Angel Adjutant of Twice Born Men | Page 6

from house to house.] as her sister and the captain
did. The captain consented somewhat reluctantly, but afterwards
doubted the wisdom of allowing this child of fifteen to go alone into all
manner of houses. Seeing Kate enter the home of a drunken sweep, she
stepped along to the door and listened. Kate was dealing with the man
as earnestly and directly, if not as skilfully, as she herself could have
done. She smiled and turned away. When Kate had visited her street of
houses, she returned to the quarters radiant. The sweep had promised to
come to the meetings, and, 'Just look what he gave me for tea,' she
announced triumphantly, and produced a currant loaf, a luxury in those
days.
A kind-hearted woman soldier, touched by Kate's delicate appearance,
felt that the child needed the air of the hills, and abundant nourishment,
and begged Lucy to allow her to take Kate to her home. Lucy, ever
alive to Kate's welfare, joyfully sent her off, and the child spent several
health-giving months in the country. To help her happily to occupy her
time, the good friend bought Kate a cheap concertina. By the hour she
would sit in the sunshine, mastering the keyboard, and soon she could
play simple Army tunes. How richly our Heavenly Father blesses the
gifts of love! All unconsciously, the good soldier was preparing the
Angel Adjutant of the future to win the hopeless and despairing of

many great cities for God.
Kate had an extraordinary love for music. Her ambition had once been
to make music her profession; but after her conversion she realized that
there were higher things to live for than a successful career, and lest
music should be a snare to her, she gave it up. This determination to
allow nothing to interfere with her entire devotion to the will and
service of God was a sure foundation for her spiritual life, but as she
grew in the knowledge of God she realized that every gift may be
consecrated to God's service. She worked at the piano again; now she
wrestled with the concertina, then tackled the banjo. Later they all
became useful aids to her in her work amongst the people.
Soon after Kate's return home from the country she wrote to Lucy
telling her privately that for the upkeep of the home it was necessary
that she should seek employment. This prospect caused Lucy much
anxiety. Her own experience of earning her living in so seemingly
irreproachable a business as photography returned to her with horror.
The manager of the firm for which she had worked had been a dissolute
man. Much of his conversation in the presence of the girl employees
was incomprehensible to Lucy, who did her work faithfully, was
pleasant and obliging, but lived her life largely apart from the others.
Her later experience in moving amongst the people had enlarged her
knowledge of life, and now she realized that, as a certain white flower
with smooth petals remains unspotted at the mouth of coal pits, so by
the innocency of her mind and the purity of her spirit, she had been
preserved from dangers worse than death. The thought of Kate in such
company was intolerable. With her usual motherliness towards her
sister, she replied, 'On no account must you take a situation without my
approval. Surely, there must be some godly place in London for you. I
am going to pray hard that the Lord, will direct you to it, and you must
wait till the right thing turns up.'
While Lucy was praying 'hard,' a representative of The Army Outfit
Department visited her corps. He carried uniforms and books, set up a
stall, and sold his goods before and after the meetings. Lucy knew little
about the Outfit Department, but she was inspired with an idea. People

must be needed to make the uniforms, she mused, and to sell the books,
keep the accounts, and write letters. Why should not Kate be employed
by The Army? She made inquiries of the salesman and was encouraged
to write to Headquarters. God had heard Lucy's prayer, and in a little
while her sister found herself installed as a clerk at the Outfit
Department at Clerkenwell.
Kate realized that a knowledge of shorthand would be to her advantage,
and, obtaining the necessary books, she began to study, rising in the
bright summer mornings at four o'clock and plodding her way along in
spare minutes until she attained a speed of the coveted 'hundred.'
So reliable was she found to be, that before long she received the title
of lieutenant. She was very happy. All her time was now occupied in
work for the Kingdom of Heaven; indirectly by day on correspondence
and accounts, at night at the corps,