July 2. William Booth. Booth was a minister but saw that a lot of suffering people would never come into a church. And in some places, if they did come, they wouldn’t be welcome. So, Booth decided to take his preaching to the people.
When other pastors denounced his ideas, he and his wife left the church and started training more people to preach on the streets. He came to establish the Salvation Army. And on this date in 1865, he preached his first tent meeting in London’s notorious East End.
Pain can numb us to the world, but God’s heart drives us to action.
Booth, who founded the Salvation Army, was not so different from most of us. He was busy. Had stuff on his mind. Things to do. Until God gave Booth a vision so gut-wrenching that he was changed forever.
At that time, England was corrupt, and a great many people were destitute, lost in alcoholism and other vices. Eager to tell people about the hope that life with Jesus held, Booth gave up a voice from the pulpit, traveled extensively, and preached to crowds wherever he could. In his early adventures, “thieves, prostitutes, gamblers, and drunkards” gained new lives.
During one of these journeys, Booth was in a coach riding through the countryside when he gazed out the window, and God gave him this vision:
Booth said, “I seemed to see them all … millions of people all around me given up to their drink and their pleasure, their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties, their politics and their troubles. Ignorant—willfully ignorant in many cases—and in other instances knowing all about the truth and not caring at all….
“I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it, the black clouds hung heavily; vivid lightning flashed, and loud thunder rolled….
“In that ocean, I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning, and as they cursed and screamed, they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more….
“What puzzled me most,” Booth said, “was the fact that though all of them had been rescued from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. And what seemed equally strange to me was that these people did not even seem to care about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes … many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers and sisters—and even their own children.”
That’s where the vision ended. Booth knew that it meant God was calling him to immediate action, to go into the darkness and rescue the lost.
“Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them,”Booth said. “And He is calling on you to jump into the sea—to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?”
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19: 10 NIV).
Ask God to share with you his love for the lost. Pain can numb us to the world, but God’s heart drives us into action.
Booth, William. “A Vision of the Lost.” Accessed June 3, 2020..
The Salvation Army. “History of the Salvation Army.” Accessed June 1, 2020.
Featured Image by Cottonbro Studio from pexels.com
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