But I was not to be defeated or turned from the object on which my heart was set in this fashion, so I called them together, and addressing them said, ’My comrades, the formation of another Church is not my aim.  There are plenty of Churches.  I want to make an Army.  Those among you who are willing to help me to realise my purpose can stay with me.  Those who do not must separate from me, and I will help them to find situations elsewhere.’”

They one and all chose to stand by The General, for those who were really set upon the formation of deliberative assemblies had already left us.

This was in February, 1877, and in the following July the last Christian Mission Conference met to celebrate the abandonment of the entire system that Conference represented, and to assure The General that he had got a real fighting Army to lead.

It was only at the end of 1878, during which year the “Stations,” which we now call Corps, had increased from thirty to eighty, that in a brief description of the work we called the Mission a “Salvation Army.”  But the very name helped us to increase the speed of our advance.

The rapidity with which The General selected and sent out his Officers reminds one constantly of the stories of the Gospel.  One who became one of his foremost helpers, had formerly been a notorious sinner, and had indeed only been converted a fortnight, when because he already showed such splendid qualities he was sent by a girl Officer to The General with the strongest recommendation for acceptance.

It was arranged for him to speak with The General on the platform, after a Meeting.  The General, who had, no doubt, observed him during the evening, looked at him for a moment and then said, “You ought to do something for God with those eyes!  Good-night!”

“I had never had such a shock,” says the Commissioner, as he now is.  “If that’s being accepted for the Work, I said to myself—­what next, I wonder.”

But, sure enough, in another three weeks’ time he was called out from his place of employment by a Staff Officer, who asked him, “Can you be ready to go to M——­ next Monday?” And he went.

This young man had been a devotee of billiards; but had become interested in The Army by seeing two of our “Special” speakers—­one a very short Officer, the other a giant doctor from Whitechapel, who weighed some 334 lbs., wheeled up a steep hill in a pig cart, to a great Open-Air Meeting.  After listening many times without yielding, he was startled out of his coolness by a large Hall in which he attended a Night of Prayer being burned to the ground the next day.  The next evening, with one of his companions, he went to the Penitent-Form and found the mercy of God.