Recruits for the "Army."
By Editor
A FEW weeks ago we made a note of the fact that one of the oldest and most influential Congregationalist ministers on the Pacific Coast had stated, in the Pacific, that he had attended some meetings of the "Salvation Army," and that he was "tempted" to yield to a "strong inclination" to join them. Since the publication of that letter, another has written expressing his regret that his elder brother did not join them, and give the rest the benefit of his experience after closer acquaintance. Said the later writer: "I feel certain that many of his brethren are similarly 'tempted,' . . . and his experience would have been of incalculable benefit to his brethren, who, like him, are 'halting between two opinions' regarding the Salvation Army, its methods and work, and their own duty with reference to it." "I cannot avoid a conviction that, if our brother had yielded to the yearning desire to become one of the searchers along the highways and among the hedges, he would only have been the first among a multitude of earnest preachers, whose hearts are crying out to the Lord for wisdom that they may know how 'to seek and to save.'" This is only one of the many indications that there is a strong current setting toward the "Salvation Army," or some similar organization. As the writer above quoted says, many ministers are not satisfied with the present influence and work of the church, and thus are all ready to adopt anything which promises the success they so much desire, namely, "many converts." There is no question but that the "Salvation Army" is rapidly gaining recruits, and, as a natural consequence, influence. Those who to-day make it a subject of ridicule may next month be in its ranks. It is high time that all honest, candid persons should be warned against its insidious advances, lest they become infatuated with it, and, ere they discover their mistake, become hopelessly entangled in the net of Spiritualism.