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Souvenirs of Salvationism 4
by
Commissioner Wesley Harris
IN 1880
children at Blyth in the north of England had a problem. The
crowds anxious to get into Salvation Army meetings were so
great that there was no room for boys and girls. When one
small girl complained to Captain John Roberts he decided to
hold a special meeting for children on the following Friday
night.
It was the beginning of a great enterprise which quickly
spread. Sunday schools were not new; they had been started in
England a hundred years earlier by newspaper owner Robert
Raikes. But what happened at the Army was different.
Instead of adults doing all the talking youngsters were
encouraged to participate
and were organised into young people’s corps. Children were
called ‘little soldiers’. Some seem to have been known as
sergeants or captains. They held their own open-air meetings
and were fired with enthusiasm to win other children for
Jesus.
A distracted editor of The War Cry couldn’t find space for all
the reports sent in by the young enthusiasts and so the
Founder decided that there would be a new paper called The
Little Soldier and John Roberts would be the editor.
Among my souvenirs are two early issues one of them being only
the third, dated 10th September, 1881, price one half penny.
An intriguing feature of the papers is that the reports were
written by children.
For example, Mary aged six wrote – with some help, perhaps –
‘I enjoy the meetings very much and mean, by God helping me,
to be faithful for Jesus’ sake’.
A ‘veteran’ of fourteen-and-a-half signed herself ‘Happy
Annie’ and wrote,
‘We are rising up at Sunderland. Praise God we have got a drum
and fife band here, and mean (to present) Sunderland at Jesus’
feet. We had a grand meeting here on Tuesday and six souls in
the fountain. Glory be to God.’
From Lisburn ‘Lieut.Ellen’ reported, ‘Hallelujah! The little
soldiers of this corps are not dead yet but more like living
for Jesus. On Wednesday we had our Little Soldiers Meeting;
over sixty children present and some were able to testify…We
met on Saturday at six o’clock. We had with us from Belfast
the little Musical Mystery who spoke and sang for Jesus and
the Little Wonder who played her timbrel and sang…’
‘Captain Annie’ aged twelve wrote from Seaham Harbour to
report that the little soldiers in ranks four deep had marched
around the streets singing, Little soldiers of the Cross,
fight for your Lord’. To modern eyes the papers may seem
quaint but they reveal part of the genius of our genesis –
involvement. Even young people were mobilised and fired with
enthusiasm for the great cause of winning others for Jesus.
There is still need to do something similar albeit using the
idioms of today. On a voluntary basis I have been giving
religious education in a state school in Australia for more
than ten years. That has been a privilege. But in the process
I have made the sad discovery that more than 95% of the
children do not attend a church which may or may not be very
different from the situation in the United Kingdom.
We might learn from the past that the best ones to evangelise
children may be their peers.
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