'A notorious sinner captured'

Such is the headline in The Salvation Army’s War Cry newspaper on 12 February 1921. The article reads: At Richmond Outpost in a recent Saturday night’s open-air meeting a man with ‘a reputation’ knelt at the organ and claimed Salvation. His conversation has made a great impression on the town folk, his consistent life being the daily topic of the town …

The Hawkesbury region must have had its fair share of such “sinners” because a similar story – a testimony from a man nicknamed “Rowdy” – is told in a 1902 edition of War Cry: I was in a hotel – the “Hawkesbury” it was – and somewhere between eight and nine at night, something seemed to tell me to go to the Army. The voice seemed to say, “Ford, old man, you’re not drinking; it’s too early to go home; go to the Army!’ and when I began to go along the street God seemed to tell me to go to the Army. There was nothing in hanging about the pub. I felt sure of that, so I went, and while there I became torn with conviction, and I felt that if I went out unsaved I should be damned, and I went out. As I was going home the devil said to me, ‘Rowdy, you know you can’t be saved; go and have a long beer; nobody knows you as a saved man’. I said, ‘That’s you, Mr Devil!’ and as I passed my old friends I never said I had been to the Army, but I went home and knelt at my bedside till five in the morning – until daybreak, in fact – crying, ‘I’m not right in my soul!’ Then light seemed to come, and all was changed. My bad habits and tempers left me, and so did all my bad desires.