Soldiers' Friend
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
GENERAL'S DAUGHTER- SOLDIERS' FRIEND Mary Murray, O.B.E. By DORA V. GILLIARD departure , i of, the troops ; so uENERAL'S DAUGHTER- SoLDiERS' FRIEND MARY MURRAY, O.B.E. BY DORA V. GILLIARD First Impression .. .. April, jg43 Second Impression . September, 1343 SALVATIONIST PUBLISHING AND SUPPLIES, LTD., , II7-121 JuDD STREET, KINO'S CRO-SS, LONDON, W.C. i 1943 departure lowered the morale of the troops ; so without hesitation she gathered her children orNtRAL'S DAUGH around her and turned back to the fort. Her courage and cheerfulness brought new life to the SOLDIERS' FRIEND tired soldiers. Mary was born some years after these stirring ARY MURRAY was in the front line when events, but grew up in the cantonment, well used but a few weeks old, and an evacuee before to military life. In her teens she spent some time M the word was invented. One evening, at in Belgium, where her schooling was continued, an Indian hill station, she had been bathed and returning to India a tall, handsome girl. Her was lying in the arms of her ayah, when a soldier father decided that she must learn to ride. With burst into the room with the news that tribesmen some trepidation she mounted a horse, but the were surrounding the lonely post. He snatched animal bolted and her friends, watching help• up the baby, and with the ayah ran the child to a lessly, expected disaster. Mary, however, held on refuge in the hills. and regained control of the frightened animal. For a month wee Mary was hidden there, Soon she was riding with her father at the head tended and guarded by her two devoted servants, of his regiment on military parades. a British Tommy and an Indian nurse, first of At the age of seventeen Mary Murray first many hundreds of men and women ^vhose devo• awakened to spiritual things. One day in church, tion was to be won by this daughter of the unable to hear the sermon, she ' amused ' herself regiment! by reading the vows she had taken at her Con• For generations there had been warriors in her firmation. She might never have seen them family. Her mother was a Malcolm ; her father before ! Startled at the bonds she appeared to became General Sir John Murray, K.C.B. When, have embraced, she walked out of the building. during the Indian Mutiny, a group of Indians The following day the chaplain called to ask came to Sir John with their picks and spades and whether she had been taken ill, as she had left the said, ' If you will lead us, we will fight for the church so abruptly. ' No ! ' she replied, handing British,' he formed what was known for some him her prayer book. ' I was reading this, and as years as ' Murray's Jhat Horse ' and later became I have no intention of giving up the world and a well-known Bengal regiment. A great-uncle, who all its pomps and vanities, I have made up my was Admiral of the Fleet, is buried in St. Paul's mind to act no more lies. Some day, if I find that Cathedral, and one forebear was appointed there is a personal God, not merely a First Cause, Napoleon's guardian at St. Helena. I will serve Him. Until then, I've finished with Such was Mary Murray's heritage ! church!' During those days of the Mutiny, when grave In vain the chaplain tried to persuade her. For and imminent danger threatened one fort, all eight years she refused to attend a church service women and children were ordered to evacuate. and checked every desire to pray ; to pray, she As they left, Mary's mother noticed that their felt, would be ' dishonest and superstitious.' 2 man you have heard, and he is taken on again. Mary Murray's favourite hobby was painting. He was a bad lot, but he has done well since he Later in life, when burdened with much respon• joined The Salvation Army.' sibility, she found relaxation with her brush and ' But what has done it? ' Mary persisted. easel. She was, too, a most popular member of ' I'm sorry I can't help you there, madam,' the her fashionable circle, a graceful dancer who had manager replied. ' I don't know.' many admirers. Two of these, when she returned ' But we ought to find out,' cried the girl, ' for a to England, travelled on the same ship, so anxious power like that would alter the whole world ! ' were they to win her affections. Both were disap• Mary did not find out that day. Her life, in pointed ! Perhaps already in those early days, fact, seemed to go on much as usual. Shopping, though a rebel against religion, she had some dancing, theatres and her art filled her days. But intuition that a great work lay ahead of her. all the time she was pondering over the power Soon after Mary's arrival in England she came that had changed the drunkard. across a group of people at a street corner, listen• While walking home one day, she prayed : ing to a man who was telling how he had been a ' God, if You are real, do for me what You have slave to alcohol, having sold his children's shoes done for that man.' No heavenly vision came to and the blankets from their beds to get more drink. her, but from that hour she knew the power of ' But now I have given my heart to God,' he God to be a living force in her life. Mary Murray added, ' my children are well clothed and I have had found in Jesus Christ all that her young heart a home of my own.' craved—a Saviour, a Guide, a Counsellor, and a Mary Murray was galvanized into action. She Friend. pushed through the crowd to ask the astonished Two weeks later she went to her first Salvation man what was his name and where he worked. Army Meeting. She was interested but not im• The following day she appeared in the office of pressed. At the close the Captain asked her a cement works, where a shrewd-looking business whether she was converted. man courteously asked what he could do for her. ' Yes,' was the answer. A pretty young lady was an unusual caller. More ' Then why didn't you give your testimony? '* unusual was her request : asked the Captain. ' I am anxious to ask you about a man who is ' Oh, no! I couldn't do that,' Mary replied in making extraordinary statements at the street- dismay. corners. He says that he was a drunkard who used All the rest of the day she thought over the to sell the shoes from his children's feet and the Captain's words, but she felt that she would blankets from their beds to buy drink, and that rather lose all the peace of heart she had found he was dismissed by you. Now, he says, he is than speak in public. saved and has a good home, and you have taken During the night she awoke and it seemed to him on again. Is this true? ' her as if God had hidden Himself from her. When ' Well—ahem—madam,' replied the proprietor, uncomfortably, ' I don't usually discuss the afTairs * Salvationists frequently speak in Meetings of their con• version and their religious experiences. of my employees. But actually I did dismiss the 5 I she rose in the morning, she put her very new ' I'm sure I don't know,' she replied. ' I want Bible away and began again a life of gaiety, accept• to work, that's all.' ing many invitations from her old friends. A sigh ' Well, you had better buy one of these,' he of relief went round the family. said, affectionately patting a concertina. 'They But a week later, when friends were dining at won't take you unless you can play something! ' her home, to\vards the close of the meal Mary Mary Murray's heart sank, and when she was suddenly got up and, muttering some excuse, told she must see Mrs. Bramwell Booth,"" she dashed to her room, to seize an evening cloak and sadly wondered \vhether this was because she had hurry out to find The Salvation Army. no concertina ! As she entered the Hall, she was struck by the Mrs. Booth, during the interview, expressed her sordid appearance of the building, the badly fear that Mary was too delicate for the work. painted walls, the battered seats. But a woman ' But come on trial,' she said. was speaking of what God had done for her, and The applicant promised to start on the following as soon as she sat down Mary Murray was on Monday. her feet. All eyes gazed at her expensive cloak and evening dress, and her bare head. But she was ' Well, have you been accepted this time? ' her beyond caring, and spoke of the work of God in her people asked when she returned home. heart. As soon as she was finished she sped out of ' No,' she replied reluctantly. ' I am to go up on the Hall. approval.' Whereupon a chorus broke out : ' What utter folly ! What madness to go, when Slowly Mary began to reahze that it was God's you are not even \\anted ! ' will that she should become a Salvationist. Her On the Monday morning, in heavy rain, Mary natural feelings strove against the idea ; she dreaded the publicity, and the attitude of her Murray set out for Hackney.