It was only at the end of 1878, during which year the "Stations," which we now call Corps, had increased from thirty to eighty, that in a brief description of the work we called the Mission a "Salvation Army." But the very name helped us to increase the speed of our advance.
The rapidity with which The General selected and sent out his Officers reminds one constantly of the stories of the Gospel. One who became one of his foremost helpers, had formerly been a notorious sinner, and had indeed only been converted a fortnight, when because he already showed such splendid qualities he was sent by a girl Officer to The General with the strongest recommendation for acceptance.
It was arranged for him to speak with The General on the platform, after a Meeting. The General, who had, no doubt, observed him during the evening, looked at him for a moment and then said, "You ought to do something for God with those eyes! Good-night!"
"I had never had such a shock," says the Commissioner, as he now is. "If that's being accepted for the Work, I said to myself--what next, I wonder."
But, sure enough, in another three weeks' time he was called out from his place of employment by a Staff Officer, who asked him, "Can you be ready to go to M---- next Monday?" And he went.
This young man had been a devotee of billiards; but had become interested in The Army by seeing two of our "Special" speakers--one a very short Officer, the other a giant doctor from Whitechapel, who weighed some 334 lbs., wheeled up a steep hill in a pig cart, to a great Open-Air Meeting. After listening many times without yielding, he was startled out of his coolness by a large Hall in which he attended a Night of Prayer being burned to the ground the next day. The next evening, with one of his companions, he went to the Penitent-Form and found the mercy of God.
When The General was at all in doubt about a Candidate for Officership, he would often draw such a one out by means of the most discouraging remarks. To one who had gone expecting a hearty welcome, he said, "Well, what good do you think you'll be?" The General's eldest son being present, desiring to help her, remarked upon the high commendation her Officers gave her. He wished to send her off directly to a Corps; but The General, still uncertain, said, "No, send her to Emma," which opened the way for her immediately to leave her business and go to the newly-opened Training Home for women under his daughter's direction.
A similar Home for young men, under the present Chief of the Staff, Commissioner Howard, provided means to take those about whose fitness for the Work there was any doubt, and give them a training prior to sending them on to the Field.
In 1880, The General addressed the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of the United Kingdom. That Conference is one of the most powerful Church assemblies in the world, directing as it does the entire forces of its Church within the British Empire, and consequently influencing very largely all Methodists in the world. It was a remarkable testimony to The General's work that, so early as 1880, its most influential leaders should have been able to arrange, despite considerable opposition, for him to address the Conference which that year sat in London. The President, in welcoming him, warned him that they could only give him a limited time in which to speak.
What an expression of his sense of liberty and power "from on high," that The General should at once have begun by saying, "Mr. President, in our Meetings we are accustomed to bring any speech that seems likely to go on too long to a close by beginning to sing. I shall not take it amiss if you do so in my case." The general laughter with which this suggestion was greeted banished at once any appearance of stiffness from the solemn and exclusive assembly, whose members alone were present. He then proceeded to explain the origin and work of The Army, as follows:--