SALVATION ARMY 



tionist boast* of a freedom which is the offspring 

 of order and method. Solidarity of principles 

 and of government once secured, the largest 

 variety can be fully used as to details. Thus the 

 uniform in one land differs from that adopts! in 

 another. The blue dress and bonnet of Great 

 Britain is replaced in India by the white 

 sheree. The unity of the spirit is maintained l.y 

 diversity of operation. Every Salvationist, man, 

 woman, and child, is taught and expected to pro- 

 pagate salvation ; to speak for God privately and 

 in public, to sing, to pray, to march, whenever 

 required ; to testify and to exhibit conversion to 

 Christ in their lives, and to bring every one around 

 them to deliverance from sin. The officers, how- 

 ever, are set apart and entirely maintained so as to 

 devote themselves wholly to the work of souls. 

 These are drawn from ail ranks, with no distinc- 

 tion save of spiritual qualifications ; the training 

 given them is not in secular but in spiritual know- 

 ledge viz. in the word of God, in fervour, in devo- 

 tion, and in the best ways to reach souls. They 

 are solemnly set apart with prayer when com- 

 missioned to their first appointments. 



In regard to doctrine and teaching the army is 

 very much in agreement with the Christian churches 

 generally ; emphasising the work of Jesus Christ 

 as the sole and sufficient atonement from sin, and 

 the application of that atonement to the heart by 

 faith ; offering at the same time the most drastic 

 opposition to every form of Antinomian teaching ; 

 inculcating the universal obligation of believers to 

 receive full and entire sanctification by the Holy 

 Ghost. They believe the Bible to be God's written 

 word, and repudiate in the strongest manner 

 modern theories and criticisms which diminish or 

 degrade its divine authority. Salvation from sin 

 is with them a solid experimental reality effec- 

 tuated by God's grace in the consciousness and in 

 the conduct. Vigorous and untiring war is pro- 

 claimed against all Satan's strongholds ; denoun- 

 cing unsparingly the liquor traffic (all are bound 

 to be abstainers), racing, theatre-going, gambling, 

 Sabbath-breaking, and the living a life of ease and 

 pleasure. They regard it as a sacred duty binding 

 on Christians not to eat their crust of salvation by 

 themselves, but to force the claims of God on 

 the attention of all, to assail, warn, and awaken to 

 repentance the unsaved. Woman takes her right- 

 ful place, and parity of privilege, position, and 

 dignity is firmly asserted and maintained for the 

 weaker sex. For this service the poorest brother 

 who can hardly read is as eligible as the cultured, 

 and woman is as eligible as man. Indeed, it 

 is a maxim in the army that there is no position 

 filled by man which may not l>e equally filled by 

 woman. The ability and piety of the individual 

 will alone determine his or her position. The 

 administration of the sacraments is not provided 

 for officially, but the observance is left optional 

 to the memiiers. 



All the property of the army is conveyed tn, and 

 held by the general for the time being, for the 

 benefit of the army exclusively, he being con- 

 stituted a trustee of the property, in the disposal 

 of which, and in the ap|>ointment of his successor, 

 he is placed under the government of a deed |>oll 

 enrolled in Chancery on the 13th August 1878. 

 The finances of the army are derived partly from 

 the voluntary offerings in their places of worship, 

 from gifts of friends, and from the profits of the 

 periodicals, of which the War Cry is the best 

 known issued by the army press. At home and 

 Abroad the army publishes and distributes, mainly 

 by the agency of its own memliers, forty illustrated 

 pa|>ers and magazines (in the several vernaculars 

 ati well as in English), and with other books, 

 pamphlets, and song-books, the annual sales are 



about sixty million copies ! A system of accounts 

 of a very strict character is pursued throughout the 

 army, and the yearly accounts are published, after 

 being in detail examined and audited by a firm of 

 London accountants. 



The master purpose of these Christians is the 

 converting men to God and Having them from 

 sin. The master policy adopted by them in tlii> 

 cause is self-sacrifice. The adherents of the army, 

 ' rank and tile,' display hardihood and endurance, 

 a defiance of difficulties, indifference to ease or 

 reputation, self-abandonment and joy in tribula- 

 tion. Persecuted by authorities, mobbed, bruised, 

 imprisoned, men, and even delicate women, make 

 light of their sufferings for Christ's sake, und if dis 

 abled their places are immediately filled by fn-li 

 volunteers. One week in every year is set apart 

 for acts of special self-denial, when every meml>er 

 and friend of the Salvation Army is expected to 

 deny himself or herself some comfort or item of un- 

 necessary expenditure, and to give the value of the 

 same to the funds of the army. In the year 1890 

 the sum so saved and contributed was i:W,<KK), of 

 which the memiiers, |>oor as they are, gave nearly 

 30,000 (in 1891 40,000). 



During the year 1890 a large development took 

 place in the benevolent and philanthropic work of 

 the army. A scheme for uplifting tin- out-of-work 

 and homeless multitudes contained in the book 

 entitled In Darkest England and the Way Out. 

 from the pen of General Booth, attracted wide 

 public attention, and large sums were contributed, 

 enabling him to put it into operation. A threefold 

 or three-storied system of help was therein proposed 

 for this class, whereby the outcast is first of all to 

 be received into a city colony, found shelter and 

 food, and offered work of some kind ; if found 

 really willing to do work and to do right he is then 

 sent to the 'farm colony ; ' and, if worthy and suit- 

 able, is finally shipped to the ' colony over the seas ' 

 ns an emigrant. In pursuance of this scheme, 

 in 1896 the army had already in operation at home 

 and abroad 27 Homes of Rest, 67 Rescue Homes ( for 

 fallen women), 87 Slum Posts, 17 Prison -gate Homes, 

 77 Shelters and Cheap Food Depots for the Home- 

 less, 30 workshops and factories, 31 lalwur bureaux, 7 

 farms (the principal at Hadleigh in Essex), besides 

 salvage, emigration, bank, and law departments, 

 and laundries and other women's factories. The 

 cheap meals supplied during twelve months num- 

 bered nearly 3 million. The organisation bus found 

 a footing in many provincial towns at home, has a 

 strong position in Scotland, and extends into 45 

 countries and employs 35 languages. As promo- 

 tion, a step upward: socially, there is added to 

 the shelter the Poor Man's Hotel or ' Metropole,' 

 a superior kind of accommodation for which a 

 charge of 6d. is made. Applicants at the 

 shelters having no money can work for their 

 food in the adjacent workshop. For the purposes 

 of this salvage work extensive premises known 

 as the Bridge Wharf, Battersea, have lieen ac- 

 quired ; and there is to be a thorough and 

 systematic collection of old clothes, rags, !*< 

 broken meat, bottles, tins, &c., all of which it is 

 said can be profitably utilised. Incomplete as has 

 been this brief description of the Salvation Army 

 and summary of its chief activities, it will contain 

 evidence enough to satisfy any reader that it is a 

 most remarkable religious movement. 



For further information see Booth, Aggretrivt Chris- 

 tianity ( 1882 ; 5th eil. 1890 1. and In Darkut England 

 and the Way Out (181)0) ; Mm Booth, Popular Chriitian- 

 ity (1888); Railton, Twenty-one Year? Salvation Army, 

 and Henthtn England and the Salvation Army ; Josephine 

 E. Butler, The Salvation Army in Switzerland (1884) ; 

 and numerous pamphlet* published by the army. See 

 also the article BOOTH ( WILLIAM ). 



