o
effect an amelioration. He proceeded:--

Well, here was General Booth's scheme, which he had examined, and with
which he had been deeply struck. He pitied the cold heart which could
read and not be stirred by "Darkest England." In his best judgment he
believed the scheme to be full of promise if the necessary funds were
provided, and he merely regarded it as his humble duty to render the
undertaking such aid as he could.

Had any such scheme been proposed by a member of the Church of England,
he should have given it every support. He regarded the scheme as
supplementing, not interfering with, the work of the Church, as
preparing for, not hindering, the Church's work. The scheme, although no
Christian scheme could be wholly dislinked from religion, was yet most
prominently a social scheme; its origin was The Salvation Army, but it
was intended to promote the work of the common Church.

Was the scheme to be thrown aside contemptuously at once on account of
prejudice, because it emanated from The Salvation Army? If any thought
so, he blamed them not, but he for one declared he could not share their
views. He was, perhaps, more widely separated from some of the methods
of the Salvation Army than many of his brethren, but the work of the
Army had not been unblessed, and there was much that might be learned
from an organisation which in so short a time had accomplished so great
a work. He dwelt upon the nature of The Salvation Army's work, the
officers who were exerting themselves in connection with it, the number
of countries to which the organisation had spread. The Salvation Army in
its work and extent had credentials which could not be denied. Were they
to stand coldly, finically aside because they were too refined and nice,
and full of culture to touch this work of The Salvation Army with the
point of the finger? He took it that he should fail grievously in his
duty if insult or self-interest caused him to hold aloof from any
movement which Christ, if He had been on earth, would have approved.

Then Dr. Farrar quoted the late Bishop Lightfoot and the late Canon
Liddon in favor of The Salvation Army as an organisation which had
accomplished a deal of good work.

Next he asked, "How shall we receive General Booth's scheme now that it
is here to our hands?" With some people the simplest way of treating any
scheme for good was to leave it alone. To those who took that position
with reference to General Booth's scheme