as instituted,
described, proclaimed, and exemplified in the life, teaching, and
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Here I would like to say that Social Work, in the spirit and
practice which it has assumed with us, has harmonised with my own
personal idea of true religion from the hour I promised obedience
to the commands of God.

To help the poor, to minister to them in their slums, to sympathise
with them in their poverty, afflictions, and irreligion, was the
natural outcome of the life that came to my soul through believing
in Jesus Christ.

Before many days--nay, before many hours--had passed after my
conversion, I was to be found praying in the cottages in the
working-class quarters of the town in which I lived, talking in the
slums, comforting the dying, and doing, so far as I knew how and
had ability, what seemed to me most likely to help the poor and
miserable classes, both for this world and the world to come.

3. But Social Work, as a separate entity, or department of the
Kingdom of Jesus Christ, recognised, organised, and provided for,
had to wait for The Salvation Army.

For many years after the commencement of my public work, during
which time I had, as opportunity served, helped the poor in their
distress, I was deterred from launching out to any great extent in
this direction by the fear so commonly entertained that by
relieving their physical necessities I should be helping to create,
or at any rate to encourage, religious hypocrisy and pretence.

All this time, nevertheless, I felt, and often keenly felt, that
there surely must be some way by which, without any evil
consequences, I could legitimately fulfil the cravings of my own
heart, as well as comply with the commands of my Lord, who had
expressly told me that I was to feed the hungry, clothe the naked,
care for the sick, and visit the prisoners. For a long time,
however, I failed to see how this work could be done in any
organised or extensive manner.

Gradually, however, the way opened, and opened largely, as a result
of our determination to make the godless crowds hear the message of
Salvation.

I said, "They shall hear; we will make them hear; and if they won't
hear in any other way, we will feed them, and accompany the food we
give them with the mes