In Darkest England and The Way Out [135]
religious body founded in our time that is based upon the principle of voluntary subjection to an absolute authority. No one is bound to remain in the Army a day longer than he pleases. While he remains there he is bound by the conditions of the Service. The first condition of that Service is implicit, unquestioning obedience. The Salvationist is taught to obey as is the soldier on the field of battle.
From the time when the Salvation Army began to acquire strength and to grow from the grain of mustard seed until now, when its branches overshadow the whole earth, we have been constantly warned against the evils which this autocratic system would entail. Especially were we told that in a democratic age the people would never stand the establishment of what was described as a spiritual despotism. It was contrary to the spirit of the times, it would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the masses to whom we appeal, and so forth and so forth.
But what has been the answer of accomplished facts to these predictions of theorists? Despite the alleged unpopularity of our discipline, perhaps because of the rigour of military authority upon which we have insisted, the Salvation Army has grown from year to year with a rapidity to which nothing in modern Christendom affords any parallel. It is only twenty-five years since it was born. It is now the largest Home and Foreign Missionary Society in the Protestant world. We have nearly 10,000 officers under our orders, a number increasing every day, every one of whom has taken service on the express condition that he or she will obey without questioning or gainsaying the orders from Headquarters. Of these, 4,600 are in Great Britain. The greatest number outside these islands, in any one country, are in the American Republic, where we have 1,018 officers, and democratic Australia, where we have 800.
Nor is the submission to our discipline a mere paper loyalty. These officers are in the field, constantly exposed to privation and ill-treatment of all kinds. A telegram from me will send any of them to the uttermost parts of the earth, will transfer them from the Slums of London to San Francisco, or despatch them to assist in opening missions in Holland, Zululand, Sweden, or South America. So far from resenting the exercise of authority, the Salvation Army rejoices to recognise it as one great secret of its success, a pillar of strength upon which all its soldiers can rely, a principle which stamps it as being different from all other religious organisations founded in our day.
With ten thousand officers, trained to obey, and trained equally to command, I do not feel that the organisation even of the disorganised, sweated, hopeless, drink-sodden denizens of darkest England is impossible. It is possible, because it has already been accomplished in the case of thousands who, before they were saved, were even such as those whose evil lot we are now attempting to deal with.
Our fifth credential is the extent and universality of the Army. What a mighty agency for working out the Scheme is found in the Army in this respect! This will be apparent when we consider that it has already stretched itself through over thirty different Countries and Colonies, with a permanent location in something like 4,000 different places, that it has either soldiers or friends sufficiently in sympathy with it to render assistance in almost every considerable population in the civilised world, and in much of the uncivilised, that it has nearly 10,000 separated officers whose training, and leisure, and history qualify them to become its enthusiastic and earnest co-workers. In fact, our whole people will hail it as the missing link in the great Scheme for the regeneration of mankind, enabling them to act out those impulses of their hearts which are ever prompting them to do good to the bodies as well as to the souls of men.
Take the meetings. With few exceptions, every one of these four thousand centres has a Hall in which, on every evening in the week and from early morning until
From the time when the Salvation Army began to acquire strength and to grow from the grain of mustard seed until now, when its branches overshadow the whole earth, we have been constantly warned against the evils which this autocratic system would entail. Especially were we told that in a democratic age the people would never stand the establishment of what was described as a spiritual despotism. It was contrary to the spirit of the times, it would be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the masses to whom we appeal, and so forth and so forth.
But what has been the answer of accomplished facts to these predictions of theorists? Despite the alleged unpopularity of our discipline, perhaps because of the rigour of military authority upon which we have insisted, the Salvation Army has grown from year to year with a rapidity to which nothing in modern Christendom affords any parallel. It is only twenty-five years since it was born. It is now the largest Home and Foreign Missionary Society in the Protestant world. We have nearly 10,000 officers under our orders, a number increasing every day, every one of whom has taken service on the express condition that he or she will obey without questioning or gainsaying the orders from Headquarters. Of these, 4,600 are in Great Britain. The greatest number outside these islands, in any one country, are in the American Republic, where we have 1,018 officers, and democratic Australia, where we have 800.
Nor is the submission to our discipline a mere paper loyalty. These officers are in the field, constantly exposed to privation and ill-treatment of all kinds. A telegram from me will send any of them to the uttermost parts of the earth, will transfer them from the Slums of London to San Francisco, or despatch them to assist in opening missions in Holland, Zululand, Sweden, or South America. So far from resenting the exercise of authority, the Salvation Army rejoices to recognise it as one great secret of its success, a pillar of strength upon which all its soldiers can rely, a principle which stamps it as being different from all other religious organisations founded in our day.
With ten thousand officers, trained to obey, and trained equally to command, I do not feel that the organisation even of the disorganised, sweated, hopeless, drink-sodden denizens of darkest England is impossible. It is possible, because it has already been accomplished in the case of thousands who, before they were saved, were even such as those whose evil lot we are now attempting to deal with.
Our fifth credential is the extent and universality of the Army. What a mighty agency for working out the Scheme is found in the Army in this respect! This will be apparent when we consider that it has already stretched itself through over thirty different Countries and Colonies, with a permanent location in something like 4,000 different places, that it has either soldiers or friends sufficiently in sympathy with it to render assistance in almost every considerable population in the civilised world, and in much of the uncivilised, that it has nearly 10,000 separated officers whose training, and leisure, and history qualify them to become its enthusiastic and earnest co-workers. In fact, our whole people will hail it as the missing link in the great Scheme for the regeneration of mankind, enabling them to act out those impulses of their hearts which are ever prompting them to do good to the bodies as well as to the souls of men.
Take the meetings. With few exceptions, every one of these four thousand centres has a Hall in which, on every evening in the week and from early morning until