The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)Strahan, James
Religion
The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)
Strahan, James
Booth-Clibborn, Catherine, 1860-1955
"I am indeed in an unholy place. It is given over to the devil in every
form, but what matters, I belong to Christ for all time.
"In prayer and humility I thank and greet thee, Beloved Maréchale."
A beautiful girl in society writes the following:
"All night long I have whispered your name over and over again to
myself, saying, ’You have given me life, Maréchale, do you hear me?
LIFE!!!!’ I was dying of remorse and fear. I shudder when I think of
what would have become of me if I had not come to you. I used to say to
myself, ’Oh, well, what’s the use, I have sinned beyond recall, so why
not sin again, and again, and again? I am destined for Hell anyway, I
may just as well get there as fast as I can’—that is what you have saved
me from.
"I wonder how many times I have prayed ’Let me forget, only let me
forget,’ and the more I would pray, the more I would remember, and the
more I would remember the more terrified I would get, until life seemed
to slip away from me, and I would fall down, down, down, into a
bottomless pit of horror.... And now I LIVE!!!! Oh, Maréchale (how I
love that name, it sounds like music to me!) My mother gave life to my
poor miserable body, but you gave life to my soul. My mother would not
mind me loving you so if she knew that you gave me back to her."
Again she writes: "I have lived alone, absolutely alone. God only knows
how utterly alone I have been! But now I have Him, a _Some One who
cares_! Is it not wonderful, Maréchale, I am no longer alone for I have
my Christ? The warm thing that flames in my soul is the _knowledge that
He loves me_! Now I know why all these years I have searched with empty
hands for something. I have it now, I _LIVE!!!!_"
A young gentleman whose life was transformed through attending the
meetings held by the Maréchale’s family in Keswick writes from Beyrout,
Syria:
"Oh! what a responsibility it is for us to be the ambassadors of Christ,
to represent Him to those who do not know Him, to be His Images! If it
were not for us Christians, who so often stand in His way, Christ might
have a chance. Some of the college men are meeting daily in my room to
pray and I wish you could hear them praying in English, Arabic, Turkish,
Armenian and even Abyssinian. You would not understand the words, but
you could never mistake the spirit.
"To-day I invited a man whom I know is in the hold of a terrible vice.
He came, and during the half hour he looked as though he had made a
mistake in coming, but, before he left, he had led in prayer for
strength to overcome temptation.
"Don’t you think America is a fine country? And yet, with all its great
resources, opportunities and phenomenal progress, it is a very wicked
country in many parts. Races, nations and individuals may prosper and
succeed in plans for betterment and still be without the realisation of
God,—they may be ’Good but Godless.’"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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