The Authoritative Life of General William Booth Part 16

"Sunday.--The Doelen Hall (one of the largest auditoriums in the city) full in the morning, and crowds shut out afternoon and night.

People hard at first; but twenty-two came to the Penitent-Form in the morning, and fifty-eight at night. Never saw men weep more freely. 212 given during the day.

"Monday.--Came on to Amsterdam and commenced Officers' Councils.

"Tuesday.--A tired, restless night for some reason or other. Sleep flew. Occupied with many matters, but not very anxious. Still, did not get much refreshment or invigoration for the day's work, and felt accordingly. On the whole, the three Meetings were interesting, and, I think, useful to the Officers present, although nothing remarkable.

"Wednesday.--What I said of the Councils yesterday may be repeated to-day. I had a great deal more material than I could possibly introduce into two days, and on leaving out some topics, on the spur of the moment, some were left out that might have been of great benefit. However, everybody was pleased, and, I think, profited. The only question in my mind, similar to the one that haunts me in every Officers' Council, is whether I am making the most of the opportunity.

"There is no doubt that we have here a powerful body of men and women, good, devoted, and loyal to the principles of The Army, proud to be connected with it, and ready to receive instructions, and to carry them out. The great lack appears to be a want of energy, enterprise, and daring, the being content with a little success instead of reaching out to all that is possible and promising. However, they are wonderfully improved, and I hope the present Commissioner's health will allow of his carrying them a long way farther in the direction of enthusiasm than they have reached before.

"Lieut.-Colonel Schoch (our original friend before referred to) was with us at all the Meetings. He is very cordial, and in making the closing speech, described his oneness with The Army in every direction.

"My correspondence with London is somewhat heavy.

"Thursday.--Fair night's sleep, but feeling rather tired, which must be expected. We are away to Den Helder at 9.42 a.m., so must be stirring. Den Helder is a naval port, the headquarters of the Dutch navy. We were billetted with Rear-Admiral van den Bosch, who is in command of the port, fleet, dockyards, and many other things.

We were received at the station in a formal but hearty manner by the leading people of the town, in the large waiting-room (decorated for the occasion), by the minister of the State Church, who made a really eloquent address. The great point of his speech was the work of the Holy Spirit--G.o.d working through us to the benefit of mankind. As he stood there talking in that circle of sixty or seventy of the leading inhabitants of the place, including naval officers of rank, professionals of various cla.s.ses, and prominent people, I could not help feeling, as I often feel now, what a change has come over the people, not only with respect to The Army, but towards myself.

"I answered in a few words that I trust were useful and beneficial to all present. The whole thing, from the moment of my being received at the door of my railway carriage, until I left next morning, had been prearranged through the instrumentality of one of our Local Officers, to his great credit, to the credit of his town, and to the satisfaction of his General.

"The mail brought me a request to take over a certain county council's lodging-house for poor men, on which they are losing a large sum, also another to take over an inebriates' home, which cost 40,000 and is an utter failure. In such exploits people will not have The Salvation Army at the onset, otherwise they might save a good deal of expense, etc.

"Friday.--Arriving at Amsterdam, the mail brought confirmation of my agreement of yesterday to postpone my South African visit to September, and to begin my Motor Tour at Dundee, and finish at the Crystal Palace. In all these things the maxim is ever present to my mind, 'Man proposes, but G.o.d disposes.' Closed the night at the desk, which is becoming more and more a difficult task from the failure of my eyes.

"Sat.u.r.day.--Good night's sleep. That is for me, anyway, a great improvement on recent nights. So now for a good day's work, of which there is plenty lying before me.

"7.30 p.m., Soldiers' Meeting. We have always been crowded out before, so this time the Palace Theatre was taken, as an experiment, and it justified my reckonings for several years gone by, namely, that we could fill any reasonable place on Sat.u.r.day night here, and yet keep the Meeting select; that is, confine it to Soldiers and ex-Soldiers, adherents, and those concerned about religion. We were more than full, and the place holds 1,500. I had much liberty in speaking, the After Meeting went with a swing seldom known on the Continent or elsewhere, and we had eighty-four at the Penitent-Form, some of them remarkable cases."

No wonder this octogenarian Leader finds his young Dutchmen wanting in enterprise!

"Sunday.--The theatre again in the morning at ten. An excellent plan. Oh, that it could be adopted the world over! The senseless system of beginning at eleven makes you feel it is time to close almost before you have had time to get well started. We were crowded, large numbers outside clamouring for admission, so much so that the police called out their reserves, and fifty men guarded the entrance. We had an excellent service inside, and forty at the Mercy-Seat. It was a beautiful Meeting, and made a mark for ever on my heart, and on the hearts of many more.

"Afternoon. The large Hall of the People's Palace had been arranged for this as well as the Night Meeting. We were full, and many were turned away. I lectured on 'The Duty of the Community.' Great satisfaction among my own people, and a good impression made upon the minds of a good many of the leading people of the city.

"Night, 7.30. Again full. It is a building erected for an Exhibition, and made suitable for a Meeting only by putting up a great screen across the centre. I suppose we could have filled the entire s.p.a.ce; but whether my interpreter could then have been heard, I am not sure. I preached with point and power--more breathless attention I never had in my life. I reckoned on an easy conquest, but we had one of the hardest fights I ever remember before we got a soul out. I left at 10.30, completely played out. A wall of policemen on either side kept the people back while I got into the carriage, the crowd having waited a long time to catch a glimpse of me. Had long, restless, and sleepless spells during the night; but still I have not done amiss on the whole. I must now prepare myself for the coming Berlin Staff Congress."

So much for the general effect upon a largely unbelieving people of simple, childlike faith!

But The General was, of course, always just as earnest about instructing all who came to him, old or young, in the way of life, as about getting them into it. In the midst of these tremendous Campaigns, he repeatedly prepared Lesson-books for both children and adults. To a lady who had tried to help him by sending him a number of catechisms for children, on such an occasion, he wrote:--

"Thanks for your letter, and your catechisms sent here.

"The particular catechisms you send I already had--not that the church affair could be of any advantage to me, and I should imagine it would not be of much use to any one else, especially to children.

"I am trying to produce something that will be a boon to The Army by being blessed to hundreds of thousands of children for years to come. You do not seem to think it is a very important task. I count it the most important work I have had my hands on for years.

"I had a proper day at----. I got at the peasantry for once, although I have often had that privilege before, and we had a mighty day. Oh, the joy of leading those simple souls into the light and power and freedom of the Kingdom! I am keeping better.

Praise the Lord!"

Whether The General's hopes for the use of his writings to the good of children will be fully realised, remains to be seen; but it is a great thing to have established even the purpose of making the way to Heaven plain enough for the youngest feet to find.

The other day I heard a Captain explaining how he was "conscripted" into The Army at ten years of age. He was standing outside the door of one of our Halls on an evening when children were not admitted. He had tried, in vain, boylike, to dodge through the doorkeeper's legs--but a drunken woman came up and not only insisted on getting in, but on dragging him in "to keep her company." Once inside, she went right up to the Penitent-Form with her prisoner, and made him kneel with her there. He had never seen so many grown-up people kneeling before, and, as they prayed, he felt what a naughty boy he had been, and began both to weep and pray. However little any older people might think of him that night, G.o.d heard and saved him, and he is now fighting under our Flag in the West Indies.

And others, who in their early years came to Christ, are now occupying leading positions all over the world. One of them remembers, when a lad of fifteen, hearing The General, whilst giving out the verse, "Sure, I must fight, if I would reign; Increase my courage, Lord," say, "I would like to alter it, to--'Sure, I will fight, and I shall reign.'" The lad shouted, "Hallelujah!" and, as he was on the front seat in the theatre, The General both heard and noticed him, and remarked: "I hope you will make as good a fighter as you are a shouter." Thirty-three years of faithful warfare have replied to The General's encouraging challenge.

And we have no means as yet of calculating how many such youthful disciples have been equally helped by The General into a conquering life. May this record help to multiply the number, for it is the will of G.o.d to make all His children "strong in the power of His might."

It is, indeed, this bringing all, whether old or young, forward, in the development of all their powers for G.o.d, which const.i.tutes everywhere a great part of The Army's work.

The enlarging influence of a close contact with Christ has hardly yet been fully realised even by ourselves. The peasant, whose whole circle of thought was so limited and stereotyped that his life only rose by few degrees above that of the animals he drove before him, is taught by The Army to pray and sing to the Maker and Saviour of the world:--

Give me a heart like Thine; By Thy wonderful power, By Thy grace every hour, Give me a heart like Thine.

In a few years' time you will find that man capable of directing the War over a wide stretch of country--dealing not merely with as many Meetings in a week as some men would be content to hold in a year, and with the diversified needs of thousands of souls; but taking his share in any business transactions, or councils with civic authorities, as ably as any city-born man.

What has so enlarged his capacity, broadened his sympathies, and turned him into the polite and valued a.s.sociate of any one, high or low, with whom he comes in contact? His library, if, indeed he has any, beyond the few Army publications he needs for his work, is still scanty enough to make his removal at a few hours' notice remarkably easy, and he will not be found much in public reading-rooms either. He has very little time for fellows.h.i.+p with any of the intelligent friends who, for The Army's sake, might now be willing to help him on.

He has simply had that oft-repeated prayer answered, and with the heart of a saviour of all men comes an interest in men's thoughts and ways which leads the man ever onward, overcoming all his own ignorance and incapacities, for the sake of helping on the War.

Thus The General's declaration at an early moment, that he would get his preachers out of the public-houses, has not merely been justified with regard to the first elementary lines of recruiting; but the grace of G.o.d has proved capable of developing, out of the most limited and despoiled human material, the most able and large-hearted of organisers and leaders, without building up any artificial or educational barriers between them and their former a.s.sociates.

How, indeed, could it be otherwise? Those who are ignorant of G.o.d may well doubt the possibility of any mental improvement by means of prayer.

But those who believe that it is possible for the poorest to dwell on earth with their Saviour, and to hold continual intercourse with Him, will perfectly understand how enlightening, how elevating, how inspiring such fellows.h.i.+p must ever be. Alas! how few there are yet in the world who can truly say, "Our fellows.h.i.+p is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ".

Chapter XV

India and Devotees

Nowhere has The Army shown its marvellous power to unite men of all races and cla.s.ses so rapidly and completely as in India. With its Headquarters in Simla, and its leader, formerly a magistrate under the Indian Government, looked upon almost as a felon, and imprisoned when he first began leading Open-Air Meetings in Bombay, but now honoured by the highest both of British and Indian rulers and by the lowest of its outcasts equally, The Army has become the fully-recognised friend of Governors and governed alike.

When The General decided upon issuing a weekly paper called _The War Cry_, it was to be as nearly as possible The Salvation Army in print, and Mr. Booth-Tucker, then an Indian official, at once got the idea, from the copy he read, that such a force as it described was exactly what was wanted in that country--a set of Christians determined to fight for the establishment of Christ's Kingdom by every method love could devise; but loving especially the poorest and weakest, and proving their love by working continually amongst them. After visiting England, to see The Army and its leaders for himself, he had no hesitation in abandoning his Government appointment, and giving himself up for life to this War.

Such was the devotion of our Officers, and especially of the first Indians they won, that The General, far from having to urge them forward, had rather to check the tendency needlessly to sacrifice health and life. He gladly gave, at later dates, two of his own daughters to the Work; and, perfectly informed by his own repeated visits to the country, and by what he learnt from the actualities of the War, he was the better able to correct mistakes, and so to utilise to the uttermost the forces that were raised in various parts of the vast peninsula.

n.o.body would hesitate to acknowledge how much his counsels helped to prevent an excessive zeal from sacrificing precious lives.

He divided the country into six Territories, each under a separate Commander, realising that India could not be treated as one country, but that its diverse people must be dealt with according to their several needs, and that unless those using different languages were trained to act independently enough of each other they could never form strong enough forces to cope with the vast enterprises required. But the following account, written to his children, of his first visit to the country gives a photographic view, both of his own activities and successes, and of the att.i.tude of the high and mighty generally towards him at that remote date. He writes from Benares, January 13, 1892, just ten years after our beginning in India:--

"Benares, _January_ 13, 1892.

"My Dear Children,--

"Wednesday and Thursday, 6th and 7th, were consumed in travelling to Calcutta, and, all things considered, I got through the journey very well. Nevertheless, I was exceedingly weary on being roused at five o'clock to prepare for the arrival.

"It was early, 5.35 a.m., and Colonel Ajeet Singh did not expect any reception beyond that of our own Officers.