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Essentials for Salvationism
by Commissioner Wesley Harris

  

There are some things which are essential if the Army is to be effective and if we as individuals are to be ‘worth our salt’ as Salvationists.   The first essential is conviction.  In preparing a book for publication I have been studying the life of our Founder, William Booth, and have again been impressed by the strength of his conviction.

 

 As a young officer I was privileged to have retired Commissioner George Jolliffe as a mentor.  At one stage he had been on the personal staff of the Founder and even lived in his house for a while. I asked the commissioner the secret of William Booth’s drive which made him such a force in evangelism and was told that it was his belief in hell. It was his intense conviction that people without Christ were teetering on the edge of eternal disaster and that gave William Booth a sense of urgency and led him to seek to win the souls of almost all he met – including the taxi driver, the wealthy host or the down–and-out on the street

 

William Booth’s convictions were powerful and helped to fire the impetus which brought the Army into being.  By comparison, have we become too casual in our convictions?

 

T.R.Glover said of Marcus Aurelius, ‘He didn’t believe enough to be great’.  That judgement may or may not be correct but more to the point, could it be true of The Salvation Army and ourselves as individual Salvationists in the twenty first century? I only ask!

 

True conviction should lead to commitment.  Many of us live in what may be termed an uncommitted generation.  Sometimes there is a reluctance to be committed to anything be it marriage or a life-time of service.  But commitment is essential for effectiveness and a satisfying life.  It is certainly a prime necessity in a movement such as ours.

 

In The Salvation Army’s small but noble contingent of martyrs the name of Kim Lock should be in lights.  He was a Chinese silk merchant who got saved at the Wellington Citadel Corps in New Zealand.  He felt that he should return to his home province in China in order to proclaim the gospel there. 

 

At that time the province had already come under communist control but Kim and 12 of his friends felt they should hold an open air meeting in the town square. Townsfolk were impressed but the authorities were implacable.  The young enthusiasts were arrested but when released they witnessed again.  This happened several times until they were warned that the next time they would be executed. And so, it happened.  Kim and his friends witnessed and then were taken to the square and beheaded in front of a huge crowd. Their commitment was so great that no cost was too much.

 

If as an Army we are to live up to our name and our reputation there is a third essential to be maintained. It is compassion. Years ago in the United Kingdom the Army had a fund raising appeal with the slogan, ‘For God’s sake, care’. If some charities had selected such a slogan it might have seemed sacrilegious but there was general acceptance that for the Army it was appropriate. For us it is the way it should be.

 

If we ceased to care we would cease to count.  We should not do what we do to court publicity or even to secure funds for the Army which we love.  It is for God’s sake that we reach out to the last, the least and the lost.  We care because within us we have the caring Holy Spirit.  That is the essential secret which must never be forgotten.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

   

 

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