She never flinched in confronting the theology of Methodism.

She was in practice the tenderest of women, the most compassionate of missionaries, the most persuasive orator of the emotions in her day; but in theory she was as hard as steel.
Her husband, on the other hand, who threw Jehovah's thunderbolts across the world as if he liked them, and approved of them, and was ready for any further number of these celestial missiles, of an even vaster displacement, was in his heart of hearts a wistful believer in everlasting mercy.

Few men have been born with a softer heart.

He sometimes wondered whether in framing the Regulations of the Salvation Army he had not pressed too hard on human nature.

To the horrified scandal of his son, he even came to question, if only for a passing moment, the ordinance which forbids tobacco to the Salvationist.
He used to say in his old age, ruminating over the past, "Our standard is high.