in this new departure. Nor could it well be otherwise when the history
of that Church is borne in mind.

The soldiers and man-of-war's men of John Wesley's time came in large
numbers under the spell of his wonderful ministry. Converted or not,
they recognised in him a man; and his dauntless courage, his invincible
good humour, and his practical sympathy, won for him from many of them a
singular devotion, and from not a few a brave and noble comradeship.
Some came to be among his most successful preachers, and in the army,
and out of it, nobly aided him in his victorious but arduous conflict
with the evils of the time. From Flanders to the Peninsula and Waterloo,
and from Waterloo to the Crimea and the Mutiny, the bright succession
continued. Hence, when the nation awoke to its duty to its defenders,
Methodism abundantly partook of the impulse, and threw itself heartily
into every enterprise which it inspired.

It was the first Church, as a Church, to commit itself to the policy of
Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes. It passed a resolution at its annual
Conference to the effect that these institutions were essential to any
successful work for the good of the Army and Royal Navy; and it has
continued, as the years have gone on, to increase the number of its
Homes, until at the present time it has thirty under its direction,
established in various parts of the empire, which it has provided at the
cost of many thousands of pounds, and which are its gift for the common
good. They are all held on such trusts as secure them for the free and
unreserved use of all the soldiers and sailors of the Queen, without
respect of religious denomination.


=The Work of the Anglican and other Churches.=