points, which are clear and sharp enough to pierce their
drink-besotted intelligences, or to reach any fragment of conscience
they may have remaining in them.'

I thought the argument sound and well put, and results have proved its
force, since the Salvation Army undoubtedly gets a hold of people that
few other forms of religious effort seem able to grasp, at least to
any considerable extent.

I wish to make it clear, however, that I hold no particular brief for
the Army, its theology, and its methods. I recognize fully, as I know
it does, the splendid work that is being done in the religious and
social fields by other Organizations of the same class, especially by
Dr. Barnardo's Homes, by the Waifs and Strays Society, by the Church
Army, and, above all, perhaps, by another Society, with which I have
had the honour to be connected in a humble capacity for many years,
that for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Still it remains true
that the Salvation Army is unique, if only on account of the colossal
scale of its operations. Its fertilizing stream flows on steadily from
land to land, till it bids fair to irrigate the whole earth. What I
have written about is but one little segment of a work which
flourishes everywhere, and even lifts its head in Roman Catholic
countries, although in these, as yet, it makes no very great progress.

How potent then, and how generally suited to the needs of stained and
suffering mankind, must be that religion which appeals both to the
West and to the East, which is as much at home in Java and Korea as it
is in Copenhagen or Glasgow. For it should be borne in mind that the
basis of the Salvation Army is religious, that it aims, above
everything, at the conversion of men to an active and lively faith in
the plain, uncomplicated tenets of Christianity to the benefit of
their souls in some future state of existence and, incidentally, to
the Reformation of their characters while on earth.

The social work of which I have been treating is a mere by-product or
consequence of its main idea. Experience has shown, that it is of
little use to talk about his soul to a man with an empty stomach.
First, he must be fed and cleansed and given some other habitation
than the street. Also the Army has learned that Christ still walks the
earth in the shape of Charity; and that religion, after all, is best
preached by putting its maxims into practice; that the poor are always
with us; and that the firs