The Authoritative Life of General William Booth Part 12

"As he speaks, his face is radiant with the fervour that carries conviction. His tall figure and long arms, used energetically in gestures that add force to what is said, his white hair and beard, and his speaking eyes, make him an orator whose speeches remain long in the minds of those who hear them. The feeling of the members of The Army towards their Commander has in it both the love and reverence of a large flock of their pastor, and, added to this, the enthusiasm, loyalty, and energetic spirit of an Army."

[Ill.u.s.tration: General Bramwell Booth]

Where so wonderful a journey is so filled up with Meetings so described, and where, from the very highest to the lowest all speak so warmly of him, it is really difficult within the limited s.p.a.ce at our disposal to give, without danger of monotony, or repet.i.tion, any adequate idea of what took place. Americans are such habitual organisers of huge demonstrations, and are so generally accustomed to say, publicly, without reserve, what they think, that the expression of what to them may appear perfectly natural runs the risk of creating elsewhere an air of exaggeration and unreality. But if we consider that great American States like Minnesota, Ohio, and Michigan contain more inhabitants than some of the kingdoms of Europe, and that their Governors are men likely to occupy the very highest positions in the government of America, we can realise how effective amongst the ma.s.ses of the people The General's work must have been before such Governors could be expected to preside at his Meetings, and to speak of him, as they did.

Said Governor Nash, of Ohio:--

"I never had the privilege of meeting you in person, until I grasped your hand upon this platform. You have not been unknown, however, to me or to the people of Ohio. You recognise the fact that you could not perform this work well without the help of G.o.d.

That your work has been well performed is well known to us all from the fact that the Organisation you have made known as The Salvation Army has spread throughout the world, turning the feet of mult.i.tudes into the paths of righteousness and peace. It has done good. It has done a great work wherever it has gone. It is for these reasons that the people of Ohio welcome you most cordially to-night, and they and I wish you an abundant harvest in your life's work, and that at the end you may have the peace and rest and the joy that G.o.d gives to all His own good people."

Similar specially religious references to those used by Governor Nash came constantly into the speeches of other leaders who expressed their people's welcomes to The General, showing how faithfully every opportunity was being utilised to exalt Christ, amongst even the most unusual crowds a.s.sembled on these occasions.

Governor c.u.mmins, of Iowa, said:--

"I have long wanted an opportunity to express publicly my appreciation of the grand, n.o.ble, and untiring work that every day is being performed by those n.o.ble and unselfish men and women, who have gathered under the Flag of The Salvation Army, loved and esteemed throughout the whole world.

"In every army there is a leader. The Salvation Army has a Leader whose commanding figure towers above the Salvationists of the world, and has drawn to himself more love, more respect, and more confidence than at this moment centres in any other human being. Of him it will be said, after he has pa.s.sed to the beautiful sh.o.r.es of the hereafter, the best that can be said of any man, that the world is better because he lived in it."

Lest The General should have been too much puffed up by all his successes and the praises showered upon him, G.o.d almost at the end of the tour allowed an accident which might easily have ended his career; but which only gave him an opportunity to show more conspicuously than ever his resolution to persevere in his ceaseless labours.

It was whilst pa.s.sing along a dark pa.s.sage in New York that The General stumbled, and, but for G.o.d's great goodness, would have fallen into a cellar. As it was, one leg was very much bruised and hurt. He thus described, in writing, to a friend what followed:--

"March 13, 1903.--The accident came at a very unfortunate moment, and at the onset it looked like spoiling the closing chapters of the Campaign.

"But G.o.d is good. I was favoured with the services of one of the most skilful and experienced surgeons in New York. He put my leg into starch, and then into a plaster of Paris jacket. And by dint of resolution, and the supporting Spirit of my Heavenly Father, I went through the last Meeting with apparent satisfaction to everybody about me, and some little comfort to myself.

"It was a great effort. The Hall is one of the finest and most imposing I ever spoke in. Three tiers of boxes all round full with the swell cla.s.s of people in whom you are so much interested, with two galleries beyond.

"It called for some little courage to rise up with my walking-stick to steady me; but G.o.d helped me through. I hung my stick on the rail, and balanced myself on my feet, and talked the straightest truth I could command for an hour and twenty minutes.

"A little spectacular function followed in the shape of trooping the Colours of the different nationalities amongst whom we are at work in the States, and a midnight torchlight procession, with a ma.s.sed farewell from the balcony of the Headquarters, closed the Campaign.

"I am doing the voyage fairly well. Of course, it is very wearisome, this lying all the time. The s.h.i.+p is rolling and tossing and pitching considerably, and it looks like doing so, until we get under shelter of the land."

The probable after-effect of these distant Campaigns of The General could not be better described than in the words of one of our American Officers, himself known throughout The Army as one of our most spiritually-minded and intelligent observers:--

"Seventeen years ago," he says, "the writer first heard The General, and it has been his privilege to hear him many times since. Each succeeding effort and series of Meetings seems to eclipse all the rest. It was so in Pittsburg, which, being one of the greatest business centres and home of some of the most virile men of the world, deeply appreciates him.

"He was very weary from his heavy Campaign in Cleveland, but, in spite of this, to me he seemed at his best. He spent no time in angling to get into sympathetic touch with them, but with the precision of a bullet he made direct for the conscience of every man and woman there. Talk about 'naked truth,' 'judgment,'

'daylight,' 'straight preaching.' We had it that night, as I never heard it before. There was no escape. Every honest person there had to pa.s.s judgment on himself.

"It was difficult to close that Meeting. The truth was setting men free. Many wept and prayed and submitted to G.o.d, and some fairly howled at the revelation G.o.d gave them of their character and conduct. It has been my privilege to hear such preachers as Beecher, Matthew, Simpson, and Phillips Brooks, and such orators as Wendell Phillips and Gough; but The General is the greatest master of a.s.semblies I ever met. He played on those vast audiences of judges, lawyers, ministers, business and working men as Ole Bull played on the violin. They laughed, they wept, they hung their heads with conviction, their bosoms heaved with emotions, they were convinced, convicted, and a mult.i.tude were converted. I think at one time there could not have been less than 3,000 eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears. He uncovered sin and made it appear as it is, utterly without excuse, and utterly loathsome; and then he revealed the love and sympathy and helpfulness of Christ, till many could not resist, but had to yield.

"A lawyer said to me the next day that the sermons and lecture were the most wonderful he had ever heard. Another lawyer who had been to each Meeting stayed in his place till the very close on Sunday night, saying that he could not tear himself away.

"The common people heard him gladly, and the uncommon people were overwhelmed with admiration, and conviction. A young lady, belonging to one of the best families in the city, just home from Paris, where she had been studying art, heard him and could not refrain from leaving the box in which she sat and going to the Penitent-Form. She went home truly converted.

"The wave of power and conviction did not cease when The General left; and during the next four days we saw fifty-eight persons at the Penitent-Form."

The special value of all these American testimonies to the effect of The General's brief visits, lies in the fact that they show the triumph of the War plan of G.o.d, just in the circ.u.mstances where weaklings are tempted to yield to public opinion, subst.i.tute orations for real righting for souls, and to press n.o.body to an immediate decision, or change of heart and life.

There can be no doubt that The Army's invariable fight against the drink has helped to make its General so highly honoured amongst American statesmen. But in that, as in everything else, the important fact to note is that it was by establis.h.i.+ng an absolute authority that he secured the faithful carrying on of the campaign against drink and every other evil at every spot where our Flag flies.

The eyes of the whole world have, in our day, been more or less opened to the ruinous character of the drink traffic, and The General and his forces, whilst keeping out of the political arena, have mightily helped the agitations that have ended in the exclusion of the drink traffic altogether from many states and cities, and its limitation, in many ways.

But much less notice has been taken of other evils, which have no less absorbed the attention, and spoiled the means, the minds, and the souls of the ma.s.ses. The sight daily in every great English-reading city when the sporting editions of the newspapers appear, ought indeed to arouse every follower of Christ. But the habit of irresponsibility that has grown up in most "Christian" circles has still to be fought against everywhere, and The General's persistent testimony against it, indeed the whole theory of a Divine Army and of War, must remain for ever one of the strongest features of his life's work. The old song:--

Arm me with jealous care, As in Thy sight to live; And, Oh, Thy servant, Lord, prepare A strict account to give,

has expressed the thought behind all the arrangements of our Army. And it is remarkable how, in the midst of the general indifference, so large a measure of this "jealous care" for G.o.d and souls has been awakened and maintained.

Nowhere, alas! does the theory of irresponsibility find a more congenial soil than in the very places and services where G.o.d is most feared, honoured, and obeyed. His doors are indeed opened to the world; but whether anybody enters them or no is the care of but sadly too few.

Hymns are so announced as to make it easy for all to join in singing them, if they choose. But whether the words are sung by many, or only by a proficient few, and above all, whether hearts as well as voices are raised in prayer and praise to G.o.d, is too often a matter of absolute indifference to almost every one.

How The General altered all that, wherever his influence was felt! He made all his people understand that not merely are they responsible for understanding and heeding G.o.d's commands themselves, but for enforcing attention to them, as those who must give account of their success or failure.

The sister leader of some little Meeting in the far-away Outpost of a Corps, thousands of miles from the centre, when she insists upon having a verse sung for the third time because "I'm sure some of you lads were not half singing," has little idea of the religious revolution she represents. That the dislike of so many for any "such innovations"

continues, may help to convince any one who thinks of the urgent need there was, and is still, for the subst.i.tution of responsible for irresponsible leaders.h.i.+p in "Divine Service."

During his visit to the United States in 1907 The General had a severe illness which seriously threatened to cut short his career. His death was indeed cabled as an item of news from Chicago. But the report was, as Mark Twain would have said, "grossly exaggerated." n.o.body will wonder, however, at his having been ill when they read Commissioner Lawley's report. He writes:--

"We have calculated that in the thirteen meetings of his New York Campaign the General was on his feet speaking about twenty-six and three-quarters hours.

"He spent less than six weeks in the Country, travelled about 3,700 miles by train, spoke about eighty-five hours to fifty audiences, before conferring many hours with leading Officers, and talking to the Newspaper Reporters in each town he visited."

An Officer describing his illness wrote:--

"I never shall forget his effort to ascend the staircase of the Commissioner's house on Friday morning after his victory at Milwaukee the night before. The veteran Warrior had to rest his head and hands on the rail and pray 'My Lord.' It was clear to me that the chill he had sustained days before, and which he fought in vain against would make him a prisoner for days."

What that meant to him when he was already announced for a number of other cities can be imagined.

His symptoms the following day were very serious, and one cannot but be glad that he had at his side at the time his daughter--Commander Eva Booth. Under her loving care, and with all the help of Doctors and Masters that could be got in Chicago, The General recovered so as to be able to go on after a few days with his interrupted tour, after which he wrote in his farewell letter to his American Troops:--

"I have been impressed with the great improvement in the devotion, spirituality and Blood and Fire character of the forces already in existence. I have also most pleasantly gratified by a conviction of the possibility of raising a force in the United States that shall not only be equal to the demand made upon it by the conditions of the country but of supplying me with powerful reinforcements of men and money for the mighty task of bringing the whole world to the feet of Jesus."

During this visit, The General and the Commander were received by President Roosevelt at the White House. The General was presented with the freedom of the City of Philadelphia, and after going through the gigantic final week described alone in New York was able to sail direct to Germany for his usual great Repentance Day in Berlin, and he was already seventy-eight years old.

Need it be said that whilst in this book little mention is made of any one but The General himself, it not having been his habit in his journals to refer to those with whom he was for the time a.s.sociating, we are not to suppose that at any rate in recent years he was anywhere fighting alone. In Heaven no doubt the victory won in many a crowded building was put down to the credit of someone whom few if any of those occupying the front of the platform would have mentioned; but as a result of whose prayers, faith and effort the audience was gathered or the results attained.

It would have been very unfair to the great majority of his Officers to have called frequent or special attention to the small English Staff who usually accompanied him, for not only the Commissioners and Chief Secretaries but the Officers of every nationality laboured systematically to make the most of his visits to any particular place and to render to the largest possible extent the results of each visit permanent.

This may possibly seem specially and curiously unfair in the United States and Denmark, yet it will only make[1] the principle of this omission from The General's own records and ours the more clear.

It will doubtless be expected that I make some comment upon the painful separation from him of three of his own children which were amongst the saddest events of The General's life, and, yet, I feel it best to say nothing.

It is not within the scope of this book to tell "all about it," and telling part could only cause misunderstanding. So I leave it, and hope everyone else will do the same.