William Booth – The Early Years
A young boy was drawn to a crowd. Too small to see, he climbed a gaslight pole for a better look. A cheer went up and mothers held up their children for a better view as a man was marched to a scaffold. A bag was placed over his head and a noose tightened around his neck. The crowd went wild with excitement and pushed forward to be nearer what was happening. “He deserves what he gets” someone yelled and everyone agreed. The boy desperately wanted to watch what happened next but couldn’t bring himself to. He slid down the pole and run home in tears. Behind him the noise of the crowd reached a crescendo. Little did this ten-year-old realise, but in their pushing forward, another twelve people would be crushed to death as the platform holding the scaffolding collapsed. William Booth never forgot that day.
Booth’s father was relatively wealthy by the standards of the time, but during William’s childhood, the family descended into poverty. In 1842, Samuel Booth, who could no longer afford his son’s school fees, apprenticed the 13-year-old William Booth to a pawnbroker. He soon saw what poverty and desperation looked like.
Though nominally brought up as an Anglican, William found the Methodist preachers more down to earth. It would still be another two years before the 15 year-old was brought to Christ. “A soul dies every minute” were the opening words in the meeting that would change his life forever. William couldn’t get this out of his mind and when the opportunity to respond to the preaching was given, William Booth was first to raise his hand and first out of his seat. God had him.
This boy would become a man and this man would challenge his generation, first as a stirring Methodist evangelist and then as the founder of the Salvation Army.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s trailblazers.