To only one point will I call attention—­that of the general note of confidence which runs through Mr. Bramwell Booth’s remarks.  Clearly he at least does not believe that the Salvation Army is in danger of dissolution.  Like his father, he believes that it will go on from good to good and from strength to strength.

There remain, however, one or two other points that we discussed together to which I will allude.  Thus I asked him if he had anything to say as to the attacks which from time to time were made upon the Army.  He replied as his father had done:  ’Nothing, except that they were best left to answer themselves.’

Then our conversation turned to the matter of the resignation of certain Officers of the Army which had caused some passing public remark.

‘We have an old saying here,’ he said, with some humour, ’that we do not often lose any one whom we very much desire to keep.’

I pointed out that I had heard allegations made to the effect that the Army Officers were badly paid, hardly treated, and, when they proved of no more use, let go to find a living as best they could.

He replied that, as to the matter of money, the Army had established a Pension fund in all the Western countries, which now amounts to a large total.  In this country the sum was about L44,000, and during 1909 about L1,800 had been paid here in pensions.  This, however, was only a beginning, but he thought that the effort was being made on the right lines, and that, notwithstanding their poverty, a really adequate Pension fund would be built up in due course.

Then of a sudden he became eloquent.  He said he admitted that the Army had little to offer.  Those who came into its service knew that this was so; that they had no hope of temporal reward; that thenceforth the great feature of their life and work was that it must be filled with labour and self-denial.  The whole business of helping and saving our fellow-creatures was one of struggle and suffering.  Sacrifice was the key-note of Christianity as laid down by its Founder.  Those who sought money and temporal honour must look elsewhere than to the Salvation Army.  Its pride and glory was that thousands were willing to suffer and deny themselves from year to year, and to find their joy and their recompense in the consciousness that they were doing something, however little, to lighten the darkness and relieve the misery of the world.

Here are some of his actual words upon this matter that I will quote, as I cannot better them:—­

’The two facts of real consequence about our Officers are these:  First, that their numbers go on increasing year by year, and second, that they remain devoted to their work, very poor, and absolutely bent on obtaining a reward in Heaven.  But let me quote here from General Booth on this matter:—­