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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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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of actively helping those in need, rather than simply offering prayers or advice. The speaker encourages the audience to take practical and Christlike actions to assist the poor and vulnerable. They highlight the plight of children in poverty, the unemployed, criminals, and victims of shame and deception. The sermon calls for a visitation to these individuals and urges the audience to make heaven on earth by serving the Lord with gladness.
Sermon Transcription
I am glad you are enjoying yourselves. The Salvationist is the friend of happiness. 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 sit and die in the same chamber. Here is a drunkard's novel, void of furniture, wifeless skeletons, children in rags, father malfeasing the victims of his neglect. Here are the unemployed, wandering about, seeking work and finding none. Yonder are the wretched criminals, cradled in crime, passing in and out of the prison all the time. There are the daughters of shame, diseased and wronged and ruined, traveling down the dark incline to an early grave. There are the children fighting in the gutters, going hungry to school, growing up to fill their parents' blazes, 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 the 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 pity 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 haste to the rescue, for the sake of our own people, the poor wretches themselves, the innocent children, and the saviour of us all. We prove ourselves with the means, and as there is nothing like the present, who in this company will lend a hand by taking up a collection?
Don't Forget
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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.”