TO-DAY'S SERVICES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 250, 21 October 1891, Page 8

TO-DAY'S SERVICES.

MEETING THIS MORNING.

J A crowded meeting was held in the SaJvaj tion Army Barracks this morning. The j building was crammed to ifcs utmost capacity. After some hymns with band accompaniment, in which the General joined with voice and gesture, the General was received with volleysand"Hallelujahs." Hβ said he would read them a few verses from the Bth chapter of ■ Romans. Before this, however, he explained that this was a Salvation Army soldiers' meeting. If there were any there who were nob soldiers bub felfc they ought to be let them look out; for what they should receivo; if there were any thera who were nob soldiers and who did not wanb to be, they must remember that they came only as spectators and they might in mercy get some crumbs. (A"voice: "May they be large ones.") The disadvantage was "that strangers came to Salvabion Army meetings and the crumb 3 they gob sometimes choked thorn. Ab this point a baby began to object to the proceedings and howled. The General immediately said : " Take it out, and .come back when ib stops. When will the Salvation Army have the sense to provide an ante-room with a few bottles for babies." The General then reiterated that it was a Salvabion Army meeting, and if the strangers present found it was nob conducted as their own meetings were, he would have no more right to complain than if the soldiers were to come to their meetings and complain of their methods. Every little saint who came to a Salvation Army meeting came with the idea that he knew a great deal better fchan they did how to conduct their own business. They were judged as either fools or rogues. They were neither. (Laughter.) He thought they knew better than other people. If he could find any other people who rendered more glory to God he would be thundering ab their doors to-morrow asking for admission tor himself with all his people behind him. Cheers, hallelujahs and glory's were freely shouted ab intervals and there was unlimited religious enthusiasm. "Men " said the General in his earnest address "do nob sin because they want to sin." A man does nob drink because ib is a sin ; he wishes ib were nob a sin to get drunk. He drinks because he likes ib, because his inclination is stronger than his sense of God and duty, and makes him act- against God and against God's creatures. .Selfishness was then the cause and root of all evil. The General gave a most; earnest address and a moving appeal bo the soldiers, and finally with a startlingly dramatic appeal to Jesus to bless and sprinkle the hearts of those present, commanded those in need to come to the penitents' form. The appeal to Heaven for souls was a complete revelation to many, and the picture of the General, his whole frame ehaken with passionate feeling, his arms outstretched, calling aloud on the

name of the Lord, wae not likely to be forgotten by any witness. A perfectly - perceptible thrill swept over bhe sea of upturned and whitened or flushed faces. The appeal was not in vain, but the subsequent proceedings were nob of a character to reporb. It was announced that there would be a parade this afternoon before the City Hall meeting.