The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-12
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

The house of William Booth still re-
 mains intact in Nottingham, Eng. and
 the city has proposed it's purchase as a
 memorial to one of it's most famous sons. Its far cry from the only son of an
 impoverished widowed mother to the
 Founder and first General of The Sal vation Army, D. c. L., of the great uni versty of Oxford, and Freeman of the city of London, and the best known figure of the religious world at the end of the nineteenth and the opening Of the twentieth century.
 But the struggle with poverty anu
 adveristy of all kinds, almost from his earliest days, for his father died when
 he was only thirteen, proved an ex- cellent school for William Booth. His father was a builder, but before his death, failed and left his family with
 out financial support and so young Booth was flung out into the turbulent
 sea of life to cling to any craft afloat'
 Difficulties swamp many boys, but they
 made the hero of this story.
 I heard George Stuart say in a re- cent sermon that the best start in life a boy could have was to be reared by hard working consececrated widowed
 mother There are many notable exampl- es which might be cited to prove them, but will satisfy myself by simply stick ing to the case of William Booth, the English lad, who rose out of obscurity to become not only world figure but a blessing to all mankind.
 Evidently the mother impressed William Booth more than the father Her saintly nature and kind disposition appealed to him, and in addition the mother and son together in their struggle and triumphs, sorrows and joys, in q manner not possible when the father l is spared to work for, and fare with' his children from the age of youth to that of manhood. It is in such intimate
 and close companionship that boy learns the worth of her who gave him | life
  1, paid to his loving mother I had been to an association down near Bessemer, and on the seat by me on the way back to Birmingham, sat young man. Look ing out into the fields he saw patch Of cane and wistful look came into his eyes as he said My father died when I was six years old, and mother had to rIy~ nd worked hard. Many a time we have come in from the days lobor to sit down to cornbread and sorghum for we could not afford meat, but mothers heart never failed and she kept her little
 crowd together.
 I was all attention as he continued
 ''The Lord has been mighty good to me Just think, am a graduate of Howard college, and have been ordained, and am now prepared to preach the unspeakaole riches of Jesus Christ and all on ac- count of my blessed mother" There were tears in his eyes when he finished. I was not at all surprised that a few months later at one of our great conventions that when volunteers for the foreign field were called for, that my friend was among the frest to offer himself, and today he is on the far flung battle l line a valiant soldier of the cross. It was out of such home, only on the other side of the water than William Booth came. At fifteen a chance visit +1 oh tndu n relinquish the services of the Church of England and become a regular worship per with the Wesleyan Methodists. Methodism attracted and held him, and touched those deep chords of religion in his nature that failed to respond under other conditions. But I cannot here go into the full story of his religious changes until he at last anchored himself in the movement which developed into the Sal vation Army.
 One of his biographers is my authori- ty for the statement that Wesleyan methodism at this time QS5D was pass ing through the fires. Conservation and staleness had succeeded the period of I 0
 The superintendent of the Lambeth cir cult had told William Booth, the young layman, who earnestly desired to be a minister, that preachers were not want ed by the Connexion. He thought of rendering his services as a chaplin to convict ship. in order to work his way out to Australia. where he learned 1t was easier to enter the ministry than at home.
 mothers image fits across my mind!" he added You know I would prefer by far the home world. But the diff culties are SO great. My ability is not equal to the task Preachers are not wanted. My superintendent told me so.
 and to go to quarters days and not succeed would break my heart" Then came the reform agistation, ultimately involving a loss to the mother church of nearly one-third of its membership in
 the church, but his minister jumped to the conclusion that the young ''locaf belonged to the reformers and cut him off from membership of the Wesleyan methodist church.
 I have cited the above for two rea- sons to show that at critical hour he turned to the image of his mother, ani that William Booth was lost to the Wes-