March 14th, 2015

*Gods Generals- the Revivalists*

William & Catherine Booth- Through Blood and Fire

We want men who are set on soul-saving; who are not ashamed to let everyone know that this is the one aim
and object of their life and that they make everything secondary to this. ~ William Booth

Born in 1829 in central England at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, William and Catherine
(Mumford) Booth grew up in a tumultuous time when skilled workers and artisans were replaced by
manufacturing lines and factory machines. The middle class was quickly eroded and many found
themselves suddenly poor with an obsolete skill set. So bad was London, that one writer described it as
a squalid labyrinth, with half a million people, 290 to an acre Every fifth house a gin shop, most with
special steps to help even the tiniest children reach the counter.

Blessings and Strength of UNITY in complimentary DIFFERENCES:

William Booth Catherine (Mumford) Booth

Physically Strong and Athletically gifted. Excelled in Sport Sickly and in poor health most of her life. Missed entire
and was well-liked and admired for his Natural Leadership. years in school recovering from illnesses.
Scholarly. Learned to read at the age of 3. By the time she
Not a Strong Scholar.
was 12, she had read the Bible cover to cover eight times.

Gifted Evangelist with a heart for the poor and those society Intensely Compassionate and Caring. Defender of the weak
ignored and looked down upon. and less fortunate.

Loved God and His purposes more than approval of man. Loved God and His purposes more than approval of man.
Kicked out of his Methodist congregation. Kicked out of her Methodist congregation.

From a young age, William felt his calling to Evangelism. At 15, he heard a minister named Isaac
Marsden say, A soul dies every minute, and shortly thereafter William gave his life to the Lord.
At 17, he began evangelizing in the Bottoms- a slum in Nottingham and God moved on the
street with words of knowledge & Holy Spirit conviction.
Kicked out of the Methodist church after bringing a large group of poor people to church after
seeing them saved on the street.
Later in life, William was stripped of his Evangelist role by the New Connexion church because
he was unorthodoxed in his manner of evangelism and saved more people than the local churches
could disciple.
As a congregational evangelist, William travelled and would often see 600-700 people saved at
his revival meetings. After leaving New Connexion, he went out on his own and his first revival
meeting lasted 18 months and saw more than 7,000 people saved in Cornwall.
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Methodism was changing- no longer was it about the power of God seen by the Wesley brothers and
George Whitfield, instead it became focused on regulation and governance. It had strayed from
unleashing the power of God to convert souls and instead focused on controlling members and keeping
the offering plates filled.

Catherine also had issues with the Methodist church and had her membership revoked. She was an ardent
defender of the weak, the poor, and had a strong need to see the justice of God served. When leaders in
the Methodist church were expelled after calling for a return to the principles of its founding, Catherine
spoke against their expulsion and earned her own.
Defender of the Weak
o Donkey Beating
o Crowd taunting a Drunk Man- John 8:2-11
o Missionaries
Intimacy with God/Holy Spirit
o Salvation
o Street Witnessing
o Preaching- Ephesians 5:18; 1 John 2:27

COMING TOGETHER- UNITY

William and Catherine were very different, but fit together like puzzle pieces. Ones strength filling the
gap/weakness of the other. They met at a Reformers meeting shortly after both were removed from the
Methodist church and within a month of meeting were engaged to be married.
William and Catherine were like fire and ice- William the bold and often overzealous evangelist;
Catherine, the quiet scholar with a well-reasoned theology- but together they became a powerful force for
God. William was the spirit; Catherine, the word. William was the liberator of souls, and Catherine the
administrator, making sure that those who were set free stayed free, found their callings, and carried on
with God. William the flamboyant leader; Catherine the manager who structured day-to-day activities.
Our hearts are now indeed one, so one that disunion would be more bitter than death The thought of
our walking through life together perfectly united, together enjoying its sunshine and battling with its
storms, by softest sympathy sharing every smile and every tear, and with thorough unanimity performing
all its momentous duties, is to me exquisite happiness, the highest earthly bliss I desire We have
acknowledged God from the beginning, we have sought His will and we do now love Him more for the
love we bear each other Catherine to William
Shortly before Catherines death, she shared her greatest sorrow,
I cannot be with you when the clouds lower, when friends turn and leave you, and sorrows come
sweeping over you; I shall no longer be there to put my arms around you and cheer you on!

William had a tremendous love for Catherine, heard in the eulogy spoke at her funeral, If you had had a
tree that had grown up in your garden, under your window, which for forty years had been your shadow
from the burning sun, whose flowers had been the adornment and beauty of your life, whose fruit had
been almost the stay of your existence, and the gardener had come along and swung his glittering axe and
cut it down before your eyes, I think you would feel as though you had a blank in your life.
William pointing out the 3 qualities he loved and admired most in Catherine:
1) She was good. She was washed in the blood of the Lamb.
2) She was love. Her whole soul was filled with deep compassion.
3) She was a warrior. She liked the fight. She was not one to say Go, but rather Let me go
Deuteronomy 32:30 one man can chase a thousand, but two can put ten thousand to flight
Psalm 133:1-3 Behold, how good and pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity!... for
there the Lord commanded His blessing.
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Salvation Army
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I
was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did
we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a
stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison
and go to visit you? The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these
brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you
who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you
gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did
not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look
after me. They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing
clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? He will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not
do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.
Largest Charitable organization in the world with over 25,000 officers in 91 countries today.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS- East London Christian Mission

Seeing the jobless crowds milling around in front of Blind Beggars pub, William knew he would never
be without work. They needed salvation- from both their spiritual and physical depravity.
William founded the East London Christian Mission, which later became the Salvation Army
understanding the work they would be doing was not glamorous and that all but the most faithful would
most likely not stay. They were reaching out to Londons most poor and needy people group and many of
these vary people would become soldiers in the Salvation Army.

Intercessory Prayer
War Against the Forces of Darkness
New Convert Testimonies
Praise & Worship
Holy Spirit led meetings
Obedience to Gods command- Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the
prisoners.
We are salvation people- this is our specialty- getting people saved, and then getting somebody else
saved You are to be a copy of Jesus Christ himself. So consecrate every awakened power to the great
end of saving them. Rescue the perishing. They are all around you everywhere, crowds upon crowds,
multitudes. Be skillful. Improve yourself. Study your business.
Be self-sacrificing. Remember the Master. What you lose for His sake, and for the sake of the poor souls
for whom He died, you shall find again. Stick to it. Having put your hand to the salvation plough, dont
look behind you. ~ William Booth addressing a group of Salvation Army officers

See a Need- Meet a Need (SOCIAL CAUSES- Not Socialism)

Soup Kitchen- William learned that handouts would quickly erode the recipients self-respect
and instead of giving away food, found it best to allow each beneficiary to pay a small amount or
work on behalf of the mission. Once a persons belly was full, they were more available to the
message of the gospel.
Homes for women coming out of Prostitution
Missing Persons Bureau- over 9,000 people went missing every year in England
Legal Services and Banks for the Poor- loaning money to unemployed entrepreneurs to allow
them to start businesses
Labor Bureaus/Employment Services- Placed 69,000 people into jobs over its 7 yrs of operation.
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SEX TRAFFICKING- A woman came to the Salvation Army after getting out of this trade and
made the Booths aware of what was occurring. Thousands of young teenage girls were being
kidnapped, duped, drugged, or otherwise obtained and sold into the sex trade.
o Girls were drugged and then shipped out of the country in coffins drilled with holes so
they could breathe on the trip.
o Parents sold teenage girls so they could support their alcohol and drug addictions.
o Rich merchants daughter
Bramwell Booth went to the Home Secretary of England and asked that a bill be reintroduced to
raise the age of consent (for sex) from 13 years to 16 years. It was immediately blocked in the
House of Commons and instead they debated whether the age should be reduced to 10 yrs of age.
At that time the sex trade industry in England was generating more than $8M British pounds per
year, which in todays dollars would be nearly $1 billion dollars. The brothel owners and sex
traffickers seemed to have more friends in high places than did the Salvation Army, so they
hatched another plan they hoped would generate public outcry and backlash.
o William Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, a popular newspaper in London,
agreed to investigate the story and eventually published an expose that sent the
country into an uproar. His building was vandalized and the story had to be printed
in the Salvation Army building and was sold on the streets by Salvation Army
officers after the normal paper boys were harassed and arrested by police.
o The Booths then generated a petition and had 393,000 signatures imploring the
England government to raise the age of consent to 16, which was done less than a
month later.
LIGHTS IN DARKEST ENGLAND MATCHES- The leading match making company in
England was called Strike Anywhere matches. They had a factory to produce these matches
that was poorly ventilated and used dangerous yellow phosphorous in production. Yellow
phosphorous was known to cause flossy jaw- rotting away of the jawbone. In addition, the
factory workers were paid poorly and given little protection.

The Salvation Army to combat this opened their own factory to produce Lights in Darkest
England matches using much safer red phosphorous materials. The factory had much better
ventilation and paid the workers double what the Strike Anywhere company paid. They also
began an advertising campaign telling the dangers of their competitors matches and showing
pictures of the workers with flossy jaw and glowing phosphorous hands and teeth.

Public opinion swung their way and the government stepped in and made Strike Anywhere
employ higher work standards in their factories. By the turn of the century, they had completely
stopped the use of the dangerous yellow phosphorous. The Salvation Army then shut down their
factory, need met.

William Booth died in 1912 and over 150,000 people attended his funeral. The impact the Salvation
Army had on England can almost not be quantified. Charles Spurgeon once said, If the Salvation Army
were wiped out of London, five thousand extra policemen could not fill its place in the repression of crime
and disorder. The Salvation Army very likely kept England from plummeting into Civil War as seen in
France. It gave a destitute people hope and purpose during the darkest time in their lives.