{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_7125/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_7125","id":"gutenberg_7125","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7125","summary":null,"tags":["Booth, Catherine Mumford, 1829-1890","Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Salvation Army -- Great Britain -- Biography"],"text":"Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCATHERINE BOOTH\nA SKETCH\n\n_Reprinted from The Warriors' Library_\n\nBY\nCOLONEL MILDRED DUFF\n\nWITH A PREFACE BY\nGENERAL BRAMWELL BOOTH\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\n\nColonel Duff has, at my request, written the following very interesting\nand touching account of my dear Mother; and she has done so in the hope\nthat those who read it will be helped to follow in the footsteps of that\nwonderful servant of God.\n\nBut how can they do so? Was not Mrs. Booth, you ask, an exceptional\nwoman? Had she not great gifts and very remarkable powers, and was she\nnot trained in a very special way to do the work to which God called her?\nHow, then, can ordinary people follow in her steps? Let me tell you.\n\nMrs. Booth walked with God. When she was only a timid girl, helping her\nmother in the household, she continually sought after Him; and when, in\nlater years, she became known by multitudes, and was written of in the\nnewspapers, and greatly beloved by the good in many lands, there was no\ndifference in her life in that matter. She was not content with being\nMrs. General Booth of The Salvation Army, and with being looked upon as a\ngreat and good woman, giving her life to bless others. No!  she listened\ndaily for God's voice in her own heart, sought after His will, and leaned\ncontinually for strength and grace upon her Saviour.  You can be like her\nin that.\n\nMrs. Booth was a soul-winner. A little while before her spirit passed\ninto the presence of God, and when she knew that death was quite near to\nher, she said: 'Tell the Soldiers that the great consolation for a\nSalvationist on his dying bed is to feel that he has been a soul-winner.'\nWherever she went--in the houses of strangers as well as of friends, in\nthe Meetings, great and small, when she was welcomed and when she was\nnot, whether alone or with others--she laboured to lead souls to Christ.\nI have known her at one time spend as much trouble to win one as at\nanother time to win fifty. You can follow her example in that.\n\nMrs. Booth always declared herself and took sides with right.  Whatever\nwas happening around her, people always knew which side she was on. She\nspoke out for the right, the good, and the true, even when doing so\ninvolved very disagreeable experiences and the bearing of much\nunkindness.  She hated the spirit which can look on at what is wicked and\nfalse or cruel, and say, 'Oh, that is not my affair!' You can follow her\nexample in this also.\n\nMrs. Booth laboured all her life to improve her gifts. She thought; she\nprayed; she worked; she read--above all, she read her Bible.  It was her\ncompanion as a child, as a young follower of Christ, and then as a Leader\nin The Army. Those miserable words which some of us hear so often about\nsome bad or unfinished work--'Oh, that will do'--were seldom heard from\nher lips.  She was always striving, striving, striving to do better, and\nyet better, and again better still. All this also you can do.\n\nMrs. Booth was full of sympathy. No one who was in need or in sorrow, or\nwho was suffering, could meet her without finding out that,  she was in\nsympathy with them.  Her heart was tender with the love of Christ, and so\nshe was deeply touched by the sin and sorrow around her just as He was.\nEven the miseries of the dumb animals moved her to efforts on their\nbehalf. This sympathy made Mrs. Booth quick to see and appreciate the\ntoil and self-denial of others, and ever grateful for any kindness shown\nto her or to The Army or to those in need of any kind. The very humblest\nand youngest of those who read this little book can be like her in all\nthis.\n\nMrs. Booth endured to the end. She never turned back. She was faithful.\nHer life and work would have been spoilt if she had given up the fight.\nShe was often sorely tempted. She was slandered and misrepresented by\nenemies, betrayed by false friends, and often deeply wounded by those who\nprofessed to love her, though they deserted the Flag. But she held fast.\nYou can be like her in that.  You may make many mistakes, suffer many\ndefeats, but you can still keep going on, and it is to those who go on to\nthe very end, whether in weakness or in strength, that Jesus will give\nthe crown of life.\n\nMrs. Booth trusted with all her heart in the love and sacrifice of her\nSaviour. These were her hope and her strength. When at the height of her\ninfluence and popularity she delighted in that wonderful song which we\nstill so often sing:--\n\n  I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,\n  And purchased my pardon when nailed to the tree;\n\nand when, amid much suffering, she lay dying, we often sang together\nwith her:--\n\n  Victory for me!\n  Through the Blood of Christ my Saviour;\n  Victory for me!\n  Through the precious Blood.\n\nThis was her victory. You can follow her in the faith that won it. Will\nyou?\n\nBRAMWELL BOOTH.\n\n_International Headquarters._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n   I. CHILDHOOD\n  II. CONVERSION AND SOUL STRUGGLES\n III. A THREE-YEARS ENGAGEMENT\n  IV. A LIFE OF SACRIFICE\n   V. THE SPEAKER\n  VI. THE MOTHER\n VII. THE WORKER\nVIII. GOODNESS\n  IX. LOVE\n   X. THE WARRIOR\n  XI. LAST DAYS\n XII. DATES IN MRS. BOOTH'S LIFE\n\n\n\n\n\nCATHERINE BOOTH:\nA SKETCH\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nCHILDHOOD\n\n\n'Parents who love God best will not allow their children to learn\nanything which could not be pressed into His service.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\n\nThe Mother of The Salvation Army was born at Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, on\nJanuary 17, 1829, and God gave to her the very best gift He can give to\nany child--a good and holy mother.\n\nKatie Mumford, as she was then called, had no sister to play with, and of\nher four brothers only one lived to be a man. But her dear mother more\nthan made up for every lack, and from her lips the little girl learned\nthose blessed lessons which, in her turn, she has taught to us.\n\nOne lesson which Mrs. Mumford early taught her daughter was that our\nbodies will not live for ever. She took Katie to see the body of her\ninfant brother who had just died; and, though she was not more than two\nyears old at the time, Katie never forgot that first lesson. Spiritual\nthings were even then real to her, just because they were so real to her\nmother. Heaven was home to her, and Jesus her best Friend, ever near to\nhelp and guide her.\n\nTruthfulness was a second of those early lessons which remained with our\nArmy Mother all her life. She was but four years old when Mrs. Mumford\nfound her one evening sobbing bitterly in her little cot long after she\nshould have been asleep. She had told a falsehood, and conscience would\nnot let her rest. When she had sobbed out her confession, her mother\ntalked and prayed with her, and at last left her, happy in the assurance\nthat she was forgiven by her Heavenly Father.\n\nAfter this you will not be surprised to hear that another lesson early\ntaught to Katie by her mother was to love her Bible. She could read\nnicely when she was but five years old, and she loved to stand by her\nmother's side, and read the Bible stories aloud, with just a little help\nover the very long words. And this love for God's Word grew deeper every\nyear, so that by the time she was twelve years old she had read it\nthrough eight times. In later years people often wondered how it was that\nMrs. Booth knew her Bible so well, and could so quickly answer their\ndifficulties and objections in Bible words. Much of the secret lay in\nthis early training, and in the hours she spent in Bible study later on,\nwhen she had reached the age of some of our younger Corps Cadets.\n\nI wish we could have seen her in those days. She had very dark hair,\nwhich curled naturally; black, flashing eyes, and such a warm heart, and\nstrong, impetuous nature that she could do nothing by halves. Whatever it\nwas, work or play, her whole soul had to be in it.\n\nSince she was not at all strong, and had few girl friends, Katie did not\nplay rough or noisy games, but her love for her dolls made her quite a\nlittle mother to them. She treated them almost like real children, and\nwould sew and toil, and never rest till she felt she had in every way\ndone her duty to them. She loved animals, too, especially dogs and\nhorses, and could not bear to see any one ill-treat them. Oh, how she\nsuffered one day, watching some poor sheep driven down the road! She\nwatched the man beat them--she could not stop him; and at last she tore\nhome, and flung herself down almost choking and speechless with\nindignation and distress.\n\nHer mother did not check Katie for feeling so keenly. She encouraged her;\nfor she knew that a hard, indifferent child, who can see suffering and\nnot care or be distressed over it, would make a hard woman; and she\nwanted her Katie to be full of love and tenderness for all, and\nespecially for those needing help.\n\nWhen Catherine was twelve years old she became very interested in the\ndrink question. She wrote letters about it, and sent them to different\nnewspapers, for there was no 'War Cry' nor 'Young Soldier' in those days;\nand she also became the secretary of what was then called a Juvenile\nTemperance Society, and did all she could to get boys and girls to\npromise never to touch the drink.\n\nKatie was also, like many of you, much interested in the heathen. She\nwould go round to all her friends collecting money to pay for preachers\nto be sent to them; and in order to get more money she would deny herself\nsugar and other small luxuries. No one told Katie to do this; but you see\nour Army Mother herself taught us, by her example when only a child, to\nkeep our great Self-Denial Week.\n\nOf course, most of Katie's time was taken up with her lessons, and, as\nshe loved to learn and study, they were no hardship to her. For two years\nshe went to a boarding-school, and here her companions soon found out how\nstraight and truthful she was. 'You'll never get _her_ to tell a\nlie,' the girls said, 'nor even to exaggerate, so it's no use trying.'\nEvery one knew also that Katie felt for the backward girls and those who\nwere slow and dull. She wanted them to succeed, and would help them\nbetween school hours. That was her joy, you see--to help and care for\nothers; whether at school or at home she was the same.\n\nBut you must not think that Catherine was perfect. Oh, no, indeed!\nSometimes her schoolmates would tease her because she was so quiet, and\nliked to read better than to play; and at such times, instead of being\npatient, she would flare up into a passion, and say harsh, angry words.\nWhen the storm was over she would be, however, Oh! so sorry, and would\nbeg her schoolfellows to forgive her.\n\nWhen Katie had been at school two years, God sent her a very great trial.\nInstead of being able to go on learning and keeping up with the other\ngirls, she had to return home, and for three long years to lie nearly all\nthe time on her back, often suffering very much. She had a serious spinal\ncomplaint, and her friends sometimes doubted whether she would ever walk\nagain.\n\nYou wonder what she did in those three years? I will tell you. When the\npain would permit it, she would knit and sew. She could not, of course,\nhold heavy needlework; but little things, like babies' socks and hoods,\npin-cushions, and so forth, she would make most beautifully, and then\nthey would be sold to help on the work of God.\n\nBesides her sewing, Katie read a great deal. First, as I have already\ntold you, she read her Bible, and learnt to know God's thoughts about the\nworld and sin, and His wishes for His people. For seven months at one\ntime Catherine had to lie on her face on a special sort of couch made on\npurpose for her; but she invented a contrivance by which, even then, she\ncould read her Bible, though still remaining in the position that the\ndoctors wished. Then, too, she would read good books--explanations of the\nBible, about Holiness, soul-saving, lives of those who have lived and\nworked for God, and so on. When she had read a chapter she would shut the\nbook, and write down as much as she could remember of it. This helped her\nto think clearly and to remember what she read, and also to put her\nthoughts into words.\n\nBut she never wasted her time reading stories and novels. Later on in her\nlife she said she was so thankful for this, for she thought that novels\nand silly story books made people discontented with their own homes and\nduties, and put wrong, hurtful ideas into their minds. Let us recollect\nand follow our Army Mother's example here, and not waste time on stories\nwhich are not true.\n\nWe, if we had known Katie Mumford in those three years of pain and\nweariness, should have pitied her very much. We might have been tempted\nto feel that God was hard in not letting her be strong like other girls;\nbut we now see that all the time He was fitting her for the wonderful\nfuture before her; and when she became Mrs. Booth, the great preacher,\nshe herself understood this.\n\n'Being so much alone in my youth,' she said, 'and so thrown on my own\nthoughts and on those expressed in books, has been very helpful to me.\nHad I been given to gossip, and had there been people for me to gossip\nwith, I should certainly never have accomplished what I did.'\n\nSo, you see, God was all the time giving her the very best training He\ncould, and teaching her, as she lay there alone on her bed, what she\nnever could have learned in the ordinary way. And He will train you, too,\nin the very best way for your future, if you will but determine to trust\nand serve Him as did Catherine Mumford.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nCONVERSION AND SOUL STRUGGLES\n\n\n\n'No soul was ever yet saved who was too idle to seek.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nPerhaps you, the Corps Cadet, for whom I am especially writing this\nlittle book, have been tempted to break your vows by becoming engaged to\nsome one who does not want to be an Officer. And you think, perhaps, that\nno one understands your feelings.\n\nYou will be surprised, then, to know that our Army Mother had just such a\nbattle to fight when she was a girl.\n\nShe had a cousin, a little older than herself, who was tall and very\nclever. He came with his parents to stay in her home, and Katie had not\nseen him since they were young children. He quickly grew very fond of his\ncousin, and Catherine found how nice it was to have some one to give her\npresents and to love her as he did. At last he begged her to promise that\nby and by she would be engaged to him. Now Katie was very perplexed. On\nthe one hand she loved her cousin, and did not want to grieve him, and\nyet in her heart she knew he was not truly given up to God, and would not\nhelp her in her soul.\n\n'Go to the Meeting with you, Katie?' he used to say. 'Of course, I'll go\nanywhere to please you.' But then, while she was trying to get a\nblessing, he would be scratching little pictures on the back of the seat\nto make her laugh. Perhaps you can guess the struggle it was for Katie to\ndecide what her answer should be. 'If you will only say \"yes,\" and be\nengaged to him, I am sure you will be able to help him, and very likely\nget him properly saved,' the Devil would whisper. 'Break it off now,\nKatie; do not go another step; you know God cannot smile on it.' That was\nhow her conscience spoke.\n\nAt last, one day as she was truly praying and seeking for light, she read\nthe verse in 2 Corinthians vi. 14: 'Be ye not unequally yoked together\nwith unbelievers.' It came to her as the voice of God.\n\n'I will do it, Lord,' she said, after a long struggle; and she sat down,\nand wrote her cousin a letter, telling him just why she could never be\nengaged to him, and breaking it all off for ever. Then she turned back to\nher home duties, and did not re-open the question.\n\nAnd did our Army Mother in after years regret that she had acted like\nthis? No, indeed; she has told us that she saw plainly later on that, if\njust then she had chosen to follow her own feelings and wishes, instead\nof obeying God's command, all her life would have been altered, and she\nwould never have done the glorious work He had planned for her. It was a\nhard battle at the time, and cost her many tears; but it was worth it,\nten thousand times over, as we can all see to-day.\n\nVery soon after this victory Catherine became really converted.\n\n'What!' you say. 'Was she not converted before this?'\n\nNo. All her life she had, like many children trained to-day in\nSalvationist homes, felt God's Holy Spirit striving with her. Sometimes,\nwhen quite a little girl, her mother would find her crying because she\nfelt how she had sinned against God.\n\nBut when she was about fifteen she longed to know that she was really\nsaved.\n\n'Don't be silly,' said the Devil in her heart. 'You have been as good as\nsaved all your life. You have always wanted to do right. How can you\nexpect such a sudden change as if you were a great big drunkard? It's\nabsurd.'\n\n'But my _heart_ is as bad as the heart of a big sinner,' cried poor\nKatie in an agony of fear. 'I have been as bad inside, if not in my\noutward actions and words.'\n\nAnd then she took hold of God in faith. 'Lord, I must be converted. I\ncannot rest till Thou hast changed my whole nature; do for me what Thou\ndost do, for the thieves and drunkards.'\n\nBut for six weeks it seemed as if God did not hear her cry. She grew more\nand more unhappy. All her past sins rose before her: those bursts of\ntemper when she was at school, those wrong thoughts and feelings. Yes,\nthe Bible was true when it said: 'The heart is deceitful above all things\nand desperately wicked.'\n\nKatie argued, too, like this: 'I cannot recollect any time or place where\nI claimed Salvation and the forgiveness of my sins; if God _has_\nsaved me, He would surely have made me certain of it. Anyway, I must and\nwill know it. I must have the assurance that I am God's child.'\n\nUnable to rest, she would pace her room till two o'clock in the morning,\nand would lie down at last, with her Bible and hymn-book under her\npillow, praying that God would Himself tell her that her sins were\nforgiven. At last, one morning, as she woke, she opened her hymn-book,\nand read these words:--\n\n              My God, I am Thine,\n              What a comfort divine,\n    What a blessing to know that my Jesus is mine.\n\nNow she had read and sung these lines scores of times before, but they\ncame this morning with a new power to her soul.\n\n'I am Thine!' 'My Jesus is mine!' she exclaimed. 'Lord, it is true!--I do\nbelieve it! My sins are forgiven. I belong to Thee!' and her whole soul\nwas filled with light and joy. She now possessed what she had been\nseeking all these weeks--the assurance of Salvation! And then what do you\nthink she did? She threw on a wrapper, and, without waiting to dress,\nhurried across to her mother's room, and tapped at the door.\n\n'Come in,' said her mother's voice; and Katie, her face shining with joy,\nburst into the room. 'Mamma, mamma, I am a child of God! My sins are\nforgiven--Jesus is my Saviour!' she cried, flinging herself into her\nmother's arms. And this was the same Katie, who had been so shy and\nbackward that she had never before dared to speak about her spiritual\nanxieties, even to her mother! Ah! what a change real conversion, or\nchange of heart, had made.\n\nFor the next six months Katie was so happy that she felt as if she were\nwalking on air. 'I used to tremble,' she tells us, 'and even long to die,\nlest I should back-slide or lose the sense of God's favour.'\n\nBut as time went on she learned, as we all have to do, to walk by faith,\nnot by sight, and to serve and follow the Saviour whether she had happy\nfeelings or not.\n\nBut you must not suppose, because Katie had the assurance of Salvation,\nthat therefore she had no more fighting. No--indeed, her fighting days\nhad only just begun.\n\nOne of her great difficulties, which many Corps Cadets will understand,\nwas that she felt so nervous about doing anything in public. No one, of\ncourse, asked her to speak--such a thing was never dreamed of; but the\nlady who took the Bible Class which she attended regularly would now and\nthen ask her to pray. 'Miss Mumford will pray,' the lady would say, when\nthey were all kneeling together.\n\nBut Katie was too shy to begin, and sometimes they would wait for several\nminutes before she had courage to say a few words. 'Don't ask me to pray\nagain,' she said one day to her leader; 'the excitement and agitation\nmake me quite ill.'\n\n'I can't help that,' was the very wise answer; 'you must break through\nyour timidity; for otherwise you will be of no use to God.'\n\nAnd did Katie persevere? Yes, indeed, she did. Here is an entry made some\ntime later in the diary that she kept, which shows you how very much her\nexperience was like yours:--\n\n'I have not been blessed so much for weeks as I was to-night. I prayed\naloud.  The cross was great, but so was the reward.\n\nMy heart beat violently, but I felt some liberty.'\n\nThough Catherine's spine difficulty was better, she was still very\ndelicate, and at the age of eighteen every one felt sure she was going\ninto a decline. But, sick or well, her soul grew stronger, and her desire\nto please and serve God better increased every day.\n\n'I do love Thee,' she wrote in the same little diary, 'but I want to love\nThee more.'\n\nIt was not till many years later that Catherine received the blessing of\na clean heart; but even now she had begun to desire and long for it. She\nalso writes at this time: 'I see that this Full Salvation is very\nnecessary if I am to glorify God below, and find my way to Heaven. I want\na _clean_ heart. Lord, take me and seal me.'\n\nSome people, even after they are converted, are too proud to own\nthemselves wrong, or to confess when they have sinned.  Catherine was not\nof that sort. In one of her letters to her mother she ends with these\nwords:--\n\n'Pray for me, dear mother, and believe me, with all my faults and\nbesetments, your loving child.'\n\nHer hunger after a holy life was real and practical. She knew she must\nlearn to live by method--that is, doing right, whether she liked it or\nnot--and not by feelings, if she was to be of use in the world.\n\nSo at the end of the year she wrote some new resolutions; and as they may\nbe of help to you, I will copy them for you just as she put them down:--\n\n'I have been writing a few daily rules for the coming year, which I hope\nwill prove a blessing to me, by the grace of God. I have got a paper of\nprinted rules also, which I intend to read once a week. May the Lord help\nme to keep to them! But, above all, I am determined to search the\nScriptures more attentively, for in them I have eternal life. I have read\nmy Bible through twice during the past sixteen months, but I must read it\nwith more prayer for light and understanding. Oh, may it be my meat and\ndrink! May I meditate on it day and night! And then I shall bring forth\nfruit in season; my leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever I do shall\nprosper.'\n\nShe had also her own private ways of denying herself, not for the sake of\nearning money or praise by it, but simply because she felt it was right.\nOne of these rules was to do without dinner, and butter at breakfast,\nonce in the week, because she felt it helped her in her soul.\n\nI cannot end this chapter without telling you of the one great sorrow\nwhich darkened all her early years. Some of you, I know, will enter into\nher feelings so well.\n\nHer father, at one time saved and earnest about the souls of others, had\ngrown cold and backslidden, and now never even went near a Meeting. You\ncan fancy what agony this was to both Mrs. Mumford and her daughter. They\nprayed and wept in vain--he only seemed to get more indifferent.\nCatherine would sometimes write her feelings and her sorrow in her diary,\nand there we read:--\n\n'I sometimes get into an agony of feeling while praying for my dear\nfather. Oh, my Lord, answer prayer, and bring him back to Thyself! Never\nlet that tongue which once delighted in praising Thee, and in showing\nothers Thy willingness to save, be engaged in uttering the lamentations\nof the lost! Oh, awful thought! Lord, have mercy! Save, Oh! save him in\nany way Thou seest best, though it be ever so painful. If by removing me\nThou canst do this, cut short Thy work, and take me Home. Let me be bold\nto speak in Thy name. Oh, give me true courage and liberty, and when I\nwrite to him, bless what I say to the good of his soul!'\n\nFor many years this prayer of Catherine's was not answered; but she held\non, as you must do for those you love, in faith and prayer; and at last\nshe had the unspeakable joy of seeing her dear father come back to God\nthrough one of her own Meetings which he had attended. His last years\nwere full of peace, and were spent in serving God and rejoicing in His\nSalvation.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nA THREE-YEARS ENGAGEMENT\n\n\n\n'What a need there is for effort and energy; or real religion and common\nsense!'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nOne Sunday, when Catherine and her mother went to the Meeting as usual,\nthey found a 'Special' there, taking the services. He was quite different\nfrom the other Specials, and Catherine could not help noticing him with\nextra interest. He spoke to the people's hearts, and was not so much\noccupied in preaching a good sermon as in getting some one converted. But\nhe did preach a very good sermon for all that, and chose this verse as\nhis text--'This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.'\n\nA few days later Catherine and her mother were spending the evening with\na friend, when the very same preacher came in, and was introduced to them\nas the Rev. William Booth.\n\nCatherine knew they had one subject in common--love for souls; but before\nthe evening ended she discovered that the young minister was quite as\nearnest as she was herself in fighting the Drink curse and all that was\nconnected with it.\n\nA few Sundays later Mr. Booth preached again in the same building, this\ntime as the minister, or, as we should say, 'Officer in charge,' and no\nlonger as a Special. And now you will guess that the two often met, and\nthat, because they had so many interests in common, they soon learned to\nknow each other well, till respect grew into friendship, and friendship\ninto love.\n\nCatherine was at this time twenty-two years old, and Mr. Booth was three\nmonths younger; but, though you would have said they were old enough to\nknow their own minds, they did nothing hastily, and would enter into no\nengagement till they were quite sure of God's Will in the matter.\n\nHad Catherine ever before thought of the day when she would get married?\nyou, perhaps, ask. Oh, yes, indeed, and when but a girl of\nsixteen--directly, in fact, after she was saved--she settled in her own\nheart what sort of a man her future husband must be. First, she decided,\nhe must be truly converted, and a total abstainer, not to please her,\nbut from his own choice. Then he must be a man of sense, or she could\nnever respect him; and, if they were to be happy, they must feel and\nthink alike on all important matters.\n\nAh, if our women-Soldiers and Cadets to-day would but follow our Army\nMother's example, there would be fewer unhappy marriages and wrecked\nlives!\n\nBut in her secret heart Catherine had also, girl-like, some ideas about\nthe sort of man she would like to marry, if she might choose. He should\nbe a minister--that was the nearest she could get to an Officer in those\ndays; William was a name she particularly liked, and--if only he might be\ntall and dark! If you had been there when Katie Mumford first listened to\nhis preaching you would have seen that he was 'tall and dark' indeed.\n\nBut though William Booth loved Catherine with a deep and holy love, which\nincreased each time they met, yet he was very poor, and he wondered if he\nought, under the circumstances, to ask her to share his lot. He wrote a\nletter to her, telling her how perplexed and troubled he was, and her\nanswer shows us that, right from the very earliest days, before they were\neven engaged, her one desire was that his soul should prosper.\n\n'My dear friend,' she begins ... 'The thought that I should cause you any\nsuffering or increase your perplexity is almost unbearable. I am tempted\nto wish that we had never seen each other. Do try to forget me, as far as\nthe remembrance would injure your usefulness or spoil your peace. If I\nhave no alternative but to oppose the Will of God, or trample on the\ndesolations of my own heart, _my choice is made_. \"Thy will be done\"\nis my constant cry. I care not for myself; but Oh, if I cause you to err,\nI shall never be happy again.'\n\nIt was not the fear of poverty that frightened her, for a few days later\nshe says:--\n\n'I fear you did not fully understand my difficulty. It was not\ncircumstances. I thought I had assured you that a bright prospect would\nnot allure me, nor a dark one affright me, if only we are _one in\nheart_.\n\nMy only reason for wishing to defer the engagement was that _you_\nmight feel satisfied in your mind that the step is right.... If you are\nconvinced on this point, let circumstances go, and let us be one, come\nwhat may.'\n\nThis is exactly what they did, and after meeting, and together\nconsecrating their lives to God, they solemnly pledged themselves to each\nother.\n\nAnd now began a three-years' engagement, in which, though often for long\nmonths at a time they never met, they remained true to each other and to\nGod, in thought and word and deed.\n\nMany of the beautiful letters that our Army Mother wrote to The General\nat this time, I am glad to tell you, have been kept, and we will look\ntogether at some of the ways in which she tried to help and cheer him.\n\nIn the first letter after their engagement she ends with these words:--\n\n'The more you lead me up to Christ in all things, the more highly shall I\nesteem you; and if it be possible to love you more than I do now, the\nmore shall I love you. You are always present in my thoughts.'\n\nNow you must not think that, even in these early days, our General had a\nvery easy life. He was often much perplexed and troubled, longing above\nall to do God's Will for the Salvation of the people, and yet not quite\nsure what that Will was. At these times Catherine was of untold help to\nhim.\n\nOnce he was very unsettled--not certain whether he should remain away in\nthe North of England, or accept a place in London, where the two could\noften meet. Most girls would have said, 'Oh, come, then we shall be near\nto each other'; but you will see that her advice to him is just as\nsuitable for you when you are not certain of your duty--that she does not\nconsider her own feelings at all.\n\n'I wish,' she writes, 'you prayed more and talked less about the matter.\nTry it, and be determined to get clear and settled views as to your\ncourse. Leave your heart before God, and get satisfied in His sight, and\nthen do it, be it what it may. I cannot bear the idea of your being\nunhappy. Pray do in this as you feel in your soul it will be right. My\nconscience is no standard for yours.'\n\nThen she adds, lower down:--\n\n'Oh, if you come to London, let us be determined to reap a blessed\nharvest. Let our fellowship be sanctified to our souls' everlasting good.\nMy mind is made up to do my part towards it. I hope to be firm as a rock\non some points. The Lord help me. We must aim to improve each other's\nmind and character. Let us pray for grace to do it in the best way and to\nthe fullest extent possible.'\n\n'Anyway,' she says, a day or two later--and ever remember her words when\noutside things try and distress you--'don't let the controversy hurt your\nsoul. Live near to God by prayer.... You believe He answers prayer. Then\ntake courage. Just fall down at His feet, and open your very soul before\nHim, and throw yourself right into His arms. Tell Him that if you are\nwrong you only wait to be set right, and, be the path rough or smooth,\nyou will walk in it.\n\n'Oh, you must live close to God! If you are a greater distance from Him\nthan you were, just stop the whirl of outward things, or rather leave it,\nand shut yourself up with Him till all is clear and bright upwards. Do,\nthere's a dear. Oh, how much we lose by not coming to the point. Now, at\nonce, realize your union with Christ, and trust Him to lead you through\nthis perplexity. Bless you. Excuse this advice. I am anxious for your\nsoul. Look up. If God hears my prayers, He must guide you--He will guide\nyou.'\n\nIn these early days our General was tempted, as some of us are tempted\nto-day, to feel nervous and shy when talking before large crowds, and\nwhere the people were better dressed and better off than usual. He wrote\nhis feelings to Catherine, and she sends him back her wise advice and\nhelp. 'I am sorry for this,' she says, 'and am persuaded it is the fear\nof man which shackles you. Do not give place to this feeling. Remember\nyou are _the_ Lord's servant, and if you are a faithful one it will\nbe a small matter with you to be judged of man's judgment. Let nothing be\nwanting beforehand to make what you say helpful, but when you are before\nthe people try to think only of your own responsibility to Him who hath\nsent you.'\n\nAgain, later, she writes:--\n\n'Try and cast off the fear of man. Fix your eyes simply on the glory of\nGod, and care not for frown or praise of man. Rest not till your soul is\nfully alive to God.' How truly she herself carried this out in her own\nMeetings you will hear later on.\n\nMiss Mumford was very anxious that The General should improve himself\nwith plenty of hard work. She saw what he might become, and she also knew\nthat unless he did _his_ part all those wonderful powers which God\nhad lent to him would be thrown away.\n\n'Do assure me,' she writes, 'my own dear William, that no want of energy\nor effort on your part shall hinder the improvement of those talents God\nhas given you.'\n\nSo that, with his constant travelling and preaching, he might get time to\nread and think and learn, she suggested a little plan to him in his\nbillets.\n\n'Could you not,' she says, 'provide yourself with a small leather bag or\ncase, large enough to hold your Bible and any other book you might\nrequire--pens, ink, paper and a candle? And, presuming that you generally\nhave a room to yourself, could you not rise by six o'clock every morning,\nand convert your bedroom into a study till breakfast time?... I hope, my\ndearest love, you will consider this plan, and keep to it, if possible,\nas a general practice. Don't let little difficulties prevent your\ncarrying it out.'\n\nYou must remember that at this time neither Catherine nor Mr. Booth ever\ndreamed of the wonderful work they were to be called to do. He was then\npreaching and getting souls saved, mostly in country places, and had many\na 'hard go,' but _that_ was no reason why he should not improve.\n\nDid The General like this advice and counsel? Or did he feel, as some men\ndo to-day, that women cannot judge nor understand such things?\n\nAh! he was wise, and only too glad to have all the help that Catherine\ncould give him. In fact, he often wrote begging her to help him more. The\noutlines for addresses which she sent him weekly he valued and used, as\nthis letter shows:--\n\n'I have,' he writes, 'just taken hold of that sketch you sent me on \"Be\nnot deceived,\" and am about to make a full sermon on it. I like it much.\nIt is admirable.\n\n'I want a sermon on the Flood, one on Jonah, and one on the Judgment.\nSend me some bare thoughts, some clear, startling outlines. We must have\nthat kind of truth which will move sinners.'\n\nBut if Catherine Mumford was anxious about the mind and work of her\nfuture husband, much more was she anxious about his soul. To her, there\ncould be no true love without faithfulness, and where she felt it\nnecessary, she cautioned him in the truest and tenderest way:--\n\n'You have special need,' she writes, 'for watchfulness and for much\nprivate intercourse with God.\n\n'My dearest love, beware how you indulge that dangerous element of\ncharacter, ambition. Misdirected, it will be everlasting ruin to\nyourself, and perhaps to me also. Oh, my love, let nothing earthly excite\nit; let not the wish to be great fire it. Fix it on the Throne of the\nEternal, and let it find the realization of its loftiest aspirations in\nthe promotion of His glory, and it shall be consummated with the richest\nenjoyments and brightest glories of God's own Heaven.'\n\nYou wonder, perhaps, if Catherine ever wrote 'love letters,' as we call\nthem. She never wrote the foolish and sentimental letters which say a\ngreat deal, and mean very little; but she was able to put her great love\ninto words strong, intense, and full of tenderness.\n\n'Do I remember?' she asks in one letter. 'Yes, I remember all--all that\nhas bound us together. All the bright and happy, as well as the clouded\nand sorrowful times of our fellowship. Nothing relating to you can time\nor place erase from my memory. Your words, your looks, your actions, even\nthe most trivial and incidental, come up before me as fresh as life. If I\nmeet a child called William, I am more interested in him than in any\nother. Bless you. Keep your spirits up, and hope much for the future. God\nlives and loves us, and we shall be one in Him, loving each other as\nChrist loved us.'\n\nWilliam Booth and Catherine Mumford were married in London, on June 15,\n1855; and here are a few lines from the last letter she wrote to him\nbefore the engagement was ended, and the long thirty-five years of happy\nmarried life began:--\n\n'I long to see you. Your letters do not satisfy the yearnings of my\nheart. Perhaps they ought to. I wish it were differently constituted. I\nmight be much happier. But it _will_ be extravagant and enthusiastic\nin spite of all my schooling. If I ever get to Heaven, what rapture shall\nI know! No, there is no fear of our loving each other too much. How can\nwe love each other more than Christ has loved us? And this is the\nstandard He has given us. What a precious thing is the religion of Jesus!\nIt makes our first duties our highest happiness. It has the promise of\nthe life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. We will spend\nall our energies in trying to persuade men to receive and practise it.'\n\nHow wonderfully she carried this intention into practice, and, together\nwith The General, lived every moment 'publishing the Sinner's Friend,'\nyou shall read later on.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nA LIFE OF SACRIFICE\n\n\n\n'Since I came to the crucifixion of myself, I have not cared much what\nmen might say of me.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nAt the time when our Army Mother married The General's work was, as we\nhave seen, that of an 'Evangelist' or 'Travelling Minister.' He would\nstay in a town for some weeks or months, as the case might be, preaching\nand holding Meetings, and getting people saved, both in the town itself\nand the places round.\n\nIt was a blessed and useful life, but very wearying; and we can fancy how\ntrying it must have been for Mrs. Booth after her marriage not to have\nany home of her own, but to billet first in one stranger's house, and\nthen in another's.\n\nBut she did not complain, though we see what it cost her by a letter she\nwrites to her mother, telling the good news that they are to live in\nlodgings while at Sheffield:--\n\n'You cannot think,' she writes, 'with what joy I look forward to being to\nourselves once more. For though I get literally oppressed with kindness,\nI must say I would prefer a home where we could sit down together at our\nown little table, myself the mistress, and my husband the only guest. But\nthe work of God so abundantly prospers that I dare not repine, or else I\nfeel this constant packing and unpacking and staying amongst strangers to\nbe a great burden, especially while so weak and poorly. But then I have\nmany mercies and advantages. My precious William is all I desire, and\nwithout this what would the most splendid home be but a glittering\nbauble?'\n\nFor several years Mrs. Booth travelled in this way from place to place,\nhelping, cheering, and encouraging her husband in his soul-saving\ncampaigns. She felt her duty lay here, and even when she had a little son\nto care for, she was unwilling to settle down. Writing to her mother, who\nurged her to leave off this trying life; or, at any rate, to hand the\nbaby over to her, she says:--\n\n'My objection to leaving William gets stronger as I see the need he has\nof my presence, care, and sympathy; neither is he willing for it himself.\nNor can I make up my mind to parting with Willie.'\n\nMrs. Booth's object was to be a help to her husband--not a hindrance; to\npush him forward in his soul-saving work--not to hold him back; and\ntherefore, instead of rejoicing, as most wives and mothers would have\ndone, when a settled home and work were offered him, she was doubtful.\n\n'Personally considered,' she writes to her mother, 'I care nothing about\nit. I feel that a good rest in one place will be a boon to us. Anyhow, if\nGod wills him to be an Evangelist, He will open the way. I find that I\nlove the work itself far more than I thought I did, and I am willing to\nrisk something for it.'\n\nAfter this came several years of great conflict and struggle. The\nConference (or, as we would say, Headquarters) under whom The General\nworked did not wish him to continue the great Salvation Campaigns for\nwhich God had so marvellously fitted him. They wanted him to 'settle\ndown,' and spend perhaps several years in one place like ordinary\nministers.\n\nTo please those who were over him he did this, and spent four years in\none town. But though God blessed his efforts, The General was convinced\nthat he was called to greater things. He loved the sinners; wherever he\nwent crowds flocked to hear him, and the vilest were converted. Was it\nGod's will, therefore, that he should sacrifice the work his soul loved,\nand 'settle down' into an ordinary life, helping and reaching only the\npeople of one small city?\n\nThis question our Army Mother helped him to decide. Try to picture her\nposition. She had by this time a family of little children, and her\nhealth was very delicate. By counselling The General to 'settle down,' as\nhis friends wished him to do, she would have a nice home, a comfortable\nincome, and, above all, the constant presence of her husband, who would\nno longer need to leave her on his long soul-saving tours.\n\nBy refusing the position offered, and choosing instead to take up the\n'evangelistic life' again, The General turned his back on salary, home,\nand work, and went out into the world, with his wife and four children,\nfriendless and alone. Do you wonder that the struggle was a severe one?\n\n'Pray for me,' she wrote to her mother, when the question was about to be\nsettled. 'I have many a conflict in regard to the proposed new departure;\nnot as to our support--I feel as though I can trust the Lord implicitly\nfor all that; but the Devil tells me I shall never be able to endure the\nloneliness and separation of the life. He draws many a picture of most\ndark and melancholy shade. But I cling to the promise, \"No man hath\nforsaken,\" etc., and, having sworn to my own hurt, may I stand fast. I\nhave told William that if he takes the step, and it should bring me to\nthe workhouse, I would never say one upbraiding word. No. To blame him\nfor making such a sacrifice for God and conscience' sake would be worse\nthan wicked. So, whatever be the result, I shall make up my mind to\nendure it patiently, looking to the Lord for grace and strength.'\n\nBut if it was difficult for Mrs. Booth, the path was equally dark and\nhard for The General.\n\n'William hesitates,' she writes a few weeks later. 'He thinks of me and\nthe children, and I appreciate his love and care. But I tell him that God\nwill provide, if he will only go straight on in the path of duty. It is\nstrange that I, who always used to shrink from the sacrifice, should be\nthe first in making it. But when I made the surrender I did it\nwhole-heartedly, and ever since I have been like another being. Oh, pray\nfor us yet more and more! We have no money coming in from any quarter now.\nNor has William any invitations at present. The time is unfavourable. I am\nmuch tempted to feel it hard that God has not cleared our path more\nsatisfactorily. But I will not \"charge God foolishly.\" I know that His\nway is often in the whirlwind, and He rides upon the storm: I will try to\npossess my soul in patience, and to wait on Him.'\n\nSometimes you have heard your Officers talking in a Meeting, and telling\nthe people that, if they will but step out in faith, and do right, God\nwill open up the way for them. The example of our General and Army Mother\nhas taught us this lesson, for few ever took a step of faith into greater\ndarkness and difficulty than they did at this time.\n\n'My dearest,' writes Mrs. Booth to her mother, 'is starting for London.\nPray for him. He is much harassed. But I have promised to keep a brave\nheart. At times it appears to me that God may have something very\nglorious in store for us, and when He has tried us He will bring us forth\nas gold. It will not be the first time I have taken a leap in the dark,\nhumanly speaking, for conscience' sake.'\n\nIt was, indeed, a 'leap in the dark': to break up their little home in\nthe North, and, travelling by boat, to save expense, to bring their four\nchildren to Mrs. Mumford's house in London. There they separated: the\nfather and mother went to Cornwall, to hold a Salvation campaign in a\nlittle chapel that had been lent to them, and the children remained\nbehind.\n\nOf the marvellous way in which God blessed the Cornish work, I cannot\nstop to tell you. Mrs. Booth's name as a preacher was by this time\nbecoming as widely known as that of her husband; and they went from one\nplace to another, at first together, and then, afterwards, separately, so\nas to be able to do more good, for four long years.\n\nWhenever possible, our Army Mother took her children with her: she never\nleft them to others when she could help it, and later on I shall tell you\nwhat a devoted and tender mother she was; but the strain of those four\nlong years no one will ever know. I want you to see the dark as well as\nthe bright side of her wonderful life; and here is part of a letter to\nher mother, written at that time:--\n\n'I feel dreadfully unsettled at present. I don't like this mode of living\nat all. William has now been away from home, except on Friday and\nSaturday, for twelve weeks. I long to get fixed together again once more.\nThe going backwards and forwards and being in other people's houses does\nnot suit William. Nor do I like leaving home for the Sabbaths. I am much\ntempted to look gloomily towards the future. But \"my heart is fixed.\" \"I\nwill trust, and not be afraid.\"'\n\nThen again, a little later on:--\n\n'Pray for me. I sometimes feel as though I had taken a path which is too\nhard for me, and duties too heavy for me to perform; but it is my\nprivilege to say, and to feel, \"I can do all things through Christ which\nstrengtheneth me.\"'\n\nOnce again she says:--\n\n'Well, the Lord help us to be faithful to our convictions, even in the\ndark and cloudy day! I have felt it hard work to do so lately. Many a\ntime have I longed to be where the weary are at rest.\n\n'Well, we must labour and wait a little longer; it may be that the clouds\nwill break, and surround us with sunshine. Anyway, God lives above the\nclouds, and He will direct our path.'\n\nThe General and Mrs. Booth were holding Salvation services in London when\nour Army Mother was called to make a fresh sacrifice, never dreaming of\nthe wonderful results that would spring from it. You shall read about it\nin her own words, spoken many years afterwards:--\n\n'I remember well,' she says, 'when The General decided at last to give up\nthe evangelistic life and to devote himself to the Salvation of the\nEast-Enders. He had come home from a Meeting one night, tired out, as\nusual. It was between eleven and twelve o'clock. Flinging himself into\nan easy chair, he said to me, \"O Kate, as I passed by the doors of the\nflaming gin-palaces to-night I seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears,\n'Where can you go and find such heathen as these, and where is there so\ngreat a need for your labours?' And I felt as though I ought at every\ncost to stop and preach to these East-End crowds.\"\n\n'I remember the emotion that this produced in my soul. I sat gazing into\nthe fire, and the Devil whispered to me, \"This means another new\ndeparture--another start in life.\"\n\n'The question of our support I saw at once to be a serious difficulty.\nHitherto we had been able to meet our expenses by the collections which\nwe had made from our respectable audiences. But it was impossible to\nsuppose that we could do so among the poverty-stricken East-Enders. We\ndid not then see things as we do to-day. We were afraid even to ask for a\ncollection among the East London crowds.\n\n'Nevertheless, I did not answer discouragingly. After a moment's pause\nfor thought and prayer, I answered, \"Well, if you feel you ought to stay,\nstay. We have trusted the Lord once for our support, and we can trust Him\nagain.\"'\n\nMrs. Booth, when she answered like this, had no idea of all that was to\nfollow. She never dreamt that, from The General's standing alone in\nWhitechapel, a mighty wave of Salvation would sweep over the earth, nor\nthat God was about to raise up an Army of which she and The General were\nto be the leaders.\n\nBut, as always before, she willingly agreed to whatever would be for\nGod's glory and the Salvation of souls; and we all know to-day how, from\nthat little Whitechapel beginning, grew the Christian Mission, and how,\nat last, the Christian Mission became The Salvation Army.\n\nDo not think, however, that our dear Army Mother's consecration stopped\nhere! No, indeed. One by one, as they became old enough, she gave up her\nchildren to the Work, and we shall never know all we owe as an Army to\nher beautiful spirit of devotion and sacrifice.\n\nLet us stand together by her open grave in the autumn twilight. Her\ntwenty-six years of fight and toil in The Salvation Army are over now,\nher spirit has been summoned Home. Listen. The Army Founder himself is\nthe speaker. He is recalling the forty years which he and our dear Army\nMother had trod together, and his words sum up better than any other\nwords could do what she was to our Leader:--\n\n'If you had had a tree,' he said, speaking to the vast crowd that stood\nround the grave, 'that had grown up in your garden, under your window,\nwhich for forty years had been your shadow from the burning sun, whose\nflowers had been the adornment and beauty of your life, whose fruit had\nbeen almost the stay of your existence, and the gardener had come along\nand swung his glittering axe and cut it down before your eyes, I think\nyou would feel as though you had a blank--it might not be a big one--but\na little blank in your life.\n\n'If you had had a servant who for all this long time had served you\nwithout fee or reward, who had administered, for very love, to your\nhealth and comfort, and who suddenly passed away, you would miss that\nservant.\n\n'If you had had a counsellor who, in hours--continually occurring--of\nperplexity and amazement, had ever advised you, and seldom advised wrong;\nwhose advice you had followed, and seldom had reason to regret it; and\nthe counsellor, while you were in the same intricate mazes of your\nexistence, had passed away, you would miss that counsellor.\n\n'If you had had a friend who had understood your very nature, the rise\nand fall of your feelings, the bent of your thoughts, and the purpose of\nyour existence; a friend whose communion had ever been pleasant--the\nmost pleasant of all other friends--to whom you had ever turned with\nsatisfaction, and your friend had been taken away, you would feel some\nsorrow at the loss.\n\n'If you had had a mother for your children who had cradled and nursed and\ntrained them for the service of the living God, in which you most\ndelighted--a mother, indeed, who had never ceased to bear their sorrows\non her heart, and who had been ever willing to pour forth that heart's\nblood in order to nourish them, and that darling mother had been taken\nfrom your side, you would feel it a sorrow.\n\n'If you had had a wife, a sweet love of a wife, who for forty years had\nnever given you real cause for grief; a wife who had stood with you, side\nby side, in the battle's front, who had been a comrade to you, ever\nwilling to interpose herself between you and the enemy, and ever the\nstrongest when the battle was fiercest, and your beloved one had fallen\nbefore your eyes, I am sure there would be some excuse for your sorrow.\n\n'Well, my comrades, you can roll all these qualities into one\npersonality, and what would be lost in all I have lost in one. There has\nbeen taken away from me the light of my eyes, the inspiration of my soul,\nand we are about to lay all that remains of her in the grave. I have been\nlooking right at the bottom of it here, and calculating how soon they may\nbring and lay me alongside of her, and my cry to God has been that every\nremaining hour of my life may make me readier to come and join her in\ndeath, to go and embrace her in life in the Eternal City.'\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nTHE SPEAKER\n\n\n\n'I will never speak to sinners so that one man or woman in my audience\ncan stand up and say, \"You might have warned me more faithfully, spoken\nmore plainly than you did.\" I would rather die than that should be the\ncase.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nNo one must think that Mrs. Booth became a great speaker all in a moment,\nor by any 'royal road.' She started when about eighteen, as many a Corps\nCadet has since done, by just taking a class or Company on Sundays, never\ndreaming of doing more. An elder girls' Company was given to her; and she\nhad fifteen girls to teach, whose ages varied from twelve to nineteen.\n\nTwo half-days she spent every week in preparing for her Company, and in\ntrying to make each lesson end in a practical way, so as to do them real\ngood.\n\nThen on Sunday, when the rest of the children had been dismissed, Miss\nMumford would beg to be given the key of the room and would remain\nbehind, holding a little Prayer Meeting with her girls. Sometimes they\nwould stay on for an hour and a half, and many by this means became truly\nconverted.\n\nOften with so much praying and singing Catherine quite lost her voice\nbefore the end of the Meeting; but, so long as souls were saved, she did\nnot mind that.\n\nSoon after her marriage Mrs. Booth took another class of this same kind,\nand also a little sort of Sergeants' Meeting, and then--for you see our\nArmy Mother was led on, just as you or I may be, step by step--she gave\na short talk to the Band of Hope children (something like our Band of\nLove of today) on the evils of drink.\n\n'Oh, how I wish,' she wrote to her father, 'that I had started speaking\nyears ago!'\n\nA little later on Mr. and Mrs. Booth moved to Gateshead, and there the\npeople were very much surprised to hear their minister's wife pray aloud\nwhen her husband had done speaking; for in those days very few women\nthought of praying, much less of speaking, in public.\n\n'Since you can pray so beautifully, will you come and talk to us on our\nspecial Prayer-Meeting night?' some of the people asked. But Mrs. Booth\nwas horrified.\n\n'Of course, I said \"No,\"' she wrote. 'I don't know what they can be\nthinking of.'\n\nJust at this time an argument began in one of the newspapers as to\nwhether women had the right to speak for God or not. Mrs. Booth wrote an\nanswer to this question you can read it for yourself in her book,\n'Practical Religion'--and she showed from God's Word, that women have the\nsame right to help to get people saved that the men have. The little\npamphlet was already printed and being widely read, and our Army Mother\nlay alone in her room very ill, when the thought flashed into her soul,\n'You have been helping other women to preach and to speak for God. What\nabout yourself?'\n\n'Oh, no, Lord, not me; I can't. I am, as Thou knowest, the most timid and\nbashful disciple ever saved by grace.' That was her answer.\n\nThen the Lord took her back to the days when she first gave herself to\nHim, at the age of fifteen. He showed her that all the way along this one\nthing had hindered and stopped her from 'being the blessing or from\ngetting the blessing He intended.'\n\n'Lord,' she cried, 'if Thou wilt come back to me as in the old days, I\nwill obey, though I die in the attempt.'\n\nBut at the moment God seemed not to answer her cry, and when she was well\nagain all went on as before.\n\nThree months later Mrs. Booth was quietly sitting one Sunday morning in\nchapel with her eldest boy, when a very wonderful thing happened. You\nshall read about it in her own words:--\n\n'I felt much depressed in mind,' she says, 'and was not expecting\nanything particular, but as the testimonies proceeded I felt the Holy\nSpirit come upon me. It seemed as if a voice said to me: \"Now, if you\nwere to go and testify, you know I would bless it to your own soul as\nwell as to the people!\" I gasped again, and said in my heart: \"Yes, Lord,\nI believe Thou wouldst, but I cannot do it!\" I had forgotten my vow.\n\n'A moment afterwards there flashed across my mind the memory of the time\nwhen I had promised the Lord that I would obey Him at all costs. And then\nthe voice seemed to ask me if this was consistent with that promise. I\nalmost jumped up and said, \"No, Lord, it is the old thing over again. But\nI cannot do it!\" I felt as though I would sooner die than speak. And then\nthe Devil said, \"Besides, you are not prepared. You will look like a\nfool, and will have nothing to say.\" He made a mistake. He overreached\nhimself for once. It was this word that settled it. \"Ah!\" I said, \"this\nis just the point. I have never yet been willing to be a fool for Christ.\nNow I will be one!\"\n\n'Without stopping another moment, I rose up from my seat and walked down\nthe aisle. My dear husband thought something had happened to me, and so\ndid the people. We had been there two years, and they knew my timid,\nbashful nature. He stepped down, and asked me, \"What is the matter, my\ndear?\" I replied, \"I want to say a word!\" He was so taken by surprise\nthat he could only say, \"My dear wife wishes to speak!\" and sat down. For\nyears he had been trying to persuade me to do it. Only that very week he\nhad wanted me to go and address a little Cottage Meeting of some twenty\nworking people, but I had refused.\n\n'I stood--God only knows how--and if any mortal ever did hang on the arm\nof Omnipotence, I did. I just stood and told the people how it had come\nabout. I confessed, as I think everybody should who has been in the wrong\nand has misrepresented the religion of Jesus Christ. I said, \"I dare say\nmany of you have been looking upon me as a very devoted woman, and one\nwho has been living faithfully to God. But I have come to realize that I\nhave been disobeying Him, and thus brought darkness and leanness into my\nsoul. I have promised the Lord to do so no longer, and have come to tell\nyou that henceforth I will be obedient to the holy vision.\"\n\n'There was more weeping, they said, in the chapel that day than on any\nprevious occasion. Many dated a renewal in righteousness from that very\nmoment, and began a life of devotion and consecration to God.\n\n'Now I might have \"talked good\" to them till now. That honest confession\ndid what twenty years of preaching could not have accomplished.'\n\nAfter this wonderful victory Mrs. Booth never again drew back. The same\nnight she spoke once more, with even greater power than in the morning,\nand before long invitations came pouring in from all parts, for wherever\nshe went souls were saved and people sanctified.\n\nBut it cost her a great deal to preach like this. She writes of one\nMeeting held soon after:--\n\n'I got on very well, and had three beautiful cases, but I cannot tell you\nhow I felt all day about it. I could neither eat nor sleep. I never was\nin such a state, and when I saw the people, I felt like melting away.\nHowever, I got through.'\n\nEven to the last, when she was known all round the world as one of the\ngreatest women-preachers of the day, she never spoke without feeling\ndeeply the responsibility and importance of her work, nor without having\nprepared carefully beforehand what she wanted to say.\n\nIt was very difficult for her, with four little children, the eldest only\nfour years and three months old, to get enough time and quiet. We should\nhave said it was impossible, for she was not well off, and could not\nafford to put her sewing out, or to have many servants to work for her;\nbut she says:--\n\n'God forced me to begin to think and work, and He gave me grace and\nstrength to do it. Many a time while I was nursing my baby I was thinking\nof what I should say next Sunday, and between times I noted down with a\npencil the thoughts as they struck me. Then I would appear with an\noutline scratched in pencil, trusting in the Lord to give me the power of\nHis Holy Spirit; and from the day I began He has never allowed me to open\nmy mouth without giving me signs of His presence and blessing.'\n\nThe two books she always used in getting ready for her Meetings were her\nBible and Concordance.\n\nIn later years she taught her children how to prepare for their Meetings,\nand some of the advice she gives is very helpful to Corps Cadets.\n\n'\"Jesus wept,\"' she writes to her eldest girl, who was then fourteen,\n'would be a nice subject for you at one of your little Meetings. And you\ncould find some texts to show how David wept, and Daniel, and Jeremiah,\netc., if you like it. But don't take it because _I_ say so--you must\nask the Lord for your subjects.'\n\nLater on, however, as The Salvation Army grew, Mrs. Booth felt that,\nthough it was just as necessary to prepare, yet to speak from notes was\noften not helpful to either the Officer or the people, so she writes to\none of her sons:--\n\n'Get out of them! They don't fit our work. When you get on, you don't\nwant them; and when you don't, they are no good. At first, if your memory\nwon't serve you, just jot on a small bit of paper the size of a ticket\nyour main divisions in large writing, but no more. Like this:--\n\n  'Day of wrath is come.\n  '1. God's wrath.\n  '2. Just wrath.\n  '3. Uttermost wrath.\n  '4. Eternal wrath.'\n\nOn the platform Mrs. Booth's manner was as simple and natural as when by\nher own fireside; anything 'put on' or affected she hated.\n\n'If I were asked,' she says, 'to put into one word what I consider to be\nthe greatest hindrance to the success of Divine truth, even when spoken\nby sincere and real people, I should say _stiffness_. Simplicity is\nindispensable to success, _naturalness_ in putting the truth. It\nseems as if people, the moment they come to religion, put on a different\ntone, a different look and manner--in short, become unnatural.'\n\nBut Mrs. Booth not only prepared for her Meetings by thought and study,\nbut she prepared most of all by prayer.\n\n'Oh, if we could,' she writes, 'get more of the spirit of prayer into\nthose who love God! Few understand it at all.\n\n'I always find an exact proportion in the results to the spirit of\nintercession I have had beforehand. That is why I like to be alone in\nlodgings.'\n\nBefore her Meeting she would wrestle and plead with God for hours, in\ntears and agony, and then would face her congregation overflowing with\nlove and faith.\n\n'Pray for me,' she writes during her marvellous Portsmouth campaign. 'No\none knows how I feel. I think I never realized my responsibility as I did\non Sunday night. I felt really awful before rising to speak. The sight\nalmost overwhelmed me. With its two galleries, its dome-like roof and\nvast proportions, when crammed with people, the building presents a most\nimposing appearance. The top gallery is ten or twelve seats deep in\nfront, and it was full of men. Such a sight as I have never seen on any\nprevious occasion. Oh, how I _yearned_ over them! I felt as if it\nwould be a small thing to die _there and then_, if that would have\nbrought them to Jesus.'\n\nNothing short of men and women getting converted satisfied her.\n\n'They say,' she writes of another campaign, 'the sinners here will\n\"_bide some bringing down_.\" Well, the Lord can do it. They tell me,\ntoo, that I am immensely popular with the people. But _that_ is no\ncomfort unless they will be saved.'\n\nShe laboured to get the truth home to the hearts of her listeners, and\nthat is why her talking was so blessed.\n\n'God made you responsible,' she said, 'not for delivering the truth, but\nfor GETTING IT IN--getting it home, fixing it in the conscience as a\nred-hot iron, as a bolt, straight from His throne; and He has given you\nalso the _power to do it_; and if you do not do it, _blood_ will be\non your skirts. Oh, this genteel way of putting the truth! How God hates\nit! \"If you please, dear friends, will you listen? If you please, will\nyou be converted? Will you come to Jesus? Shall we read just this, that,\nand the other?\" No more like apostolic preaching than darkness is like\nlight.'\n\nHow can I show you some of the marvellous results of her preaching? In\nevery part of our land her influence and words made themselves felt; the\nlargest buildings were crowded with all classes of society, and glorious\ncases of conversion and sanctification crowned her labours everywhere. A\nlady who was at some of her women's Meetings at Lye, near Birmingham,\ntells us:--\n\n'The women left their work, and in all sorts of odd costumes flocked to\nthe Meetings, some with bonnets, some with shawls fastened over their\nhead, others with little children clinging to their necks. All, with\neager, inquiring faces, took their seats and listened to the gracious\nwords which fell from the lips of dear Mrs. Booth. And when the\ninvitation was given, what a scene ensued! It baffles all description.\nCrowding, weeping, rushing to the penitent-form came convicted sinners\nand repentant backsliders. When the form was filled the penitents dropped\nupon their knees in the aisles or in their seats, so that it was\ndifficult to move about.'\n\nWhen holding some Meetings in a Rotherhithe chapel (for The Army was only\njust beginning its work, and our Army Mother took Meetings in different\nchurches and chapels up and down the land), the victories were just as\nglorious, and one of her Converts says:--\n\n'There were many remarkable cases of conversion at these Meetings.\nAmongst others there were the two daughters of a publican. When one\nsister was saved the other went to hear Mrs. Booth on purpose to ridicule\nthe services. But she was seized with such an agonizing realization of\nher sins that she came down from the top of the gallery to the\npenitent-form, crying out aloud, \"I must come! I must come!\" Soon after\ntheir father gave up the public-house, and they afterwards became members\nof Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle.\n\n'I have seen as many as thirty persons seeking Salvation in a single\nMeeting, and some years afterwards, when I looked at the register of our\nchapel, I found about one hundred names of those who had professed to be\nconverted at this time.'\n\nOur Army Mother, too, was equally straight and fearless with the rich\nwhen, later on, they also came in crowds to hear her. She had but one\nmessage and one gospel for all alike. She says, 'By God's help I will not\nregard the person of man, but will plainly and fearlessly declare the\ntruth, come what may.' God honoured this spirit, and her Meetings in the\nWest-End of London, where the great and rich live, were some of the most\nglorious of her life. Of one such she writes:--\n\n'The Lord has very graciously stood by me, and given me much precious\nfruit. Last Sunday we had the Hall crowded, and a large proportion of\ngentlemen. The Lord was there in power, and twenty-one came forward--some\nfor Salvation and some for purity. Several were most blessed cases of\nfull surrender. We did not get away till nearly six, and we began at\nthree. Everybody is amazed at this for the West-End! The audience is very\nselect, we never having published a bill. Pray much, dear friend, that\nGod may do a deep and permanent work in this Babylon. It seems as though\nHe gave me words of fire for them, and they sat spellbound.'\n\nYou say you wish you had heard her speak? Indeed, we all wish you had:\nyou could never have forgotten it. But several of her addresses were\ntaken down in shorthand at the time, and are reprinted in her books, so\nyou can get and read them; and they will bless and teach you as they have\ntaught thousands before you.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nTHE MOTHER\n\n\n\n'A lady once said to me, \"How have you managed to get your children\nconverted so early?\" \"Oh,\" I said, \"I have been beforehand with the\nDevil.\"'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nI have already told you how Mrs. Booth had the true mother spirit when\nbut a little child, loving and tending her dolls as if they had been real\nbabies; you will, therefore, guess that with her own children she was the\nbest and most careful of mothers. She began early to train them in the\nright way, and never left them unless forced to do so.\n\n'I cannot part with Willie,' she writes to her mother, who offered to\nfree Mrs. Booth by taking charge of the baby for her; 'first, because I\nknow the child's affections could not but be weaned from us; and\nsecondly, because the next year will be the most important of his life\nwith reference to managing his will; and in this I cannot but distrust\nyou. I know, my darling mother, you could not wage war with his self-will\nso resolutely as to subdue it. And then my child would be ruined, for he\nmust be taught implicit, uncompromising obedience.'\n\nBut long before writing this she had already claimed her boy for God and\nHis war. 'I had from the first,' she says, 'definite longings over\nBramwell, and lifted him up to God as soon as I had strength to do so,\nespecially desiring he should be a teacher of Holiness.' These prayers\nbegan to be answered very early. The boy had a truthful and conscientious\nnature. Never, his mother says, does she remember his telling her a lie.\nBut, for all that, he needed, as do all children, training and teaching,\nand Mrs. Booth was too wise not to be firm. She writes therefore:\n\n'I believe he will be a thoroughly noble lad, if I can preserve him from\nall evil influence. The Lord help me! I have had to whip him twice lately\nseverely for disobedience, and it has cost me some tears. But it has done\nhim good, and I am reaping the reward already of my self-sacrifice. The\nLord help me to be faithful and firm as a rock in the path of duty\ntowards my children!'\n\nWe know how practical our Army Mother always was; sentimental pity\nwithout help she despised. When her little son, therefore, saw and pitied\na small boy with shoeless feet, his mother quickly reminded him of his\nlittle money-box.\n\n'Would you rather keep the money for barley-sugar, Willie, or give it to\nthe poor boy?' she asked. 'Give it to the boy,' he said at once, and so\nlearnt his first lesson in self-denial.\n\nWhen the boy was seven years old he was converted, to his mother's\ndeepest joy. Some time before she had talked to him in a Meeting, and\nurged him to get saved. The boy sat still and said nothing. 'Willie, I\ninsist,' said his mother at last. 'You must answer me. Will you give your\nheart to God or not? Yes or no?'\n\nWillie looked up in her face steadily and answered back 'No.'\n\nMrs. Booth said no more just then, but held on in faith and prayer, and\nsome months later, to her unutterable thankfulness, she found him\nsqueezed in among a number of other children at the penitent-form. He\nhad, unasked, made his way there, and was weeping and confessing his sins\nwith all his heart.\n\nNeedless to say, he was faithfully dealt with, and the boy, now our\nbeloved General, dates his conversion from that moment. A little later\nMrs. Booth wrote of him:--\n\n'Willie has begun to serve God, of course as a child, but still, I trust,\ntaught of the Spirit. I feel a great increase of responsibility with\nrespect to him. Oh! to cherish the tender plant of grace aright. Lord\nhelp!'\n\nAnd as with the eldest so with the other seven. One by one they gave\ntheir hearts to the Lord as soon as they grew old enough to do so.\n\n'She used to gather us round her,' says one of her daughters,' and pray\nwith us. I wore then a low frock, and her hot tears would often drop upon\nmy neck, sending a thrill through me which I can never forget.'\n\nShe would pray again and again that she might lay them in their graves\nrather than she should see them grow up wicked.\n\nMrs. Booth was very particular about the way in which her children were\ndressed.\n\nOf course, there was no uniform in those days, but The Army spirit was\nalready in The Army Mother, and she would not have any finery or show,\neither for herself or her children.\n\n'Accept,' she writes to her mother, 'my warm thanks for the little frock\nyou sent. There is only one difficulty--it is too smart. We must set an\nexample in this direction. I feel no temptation now to decorate myself,\nbut I cannot say the same about the children; and yet, Oh, I see I must\nbe decided. Besides, I find it would be dangerous for their own sakes.\nThe seed of vanity is too deeply sown in their young hearts for me to\ndare to cultivate it.'\n\nEven in her early days Mrs. Booth felt how wrong it was to spend time and\nmoney over dress:--\n\n'I remember feeling condemned,' she says, 'when quite a child, not more\nthan eight years old, at having to wear a lace tippet such as was\nfashionable in those days. From a worldly point of view it would have\nbeen considered, no doubt, very neat and consistent. But on several\noccasions I had good crying fits over it. Not only did I instinctively\nfeel it to be immodest, because people could see through it, but I\nthought it was not such as a Christian child should wear.'\n\nIn everything to do with her home Mrs. Booth was a most practical and\ncareful mother. She hated waste and luxury, but her children were always\nproperly dressed and fed and cared for, and never lacked what was\nnecessary for them.\n\nLadies who had been blessed by her words came to consult her about their\nsouls, and to their surprise found the great preacher, not shut away in\nher study, but hard at work perhaps ironing the baby's pinafores, or\ncutting out a pair of trousers for one of her boys! 'I must try,' she\nsaid, when she began to live this two-fold life, 'to do all in the\nkitchen as well as in the pulpit to the glory of God. The Lord help me.'\nHe did help her, and it was this practical mother-spirit at home which\ngave her so much force and power on the platform.\n\nAs the children grew older, they were more away from her side, and her\nletters to them are suitable, not only to her actual sons and daughters,\nbut to her spiritual grandchildren who will read this little book.\nTherefore I am going to give you some extracts, which you may take as\nthough written by our Army Mother straight to your own heart.\n\nTo one of her boys at school she wrote:--\n\n'I do hope you are industrious, and do not lose time in play and\ninattention. Remember Satan steals his marches on us by _littles_--a\nminute now, and a minute then. Be on the look out, and don't be cheated\nby him!\n\n'All your little trials will soon be over, so far as school life is\nconcerned; and every one of them, if borne with patience, will make you a\nwiser and better man. Never forget my advice about not listening to\n_secrets_! Don't hear anything that needs to be whispered--it is\nsure to be bad. Choose the boys to be your companions who most love and\nfear God, and pray together when you can, and help each other.'\n\nHere is a very beautiful letter written when one of her children desired\nto go in for some higher education, which Mrs. Booth feared might spoil\nthe soul life:--\n\n'I do so want you and all my children to live supremely for God. I do so\ndeeply deplore my own failure compared with what my life might have been,\nand I feel as if I could die to save you from making a mistake. Perhaps\nyou say, \"You don't want me, then, to learn any more?\" Yes, I do, a great\ndeal more; but of the right kind, in the right way, and for a right\npurpose, even the _highest good of your race_. I would like you to\nlearn to put your thoughts together well, to think logically and clearly,\nto speak powerfully--that is, with good but simple language--and to write\nclearly and well.'\n\nJust the wish we have now for all our Young People!\n\nEarly in their childhood the elder children were taught to be responsible\nfor the younger, and when at school they were given places of trust as\nmonitors, and so on. As if knowing the responsibilities they would by and\nby be called to fill in our ranks, Mrs. Booth gives them some wise\ncounsel:--\n\n'I hope,' she says to one who has been left in charge of the other\nchildren, 'you will show yourself to be a true son of your mother, and a\nconsistent disciple of the Lord. Very much depends on you as to the ease\nand comfort of managing the little ones. Do all you can. Be forbearing\nwhere only your own feelings or comfort are concerned, and don't raise\nunnecessary difficulties; but where their obedience to us or their health\nis at stake, be firm in trying to put them right.'\n\n'I am pleased,' she says to one of the boys who has been in charge of\nothers at school, 'that Mr. W. puts such confidence in you; but do not be\npuffed up by it. Remember how weak you are, and ask the Lord to save you\nfrom conceit and self-sufficiency. Try to be fair and just in all\ndealings with the boys--i.e., do not be hard on a boy whom you may not\nhappen to like so well as another; but be fair, and treat all alike when\nleft in charge.'\n\nAgain, she warns one of them against extremes, even in well doing:\n\n'You are under a mistake to suppose that sacrificing your recreation-time\nwill help you in the end. It will not. Cramming the mind acts just in the\nsame way as cramming the stomach. It is what you digest well that\nbenefits you, not what you cram in. So many hours spent in study, and\nthen relaxation and walking, will do your mind much more good than \"all\nwork, and no play.\" Now mark this. Do not be looking so much at what you\n_have_ to do as to what you are _doing_. Leave the future (you\nmay spend it in Heaven), and go steadily on doing to-day's work in\nto-day's hours, with recreation in between to shake the seed in. One\nstep well and firmly taken is better than two with a slip backwards.\nPoor human nature seems as though it must go to extremes--either all or\nnone, too much or too little, idleness or being killed with work! May\nthe Lord show you the happy medium.'\n\n'I was sorry about the cause of the accident. I don't like that way of\ndoing things in fun! Though it was very wrong and wicked of the boy to\nthrow the brick, yet it would have been better to let him look at the\nguinea-pigs being fed, and thus have pleased him. There was no harm in\nwhat he wanted to do. You should watch against a hectoring spirit, and\nmind the difference between a sacrifice of truth and principle, and one\nonly of self-importance or of mere feeling. If a boy wants you to do\nwrong, then be firm as a rock and brave for God and goodness.'\n\n'Mind your soul,' she says at another time. 'Do not let your thoughts get\nso absorbed, even in study, as to lead you to forget your Bible and to\nneglect prayer.'\n\nLater, again, as a wise mother she warns them in the tenderest way\nagainst their special temptations.\n\nAgainst lightness:--\n\n'Be watchful against levity. C. is a good, devoted fellow, but naturally\nan incorrigible joker. It may not hurt him much, because it is his\nnature; but it will hurt you if you give way to it. It hurts nearly\neverybody.\n\nWatch! Don't descend to buffoonery. While you become all things to win\nsome, don't forfeit your natural self-respect and the dignity of your\nposition as a servant of Christ.'\n\nAgainst too much talk:--\n\n'The Spirit is teaching you this--is showing you that you must be more\nsilent. The tongue is one of the greatest enemies to grace (James iii.\n5-13). Strive to obey these teachings of God. Yield yourself up to obey;\nand though you sometimes fail and slip, do not be discouraged, but yield\nyourself up again and again, and plead more fervently with God to keep\nyou. Fourteen years ago you were learning to walk, and in the process you\ngot many a tumble. But now you can not only walk yourself, but teach\nothers. So, spiritually, if you will only let God lead you, He will\nperfect that which is lacking in you.'\n\nBut it was not at first easy for the mother-spirit in Mrs. Booth to allow\nher delicate girls of fourteen or fifteen to undertake a public life, and\nto speak and sing at the street corners, surrounded by a rough, low\ncrowd. Such a thing was unheard-of in those days.\n\nOnce, hearing that her daughter Catherine had spoken in the open air to a\nlarge crowd, Mrs. Booth objected, as other mothers have since objected:\nthe girl was too young as yet--she must wait awhile.\n\nBut her eldest son, looking at his mother in the tenderest and most\nsolemn way, said, 'Mamma, dear, you will have to settle this question\nwith God; for Katie is as surely called and inspired by Him for the\nparticular work as you are yourself.'\n\nMrs. Booth said no more. She took this as the voice of God, and gave her\ngirl up to the marvellous work which God had called her to do.\n\nLater she writes of her to a friend:--\n\n'Join me in praying that she may be kept humble and simple, and that all\nthat the Lord has given her may be used for Him.'\n\n'I see,' she says, writing at this same time to her daughter, 'what a\nglorious, blessed, useful life you may live; but I also see your danger,\nand I pray for you that you may be enabled to cast aside the world in\nevery form, to look down upon its opinions, and to despise its spirit,\nmaxims, and fashions.'\n\nLater on, again, came the days when the boys had to choose, as you have\nto do, how they would spend their lives. Mrs. Booth might be writing to a\nCorps Cadet of to-day when, in a letter to one of her sons, she says:--\n\n'I hope the Lord will make you so miserable everywhere and at everything\nelse that you will be _compelled_ to preach! Oh, my boy, the Lord\nwants such as you--_just such_--to go out amongst the people,\nseeking nothing but the things that are Jesus Christ's! You are free to\ndo it; able by His grace; born to do it, with splendid opportunities.\nWill you not rise to your destiny? \"Have courage, and be strong, and I\n(the I Am) will be with thee.\" \"Get thee out, and I will go with thee.\"\nDare you not take hold of the arm that holds the world and all things up?\nAnd if you do, can you fail? The Lord gird you with His strength, and\nmake your brow brass, and your tongue as a flame of fire. You _must\npreach_!'\n\nTo another of her boys she writes:--\n\n'You may, perhaps, be wanted to stand and do battle for the Lord. Surely\nyou will not sell your birthright? The Lord help you! Take hold of\nDavid's God. Hold your head up, keep your shoulders back, and go\nforward.'\n\nAgain:--\n\n'This is what the world wants: men of one idea--that of getting people\nsaved. There are plenty of men of one idea--that of _gold_-getting.\nThey make no secret of it; they are of a worldly spirit. Now we want men\nwho are set on soul-saving, who are not ashamed to let everybody know\nit--men of a Christ-like spirit. There need be no mistake or mystery about\nit. \"By their fruits ye shall know them.\" Paul and every other man of\nlike spirit has had his fruits, and will have to the end of time. It is\n\"Not by might, nor by power, but by _My Spirit_, saith the Lord of\nHosts.\"'\n\nWith one of her daughters she reasons and pleads:--\n\n'Oh, it seems to me that if I were in your place--young, no cares or\nanxieties, with such a start, such influence, and such a prospect--I\nshould not be able to contain myself for joy! I should, indeed, aspire to\nbe the \"bride of the Lamb,\" and to follow Him in conflict for the\nSalvation of poor, lost, miserable man. I pray the Lord to show it to\nyou, and so to enamour you of Himself, that you may see and feel it to be\nyour chief joy to win them for Him. I say I pray for this--yes, I groan\nfor it, with groanings that cannot be uttered; and if ever you tell me it\nis so, I shall be overjoyed.\n\n'I don't want you to make any vows (unless, indeed, the Spirit leads you\nto do so); but I want you to set your mind and heart on winning souls,\nand to leave everything else with the Lord. When you do this you will be\nhappy--Oh, so happy! Your soul will then find perfect rest. The Lord\ngrant it to you, my dear child.'\n\nShe made all her children feel that the only reward they could give her\nfor her ceaseless toil and labour on their behalf was that they should\ngive themselves to the War:--\n\n'I hope, my dear boy, that, whatever sense of obligation or gratitude you\nhave towards me, you will try to return it by resolutely resisting all\ntemptation to evil, and by fitting yourself to your utmost to be useful\nto your fellow-men. I ask from you, as I asked from God, no other reward.\nIf I know my own heart, I would rather that you should work for the\nSalvation of souls, making bad hearts good, and miserable homes happy,\nand preparing joy and gladness for men at the Judgment bar, if you only\nget bread and cheese all your life, than that you should fill any other\ncapacity with \u00a310,000 per year.'\n\nTo one of her children, when tempted to be over-anxious, she writes:--\n\n'Keep your mind quiet. Lean back on God, and don't worry. It is His\naffair, and if you have done what you could, that is enough. Alas! how\nlittle we have of the faith that can \"stand still, and see the Salvation\nof God.\" What would you do if you were put in custody for two years, like\nPaul was? And yet that imprisonment at Rome sent the Gospel far and wide!\nGod's ways are not our ways. He takes in the whole field at once, and\ndoes the best He can for the entire world. Human wisdom never has been\nable at the time to comprehend His plans, but years after it has often\nseen their wisdom. Let us learn to trust in the dark--to stand still.'\n\nTo another, tried and discouraged at the start of his public life:--\n\n'I have only a minute or two; but, lest you should think I don't\nsympathize with you, I send you a line. You ask, did I ever feel so? Yes,\nI think just as bad as any mortal _could_ feel--_empty_, inside\nand out, as though I had nothing human or Divine to aid me, as if all\nHell were let loose upon me.\n\nBut I have generally felt _the worse before the best results_, which\nproves it was Satanic opposition. And it has been the same with many of\nGod's most honoured instruments. I believe nearly all who are truly\ncalled of God to special usefulness pass through this buffeting.\n\n'It stands to sense, if there is a Devil, that he should desperately\nwithstand those whom he sees are going to be used of God. Supposing\n_you_ were the Devil, and had set your heart on circumventing God,\nhow would you do it but by opposing those who were bent on building up\nHis Kingdom? He hopes to drive us from the field by blood and fire and\nvapour of smoke. But our Captain fought and won the battle for us, and we\nhave only to hold on long enough, and victory is sure. \"Courage!\" your\nCaptain cries. \"Only be thou strong, and of good courage, and I will be\nwith thee, and teach thee what to say.\"\n\n'\"He hath chosen the weak things.\" He has not _made shift with\nthem_--taken them because there were no others. No! He hath\n_chosen_ them. Will He ever forsake them, and thus make Himself a\nlaughing-stock for Hell? Never! Will He ever let the Devil say, \"Ah, ah!\nHe chose this weak one, and then let him fail\"? No, no, no!'\n\nOn the important question of courtship, she writes:--\n\n'The Devil sets such innocent-looking traps--_spiritual traps_--to\ncatch young people! Ah, he is a serpent still! Beware of his devices, and\nalways cry to God for wisdom and strength of will to put down all foolish\ntampering. You are born for greater things. God may want you to be a\nleader in some vast continent, and you will want a companion and a\ncounsellor--a \"helpmeet.\" The original word means \"_a help\ncorresponding to his dignity_\" This is the meaning given by the best\nexpositors. Oh, what wisdom there is even in the _words_ which God\nhas chosen to express His ideas! \"Corresponding to his dignity!\" Yes, and\nno man ever takes one below this mark who does not suffer for it; and,\nworse still, generations yet unborn have to suffer also. Mind what God\nsays, and keep yourself till that one comes.\n\n'A wrong step on this point, and you are undone. Oh, the misery of an\nunsuitable match! It is beyond description. I could tell you tales of woe\nthat are now being enacted. But I must wait till we meet.\n\n'I have seen too much of life, and know too much of human nature, to have\nmuch confidence in promises given under such circumstances. For my own\npart, I made up my mind when I was but sixteen that I would not have a\nman, though a Christian, who should offer to become even an abstainer for\nmy sake. I felt that such a promise would not afford me ground for\nconfidence afterwards. And do not we see enough all round us to show that\nunless people adopt things on principle, because they see it to be right,\nthey soon change? Look at the folks who promise to give up tobacco and\ndress, for the sake of getting into berths; how soon it evaporates! No,\nmy lad, wait a bit. \"Couldst thou not watch with Me one hour?\" Jesus\nlived a single life for your sake all the way through. Can you not live\nso till He finds you one after His own heart? I feel sure He will. Pray\nabout it in faith. I am doing so; and God will answer. But Oh, don't run\nbefore Him! Wait on the Lord.\n\n'A little longer and you will be saying, \"Oh, how glad I am I waited! I\nhave now found a treasure indeed!\" When God's time and person are come,\nHe will bring you together. How delighted and satisfied Isaac must have\nfelt when the servant told him the way God led him (Genesis xxiv.).'\n\nWhen standing by her grave The General said she was _The Army\nMother_. He said the truth.\n\nOne of her early promises, given to her as a girl, when she only saw its\ngreatness and hid it away in her heart as too sacred to be spoken of, and\nalmost too wonderful ever to be accomplished, were the words: 'I will\nmake thee a mother of nations.'\n\nWhen called to send her children abroad, she paid to the full the heavy\nprice; but she also saw the glorious outcome, and from her death-bed sent\ntenderest messages to those of distant lands and far-off nations who\nowned her as their Army Mother.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE WORKER\n\n\n\n'What the Lord wants is, that you shall go about the business to which He\nsets you, not asking for an easy post, nor grumbling at a hard\none.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nIf she had not been a worker, our Army Mother would have done little with\nher life. The wonderful call which came to her, her great gifts, the zeal\nand love which filled her heart, would all have been useless had she not\nbeen willing to work, and to work hard, and to work every day.\n\nStop and think about this. No life accomplishes anything unless it is\nfull of hard work--often work accompanied by much drudgery, whether it is\nthe life of a king or of a poor man. Mrs. Booth has set us all an example\nin this, for she would work ceaselessly with head or hands or heart, as\nlong as ever her health allowed her to do so. Laziness and idleness of\nall kinds she detested; nor could she tolerate a lazy person in her\nservice.\n\nShe worked first of all in her home. When she spent a morning in her\nkitchen, the work there was perfectly done. The dinner was ready at the\nright time, properly cooked, good and wholesome. She allowed no waste and\nno extravagance. Her bread was light and beautifully baked, and when she\nhad finished her morning's work her kitchen was as neat as when she\nbegan. She finished everything, and put it straight as she went along.\n\nIt was the same with the children. She was alike nurse and doctor,\ndressmaker and tailor; she made and mended, washed and ironed for her\nboys and girls during their early years, and herself attended to every\nsmallest detail of their lives. Strangers who asked where Mrs. Booth\nbought her children's things, so that they could go to the same shop,\ncould scarcely believe the reply: 'Mamma makes all our clothes\nherself'--so beautifully were they cut and finished.\n\nAnd when the little garments were of no further service to her, she would\nalter and mend them once again, and give them away. Her baby-clothes,\nwhen the last daughter had outgrown them, were given to a member of the\nMission for his child.\n\nHe will never forget taking the little bundle home to his wife and\nturning over the tiny things. 'I had often heard Mrs. Booth preach,' he\nsaid, 'but those baby-clothes preached a louder sermon to me and my wife\nthan ever her words had done. They were all darned and mended and\npatched, and the work--but, there, I never saw such stitches! And as we\nlooked, and knew the hours of toil she must have put into them, rather\nthan throw them away, as many another would have done--well, I tell you I\nlistened to her next sermon as I had never listened before.'\n\nAnd this same diligent, tireless spirit was with her to the last. When on\nher deathbed, able only to use her left hand, and propped up by pillows,\nshe devised a little frame on which, painfully, stitch by stitch, she\ncould work a last token of love for The General.\n\nWhen her hands were folded still in death, I saw those slippers. They\nwere beautifully embroidered, one with the words, 'He will keep the feet\nof His Saints'; and the other with the sure and certain hope which lay\nbeyond the parting, 'Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O\nJerusalem'--a fitting and sacred service with which to close her many\nyears of toil and labour for others.\n\nBut our Army Mother had another way of working in her home--that is, she\nworked over others. If a girl wished to learn, Mrs. Booth would take\nendless trouble in showing her the best way to wash or iron, or clean a\ngrate, or do whatever the work on hand might be. She instructed her\nservants, explaining to them the reason for doing their duties in a\ncertain way, teaching them forethought and common sense, and dealing\nfaithfully with them over all their failures.\n\n'Better,' she said, in one of her addresses--and she lived it out in her\nown home--'better take a girl whom you have to teach how to wash a\nchild's face, or to stitch a button on, if she is true and sincere, than\nhave one ever so clever, who will teach your children to lie and\ndeceive.'\n\nShe worked, too, over the cases of need and poverty which were often at\nher door. Not content, like so many, with giving a few coppers to a\nbeggar, or some broken food, she would inquire into the _cause_ of\nthe distress; and then, if the need seemed genuine, she would help,\neither by getting the father work, or by having the home visited and\nsuitable relief given after the true condition of things had been found\nout.\n\nAnd this was only a little of the homework with which her hands were ever\nfull. Of her ceaseless care over her children's mind and soul training I\nhave told you elsewhere. But of her public work perhaps the most\nexhausting was that which resulted from her Meetings. For she could not\nrest content with the most careful preparation beforehand, nor with\npouring out her whole soul upon the people during the forty or fifty\nminutes that her address lasted. At the close of the Meeting, whenever\nher health allowed it, she would labour and toil, often for two hours and\nmore, dealing herself with the penitents, meeting their difficulties, one\nby one, and was unwilling to leave them until, as far as possible, all\nhad claimed and received the blessing they sought.\n\nThe next day, too, she would follow up any special case with a long\npersonal letter from her own pen, or she would arrange another interview,\nor in some way keep in close, actual touch with the struggling soul,\nuntil the step of obedience had been taken, and he or she was fairly\nstarted on the Narrow Way.\n\nAnd it was this careful, earnest, patient after-work which gave such\nglorious harvests to her soul-saving campaigns. Labour and trouble were a\njoy to her, if she could but help one sincere, seeking soul into the\nlight.\n\nBut remember this: while she so toiled over all who came to her for\nadvice and guidance, she never repeated nor passed on to others their\nconfidences. If she had done so, people would soon have left off corning\nto her; they would have said, 'We cannot trust her.' She was, as you\nknow, a mighty speaker; but about other people's affairs she was entirely\nsilent--as you must learn to be if you wish to be of any service to God\nor man.\n\nAnd Mrs. Booth strove constantly to teach all who were around her to work\nas she did. 'You have begun well enough--now carry it through,' she would\nsay again and again to her children, and whether it was a doll's frock,\nor an article for 'The War Cry,' or a series of Meetings, it was always\nthe same. Unfinished, half-done work she detested with all her soul. 'If\na thing is worth beginning at all, then it is worth finishing,' she would\nsay; and this great principle followed her through her life in small\nthings as in great.\n\nThis was the reason that, on her deathbed, she could say, turning to the\nChief of the Staff, 'I have no vain regrets about the past. As far as my\nstrength allowed, I have finished the work I had to do as I went along;\nand now I leave it, all imperfect as it has been, in His hands.'\n\nPerhaps, by nature, you are not a worker. But what you are not by nature,\nyou can become by grace. God can teach you to love work. And as you work,\nyou will, like our dear Army Mother, learn better and better how to work;\nand your life, whenever God calls you to lay it down, shall be like hers,\nnot unfinished, but complete.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nGOODNESS\n\n\n\n'I see more than ever that the religion which is pleasing to God consists\nin doing and enduring His will, rather than in good sentiments and\nfeelings. The Lord help us to endure as seeing Him who is\ninvisible.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nWhen our first General stood on that October evening by the grave of his\nbeloved wife, and spoke to us with a breaking heart of our Army Mother,\nhe unfolded to us the three great qualities which made her character so\nbeautiful. First, and foremost, she was good; secondly, she was love;\nand, thirdly, she was a Warrior. Let us, following The General's outline,\nlook at these three leading qualities in her life. 'First,' he said, 'she\nwas _good_. She was washed in the Blood of the Lamb. To the last\nmoment her cry was \"a sinner saved by grace.\" She was a thorough hater of\nshams, hypocrisies, and make-believes. Her goodness was of a practical\nsort. \"By their fruits ye shall know them\" was a text she often quoted,\nand one by which she was always willing to be judged.'\n\nIt is of this 'goodness of a practical sort' that I want first to tell\nyou, before we consider that soul goodness which made her life so holy.\n\nMrs. Booth could not imagine any goodness apart from industry. As we have\nalready seen, she considered it a sin to waste precious time. Any one who\nwas lazy she could not endure, and when one such offered for the work she\nwrote of him:--\n\n'I do hope you will not throw a lot of money away in trying H------, just\nfor want of courage to tell him at once that he will not do, because I am\nsure that it will be thrown away. It is the _nature_ of the man that\nis at fault, and not his _circumstances_. He is a _drone_, and\nnothing, no change of place or position, can ever make him into a bee. He\nnever ought to have left his trade; he never _would_ have done so if\nhe had thought soul-saving was harder work!'\n\nExtravagance and waste of every kind she abhorred, and had she not been\nso careful in planning and arranging, her time and money would again and\nagain have run short. The sewing, mending, and housekeeping needed for a\nfamily of little children when means are scarce would have been burden\nenough for most mothers. But besides this came her own letter-writing,\npreparing for her Meetings, and also the hours she spent consulting and\nadvising The General, whose voice, 'Here, Kate,' would call her from the\nnursery or kitchen to help him decide some important question.\n\nAgain, it was impossible to talk to Mrs. Booth, even for five minutes,\nwithout finding how true and sincere she was. To please no one would she\nkeep back the truth, or appear different from her real self.\n\n'I believe,' she writes, when quite a young woman, 'honesty to be the\nbest policy, and I shall act upon it. Let me have truth, if it shakes the\nfoundation of the earth.'\n\nShe was sincere and faithful in every part of her nature: faithful with\nher own soul and in dealing with the souls of others. Great or small,\nrich or poor, she made no difference, and never held back from reproving\nsin when it was needful.\n\n'I see more than ever,' she said, 'the need of making righteous people\ntrue in their _inward parts_. Let us be more thorough than ever with\nsouls under conviction. Let us not be afraid to wound too deeply.\nThousands of professors have never been truly convinced of sin, much less\ntruly converted. Sin to them is _being found out_!'\n\nThough all through her life our Army Mother hungered and thirsted to\nknow God better, and to serve Him more perfectly, yet it was not till\nsome time after her marriage that she received the blessing of a clean\nheart.\n\nOf the struggle and conflict which she went through, before the blessing\nof Holiness became hers, she shall tell you in her own words:--\n\n'I had been earnestly seeking all the week to know Jesus as an\nall-sufficient Saviour dwelling in my heart, and thus cleansing it every\nmoment of all sin; but on Thursday and Friday I laid aside almost\neverything else, and spent the chief part of the day in reading and\nprayer, and trying to believe for it. On Thursday afternoon at tea-time I\nwas well-nigh discouraged, and felt my old visitant, irritability, and\nthe Devil told me I should never get it, and so I might as well give it\nup at once. However, I know him of old as a liar and the father of lies,\nand pressed on, cast down, yet not destroyed.\n\n'On Friday morning God gave me two precious passages. First, \"Come unto\nMe all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\" Oh,\nhow sweet it sounded to my poor, weary, sin-stricken soul! I almost dared\nto believe that He did give me rest from inbred sin--the rest of perfect\nHoliness. But I staggered at the promise through unbelief, and therefore\nfailed to enter in. The second passage consisted of those thrice-blessed\nwords, \"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom,\nrighteousness, sanctification, and redemption.\" But again unbelief\nhindered me, although I felt as if getting gradually nearer.\n\n'I struggled through the day until a little after six in the evening,\nwhen William joined me in prayer. We had a blessed season. While he was\nsaying, \"Lord, we open our hearts to receive Thee,\" that word was spoken\nto my soul, \"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My\nvoice, and open unto Me, I will come in, and sup with him.\" I felt sure\nHe had long been knocking, and Oh, how I yearned to receive Him as a\nperfect Saviour! But Oh, the inveterate habit of unbelief! How wonderful\nthat God should have borne so long with me! When we got up from our\nknees, I lay on the sofa, exhausted with the excitement and effort of the\nday. William said, \"Don't you lay all on the altar?\" I replied, \"I am\nsure I do!\" Then he said, \"And isn't the altar holy?\" I replied in the\nlanguage of the Holy Ghost, \"The altar is most holy, and whatsoever\ntoucheth it is holy.\" Then, said he, \"Are you not holy?\" I replied with\nmy heart full of emotion and with some faith, \"Oh, I think I am!\"\nImmediately the word was given me to confirm my faith. \"Now are ye clean\nthrough the word which I have spoken unto you.\" And I took hold--true,\nwith a trembling hand, and not unmolested by the tempter, but I held fast\nthe beginning of my confidence, and it grew stronger, and from that\nmoment I have dared to reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto\nGod through Jesus Christ my Lord.\n\n'I did not feel much rapturous joy, but perfect peace, the sweet rest\nwhich Jesus promised to the heavy laden. I have understood the Apostle's\nmeaning when he says, \"We who believe do enter into rest.\" This is just\ndescriptive of my state at present. Not that I am not tempted, but I am\nallowed to know the Devil when he approaches me, and I look to my\nDeliverer Jesus, and He still gives me rest. Two or three very trying\nthings occurred on Saturday, which at another time would have excited\nimpatience, but I was kept by the power of God through faith unto full\nSalvation.\n\n'And now what shall I say? \"Unto Him who has washed me in His own Blood\nbe glory and dominion for ever and ever,\" and all within me says \"Amen!\"\nOh! I cannot describe, I have no words to set forth the sense I have of\nmy own utter unworthiness. Satan has met me frequently with my peculiarly\naggravated sins, and I have admitted it all. But then I have said, the\nLord has not made my sanctification to depend in any measure on my own\nworthiness or unworthiness, but on the worthiness of my Saviour. He came\nto seek and to save \"that which was lost.\" \"Where sin hath abounded,\ngrace doth much more abound\"'\n\nHow wonderfully in after years Mrs. Booth explained and led others into\nthis same blessing, we know. Was not, then, the long struggle and agony\non her own behalf worth it? Yes, indeed, and it will be so with you when\nyou get this glorious blessing in your soul.\n\nYou will have noticed how in struggling for Holiness Mrs. Booth had to\nfight unbelief. This determination to trust God fully marked her out as\nstrong in faith.\n\nShe had this marvellous faith because she obeyed and struggled to throw\nherself on the Lord; but faith was not _natural_ to her any more\nthan it is to you or me.\n\nOften money was short, and she hardly knew how she would be able to feed\nand clothe her family: this was a sore trial of her faith. On one such\noccasion she wrote to her mother:--\n\n'We have not at present received as much as our travelling expenses and\nhouse rent. I feel a good deal perplexed, and am sometimes tempted to\nmistrust the Lord. But I will not allow it. Our Father knows!'\n\nLater on we get a sight of her own experience in one of her letters, when\nshe said:--\n\n'I am much tried just now by perplexities of every kind; uncertainty,\nfrom a human standpoint, hedges me in on every side. Satan says it is\nuseless trying to steer straight through such a labyrinth; but I am\ndetermined to hold on to the promises, come what will. My God is the\nliving God. He sees me, knows me, loves me, cares for me, wants to have\nme with Him in Glory, as much as He did Abraham, or Paul, or John. If\nthis be true, what have I to fear?'\n\nAnd again:--\n\n'\"Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see\nthe Salvation of God?\" This is a precious word. It has kept my soul alive\nmany a time when Satan has almost overthrown me. \"If thou canst believe,\nall things are possible to thee. Never mind whether anybody else can or\ncannot. If others are too strong to let Me carry them, if thou art weak\nenough to throw up all self-effort, and trust Me with thy whole weight, I\nwill carry thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.\" I know this is the way.\nHence the babes go in with the simple and the great sinners, while the\nreasoners, and the strong, and the proud, and the fearful are shut out.'\n\nAgain, to one who was cast down, and tempted to be discouraged because of\nhis failings, she writes:--\n\n'It is well to see them, for how can we take hold of Jesus to mend what\nwe don't see? It is best to know ourselves, but we Salvationists are in\ndanger of erring on the other side. We look too much at ourselves apart\nfrom Him who is or would be our righteousness, sanctification, and\nredemption. Faith in Him as your keeper will do more in five minutes than\nyears of conflict without it.'\n\nOnce, in another letter, she gives us a beautiful bit of her own soul's\nexperience on this subject:--\n\n'I had such a view of His love and faithfulness on the journey from\nWellingborough, that I thought I would never doubt again about anything.\nI had the carriage to myself, and such a precious season with the Lord,\nthat the time seemed to fly. As the lightning gleamed around I felt ready\nto shout, \"The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.\" Oh, how\nprecious it is when we see as well as believe, but yet more blessed to\nbelieve and not see! Lord, work this determined, obstinate, blind,\nunquestioning, unanswering faith in me and my beloved friend, and let us\ntwo dare to trust Thee in the midst of our peculiar trials. As I looked\nat the waving fields, and grazing sheep, the flashing sky, a Voice said\nin my soul, \"Of what oughtest thou to be afraid? Am I not God? Cannot I\nsupply thy little, tiny needs?\" My heart replied, \"It is enough, Lord; I\nwill trust Thee, forgive my unbelief.\"'\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nLOVE\n\n\n\nThe truest love must ever seek the highest good of its object; sometimes\neven with forgetfulness of important smaller advantages.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\nThe second great quality in Mrs. Booth's character, as given by the first\nGeneral, was her love.\n\n'She was _love_,' he says. 'Her whole soul was full of tender, deep\ncompassion. Oh, how she loved, how she pitied the suffering poor! How she\nlonged to put her arms round the sorrowful, and help them!'\n\n'How,' asked Mrs. Booth once, 'are we to put heart into people? Even\ngrace seems to fail to do so in many instances. I think it needs mothers\nto do this from infancy upwards.'\n\nYou will recollect that Mrs. Mumford fostered this 'heart' and love in\nher little girl; and you will remember how keenly Katie felt, blazing up\ninto wrath at any story of wrong or injury, and ready to sacrifice her\nlife for those she loved. This spirit grew with her. She could not help\ncaring and struggling to help all who needed her. The General often told\nher in later years that she was killing herself by carrying every one's\nburdens. Then she would try to leave off for a little, but her heart was\ntoo strong, and she could not hold it back.\n\nWhen but a child, running down the road with her hoop and stick, she saw\na drunkard being dragged off to prison by a policeman. All the people\nwere jeering and mocking at the poor friendless wretch. Instantly Katie's\npity and love fired up. She dashed across the street, and marched along\nclose by the man's side, so that he might feel that at least one little\nheart cared for him, and wanted to help him.\n\nTo the end of her life she carried this deep, tender pity wherever she\nwent. She loved the poor. 'With all their faults,' she said, 'they have\nlarger hearts than the rich'; and she loved them for it.\n\nWhere any one had a warm heart, she could forgive and overlook many\nmistakes; but with cold, narrow, 'fishy' souls, she had neither sympathy\nnor patience.\n\nOur Army Mother's help was practical. She did not only give money or\npity, but she--so to speak--rolled up her sleeves and helped the\nsuffering herself.\n\nEvery sort of suffering and need appealed to her. If an animal was\nwounded or in pain, she stopped, and herself relieved it as best she\ncould; and to the last, if she saw a horse or any creature being\nill-treated, she would not hesitate to rush out and stop the driver, or\nin some way force him to leave off his cruelty.\n\nShe was not only kind and helpful to those she liked, but every living\nthing that suffered had a claim upon her, and the greater the need the\nmore tender and ready was her help.\n\nMrs. Booth was a people's woman, and she was never weary of scheming and\nplanning how to help the poor in the most practical way.\n\n'When I see people going wrong,' she said, when but a girl of twelve, 'I\nmust tell the poor things how to manage.'\n\nDirt and sin, and drink and misery, could not quench this love; it was a\npart of her very nature. Long, long before Slum Sisters were ever thought\nof, Mrs. Booth did their work herself, just because she so loved the\npoor, and longed to help them. You shall read the story in her own\nwords:--\n\n'I remember in one case finding a poor woman lying on a heap of rags. She\nhad just given birth to twins, and there was nobody of any sort to wait\nupon her. I can never forget the desolation of that room. By her side was\na crust of bread and a small lump of lard. \"I fancied a bit o' bootter\n(butter),\" the woman remarked apologetically, noticing my eye fall upon\nthe scanty meal, \"and my mon, he'd do owt for me he could, bless'm--he\ncouldna git me iny bootter, so he fitcht me this bit o' lard. Have\n_you_ iver tried lard isted o' bootter? It's _rare good_!\" said\nthe poor creature, making me wish I had taken lard for \"bootter\" all my\nlife, that I might have been the better able to minister to her needs.\nHowever, I was soon busy trying to make her a little more comfortable.\nThe babies I washed in a broken pie-dish, the nearest approach to a tub\nthat I could find. And the gratitude of those large eyes, that gazed upon\nme from out of that wan and shrunken face, can never fade from my\nmemory.'\n\nBefore public Meetings took up so much of her time, she delighted in this\nhouse-to-house visiting, and went especially for the drunkards, over whom\nGod gave her a wonderful power.\n\n'I used to visit in the evenings,' she says, 'because it was the only\npart of the day in which I could get away; and, besides, I should not\nhave found the men at home at any other time. I used to ask one\ndrunkard's wife where another lived. They always knew. After getting hold\nof eight or ten in this way, and getting them to sign the pledge, I used\nto arrange Cottage Meetings for them, and try to get them saved. They\nused to let me talk to them in homes where there was not a stick of\nfurniture, and nothing to sit down upon.'\n\nIn this way our Army Mother sought and cared for the drunkards long\nbefore Drunkards' Brigades were dreamt of.\n\nWhen, at a later time in her life, she first heard of the wicked and\ncruel way in which young girls are trapped and drawn into sin, Mrs.\nBooth's soul was filled with a whirlwind of holy indignation.\n\n'I feel as though I could not rest, but as though I must go and ferret\nout these monsters myself,' she wrote. 'Almost everybody, notwithstanding\nthe indignation, seems so content with talking. Nobody appears willing to\ntake the responsibility of doing or risking anything. Oh, what a state\nthe world has got into!'\n\nBut, deep and practical as was her love in earthly things, her passion\nfor lifting and leading souls into Salvation and Holiness was a thousand\ntimes more intense. 'If we only realized, as we ought, the value of\nsouls, we should not live long under it,' she said; and she herself\nrealized it fully enough to make her fight on ceaselessly in spite of\nintense weakness. 'If it were not for eternity,' she often sighed, 'I\nshould soon give up this life.'\n\nIt was love for souls which made her go from town to town, care-worn,\nweary, often quite unfit to meet the immense congregations which came to\nhear her.\n\nIt was love for souls which kept her sitting for hours at her\nwriting-table, when she should have been resting, trying to help those\nwho turned to her for counsel and direction from every part of the globe.\n\nIt was love for souls which gave her many a sleepless night, and chained\nher to her knees, weeping and pleading, agonizing with God on behalf of\nthe people she was to face the next day.\n\nAnd this love for souls grew even stronger as death came near. 'Eva,' she\nexclaimed to one of her daughters, as she lay racked with agonizing pain,\n'don't you forget that man with the handcuffs on. Find him. Go to\nLancaster Jail; let somebody go with you, and find that man. Tell him\nthat your mother, when she was dying, prayed for him, and that she had a\nfeeling in her heart that God would save him; and tell him, hard as the\nten years of imprisonment may be, it will be easier with Christ than it\nwould be without Him.'\n\nShe was lying between earth and Heaven, thinking of the joy and peace\nawaiting her, when it seemed as if she saw the dark face of a heathen\nwoman, and heard the cry, 'Won't you help us?' The old love for perishing\nsouls woke again directly, and she cried, 'Oh, yes, Lord, I will go\nanywhere to help poor struggling people. I would go on an errand to Hell,\nif the Lord would promise me that the Devil should not keep me there.'\n\nIn one of these last days she sent a dying message to the Officers. 'Tell\nthem,' she said, 'that the only consolation for a Salvationist on his\ndeath-bed is to have been a soul-winner. After all my labours I feel I\nhave come far short of the prize of my high calling. Beseech them to\nredeem their time, for we can do but little at the best.'\n\nA little maid who was a Candidate came into Mrs. Booth's sick-room once\nas she was speaking, and she called her to her bedside, giving her\nwarning and counsel which every Corps Cadet can take as though spoken to\nherself:--\n\n'You will be finished with the dishes soon,' she said, 'and you are going\nto be a Cadet. I have been very pleased with you while you have been\nhere, because you have worked out of sight with a good will, and I think\nyou will make a brave Officer. You will promise me, will you?' she said,\nas she laid her trembling hand on the girl's head. 'Yes,' was the reply,\n'I will,' amid stifled sobs.\n\n'Give me a kiss, then,' said Mrs. Booth. 'Promise me that you will never\nget spoiled by any unfaithful Officer. If you ever get mixed up with\nsuch, do not hide it from Headquarters, but let them know about it, and\nthey will soon move the false away from you. I shan't be here; but, Oh!\nmay God help them to get rid of the wrong. Discernment of spirits! Oh,\nwhy should we not have that gift back? It is very necessary.'\n\nMrs. Booth's whole heart was wrapped up in the spread of The Army, and\nshe was never more of a warrior than when fighting its battles. And The\nArmy needed some one to stand up for it in those days. We who live to-day\ncan hardly fancy the fierce, bitter persecution the early-day\nSalvationists had to fight through.\n\nNow, even those who dislike and despise us are forced to admit that 'The\nArmy does a great deal of good'; but then it was different, and again and\nagain, both by speech and writing, Mrs. Booth had to defend and stand up\nfor our methods.\n\n'I would not,' she says, after she had spoken too plainly for some rich\npeople who were offended at her words, 'sit down and listen to their\nabuse of The Salvation Army for all their money. But I did not say a word\nthat I would object to have published upon the housetops. Such, however,\nis often the spirit of the rich. They think that one must sit and hear\nwhatever they may choose to say, and hold one's breath, because of their\nmoney! But, no, I will never be dumb before a golden idol!'\n\nShe loved the Uniform: she herself planned that worn by Army women, and\nalways wore her own, rejoicing to be able to give to our people a way of\nescape from the fashions and extravagances of the world.\n\nShe loved the Flag, and was true to its beautiful meaning. She loved to\npresent Colours to the newly-opened Corps, or to parties of Officers\ngoing abroad; and when, shortly before she passed away, she changed her\nroom, she begged that the dear Army Flag might be brought in and hung\nabove her bed.\n\n'There,' said The General, 'the Colours are over you now, my darling.'\n\nAnd she clasped them fondly with her left hand, and traced the\nmotto--'Blood and Fire.'\n\n'Yes,' she said, 'Blood and Fire; that is just what my life has been--a\nconstant and severe fight.'\n\n'It ought to be \"Blood and Fire and Victory,\"' said The General.\n\n'I'll fight on till I get it,' she answered. 'I won't give in. Next time\nI see them I shall be above the pain and sorrow for ever.'\n\nBut, though at the last she longed to be at rest, it was not easy for her\ngreat mother's heart to unloose itself from those she loved, and from the\nthousands in all lands who looked to her as to a mother.\n\nIf you have learnt to love very deeply you will also have to suffer, and\nher very love made the parting so difficult.\n\n'Oh,' she exclaimed, when speaking of leaving The General and her\nchildren, 'mine is such a heart! it seems as if it had got roots all\nround the world clutching on to one and another, and that it will not let\nthem go! And yet You can take care of them, Lord, better than I could. I\ndo, I do believe! O Eternal Father, Shepherd of the sheep, do Thou look\nafter my little flock!'\n\n'Amen,' we who read these lines may say; adding to her prayer, 'And give\nus that same heart and love which made her life of such mighty power.'\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nTHE WARRIOR\n\n\n\n'Fighting is hard work, whatever sort of fighting it is. You cannot fight\nwithout wounds of body, heart, or soul.'--MRS. BOOTH.\n\n'Lastly,' said The General in that same beautiful tribute to our Army\nMother that I have already quoted from,' she was a _warrior_. She\nliked the fight. She was not one who said to others, \"Go,\" but \"Here, let\n_me_ go\"; and when there was the necessity she said, \"I _will_\ngo!\" I never knew her flinch until her poor body compelled her to lie on\none side.'\n\nOur Army Mother was, indeed, before all things a warrior; she fought\nbravely and unceasingly her whole life through.\n\nIn thought and purpose she was independent, and dared to stand out for\nwhat she felt right. Cowardice, in her opinion, was one of the commonest\nand most subtle sins of the day, and she had no patience with those who\ndared not say 'No,' and feared to stand alone.\n\nShe thought for herself, and though always eager to hear and learn as\nmuch as possible from others, yet she was not carried away by their\nopinions, but carefully weighed and considered their arguments, and then\nformed her own judgments.\n\nMrs. Booth strove earnestly for doctrine.\n\n'Let us take care,' she said, in The Army's early days, 'what Gospel we\npreach. Let us mind our doctrine.'\n\nAnd again:--\n\n'We must stick to the form of sound words, for there is more in it than\nappears on the surface. \"Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and the Holy\nGhost,\" was the theology of our forefathers, and I am suspicious of all\nattempts to mend it.'\n\nAnd once more:--\n\n'Let us beware of wrong doctrine, come through whomsoever it may. Holy\nmen make sad mistakes. \"Well, but,\" say some, \"is not a person who holds\nwrong views with a right heart better than a person with right views and\na wrong heart?\" Yes, so far as his personal state before God is\nconcerned, but not in his influence on man. My charity must extend to\nthose likely to be deceived or ruined by his doctrines as well as to\nhim.'\n\nMrs. Booth's whole life was a continual fight against sin--sin of all\nkinds. Whether her Meeting was held for the very lowest and roughest, or\nwhether rows of clergy and lawyers, and lords and ladies sat to listen,\nit made no difference to her. She attacked sin, and went straight at the\nvery heart-sins of the people in front of her.\n\n'We need great grace,' she says in the midst of her wonderful West-End\ncampaign, where even princes and princesses came to hear her. 'I think\nthe Lord never enabled me to be more plain and faithful. As a lady in\nhigh circles said to me, \"We never heard this sort of Gospel before.\" No,\npoor things, they are sadly deceived.'\n\nDrink, too, was another evil which Mrs. Booth fought against during the\nwhole of her life. She began, as you remember, when a girl by being\nsecretary of the 'Band of Love' of those days.\n\nIn the early days of their engagement The General was strongly advised to\ntake a little wine for the sake of his health. Our Army Mother wrote him\na long letter, showing him how false and foolish such advice was, and\nending with:--\n\n'I have had it recommended to me scores of times, but I am fully and for\never settled on the physical side of the question. [Footnote: That means\ntaking it for the sake of health.--ED.]\n\n'It is a subject on which I am most anxious you should be thorough. I\nhave far more hope for your health _because_ you abstain, than I\nshould if you took wine. Flee the detestable thing as you would a\nserpent; be a teetotaller in principle and practice.'\n\nThough, as we have seen, full of boundless faith and pity for the\ndrunkard, Mrs. Booth attacked the makers and sellers of drink\nunmercifully. She says, on one occasion:--\n\n'By your peace of conscience on a dying bed; by the eternal destinies of\nyour children, by your care for never-dying souls; by the love you owe\nyour Saviour, I beseech you _banish the drink_.\n\n'Tell me no more of charity towards brewers, distillers, and publicans.\nYour false charity to these has already consigned millions to an untimely\nHell!... Arise, Christians, arise, and fight this foe! You and you alone\nare able, for your God will fight for you!'\n\nAnother thing for which our Army Mother fought, and which to-day we owe\nin great measure to her efforts, is the position to which women have been\nlifted as speakers and teachers in God's work. She first, as we have\nseen, opened the way herself; and then she left it open, encouraging and\nhelping tens of thousands of simple, holy women all round the world to\nfollow in her steps.\n\nShe had a tough battle to wage. All classes wrote and spoke against women\nbeing allowed to stand and speak for God in the open air or in public\nhalls; but, strong in faith and courage, convinced that she had Divine\nauthority for what she did, our Army Mother fought on, arguing, writing,\npreaching on the matter. Now to-day there is scarcely a land where The\nArmy bonnet is not known and loved, nor where Army women cannot gain a\ncrowd of respectful listeners.\n\nNow I am going to show you some of the hindrances in spite of which our\nArmy Mother fought on.\n\nThe first of these hindrances was the burden which God allowed Mrs. Booth\nto carry all through her life--a weak and suffering body. She said, when\nher life was drawing to its close, that suffering seemed to have been her\nspecial lot, and that she could scarcely remember a day in her life when\nshe had been wholly free from pain.\n\n'I don't care about my body,' she exclaimed when lying in her last\nillness. 'It has been a poor old troublesome affair. I shall be glad for\nit to be sealed up. It is time it was. Oh, I have dragged it wearily\nabout.'\n\nMost women suffering as she did, with a weak spine, heart disease, and\nover-strained nerves, would have lived the life of an invalid. But the\nwarrior spirit within forced her body along. Scores of times she has gone\nfrom her bed to the Meeting, and then, exhausted and fainting with the\neffort, has had to be almost carried home. But she had done her work, and\nsent the arrow of conviction into hundreds of hearts.\n\nWriting after one special strain of work and anxiety, she says:--\n\n'The excitement made me worse than I have been for two years. My heart\nwas really alarming, and for two days I could hardly bear any clothes to\ntouch me. This has disheartened me again as to my condition. But God\nreigns, and He will keep me alive as long as He needs me.'\n\nAnother of her hindrances, and one which was almost more difficult to\novercome than weakness of body, was depression.\n\nI wonder if you know what that is? If so, it will help you to realize\nthat Mrs. Booth had to fight it also.\n\nThe Devil seemed allowed to try and test her faith to the uttermost, and\nat times to blot out all peace and glory from her soul. During one such\ntime of darkness she writes:--\n\n'I know I ought not, of all saints, or sinners either, to be depressed. I\nknow it dishonours my Lord, grieves His Spirit, and injures me greatly;\nand I would fain hide from everybody to prevent their seeing it. But I\ncannot help it. I have struggled hard, more than any one knows, for a\nlong time against it. Sometimes I have literally held myself, head and\nheart and hand, and waited for the floods to pass over me.'\n\nBut our Army Mother did not give up working for God, and sit down in\ndespair, because she was thus tried. One day, just before leaving for a\ngreat West-End Meeting, in which God made her words as a sharp two-edged\nsword, she wrote this to one of her children:--\n\n'I have been very much depressed since you left--more so than usual. It\nis of no use reasoning with myself when these fits of despondency are on\nme. I must hold on and fight my passage through; and when I get to Heaven\nthe light and joy will be all the greater. If I dared give up working I\nshould do so a hundred times over; but I _dare_ not.'\n\nAnother and constant hindrance which our Army Mother had to fight for the\ngreater part of her life was poverty. It was so difficult, many times, to\nmake two ends meet. She had, during many years of her life, no regular\nmoney coming in on which to depend, and during that time it was a\nconstant struggle to have her children properly cared for and give them\nthe needed education.\n\nBut most of all did our Army Mother show herself a warrior in her own\nSalvation campaigns. In those early days there were no praying Soldiers\nand Sergeants to be had to deal with the penitents--no one, either, to\nlead her singing, scarcely even to keep the doors or take up the\ncollection. She would arrive in a town absolutely alone. A hall had been\ntaken in which she was to speak, and she would hire a tiny lodging, or\nstay in whatever home would receive her, and set to work. We can scarcely\nunderstand the loneliness of her position. Here was a proof of her mighty\nfaith in God.\n\nShe began these solitary campaigns when her sixth child was but a few\nweeks old, and God most wonderfully owned her labours. At one place she\nsaw one hundred grown-up people and two hundred children come to her\npenitent-form in six days. But it was a fearful battle.\n\n'I have a comfortable little cot to stay in,' she writes to her mother\nfrom one such battle-field, 'very small and humble; but it is clean and\nquiet; and when I feel nervous no one knows the value of quietness. I\nhave felt it hard work lately. Many a time have I longed to be where the\nweary are at rest.'\n\nAt Margate, some years later, she commenced her Meetings without knowing\na single person in the place. For some weeks she had not even a helper in\nthe Prayer Meetings, nor one who would give out a song for her. Mrs.\nBooth could not sing herself, and there was often an awkward pause before\nany one would be willing to pitch her tune. 'If only,' she said when The\nArmy was fairly on its feet, 'I had been able to command a dozen reliable\npeople such as I could have anywhere now, I think I could have done\nalmost anything.'\n\nEven more wonderful was her experience at Brighton.\n\nThe Dome, a great building holding three thousand people, had been taken\nfor her Meetings.\n\n'I can never forget my feelings,' says this Soldier-saint, 'as I stood\nupon the platform and looked upon the people, realizing that among them\nall there was no one to help me. When I commenced the Prayer Meeting, for\nwhich I should think quite nine hundred remained, Satan said to me, as I\ncame down from the platform according to my custom, \"You will never ask\nsuch people as these to come and kneel down here? You will only make a\nfool of yourself if you do.\" I felt stunned for a moment; but I answered,\n\"Yes, I shall. I shall not make it any easier for them than for the\nothers. If they do not realize their sins enough to be willing to come\nand kneel here, they will not be of much use to the kingdom.\"'\n\nThe Lord set His seal upon Mrs. Booth's faith and courage, for the first\nto volunteer were two old gentlemen, both over seventy years of age; and\nshe had ten or twelve at the mercy-seat before the Meeting ended.\n\nWriting from Portsmouth, she tells the same story of loneliness and\nvictory:--\n\n'You say, \"How do you get on personally?\" Oh, I never was so hampered for\nhelp in every way in all my life! The most able man I have keeps a\nmilliner's shop, and the one that opens for me generally is an overseer;\nso their attention is divided and the time limited. Pray for me. I never\nneeded your prayers so much. This is a dreadfully wicked place.'\n\nYet during the seventeen weeks of her stay some six hundred names were\ntaken, many of them wonderful trophies of God's mercy.\n\nHaving lived such a warrior's life, you think, very likely, that the\ndeath-bed experience of our Army Mother would be all peace and glory. But\nno. Right down into the Valley she needed to use the Sword of the Spirit\nand the Shield of Faith, for to the last Satan was allowed to test and\ntry her.\n\nBut she fought on!\n\n'One of my hardest lessons,' she said in her last hours, 'has been the\ndifference between faith and realization; and if I have had to conquer\nall through life by naked faith, I can only expect it to be the same now.\nAll our enemies have to be conquered by _faith_, not realization;\nand is it not so with the last enemy, death? Yes, if it please the Lord\nthat I should go down into the dark valley without any realization,\nsimply knowing that I am His, and He is mine, I am quite willing--I\naccept it.'\n\nThis is the faith that made our Army Mother and all the Bible saints such\nconquerors. It is the secret of their victory--the faith without which it\nis impossible to please God, and for which we all need to pray, 'Lord,\nincrease our faith.'\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nLAST DAYS\n\n\n\n'As I look back on life I do not remember the houses I have lived in, the\npeople that I have known, the things of passing interest at the moment.\nThey are all gone. There is nothing stands out before my mind as of any\nconsequence, but the work I have done for God and Eternity.'--MRS.\nBOOTH.\n\nIf The General and those who loved our Army Mother best had been able to\nchoose for her, they would most likely have said: 'Let her live and fight\nand work on, up to within a few days of her promotion to Glory. Let the\ncall come quickly and painlessly, as it has come to others in our ranks.'\n\nBut the Lord, who loved her more than we did, saw fit to send to her two\nand a half years of ever-increasing weariness and suffering. For long\nmonths she lay on the very bank of the River, longing for the messenger\nof Death to carry her across. Those who loved her could not tell why the\nLord sent her this last fiery trial; they could only bow with her, and\nsay, 'Thy will be done.'\n\nIt was in February, 1888, that Mrs. Booth, who was anxious about her\nhealth, went to consult a great doctor and get his opinion. She was\nalone, for no one had thought her illness was so serious. She asked him\nto tell her the truth--all through her life, as you know, she wanted the\ntruth; and after a little hesitation he told her.\n\nThe truth was the saddest that she could hear. That dreadful\nillness--cancer--through which she had so tenderly nursed her own dear\nmother, had come to her, and in the doctor's opinion she had much\nsuffering to pass through, and only two or, at the most, three years\nlonger to live. Mrs. Booth listened calmly, thanked the doctor, and\nthen, getting once more into the cab, drove home all alone.\n\nIt was a dark journey. The War needed her. The General needed her. Her\nchildren needed her. And yet the sentence of Death had been passed upon\nher, and she must soon leave them all. What did she do? I think you can\nguess.\n\nShe knelt down in the cab, and in prayer committed to God, in a new and\ndeeper way than ever before, her own body, and her dear ones and the work\nHe had given her to do.\n\nAt last the cab stopped before her own door, and The General came out to\nmeet her.\n\n'I shall never forget that meeting in this world, or the next,' he says.\n'I had been watching for the cab, and had run out to meet her and help\nher up the steps. She tried to smile on me through her tears; but,\ndrawing me into the room, soon told me, bit by bit, what the doctor had\nsaid. I sat down speechless. She rose from her seat, and came and knelt\nbeside me, saying: \"Do you know what was my first thought? That I should\nnot be there to nurse you in your last hour.\"\n\n'I was stunned. I felt as if the whole world were coming to a standstill.\nOpposite me, on the wall, was a picture of Christ on the cross. I thought\nI could understand it then, as never before. She talked to me like an\nangel; she talked as she had never talked before. I could say little or\nnothing. I could only kneel with her and try to pray. That very same\nnight The General was to leave London for some great Meetings in Holland,\nand Mrs. Booth would not hear of his changing his plans and remaining\nwith her.\n\n'The War must go on' was her thought, even when all her family stood\nstunned and heart-broken around her, unwilling to leave her even for a\nmoment.\n\nTwo years later, when but a few more days of suffering remained to her, a\nlast message from her lips reached us as Self-Denial Week began. 'The War\nmust go on' was one of its sentences.\n\n'The War must go on' had been as her motto, lived out in all the long,\nlong months that lay between. Instead of immediately laying aside her\nwork, when the doctors gave their dreadful judgment, and beginning to\nthink only of herself, she went on with it as long as her increasing\nweakness allowed.\n\nBut step by step the disease grew worse. First she was forced to give up\nMeetings and public work. Then it became impossible for her to use her\nright hand, and she was therefore obliged to give up her correspondence,\nthough she still continued to dictate her letters, and learnt also to\nwrite with her left hand.\n\nSoon her daily drives became too tiring, and by and by she went out of\nthe house into the little garden for the last time; and then for the\nconcluding twelve months of her life she was a prisoner in her room,\nlying in constant suffering.\n\nBut during these long months the greatest joy and relief that could come\nto her was to hear of some fresh victory or triumph for the Kingdom of\nJesus. Her interest in The Army and her love for the people were as keen\nas ever, and War Councils were held and new developments planned in her\nchamber, and much of The General's Darkest England Scheme for the poor\nand outcast was thought out and decided upon beside her sick bed.\n\nAgain and again, too, Mrs. Booth would receive deputations of Officers of\ndifferent classes and from various countries in which The Army was at\nwork, who came to Clacton-on-Sea, where the last fifteen months of her\nlife were spent, to listen to her words of advice and inspiration.\n\nThere were no Corps Cadets in those days; but our Army Mother left some\nspecially beautiful words about the Juniors, to which I must refer.\n\nWhen she was told by the Officer then in charge of our Junior Work in\nEngland that the children loved and prayed continually for her, she\nsmiled.\n\n'The thought of the little ones,' says some one who was there, 'brought\nour beloved Army Mother wholly out of herself and her pain and\nweariness.'\n\n'A very choice branch of the work,' she said. 'I have often told Emma\nthat I hoped when I was too old for public work God would let me end\nwhere I began--with the children. But it seems that it is not to be so.'\n\n'Give the children,' she went on, in reply to the messages they had sent,\n'my dear love, and tell them that if there had been a Salvation Army when\nI was ten I should have been a Soldier then, as I am to-day.\n\nNever allow yourself to be discouraged in your work. I know you must meet\nwith many discouragements; but I am sure the Spirit of God works mightily\non little children long before grown people think they are able to\nunderstand.'\n\nAgain and again during that last year of awful suffering it seemed as if\nMrs. Booth were about to leave us; but then she would revive, and come\nback to endure more weeks and months of agony.\n\nBut at last, on October 4, 1890, all could see that she was on the brink\nof the River, and even those who loved her the most tenderly could not\nwish to hold her back.\n\n'O Emma, let me go, darling,' she whispered; and hearing the reply, 'Yes,\nwe will, we will,' she said, 'Now! Yes, Lord, come, Oh, come!'\n\nThe singing of The Army songs seemed to comfort her; and once she raised\nher suffering arm, and pointed to the text, '_My grace is sufficient\nfor thee_,' which hung on the wall. It was lifted down and placed at\nthe foot of her bed, so that her eyes could often rest on it during those\nlast hours.\n\n'Soon after noon,' says the present General, 'I felt that the deepening\ndarkness of the Valley was closing around my dear mother, and a little\nlater I took my last farewell. Her lips moved, and she gave me one look\nof unspeakable tenderness and trust which will live with me for ever.\nAgain we sang:--\n\n  My mistakes His free grace doth cover,\n    My sins He doth wash away;\n  These feet which shrink and falter\n    Shall enter the Gates of Day.\n\nAnd, holding her hand, The General gave her up to God. It was a solemn\nand wonderful scene.'\n\nThe Chief of the Staff and Mrs. Bramwell Booth, Mrs. Booth-Tucker, and\nthe Commander, and her three daughters, Marian, Eva, and Lucy, knelt\nround the bed, upon which were placed photographs of the other members of\nher family who were unavoidably absent. Near to her stood her faithful\nnurse, Captain Carr, and others of the household, the dear General bowing\nover his beloved wife and companion in life's long strife, and giving her\nup to the keeping of the Father.\n\nOne by one the members of the family tenderly embraced her; then a gleam\nof recognition passed over the brightening countenance as The General\nbent over her. Their eyes met---the last kiss of love on earth, the last\nword till the Morning, and without a movement the breathing gently\nceased, and a warrior laid down her sword to receive her crown.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nYou may have heard of those wonderful days from Tuesday morning till\nSunday night, when the coffin containing the precious remains of our Army\nMother lay at the Congress Hall, Clapton, and when more than fifty\nthousand people came to have a last look at her dear face.\n\nA piece of glass had been let into the plain oak coffin. It was just\nlarge enough to show the head and shoulders, and she lay as if in a sweet\nsleep.\n\nYou wonder if many came merely from curiosity. Some did, of course, but\nmost of the people came because her life and example and words had been\nso blessed to their souls; and they came as they would come to look at\nthe dead face of their own mother. It was the most wonderful tribute to a\nwoman's life and words that London had ever seen.\n\nFor all kinds of people came--rich and poor, good and bad, people of many\ndifferent religions, and many with no religion at all. Working men came\nin their dinner-hour, with their tools on their backs and tears in their\neyes; mothers lifted up their little children to look at the one who had\ntaught them the way of life; and, best of all, by the side of her coffin\nknelt many a wanderer and backslider to give themselves afresh to God.\n\nMore than one poor girl went direct from the Congress Hall to the Rescue\nHomes, to begin to live 'as she would have wished'; and the Cadets on\nguard were all the time dealing with drunkards and helping those who\ndesired to begin from thenceforth to live a new and different life.\n\nEven to-day, twenty-four years later, we often meet those who date their\nconversion, or their first step in the Narrow Way, from their look at\nthat face lying in its simple coffin.\n\nOne of Mrs. Booth's own grandchildren, Mary, the present General's second\ndaughter, looks back to that scene as the time when God in an\nunmistakable manner sealed her as His. She was only five years old as she\nknelt by the coffin, but nevertheless she decided there, in her childish\nconsecration, like Ruth of old, that 'Thy people shall be my people, and\nthy God my God'; and in the spirit of this consecration she lives to-day.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn order that some of the crowds who wished to share in the funeral\nservice might be present, the largest hall in London, the Olympia, was\ntaken. Twenty-six thousand people filled it; and though it was, of\ncourse, impossible for them all to hear, they followed the service given\non printed papers with reverent sympathy.\n\nThe coffin was carried down the immense hall by Officers; The General and\nhis family followed.\n\nThose who arranged for this last mighty gathering remembered that Mrs.\nBooth, when with us, was never happy to leave a Meeting unless it had\nbeen brought to a point, and something definite had been done; and\ntherefore, when the songs and prayers and readings were over, the huge\ncrowd was asked to kneel and make a solemn covenant with God.\n\nIt was a beautiful covenant, and ended with these words:--\n\n'And now, in this solemn hour, and in the presence of death, I come again\nto Thy footstool, and make this covenant with Thee.'\n\nThen all who had made the covenant from their hearts rose and sang\ntogether:--\n\n  Just as I am Thou dost receive,\n  Dost welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,\n  Because Thy promise I believe,\n  O Lamb of God, I come!\n\nIt was just such an ending to the wonderful service as our Army Mother\nwould have chosen had she been still on earth with us.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe next morning was dry and bright. 'I shall ask God to give you a fine\nday for my funeral, Emma, so that you mayn't take cold,' our Army Mother\nhad said, for she was ever thoughtful for others; and her prayer was\nanswered, for though the white mist crept up from the river to the\nEmbankment, where the procession was forming up, there was no rain nor\nwind.\n\nTens of thousands of our dear Soldiers would gladly have sacrificed a\nday's work in order to follow in the funeral procession of one they so\ndearly loved; but, so as not to gather too large a crowd, only Officers\nwere allowed in the march, which passed through countless throngs of\npeople from International Headquarters to Abney Park Cemetery, a distance\nof about five miles.\n\nAll along the route the crowds stood in dense masses, and roofs, windows,\nand every nook and corner were packed with human beings. Nothing had been\nseen like it, said the police, since the Duke of Wellington's funeral,\nforty years before.\n\nIt was a wonderful march. I wish you could have seen it! Sometimes it\nseemed as if every one was weeping; and when the open hearse, with its\nplain oak coffin, crowned by The Army bonnet and well-worn Bible, passed,\nall heads were bared, all voices hushed, and tears filled all eyes.\n\nThe General, standing alone in his open carriage all along the long, sad\nway, must have felt that he had the people's sympathy and love with him\nin his grief, for scores of heartfelt 'God bless you's!' came from lips\nthat are unused to such words.\n\nAnd at last the yellow evening sun shone out as the great procession\nreached the gates of Abney Park Cemetery and wound towards the open\ngrave.\n\nOnly a part of the mighty throng could hear The General's beautiful\nwords, so strong and yet so tender, from which I have already quoted, but\nall joined in the song, 'Rock of Ages,' which seemed to roll up to the\nheavens themselves.\n\nSeveral leading Officers and members of The General's own family prayed\nand spoke, wonderfully upheld in spite of their deep grief and the strain\nof the last days. And then by the open grave the present General led all\nhearts to make a fresh consecration, the whole assembly promising, with\nGod's help, that they would be\n\n'Faithful to Thee, faithful to one another, and faithful to a dying\nworld, till we meet our beloved Mother in the Morning. Amen.'\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf ever you are in Abney Park Cemetery you should visit her grave. It is\nvery simple. Around the little piece of earth runs a grey stone, with\nthese words carved on it:--\n\n  CATHERINE BOOTH,\n\n  MOTHER OF THE SALVATION ARMY\n\n  More than Conqueror, through Him that loved us,\n  and gave Himself for all the world and for you.\n\n  Do you also follow Christ?\n\nand above are two small beds of flowers.\n\nDo many people go to see it? you wonder.\n\nOh, yes. All round it a path is worn in the grass, made by the tread of\nmany feet; for mothers bring their boys and girls to see it, and tell\nthem what a mother she was, and men and women of all creeds and races\npause beside it, and remember.\n\nMany Officers, too--from distant lands, and speaking strange tongues you\ncould not understand--come to The Army Mother's grave when they visit our\nshores. For she was their Mother as well as ours, they say.\n\nThey kneel beside the stone, and spell out the name, and then they\nconsecrate themselves afresh to God and the needs of the heathen lands,\nand they claim His grace to follow in her steps.\n\nFor our Army Mother is not dead. True, her body lies in the quiet grave\nat Abney Park, and her spirit is in Heaven; but her life and influence\nstill live among us, her words are treasured, and our greatest prayer and\ndesire for the girls and wives and mothers in our ranks is that they may\nlive to be worthy daughters of Catherine Booth.\n\n\n\n\nDATES IN MRS. BOOTH'S LIFE\n\n\n\n1829. January 17th. Catherine Mumford born at Ashbourne, Derby.\n1829. April 10th. William Booth born at Nottingham.\n1843. Catherine has to leave school owing to severe illness.\n1844. Refuses to be engaged to her cousin.\n1845. Is converted.\n1846. Seems likely to go into consumption.\n1850. Takes Sunday class of elder girls.\n1851. June. Miss Mumford hears Mr. Booth preach; later meets him at a\n      friend's house.\n1852. May 15th. They are engaged to be married.\n1855. June 16th. The wedding.\n1857. Mrs. Booth speaks to a children's meeting on Temperance.\n1859. She starts work among drunkards. She writes her first pamphlet on\n      woman's right to preach.\n1860. Mrs. Booth speaks for the first time in public.\n1861. Mr. and Mrs. Booth break up their home in the north, and come to\n      London, choosing an evangelistic life.\n1864. Mrs. Booth begins to hold Evangelistic campaigns apart from her\n      husband.\n1864. July. East End Mission begun.\n1868. First Headquarters established.\n1869. Mrs. Booth's wonderful Brighton campaign.\n1870. East London Mission becomes the 'Christian Mission.'\n1871. Mrs. Booth publishes her first book.\n1877. Christian Mission becomes 'The Salvation Army.'\n1878. The uniform is chosen.\n1886. First Self-Denial Week.\n1888. February. Mrs. Booth learns that she is suffering from cancer.\n1888. June 21st. Mrs. Booth speaks in public for the last time (at the\n      City Temple).\n1889. August. She goes to Clacton-on-Sea.\n1890. October 4th. Mrs. Booth is promoted to Glory.\n1890. October 6th. Her body brought to Congress Hall, Clapton.\n1890. October 11th. Funeral at Abney Park.","title":"Catherine Booth \u2014 a Sketch","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":28023}