Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
But herein lies the great difficulty again and again referred to,
men have not that force of character which will constrain them to avail
themselves of the methods of deliverance. Now our Scheme is based on
the necessity of helping such.
Our third credential is the fact that we have already out of
practically nothing achieved so great a measure of success that we
think we may reasonably be entrusted with this further duty.
The ordinary operations of the Army have already effected most
wonderful changes in the conditions of the poorest and worst.
Multitudes of slaves of vice in every form have been delivered not only
from these habits, but from the destitution and misery which they even
produce. Instances have been given. Any number more can be produced.
Our experience, which has been almost world-wide, has ever shown that
not only does the criminal become honest, the drunkard sober,
the harlot chaste, but that poverty of the most abject and helpless
type vanishes away. Our fourth credential is that our Organisation
alone of England's religious bodies is founded upon the principle of
implicit obedience.
For Discipline I can answer. The Salvation Army, largely recruited
from among the poorest of the poor, is often reproached by its enemies
on account of the severity of its rule. It is the only religious body
founded in our time that is based upon the principle of voluntary
subjection to an absolute authority. No one is bound to remain in the
Army a day longer than he pleases. While he remains there he is bound
by the conditions of the Service. The first condition of that Service
is implicit, unquestioning obedience. The Salvationist is taught to
obey as is the soldier on the field of battle.
From the time when the Salvation Army began to acquire strength and to
grow from the grain of mustard seed until now, when its branches
overshadow the whole earth, we have been constantly warned against the
evils which this autocratic system would entail. Especially were we
told that in a democratic age the people would never stand the
establishment of what was described as a spiritual despotism.
It was contrary to the spirit of the times, it would be a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offence to the masses to whom we appeal,
and so forth and so forth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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