Now,I propose to go straight for these sinking classes,and in doing so shall continue to aim at the heart.I still prophesy the uttermost disappointment unless that citadel is reached.In proposing to add one more to the methods I have already put into operation to this end,do not let it be supposed that I am the less dependent upon the old plans or that I seek anything short of the old conquest.If we help the man it is in order that we may change him.The builder who should elaborate his design and erect his house and risk his reputation without burning his bricks would be pronounced a failure and a fool.Perfection of architectural beauty,unlimited expenditure of capital,unfailing watchfulness of his labourers,would avail him nothing if the bricks were merely unkilned clay.Let him kindle a fire.And so here I see the folly of hoping to accomplish anything abiding,either in the circumstances or the morals of these hopeless classes,except there be a change effected in the whole man as well as in his surroundings.
To this everything I hope to attempt will tend.In many cases I shall succeed,in some I shall fail;but even in failing of this my ultimate design,I shall at least benefit the bodies,if not the souls,of men;and if I do not save the fathers,I shall make a better chance for the children.
It will be seen therefore that in this or in any other development that may follow I have no intention to depart in the smallest degree from the main principles on which I have acted in the past.My only hope for the permanent deliverance of mankind from misery,either in this world or the next,is the regeneration or remaking of the individual by the power of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ.But in providing for the relief of temporal misery I reckon that I am only making it easy where it is now difficult,and possible where it is now all but impossible,for men and women to find their way to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That I have confidence in my proposals goes without saying.
I believe they will work.In miniature many of them are working already.But I do not claim that my Scheme is either perfect in its details or complete in the sense of being adequate to combat all forms of the gigantic evils against which it is in the main directed.
Like other human things it must be perfected through suffering.
But it is a sincere endeavour to do something,and to do it on principles which can be instantly applied and universally developed.
Time,experience,criticism,and,above all,the guidance of God will enable us,I hope,to advance on the lines here laid down to a true and practical application of the words of the Hebrew Prophet:"Loose the bands of wickedness;undo the heavy burdens;let the oppressed go free;break every yoke;deal thy bread to the hungry;bring the poor that are cast out to thy house.When thou seest the naked cover him and hide not thyself from thine own flesh.Draw out thy soul to the hungry--Then they that be of thee shall build the old waste places and Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations."To one who has been for nearly forty years indissolubly associated with me in every undertaking I owe much of the inspiration which has found expression in this book.It is probably difficult for me to fully estimate the extent to which the splendid benevolence and unbounded sympathy of her character have pressed me forward in the life-long service of man,to which we have devoted both ourselves and our children.It will be an ever green and precious memory to me that amid the ceaseless suffering of a dreadful malady my dying wife found relief in considering and developing the suggestions for the moral and social and spiritual blessing of the people which are here set forth,and I do thank God she was taken from me only when the book was practically complete and the last chapters had been sent to the press.
In conclusion,I have to acknowledge the services rendered to me in preparing this book by Officers under my command.There could be no hope of carrying out any part of it,but for the fact that so many thousands are ready at my call and under my direction to labour to the very utmost of their strength for the salvation of others without the hope of earthly reward.Of the practical common sense,the resource,the readiness for every form of usefulness of those Officers and Soldiers,the world has no conception.Still less is it capable of understanding the height and depth of their self-sacrificing devotion to God and the poor.
I have also to acknowledge valuable literary help from a friend of the poor,who,though not in any way connected with the Salvation Army,has the deepest sympathy with its aims and is to a large extent in harmony with its principles.Without such assistance I should probably have found it--overwhelmed as I already am with the affairs of a world-wide enterprise--extremely difficult,if not impossible,to have presented these proposals for which I am alone responsible in so complete a form,at any rate at this time.I have no doubt that if any substantial part of my plan is successfully carried out he will consider himself more than repaid for the services so ably rendered.
