uffice to hint.

Chapter II

Salvation In Youth

In convincing him that goodness was the only safe passport to peace and
prosperity of any lasting kind, William Booth's mother had happily laid
in the heart of her boy the best foundation for a happy life, "Be good,
William, and then all will be well," she had said to him over and over
again.

But how was he to "be good"? The English National Church, eighty years
ago, had reached a depth of cold formality and uselessness which can
hardly be imagined now. Nowhere was this more manifest than in the
"parish" church. The rich had their allotted pew, a sort of reserved
seat, into which no stranger dare enter, deserted though it might be by
its holders for months together. For the poor, seats were in some
churches placed in the broad aisles or at the back of the pulpit, so
conspicuously marking out the inferiority of all who sat in them as
almost to serve as a notice to every one that the ideas of Jesus Christ
had no place there. Even when an earnest clergyman came to any church,
he had really a battle against great prejudices on both sides if he
wished to make any of "the common people" feel welcome at "common
prayer." But the way the appointed services were "gone through" was only
too often such as to make every one look upon the whole matter as one
which only concerned the clergy. Especially was this the effect on young
people. Anything like interest, or pleasure, in those dull and dreary,
not to say "vain" repetitions on their part must indeed have been rare.

It is not surprising then that William Booth saw nothing to attract him
in the Church of his fathers. John Wesley, that giant reformer of
religion in England, had been dead some forty years, and his life-work
had not been allowed to affect "the Church" very profoundly. His
followers having seceded from it contrary to his orders and entreaties,
had already made several sects, and in the chief of these William Booth
presently found for himself at least a temporary home. Here the services
were, to some extent, independent of books; earnest preaching of the
truth was often heard from the pulpits, and some degree of real concern
for the spiritual advancement of the people was manifested by the
preachers.

Under this preaching and these influences, and the singing of Wesley's
hymns, the lad was deeply moved. To his last days he sang some of those
grand old songs as much as, if not more than, any others; tha