The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)Strahan, James
Religion
The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)
Strahan, James
Booth-Clibborn, Catherine, 1860-1955
There was no _Entente Cordiale_ in those days, and at the thought of
parting with Katie, and letting her go to live in the slums of Paris,
Mrs. Booth confessed that she "felt unutterable things." In a letter to
a friend she wrote: "The papers I read on the state of Society in Paris
make me shudder, and I see all the dangers to which our darling will be
exposed!" But if her fears were great, her faith was greater. Asked by
Lady Cairns how she dared to send a girl so young and unprotected into
such surroundings, she answered, "Her innocence is her strength, and
Katie knows the Lord." And if Katie herself was asked to define
Christianity, she answered, "Christianity is heroism!" For a girl of
this spirit, was there, after all, anything so formidable in the French
people? Was there not rather a pre-established harmony between her and
the pleasant land of France, as her remarkable predilection for the
French language already seemed to indicate? Is any nation in the world
so chivalrous as the French? any nation so sensitive to the charm of
manner, the magnetic power of personality? any nation—in spite of all
its hatred of clericalism—gifted with so infallible a sense of the
beauty of true holiness? _Courage, camarade!_
What were the ideas with which Catherine began her work in Paris? What
was her plan of campaign? How did she hope to conquer? On these points
let us listen to herself. "I saw," she says, "that the bridge to France
was—making the French people believe in me. That is what the Protestants
do not understand. They preach the Bible, they write books, they offer
tracts. But that does not do the work. ’Curse your bibles, your books,
your tracts!’ cry the French. I have seen thousands of testaments given
away to very little purpose. I have seen them torn up to light cigars.
And the conviction that took shape in my mind was that, unless I could
inspire faith in me, there was no hope. Only if Jesus is lifted up in
flesh and blood, will He to-day draw all men to Him. If I cannot _give
Him_, I shall fail. France has not waited till now for religion, for
preaching, for eloquence. Something more is needed. ’I that speak unto
thee am He’—there is a sense in which the world is waiting for that
to-day. You may say that this leads to fanaticism, to all sorts of
error; and yet I always come back to it. Christ’s primary idea, His
means of saving the world, is, after all, personality. The face, the
character, the life of Jesus is to be seen in men and women. This is
the bridge to the seething masses who believe in nothing, who hate
religion, who cry ’Down with Jesus Christ!’ What sympathy I felt with
them as I listened to their angry cries against something which they had
never really seen or known. They shout ’Jesuits,’ but they have never
seen Jesus. Could they but see Him, they would still ’receive Him
gladly.’ It is the priests’ religion that has made them bitter. ’Money
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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