Booth, Catherine Mumford, 1829-1890; Salvation Army -- Great Britain -- Biography
But you must not suppose, because Katie had the assurance of Salvation,
that therefore she had no more fighting. No--indeed, her fighting days
had only just begun.
One of her great difficulties, which many Corps Cadets will understand,
was that she felt so nervous about doing anything in public. No one, of
course, asked her to speak--such a thing was never dreamed of; but the
lady who took the Bible Class which she attended regularly would now and
then ask her to pray. 'Miss Mumford will pray,' the lady would say, when
they were all kneeling together.
But Katie was too shy to begin, and sometimes they would wait for several
minutes before she had courage to say a few words. 'Don't ask me to pray
again,' she said one day to her leader; 'the excitement and agitation
make me quite ill.'
'I can't help that,' was the very wise answer; 'you must break through
your timidity; for otherwise you will be of no use to God.'
And did Katie persevere? Yes, indeed, she did. Here is an entry made some
time later in the diary that she kept, which shows you how very much her
experience was like yours:--
'I have not been blessed so much for weeks as I was to-night. I prayed
aloud. The cross was great, but so was the reward.
My heart beat violently, but I felt some liberty.'
Though Catherine's spine difficulty was better, she was still very
delicate, and at the age of eighteen every one felt sure she was going
into a decline. But, sick or well, her soul grew stronger, and her desire
to please and serve God better increased every day.
'I do love Thee,' she wrote in the same little diary, 'but I want to love
Thee more.'
It was not till many years later that Catherine received the blessing of
a clean heart; but even now she had begun to desire and long for it. She
also writes at this time: 'I see that this Full Salvation is very
necessary if I am to glorify God below, and find my way to Heaven. I want
a _clean_ heart. Lord, take me and seal me.'
Some people, even after they are converted, are too proud to own
themselves wrong, or to confess when they have sinned. Catherine was not
of that sort. In one of her letters to her mother she ends with these
words:--
'Pray for me, dear mother, and believe me, with all my faults and
besetments, your loving child.'
Her hunger after a holy life was real and practical. She knew she must
learn to live by method--that is, doing right, whether she liked it or
not--and not by feelings, if she was to be of use in the world.
So at the end of the year she wrote some new resolutions; and as they may
be of help to you, I will copy them for you just as she put them down:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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