n darkness of the sin-chained into the light and joy and
power of the liberated slave of Christ; that is the great conquest of
the Salvation Soldier everywhere.

And yet, perhaps, in the eyes of an unbelieving world, and a doubting
Church, that was General Booth's great offence all through life. To
think of having uneducated and formerly godless people "bawling" the
"mysteries of the faith" through the streets of "Christian" cities,
where it had hitherto been thought inconsistent with Christian humility
for any one to dare to say they really knew Him "whom to know is life
eternal"! Oh, that was the root objection to all The General's preaching
and action.

And it was one of the most valuable features of his whole career that
wherever he or his messengers went there came that same certainty which
from the days of Bethlehem onwards Jesus Christ came to bring to every
man.

"By faith we know!" If every outward manifestation of The General's
successes could be swept off the world to-morrow, this positive faith in
the one Saviour would be capable of reproducing all its blessed results
over again, wherever it was preserved, or renewed. Any so-called faith
which gives no certainty must needs be hustled out of the way of an
investigating, hurrying, wealth-seeking age. Only those who are certain
that they have found the Lord can be capable of inducing others to seek
and find Him.

Chapter III

Lay Ministry

Convictions such as we have just been reading of were bound to lead to
immediate action. But it is most interesting to find that William
Booth's first regular service for Christ was not called forth by any
church, but simply by the spontaneous efforts of one or two young
Converts like himself. No one could be more inclined towards the use of
organisation and system than he always was, and yet he always advocated
an organisation so open to all, and a system so elastic, that zeal might
never be repressed, but only made the most of. It is, perhaps, fortunate
that we have in one of his addresses to his own young Officers the
following description of the way he began to work for the Salvation of
his fellow-townsmen:--

"Directly after my conversion I had a bad attack of fever, and was
brought to the very edge of the grave. But God raised me up, and
led me out to work for Him, after a fashion which, considering my
youth and inexperience, must be pronounced remarkable. While
recovering fr