MR SPURGEON ON THE SALVATION ARMY.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 167, 24 November 1883, Page 3

MR SPURGEON ON THE SALVATION ARMY.

Tommy's father has been holding forth on the Salvation Army. Few of the dissenting clergymen view the progress of the Army with indifference. The Roman Catholics have too strong a hold on their adherents to entertain any fear of wholesale heresy, and the Church of England is restrained by the distinct approval of the movement that has been expressed by distinguished dignitaries of its own church. But the ranks of the Army are very largely recruited from certain religious nomads who drift about during their lifetime from one dissenting sect to another, hanging on to the rear like camp followers, and disliking any sacerdotal authority or discipline. Hence, perhaps, Mr Spurgeon's denunciations.

He denounces " drum-thumping establishments" ' and the glorification of noise, and thinks " the age of the tin-kettle and the banjo has arrived," says the Sabbath is made hideous, and that though the * design is admirable, the method is intolerable. The correspondent of a London paper once put the question, " Can a man belong to a brass band and be a Christian ?" to which the facetious editor promptly replied, " We see no impediment in the way ; but if he is a member of a brass band, and is given to practising on his cornet or trombone at home, it is an impossibility for the man next door to be a Christian." Mr Spurgeon coincides in that view in respect to neighbouring churches, and he includes the equal difficulty of displaying a Christian temper when Salvation bands "go banging through the streets day after day." We ; should not so much object to the bands or the "singing in Auckland if the Salvationists would only give us good music. The offence of having a rude and obtrusive form of worship flaunted, as it were, in one's face, is aggravated by having one's musical feelings jarred upon and shocked by unearthly noises and vociferous bawling in which harmony and music find no place. There is also a pugnacity and defiance exhibited by some Salvationists that are highly offensive to people of unobtrusive piety, who respect the inward spiritual graces of religion, and not the mere outward and visible display.

" Let them blow till all is blue," says Spurgeon, " it is not for us to rail at sounding brass if it has indeed become a channel of salvation. Blow by all means. If any of you judge that this is your high calling, pursue it ardently ; and if outraged humanity should pelt you with mud and rotten eggs, do not reckon that a strange thing has happened unto you. If you should create about twice as much blasphemy as religious feeling, do not be surprised. If your course of action should briug ridicule on all religion, and educate the mob in the art of rioting, which they may use by-and-bye with unexpected results, do not marvel. If you conceive this to be your line of iisef illness, listen to no advice ; reckon all who differ from you as your enemies ; become martyrs, and go forward like good soldiers, so long as leather and brass hold out. Only be prepared for contingencies. Suppose the big drum and tambourine should cease to charm, what next ? What else is to be done ? Will you stand on your head ? Hornpipes have been tried ; will you try the tight-rope ? I cannot suggest to you a novelty, since we have already heard Brummagem bruisers, devil-dodgers, converted clogdancers, etc."

For ourselves, haying observed the methods of the Salvation Army in Auckland with some degree of interest, we feel constrained to declare that since the movement began there has been developed and intensified in our midst an amount of juvenile rowdyism which did not exist before. It is not pleasant to anyone who retains the slightest respect for genuine religion to hear bands of larrikins promenading the streets, and making a mockery of hymns, or burlesquing the extravagances of the Salvationists, any more than to listen to what Mr Spurgeon calls " blasphemous insults to the eternal and incommunicable name which arise out of the desecration of the word ' Hallelujah.' " We have witnessed scenes arising out of Salvation Army demonstrations in Auckland which wo would rather not attempt to describe. Only last Sunday afternoon a youth, wearing the Salvation Army badge, was observed performing a ste]o-dance outside the Theatre Royal at the close of the service, while a little later two Salvation lasses were seen drinking in an hotel. We do not deny for a moment that the Salvationists have done some good, but they have also done some harm, and it is a question yet to be settled whether or not the harm does not outweigh the good.