RE-DEDICATION TO WORK
To a running accompaniment of half smothered ejaculations, Kenneth McIntyre, a member of the Salvation Army, in New York on the following Sunday told of the way in which, while swimming for his life in the icy waters of the St. Lawrence River, he had re-dedicated himself to work for his Maker and his organization.
“God bless you,” “The Lord be praised,” “Thy will be done,” in women’s voices full of emotion would be answered by “Amen” in the deeper bass of some of the men officers. For the greater part of the time Mr. McIntyre’s audience hung breathless on his words.
Mr. McIntyre was the first survivor from the Empress of Ireland disaster to arrive in New York City. He was a member of the Canadian staff band of the Salvation Army.
He was telling some of his experiences and some of his thoughts at a meeting of members of the Salvation Army, at the organization’s headquarters, No. 120 West Fourteenth Street. Mr. McIntyre is well known among Salvationists. His father, Colonel William A. McIntyre, is one of the leading officers in the Salvation Army in New York. Mr. McIntyre himself has been active in the movement for many years and joined the Canadian staff band in the autumn of 1913, when he went to take up electrical work in Toronto.
“When I was nine years old, in Boston, I was at death’s door for months,” he said. “My father and mother never expected that I could live, but in their prayers they said to God that they were resigned and were willing that His will should be done. If there was something in store for me, they told Him, they hoped that I might be spared.
“While I was swimming in the water I thought of this again, and I said practically the same thing my father and mother had said. Now that I am here and alive and comparatively well I want to repeat to you my pledge that I will devote myself and my life to God’s work.
“Somehow or other when I was on the ship I didn’t pray. I don’t know whether I hadn’t time or whether I didn’t think of it. It’s always the other ship that’s going down. You never think that the one you’re on will sink.