WHAT NEXT? by John Harvey Kellogg

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1879

WHAT NEXT?

By John Harvey Kellogg

A new phase of evangelistic work is said to have appeared in England, under the direction of one Captain Booth, who calls his followers, “The Salvation Army,” and, according to The Christian Union of June 11, 1879, announces his services in the following extraordinary fashion:—

The salvation army! In the salvation temple. The following will appear under the command of Captain Booth with his “hallelujah fiddle. Happy Bill and glory Tom from Sheffield; Shaker Bill from Blackburn; and a converted soldier. A band of hallelujah lasses! The champion pigeon flyer, and the champion wrestler of Over Darwen, and Mrs. Wilson, the singing pilgrim, who will play and speak for God. Sunday, at 7, 11, 3, and 7. Week nights at 8. Come and hear! Save your soul! Song books at the door, 1d.

The meetings recently conducted under Captain Booth’s auspices at Gateshead and Newcastle are represented as having been scenes of the wildest and most frantic excitement. At a concluding “all-night prayer-meeting,” vociferous shouting, wild laughter, sobbing, and shrieking, with extraordinary bursts of singing, made up a din and confusion worthy of Pandemonium. The “penitents,” many of them, fainted away, both men and women; they foamed at the mouth, and flung themselves into convulsive attitudes or fell prostrate on the floor, and the describer of the scene says that when he came away, people “were swooning all over the place,” and he had “to step over a man in a fit in order to get to the door.” It is stated, by way of apology for these extravagances, that the “revival” has reduced the criminal arrests in a very appreciable degree. From a private letter we learn that Mrs. Booth (presumably the Captain’s wife), with the “hallelujah lasses,” threatens a visit to this country.

Amid such travesties of religion, is it any wonder that the true should be treated with neglect and scorn?

Any one who wishes can obtain copies of the Constitution and By-laws of the Health and Temperance Association by sending their address, with stamp, to the Association at this place, or to any of its officers.

J. H. KELLOGG, Pres. A. H. & T. A.