Let us ask the attention of your readers, in the first place, to "An ex-Captain's Experience of the Salvation Army," by J. J. R. Redstone, the genuineness of which is guaranteed by the preface (dated April 5th, 1888) which the Rev. Dr. Cunningham Geikie has supplied. Mr. Redstone's story is well worth reading on its own account.
Told in simple, direct language such as John Bunyan might have used, it permits no doubt of the single-minded sincerity of the man, who gave up everything to become an officer of the Salvation Army, but, exhibiting a sad want of that capacity for unhesitating and blind obedience on which Mr. Booth lays so much stress, was thrown aside, penniless—no, I am wrong, with 2s. 4d. for his last week's salary—to shift, with his equally devoted wife, as he best might. I wish I could induce intending contributors to Mr. Booth's army chest to read Mr. Redstone's story. I would particularly ask them to contrast the pure simplicity of his plain tale with the artificial pietism and slobbering unction of the letters which Mr. Ballington Booth addresses to his "dear boy" (a married man apparently older than himself), so long as the said "dear boy" is facing brickbats and starvation, as per order.
I confess that my opinion of the chiefs of the Salvation Army has been
so distinctly modified by the perusal of this pamphlet that I am glad
to be relieved from the necessity of expressing it. It will be much
better that I should cite a few sentences from the preface written by
Dr. Cunningham Geikie, who expresses warm admiration for the early and
uncorrupted work of the Salvation Army, and cannot possibly be accused
of prejudice against it on religious grounds:—
(1) "The Salvation Army is emphatically a
family concern. Mr. Booth, senior, is General; one son is chief of the staff, and the remaining sons and daughters engross the other chief positions. It is Booth all over; indeed, like the sun in your eyes, you can see nothing else wherever you turn. And, as Dr. Geikie shrewdly remarks, 'to be the head of a widely spread sect carries with it many advantages—not all exclusively spiritual.'"
(2) "Whoever becomes a Salvation officer is henceforth a slave, helplessly exposed to the caprice of his superiors."
"Mr. Redstone bore an excellent character both before he entered the
army and when he left it. To join it, though a married man, he gave up
a situation which he had held for five years, and he served Mr. Booth
two years, working hard in most difficult posts. His one fault, Major
Lawley tells us, was, that he was 'too straight'—that is, too honest,
truthful, and manly—or, in other words, too real a Christian. Yet
without trial, without formulated charges, on the strength of secret
complaints which were never, apparently, tested, he was dismissed with
less courtesy than most people would show a beggar—with 2s. 4d. for
his last week's salary. If there be any mistake in this matter, I
shall be glad to learn it."
(3) Dr. Geikie confirms, on the ground of information given
confidentially by other officers,
Mr. Redstone's assertion that they are watched and reported by spies from headquarters.