ey and temporal honour must look elsewhere than to the Salvation
Army. Its pride and glory was that thousands were willing to suffer
and deny themselves from year to year, and to find their joy and their
recompense in the consciousness that they were doing something,
however little, to lighten the darkness and relieve the misery of the
world.
Here are some of his actual words upon this matter that I will quote,
as I cannot better them:--
'The two facts of real consequence about our Officers are these:
First, that their numbers go on increasing year by year, and second,
that they remain devoted to their work, very poor, and absolutely bent
on obtaining a reward in Heaven. But let me quote here from General
Booth on this matter:--
'"I resolved that no disadvantage as to birth, or education, or social
condition should debar any one from entering the list of combatants so
long as he was one with me in love for God, in faith for the salvation
of men, and in willingness to obey the orders he should receive from
me and from those I authorized to direct him. I have, of course, had
many disappointments--not a few of them very hard to bear at the
time--but from the early days of 1868, when I engaged my first
recognized helper, to 1878, when the number had increased by slow
degrees to about 100, and on to the present day, when their number is
rapidly approaching 20,000, there has not been a single year without
its increase, not only in quantity, but in quality.
'"I am sometimes asked, What about those who have left me? Well, I am
thankful to say that we remain in sympathetic and friendly relations
with the great bulk of them. It was to be expected that in work such
as ours, demanding, as it does, not only arduous toil and constant
self-denial and often real hardships of one kind or another, some
should prove unworthy, some should grow weary, and others should faint
by the way, whilst others again, though very excellent souls, should
prove unsuitable. It could not be otherwise, for we are engaged in
real warfare, and whoever heard of war without wounds and losses? But
even of those who do thus step aside from the position of Officers, a
large proportion--in this country nine out of ten--remain with us,
engaged in some voluntary effort in our ranks."'
'But,' continued Mr. Bramwell Booth, 'I would be the last person to
minimize our losses. They may be accounted for in the most natural
way, and yet we cannot but feel them a
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