Souvenirs of Salvationism 6
by
Commissioner Wesley Harris
AMONG my
souvenirs I have a cheque dated May 11th 1912 made out to
General Booth in the sum of fifty pounds - a considerable
amount of money in those days. At the time the Founder was
almost blind, but he sill managed to endorse the cheque with
his characteristically bold signature.
According to one report, because of his sight impairment the
General sometimes used a small wooden frame to enable him to
write on a more or less straight line. Certainly, with or
without sight he was determined to continue on his life’s
mission as long as he could.
Early in 1912 he was increasingly frail but travelled in
Europe, the ‘burning in his bones’ still apparent despite
physical weakness and increasingly darkened vision. The old
campaigner’s remaining joy was to hear one of his helpers say
in a prayer meeting, ‘The fortieth, the fiftieth, the sixtieth
seeker is on the way...’
In the same week that the cheque was written, on May 9th,
William Booth’s last public meeting was held in the Royal
Albert Hall to celebrate his eighty-third birthday. According
to his official biographer, Harold Begbie, 10,000 people
packed the building and his private secretary (later
Commissioner) J. Evan Smith recorded extracts from the
Founder’s address in his book, ‘Booth the Beloved’:
“And now, comrades and friends, I must say good-bye, I am
going into dry-dock for repairs, but the Army will not be
allowed to suffer, either financially or spiritually or in any
other way by my absence; and in the long future I think it
will be seen - I shall not be here to see but you will - that
the Army will answer every doubt and banish every fear and
strangle every slander, and by its marvellous success show to
the world that it is the work of God and that the General has
been his servant... While women weep, as they do now, I'll
fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll
fight; while men go to prison, in and out, as they do now,
I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a
poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark
soul without the light of God, I’ll fight; I’ll fight to the
very end.”
It seems that the fighting spirit of the Founder may have
found expression in virtually identical words employed on more
than one occasion for the passage beginning with ‘While women
weep...’ appeared in the All the World magazine for
April 1906 reprinted in Australia, also in the Australian
War Cry April 16th, 1910.
As I hold the faded cheque in my band I am moved by the
indomitable spirit of William Booth and his determination to
fight to the very end and in my heart I say, 'Me, too!’
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