He replied that, as to the matter of money, the Army had established a
Pension fund in all the Western countries, which now amounts to a
large total. In this country the sum was about L44,000, and during
1909 about L1,800 had been paid here in pensions. This, however, was
only a beginning, but he thought that the effort was being made on the
right lines, and that, notwithstanding their poverty, a really
adequate Pension fund would be built up in due course.
Then of a sudden he became eloquent. He said he admitted that the Army
had little to offer. Those who came into its service knew that this
was so; that they had no hope of temporal reward; that thenceforth the
great feature of their life and work was that it must be filled with
labour and self-denial. The whole business of helping and saving our
fellow-creatures was one of struggle and suffering. Sacrifice was the
key-note of Christianity as laid down by its Founder. Those who sought
money and temporal honour must look elsewhere than to the Salvation
Army. Its pride and glory was that thousands were willing to suffer
and deny themselves from year to year, and to find their joy and their
recompense in the consciousness that they were doing something,
however little, to lighten the darkness and relieve the misery of the
world.
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