It is to the work of this wonderful woman–so gracious, so modest, and so sweet–that one may trace the miracles whose histories are contained in the following pages. The energy, resolution, and splendid cheerfulness of the present corps, some of them her own converts, may likewise be traced through her influence. She has left in these foul streets the fragrance of her personality, a fragrance of the lilies of a pure soul. ‘Ah,’ exclaims an old jail- bird, showing me the photograph of this woman, ’If anybody goes to Heaven, it will be that there little Angel of God.’ They call her the ‘Angel Adjutant.’
We see the Angel Adjutant again in the book, visiting the ‘Puncher’ at his work; braving the abominations of ‘O.B.D.’s’ den, as she made friends with that sodden drink slave and his wife, piloting him to the hall and mothering the first signs of grace in his stupefied soul. We see her mothering the ‘Criminal,’ weeping over the fall of ‘Rags and Bones,’ endeavouring to hold the ‘Failure’ to his moral and spiritual obligations, and, despite his falls, refusing to give him up.
’That man, Mr. Begbie, is wonderful. He’s got those men’s very images on paper,’ says one of Kate Lee’s converts, referring to the ’Twice Born Men’ characters. None the less truly did he get Kate Lee’s photograph on paper, and sent it round the world for all to see, and for thinking people to admire, to wonder over, to praise and give thanks for.
‘Twice Born Men’ was a great success. Its first edition was immediately absorbed, while its present edition is the twenty-seventh, and its English circulation has reached over a quarter of a million copies. It has had, likewise, an enormous sale in the United States and Canada. It has been translated into French, German, and Swedish.
Few books of its time appealed to so widely differing minds and classes. The professor of psychology, the theologian, the prize-fighter, Christian mother, the school-boy, in common interest bent their heads over its pages. The Press discussed it from many aspects in a chorus of favour.
‘The Angel Adjutant’ became an entity whom people all over the world desired to know. After she had been thus discovered to the world, wherever she went she was received with honour. Churches besieged her with invitations to occupy their pulpits. Civic authorities paid deference to this spiritual and moral specialist.
How did the glare of the limelight affect Kate Lee? A comrade who knew more of her inner life than almost any other, lets in a sidelight upon her association with ‘Twice Born Men.’ Her experiences in connexion with the book were not entirely sweet. She felt the sting of jealousy, that hurtful thing which, while uncleansed human nature is what it is, will continue to inflict wounds upon those chosen for honour, but Kate Lee bore it with meekness and in silence. ‘It is not easy to bear success,’ she said on this subject. ’When I have been lifted up, it has meant a cross rather than a throne for me.’
It is not easy for a noble soul to bear a representative honour, unless it is patent to all that it is representative and not personal. No one realized more fully than Kate Lee that other women officers had worked and are working amongst the masses just as she worked, actuated by the same spirit as moved her, and achieving the same results as those in which she rejoiced. She would rather that another than herself had been thrown upon the world’s screen to illustrate the work. A few weeks before she died, she spoke of this to her old friend, Brigadier Elizabeth Thomas, adding, ’Whenever “Twice Born Men” is mentioned, I want to run and hide my head.’ But while she felt all this, her keen sense of true values withheld her from putting a trumpet to her lips and declaring it. Rather, with that Christlike modesty and dignity that characterized all her public service, she entered every door that publicity opened to her and gave her message. She occupied many important pulpits, filling great churches with interested and sympathetic congregations.
As ever she was about her Father’s business. Far from attracting attention to herself, she brushed aside preliminaries, and got directly to her subject. For the title of her lecture, she did not always choose ‘The Terrible Ten’ or ‘Modern Miracles’ or ‘Twice Born Men’; sometimes she gave a plain Salvation address, or a simple call to professing Christians to live the life of Christ. One lady who heard her, tells how on one occasion she held a great congregation in the hollow of her hand. Tears had flowed; heads were shaking in depreciation or nodding approvingly, as she pictured the sorrows and the sins of the poor, and God’s power to save them to the uttermost. Then she ‘turned her guns’ upon her hearers. How did they stand before God in relation to sin? ’Society is often a cloak for sin that is terribly present in the heart. The law deals with sin that is found out: God deals with it as it is in the soul. You and I are each going to the bar of God to be judged as we are. How is it with your soul?’
A strange silence came upon that select audience, as the people pondered straighter and more personal questions than they were accustomed to hear addressed to them.