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.