The Speaker

’I will never speak to sinners so that one man or woman in my audience can stand up and say, “You might have warned me more faithfully, spoken more plainly than you did.” I would rather die than that should be the case.’—Mrs. Booth.

No one must think that Mrs. Booth became a great speaker all in a moment, or by any ‘royal road.’ She started when about eighteen, as many a Corps Cadet has since done, by just taking a class or Company on Sundays, never dreaming of doing more. An elder girls’ Company was given to her; and she had fifteen girls to teach, whose ages varied from twelve to nineteen.

Two half-days she spent every week in preparing for her Company, and in trying to make each lesson end in a practical way, so as to do them real good.

Then on Sunday, when the rest of the children had been dismissed, Miss Mumford would beg to be given the key of the room and would remain behind, holding a little Prayer Meeting with her girls. Sometimes they would stay on for an hour and a half, and many by this means became truly converted.

Often with so much praying and singing Catherine quite lost her voice before the end of the Meeting; but, so long as souls were saved, she did not mind that.

Soon after her marriage Mrs. Booth took another class of this same kind, and also a little sort of Sergeants’ Meeting, and then–for you see our Army Mother was led on, just as you or I may be, step by step–she gave a short talk to the Band of Hope children (something like our Band of Love of today) on the evils of drink.

‘Oh, how I wish,’ she wrote to her father, ’that I had started speaking years ago!’

A little later on Mr. and Mrs. Booth moved to Gateshead, and there the people were very much surprised to hear their minister’s wife pray aloud when her husband had done speaking; for in those days very few women thought of praying, much less of speaking, in public.

’Since you can pray so beautifully, will you come and talk to us on our special Prayer-Meeting night?’ some of the people asked. But Mrs. Booth was horrified.

‘Of course, I said “No,"’ she wrote. ’I don’t know what they can be thinking of.’

Just at this time an argument began in one of the newspapers as to whether women had the right to speak for God or not. Mrs. Booth wrote an answer to this question you can read it for yourself in her book, ’Practical Religion’–and she showed from God’s Word, that women have the same right to help to get people saved that the men have. The little pamphlet was already printed and being widely read, and our Army Mother lay alone in her room very ill, when the thought flashed into her soul, ’You have been helping other women to preach and to speak for God. What about yourself?’

’Oh, no, Lord, not me; I can’t. I am, as Thou knowest, the most timid and bashful disciple ever saved by grace.’ That was her answer.

Then the Lord took her back to the days when she first gave herself to Him, at the age of fifteen. He showed her that all the way along this one thing had hindered and stopped her from ’being the blessing or from getting the blessing He intended.’

‘Lord,’ she cried, ’if Thou wilt come back to me as in the old days, I will obey, though I die in the attempt.’

But at the moment God seemed not to answer her cry, and when she was well again all went on as before.

Three months later Mrs. Booth was quietly sitting one Sunday morning in chapel with her eldest boy, when a very wonderful thing happened. You shall read about it in her own words:–

‘I felt much depressed in mind,’ she says, ’and was not expecting anything particular, but as the testimonies proceeded I felt the Holy Spirit come upon me. It seemed as if a voice said to me: “Now, if you were to go and testify, you know I would bless it to your own soul as well as to the people!” I gasped again, and said in my heart: “Yes, Lord, I believe Thou wouldst, but I cannot do it!” I had forgotten my vow.

’A moment afterwards there flashed across my mind the memory of the time when I had promised the Lord that I would obey Him at all costs. And then the voice seemed to ask me if this was consistent with that promise. I almost jumped up and said, “No, Lord, it is the old thing over again. But I cannot do it!” I felt as though I would sooner die than speak. And then the Devil said, “Besides, you are not prepared. You will look like a fool, and will have nothing to say.” He made a mistake. He overreached himself for once. It was this word that settled it. “Ah!” I said, “this is just the point. I have never yet been willing to be a fool for Christ. Now I will be one!”

’Without stopping another moment, I rose up from my seat and walked down the aisle. My dear husband thought something had happened to me, and so did the people. We had been there two years, and they knew my timid, bashful nature. He stepped down, and asked me, “What is the matter, my dear?” I replied, “I want to say a word!” He was so taken by surprise that he could only say, “My dear wife wishes to speak!” and sat down. For years he had been trying to persuade me to do it. Only that very week he had wanted me to go and address a little Cottage Meeting of some twenty working people, but I had refused.

’I stood–God only knows how–and if any mortal ever did hang on the arm of Omnipotence, I did. I just stood and told the people how it had come about. I confessed, as I think everybody should who has been in the wrong and has misrepresented the religion of Jesus Christ. I said, “I dare say many of you have been looking upon me as a very devoted woman, and one who has been living faithfully to God. But I have come to realize that I have been disobeying Him, and thus brought darkness and leanness into my soul. I have promised the Lord to do so no longer, and have come to tell you that henceforth I will be obedient to the holy vision.”

’There was more weeping, they said, in the chapel that day than on any previous occasion. Many dated a renewal in righteousness from that very moment, and began a life of devotion and consecration to God.

’Now I might have “talked good” to them till now. That honest confession did what twenty years of preaching could not have accomplished.’

After this wonderful victory Mrs. Booth never again drew back. The same night she spoke once more, with even greater power than in the morning, and before long invitations came pouring in from all parts, for wherever she went souls were saved and people sanctified.

But it cost her a great deal to preach like this. She writes of one Meeting held soon after:–

’I got on very well, and had three beautiful cases, but I cannot tell you how I felt all day about it. I could neither eat nor sleep. I never was in such a state, and when I saw the people, I felt like melting away. However, I got through.’

Even to the last, when she was known all round the world as one of the greatest women-preachers of the day, she never spoke without feeling deeply the responsibility and importance of her work, nor without having prepared carefully beforehand what she wanted to say.

It was very difficult for her, with four little children, the eldest only four years and three months old, to get enough time and quiet. We should have said it was impossible, for she was not well off, and could not afford to put her sewing out, or to have many servants to work for her; but she says:–

’God forced me to begin to think and work, and He gave me grace and strength to do it. Many a time while I was nursing my baby I was thinking of what I should say next Sunday, and between times I noted down with a pencil the thoughts as they struck me. Then I would appear with an outline scratched in pencil, trusting in the Lord to give me the power of His Holy Spirit; and from the day I began He has never allowed me to open my mouth without giving me signs of His presence and blessing.’

The two books she always used in getting ready for her Meetings were her Bible and Concordance.

In later years she taught her children how to prepare for their Meetings, and some of the advice she gives is very helpful to Corps Cadets.

‘"Jesus wept,"’ she writes to her eldest girl, who was then fourteen, ’would be a nice subject for you at one of your little Meetings. And you could find some texts to show how David wept, and Daniel, and Jeremiah, etc., if you like it. But don’t take it because I say so–you must ask the Lord for your subjects.’

Later on, however, as The Salvation Army grew, Mrs. Booth felt that, though it was just as necessary to prepare, yet to speak from notes was often not helpful to either the Officer or the people, so she writes to one of her sons:–

’Get out of them! They don’t fit our work. When you get on, you don’t want them; and when you don’t, they are no good. At first, if your memory won’t serve you, just jot on a small bit of paper the size of a ticket your main divisions in large writing, but no more. Like this:–

’Day of wrath is come.
’1. God’s wrath.
’2. Just wrath.
’3. Uttermost wrath.
‘4. Eternal wrath.’

On the platform Mrs. Booth’s manner was as simple and natural as when by her own fireside; anything ‘put on’ or affected she hated.

‘If I were asked,’ she says, ’to put into one word what I consider to be the greatest hindrance to the success of Divine truth, even when spoken by sincere and real people, I should say stiffness. Simplicity is indispensable to success, naturalness in putting the truth. It seems as if people, the moment they come to religion, put on a different tone, a different look and manner–in short, become unnatural.’

But Mrs. Booth not only prepared for her Meetings by thought and study, but she prepared most of all by prayer.

‘Oh, if we could,’ she writes, ’get more of the spirit of prayer into those who love God! Few understand it at all.

’I always find an exact proportion in the results to the spirit of intercession I have had beforehand. That is why I like to be alone in lodgings.’

Before her Meeting she would wrestle and plead with God for hours, in tears and agony, and then would face her congregation overflowing with love and faith.

‘Pray for me,’ she writes during her marvellous Portsmouth campaign. ’No one knows how I feel. I think I never realized my responsibility as I did on Sunday night. I felt really awful before rising to speak. The sight almost overwhelmed me. With its two galleries, its dome-like roof and vast proportions, when crammed with people, the building presents a most imposing appearance. The top gallery is ten or twelve seats deep in front, and it was full of men. Such a sight as I have never seen on any previous occasion. Oh, how I yearned over them! I felt as if it would be a small thing to die there and then, if that would have brought them to Jesus.’

Nothing short of men and women getting converted satisfied her.

‘They say,’ she writes of another campaign, ’the sinners here will “bide some bringing down.” Well, the Lord can do it. They tell me, too, that I am immensely popular with the people. But that is no comfort unless they will be saved.’

She laboured to get the truth home to the hearts of her listeners, and that is why her talking was so blessed.

‘God made you responsible,’ she said, ’not for delivering the truth, but for getting it in–getting it home, fixing it in the conscience as a red-hot iron, as a bolt, straight from His throne; and He has given you also the power to do it; and if you do not do it, blood will be on your skirts. Oh, this genteel way of putting the truth! How God hates it! “If you please, dear friends, will you listen? If you please, will you be converted? Will you come to Jesus? Shall we read just this, that, and the other?” No more like apostolic preaching than darkness is like light.’

How can I show you some of the marvellous results of her preaching? In every part of our land her influence and words made themselves felt; the largest buildings were crowded with all classes of society, and glorious cases of conversion and sanctification crowned her labours everywhere. A lady who was at some of her women’s Meetings at Lye, near Birmingham, tells us:–

’The women left their work, and in all sorts of odd costumes flocked to the Meetings, some with bonnets, some with shawls fastened over their head, others with little children clinging to their necks. All, with eager, inquiring faces, took their seats and listened to the gracious words which fell from the lips of dear Mrs. Booth. And when the invitation was given, what a scene ensued! It baffles all description. Crowding, weeping, rushing to the penitent-form came convicted sinners and repentant backsliders. When the form was filled the penitents dropped upon their knees in the aisles or in their seats, so that it was difficult to move about.’

When holding some Meetings in a Rotherhithe chapel (for The Army was only just beginning its work, and our Army Mother took Meetings in different churches and chapels up and down the land), the victories were just as glorious, and one of her Converts says:–

’There were many remarkable cases of conversion at these Meetings. Amongst others there were the two daughters of a publican. When one sister was saved the other went to hear Mrs. Booth on purpose to ridicule the services. But she was seized with such an agonizing realization of her sins that she came down from the top of the gallery to the penitent-form, crying out aloud, “I must come! I must come!” Soon after their father gave up the public-house, and they afterwards became members of Mr. Spurgeon’s Tabernacle.

’I have seen as many as thirty persons seeking Salvation in a single Meeting, and some years afterwards, when I looked at the register of our chapel, I found about one hundred names of those who had professed to be converted at this time.’

Our Army Mother, too, was equally straight and fearless with the rich when, later on, they also came in crowds to hear her. She had but one message and one gospel for all alike. She says, ’By God’s help I will not regard the person of man, but will plainly and fearlessly declare the truth, come what may.’ God honoured this spirit, and her Meetings in the West-End of London, where the great and rich live, were some of the most glorious of her life. Of one such she writes:–

’The Lord has very graciously stood by me, and given me much precious fruit. Last Sunday we had the Hall crowded, and a large proportion of gentlemen. The Lord was there in power, and twenty-one came forward–some for Salvation and some for purity. Several were most blessed cases of full surrender. We did not get away till nearly six, and we began at three. Everybody is amazed at this for the West-End! The audience is very select, we never having published a bill. Pray much, dear friend, that God may do a deep and permanent work in this Babylon. It seems as though He gave me words of fire for them, and they sat spellbound.’

You say you wish you had heard her speak? Indeed, we all wish you had: you could never have forgotten it. But several of her addresses were taken down in shorthand at the time, and are reprinted in her books, so you can get and read them; and they will bless and teach you as they have taught thousands before you.

The Mother

’A lady once said to me, “How have you managed to get your children converted so early?” “Oh,” I said, “I have been beforehand with the Devil."’—Mrs. Booth.

I have already told you how Mrs. Booth had the true mother spirit when but a little child, loving and tending her dolls as if they had been real babies; you will, therefore, guess that with her own children she was the best and most careful of mothers. She began early to train them in the right way, and never left them unless forced to do so.

‘I cannot part with Willie,’ she writes to her mother, who offered to free Mrs. Booth by taking charge of the baby for her; ’first, because I know the child’s affections could not but be weaned from us; and secondly, because the next year will be the most important of his life with reference to managing his will; and in this I cannot but distrust you. I know, my darling mother, you could not wage war with his self-will so resolutely as to subdue it. And then my child would be ruined, for he must be taught implicit, uncompromising obedience.’

But long before writing this she had already claimed her boy for God and His war. ‘I had from the first,’ she says, ’definite longings over Bramwell, and lifted him up to God as soon as I had strength to do so, especially desiring he should be a teacher of Holiness.’ These prayers began to be answered very early. The boy had a truthful and conscientious nature. Never, his mother says, does she remember his telling her a lie. But, for all that, he needed, as do all children, training and teaching, and Mrs. Booth was too wise not to be firm. She writes therefore:

’I believe he will be a thoroughly noble lad, if I can preserve him from all evil influence. The Lord help me! I have had to whip him twice lately severely for disobedience, and it has cost me some tears. But it has done him good, and I am reaping the reward already of my self-sacrifice. The Lord help me to be faithful and firm as a rock in the path of duty towards my children!’

We know how practical our Army Mother always was; sentimental pity without help she despised. When her little son, therefore, saw and pitied a small boy with shoeless feet, his mother quickly reminded him of his little money-box.

’Would you rather keep the money for barley-sugar, Willie, or give it to the poor boy?’ she asked. ‘Give it to the boy,’ he said at once, and so learnt his first lesson in self-denial.

When the boy was seven years old he was converted, to his mother’s deepest joy. Some time before she had talked to him in a Meeting, and urged him to get saved. The boy sat still and said nothing. ’Willie, I insist,’ said his mother at last. ’You must answer me. Will you give your heart to God or not? Yes or no?’

Willie looked up in her face steadily and answered back ‘No.’

Mrs. Booth said no more just then, but held on in faith and prayer, and some months later, to her unutterable thankfulness, she found him squeezed in among a number of other children at the penitent-form. He had, unasked, made his way there, and was weeping and confessing his sins with all his heart.

Needless to say, he was faithfully dealt with, and the boy, now our beloved General, dates his conversion from that moment. A little later Mrs. Booth wrote of him:–

’Willie has begun to serve God, of course as a child, but still, I trust, taught of the Spirit. I feel a great increase of responsibility with respect to him. Oh! to cherish the tender plant of grace aright. Lord help!’

And as with the eldest so with the other seven. One by one they gave their hearts to the Lord as soon as they grew old enough to do so.

‘She used to gather us round her,’ says one of her daughters,’ and pray with us. I wore then a low frock, and her hot tears would often drop upon my neck, sending a thrill through me which I can never forget.’

She would pray again and again that she might lay them in their graves rather than she should see them grow up wicked.

Mrs. Booth was very particular about the way in which her children were dressed.

Of course, there was no uniform in those days, but The Army spirit was already in The Army Mother, and she would not have any finery or show, either for herself or her children.

‘Accept,’ she writes to her mother, ’my warm thanks for the little frock you sent. There is only one difficulty–it is too smart. We must set an example in this direction. I feel no temptation now to decorate myself, but I cannot say the same about the children; and yet, Oh, I see I must be decided. Besides, I find it would be dangerous for their own sakes. The seed of vanity is too deeply sown in their young hearts for me to dare to cultivate it.’

Even in her early days Mrs. Booth felt how wrong it was to spend time and money over dress:–

‘I remember feeling condemned,’ she says, ’when quite a child, not more than eight years old, at having to wear a lace tippet such as was fashionable in those days. From a worldly point of view it would have been considered, no doubt, very neat and consistent. But on several occasions I had good crying fits over it. Not only did I instinctively feel it to be immodest, because people could see through it, but I thought it was not such as a Christian child should wear.’

In everything to do with her home Mrs. Booth was a most practical and careful mother. She hated waste and luxury, but her children were always properly dressed and fed and cared for, and never lacked what was necessary for them.

Ladies who had been blessed by her words came to consult her about their souls, and to their surprise found the great preacher, not shut away in her study, but hard at work perhaps ironing the baby’s pinafores, or cutting out a pair of trousers for one of her boys! ‘I must try,’ she said, when she began to live this two-fold life, ’to do all in the kitchen as well as in the pulpit to the glory of God. The Lord help me.’ He did help her, and it was this practical mother-spirit at home which gave her so much force and power on the platform.

As the children grew older, they were more away from her side, and her letters to them are suitable, not only to her actual sons and daughters, but to her spiritual grandchildren who will read this little book. Therefore I am going to give you some extracts, which you may take as though written by our Army Mother straight to your own heart.

To one of her boys at school she wrote:–

’I do hope you are industrious, and do not lose time in play and inattention. Remember Satan steals his marches on us by littles–a minute now, and a minute then. Be on the look out, and don’t be cheated by him!

’All your little trials will soon be over, so far as school life is concerned; and every one of them, if borne with patience, will make you a wiser and better man. Never forget my advice about not listening to secrets! Don’t hear anything that needs to be whispered–it is sure to be bad. Choose the boys to be your companions who most love and fear God, and pray together when you can, and help each other.’

Here is a very beautiful letter written when one of her children desired to go in for some higher education, which Mrs. Booth feared might spoil the soul life:–

’I do so want you and all my children to live supremely for God. I do so deeply deplore my own failure compared with what my life might have been, and I feel as if I could die to save you from making a mistake. Perhaps you say, “You don’t want me, then, to learn any more?” Yes, I do, a great deal more; but of the right kind, in the right way, and for a right purpose, even the highest good of your race. I would like you to learn to put your thoughts together well, to think logically and clearly, to speak powerfully–that is, with good but simple language–and to write clearly and well.’

Just the wish we have now for all our Young People!

Early in their childhood the elder children were taught to be responsible for the younger, and when at school they were given places of trust as monitors, and so on. As if knowing the responsibilities they would by and by be called to fill in our ranks, Mrs. Booth gives them some wise counsel:–

‘I hope,’ she says to one who has been left in charge of the other children, ’you will show yourself to be a true son of your mother, and a consistent disciple of the Lord. Very much depends on you as to the ease and comfort of managing the little ones. Do all you can. Be forbearing where only your own feelings or comfort are concerned, and don’t raise unnecessary difficulties; but where their obedience to us or their health is at stake, be firm in trying to put them right.’

‘I am pleased,’ she says to one of the boys who has been in charge of others at school, ’that Mr. W. puts such confidence in you; but do not be puffed up by it. Remember how weak you are, and ask the Lord to save you from conceit and self-sufficiency. Try to be fair and just in all dealings with the boys–i.e., do not be hard on a boy whom you may not happen to like so well as another; but be fair, and treat all alike when left in charge.’

Again, she warns one of them against extremes, even in well doing:

’You are under a mistake to suppose that sacrificing your recreation-time will help you in the end. It will not. Cramming the mind acts just in the same way as cramming the stomach. It is what you digest well that benefits you, not what you cram in. So many hours spent in study, and then relaxation and walking, will do your mind much more good than “all work, and no play.” Now mark this. Do not be looking so much at what you have to do as to what you are doing. Leave the future (you may spend it in Heaven), and go steadily on doing to-day’s work in to-day’s hours, with recreation in between to shake the seed in. One step well and firmly taken is better than two with a slip backwards. Poor human nature seems as though it must go to extremes–either all or none, too much or too little, idleness or being killed with work! May the Lord show you the happy medium.’

’I was sorry about the cause of the accident. I don’t like that way of doing things in fun! Though it was very wrong and wicked of the boy to throw the brick, yet it would have been better to let him look at the guinea-pigs being fed, and thus have pleased him. There was no harm in what he wanted to do. You should watch against a hectoring spirit, and mind the difference between a sacrifice of truth and principle, and one only of self-importance or of mere feeling. If a boy wants you to do wrong, then be firm as a rock and brave for God and goodness.’

‘Mind your soul,’ she says at another time. ’Do not let your thoughts get so absorbed, even in study, as to lead you to forget your Bible and to neglect prayer.’

Later, again, as a wise mother she warns them in the tenderest way against their special temptations.

Against lightness:–

’Be watchful against levity. C. is a good, devoted fellow, but naturally an incorrigible joker. It may not hurt him much, because it is his nature; but it will hurt you if you give way to it. It hurts nearly everybody.

Watch! Don’t descend to buffoonery. While you become all things to win some, don’t forfeit your natural self-respect and the dignity of your position as a servant of Christ.’

Against too much talk:–

’The Spirit is teaching you this–is showing you that you must be more silent. The tongue is one of the greatest enemies to grace (James iii. 5-13). Strive to obey these teachings of God. Yield yourself up to obey; and though you sometimes fail and slip, do not be discouraged, but yield yourself up again and again, and plead more fervently with God to keep you. Fourteen years ago you were learning to walk, and in the process you got many a tumble. But now you can not only walk yourself, but teach others. So, spiritually, if you will only let God lead you, He will perfect that which is lacking in you.’

But it was not at first easy for the mother-spirit in Mrs. Booth to allow her delicate girls of fourteen or fifteen to undertake a public life, and to speak and sing at the street corners, surrounded by a rough, low crowd. Such a thing was unheard-of in those days.

Once, hearing that her daughter Catherine had spoken in the open air to a large crowd, Mrs. Booth objected, as other mothers have since objected: the girl was too young as yet–she must wait awhile.

But her eldest son, looking at his mother in the tenderest and most solemn way, said, ’Mamma, dear, you will have to settle this question with God; for Katie is as surely called and inspired by Him for the particular work as you are yourself.’

Mrs. Booth said no more. She took this as the voice of God, and gave her girl up to the marvellous work which God had called her to do.

Later she writes of her to a friend:–

’Join me in praying that she may be kept humble and simple, and that all that the Lord has given her may be used for Him.’

‘I see,’ she says, writing at this same time to her daughter, ’what a glorious, blessed, useful life you may live; but I also see your danger, and I pray for you that you may be enabled to cast aside the world in every form, to look down upon its opinions, and to despise its spirit, maxims, and fashions.’

Later on, again, came the days when the boys had to choose, as you have to do, how they would spend their lives. Mrs. Booth might be writing to a Corps Cadet of to-day when, in a letter to one of her sons, she says:–

’I hope the Lord will make you so miserable everywhere and at everything else that you will be compelled to preach! Oh, my boy, the Lord wants such as you–just such–to go out amongst the people, seeking nothing but the things that are Jesus Christ’s! You are free to do it; able by His grace; born to do it, with splendid opportunities. Will you not rise to your destiny? “Have courage, and be strong, and I (the I Am) will be with thee.” “Get thee out, and I will go with thee.” Dare you not take hold of the arm that holds the world and all things up? And if you do, can you fail? The Lord gird you with His strength, and make your brow brass, and your tongue as a flame of fire. You must preach!’

To another of her boys she writes:–

’You may, perhaps, be wanted to stand and do battle for the Lord. Surely you will not sell your birthright? The Lord help you! Take hold of David’s God. Hold your head up, keep your shoulders back, and go forward.’

Again:–

’This is what the world wants: men of one idea–that of getting people saved. There are plenty of men of one idea–that of gold-getting. They make no secret of it; they are of a worldly spirit. Now we want men who are set on soul-saving, who are not ashamed to let everybody know it–men of a Christ-like spirit. There need be no mistake or mystery about it. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Paul and every other man of like spirit has had his fruits, and will have to the end of time. It is “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."’

With one of her daughters she reasons and pleads:–

’Oh, it seems to me that if I were in your place–young, no cares or anxieties, with such a start, such influence, and such a prospect–I should not be able to contain myself for joy! I should, indeed, aspire to be the “bride of the Lamb,” and to follow Him in conflict for the Salvation of poor, lost, miserable man. I pray the Lord to show it to you, and so to enamour you of Himself, that you may see and feel it to be your chief joy to win them for Him. I say I pray for this–yes, I groan for it, with groanings that cannot be uttered; and if ever you tell me it is so, I shall be overjoyed.

’I don’t want you to make any vows (unless, indeed, the Spirit leads you to do so); but I want you to set your mind and heart on winning souls, and to leave everything else with the Lord. When you do this you will be happy–Oh, so happy! Your soul will then find perfect rest. The Lord grant it to you, my dear child.’

She made all her children feel that the only reward they could give her for her ceaseless toil and labour on their behalf was that they should give themselves to the War:–

’I hope, my dear boy, that, whatever sense of obligation or gratitude you have towards me, you will try to return it by resolutely resisting all temptation to evil, and by fitting yourself to your utmost to be useful to your fellow-men. I ask from you, as I asked from God, no other reward. If I know my own heart, I would rather that you should work for the Salvation of souls, making bad hearts good, and miserable homes happy, and preparing joy and gladness for men at the Judgment bar, if you only get bread and cheese all your life, than that you should fill any other capacity with £10,000 per year.’

To one of her children, when tempted to be over-anxious, she writes:–

’Keep your mind quiet. Lean back on God, and don’t worry. It is His affair, and if you have done what you could, that is enough. Alas! how little we have of the faith that can “stand still, and see the Salvation of God.” What would you do if you were put in custody for two years, like Paul was? And yet that imprisonment at Rome sent the Gospel far and wide! God’s ways are not our ways. He takes in the whole field at once, and does the best He can for the entire world. Human wisdom never has been able at the time to comprehend His plans, but years after it has often seen their wisdom. Let us learn to trust in the dark–to stand still.’

To another, tried and discouraged at the start of his public life:–

’I have only a minute or two; but, lest you should think I don’t sympathize with you, I send you a line. You ask, did I ever feel so? Yes, I think just as bad as any mortal could feel–empty, inside and out, as though I had nothing human or Divine to aid me, as if all Hell were let loose upon me.

But I have generally felt the worse before the best results, which proves it was Satanic opposition. And it has been the same with many of God’s most honoured instruments. I believe nearly all who are truly called of God to special usefulness pass through this buffeting.

’It stands to sense, if there is a Devil, that he should desperately withstand those whom he sees are going to be used of God. Supposing you were the Devil, and had set your heart on circumventing God, how would you do it but by opposing those who were bent on building up His Kingdom? He hopes to drive us from the field by blood and fire and vapour of smoke. But our Captain fought and won the battle for us, and we have only to hold on long enough, and victory is sure. “Courage!” your Captain cries. “Only be thou strong, and of good courage, and I will be with thee, and teach thee what to say.”

’"He hath chosen the weak things.” He has not made shift with them–taken them because there were no others. No! He hath chosen them. Will He ever forsake them, and thus make Himself a laughing-stock for Hell? Never! Will He ever let the Devil say, “Ah, ah! He chose this weak one, and then let him fail”? No, no, no!’

On the important question of courtship, she writes:–

’The Devil sets such innocent-looking traps–spiritual traps–to catch young people! Ah, he is a serpent still! Beware of his devices, and always cry to God for wisdom and strength of will to put down all foolish tampering. You are born for greater things. God may want you to be a leader in some vast continent, and you will want a companion and a counsellor–a “helpmeet.” The original word means “a help corresponding to his dignity” This is the meaning given by the best expositors. Oh, what wisdom there is even in the words which God has chosen to express His ideas! “Corresponding to his dignity!” Yes, and no man ever takes one below this mark who does not suffer for it; and, worse still, generations yet unborn have to suffer also. Mind what God says, and keep yourself till that one comes.

’A wrong step on this point, and you are undone. Oh, the misery of an unsuitable match! It is beyond description. I could tell you tales of woe that are now being enacted. But I must wait till we meet.

’I have seen too much of life, and know too much of human nature, to have much confidence in promises given under such circumstances. For my own part, I made up my mind when I was but sixteen that I would not have a man, though a Christian, who should offer to become even an abstainer for my sake. I felt that such a promise would not afford me ground for confidence afterwards. And do not we see enough all round us to show that unless people adopt things on principle, because they see it to be right, they soon change? Look at the folks who promise to give up tobacco and dress, for the sake of getting into berths; how soon it evaporates! No, my lad, wait a bit. “Couldst thou not watch with Me one hour?” Jesus lived a single life for your sake all the way through. Can you not live so till He finds you one after His own heart? I feel sure He will. Pray about it in faith. I am doing so; and God will answer. But Oh, don’t run before Him! Wait on the Lord.

’A little longer and you will be saying, “Oh, how glad I am I waited! I have now found a treasure indeed!” When God’s time and person are come, He will bring you together. How delighted and satisfied Isaac must have felt when the servant told him the way God led him (Genesis xxiv.).’

When standing by her grave The General said she was The Army Mother. He said the truth.

One of her early promises, given to her as a girl, when she only saw its greatness and hid it away in her heart as too sacred to be spoken of, and almost too wonderful ever to be accomplished, were the words: ’I will make thee a mother of nations.’

When called to send her children abroad, she paid to the full the heavy price; but she also saw the glorious outcome, and from her death-bed sent tenderest messages to those of distant lands and far-off nations who owned her as their Army Mother.

The Worker

’What the Lord wants is, that you shall go about the business to which He sets you, not asking for an easy post, nor grumbling at a hard one.’—Mrs. Booth.

If she had not been a worker, our Army Mother would have done little with her life. The wonderful call which came to her, her great gifts, the zeal and love which filled her heart, would all have been useless had she not been willing to work, and to work hard, and to work every day.

Stop and think about this. No life accomplishes anything unless it is full of hard work–often work accompanied by much drudgery, whether it is the life of a king or of a poor man. Mrs. Booth has set us all an example in this, for she would work ceaselessly with head or hands or heart, as long as ever her health allowed her to do so. Laziness and idleness of all kinds she detested; nor could she tolerate a lazy person in her service.

She worked first of all in her home. When she spent a morning in her kitchen, the work there was perfectly done. The dinner was ready at the right time, properly cooked, good and wholesome. She allowed no waste and no extravagance. Her bread was light and beautifully baked, and when she had finished her morning’s work her kitchen was as neat as when she began. She finished everything, and put it straight as she went along.

It was the same with the children. She was alike nurse and doctor, dressmaker and tailor; she made and mended, washed and ironed for her boys and girls during their early years, and herself attended to every smallest detail of their lives. Strangers who asked where Mrs. Booth bought her children’s things, so that they could go to the same shop, could scarcely believe the reply: ‘Mamma makes all our clothes herself’–so beautifully were they cut and finished.

And when the little garments were of no further service to her, she would alter and mend them once again, and give them away. Her baby-clothes, when the last daughter had outgrown them, were given to a member of the Mission for his child.

He will never forget taking the little bundle home to his wife and turning over the tiny things. ‘I had often heard Mrs. Booth preach,’ he said, ’but those baby-clothes preached a louder sermon to me and my wife than ever her words had done. They were all darned and mended and patched, and the work–but, there, I never saw such stitches! And as we looked, and knew the hours of toil she must have put into them, rather than throw them away, as many another would have done–well, I tell you I listened to her next sermon as I had never listened before.’

And this same diligent, tireless spirit was with her to the last. When on her deathbed, able only to use her left hand, and propped up by pillows, she devised a little frame on which, painfully, stitch by stitch, she could work a last token of love for The General.

When her hands were folded still in death, I saw those slippers. They were beautifully embroidered, one with the words, ’He will keep the feet of His Saints’; and the other with the sure and certain hope which lay beyond the parting, ‘Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem’–a fitting and sacred service with which to close her many years of toil and labour for others.

But our Army Mother had another way of working in her home–that is, she worked over others. If a girl wished to learn, Mrs. Booth would take endless trouble in showing her the best way to wash or iron, or clean a grate, or do whatever the work on hand might be. She instructed her servants, explaining to them the reason for doing their duties in a certain way, teaching them forethought and common sense, and dealing faithfully with them over all their failures.

‘Better,’ she said, in one of her addresses–and she lived it out in her own home–’better take a girl whom you have to teach how to wash a child’s face, or to stitch a button on, if she is true and sincere, than have one ever so clever, who will teach your children to lie and deceive.’

She worked, too, over the cases of need and poverty which were often at her door. Not content, like so many, with giving a few coppers to a beggar, or some broken food, she would inquire into the cause of the distress; and then, if the need seemed genuine, she would help, either by getting the father work, or by having the home visited and suitable relief given after the true condition of things had been found out.

And this was only a little of the homework with which her hands were ever full. Of her ceaseless care over her children’s mind and soul training I have told you elsewhere. But of her public work perhaps the most exhausting was that which resulted from her Meetings. For she could not rest content with the most careful preparation beforehand, nor with pouring out her whole soul upon the people during the forty or fifty minutes that her address lasted. At the close of the Meeting, whenever her health allowed it, she would labour and toil, often for two hours and more, dealing herself with the penitents, meeting their difficulties, one by one, and was unwilling to leave them until, as far as possible, all had claimed and received the blessing they sought.

The next day, too, she would follow up any special case with a long personal letter from her own pen, or she would arrange another interview, or in some way keep in close, actual touch with the struggling soul, until the step of obedience had been taken, and he or she was fairly started on the Narrow Way.

And it was this careful, earnest, patient after-work which gave such glorious harvests to her soul-saving campaigns. Labour and trouble were a joy to her, if she could but help one sincere, seeking soul into the light.

But remember this: while she so toiled over all who came to her for advice and guidance, she never repeated nor passed on to others their confidences. If she had done so, people would soon have left off corning to her; they would have said, ‘We cannot trust her.’ She was, as you know, a mighty speaker; but about other people’s affairs she was entirely silent–as you must learn to be if you wish to be of any service to God or man.

And Mrs. Booth strove constantly to teach all who were around her to work as she did. ‘You have begun well enough–now carry it through,’ she would say again and again to her children, and whether it was a doll’s frock, or an article for ‘The War Cry,’ or a series of Meetings, it was always the same. Unfinished, half-done work she detested with all her soul. ’If a thing is worth beginning at all, then it is worth finishing,’ she would say; and this great principle followed her through her life in small things as in great.

This was the reason that, on her deathbed, she could say, turning to the Chief of the Staff, ’I have no vain regrets about the past. As far as my strength allowed, I have finished the work I had to do as I went along; and now I leave it, all imperfect as it has been, in His hands.’

Perhaps, by nature, you are not a worker. But what you are not by nature, you can become by grace. God can teach you to love work. And as you work, you will, like our dear Army Mother, learn better and better how to work; and your life, whenever God calls you to lay it down, shall be like hers, not unfinished, but complete.