on Sir Garnet Wolseley's "Soldier's Pocketbook," is probably the General's genuine production. It is shrewd to the point of cunning and no less worldly-wise than " The Prince" of Machiavelli. The Salvation Army has thriven on its processions. As soon as the hallelujah lasses were organised they took the streets, flourished tambourines and umbrellas, and compelled attention by means of extraj vagance. Gradually, however, they fell into the shade created by the larger figures lof the male converts. There was the j " Hallelujah Giant," the " Salvation | Fiddler," the " One-eyed Sailor," and the j " Converted Sweep." It is now usually a male " captain" who leads the processions. He has arms like the sails of windmills, and a throat of brass. He wears a red guernsey, a dingy uniform, and a cap embroidered with the letter " S." After him come the brass instruments, and the hallelujah banner, and a motley crowd. The processions are seen and heard of all msn. They have murdered quiet, as Macbeth murdered sleep. They increase the world's tumult from Worthing to Bombay. Some day the historian of the movement may peculate on what the Army might have been without Mrs Booth. She is a plain, anxious-looking woman, not without a certain plumpness of feature, and with an earnest and rather pleading style of address. The General is given to inter jectional remarks, to sudden sallies of wit, to spasmodic jumps, and similar antic diversions. Mrs Booth takes thing? quietly, and makes argumentative speeches. Her daughters sing in couples, or defy constituted authority in Switzerland. Her sons play the iiddle, or conduct the music, or assistin the managment of the Army, which is rather a family affair. Mrs Booth undertakes most of the defence and explanation. When "the critics" assail the Army, Mrs Booth retorts on "the critics " with all the smartness of a woman's tongue. The Salvation»Army seems to have a Bingular attraction for large men. They usually officiate as "chuckers-out." Their instructions are to be found in the " Orders and Regulations," where the General explains how a stranger to the movement may be pleased to observe the firmness and decision with which unruly persons are shown to the door. Those who hnve had occasion to come into contact with one of these preservers of order will have noticed that he has a strong arm, and a head which is armour-proof against all argument. In the choice language of the sporting world, he always means " business and not bounce." The Army is sustained by means of collections and "canaries." In the "Orders and Regulations " I read :— " The system of collecting at each Sunday service will be commenced from the first. In addition to any collections made, a plate or basket may be held at the door, so that anyone who may have been missed in collecting may have an opportunity to help. The total expenditure for hire of buildings, gas bills, &c, should be mentioned, if heavy — the fact of its being our universal custom, and the invariable generosity of working people, being pointed out. While the collection is being made a solo or song known to everybody should be sung. It is a mistake to make any other announcements, or sing anything requiring a book during the collecting, as it divides the attention too much." Again :— "Pressure put upen people will frequently cause them to give food as well as money." And once more :—": — " It is well not to make known the amount of offerings at first -, and, indeed, at no time is it wise to publish them to the whole congregation. The mass of the people will never suspect real soldiers, and it is therefore foolish to assume any possibility ot suspicion, or to make any statements with a view to meeting it." When the General requires more money than can be got through ordinary gifts or collections, he resorts to "canaries." That is a playful designation which he has given to little slips of yellow paper which are given out aA the meetings, to be returned as promises to pay. During one day's service at Clapton, the " canaries" which flew back again • to the General's hands were worth more than seven thousand pounds. The Army has a valuable source of income in the "War Cry. " It records the progress of the movement throughout the world, is cried through the streets by leather-lunged boys, and sold in the parks by young ladies in spoon bonnets. The General takes care that his newspaper, like his processions, shall penetrate everywhere. He believes in persistence, and in eccentricity. There are those who maintain that the leaping, the shouting, the groans, and the screams which are characteristic of Salvationist meetings, are purely spontaneous movements of enthusiasm. Nothing of the kind. It is all explained in "Orders and Regulations." " Let everything about you show that you are peculiar religiously," 'says the General, " and that the forces you represent will introduce some novelty Avhen they come." Such is the instruction. Nobody will deny that it is acted upon in the spirit and to the letter.— Sano'ho, " Weekly Echo."

A curious fatality seems to attend the anna scholastica of colonial bishops. Every one remembers Bishop Barry's loss of all hia books and sermons ; and now I hear that asiniilav accident has befallen Bishop Anson r who went out only a few months ago to a diocese in Northwest Canada. A fire broke out in his " palace "—a wooden shanty, I presume— and all his manuscript sermonswere amongst the things destroyed.— "Truth,"