The Angel Adjutant of "Twice Born Men"

by Minnie Lindsay Rowell Carpenter

The following night he went to The Army Hall. Adjutant Lee was being welcomed as commanding officer. During the prayer meeting she went down amongst the congregation and spoke to this man. ’Are you saved, my friend?’ she asked. ‘I believe I am, but I want to join The Army,’ he replied. He was totally ignorant regarding religion, and this gentle woman adopted this newborn soul, and from that night nursed him to spiritual manhood.

Bailey was a reservist–and a few weeks after his conversion his pay was due. Pay-day had always meant a spree, and Bailey was afraid. ’What shall I do, Adjutant?’ he asked. ‘Go to the office in an Army cap and jersey,’ she replied. Obediently he went to headquarters on Saturday and brought home these articles of uniform. He put them on, and many a strong man will understand the cold shivers that Bailey felt when he got into the street. He wanted to go to the “open-air” by back ways, but that would not please the Adjutant. Manfully he started down the main street, and presently came face to face with an old service comrade, hilariously the worse for drink. The sight of Bill Bailey in the uniform of another Army was too much for the merry ‘drunk.’ He made straight for his old mate, embraced him, exchanged hats, and arm in arm they marched to the open-air meeting. Taking in the situation at a glance, the Adjutant beamingly greeted the queer couple. ’Here’s my friend, Bill Bailey. He will give his testimony in his new jersey,’ she announced; and Bailey was committed to his first open-air witness for Christ. On Monday, with his uniform as his safeguard, he drew his pay, and not one of his mates suggested a drink.

The Adjutant next suggested that Bailey did not wear proper uniform. Tan boots and light trousers didn’t really go with the red shirt. Of course not. Bailey would be a real soldier; he ordered a regulation Army suit. The convert went steadily forward. He married an Army sister, and has a happy home. He has filled the position of young people’s worker, bandsman, assistant sergeant-major, and is now assistant treasurer.

’It’s through her I am what I am. Ignorant, rough man I was, with the merest flicker of spiritual life; but she cared for my soul, and was so patiently loving that she led me to know God.’ Bailey was afflicted with a stammer when he was converted. Of this, he says, ’She talked to me so calm and quiet. “Go slow, now,” she’d say, “Count.” She would insist upon my giving my testimony, and if she saw I was going to be fairly stuck, she’d shout. “Glory! Hallelujah!” and beam on me with that lovely smile of hers; and by that time I’d got my next word.’

The first baby words were not sweeter to mother ears than the first testimony of Adjutant Lee’s converts to her. One drunkard, so great a terror to his town that even the magistrate confessed that he used to cross the street rather than meet him, had been wonderfully delivered from sin. When called upon to give his first testimony, he said, ’I fank God He’s kept me this day wifout drink. I fank God He’s kept me this day wifout smoking. I fank God He’s kept me this day wifout swearing overmuch.’ Marvellous change! The Adjutant beamed upon him, rejoiced over him, and the following night had further cause for gladness, when he declared, ‘I fank God He’s kept me from swearing altogever.’

A woman soldier’s face quivers with emotion yet smiles as she tells:–

I was rather a problem when Adjutant Lee came to our corps. Mother died when I was fourteen, and I was left to bring up four brothers. You may be sure I had to hold my own with them, and I became obstinate and had a flippant manner which covered many a better feeling. I was a great trial to the lieutenant, who had no patience with my nonsense, but the Adjutant was never cross with me. One night, after a meeting, she took my arm and led me off for a walk. We walked miles. She talked to me about my flippant ways and sharp tongue. Said I did things that were not worthy of me; told me that I should be my real self, and not put on foolish airs. I stood that, though feeling bad; but then she cried, and said I would break her heart if I did not change.

Here was the mother-touch the starved, warped spirit was needing. After that, the graces of gentleness and sweetness began to appear.

There was nothing that concerned her people’s well-being that Kate Lee regarded as outside of her province. A certain sergeant-major, who had reached middle life and was still single, was reported to have become engaged to be married, and not to a Salvationist. This man was a wonderful trophy of grace. One of a family of fourteen, all drinking people, after he was converted it was six years before he was able to go to his home in his uniform. Often to escape the godless ways and contentions indoors, he had gone into the stable where he could pray in peace, and slept with his horses. But things were not so difficult now, and all the town respected the Army sergeant-major. The Adjutant knew that many a soul who has climbed with safety a rough up-hill path has slipped on a smooth dead level, and that many a man has fallen from grace through choosing a wrong wife. Somewhat anxiously she interviewed her local officer. ’You needn’t be afeared for me, Adjutant. I prayed and waited until the right person came my way,’ declared the sergeant-major.

Then the Adjutant sought the bride-elect. Gentle probing discovered a true Christian, and after a heart-to-heart talk, the Adjutant left her with an enlarged vision of her responsibility regarding the soul of the husband-to-be. Mrs. Sergeant-Major of to-day, a wise little woman, with a heart of gold, tells how she summed everything up and felt it to be her duty, as now it is her joy, to share to the fullest extent her husband’s work.