The War Romance of the Salvation ArmyHill, Grace Livingston
History
The War Romance of the Salvation Army
Hill, Grace Livingston
World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Salvation Army
For a long time her thoughts had been turning that way, for she had
many beloved comrades in that fight, both warring and ministering to
the fighters, and she had often longed to go herself, had not her work
held her here. But now at last the call had come! America had entered
the great war, and in a few days her sons would be marching from all
over the land and embarking for over the seas to fling their young
lives into that inferno; and behind them would stalk, as always in the
wake of War, Pain and Sorrow and Sin! Especially Sin. She shuddered as
she thought of it all. The many subtle temptations to one who is lonely
and in a foreign land.
Her eyes left the far horizon and hovered over the huddling roofs that
represented so many hundreds of thousands of homes. So many mothers to
give up their sons; so many wives to be bereft; so many men and boys to
be sent forth to suffer and be tried; so many hearts already
overburdened to be bowed beneath a heavier load! Oh, her people! Her
beloved people, whose sorrows and burdens and sins she bore in her
heart and carried to the feet of the Master every day! And now this
war!
And those young men, hardly more than children, some of them! With her
quick insight and deep knowledge of the world, she visualized the way
of fire down which they must walk, and her soul was stricken with the
thought of it! It was her work and the work of her chosen Army to help
and save, but what could she do in such a momentous crisis as this? She
had no money for new work. Opportunities had opened up so fast. The
Treasury was already overtaxed with the needs on this side of the
water. There were enterprises started that could not be given up
without losing precious souls who were on the way toward becoming
redeemed men and women, fit citizens of this world and the next. There
was no surplus, ever! The multifarious efforts to meet the needs of the
poorest of the cities’ poor, alone, kept everyone on the strain. There
seemed no possibility of doing more. Besides, how could they spare the
workers to meet the new demand without taking them from places where
they were greatly needed at home? And other perplexities darkened the
way. There were those sitting in high places of authority who had
strongly advised the Salvation Army to remain at home and go on with
their street meetings, telling them that the battlefield was no place
for them, they would only be in the way. They were not adapted to a
thing like war. But well she knew the capacity of the Salvation Army to
adapt itself to whatever need or circumstance presented. The same
standard they had borne into the most wretched places of earth in times
of peace would do in times of war.
Out there across the waters the Salvation Brothers and Sisters were
ministering to the British armies at the front, and now that the
American army was going, too, duty seemed very clear; the call was most
imperative!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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