The entire programme of every tour The General made emphasises so strongly his advocacy of hard work that one really hesitates to pick out any one Campaign as more remarkable than another. What is, however, extraordinary in connexion with one of his far-away Australian journeys is our having letters which so much more than any others give particulars of his doings.
"I am resting to-night, and well I think my poor body has earned some kind of respite. Such a ten days' work I never did before of sheer hard work. How I have come through it, and come through so well, I cannot understand, except that God has indeed been my Helper."
Here is another side-light on The General's own inner life which we get by the way. We conceal, of course, the identity of the lady in question, except to say that it was a very distinguished hostess with whom he had occasion to spend some hours when travelling.
"It was perhaps the loveliest journey I ever had. I talked nearly all the time, and, in fact, had no alternative. But I think I ought to have made a more desperate and definite attack on her soul than I did. She is a very intelligent and amiable lady, and I have no doubt I made an impression.
"Good-bye. Go on praying and believing for me. I want to be a flame of fire wherever I go. I thank God for the measure of love and power I have. But I must have more. I am pushing everybody around me up to this--the inward burning love and zeal and purity. I wish our best men were more spiritual. Give my tenderest love to all."
In each of The General's visits to Australia there was much of the same character; but from the letters to his children which he wrote on one of them, we can extract enough to give some idea of what he saw and felt in passing through those vast regions:--
"What the reception (at Melbourne) would have been had it not been for the torrents of rain I cannot imagine. Although it was known that I could not get in before six or seven o'clock, there was a great mass of several thousand people waiting at three o'clock. As it was we did not get into the Exhibition Building till ten, and a vast crowd had been sitting inside from five, and stayed to hear me talk till 10:45.
"I had an immense Meeting--they say 5,000 were present on the Sunday morning, 7,000 in the afternoon, with as many more turned away.
"The opportunity here is immense beyond conception. The people are delightful, and the Officers also. If they were my own sons and daughters, I don't see how either Officers or Soldiers could have been much more affectionate."
How great was the strain of the Meetings may be guessed from the following remarks as to the final one:--
"I trembled as I rose. You must understand that the Hall down which I spoke is about 400 to 450 feet long, and that on this occasion a partition about ten feet high was drawn across it, some 300 feet from the spot on which I stood, so that my voice had to travel all through the entire length of the building before it met with any obstruction, whilst behind me there was at least another seventy feet. The Press estimate the crowds at 10,000; but, that is an exaggeration. There would be 7,000, at least. I had taken the precaution to send an Officer to the far end to see how far he could or could not hear me, and he brought back word 'excellently.' So I drove ahead, speaking over an hour and a half, and not losing the attention of my audience for a moment. Indeed, I felt I had the whole house from the moment I opened my lips. Of course, it was the greatest physical effort a long way that I ever made, and, considering that it was my seventh address in that 'dreadful' building, and that I commenced with a bad throat, exhausted with the fatigues and miseries of the voyage, and that I had ceaselessly worked at smaller Meetings, etc., all the four days, I do think it very wonderful how I went through it, and I must attribute it to the direct holding up and strengthening of the dear Lord Himself.
"On all hands I think a deep impression was made. To God be the glory, and to my poor constituents, for whom I live and plead, be the benefit.
"I am tired this morning, but shall get a little rest to-day and a little extra sleep in the train. We leave for Bendigo at twelve o'clock, arriving at four for Meeting to-morrow. We go to Geelong next day, coming back here on Friday morning, and leaving at five for Sydney, travelling all night, and arriving there about noon on Saturday.
"You will get tired of hearing of this round of Meetings, and of the very echo of this enthusiasm; but you will, I am sure, rejoice, not merely that the people of this new world have welcomed your father and General with such heartiness, but that there is for The Army such an open door in these parts."
That is indeed what lends such endless importance to the recital which we cannot help reporting ever and anon of The General's Meetings in each country to which he went. It was not the mere coming together of crowds to listen to a speaker, but the enthusiastic acceptance and endorsement of a system, and of demands made by a perfect stranger in which he so delighted. The General never went anywhere merely to preach or lecture. All that he did in that way was always so combined with Salvation Campaigns that at every step he was really recruiting for The Army. Hence his every movement, the reports of his journeys, the conversations he held with all whom he met, everything told in the one great War and helped to create, more and more all over the world, this force of men, women, and children, pledged to devote themselves to the service of Christ and of mankind.
There is a very interesting account of a visit to a State School, especially as it shows The General's keenness to learn, for The Army, anything possible:--