a sign of our success.

But 'The War Cry' seller is in the countries of more scattered
population, such as Switzerland, some of the colonies, and large parts
of India, much more than is the case in the big cities, the
representative of every form of helpfulness. He, or she, not merely
offers the paper for sale to those who have neither opportunity nor
inclination to attend religious services of any kind, but enters
himself where no paper ever comes, holds little meetings with groups
of those who have never prayed, heartens those who are sinking down
under pressure of calamity, visits the sick-room of the friendless,
and often becomes the intermediary of the suffering and destitute and
those who can help them in their dismal necessities.

Of the persistent hopefulness with which our people everywhere go to
the apparently abandoned, I will only say that it constitutes a store
of moral and material help, not only for those people themselves, but
for all who become acquainted with it, the value of which in the
present it is difficult to exaggerate, and the influence of which on
the future it is equally difficult to over-estimate.

While leaving the utmost possible freedom for initiative to our
leaders, we are seeking everywhere to solidify and regularize every
effort that has once been shown to be of any practical use. Any one
amongst us, down to the youngest and poorest in any part of the world,
may do a new thing next week which will prove a blessing to his
fellows, and some one will be on the watch to see that that good
thing, once done, be repeated, and, so far as may be, kept up in
perpetuity.

Where special classes of needs exist, we must of course employ special
agencies. The vitality and adaptability of the Army in the presence of
new opportunities is one of the happy auguries for the future. While
all that is virile and forceful in it increases, there is less and
less of the rigid and formal.

Fourteen or fifteen years ago some Officers were set apart to visit
the Lapps who range over all the Territories to the north of
Scandinavia. This meant at first only months of solitary travelling
during the summer, and no little suffering in the winter, with little
apparent result. But gradually a system of meetings was established,
the people's confidence was gained, and at length it has been found
possible to group together various centres of regular activity amongst
these interesting but little-known people, and no