After this Tom told her story, showing at every step how if the boy who went down into the lowest depths of degradation had had a strong man—a gentleman—to help him, it would have been different. “But the young gentlemen,” said Tom, “were smoking and drinking, and so busy in robbing themselves of their own strength and manhood that they took no notice of the poor wretches who were dying by their side, and Noblesse oblige had no meaning for them.”
“But it has for us,” said a boyish voice, its owner rising in the middle of the room; and Margaret was delighted as she looked at him; a tall, straight, good-looking boy with his brown curls tossed back from his forehead, and his blue eyes flashing with fearless determination. “Let me tell the ladies who have spoken that there are hosts of us quite ready to form a new army of Volunteer Crusaders. But we want a little help and encouragement; we are so cowardly, afraid and ashamed of appearing as good as we are. Could not another word for good be invented? We would rather face a lion than the stigma of being called goody-goody; but let nobody on that account suppose that our hatred of wrong, and our indignation against the wrong-doer, is any less hot in us than in our fathers. We have been born with consciences, and we have energy enough to battle with anything. You fellows, what do you say? Shall we, here in London, and to-night, form a regiment of Soldiers of Peace? I believe the idea would be taken up all over England; for the boys I know—most of them, at all events—do not want to disgrace their names. If we could really believe that we are called to be heroes there is that in us which would help us to rise to the name. Yes, and let us wear a rosette of the red, white, and blue of Old England, which no boy shall wear except worthily; the blue for temperance, the white for purity, and the red for battle or endeavour. These colours have won renown in the past; they shall win higher renown still in the new days for our country, for—” and the young voice rang out like a bugle call—“we swear to God that we will do our part to make our nation exalted by its righteousness.”
The boys shouted “Hurrah!” they could not help it; they were wonderfully moved by the short harangue of their comrade, Ned Northcote, a favourite of all who knew him. And Tom trembled with excitement as she put her hand on the arm of her hostess.
“We must take this holy enthusiasm at its flow,” she said. “Miss Wentworth, will you let your house be the rallying ground for this grand new army?”
And the older woman replied with quivering lips, “Only too gladly! Never before was the house so consecrated as it is to-night.”
She might well say so; for at that moment a boy’s voice, in simple boyish language, was vowing for himself and his fellows, all of them standing, with bowed heads and swiftly-beating hearts, that they would live for the kingdom of Christ, and be the King’s soldiers.
“Here is a book. I think we should have a roll-call,” said Tom. “I am not a boy; I almost wish I were to-night: but I shall belong to the regiment. It is late now; will you enrol your names in your own handwriting, and come again to-morrow?”
The movement became known through the Press. There were several flourishing weekly journals and one daily devoted to the interests of women, the columns of which were chiefly occupied with the fashions and tit-bits of news about “Society People.” A letter was addressed to each of these describing the meetings here referred to, and appealing to the ladies of England to help, by drawing-room meetings and any other means that should offer, in the formation of a national army of Volunteer Boy Crusaders, pledged to the extirpation of evil and the uplifting of the standard of righteousness.
Most of the editors of these papers inserted the letters (and those who did not wished afterward they had done so), and the response to them was marvellous. The religious papers, of course, most willingly gave their assistance, and so it came about that in a comparatively short time after the meeting in Miss Wentworth’s room thousands of meetings were being held in connection with churches of all denominations in all parts of the country; for the idea had everywhere caught the imaginations and consciences of Christian women, and God wills it was borne in upon them.
And then it became evident what a wonderful preparation for this had been going on during the past years. All sorts of societies were already in existence, ready to be amalgamated. There was the “Society of Christian Endeavour,” which numbered thousands of young people; and it was easy and natural to show how their endeavour, which was, firstly, for their own religious advancement, should be, secondly, definitely on behalf of other boys and girls less favoured than they. Then there was “The Boys’ Brigade,” which had made fine, soldierly lads of some of the roughest street boys of the large towns, but which was regarded with suspicion by some who feared that the organisation might be used as a recruiting agency for military purposes. But it was found that these boys were as ready, and even eager, to take the Pledge of Peace as the rest; and so well disciplined were they, so used to obey the officers under whom already they served, that they were invaluable in the new army of young crusaders. The Bands of Hope, too, had their thousands already engaged in negative work, but thirsting to become aggressive, who signed the new pledge, “We will,” after the old one, “We will not.”