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Barmy Army
by Commissioner Wesley Harris
‘GOD BLESS our
Army brave and true and all the barmy things we do!’ That may
be a bit of doggerel but it contains more than a grain of
truth. Our course, when we speak of ‘the Army’ we are not
merely referring to headquarters in London England, or
anywhere else. ‘The Army’ is a collective term. The Army is
us, and sometimes our biggest foes may be within our ranks
rather than outside them.
Sometimes there may be criticism of the way in which people
have led the Army. But equally, there may be criticism of the
way in which the Army has sometimes led its leaders when
Salvationists have voted with their feet and gone in the wrong
direction.
I give way to none in my love for the movement in which I have
served for most of my life. It has faults because it has
people like me in it (!) but I still think that there is
nothing better. I believe that God called it into being and
that he is still pleased to use it for His glory. I
passionately want the Army to be what it is at its best and
pray that it may be saved from any foolishness on the part of
those of us who comprise it. I’m ‘army barmy’ and pray for our
sometimes ‘barmy Army’.
Sometimes we have been foolish in that we have not dared to be
different. We have been afraid to innovate. My favourite
quotation from William Booth is, ‘There must be continuity of
principle but adaptation of method’. Another favourite word of
wisdom from the past is from Russell Lowell, ‘New occasions
teach new duties. Time makes ancient good uncouth’.
But if it is foolish to shrink from trying new approaches it
is also foolish to jettison tried and trusted methods simply
because they are old.
The late Commissioner Catherine Bramwell-Booth, granddaughter
of William and Catherine Booth, told me that uniform was not
introduced in the Army because of some edict from headquarters
but because of the desire of many Salvationists to show whose
side they were on. And so, through the years, our testimony
has not only been audible and credible but visible as well.
Now it seems that a few among us cannot get out of uniform
quick enough. The extreme folly must be when some taking part
in a door-knock collection leave off the uniform which makes
them instantly recognizable and don civilian clothes – even
ragged jeans – instead.
Salvationists have good reason to be ‘humbly proud’ of the
movement to which they belong. In many parts of the world the
public is ready to heap praise upon us and sometime we should
pray to be as good as people think we are. Certainly, we
should seek to be as good as God wants us to be and not lose
out through folly or unfaithfulness.
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