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
"But just about this time," The General has told us, "another
difficulty started across my path in connexion with my business. I
have told you how intense had been the action of my conscience
before my conversion. But after my conversion it was naturally ever
increasingly sensitive to every question of right and wrong, with a
great preponderance as to the importance of what was right over
what was wrong. Ever since that day it has led me to measure my own
actions, and judge my own character by the standard of truth set up
in my soul by the Bible and the Holy Ghost; and it has not
permitted me to allow myself in the doing of things which I have
felt were wrong without great inward torture. I have always had a
great horror of hypocrisy--that is, of being unreal or false,
however fashionable the cursed thing might be, or whatever worldly
temptation might strive to lead me on to the track. In this I was
tested again and again in those early days, and at last there came
a crisis.
"Our business was a large one and the assistants were none too
many. On Saturdays there was always great pressure. Work often
continued into the early hours of Sunday. Now I had strong notions
in my youth and for long after--indeed, I entertain them now--about
the great importance of keeping the Sunday, or Sabbath as we always
called it, clear of unnecessary work.
"For instance, I walked in my young days thousands of miles on the
Sabbath, when I could for a trifling sum have ridden at ease,
rather than use any compulsory labour of man or beast for the
promotion of my comfort. I still think we ought to abstain from all
unnecessary work ourselves, and, as far as possible, arrange for
everybody about us to have one day's rest in seven. But, as I was
saying, I objected to working at my business on the Sabbath, which
I interpreted to mean after twelve o'clock on Saturday night. My
relatives and many of my religious friends laughed at my scruples;
but I paid no heed to them, and told my master I would not do it,
though he replied that if that were so he would simply discharge
me. I told him I was willing to begin on Monday morning as soon as
the clock struck twelve, and work until the clock struck twelve on
Saturday night, but that not one hour or one minute of Sunday would
I work for him or all his money.
"He kept his word, put me into the street, and I was laughed at by
everybody as a sort of fool. But I held out, and within seven days
he gave in, and, thinking my scrupulous conscience might serve his
turn he told me to come back again. I did so, and before another
fortnight had passed he went off with his young wife to Paris,
leaving the responsibilities of a business involving the income and
expenditure of hundreds of pounds weekly on my young shoulders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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