Catherine Booth on the Need for Evangelism

Catherine Booth passionately shares from her heart on the desperate need for evangelism:
 

The Lord have mercy on us! Is there not work enough to do? It makes my ears tingle and burn with shame when I hear people saying, `You must not send agencies here and there, and we can't have our organization interfered with.' I say, `Are all the sinners converted in your neighbourhood?' Nay; has every poor, lost, wretched soul heard the name of Jesus, and the testimony of His Gospel? Are there not teeming thousands round about you who never heard His name, and who care nothing for Him, who live every day trampling His law under their feet? For Christ's sake, send somebody after them. If they will not have your doctors of divinity and your polished divines, get hold of fishermen and costermongers and send them! Let the people have a chance for their souls. Let them hear, for if they hear not, how shall they believe. Oh, they are dying for lack of knowledge--they are, friends; thousands, are dying for the lack of knowledge. It is quite a common thing for us to get people into our services who say, `I never knew there was anything so pretty as that in the Bible. I didn't know you were reading from the Bible. We never heard anything like that before.' Hundreds of men in this country were never in a place of worship, save to be christened or to be married, and a good many, sad to say, are living without being married. While we have been standing UPON OUR DIGNITY, WHOLE GENERATIONS HAVE GONE TO HELL!--if the Bible is true. How much longer shall we stand there? If Jesus had stood upon His dignity He would never have come to die between two thieves. The whole work of redemption is a work of humiliation, self-sacrifice, and suffering; and if we are not willing to follow Him in that, we may as well give up professing His name.

For more on her book Aggressive Christianity, see the Catherine Booth page.

William Booth on the importance of Leadership

(From his fascinating book, "The Seven Spirits")

IF THE OFFICER is a coward, those whom he commands will be cowards. If he is holy, they will be holy.  If he is a man of resistless courage and daring, they will be like him.  Our responsibility for success or failure is therefore enormous. Where we are successful we are not only gaining victories to-day, but making the conquerors of the future.  Let us remember—we shall have to give an account of our stewardship; we are passing over, one by one, to that great Tribunal...The words, “Behold I come quickly," are ever sounding in my ears.

For more from this book see the page dedicated to "The Seven Spirits"

William Booth: 1829 – 1912

It's been almost 100 years since "General" William Booth passed away, but his legacy lives on!
This blog will highlight his life, his writings and the work that he started with the Salvation Army.
Check the pages above to read his excellent books for yourself!

In his book "Darkest England" he states,

My only hope for the permanent deliverance of mankind from misery, either in this world or the next, is the regeneration or remaking of the individual by the power of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ. But in providing for the relief of temporal misery I reckon that I am only making it easy where it is now difficult, and possible where it is now all but impossible, for men and women to find their way to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.