[266] "What is the result of all this? In the first place, whilst material prosperity has undoubtedly been attained, spirituality has been quenched, and, as an evangelical agency, the army has become almost a dead letter... In seventy-five per cent of its stations its officers suffer need and privation, chiefly on account of the heavy taxation that is placed upon them to maintain an imposing headquarters and a large ornamental staff. The whole financial arrangements are carried on by a system of inflation and a hand-to-mouth extravagance and blindness as to future contingencies. Nearly all of its original workers and members have disappeared" (p. 7). "In reference to the religious bodies at large the army has become entirely antagonistic. Soldiers are forbidden by its rules to attend other places of worship without the permission of their officers... Officers or soldiers who may conscientiously leave the service or the ranks are looked upon and often denounced publicly as backsliders... Means of the most despicable description have been resorted to in order to starve them back to the service" (p. 8). "In its inner workings the army system is identical with Jesuitism... That 'the end justifies the means,' if not openly taught, is as tacitly agreed as in that celebrated order" (p. 9). Surely a bitter, overcharged, anonymous libel, is the reflection which will occur to many who read [267] these passages, especially the last. Well, I turn to other evidence which, at any rate, is not anonymous. It is contained in a pamphlet entitled "General Booth, the Family, and the Salvation Army, showing its Rise, Progress, and Moral and Spiritual Decline," by S. H. Hodges, LL.B., late Major in the Army, and formerly private secretary to General Booth (Manchester, 1890). I recommend potential contributors to Mr. Booth's wealth to study this little work also. I have learned a great deal from it. Among other interesting novelties, it tells me that Mr. Booth has discovered "the necessity of a third step or blessing, in the work of Salvation. He said to me one day, 'Hodges, you have only two barrels to your gun; I have three'" (p. 31). And if Mr. Hodges's description of this third barrel is correct--"giving up your conscience" and, "for God and the army, stooping to do things which even honourable worldly men would not consent to do" (p. 32)--it is surely calculated to bring down a good many things, the first principles of morality among them.