The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation ArmyRailton, George S. (George Scott)
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The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army
Railton, George S. (George Scott)
Booth, William, 1829-1912; Salvation Army
"But she had reasons for living. Her children bound her to earth,
and for our sakes she toiled on with unswerving devotion and
unintermitting care. After a time the waters found a smoother
channel, so far as this world's troubles were concerned, and her
days were ended, in her eighty-fifth year, in comparative peace."
"During one of my Motor Campaigns to Nottingham," The General wrote
on another occasion, "my car took me over the Trent, the dear old
river along whose banks I used to wander in my boyhood days,
sometimes poring over Young's _Night Thoughts_, reading Henry Kirke
White's _Poems_, or, as was frequently the case before my
conversion, with a fishing-rod in my hand.
"In those days angling was my favourite sport. I have sat down on
those banks many a summer morning at five o'clock, although I
rarely caught anything. An old uncle ironically used to have a
plate with a napkin on it ready for my catch waiting for me on my
return.
"And then the motor brought us to the ancient village of Wilford,
with its lovely old avenues of elms fringing the river.
"There were the very meadows in which we children used to revel
amongst the bluebells and crocuses which, in those days, spread out
their beautiful carpet in the spring-time, to the unspeakable
delight of the youngsters from the town.
"But how changed the scene! Most of these rural charms had fled,
and in their places were collieries and factories, and machine
shops, and streets upon streets of houses for the employes of the
growing town. We were only 60,000 in my boyhood, whereas the
citizens of Nottingham to-day number 250,000.
"A few years ago the city conferred its freedom upon me as a mark
of appreciation and esteem. To God be all the glory that He has
helped His poor boy to live for Him, and made even his former
enemies to honour him."
But we all know what sort of influences exist in a city that is at once
the capital of a county and a commercial centre. The homes of the
wealthy and comfortable are found at no great distance from the
dwellings of the poor, while in the huge market-places are exhibitions
weekly of all the contrasts between town and country life, between the
extremest want and the most lavish plenty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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