LIFE of
The GOSPEL TRUTH WILLIAM BOOTH
FOUNDER and FIRST GENERAL
of the SALVATION ARMY
by
Harold Begbie
1920
In Two Volumes
Volume 2
Chapter 26
IN WHICH THE MODERN MOSES, IN THE CHARACTER OF EMPIRE-BUILDER, DREAMS OF A PROMISED LAND 1906
FEW dreams that entered the mind of the General in old age were dearer to his affection or became more fibred into his ambition than the dream of a vast Salvation Army Colony in Rhodesia. It was a dream which foreshadowed the fulfilment of that other and far greater dream, the conversion of the world. Our patriarch believed that by an immense plantation of humanity in Rhodesia, a plantation scientifically conceived, scientifically directed, and scientifically developed, he could arrest and capture the attention of the whole world. It was his belief that mankind wanted mothering or shepherding, and he was convinced that he knew how this process should be ordered. His faith in discipline plus spiritual affection was unbounded. He thought that he could make masses of people blissfully happy, and richly prosperous in a State of this kind.
The year 1906 witnessed a sustained effort on the General's part to bring this dream out of the shadows of aspiration and to give it the substance of accomplished fact. His journal and letters are full of this idea. He gave months in London to interviewing South African magnates and British statesmen. We shall see that to the last days of his life he nourished this brave dream and never wholly despaired of its realization. One must suppose that he often grieved over it in those final days of his blindness and pain. Certainly he passed into the spirit-world stubbornly believing that some day a triumphant Salvation Army Flag would fly in Rhodesia over the happiest community under Heaven.
We find in the early days of January, 1906, the following entries in his journal:
Saw Tilden Smith, who reported that at a meeting of Chartered Company Directors previous night all opposition to giving us every reasonable assistance in the Rhodesian Scheme had vanished.
Two Chartered Directors and one or two others came round to see me. There were present Mr. Maguire, Dr. Jameson, Mr. Covert, Mr. Tilden Smith, Mr. Wilson Fox. They were prepared to work in harmony with us so far as they had power, anyway to give land, etc.
Then comes a note of opposition:
Got a letter from Stead, who has been trying to disarm the antagonism of John Burns--but in vain. The latter has got hold of some slanders that he clings to.
In spite of this, the General pays his court in February to more amenable Ministers:
Saw Herbert Gladstone and Winston Churchill in the afternoon. Both very friendly.
Early in March he called by appointment on Lord Rosebery.
His Lordship received me very cordially, and we had quite a free and friendly conversation. He made all sorts of enquiries about the character of our Emigration Work.
I gave him a few facts which surprised him not a little. He assured me of his sympathy and of the Rhodes Trust with my Scheme for colonizing Rhodesia, and promised to speak of it at a meeting which was to take place on the following day.
The next entry tempts us, when we remember the savage attack once made on the General in the early days of his struggle, to exclaim tempora mutantur:
By appointment called at The Times Office for an interview with Dr. Buckle, the Editor.
It is some 16 years ago since I saw the Doctor in the same building. Then he was cold, hard, and apparently unsympathetic --on this occasion he was as far the opposite as is almost possible.
My errand was to ascertain something of the attitude The Times would take with reference to my Rhodesian Scheme if it came to the front.
I started right away with the purpose of my call and explained its character, how it came about, and noted some of the benefits it promised to the country.
The Doctor assented most heartily to all I said, proposed to send a gentleman on his staff to gather further particulars and the judgment of the different parties mixed up with the scheme so as to be able to present a fair introductory (?) article to the public.
I said we were not quite ready for that, but on being so would send the information along.
With promises of strict confidence and assurances of good wishes a very agreeable interview closed.
We are glad to think that Mr. Buckle gave this interview to William Booth, for it is impossible to associate his kind, benignant, and tolerant nature with the cruelty of those persistent attacks in the early days of the Salvation Army.
The journal continues:
Interview with Captain Wise, representing the S.A.C. He was with Hellberg and Jacobs through Rhodesia. In fact, has been engaged by the company to push Emigration.
He is intelligent, has had a good deal of experience in Small Holdings, and thinks very highly indeed of Rhodesia and of our scheme for it.
I said plainly to him at parting that I thought that if the S.A.C. intended putting any money into Emigration they should assist me and not start some Competition Scheme just as we got afloat. He promised that he would represent my view to the Directors.
Called by appointment on Lord Elgin, the Colonial Secretary, re Rhodesia.
He was very friendly and appeared interested in my plan--but had no money at his command, which I frankly told him was the sort of assistance I required. He said he would let his people consider the memorandum I left him, thanked me very cordially for calling, and there the matter will end I fancy.
Thus he goes on, stubbornly fighting for his scheme, and shrewdly estimating the character of those who smiled upon it--no dreamer less disposed to be dazzled by a promise.
He saw, among other people, Mr. Otto Belt; Sir William Hartley, of jam fame; Sir John Willoughby; Mr. Munro Ferguson; Sir John Forrest, of the Australian Commonwealth ("not much impressed by him; as usual, only occupied with his Colony and Government"), and Mr. John Morley, "the Indian Secretary, who has promised us help for our Indian hospitals and Village Banks."
In May he sees the Prime Minister:
Interview with Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman at Whitehall. Received me in a most friendly manner. Had a long talk re Rhodesian Scheme and our Army Operations generally.
Interview lasted an hour and a quarter, and when I apologized for detaining him so long he would not have it that it was any inconvenience; he said the obligation was all on the other side; he was grateful for my being at the trouble to see him and give him the information I had done.
Among other things, he remarked that it was perfectly appalling, using the word twice over, that we should be doing so great a work with our limited resources, while organizations with so much wealth and power should be spending their strength on useless contention, etc., etc.
Altogether, I think the interview must be productive of further good, although he did not make any promise of practical help in the shape of money for my scheme.
However, he promised consideration, and I believe he will give it and do something if it is to be done.
One of his friends at this time was an ex-racing man, Sir. George Herring.
Mr. Herring came in during the afternoon. He is in good spirits. Told me how he had been talking to Lord Rosebery, who confessed to him to having been much impressed with me at the interview of two months ago.
The present writer recalls a dinner-party at Mr. Herring's house in Hamilton Place, and a private colloquy with his host on the subject of the Salvation Army after the other guests had departed. The old bookmaker was supplied with endless documents, and went over case after case of conversion, saying every now and then, "The thing works, it's a fact; they take a bad fellow and make him a good fellow, or a weak chap and make him a strong chap; there's no deception about it--the thing works," and he chuckled as if he had hit upon something very amusing and strange.
In September we read:
Dr. Jameson called--very hearty--very anxious for the success of the R. Scheme. They have a meeting to-morrow of the Chartered Board. Said, "Send me your terms and I will put them through."
The Chartered Company have accepted our proposals for the contract and given us some of the privileges we ask for. Dr. Jameson has served us efficiently in this respect. His heart is evidently with our scheme.
Found Sir John Dickson-Poynder, [M.P., Now Lord Islington.] waiting me at H.Q. He is considered a great man on African Colonization questions. I found him most genial and much interested. He was pleased on his part for he told ---- as he went out that the interview had been one of the pleasantest hours of his life. He will do anything in his power to help the Rhodesian Scheme, but that is the assurance I receive from almost every individual to whom the plan is mentioned.
In December the following article appeared in The Mining World, the first reference in journalism, we believe, to William Booth's effect on the stock markets:
General Booth has his eyes on Rhodesia. He does not think the time has yet come when a Salvation Amy Colony can be established there, but he is evidently of opinion that it will come. It is perhaps out of place--and yet, why should it be?--to refer in a purely class paper such as this to the religious and social work of General Booth and the immense organizations that he, almost alone, has been the means of creating. The commencement of the Salvation Army, as the General himself would admit, was on Mile End Waste .... It was on this waste ground, and practically alone, that General Booth commenced the Salvation Army, the name and work of which are renowned throughout the earth. We will not go further into the matter than to express our deep conviction that, since the days of Peter the Hermit, there has not arisen in the religious and social world a man greater than General Booth. We are not forgetting John Wesley or Whitefield, Luther or Father Mathew. We believe that 50 years hence, when much of the prejudice and passion his work has excited in our own times has died its natural death, General Booth will be ranked by the historian as the leading religious and social reformer of several centuries of the Christian era. That the Rhodesian market should have been firmer at the very mention of a proposal to extend his works to that territory, shows the fascinating influence of his personality and the immense power for good he wields over men and things.
Something of a check was given to this great scheme by the sudden illness and death of George Herring, There is no doubt that William Booth liked this man, for he was always drawn to rough and original characters, whatever their faith might be and whatever their habits. And George Herring was real enough, a man who made no religious professions, but did in his own way many acts of noble kindness, going to some pains to see that he was not duped in the business. But apart from his liking for George Herring, and in spite of his knowledge that Herring was opposed to this particular scheme, William Booth had built many financial hopes on him, hopes which were dashed to the ground by his unexpected death.
From Coleraine, in November of this year, the General writes to his son:
Your wire just in--"reports on Herring not good."
That I interpret to mean that they are too bad to send me and that this wire is really intended to pave the way for what is worse. Well, all I can say is, "Thy will be done!" It certainly is not my will, but He knows what is best.
It might have been worse. Suppose it had been you. What a calamity! But I will not follow imagination. I will bow down and wait. God has helped me in dark hours before, and He will help me again. I should like him to have lived so that I could have done more for his soul. Oh this uncertainty of life. Nothing was further from my thoughts than that he should go. But it is no use talking about might-have-beens.
Later.
Your wire containing the painful news of Mr. Herring's decease just in. I have to leave in a few moments for my meeting, and your letter must go.
How mysterious. It will try me a good deal, but I shall be sustained.
I do not know what to say. God will comfort you. I am sure it will be a real blow. I should like to have left him behind when I went, as a friend.
Then, in December, we get this entry in the journal:
Called on Dr. Harry Campbell at 23 Wirepole Street. He was Mr. Herring's physician. I was impressed very favourably once at Mr. H.'s house.
He says Mr. H. died of Septic Peritonitis, and that nothing could have saved him.
Had some very friendly conversation re Mr. H. Had been rather nervous about the relations in which Mrs. Murray stood, the lady who was with Mr. H. when he died. But Campbell says he believes they were simply intimate friends, that their relations were purely Platonic. Mr. H. had lived for many years separated from his wife. Poor fellow, he must have been very lonely in his wealth and luxury.
There was a subsequent dispute about the Will in which Mrs. Murray figured--a beautiful and engaging woman who died very shortly after George Herring. The Salvation Army benefited by this Will to the extent of £5,000.
In all the extraordinary activities of this period there are times when the General turns his face away from the things of earth and dreams wistfully of Heaven. He writes to Bramwell, from paddington Station:
I wish I could have a little more time for meditation about Eternal things. I must not let my soul get dried up with secular affairs--even though they concern the highest earthly interest of my fellows. After all, soul matters are of infinite importance and are really most closely concerned with earthly advantages.
This letter is signed, "Your affectionate Father," the word Father being underlined three times. As a rule, his letters to his children are signed "Your affectionate General."
Sometimes he wonders if he has done well in striving to use the mammon of unrighteousness for his great and holy purposes:
. . . I am very flat this morning and have been feeling unutterably lonely. Surely, surely, I am as a pelican in a wilderness--no, not in a wilderness, but among a multitude of other pelicans or something! Imagery breaks down, so I must turn to hard work as my consolation. Perhaps we have been wrong in our journeys down to Egypt. Only think to whom we have gone for help ....
And here follow the names of some famous men for whose manner of living the General evidently entertained very small respect.
A letter from Paris reminds us once again of the difficulties he encountered on his journeys:
An actress who has rooms alongside our Hall has set up an opposition in the shape of musical performances--It has really spoiled our doings this morning and ended in her having hysterics and flinging water in the face of the concierge! I know not what the next move will be.
One of his letters to Bramwell from Scotland shows us how he was still sighing after the souls of the wretched, and how he was always happy in breaking new ground:
I began with the prison at Inverness and was greatly moved by the Service. Oh, if we had only an open door to these people and power over them in our own hands, what might we not do for them!
I did a simple talk and they cried like children, I believe if we could have had a penitent-form three-quarters of them would have come out; one of the first extras I shall do after this campaign will be to find out one of the big prisons where I can do a meeting on our own lines.
We then motored to Fort-George; the Colonel received me very kindly indeed, the men were drawn up in three sides of a square formation, and we reckon there were about a thousand men, made up of the Seaforth Highlanders and the Black Watch. The Colonel assured me that it was perfectly voluntary whether they came out or not. I talked 15 minutes and was listened to with breathless attention. I believe real conviction was produced in their minds. At parting, the Officers shook hands, introduced the ladies; one of the Officers--the Adjutant of the Regiment--was a nephew of the Duke of Atholl. I came away with hearty thanks from all.
In another letter from Scotland he speaks intimately of his spiritual depression, and seeks to comfort his son for the days that must follow when he is no longer on earth:
. . . But I do think we should find more satisfaction in the recollections of the great mercies of the past.
All the books in the world would scarcely contain the record of the difficulties and dangers which have threatened our destruction from time to time,
But 'out of all,
The Lord has brought us by His love;
And still He does His help afford,
And hides our lives above.
It is this sinking down of the soul that is my trouble and has been all the way through. I had a great fight yesterday. To have followed the bent of my feelings would have been to have thrown up the sponge and vanished out of sight! At such times reasoning seems powerless to afford any comfort, and even faith fails to bring the needed cheer. There is nothing for it but to set your teeth and clench your hands and go forward.
. . . I cannot help feeling that in the case of my death there will be such an overflow of kindly sympathetic feeling towards my memory, and through that towards the Army, that instead of anything like stoppage of supplies or failure of confidence, there will be an increase in every direction. But, however, we must go on, and go on in faith for life and death.
One of his interviews this year was with Lord Armitstead, an old friend, and from time to time a somewhat generous helper.
At 3.30 called on Lord Armitstead. He has been bed-ridden with gout for a long period. He is interested in Japan. I wanted to obtain his help for the Maternity Hospital. But he did not seem to care.
He was exceedingly kind. I prayed with him, and hope I did him good .... He is, I understand 84, immensely wealthy, and, as he lay swathed in rugs, he appeared one of the handsomest old men I ever set eyes on.
One of the most interesting letters of this year was one addressed to William Booth from Toronto by Professor Goldwin Smith. This letter is chiefly interesting, of course, because of its writer; but it also seems to us to express very simply and admirably the particular estimation in which William Booth was now held by all liberal-minded people, whatever their opinions might be on the subject of dogmatic theology:
TORONTO.
MY DEAR GENERAL BOOTH--This will reach you long after your birthday, of which I have only just seen the notice. But if it is behind other expressions of feeling on the occasion in time, it will not be behind them in heartiness. I have always thought with pleasure of my meeting with you here, and I earnestly hope that you may be long spared to carry on your work, the happy effects of which in redeeming from vice and misery it seems to me impossible to doubt. It is a signal testimony to the spiritual power of the Founder of Christendom that so many centuries after His death such a work should be done under His inspiration and in His name. I read the other day the assertion that the name of Caesar was the greatest in history. There is at least one in history greater than Caesar's and far more beneficent: that name under which the Salvation Army has been arrayed.-Yours very truly, GOLDWIN SMITH.
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