A strict account to give,
has expressed the thought behind all the arrangements of our Army. And it is remarkable how, in the midst of the general indifference, so large a measure of this "jealous care" for God and souls has been awakened and maintained.
Nowhere, alas! does the theory of irresponsibility find a more congenial soil than in the very places and services where God is most feared, honoured, and obeyed. His doors are indeed opened to the world; but whether anybody enters them or no is the care of but sadly too few. Hymns are so announced as to make it easy for all to join in singing them, if they choose. But whether the words are sung by many, or only by a proficient few, and above all, whether hearts as well as voices are raised in prayer and praise to God, is too often a matter of absolute indifference to almost every one.
How The General altered all that, wherever his influence was felt! He made all his people understand that not merely are they responsible for understanding and heeding God's commands themselves, but for enforcing attention to them, as those who must give account of their success or failure.
The sister leader of some little Meeting in the far-away Outpost of a Corps, thousands of miles from the centre, when she insists upon having a verse sung for the third time because "I'm sure some of you lads were not half singing," has little idea of the religious revolution she represents. That the dislike of so many for any "such innovations" continues, may help to convince any one who thinks of the urgent need there was, and is still, for the substitution of responsible for irresponsible leadership in "Divine Service."
During his visit to the United States in 1907 The General had a severe illness which seriously threatened to cut short his career. His death was indeed cabled as an item of news from Chicago. But the report was, as Mark Twain would have said, "grossly exaggerated." Nobody will wonder, however, at his having been ill when they read Commissioner Lawley's report. He writes:--
"We have calculated that in the thirteen meetings of his New York Campaign the General was on his feet speaking about twenty-six and three-quarters hours.
"He spent less than six weeks in the Country, travelled about 3,700 miles by train, spoke about eighty-five hours to fifty audiences, before conferring many hours with leading Officers, and talking to the Newspaper Reporters in each town he visited."
An Officer describing his illness wrote:--
"I never shall forget his effort to ascend the staircase of the Commissioner's house on Friday morning after his victory at Milwaukee the night before. The veteran Warrior had to rest his head and hands on the rail and pray 'My Lord.' It was clear to me that the chill he had sustained days before, and which he fought in vain against would make him a prisoner for days."
What that meant to him when he was already announced for a number of other cities can be imagined.