The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-11
SALVATION ARMy'S CRISIS
Nhat Nill Be This Organizations
Future in America !?
ALMOST MIRACULOUS HISTORY
Graphic Sketch OF the origin and Growth
Of One Of the Most Wonderous
Religious and Social Move
mcuts OF the Age.
Irom tho Times-Herald.

WcutS Ot tuS "s~'
Erom tho Times-H Herald.
do as you are told, and don't argue,
II the favorite dictum of General Booth,
q dictum that has been obeyed without
question for third of a century by an
Increasing number of followers.
The Salvation army is the miracle OF
our time. A generation ago the army
consisted of one man and his wife,
without friends. money or influence, a
place to lay their heads or even creed
TO cover and guarantee them. A pro-
cession of 100000 people followed the
wife to the grave. Now more than q
100000 do as they are told. and never
argue" At the very moment when the
miracle is most manifest there is a
schism in the camp. the son and sub
ject, trusted with a high commission.
questions the absolutism of his father.
d. Who could have foreseen. generation
ago, that the Salvation army would
grow too vast for the control OF the one
man who was preaching to the sub
merged tenth from the tail end Of q
cart In Whitechapel?
The reason of the present schism is
the constant fear that the order VIII
grow aristocratic. will establish
churches. acquire property, become in
tellectual and respectable. stay down.
down." says General Booth. Wade
through the dead sea OF sin and shame
and sorrow, raise up the unworthy,
preach hope to the hopeless, bring Joy TO
the joyless. The crying need Is for
men who are on fire. Moderation is
good In it's place. and so is prudence,
but Oh! in view of the terrible necessi-
ties of the hour I do hope and pray
that God will raise up some blazing, red
hot men. 1t Is only by human sympa-
thy and human voices appealing, face
to face, with these Outcast and ruined
souls that they can be won back to
decent living and the law of God. will
not have church or respectable,
property holding, local community sit
ting down in Snug sanctimoniOus con-
tent. i do not want another ecclesiasti-
cal corpse numbering the earth. When
the Salvation army ceases to be a mill
tant body of red-hot men, whose su-
preme business is the saving Of mems
souls. I hope 1t will vanish from the
face OF earth"
TOO RESPECTABLE.
Mr.. and Mrs. Ballington Booth are
too respectable. They preach in draw
ing rooms and churches and try to en-
gage the attention of the rich. Their
methods and motives are above re-
proach. but the hand of the general has
tried to press them down, down to the
slums and saloons and brothels as their
only field of labor. Let the rich come to
them. 1t was. no use to insist that con-
ditions were different in the United
States, where church Is separated from
state, and all true Christians have hu-
mllity. Humanity Is the same every
Whsae. degradation IL the sams. SORROW
the same resist every temptation to
consider anything but the immortal
soul."
The spirit that began to burn thirty
five years ago threatens to consume it.
self In this frenzy Of fear. But one can
but admire the consistency and indom-
liable will of the man. As u young
divine he preached in a small Methodist
chapel in Wales. Seeing that the idle.
the vicious. and the extremely poor
would not come even to so humble q
church he went out on the common,
and, standing In n farmers cart,
preached to them there after the man
ner OF the early Methodists. To his
surprise he was disciplined, and when
told that "the Methodists We're respect
able now" he cried out: "Then may I
forever be as dlsreputable as the found
ers Of the church,
Dismissed from the Wesleyan con-
nectiOn. homeless. penniless. he. with
his wife and child, walked to the next
village. preached, collected enough PEN
MES for bread and lodging and went on.
So he worked his way to London, saw
the door of the Congregational churches
closed to him because OF his inability
to believe In a limited salvation. He
set himself to the task OF evangelizing
Whitechapel. Preaching from the top
Of a dry goods box, q cart or barrel
head, he was In no way distinguished
from the numerous itinerant preachers
Of the east end OF London except by
his uncommon zeal and success.
THE ARMY'S START.
There have been great and famous
men who have founded organizations,
but General Booth is the only one who
has at the same time reared family
for the express purpose Of carrying on
the work he began. The mother of
the Salvation army" was also the moth
er OF eight children. whom she brought
the vice OF Whitechapel. Consecrated
to the army from the cradle, they have
become evangels. Never was there
such set OF cripples who have per-
formed the incredible tasks as those
imposed by zeal on the Booth family.
Mrs. Booth fell victim Of disease
and died OF cancer. Bramwell Booth
and Herbert inherit the heart disease,
and the former has infiammatory rheu-
matism. Mrs. Booth -Clibborn La Mar
chale. OF France, has q diseased spine;
Eva Booth. field commissioner, is fra
gile; Ballington was never robust But.
weak and constantly i'll. they have all
been trained from childhood to the de-
tails OF practical administration and
finance, with men and women in masses
and individually, and all of them are
prepared to direct tremendous enter
prises.
This is the secret of General Booths
success. Once convert, he sets q
task. In England convert is called a
converter" and 1t is literally the
truth. Here" he has said, ''in the
army are thousands whose energies
would have been wasted in taproOms
and on street corners. They are going
to revive the medieval church, delving
down into the lowest strata of human
society, and exploring every seam as
with miners lantern. In order to dis
cover, extricate and utilize any Jewel
OF price that lies hidden there" quot
Ing Carlyle. who had fascination for
In ten years he was the general su-
perlntendent Of the Christian mission
OF the East End. The title was abbre-
Waited Tor convenience to general" J"
Then he heard that his twenty-four
volunteer evangellsts were dubbed
captain by the nondescript crowds that
gathered to hear them. Asked to de.
fine his mission. he said that 1t was like
George Fox's army, the preachers were
banded together to save souls. So Sal
walton army. one OF those inspired
phrases. came into existence wifi, the
suggestion Of q military organization
and distinctive uniform.
MRS. BALL1NGToN BOOTH.
II spread like wildflre. The idea Of
being always in the field prepared TO
meet and fight the devil gave vivid
practicality to the whole army, Cen
acal Rnofh ev0ked the nnfent ranAi