Catherine Booth
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Colonel Mildred Duff >> Catherine Booth
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Just the wish we have now for all our Young People!
Early in their childhood the elder children were taught to be responsible
for the younger, and when at school they were given places of trust as
monitors, and so on. As if knowing the responsibilities they would by and
by be called to fill in our ranks, Mrs. Booth gives them some wise
counsel:--
'I hope,' she says to one who has been left in charge of the other
children, 'you will show yourself to be a true son of your mother, and a
consistent disciple of the Lord. Very much depends on you as to the ease
and comfort of managing the little ones. Do all you can. Be forbearing
where only your own feelings or comfort are concerned, and don't raise
unnecessary difficulties; but where their obedience to us or their health
is at stake, be firm in trying to put them right.'
'I am pleased,' she says to one of the boys who has been in charge of
others at school, 'that Mr. W. puts such confidence in you; but do not be
puffed up by it. Remember how weak you are, and ask the Lord to save you
from conceit and self-sufficiency. Try to be fair and just in all
dealings with the boys--i.e., do not be hard on a boy whom you may not
happen to like so well as another; but be fair, and treat all alike when
left in charge.'
Again, she warns one of them against extremes, even in well doing:
'You are under a mistake to suppose that sacrificing your recreation-time
will help you in the end. It will not. Cramming the mind acts just in the
same way as cramming the stomach. It is what you digest well that
benefits you, not what you cram in. So many hours spent in study, and
then relaxation and walking, will do your mind much more good than "all
work, and no play." Now mark this. Do not be looking so much at what you
_have_ to do as to what you are _doing_. Leave the future (you
may spend it in Heaven), and go steadily on doing to-day's work in
to-day's hours, with recreation in between to shake the seed in. One
step well and firmly taken is better than two with a slip backwards.
Poor human nature seems as though it must go to extremes--either all or
none, too much or too little, idleness or being killed with work! May
the Lord show you the happy medium.'
'I was sorry about the cause of the accident. I don't like that way of
doing things in fun! Though it was very wrong and wicked of the boy to
throw the brick, yet it would have been better to let him look at the
guinea-pigs being fed, and thus have pleased him. There was no harm in
what he wanted to do. You should watch against a hectoring spirit, and
mind the difference between a sacrifice of truth and principle, and one
only of self-importance or of mere feeling. If a boy wants you to do
wrong, then be firm as a rock and brave for God and goodness.'
'Mind your soul,' she says at another time. 'Do not let your thoughts get
so absorbed, even in study, as to lead you to forget your Bible and to
neglect prayer.'
Later, again, as a wise mother she warns them in the tenderest way
against their special temptations.
Against lightness:--
'Be watchful against levity. C. is a good, devoted fellow, but naturally
an incorrigible joker. It may not hurt him much, because it is his
nature; but it will hurt you if you give way to it. It hurts nearly
everybody.
Watch! Don't descend to buffoonery. While you become all things to win
some, don't forfeit your natural self-respect and the dignity of your
position as a servant of Christ.'
Against too much talk:--
'The Spirit is teaching you this--is showing you that you must be more
silent. The tongue is one of the greatest enemies to grace (James iii.
5-13). Strive to obey these teachings of God. Yield yourself up to obey;
and though you sometimes fail and slip, do not be discouraged, but yield
yourself up again and again, and plead more fervently with God to keep
you. Fourteen years ago you were learning to walk, and in the process you
got many a tumble. But now you can not only walk yourself, but teach
others. So, spiritually, if you will only let God lead you, He will
perfect that which is lacking in you.'
But it was not at first easy for the mother-spirit in Mrs. Booth to allow
her delicate girls of fourteen or fifteen to undertake a public life, and
to speak and sing at the street corners, surrounded by a rough, low
crowd. Such a thing was unheard-of in those days.
Once, hearing that her daughter Catherine had spoken in the open air to a
large crowd, Mrs. Booth objected, as other mothers have since objected:
the girl was too young as yet--she must wait awhile.
But her eldest son, looking at his mother in the tenderest and most
solemn way, said, 'Mamma, dear, you will have to settle this question
with God; for Katie is as surely called and inspired by Him for the
particular work as you are yourself.'
Mrs. Booth said no more. She took this as the voice of God, and gave her
girl up to the marvellous work which God had called her to do.
Later she writes of her to a friend:--
'Join me in praying that she may be kept humble and simple, and that all
that the Lord has given her may be used for Him.'
'I see,' she says, writing at this same time to her daughter, 'what a
glorious, blessed, useful life you may live; but I also see your danger,
and I pray for you that you may be enabled to cast aside the world in
every form, to look down upon its opinions, and to despise its spirit,
maxims, and fashions.'
Later on, again, came the days when the boys had to choose, as you have
to do, how they would spend their lives. Mrs. Booth might be writing to a
Corps Cadet of to-day when, in a letter to one of her sons, she says:--
'I hope the Lord will make you so miserable everywhere and at everything
else that you will be _compelled_ to preach! Oh, my boy, the Lord
wants such as you--_just such_--to go out amongst the people,
seeking nothing but the things that are Jesus Christ's! You are free to
do it; able by His grace; born to do it, with splendid opportunities.
Will you not rise to your destiny? "Have courage, and be strong, and I
(the I Am) will be with thee." "Get thee out, and I will go with thee."
Dare you not take hold of the arm that holds the world and all things up?
And if you do, can you fail? The Lord gird you with His strength, and
make your brow brass, and your tongue as a flame of fire. You _must
preach_!'
To another of her boys she writes:--
'You may, perhaps, be wanted to stand and do battle for the Lord. Surely
you will not sell your birthright? The Lord help you! Take hold of
David's God. Hold your head up, keep your shoulders back, and go
forward.'
Again:--
'This is what the world wants: men of one idea--that of getting people
saved. There are plenty of men of one idea--that of _gold_-getting.
They make no secret of it; they are of a worldly spirit. Now we want men
who are set on soul-saving, who are not ashamed to let everybody know it
--men of a Christ-like spirit. There need be no mistake or mystery about
it. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Paul and every other man of
like spirit has had his fruits, and will have to the end of time. It is
"Not by might, nor by power, but by _My Spirit_, saith the Lord of
Hosts."'
With one of her daughters she reasons and pleads:--
'Oh, it seems to me that if I were in your place--young, no cares or
anxieties, with such a start, such influence, and such a prospect--I
should not be able to contain myself for joy! I should, indeed, aspire to
be the "bride of the Lamb," and to follow Him in conflict for the
Salvation of poor, lost, miserable man. I pray the Lord to show it to
you, and so to enamour you of Himself, that you may see and feel it to be
your chief joy to win them for Him. I say I pray for this--yes, I groan
for it, with groanings that cannot be uttered; and if ever you tell me it
is so, I shall be overjoyed.
'I don't want you to make any vows (unless, indeed, the Spirit leads you
to do so); but I want you to set your mind and heart on winning souls,
and to leave everything else with the Lord. When you do this you will be
happy--Oh, so happy! Your soul will then find perfect rest. The Lord
grant it to you, my dear child.'
She made all her children feel that the only reward they could give her
for her ceaseless toil and labour on their behalf was that they should
give themselves to the War:--
'I hope, my dear boy, that, whatever sense of obligation or gratitude you
have towards me, you will try to return it by resolutely resisting all
temptation to evil, and by fitting yourself to your utmost to be useful
to your fellow-men. I ask from you, as I asked from God, no other reward.
If I know my own heart, I would rather that you should work for the
Salvation of souls, making bad hearts good, and miserable homes happy,
and preparing joy and gladness for men at the Judgment bar, if you only
get bread and cheese all your life, than that you should fill any other
capacity with L10,000 per year.'
To one of her children, when tempted to be over-anxious, she writes:--
'Keep your mind quiet. Lean back on God, and don't worry. It is His
affair, and if you have done what you could, that is enough. Alas! how
little we have of the faith that can "stand still, and see the Salvation
of God." What would you do if you were put in custody for two years, like
Paul was? And yet that imprisonment at Rome sent the Gospel far and wide!
God's ways are not our ways. He takes in the whole field at once, and
does the best He can for the entire world. Human wisdom never has been
able at the time to comprehend His plans, but years after it has often
seen their wisdom. Let us learn to trust in the dark--to stand still.'
To another, tried and discouraged at the start of his public life:--
'I have only a minute or two; but, lest you should think I don't
sympathize with you, I send you a line. You ask, did I ever feel so? Yes,
I think just as bad as any mortal _could_ feel--_empty_, inside
and out, as though I had nothing human or Divine to aid me, as if all
Hell were let loose upon me.
But I have generally felt _the worse before the best results_, which
proves it was Satanic opposition. And it has been the same with many of
God's most honoured instruments. I believe nearly all who are truly
called of God to special usefulness pass through this buffeting.
'It stands to sense, if there is a Devil, that he should desperately
withstand those whom he sees are going to be used of God. Supposing
_you_ were the Devil, and had set your heart on circumventing God,
how would you do it but by opposing those who were bent on building up
His Kingdom? He hopes to drive us from the field by blood and fire and
vapour of smoke. But our Captain fought and won the battle for us, and we
have only to hold on long enough, and victory is sure. "Courage!" your
Captain cries. "Only be thou strong, and of good courage, and I will be
with thee, and teach thee what to say."
'"He hath chosen the weak things." He has not _made shift with
them_--taken them because there were no others. No! He hath
_chosen_ them. Will He ever forsake them, and thus make Himself a
laughing-stock for Hell? Never! Will He ever let the Devil say, "Ah, ah!
He chose this weak one, and then let him fail"? No, no, no!'
On the important question of courtship, she writes:--
'The Devil sets such innocent-looking traps--_spiritual traps_--to
catch young people! Ah, he is a serpent still! Beware of his devices, and
always cry to God for wisdom and strength of will to put down all foolish
tampering. You are born for greater things. God may want you to be a
leader in some vast continent, and you will want a companion and a
counsellor--a "helpmeet." The original word means "_a help
corresponding to his dignity_" This is the meaning given by the best
expositors. Oh, what wisdom there is even in the _words_ which God
has chosen to express His ideas! "Corresponding to his dignity!" Yes, and
no man ever takes one below this mark who does not suffer for it; and,
worse still, generations yet unborn have to suffer also. Mind what God
says, and keep yourself till that one comes.
'A wrong step on this point, and you are undone. Oh, the misery of an
unsuitable match! It is beyond description. I could tell you tales of woe
that are now being enacted. But I must wait till we meet.
'I have seen too much of life, and know too much of human nature, to have
much confidence in promises given under such circumstances. For my own
part, I made up my mind when I was but sixteen that I would not have a
man, though a Christian, who should offer to become even an abstainer for
my sake. I felt that such a promise would not afford me ground for
confidence afterwards. And do not we see enough all round us to show that
unless people adopt things on principle, because they see it to be right,
they soon change? Look at the folks who promise to give up tobacco and
dress, for the sake of getting into berths; how soon it evaporates! No,
my lad, wait a bit. "Couldst thou not watch with Me one hour?" Jesus
lived a single life for your sake all the way through. Can you not live
so till He finds you one after His own heart? I feel sure He will. Pray
about it in faith. I am doing so; and God will answer. But Oh, don't run
before Him! Wait on the Lord.
'A little longer and you will be saying, "Oh, how glad I am I waited! I
have now found a treasure indeed!" When God's time and person are come,
He will bring you together. How delighted and satisfied Isaac must have
felt when the servant told him the way God led him (Genesis xxiv.).'
When standing by her grave The General said she was _The Army
Mother_. He said the truth.
One of her early promises, given to her as a girl, when she only saw its
greatness and hid it away in her heart as too sacred to be spoken of, and
almost too wonderful ever to be accomplished, were the words: 'I will
make thee a mother of nations.'
When called to send her children abroad, she paid to the full the heavy
price; but she also saw the glorious outcome, and from her death-bed sent
tenderest messages to those of distant lands and far-off nations who
owned her as their Army Mother.
VII
THE WORKER
'What the Lord wants is, that you shall go about the business to which He
sets you, not asking for an easy post, nor grumbling at a hard one.'--
MRS. BOOTH.
If she had not been a worker, our Army Mother would have done little with
her life. The wonderful call which came to her, her great gifts, the zeal
and love which filled her heart, would all have been useless had she not
been willing to work, and to work hard, and to work every day.
Stop and think about this. No life accomplishes anything unless it is
full of hard work--often work accompanied by much drudgery, whether it is
the life of a king or of a poor man. Mrs. Booth has set us all an example
in this, for she would work ceaselessly with head or hands or heart, as
long as ever her health allowed her to do so. Laziness and idleness of
all kinds she detested; nor could she tolerate a lazy person in her
service.
She worked first of all in her home. When she spent a morning in her
kitchen, the work there was perfectly done. The dinner was ready at the
right time, properly cooked, good and wholesome. She allowed no waste and
no extravagance. Her bread was light and beautifully baked, and when she
had finished her morning's work her kitchen was as neat as when she
began. She finished everything, and put it straight as she went along.
It was the same with the children. She was alike nurse and doctor,
dressmaker and tailor; she made and mended, washed and ironed for her
boys and girls during their early years, and herself attended to every
smallest detail of their lives. Strangers who asked where Mrs. Booth
bought her children's things, so that they could go to the same shop,
could scarcely believe the reply: 'Mamma makes all our clothes herself'
--so beautifully were they cut and finished.
And when the little garments were of no further service to her, she would
alter and mend them once again, and give them away. Her baby-clothes,
when the last daughter had outgrown them, were given to a member of the
Mission for his child.
He will never forget taking the little bundle home to his wife and
turning over the tiny things. 'I had often heard Mrs. Booth preach,' he
said, 'but those baby-clothes preached a louder sermon to me and my wife
than ever her words had done. They were all darned and mended and
patched, and the work--but, there, I never saw such stitches! And as we
looked, and knew the hours of toil she must have put into them, rather
than throw them away, as many another would have done--well, I tell you I
listened to her next sermon as I had never listened before.'
And this same diligent, tireless spirit was with her to the last. When on
her deathbed, able only to use her left hand, and propped up by pillows,
she devised a little frame on which, painfully, stitch by stitch, she
could work a last token of love for The General.
When her hands were folded still in death, I saw those slippers. They
were beautifully embroidered, one with the words, 'He will keep the feet
of His Saints'; and the other with the sure and certain hope which lay
beyond the parting, 'Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem'
--a fitting and sacred service with which to close her many years of toil
and labour for others.
But our Army Mother had another way of working in her home--that is, she
worked over others. If a girl wished to learn, Mrs. Booth would take
endless trouble in showing her the best way to wash or iron, or clean a
grate, or do whatever the work on hand might be. She instructed her
servants, explaining to them the reason for doing their duties in a
certain way, teaching them forethought and common sense, and dealing
faithfully with them over all their failures.
'Better,' she said, in one of her addresses--and she lived it out in her
own home--'better take a girl whom you have to teach how to wash a
child's face, or to stitch a button on, if she is true and sincere, than
have one ever so clever, who will teach your children to lie and
deceive.'
She worked, too, over the cases of need and poverty which were often at
her door. Not content, like so many, with giving a few coppers to a
beggar, or some broken food, she would inquire into the _cause_ of
the distress; and then, if the need seemed genuine, she would help,
either by getting the father work, or by having the home visited and
suitable relief given after the true condition of things had been found
out.
And this was only a little of the homework with which her hands were ever
full. Of her ceaseless care over her children's mind and soul training I
have told you elsewhere. But of her public work perhaps the most
exhausting was that which resulted from her Meetings. For she could not
rest content with the most careful preparation beforehand, nor with
pouring out her whole soul upon the people during the forty or fifty
minutes that her address lasted. At the close of the Meeting, whenever
her health allowed it, she would labour and toil, often for two hours and
more, dealing herself with the penitents, meeting their difficulties, one
by one, and was unwilling to leave them until, as far as possible, all
had claimed and received the blessing they sought.
The next day, too, she would follow up any special case with a long
personal letter from her own pen, or she would arrange another interview,
or in some way keep in close, actual touch with the struggling soul,
until the step of obedience had been taken, and he or she was fairly
started on the Narrow Way.
And it was this careful, earnest, patient after-work which gave such
glorious harvests to her soul-saving campaigns. Labour and trouble were a
joy to her, if she could but help one sincere, seeking soul into the
light.
But remember this: while she so toiled over all who came to her for
advice and guidance, she never repeated nor passed on to others their
confidences. If she had done so, people would soon have left off corning
to her; they would have said, 'We cannot trust her.' She was, as you
know, a mighty speaker; but about other people's affairs she was entirely
silent--as you must learn to be if you wish to be of any service to God
or man.
And Mrs. Booth strove constantly to teach all who were around her to work
as she did. 'You have begun well enough--now carry it through,' she would
say again and again to her children, and whether it was a doll's frock,
or an article for 'The War Cry,' or a series of Meetings, it was always
the same. Unfinished, half-done work she detested with all her soul. 'If
a thing is worth beginning at all, then it is worth finishing,' she would
say; and this great principle followed her through her life in small
things as in great.
This was the reason that, on her deathbed, she could say, turning to the
Chief of the Staff, 'I have no vain regrets about the past. As far as my
strength allowed, I have finished the work I had to do as I went along;
and now I leave it, all imperfect as it has been, in His hands.'
Perhaps, by nature, you are not a worker. But what you are not by nature,
you can become by grace. God can teach you to love work. And as you work,
you will, like our dear Army Mother, learn better and better how to work;
and your life, whenever God calls you to lay it down, shall be like hers,
not unfinished, but complete.
VIII
GOODNESS
'I see more than ever that the religion which is pleasing to God consists
in doing and enduring His will, rather than in good sentiments and
feelings. The Lord help us to endure as seeing Him who is invisible.'--
MRS. BOOTH.
When our first General stood on that October evening by the grave of his
beloved wife, and spoke to us with a breaking heart of our Army Mother,
he unfolded to us the three great qualities which made her character so
beautiful. First, and foremost, she was good; secondly, she was love;
and, thirdly, she was a Warrior. Let us, following The General's outline,
look at these three leading qualities in her life. 'First,' he said, 'she
was _good_. She was washed in the Blood of the Lamb. To the last
moment her cry was "a sinner saved by grace." She was a thorough hater of
shams, hypocrisies, and make-believes. Her goodness was of a practical
sort. "By their fruits ye shall know them" was a text she often quoted,
and one by which she was always willing to be judged.'
It is of this 'goodness of a practical sort' that I want first to tell
you, before we consider that soul goodness which made her life so holy.
Mrs. Booth could not imagine any goodness apart from industry. As we have
already seen, she considered it a sin to waste precious time. Any one who
was lazy she could not endure, and when one such offered for the work she
wrote of him:--
'I do hope you will not throw a lot of money away in trying H------, just
for want of courage to tell him at once that he will not do, because I am
sure that it will be thrown away. It is the _nature_ of the man that
is at fault, and not his _circumstances_. He is a _drone_, and
nothing, no change of place or position, can ever make him into a bee. He
never ought to have left his trade; he never _would_ have done so if
he had thought soul-saving was harder work!'
Extravagance and waste of every kind she abhorred, and had she not been
so careful in planning and arranging, her time and money would again and
again have run short. The sewing, mending, and housekeeping needed for a
family of little children when means are scarce would have been burden
enough for most mothers. But besides this came her own letter-writing,
preparing for her Meetings, and also the hours she spent consulting and
advising The General, whose voice, 'Here, Kate,' would call her from the
nursery or kitchen to help him decide some important question.
Again, it was impossible to talk to Mrs. Booth, even for five minutes,
without finding how true and sincere she was. To please no one would she
keep back the truth, or appear different from her real self.
'I believe,' she writes, when quite a young woman, 'honesty to be the
best policy, and I shall act upon it. Let me have truth, if it shakes the
foundation of the earth.'
She was sincere and faithful in every part of her nature: faithful with
her own soul and in dealing with the souls of others. Great or small,
rich or poor, she made no difference, and never held back from reproving
sin when it was needful.
'I see more than ever,' she said, 'the need of making righteous people
true in their _inward parts_. Let us be more thorough than ever with
souls under conviction. Let us not be afraid to wound too deeply.
Thousands of professors have never been truly convinced of sin, much less
truly converted. Sin to them is _being found out_!'
Though all through her life our Army Mother hungered and thirsted to
know God better, and to serve Him more perfectly, yet it was not till
some time after her marriage that she received the blessing of a clean
heart.
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