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Commissioner John Lawley
OF one thing I feel assured. All who read the following pages will agree that here is the story of a life which deserved to be written and to be preserved.
John Lawley was a striking product of The Salvation Army. Alike in his character, his experience, and his work, we see manifest the spirit, will, and aims of a true Salvationist. Few men of his time, either within our ranks or outside them, were permitted to see so much of the world, and few men -- very few -- were able to carry as he did, north and south, east and west, the influences of exalted and uplifting Truth and of a happy conquering Religion.
Those who read with attention this brief history will not fail to find many revelations of the spirit which has made The Army so attractive to the common people, and made the common people so powerful to attract. This man, destitute of learning, utterly unacquainted with either the ancient or modern literature of the world, indeed practically without the knowledge of any book but the Bible, was enabled to do something really effective for the illumination and education of multitudes of his fellows in one Nation or another. More important still, he did something to promote their friendship with God and their Salvation for this world and for the world to come.
The gifted writer of these pages has earned our gratitude by her frankness in dealing with some of the purely human traits, including flaws and failures, in her hero's character. We see Commissioner Lawley as a prophet of God, as a sweet singer in our Israel, as an Apostle of the penitent-form, but we see him also a man subject to like trials and passions with ourselves. After reading this story no one can honestly say, 'I could never rise to those levels of service and devotion because I am made of another kind of clay,' for happily we see that Lawley's was much the same clay as ours, and the wonders which the Divine Spirit, working in a consecrated soul, could accomplish for him may, we are encouraged to believe, be accomplished for us. And so being dead he yet speaketh.
Bramwell Booth. At Colombo, February 24, 1924.
John Lawley was a striking product of The Salvation Army. Alike in his character, his experience, and his work, we see manifest the spirit, will, and aims of a true Salvationist. Few men of his time, either within our ranks or outside them, were permitted to see so much of the world, and few men -- very few -- were able to carry as he did, north and south, east and west, the influences of exalted and uplifting Truth and of a happy conquering Religion.
Those who read with attention this brief history will not fail to find many revelations of the spirit which has made The Army so attractive to the common people, and made the common people so powerful to attract. This man, destitute of learning, utterly unacquainted with either the ancient or modern literature of the world, indeed practically without the knowledge of any book but the Bible, was enabled to do something really effective for the illumination and education of multitudes of his fellows in one Nation or another. More important still, he did something to promote their friendship with God and their Salvation for this world and for the world to come.
The gifted writer of these pages has earned our gratitude by her frankness in dealing with some of the purely human traits, including flaws and failures, in her hero's character. We see Commissioner Lawley as a prophet of God, as a sweet singer in our Israel, as an Apostle of the penitent-form, but we see him also a man subject to like trials and passions with ourselves. After reading this story no one can honestly say, 'I could never rise to those levels of service and devotion because I am made of another kind of clay,' for happily we see that Lawley's was much the same clay as ours, and the wonders which the Divine Spirit, working in a consecrated soul, could accomplish for him may, we are encouraged to believe, be accomplished for us. And so being dead he yet speaketh.
Bramwell Booth. At Colombo, February 24, 1924.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 24, 2010
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