al.

The motto of the Army is 'Salvation for all,' and, as I have hinted in
these pages, it has a sure conviction of the essential persistence of
miracle in these modern days. It holds that when a man kneels at the
Penitent-Form and 'gets converted,' a miracle takes place within him,
if his repentance is true, and that thenceforward some Grace from on
High will give him the power to overcome the evil in his heart and
blood.

It believes, too, in the instant efficacy of earnest prayer, and in
the possibility of direct communication by this means between man and
his Maker.

Here is an instance of this statement. While inspecting the Shelters
in one of the provincial cities, I was shown a certain building which
had recently passed into the possession of the Army. The Officer who
was conducting me said that the negotiations preliminary to the
acquisition of the lease of this building had been long and difficult.
I remarked that these must have caused him anxiety. 'Oh, no,' he
answered, simply. 'You see I had talked with the Lord about it, and I
knew that we should get the place in the end.'

This reply may cause some to smile, but I confess I find such
childlike faith touching and even beautiful.

There is small doubt that consciously or unconsciously, the Salvation
Army has followed St. Paul's example of being all things to all men,
if 'by all means' it may save some. This is the reason of its methods
which to many seem so vulgar and offensive. Once I spoke to an Officer
high up in the Army of this matter, instancing, amongst other things,
its brass bands and loud-voiced preaching at street corners.

'My dear sir,' he replied, 'if we came to convert _you_, we should not
bring a brass band or send a missionary who shouted out sacred names
every minute. Possibly, if we thought that you were open to the
influences of music, we might send a first-rate violinist to play
pieces from the classical masters, and we should certainly send a man
whom we knew to be your intellectual equal, and who could therefore
appeal to your reason. But our mission at present is not so much to
you and your class, as to the dregs of humanity. The folk we deal with
live in a state of noise of which you have no conception, and if we
want to force them to listen to us, we must begin by making a greater
noise in order to attract their attention at all. In the same way it
is of no use wasting subtleties on them; we have to go straight to the
main