Jesus Life 87 - Jesus Army

HISTORY
MAKERS
Think Victorian women were all
stiffness and starch? Think again.
Trevor Saxby writes about the
Hallelujah lasses, “shock troops of
the early Salvation Army”.
THE GREAT question in most churches
which are at all earnest in their work is how
to reach the masses.”
This isn’t some present-day church growth
article; it comes from an English newspaper,
The Northern Daily Express, and was written
in March 1879, as part of a report on early
Salvation Army meetings in Gateshead in the
Northeast of England.
The audience at these meetings was comprised
of “the section of the community that
lies outside the usual compass of religious life,”
writes the Victorian journalist. More unusual
still, “the work which experienced ministers
and the ordinary agencies of churches had
failed in, has been attempted by a few young
women.”
These young women were the “Hallelujah
lasses”, the shocktroops of the early Salvation
Army.
“Some six or eight weeks ago, about half-adozen
young women made a raid under the
banner of a Gospel mission among the lowest
classes in the town,” reported the journalist,
“and they have succeeded in the most remarkable
manner.”
These women, mostly in their twenties, hired
music halls for their meetings. Despite sneers
from all sides, within a short time these places
were filled to overflowing for three hours, and
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hundreds were unable to gain admission.
“They have got such a hold upon the masses
as to tame some of the worst of the characters,”
continues the reporter. “A thorough transformation
has been effected in the lives of some of
the most thoughtless, depraved and criminal.”
What can have enabled these Salvation Army
girls to achieve such breakthroughs? In part, it
comes down to the “first love” and fire of a new
movement in the flower of its vigour.
Yet we must see in action here the twin elements
of “blood and fire” that were to become
the Army’s motto. A total conviction of the
power of Jesus’ redeeming blood to save even
“the worst”, together with the freshness of the
Holy Spirit’s filling (for which Salvationists
spent whole nights in prayer) kept them pressing
into territory where other feared to go.
And they expected results.
They also used the power of personal
testimony. The journalist tells of the roughest
and most criminal of people glorifying
God for their soul’s salvation. And the Army
used the passion of youth: “One youth, who
Continued overleaf
s
s
Despite sneers from
all sides, within a
short time these
places were filled to
overflowing
Jesus Life 9