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diff --git a/7125-h/7125-h.htm b/7125-h/7125-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e032202 --- /dev/null +++ b/7125-h/7125-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4205 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + +<head> +<title>Catherine Booth: A Sketch, by Colonel Mildred Duff</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + --> +</style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Catherine Booth, by Mildred Duff + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Catherine Booth + A Sketch + +Author: Mildred Duff + +Posting Date: September 11, 2012 [EBook #7125] +Release Date: December, 2004 +First Posted: March 12, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHERINE BOOTH *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>Catherine Booth</h1> + +<h2>A Sketch</h2> + +<p style="text-align: center"><i>Reprinted from The Warriors’ Library</i></p> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps">by</p> + +<h3>Colonel Mildred Duff</h3> + +<p style="text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps">With a Preface by<br /> +General Bramwell Booth</p> + +<h1>Preface</h1> + +<p>Colonel Duff has, at my request, written the following +very interesting +and touching account of my dear Mother; and she has +done so in the hope +that those who read it will be helped to follow in +the footsteps of that +wonderful servant of God.</p> + +<p>But how can they do so? Was not Mrs. Booth, you ask, +an exceptional +woman? Had she not great gifts and very remarkable +powers, and was she +not trained in a very special way to do the work to +which God called her? +How, then, can ordinary people follow in her steps? +Let me tell you.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth walked with God. When she was only a timid +girl, helping her +mother in the household, she continually sought after +Him; and when, in +later years, she became known by multitudes, and was +written of in the +newspapers, and greatly beloved by the good in many +lands, there was no +difference in her life in that matter. She was not +content with being +Mrs. General Booth of The Salvation Army, and with +being looked upon as a +great and good woman, giving her life to bless others. +No! she listened +daily for God’s voice in her own heart, sought +after His will, and leaned +continually for strength and grace upon her Saviour. + You can be like her +in that.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth was a soul-winner. A little while before +her spirit passed +into the presence of God, and when she knew that death +was quite near to +her, she said: ’Tell the Soldiers that the great +consolation for a +Salvationist on his dying bed is to feel that he has +been a soul-winner.’<br /> +Wherever she went–in the houses of strangers as well +as of friends, in +the Meetings, great and small, when she was welcomed +and when she was +not, whether alone or with others–she laboured to +lead souls to Christ. +I have known her at one time spend as much trouble +to win one as at +another time to win fifty. You can follow her example +in that.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth always declared herself and took sides +with right. Whatever +was happening around her, people always knew which +side she was on. She +spoke out for the right, the good, and the true, even +when doing so +involved very disagreeable experiences and the bearing +of much +unkindness. She hated the spirit which can look on +at what is wicked and +false or cruel, and say, ‘Oh, that is not my +affair!’ You can follow her<br /> +example in this also.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth laboured all her life to improve her gifts. +She thought; she +prayed; she worked; she read–above all, she read +her Bible. It was her +companion as a child, as a young follower of Christ, +and then as a Leader +in The Army. Those miserable words which some of us +hear so often about +some bad or unfinished work–’Oh, that will +do’–were seldom heard from +her lips. She was always striving, striving, striving +to do better, and +yet better, and again better still. All this also +you can do.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth was full of sympathy. No one who was in +need or in sorrow, or +who was suffering, could meet her without finding +out that, she was in +sympathy with them. Her heart was tender with the +love of Christ, and so +she was deeply touched by the sin and sorrow around +her just as He was. +Even the miseries of the dumb animals moved her to +efforts on their +behalf. This sympathy made Mrs. Booth quick to see +and appreciate the +toil and self-denial of others, and ever grateful +for any kindness shown +to her or to The Army or to those in need of any kind. +The very humblest +and youngest of those who read this little book can +be like her in all this.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth endured to the end. She never turned back. +She was faithful. +Her life and work would have been spoilt if she had +given up the fight. +She was often sorely tempted. She was slandered and +misrepresented by +enemies, betrayed by false friends, and often deeply +wounded by those who +professed to love her, though they deserted the Flag. +But she held fast. +You can be like her in that. You may make many mistakes, +suffer many +defeats, but you can still keep going on, and it is +to those who go on to +the very end, whether in weakness or in strength, +that Jesus will give +the crown of life.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth trusted with all her heart in the love +and sacrifice of her +Saviour. These were her hope and her strength. When +at the height of her +influence and popularity she delighted in that wonderful +song which we<br /> +still so often sing:–</p> + +<blockquote>I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,<br /> +And purchased my pardon when nailed to the tree;</blockquote> + +<p>and when, amid much suffering, she lay dying, we often +sang together with her:–</p> + +<blockquote>Victory for me!<br /> +Through the Blood of Christ my Saviour;<br /> +Victory for me!<br /> +Through the precious Blood.</blockquote> + +<p>This was her victory. You can follow her in the faith +that won it. Will you?</p> + +<p class="smallcaps">Bramwell Booth</p> + +<p><i>International Headquarters.</i></p> + +<h1>Contents</h1> + +<p><a href="#preface" class="smallcaps">Preface</a></p> + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman"> + <li><a href="#ch_01" class="smallcaps">Childhood</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_02" class="smallcaps">Conversion and Soul Struggles</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_03" class="smallcaps">A Three-Years Engagement</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_04" class="smallcaps">A Life of Sacrifice</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_05" class="smallcaps">The Speaker</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_06" class="smallcaps">The Mother</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_07" class="smallcaps">The Worker</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_08" class="smallcaps">Goodness</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_09" class="smallcaps">Love</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_10" class="smallcaps">The Warrior</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_11" class="smallcaps">Last Days</a></li> +</ol> + +<p><a href="#dates" class="smallcaps">Dates in Mrs. Booth's Life</a></p> + + +<h1>Catherine Booth:</h1> + +<h2>A Sketch</h2> + + +<h1><a name="ch_01"></a>I</h1> + +<h2>Childhood</h2> + +<p>’Parents who love God best will not allow their +children to learn anything which could not be pressed +into His service.’–<i>Mrs</i>. <i>Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>The Mother of The Salvation Army was born at Ashbourne, +in Derbyshire, on January 17, 1829, and God gave to +her the very best gift He can give to any child–a +good and holy mother.</p> + +<p>Katie Mumford, as she was then called, had no sister +to play with, and of her four brothers only one lived +to be a man. But her dear mother more than made up +for every lack, and from her lips the little girl learned +those blessed lessons which, in her turn, she has taught +to us.</p> + +<p>One lesson which Mrs. Mumford early taught her daughter +was that our bodies will not live for ever. She took +Katie to see the body of her infant brother who had +just died; and, though she was not more than two years +old at the time, Katie never forgot that first lesson. +Spiritual things were even then real to her, just +because they were so real to her mother. Heaven was +home to her, and Jesus her best Friend, ever near to +help and guide her.</p> + +<p>Truthfulness was a second of those early lessons which +remained with our Army Mother all her life. She was +but four years old when Mrs. Mumford found her one +evening sobbing bitterly in her little cot long after +she should have been asleep. She had told a falsehood, +and conscience would not let her rest. When she had +sobbed out her confession, her mother talked and prayed +with her, and at last left her, happy in the assurance +that she was forgiven by her Heavenly Father.</p> + +<p>After this you will not be surprised to hear that +another lesson early taught to Katie by her mother +was to love her Bible. She could read nicely when +she was but five years old, and she loved to stand +by her mother’s side, and read the Bible stories +aloud, with just a little help over the very long +words. And this love for God’s Word grew deeper +every year, so that by the time she was twelve years +old she had read it through eight times. In later +years people often wondered how it was that Mrs. Booth +knew her Bible so well, and could so quickly answer +their difficulties and objections in Bible words. +Much of the secret lay in this early training, and +in the hours she spent in Bible study later on, when +she had reached the age of some of our younger Corps +Cadets.</p> + +<p>I wish we could have seen her in those days. She had +very dark hair, which curled naturally; black, flashing +eyes, and such a warm heart, and strong, impetuous +nature that she could do nothing by halves. Whatever +it was, work or play, her whole soul had to be in +it.</p> + +<p>Since she was not at all strong, and had few girl +friends, Katie did not play rough or noisy games, +but her love for her dolls made her quite a little +mother to them. She treated them almost like real children, +and would sew and toil, and never rest till she felt +she had in every way done her duty to them. She loved +animals, too, especially dogs and horses, and could +not bear to see any one ill-treat them. Oh, how she +suffered one day, watching some poor sheep driven down +the road! She watched the man beat them–she could +not stop him; and at last she tore home, and flung +herself down almost choking and speechless with indignation +and distress.</p> + +<p>Her mother did not check Katie for feeling so keenly. +She encouraged her; for she knew that a hard, indifferent +child, who can see suffering and not care or be distressed +over it, would make a hard woman; and she wanted her +Katie to be full of love and tenderness for all, and +especially for those needing help.</p> + +<p>When Catherine was twelve years old she became very +interested in the drink question. She wrote letters +about it, and sent them to different newspapers, for +there was no ‘War Cry’ nor ‘Young +Soldier’ in those days; and she also became +the secretary of what was then called a Juvenile Temperance +Society, and did all she could to get boys and girls +to promise never to touch the drink.</p> + +<p>Katie was also, like many of you, much interested +in the heathen. She would go round to all her friends +collecting money to pay for preachers to be sent to +them; and in order to get more money she would deny +herself sugar and other small luxuries. No one told +Katie to do this; but you see our Army Mother herself +taught us, by her example when only a child, to keep +our great Self-Denial Week.</p> + +<p>Of course, most of Katie’s time was taken up +with her lessons, and, as she loved to learn and study, +they were no hardship to her. For two years she went +to a boarding-school, and here her companions soon +found out how straight and truthful she was. ’You’ll +never get <i>her</i> to tell a lie,’ the +girls said, ‘nor even to exaggerate, so it’s +no use trying.’ Every one knew also that Katie +felt for the backward girls and those who were slow +and dull. She wanted them to succeed, and would help +them between school hours. That was her joy, you see–to +help and care for others; whether at school or at +home she was the same.</p> + +<p>But you must not think that Catherine was perfect. +Oh, no, indeed! Sometimes her schoolmates would tease +her because she was so quiet, and liked to read better +than to play; and at such times, instead of being +patient, she would flare up into a passion, and say +harsh, angry words. When the storm was over she would +be, however, Oh! so sorry, and would beg her schoolfellows +to forgive her.</p> + +<p>When Katie had been at school two years, God sent +her a very great trial. Instead of being able to go +on learning and keeping up with the other girls, she +had to return home, and for three long years to lie +nearly all the time on her back, often suffering very +much. She had a serious spinal complaint, and her +friends sometimes doubted whether she would ever walk +again.</p> + +<p>You wonder what she did in those three years? I will +tell you. When the pain would permit it, she would +knit and sew. She could not, of course, hold heavy +needlework; but little things, like babies’ socks +and hoods, pin-cushions, and so forth, she would make +most beautifully, and then they would be sold to help +on the work of God.</p> + +<p>Besides her sewing, Katie read a great deal. First, +as I have already told you, she read her Bible, and +learnt to know God’s thoughts about the world +and sin, and His wishes for His people. For seven months +at one time Catherine had to lie on her face on a +special sort of couch made on purpose for her; but +she invented a contrivance by which, even then, she +could read her Bible, though still remaining in the +position that the doctors wished. Then, too, she would +read good books–explanations of the Bible, about +Holiness, soul-saving, lives of those who have lived +and worked for God, and so on. When she had read a +chapter she would shut the book, and write down as +much as she could remember of it. This helped her +to think clearly and to remember what she read, and +also to put her thoughts into words.</p> + +<p>But she never wasted her time reading stories and +novels. Later on in her life she said she was so thankful +for this, for she thought that novels and silly story +books made people discontented with their own homes +and duties, and put wrong, hurtful ideas into their +minds. Let us recollect and follow our Army Mother’s +example here, and not waste time on stories which +are not true.</p> + +<p>We, if we had known Katie Mumford in those three years +of pain and weariness, should have pitied her very +much. We might have been tempted to feel that God +was hard in not letting her be strong like other girls; +but we now see that all the time He was fitting her +for the wonderful future before her; and when she +became Mrs. Booth, the great preacher, she herself +understood this.</p> + +<p>‘Being so much alone in my youth,’ she +said, ’and so thrown on my own thoughts and +on those expressed in books, has been very helpful +to me. Had I been given to gossip, and had there been +people for me to gossip with, I should certainly never +have accomplished what I did.’</p> + +<p>So, you see, God was all the time giving her the very +best training He could, and teaching her, as she lay +there alone on her bed, what she never could have +learned in the ordinary way. And He will train you, +too, in the very best way for your future, if you +will but determine to trust and serve Him as did Catherine +Mumford.</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_02"></a>II</h1> + +<h2>Conversion and Soul Struggles</h2> + +<p>’No soul was ever yet saved who was too idle +to seek.’–<i>Mrs</i>. <i>Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>Perhaps you, the Corps Cadet, for whom I am especially +writing this little book, have been tempted to break +your vows by becoming engaged to some one who does +not want to be an Officer. And you think, perhaps, +that no one understands your feelings.</p> + +<p>You will be surprised, then, to know that our Army +Mother had just such a battle to fight when she was +a girl.</p> + +<p>She had a cousin, a little older than herself, who +was tall and very clever. He came with his parents +to stay in her home, and Katie had not seen him since +they were young children. He quickly grew very fond +of his cousin, and Catherine found how nice it was +to have some one to give her presents and to love +her as he did. At last he begged her to promise that +by and by she would be engaged to him. Now Katie was +very perplexed. On the one hand she loved her cousin, +and did not want to grieve him, and yet in her heart +she knew he was not truly given up to God, and would +not help her in her soul.</p> + +<p>‘Go to the Meeting with you, Katie?’ he +used to say. ’Of course, I’ll go anywhere +to please you.’ But then, while she was trying +to get a blessing, he would be scratching little pictures +on the back of the seat to make her laugh. Perhaps +you can guess the struggle it was for Katie to decide +what her answer should be. ’If you will only +say “yes,” and be engaged to him, I am +sure you will be able to help him, and very likely +get him properly saved,’ the Devil would whisper. +’Break it off now, Katie; do not go another +step; you know God cannot smile on it.’ That +was how her conscience spoke.</p> + +<p>At last, one day as she was truly praying and seeking +for light, she read the verse in 2 Corinthians vi. +14: ’Be ye not unequally yoked together with +unbelievers.’ It came to her as the voice of +God.</p> + +<p>‘I will do it, Lord,’ she said, after +a long struggle; and she sat down, and wrote her cousin +a letter, telling him just why she could never be +engaged to him, and breaking it all off for ever. Then +she turned back to her home duties, and did not re-open +the question.</p> + +<p>And did our Army Mother in after years regret that +she had acted like this? No, indeed; she has told +us that she saw plainly later on that, if just then +she had chosen to follow her own feelings and wishes, +instead of obeying God’s command, all her life +would have been altered, and she would never have +done the glorious work He had planned for her. It was +a hard battle at the time, and cost her many tears; +but it was worth it, ten thousand times over, as we +can all see to-day.</p> + +<p>Very soon after this victory Catherine became really +converted.</p> + +<p>‘What!’ you say. ‘Was she not converted +before this?’</p> + +<p>No. All her life she had, like many children trained +to-day in Salvationist homes, felt God’s Holy +Spirit striving with her. Sometimes, when quite a +little girl, her mother would find her crying because +she felt how she had sinned against God.</p> + +<p>But when she was about fifteen she longed to know +that she was really saved.</p> + +<p>‘Don’t be silly,’ said the Devil +in her heart. ’You have been as good as saved +all your life. You have always wanted to do right. +How can you expect such a sudden change as if you +were a great big drunkard? It’s absurd.’</p> + +<p>‘But my <i>heart</i> is as bad as the heart +of a big sinner,’ cried poor Katie in an agony +of fear. ’I have been as bad inside, if not in +my outward actions and words.’</p> + +<p>And then she took hold of God in faith. ’Lord, +I must be converted. I cannot rest till Thou hast +changed my whole nature; do for me what Thou dost +do, for the thieves and drunkards.’</p> + +<p>But for six weeks it seemed as if God did not hear +her cry. She grew more and more unhappy. All her past +sins rose before her: those bursts of temper when +she was at school, those wrong thoughts and feelings. +Yes, the Bible was true when it said: ’The heart +is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.’</p> + +<p>Katie argued, too, like this: ’I cannot recollect +any time or place where I claimed Salvation and the +forgiveness of my sins; if God <i>has</i> saved +me, He would surely have made me certain of it. Anyway, +I must and will know it. I must have the assurance +that I am God’s child.’</p> + +<p>Unable to rest, she would pace her room till two o’clock +in the morning, and would lie down at last, with her +Bible and hymn-book under her pillow, praying that +God would Himself tell her that her sins were forgiven. +At last, one morning, as she woke, she opened her hymn-book, +and read these words:–</p> + +<p align="center">My God, I am Thine,<br /> +What a comfort divine,<br /> +What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine.</p> + +<p>Now she had read and sung these lines scores of times +before, but they came this morning with a new power +to her soul.</p> + +<p>‘I am Thine!’ ‘My Jesus is mine!’ +she exclaimed. ’Lord, it is true!–I do believe +it! My sins are forgiven. I belong to Thee!’ +and her whole soul was filled with light and joy. +She now possessed what she had been seeking all these +weeks–the assurance of Salvation! And then what do +you think she did? She threw on a wrapper, and, without +waiting to dress, hurried across to her mother’s +room, and tapped at the door.</p> + +<p>‘Come in,’ said her mother’s voice; +and Katie, her face shining with joy, burst into the +room. ’Mamma, mamma, I am a child of God! My +sins are forgiven–Jesus is my Saviour!’ she +cried, flinging herself into her mother’s arms. +And this was the same Katie, who had been so shy and +backward that she had never before dared to speak about +her spiritual anxieties, even to her mother! Ah! what +a change real conversion, or change of heart, had +made.</p> + +<p>For the next six months Katie was so happy that she +felt as if she were walking on air. ‘I used +to tremble,’ she tells us, ’and even long +to die, lest I should back-slide or lose the sense +of God’s favour.’</p> + +<p>But as time went on she learned, as we all have to +do, to walk by faith, not by sight, and to serve and +follow the Saviour whether she had happy feelings +or not.</p> + +<p>But you must not suppose, because Katie had the assurance +of Salvation, that therefore she had no more fighting. +No–indeed, her fighting days had only just begun.</p> + +<p>One of her great difficulties, which many Corps Cadets +will understand, was that she felt so nervous about +doing anything in public. No one, of course, asked +her to speak–such a thing was never dreamed of; but +the lady who took the Bible Class which she attended +regularly would now and then ask her to pray. ‘Miss +Mumford will pray,’ the lady would say, when +they were all kneeling together.</p> + +<p>But Katie was too shy to begin, and sometimes they +would wait for several minutes before she had courage +to say a few words. ’Don’t ask me to pray +again,’ she said one day to her leader; ’the +excitement and agitation make me quite ill.’</p> + +<p>‘I can’t help that,’ was the very +wise answer; ’you must break through your timidity; +for otherwise you will be of no use to God.’</p> + +<p>And did Katie persevere? Yes, indeed, she did. Here +is an entry made some time later in the diary that +she kept, which shows you how very much her experience +was like yours:–</p> + +<p>’I have not been blessed so much for weeks as +I was to-night. I prayed aloud. The cross was great, +but so was the reward.</p> + +<p>My heart beat violently, but I felt some liberty.’</p> + +<p>Though Catherine’s spine difficulty was better, +she was still very delicate, and at the age of eighteen +every one felt sure she was going into a decline. +But, sick or well, her soul grew stronger, and her +desire to please and serve God better increased every +day.</p> + +<p>‘I do love Thee,’ she wrote in the same +little diary, ’but I want to love Thee more.’</p> + +<p>It was not till many years later that Catherine received +the blessing of a clean heart; but even now she had +begun to desire and long for it. She also writes at +this time: ’I see that this Full Salvation is +very necessary if I am to glorify God below, and find +my way to Heaven. I want a <i>clean</i> heart. +Lord, take me and seal me.’</p> + +<p>Some people, even after they are converted, are too +proud to own themselves wrong, or to confess when +they have sinned. Catherine was not of that sort. +In one of her letters to her mother she ends with these +words:–</p> + +<p>’Pray for me, dear mother, and believe me, with +all my faults and besetments, your loving child.’</p> + +<p>Her hunger after a holy life was real and practical. +She knew she must learn to live by method–that is, +doing right, whether she liked it or not–and not +by feelings, if she was to be of use in the world.</p> + +<p>So at the end of the year she wrote some new resolutions; +and as they may be of help to you, I will copy them +for you just as she put them down:–</p> + +<p>’I have been writing a few daily rules for the +coming year, which I hope will prove a blessing to +me, by the grace of God. I have got a paper of printed +rules also, which I intend to read once a week. May +the Lord help me to keep to them! But, above all, +I am determined to search the Scriptures more attentively, +for in them I have eternal life. I have read my Bible +through twice during the past sixteen months, but I +must read it with more prayer for light and understanding. +Oh, may it be my meat and drink! May I meditate on +it day and night! And then I shall bring forth fruit +in season; my leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever +I do shall prosper.’</p> + +<p>She had also her own private ways of denying herself, +not for the sake of earning money or praise by it, +but simply because she felt it was right. One of these +rules was to do without dinner, and butter at breakfast, +once in the week, because she felt it helped her in +her soul.</p> + +<p>I cannot end this chapter without telling you of the +one great sorrow which darkened all her early years. +Some of you, I know, will enter into her feelings +so well.</p> + +<p>Her father, at one time saved and earnest about the +souls of others, had grown cold and backslidden, and +now never even went near a Meeting. You can fancy +what agony this was to both Mrs. Mumford and her daughter. +They prayed and wept in vain–he only seemed to get +more indifferent. Catherine would sometimes write +her feelings and her sorrow in her diary, and there +we read:–</p> + +<p>’I sometimes get into an agony of feeling while +praying for my dear father. Oh, my Lord, answer prayer, +and bring him back to Thyself! Never let that tongue +which once delighted in praising Thee, and in showing +others Thy willingness to save, be engaged in uttering +the lamentations of the lost! Oh, awful thought! Lord, +have mercy! Save, Oh! save him in any way Thou seest +best, though it be ever so painful. If by removing +me Thou canst do this, cut short Thy work, and take +me Home. Let me be bold to speak in Thy name. Oh, +give me true courage and liberty, and when I write +to him, bless what I say to the good of his soul!’</p> + +<p>For many years this prayer of Catherine’s was +not answered; but she held on, as you must do for +those you love, in faith and prayer; and at last she +had the unspeakable joy of seeing her dear father come +back to God through one of her own Meetings which +he had attended. His last years were full of peace, +and were spent in serving God and rejoicing in His +Salvation.</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_03"></a>III</h1> + +<h2>A Three-Years Engagement</h2> + +<p>’What a need there is for effort and energy; +or real religion and common sense!’–<i>Mrs</i>. +<i>Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>One Sunday, when Catherine and her mother went to +the Meeting as usual, they found a ‘Special’ +there, taking the services. He was quite different +from the other Specials, and Catherine could not help +noticing him with extra interest. He spoke to the +people’s hearts, and was not so much occupied +in preaching a good sermon as in getting some one converted. +But he did preach a very good sermon for all that, +and chose this verse as his text–’This is indeed +the Christ, the Saviour of the world.’</p> + +<p>A few days later Catherine and her mother were spending +the evening with a friend, when the very same preacher +came in, and was introduced to them as the Rev. William +Booth.</p> + +<p>Catherine knew they had one subject in common–love +for souls; but before the evening ended she discovered +that the young minister was quite as earnest as she +was herself in fighting the Drink curse and all that +was connected with it.</p> + +<p>A few Sundays later Mr. Booth preached again in the +same building, this time as the minister, or, as we +should say, ‘Officer in charge,’ and no +longer as a Special. And now you will guess that the +two often met, and that, because they had so many +interests in common, they soon learned to know each +other well, till respect grew into friendship, and +friendship into love.</p> + +<p>Catherine was at this time twenty-two years old, and +Mr. Booth was three months younger; but, though you +would have said they were old enough to know their +own minds, they did nothing hastily, and would enter +into no engagement till they were quite sure of God’s +Will in the matter.</p> + +<p>Had Catherine ever before thought of the day when +she would get married? you, perhaps, ask. Oh, yes, +indeed, and when but a girl of sixteen–directly, +in fact, after she was saved–she settled in her own +heart what sort of a man her future husband must be. +First, she decided, he must be truly converted, and +a total abstainer, not to please her, but from his +own choice. Then he must be a man of sense, or she +could never respect him; and, if they were to be happy, +they must feel and think alike on all important matters.</p> + +<p>Ah, if our women-Soldiers and Cadets to-day would +but follow our Army Mother’s example, there +would be fewer unhappy marriages and wrecked lives!</p> + +<p>But in her secret heart Catherine had also, girl-like, +some ideas about the sort of man she would like to +marry, if she might choose. He should be a minister–that +was the nearest she could get to an Officer in those +days; William was a name she particularly liked, and–if +only he might be tall and dark! If you had been there +when Katie Mumford first listened to his preaching +you would have seen that he was ‘tall and dark’ +indeed.</p> + +<p>But though William Booth loved Catherine with a deep +and holy love, which increased each time they met, +yet he was very poor, and he wondered if he ought, +under the circumstances, to ask her to share his lot. +He wrote a letter to her, telling her how perplexed +and troubled he was, and her answer shows us that, +right from the very earliest days, before they were +even engaged, her one desire was that his soul should +prosper.</p> + +<p>‘My dear friend,’ she begins ... ’The +thought that I should cause you any suffering or increase +your perplexity is almost unbearable. I am tempted +to wish that we had never seen each other. Do try to +forget me, as far as the remembrance would injure +your usefulness or spoil your peace. If I have no +alternative but to oppose the Will of God, or trample +on the desolations of my own heart, <i>my choice +is made</i>. “Thy will be done” is +my constant cry. I care not for myself; but Oh, if +I cause you to err, I shall never be happy again.’</p> + +<p>It was not the fear of poverty that frightened her, +for a few days later she says:–</p> + +<p>’I fear you did not fully understand my difficulty. +It was not circumstances. I thought I had assured +you that a bright prospect would not allure me, nor +a dark one affright me, if only we are <i>one in +heart</i>.</p> + +<p>My only reason for wishing to defer the engagement +was that <i>you</i> might feel satisfied in your +mind that the step is right.... If you are convinced +on this point, let circumstances go, and let us be +one, come what may.’</p> + +<p>This is exactly what they did, and after meeting, +and together consecrating their lives to God, they +solemnly pledged themselves to each other.</p> + +<p>And now began a three-years’ engagement, in +which, though often for long months at a time they +never met, they remained true to each other and to +God, in thought and word and deed.</p> + +<p>Many of the beautiful letters that our Army Mother +wrote to The General at this time, I am glad to tell +you, have been kept, and we will look together at +some of the ways in which she tried to help and cheer +him.</p> + +<p>In the first letter after their engagement she ends +with these words:–</p> + +<p>’The more you lead me up to Christ in all things, +the more highly shall I esteem you; and if it be possible +to love you more than I do now, the more shall I love +you. You are always present in my thoughts.’</p> + +<p>Now you must not think that, even in these early days, +our General had a very easy life. He was often much +perplexed and troubled, longing above all to do God’s +Will for the Salvation of the people, and yet not quite +sure what that Will was. At these times Catherine was +of untold help to him.</p> + +<p>Once he was very unsettled–not certain whether he +should remain away in the North of England, or accept +a place in London, where the two could often meet. +Most girls would have said, ’Oh, come, then we +shall be near to each other’; but you will see +that her advice to him is just as suitable for you +when you are not certain of your duty–that she does +not consider her own feelings at all.</p> + +<p>‘I wish,’ she writes, ’you prayed +more and talked less about the matter. Try it, and +be determined to get clear and settled views as to +your course. Leave your heart before God, and get +satisfied in His sight, and then do it, be it what +it may. I cannot bear the idea of your being unhappy. +Pray do in this as you feel in your soul it will be +right. My conscience is no standard for yours.’</p> + +<p>Then she adds, lower down:–</p> + +<p>’Oh, if you come to London, let us be determined +to reap a blessed harvest. Let our fellowship be sanctified +to our souls’ everlasting good. My mind is made +up to do my part towards it. I hope to be firm as a +rock on some points. The Lord help me. We must aim +to improve each other’s mind and character. +Let us pray for grace to do it in the best way and +to the fullest extent possible.’</p> + +<p>‘Anyway,’ she says, a day or two later–and +ever remember her words when outside things try and +distress you–’don’t let the controversy +hurt your soul. Live near to God by prayer.... You +believe He answers prayer. Then take courage. Just +fall down at His feet, and open your very soul before +Him, and throw yourself right into His arms. Tell Him +that if you are wrong you only wait to be set right, +and, be the path rough or smooth, you will walk in +it.</p> + +<p>’Oh, you must live close to God! If you are +a greater distance from Him than you were, just stop +the whirl of outward things, or rather leave it, and +shut yourself up with Him till all is clear and bright +upwards. Do, there’s a dear. Oh, how much we +lose by not coming to the point. Now, at once, realize +your union with Christ, and trust Him to lead you through +this perplexity. Bless you. Excuse this advice. I am +anxious for your soul. Look up. If God hears my prayers, +He must guide you–He will guide you.’</p> + +<p>In these early days our General was tempted, as some +of us are tempted to-day, to feel nervous and shy +when talking before large crowds, and where the people +were better dressed and better off than usual. He wrote +his feelings to Catherine, and she sends him back her +wise advice and help. ‘I am sorry for this,’ +she says, ’and am persuaded it is the fear of +man which shackles you. Do not give place to this feeling. +Remember you are <i>the</i> Lord’s servant, +and if you are a faithful one it will be a small matter +with you to be judged of man’s judgment. Let +nothing be wanting beforehand to make what you say +helpful, but when you are before the people try to +think only of your own responsibility to Him who hath +sent you.’</p> + +<p>Again, later, she writes:–</p> + +<p>’Try and cast off the fear of man. Fix your +eyes simply on the glory of God, and care not for +frown or praise of man. Rest not till your soul is +fully alive to God.’ How truly she herself carried +this out in her own Meetings you will hear later on.</p> + +<p>Miss Mumford was very anxious that The General should +improve himself with plenty of hard work. She saw +what he might become, and she also knew that unless +he did <i>his</i> part all those wonderful powers +which God had lent to him would be thrown away.</p> + +<p>‘Do assure me,’ she writes, ’my +own dear William, that no want of energy or effort +on your part shall hinder the improvement of those +talents God has given you.’</p> + +<p>So that, with his constant travelling and preaching, +he might get time to read and think and learn, she +suggested a little plan to him in his billets.</p> + +<p>‘Could you not,’ she says, ’provide +yourself with a small leather bag or case, large enough +to hold your Bible and any other book you might require–pens, +ink, paper and a candle? And, presuming that you generally +have a room to yourself, could you not rise by six +o’clock every morning, and convert your bedroom +into a study till breakfast time?... I hope, my dearest +love, you will consider this plan, and keep to it, +if possible, as a general practice. Don’t let +little difficulties prevent your carrying it out.’</p> + +<p>You must remember that at this time neither Catherine +nor Mr. Booth ever dreamed of the wonderful work they +were to be called to do. He was then preaching and +getting souls saved, mostly in country places, and +had many a ‘hard go,’ but <i>that</i> +was no reason why he should not improve.</p> + +<p>Did The General like this advice and counsel? Or did +he feel, as some men do to-day, that women cannot +judge nor understand such things?</p> + +<p>Ah! he was wise, and only too glad to have all the +help that Catherine could give him. In fact, he often +wrote begging her to help him more. The outlines for +addresses which she sent him weekly he valued and used, +as this letter shows:–</p> + +<p>‘I have,’ he writes, ’just taken +hold of that sketch you sent me on “Be not deceived,” +and am about to make a full sermon on it. I like it +much. It is admirable.</p> + +<p>’I want a sermon on the Flood, one on Jonah, +and one on the Judgment. Send me some bare thoughts, +some clear, startling outlines. We must have that +kind of truth which will move sinners.’</p> + +<p>But if Catherine Mumford was anxious about the mind +and work of her future husband, much more was she +anxious about his soul. To her, there could be no +true love without faithfulness, and where she felt +it necessary, she cautioned him in the truest and +tenderest way:–</p> + +<p>‘You have special need,’ she writes, ’for +watchfulness and for much private intercourse with +God.</p> + +<p>’My dearest love, beware how you indulge that +dangerous element of character, ambition. Misdirected, +it will be everlasting ruin to yourself, and perhaps +to me also. Oh, my love, let nothing earthly excite +it; let not the wish to be great fire it. Fix it on +the Throne of the Eternal, and let it find the realization +of its loftiest aspirations in the promotion of His +glory, and it shall be consummated with the richest +enjoyments and brightest glories of God’s own +Heaven.’</p> + +<p>You wonder, perhaps, if Catherine ever wrote ‘love +letters,’ as we call them. She never wrote the +foolish and sentimental letters which say a great +deal, and mean very little; but she was able to put +her great love into words strong, intense, and full +of tenderness.</p> + +<p>‘Do I remember?’ she asks in one letter. +’Yes, I remember all–all that has bound us +together. All the bright and happy, as well as the +clouded and sorrowful times of our fellowship. Nothing +relating to you can time or place erase from my memory. +Your words, your looks, your actions, even the most +trivial and incidental, come up before me as fresh +as life. If I meet a child called William, I am more +interested in him than in any other. Bless you. Keep +your spirits up, and hope much for the future. God +lives and loves us, and we shall be one in Him, loving +each other as Christ loved us.’</p> + +<p>William Booth and Catherine Mumford were married in +London, on June 15, 1855; and here are a few lines +from the last letter she wrote to him before the engagement +was ended, and the long thirty-five years of happy +married life began:–</p> + +<p>’I long to see you. Your letters do not satisfy +the yearnings of my heart. Perhaps they ought to. +I wish it were differently constituted. I might be +much happier. But it <i>will</i> be extravagant +and enthusiastic in spite of all my schooling. If +I ever get to Heaven, what rapture shall I know! No, +there is no fear of our loving each other too much. +How can we love each other more than Christ has loved +us? And this is the standard He has given us. What +a precious thing is the religion of Jesus! It makes +our first duties our highest happiness. It has the +promise of the life that now is, as well as of that +which is to come. We will spend all our energies in +trying to persuade men to receive and practise it.’</p> + +<p>How wonderfully she carried this intention into practice, +and, together with The General, lived every moment +‘publishing the Sinner’s Friend,’ +you shall read later on.</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_04"></a>IV</h1> + +<h2>A Life of Sacrifice</h2> + +<p>’Since I came to the crucifixion of myself, +I have not cared much what men might say of me.’–<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>At the time when our Army Mother married The General’s +work was, as we have seen, that of an ‘Evangelist’ +or ‘Travelling Minister.’ He would stay +in a town for some weeks or months, as the case might +be, preaching and holding Meetings, and getting people +saved, both in the town itself and the places round.</p> + +<p>It was a blessed and useful life, but very wearying; +and we can fancy how trying it must have been for +Mrs. Booth after her marriage not to have any home +of her own, but to billet first in one stranger’s +house, and then in another’s.</p> + +<p>But she did not complain, though we see what it cost +her by a letter she writes to her mother, telling +the good news that they are to live in lodgings while +at Sheffield:–</p> + +<p>‘You cannot think,’ she writes, ’with +what joy I look forward to being to ourselves once +more. For though I get literally oppressed with kindness, +I must say I would prefer a home where we could sit +down together at our own little table, myself the +mistress, and my husband the only guest. But the work +of God so abundantly prospers that I dare not repine, +or else I feel this constant packing and unpacking +and staying amongst strangers to be a great burden, +especially while so weak and poorly. But then I have +many mercies and advantages. My precious William is +all I desire, and without this what would the most +splendid home be but a glittering bauble?’</p> + +<p>For several years Mrs. Booth travelled in this way +from place to place, helping, cheering, and encouraging +her husband in his soul-saving campaigns. She felt +her duty lay here, and even when she had a little son +to care for, she was unwilling to settle down. Writing +to her mother, who urged her to leave off this trying +life; or, at any rate, to hand the baby over to her, +she says:–</p> + +<p>’My objection to leaving William gets stronger +as I see the need he has of my presence, care, and +sympathy; neither is he willing for it himself. Nor +can I make up my mind to parting with Willie.’</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth’s object was to be a help to her +husband–not a hindrance; to push him forward in his +soul-saving work–not to hold him back; and therefore, +instead of rejoicing, as most wives and mothers would +have done, when a settled home and work were offered +him, she was doubtful.</p> + +<p>‘Personally considered,’ she writes to +her mother, ’I care nothing about it. I feel +that a good rest in one place will be a boon to us. +Anyhow, if God wills him to be an Evangelist, He will +open the way. I find that I love the work itself far +more than I thought I did, and I am willing to risk +something for it.’</p> + +<p>After this came several years of great conflict and +struggle. The Conference (or, as we would say, Headquarters) +under whom The General worked did not wish him to +continue the great Salvation Campaigns for which God +had so marvellously fitted him. They wanted him to +’settle down,’ and spend perhaps several +years in one place like ordinary ministers.</p> + +<p>To please those who were over him he did this, and +spent four years in one town. But though God blessed +his efforts, The General was convinced that he was +called to greater things. He loved the sinners; wherever +he went crowds flocked to hear him, and the vilest +were converted. Was it God’s will, therefore, +that he should sacrifice the work his soul loved, +and ‘settle down’ into an ordinary life, +helping and reaching only the people of one small +city?</p> + +<p>This question our Army Mother helped him to decide. +Try to picture her position. She had by this time +a family of little children, and her health was very +delicate. By counselling The General to ‘settle +down,’ as his friends wished him to do, she +would have a nice home, a comfortable income, and, +above all, the constant presence of her husband, who +would no longer need to leave her on his long soul-saving +tours.</p> + +<p>By refusing the position offered, and choosing instead +to take up the ‘evangelistic life’ again, +The General turned his back on salary, home, and work, +and went out into the world, with his wife and four +children, friendless and alone. Do you wonder that +the struggle was a severe one?</p> + +<p>‘Pray for me,’ she wrote to her mother, +when the question was about to be settled. ’I +have many a conflict in regard to the proposed new +departure; not as to our support–I feel as though +I can trust the Lord implicitly for all that; but +the Devil tells me I shall never be able to endure +the loneliness and separation of the life. He draws +many a picture of most dark and melancholy shade. +But I cling to the promise, “No man hath forsaken,” +<i>etc</i>., and, having sworn to my own hurt, may I +stand fast. I have told William that if he takes the +step, and it should bring me to the workhouse, I would +never say one upbraiding word. No. To blame him for +making such a sacrifice for God and conscience’ +sake would be worse than wicked. So, whatever be the +result, I shall make up my mind to endure it patiently, +looking to the Lord for grace and strength.’</p> + +<p>But if it was difficult for Mrs. Booth, the path was +equally dark and hard for The General.</p> + +<p>‘William hesitates,’ she writes a few +weeks later. ’He thinks of me and the children, +and I appreciate his love and care. But I tell him +that God will provide, if he will only go straight +on in the path of duty. It is strange that I, who +always used to shrink from the sacrifice, should be +the first in making it. But when I made the surrender +I did it whole-heartedly, and ever since I have been +like another being. Oh, pray for us yet more and more! +We have no money coming in from any quarter now. Nor +has William any invitations at present. The time is +unfavourable. I am much tempted to feel it hard that +God has not cleared our path more satisfactorily. +But I will not “charge God foolishly.” +I know that His way is often in the whirlwind, and +He rides upon the storm: I will try to possess my +soul in patience, and to wait on Him.’</p> + +<p>Sometimes you have heard your Officers talking in +a Meeting, and telling the people that, if they will +but step out in faith, and do right, God will open +up the way for them. The example of our General and +Army Mother has taught us this lesson, for few ever +took a step of faith into greater darkness and difficulty +than they did at this time.</p> + +<p>‘My dearest,’ writes Mrs. Booth to her +mother, ’is starting for London. Pray for him. +He is much harassed. But I have promised to keep a +brave heart. At times it appears to me that God may +have something very glorious in store for us, and +when He has tried us He will bring us forth as gold. +It will not be the first time I have taken a leap in +the dark, humanly speaking, for conscience’ +sake.’</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, a ‘leap in the dark’: +to break up their little home in the North, and, travelling +by boat, to save expense, to bring their four children +to Mrs. Mumford’s house in London. There they +separated: the father and mother went to Cornwall, +to hold a Salvation campaign in a little chapel that +had been lent to them, and the children remained behind.</p> + +<p>Of the marvellous way in which God blessed the Cornish +work, I cannot stop to tell you. Mrs. Booth’s +name as a preacher was by this time becoming as widely +known as that of her husband; and they went from one +place to another, at first together, and then, afterwards, +separately, so as to be able to do more good, for +four long years.</p> + +<p>Whenever possible, our Army Mother took her children +with her: she never left them to others when she could +help it, and later on I shall tell you what a devoted +and tender mother she was; but the strain of those +four long years no one will ever know. I want you +to see the dark as well as the bright side of her +wonderful life; and here is part of a letter to her +mother, written at that time:–</p> + +<p>’I feel dreadfully unsettled at present. I don’t +like this mode of living at all. William has now been +away from home, except on Friday and Saturday, for +twelve weeks. I long to get fixed together again once +more. The going backwards and forwards and being in +other people’s houses does not suit William. +Nor do I like leaving home for the Sabbaths. I am much +tempted to look gloomily towards the future. But “my +heart is fixed.” “I will trust, and not +be afraid."’</p> + +<p>Then again, a little later on:–</p> + +<p>’Pray for me. I sometimes feel as though I had +taken a path which is too hard for me, and duties +too heavy for me to perform; but it is my privilege +to say, and to feel, “I can do all things through +Christ which strengtheneth me."’</p> + +<p>Once again she says:–</p> + +<p>’Well, the Lord help us to be faithful to our +convictions, even in the dark and cloudy day! I have +felt it hard work to do so lately. Many a time have +I longed to be where the weary are at rest.</p> + +<p>’Well, we must labour and wait a little longer; +it may be that the clouds will break, and surround +us with sunshine. Anyway, God lives above the clouds, +and He will direct our path.’</p> + +<p>The General and Mrs. Booth were holding Salvation +services in London when our Army Mother was called +to make a fresh sacrifice, never dreaming of the wonderful +results that would spring from it. You shall read about +it in her own words, spoken many years afterwards:–</p> + +<p>‘I remember well,’ she says, ’when +The General decided at last to give up the evangelistic +life and to devote himself to the Salvation of the +East-Enders. He had come home from a Meeting one +night, tired out, as usual. It was between eleven +and twelve o’clock. Flinging himself into an +easy chair, he said to me, “O Kate, as I passed +by the doors of the flaming gin-palaces to-night I +seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears, ’Where +can you go and find such heathen as these, and where +is there so great a need for your labours?’ +And I felt as though I ought at every cost to stop +and preach to these East-End crowds.”</p> + +<p>’I remember the emotion that this produced in +my soul. I sat gazing into the fire, and the Devil +whispered to me, “This means another new departure–another +start in life.”</p> + +<p>’The question of our support I saw at once to +be a serious difficulty. Hitherto we had been able +to meet our expenses by the collections which we had +made from our respectable audiences. But it was impossible +to suppose that we could do so among the poverty-stricken +East-Enders. We did not then see things as we do to-day. +We were afraid even to ask for a collection among +the East London crowds.</p> + +<p>’Nevertheless, I did not answer discouragingly. +After a moment’s pause for thought and prayer, +I answered, “Well, if you feel you ought to stay, +stay. We have trusted the Lord once for our support, +and we can trust Him again."’</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth, when she answered like this, had no idea +of all that was to follow. She never dreamt that, +from The General’s standing alone in Whitechapel, +a mighty wave of Salvation would sweep over the earth, +nor that God was about to raise up an Army of which +she and The General were to be the leaders.</p> + +<p>But, as always before, she willingly agreed to whatever +would be for God’s glory and the Salvation of +souls; and we all know to-day how, from that little +Whitechapel beginning, grew the Christian Mission, +and how, at last, the Christian Mission became The +Salvation Army.</p> + +<p>Do not think, however, that our dear Army Mother’s +consecration stopped here! No, indeed. One by one, +as they became old enough, she gave up her children +to the Work, and we shall never know all we owe as +an Army to her beautiful spirit of devotion and sacrifice.</p> + +<p>Let us stand together by her open grave in the autumn +twilight. Her twenty-six years of fight and toil in +The Salvation Army are over now, her spirit has been +summoned Home. Listen. The Army Founder himself is +the speaker. He is recalling the forty years which +he and our dear Army Mother had trod together, and +his words sum up better than any other words could +do what she was to our Leader:–</p> + +<p>‘If you had had a tree,’ he said, speaking +to the vast crowd that stood round the grave, ’that +had grown up in your garden, under your window, which +for forty years had been your shadow from the burning +sun, whose flowers had been the adornment and beauty +of your life, whose fruit had been almost the stay +of your existence, and the gardener had come along +and swung his glittering axe and cut it down before +your eyes, I think you would feel as though you had +a blank–it might not be a big one–but a little blank +in your life.</p> + +<p>’If you had had a servant who for all this long +time had served you without fee or reward, who had +administered, for very love, to your health and comfort, +and who suddenly passed away, you would miss that +servant.</p> + +<p>’If you had had a counsellor who, in hours–continually +occurring–of perplexity and amazement, had ever advised +you, and seldom advised wrong; whose advice you had +followed, and seldom had reason to regret it; and +the counsellor, while you were in the same intricate +mazes of your existence, had passed away, you would +miss that counsellor.</p> + +<p>’If you had had a friend who had understood +your very nature, the rise and fall of your feelings, +the bent of your thoughts, and the purpose of your +existence; a friend whose communion had ever been pleasant–the +most pleasant of all other friends–to whom you had +ever turned with satisfaction, and your friend had +been taken away, you would feel some sorrow at the +loss.</p> + +<p>’If you had had a mother for your children who +had cradled and nursed and trained them for the service +of the living God, in which you most delighted–a +mother, indeed, who had never ceased to bear their +sorrows on her heart, and who had been ever willing +to pour forth that heart’s blood in order to +nourish them, and that darling mother had been taken +from your side, you would feel it a sorrow.</p> + +<p>’If you had had a wife, a sweet love of a wife, +who for forty years had never given you real cause +for grief; a wife who had stood with you, side by +side, in the battle’s front, who had been a comrade +to you, ever willing to interpose herself between +you and the enemy, and ever the strongest when the +battle was fiercest, and your beloved one had fallen +before your eyes, I am sure there would be some excuse +for your sorrow.</p> + +<p>’Well, my comrades, you can roll all these qualities +into one personality, and what would be lost in all +I have lost in one. There has been taken away from +me the light of my eyes, the inspiration of my soul, +and we are about to lay all that remains of her in +the grave. I have been looking right at the bottom +of it here, and calculating how soon they may bring +and lay me alongside of her, and my cry to God has +been that every remaining hour of my life may make +me readier to come and join her in death, to go and +embrace her in life in the Eternal City.’</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_05"></a>V</h1> + +<h2>The Speaker</h2> + +<p>’I will never speak to sinners so that one man +or woman in my audience can stand up and say, “You +might have warned me more faithfully, spoken more +plainly than you did.” I would rather die than +that should be the case.’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>No one must think that Mrs. Booth became a great speaker +all in a moment, or by any ‘royal road.’ +She started when about eighteen, as many a Corps Cadet +has since done, by just taking a class or Company on +Sundays, never dreaming of doing more. An elder girls’ +Company was given to her; and she had fifteen girls +to teach, whose ages varied from twelve to nineteen.</p> + +<p>Two half-days she spent every week in preparing for +her Company, and in trying to make each lesson end +in a practical way, so as to do them real good.</p> + +<p>Then on Sunday, when the rest of the children had +been dismissed, Miss Mumford would beg to be given +the key of the room and would remain behind, holding +a little Prayer Meeting with her girls. Sometimes they +would stay on for an hour and a half, and many by this +means became truly converted.</p> + +<p>Often with so much praying and singing Catherine quite +lost her voice before the end of the Meeting; but, +so long as souls were saved, she did not mind that.</p> + +<p>Soon after her marriage Mrs. Booth took another class +of this same kind, and also a little sort of Sergeants’ +Meeting, and then–for you see our Army Mother was +led on, just as you or I may be, step by step–she +gave a short talk to the Band of Hope children (something +like our Band of Love of today) on the evils of drink.</p> + +<p>‘Oh, how I wish,’ she wrote to her father, +’that I had started speaking years ago!’</p> + +<p>A little later on Mr. and Mrs. Booth moved to Gateshead, +and there the people were very much surprised to hear +their minister’s wife pray aloud when her husband +had done speaking; for in those days very few women +thought of praying, much less of speaking, in public.</p> + +<p>’Since you can pray so beautifully, will you +come and talk to us on our special Prayer-Meeting +night?’ some of the people asked. But Mrs. Booth +was horrified.</p> + +<p>‘Of course, I said “No,"’ she wrote. +’I don’t know what they can be thinking +of.’</p> + +<p>Just at this time an argument began in one of the +newspapers as to whether women had the right to speak +for God or not. Mrs. Booth wrote an answer to this +question you can read it for yourself in her book, +’Practical Religion’–and she showed from +God’s Word, that women have the same right to +help to get people saved that the men have. The little +pamphlet was already printed and being widely read, +and our Army Mother lay alone in her room very ill, +when the thought flashed into her soul, ’You +have been helping other women to preach and to speak +for God. What about yourself?’</p> + +<p>’Oh, no, Lord, not me; I can’t. I am, +as Thou knowest, the most timid and bashful disciple +ever saved by grace.’ That was her answer.</p> + +<p>Then the Lord took her back to the days when she first +gave herself to Him, at the age of fifteen. He showed +her that all the way along this one thing had hindered +and stopped her from ’being the blessing or from +getting the blessing He intended.’</p> + +<p>‘Lord,’ she cried, ’if Thou wilt +come back to me as in the old days, I will obey, though +I die in the attempt.’</p> + +<p>But at the moment God seemed not to answer her cry, +and when she was well again all went on as before.</p> + +<p>Three months later Mrs. Booth was quietly sitting +one Sunday morning in chapel with her eldest boy, +when a very wonderful thing happened. You shall read +about it in her own words:–</p> + +<p>‘I felt much depressed in mind,’ she says, +’and was not expecting anything particular, +but as the testimonies proceeded I felt the Holy Spirit +come upon me. It seemed as if a voice said to me: “Now, +if you were to go and testify, you know I would bless +it to your own soul as well as to the people!” +I gasped again, and said in my heart: “Yes, Lord, +I believe Thou wouldst, but I cannot do it!” +I had forgotten my vow.</p> + +<p>’A moment afterwards there flashed across my +mind the memory of the time when I had promised the +Lord that I would obey Him at all costs. And then +the voice seemed to ask me if this was consistent with +that promise. I almost jumped up and said, “No, +Lord, it is the old thing over again. But I cannot +do it!” I felt as though I would sooner die than +speak. And then the Devil said, “Besides, you +are not prepared. You will look like a fool, and will +have nothing to say.” He made a mistake. He overreached +himself for once. It was this word that settled it. +“Ah!” I said, “this is just the +point. I have never yet been willing to be a fool for +Christ. Now I will be one!”</p> + +<p>’Without stopping another moment, I rose up +from my seat and walked down the aisle. My dear husband +thought something had happened to me, and so did the +people. We had been there two years, and they knew +my timid, bashful nature. He stepped down, and asked +me, “What is the matter, my dear?” I replied, +“I want to say a word!” He was so taken +by surprise that he could only say, “My dear +wife wishes to speak!” and sat down. For years +he had been trying to persuade me to do it. Only that +very week he had wanted me to go and address a little +Cottage Meeting of some twenty working people, but +I had refused.</p> + +<p>’I stood–God only knows how–and if any mortal +ever did hang on the arm of Omnipotence, I did. I +just stood and told the people how it had come about. +I confessed, as I think everybody should who has been +in the wrong and has misrepresented the religion of +Jesus Christ. I said, “I dare say many of you +have been looking upon me as a very devoted woman, +and one who has been living faithfully to God. But +I have come to realize that I have been disobeying +Him, and thus brought darkness and leanness into my +soul. I have promised the Lord to do so no longer, +and have come to tell you that henceforth I will be +obedient to the holy vision.”</p> + +<p>’There was more weeping, they said, in the chapel +that day than on any previous occasion. Many dated +a renewal in righteousness from that very moment, +and began a life of devotion and consecration to God.</p> + +<p>’Now I might have “talked good” +to them till now. That honest confession did what +twenty years of preaching could not have accomplished.’</p> + +<p>After this wonderful victory Mrs. Booth never again +drew back. The same night she spoke once more, with +even greater power than in the morning, and before +long invitations came pouring in from all parts, for +wherever she went souls were saved and people sanctified.</p> + +<p>But it cost her a great deal to preach like this. +She writes of one Meeting held soon after:–</p> + +<p>’I got on very well, and had three beautiful +cases, but I cannot tell you how I felt all day about +it. I could neither eat nor sleep. I never was in +such a state, and when I saw the people, I felt like +melting away. However, I got through.’</p> + +<p>Even to the last, when she was known all round the +world as one of the greatest women-preachers of the +day, she never spoke without feeling deeply the responsibility +and importance of her work, nor without having prepared +carefully beforehand what she wanted to say.</p> + +<p>It was very difficult for her, with four little children, +the eldest only four years and three months old, to +get enough time and quiet. We should have said it +was impossible, for she was not well off, and could +not afford to put her sewing out, or to have many +servants to work for her; but she says:–</p> + +<p>’God forced me to begin to think and work, and +He gave me grace and strength to do it. Many a time +while I was nursing my baby I was thinking of what +I should say next Sunday, and between times I noted +down with a pencil the thoughts as they struck me. +Then I would appear with an outline scratched in pencil, +trusting in the Lord to give me the power of His Holy +Spirit; and from the day I began He has never allowed +me to open my mouth without giving me signs of His +presence and blessing.’</p> + +<p>The two books she always used in getting ready for +her Meetings were her Bible and Concordance.</p> + +<p>In later years she taught her children how to prepare +for their Meetings, and some of the advice she gives +is very helpful to Corps Cadets.</p> + +<p>‘"Jesus wept,"’ she writes to her eldest +girl, who was then fourteen, ’would be a nice +subject for you at one of your little Meetings. And +you could find some texts to show how David wept, +and Daniel, and Jeremiah, <i>etc</i>., if you like it. +But don’t take it because <i>I</i> say so–you +must ask the Lord for your subjects.’</p> + +<p>Later on, however, as The Salvation Army grew, Mrs. +Booth felt that, though it was just as necessary to +prepare, yet to speak from notes was often not helpful +to either the Officer or the people, so she writes +to one of her sons:–</p> + +<p>’Get out of them! They don’t fit our work. +When you get on, you don’t want them; and when +you don’t, they are no good. At first, if your +memory won’t serve you, just jot on a small +bit of paper the size of a ticket your main divisions +in large writing, but no more. Like this:–</p> + +<blockquote>’Day of wrath is come.<br /> +’1. God’s wrath.<br /> +’2. Just wrath.<br /> +’3. Uttermost wrath.<br /> +‘4. Eternal wrath.’</blockquote> + +<p>On the platform Mrs. Booth’s manner was as simple +and natural as when by her own fireside; anything +‘put on’ or affected she hated.</p> + +<p>‘If I were asked,’ she says, ’to +put into one word what I consider to be the greatest +hindrance to the success of Divine truth, even when +spoken by sincere and real people, I should say <i>stiffness</i>. +Simplicity is indispensable to success, <i>naturalness</i> +in putting the truth. It seems as if people, the moment +they come to religion, put on a different tone, a +different look and manner–in short, become unnatural.’</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Booth not only prepared for her Meetings +by thought and study, but she prepared most of all +by prayer.</p> + +<p>‘Oh, if we could,’ she writes, ’get +more of the spirit of prayer into those who love God! +Few understand it at all.</p> + +<p>’I always find an exact proportion in the results +to the spirit of intercession I have had beforehand. +That is why I like to be alone in lodgings.’</p> + +<p>Before her Meeting she would wrestle and plead with +God for hours, in tears and agony, and then would +face her congregation overflowing with love and faith.</p> + +<p>‘Pray for me,’ she writes during her marvellous +Portsmouth campaign. ’No one knows how I feel. +I think I never realized my responsibility as I did +on Sunday night. I felt really awful before rising +to speak. The sight almost overwhelmed me. With its +two galleries, its dome-like roof and vast proportions, +when crammed with people, the building presents a most +imposing appearance. The top gallery is ten or twelve +seats deep in front, and it was full of men. Such +a sight as I have never seen on any previous occasion. +Oh, how I <i>yearned</i> over them! I felt as +if it would be a small thing to die <i>there and +then</i>, if that would have brought them to Jesus.’</p> + +<p>Nothing short of men and women getting converted satisfied +her.</p> + +<p>‘They say,’ she writes of another campaign, +’the sinners here will “<i>bide some +bringing down</i>.” Well, the Lord can do +it. They tell me, too, that I am immensely popular +with the people. But <i>that</i> is no comfort +unless they will be saved.’</p> + +<p>She laboured to get the truth home to the hearts of +her listeners, and that is why her talking was so +blessed.</p> + +<p>‘God made you responsible,’ she said, +’not for delivering the truth, but for <strong class="smallcaps">getting it in</strong>–getting it home, fixing it in the conscience +as a red-hot iron, as a bolt, straight from His throne; +and He has given you also the <i>power to do it</i>; +and if you do not do it, <i>blood</i> will be +on your skirts. Oh, this genteel way of putting the +truth! How God hates it! “If you please, dear +friends, will you listen? If you please, will you +be converted? Will you come to Jesus? Shall we read +just this, that, and the other?” No more like +apostolic preaching than darkness is like light.’</p> + +<p>How can I show you some of the marvellous results +of her preaching? In every part of our land her influence +and words made themselves felt; the largest buildings +were crowded with all classes of society, and glorious +cases of conversion and sanctification crowned her +labours everywhere. A lady who was at some of her +women’s Meetings at Lye, near Birmingham, tells +us:–</p> + +<p>’The women left their work, and in all sorts +of odd costumes flocked to the Meetings, some with +bonnets, some with shawls fastened over their head, +others with little children clinging to their necks. +All, with eager, inquiring faces, took their seats +and listened to the gracious words which fell from +the lips of dear Mrs. Booth. And when the invitation +was given, what a scene ensued! It baffles all description. +Crowding, weeping, rushing to the penitent-form came +convicted sinners and repentant backsliders. When +the form was filled the penitents dropped upon their +knees in the aisles or in their seats, so that it was +difficult to move about.’</p> + +<p>When holding some Meetings in a Rotherhithe chapel +(for The Army was only just beginning its work, and +our Army Mother took Meetings in different churches +and chapels up and down the land), the victories were +just as glorious, and one of her Converts says:–</p> + +<p>’There were many remarkable cases of conversion +at these Meetings. Amongst others there were the two +daughters of a publican. When one sister was saved +the other went to hear Mrs. Booth on purpose to ridicule +the services. But she was seized with such an agonizing +realization of her sins that she came down from the +top of the gallery to the penitent-form, crying out +aloud, “I must come! I must come!” Soon +after their father gave up the public-house, and they +afterwards became members of Mr. Spurgeon’s +Tabernacle.</p> + +<p>’I have seen as many as thirty persons seeking +Salvation in a single Meeting, and some years afterwards, +when I looked at the register of our chapel, I found +about one hundred names of those who had professed +to be converted at this time.’</p> + +<p>Our Army Mother, too, was equally straight and fearless +with the rich when, later on, they also came in crowds +to hear her. She had but one message and one gospel +for all alike. She says, ’By God’s help +I will not regard the person of man, but will plainly +and fearlessly declare the truth, come what may.’ +God honoured this spirit, and her Meetings in the +West-End of London, where the great and rich live, +were some of the most glorious of her life. Of one +such she writes:–</p> + +<p>’The Lord has very graciously stood by me, and +given me much precious fruit. Last Sunday we had the +Hall crowded, and a large proportion of gentlemen. +The Lord was there in power, and twenty-one came forward–some +for Salvation and some for purity. Several were most +blessed cases of full surrender. We did not get away +till nearly six, and we began at three. Everybody +is amazed at this for the West-End! The audience is +very select, we never having published a bill. Pray +much, dear friend, that God may do a deep and permanent +work in this Babylon. It seems as though He gave me +words of fire for them, and they sat spellbound.’</p> + +<p>You say you wish you had heard her speak? Indeed, +we all wish you had: you could never have forgotten +it. But several of her addresses were taken down in +shorthand at the time, and are reprinted in her books, +so you can get and read them; and they will bless +and teach you as they have taught thousands before +you.</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_06"></a>VI</h1> + +<h2>The Mother</h2> + +<p>’A lady once said to me, “How have you +managed to get your children converted so early?” +“Oh,” I said, “I have been beforehand +with the Devil."’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>I have already told you how Mrs. Booth had the true +mother spirit when but a little child, loving and +tending her dolls as if they had been real babies; +you will, therefore, guess that with her own children +she was the best and most careful of mothers. She +began early to train them in the right way, and never +left them unless forced to do so.</p> + +<p>‘I cannot part with Willie,’ she writes +to her mother, who offered to free Mrs. Booth by taking +charge of the baby for her; ’first, because I +know the child’s affections could not but be +weaned from us; and secondly, because the next year +will be the most important of his life with reference +to managing his will; and in this I cannot but distrust +you. I know, my darling mother, you could not wage +war with his self-will so resolutely as to subdue +it. And then my child would be ruined, for he must +be taught implicit, uncompromising obedience.’</p> + +<p>But long before writing this she had already claimed +her boy for God and His war. ‘I had from the +first,’ she says, ’definite longings over +Bramwell, and lifted him up to God as soon as I had +strength to do so, especially desiring he should be +a teacher of Holiness.’ These prayers began +to be answered very early. The boy had a truthful and +conscientious nature. Never, his mother says, does +she remember his telling her a lie. But, for all that, +he needed, as do all children, training and teaching, +and Mrs. Booth was too wise not to be firm. She writes +therefore:</p> + +<p>’I believe he will be a thoroughly noble lad, +if I can preserve him from all evil influence. The +Lord help me! I have had to whip him twice lately +severely for disobedience, and it has cost me some +tears. But it has done him good, and I am reaping +the reward already of my self-sacrifice. The Lord +help me to be faithful and firm as a rock in the path +of duty towards my children!’</p> + +<p>We know how practical our Army Mother always was; +sentimental pity without help she despised. When her +little son, therefore, saw and pitied a small boy +with shoeless feet, his mother quickly reminded him +of his little money-box.</p> + +<p>’Would you rather keep the money for barley-sugar, +Willie, or give it to the poor boy?’ she asked. +‘Give it to the boy,’ he said at once, +and so learnt his first lesson in self-denial.</p> + +<p>When the boy was seven years old he was converted, +to his mother’s deepest joy. Some time before +she had talked to him in a Meeting, and urged him +to get saved. The boy sat still and said nothing. ’Willie, +I insist,’ said his mother at last. ’You +must answer me. Will you give your heart to God or +not? Yes or no?’</p> + +<p>Willie looked up in her face steadily and answered +back ‘No.’</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth said no more just then, but held on in +faith and prayer, and some months later, to her unutterable +thankfulness, she found him squeezed in among a number +of other children at the penitent-form. He had, unasked, +made his way there, and was weeping and confessing +his sins with all his heart.</p> + +<p>Needless to say, he was faithfully dealt with, and +the boy, now our beloved General, dates his conversion +from that moment. A little later Mrs. Booth wrote +of him:–</p> + +<p>’Willie has begun to serve God, of course as +a child, but still, I trust, taught of the Spirit. +I feel a great increase of responsibility with respect +to him. Oh! to cherish the tender plant of grace aright. +Lord help!’</p> + +<p>And as with the eldest so with the other seven. One +by one they gave their hearts to the Lord as soon +as they grew old enough to do so.</p> + +<p>‘She used to gather us round her,’ says +one of her daughters,’ and pray with us. I wore +then a low frock, and her hot tears would often drop +upon my neck, sending a thrill through me which I +can never forget.’</p> + +<p>She would pray again and again that she might lay +them in their graves rather than she should see them +grow up wicked.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth was very particular about the way in which +her children were dressed.</p> + +<p>Of course, there was no uniform in those days, but +The Army spirit was already in The Army Mother, and +she would not have any finery or show, either for +herself or her children.</p> + +<p>‘Accept,’ she writes to her mother, ’my +warm thanks for the little frock you sent. There is +only one difficulty–it is too smart. We must set an +example in this direction. I feel no temptation now +to decorate myself, but I cannot say the same about +the children; and yet, Oh, I see I must be decided. +Besides, I find it would be dangerous for their own +sakes. The seed of vanity is too deeply sown in their +young hearts for me to dare to cultivate it.’</p> + +<p>Even in her early days Mrs. Booth felt how wrong it +was to spend time and money over dress:–</p> + +<p>‘I remember feeling condemned,’ she says, +’when quite a child, not more than eight years +old, at having to wear a lace tippet such as was fashionable +in those days. From a worldly point of view it would +have been considered, no doubt, very neat and consistent. +But on several occasions I had good crying fits over +it. Not only did I instinctively feel it to be immodest, +because people could see through it, but I thought +it was not such as a Christian child should wear.’</p> + +<p>In everything to do with her home Mrs. Booth was a +most practical and careful mother. She hated waste +and luxury, but her children were always properly +dressed and fed and cared for, and never lacked what +was necessary for them.</p> + +<p>Ladies who had been blessed by her words came to consult +her about their souls, and to their surprise found +the great preacher, not shut away in her study, but +hard at work perhaps ironing the baby’s pinafores, +or cutting out a pair of trousers for one of her boys! +‘I must try,’ she said, when she began +to live this two-fold life, ’to do all in the +kitchen as well as in the pulpit to the glory of God. +The Lord help me.’ He did help her, and it was +this practical mother-spirit at home which gave her +so much force and power on the platform.</p> + +<p>As the children grew older, they were more away from +her side, and her letters to them are suitable, not +only to her actual sons and daughters, but to her +spiritual grandchildren who will read this little book. +Therefore I am going to give you some extracts, which +you may take as though written by our Army Mother +straight to your own heart.</p> + +<p>To one of her boys at school she wrote:–</p> + +<p>’I do hope you are industrious, and do not lose +time in play and inattention. Remember Satan steals +his marches on us by <i>littles</i>–a minute +now, and a minute then. Be on the look out, and don’t +be cheated by him!</p> + +<p>’All your little trials will soon be over, so +far as school life is concerned; and every one of +them, if borne with patience, will make you a wiser +and better man. Never forget my advice about not listening +to <i>secrets</i>! Don’t hear anything +that needs to be whispered–it is sure to be bad. +Choose the boys to be your companions who most love +and fear God, and pray together when you can, and +help each other.’</p> + +<p>Here is a very beautiful letter written when one of +her children desired to go in for some higher education, +which Mrs. Booth feared might spoil the soul life:–</p> + +<p>’I do so want you and all my children to live +supremely for God. I do so deeply deplore my own failure +compared with what my life might have been, and I +feel as if I could die to save you from making a mistake. +Perhaps you say, “You don’t want me, then, +to learn any more?” Yes, I do, a great deal +more; but of the right kind, in the right way, and +for a right purpose, even the <i>highest good of +your race</i>. I would like you to learn to put +your thoughts together well, to think logically and +clearly, to speak powerfully–that is, with good but +simple language–and to write clearly and well.’</p> + +<p>Just the wish we have now for all our Young People!</p> + +<p>Early in their childhood the elder children were taught +to be responsible for the younger, and when at school +they were given places of trust as monitors, and so +on. As if knowing the responsibilities they would by +and by be called to fill in our ranks, Mrs. Booth +gives them some wise counsel:–</p> + +<p>‘I hope,’ she says to one who has been +left in charge of the other children, ’you will +show yourself to be a true son of your mother, and +a consistent disciple of the Lord. Very much depends +on you as to the ease and comfort of managing the +little ones. Do all you can. Be forbearing where only +your own feelings or comfort are concerned, and don’t +raise unnecessary difficulties; but where their obedience +to us or their health is at stake, be firm in trying +to put them right.’</p> + +<p>‘I am pleased,’ she says to one of the +boys who has been in charge of others at school, ’that +Mr. W. puts such confidence in you; but do not be +puffed up by it. Remember how weak you are, and ask +the Lord to save you from conceit and self-sufficiency. +Try to be fair and just in all dealings with the boys–i.e., +do not be hard on a boy whom you may not happen to +like so well as another; but be fair, and treat all +alike when left in charge.’</p> + +<p>Again, she warns one of them against extremes, even +in well doing:</p> + +<p>’You are under a mistake to suppose that sacrificing +your recreation-time will help you in the end. It +will not. Cramming the mind acts just in the same +way as cramming the stomach. It is what you digest +well that benefits you, not what you cram in. So many +hours spent in study, and then relaxation and walking, +will do your mind much more good than “all work, +and no play.” Now mark this. Do not be looking +so much at what you <i>have</i> to do as to what +you are <i>doing</i>. Leave the future (you may +spend it in Heaven), and go steadily on doing to-day’s +work in to-day’s hours, with recreation in between +to shake the seed in. One step well and firmly taken +is better than two with a slip backwards. Poor human +nature seems as though it must go to extremes–either +all or none, too much or too little, idleness or being +killed with work! May the Lord show you the happy +medium.’</p> + +<p>’I was sorry about the cause of the accident. +I don’t like that way of doing things in fun! +Though it was very wrong and wicked of the boy to +throw the brick, yet it would have been better to let +him look at the guinea-pigs being fed, and thus have +pleased him. There was no harm in what he wanted to +do. You should watch against a hectoring spirit, and +mind the difference between a sacrifice of truth and +principle, and one only of self-importance or of mere +feeling. If a boy wants you to do wrong, then be firm +as a rock and brave for God and goodness.’</p> + +<p>‘Mind your soul,’ she says at another +time. ’Do not let your thoughts get so absorbed, +even in study, as to lead you to forget your Bible +and to neglect prayer.’</p> + +<p>Later, again, as a wise mother she warns them in the +tenderest way against their special temptations.</p> + +<p>Against lightness:–</p> + +<p>’Be watchful against levity. C. is a good, devoted +fellow, but naturally an incorrigible joker. It may +not hurt him much, because it is his nature; but it +will hurt you if you give way to it. It hurts nearly +everybody.</p> + +<p>Watch! Don’t descend to buffoonery. While you +become all things to win some, don’t forfeit +your natural self-respect and the dignity of your +position as a servant of Christ.’</p> + +<p>Against too much talk:–</p> + +<p>’The Spirit is teaching you this–is showing +you that you must be more silent. The tongue is one +of the greatest enemies to grace (James iii. 5-13). +Strive to obey these teachings of God. Yield yourself +up to obey; and though you sometimes fail and slip, +do not be discouraged, but yield yourself up again +and again, and plead more fervently with God to keep +you. Fourteen years ago you were learning to walk, +and in the process you got many a tumble. But now +you can not only walk yourself, but teach others. +So, spiritually, if you will only let God lead you, +He will perfect that which is lacking in you.’</p> + +<p>But it was not at first easy for the mother-spirit +in Mrs. Booth to allow her delicate girls of fourteen +or fifteen to undertake a public life, and to speak +and sing at the street corners, surrounded by a rough, +low crowd. Such a thing was unheard-of in those days.</p> + +<p>Once, hearing that her daughter Catherine had spoken +in the open air to a large crowd, Mrs. Booth objected, +as other mothers have since objected: the girl was +too young as yet–she must wait awhile.</p> + +<p>But her eldest son, looking at his mother in the tenderest +and most solemn way, said, ’Mamma, dear, you +will have to settle this question with God; for Katie +is as surely called and inspired by Him for the particular +work as you are yourself.’</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth said no more. She took this as the voice +of God, and gave her girl up to the marvellous work +which God had called her to do.</p> + +<p>Later she writes of her to a friend:–</p> + +<p>’Join me in praying that she may be kept humble +and simple, and that all that the Lord has given her +may be used for Him.’</p> + +<p>‘I see,’ she says, writing at this same +time to her daughter, ’what a glorious, blessed, +useful life you may live; but I also see your danger, +and I pray for you that you may be enabled to cast +aside the world in every form, to look down upon its +opinions, and to despise its spirit, maxims, and fashions.’</p> + +<p>Later on, again, came the days when the boys had to +choose, as you have to do, how they would spend their +lives. Mrs. Booth might be writing to a Corps Cadet +of to-day when, in a letter to one of her sons, she +says:–</p> + +<p>’I hope the Lord will make you so miserable +everywhere and at everything else that you will be +<i>compelled</i> to preach! Oh, my boy, the Lord +wants such as you–<i>just such</i>–to go out +amongst the people, seeking nothing but the things +that are Jesus Christ’s! You are free to do +it; able by His grace; born to do it, with splendid +opportunities. Will you not rise to your destiny? +“Have courage, and be strong, and I (the I Am) +will be with thee.” “Get thee out, and +I will go with thee.” Dare you not take hold +of the arm that holds the world and all things up? +And if you do, can you fail? The Lord gird you with +His strength, and make your brow brass, and your tongue +as a flame of fire. You <i>must preach</i>!’</p> + +<p>To another of her boys she writes:–</p> + +<p>’You may, perhaps, be wanted to stand and do +battle for the Lord. Surely you will not sell your +birthright? The Lord help you! Take hold of David’s +God. Hold your head up, keep your shoulders back, and +go forward.’</p> + +<p>Again:–</p> + +<p>’This is what the world wants: men of one idea–that +of getting people saved. There are plenty of men of +one idea–that of <i>gold</i>-getting. They make +no secret of it; they are of a worldly spirit. Now +we want men who are set on soul-saving, who are not +ashamed to let everybody know it–men of a Christ-like +spirit. There need be no mistake or mystery about +it. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” +Paul and every other man of like spirit has had his +fruits, and will have to the end of time. It is “Not +by might, nor by power, but by <i>My Spirit</i>, +saith the Lord of Hosts."’</p> + +<p>With one of her daughters she reasons and pleads:–</p> + +<p>’Oh, it seems to me that if I were in your place–young, +no cares or anxieties, with such a start, such influence, +and such a prospect–I should not be able to contain +myself for joy! I should, indeed, aspire to be the +“bride of the Lamb,” and to follow Him +in conflict for the Salvation of poor, lost, miserable +man. I pray the Lord to show it to you, and so to +enamour you of Himself, that you may see and feel it +to be your chief joy to win them for Him. I say I +pray for this–yes, I groan for it, with groanings +that cannot be uttered; and if ever you tell me it +is so, I shall be overjoyed.</p> + +<p>’I don’t want you to make any vows (unless, +indeed, the Spirit leads you to do so); but I want +you to set your mind and heart on winning souls, and +to leave everything else with the Lord. When you do +this you will be happy–Oh, so happy! Your soul will +then find perfect rest. The Lord grant it to you, +my dear child.’</p> + +<p>She made all her children feel that the only reward +they could give her for her ceaseless toil and labour +on their behalf was that they should give themselves +to the War:–</p> + +<p>’I hope, my dear boy, that, whatever sense of +obligation or gratitude you have towards me, you will +try to return it by resolutely resisting all temptation +to evil, and by fitting yourself to your utmost to +be useful to your fellow-men. I ask from you, as I +asked from God, no other reward. If I know my own +heart, I would rather that you should work for the +Salvation of souls, making bad hearts good, and miserable +homes happy, and preparing joy and gladness for men +at the Judgment bar, if you only get bread and cheese +all your life, than that you should fill any other +capacity with £10,000 per year.’</p> + +<p>To one of her children, when tempted to be over-anxious, +she writes:–</p> + +<p>’Keep your mind quiet. Lean back on God, and +don’t worry. It is His affair, and if you have +done what you could, that is enough. Alas! how little +we have of the faith that can “stand still, and +see the Salvation of God.” What would you do +if you were put in custody for two years, like Paul +was? And yet that imprisonment at Rome sent the Gospel +far and wide! God’s ways are not our ways. He +takes in the whole field at once, and does the best +He can for the entire world. Human wisdom never has +been able at the time to comprehend His plans, but +years after it has often seen their wisdom. Let us +learn to trust in the dark–to stand still.’</p> + +<p>To another, tried and discouraged at the start of +his public life:–</p> + +<p>’I have only a minute or two; but, lest you +should think I don’t sympathize with you, I +send you a line. You ask, did I ever feel so? Yes, +I think just as bad as any mortal <i>could</i> +feel–<i>empty</i>, inside and out, as though +I had nothing human or Divine to aid me, as if all +Hell were let loose upon me.</p> + +<p>But I have generally felt <i>the worse before the +best results</i>, which proves it was Satanic opposition. +And it has been the same with many of God’s +most honoured instruments. I believe nearly all who +are truly called of God to special usefulness pass +through this buffeting.</p> + +<p>’It stands to sense, if there is a Devil, that +he should desperately withstand those whom he sees +are going to be used of God. Supposing <i>you</i> +were the Devil, and had set your heart on circumventing +God, how would you do it but by opposing those who +were bent on building up His Kingdom? He hopes to +drive us from the field by blood and fire and vapour +of smoke. But our Captain fought and won the battle +for us, and we have only to hold on long enough, and +victory is sure. “Courage!” your Captain +cries. “Only be thou strong, and of good courage, +and I will be with thee, and teach thee what to say.”</p> + +<p>’"He hath chosen the weak things.” He +has not <i>made shift with them</i>–taken them +because there were no others. No! He hath <i>chosen</i> +them. Will He ever forsake them, and thus make Himself +a laughing-stock for Hell? Never! Will He ever let +the Devil say, “Ah, ah! He chose this weak one, +and then let him fail”? No, no, no!’</p> + +<p>On the important question of courtship, she writes:–</p> + +<p>’The Devil sets such innocent-looking traps–<i>spiritual +traps</i>–to catch young people! Ah, he is a serpent +still! Beware of his devices, and always cry to God +for wisdom and strength of will to put down all foolish +tampering. You are born for greater things. God may +want you to be a leader in some vast continent, and +you will want a companion and a counsellor–a “helpmeet.” +The original word means “<i>a help corresponding +to his dignity</i>” This is the meaning given +by the best expositors. Oh, what wisdom there is even +in the <i>words</i> which God has chosen to express +His ideas! “Corresponding to his dignity!” +Yes, and no man ever takes one below this mark who +does not suffer for it; and, worse still, generations +yet unborn have to suffer also. Mind what God says, +and keep yourself till that one comes.</p> + +<p>’A wrong step on this point, and you are undone. +Oh, the misery of an unsuitable match! It is beyond +description. I could tell you tales of woe that are +now being enacted. But I must wait till we meet.</p> + +<p>’I have seen too much of life, and know too +much of human nature, to have much confidence in promises +given under such circumstances. For my own part, I +made up my mind when I was but sixteen that I would +not have a man, though a Christian, who should offer +to become even an abstainer for my sake. I felt that +such a promise would not afford me ground for confidence +afterwards. And do not we see enough all round us to +show that unless people adopt things on principle, +because they see it to be right, they soon change? +Look at the folks who promise to give up tobacco and +dress, for the sake of getting into berths; how soon +it evaporates! No, my lad, wait a bit. “Couldst +thou not watch with Me one hour?” Jesus lived +a single life for your sake all the way through. Can +you not live so till He finds you one after His own +heart? I feel sure He will. Pray about it in faith. +I am doing so; and God will answer. But Oh, don’t +run before Him! Wait on the Lord.</p> + +<p>’A little longer and you will be saying, “Oh, +how glad I am I waited! I have now found a treasure +indeed!” When God’s time and person are +come, He will bring you together. How delighted and +satisfied Isaac must have felt when the servant told +him the way God led him (Genesis xxiv.).’</p> + +<p>When standing by her grave The General said she was +<i>The Army Mother</i>. He said the truth.</p> + +<p>One of her early promises, given to her as a girl, +when she only saw its greatness and hid it away in +her heart as too sacred to be spoken of, and almost +too wonderful ever to be accomplished, were the words: +’I will make thee a mother of nations.’</p> + +<p>When called to send her children abroad, she paid +to the full the heavy price; but she also saw the +glorious outcome, and from her death-bed sent tenderest +messages to those of distant lands and far-off nations +who owned her as their Army Mother.</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_07"></a>VII</h1> + +<h2>The Worker</h2> + +<p>’What the Lord wants is, that you shall go about +the business to which He sets you, not asking for +an easy post, nor grumbling at a hard one.’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>If she had not been a worker, our Army Mother would +have done little with her life. The wonderful call +which came to her, her great gifts, the zeal and love +which filled her heart, would all have been useless +had she not been willing to work, and to work hard, +and to work every day.</p> + +<p>Stop and think about this. No life accomplishes anything +unless it is full of hard work–often work accompanied +by much drudgery, whether it is the life of a king +or of a poor man. Mrs. Booth has set us all an example +in this, for she would work ceaselessly with head or +hands or heart, as long as ever her health allowed +her to do so. Laziness and idleness of all kinds she +detested; nor could she tolerate a lazy person in her +service.</p> + +<p>She worked first of all in her home. When she spent +a morning in her kitchen, the work there was perfectly +done. The dinner was ready at the right time, properly +cooked, good and wholesome. She allowed no waste and +no extravagance. Her bread was light and beautifully +baked, and when she had finished her morning’s +work her kitchen was as neat as when she began. She +finished everything, and put it straight as she went +along.</p> + +<p>It was the same with the children. She was alike nurse +and doctor, dressmaker and tailor; she made and mended, +washed and ironed for her boys and girls during their +early years, and herself attended to every smallest +detail of their lives. Strangers who asked where Mrs. +Booth bought her children’s things, so that +they could go to the same shop, could scarcely believe +the reply: ‘Mamma makes all our clothes herself’–so beautifully were they cut and finished.</p> + +<p>And when the little garments were of no further service +to her, she would alter and mend them once again, +and give them away. Her baby-clothes, when the last +daughter had outgrown them, were given to a member +of the Mission for his child.</p> + +<p>He will never forget taking the little bundle home +to his wife and turning over the tiny things. ‘I +had often heard Mrs. Booth preach,’ he said, +’but those baby-clothes preached a louder sermon +to me and my wife than ever her words had done. They +were all darned and mended and patched, and the work–but, +there, I never saw such stitches! And as we looked, +and knew the hours of toil she must have put into them, +rather than throw them away, as many another would +have done–well, I tell you I listened to her next +sermon as I had never listened before.’</p> + +<p>And this same diligent, tireless spirit was with her +to the last. When on her deathbed, able only to use +her left hand, and propped up by pillows, she devised +a little frame on which, painfully, stitch by stitch, +she could work a last token of love for The General.</p> + +<p>When her hands were folded still in death, I saw those +slippers. They were beautifully embroidered, one with +the words, ’He will keep the feet of His Saints’; +and the other with the sure and certain hope which +lay beyond the parting, ‘Our feet shall stand +within thy gates, O Jerusalem’–a fitting and +sacred service with which to close her many years of +toil and labour for others.</p> + +<p>But our Army Mother had another way of working in +her home–that is, she worked over others. If a girl +wished to learn, Mrs. Booth would take endless trouble +in showing her the best way to wash or iron, or clean +a grate, or do whatever the work on hand might be. +She instructed her servants, explaining to them the +reason for doing their duties in a certain way, teaching +them forethought and common sense, and dealing faithfully +with them over all their failures.</p> + +<p>‘Better,’ she said, in one of her addresses–and +she lived it out in her own home–’better take +a girl whom you have to teach how to wash a child’s +face, or to stitch a button on, if she is true and +sincere, than have one ever so clever, who will teach +your children to lie and deceive.’</p> + +<p>She worked, too, over the cases of need and poverty +which were often at her door. Not content, like so +many, with giving a few coppers to a beggar, or some +broken food, she would inquire into the <i>cause</i> +of the distress; and then, if the need seemed genuine, +she would help, either by getting the father work, +or by having the home visited and suitable relief +given after the true condition of things had been found +out.</p> + +<p>And this was only a little of the homework with which +her hands were ever full. Of her ceaseless care over +her children’s mind and soul training I have +told you elsewhere. But of her public work perhaps +the most exhausting was that which resulted from her +Meetings. For she could not rest content with the +most careful preparation beforehand, nor with pouring +out her whole soul upon the people during the forty +or fifty minutes that her address lasted. At the close +of the Meeting, whenever her health allowed it, she +would labour and toil, often for two hours and more, +dealing herself with the penitents, meeting their difficulties, +one by one, and was unwilling to leave them until, +as far as possible, all had claimed and received the +blessing they sought.</p> + +<p>The next day, too, she would follow up any special +case with a long personal letter from her own pen, +or she would arrange another interview, or in some +way keep in close, actual touch with the struggling +soul, until the step of obedience had been taken, +and he or she was fairly started on the Narrow Way.</p> + +<p>And it was this careful, earnest, patient after-work +which gave such glorious harvests to her soul-saving +campaigns. Labour and trouble were a joy to her, if +she could but help one sincere, seeking soul into the +light.</p> + +<p>But remember this: while she so toiled over all who +came to her for advice and guidance, she never repeated +nor passed on to others their confidences. If she +had done so, people would soon have left off corning +to her; they would have said, ‘We cannot trust +her.’ She was, as you know, a mighty speaker; +but about other people’s affairs she was entirely +silent–as you must learn to be if you wish to be of +any service to God or man.</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Booth strove constantly to teach all who +were around her to work as she did. ‘You have +begun well enough–now carry it through,’ she +would say again and again to her children, and whether +it was a doll’s frock, or an article for ‘The +War Cry,’ or a series of Meetings, it was always +the same. Unfinished, half-done work she detested with +all her soul. ’If a thing is worth beginning +at all, then it is worth finishing,’ she would +say; and this great principle followed her through +her life in small things as in great.</p> + +<p>This was the reason that, on her deathbed, she could +say, turning to the Chief of the Staff, ’I have +no vain regrets about the past. As far as my strength +allowed, I have finished the work I had to do as I +went along; and now I leave it, all imperfect as it +has been, in His hands.’</p> + +<p>Perhaps, by nature, you are not a worker. But what +you are not by nature, you can become by grace. God +can teach you to love work. And as you work, you will, +like our dear Army Mother, learn better and better +how to work; and your life, whenever God calls you +to lay it down, shall be like hers, not unfinished, +but complete.</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_08"></a>VIII</h1> + +<h2>Goodness</h2> + +<p>’I see more than ever that the religion which +is pleasing to God consists in doing and enduring +His will, rather than in good sentiments and feelings. +The Lord help us to endure as seeing Him who is invisible.’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>When our first General stood on that October evening +by the grave of his beloved wife, and spoke to us +with a breaking heart of our Army Mother, he unfolded +to us the three great qualities which made her character +so beautiful. First, and foremost, she was good; secondly, +she was love; and, thirdly, she was a Warrior. Let +us, following The General’s outline, look at +these three leading qualities in her life. ‘First,’ +he said, ’she was <i>good</i>. She was +washed in the Blood of the Lamb. To the last moment +her cry was “a sinner saved by grace.” +She was a thorough hater of shams, hypocrisies, and +make-believes. Her goodness was of a practical sort. +“By their fruits ye shall know them” was +a text she often quoted, and one by which she was +always willing to be judged.’</p> + +<p>It is of this ‘goodness of a practical sort’ +that I want first to tell you, before we consider +that soul goodness which made her life so holy.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth could not imagine any goodness apart from +industry. As we have already seen, she considered +it a sin to waste precious time. Any one who was lazy +she could not endure, and when one such offered for +the work she wrote of him:–</p> + +<p>’I do hope you will not throw a lot of money away in trying H–––, just +for want of courage to tell him at once that he will not do, because I am +sure that it will be thrown away. It is the <i>nature</i> of the man that +is at fault, and not his <i>circumstances</i>. He is a <i>drone</i>, and +nothing, no change of place or position, can ever make him into a bee. He +never ought to have left his trade; he never <i>would</i> have done so if +he had thought soul-saving was harder work!’</p> + +<p>Extravagance and waste of every kind she abhorred, +and had she not been so careful in planning and arranging, +her time and money would again and again have run +short. The sewing, mending, and housekeeping needed +for a family of little children when means are scarce +would have been burden enough for most mothers. But +besides this came her own letter-writing, preparing +for her Meetings, and also the hours she spent consulting +and advising The General, whose voice, ‘Here, +Kate,’ would call her from the nursery or kitchen +to help him decide some important question.</p> + +<p>Again, it was impossible to talk to Mrs. Booth, even +for five minutes, without finding how true and sincere +she was. To please no one would she keep back the +truth, or appear different from her real self.</p> + +<p>‘I believe,’ she writes, when quite a +young woman, ’honesty to be the best policy, +and I shall act upon it. Let me have truth, if it shakes +the foundation of the earth.’</p> + +<p>She was sincere and faithful in every part of her +nature: faithful with her own soul and in dealing +with the souls of others. Great or small, rich or +poor, she made no difference, and never held back from +reproving sin when it was needful.</p> + +<p>‘I see more than ever,’ she said, ’the +need of making righteous people true in their <i>inward +parts</i>. Let us be more thorough than ever with +souls under conviction. Let us not be afraid to wound +too deeply. Thousands of professors have never been +truly convinced of sin, much less truly converted. +Sin to them is <i>being found out</i>!’</p> + +<p>Though all through her life our Army Mother hungered +and thirsted to know God better, and to serve Him +more perfectly, yet it was not till some time after +her marriage that she received the blessing of a clean +heart.</p> + +<p>Of the struggle and conflict which she went through, +before the blessing of Holiness became hers, she shall +tell you in her own words:–</p> + +<p>’I had been earnestly seeking all the week to +know Jesus as an all-sufficient Saviour dwelling +in my heart, and thus cleansing it every moment of +all sin; but on Thursday and Friday I laid aside almost +everything else, and spent the chief part of the day +in reading and prayer, and trying to believe for it. +On Thursday afternoon at tea-time I was well-nigh +discouraged, and felt my old visitant, irritability, +and the Devil told me I should never get it, and so +I might as well give it up at once. However, I know +him of old as a liar and the father of lies, and pressed +on, cast down, yet not destroyed.</p> + +<p>’On Friday morning God gave me two precious +passages. First, “Come unto Me all ye that labour +and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” +Oh, how sweet it sounded to my poor, weary, sin-stricken +soul! I almost dared to believe that He did give me +rest from inbred sin–the rest of perfect Holiness. +But I staggered at the promise through unbelief, and +therefore failed to enter in. The second passage consisted +of those thrice-blessed words, “Of Him are ye +in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, +sanctification, and redemption.” But again unbelief +hindered me, although I felt as if getting gradually +nearer.</p> + +<p>’I struggled through the day until a little +after six in the evening, when William joined me in +prayer. We had a blessed season. While he was saying, +“Lord, we open our hearts to receive Thee,” +that word was spoken to my soul, “Behold, I +stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice, +and open unto Me, I will come in, and sup with him.” +I felt sure He had long been knocking, and Oh, how +I yearned to receive Him as a perfect Saviour! But +Oh, the inveterate habit of unbelief! How wonderful +that God should have borne so long with me! When we +got up from our knees, I lay on the sofa, exhausted +with the excitement and effort of the day. William +said, “Don’t you lay all on the altar?” +I replied, “I am sure I do!” Then he said, +“And isn’t the altar holy?” I replied +in the language of the Holy Ghost, “The altar +is most holy, and whatsoever toucheth it is holy.” +Then, said he, “Are you not holy?” I replied +with my heart full of emotion and with some faith, +“Oh, I think I am!” Immediately the word +was given me to confirm my faith. “Now are ye +clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” +And I took hold–true, with a trembling hand, and +not unmolested by the tempter, but I held fast the +beginning of my confidence, and it grew stronger, and +from that moment I have dared to reckon myself dead +indeed unto sin, and alive unto God through Jesus +Christ my Lord.</p> + +<p>’I did not feel much rapturous joy, but perfect +peace, the sweet rest which Jesus promised to the +heavy laden. I have understood the Apostle’s +meaning when he says, “We who believe do enter +into rest.” This is just descriptive of my state +at present. Not that I am not tempted, but I am allowed +to know the Devil when he approaches me, and I look +to my Deliverer Jesus, and He still gives me rest. +Two or three very trying things occurred on Saturday, +which at another time would have excited impatience, +but I was kept by the power of God through faith unto +full Salvation.</p> + +<p>’And now what shall I say? “Unto Him who +has washed me in His own Blood be glory and dominion +for ever and ever,” and all within me says “Amen!” +Oh! I cannot describe, I have no words to set forth +the sense I have of my own utter unworthiness. Satan +has met me frequently with my peculiarly aggravated +sins, and I have admitted it all. But then I have said, +the Lord has not made my sanctification to depend +in any measure on my own worthiness or unworthiness, +but on the worthiness of my Saviour. He came to seek +and to save “that which was lost.” “Where +sin hath abounded, grace doth much more abound"’</p> + +<p>How wonderfully in after years Mrs. Booth explained +and led others into this same blessing, we know. Was +not, then, the long struggle and agony on her own +behalf worth it? Yes, indeed, and it will be so with +you when you get this glorious blessing in your soul.</p> + +<p>You will have noticed how in struggling for Holiness +Mrs. Booth had to fight unbelief. This determination +to trust God fully marked her out as strong in faith.</p> + +<p>She had this marvellous faith because she obeyed and +struggled to throw herself on the Lord; but faith +was not <i>natural</i> to her any more than it +is to you or me.</p> + +<p>Often money was short, and she hardly knew how she +would be able to feed and clothe her family: this +was a sore trial of her faith. On one such occasion +she wrote to her mother:–</p> + +<p>’We have not at present received as much as +our travelling expenses and house rent. I feel a good +deal perplexed, and am sometimes tempted to mistrust +the Lord. But I will not allow it. Our Father knows!’</p> + +<p>Later on we get a sight of her own experience in one +of her letters, when she said:–</p> + +<p>’I am much tried just now by perplexities of +every kind; uncertainty, from a human standpoint, +hedges me in on every side. Satan says it is useless +trying to steer straight through such a labyrinth; +but I am determined to hold on to the promises, come +what will. My God is the living God. He sees me, knows +me, loves me, cares for me, wants to have me with +Him in Glory, as much as He did Abraham, or Paul, or +John. If this be true, what have I to fear?’</p> + +<p>And again:–</p> + +<p>’"Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst +believe, thou shouldst see the Salvation of God?” +This is a precious word. It has kept my soul alive +many a time when Satan has almost overthrown me. “If +thou canst believe, all things are possible to thee. +Never mind whether anybody else can or cannot. If +others are too strong to let Me carry them, if thou +art weak enough to throw up all self-effort, and trust +Me with thy whole weight, I will carry thee, and thou +shalt glorify Me.” I know this is the way. Hence +the babes go in with the simple and the great sinners, +while the reasoners, and the strong, and the proud, +and the fearful are shut out.’</p> + +<p>Again, to one who was cast down, and tempted to be +discouraged because of his failings, she writes:–</p> + +<p>’It is well to see them, for how can we take +hold of Jesus to mend what we don’t see? It +is best to know ourselves, but we Salvationists are +in danger of erring on the other side. We look too +much at ourselves apart from Him who is or would be +our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. +Faith in Him as your keeper will do more in five minutes +than years of conflict without it.’</p> + +<p>Once, in another letter, she gives us a beautiful +bit of her own soul’s experience on this subject:–</p> + +<p>’I had such a view of His love and faithfulness +on the journey from Wellingborough, that I thought +I would never doubt again about anything. I had the +carriage to myself, and such a precious season with +the Lord, that the time seemed to fly. As the lightning +gleamed around I felt ready to shout, “The chariot +of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.” Oh, how +precious it is when we see as well as believe, but +yet more blessed to believe and not see! Lord, work +this determined, obstinate, blind, unquestioning, +unanswering faith in me and my beloved friend, and +let us two dare to trust Thee in the midst of our +peculiar trials. As I looked at the waving fields, +and grazing sheep, the flashing sky, a Voice said +in my soul, “Of what oughtest thou to be afraid? +Am I not God? Cannot I supply thy little, tiny needs?” +My heart replied, “It is enough, Lord; I will +trust Thee, forgive my unbelief."’</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_09"></a>IX</h1> + +<h2>Love</h2> + +<p>The truest love must ever seek the highest good of +its object; sometimes even with forgetfulness of important +smaller advantages.’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>The second great quality in Mrs. Booth’s character, +as given by the first General, was her love.</p> + +<p>‘She was <i>love</i>,’ he says. ’Her +whole soul was full of tender, deep compassion. Oh, +how she loved, how she pitied the suffering poor! How +she longed to put her arms round the sorrowful, and +help them!’</p> + +<p>‘How,’ asked Mrs. Booth once, ’are +we to put heart into people? Even grace seems to fail +to do so in many instances. I think it needs mothers +to do this from infancy upwards.’</p> + +<p>You will recollect that Mrs. Mumford fostered this +‘heart’ and love in her little girl; and +you will remember how keenly Katie felt, blazing up +into wrath at any story of wrong or injury, and ready +to sacrifice her life for those she loved. This spirit +grew with her. She could not help caring and struggling +to help all who needed her. The General often told +her in later years that she was killing herself by +carrying every one’s burdens. Then she would +try to leave off for a little, but her heart was too +strong, and she could not hold it back.</p> + +<p>When but a child, running down the road with her hoop +and stick, she saw a drunkard being dragged off to +prison by a policeman. All the people were jeering +and mocking at the poor friendless wretch. Instantly +Katie’s pity and love fired up. She dashed across +the street, and marched along close by the man’s +side, so that he might feel that at least one little +heart cared for him, and wanted to help him.</p> + +<p>To the end of her life she carried this deep, tender +pity wherever she went. She loved the poor. ‘With +all their faults,’ she said, ’they have +larger hearts than the rich’; and she loved them +for it.</p> + +<p>Where any one had a warm heart, she could forgive +and overlook many mistakes; but with cold, narrow, +‘fishy’ souls, she had neither sympathy +nor patience.</p> + +<p>Our Army Mother’s help was practical. She did +not only give money or pity, but she–so to speak–rolled +up her sleeves and helped the suffering herself.</p> + +<p>Every sort of suffering and need appealed to her. +If an animal was wounded or in pain, she stopped, +and herself relieved it as best she could; and to +the last, if she saw a horse or any creature being +ill-treated, she would not hesitate to rush out and +stop the driver, or in some way force him to leave +off his cruelty.</p> + +<p>She was not only kind and helpful to those she liked, +but every living thing that suffered had a claim upon +her, and the greater the need the more tender and +ready was her help.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth was a people’s woman, and she was +never weary of scheming and planning how to help the +poor in the most practical way.</p> + +<p>‘When I see people going wrong,’ she said, +when but a girl of twelve, ’I must tell the +poor things how to manage.’</p> + +<p>Dirt and sin, and drink and misery, could not quench +this love; it was a part of her very nature. Long, +long before Slum Sisters were ever thought of, Mrs. +Booth did their work herself, just because she so loved +the poor, and longed to help them. You shall read +the story in her own words:–</p> + +<p>’I remember in one case finding a poor woman +lying on a heap of rags. She had just given birth +to twins, and there was nobody of any sort to wait +upon her. I can never forget the desolation of that +room. By her side was a crust of bread and a small +lump of lard. “I fancied a bit o’ bootter +(butter),” the woman remarked apologetically, +noticing my eye fall upon the scanty meal, “and +my mon, he’d do owt for me he could, bless’m–he +couldna git me iny bootter, so he fitcht me this bit +o’ lard. Have <i>you</i> iver tried lard +isted o’ bootter? It’s <i>rare good</i>!” +said the poor creature, making me wish I had taken +lard for “bootter” all my life, that I +might have been the better able to minister to her +needs. However, I was soon busy trying to make her +a little more comfortable. The babies I washed in +a broken pie-dish, the nearest approach to a tub that +I could find. And the gratitude of those large eyes, +that gazed upon me from out of that wan and shrunken +face, can never fade from my memory.’</p> + +<p>Before public Meetings took up so much of her time, +she delighted in this house-to-house visiting, and +went especially for the drunkards, over whom God gave +her a wonderful power.</p> + +<p>‘I used to visit in the evenings,’ she +says, ’because it was the only part of the day +in which I could get away; and, besides, I should not +have found the men at home at any other time. I used +to ask one drunkard’s wife where another lived. +They always knew. After getting hold of eight or ten +in this way, and getting them to sign the pledge, I +used to arrange Cottage Meetings for them, and try +to get them saved. They used to let me talk to them +in homes where there was not a stick of furniture, +and nothing to sit down upon.’</p> + +<p>In this way our Army Mother sought and cared for the +drunkards long before Drunkards’ Brigades were +dreamt of.</p> + +<p>When, at a later time in her life, she first heard +of the wicked and cruel way in which young girls are +trapped and drawn into sin, Mrs. Booth’s soul +was filled with a whirlwind of holy indignation.</p> + +<p>’I feel as though I could not rest, but as though +I must go and ferret out these monsters myself,’ +she wrote. ’Almost everybody, notwithstanding +the indignation, seems so content with talking. Nobody +appears willing to take the responsibility of doing +or risking anything. Oh, what a state the world has +got into!’</p> + +<p>But, deep and practical as was her love in earthly +things, her passion for lifting and leading souls +into Salvation and Holiness was a thousand times more +intense. ’If we only realized, as we ought, the +value of souls, we should not live long under it,’ +she said; and she herself realized it fully enough +to make her fight on ceaselessly in spite of intense +weakness. ‘If it were not for eternity,’ +she often sighed, ’I should soon give up this +life.’</p> + +<p>It was love for souls which made her go from town +to town, care-worn, weary, often quite unfit to meet +the immense congregations which came to hear her.</p> + +<p>It was love for souls which kept her sitting for hours +at her writing-table, when she should have been resting, +trying to help those who turned to her for counsel +and direction from every part of the globe.</p> + +<p>It was love for souls which gave her many a sleepless +night, and chained her to her knees, weeping and pleading, +agonizing with God on behalf of the people she was +to face the next day.</p> + +<p>And this love for souls grew even stronger as death +came near. ‘Eva,’ she exclaimed to one +of her daughters, as she lay racked with agonizing +pain, ’don’t you forget that man with +the handcuffs on. Find him. Go to Lancaster Jail; +let somebody go with you, and find that man. Tell him +that your mother, when she was dying, prayed for him, +and that she had a feeling in her heart that God would +save him; and tell him, hard as the ten years of imprisonment +may be, it will be easier with Christ than it would +be without Him.’</p> + +<p>She was lying between earth and Heaven, thinking of +the joy and peace awaiting her, when it seemed as +if she saw the dark face of a heathen woman, and heard +the cry, ‘Won’t you help us?’ The +old love for perishing souls woke again directly, +and she cried, ’Oh, yes, Lord, I will go anywhere +to help poor struggling people. I would go on an errand +to Hell, if the Lord would promise me that the Devil +should not keep me there.’</p> + +<p>In one of these last days she sent a dying message +to the Officers. ’Tell them,’ she said, +’that the only consolation for a Salvationist +on his death-bed is to have been a soul-winner. After +all my labours I feel I have come far short of the +prize of my high calling. Beseech them to redeem their +time, for we can do but little at the best.’</p> + +<p>A little maid who was a Candidate came into Mrs. Booth’s +sick-room once as she was speaking, and she called +her to her bedside, giving her warning and counsel +which every Corps Cadet can take as though spoken to +herself:–</p> + +<p>‘You will be finished with the dishes soon,’ +she said, ’and you are going to be a Cadet. +I have been very pleased with you while you have been +here, because you have worked out of sight with a good +will, and I think you will make a brave Officer. You +will promise me, will you?’ she said, as she +laid her trembling hand on the girl’s head. ‘Yes,’ +was the reply, ‘I will,’ amid stifled +sobs.</p> + +<p>‘Give me a kiss, then,’ said Mrs. Booth. +’Promise me that you will never get spoiled +by any unfaithful Officer. If you ever get mixed up +with such, do not hide it from Headquarters, but let +them know about it, and they will soon move the false +away from you. I shan’t be here; but, Oh! may +God help them to get rid of the wrong. Discernment +of spirits! Oh, why should we not have that gift back? +It is very necessary.’</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth’s whole heart was wrapped up in the +spread of The Army, and she was never more of a warrior +than when fighting its battles. And The Army needed +some one to stand up for it in those days. We who live +to-day can hardly fancy the fierce, bitter persecution +the early-day Salvationists had to fight through.</p> + +<p>Now, even those who dislike and despise us are forced +to admit that ’The Army does a great deal of +good’; but then it was different, and again and +again, both by speech and writing, Mrs. Booth had to +defend and stand up for our methods.</p> + +<p>‘I would not,’ she says, after she had +spoken too plainly for some rich people who were offended +at her words, ’sit down and listen to their +abuse of The Salvation Army for all their money. But +I did not say a word that I would object to have published +upon the housetops. Such, however, is often the spirit +of the rich. They think that one must sit and hear +whatever they may choose to say, and hold one’s +breath, because of their money! But, no, I will never +be dumb before a golden idol!’</p> + +<p>She loved the Uniform: she herself planned that worn +by Army women, and always wore her own, rejoicing +to be able to give to our people a way of escape from +the fashions and extravagances of the world.</p> + +<p>She loved the Flag, and was true to its beautiful +meaning. She loved to present Colours to the newly-opened +Corps, or to parties of Officers going abroad; and +when, shortly before she passed away, she changed her +room, she begged that the dear Army Flag might be brought +in and hung above her bed.</p> + +<p>‘There,’ said The General, ‘the +Colours are over you now, my darling.’</p> + +<p>And she clasped them fondly with her left hand, and +traced the motto–‘Blood and Fire.’</p> + +<p>‘Yes,’ she said, ’Blood and Fire; +that is just what my life has been–a constant and +severe fight.’</p> + +<p>‘It ought to be “Blood and Fire and Victory,"’ +said The General.</p> + +<p>‘I’ll fight on till I get it,’ she +answered. ’I won’t give in. Next time +I see them I shall be above the pain and sorrow for +ever.’</p> + +<p>But, though at the last she longed to be at rest, +it was not easy for her great mother’s heart +to unloose itself from those she loved, and from the +thousands in all lands who looked to her as to a mother.</p> + +<p>If you have learnt to love very deeply you will also +have to suffer, and her very love made the parting +so difficult.</p> + +<p>‘Oh,’ she exclaimed, when speaking of +leaving The General and her children, ’mine +is such a heart! it seems as if it had got roots all +round the world clutching on to one and another, and +that it will not let them go! And yet You can take +care of them, Lord, better than I could. I do, I do +believe! O Eternal Father, Shepherd of the sheep, do +Thou look after my little flock!’</p> + +<p>‘Amen,’ we who read these lines may say; +adding to her prayer, ’And give us that same +heart and love which made her life of such mighty power.’</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_10"></a>X</h1> + +<h2>The Warrior</h2> + +<p>’Fighting is hard work, whatever sort of fighting +it is. You cannot fight without wounds of body, heart, +or soul.’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>‘Lastly,’ said The General in that same +beautiful tribute to our Army Mother that I have already +quoted from,’ she was a <i>warrior</i>. +She liked the fight. She was not one who said to others, +“Go,” but “Here, let <i>me</i> +go”; and when there was the necessity she said, +“I <i>will</i> go!” I never knew +her flinch until her poor body compelled her to lie +on one side.’</p> + +<p>Our Army Mother was, indeed, before all things a warrior; +she fought bravely and unceasingly her whole life +through.</p> + +<p>In thought and purpose she was independent, and dared +to stand out for what she felt right. Cowardice, in +her opinion, was one of the commonest and most subtle +sins of the day, and she had no patience with those +who dared not say ‘No,’ and feared to +stand alone.</p> + +<p>She thought for herself, and though always eager to +hear and learn as much as possible from others, yet +she was not carried away by their opinions, but carefully +weighed and considered their arguments, and then formed +her own judgments.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth strove earnestly for doctrine.</p> + +<p>‘Let us take care,’ she said, in The Army’s +early days, ’what Gospel we preach. Let us mind +our doctrine.’</p> + +<p>And again:–</p> + +<p>’We must stick to the form of sound words, for +there is more in it than appears on the surface. “Glory +be to the Father, to the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” +was the theology of our forefathers, and I am suspicious +of all attempts to mend it.’</p> + +<p>And once more:–</p> + +<p>’Let us beware of wrong doctrine, come through +whomsoever it may. Holy men make sad mistakes. “Well, +but,” say some, “is not a person who holds +wrong views with a right heart better than a person +with right views and a wrong heart?” Yes, so +far as his personal state before God is concerned, +but not in his influence on man. My charity must extend +to those likely to be deceived or ruined by his doctrines +as well as to him.’</p> + +<p>Mrs. Booth’s whole life was a continual fight +against sin–sin of all kinds. Whether her Meeting +was held for the very lowest and roughest, or whether +rows of clergy and lawyers, and lords and ladies sat +to listen, it made no difference to her. She attacked +sin, and went straight at the very heart-sins of the +people in front of her.</p> + +<p>‘We need great grace,’ she says in the +midst of her wonderful West-End campaign, where even +princes and princesses came to hear her. ’I think +the Lord never enabled me to be more plain and faithful. +As a lady in high circles said to me, “We never +heard this sort of Gospel before.” No, poor +things, they are sadly deceived.’</p> + +<p>Drink, too, was another evil which Mrs. Booth fought +against during the whole of her life. She began, as +you remember, when a girl by being secretary of the +‘Band of Love’ of those days.</p> + +<p>In the early days of their engagement The General +was strongly advised to take a little wine for the +sake of his health. Our Army Mother wrote him a long +letter, showing him how false and foolish such advice +was, and ending with:–</p> + +<p>’I have had it recommended to me scores of times, +but I am fully and for ever settled on the physical +side of the question. [Footnote: That means taking +it for the sake of health.–<i>Ed</i>.]</p> + +<p>’It is a subject on which I am most anxious +you should be thorough. I have far more hope for your +health <i>because</i> you abstain, than I should +if you took wine. Flee the detestable thing as you +would a serpent; be a teetotaller in principle and +practice.’</p> + +<p>Though, as we have seen, full of boundless faith and +pity for the drunkard, Mrs. Booth attacked the makers +and sellers of drink unmercifully. She says, on one +occasion:–</p> + +<p>’By your peace of conscience on a dying bed; +by the eternal destinies of your children, by your +care for never-dying souls; by the love you owe your +Saviour, I beseech you <i>banish the drink</i>.</p> + +<p>’Tell me no more of charity towards brewers, +distillers, and publicans. Your false charity to these +has already consigned millions to an untimely Hell!... +Arise, Christians, arise, and fight this foe! You and +you alone are able, for your God will fight for you!’</p> + +<p>Another thing for which our Army Mother fought, and +which to-day we owe in great measure to her efforts, +is the position to which women have been lifted as +speakers and teachers in God’s work. She first, +as we have seen, opened the way herself; and then +she left it open, encouraging and helping tens of +thousands of simple, holy women all round the world +to follow in her steps.</p> + +<p>She had a tough battle to wage. All classes wrote +and spoke against women being allowed to stand and +speak for God in the open air or in public halls; +but, strong in faith and courage, convinced that she +had Divine authority for what she did, our Army Mother +fought on, arguing, writing, preaching on the matter. +Now to-day there is scarcely a land where The Army +bonnet is not known and loved, nor where Army women +cannot gain a crowd of respectful listeners.</p> + +<p>Now I am going to show you some of the hindrances +in spite of which our Army Mother fought on.</p> + +<p>The first of these hindrances was the burden which +God allowed Mrs. Booth to carry all through her life–a +weak and suffering body. She said, when her life was +drawing to its close, that suffering seemed to have +been her special lot, and that she could scarcely +remember a day in her life when she had been wholly +free from pain.</p> + +<p>‘I don’t care about my body,’ she +exclaimed when lying in her last illness. ’It +has been a poor old troublesome affair. I shall be +glad for it to be sealed up. It is time it was. Oh, +I have dragged it wearily about.’</p> + +<p>Most women suffering as she did, with a weak spine, +heart disease, and over-strained nerves, would have +lived the life of an invalid. But the warrior spirit +within forced her body along. Scores of times she has +gone from her bed to the Meeting, and then, exhausted +and fainting with the effort, has had to be almost +carried home. But she had done her work, and sent +the arrow of conviction into hundreds of hearts.</p> + +<p>Writing after one special strain of work and anxiety, +she says:–</p> + +<p>’The excitement made me worse than I have been +for two years. My heart was really alarming, and for +two days I could hardly bear any clothes to touch +me. This has disheartened me again as to my condition. +But God reigns, and He will keep me alive as long +as He needs me.’</p> + +<p>Another of her hindrances, and one which was almost +more difficult to overcome than weakness of body, +was depression.</p> + +<p>I wonder if you know what that is? If so, it will +help you to realize that Mrs. Booth had to fight it +also.</p> + +<p>The Devil seemed allowed to try and test her faith +to the uttermost, and at times to blot out all peace +and glory from her soul. During one such time of darkness +she writes:–</p> + +<p>’I know I ought not, of all saints, or sinners +either, to be depressed. I know it dishonours my Lord, +grieves His Spirit, and injures me greatly; and I +would fain hide from everybody to prevent their seeing +it. But I cannot help it. I have struggled hard, more +than any one knows, for a long time against it. Sometimes +I have literally held myself, head and heart and hand, +and waited for the floods to pass over me.’</p> + +<p>But our Army Mother did not give up working for God, +and sit down in despair, because she was thus tried. +One day, just before leaving for a great West-End +Meeting, in which God made her words as a sharp two-edged +sword, she wrote this to one of her children:–</p> + +<p>’I have been very much depressed since you left–more +so than usual. It is of no use reasoning with myself +when these fits of despondency are on me. I must hold +on and fight my passage through; and when I get to +Heaven the light and joy will be all the greater. +If I dared give up working I should do so a hundred +times over; but I <i>dare</i> not.’</p> + +<p>Another and constant hindrance which our Army Mother +had to fight for the greater part of her life was +poverty. It was so difficult, many times, to make +two ends meet. She had, during many years of her life, +no regular money coming in on which to depend, and +during that time it was a constant struggle to have +her children properly cared for and give them the +needed education.</p> + +<p>But most of all did our Army Mother show herself a +warrior in her own Salvation campaigns. In those early +days there were no praying Soldiers and Sergeants +to be had to deal with the penitents–no one, either, +to lead her singing, scarcely even to keep the doors +or take up the collection. She would arrive in a town +absolutely alone. A hall had been taken in which she +was to speak, and she would hire a tiny lodging, or +stay in whatever home would receive her, and set to +work. We can scarcely understand the loneliness of +her position. Here was a proof of her mighty faith +in God.</p> + +<p>She began these solitary campaigns when her sixth +child was but a few weeks old, and God most wonderfully +owned her labours. At one place she saw one hundred +grown-up people and two hundred children come to her +penitent-form in six days. But it was a fearful battle.</p> + +<p>‘I have a comfortable little cot to stay in,’ +she writes to her mother from one such battle-field, +’very small and humble; but it is clean and +quiet; and when I feel nervous no one knows the value +of quietness. I have felt it hard work lately. Many +a time have I longed to be where the weary are at +rest.’</p> + +<p>At Margate, some years later, she commenced her Meetings +without knowing a single person in the place. For +some weeks she had not even a helper in the Prayer +Meetings, nor one who would give out a song for her. +Mrs. Booth could not sing herself, and there was often +an awkward pause before any one would be willing to +pitch her tune. ‘If only,’ she said when +The Army was fairly on its feet, ’I had been +able to command a dozen reliable people such as I +could have anywhere now, I think I could have done +almost anything.’</p> + +<p>Even more wonderful was her experience at Brighton.</p> + +<p>The Dome, a great building holding three thousand +people, had been taken for her Meetings.</p> + +<p>‘I can never forget my feelings,’ says +this Soldier-saint, ’as I stood upon the platform +and looked upon the people, realizing that among them +all there was no one to help me. When I commenced the +Prayer Meeting, for which I should think quite nine +hundred remained, Satan said to me, as I came down +from the platform according to my custom, “You +will never ask such people as these to come and kneel +down here? You will only make a fool of yourself if +you do.” I felt stunned for a moment; but I answered, +“Yes, I shall. I shall not make it any easier +for them than for the others. If they do not realize +their sins enough to be willing to come and kneel +here, they will not be of much use to the kingdom."’</p> + +<p>The Lord set His seal upon Mrs. Booth’s faith +and courage, for the first to volunteer were two old +gentlemen, both over seventy years of age; and she +had ten or twelve at the mercy-seat before the Meeting +ended.</p> + +<p>Writing from Portsmouth, she tells the same story +of loneliness and victory:–</p> + +<p>’You say, “How do you get on personally?” +Oh, I never was so hampered for help in every way +in all my life! The most able man I have keeps a milliner’s +shop, and the one that opens for me generally is an +overseer; so their attention is divided and the time +limited. Pray for me. I never needed your prayers +so much. This is a dreadfully wicked place.’</p> + +<p>Yet during the seventeen weeks of her stay some six +hundred names were taken, many of them wonderful trophies +of God’s mercy.</p> + +<p>Having lived such a warrior’s life, you think, +very likely, that the death-bed experience of our +Army Mother would be all peace and glory. But no. +Right down into the Valley she needed to use the Sword +of the Spirit and the Shield of Faith, for to the +last Satan was allowed to test and try her.</p> + +<p>But she fought on!</p> + +<p>‘One of my hardest lessons,’ she said +in her last hours, ’has been the difference +between faith and realization; and if I have had to +conquer all through life by naked faith, I can only +expect it to be the same now. All our enemies have +to be conquered by <i>faith</i>, not realization; +and is it not so with the last enemy, death? Yes, if +it please the Lord that I should go down into the +dark valley without any realization, simply knowing +that I am His, and He is mine, I am quite willing–I +accept it.’</p> + +<p>This is the faith that made our Army Mother and all +the Bible saints such conquerors. It is the secret +of their victory–the faith without which it is impossible +to please God, and for which we all need to pray, ’Lord, +increase our faith.’</p> + +<h1><a name="ch_11"></a>XI</h1> + +<h2>Last Days</h2> + +<p>’As I look back on life I do not remember the +houses I have lived in, the people that I have known, +the things of passing interest at the moment. They +are all gone. There is nothing stands out before my +mind as of any consequence, but the work I have done +for God and Eternity.’—<i>Mrs. Booth</i>.</p> + +<p>If The General and those who loved our Army Mother +best had been able to choose for her, they would most +likely have said: ’Let her live and fight and +work on, up to within a few days of her promotion to +Glory. Let the call come quickly and painlessly, as +it has come to others in our ranks.’</p> + +<p>But the Lord, who loved her more than we did, saw +fit to send to her two and a half years of ever-increasing +weariness and suffering. For long months she lay on +the very bank of the River, longing for the messenger +of Death to carry her across. Those who loved her could +not tell why the Lord sent her this last fiery trial; +they could only bow with her, and say, ‘Thy +will be done.’</p> + +<p>It was in February, 1888, that Mrs. Booth, who was +anxious about her health, went to consult a great +doctor and get his opinion. She was alone, for no +one had thought her illness was so serious. She asked +him to tell her the truth–all through her life, as +you know, she wanted the truth; and after a little +hesitation he told her.</p> + +<p>The truth was the saddest that she could hear. That +dreadful illness–cancer–through which she had so +tenderly nursed her own dear mother, had come to her, +and in the doctor’s opinion she had much suffering +to pass through, and only two or, at the most, three +years longer to live. Mrs. Booth listened calmly, +thanked the doctor, and then, getting once more into +the cab, drove home all alone.</p> + +<p>It was a dark journey. The War needed her. The General +needed her. Her children needed her. And yet the sentence +of Death had been passed upon her, and she must soon +leave them all. What did she do? I think you can guess.</p> + +<p>She knelt down in the cab, and in prayer committed +to God, in a new and deeper way than ever before, +her own body, and her dear ones and the work He had +given her to do.</p> + +<p>At last the cab stopped before her own door, and The +General came out to meet her.</p> + +<p>‘I shall never forget that meeting in this world, +or the next,’ he says. ’I had been watching +for the cab, and had run out to meet her and help +her up the steps. She tried to smile on me through +her tears; but, drawing me into the room, soon told +me, bit by bit, what the doctor had said. I sat down +speechless. She rose from her seat, and came and knelt +beside me, saying: “Do you know what was my first +thought? That I should not be there to nurse you in +your last hour.”</p> + +<p>’I was stunned. I felt as if the whole world +were coming to a standstill. Opposite me, on the wall, +was a picture of Christ on the cross. I thought I +could understand it then, as never before. She talked +to me like an angel; she talked as she had never talked +before. I could say little or nothing. I could only +kneel with her and try to pray. That very same night +The General was to leave London for some great Meetings +in Holland, and Mrs. Booth would not hear of his changing +his plans and remaining with her.</p> + +<p>‘The War must go on’ was her thought, +even when all her family stood stunned and heart-broken +around her, unwilling to leave her even for a moment.</p> + +<p>Two years later, when but a few more days of suffering +remained to her, a last message from her lips reached +us as Self-Denial Week began. ’The War must +go on’ was one of its sentences.</p> + +<p>‘The War must go on’ had been as her motto, +lived out in all the long, long months that lay between. +Instead of immediately laying aside her work, when +the doctors gave their dreadful judgment, and beginning +to think only of herself, she went on with it as long +as her increasing weakness allowed.</p> + +<p>But step by step the disease grew worse. First she +was forced to give up Meetings and public work. Then +it became impossible for her to use her right hand, +and she was therefore obliged to give up her correspondence, +though she still continued to dictate her letters, +and learnt also to write with her left hand.</p> + +<p>Soon her daily drives became too tiring, and by and +by she went out of the house into the little garden +for the last time; and then for the concluding twelve +months of her life she was a prisoner in her room, +lying in constant suffering.</p> + +<p>But during these long months the greatest joy and +relief that could come to her was to hear of some +fresh victory or triumph for the Kingdom of Jesus. +Her interest in The Army and her love for the people +were as keen as ever, and War Councils were held and +new developments planned in her chamber, and much +of The General’s Darkest England Scheme for the +poor and outcast was thought out and decided upon +beside her sick bed.</p> + +<p>Again and again, too, Mrs. Booth would receive deputations +of Officers of different classes and from various +countries in which The Army was at work, who came +to Clacton-on-Sea, where the last fifteen months of +her life were spent, to listen to her words of advice +and inspiration.</p> + +<p>There were no Corps Cadets in those days; but our +Army Mother left some specially beautiful words about +the Juniors, to which I must refer.</p> + +<p>When she was told by the Officer then in charge of +our Junior Work in England that the children loved +and prayed continually for her, she smiled.</p> + +<p>‘The thought of the little ones,’ says +some one who was there, ’brought our beloved +Army Mother wholly out of herself and her pain and +weariness.’</p> + +<p>‘A very choice branch of the work,’ she +said. ’I have often told Emma that I hoped when +I was too old for public work God would let me end +where I began–with the children. But it seems that +it is not to be so.’</p> + +<p>‘Give the children,’ she went on, in reply +to the messages they had sent, ’my dear love, +and tell them that if there had been a Salvation Army +when I was ten I should have been a Soldier then, +as I am to-day.</p> + +<p>Never allow yourself to be discouraged in your work. +I know you must meet with many discouragements; but +I am sure the Spirit of God works mightily on little +children long before grown people think they are able +to understand.’</p> + +<p>Again and again during that last year of awful suffering +it seemed as if Mrs. Booth were about to leave us; +but then she would revive, and come back to endure +more weeks and months of agony.</p> + +<p>But at last, on October 4, 1890, all could see that +she was on the brink of the River, and even those +who loved her the most tenderly could not wish to +hold her back.</p> + +<p>‘O Emma, let me go, darling,’ she whispered; +and hearing the reply, ’Yes, we will, we will,’ +she said, ‘Now! Yes, Lord, come, Oh, come!’</p> + +<p>The singing of The Army songs seemed to comfort her; +and once she raised her suffering arm, and pointed +to the text, ’<i>My grace is sufficient for +thee</i>,’ which hung on the wall. It was +lifted down and placed at the foot of her bed, so +that her eyes could often rest on it during those +last hours.</p> + +<p>‘Soon after noon,’ says the present General, +’I felt that the deepening darkness of the Valley +was closing around my dear mother, and a little later +I took my last farewell. Her lips moved, and she gave +me one look of unspeakable tenderness and trust which +will live with me for ever. Again we sang:–</p> + +<blockquote>My mistakes His free grace doth cover,<br /> +  My sins He doth wash away;<br /> +These feet which shrink and falter<br /> +  Shall enter the Gates of Day.</blockquote> + +<p>And, holding her hand, The General gave her up to +God. It was a solemn and wonderful scene.’</p> + +<p>The Chief of the Staff and Mrs. Bramwell Booth, Mrs. +Booth-Tucker, and the Commander, and her three daughters, +Marian, Eva, and Lucy, knelt round the bed, upon which +were placed photographs of the other members of her +family who were unavoidably absent. Near to her stood +her faithful nurse, Captain Carr, and others of the +household, the dear General bowing over his beloved +wife and companion in life’s long strife, and +giving her up to the keeping of the Father.</p> + +<p>One by one the members of the family tenderly embraced +her; then a gleam of recognition passed over the brightening +countenance as The General bent over her. Their eyes +met–-the last kiss of love on earth, the last word +till the Morning, and without a movement the breathing +gently ceased, and a warrior laid down her sword to +receive her crown.</p> + +<hr width="75%" size="1" /> + +<p>You may have heard of those wonderful days from Tuesday +morning till Sunday night, when the coffin containing +the precious remains of our Army Mother lay at the +Congress Hall, Clapton, and when more than fifty thousand +people came to have a last look at her dear face.</p> + +<p>A piece of glass had been let into the plain oak coffin. +It was just large enough to show the head and shoulders, +and she lay as if in a sweet sleep.</p> + +<p>You wonder if many came merely from curiosity. Some +did, of course, but most of the people came because +her life and example and words had been so blessed +to their souls; and they came as they would come to +look at the dead face of their own mother. It was +the most wonderful tribute to a woman’s life +and words that London had ever seen.</p> + +<p>For all kinds of people came–rich and poor, good +and bad, people of many different religions, and many +with no religion at all. Working men came in their +dinner-hour, with their tools on their backs and tears +in their eyes; mothers lifted up their little children +to look at the one who had taught them the way of +life; and, best of all, by the side of her coffin +knelt many a wanderer and backslider to give themselves +afresh to God.</p> + +<p>More than one poor girl went direct from the Congress +Hall to the Rescue Homes, to begin to live ‘as +she would have wished’; and the Cadets on guard +were all the time dealing with drunkards and helping +those who desired to begin from thenceforth to live +a new and different life.</p> + +<p>Even to-day, twenty-four years later, we often meet +those who date their conversion, or their first step +in the Narrow Way, from their look at that face lying +in its simple coffin.</p> + +<p>One of Mrs. Booth’s own grandchildren, Mary, +the present General’s second daughter, looks +back to that scene as the time when God in an unmistakable +manner sealed her as His. She was only five years old +as she knelt by the coffin, but nevertheless she decided +there, in her childish consecration, like Ruth of +old, that ’Thy people shall be my people, and +thy God my God’; and in the spirit of this consecration +she lives to-day.</p> + +<hr width="75%" size="1" /> + +<p>In order that some of the crowds who wished to share +in the funeral service might be present, the largest +hall in London, the Olympia, was taken. Twenty-six +thousand people filled it; and though it was, of course, +impossible for them all to hear, they followed the +service given on printed papers with reverent sympathy.</p> + +<p>The coffin was carried down the immense hall by Officers; +The General and his family followed.</p> + +<p>Those who arranged for this last mighty gathering +remembered that Mrs. Booth, when with us, was never +happy to leave a Meeting unless it had been brought +to a point, and something definite had been done; and +therefore, when the songs and prayers and readings +were over, the huge crowd was asked to kneel and make +a solemn covenant with God.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful covenant, and ended with these +words:–</p> + +<p>’And now, in this solemn hour, and in the presence +of death, I come again to Thy footstool, and make +this covenant with Thee.’</p> + +<p>Then all who had made the covenant from their hearts +rose and sang together:–</p> + +<blockquote>Just as I am Thou dost receive,<br /> +Dost welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,<br /> +Because Thy promise I believe,<br /> +O Lamb of God, I come!</blockquote> + +<p>It was just such an ending to the wonderful service +as our Army Mother would have chosen had she been +still on earth with us.</p> + +<hr width="75%" size="1" /> + +<p>The next morning was dry and bright. ’I shall +ask God to give you a fine day for my funeral, Emma, +so that you mayn’t take cold,’ our Army +Mother had said, for she was ever thoughtful for others; +and her prayer was answered, for though the white +mist crept up from the river to the Embankment, where +the procession was forming up, there was no rain nor +wind.</p> + +<p>Tens of thousands of our dear Soldiers would gladly +have sacrificed a day’s work in order to follow +in the funeral procession of one they so dearly loved; +but, so as not to gather too large a crowd, only Officers +were allowed in the march, which passed through countless +throngs of people from International Headquarters +to Abney Park Cemetery, a distance of about five miles.</p> + +<p>All along the route the crowds stood in dense masses, +and roofs, windows, and every nook and corner were +packed with human beings. Nothing had been seen like +it, said the police, since the Duke of Wellington’s +funeral, forty years before.</p> + +<p>It was a wonderful march. I wish you could have seen +it! Sometimes it seemed as if every one was weeping; +and when the open hearse, with its plain oak coffin, +crowned by The Army bonnet and well-worn Bible, passed, +all heads were bared, all voices hushed, and tears +filled all eyes.</p> + +<p>The General, standing alone in his open carriage all +along the long, sad way, must have felt that he had +the people’s sympathy and love with him in his +grief, for scores of heartfelt ‘God bless you’s!’ +came from lips that are unused to such words.</p> + +<p>And at last the yellow evening sun shone out as the +great procession reached the gates of Abney Park Cemetery +and wound towards the open grave.</p> + +<p>Only a part of the mighty throng could hear The General’s +beautiful words, so strong and yet so tender, from +which I have already quoted, but all joined in the +song, ‘Rock of Ages,’ which seemed to roll +up to the heavens themselves.</p> + +<p>Several leading Officers and members of The General’s +own family prayed and spoke, wonderfully upheld in +spite of their deep grief and the strain of the last +days. And then by the open grave the present General +led all hearts to make a fresh consecration, the whole +assembly promising, with God’s help, that they +would be</p> + +<p>’Faithful to Thee, faithful to one another, +and faithful to a dying world, till we meet our beloved +Mother in the Morning. Amen.’</p> + +<hr width="75%" size="1" /> + +<p>If ever you are in Abney Park Cemetery you should +visit her grave. It is very simple. Around the little +piece of earth runs a grey stone, with these words +carved on it:–</p> + +<p style="text-align: center;font-varian: small-caps">Catherine Booth,</p> + +<p style="text-align: center;font-varian: small-caps">Mother of The Salvation Army</p> + +<p style="text-align: center">More than Conqueror, through Him that loved us,<br /> +and gave Himself for all the world and for you.</p> + +<p style="text-align: center">Do you also follow Christ?</p> + +<p>and above are two small beds of flowers.</p> + +<p>Do many people go to see it? you wonder.</p> + +<p>Oh, yes. All round it a path is worn in the grass, +made by the tread of many feet; for mothers bring +their boys and girls to see it, and tell them what +a mother she was, and men and women of all creeds and +races pause beside it, and remember.</p> + +<p>Many Officers, too–from distant lands, and speaking +strange tongues you could not understand–come to +The Army Mother’s grave when they visit our +shores. For she was their Mother as well as ours, they +say.</p> + +<p>They kneel beside the stone, and spell out the name, +and then they consecrate themselves afresh to God +and the needs of the heathen lands, and they claim +His grace to follow in her steps.</p> + +<p>For our Army Mother is not dead. True, her body lies +in the quiet grave at Abney Park, and her spirit is +in Heaven; but her life and influence still live among +us, her words are treasured, and our greatest prayer +and desire for the girls and wives and mothers in +our ranks is that they may live to be worthy daughters +of Catherine Booth.</p> + +<h1><a name="dates"></a>Dates in Mrs. Booth’s Life</h1> + +<p>1829. January 17th. Catherine Mumford born at Ashbourne, +Derby.<br /> +1829. April 10th. William Booth born at Nottingham.<br /> +1843. Catherine has to leave school owing to severe +illness. 1844. Refuses to be engaged to her cousin.<br /> +1845. Is converted. 1846. Seems likely to go into +consumption.<br /> 1850. Takes Sunday class of elder girls.<br /> +1851. June. Miss Mumford hears Mr. Booth preach; later +meets him at a friend’s house.<br /> +1852. May 15th. They are engaged to be married. <br />1855. +June 16th. The wedding.<br />1857. Mrs. Booth speaks to +a children’s meeting on Temperance. <br />1859. She +starts work among drunkards. She writes her first pamphlet +on woman’s right to preach.<br /> +1860. Mrs. Booth speaks for the first time in public.<br /> +1861. Mr. and Mrs. Booth break up their home in the +north, and come to London, choosing +an evangelistic life.<br /> +1864. Mrs. Booth begins to hold Evangelistic campaigns +apart from her husband.<br /> +1864. July. East End Mission begun.<br /> 1868. First Headquarters +established.<br /> 1869. Mrs. Booth’s wonderful Brighton +campaign. <br />1870. East London Mission becomes the ‘Christian +Mission.’<br /> 1871. Mrs. Booth publishes her first +book.<br /> 1877. Christian Mission becomes ‘The Salvation +Army.’<br /> 1878. The uniform is chosen.<br /> 1886. First +Self-Denial Week.<br /> 1888. February. Mrs. Booth learns +that she is suffering from cancer.<br /> 1888. June 21st. +Mrs. Booth speaks in public for the last time (at the City Temple).<br /> +1889. August. She goes to Clacton-on-Sea.<br /> 1890. October +4th. Mrs. Booth is promoted to Glory.<br /> 1890. October +6th. Her body brought to Congress Hall, Clapton.<br /> 1890. +October 11th. Funeral at Abney Park.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Catherine Booth, by Mildred Duff + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CATHERINE BOOTH *** + +***** This file should be named 7125-h.htm or 7125-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/2/7125/ + +Produced by Curtis A. 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