The Army in the Slums

From Sawiki

Into the slums the Army comes,
Marching the streets with throbbing drums;
Degraded streets and squalid ways,
Poverty haunting every phase;
Alleys and courts in gloom bedight
Ring with the music, bursting bright.
Slatternly elders, impish youth,
Start at the sudden gospel truth
Flung with a lavish loving zeal,
Aided by music's sweet appeal.
Comes now the band, with glad intent,
Into the slum's own element;
Comes, not its talents to display,
Nor for the critics' ears to play;
Plaudits of crowds are soon forgot,
Comforting praise of man is not
Coveted here, where sins infest
Heart and home and human breast.
An aim of greater urgency
Gives music's note a potency -
To advertise the Saviour's name
In city streets of doubtful fame:
With beating drums the Army comes -
God's music purifies the slums.