Authoritative Life of General William Booth — South Africa and Colonisation, Part 1

The General visited South Africa three times--in 1891, 1895, and 1908. His visits were very largely dominated, as will be seen, by the idea that in South Africa good and abundant space could be found for Over-Sea Colonies; enough space, in fact, to accommodate all the surplus population of England.

The following extract from the record of his first journey is taken, in the main, from one of his "letters to my children," dated from Kimberley:-- "The afternoon Meeting was a select gathering, with the Mayor in the chair.

Most of the ministers of the district were present.

I

talked with freedom, questions were proposed, and I carried the audience with me.

"At night we had a Social Meeting in the amphitheatre, which was well filled.

The ex-Mayor presided.

I do not know how long I talked, but they say two hours.

Everybody was much interested.

The doctor with whom I was staying, and a brother physician, came into the house and thanked me for my 'magnificent speech,' giving £5 to the fund for which we were collecting.

"I was very glad to get to bed, and to find that I had not taken a serious cold, for everything was open behind me in the theatre, and the night was piercingly cold, whilst I perspired with the exertion of speaking, and felt the wind blowing at my back, striking me like a wet blanket.

I was very tired.

"Tuesday.

--Officers' Meetings all day.

If I had been pleased with what I saw of the Officers before, I was more so to-day.

Their eagerness to hear, and quickness to understand, the readiness with which they assented to every call and everything laid before them, was delightful.

No body of men more simple or apparently ready for action ever sat before me.

"At night I endeavoured to deal with their hearts, making clear what a full consecration to the War included, and appealing to them for it.

I don't think I ever gave a more heart-searching address, and it awoke a solemn feeling, almost amounting to gloom, which settled down upon every soul.

You could see it in their faces.

The knife of conviction pierced them through and through, as I called up the particulars in which they came short of that life of love, sacrifice, and service which the War demanded.

We then cleared the decks, inviting those who felt condemned in regard to the past, and who were willing to make the surrender, to come out.

The first to roll up was about as handsome a fellow as I ever saw, a Cornish-man, who fell down and began to cry out aloud to God.

Others followed, and before we finished I suppose we should have nearly seventy down, row after row, sincere, beautiful cases.

Some of the testimonies that followed were delightful.

T.

was one of the first to come out, and he confessed down to the ground, and wept like a child, the whole audience being much moved.

It was ten o'clock when I got home, having talked nearly seven hours, and I was glad to get to bed.

"Wednesday.

--Officers' Meeting in the morning.

A very precious time on matters of detail, which I believe helped the Officers very much."

Only those who thoroughly take in the meaning of these Officers' Meetings can hope to understand The General's hold upon The Army, or the value of his various journeys, for such Meetings had far more to do with the success of his work than any of his great public gatherings.

He frequently uses the word "simple" in describing Officers, meaning men who have not got so much puffed up by applause as to be incapable of seeing their defects, and learning how to do better.

Can it be necessary to remind the reader that in The Army no distinctions of race, country, age or colour exist, so far as Officers are concerned?

When it is inevitable to have together in one Officers' Meeting groups who do not speak the language chiefly employed, some one of their number is so placed amongst the group as to be able to translate to them The General's addresses.

Here we have a gathering of men and women from near and far, most of whom must needs carry on their work amidst small communities living very widely apart, and where they could very rarely see another Officer, or be visited by any leader.

To bring all these up before the tribunal of their own consciences as to the extent to which they had discharged all the obligations they took upon them when they first engaged to form and lead on the forces whose duties, in so vast a territory, must be too varied and too difficult to prescribe by any fixed routine, could not but be of priceless value.

Would to God that all persons engaged in missionary work were periodically passed through such examinations, by fire!

How easily may any one in such solitary spheres yield to discouragement, or to some ill-feeling towards a predecessor in the same appointment, or towards some leader who has not seemed sympathetic enough!

Remembering that each of these has to go back to some position of lonely toil, with no guarantee of salary, and no prospect of improving circumstances, in a country whose large towns could be counted on the fingers of one hand, you can understand the supreme importance and the after-effect of such Meetings.

The letter goes on:-- "On this and the previous day, my host, the Doctor, had invited guests to meet me at luncheon.

Yesterday we had the ministers, who were mostly very friendly and sympathetic.

As the Doctor put it, 'To-day we had the sinners,' who he reckoned were by far the most enjoyable--Judges, Commissioners of Crown Lands, etc. All were very respectful, and, to say the least of it, were in sympathy with my Social scheme, if not actually having strong faith in its success.

"I had some further conversation with a member of the South African Cabinet, who said he was on the most intimate terms both with the leaders of the Afrikander Bund, and with Mr. Rhodes.

He was quite sure that however any one from political motives, might disguise their feelings, they were equally in sympathy with me.

We had some conversation as to the co-operation of the authorities, supposing lazy people turned out unwilling to carry out the engagements they might sign in England.

He said he felt sure if anything were wanting in present law to ensure authority being respected, that it would readily be remedied."

This has reference to the scheme of an Over-Sea Colony in South Africa with which The General had been occupied ever since 1890. He, of course, always foresaw the risk that persons, who were sent out in connexion with such a plan, might see in the colonies an easier career than that of the cultivation of land, and that there must needs be some assurance of their being held to their agreement in any such case.

He goes on:-- "At night, Farewell Meeting in the amphitheatre.

It was a considerable strain on me, as I hadn't a minute to prepare.

I had promised myself a couple of hours in the afternoon, when some Dutch ministers came down upon me to open a Y. W.

C. A.

building that they had just converted from a low public-house at Beaconsfield a suburb of Kimberley.

If I would only go for half an hour they would be so grateful.

I couldn't refuse, so my bit of leisure was seized upon.

"However, we had a very good Meeting.

We were nearly full.

I made a new speech which went, I thought, with considerable power, and then commissioned separate detachments for operations amongst the Zulus and Swazis--outriders for the Orange Free State, and Officers for various branches of Social Work.

The leaders of each detachment spoke very well indeed.

Promising fellows, all of them.

"At the close of the public Meeting I had to have another for Soldiers, Officers, and Auxiliaries.

This I was compelled to conclude earlier than I should otherwise have done by the announcement that the electric light would soon give out.

However, we had a very nice finish, and I got to bed about 11. 30. "Thursday.

--Breakfast with the Staff Officers at 8. An hour and three-quarters' good straight talk afterwards with beautiful influence, everybody so tender.

At the close I said, 'Now let us kneel down,' and after a little prayer asked them to link hands with me, and let us give ourselves up again to Jesus for the service of God and The Army."

Such tender-hearted linkings together of those who have the leadership of The Army's various departments have alone prevented the separations of heart that must inevitably be threatened wherever a number of very strong-willed men and women are engaged in labours into which they throw their whole soul, and in which they cannot, perhaps should not, avoid the feeling that their own department is, after all, the most important in the world.

But any one who thinks will understand how men and women so blended together in fellowship with God and each other have been able to override all contrary influences in every country.

"E. (the leader of our Work in South Africa) then turned to me" (the letter goes on) "and made a few appropriate remarks about his own devotion to The Army, and on behalf of every Officer, present and absent, assured me that they loved The Army as it was, and did not want any alterations in _Orders_ or _Regulations_, and were prepared to live and die in the War.

I don't remember anything more tender and affecting on the conclusion of a Council.

"I shook hands all round and we parted.

God bless them.

I made a hasty call at the Rescue Home, and was very pleased with it--a really nice little place.

"The platform at the station was crowded.

A passage was made for me; but I readily reached the compartment, and having five minutes or so made a little speech, which was received with volley after volley, and cheer after cheer.

There was a good deal of handshaking, any number of 'God bless you's,' and the train bore me away from a people with whom I have certainly had a really hearty and happy fellowship.

"I should have said that, by request of my host, I went through a kind of board school, in a very commodious and suitable building.

I

saw room after room so far as I could judge of the happiest, healthiest, and I might say, most beautiful lot of children it was ever my privilege to see.

They ought to make a splendid body of men and women for the future.

"Friday.

--I did not get on very well last night with the 'plank bed' or shelf which was dignified with the name of a sleeping berth.

There was very little spring and no cushion.

Moreover, I had heartburn.

It was a cold night, and altogether I was glad when daylight came.

The sun came out, and it was just as hot by noon as it had been cold at night.

"We stopped at Cradock a little time, where a gentleman interviewed me with regard to 80,000 acres of land possessed by some syndicate of the town at Prieska, up beyond Kimberley.

This kind of thing happens almost every day.

"At a station a little further on quite a crowd of Salvationists and others had gathered.

I could not see any sign of a town beyond two or three shanties.

I used to think some of the places that had been dignified by the name of 'cities' in Canada were rather grotesque; but here it is carried to a greater extreme.

However, they must have some method of distinguishing the place of ingress and egress from the train, and perhaps they are named in the hope of becoming what they are said to be--things that are spoken of as if they were.

"Well, on the platform was as picturesque and motley a crowd as well could be imagined.

I only wished at the moment the pencil of some artist had been there to have painted the Kafirs in their showy turbans and half-naked bodies, the women with babies on their backs, and the whites of various ranks and conditions, all mixed up with Salvationists.

Among others was a Salvationist old woman, half-caste, who had trudged over the mountain fourteen miles from Somerset East, with a big drum over her shoulders, travelling during the night in order to get a glimpse of The General.

All at once, whilst the people stared, she struck up a lively chorus, leading the singing, and beating the drum most vigorously.

Then followed the choruses: 'No, we never, never, never will give in,' 'Never say die,' and 'Steadily keep advancing,' etc. I beckoned to her, shook hands with her, wrote her name in a copy of _Aggressive Christianity_ in the presence of the crowd, and gave it to her, all of which was interpreted to her, as she spoke only Dutch.

Then she wound up in good English with 'Victory for me, through the Blood of Christ my Saviour.'

The little scene altogether was very striking."

Yes, surely that scene was striking for every one, and for evermore.

That union of races and languages to the glory of Christ, and for the highest well-being of the whole world; that valuing of the humblest true Soldier of the Cross above all the great ones of this world, accounts for the creation, maintenance, and spread of The Army wherever they are seen.

The following report of one of his Meetings with the natives fairly represents one of them:-- "The room could not contain the people who wished to listen to the General.

Dark faces were to be seen at every window.

The General did not talk at them, but he talked into them, and their close attention and many 'Amen!'

showed that he was well understood.

No sooner had he ceased talking than the mercy-seat was filled, and at least a hundred came to Christ to seek deliverance from sin, and the supplying of their hearts' needs.

Amongst the number were eight or nine women from Central Africa; they had been brought down for immoral purposes, but the Army had got hold of them and rescued them.

"Ere the General turned away he gave them still further advice as follows: "'My heart is drawn out to you.

I am going a long way off, but I want you to think of me, and when you think of me, I want you to pray for me.

Be decided to fight for Jesus.

God will be on your side.

Go in and get all your people saved, and be the friends of all.

Before I go I should like to know who have made up their minds to trust God,'--and up went a hundred hands.

'That's right.

Now all who have made up their minds to meet me in Heaven raise their hands again'--and once more every hand went up, this time accompanied by a tremendous shout."

These journeys to South Africa were, indeed, taken together, amongst the most painful lessons of The General's life as to the smallness of hope from the great ones of this world.

The first visit, paid on the swell of the first admiration for the "Darkest England" Scheme, filled him with great expectations; and no wonder, for everywhere at that time Governments, municipalities, and wealthy magnates talked as if they were ready to assist him immediately to place the deserving, though poor, crowds of the Old Country on the magnificent tracts of land he saw everywhere unoccupied, or very slightly used.

But "Governments" of the elected type come and go, making the most lavish promises and denouncing "the other party," who, on turning them out, do ditto.

And so it came to pass that The General made his third journey to South Africa, in 1908, when seventy-nine years of age.

His life ran serious risk, because his going to Rhodesia himself was considered indispensable in order so to impress some British or South African "statesmen" that they might give him the needed help to establish an Over-Sea Colony there.

And, then, all the "statesmen" denounced to Colonel Kitching by one of themselves as "a set of ----fools" say that "nothing can be done at present."

And the old man returns to die with his great dream unrealised.