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William Booth Preaching - Actual Voice
William Booth
William Booth (1829–1912). Born on April 10, 1829, in Sneinton, Nottingham, England, to Samuel and Mary Booth, William Booth was a British Methodist preacher and founder of The Salvation Army. Raised in poverty after his father’s bankruptcy, he apprenticed as a pawnbroker at 13 and converted to Methodism at 15, preaching to Nottingham’s poor by 17. In 1849, he moved to London, working as a pawnbroker and joining the Methodist New Connexion, ordained in 1858. Marrying Catherine Mumford in 1855, they had eight children, all active in ministry. Frustrated by church constraints, Booth left in 1861 to evangelize independently, founding The Christian Mission in London’s East End in 1865, renamed The Salvation Army in 1878. His fiery street preaching, military-style organization, and social reforms—like shelters and job programs—reached the destitute, growing the Army to 80 countries by his death. Booth authored In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890), advocating systemic aid for the poor, and published The War Cry newspaper. Knighted in 1907, he died on August 20, 1912, in London, saying, “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight.”
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of serving the Lord with gladness and reaching out to those in need, highlighting the call to help the poor, the wretched, the innocent children, and ultimately following the example of Christ in practical and compassionate ways. It challenges the audience to not just offer prayers or advice but to actively feed, reclaim, employ, and assist those who are suffering, even if success is not guaranteed.
Sermon Transcription
I am glad you are enjoying yourselves. The Salvationist is a friend of Athens. Making heaven on earth is our business. Serve the Lord with gladness is one of our favorite mottos. So I am pleased that you are pleased. But amidst all your joys, don't forget the sons and daughters of misery. Do you ever visit them? Come away and let us make a call or two. Here is a home fixed in family. They eat and drink and sleep and eat and die in the same chamber. Here is a drunken novel, void of furniture, wife of skeletons, children in rags, father now seeking the victims of his neglect. Here are the unemployed, wondering about, seeking work and finding none. Yonder are the wretched criminals, cradling crime, passing in and out of the prison all the time. There are the daughters of shame, deceived and wronged and ruined, traveling down the dark and blind to an early grave. There are the children fighting in the gutters, going hungry in the schools, growing up to fill their parents' blades. Brought it all on themselves, do you say? Perhaps so, but that does not excuse our assisting them. You don't demand a certificate of virtue before you drag some drowning creature out of the water, nor the assurance that a man has paid his rent before you deliver him from the burning building. But what shall we do? Contempt ourselves by singing a hymn, offering a prayer, or giving a little good advice? No, ten thousand times no. We will feed them, feed them, reclaim them, employ them. Perhaps we shall fail with many, quite likely. But our business is to help them all the same, and that in the most practical, economical, and Christlike manner. So let us hasten to the rescue, for the sake of our own people, the poor wretched themselves, the innocent children, and the savior of us all. We do much help for the needy, and as there is nothing like the present, who in this company will lend a hand by taking up to make the list?
William Booth Preaching - Actual Voice
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William Booth (1829–1912). Born on April 10, 1829, in Sneinton, Nottingham, England, to Samuel and Mary Booth, William Booth was a British Methodist preacher and founder of The Salvation Army. Raised in poverty after his father’s bankruptcy, he apprenticed as a pawnbroker at 13 and converted to Methodism at 15, preaching to Nottingham’s poor by 17. In 1849, he moved to London, working as a pawnbroker and joining the Methodist New Connexion, ordained in 1858. Marrying Catherine Mumford in 1855, they had eight children, all active in ministry. Frustrated by church constraints, Booth left in 1861 to evangelize independently, founding The Christian Mission in London’s East End in 1865, renamed The Salvation Army in 1878. His fiery street preaching, military-style organization, and social reforms—like shelters and job programs—reached the destitute, growing the Army to 80 countries by his death. Booth authored In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890), advocating systemic aid for the poor, and published The War Cry newspaper. Knighted in 1907, he died on August 20, 1912, in London, saying, “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight.”