From Aldershot to Pretoria | Page 4

not the harlot's but the
Christ's.
=The Influence of Methodism.=

It was given to the Wesleyan Methodist Church to take the foremost
place in this new departure. Nor could it well be otherwise when the
history of that Church is borne in mind.
The soldiers and man-of-war's men of John Wesley's time came in
large numbers under the spell of his wonderful ministry. Converted or
not, they recognised in him a man; and his dauntless courage, his
invincible good humour, and his practical sympathy, won for him from
many of them a singular devotion, and from not a few a brave and
noble comradeship. Some came to be among his most successful
preachers, and in the army, and out of it, nobly aided him in his
victorious but arduous conflict with the evils of the time. From
Flanders to the Peninsula and Waterloo, and from Waterloo to the
Crimea and the Mutiny, the bright succession continued. Hence, when
the nation awoke to its duty to its defenders, Methodism abundantly
partook of the impulse, and threw itself heartily into every enterprise
which it inspired.
It was the first Church, as a Church, to commit itself to the policy of
Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes. It passed a resolution at its annual
Conference to the effect that these institutions were essential to any
successful work for the good of the Army and Royal Navy; and it has
continued, as the years have gone on, to increase the number of its
Homes, until at the present time it has thirty under its direction,
established in various parts of the empire, which it has provided at the
cost of many thousands of pounds, and which are its gift for the
common good. They are all held on such trusts as secure them for the
free and unreserved use of all the soldiers and sailors of the Queen,
without respect of religious denomination.
=The Work of the Anglican and other Churches.=
But Methodism is not alone, as a Church, in this patriotic and Christian
enterprise. The Established Church has entered upon it with an
ever-increasing earnestness, having come, mainly through the advocacy
of the Chaplain-General, Rev. Dr. Edgehill, to grasp the situation, and
to realize that for the men themselves and for the empire it is of
paramount importance that this provision should be made.

The reflex result of the efforts to establish Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes
has also been most beneficent. Speaking at the anniversary of one of
these Homes, not many years ago, Lord Methuen said that they had led
the way to the improvement which is now being effected in barracks,
where the old squalor has given place to comfort, and the temperance
refreshment room, the recreation room, and the library more than hold
their own against the canteen, and the cheerful and sufficient married
quarters have replaced the scandal of the curtained corner or the
miserable one-roomed hut.
Nor must the prayer-room now attached to every barracks in India be
forgotten, nor the Army Temperance Association, of which the Rev.
Gelson Gregson was the pioneer, and the illustrious Field-Marshal,
Lord Roberts, the founder. This association has now, thanks to the
sympathy of H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge when
Commander-in-Chief, and to the hearty and constant support of Lord
Wolseley, his illustrious successor, been established throughout the
whole British army.
It will thus be seen that the great awakening of now nearly fifty years
ago has borne good fruit, and that in proportion as the nation has risen
to a higher moral level, and consequently to a juster appreciation of its
duties, the soldier and the sailor have continued to share in its results.
=Christian Work at Aldershot.=
The camp at Aldershot embodies in itself all these changes; and is,
indeed, an epitome of the results of this awakening. Anything more
desolate than its aspect when it was first established it would be
impossible to imagine. Long 'lines' of huts, planted in a wilderness of
gorse, heather, and sand, dimly lit, and miserably appointed; 'women
that were sinners' prowling about the outskirts, and gradually taking
possession of much of the hastily-constructed town, with the usual
accompaniment of low public-houses and music-halls--such, to a great
extent, was Aldershot at the beginning.
[Illustration: 1. CHURCH OF ENGLAND SOLDIERS' HOME,
ALDERSHOT.]

[Illustration: 2. GROSVENOR ROAD SOLDIERS' HOME,
ALDERSHOT.]
Here then was a sphere for the work of the new awakening. And one by
one all the agencies mentioned above took up their duty, and entered
upon the enterprise. Mrs. and Miss Daniel founded the Soldiers'
Institute. The Wesleyans, guided by the Revs. Dr. Rule, Charles Prest, I.
Webster, and C.H. Kelly, built their first Home at the West End, where,
like another 'West End,' so much of vice had congregated.
Subsequently it was transferred to the site in Grosvenor