to their ability to
promote the realisation of that great purpose.

"No greater mistake can be made with respect to The Salvation Army
than to suppose that it is not a school for thought. Perhaps more
theories have been produced and more schemes invented by us for
gaining the highest ends of the Christian faith (bearing in mind
our age and the extent of our work) than by any other religious
movement in existence. Indeed, as I have often said in public, when
we have so many thousands of hearts inflamed with the love of
Christ for sinning, suffering, and dying men, and possessed with a
passionate desire for their rescue, you must have the constant
evolution of new plans and contrivances for that purpose.

"But, while thus inventive, The Army does not content itself with
hopes and theories merely; it seeks to put every fresh idea to the
test of practical application, waiting for the issue, before it
regards it of permanent value. At least, that has been my own
usage, and the practical character of my mind and work has come to
be generally allowed.

"While, then, I glory in the fact that our religion is Divine in
origin and manifestation, I equally maintain the necessity for
human skill, human energy, and human enterprise, in the efforts put
forth to establish and extend it; and, accordingly, I have only
adopted any efforts so far as they have proved themselves effective
in the school of experience.

"So with this confidence in my convictions I proceed once more to
push them upon your attention."

In the _Orders and Regulations for Soldiers_, perhaps the concisest
description of earnest living ever written, he says:--

"The Salvation Soldier must have been converted or changed by the
power of the Holy Spirit from the old, worldly, selfish, sinful
nature, to the new, holy, heavenly, Divine nature; and not only
must he thus have received a new heart, but he must have the Holy
Spirit living in that heart, possessing it, and working through it,
to will and to do the good pleasure of God.

"This is the first and main condition of Soldiership. It is
understood that every Soldier has come into the possession of this
true Religion by passing through that change which is usually
described in The Army as being 'saved.' There is nothing more
common