The Authoritative Life of General William Booth Part 11

"I shrink from suggesting further sacrifices to you. G.o.d give you wisdom. We have much success and much trial, and much bitter opposition. We must have more and more success and more trial, and more bitter opposition. We must have more intelligent Officers, and you must help us get them."

That West-End attempt, made later by Mrs. Booth, produced for us, indeed, some Officers who have done much for The Army's advancement; although, perhaps, not another Colonel Pepper. The very attacks made upon us, however, helped to attract the attention of thoughtful people, and to lead to our Meetings persons possessing all the gifts needed for The Army's world-wide extension.

Amongst these were Colonel Mildred Duff, Editress of our papers for the young, and auth.o.r.ess of a number of books; Commissioner W. Elwin Oliphant, then an Anglican Clergyman; Miss Reid, daughter of a former Governor of Madras and now the wife of Commissioner Booth-Tucker, of India; Lieut.-Colonel Mary Bennett, as well as Mrs. de Noe Walker, Dr.

and Mrs. Heywood-Smith, and a number of other friends in England and many other lands who, though never becoming Officers, have in various ways been our steadfast and useful friends and supporters.

Surely it can only be a question of time! It is true what our great Master said: "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many n.o.ble are called."

But, if in the days of our weakness and contempt, it was given us to win such a force of honourable women and a man now and then, are we to despair, now that all the world is awakened to the value of our work, of winning for it more of the excellent of the earth?

The prosecutions of our people by the police also helped us not only to attain notoriety locally, but to gain a much higher standing generally.

As soon as The General could find legal ground for appealing against the magistrates' decisions he did so, and this not only obtained for us judgments that made our pathway clear in the future, but caused the then Lord Chancellor, the late Earl Cairns, Lord Chief Justice c.o.c.kburn, Archbishop Tait of Canterbury, Bishop Lightfoot of Durham, and other men of wide influence to speak out in the House of Lords or elsewhere for us.

And yet, throughout his entire career, right down to his last days, The General was at times personally a.s.sailed with a malevolence and bitterness that could hardly have been exceeded. It has constantly been suggested, if not openly stated, that he was simply "making a pile" of money for himself; and yet, as will be seen in our chapter on Finance he made the most comprehensive arrangements to render suspicion on this score inexcusable.

But try, if you can, at every turn throughout all this life, whenever you hear of General Booth, to realise what it means for such a man, struggling to carry on and extend such a work, to know every minute, day and night, that he is being accused and suspected of seeking only his own, all the time. Remember that his nature was perhaps abnormally sensitive about any mistrust or suspicion, and about the confidence of those nearest to him. And then you may have some conception of the cross he had always to bear, and of the wounded heart that went about, for years, inside that bold and smiling figure.

And yet there is, thank G.o.d! much of the humorous to relieve our tensions in The Army. A brother Commissioner of mine remembers seeing The General sail for the United States for the first time. As the steamer swung off, a bystander remarked, "So he's off?" "Yes." "And when do you go?" "Go? What do you mean?" "Well, you will never see him again now, will you?" And then my comrade fairly took in that the man was alluding to the continual prophecy of those days that The General, once he had got enough, would disappear with all the money he had raised. So that man went down to his house laughing, and has been laughing over it now for twenty-six years!

Perhaps The General gained more than can ever be calculated from having to begin and to carry on his warfare, for a long time, in the very teeth of public opinion.

We're marching on to war, we are, we are, we are!

We care not what the people think, nor what they say we are,

was one of the favourite choruses which, in his greatest public demonstrations in this country, as well as in his ordinary Meetings, he taught us to sing.

Only in this spirit of utter disregard for public opinion have G.o.d's prophets, in all ages, been able to do their work, and only whilst they remain indifferent to men's scorn and opposition, can the Soldiers of The Salvation Army properly discharge their task of "warning and teaching every man," in all wisdom.

How indispensable this state of mind is to the individual Convert only those who have lived for Christ amongst the hostile surroundings of a great city can really know. That we have now so many resolute comrades, even amongst the young people, who meet with no encouragement, but rather with every sort of contempt and rebuff in their homes, their workshops, and the neighbourhoods in which they live, is alike a remarkable demonstration of the extent to which this great victory has been won, and, at the same time, of the far wider and grander conquests that are yet to come.

The gigantic enterprises that lie before us, if Christ is really to become the First and Last with the millions of Africa, India, j.a.pan, and China, as with those of America and Europe, would be hopeless were we not prepared to raise up Soldiers to this great military height of contempt for civilian opinion.

But it may be that our very att.i.tude in this respect has whetted the enemy's resolution to do all that could be done to prejudice public opinion against us. The very large measure of popularity or, at any rate, respect, so far as The Army generally is concerned, in which we rejoice to-day, must be attributed to the impression created by the calm persistence of The General, and those who have truly followed him, in doing what they believed to be right, and turning from all they believed to be doubtful and wrong, in spite of the general condemnation and opposition of those around them.

The very people who to-day applaud our efforts to a.s.sist the poorest and worst to a self-supporting and honourable career, are often blind to the fact that we have only succeeded by doing the very things which they once said we ought not to do, and by turning away from all the old customs to which they would fain have chained us.

Chapter XI

Reproducing The Army in America

So far we have traced the beginnings of The Army in the United Kingdom.

But would The General desire or be able to extend it to other countries?

With regard to the need for it there is now, at any rate, no dispute in any "Christian country," for almost all intelligent persons, whatever may be their own creed, or want of creed, admit the presence in their great cities, if not elsewhere, of only too many of the sort of persons to whom The Army has proved useful.

But there has been no country in which the need for, or possible value of, The Army has not been at first hotly disputed. We have seen how desperately it was at first opposed in the country of its birth. And that could not have been possible had not so many really religious people looked upon it as an "un-English" sort of thing, "American" in its ideas and in its style of action. When it was beginning in Scotland, many said that it might be tolerated amidst the G.o.dless ma.s.ses across the border, but that its free style of wors.h.i.+p especially "on the Lord's Day" could not but be "a scandal" in the land of Sabbath stillness; whilst as to Ireland, we were a.s.sured that our outdoor proceedings must needs lead to bloodshed.

When, however, The General resolved to send Officers to America, there was hardly a voice in either Church or Press which did not ridicule the idea of our being of use there. And in the case of almost every other country the same prejudice against English people having "the presumption to think" that they can give lessons in true religion to any other nation has made itself more or less felt, even to this day.

But, happily, The General never took counsel with flesh and blood upon such questions. He knew that, whatever differences might exist between one race and another, there was everywhere the one sad similarity when it came to neglect of G.o.d and the soul. That The Army must adapt itself to each new population he had always taught; but that it would ultimately succeed wherever there were ma.s.ses of G.o.dless people, he never doubted.

Really the first extension to the United States came about, however, by no planning of his. A family belonging to one of the home Corps emigrated, in 1879, to Philadelphia, where they commenced to hold Meetings there, meeting with such rapid success that two Corps were raised before the Officers for whom they pleaded could be sent to them.

When The General paid his first visit to America, in 1886, we had already 238 Corps in the Union, under the leaders.h.i.+p of 569 Officers, mostly Americans. Ten years later there came that terrible blow to him and to the Work, when his second son, who had been entrusted with its direction for a term, left The Army, and founded a separate organisation. Notwithstanding the misunderstanding which followed, and the check to our progress that was necessarily involved, The Army went steadily forward, and The General visited the country from time to time, receiving on each occasion a very remarkable welcome.

The appreciation of his leaders.h.i.+p was always of the more value in the United States, because the disinclination of the American people to accept anything like direction, let alone command, from this side the Atlantic was always so marked. It is this fact which gives such special value to the sort of experiences we are about to record from one of the later tours of The General, that of 1902-3.

Summing up the journey and its general impressions to an old friend, he writes:--

"Well, I have been busy and no mistake. Day after day, hour after hour, you might say minute after minute, I have had duties calling for immediate attention. Oh, it has been a whirl! But what a wonderful rush of success the nine weeks have been since I landed at New York.

"The people, the Press, the dignitaries of all cla.s.ses have combined in the heartiest of welcomes ever given in this country, I suppose, to 'a foreigner' of any nationality. It has been remarkable, and, indeed, surprising, for it was so largely _unexpected_.

"I have just come into this city of Kansas. The two largest hotels have competed to have the privilege of giving me their best rooms, with free entertainment. A monster brewery that illumines the whole city every night with a search-light has been running alternate slides, one saying, 'Buy our Lager Beer,' and the other, 'General Booth at the Convention Hall Monday night.' The building for my Meeting to-night will hold 8,000 people, and on Sat.u.r.day 4,000 tickets were already sold.

"You will be a little interested in this because you will know something of the difficulties that seemed to lie ahead of me when I started. G.o.d has been very good, and I hope my Campaign will do something towards the forwarding of His wishes in the country."

The reception at New York was one of the most enthusiastic The General ever had. At four o'clock on the Sat.u.r.day morning, enough of his followers and friends to fill fifteen small steamers had a.s.sembled, so as to be sure to be in time to meet his liner. By way of salute, when the great steamer appeared, they discharged seventy-three bombs--one for each year of his life, as yet completed.

The _New York Herald_ said of his Sunday there:--

"Eight thousand people heard General William Booth speaking yesterday at the Academy of Music. The rain had no effect in keeping either Salvation Army people or the general public from the Meetings. About one-third of those present wore Salvation Regalia.

"General Booth displayed wonderful energy throughout his fatiguing day's work. His voice has great carrying power, and the speaker was distinctly heard throughout the auditorium. Despite the fact that they could not gain admission to the building, at the evening service, people remained standing in the drenching rain from 7:30 till after 9 o'clock to see The General leave."

"At the close of his last address," says _The Times_, "167 men and women had been persuaded to his point of view, and went to the Mercy-Seat."

How generally the whole country, and not merely the central areas, was stirred by the mere arrival of The General, may be guessed from the following words taken from the _Omaha Daily News_ article of the Monday for its readers through far-away Nebraska:--

"One of the arrivals on the steams.h.i.+p _Philadelphia_ is General William Booth of The Salvation Army. That vessel never carried before so great a man as this tall, white-haired, white-bearded organiser, enthusiast, and man-lover.

"Wherever men and women suffer and sorrow and despair, wherever little children moan and hunger, there are disciples of William Booth. The man's heart is big enough to take in the world. He has made the strongest distinct impact upon human hearts of any man living. This is a man of the Lincoln type. Like Lincoln he has the saving grace of humour, and sense of proportion. There is something of the mother-heart in these brooding lovers of their kind. There is the constraining love that yearns over darkness and cold and empty hearts. Big hearts are scarce.

"In an age of materialism and greed William Booth has stirred the world with a pa.s.sion for the welfare of men. His trumpet-call has been like the silvery voice of bugles. His spirit will live, not only in lives made better by his presence, but in the temper of all the laws of the future."

We shall see from the welcomes given to him by great official personages, that these remarks do not in the least exaggerate the feeling created all over the country by the activities of The Army. Had The General merely made great proposals he would only have been looked upon in the generally favourable way in which men naturally regard every prospector of benevolent schemes. But the country recognised in him the man who, in spite of the extreme poverty of most of his followers, had raised up, and was then leading on, a force of obedient and efficient servants of all men.

The journey was arranged, for economy of time, so as to include a visit to Canada, and its general course was as follows: From New York he travelled to St. John's, New Brunswick, where the Premier, in welcoming him, said the work of The Salvation Army had "placed General Booth in a position perhaps filled by no other religious reformer." From New Brunswick he pa.s.sed on to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Montreal (where he was the guest of Earl Grey, the Governor-General), Ottawla, Kingston, Hamilton, London, and Toronto. Thence he returned to the States, and held Meetings in Buffalo, Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, Des Moines, Kansas City, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland, Omaha, St. Joseph, St. Louis, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Was.h.i.+ngton, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Worcester, in three of which cities he conducted Councils of Officers, in addition to public Meetings.

The impression invariably made wherever he went, was thus ably summed up by the _Chicago Interocean_:--

"No other man _is_ General of an Army of people that circles the globe. No emperor commands soldiers serving openly under him in almost every nation of the earth. No other man is called 'commander' by men and women of a hundred nationalities.

"Aside from his power over the great Organisation of which he is the head, General Booth is one of the world's most remarkable figures. His eloquence stirs and stings, soothes and wins; and this eloquence alone would make him famous, even if he had never undertaken the great work he has done with The Salvation Army.