A quote from GSR’s Heathen England (1877)
“There is a prayer-meeting at seven in the morning, an open-air service from ten till eleven, indoor service eleven to twelve-thirty, open-air again from two to three, indoor service, generally an experience meeting, from to half-past four, after which a plain tea is provided, at cost price for those who prefer to keep together preparatory to the evening’s work. A prayer meeting is held after tea, concluded in time to get to the open-air stand at six o’clock. The indoor service at seven o’clock with the prayer-meeting, which forms its great practical feature, rarely concludes before ten o’clock. Such is an Army Sunday.
At large station, of course, a number of open-air services are held simultaneously on Sunday evenings, and in some cases at earlier hours also, in order to fully utilize all the available force, and occasionally the whole of the Sunday morning or afternoon is spent out of doors.
We need scarcely say that, in many cases, our people have to walk a considerable distance to each service, so that really an efficient Army Officer or member has, with the exception of an hour or two for meals, some fifteen hours on duty every Sabbath.”
How did we get from this to a suburban Corps where people commute in (few live in the neighbourhood) to meet for one indoor meeting with no prayer meeting not even an appeal?
Revival costs!
Yours under Christ and irrepressibly over the devil
Andrew
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