A Salvationist's World Outlook

HONOURED GUESTS, MEMBERS OF THE SALVATION ARMY AND OF THE EMPIRE CLUB OF CANADA:

The name "Salvation Army" is fraught with meaning. And I can think of many definitions.

To the soldier in the field The Salvation Army means a mobile "Sally Anne" providing tea and coffee. To the poor widow it means groceries, clothing, even furniture. To the immigrant, it is housing and aid in finding a job in a new country. To countless children, aged men and women, unmarried mothers and orphans, The Salvation Army has always been a help in need.

Primarily, of course, it is a religious movement, and all the material things I have mentioned are simply a means to an end which is the Salvation of Souls.

Today, The Empire Club is fortunate indeed to have as its guest of honor, General Albert Orsborn, International Leader of The Salvation Army, who is making a tour through Canada at this time which happens to coincide with the special campaign now in progress.

General Orsborn has been associated with the movement from his earliest days, when his parents, pioneer Salvation Army officers, were sent to establish work in Norway.

After his family returned to London, Albert Orsborn became a junior clerk at the Army's International Headquarters, where he served in several departments, each of which added to his store of knowledge and was fitting him for his life's work.

Later, when he entered The Salvation Army's training college, his ability and strong personality marked him for early promotion.

In due course, he moved from one responsibility to another, and in time undertook administrative work at the training college, where lie became responsible for training young men as Salvation Army officers.

Following this, he went to New Zealand for three years, then was placed in charge of work in Scotland, and Ireland, and in 1940 was appointed British Commissioner with responsibility for evangelistic work throughout Great Britain.

The wartime emergencies of The Salvation Army among civilians and for His Majesty's Forces all came under his direction.

One of The Salvation's outstanding poets, his inspiring compositions which number over 250, have been sung the world over and few Salvation Army meetings take place without one or another of his songs or choruses being used.

General Orsborn has brilliant gifts as a public speaker and I am sure we are looking forward to hearing from him today.

I have much pleasure in introducing General Albert Orsborn, C.B.E., International Leader of The Salvation Army whose subject will be "A Salvationist's World Outlook."

Mr. Chairman and Members of The Empire Club of Canada: I am indeed happy and honoured to have the opportunity to meet you here today and to spend a few minutes in speaking to you about a Salvation Army Officer's world outlook.

But first of all, Mr. Chairman, permit me to acknowledge your gracious words of introduction. I noticed that you used, in referring to our War Services, a nickname that Tommy Atkins and the brethren in the other armies gave to the Salvation Army during the Second World War. We were and still are the "Sally Annes", and when you have a nickname you reckon you are well in with the troops. They never confer a nickname until they believe in you and honour you and we are glad to be known as the "Sally Armes" to the men and women in the Forces of The British Empire during wartime, and in these after war days.

It was indeed, Sir, my great privilege and honour to have something to do with that work during the days of war in Britain. At the beginning the work was difficult but later on the public came to recognize the sweeping, far-reaching values, and, as always, the British public rallied generously to our aid and we were able to carry our work far and wide, in introducing many elements which proved to be useful and pleasurable to the men and women in the Forces.

I think, Sir, I am tempted to tell you one story about that time--two, perhaps. One concerns the air raid period when we were reckoned to be an emergency service, on the spot within a few minutes of the bomb falling in the district. A flying bomb had come down in one of the London suburbs but almost before the civilian air raid relief could get there, the Salvation Army canteen turned up. One of the first Officers said, "Hello, Captain, where have you come from? Did you come down with the bomb?"

"No", said the Salvation Army Captain, "I followed it up from Dover."

And then Dunkirk. You remember that many of the British people thought and said, "Oh, it's a phoney war. Nothing doing. Nothing happening." The air raid wardens went to sleep on their districts, and the British public folded itself up to prepare for a long and uneasy period. War Services? Why should we bother about them? Why should we give our money to them anyhow? What is the Salvation Army doing, spreading itself out so much, and other bodies, seeing there wasn't such a sharp need?

Then all of a sudden real war came, and the terrific breakthrough in the north of France, and we lost a lot of money. You know, a Salvationist never minds collecting money but he hates losing it. We lost £65,000 in the German break-through in the north of France and we had to abandon some of our stores. Some of our Officers struggled out with as much of the money as they could carry, but we left a lot behind, and our losses were extremely heavy.

At that time there came a telephone call to help. I was at the National Headquarters. I had just become responsible for these Services. On the desk lay a pile of cheques amounting to about £30,000, to which I dare not append my signature for fear they would not be honoured at the bank.

Then the phone rang: Could we send some mobile canteens to the southeast coast, to the point of disembarkation, there to greet and refresh the weary men who were coming in their thousands from all kinds of craft in the Dunkirk invasion.

Well, Mr. Chairman and Members of this Club, I claim that the Salvation Army has never allowed the dollar to rule its policy. Our faith goes first, and the dollar follows after. So, although we were hard up, I said, "Go to it. Let us get the mobiles anyhow, and argue about the cash afterward."

We got the mobiles and we went down to the seaside and took our canteens into action and then we were able to help about 84,000 of the boys who came ashore after Dunkirk. That will always be a source of satisfaction to us.

One of them, finding his tongue in a manner unaccustomed to the British Tommy, for he is as a rule a soft, quiet individual who has very little to say and is not demonstrative, put his hand out and put it on the shoulder of the girl who had given, him the refreshment, and he said, "God bless you, Miss. You are an Army of comfort."

Well, Mr. Chairman, the world may need a good many things at the present time, but I give it as my opinion, as I look out on the world and visit many parts of it, and find humanity very much alike if you scratch beneath the surface, I find that the world needs a new wave of understanding and plain human kindness, and as far as we in the Army are concerned, we are going to try to live up to the name Tommy gave us and be an Army of Comfort.

You referred to the fact that I began my duties as a junior clerk in our International Headquarters. Yes, indeed-six shillings and sixpence a week, if you please. It was wonderful in those days, and when we rose to twenty there was almost a financial crisis in the Finance Department, that anybody should be paid such a staggering sum for such small and humble services.

Any of you who know London know of the Lockhart's Residence. It is nothing like this Royal York Hotel, of course. In Lockhart's when I was a boy I got my daily meal in the City of London. There was a first class and there was a second class. The first class was distinguished from the second class because it had sawdust on the floor, and the second hadn't any at all. There I used to get my little bit of food. I slid down the bannisters to the annoyance of the saints of the International Salvation Army. I went up to the top of the building every day to collect the bill of fare, and then went around to the head ones to ask what they would like for their lunches, and at the appointed hour I, with the other little boys, took the meals around to the high and mighty of the Salvation Army. Some of them said "Thank you", and some of them said nothing.

Well, things have changed. The old Headquarters is gone. I watched it go up in flames in May, 1941. I stood in the heart of South London and saw what was happening, and I said to those around me, "It looks as though the city is in flames". The fire spread along the skyline from east to west and it looked as if at least the enemy had achieved its foul ambition and had set London on fire.

But, Members of this Club, I have recently come from London and I quote to you the words which may be familiar to you: The bombs has shattered our churches and torn our streets apart, but they did not bend our spirit, 'nor did they break our heart.

London still lives. London is just as good as ever.

When a man is tired of London he is tired of life. There is a great deal in London to interest one and a great deal in the Cockney character that is entirely charming, and I love to get back there and hear the dialects, and the twang which you have already noticed in my own speech because most of my mortal life has been spent in or around London.

I am not sure, Gentlemen, whether we are coming or going at present. Some people think we are getting along splendidly. Some people think we are not. There is complaint in the air, of course, but when was there not complaint in the air in Britain? We grumble while we work. We have music while we work, on the air, and we have other things while we work as well. In fact, I heard a man a little while ago give what I thought to be the classic statement of complaint against the Government. I don't say I underline his complaint. I merely repeat it to you as a factual story, because I thought it was good. I actually heard this fellow say to someone who was standing around him: "What a Government! We are governed by bureaucrats, who talk like democrats, act like autocrats, live like plutocrats, and they are anything but aristocrats." He left nothing for anybody else to say about the Government.

The Government is a proper object for anybody's attack in any country at all, no matter what the Government may be. A great deal of complaint is entirely illogical.

I say at present we are not quite sure whether we are coming or going. Some people think we are getting along very well. Others do not.

I will tell you the story of the man at the lights. He drove up in what the U.S.A. people call a jalopy. There are very few other cars on the roads now in England. We have to be content with cars of ancient vintage. You must go to Guatemala, as I have been, to see the pottery of the best kind, and you must go to Egypt, as I did not long ago, to see up-to-date English cars. You might see one or two on the roads somewhere else, but you won't see them in Britain. That is entirely as it ought to to be at present. Nevertheless, we see in London the broken down cars, often at the lights.

This man is fuming and fretting, as you would if you broke down at the lights and couldn't get on, and the light came from green to amber to red, to green, to amber to red, and to green--and still your wretched car won't move. At last the London "Bobby" walked over to the car and put his head inside and said, "What's the matter, Chum? Ain't we got a colour that you loike?"

Well, that is typical of London. That is London all over. And as I say, we are not quite sure whether we are stuck at the lights or not, but the Londoner keeps his good humour just the same.

Mr. Chairman, you did say one thing that I wish you hadn't said about me. You told this company of business men that I am a poet. That is no commendation to a company of businessmen. When I first commenced to write I was in an office in the City of London, and I took my budding effort along to my Manager, and the moment I took it out of my pocket and said to the hard-boiled London businessman, "Excuse me, Sir, I have been writing a verse or two--I wish you would tell me what you think of this"-he said, "Oh (for something or other's sake) Osborn, don't get the illusion into your brain that you can write poetry. The craziest maggot that gets in the brain of any man is the illusion that he can write verse. A good many men have been spoiled by it. So don't you do it."

You are expecting me to say something about the international outlook of the Salvation Army. Well, we have an outlook. I would say, to begin with, if you are not familiar with the inception of our movement, that it began in 1864. Of course I was not there to help it. I came along a little later. That wonderful man-we could almost be accused of denominational pride-William Booth was one of the outstanding men of the 19th century in England or in the Empire or, indeed, in the world, for he became a citizen of the world, and was known everywhere, and he had the joy that comes to a few men of seeing his work come to full fruition within the term of his own life.

William Booth began in the dark and unpromising field of the east end of London, where half the population was habitually below the poverty line. It was a sea of degradation and misery. Many of the people were in constant unemployment. There the Salvation Army began.

I do not wonder, Mr. Chairman and Friends, that when William Booth and the little band that he gathered together--he began alone but he gathered a few friends after a time--I do not wonder that when they stood in those slum areas and sang:

There is a better world, they say
Oh, so bright,
Where sin and woe are done away,
Oh, so bright.

that the poor looked up and felt a new hope, for our Salvation Army scheme of things was never pie-in-the-sky. It was always a practical expression of religion. It had to do with the here and now as well as the hereafter, and William Booth's gospel, expressed in that old time hymn of the Salvationists was a practical gospel for the poor and the needy and the outcast. He began there.

And might I point to you, Friends, that this movement, by the way, is still a movement-it has not become static. I am happy to realize that when I was elected, not quite two years ago, to be the International Leader of this Army, there was no point in which the High Council of the Army gave me to understand that they wanted me to act like the Curator of an interesting collection of Salvationist relics. Rather they gave me the idea that what I was to do was lead a fighting army, to think on our feet, to adapt ourselves to the changing circumstances of the modern world, not to attempt to ride around in the modern traffic on the old-fashioned tricycle, but to try to be up to date in our methods although unchanging in our principles.

William Booth was part of a great movement. I am going to suggest to you, Gentlemen, that the Salvation Army was one of the great freedom movements of the 19th century, that as the Wesleyans in the 18th century were part of the agrarian movement in England, so the Salvationists of the 19th century were part of an industrial revival in England. At the time when the Army came to birth there were great movements abroad in the world. Is it not significant-pardon me if I think aloud in your presence and say to myself, as the leader of this movement, that it behooves us to look around and see whether the banners of Freedom are flying today and whether they will fly tomorrow, and what we are going to do in connection with them.

We came to the birth at the time in human history when there was a great resurgence of the human spirit everywhere. We came to the birth at a time which has been described by Professor Trevelyan, of Oxford, as the most formative period in world history, between the era of Napoleon and the outburst of the First World War. There were great things stirring if you cast your eye over the history of Europe at that time. The last shots of the Garibaldian revival in Italy were dying down, and the constructive part of that programme was coming into effect.

If you think of the Red Cross, that great movement with which we have co-operated during the war, it is significant to my mind that it was one year before this Salvation Army movement began that the Red Cross movement-the result of the work of one of the greatest women who ever honoured the British Empire, Florence Nightingale--that great movement was endorsed at a Convention in Geneva in 1864.

Sir, am I right in saying that it was in 1865 that Abraham Lincoln inscribed the amendment to the Constitution on the law books of America? I think I am correct that it was that year that happened.

If you look at our own country, Britain, during that time, here is John Stuart Mill, commencing to write his great essay on Liberty. Here he is starting agitating for that which ultimately concluded in a rather riotous way under Miss Pankhurst in the Suffragettes. John Stuart Mill started a campaign for the extension of the franchise to women.

What do I see in Industry at that time? I see the shackles falling off the chain gangs in the mines of Britain, for up to a time just before the Salvation Army came to the birth, not only men but women and children were working under conditions which were brutish and nasty, and human life was brief in the coal mines of Britain. We see many other things stirring in the world around that time.

Gentlemen, may I ask you at this after luncheon speech, though I am not trying to concern your minds with too heavy and too profound contemplation, may I not ask you is it not about time that there was another such resurgence of human spirit? Is there not a need in the world today that not merely one man and another yonder should bestir himself in the cause of Freedom and for the love of Liberty and for all things good and beautiful, but that all men of good will, small men as well as the greater men, should band themselves together to defend the things for which our forefathers fought and died, so this generation shall never be accused of carelessly throwing away the benefits conferred upon it by earlier and noble generations of men and women?

I claim, Mr. Chairman, that the Salvation Army was a Freedom Movement, that it was born, not obliquely, not in contradiction to the spirit of its day. I would argue that it was not a contradiction, but that it was complementary to and part of the spirit of the time, Religiously, of course, we were the stormiest wind that ever blew through the halls of Orthodoxy. We announced ourselves, I see as I look at some of our old propaganda leaflets, in this way: General William Booth, at the head of his Local will advance upon the City of Coventry :on Sunday next. The troops will encamp in Pool's Mill, and will open fire at 10.00 o'clock.

Well, that is the way General Booth announces an evangelistic campaign. It always sounds rather militant and military. We are military, in a way. We borrow a lot of things from the Military. We borrow their titles--Generals, Colonels, Captains, Lieutenants, and what not, and we have other military terminology, but don't run away with the idea that we borrow all the military language. We are quite discriminating about that. Some of it is not appropriate to our work, but we have the spirit of militancy.

And, speaking seriously, we want to be part of the Church Militant. Indeed, we are, and we believe that we shall be found to be part of the Church Triumphant.

The Salvation Army then was, and is a Freedom movement in the world, and I am bound to ask myself whether that is understood. Many people have strange notions about us. I wonder if from my more serious dissertation upon the theme of our movement I might turn to the lighter vein. Sometimes I am amused at what people think of the Salvation Army. I have been honoured twice since I came over to the western world in being taken for a hotel porter. I was very pleased about that. As a matter of fact, I played up to it. When I was in New York a man came into the vestibule, and asked for a shoe shine place. I said, "Downstairs, first to the right." He forgot to give me the appropriate tip. At another time a lady asked me to direct her to something on a certain floor of the hotel. And I have thought, well, it is fine to be mistaken for somebody else, to get away from the responsibility of one's position, and just to meet people on a different ground. Some people have strange notions about us. The little boy in the streets of London-do you know the London vernacular, Gentlemen, do you understand the London vernacular?-he will look up at me, General notwithstanding-he doesn't know anything about Generals-and he says, poking his wicked little finger at me, "Salvation Army, All gone balmy".

And I say, "You naughty little boy. People don't say that now about the Salvation Army", and he runs awav, a little abashed.

I was travelling in a train from London to Durham. A lovely city, Durham. In the train I said, "I don't think I will bother about getting a lunch on this train. These wartime luncheons are not much, they are not worth the money when you do get them. We will take a bite with us and have it in the compartment." A lot of people did that in England during wartime.

It came luncheon time and the passengers filed down the corridors and as they passed I saw two ladies look in, in that way some of them have of looking, without wishing it to be known they are looking. Then they came back and I said to my friend, "Definitely interested." The third time I swung the door back and the blonde lady, with a delightful Scottish accent said, "Excuse me, are you not taking lunch on the train today? Well, Sir, if you are not taking lunch, I wonder whether you would do a favour while I take lunch?"

I said, "What might it be?"

She said, "Would you mind taking care of my baby while I take lunch?"

I said, "Where is the baby?"

"In the next compartment."

It did just occur to me to wonder whether some other passengers couldn't have that honour, but I said, "Boy or girl?"

She said, "A boy."

I said, "Bring him in."

He woke up shortly afterward. That is another story. I spoke to him in the universal language, showed him all the beauties of the world, and the glories thereof, and all the wonders of the Salvation Army Commissioner's cap with the red band. I threw him on the right shoulder and then on the left and patted him all over.

When nearly an hour had gone I said to my travelling companion, "Has this train stopped anywhere? For goodness' sake, hold the child."

Off I went and I found the lady coming back, quite leisurely, and she said, "I knew you wouldn't mind taking care of my child for me."

Why should she say that? Why? Just because of the uniform I wore.

And when I got to Durham and told the Lord Bishop that story, he said, "Take it as a compliment. She gave you the care of the dearest thing she had and I don't think she would have let me keep that child, even though I do wear an apron."

That is just a slant on the funny side of life, the way people look at us. But how do we look at them? How do we look at the world? What do you think about the spiritual condition of the world today? I often wonder what business men think about us. We people, constantly engaged in spiritual work, often wonder how you assess us. I wonder if you are like the late Lord Dewar who said on one occasion, apropos of making mistakes, "When a plumber makes a mistake he charges you twice for it; when a Judge makes a mistake it becomes the law of the land; when a Doctor makes a mistake he buries it; but when a preacher makes a mistake, nobody knows the difference."

I often wonder whether that is the assessment of the preacher. Well, whatever you think about us, you are going to allow me to say a word about the spiritual side of things, because we, as Salvationists, say quite freely that we have no hope whatever for the true rehabilitation of mankind unless the spiritual element be regarded and when I say the spiritual element, I am not talking about any narrow interpretation of this or that particular creed. We shall never get all men to agree as to a Creed. But surely it ought to be possible to increase among men our confidence in the spiritual integration of human life. It is easier to build a city in mid-air titan it is to reconstruct Society and disregard the spiritual and moral element.

I am sometimes disappointed to find the reaction to that kind of thought was poor. When I was in France I had the honour to speak to President Herriot--a very fine gentleman, a rationalist. He listened to me with great respect, took notes on what I said, and then replied.

I said, "Mr. President, may I say to you that we look and pray for the complete rehabilitation and recovery of your country, but that we have little hone of it on a purely humanistic or materialistic basis. We suggest to you, Mr. President, that the spiritual must be taken into account."

When he replied he looked at me and said, "I agree with much of what you say, General, but when you come to the spiritual, you must leave me out."

Well, I am sad when that is said, because I am not there just pushing my own interpretation of creed. I am not there propagating one particular kind of religion. But I am there saying: Have something in which you believe, some spiritual content in human life. Do not regard man as merely an intelligent animal without any spiritual quality within him. Do not look upon him as all bruin and stomach. When you have catered for a man's mind and catered for his physical necessities, you have not yet fully satisfied man, because he is a spiritual being and he cannot really be content if his life is entirely taken up with material pursuits.

Twenty-one civilizations have already gone to pieces and there is no earthly reason why our present system of civilization should survive unless men and women truly see that the survival element in it has something to do with the spiritual, and that the truly integrated human life takes God into account.

What do I see of the spiritual condition of the world? I range my eye over the East as far as I can see. I haven't seen it all. As I range over the world I look at the Scandinavian Countries. I go to Scandinavia, and I might include Finland in that area, although, strictly speaking, there are other elements there as well, and as we range across from Finland, across to Sweden and Norway and Denmark, I have found, personally, a very strong and healthy spiritual reaction at the present time.

In Norway--your land, Sir, (addressing the Norwegian Consul. Major Omejer.) if you won't think me rude to just mention it-in Norway there was, I think, a very decided quickening of interest in spiritual things during the Occupation, and afterward we found the Salvation Army stronger than before.

Holland is another country of which I can speak with personal knowledge. My recent visits to Holland include one that I paid when the whole country was not yet liberated. I saw Rotterdam in its state of ruin and I saw its people emerging from its time of starvation and cruel, unspeakable hardship--and later I had the opportunity to visit other cities that had been liberated.

I shall never forget the moment when I stood in the square at Rotterdam and looked out from the city hall on that area where the world received one of its first blood-soaked lessons in the horrible culture of Nazism. I saw that area that had been wiped out in that cruel raid on Rotterdam when the doctrine of the Crooked Cross began to emerge before a startled world. And when I look upon Holland now I see her streets clear, her roads repaired, her bridges reconstructed, her flood waters drained away and her homes rehabilitated and her people making a fine fight.

Religiously, the Dutch people are perhaps one of the most encouraging peoples in the world to a man engaged, as I am, in this kind of work. There is a spiritual revival in Holland. There is no doubt about that. Her Majesty, Queen Wilhelmina, told me that herself, not long ago. Certainly I have seen it. Every place we have in Holland is full every time we open it.

Let me say a word before I sit down about our work in the East. In India we have not found it so terribly difficult. I hope to go there toward the end of the present year, and also to Ceylon. We have not suffered a lot in those areas that have been disturbed by movements of population. Many Salvationists go on without physical injury or attack. They have lost their homes and lost their jobs because of the movement of population, but they are remaining loyal. They are remaining loyal to their Christian teaching and loyal to our Salvationist standards.

We have been able, I am happy to say, to administer relief to the fleeing thousands crossing the area between Delhi and Lahore. There was a terrible trek of humanity either way, some going north, others pushing south. Thousands died on the road. Up and down that stretch we were able to go with our canteens, administering a little help as it was needed.

You maybe interested to know that in China we are executing what you might call a strategic withdrawal. We are coming out slowly from the north because we are persuaded we have to. The Communist brand of politics there, as indeed elsewhere, is absolutely antagonistic to the Christian faith, and particularly antagonistic to an organization like our own that is international. Although we never interfere in the internal politics of any country, yet the Communists won't believe it. So we have lost 27 out of 30 places. In Tokyo, for instance, tinder the Russians, and we have closed down in Manchuria and in parts of North China, and we are now pulling out our forces, our European people, not our Chinese--they will stay there--but our European people we are pulling out and sending them to Shanghai. We have managed to get another accommodation for Headquarters, and when the owner knew that it was for the Salvation Army, lie cut the rent by half. So there are one or two friends among the Chinese.

In Japan we are rehabilitating the Japanese offices, and we have an overseer or two at present working there. The report throughout the Far East is not entirely discouraging. We think we are baffled today and we shall win through tomorrow. Our people are not dispirited.

I would like to say in closing, Gentlemen, you have not before you today the leader of an international Army that is discouraged about the world situation. We don't believe in the imminence of another war, and we are doing our best to sow the ideas of peace and goodwill among, men. We are willing to serve on the level of human need, wherever we can, and to try to help to restore the spiritual standards and ideals of mankind.

And now, if I have said too much, forgive me. If I have said too little, make up for me, and if I have said just enough, congratulate me, for it doesn't often happen. (Applause.)