Once again she says:–
’Well, the Lord help us to be faithful to our convictions, even in the dark and cloudy day! I have felt it hard work to do so lately. Many a time have I longed to be where the weary are at rest.
’Well, we must labour and wait a little longer; it may be that the clouds will break, and surround us with sunshine. Anyway, God lives above the clouds, and He will direct our path.’
The General and Mrs. Booth were holding Salvation services in London when our Army Mother was called to make a fresh sacrifice, never dreaming of the wonderful results that would spring from it. You shall read about it in her own words, spoken many years afterwards:–
‘I remember well,’ she says, ’when The General decided at last to give up the evangelistic life and to devote himself to the Salvation of the East-Enders. He had come home from a Meeting one night, tired out, as usual. It was between eleven and twelve o’clock. Flinging himself into an easy chair, he said to me, “O Kate, as I passed by the doors of the flaming gin-palaces to-night I seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears, ’Where can you go and find such heathen as these, and where is there so great a need for your labours?’ And I felt as though I ought at every cost to stop and preach to these East-End crowds.”
’I remember the emotion that this produced in my soul. I sat gazing into the fire, and the Devil whispered to me, “This means another new departure–another start in life.”
’The question of our support I saw at once to be a serious difficulty. Hitherto we had been able to meet our expenses by the collections which we had made from our respectable audiences. But it was impossible to suppose that we could do so among the poverty-stricken East-Enders. We did not then see things as we do to-day. We were afraid even to ask for a collection among the East London crowds.
’Nevertheless, I did not answer discouragingly. After a moment’s pause for thought and prayer, I answered, “Well, if you feel you ought to stay, stay. We have trusted the Lord once for our support, and we can trust Him again."’
Mrs. Booth, when she answered like this, had no idea of all that was to follow. She never dreamt that, from The General’s standing alone in Whitechapel, a mighty wave of Salvation would sweep over the earth, nor that God was about to raise up an Army of which she and The General were to be the leaders.
But, as always before, she willingly agreed to whatever would be for God’s glory and the Salvation of souls; and we all know to-day how, from that little Whitechapel beginning, grew the Christian Mission, and how, at last, the Christian Mission became The Salvation Army.