'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?'