THE LATE GENERAL BOOTH.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1527, 24 August 1912, Page 9

THE LATE GENERAL BOOTH.

SKETCH OF HIS CAREER. THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP TOE SALVATION AKJIY. One of the greatest religious and social reformers of the 19th century, William Booth, "the apostle of the poor," had no idea of founding a religious organisation of his own until he' came to the conclusion that the existing Churches had no room in their establishments for his peculiar work and methods. Born at Nottingham on April 10, 1829, ho was baptised in the Anglican Church, and "converted" in his 15th year in a Wesleyan Chapel. His strongest passion as a youth was pity for the miseries of tho poor, which he saw grimly illustrated in his native town. The Chartists were for tho poor, so young Booth shouted himself hoarse in his approval of the Chartists. Revival meetings held by an American evangelist, tho Rev. James Caughey, roused in him a stron? desire to preach the Gospel to the masses. After due study and self-preparation, he commenced street-corner preaching. He was called upon to tako the leadership of a band of earnest workers, and regular meetings were soon organised. "Our plan of operations," the General wrote afterwards, "was simplicity itself. We obtained the loan of cottages, and in these held meetings every night, always commencing with an open-air address, fine weather or foul, all the year round, inviting the people indoors for another meeting. With regard to penitents, we insisted upon a decisive test upon the spot, whieli was signified by kneeling at a round table that stood in tho middle of the room. These efforts were accompanied by the visitation of the sick and of the converts, whose names and addresses were always recorded together, with processions to the big chapel on Sundays. a convert died we had a Salvation funeral, placing the coffin in the street and singing round it, holding another service at the grave when tho parson had done. In. short, wo had a miniature. Salvation Army." It was tin earlier Salvation Army, also, in tho opposition it encountered. Dead eats, stones, and half-bricks were poured in upon the meetings by the "Nottingham. Lambs." But Booth's enthusiasm woro down all. opposition, and many of the "Lambs" became tho heartiest singers of hymns at future meetings. In June, 18G5, Booth took up his headquarters in London, conducting his first East End service in a large tent erected in a Quaker burial ground at Mile End Waste, Whitechapel. His first audience was "thoroughly representative of the lowest in tho social strata, the vagabonds and outcasts of the East End." Under another name—the East London Mission—the work of the Salvation Army had begun. As the work progressed, sympathisers camo forward to aid the movement, and where the old beerhouse had stood a substantial hall was built for headquarters in Whiteehapel Road. Mrs.

Booth became the travelling evangelist of the movement. In October, 18GS, was issued the "East London Evangelist," aftowards renamed the "Christian Mission Magazine," and later the "Salvationist"— an earlier "War Cry." The Booths next conducted a highly-successful revival campaign in Scotland, and in 1870 changed the name of their movement to "Tho Christian Mission." All-night prayer meetings, testimonies of reclaimed scoundrels, street processions, visits to slums, and a soup kitchen for the poor were features of tho work at this time. In spite of ribald interruptions, street assaults, and the disfavour of authorities, the movement grew apace. Annual conferences were inaugurated, and quite unconsciously thfe work" assumed a semi-military organisation. A terrible bereavement befel General Booth on October 1, IS9O, in the death of his able wife, affectionately called, "The Mother of the Salvation Army." To her memory he dedicated, the year following, his famous book "In Darkest* England and the Way Out." From this ti«;ie dates the commencement of the inimomo social organisations founded and carried on by the Salvation Army. In his book, Booth outlined his scheme for the formation of the submerged thousands of unemployed not already helped by the State "into self-helping and self-sustaining communities, each being a kind of co-oper-ative society, or patriarchal family, governed and disciplined on the principles which have already proved so effective in tho Salvation Army." The communities would be called colonies, and divided into city colonies, farm colonics, a.nd oversea colonies. By the city colonies were meant institutions which should serve as

"harbours of refuge" for the shipwrecked and needy. In them their immediate necessities" would be satisfied, employment found, and moral regeneration attempted. The farm colonies would aft'onl the same assistaace and character-naming, and tie oversea, colonies would provide healthy, happy homes for the submerged population of the great cities. Already he had established food and shelter ' depots in London on terms which just covered expenses, and now in connection with tlv?o he provided workshops and labour'yards in Which the destitute and starving might earn the price of beds and victuals. A labour bureau was opened to find further employment. Rescue Ironies for women, retreats for inebriates, homes for discharged prisoners, im inquiry office for lost friojids and relatives, and other agencies were included ill his great triple scheme, for which he estimated he would need a million pounds. The money came in readily, from men and women of every rank. The work of General Booth, begun in contumely, has not lacked honour and recognition before his death. The day the Queen pent for him and praised his labours, the freedom of . the City of London was conferred on him, and during his several visits to the colonies he has been welcomed with immcnso enthusiasm. A. motor tour of Great Britain in 190G, when he was in his 78th year, flowed that his preaching and personality had lost none of their strength nnd imprcssiveness through age, and a visit to Japan, mad© in the following year, saw him received with the same enthusiasm and honour in the East as were accorded him elsewhere. In June, 1907, tho degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him by the University of Oxford'amid a-scena of great enthusiasm,