“We have got all those Officers without any promise or guarantee of salary, and without any assurance that when they reach the railway station to which they book they will find anybody in the town to sympathise with them.  The bulk would cheerfully and gladly go anywhere.

“We have got, I think, an improvement upon John Wesley’s penny a week and shilling a quarter, by way of financial support from our Converts.  We say to them, ’You used to give three or four shillings a week for beer and tobacco before you were converted, and we shall not be content with a penny a week and a shilling a quarter.  Give as the Lord has prospered you, and down with the money.’” (Loud laughter.) “When I asked one of my Officers the other day at a Meeting held after a tea, for which the people had paid a shilling each, to announce the collection, the woman-Captain, to my astonishment, simply said, ’Now, friends, go into the collection.  Whack it into the baskets.’  The whole audience was evidently fond of her, and they very heartily responded.

“If asked to explain our methods, I would say:  Firstly, we do not fish in other people’s waters, or try to set up a rival sect. Out of the gutters we pick up our Converts, and if there be one man worse than another our Officers rejoice the most over the case of that man.

“When a man gets saved, no matter how low he is, he rises immediately.  His wife gets his coat from the pawn-shop, and if she cannot get him a shirt she buys him a paper front, and he gets his head up, and is soon unable to see the hole of the pit from which he has been digged, and would like to convert our rough concern into a chapel, and make things respectable.  That is not our plan.  We are moral scavengers, netting the very sewers.  We want all we can get, but we want the lowest of the low.

“My heart has gone out much after Ireland of late, and ten weeks ago I sent out there a little woman who had been much blessed, and four of her Converts.  They landed at Belfast at two o’clock in the morning.  They did not know a soul.  Our pioneer (contrary to our usual customs) had taken them a lodging.  We had said to her, ’Rest yourselves till Sunday morning’; but she was not content with this.  After a wash, a cup of tea, and a little sleep, they turned out, found a Christian gentleman who lent them a little hall, had it crowded at once, and now, though only ten weeks have passed away, we have Stations in four other towns, two in Belfast, and two others are getting ready for opening.  Blessed results have followed.  The people, we are told, come in crowds—­they are very poor—­they sit and listen and weep, rush out to the Penitent-Form, and many are saved.

     “Now, Mr. President, I think I may say that it is a matter for
     great thankfulness to God that there is a way—­a simple, ready
     way—­a cheap way, to get at the masses of the people.