ARMY, THE SALVATION ( tiern5c, sAl- sh5n) In1865 a man with a heart full of the love and passion of the man Christ Jesus stood on Mile End Waste, Whitechapel, London. and began a work among the poor and unchurched masses of the great metropolis that has since grown into the vast movement known as the Salvation Army.
This Army is a body of converted men and women, recruited almost exclusively the non-churchgoing classes, thoroughly organized under a military form of government, and con stituting a world-wide evangelistic agency to preach the Christ-old gospel and to bring all men to affectionately submit themselves to the claims of God as set forth in the Bible, and especially in the person, work and teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It holds the great cardinal doctrines of evan gelical Christianity: As believing in the Trinity; in the fall and the universality of sin "through the disobedience of one"; in the atonement for sin. both original and personal, through the vi carious sufferings of the Son of God, the benefits of which are for all men. conditioned solely upon repentance and "faith which works by love"; in the love and ever-present agency of the Holy Spirit seen in the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believers; and in the everlasting blessedness of the righteous and the eternal pun ishment of those who die impenitent, in the world to come. It accepts the Bible as the inspired and authoritative word of God, and believes in taking the gospel to those who will not attend the ordi nary places of worship ; to this end it shapes its methods and nomenclature to compel the :men tion of those whom it seeks to reach. Its mili tary titles, uniforms, bands, etc., are the fruitage of this principle of adaptation. It also believes in the ministry of woman. and has placed every office in its ranks within her reach. It requires of its members total abstinence, industry, separa tion from the fashions and follies of the world, benevolence, and self-sacrifice for the salvation of all men, and urges its people to purity of life in thought, word and act.
The founder and general of this movement, the Rev. William Booth, was born in Nottingham,
England. April loth, 1829, and was converted among the Wesleyans at the age of fifteen. At an early age he entered the ministry and at once took rank as one of the most successful pastors and evangelists in his denomination, which rank he held until he severed his relation with the church in order to devote his energies to the sal vation of the poor in I.ondon.
This work, known at first as the Christian Mis sion, spread rapidly throughout England, and soon burst forth in other countries. In 1872 in Cleveland. and in i87o in Philadelphia, work was begun by converts who had emigrated to America, but not until i8$o was the work formally opened in the United States by Commissioner George Railton and seven women officers duly commis sioned by the General. Since then the Army's advance in America has been phenomenal, in spite of external difficulties arising front ignor ance, misrepresentation and prejudice. and inter nal troubles occasioned by the secession in i834 of \lajor Moore. who succeeded Commissioner Railton in the chief command. and later, in 04)6. by the retirement of Commander and Mrs Bal lino on Booth These defections in this most democratic age and country have tested to the utmost the Army's paternal or military principles of government, usually assumed to he its vulnerable point. But, instead of weakening. this testing has rather strengthened the conviction in the minds of its people that these principles arc from above, arc in harmony with the principles of the Divine gov ernment, as revealed in the Bible, and in the constitution of the human mind, and are best adapted to secure large and permanent results in dealing with the unchurched and undisciplined masses.
Commissioner Frank Smith succeeded Major Moore, while Commander and Mrs. Ballington Booth were succeeded by Commander and Mrs. Booth-Tucker, under whose leadership very re markable advances are being made in all depart ments of the work, but especially in the develop ment of the army's social operations.