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USA:
Blood and Fire on Stars and Stripes
by Major Stephen Court
The Salvation Army in America is critical to
The Salvation Army worldwide.
It is composed of four territories and sees upwards of
150,000 first time seekers of salvation each year.
To some degree that could be called Perpetual Revival.
Hallelujah.
It also funds much of the Army’s work in developing countries.
It has a unique history, though, dotted with rebellion
and highlighted with glory.
The Blood and Fire on Stars and Stripes Revival that
started it all off is a source of inspiration and instruction
to us all.
We’re tracing the same dynamics of revival
that we followed in the previous chapter…
Cultural conditions
Revival doesn’t take place in a vacuum.
“A repetition of the British Industrial Revolution, on
a much vaster scale, was taking place… The cities grew and the
slums multiplied.
This filled up the country, brought tremendous economic
development and the inevitable percentage of human failure”
(SS 49).
“New York, when Railton arrived, had 10,000
children adrift in the streets, many of them weeping outside
of 8,000 saloons.”
The East Side death rate was three times that of New York as a
whole (SS 46).
And Herbert Wisbey made the application of
the needs with the solution: “The United States in the last
two decades of the nineteenth century offered a fertile field
to (The Salvation Army).
American Protestantism had largely failed to meet the
needs of the urban working class” (SS 47).
And one enterprising teen-aged girl saw in
the specifics what was possible in the general: “Jesus was
born in a stable!
If that was good enough for Him this will do well for the
birthplace of The Salvation Army in America!” exclaimed Eliza
Shirley (v2 p228).
Eliza was a 16 year-old officer (!) in
England who, when her parents emigrated to America, wrote the
General to tell him that she would accompany them.
He replied, “If you must go and if you should start a
work, start it on the principles of The Salvation Army, and if
it is a success we may see our way to take it over” (v2,
p229).
Content of message
The invasion of USA was driven by the same
theme that made The Salvation Army so efficacious elsewhere –
Salvation and Holiness.
The Founder summed it up: “Our motto is holiness to the
Lord and the world for Jesus!” (after the first foray into the
USA (v2, p230).
As the National Commander Ballington Booth
(1887-1896) asserted, The Salvation Army, preached “a plain
and simple revival of the teachings of Christ and His
Apostles” (McK 39).
William Booth asserted, “This is our
specialty- getting saved and keeping saved and then getting
somebody else saved” (in McK 40).
And they took it seriously.
Pioneer Eliza Shirley’s mission was to reach the
“unloved, unreached masses, of which there are some millions”
(SS 44).
Joe the Turk, the colourful and effective
early evangelist, carried an ink pad with the stamp “Jesus
Saves!” which he used to mark on walls and papers and table
and table cloths and… (SC 69).
His umbrella preached!
On various sections it said, ‘Be just and fear not’;
‘Jesus is mighty to save’; ‘Get right with God’; ‘God bless
our General’ (SC 69).
And even his guernsey preached.
On the front it read – PREPARE TO MEET YOUR GOD; on the
back, back – SALVATION OR DAMNATION (SC 69,70).
These and related methods worked.
He was jailed 53 times, often stoned and beaten (SC
69). After one
arrest, after seven days in jail, he converted most of the 30
drunks locked up with him, (and) cleaned up the ‘pig pen’ with
a hose and a broom…” (SC 69).
And Joe epitomized the Salvationist
understanding of Biblical teaching: “The Scriptures demanded a
zeal for souls” (McK 11).
“Salvationists were driven by a sense of
responsibility almost too awesome to bear; the energy and
fervour with which they preached touched the hearts of
pathetic and lonely people who were all too aware of the
prince mankind paid for sin and who, informed at last of a
cure, flocked forward, outdoors and in, to be ‘washed in the
Blood of the Lamb’” (McK39).
During his 1886 campaign, awash in
‘delirious’ ‘pandemonium’, “Everywhere the General spoke
lovingly of Christ, the sinner’s Friend, and of his own vision
of the redemption of the world through the self-sacrifice and
loyalty of The Salvation Army” (McK36).
Roger Green argues that the post-millennial
beliefs of the leaders help explain the zeal with which the
Army prosecuted the salvation war.
(Jesus Christ comes after victorious 1000 yr reign – so
we speed His return) “The Salvation Army, by winning souls in
places where the Army’s leaders believed that other
evangelistic efforts had not penetrated, was hastening the
Second Coming” (McK 40).
“Booth went so far in 1890 as to refer to the
millennium as ‘the ultimate triumph of Salvation Army
principles” (McK 40).
Holiness
“Wesleyan doctrine of ‘holiness’… served as
its foundation from the beginning” (McK 40).
“A large part of the motive and success of
the pioneer Army can thus be explained in terms of doctrine”
(McK 42).
“Christ in the heart is worth more than a
world full of theories” (The War Cry 1881 McK 43).
Credibility from conversion (transformation/holiness)
From Reddie through Ash-Barrel Jimmy to Joe
the Turk, The Salvation Army built its reputation on
‘notorious local(s)’ who were soundly converted and pressed
into the Salvation War.
Reddie
“Early going was tough for the Shirleys, who
endured small gatherings for indoor meetings, mud and garbage
barrages for open airs, and an unsympathetic police force.
But one night they arrived at their open air ring
excited to find a crowd.
But some youth set fire to a barrel of tar in the
Shirley’s lot.
“Fire was a desperate threat in the crowded, wooden, gas-lit
American cities of the late nineteenth century; fear, along
with the self-important clang and bustle of fire engines,
always drew large crowds to fires.”
The Shirleys saw the hand of God in the fire and began
to sing and preach passionately.
The crowd’s attention was grabbed.
At the appeal, “a drunken, rumpled man… a notorious
local known only as ‘Reddie’, struggled forward to ask, in his
bewilderment, if such Good News could be for the likes of him.
Tearfully, the Shirleys assured him that it was, and
embraced the man, bearing him off in triumph to the Salvation
Factory, ‘ten thousand hallelujahs’ in their wake.
800 people followed them into the hall for the meeting
during which Reddie got saved!”
(McK 9,10).
Ash-Barrel Jimmy
“Railton’s first convert in America was
“Ash-Barrel Jimmy… a homeless alcoholic who had earned his
nickname when he was found by a policeman drunk in a barrel,
his hair frozen to the bottom, and was dragged thus encumbered
to the police court.
The magistrate was in a jocular mood; he ordered James
Kemp to attend The Salvation Army act at the Variety (a show
hall at which Railton had secured the platform)… He …
drunkenly found his way… After several efforts to get past the
policeman patrolling in front of the hall Ash-Barrel was
finally gathered up in Railton’s loving arms and carried over
the threshold.
Kemp was soundly converted – a turning point in more lives
than his own.
Ash-Barrel was a well-known hard case, and word of his
‘getting saved’ brought crowds”” (McK 17).
And about Joe the Turk, who we introduced in
previous pages (and meet again in the next page), he was a
ruffian saved at a San Francisco #1 corps open air, and this
most famous of American Salvationist evangelists is described
by the historian Edward McKinley as a, ‘volatile eccentric’
(McK 28).
Charisma of leaders
Railton was recalled to England in 1881 and
replaced by Major Thomas E. Moore.
In October 1884, “difficulties arose which culminated
in Moore’s seizing whatever property of the Army in the United
States he could get under his control and proclaiming his
intention of continuing in command of what he still wished to
call The Salvation Army” (v2, p237).
Moore deserted and took more than 100
officers and most of the “forces, property, and finance” of
The Salvation Army, in 1884” (Soldier Saint 68).
Only 17 corps remained (McK 34).
Yet, within two years there were 238 corps and 569
officers (SS 68).
In two years 221 corps were established!
That’s a pace of about two each week!
Who led during this critical juncture in the young
Salvation Army history in America?
“When Maud and Ballington Booth came to the
United States to assume command of The Salvation Army forces
they discovered both reason for joy and concern. The joy came
in the fine spirit of salvationism among the forces which had
been bolstered the previous year with the first visit of
General William Booth to America. The Army was growing at a
pace that was so rapid that even at headquarters they were
never quite sure where new corps were opening and others
closing. The Army was reaching the working classes most
effectively but was still widely maligned in the press and
among the wealthy. Thomas Moore, who had led a split and
formed a rival Army, was still active: not only confusing the
public as to which organisation was which but in openly
attacking the parent movement.
“America was ready for leaders like the
Booths. In New York City, where the Army was headquartered,
they quickly established themselves as the darlings of the
wealthy. Reporters delighted in interviewing them and with
each good review the Booths received, the Army was more highly
esteemed by the public, The Booths also loved their officers,
resulting in more recruits for Officership and fewer
resignations. The Army made forward advances in social work
and in its spiritual warfare. Moore's rival movement withered
from its own inner decay and in the shadow of the blossoming
Worldwide Salvation Army. It seemed that the Army was destined
to go on from victory to victory.”
http://www.salvationarmy.org/heritage.nsf/36c107e27b0ba7a98025692e0032abaa/88c78ae770597106802568cd004a110c!OpenDocument
On street level, Salvation Army charisma was
epitomized by Joseph Garabedian, the San Francisco convert who
became an officer nicknamed ‘Joe the Turk’.
This larger-than-life personality was once specialling
in Illinois and found the corps officer in jail for a
fortnight. Such a
commotion ensued upon the officers’ release that both the
mayor and the chief of police cleared out of town.
So Joe declared himself mayor and made one of the COs
chief of police.
He shut down the town’s monopoly on the alcohol trade (such
that there were no saloons left) and, within six weeks,
installed a new mayor (v2, p239).
Charisma in leadership was not a lack in the
early Army.
Multiplication mandate
October 5, 1879, she opened the ‘Salvation
Factory’ to a packed house and immediately went to secure a
second hall in West Philadelphia (v2, p229).
Within about four months Commissioner George
Scott Railton and Captain Emma Westbrook, along with six
soldiers – Rachel Evans, Clara Price, Mary Ann Coleman,
Elizabeth Pearson, Annie Shaw, and Emma Eliza Florence Morris
sailed to officially invade America (the soldiers’ officer
training consisted of 26 days while tossing on the
‘tempestuous Atlantic Ocean’ (including daily open air
meetings and one convert, later a candidate for Officership)
(v2, p231,232).
In his private farewell to Railton, William
Booth reminded him, “Never forget that it is not what you do
yourself so much as what you can get others to do in the
meetings that will be the making of the Army” (SS 46).
That was, as it is today, easier said than
done.
The city leaders prepared a prohibitory
ordinance to shut down the invaders before they got started.
But the salvationists beat them to the punch by having
an open air within minutes of landing.
The New York press did the rest, following Railton
around everywhere he went, and reporting everything his party
said, sang, and did (v2, p233).
This favour did not last, such that Railton, frustrated
by the limitations placed by the government, moved
headquarters to Philadelphia, and by July 1884, Major Swift
reported that only one open air stand was permitted, and for
that a special police permit had to be obtained each and every
day (v2, p234,235).
“A pioneer with a dozen things to do at
once, flying around the city like some wild evangelical bird,
(Railton) kept no records at all.
Nor did his lieutenants, stalwart women with great
hearts but little ability; none of them could even read
competently, and they had no interest in details” (McK 18).
They were completely and absolutely engaged
in the multiplication mandate of 2 Timothy 2:2 as the
strategic means to win the world for Jesus – “And the things
you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, these
entrust to reliable men who will be qualified to tell others
also.”
Consequences
After one year there were 1500 converts and
13 corps (McK 20,21).
Within the decade The Salvation Army had
spread to 43 states (McK24). And there were only 44 at the
time (Idaho and Wyoming joining the union in 1890 as numbers
43 and 44).
On the local level, the advance was as
amazing. In
Buffalo, 250 soldiers made in the first 11 weeks!
Police reported that for three weeks there was no one
to arrest.
Spiritual overflow was such that one church gained 100
members. (BE A HERO 122).
At the time of the Moore split, just four
years into the American campaign, there were 143 corps and 290
officers (v2, p238).
17 stayed in.
Moore took 80% of officers and soldiers, and
copyrighted the crest and War Cry; SC 71).
Moore’s ‘Salvation Army’ disbanded within
the decade even though it started 1885 much larger than the
loyalist remnant, owned all the property, had all the money,
and used the same methods and songs.
But in response to this decimation, The
Salvation Army exploded.
It didn’t need property.
It didn’t need money.
Within two years there were 238 corps and 569 officers.
Supernatural! (SC 74).
In the first six years, even through the crushing
split, 342 corps were started, more than one each week.
This was revival on a national scale.
(Richard Holz brought a remnant of 29
officers back into the Army in 1889, just before the collapse
of the American aberration. McK 37)
Commissioner Frank Smith who said, “Moore
left behind him that which he had no power to take or to make,
the enthusiasm, energy, and zeal of a band of men and women
who, smarting under the desertion of their leader, were
thereby drawn to lean more than ever upon God” (SC 72).
Look at these raw numbers: 1881-1886 –
250,000 conversions. 1000/week.
The Officer ranks swelled from 533-3600.
And in 1887 the Army expanded from 1552 to
2328 corps, starting 15 new stations/week.
Though The Salvation Army is the most loved
charity in USA today, it wasn’t always popular.
This revival advanced through hardship.
“It is likely that the aggregate number of American
Salvationists who were imprisoned exceeded those who suffered
likewise in any other country” (v2, p240).
Their struggles bequeathed today’s American
Salvationists a wonderful legacy and reputation, and a
powerful example of revival upon which God can build today.
References
Arnold Brown WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?
Wesley Campbell and Stephen Court BE A HERO
Sallie Chesham BORN TO BATTLE
Robert Collins THE HOLY WAR OF SALLY ANN
Edward H McKinley MARCHING TO GLORY
Gordon Moyles THE BLOOD AND FIRE IN CANADA
Gordon Moyles THE SALVATION ARMY IN
NEWFOUNDLAND
Robert Sandal THE HISTORY OF THE SALVATION
ARMY volume 2.
Bernard Watson A HUNDRED YEARS WAR
Bernard Watson SOLDIER SAINT
Herbert Wood THEY BLAZED THE TRAIL
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