 section 11 desperate fighting this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain one might have supposed that a man who thus raised a force of working people to do good to others would in a Christian country have been honored and encouraged by all the better elements and defended with vigor by the press the pulpit and the police against any of the lower sort who might oppose him or his followers to the shame of his fellow countrymen alas it must be told that so far from this being the case the general was generally treated for the first few years of the army's work as being unworthy to be received in any decent society in his followers as blasphemers of religion and disturbers of the peace who ought by all possible means to be suppressed those who fattened on the vices of the poor and the opponents of religion generally were undoubtedly the leaders of opposition to his work there were only too many ignorant ruffians ready to delight in any excuse for disturbance and very many truly religious people who put down every disturbance so created to the army's account and who without taking the trouble to make any inquiry denounced it mercilessly condemned almost were ever mentioned either by press or pulpit the general and the army were naturally treated by many authorities and largely by respectable citizens not only as unworthy of any defense but as deserving of punishment and imprisonment in one year alone 1882 no fewer than 699 of our officers and soldiers 251 of them women and 23 children under 15 were brutally assaulted generally whilst marching through the streets singing hymns though often when attending meetings in our own hired buildings an 86 of whom 15 were women were imprisoned true these persecutions almost always gained for us sympathy and friends as many as 30,000 people coming out in one case to the railway station to welcome an officer upon his release from prison yet year after year such attacks were repeated and even during the last year imprisonment was suffered by several officers for leading meetings where they had regularly been tolerated for some 30 years but where some newly appointed dignitary would rather not see them when we ask and wonder how so bitter an opposition to such a leader or his work could arise we always find the sort of explanation which that famous man John Bright once wrote to mrs. Booth the people who mob you would doubtless have mobbed the apostles your faith and patience will prevail the craftsmen who find their craft in danger the high priests and elders of the people whose old-fashioned councils are disregarded by newly arrived stirrers up of men always complain and then the governors and magistrates who may care for none of these things but who always act in the interests of the public peace think it best to straightly charge these men to speak no more of Christ the generals attitude in face of all these storms was ever the same go straight on was the pith of all his replies to inquiries in his own conduct and bearing amidst the most trying hours were always in accord with that council as in the case of many popular leaders of thought in England the custom was established of meeting him at railway stations and escorting him with bands and banners music and song from train to theater town hall or whatever the meeting place might be for the day when he was received however not as in later years with universal acclamations but with derisive shouts and groans and sometimes with showers of stones and mud he smiled to see the commotion and took every opportunity to show his enemies how much he loved them already more than 50 years old and looking decidedly older when the worst of these storms burst upon him this bearing often subdued crowds the moment they really caught sight of his gray beard at Ipswich says one of our commissioners I remember how he won over the booing crowd by laughingly imitating them and saying I can boo as well as you writing with Mrs. Boo through one of the worst riots that he experienced and in full sight of all the violence which nearly cost one of our officers his life the general was seen even when his carriage was all splattered with mud and stones standing as usual to encourage his soldiers and to salute the people arrived at the great hall he was fitter than most of his people to conduct the meeting there how much his own calm and loving spirit was communicated to many of his followers may best be represented by the remarks of a wounded lieutenant on that occasion to a local newspaper whilst he was in the hospital the fact that this lieutenant had been the champion wrestler of his county and would never before his conversion have allowed anyone to take any liberty with him will explain the way in which from time to time the general acquired officers capable of overcoming such crowds the lieutenant writing in the very dress he had once worn as an athlete but with our salvation army band around his helmet was a perfect target for the enemy when I came to us I never thought for one moment that I should have to suffer and be taken to a hospital for my blessed master but I have had a happy time there I can truly say that the spirit of God has revealed wondrous things to me since I've been in though I have suffered terrible pains the great physician has been close by my side whilst being removed into the hospital he was heard to whisper I hope they'll all get saved but he goes on when I became conscious I found myself in the hospital with a painful head and body but it was well with my soul the grace of God constituted my soul's happiness so much so then when I thought about Paul and Silas being taken to prison and how they praised God and sung his praises my heart sang within me I could not sing allowed for the pain I was suffering could I have done so I would have made the place ring for the victory the Lord had given me in the battle glory to his name I remember I had no sleep until twelve o'clock the second night I was in the first night was an all night of pain at the same time it was an all night with Jesus he was indeed very precious to my soul I thought of the sufferings of Christ for me even then the chief of all sinners until saved by his grace hallelujah for his love for me my suffering was nothing though I suffered thirteen weeks compared to Christ's should my blessed savior want me to do the work over again I should do it tomorrow the general says one of his chosen associates of those times always reminded me so of the captain of a vessel in a stormy sea perfectly calm himself in a way yet going resolutely ahead with on airing aim quickly deciding whether a decision was needed and always ready to take all the risks he trained his folks how to go through everything that came to victory one of the weakest of many women whom in those days he taught how to rise up out of their ease and go to battle and victory says of her first sight of him more than forty years ago he gave me the impression in that meeting of a man of God whose only aim was the salvation of souls I got saved at one of Mrs. Booth's meetings when I was still a girl only twelve years old they used to call me praying Polly but never having had a day schooling when he wanted me to become an officer I feared my own incompetence Mrs. Booth said you will see God will punish you she had seen something of my work in meetings where I had to take up collections and turn out roughs and so had no doubt told the general what she thought I could do sure enough I was laid up completely lost the use of one limb and had to use crutches but just as I came weak out of the hospital and penniless I saw a shilling lying on the ground picked it up and with it paid my way across London to the general's house I thought all if I can only see Mrs. Booth I'll get her to pray for me and get help from God when I arrived at the door she was just coming out to go off to the north of England but she sent her cab away and stayed for a later train to attend to me she helped me up the steps and said now then are you willing to follow God I didn't feel fit for anything but I said yes if God will only help me I'll go to the uttermost parts of the earth for him accordingly after having some care and nursing I recovered strength and soon after returning to my core I in a meeting when my name was called forgot my crutches and hobbled to the front without them how the soldiers all shouted the captain carried them after me on his shoulder home that night after I had been in the war for some months I was ordered to bid farewell to Lancaster and whilst resting at a little place near I received order to go to Scotland when I was at the station however on the Saturday I got a wire from the general orders cancelled go Kings Lynn nobody at the station knew at first where it was and even the station master said you cannot get there today but I must I said I have to commence my work there tomorrow and he found out there was just a chance by taking an express part of the way when I got there at a quarter to ten at night I knew of no friend and found there had been no announcement made in the town but I'm going to a temperance hotel to put up I learned that a gentleman near had the letting of a large hall I at once went to him but he said we don't let like that out of business hours and we are accustomed to get payment in advance of the two pounds ten shillings it costs as I had only six pence left I could pay nothing but I said to him the Reverend William Booth is responsible you draw up an agreement I'll sign and you shall have the money Monday morning somehow he felt he could not refuse me and so I got my hall for Sunday afternoon and evening after a good night's rest I went out on the Sunday morning and spoke during the four noon in 12 streets making of course my announcement of the afternoon and evening meetings a poor woman who thought I was out singing to get bread came and gave me one and a half pennies saying that's all I have but you shall have it I had to do everything myself in the afternoon meeting for I could not get anybody who came even to pray but they gave me 12 shillings I wanted them to help me hold a meeting outdoors at 4 30 at 5 30 we had to open the doors as so many were waiting to get in and at six the building was packed we kept up the meeting till after 10 o'clock by which time 17 people had come out to seek salvation the police sent me a message one Sunday evening during the meeting that they wanted me at the police station I replied that I was engaged that evening but that I was at their service anytime after six the next morning so they had me up the Monday morning and sentenced me to a month's imprisonment but they never enforced it till I left the town in another place we had no hall and I've seen my soldiers in the early morning trample snow down till it was hard enough for us to kneel upon for our prayer meeting in Tipton one of the converts was called the Tipton devil he once sold his dead child's coffin for drink when we got him a week later to the penitent form and I said to him now you must pray he said I can't pray but you must I said after waiting a moment he just clapped his great rough hands together and said oh god jump down my throat and squeeze the devil out and then he said the old child's prayer gentle Jesus meek and mild look upon a little child pity my simplicity suffer me to come to thee if ever a big rough fellow came like a little child to Jesus he did for his life from that day was absolutely new another of those men's wives sent for me and said she feared he was going mad for he had hung up his old ragged clothes on the wall but we soon heard him come singing up the street and he said I've hung them up to remind us all what I was like when Jesus set me free a lot of our blokes have turned respectable and gone and joined the chapel and I thought if ever the devil comes to tempt me that way I'll show him those clothes and say the hand that was good enough to pick me up will be good enough to lead me on to the finish so I said to his wife he might do a worse thing let them hang there if it helps him any how the army won so many of its worst opponents to be as soldiers comes out beautifully in a more recent story when I was a drunkard says a poor woman I used to just hate the army but one day as I was drinking in the king george public house I heard them singing to an old tune of my childhood and that brought me out I stood and listened and the sergeant of the cadets who was leading came over to me and said isn't it very cold hadn't you better go home don't go back to them she said nodding towards the public house and she started to walk with me and put her jacket around my shoulders in that moment I felt that the Salvation Army was something for me not only did this woman get saved but her husband and children too as a result of that loving act there came times in many cities both in england and elsewhere when our opposers were formally organized against us under such names as opposition and skeleton armies etc these were organizations in some instances so formidable especially on sunday afternoons that at one time in 1882 there would be 1500 police on extra duty to protect us from their attack this of course we much disliked and we gave up our marches entirely for a few weeks so that when we began again the police might get proper control they never allowed the formation of these bands again for they had learned their lesson by that time but how marvelously god helped the general by means of those very oppositions they brought us into close touch with bodies of young fellows many of whom have since become leaders amongst us strange and sad that throughout all the years of our most desperate fighting we scarcely ever found men from the better classes daring to march with us one noble exception colonel pepper of salisbury with his wife never hesitated in the roughest times to take their stand with their humblest comrades glad to go through whatever came to mrs. pepper the general wrote in 1880 the colonel will have sent you some information of our meetings but any real description is impossible manchester has in many respects surpassed everything the colonel himself has pleased me immensely so humble and willing when i look at him in the processions evidently enjoying them i cannot help wondering at what god hath wrought and praising him london seems your place and it has been born in on my mind that the time has come for us to make an attack on the west end and to raise a core there principally out of the proper and decent people i don't mean out of the plymouth brethren or the evangelical party so-called but out of the wicked and wretched class who have money and position and education and who are floating to hell with it all i shrink from suggesting further sacrifices to you god give you wisdom we have much success and much trial and much bitter opposition we must have more and more success and more trial and more bitter opposition we must have more intelligent officers and you must help us get them that west end attempt made later by mrs booth produced for us indeed some officers who have done much for the army's advancement although perhaps not another colonel pepper the very attacks made upon us however helped to attract the attention of thoughtful people and to lead to our meetings persons possessing all the gifts needed for the army's worldwide extension amongst these were colonel milder duff editors of our papers for the young and authorists of a number of books commissioner w l when elephant then an anglican clergyman miss read daughter of a former governor of madras and now the wife of commissioner booth tucker of india lieutenant colonel mary bennett as well as mrs dino walker doctor and mrs haywood smith and a number of other friends in england and many other lands who though never becoming officers have in various ways been our steadfast and useful friends and supporters surely it can only be a question of time it is true what our great master said not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but if in the days of our weakness and contempt it was given us to win such a force of honorable women and a man now and then are we to despair now that all the world is awakened to the value of our work of winning for it more of the excellent of the earth the prosecutions of our people by the police also helped us not only to attain notoriety locally but to gain a much higher standing generally as soon as the general could find legal ground for appealing against the magistrates decisions he did so and this not only obtained for us judgments that made our pathway clear in the future but caused the then lord chancellor the late earl cairns lord chief justice cockburn archbishop tate of canterbury bishop lightfoot of durham and other men of wide influence to speak out in the house of lords or elsewhere for us and yet throughout his entire career right down to his last days the general was at times personally assailed with a malevolence and bitterness that could hardly have been exceeded it has constantly been suggested if not openly stated that he was simply making a pile of money for himself and yet as will be seen in our chapter on finance he made the most comprehensive arrangements to render suspicion on this score inexcusable but try if you can at every turn throughout all his life whenever you hear of general booth to realize what it means for such a man struggling to carry on and extend such a work to know every minute day and night that he is being accused and suspected of seeking only his own all the time remember that his nature was perhaps abnormally sensitive about any mistrust or suspicion and about the confidence of those nearest to him and then you may have some conception of the cross he had always to bear and of the wounded heart that went about for years inside that bold and smiling figure and yet there is thank god much of the humorous to relieve our tensions in the army a brother commissioner of mine remembers seeing the general sale for the united states for the first time as the steamer swung off a bystander remark so he's off yes and when do you go go what do you mean well you will never see him again now will you and then my comrade fairly took in that the man was alluding to the continual prophecy of those days that the general once he had got enough would disappear with all the money he had raised so that man went down to his house laughing and has been laughing over it now for 26 years perhaps the general gained more than can ever be calculated from having to begin and to carry on his warfare for a long time in the very teeth of public opinion we're marching on to war we are we are we are we care not what the people think nor what they say we are was one of the favorite choruses which in his greatest public demonstrations in this country as well as in his ordinary meetings he taught us to sing only in this spirit of utter disregard for public opinion have gods prophets in all ages been able to do their work and only whilst they remain indifferent to men scorn in opposition can the soldiers of the salvation army properly discharge their task of warning and teaching every man in all wisdom how indispensable this state of mind is to the individual convert only those who have lived for christ amongst the hostile surroundings of a great city can really know that we have now so many resolute comrades even amongst the young people who meet with no encouragement but rather with every sort of contempt and rebuff in their homes their workshops and their neighborhoods in which they live is a like a remarkable demonstration of the extent to which this great victory has been won and at the same time of the far wider and grander conquests that are yet to come the gigantic enterprises that lie before us if christ is really to become the first and last with the millions of africa india japan and china as with those of america and europe would be hopeless where we not prepared to raise up soldiers to this great military height of contempt for civilian opinion but it may be that our very attitude in this respect has wedded the enemy's resolution to do all that could be done to prejudice public opinion against us the very large measure of popularity or at any rate respect so far as the army generally is concerned in which we rejoice today must be attributed to the impression created by the calm persistence of the general and those who have truly followed him in doing what they believe to be right and turning from all they believe to be doubtful and wrong in spite of the general condemnation and opposition of those around them the very people who today applaud our efforts to assist the poorest and the worst to a self-supporting and honorable career are often blind to the fact that we have only succeeded by doing the very things which they once said we ought not to do and by turning away from all the old customs to which they would feign have chained us end of section 11 recording by tom hirsch section 12 reproducing the army in america this livervox recording is in the public domain recording by tom hirsch so far we have traced the beginnings of the army in the united kingdom but would the general desire or be able to extend it to other countries with regard to the need for it there is now at any rate no dispute in any christian country for almost all intelligent persons whatever may be their own creed or want of creed admit the presence in their great cities if not elsewhere of only too many of this sort of persons to whom the army has proved useful but there has been no country in which the need for or possible value of the army has not been at first hotly disputed we have seen how desperately it was at first opposed in the country of its birth and that could not have been possible had not so many really religious people looked upon it as an unenglish sort of thing american in its ideas and in its style of action when it was beginning in scotland many said that it might be tolerated amidst the godless masses across the border but that its free style of worship especially on the lord's day could not but be a scandal in the land of saveth stillness whilst as to ireland we were assured that our outdoor proceedings must needs lead to bloodshed when however the general resolved to send officers to america there was hardly a voice in either church or press which did not ridicule the idea of our being of use there and in the case of almost every other country the same prejudice against english people having the presumption to think that they can give lessons in true religion to any other nation has made itself more or less felt even to this day but happily the general never took counsel with flesh and blood upon such questions he knew that whatever differences might exist between one race and another there was everywhere the one sad similarity when it came to neglect of god and the soul that the army must adapt itself to each new population he had always taught but that it would ultimately succeed wherever there were masses of godless people he never doubted really the first extension to the united states came about however by no planning of his a family belonging to one of the home corps emigrated in 1879 to philadelphia where they commenced to hold meetings there meeting with such rapid success that two corps were raised before the officers for whom they pleaded could be sent to them when the general paid his first visit to america in 1886 we had already 238 corps in the union under the leadership of 569 officers mostly americans 10 years later there came that terrible blow to him and to the work when his second son who had been entrusted with its direction for a term left the army and founded a separate organization notwithstanding the misunderstanding which followed and the check to our progress that was necessarily involved the army went steadily forward and the general visited the country from time to time receiving on each occasion a very remarkable welcome the appreciation of his leadership was always of the more value in the united states because the disinclination of the american people to accept anything like direction let alone command from this side of the atlantic was always so marked it is this fact which gives such special value to the sort of experiences we are about to record from one of the latter tours of the general that of 1902 three summing up the journey in its general impressions to an old friend he writes well i have been busy and no mistake day after day hour after hour you might say minute after minute i have had duties calling for immediate attention all it has been a world but what a wonderful rush of success the nine weeks have been since i landed at new york the people the press the dignitaries of all classes have combined in the hardiest of welcomes ever given in this country i suppose to a foreigner of any nationality it has been remarkable and indeed surprising for it was so largely unexpected i have just come into this city of kansas the two largest hotels have competed to have the privilege of giving me their best rooms with free entertainment a monster brewery that illuminates the whole city every night with a search light has been running alternate slides one saying by our lager beer and the other general booth at the convention hall monday night the building for my meeting tonight will hold eight thousand people and on saturday four thousand tickets were already sold you will be a little interested in this because you will know something of the difficulties that seem to lie ahead of me when i started god has been very good and i hope my campaign will do something towards the forwarding of his wishes in the country the reception at new york was one of the most enthusiastic the general ever had at four o'clock on the saturday morning enough of his followers and friends to feel fifteen small steamers had assembled so as to be sure to be in time to meet his liner by way of salute when the great steamer appeared they discharged seventy three bombs one for each year of his life as yet completed the new york herald said of his sunday there eight thousand people heard general william booth speaking yesterday at the academy of music the rain had no effect in keeping either salvation army people or the general public from the meetings about one third of those present war salvation regalia general booth displayed wonderful energy throughout his fatiguing day's work his voice has great carrying power and the speaker was distinctly heard throughout the auditorium despite the fact that they could not gain admission to the building at the evening service people remain standing in the drenching rain from seven thirty till after nine o'clock to see the general leave at the close of his last address says the times one hundred sixty seven men and women had been persuaded to his point of view and went to the mercy seat how generally the whole country and not merely the central areas was stirred by the mirror arrival of the general may be guessed from the following words taken from the oma ha daily news article of the monday for its readers through far away nebraska one of the arrivals on the steamship philadelphia is general william booth of the salvation army that vessel never carried before so great a man is this tall white haired white bearded organizer enthusiast and man lover wherever men and women suffer and sorrow and despair wherever little children moan and hunger there are disciples of william booth the man's heart is big enough to take in the world he has made the strongest distinct impact upon human hearts of any man living this is a man of the lincoln type like lincoln he has the saving grace of humor and sense of proportion there is something of the mother heart in these brooding lovers of their kind there is the constraining love that yearns over darkness and cold and empty hearts big hearts are scarce in an age of materialism and greed william booth has stirred the world with a passion for the welfare of men his trumpet call has been like the silvery voice of bugles his spirit will live not only in the lives made better by his presence but in the temper of all the laws of the future we shall see from the welcomes given to him by great official personages that these remarks do not in the least exaggerate the feeling created all over the country by the activities of the army had the general merely made great proposals he would only have been looked upon in the generally favorable way in which men naturally regard every prospector of benevolent schemes but the country recognized in him the man who in spite of the extreme poverty of most of his followers had raised up and was then leading on a force of obedient and efficient servants of all men the journey was arranged for economy of time so as to include a visit to canada and its general course was his followers from new york he traveled to st john's new brunswick where the premier in welcoming him said the work of the salvation army had placed general booth in a position perhaps filled by no other religious reformer from new brunswick he passed on to highlifax nova scotia to montreal where he was the guest of earl gray the governor general adela kingston hamilton london and toronto thence he returned to the states and held meetings in buffalo chicago minneapolis and st paul de moine kansas city denver los angeles san francisco and oakland oma hawk st joseph st louis birmingham simpson adi cleveland phitsburg washington baltimore philadelphia warchester in three of which cities he conducted councils of officers in addition to public meetings the impression invariably made wherever he went was thus ably summed up by the chicago interotion no other man is general of an army of people that circles the globe no emperor command soldiers serving openly under him in almost every nation of the earth no other man is called commander by men and women of a hundred nationalities aside from his power over the great organization of which he is the head general booth is one of the world's most remarkable figures his eloquence stirs and stings soothes and wins and this eloquence alone would make him famous even if he had never undertaken the great work he has done with the salvation army as he speaks his face is radiant with the fervor that carries conviction his tall figure and long arms used energetically in gestures that add force to what is said his white hair and beard and his speaking eyes make him an orator whose speeches remain long in the minds of those who hear them the feeling of the members of the army towards their commander has in it both the love and reverence of a large flock of their pastor and added to this the enthusiasm loyalty and energetic spirit of an army where so wonderful a journey is so filled up with meetings so described and where from the very highest to the lowest all speak so warmly of him it is really difficult within the limited space at our disposal to give without danger of monotony or repetition any adequate idea of what took place americans are such habitual organizers of huge demonstrations and are so generally accustomed to say publicly without reserve what they think that the expression of what to them may appear perfectly natural runs the risk of creating elsewhere an air of exaggeration and unreality but if we consider that great american states like minnesota ohio and michigan contain more inhabitants than some of the kingdoms of europe and that their governors are men likely to occupy the very highest positions in the government of america we can realize how effective amongst the masses of the people the generals work must have been before such governors could be expected to preside at his meetings and speak of him as they did said governor nash of ohio i never had the privilege of meeting you in person until i grasped your hand upon this platform you have not been unknown however to me or to the people of ohio you recognize the fact that you could not perform this work well without the help of god that your work has been well performed is well known to us all from the fact that the organization you have made known as the salvation army has spread throughout the world turning the feet of multitudes into the paths of righteousness and peace it has done good it has done a great work wherever it has gone it is for these reasons that the people of ohio welcome you most cordially tonight and they and i wish you an abundant harvest in your life's work and that at the end you may have the peace and rest and the joy that god gives to all his own good people similar specially religious references to those used by governor nash came constantly into the speeches of other leaders who expressed their people's welcomes to the general showing how faithfully every opportunity was being utilized to exalt christ amongst even the most unusual crowds assembled on these occasions governor commons of iowa said i have long wanted an opportunity to express publicly my appreciation of the grand noble and untiring work that every day is being performed by those noble and unselfish men and women who have gathered under the flag of the salvation army loved and esteemed throughout the whole world in every army there is a leader the salvation army has a leader who's commending figure towers above the salvationists of the world and has drawn to himself more love more respect and more confidence than at this moment centers in any other human being of him it will be said after his past to the beautiful shores of the hereafter the best that can be said of any man that the world is better because he lived in it less the general should have been too much puffed up by all his successes and the praises showered upon him god almost at the end of the tour allowed an accident which might easily have ended his career but which only gave him an opportunity to show more conspicuously than ever his resolution to persevere in his ceaseless labors it was whilst passing along a dark passage in new york that the general stumbled and but for god's great goodness would have fallen into a cellar as it was one leg was very much bruised and hurt he thus described in writing to a friend what followed march 13 1903 the accident came at a very unfortunate moment and at the onset it looked like spoiling the closing chapters of the campaign but god is good i was favored with the services of one of the most skillful and experienced surgeons in new york he put my leg into starch and then into a plaster of para's jacket and by dint of resolution and the supporting spirit of my heavenly father i went through the last meeting with the parent satisfaction to everybody about me and some little comfort to myself it was a great effort the hall is one of the finest and most imposing i ever spoke in three tiers of boxes all around full with the swell class of people in whom you are so much interested with two galleries beyond it called for some little courage to rise up with my walking stick to steady me but god helped me through i hung my stick on the rail and balanced myself on my feet and talked the straightest truth i could command for an hour and 20 minutes a little spectacular function followed in the shape of trooping the colors of the different nationalities amongst whom we are at work in the states and a midnight torchlight procession with a masked farewell from the balcony of the headquarters closed the campaign i am doing the voyage fairly well of course it is very worrisome this lying all the time the ship is rolling and tossing and pitching considerably and it looks like doing so until we get under shelter of the land the probable after effect of these distant campaigns of the general could not be better described than in the words of one of our american officers himself known throughout the army as one of our most spiritually minded and intelligent observers seventeen years ago he says the writer first heard the general and it has been his privilege to hear him many times since each succeeding effort and series of meetings seems to eclipse all the rest it was so in pittsburgh which being one of the greatest business centers and home of some of the most virile men of the world deeply appreciates him he was very weary from his heavy campaign in cleveland but in spite of this to me he seemed at his best he spent no time in angling to get into sympathetic touch with them but with the precision of a bullet he made direct for the conscience of every man and woman there talk about naked truth judgment daylight straight preaching we had it that night as i never heard it before there was no escape every honest person there had to pass judgment on himself it was difficult to close that meeting the truth was setting men free many wept and prayed and submitted to god and some fairly hulled at the revelation god gave them of their character and conduct it has been my privilege to hear such preachers as beacher matthew simpson and phillips brooks and such orders as window phillips and gough but the general is the greatest master of assemblies i ever met he played on those vast audiences of judges lawyers ministers business and working men as old bull played on the violin they laughed they wept they hung their heads with conviction their bosoms heaved with emotions they were convinced convicted and a multitude were converted i think at one time there could not have been less than three thousand eyes brimming with tears he uncovered sin and made it appear as it is utterly without excuse and utterly loathsome and then he revealed the love and sympathy and helpfulness of christ till many could not resist but had to yield a lawyer said to me the next day that the sermons and lecture were the most wonderful he had ever heard another lawyer who had been to each meeting stayed in his place till the very close on sunday night saying that he could not tear himself away the common people heard him gladly and the uncommon people were overwhelmed with admiration and conviction a young lady belonging to one of the best families in the city just home from paris where she had been studying art heard him and could not refrain from leaving the box in which she sat and going to the penitent form she went home truly converted the wave of power and conviction did not cease when the general left and during the next four days we saw 58 persons at the penitent form the special value of all these american testimonies to the effect of the general's brief visits lies in the fact that they show the triumph of the war plan of god just in the circumstances where weaklings are tempted to yield the public opinion substitute orations for real writing for souls and to press nobody to an immediate decision or change of heart and life there can be no doubt that the army's invariable fight against the drink has helped to make its general so highly honored amongst american statesmen but in that as in everything else the important fact to note is that it was by establishing an absolute authority that he secured the faithful carrying on of the campaign against drink and every other evil at every spot where our flag flies the eyes of the whole world have in our day been more or less opened to the ruinous character of the drink traffic and the general in his forces whilst keeping out of the political arena have mightily helped the agitations that have ended in the exclusion of the drink traffic altogether from many states and cities and its limitation in many ways but much less notice has been taken of other evils which have no less absorbed the attention and spoiled the means the minds and the souls of the masses the site daily in every great english reading city where the sporting editions of the newspapers appear ought indeed to arouse every follower of christ but the habit of irresponsibility that has grown up in most christian circles has still to be fought against everywhere and the generals persist in testimony against it indeed the whole theory of a divine army and of war must remain forever one of the strongest features of his life's work the old song army with jealous care as in thy sight to live and oh thy servant lord prepare a strict account to give has expressed the thought behind all the arrangements of our army and it is remarkable how in the midst of the general indifference so large a measure of this jealous care for god and souls has been awakened and maintained nowhere alas does the theory of irresponsibility find a more congenial soil than in the very places and services where god is most feared honored and obeyed his doors are indeed open to the world but whether anybody enters them or no is the care of but sadly too few hymns are so announced as to make it easy for all to join in singing them if they choose but whether the words are sung by many or only by a proficient few and above all whether hearts as well as voices are raised in prayer and praise to god is too often a matter of absolute indifference to almost everyone how the general altered all that wherever his influence was felt he made all his people understand then not merely are they responsible for understanding and heeding god's commands themselves but foreenforcing attention to them as those who must give account of their success or failure the sister leader of some little meeting in a faraway outpost of a core thousands of miles from the center when she insists upon having a verse sung for the third time because i'm sure some of you lads were not half singing has little idea of the religious revolution she represents that the dislike of so many for any such innovations continues may help to convince anyone who thinks of the urgent need there was and is still for the substitution of responsible for irresponsible leadership in divine service during his visit to the united states in 1907 the general had a severe illness which seriously threatened to cut short his career his death was indeed cabled as a news item from chicago but the report was as mark tween would have said grossly exaggerated nobody will wonder however at his having been ill when they read commissioner lolly's report he writes we have calculated that in the 13 meetings of his new york campaign the general was on his feet speaking about 26 and three quarters hours he spent less than six weeks in the country traveled about 3700 miles by train spoke about 85 hours to 50 audiences before conferring many hours with leading officers and talking to the newspaper reporters in each town he visited an officer describing his illness wrote I never shall forget his effort to ascend the staircase of the commissioner's house on Friday morning after his victory at Milwaukee the night before the veteran warrior had to rest his head and hands on the rail and pray my lord it was clear to me that the chill he had sustained days before and which he fought in vain against would make him a prisoner for days what that meant to him when he was already announced for a number of other cities can be imagined his symptoms the following day were very serious and one cannot but be glad that he had it his side at the time his daughter commander eva booth under her loving care and with all the help of doctors and masters that could be god in chicago the general recovered so as to be able to go on after a few days with his interrupted tour after which he wrote in his farewell letter to his american troops I have been impressed with the great improvement in the devotion spirituality and blood and fire character of the forces already in existence I have also most pleasantly gratified by conviction of the possibility of raising a force in the united states that shall not only be equal to the demand made upon it by the conditions of the country but of supplying me with powerful reinforcements of men and money for the mighty task of bringing the whole world to the feet of jesus during this visit the general and the commander were received by president roosevelt at the white house the general was presented with the freedom of the city of philadelphia and after going through the gigantic final week described alone in new york was able to sail directly to germany for his usual great repentance day in berlin and he was already 78 years old need it be said that whilst in this book little mention is made of anyone but the general himself it not having been his habit in his journals to refer to those with whom he was for the time associating we are not to suppose that at any rate in recent years he was anywhere fighting alone in heaven no doubt the victory won in many a crowded building was put down to the credit of someone whom few if any of those occupying the front of the platform would have mentioned but as a result of whose prayers faith and effort the audience was gathered or the results attained it would have been very unfair to the great majority of his officers to have called frequent or special attention to the small english staff who usually accompanied him for not only the commissioners and chief secretaries but the officers of every nationality labored systematically to make the most of his visits to any particular place and to render to the largest possible extent the results of each visit permanent this may possibly seem specially and curiously unfair in the united states and denmark yet it will only make the principle of this omission from the general's own records and ours the more clear it will doubtless be expected that i make some comment upon the painful separation from him of three of his own children which were amongst the saddest events of the general's life and yet i feel it best to say nothing it is not within the scope of this book to tell all about it and telling part could only cause misunderstanding so i leave it and hope everyone else will do the same end of section 12 recording by tom hirsch section 13 in australia this libre vox recording is in the public domain recording by tom hirsch the entire program of every tour the general made emphasizes so strongly his advocacy of hard work that one really hesitates to pick out any one campaign as more remarkable than another what is however extraordinary in connection with one of his far away australian journeys is our having letters which so much more than any others give particulars of his doings i am resting tonight and well i think my poor body has earned some kind of respite such a 10 days work i never did before of sheer hard work how i have come through it and come through so well i cannot understand except that god has indeed been my helper here is another sidelight on the general's own inner life which we get by the way we conceal of course the identity of the lady in question except to say that it was a very distinguished hostess with whom he had occasion to spend some hours when traveling it was perhaps the loveliest journey i ever had i talked nearly all the time and in fact had no alternative but i think i ought to have made a more desperate and definite attack on her soul than i did she is a very intelligent and amiable lady and i have no doubt i made an impression goodbye go on praying and believing for me i want to be a flame of fire wherever i go i thank god for the measure of love and power i have but i must have more i am pushing everybody around me up to this the inward burning love and zeal and purity i wish our best men were more spiritual give my tenderest love to all in each of the general's visits to australia there was much of the same character but from the letters to his children which he wrote on one of them we can extract enough to give some idea of what he saw and felt in passing through those vast regions what the reception at melbourne would have been had it not been for the torrents of rain i cannot imagine although it was known that i could not get in before six or seven o'clock there was a great mass of several thousand people waiting at three o'clock as it was we did not get into the exhibition building till ten and a vast crowd had been sitting inside from five and stayed to hear me talk till 1045 i had an immense meeting they say five thousand were present on the sunday morning seven thousand in the afternoon with as many more turned away the opportunity here is immense beyond conception the people are delightful and the officers also if they were my own sons and daughters i don't see how either officers or soldiers could have been much more affectionate how great was the strain of the meetings maybe guessed from the following remarks as to the final one i trembled as i rose you must understand that the hall down which i spoke is about 400 to 450 feet long and on this occasion a partition about 10 feet high was drawn across it some 300 feet from the spot on which i stood so that my voice had to travel all through the entire length of the building before it met with any obstruction whilst behind me there was at least another 70 feet the press estimate the crowds at ten thousand but that is an exaggeration there would be seven thousand at least i had taken the precaution to send an officer to the far end to see how far he could or could not hear me and he brought back word excellently so i drove ahead speaking over an hour and a half and not losing the attention of my audience for a moment indeed i felt i had the whole house from the moment i opened my lips of course it was the greatest physical effort a long way that i ever made and considering that it was my seventh address in that dreadful building and that i commenced with a bad throat exhausted with the fatigues and miseries of the voyage and that i had ceaselessly worked at smaller meetings etc all the four days i do think it very wonderful how i went through it and i must attribute it to the direct holding up and strengthening of the dear lord himself on all hands i think a deep impression was made to god be the glory and to my poor constituents for whom i live and plead be the benefit i am tired this morning but shall get a little rest today and a little extra sleep in the train we leave for bendigo at twelve o'clock arriving at four for meeting tomorrow we go to g along next day coming back here on friday morning and leaving at five for sydney traveling all night and arriving there about noon on saturday you will get tired of hearing of this round of meetings and of the very echo of this enthusiasm but you will i am sure rejoice not merely that the people of this new world have welcomed your father in general with such hardiness but that there is for the army such an open door in these parts that is indeed what lends such endless important to the recital which we cannot help reporting ever in the non of the general's meeting in each country to which he went it was not the mere coming together of crowds to listen to a speaker but the enthusiastic acceptance and endorsement of a system and of demands made by a perfect stranger in which he's so delighted the general never went anywhere merely to preach or lecture all that he did in that way was always so combined with salvation campaigns that at every step he was really recruiting for the army hence his every movement the reports of his journey the conversations he held with all whom he met everything told in the one great war and helped to create more and more all over the world this force of men women and children pledged to devote themselves to the service of christ and of mankind there is a very interesting account of a visit to a state school especially as it shows the general's keenness to learn for the army anything possible at ten o'clock i went by the request of mrs mclean the lady with whom i was staying to visit one of her state schools i was met at the door by the managers and members of the board who conducted me through the building there were over a thousand children in ten different classrooms i was much interested in them and spoke in each room so that i began the day with at least ten little sermons i was very much struck with the singing of the children rendered very effective with some corresponding action with the arms and feet which gave life and vigor to the thing i'm satisfied that we might follow this plan out with very good effect in our army singing the little that is done is always appreciated and so whilst the secular australian schools got some little gleam of the heavenly light the age of general saw and passed on to all his world a valuable suggestion that has since been taken up enacted upon everywhere in our children's meetings and demonstrations and then he passes at once to quite another department of his activities he always exercised the same care in every country which we have already described as to england to ensure the careful settlement of all property acquired for the army so that it may be as nearly as possible made certain that nothing given to the one army should ever be removed out of the control of its central authority how much of time and care this has demanded will be readily understood by those who have any experience in property matters and who know how widely laws and legal issues differ in different countries i had an interview with mr maddox our solicitor out here a very nice fellow indeed and i should think capable with all he seems to grasp the idea of the army government and to be anxious to cooperate with us in such a settlement of our property as will be in harmony with it only by means of many such interviews and all the care they represent was it possible under the laws of such thoroughly democratic states to leave the local holders of authority under the general's complete freedom of aggressive action and yet to secure that everything they acquired with the army's funds should remain for all time at the disposal for the army only of a general with his office at the other side of the world and then we go on to the journey during which he was hoping to get some extra sleep at 12 left for bendigo arriving about four o'clock was very weary on the journey and had to turn out two or three times to address the crowds waiting to listen to me on station platforms bendigo is a town of some 30 000 people entirely made and sustained by the gold digging industry an immense amount of the precious metal has been taken here and sufficient is being secured still to make it a paying concern although the miners have to go to a considerable depth in order to secure the courts we had a public reception and they had made a general holiday of it in the place people must have come in from miles around to help make up such crowd they pulled up at a splendid fountain in the center of the town intending to separate with three cheers for the general but i could not withstand the temptation and made quite a little sermon about saving their souls and serving god it is this interest both in the everyday occupations and resources of the people and of the tours they made which joined with all his intense concern about the soul constituted the general and all who truly follow him the true brethren of all mankind it must ever be remembered to the credit of australia that its leading men were the first to recognize this characteristic of our officers and to lend them all the influence of their public as well as private countenance and sympathy it is this fact which makes it a permanent pleasure to record their kindnesses to the general came on to melbourne on my way to sydney meant a body of representative men to lunch amongst them sir james mcbane president of the upper chamber mr deacon an ex-cabinet minister a very nice fellow indeed a man who appears to me to have more capacity than anyone i have yet met in the colonies he made a speech and at the close drew me on one side and said he wanted to do something for us and if i could only tell him what it should be on my return to melbourne he would be very glad to do it i am sure he is prepared to be a good friend he is a coming prime minister i should think the general had no idea then that all australia would so soon be united into one commonwealth much less that mr deacon would for so many of the next 10 years be premier of the whole but a remark he once made respecting the reported skepticism of some highly placed colonials might be made with regard alas to many statesmen of christian lands nowadays and we cannot but see in that fact and in the friendliness of so many such persons with us a token of the meaning both of the skepticism and the army's position in how many instances have men moving in influential circles met with a christianity manifestly formal and carrying with it no impress of reality how natural for them to sink into skepticism but the moment they encounter men who convince them instantly that they believe the bible they carry skepticism retires in favor of joyous surprise and without any desire to discuss doctrines they become our lifelong friends the general's ability in securing the assistance of all sorts of men including those whose religious opinions widely differed from his own or who had gotten none at all was remarkable when reproached as he was sometimes for taking the money even of sporting men he would always say that he only regretted that he had not got a larger amount and that he reckoned the tears of the poor creatures that would be relieved would wash the money clean enough in the sight of god for it to be acceptable in his sight met mr blank he is interested in our maternity work and promised sometime back to assist us with the hospital we are proposing to erect he is a multi-millionaire he promised twenty five hundred pounds right away fifteen hundred more when the sum of twenty three thousand five hundred had been raised making thereby a total of twenty five thousand pounds with which building operations could be commenced he is a young man sprightly and generous i should think i wanted him to make his promise five thousand and round figures but he simply said i cannot promise we shall see the following description of one australian night ride may give some idea both of the eagerness of the people to hear him and of the amount of fatigue the general was able to endure we left at five p.m the journey was certainly unique in my history six or seven times in that night or early morning was i fetched out of my carriage to deliver addresses the mayors of two of the towns were there to receive me with crowds all placed in orderly fashion with torches burning everything quiet as death while i spoke and finishing up only with the ringing of the departing bell of the train and the hurrahs of the people at two in the morning at waga waga of tick-borne fame they fairly bombarded my carriage shouting general booth won't you speak to us won't you come out but i thought you could really have too much of a good thing at another station after speaking for the 20 minutes allowed for breakfast a lady put through the window a really superb english breakfast as good as ever i had in my life with everything necessary for eating it and as we went off she added mind i am a roman catholic the reception at sydney was enormous they say never surpassed and only equaled once at the burial of some celebrated oresmen who died on the way from england they had arranged a great reception for him and they gave it to his corpse the enthusiasm of the meetings is melbourne over again the generals almost in variable escape from illness during so many years of traveling in so many varying climates and seasons can only be attributed to god's special guidance and care in melbourne influenza raged in the home where he was billeted and seized upon one of the officers traveling with him and yet he escaped and could resume his journey undelayed in south africa when he was 79 another of his companions in travel was separated from him for days by severe illness but the general in spite of a milder attack of the same sort was able to fulfill every appointment made for him best of all however was the peculiarly blessed inward experience which he enjoyed amidst all the outward rush of the australian tour it has been so often suggested by truly excellent men that the soul cannot enjoy all the fullness of fellowship with god without a great deal of retirement from men that we should like to have the generals in their life fairly exhibited if it were only in order forever to bury this monstrous and we might also say blasphemous superstition which has so often been supported by one or two quotations from the gospel though in defiance of the whole story of christ and of every promise he ever made of what value could a savior be who drew back from helping his own messengers upon the ridiculous pretense that they were too busy doing his bidding and did not spend enough time seeking him for themselves just a ps to say that god is wonderfully with me i don't think that i ever in the midst of a great revival had a more powerful time than last night it was nothing short of a miracle i had no definite line ready and had no time to get one i preached an old sermon at melbourne just because i must have something straight before me that i could shout out to that immense crowd and i had a wonderful time but last night god helped me in every way the power upon the people was really wonderful at times little did most of his own soldiers guess the extreme strain of inward weight and struggle under which the general was often laboring just when in some great assembly he appeared to everyone to be overflowing with youthful gaiety and self-confidence the following letter to his youngest daughter and some entries in his diary will give some idea of the inner victory he really gained on many such occasions commissioner lolly mentioned in this letter was the general's almost constant companion and helper in many years travel in many lands leading the singing soloing managing the prayer meetings and generally aiding in every arrangement a true armor bearer and comrade at every turn fair night might have been better plenty of weakness still better than it often is lolly just been in he's not over well says we have got the biggest theater the empire he is not quite sure whether its suitability for talking is beyond the coliseum at glasgow but he thinks the meetings are rather heavy for a sick man whom four doctors have been conjuring during the week to settle down and take things quietly under pain and penalties of the sufferings described however i am going on with faith that god won't forsake me it is very probable that mr mcdougal said something of the same kind when he retired to rest on his last sleep and failing to appear in the morning was found by his son with life extinct gone to live by sight anyway to have some further assistance to cite through his faith in the better land this has been one of the most remarkable of the many remarkable days of my history i passed a weary night and felt altogether unfit for the task before me the natural force seemed to have passed out of me both mentally and physically in fact my heart failed me and there seemed nothing before me but the prospect of slackening down i was only kept going by the memory of so many deliverances brought out for me in the past we had one of the largest audiences and the biggest crowd i ever addressed in a single day in the morning it appeared that satan sat at my door suggesting all sorts of discouraging things he tried to make me believe that my public work was done and especially suggesting that i should renounce the subject on which i was talking and wait for better days before i attempted to talk again the prayer meeting that followed was certainly encouraging we had twenty seven out still i came away with very much the same feeling that had been aroused while i was talking i took a little refreshment and tried to get a little sleep but my mind was too much agitated to allow of it i woke up and called for the notes of my lecture my mind could not put two and two together hardly and so i gave up in despair and left myself to my fate on my way to the meeting however a strange feeling came over me it was like the sun through a rift in the black clouds and all at once a spirit of tenderness hope and faith came over me a voice in my soul seemed to say go and do the Lord's work and the people will gather go for their souls and all will be well i accepted the command my fears vanished a spirit of confidence took possession of me i rose i addressed the crowd for an hour and twenty minutes with all the physical vigor and mental liberty i could desire night a terrific crowd i talked for an hour and ten minutes with the same force and fervor as in my most successful efforts 147 came on to the stage in the after meeting it was thus in the smaller matters of personal strength and health as in the greatest affairs that the general struggled believed and triumphed all through his career australia has gone further than most countries towards state socialism but it was well remarked by some statesmen many years ago we are all socialists now no man within his times was more intensely devoted to the cause of the poor than william booth he was indifferent to no practical scheme or effort for the improvement of the people's condition in any land but for that very reason he loathed with uncommon vigor such socialism as would spurn and crush out of the world the man who is no longer in first-class physical condition or desirous of earning an honest living by hard work instead of going about to create hatred between man and man and would prevent those who will not submit to any man's dictation from leaving their families to starve when work is to be obtained the general's indignation was specially aroused when socialist spouters tried to block all his plans of beneficence with their foul misrepresentations he fought every such attempt with the utmost determination and by the help of god and the more intelligent of his fellow countrymen crushed every such attack more completely than the public sometimes knew for he resolutely kept out of any political or social agitation and went calmly on his way even when his quietude led the enemy to imagine that he was yielding in later years when all the pressmen of a city came together to meet him the social democratic paper representative would of course come with the rest on the occasion of such an interview once in denmark he writes the social democrat usually contends himself by compassionating the inadequacy of my efforts for dealing with the miseries which they contemplate with the remark that i don't go deep enough that mine is a superficial operation whereas they destroy poverty by dragging it up by the roots my notion is that the principles upon which my efforts are founded carry me to the lowest roots of all namely the selfishness of human nature their notion is that capital is the root of the misery destroy the capital or rather i expect they mean divide it up or let everybody have the benefits that flow out of its possession my notion is that the roots of the selfishness are to be found in human nature itself end of section 13 recording by tom hersh section 14 women and scandinavia this liber vox recording is in the public domain recording by tom hersh for a number of years it was the generals custom to conduct the annual review of our swedish troops at suratelba a beautiful seaside spot near enough to stock home to make it easily accessible and yet far enough down the fjord to make the journey thither a very delightful excursion the site of from 15 to 20 steamers crowded with salvationists making their way with streaming banners music and song to the campground was almost like a glimpse of the coming glory when the whole earth should rejoice before the lord but of course there came always to that great gathering a sufficient number of unconverted to furnish abundant opportunity for conquest to be made and the great meetings lasting throughout the day never broke up without the in gathering of many souls the councils for officers which followed during the next few days in stock home and elsewhere gave the general great opportunities to confirm and extend the influence of his teachings throughout the whole of these northern countries some of the generals earlier visits to sweden were however still more interesting and perhaps even more permanently effective because as we shall see they helped the newly rising force enlisted under their first leader a devoted woman to gain some liberty for demonstrations and other work outside their own buildings such as they had not had before and strengthen them in their resolution to fight whilst almost all their fellow countrymen still looked down upon them with disdain if not with hatred it is difficult to realize now what a dreadful thing the army in those days must have appeared huge crowds gathered from the very first to the meetings convened in theaters and other public buildings by major now commissioner australian a swedish lady who had been appointed by the general to inaugurate the work in her own land but the bulk of the population seemed to regard her as though she was a suffragette advocating window breaking or something worse this will explain some of the facts the general records in his diary of his visit seven years later the journey began with a great meeting at hall after which the traveler went on board a steamer for a miserable two days voyage to gothenberg after meetings there he proceeded to sansval a city from which point his journal reads at the conclusion of the evening meeting the dear soldiers flocked to the station crowding the platform and expressing as far as opportunity served them their love for me and their desire that god should bless me i spoke to them for a few minutes then came the signal in the start and then as we slowly moved off handkerchiefs were waved volleys of amen were fired the band played in a way we were born out into the darkness all this was like a dream to my comrades as neither the railway officials nor the police had hitherto allowed a word to be spoken or a note of music to be played outside our halls all that night and all the following day we traveled to stockholm which we reached at six p.m. crowds awaited our arrival the soldiers had come down in force wearing sashes on which the words god blessed the general welcome and other devices had been worked the police had come too there were two hundred of them some mounted and some on foot our people had been formed into an avenue down which i passed to an open space every face wore a smile but there was a comparative silence the police master had insisted that there should be no volley firing or shouting but hands and handkerchiefs were waved and everyone appeared delighted we were soon in a carriage galloping off to the headquarters where we were to stay if all that the general has done for the attainment of a larger liberty by the peoples of every land were recorded one might easily make him appear as a great political reformer but whilst consistently aiming at the one great purpose of all his journeys and meetings the salvation of souls he has incidentally done more to stir the humblest and least capable to great nation rousing efforts than any mere political reformer can hope to do during this first visit of 12 days to sweden he traveled by rail over 3000 kilometers say 2000 miles held 28 public meetings besides a number of private ones with press interviews and wayside gatherings at railway stations five nights were spent in the trains mostly in crowded compartments for the days of comfortable sleepers on all lines had not yet come he had besides his interpreter a young english companion who paid his own expenses and he could seldom be persuaded to take any refreshment whilst traveling that could not be got in the carriage it must not be forgotten that in winning and retaining the enthusiastic affection of such multitudes of persons the general has had to face the difficulty of only being able to speak through an interpreter and that he has had to endure campaigns of opposition and slander of which we can say very little but which founded so largely as they have been upon his being a foreigner have had so good a chance to build up walls of difficulty before him after this tremendous journey and reception the general continues in the night meeting i felt a little nervous the writing school was nearly full another 100 persons would have filled every seat although a charge had been made for admission in order to help with the heavy expenses many had stayed away for fear of the crush the audience which was most respectable included the police master i was very tired and no particular topic had been announced however i spoke an hour and a half and all seemed intensely interested sunday the writing school was full for the morning holiness meeting much power about 100 stood up to make a full surrender of themselves to god in the afternoon the hall was again full the police of whom there were 20 present would only allow persons to stand in the end aisles spoke an hour or more night full an hour before the time many convicted about 12 pressed forward monday inspected new hall and training home building to cost 5 000 pounds also visited present training home and attended to correspondence at night the writing school was full long before we arrived spoke two hours immense impressions seemed to be produced tuesday morning addressed officers and cadets one o'clock meeting of clergy and evangelistic workers at which 300 were present spoke an hour and answered questions for an hour was enabled i think to answer all objections putting everyone to silence dined with lieutenant lagerkranz of the king's army he is a dear fellow and he has a dear wife they are in deep sympathy with us she put on a bonnet and a ribbon that night i was determined to have a free meeting for the poorest a charge for admission having been made for all the meetings yet held in stock home so called one at six p.m. in our own hall in the south of the city at six we were quite full i spoke an hour or more and some 20 or more came out for a clean heart closed at 8 15 p.m. at 8 30 p.m soldiers meeting some 500 were present spoke for nearly two hours at the close cleared the front as a mercy seat and nearly all in the place officers cadets and soldiers went down in company after company the wonderful meeting closed about midnight wednesday rose at 6 a.m not having had much sleep away in norkemping at 7 30 a.m arrived at 2 30 p.m meeting at 3 30 p.m in a great church where 800 were present good time very tired night 1500 present talked two hours afterwards at 10 30 p.m had a meeting for soldiers got home about 11 45 p.m thursday meeting at 10 a.m to say farewell spoke about an hour and left at one o'clock for like camping arriving at 2 30 p.m meeting in our beautiful theater at 2 30 p.m fine audience mere lack of space forbids further quotation but surely enough has been said to show with what marvelous exertion the general managed in one brief journey to do so much for all classes and so much not merely in the way of meetings but of organization and administration in every way and the diary tells us nothing of his talks with officers between meetings which have formed so important a part of all his travels by means of such conversations especially in the case of officers who are not english the general has gained a close knowledge of them and their difficulties as they have of his thoughts and wishes between his arrival at gothenberg and his sons ball meetings came a rough journey to norway where we had as yet no officers yet where nevertheless a great meeting had been arranged for by friends who later helped in the establishment of our work in their country the general passed on to denmark where our work was in its first year on the afternoon of his arrival he tells us he rested wrote up correspondence and journal and had some little thought about the coming meetings night welcome meeting in the methodist church packed there must have been nearly 1300 people present the admission was free and there were many philistines some socialists and some lads bent on mischief to add to our difficulties my interpreter did his work so miserably that we had some confusion and restlessness after an hour's talk i paused for the collection to be taken and changed interpreters the second one did very much better his voice however was feeble in his manner very quiet so that things were not very much better for a time then we had a little quiet and a decent finish it was a considerable disappointment however and next door to a defeat i retired to rest very sad and with awkward forebodings about the coming meetings the great funeral vault of a church the interpreting the mocking young fellows void of any sense of honor or conscience to appeal to or any respect for a stranger the intense anxiety of the officer in command to have good meetings and above all my longings to meet the needs of the hungry crowd only wanting to hear and many of them equally willing to obey these and other troubling thoughts haunted my mind and spoiled my night's sleep but i fell back on my old remedy and comforting myself in the lord resolved to do what could be done and left myself in his hands sunday 11 a.m had a local minister to translate he did well some 50 or 60 stood up at the close as seekers for a clean heart afternoon the great church packed interpretation went fairly well began at 3 p.m and went on till 5 20 p.m night police sent up words soon after six that the street was filling up and the doors must be opened when this was done the young fellows who had made so much trouble on saturday night or at least some hundreds of this class forced their way in through all else leaving hundreds more outside they talked and laughed and although now and then a policeman marched a row of them out their game went on spoiling everything the voice of the interpreter was weak and the confusion flustered him so my dreams of a smash and of a hundred seekers were not realized and we terminated with some six or seven gathered out of the crowd immediately near the platform it was a great disappointment i felt beaten and went home confessing it and yet what could be done my tongue was all but tied i was helpless without an interpreter capable of conveying my meaning to the people such a man was wanting commending the whole matter and the anxious crowds of people so eager to hear my master i retired at midnight monday breakfast 8 30 a.m 9 a.m spoke with a gentleman from keel who is anxious to see the army open there and is building us a hall saw his plans and arranged terms 9 30 a.m saw the officer from stuttgart he has a heavy struggle 12 noon drove around the city in summertime it must be a very pleasant place 3 30 p.m meeting fine audience very nearly filling the church commenced with a new interpreter a student excruble soon i had to fall back on one of the others 7 p.m as full as the police would allow continued till 10 p.m and then had a soldier's meeting till 11 30 p.m left copenhagen the next morning at 8 30 a.m we who have since seen some of the general's greatest triumphs in that city and have watched the steady growth of the army in denmark till it has won the sympathy of the royal family and of every other decent family in the country must rejoice in this record of his first desperate battles there and can guess how much of all the subsequent victory is due to what his people learned in those days but the record has a far wider interest for it lets us see as we have little opportunity ordinarily the inward conflicts through which the general passed in so many places where out of his weakness or the weakness of his forces he or they were made strong few achievements of the general's lifetime will i fancy impress future generations more than his establishment of the army in finland at the very time when all the former liberties of that country were gradually being taken away formally recognized by treaties as a grand duchy of the russian empire with its own parliament and laws which were supposed to be permanently guaranteed finland found itself looked upon with a growing jealousy just when a new constitution was slowly changing the governmental arrangements of russia it is as yet too early for outsiders to understand how it came to pass that the country was regarded as a center of disaffection or why ever in a non some new step was taken to nullify its parliament and to place it more and more under military control what we are concerned with is the simple fact that these things interfered but little with the steady progress of the army and that this proved at every step the soundness of the general's principles the completeness with which he succeeded in planting them in the hearts of his most distant followers and the marvelous way in which god guided protected and blessed his work just where he could do the least for its development the very beginning of the work was due entirely to one of his most daring decisions for it may well be doubted whether any attempt under the leadership of a foreigner would have been tolerated at that time but when a young lady who had become acquainted with the army in stock home devoted herself to its service and after passing some time in training in london was sent back with two or three subordinates to begin work in Helsingfors who could look upon her with suspicion the moment she succeeded however in inducing a few of her first converts to put on our uniform or insignia the police came down upon them took away all their badges and declared that the formation of a core there must be regarded as forever prohibited even when the converts were provided with a second supply of badges they were called to the police station and again deprived of them but the leader had learned from the general too well the lessons of patient endurance and continuance to give way and when the police saw her followers supplied a third time with the signs of union with us having in the meantime had so many opportunities to learn more both of the leader and of her people they concluded that it would be after all the best for the public interest to let them alone two newspapers in the two languages of the country were issued and sold in all the public houses congregations were gathered in all the cities and even small towns and everywhere the authorities could see that no spirit of discontent with anything but sin and evil habits was being created but the police would find their tasks lightened and the life of the poorest of the people brightened and bettered if they let the work go on end of section 14 recording by Tom Hirsch