What do we think of when we see members of the Salvation Army?
We might think of individuals quaintly garbed in uniforms which are seemingly anachronistic for our day and time. Or, we might think of Christmas when Salvationists appear on street corners and in shopping centers with bells, buckets, and tambourines.
Or, we might remember the concern shown by members of the Salvation Army in wartime or during natural disasters.
When I think of the Salvation Army, I recall a young woman and her two children who were stranded without money or shelter as the result of a domestic quarrel. While the resources of our local congregation were able to provide a hot meal and a few dollars for necessities, it was a call to the Salvation Army which provided a more satisfactory answer to this woman’s difficulties. The local corps sent a car for the mother and children, provided them shelter for the night, and promised to put them on a bus the next morning so that they could reach the home of relatives in another state.
Whenever or wherever we experience the ministry of the Salvation Army, we must realize that every aspect of this ministry is a reflection of the life and ministry of the Army’s founder, William Booth a ministry which resulted from a meeting with the Master.
William Booth met the Master on not one but several occasions.
He first met the Master in a Methodist Society. Booth’s relationship with Methodism was not to last; but the enthusiasm, the organization, and, above all, the memory of the founder of Methodism were to color all of William Booth’s ministry.
Born on April 10, 1829, forty years after the death of John Wesley, Booth remained an unabashed admirer of Wesley all of his life.
Paraphrasing the familiar Moslem affirmation, "There is one God, Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet," Booth said, "There is one God and John Wesley is His prophet."1
Still, his respect for Wesley was not sufficient to keep Booth within the Wesleyan tradition, for in lust the brief time between Wesley’s death and the conversion of William Booth, Methodism had become "respectable." Having lost some of its earlier fervor, the Wesleyan movement had difficulty in assimilating the unbridled zeal of its new convert.
Booth’s fellow Methodists were stunned when he arrived at worship, soon after his conversion, with a rag-tag group of young people whom he had won by his fervent preaching - preaching which was a result of the strong commitment he felt to Jesus Christ.
Arising out of that commitment was the need to share his experience. He felt called to tell all people that he had met the Master, and that that meeting had transformed him.
Like those early Christians who met the resurrected Lord and became ardent witnesses for the resurrectional faith, so too did William Booth witness that he had met the Master.
Although he tried to be obedient to the requirements of Methodism’s rigid organizational structure, he chafed under its more confining aspects.
His split with the Wesleyan movement did not arise out of theological differences but because of administrative problems. Although an ordained Methodist preacher, appointed to preach on specific
circuits of Methodist societies, he believed that he should have the privilege of a less restrictive type of ministry; specifically he believed he was called to be a travelling evangelist rather than a pastor.
When the Methodist hierarchy disagreed with Booth’s conclusions, he parted company with those under whose ministry he had first met the Master. Thus, he became for the Wesleyan movement a big fish who slipped the hook and got away.
Some would see Booth’s exit as an arbitrary action of a head-strong man unwilling to submit to a particular discipline.
I would see his departure, however, as evidence that lust as God had a whole new ministry for Martin Luther, John Calvin, George Fox, John Wesley and all of the other reformers he raised up, so too did he have a new ministry for William Booth.
Just as the existing church structures were inadequate for the work of the aforementioned reformers in their day, so was Methodism incompatible with the revolutionary organization - the Christian army - which was to arise because William Booth had met the Master.
Having left the Methodist Church, Booth was faced with the problem of how best to use his talents. He resolved the problem as the result of a second seminal meeting with the Master.
Having begun his ministry with a meeting with the Master in a Wesleyan Chapel, he now crystallized the direction of his ministry in a meeting with the Master which was reminiscent of his mentor, John Wesley.
William Booth met the Master for a second time, in East London, among the poorest of God’s people.
While preaching in East London he saw the tragic impact of alcoholism on young and old alike. Like Wesley, in an earlier time, Booth saw young children, some as young as five years of age, lying drunk on the streets ... and he met the Master in them.
He became acquainted with the realities of prostitution, particularly the tragedy of young girls kidnapped into the trade by unscrupulous "white slavers," or sold into the "profession" by desperate parents ... and he met the Master in them.
He saw children using rotting garbage as play toys ... and he met the Master in them.
He was to say inelegantly but honestly of his experience in East London: "The whole city stank."2
This was a spiritual observation as well as a physiological one for the whole city - the whole of society reeked with corruption ... and in the effluvia of East London William Booth met the Master.
As the result of that meeting, Booth knew what work God had called him to do.
He was able to say to his wife, and devoted co-worker, "I have found my destiny."3
The result of this second meeting with the Master was the formation, in 1865, of the Christian Mission, or as it was more popularly called, "The Hallelujah Army."
The word "hallelujah" became part of the title as testimony to the exuberance of Booth and his followers; "army" became the second word of the title because William Booth believed that he was launching war against sin, and would need an army to defeat evil.
In 1878, Booth formally renamed the Christian Mission, "The Salvation Army."
The organizational structure was a para-military one.
Booth was a general with absolute authority - some called him an autocrat.
The Army’s newspaper was called War Cry.
Places of worship and service were called "corps" rather then chapels or churches.
A uniform was developed.
Its motto was "Blood and Fire."
William Booth met the Master. Out of the meeting there came the Salvation Army, an army on the march against sin. Booth’s dreams always exceeded his financial capabilities.
From fifty-one corps in 1878, the Army grew to nine hundred corps in 1884. Because Booth, like Wesley, had a world vision, he moved his Salvation Army work beyond the confines of the British Isles, enabling it to make some of its most impressive contributions in the United States and India.
More money could have been available to General Booth and his followers had he been willing to bend his principles.
One of the evils against which the Salvationists inveighed most vehemently was that of alcohol. Long before Alcoholics Anonymous was born, William Booth and his followers took bold, persistent stands against the use of alcohol.
That anti alcohol position, plus the Army’s omnipresent need for money provides an example of Booth’s lofty dedication to principle.
In the city of Newcastle-on-Tyne, two "Hallelujah Lasses," as they were then called, were offered three hundred pounds to leave town ... by the town’s gin-seller ... because they were ruining his business.
Although the work of the Salvation Army could have used the money, the offer was summarily refused, and the Army redoubled its efforts against alcohol.4
While I have high regard for William Booth and the Salvation Army, honesty would compel me to say that the Salvationist movement was not without difficulty.
We have already alluded to the financial problems which plagued the work. There was always more work to do than money to do it, causing the Army members to live in poverty. The proverbial "poor as a church mouse" was amended to "poor as a Salvation Army mouse," for the latter were poorer even than the former.
A second major problem was the authoritarian nature of General Booth. The same independence which led Booth out of the Wesleyan movement led him into the conviction that an army can have only one general, and by God’s will William Booth was general of the Salvation Army; as such he expected total obedience from his soldiers. That sense of demanding discipline has, to a large measure, accounted for the success of the Salvationist movement.
These problems notwithstanding, the Salvation Army of William Booth has been the means whereby untold numbers of people have, like the Army’s founder, met the Master.
To have men and women and young people meet the Master, as he did, was Booth’s major aim.
Beyond that, General Booth set for himself and the Salvation Army four goals. They were:
1. To bring into public view "the ocean of ... misery ..." which characterized society.
2. To awaken people from spiritual lethargy.
3. To challenge people to give themselves to the care of the needy.
4. To evoke compassion in others to support the work of the Salvation Army.5
Putting aside criticism of methods and personalities, the evidence is clear that William Booth accomplished his goals. An example of the manner in which he gave vitality to his goals was the campaign he waged against prostitution.
In recent years we have become painfully aware of child prostitution and pornography rings. These activities - while shocking - are not new, for it is the same type of activity which caught the attention of William Booth in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
When General Booth exposed this particular portion of the "ocean of ... misery," people refused to believe him. He persisted in publicizing stories of young women lured or sold into so called "white slavery."
His persistence ultimately gained him strong support so that for the time at least, the immoral activities were sharply curtailed.
For us, the real lessons arising out of the ministry of General William Booth involve not just his aims, but, more importantly, how he accomplished the goals he set for himself and his army.
First, Booth’s ministry was marked by intense dedication. Following his conversion experience - his meeting with the Master - Booth said: "I made up my mind that God almighty should have all there was of William Booth."6
He demanded the same dedication from all the members of the Army.
Every Salvationist was expected to live among the people he or she would serve. Before psychologists proved the merit of identification with another’s needs, through personal experience, Booth and his followers practiced that concept.
Secondly, William Booth’s ministry was marked by enthusiasm. From the moment of his conversion, he felt called to proclaim what he had experienced; he felt called to witness to the reality of Christ’s presence in his life. He had met the Master, and he wanted everyone to know what a glorious experience resulted from such a meeting.
The founder’s enthusiasm was contagious, and soon the whole "Hallelujah Army" was known for its enthusiasm. Salvation Army bands were instituted at the suggestion of a Methodist choir leader. Parenthetically, I would have to observe that without Methodism there may never have been a Salvation Army.
Third, William Booth’s ministry was marked by an emphasis on love. He believed, and sought to practice, the truth that people would best find God when they were loved by their fellow human beings.
Salvationists were sharply tested in this requirement to love. In the early days of the movement the Army numbers were often subjected to intense physical and verbal abuse.
Whether their bodies or their spirits were assaulted, General Booth taught his people to respond to every epithet and every blow with a smile and a simple "God bless you."
Finally, William Booth’s ministry was marked by innovativeness.
While the so-called "soup kitchens" for the hungry were early hallmarks of the Salvationist movement, Booth believed the re-establishment of people’s self-confidence was of paramount importance. To do so, he opened commissaries where food was not given away but sold cheaply. Job programs were developed so that men and women could be gainfully employed.
The General opened banks especially for the poor. He organized a missing persons’ bureau. His followers went into the tenements to cook and clean for the sick and the elderly. Orphanages were opened. Facilities for unwed mothers and former prostitutes were developed.7
All of this was done so that men and women would, like William Booth, meet the Master. This was social service for a spiritual purpose. It was the process of making the love of Jesus Christ real to people who had forgotten that love could live in theworld.
William Booth gave vitality to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25. He and his army visited the imprisoned, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, ministered to prisoners, gave water to the thirsty, and welcomed strangers. In so doing, they who had met the Master, enabled others to meet the same Master.
Early in General Booth’s ministry, throngs protesting the evangelistic involvement of the Salvation Army often took to the streets in such numbers that the streets were rendered impassable by the angry mobs.
When William Booth died, streets were once more made impassable, but the crowds were friendly, and the outpouring was a tribute to the life and ministry of a man who had met the Master.
Vachel Lindsay shared his vision of General William Booth’s ultimate meeting with the Master:
Booth died blind and still by faith he trod,
Eyes still dazzled by the way of God.
Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief:
Eagle countenance in sharp relief,
Beard a-flying, air of high command
Unabated in that holy land.
Oh, shout Salvation! it was good to see
Kings and princes by the Lamb set free.
The banjos rattled and the tambourines
Jing jing-jingled in the hands of queens.
And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer
He saw his Master through the flag-filled air,
Christ came gently with a robe and crown
For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.
He saw King Jesus - they were face to face,
And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.8
Some years ago I heard an anecdote which might well be apocryphal.
A man supposedly went into the Wesleyan chapel where William Booth first met the Master. He walked to the place where Booth knelt during that climactic meeting. Kneeling in the same spot, he was heard to pray, "Lord, do it again, do it again."
This could well be our prayer as we remember William Booth and his meeting with the Master, and as we too, seek to meet the Master: "Lord, do it again."
1. William Hamilton Nelson, Blood and Fire, (New York-London: The Century Co., 1929) p. 135.
2. Richard Collier, The General Next to God, (New York: E. P. Dutton, Co., Inc., 1965) p. 25.
3. Collier, p. 25.
4. Collier, p. 104.
5. Railton, The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1912) p. 193.
6. Railton, p. 2.
7. For further development of these qualities of William Booth’s ministry see Railton, p. 106 and following.
8. From "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven," by Vachel Lindsay, Collected Poems of Vachel Lindsay, (New York: Macmillan Co., 1925). Used by permission.