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.