“7.30 p.m., Soldiers’ Meeting.  We have always been crowded out before, so this time the Palace Theatre was taken, as an experiment, and it justified my reckonings for several years gone by, namely, that we could fill any reasonable place on Saturday night here, and yet keep the Meeting select; that is, confine it to Soldiers and ex-Soldiers, adherents, and those concerned about religion.  We were more than full, and the place holds 1,500.  I had much liberty in speaking, the After Meeting went with a swing seldom known on the Continent or elsewhere, and we had eighty-four at the Penitent-Form, some of them remarkable cases.”

No wonder this octogenarian Leader finds his young Dutchmen wanting in enterprise!

“Sunday.—­The theatre again in the morning at ten.  An excellent plan.  Oh, that it could be adopted the world over!  The senseless system of beginning at eleven makes you feel it is time to close almost before you have had time to get well started.  We were crowded, large numbers outside clamouring for admission, so much so that the police called out their reserves, and fifty men guarded the entrance.  We had an excellent service inside, and forty at the Mercy-Seat.  It was a beautiful Meeting, and made a mark for ever on my heart, and on the hearts of many more.

“Afternoon.  The large Hall of the People’s Palace had been arranged for this as well as the Night Meeting.  We were full, and many were turned away.  I lectured on ‘The Duty of the Community.’  Great satisfaction among my own people, and a good impression made upon the minds of a good many of the leading people of the city.

“Night, 7.30.  Again full.  It is a building erected for an Exhibition, and made suitable for a Meeting only by putting up a great screen across the centre.  I suppose we could have filled the entire space; but whether my interpreter could then have been heard, I am not sure.  I preached with point and power—­more breathless attention I never had in my life.  I reckoned on an easy conquest, but we had one of the hardest fights I ever remember before we got a soul out.  I left at 10.30, completely played out.  A wall of policemen on either side kept the people back while I got into the carriage, the crowd having waited a long time to catch a glimpse of me.  Had long, restless, and sleepless spells during the night; but still I have not done amiss on the whole.  I must now prepare myself for the coming Berlin Staff Congress.”

So much for the general effect upon a largely unbelieving people of simple, childlike faith!

But The General was, of course, always just as earnest about instructing all who came to him, old or young, in the way of life, as about getting them into it.  In the midst of these tremendous Campaigns, he repeatedly prepared Lesson-books for both children and adults.  To a lady who had tried to help him by sending him a number of catechisms for children, on such an occasion, he wrote:—­