264 LETTERS TO THE " TIMES " v 



" Then, it will be remembered, it professed to 

 be the humble handmaid of the existing churches ; 

 its professed object was the evangelization of the 

 masses. It repudiated the idea of building up a 

 separate religious body, and it denounced the 

 practice of gathering together wealth and the 

 accumulation of property. Men and women other 

 than its own converts gathered around it and 

 threw themselves heart and soul into the work, 

 for the simple reason that it offered, as they 

 supposed, a more extended and widely open 

 field for evangelical effort. Ministers ever3rwhere 

 were invited and welcomed to its platforms, 

 majors and colonels were few and far between, 

 and the supremacy and power of the General 

 were things unknown. . . . Care was taken to 

 avoid anything like proselytism ; its converts were 

 never coerced into joining its ranks. ... In a 

 word, the organization occupied the position of 

 an auxiliary mission and recruiting agency for 

 the various religious bodies. . . . The meetings 

 were crowded, people professed conversion by the 

 score, the public liberally supplied the means to 

 carry on the work in their respective commu- 

 nities ; therefore every corps was Vvdiolly self- 

 supporting, its officers were projjerly, if not 

 luxuriously, cared for, the local expenditure was 

 amply provided, and, under the supervision of the 

 secretary, a local member, and the officer in charge, 

 the funds were disbursed in the towns where they 



