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women. But I would deprecate any attempt for the present to start agricultural training on a large scale. A great deal of preparatory labour needs to be brought to a successful issue first, and this new conception of women's rightful sphere must be given time to filter down into the minds of those who, from the circumstances of their lives, are least amenable to fresh ideas. It is useless to expect women in any numbers to take up agricultural employment as long as it is considered less ladylike than any urban oocupation. The false impressions prevalent concerning the relative values of practical and intellectual work, which are the direct outcome of our school teaching, must first be effaced, and the public educated to a due appreciation of the dignity and beauty of farm-life. Meanwhile the county council committees can lay a foundation in elementary training and pave the way towards a more advanced teaching, which will certainly be called for a few years hence.

This whole question of agricultural employment for women is, so to speak, in the air. It has emerged somewhat suddenly from the sea of future possibilities, and is fast developing into one of the social questions of the day. It has found an enthusiastic champion in the Countess of Warwick, who has elaborated an ambitious scheme combining both a college and an agricultural settlement. Among women workers of all shades of thought, there appears to be a general conviction that it is in agricultural employment that the economic independence of our surplus female population is largely to be sought in the future. And as a solution of one of the chronic problems of English social life, it possesses the advantage of making both for health and for the sanctity of family life. In our zeal for progress and independence we are apt to forget in England that the family is the natural unit round which society revolves, and that family life cannot be preserved without a certain amount of deliberate and appreciative effort. On this point, I am old-fashioned enough to feel that the sending away of daughters at an early age from the family hearth to earn a living among strangers is a pis aller, a regrettable necessity of our social system, and that any development which allows girls to follow an active and remunerative occupation while living under the paternal roof will make both for individual happiness and social morality. Once argued, the advantages of agricultural employment are so convincingly apparent as scarcely to need a detailed statement. Yet the fact remains that those who advocate it are putting themselves in opposition to the whole tendency of industrial life in England during the present century. And to do this successfully will demand. an active and ceaseless propaganda.

VIRGINIA M. CRAWFORD.

THE SALVATION ARMY:

A NOTE OF WARNING.

A

"O Heavens! if we saw an army ninety thousand strong maintained and fully equipt, in continual real action and battle against Chaos, Necessity, Stupidity fighting and incessantly spearing down and destroying Falsehood, Nescience, Delusion, Disorder, and the Devil and his Angels!"

-CARLYLE, "Past and Present."

NOBLE wish, and surely almost prophetic of the Salvation Army! Yet a Wesleyan Methodist, on leaving one of our services some years ago, remarked to the friend who accompanied him, "That's Methodism gone to seed!" which would, I have no doubt, be news for most people who had not noticed that Methodism was getting seedy, and fancied that the Salvation Army was quite another thing. Every movement within the realm of Christianity is perhaps indebted to preceding ones, and all contain the same living seed-Jesus Christ. But Sir Oracle was wrong. The Salvation Army is not degenerate Methodism. It bears evidences of genuineness and originality writ large upon it. It came into existence because of a need, and has in some sort answered it. It propagates no new fanatical doctrines, but preaches Christ crucified. Its developments have been, on the whole, rational and beneficent, and it has displayed considerable adaptability. In short, without making any comparison as to what may be termed quality, it is as true a movement as Methodism itself, and so entirely original that it approximates in a remarkable way to Carlyle's ideal host.

The world, as was to be expected, has given the Salvation Army a very mixed reception. It has been satirised, ostracised, eulogised. High and low, learned and unlearned, have opposed or defended it. Huxley girded at its "cory bantic" religion, and charged full tilt against its social wing; Bradlaugh waxed wroth over its "drums and tramplings"; whilst, on the other hand, Jowett, of Oxford, praised, it in his own judicious way, and Farrar is still the eloquent champion of

much of its work. "Skeletons" have caricatured and persecuted it; the Church of England has imitated it, and Royalty blessed it. And yet though all tongues wag concerning this new, robustious thing under the sun, really discriminating views of the Salvation Army are by no means plentiful. With some truth it may be said that our enemies batter us and our friends flatter us. And we Salvationists, looking through the glasses of our foes, honestly fail to see what they appear to see, and are sometimes almost as much bewildered over the highly-coloured spectacles of our friends. We have scarcely learned to use our own eyes, to examine and judge for ourselves, and have very little idea of the true proportions, the strength and weakness, the possibilities and dangers of the Salvation Army. What may be called "public opinion" has no existence amongst us. There is no open discussion of matters affecting the welfare of the organisation, such as we find in other religious bodies. We have, indeed, what are called "officers' councils" and "soldiers' councils," but the title is a misnomer. What is meant is "officers and soldiers counselled." The Salvation Army, like every other institution, is imperfect, but, under the domination of the military idea and in the name of loyalty, we appear to have all agreed to keep silence concerning the disquieting symptoms and weak places existing in it. This is unfortunate, and may in itself constitute one of our gravest perils. And really there is no occasion for it. Bad men and bad institutions rightly fear examination, but the Salvation Army is sound enough and strong enough to profit by an honest exchange of opinion amongst its members in their councils and publications.

The writer's main object in this article is to strike a note of warning in regard to certain tendencies and dangers that are revealing themselves in the Salvation Army. He has had a dozen years' experience of its ordinary evangelical work, and is simply an unpaid soldier or member. He is taking it for granted that his readers have a general idea of the character and scope of Salvation Army enterprises, and are agreed as to their beneficence, even though they may disagree as to their wisdom.

Before entering upon my subject proper, however, perhaps I may be allowed to sketch very briefly a few notable characteristics of the organisation and its members that have impressed me.

The dominant notes in the Salvation Army are earnestness and joy. The Salvationist, like Ibsen's creation "Brand," sees soul and body where others see body, and perhaps soul; but, unlike Brand, he cannot help being happy, for Christ has appeared to him at the beginning of his religious experience. For let people say what they may about "irreverence" and about "dragging religion in the gutter," members of the Army have a genuine spiritual experience, and are in reality as reverent in spirit as other Christians. We are rough at

times, and harsh, and occasionally mix things up-the trivial with the sacred. For instance, we were gravely told in the War Cry recently of a dying Salvationist who "passed triumphantly away waving one of the first silk handkerchiefs sold by the Army!" But, notwithstanding our crudities and oddities, there is amongst us as a whole a clear realisation of the power and presence of God, and of our own demerits, along with a sincere desire to shape our lives according to the divine will.

It is impossible to be in the Salvation Army without feeling that the ruling passion there is for seeking and saving the lost. This accounts for its warm religious atmosphere. We are not only provided with opportunities for doing good, but also with a genial zone to do it in a fact that will be appreciated by those who have to carry on any sort of work in the face of indifference or contempt.

Another thing that has impressed me is the presence in the Army of much elementary religion and much deep spirituality. A student of the Epistles will note how the most elementary moral axioms alternate there with the profoundest Christian doctrines. There is that in our organisation which constantly reminds one of this trait in the apostolic writings. The Salvation Army carries the Gospel to the most debased and ignorant, and it also unfurls a high standard of holy living. It has within its ranks those who have been saved from the power of gross habits, and has also choice spirits very many, men and women of saintly character. It has to feed many babes and nurture many who know something of "the deep things of God."

Then look at the sensible recognition by the Salvation Army of woman's right to do what she has capacity for !

I should think that one-half of our number are women. Many of them fill positions of considerable responsibility, and one, Mrs. Bramwell Booth, successfully administrates a great and difficult work.

Then think of the Army's cosmopolitanism. In England Hodge and John Artisan, arrayed in jerseys, may be seen hobnobbing with converted Hindoos and others of that ilk who have come from the ends of the earth to take part in some great gathering of Salvationists, and to assist in the work of converting British heathens. And if an English Salvationist lands in any part of the world where the "yellow, red, and blue" of the Salvation Army has made its appearance, he will receive the same hearty welcome as his foreign comrades receive who land in England. It cannot be a matter of indifference that there is at work in various parts of the world, and among the classes where race-hatreds are perhaps strongest, an organisation that has caught the Christian note of universal brotherhood, and is seeking to dissolve the barriers that exist between nations.

Then much might be said about what may be termed the romance of Salvation Army work. For instance, Mary-once, we will suppose, your cook-having fallen in with the Army and got converted, left your service to your regret, became an officer, and is now in India. You have never passed throngh the Red Sea, or admired the scenery of Ceylon, or gazed on the sacred Ganges, or come in contact with Oriental races and civilisations! Well, she, your erstwhile cook, has, and had some intelligent conception of it, too! As she tells the story of Jesus, the native people throng round to listen, whilst priests and pundits learned in the immemorial wisdom of India stand respectfully by. In a modest way she is a religious leader, a teacher of truth, a reconciler of East and West. Since she joined the Salvation Army there have come to her joys, friendships, providences, compensations, consolations. She attributes them to the doing of God's will. And she is one of multitudes who, humanly speaking, have found whatever of good, and wonder, and beauty has come into their lives through the Salvation Army.

In proceeding to deal with some of our dangers as an organisation, or tendencies that may develop into dangers, I would call attention to the constitution of the Salvation Army. It is a voluntary association organised and carried on somewhat after the manner of a "killing" army. Its General possesses absolute authority within the domain of its operations, and, acting through the Chief of the Staff, issues orders and regulations for the movement throughout the world. He holds in trust all Salvation Army properties, for the purposes of the work. He even appoints his successor. It need hardly be said that the practical work of administration is done by the Chief of the Staff and headquarters officials generally, as representing the supreme authority.

The parallel between the Salvation Army and an ordinary army is not a perfect one, because, whilst the fourteen or fifteen thousand paid officers amongst us, who devote all their time to the work, may be considered as under effectual control, the members or soldiers, whilst being expected, of course, to carry out the rules that apply to their position, do that of their own free will, and devote just what spare time they choose to the service of the Salvation Army.

It will have already been gathered from what I have said that they have no regulating voice in the affairs of the organisation-no voting powers, no right to deal with matters even the most local.

Now, autocratic authority, and in military form, is surely a remarkable thing in a religious organisation. It seems to me that such authority makes its appeal to fear rather than to love. It tends to summary action and to the suppression of legitimate opinion. It will not bend to compromise; it dare not admit mistakes. And in

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