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
"I reckoned up carefully. I knew I should have to provide my own
quarters and to pay for my cooking; and as to the living itself, I
did not understand in those days how this could be managed in as
cheap a fashion as I do now. After a careful calculation, I told
him that I did not see how I could get along with less than twelve
shillings a week.
"'Nonsense,' he said; 'you cannot do with less than twenty
shillings a week, I am sure.'
"'All right,' I said, 'have it your own way, if you will; but where
is the twenty shillings to come from?'
"'I will supply it,' he said, 'for the first three months at
least.'
"'Very good,' I answered. And the bargain was struck there and
then.
"I at once gave notice to my master, who was very angry, and said,
'If it is money you want, that need not part us.' I told him that
money had nothing to do with the question, that all I wanted was
the opportunity to spend my life and powers in publishing the
Saviour to a lost world. And so I packed my portmanteau, and went
out to begin a new life.
"My first need was some place to lay my head. After a little time
spent in the search, I found quarters in the Walworth district,
where I expected to work, and took two rooms in the house of a
widow at five shillings a week, with attendance. This I reckoned at
the time was a pretty good bargain. I then went to a furniture
shop, and bought some chairs and a bed, and a few other
necessaries. I felt quite set up. It was my birthday, a Good
Friday, and on the same day I fell in love with my future wife.
"But the people would have nothing to do with me. They 'did not
want a parson.' They reckoned they were all parsons, so that at the
end of the three months' engagement the weekly income came to an
end; and, indeed, I would not have renewed the engagement on any
terms. There was nothing for me to do but to sell my furniture and
live on the proceeds, which did not supply me for a very long time.
I declare to you that at that time I was so fixed as not to know
which way to turn.
"In my emergency a remarkable way opened for me to enter college
and become a Congregational minister. But after long waiting,
several examinations, trial sermons and the like, I was informed
that on the completion of my training I should be expected to
believe and preach what is known as Calvinism. After reading a book
which fully explained the doctrine, I threw it at the wall opposite
me, and said I would sooner starve than preach such doctrine, one
special feature of which was that only a select few could be
saved.[A]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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