'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.