Looking Back: True Christian Manliness

From November 1974

Whither The Brigade?

The earl of Elgin, President of the Boy’s Brigade, reminds us of the movement’s chief objective.

The sound of bugle or bagpipes and the beat of the drum quickening today’s rumbling street noise may well herald a Boy’s Brigade company in the very same way as occurred ninety years ago, and, since the Boy’s Brigade has been in action for ninety years, some might feel that any freshness of appeal at this time in this century must have evaporated.

But Sir William Smith in founding the movement, wrote quite a lengthy Object and in that there lie the words,

“…. all that tends to a true Christian manliness”. All that tends, not just yesterday and today, but tomorrow also. It was the Founder’s intention that these words were not only to remind himself, but also to engage other men and women to tend the growing manliness of boys. From the start the Object was so directed.

Who, now, are we to say to boys what these things mean? The vigour of any organisation is in the continuous service of its adult leaders. It is my experience that opportunity exists for a wide range of service embracing the officer, man or woman, who first opens and last closes the door of the place of meeting. In such a person faithfulness is the quality which attracts most.

At the other end of the range are officers whose ability to lead and inspire must cover most athletic pursuits and really be as “at home” in a canoe as in a discussion over a passage of Scripture. The Boys Brigade, with its instructors, needs the whole range – all that tends.

CHURCH WORK

Work and objectives in most Boys’ Brigade companies today may have a name, title and description which seem barely to have altered in half a century. But there the similarity stops, and the standards needed for achievement are now much harder.

The obvious discipline needed for success in the personal achievements a oy earns and in the corporate well-being of his company, leads again naturally into an understanding share of his Church work. A sense of this is shown in the ever increasing practical help given to the Church’s overseas needs – not least those of the Church Of Scotland. In money terms, this is, in the past five years, at least £250,000, and this again mainly from the Junior Section of the movement. The element of self help engendered is also quite dramatic, running at a figure of close on £200,000 a year collected in Boys’ Brigade Week. The Boys Brigade finances 70% of its administration costs from its own efforts.

GREAT FUN

While the music of the company band may suggest that the discipline of the Boys’ Brigade is all marching and shouting, it is essential to show how this part is always held as great fun. When all such exercises, both mental and physical, are taken together, a boy has mastered a great deal. Certainly, once a year the Boys’ Brigade company will show this mastery in their display, but as well as these events there is an ever growing number of other competitions designed to test the boys’ ingenuity and strength of character. Membership of the movement could take you to all kinds of experience: and that with well ordered preparation and instruction.

While writing I can never forget the quite electrifying experience I had last year. The minister of a parish, within sight of my home, asked me to come to a special presentation to their BB Captain. During the evening, I watched him successively honoured by the local burgh for his service to the local community at large, by the other youth organisations for service to the whole youthful community, by six former ministers who had come back from their new charges and by representation of the three generations of boys, now grown men, whom he had set off in life. This man had used the Boys’ Brigade as a living instrument for his Church and by his action had shown what it is that leads to true Christian manliness.

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