According to Salvation Army Commissioner, Elijah Cadman, "Strange, beautiful things happen when God has His own way with a man or woman." All my life I have been interested in what are sometimes spoken of as bodily manifestations, though I have had a considerable degree of misgiving.

One of the earliest instances of this happening was in the course of a mission to Cardiff by Robert Aitken - not a Salvation Army mission. In the course of this mission some opposition and ridicule developed and Mr Aitken was specially attacked for certain remarks he had made on retribution. I was walking up the street one day when I saw Mr Aitken approaching. A number of men, on seeing him, flocked to the door of a public house and jeered at him as he passed, one of them offering him a pot of liquor. Mr Aitken turned sharply round on this poor fellow, and said to him in his deep voice, but with extreme tenderness, 'Oh, my lammie! How will you bear the fires of hell?'

At those words the man instantly dropped on the pavement. He fell like a piece of wood, apparently losing all consciousness for the moment. One or two people assisted him, Mr. Aitken looking on, and presently there on the side walk he came to himself and sought the mercy of God, afterwards, as I learned, becoming an earnest Christian man.

At other times, I saw the extraordinary breaking down of ungodly persons in the presence of God. I have seen men in our meetings, who were raving and blaspheming when the service began, suddenly broken down as though some physical power had laid them prostrate on the floor, and, after a time of silence, weeping and penitence, they were confessing their sins and imploring the mercy of God.

One case is recorded in my journal of January 16, 1878, of a meeting following our half-yearly Council of War at Whitechapel, when nearly all our evangelists were present.

"At night Corbridge led a Hallelujah Meeting till 10pm. Then we commenced an all-night of prayer. 250 were present until 1am, 200 or so after. A tremendous time. From the very first Jehovah was passing by, searching, softening and subduing every heart. The power of the Holy Ghost fell on Robinson [he was a North Country pitman of especially powerful build] and prostrated him. He nearly fainted twice. The brother of the Blandys [two evangelists of ours] entered into full liberty, and then he shouted, wept, clapped his hands, danced amid a scene of the most glorious and heavenly enthusiasm. Others, meanwhile, were lying prostrate on the floor, some of them groaning aloud for perfect deliverance ... It was a blessed night."

My own course, and the course adopted by most of our leaders in the presence of those influences, was, while never opposing or deprecating them, to take care to have the subjects of them immediately, or at any rate as soon as it was possible, removed from the public gathering. This rapid removal from the open meeting was a wise thing. It effectually prevented any vain or neurotic persons from drawing attention to themselves. But it is important to remember that we seldom had any cases that were not entirely sincere.

I must have heard hundreds of testimonies to the wonderful help received during or in consequequence of these visitations ... In a certain number of cases we had remarkable revelations occurring duing the period of unconsciousness. These were, however, relatively few in number, for though I heard of many who had been conscious of remarkable things, they did not, as a rule, seem anxious to say much about them. There was a kind of restraint upon them.

One of these cases was a woman called Bamford, an Officer from Nottingham. After a visitation of this kind, which came upon her during an 'All night of Prayer' in which she lay for nearly five hours unconscious, and during which her countenance was most evidently brightened, she gave a picture of something she had seen, relating chiefly to the felicity of the redeemed. It made a profound impression upon my own heart, and, I believe it afterwards helped her to win hundreds of souls for God, for she constantly referred to it in her work as an Officer.

Nor can I dwell at any length upon equally well authenticated instances of Divine healing. The Army has ever had in its ranks in various parts of the world a number of people unquestionably possessed of some kind of gift of healing. If extravagances have gathered around the subject in some quarters, they ought not to be permitted to obscure the central fact, which is that the healing of the sick by special immediate Divine interposition, in answer to prayer and faith, has undoubtedly occurred.