The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1883. THE SALVATION ARMY AND BLUE RIBBON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1369, 3 May 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1883. THE SALVATION ARMY AND BLUE RIBBON.

A succession of bad seasons has thrown England out of gear, The vast accumulation of wealth' in ■ the richest country of the world has enabled certain classes to enjoyall the luxuries to which they-have been accustomed, but descending in the social scale, vast multitudes have been broughtiace to face with want, and .the ranks of pauperism and misery have been swelled by numberless recruits, It is no wonder that of late the waters have been troubled, and the misery and wretchedness of the people has found an articulate voice. In the' Salvation Army movement, and the Blue Ribbon organisation we get the signs of an earnest struggle upwards from the lowest depths of crime, want, and misfortune, The Salvation Army has been recently characterised as " an unclean thing." It may be this, and yet be hot altogether a ;; s,ha.m. The unexampled success which lias attended' its formation indicates that both' its leaders and followers have been earnest men. The Array hasattainedsucb. a magnitude that it must make its mark on the closing decades of the present century. What i 3 the mark it will affix 1 It seems to us that beneath the vulgarity, the ostentation and almost the profanity which is apparent on the surface of the movement there is a substratum of true purpose j there is a basis of real teaching. The churches of the present day have become moro and more stereotyped in their services. Their prayers and their preachings are in.many instances but lifeless formulas, recited by ministerial machines. Men weary of them, but are satisfied, that they should be kept'up.for the sake of their women and children. The earnestness, the outspokenness, which has, become all. but eliminated from, established religions are now to be found ; in the rude, rough, ministrations of the officers of the Salvation Army, and i though they may constitute *' an unclean thing" they are not a sham, and it may be thoiv mission is to sweep; .aiyay; the unrealities; with' which religion : in these modern times > is Bmothered;; iThere have:in:all ages 'and' : times been religious teachers who havo been as it /were God-men, to wh6m' : the worldias listened ' ; :;TU' leading-trait •of these men has:beeyeavhesfeess-;and; tlw absence^of; forJMHsnj, ; S HpSroyer; m^ypisoa^ri|jp^th6;

utterances of the Salvationists wo must credit them "with 4 "] tho grand quality of earnestness, and we may be certain-that they willi accomplish a 1 evolution of some kind or other mthe world. The Blue Ribbon movement is a companion organisation, and aheady it appears to be telling on the consumpiton of alcoholic liquors in tho 'United Kingdom. Teetotal ciicles, temperance societies, and Good Templarisin, aftor half a century, have blossomed into a Blue Ribbon army, which piomises to do much towards mitigating the misery of the woild. The Salvationists and the Blue Ribbonists strike a tine chord somewhere in tho hearts of people who are as adamant to other influences. The spectacle is one of the lower classes refusing to take the hand that is extended to'them by: thoir' smieribrs "in

the social scale, but insisting on raising up themselves;arid their fellow creatures without extraneous aid, : The courage and heroism which has enabled, the British flag to gain so many victories by sea and land in the past is now apparent in a great moral struggle. : The power displayed may be "an uiiclean thing," but it. willsurely holp to purify the world, We who view the conflict from afar off cannot well gtiago the hearts of the captain's l who are cheering on their rude rough followers, but; wo can see that a battle between good and evil is being fought out, that mbtf. are being drawn from haunts of vico and dishonesty into a comparatively purer atmosphere. L The ; problem' of how to help the almost hopelessly helpless poor of the great towns of England is being solved, by a way which has been overlooked. They are helping themselves by their own methods, add from their own lights out of the slough of despond. In doing this they may be an "unclean thing," but there is more virtue in them than in the whited sepulchres which are so frequently met with in more civilised circles.