Angel Adjutant of Twice Born Men | Page 8

as a single officer and then as
an officer's wife, her life beginning to fulfil its brimming promise,
radiant with happiness and victory, was promoted to Higher Service,
while Kate Lee was left to wage warfare on earth.
Brigadier Thomas continues:--
There were about twenty-four girls at the Garrison. By 9:30, the work
of the house was finished. From then till dinner hour, we had school,
studying the Bible, the F.O., [Footnote: Orders and Regulations for
Field Officers.] D.D., [Footnote: Doctrine of The Army.] and 'Why and
Wherefore'. [Footnote: A book explanatory of Salvation Army terms
and works.] After dinner the cadets set out for field training. These
exercises included house-to-house visitation, open-air meetings, and
'War Cry' selling in the streets and the saloons. In our open-air
meetings we were continually moved on by the police, but we aimed to
deliver some definite message at each stand, and so to make our

moving-on an occasion to reach more listeners.
Those were rough days. We had all our band instruments smashed and
the windows of our Garrison as well, and one man, madly infuriated
against us, heated a poker red hot and threw it into the hall amongst the
congregation. We lived in danger to limb and life, but had the
overshadowing presence of God with us.
Not every cadet who entered training had the grit to go through with it.
Once, during her afternoon home, Kate sprained her ankle, but
persuaded her mother to get a cab for her so that she might return to the
Garrison the same night. 'Why did you not remain at home to-night?' an
officer asked her, as Kate hopped into the Garrison. 'I was afraid you
would think I had run away,' she laughed, 'and I did not wish you to
have that worry.'
Brigadier Thomas tells us:--
In house-to-house visitation I would take the cadets in turn, speak with
the people on their door-steps, and, if possible, get into their houses and
point them to God. Kate gloried in this. She was a most successful
visitor.
Saloon 'raiding' was, perhaps, our most difficult work. We used 'The
War Cry' as a means of entrance and introduction. Going into the bar
we offered the paper for sale and suggested singing one of the songs it
contained. Conversation with the men and women followed, and before
leaving we would pray. Often we were thrown out of the bars, and
often, as we prayed, beer was dashed into our faces or over us, and on
reaching the Garrison we would need to wash our clothes to remove the
bar-room filth. 'Trench mud' we might have called it, had the war been
on in those days. But the trial hardest of all to endure was the horrible
talk of those dens of sin. Before leaving the Garrison we used to kneel
and ask the Lord to sanctify our ears, and surely that was not the least
of the prayers that He answered for us. Our souls were entirely
delivered from that paralysing horror that the hearing of such profanity
at first produced upon our minds, and we were kept in purity and
simplicity as though such vileness had never been heard.

The only duty which Kate Lee really shrank from was to take up a
collection for the maintenance of the Garrison. This was called the
'Bread and Butter Box'; and the Cadets took turns to stand at the hall
door after each meeting, hold the box and shake it. Kate heartily
disliked this, but it was part of her duty, and she did it with a smile that
brought success. In after years she became a wonderful woman, but in
those early days she held the secret that made her wonderful. She
walked with God. When the cadets had leisure time, the majority would
engage in innocent chat of one kind and another; but you would find
Kate a little withdrawn from the others, with her Bible. Yet there was
nothing censorious about her. She was quick with a smile and an
answer to any remark from the other cadets; but there she was, already
her life was hid with 'Christ in God.'
Captain Lucy rejoiced over her sister with trembling. She understood
Kate's willing, eager spirit, and the more she thought about her, the less
did she believe her to be strong enough to take the position of an officer
on field duty. So Lucy began to pray, and soon she felt inspired to act.
Writing to Miss Evangeline Booth, then the Field Commissioner in
London, she explained her fears for Kate, and asked if, for a year or
two, her sister might be stationed with her.
The Commander was quick to see the wisdom of the suggestion, and
after a few weeks Captain Lucy received orders