THE SALVATION ARMY AND OTHERS by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, February 24, 1885

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 8

THE SALVATION ARMY AND OTHERS.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

Last evening for the first time, I witnessed a meeting of the Salvation Army, held in a theater in Boston. There were about twenty in the company of workers, while the house was well filled. At the hour appointed the twenty marched in the ante-room, with drums, tambourines, and other instruments. All knelt a moment on the floor. Then they began singing and playing on the instruments. Their songs are mostly set to popular music, bar-room tunes, and the like, all of the most lively and noisy kind. Not one solemn nor one devotional tune did they sing. While singing, every possible effort was made to get up noise and an excitement. The singers would clap their hands together, keep time with their feet, sway their bodies to and fro, walk about, etc. Two young girls, perhaps sixteen or eighteen years of age, led the meeting. One read and expounded a few verses of Scripture in a very ignorant way. The most of the company were rough, hard-looking young men, and their speaking was in harmony with their looks. The whole performance was conducted in a boastful, noisy, funny, singing manner. They were often laughing and making remarks to cause others to laugh. “Amen,” “Hallelujah,” “Praise the Lord,” etc., were thickly interspersed in the service; but these were spoken in a jocular, light, and trifling way which was sad to hear. Not a tear was shed, not a particle of emotion was shown by one of them, nor was there any solemnity in the audience. No instruction was given, no information was imparted; the whole theme was, “Come to Jesus, and be saved; hallelujah!”

If this is not a burlesque on religion, then I have no knowledge in divine things. And yet it is gaining rapidly and making converts by the thousands everywhere. The First-day Adventists attend these meetings, take part in them, and in their own meetings speak highly of them. They say that the Salvation Army is preparing the way for the Lord to come! Sr. White’s prediction that false reformations would increase and just before the end, is strikingly fulfilled in this movement. It does not seem possible that any of our people can be deceived by it. As I looked on those two bold, ill-mannered, and irreverent girls leading that performance, I thought of my own daughter, and said in my heart that I had a thousand times rather see her dead than have such a character.

The same day I also attended a holiness meeting or faith-cure meeting, as they called it, held at Cullis’s church. It was a yearly gathering of ministers and believers in the “higher life.” Some came from many States and Canada. There were probably five-hundred present, all bright, intelligent-looking people. Everything was conducted in an orderly manner, and many excellent addresses were made. And yet even here, where we had expected the deepest feeling and solemnity, seeking of God and heart-searching, there was a marked absence of all these. There was a deal of lightness, joking, and laughter all through the meeting. Indeed, nearly every speaker seemed to make an effort to say something funny or witty. Especially was this the case with the ministers. To speak safely, I should say that one in four of those who spoke in the social meeting created more or less laughter. Not a tear was shed by any, minister or people. “I am saved, and have perfect peace,” was the uniform testimony. Perhaps this is all right, but it does not seem to be the experience of the apostles and prophets in the Bible. Paul says, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.” Rom. 9:2. He labored with them both publicly and from house to house. Acts 20:19, 20. The same Spirit dwelt in Christ. Heb. 5:7. Ezekiel was shown the last days, and God’s servants commanded to “set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done” in the land. Eze. 9:4. And Jesus said, “Blessed are they that mourn.” Matt. 5:4. “Blessed are ye that weep now.” Luke 6:21. “Woe unto you that laugh now.” Verse 25. And so on all through the Bible, as every one knows. Lightness and merriment do not become the Lord’s ambassadors nor the Lord’s house. But this spirit is being seen more and more of late, and is especially prominent in these holiness and revival efforts. The old-fashioned agony of soul for sin and contrition of heart are seldom seen. Bunyan’s “slough of despond” has been filled up. No one falls into it any more. They are converted with a song, saved in a minute, have perfect peace in an hour, and are on the stand as preachers the next night!

I have attended the meetings of Mr. Moody, Mr. Hammond, Mrs. Van Cott, and other prominent revivalists. While Mr. Moody’s are much above any of the others, yet in them all there is a lack of that deep, solemn contrition for sin, that used to be. There is a feeling that it is an easy, short work to “come to Jesus, and be saved.” Much singing, few prayers, and short anecdotes with more or less witty hits and merriment, are largely the means used. No doubt some good is done, and some are soundly converted; but the more I see of it, the more I search the Scriptures, the deeper experience I have in my own heart, the more I am convinced that it is largely a surface work which will not stand the awful test of the Judgment. D. M. CANRIGHT.