Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/105

Rh going a man not to set himself to the task of ascertaining the will of God towards us—if so be that there be a God, of which, as aforesaid, the Rhodesian calculation is that the chances are even, for or against. another chance in life through the medium of your organisation. We learnt that they were provided with a home when they left the prison, and obtained a fresh start in life. The practical view which Parliament took of that work was to vote a grant in their favour, and that vote has been continued ever since.

“I have been told by Mr. Bramwell Booth that you meet here at times with opposition. I have even been told by members of other organisations that they object to the details of your methods. I have been told that objection has been taken to the use of the bands, and military titles of your officers, but I do know this, that in my own Church there are many disputes as to details—(a laugh)—disputes as to the use of incense, the use of the confessional, the lighting and non-lighting of candles, and as to the wearing of embroidered garments—(laughter)—but, after all (and Mr. Rhodes waved his hand as to emphasise his contempt for these narrowminded objectors), let us put these details aside. (Loud applause.)

“What do we recognise? We recognise this, that they are not doing the work of the ordinary human being. Be he an officer of this organisation, a minister of my Church, or a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, they all have a higher object. They give their whole lives for the bettering of humanity. I can simply give you my word that, living in a remote portion of Her Majesty’s dominions, I gladly give my testimony to the good and practical work which you do in that part of the world that I have adopted as my home.” (Loud and continued applause.)

Mr. W. Bramwell Booth, writing in the War Cry, adds his testimony as follows:—

But it was during that day on the colony that I really got a glimpse of the true man. He was down with us at the General’s invitation. They had met before in South Africa, and Mr. Rhodes was evidently much taken with the General. I have heard it said that he was a silent, taciturn man, cold, stiff, and difficult to talk to. I saw nothing of the sort. Before we had been seated for five minutes in the railway carriage on the outward journey, he and the General were talking as hard as they could go about the poor and the miserable of the world, about South Africa and the native races, about the prospects of our work in Rhodesia—it was before this awful war—and the chances of our getting help to do something for the peoples on the Zambesi. Mr. Rhodes seemed to enter fully into the General’s ideas as to the value of the people to the country before all else, and the importance of caring for their moral and spiritual, as well as their material well-being. After a while, the General proposed prayer, and, kneeling down in the compartment, sought God’s blessing on our visitor. Mr. Rhodes bowed his head, and closed his eyes with much reverence; and when the