Heckmondwicke - Salvation Army

I arrived here on Tuesday and had a glorious reception. The soldiers were waiting to commence the meeting and at the close five came weeping their way to the Master's feet. On Wednesday, five more came out and on Saturday Captain Shapland arrive from London and the “Hull Queen” and “Hallelujah Polly” helped us to roll the old chariot along. We had a good “far away” Free and Easy and at the close three sought the pardon of their sins. On Sunday we had some of the best marches this Corps has seen and good meetings all through the day. Finished up with 11 precious souls in the Fountain making a total of 30 for the week. Our Holiness meetings are grand. Last Friday 26 laid all on the altar. With Holiness our motto we are bound to go along.

From, 'The War Cry', December 1881.

Hard fighting, troops advancing, enemy routed, large Buildings crowded, many prisoners captured.

It was just eight o'clock on Monday night, a dark, rainy, and miserable night, when I entered the great Salvation Army Barracks at Heckmondwike, a building whose immense size and terrific height, the roof being formed by one great arch, reminded one more of a railway station than a place of worship.

It was the last night in the old year, and some seven or eight hundred people had met together to spend it with Jesus. I looked at them, and it would be hard work to express what I felt, They were there! a fact that no one can dispute. Who? Why the same men who last Watch-night gambled, or swore, or cursed, or drank, or fought the old year out and the new year in. Those same men my good reader, were there that night to spend four hours with Jesus, and to pray, believe, aud consecrate themselves more wholly than ever to the Lord and His service. *Well, but do they stand?" you say. Stop a bit, my friend, before you make foolish remarks, just you look at them as they were last Watch-night and this!

Slowly and believingly floated up the last verse of that grand old hymn into the vast space of that great Hall, in which 800 people seemed but a handful. 

*Were the whole reaim of nature mine,

that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.”

We all knelt down and sang that verse again straight to the Lord, and He heard and came very near. But how can I describe what followed. From that hour God began to speak to every soul; people's faces began to tell us that there was something going on within – a desperate struggle here with a fearful temper, there with a dreadful habit, or cherished idol. We knew they would have to come, or go away miserable, And soon after the pool was opened, they did come, until over one hundred and ten had laid themselves, I trust, wholly, upon the altar, to be used as God would have them. It was beautiful and touching to see them, one by one, with a mighty effort renounce their idols and then join in the grand strain with heart and soul –

“Jesus for me”.

We continued to pray until the last few moments of the old year had passed, and then as the first moments of the new one dawned upon us, the chorus rang out clear and distinct-

*Iam clinging to the Cross."

and we went home, thanking God for the new year's gifts He had given us,

Sunday,

New Year's Day was spent by the Soldiers of the Heckmondwike Corps in a way that will not soon be forgotten, From the opening hymn in the morning to the sounding of the doxology at night, God was manifestly present.

The most remarkable meeting, and the one of the day was the afternoon. Heckmondwike, I will give my readers to understand, is a small town of between nine and ten thousand inhabitants, surrounded by one or two small villages, and when I add to this that on Sunday afternoon, so far as the weather was concerned, there were three thousand people in that last place (not only for one special occasion, but every Sunday), they will be able to form some idea of the hold The Salvation Army has in the town. We announced it to be a New Year’s Love Feast and the name was in no way too good, for truly we feasted that afternoon on the wonderful love of our wonderful King…

…Three thousand five hundred souls had crowded into the Barracks by half-past six in the evening and the sight was really wonderful. What a platform of saints rising tier above tier, and what prayer and faith and power were brought into action that night. Capt. Hardy and Mrs Somerton sang and spoke with great power, and four souls stepped into the fountain, but the fruit of that meeting we were all agreed, is yet to come.

So ended some of the happiest hours I have had the privilege to spend in the Salvation Army.

From, "The War Cry," page 2, 12th January 1882.

I do not know where the meetings were held.