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 Young William Booth

This is a open-air preaching story of young William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.

Trevor Yaxley tells us the story: “One early success came with a preaching venture that found him in Kid Street with Will Samson. Expectantly, they had positioned themselves on the street edge, outside the home of a notorious drunk, Besom Jack. Their open-air meeting commenced with a hymn that seemed to be appropriate for the occasion. It was from the Methodist songbook:

‘Outcasts of men, to you I call,
Harlots and publicans and thieves!
He spreads His arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone, His grace receives:
No need of Him the righteous have,
He came the lost to seek and save.’

They had no sooner raised their voices than a large, boisterous crowd encircled them. Young William was on his chair in an instant. ‘friends’, he cried as he dodged a well-aimed, overripe missile, his large hooknose having a somewhat magnetic appeal to the tomato-launching public. ‘I want to put a few straight questions to your soul,” he declared passionately. “Have any of you got a child at home without shoes to its feet? Are your wives sitting now in dark houses waiting for you to return without money? Are you going away from here…to spend on drink, money that your wives need for food?’

At that moment the front door behind him flung open and out stumbled Besom Jack, eyes aflame and heading straight for the preaching duo, shouting abuse and lunging at them while still six feet away.

‘Jack, God loves your wife, and so did you once,’ said William steadily, looking the broom-seller in the eye. Jack stopped in his tracts and immediately became quite. ‘Can you remember how much you loved her and cherished her when you first met?’ the teenager asked tenderly. Jack nodded; his eyes fixed on the ground. ‘Well, Jack, God loves you with a love like that, with a love far deeper and greater than that.’ The hushed crowed strained to catch what the boy-preacher was saying, amazed at the change that had overcome the drunkard.

Jack lifted his eyes and blinked sheepishly. ‘Me?’ he asked in wonderment. ‘Yes, Jack, you,’ said William as he stood down from the chair and took hold of Jack’s arm.

Jack’s wife recounted the end of this meeting…the following week, saying,

‘And ‘e said to ‘im, ‘Come Jack, just kneel down ‘ere and tell the Lord you love ‘im too. And ask ‘im to forgive yer.’ And ‘e did! My jack knelt ther in the gutter and ‘e’s bin a different man ever since; ‘e says ‘e’s a Christian now!’

Young William’s heart beat for souls! His desire to help the poor had grown into a desire to see them saved. Gone were his notions of joining the Chartists, whose policies could only address the outward, political symptoms of poverty but never affect the heart of a person caught in alcoholism or despair. He had found his calling as a preacher of the gospel, the only true agent of inward change.”

Trevor Yaxley quote can be found in “William and Catherine: The Life and Legacy of the Booths” by Trevor Yaxley with Carolyn Vanderwal, pages 57-58

 2005/4/11 7:06
Delboy
Member



Joined: 2004/2/8
Posts: 199
Worthing UK

 Re: Young William Booth

Hi jesse,great story,
one of the benefits of living here in england is being able to visit the places that we read about.My wife,who was brought up in the sally army took me to various places of "army" history when we first met.One such place was the salvation army museum at there HQ i found it a real inspiration, If you come over here its worth a visit.
being a Londoner myself having those pubs and street corners mentioned is such an insppiration since becoming a believer
We have recently moved to the south coast where here in Worthing the first Martyr was killed by the skeleton army
by the way i have not been able to visit your web site,is there a problem?
thanks


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derek Eyre

 2005/4/11 9:09Profile









 Re:

Wow, I'd love to make it over to England some day to see the places men like Wesley, Whitefield, Spurgeon, and Booth preached at. I'd also really like to step up on one of those corners myself to preach.

The website should be working fine. You may need to download macromedia flash 7.0

 2005/4/11 9:24
philologos
Member



Joined: 2003/7/18
Posts: 6566
Reading, UK

 Re:

I sent pix of the Booth's family graves some time ago and I think Greg put them up somewhere but they are not in the Booth section of photos.

Ah, here they are.
The Booths. You will notice that the Booths never had any death in their families!


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Ron Bailey

 2005/4/11 13:54Profile





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