Here I would like to say that Social Work, in the spirit and practice which it has assumed with us, has harmonised with my own personal idea of true religion from the hour I promised obedience to the commands of God.

To help the poor, to minister to them in their slums, to sympathise with them in their poverty, afflictions, and irreligion, was the natural outcome of the life that came to my soul through believing in Jesus Christ.

Before many days—­nay, before many hours—­had passed after my conversion, I was to be found praying in the cottages in the working-class quarters of the town in which I lived, talking in the slums, comforting the dying, and doing, so far as I knew how and had ability, what seemed to me most likely to help the poor and miserable classes, both for this world and the world to come.

     3.  But Social Work, as a separate entity, or department of the
     Kingdom of Jesus Christ, recognised, organised, and provided for,
     had to wait for The Salvation Army.

For many years after the commencement of my public work, during which time I had, as opportunity served, helped the poor in their distress, I was deterred from launching out to any great extent in this direction by the fear so commonly entertained that by relieving their physical necessities I should be helping to create, or at any rate to encourage, religious hypocrisy and pretence.

All this time, nevertheless, I felt, and often keenly felt, that there surely must be some way by which, without any evil consequences, I could legitimately fulfil the cravings of my own heart, as well as comply with the commands of my Lord, who had expressly told me that I was to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the prisoners.  For a long time, however, I failed to see how this work could be done in any organised or extensive manner.

     Gradually, however, the way opened, and opened largely, as a result
     of our determination to make the godless crowds hear the message of
     Salvation.

I said, “They shall hear; we will make them hear; and if they won’t hear in any other way, we will feed them, and accompany the food we give them with the message to which they so determinedly turn a deaf ear.”  In the very earliest days of The Army, therefore, in order to reach the people whom we could not reach by any other means, we gave the hungry wretches a meal, and then talked to them about God and eternity.

     4.  Then came the gradual unfolding of our Social methods, which
     have been so remarkably successful.