THE EXISTENCE OF THE SALVATIOH ARMY.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 369, 27 June 1884, Page 2

THE EXISTENCE OF THE SALVATIOH ARMY.

3JOTHE EDITOE. j

I Sir,— After reading your quotation from the * Lake County Press,' and listening to ifche debate last "Wednesday evening at the Gore Literary.and Society Ve-thls subject, I beg to offer a few remarks on *t. • 1 do not put myself forward as an apologist for all the sayings and doings oFthe Salvation Army, , became there, arc man j .of their ; methods 1 of working I have v decided objection, to, but as an .outsider I claim for them art impartial hearing. If they are to be: publicly impeached for what they have „csooe, .let it be done without prejudices- Whena:man is ; placed^ on his'.tripj, for breaking the laws of the ccxxntiy, his character, . whether good or bad,is an important item in the case. i and as a rule seriously inllueuces the sentence if found guilty. And among all the accusaj tions brought against the Army of the evil I they have caused, vqry little, seeing tp; -be. said of good they have. done. ' " ''••"' The great tea,ch,er, Jesus Clrrist, laid down , the principle by which systems as \vell)as iv- .; dividuals we,re to bq tried, when He said t; By > tlieir fruits shall ye know them." ,Is is an indisputable fact that the Aimy has done good, and if proof is needed, we biiuo'forward the thousands of men ■ and-, ;wo* . men who have been lifted from" the "lowest depths of sin aud iniquity it is possible to fall to, and have been enabled .to; live sober, peaceable,' pure lives;' ;And now comes the question — What has been the , means of 'this great, revolution in" the lives of thesepeoDle? .Ce^ainly not ibxas§ in-

truments, excitement, and various other hings, to which objection is taken, but the Truth, the Truth taught and preached, the Truth received and lived in the life • for He only is free whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves beside. History te.iches us that moral and religious .systems have existed as a power amongst men, only so long as they have contained and omNO'lied truth, which, like the subtle principle we call life, has permeated them, and so energised and made them powerful. And because the Salvation Army taught the Truth to that™ class of people to i_wh_om_ would not go that isthe^'pri'tnaiy > fo?'-*^aeir existe.nce. (■And because tl^by CQ.ntfnue to teach the Truth' as it is in Jesus*/'' they continue to gvowand exert -&<powe*v*o£^ge>6d in the world. ..,-,.; So far as they do this they ought to have the approval and God-speed of every Christian. — I am, etc., Chubch -Goeb.