Morning journal and courier., 1882-10-13
Objections to the Salvation Army.

[Cardinal Manning in the Contemporary Review
 A grave objection is to be found in the
 practice of what is called 'the training of
 converts" " "The moment any man, woman
 or child professes to have received remission
 of sins we require them to stand up and tell
 the audience.' .'' In this we must believe spiritual dangers of the most perilous kind to be inevitable. First, each one is to be the
 judge of his own state; next, he is to make
 instant and public profession of it. Against
 those who resolve the certainty of their adoption sons of God into their own in ward consciousness, even Luther said, 1T rest my adoption not on nay own assurance, but upon the act of God in my baptism. |"
 This is building on the rock, the other is building on the sand. If the Salvation Army builds it's work on such foundations how can it stand? There Is no form of de- ception or self deception which this does not invite. They who know least of themselves, of the sinfulness of sin, and of the sanctity of God, would be among the first to believe in their own salvation If there be any warning in Gods Word more constant and more urgent than another it is humility and self mistrust. The instant public profession that is, the calling of all eyes and ears and attention upon themselves is the last thing that the Spirit of God in any record of Holy Scriptures counsels or warrants. The rising up of anyone in the midst of a congregation with such a profession seems like: "God I
 thank Thee that now am not as other men are not even those around mas' This
 surely is not the voice of humility, could
 any humility long endure such a training. If
 it be said that such public profession is an act of thanksgiving, we must answer that the best thanksgiving is the humblest If it
 be said that it is humiliation, must an
 swer again that self imposed humiliations are tho most subtle of all snares It may be that person of mature experience in the spiritual life may, without self-consciousness, lay open his life and state in public. But that men, women and children kneeline in the front row of public meeting, should at the outset of their conversion tell tho audi ence the work of God in their souls without danger to humility, sincerity, reality is contrary to the spiritual experience of the
 world. This observation extends to the
 usage of making the saved" put an IS" or some such sign, upon their collar. Believing | the last danger of the spiritual life to be l what is called '"Hhe storm in the harbor''- 1 that is, spiritual complacency springing from } self consciousness and self-contemplation, | which wrecks even those who have escaped 1 from the perils of the deep into the port of
 safety-we must look with great fear upon a system which systematically calls out into { activity the self complacency latent in all
 men, and trains it by an elaborate external l discipline. Such was not the training of the l first Disciples. or of the early Christians, ol l of the confessors and martyrs of any age
 I whether in persecution or in peace. Humili
 ty, sorrow for sin, conversion to God, like the frost and the dew and the light, work si