William Booth
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was born in
poverty. At his death in 1912, over
150,000 English citizens filed by his casket and 40,000 were in attendance at
his funeral including Queen Mary herself.
He was converted at age 15 via an invitation to church from a Wesleyan
couple. That night, in his diary, he
wrote, “God shall have all there is of William Booth.”
A few years later, with a group of friends, he heard
American preacher Charles G. Finney speak about revival. They made their purpose the evangelization of
the poor. Booth held open-air meetings
in the poorest communities and organized follow-up meetings in individuals’
homes. After a brief foray as a pastor
in a Methodist church, William and his bride Catherine, committed themselves to
full-time evangelism of the poor. He was
fond of saying, “Go for souls, and go for the worst!”
William upended the ‘traditional church’ of the day. He believed in short sermons, a fiery
exhortation to receive Christ, secular music in the meetings, and visitation of
the sick and poor. These were the
initial qualities to go into his “Salvation Army.”
Catherine was herself a bit of a firebrand. She, also, was influenced by Finney, having read
many of his writings during a period of being bed-bound for a few months as a
young woman. She was convinced after
this time of her own calling to the ministry – in a day where Victorian values
permeated dictating that ‘a woman’s place is in the home.’ Catherine responded that since the Gospel liberated
men and women equally, and placed them on equal ground, then there was no Scriptural
ground for denying a woman a place in the ministry, including the preaching
ministry. She eventually got the opportunity
to preach at a Salvation Army service, and her abilities were noted. She was often compared to a gentle but firm
lawyer pleading with judge and jury for the life of a prisoner. Catherine eventually gave birth to and raised
eight children, in addition to the formal and informal duties as “Co-founder”
of the Salvation Army. The ministry she seemed
most passionate about was training evangelists to reach the poor.
In 1865, Catherine received an invitation to preach in
London. William accepted what was meant
to be a temporary position to run a mission in East London, a very squalid area
of the city. East London of that day was
very densely populated, and one writer noted that “every fifth house was a gin
shop.” Many of these gin shops had steps
to where even a young child could reach the counter of the bar. William’s mission was to reach these people
where they were.
William’s converts came from the drunkards and the
prostitutes of that area. They were
trained to reach others and, within ten years, the ministry had spread
throughout East London and in many European cities, with well over a thousand
volunteers. In 1878, William read a
draft copy of the annual report for his ministry, his eyes fell on the words, “…the Christian
Mission is a volunteer army.” Booth
crossed out the words, “volunteer army” and replaced them with the words “Salvation
Army.” The idea of an “army” caught on, and
Booth organized the mission with a military-like structure with himself as the “General.” Within another ten years, the Salvation Army
had recorded over 250,000 converts.
His zeal was infectious.
He once said, “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while
little children go hungry, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in
and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while
there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul
without the light of God – I’ll fight! I’ll
fight to the very end!”
Over the years, he created a complex social relief structure
to meet the needs of those he was called to serve. He published a bestseller in 1890 entitled ‘In
Darkest England and the Way Out’ to explain his plans in the regard.
When William died in 1912, seven of his eight children held
leadership positions in the Salvation Army, including his seventh child, Evangeline
“Eva” Booth, who served for 30 years as national commander for the North
American Salvation Army mission, organizing the work and laying a structural
foundation for the future of American work.
She was noted by the United States for her tremendous effort to soldiers
heading to World War I, organizing “Doughnut Girls” to minister to the solders,
and oversaw the appointment of Chaplains to serve in the US Army. Eva left America in 1934 a tremendously
popular figure to return to England and become the fourth General of the
Salvation Army. She retained her
American citizenship until her death in 1950.
131 Christians Everyone Should Know, J.I. Packer, Broadman
and Holman, 2000.
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