When The General was at all in doubt about a Candidate for Officership, he would often draw such a one out by means of the most discouraging remarks.  To one who had gone expecting a hearty welcome, he said, “Well, what good do you think you’ll be?” The General’s eldest son being present, desiring to help her, remarked upon the high commendation her Officers gave her.  He wished to send her off directly to a Corps; but The General, still uncertain, said, “No, send her to Emma,” which opened the way for her immediately to leave her business and go to the newly-opened Training Home for women under his daughter’s direction.

A similar Home for young men, under the present Chief of the Staff, Commissioner Howard, provided means to take those about whose fitness for the Work there was any doubt, and give them a training prior to sending them on to the Field.

In 1880, The General addressed the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of the United Kingdom.  That Conference is one of the most powerful Church assemblies in the world, directing as it does the entire forces of its Church within the British Empire, and consequently influencing very largely all Methodists in the world.  It was a remarkable testimony to The General’s work that, so early as 1880, its most influential leaders should have been able to arrange, despite considerable opposition, for him to address the Conference which that year sat in London.  The President, in welcoming him, warned him that they could only give him a limited time in which to speak.

What an expression of his sense of liberty and power “from on high,” that The General should at once have begun by saying, “Mr. President, in our Meetings we are accustomed to bring any speech that seems likely to go on too long to a close by beginning to sing.  I shall not take it amiss if you do so in my case.”  The general laughter with which this suggestion was greeted banished at once any appearance of stiffness from the solemn and exclusive assembly, whose members alone were present.  He then proceeded to explain the origin and work of The Army, as follows:—­

“I was told that ninety-five in every hundred of the population of our larger towns and cities never crossed the threshold of any place of worship, and I thought, ’Cannot something be done to reach these people with the Gospel?’ Fifteen years ago I thus fell in love with the great crowds of people who seemed to be out of the pale of all Christian Churches.  It seemed to me that if we could get them to think about Hell they would be certain to want to turn from it.  If we could get them to think about Heaven they would want to go there.  If we could get them to think about Christ they would want to rush to His open arms.

“I resolved to try, and ‘The Salvation Army’ is the outcome of that resolution.  In August, 1877, we had 26 Stations.  We have now, in 1880, 162.  In 1877, we had 35 Evangelists.  We have now 285 Evangelists, or, as we now call