BIO:William Booth   BORN: April 10, 1829 

Nottingham, England 
DIED: August 20, 1912 London, England LIFE SPAN: 83 years, 4
months, 10 days {SCT}<GO FOR SOULS, and go for the worst!" was the
constant cry of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. The
multitudes in London's slums convinced him he had discovered his life's
work and no one ever took the Gospel to the "down and outer" like he
did. In 1865, Booth started with only his wife at his
side...unappreciated by the established churches of his day, ridiculed
and jeered by most everyone. His death 47 years later sharply
contrasted as 40,000 attended his funeral service, including Queen Mary
of England. His "Army" including 21,203 officers and 8,972 societies
were working in 58 countries preaching the Gospel in 34 languages!
William Booth was born of Church of England parents and was "baptized"
when he was two days old. His mother was a devout Christian. His
father, Samuel, even though he brought in considerable income, had the
misfortune to lose money. At thirteen, Booth was apprenticed to a
pawnbroker, limiting his education to that of a private tutor from the
Methodist Connexion Church. Thus he was deprived of the advantages of a
good common school education and grew up in poverty. His work day was
long, sometimes running sixteen hours a day, with very little pay. That
same year his father died, accepting Christ on his death bed. This left
William and his mother to struggle on in their poverty. In his teens he
was already interested in social reform and longed to do something to
alleviate the sufferings of the poor. He joined a civic reform
movement, but found this full of corruption as well. He had broken from
the Church of England and was now attending Wesley Chapel of
Nottingham. One night at 11 p.m. on a street coming home from one of
the services, he was saved. This was in 1844 when he was fifteen years
of age. A commemorative table marks the spot at the chapel where Booth
began to seek the Lord. Many have knelt near it. One was heard saying,
"O God, do it again..." Soon after Booth's conversion, James Caughey, a
spirit- filled American evangelist, visited Nottingham and preached the
Wesleyan message of sanctification with great unction and power. This
preaching made a great impression on young Booth and kindled in his own
heart a great desire to win souls for Christ. Timid for a while, he
finally ventured to read the Bible and deliver some comments on the
local street corners. Although he was jeered and scorned and bricks
were thrown at him, young Booth did not get discouraged...this was just
a foretaste of the battle ahead of him. At 17 he preached his first
sermon and was licensed by the New Wesleyan Connexion. One day he
brought a group of poor, rugged boys from the slums into the church.
Instead of being pleased, the minister was angry and Booth was told
next time to bring them through the back door and seat them where they
couldn't be seen. As he had feared, the Methodist Church of his day was
becoming too "respectable." His long hours in the pawnshop stretched
out for six years and though he often worked until 8 p.m., he would
hurry to prayer meetings which would last until 10 p.m. Sometimes after
this he would call on the sick and dying. It is said that he made
hundreds of hospital calls before he was twenty years of age. He also
did much street preaching late at night during these years. He soon
became a leader in these enterprises and at seventeen he was made a
local preacher by the Wesleyan Methodists. Working with the outcast and
poor of Nottingham brought increased burdens for the larger cities.
Seeing London in 1849 at age twenty, he said, "What a city to save!"
Sixteen years later he began to help save it. Here in London, he was
without a friend and almost broke. For three years he worked as a clerk
for a pawnbroker in the day giving leisure time to working among the
poor and did street preaching at night. A number of Methodist chapels
opened to him for Sunday ministries but his Superintendent discouraged
him from entering the regular ministry. In 1851 a controversy arose in
the Wesleyan Church over the question of lay representation and a large
number of ministers formed a group known as "Reformers". Those
Reformers offered Booth the pastorship of one of their chapels in
London and a businessman offered to support him. He accepted and in
1852 went into full-time preaching at a Methodist circuit in Spalding.
Here he met Catherine Mumford, falling in love with her the third time
he saw her on Good Friday, April 10. For two or three years he preached
in various places with great success. Many souls were won. Because the
Reformers had an unsettled policy and organization, he and a number of
others joined the "Methodist New Connexion" movement in 1854. His fame
as a revivalist began to spread all over England. Hundreds professed
conversion to Christ in almost every series of meetings held, while his
sensational methods of preaching on the slum street corners often
provoked disorder. Catherine Mumford became his wife and an ideal
co-worker on June 16, 1855 at Stockwell, New Chapel in South London.
They were pressed into service immediately. As they arrived at the pier
on the Island of Guernsey for their honeymoon, they found crowds of
people begging them to conduct revival meetings there. The crowds were
so large that the doors of the church had to be opened at 5:30 in order
to allow the people to come in for the evening service. He was soon
preaching in England's leading cities...Lincoln, Bristol, Bradford,
Manchester, Sheffield--and thousands professed faith in Christ. Once in
a space of a few months, Booth saw over 1,700 converts, an average of
23 per day. As the fourth month passed, the number rose past 2,000 and
the Connexion leaders saw him as going too far too fast. His methods
were "lusty American, not Victorian English," they said. How soon
Wesley had been forgotten. Their first child, William Bramwell, was
born March 8, 1856. Six other children followed, all active in the work
of the Army. They were Ballington (born July 28, 1859), Emma (born Jan.
8, 1860), Evangeline (born Dec. 25, 1865), Catherine, Herbert and Lucy,
the youngest born in 1868. In 1857 the Connexion cut short Booth's
country-wide travels. He was given charge of one of their
least-promising circuits, Brighouse, in Yorkshire. Yet pastoral work
did not tie him down. He went to the local masses who needed him and
initiated labor reforms and other worthwhile projects to help the
residents. In 1858, the year that he became a fully ordained minister,
he was given another circuit--Gateshead. Contrary to his own judgment,
once more he obeyed and went, but his eyes strayed beyond the 1,000
strong congregation of Bethesda Chapel. It was the masses beyond the
walls o the church that he was interested in. The Methodist Church
continually denied his request to be released from his regular circuit
work as a pastor so that he could return to the field of evangelism
again. Weary with the constant controversy, in July 1861 the Booths
stepped out by faith doing what they felt God had called them to do. He
was 32 years old. About the same time, the Booths were both led into a
Christian experience following John Wesley's views and teaching on
sanctification, heart purity, and holiness. Now traveling in
evangelism, he started in Cornwall, on to Cardiff, Wales and Walsall.
The crowds at Hayle, Cornwall were too great to be accommodated in any
building and great open-air meetings were held. The campaign stretched
out to eighteen months. Fishermen rowed ten miles and villagers walked
up to four miles to hear him. Booth claimed 7,000 Cornishmen became
Christians. At Cardiff a tent was used. At Walsall in Staffordshire, he
used many converts as testimonies of God's saving power. This 1863
visit drew 5,000 to the open-air preaching of Booth. The beginnings of
the great Salvation Army started July 2nd, 1865, as a large tent was
erected on a Quaker burial ground in the Whitechapel neighborhood in
East London. William Booth was now 36 years old. Another evangelist
became ill and Booth was substituted. Meetings were held every night
for two weeks among the poor lower classes of the London slums. At
midnight upon returning home after a serious soul-searching, he said,
"I have found my destiny!" This was July 5, 1865. Converts streamed to
the tent the next night. Soon they were using an unused warehouse. The
work was first called the East London (Christian) Revival Society, then
the East London Christian Mission, and then the Christian Mission,
firmly established by 1869. Open air meetings were held from 6 to 7
p.m. with an invitation to come to the evening meeting at the tent.
These meetings continued on past the scheduled allotment and after
rain, howling winds and a gang of ruffians had torn the tent down
twice, they finally rented a large dance hall. Up to 600 would gather
on Sunday following a night of dancing by citizens of another world the
preceding night. Later he held evangelistic meetings at a wool
warehouse and finally at an unused theater. Sometimes some would pour
gunpowder in the room and create a blinding flash by setting fire to
it. Frequently mud and stones were hurled through the windows also.
Toiling on from this difficult beginning, a chain of missions was
gradually formed with the power of God manifest in meeting after
meeting. From now on Booth was to be found preaching wherever people
would listen to him...dancing saloons, stables, sheds adjacent to pig
sties, theater stages, circus rings, race course grandstands,
footboards of railway carriages, ship-captain bridges and African huts!
But he was foremost a specialist in open-air services and street
corners. People were often stricken down in his meetings, overwhelmed
with a sense of the presence and power of God. Opposition came...it was
not uncommon to see Salvationists end up with broken ankles and wrists.
One had a piece bitten out of his arm--another, alone on inspection
tour, was pelted and mobbed for one and a half hours. Another had lime
thrown into his child's eyes. One woman convert was kicked in the womb
and left to die. The first march Mr. and Mrs. Booth made to Albert Hall
in Sheffield ended up in a riot. They, their officers and soldiers,
arrived at the Hall wounded, bleeding and battered. Their clothes were
torn and covered with filth, their band instruments smashed. This was
not to be uncommon. Often every available hall or room would be denied
them. Booth once wrote from Salisbury, "The evangelists have to get off
the street and into houses to escape this mob. Police refuse
protection. Nevertheless, there is a good society. A lot are saved. We
must not give up! We will not!" Many times in his life he would be
stoned, battered, shoved, cursed and almost killed. In 1889 at least
669 Salvation Army members were assaulted, including 251 women. Some
were killed and many were maimed. A "Skeleton Army" of ruffians devoted
themselves to disrupting Salvation Army meetings. They frequently
stormed the meeting halls by the hundreds (on one occasion, 4,000),
broke out windows and wrecked the inside of the buildings. Fifty
buildings were wrecked. The police did little to assist Booth. Once
while defending themselves 86 Army members were arrested and imprisoned
on disorderly conduct charges. Booth had his own private bodyguard,
Peter Monk, an Irish prize fighter and one of his converts. By 1872 he
was running five "Food-for-the-Million Shops," selling cheap meals.
This militant evangelism culminated in the adoption of the title,
"Salvation Army," and the reorganization of the movement along the
quasi-military lines of a well disciplined army on August 7, 1878.
Booth had been distressed at the lack of direction and with this new
setup could really assert himself as the leader. The name developed
from an incident in May, 1878. Booth was dictating a letter to his
secretary, George Scott Railton (his faithful associate for 48 years),
and said, "We are a volunteer army." Bramwell, his son, heard his
father and said, "Volunteer, I'm no volunteer, I'm a regular!" Railton
was instructed to cross out the word volunteer and substitute the word,
salvation. Soon they were tagged, "Soap, Soup and Salvation Army." The
new, almost dictatorial leadership of Booth--now called "General"
Booth--was dynamic. By January, 1879, he had 81 stations, 127 full-time
evangelists (100 of his converts), and 75,000 services a year going. In
1880 it expanded to the United States and adopted uniforms. The same
year, the first band was formed in Salisbury. A new headquarters was
opened in London in 1881, as well as the work in France. In 1882 India
was sent workers. Its orders and regulations were patterned after those
of the British Army. All workers assumed military titles, its trainees
became "cadets," local units were designated as "Corps," places of
worship became known as "Citadels" or "Outposts" and their evangelistic
undertakings were called "Campaigns." The converts were organized into
a carefully disciplined group. Of course the uniforms, officers,
organization, regulations and discipline, plus the title "General" for
Booth, attracted derision and criticism at first. Nevertheless, the
"Army" was reaching people ignored by more staid church bodies! He
launched a successful crusade against white slavery in 1885. A
whirlwind, eleven-week campaign was conducted in 1886 with Booth
preaching from New York to Kansas City. Town after town listened
spellbound as he thundered at the crowds, his long body swaying back
and forth on the platform, his hair and flowing beard rumpled, his arms
clasped behind his back. He spoke for 200 hours and was heard by
180,000 people. He pulled together the U.S. organization that had
fragmented into three parts. Back home in London, the sight of homeless
men leaning on the rails of London Bridge prompted the beginning of
heavy social work. Now the image of the Army suddenly changed as in
1887 the social service programs began to expand as General Booth
fought poverty with practical philanthropy. He realized that the
physical and social environment of the masses made it difficult for
them to appreciate the message of the Army. He accordingly embarked
upon the social work to clear the way for evangelism. These services
ranged from night shelters and free breakfasts to the selection and
training of prospective immigrants and their settlement overseas.
Booth's best-selling Darkest England and the Way Out was published in
1890 showing victorian England how to deal with poverty and vice plus
the need of religious and social redemption. He proposed the
concentration of the nation's philanthropic funds upon the slums,
hitherto largely left to the care of the local parish churches, and
suggested a list of practical expedients to this end such as advocating
the reclamation of unemployable persons in farm colonies. No small
credit for gain in prestige is due General Booth's wife. Catherine was
a woman of charm and ability, winning the sympathy of many of the upper
classes for the new movement. When she was 59 it was discovered she had
cancer. General Booth had already accepted meetings in Holland, and
upon hearing the news, was about to cancel. But she insisted that he
go. "I'm ready to die, but many of those people over there are not." He
did go for an abbreviated visit, and upon his return, found her very
weak. She died October 4, 1890. The streets of London were crowded for
four miles as the funeral procession went by! More than 10,000 people
went to the cemetery. Added to this sorrow was the death of General
Booth's daughter, Emma, in a railroad accident. At the time of
Catherine's death (after 25 years of ministry together in the work of
the Army) the Salvation Army had 2,900 centers in 34 countries and was
receiving 600 telegrams and 5,400 letters a week. Another trip to
America was made in 1895, and Booth found over 500 people engaged in
the work of the Army. He held 340 meetings in 86 cities, speaking to
437,000 people resulting in 2,200 converts. In 24 weeks he spent 847
hours on a train. Twice, while in America, he opened the Senate with
prayer. He talked to President McKinley for twenty minutes on one of
his tours. General Booth was now being praised by such diverse men as
Charles Spurgeon, Winston Churchill and Cardinal Manning. The Prince of
Wales became a most ardent patron, and, upon his coronation as Edward
VII in 1902, Booth was officially invited to the festivities. On June
24, 1904, in a visit to Buckingham Palace, the King asked the General
what his recreations were. Booth, writing in his autograph album,
replied, "Sir, some men have a passion for art, fame and gold. I have a
passion for souls." Many found him dictatorial and hard to work with.
Members of his own family denounced him as their leader and founded
separate organizations. Gipsy Smith had left him because of his
rigidity and D.L. Moody would not support him because he felt there was
a threat to the local church. But no one could deny his compassion. He
was constantly telling his family, his soldiers, all England, to go and
do something. He could not rest--once writing, "I am very tired, but
must go on...on...I cannot stand still. I have worked today and laid
down again when I could sit no longer and then got up to go on again. A
fire is in my bones..." Once in South Africa, he talked for seven
hours, his heart so yearning over the lost. Souls possessed him day and
night, well or ill. Once his son found the old warrior pacing up and
down the floor late at night. "What are you thinking about?" asked the
son. "Ah, Bramwell, I'm thinking about the people's sin. What will
people do with their sin?" When Booth denounced sin, people sat
spellbound. They wept, hung their heads with conviction, their bosoms
heaving with emotion. Conviction and conversion usually followed. As
many as 3,000 at one time were known to have been moved to tears. Once
in an outburst of concern for the lost, he exclaimed, "Oh, God, what
can I say? Souls! Souls! Souls! My heart hungers for souls!" Passing
from one side of Great Britain to the other, General Booth made a
29-day, 1,224-mile motor tour in 1904, holding 164 meetings, gathering
crowds from day to day. He visited the United States one more time in
1907. His farewell message was given on the steps of New York City Hall
to 2,500 people. The year 1908 found him in Scandinavia, 1910 in
Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Italy, and Denmark. On May 9, 1912, he
gave his last major speech to 7,000 Salvationists at London's Albert
Hall. As his aged eyes became weak, an unsuccessful operation was
performed on May 23rd. Two days later it was found that he had an
infection and that he would lose his sight completely. "God knows best.
I have done what I could for God and the people with my eyes. Now I
must do what I can for God and the people without my eyes." When asked
for the secret of his success, William Booth said: {BQT} I will tell
you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men
with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities. But from
the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of all
Jesus Christ could do with them, on that day I made up my mind that God
would have all of William Booth there was. And if there is anything of
power in the Salvation Army today, it is because God has had all the
adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence
of my life. {EQT} As he died, he turned to his son Bramwell and said,
"I'm leaving you a bonnie handful." As his body lay in state, 65,000 to
150,000 marched by to pay tribute to the man who not only talked, but
did something for the masses. The funeral was held at a vast exhibition
hall on Hammersmith Road, drawing 40,000, including Queen Mary, who sat
next to an ex-prostitute, a convert of General Booth's. Traffic in
London stopped for two hours as his funeral procession of 10,000
marching Salvationists went through the downtown streets. He was
succeeded by his son, Bramwell Booth. Eventually his daughter,
Evangeline, became the Commander-in-Chief. It is estimated Booth
traveled 5 million miles and preached 60,000 sermons in his 60 years of
ministry. This included five trips to the United States and Canada,
three to Australia and South Africa, two to India, one to Japan and
several to the various European countries. Sixteen thousand officers
were serving in his Army. Booth was the author of many favorite revival
hymns and several books, such as Salvation Soldiers (1890) and Religion
for Every Day (1902). Some of his works have gone into twenty
languages. He started War Cry, the official organ of The Army, on
December 26, 1879 with 17,000 copies.