One
day while a Salvation Army meeting was in progress in Petrograd the
Staff-Captain, hearing a slight movement outside the meeting hall, looked up
and saw a shadow on the glass door, a shadow of a woman. One of the "Old
Believers," (Russian Orthodox) who had come from the Little Russians of
the Sooth, and who, notwithstanding the need of herself and children, had
declined to eat or drink with these who were not of her own faith. But the
Staff-Captain and her comrades had been gentle with her and helped her so far
as they were allowed and able.
The
woman's shadow clearly revealed that in her arms was her youngest child.
Presently the door was opened, and one of her other children peeked in. They were standing about the mother, afraid
at first to venture in. Little by little the inquisitive children opened the
door, and the woman was able to hear more and more of the singing and the
words - about the Savior of mankind.
Whilst
the meeting continued the children led the way in, and at last, but not
altogether unwillingly, the mother and her infant took her place in the
meeting.
We
shall always remember the bright look of hope that shone from the
Staff-Captain's eyes when she said: "That is how it will be with The
Salvation Army in Russia, I believe. Slowly it will win its way into the hearts
of this great and noble people and many will be brought to the Lord."
That
remark was uttered in our presence prior to the Staff-Captain's return to 'that
sorrow-stricken country, where she was fully prepared for all the hard work and
demands connected with pioneer work in the Russian capital and elsewhere, she
could not have had any idea of the tragic experiences ahead.
When
the opportunity came for her to' escape from the horrors of the revolution, she
elected to stay at her post with the faithful and devoted little band of
Salvationist pioneers of whom little has been heard during the long and bitter
months. Some of them, we know, succumbed to the privations and hardships of their
service, and shortly before writing came the sorrowful news that the Staff
-Captain had been suffering from blood -poisoning following an attack of
typhoid fever. We learned later of some improvement in the Staff-Captain's
condition - We are again uncertain concerning the devoted Staff-Captain and her
diminishing little band, whose record of Christ-like devotion in the cause of
the sufferers in the great political upheaval deserves to be written in letters
of gold.
We invite our readers to pray for Russia and for our dear comrades in
that famine-stricken land.
1917
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Sven Ljungholm
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