Next | 1. New York | 2. Virginia | 3. Ohio | 4. Kansas | 5. California | 6. Dakota | 7. Africa | 8. England Contact Ron | Foreword | Preface | Index | Tellout
8. Meeting Wilson Carlile in London 
Nervously I paced up and down in a little side room of our London Headquarters. "What will the founder really be like?" I asked myself. My anxiety faded away however as I grew more intrigued by the sparseness of this, his workplace. It looked more like an accountant's office with its blank walls, high stool and neat piles of paper. Suddenly, like a warrior, Wilson Carlile burst in. His trim grey uniform and carefully manicured appearance was quietly impressive. His alert fiery eyes greeted mine. How intent he was on talking about the Lord!
We had talked for over an hour before I realized that we had hardly mentioned the American Society at all! Sometime later, I realized why his eyes had sparkled so. I stumbled across a little booklet he had written called, "The baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire." This explained his extraordinary zeal for God. As I rose to leave, he grasped my hand and with a characteristic sparkle gave me a final command. "Keep one eye on the lord, and the other on the lost!" This first memorable encounter in England in 1938 fired me with a vision for a lifetime's ministry that blasted my own measly four-year contract into oblivion. "Was this the real reason the American Church Army had dispatched me to London?" I asked myself.
Photo with the Archbishop
The Founder's visit invigorated me. I then went to Lambeth Palace to meet Archbishop Lang, accompanied by Captain Frank Mountford and Sister Florence Sullivan of the American Society. Frank had a good measure of the Founder's spirit himself and asked to photograph the Archbishop. At first, Archbishop Lang brushed off the suggestion but when the determined Yorkshire man persisted he cautiously asked, "You're not going to use this for publicity, are you?" "Oh, you naughty man!" the Captain retorted. "To think we would do that!" Reluctantly, the Archbishop allowed him to take the photograph!
His Monument
Sometime after that official call at the picturesque Lambeth Palace, the Church Army took over the majestic St. Paul's Cathedral for its annual service of Thanksgiving. Three hundred choir members and nine hundred uniformed officers in the body of the cathedral sang with great gusto, and finally erupted into shouts of praise. What a magnificent memorial for Christ this was! When the builder of this enormous cathedral died, friends built a stone tablet at his resting place in the crypt. It read, "If you seek his monument, look around."
Zealous Officers
Looking around that day at all these zealous officers, I saw a monument not to the builder of the cathedral but to Wilson Carlile himself. He left a living army for Christ established during his own lifetime. The Chief never seemed to dwell on the army's achievements, but took every opportunity to appeal for new projects like the homes he wanted to build in the slums. After one such challenge at a rally in London, he astounded everyone by suddenly concluding, "Well, I must get to bed!" He then hurried off the platform!
With the Saints
Walking in Hyde Park all those years ago with another young English officer, I told him how excited I was. "Oh, yes," he replied, then added sadly, "but there is so much sin here!" We fell silent, but his words started me thinking. The American Church Army I recalled, had chosen John the Baptist as its Patron Saint for a very special reason. The heart of his message had been "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." How easy it is to forget that the reason the Lamb of God came was to bear our sins. History seemed to permeate the English countryside, no matter where I went. I knelt for communion at the fifteen hundred years old St. Martin's Church in Canterbury. Christians had worshiped here since St. Augustine's day. It reminded me of the saying, "To be numbered with all thy Saints." In those awe inspiring moments in that lovely place, I remembered loved ones far away whom I missed so much.
"You've gotta have a glory in the things you do, an alleluia chorus in the heart of you" 
