The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation ArmyRailton, George S. (George Scott)
History
The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army
Railton, George S. (George Scott)
Booth, William, 1829-1912; Salvation Army
And those who had heard the General before immediately recognised that
they had not only to do with the very same resolute Leader, following
the one aim with undiminished ardour, but relying upon the same old
Gospel to win the world for Christ.
"He speaks," says a Hamburg paper, "mostly with his hands behind
his back, swaying gently to and fro. The short, sharp English
sentences are translated one by one. It is the old recruiting talk
of the chief captain in the fight against the sins of this world,
the pressing exhortation to get converted at once, to-day, in this
very hour. It is the old entreaty to become a child of God, in
spite of all opposition; the old call to purity of heart and life.
Whoever has wandered must come back again. He who has fallen a
hundred times must get up again for the hundred and first time.
"This General believes in the Salvation of the worst and the most
deeply sunken. He preaches the gospel of holding on, of going
steadily forwards, of freedom from the lusts of the flesh and from
public opinion. He preaches at the same time the gospel of work, of
unwearied faithfulness in business, and of love to all mankind.
"When he has finished The Army sings with musical accompaniment and
clapping of hands its glad and even merry-sounding songs, not
without a mixture of that sudden inrush of enthusiasm which springs
from the conviction of having the only faith that can make people
blessed, and the consciousness of a resistance hard to be overcome.
And then begins that extraordinary urgent exhorting of the sinner
from the stage--the ten-and-twenty times repeated 'Come'--come to
the Penitent-Form, represented here by a row of twenty chairs. 'In
the last Meeting of The General's in Copenhagen thirty-three came
out. How many will it be in Hamburg?' cries the leading Officer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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