blessings received, or to seek His
help in any specific case, to come forward in an open way, and confess
their wants, their confidence, or their gratitude, at some altar or
shrine.

Shame upon us all that objection should ever be made to equally public
avowals of penitence, of submission, of faith, or of devotion to the
Saviour of the world. The General, at any rate, never wavered in
demanding the most speedy and decisive action of this kind, and he
probably led more souls to the Penitent-Form than any man who has ever
lived.

In Germany especially it has frequently been objected that the soul
which is "compelled" to take a certain course has in that very fact
manifested a debased and partly-destroyed condition, and that nothing
can excuse the organisation of methods of compulsion. With any such
theory one could not but have considerable sympathy, were it not for the
undeniable fact that almost all "civilised" people are perpetually under
the extreme pressure of society around them, which is opposed to
prayer, or to any movement of the soul in that direction.

To check and overcome that very palpable compulsion on the wrong side,
the most desperate action of God's servants in all ages has never been
found strong enough. Hence there has come about another sort of
compulsion, within the souls of all God's messengers. It could not but
be more agreeable to flesh and blood if the minds of men could more
easily be induced to turn from the things that are seen to those which
are invisible. But this has never yet been the case. Hence all who
really hear God's voice cannot but become alarmed as to the manifest
danger that His warnings may remain entirely unheeded. When once any
soul is truly enlightened, it cannot but put forth every devisable
effort to compel the attention of others.

The Army is only the complete organisation of such efforts for permanent
efficiency. We may have had to use more extreme methods than many before
us, because, unlike those who are the publicly recognised advocates of
Christ, we have, in the first instance, no regular hearers at all, and
have generally only the ear of the people so long as we can retain it,
against a hundred competitions. And yet, to those who live near enough
to notice it, the exercise of force by means of church steeples and
bells is far more violent, all the year round, than the utmost attack of
the average Corps upon some few occasions.

Who complains of the compulsion