After commanding three corps, giving to the people of each town her best service, a sharp attack of pneumonia carried Captain Lee away from corps work, and for a time it seemed that a const.i.tutional bronchial weakness, now aggravated, would bring her regular public work to an early termination.
A term in the Naval and Military Department at Headquarters in London introduced Kate to a new sphere of Army service. Hitherto, her vision of the Salvation battlefield had been limited to the particular corps at which she soldiered or commanded, but contact with men who went to the ends of the earth and found The Army at almost every port, blessing them in soul and body, lifted her horizon until it became world-wide. Kate Lee began to realize the greatness of the organization to which she belonged.
A breakdown in the Naval and Military Home at Chatham placed Captain Kate in charge of that inst.i.tution, with full responsibility for the catering, house-keeping, and meetings, and the visitation of ships in the harbour.
A sister Salvationist writes:--
When first I saw her at the Naval and Military Home, I was impressed by her innocence, youth, and fragile appearance. For such a girl to bear the responsibility of so large an inst.i.tution, was a marvel in my eyes. With one or two other comrades I used to accompany her to the ships in the Medway, to sing to the men. When a good crowd had gathered on the deck, Captain Kate would speak to them and invite them to come to The Army Home when they were ash.o.r.e. The Home was packed out. She conducted bright meetings, and many soldiers and sailors were converted. Despite her youth, the men looked to her as an elder sister; gave into her keeping their bank-books and money, and sought her advice in their difficulties. So greatly did the Home succeed during the captain"s stay, that she had the pleasure of seeking for a site on which now stands the Home which does such excellent service in Chatham to-day.
With health fully restored, the call of the field was insistent, and Captain Lee begged to be allowed to take a corps again. She was appointed to Whitstable, Kent, and for the next fourteen years she poured out her life as a ceaseless offering for the souls of the people in town and city, in various parts of the United Kingdom.
V
A CORPS COMMANDER
A casual view of the work of a Salvation Army field officer might suggest that for such a position few qualities other than enthusiasm and some ability for public speaking are necessary. Such an idea is as wide of the mark as may be.
A field officer of The Army has the honour to be chosen for service similar to that William Booth undertook when he first turned to the unchurched ma.s.ses of the East End of London. To him is committed the spiritual responsibility for the town or part of the town in which he is stationed. He is there to preach in the streets to the people who will not go to places of worship, and by every lawful means to compel them to his hall for help at closer range. He is there to visit the sick, to seek out the drunkard, to visit the police court, to encourage, and lift, and lift again the weak and stumbling. He is there to answer letters from anxious parents, to hunt up straying sons and daughters, to rebuke sin; in outbreaks of infectious disease and catastrophies to administer comfort and help to the sorrowing and bereaved; to instruct the children; to shepherd and inspire the band of Salvationists already attached to his corps; to raise money for the furtherance of The Army work. Indeed, nothing which affects the well-being of the populace lies outside the sphere of the officer of The Salvation Army.
All corps are not the same. There is the city corps, with its hundreds of soldiers; an efficient bra.s.s band and songster brigade, home league, young people"s work, and various other departments. The business man finds that the hustle, the high rent, floating population and the keen compet.i.tion of the city necessitates extraordinary care and daring to ensure success. The same applies to our officers in charge of city corps.
There is the sea-side corps, with its thousands of visitors and "trippers" whom The Army officer seeks to reach and bless. There is the suburban corps, with its settled residential population. There are corps in industrial centres with features peculiar to them; and the village corps, where long distances are covered by the officers in their efforts to reach the scattered population. Each corps presents to the field officer special problems as well as special opportunities.
To be a field officer as near perfection as possible, was the ambition of Kate Lee"s life. In this calling she believed she could best serve G.o.d and win souls from sin to righteousness. She began as a lieutenant, receiving twelve shillings per week and her furnished quarters, and when an adjutant at the height of her success, not only as a soul-winner, but as an organizer and manager of unusual ability, who in commercial or civil life could have commanded a large salary, she received a guinea (about $5.00 at normal exchange) a week and her quarters. [Footnote: These figures relate to the pre-war scale of allowances.] Kate Lee laid up her treasure in heaven.
As a Corps-Commander, she saw service in every kind of corps. Beginning amongst the villages, with tiny hall and a handful of people to care for, by sheer merit, she rose to command the most important corps in the British Territory.
She laid good foundation for a successful career. For the direction of field officers, The Army Founder wrote a book of Orders and Regulations known in The Army as "The F.O." It is a volume of some six hundred pages packed from cover to cover with matter as interesting as it is logical and practical. Every phase of the officer"s life and service is therein dealt with. An officer might be located on Easter Island, separated from all oversight, and if he consulted his "F.O.," and commanded his corps according to its advice and directions, he would surely build The Salvation Army in miniature.
So entirely had Kate Lee a.s.similated William Booth"s spirit and adopted his methods in relation to her work, that she might well have been his own daughter. She lived the "F.O." in relation to her own soul, her lieutenant, her soldiers, every section of her corps; to the backsliders, to the great ma.s.ses of the unG.o.dly, to the civic authorities, to the churches, to her comrades and superior officers. And she succeeded wonderfully.
Adjutant Lee set to work in a methodical, practical way. On taking charge of a corps, she first consulted "The Soldiers" Roll" in order to ascertain the size and condition of her charge as a fighting force; next she examined the cashbooks in order to find out her financial responsibilities. Lastly she took steps to gain an accurate idea of the condition of the town, morally and spiritually.
Says the treasurer of one of her corps:--
Soon after she arrived here she gave me a list of questions, including, "How many saloons in the town? How many houses of ill fame? How many places of worship? What proportion of people go to church? When she compared these figures with the population she was able to estimate the grip of evil on the town, and the efforts made by the people of G.o.d to combat it. She reckoned all the G.o.dless people of the town were her concern, and laid her plans accordingly. She called upon the police, the civic authorities, and the ministers, intimating that she was there for the good of the city, and asked to be allowed to co-operate with them. It was not long before the governing people realized that an uncommon force for righteousness had come among them.
Says another of her local officers, "Our city had never been so conscious of the presence of The Salvation Army as a regenerating force in its midst, as during her stay."
Her ministering spirit played like a flame upon every section of the corps until the whole organization pulsated with life. Every evening of the week the citadel was ablaze with light and humming with activity, the soldiers unwilling to stay away one night for fear of missing a good thing.
In order to promote a spirit of prayer in a corps, the Adjutant"s plan was to form a prayer league. She chose the most spiritual amongst her soldiers and adherents, and pledged them to spend a portion of each day in prayer for an outpouring of the Spirit of G.o.d upon the corps and town.
These comrades became a great strength in the battles for souls which developed. At some of her corps a few of these comrades remained in a room praying during the whole of the service on Sunday night; and when the prayer meeting began, they quietly made their way to either side of the penitent-form; their earnest pleading for the unsaved having much to do with the victories gained. Others were formed into a "Fishing Brigade." [Footnote: Salvationists selected to speak personally with those likely to be brought to decision for Christ.] These were posted about the hall, and, at a given signal in the prayer meeting, moved amongst the unsaved and urged them to decision.
Soldier-making was Adjutant Lee"s object. A full penitent-form meant little to her unless the kneeling penitents became fighters for G.o.d. To this end she visited, and "nursed" and trained and commanded--and with good results. But while she had a keen eye for the new recruit, she mourned and battled for the deserters. She had taken to her heart the Old General"s counsel on this score, part of which reads:--
The Field Officer must watch against heart backsliding. When soldiers drop off from knee-drill; when they are not found in the ranks in bad weather; when they no longer remain to the prayer meetings; when they come only now and then to the week-night services; and when they cease to testify as frequently, heartily, and definitely as in former days, the F.O. should conclude there is something wrong; decay has commenced. He should deal with such at once, and give them no rest.
No officer should refuse to seek the restoration of a backslider because of the disgrace he has brought upon the corps by his falling into old ways; old habits of drunkenness or uncleanness, fighting or thieving, or any other vulgar form of sin. The F.O. should consider the shame of the man himself, if he is permanently left to rot in the ditch of corruption, and the sorrows that burden the heart of His Master, for one for whom He has given His precious Blood.
Heart backsliders or open backsliders were all the same to her--deserters to be followed down and brought back to loyal service. One tells that he had been away from the fight for six years. She heard of him by a casual remark one comrade made to another, got his address and surprised his home by a visit.
"After that," says this comrade, "she slipped into our house for a few minutes every day until she won us back to G.o.d and The Army. Sometimes she might not even sit down; just kneel a moment and pray with us. At other times she merely put her head round the door and smiled; said, "G.o.d bless you," and was gone. Her loving interest broke us down, and we hungered to get back into the fight."
Another comrade had fought so successful a fight that the devil thought it worth while to centre his heavy guns upon him; he was so smashed spiritually that he seemed past mending. But not to Kate Lee"s faith. She prayed over him, believed for him, refused to give up his soul as lost until at length he again began to hope in G.o.d for deliverance. He was fully restored and became a devoted bandmaster.
Some backsliders who withstood her pleadings in life were brought home by her death. "The last time I saw her," said an old man with broken voice, "she held an open-air service in our street, came into my house, wept over me and prayed for me. I used to serve under her. When she died----."
He is fighting the good fight now as in his best days.
The bandsmen of The Army are a remarkable body of men. They are all converted, many from lives of desperate sin. Others have grown up in The Army; almost all have learned what they know of music in the ranks.
Twenty years ago, the latter remark might have been received with a smile. Not so to-day, for while the object of Salvation Army music is the same as when it was first admitted as an auxiliary in our efforts to attract the unsaved, it has pa.s.sed from the crudeness of its beginnings to a high standard of excellence. The bands of The Salvation Army now rank amongst the best in the world, and are an appreciated inst.i.tution in most towns and villages. The bandsmen, who find their own uniforms and receive neither fee nor reward for their services, devote much of their leisure to Salvation Army service. They carry the message of salvation by music and song into city streets and slums, into the lanes of the country; to hospitals and asylums, and, besides, lead the singing in The Army citadels.
As might be expected amongst a body of clean-living, energetic men, there are occasions when matters of contention arise which require careful handling. More than once Kate Lee "scented" trouble in her bands and resorted to a night of prayer, as a preparation for dealing with the problem. She would come from her little sanctuary, clothed with such meekness, tact, and strength that never once did she fail to stem the difficulty and to hold the men to the highest ideals of Salvationism.
If a whole band were affected, she saw the men one by one before she met them together. At one corps where the inclination to worldly amus.e.m.e.nt threatened serious loss, the Adjutant held a meeting which lasted until midnight. Lovingly, faithfully, firmly, she reminded the men of the high purposes of The Salvation Army, the condition of the world in relation to G.o.d, the spiritual danger of mixing with the unG.o.dly in their amus.e.m.e.nt.
Quietly, the men viewed the matter in the light of eternity and made their choice. It was according to the Adjutant"s standards. Not, as she was careful to explain, because they were hers as the commanding officer, but because they were standards of The Army, based upon the changeless principles of the Kingdom that is not of this world. She found, as many another servant of G.o.d has found, that, "Strongly-formed purposes can be changed and men"s hearts influenced by prayer alone, and that surrenders made and principles accepted at such a time make for the permanent change of character."
The wives of Salvation Army bandsmen make their sacrifices. Sunday is seldom a rest-day for Salvationists. Bandsmen are required to be present at six engagements, three out-door and three in. Their wives see to the children and the meals and send their husbands to their G.o.d-given labours. They were not forgotten by the Adjutant. She took a delight in preparing a pretty tea for them at her quarters, and inviting them to a little party all of their own. Serving them herself, she spent an evening of music and song amongst them, speaking words in appreciation and grat.i.tude of their unselfish service, and making them feel that their part in the War was well worth while.
There are few rich people in The Salvation Army. Soldiers and adherents are trained to give according to their ability towards the upkeep of their respective corps; but when the best that may be is done in this direction, there is, in most cases, a considerable deficit remaining which must be met by public contribution.
As an example of the financial responsibilities which Kate Lee successfully discharged, the Brighton Congress Hall might be taken. Here the expenses for the year ran into some four thousand dollars. The Adjutant desired to give all her time to "pulling sinners out of the fire." But there was the rent; the upkeep of a great hall and her quarters, fire and lighting, printing, advertising, in addition to the modest allowance for herself and her two lieutenants. To cope with such problems, Kate Lee brought the qualities of prayer and plan. "A model of method," is how her treasurer here describes her. "She ascertained the full extent of her liabilities, and probable income, and laid plans to meet the obligations with the least possible hindrance to spiritual effort."
She never allowed lack of money to hinder her in a forward movement.
Going to the charge of another large corps, she had decided upon an immediate campaign for souls. But awaiting her was a debt of five hundred dollars! However, in her Welcome meeting, she committed herself to the spiritual campaign, and enlisted the soldiers" interest. The following morning she received a letter of welcome from her Divisional Commander, who incidentally informed her that the Division was financially in rather difficult circ.u.mstances, and that he was looking to her to a.s.sist him by reducing the debt on the corps as soon as possible. She was seized with the temptation, for a moment, to attack and dispose of the debt at once, but convinced that her first decision to be of G.o.d, she committed the money matter to Him, and began to organize the corps for a revival.
The month"s effort was to include house-to-house visitation, the "bombardment" of saloons, and a Sunday Salvation campaign in a theatre.
Her faith was tried; money was difficult to raise, and as she went forward with her plans for soul-winning her liabilities increased. "The theatre will be a fizzle, and you will have a big deficit there,"
discouraged the Tempter. But Kate would not be moved from her purpose.
The special Sunday proved to be a day of victory. At night, two notorious characters knelt at the penitent-form in addition to a number of promising young people. The expenses were met, and the soldiers enthused.
The following morning, as the Adjutant was seeing a visitor off at the railway station, a gentleman accosted her cheerfully, "Adjutant, I have some encouraging news for you," he said. "A friend of mine was present at the theatre last night, and he was so impressed with what he saw and heard that he intends to give you two hundred and fifty dollars!" "Oh, praise the Lord!" responded the Adjutant. When she met her soldiers with the news, and showed them how G.o.d was honouring faith and obedience, they united forthwith to wipe out the debt. In came promises of different amounts. Ten days later the debt had vanished and a glorious work of soul-saving went forward.
Kate Lee"s lieutenants have lively memories of her methods and enthusiasm in conducting the annual Self-Denial Appeals. Says one:--
The first "S.-D." I was with her, she said to me one morning, "Now, dear, I must get this all planned out and see my target on paper before I meet the corps. I"m going upstairs, and I don"t want to see anyone or be disturbed for anything." Dinner time came, and I wondered what to do, and thought I had better take her dinner to her. When I appeared at her door with the tray, she laughed heartily with and at me, carried the tray down and we had dinner together.
After the scheme was launched she kept in touch with the whole corps, encouraging and holding each up to his or her share in the effort, until it finished successfully.
She had settled ideas about personal self-denial. Another of her lieutenants tells that, during one Self-Denial week, a friend, thinking that the officers might be depriving themselves of nourishing food, left a basket packed with fresh goodies on the doorstep. The Adjutant smiled, sold the goods and the basket, and put the money to the fund.
The soldiers who fought under Kate Lee revere her memory. Volumes of tributes to their love and appreciation of her spirit, her ability and service, could be given.
"What I thought she was when she came to us, I was sure she was when she left." A testimony from a village comrade all unconscious probably of its full significance!