GENERAL BOOTH.

Northern Advocate, 24 June 1920, Page 3

GENERAL BOOTH.

LESSONS OIF HIS FATHER'S Lli^E

A SPIRITED LECTURE

The Wellington Town Hall was iSlled to overflowing when General Bramweli Booth delivered a lecture on "Some Lessons From My Father's Life." The Mayor (Mr J. P. Luke, C.M.G., MjP.) presided. Among thuse on the platform were the Hon. E. P. Lee (Minister of Justice) and the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout).

The Mayor read an apology from the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. W. P. iMassey), who was unavoidably absent owing to indisposition, but who sent the following message: "Convey to the General and Salvation Army my great interest and good wishes for the future meetings."

General Booth, who was received with cheers and loud applause, said that bis late father was a great preacher and a wonderful teacher, who believed that faith was of more consequence to the world than knowledge. As a writer he possessed no ordinary merit, and his works would probably be better known fifty years he«ce than they were to-day. In addition, his father was also a statesman—not a politician—and a wonderful worker. Since the death of the speaker's mother in 1890, the late General had never taken a furlough and when the speaker sometimes urged him to take a rest, he would exclaim, "Get thee behind me, Satan." (Laughter.)

There were lessons to be learned from his father's work. General William Booth had found that the souls of men were really the greatest wealth. When the late General died he was poor so far as woridly riches were concerned, but if they could conceive the good he did in many lands then the founder of the Army had "died a millionaire." (Applause.)

'General William Booth had seen that love would be the power which would transform the lives of the basest of men, and he had been able by his personality to enlist others in the cause of saving humanity from its sins. His achievements had n.ot been due to learning, it was not the power of money, nor high training, which carried him forward in the great conflict and made his heart strong in the dark and difficult time. —it was his Of course, first of all he had been devoted to God, and then, there was his love to man, His mind was capable of apprehending other men's circumstances and difficulties, and he loved the people. One day, in London, when the speaker was only thirteen years of age his father walked into a "gin palace" in Whitechapel road, Pointing to the crowd of semi-drunk-en men and women, the General remarked to the speaker; "Willie, my boy, these are our people—these are the people we want to win for Jesus Christ." (Applause). Just before General Willliam Booth died, he exhorted the speaker to do all he could for the homeless and for the people of China. "And, remember," he said, "if you don't keep your promise I'll come back and haunt you." (Laughter). General William Booth had been an adept at getting money; "in fact," continued the speaker amidst laughter, "he was a wonderful' old. beggar." It was a very beautiful memory for the speaker that when his father was entering into the shadows and his sight had gone, his !as>t thoughts had not been of himse!f, but of the homeless and the heathen. And it was the promise that he had . made to his dying father that the speaker meant to keep to the very end. (Applause). Kings and rulers and learned men had blessed his father, and it was purely because of the power of love which he exerted, "The late General Booth," concluded the speaker, "was a great man, a great soul, a great Christian, and a great lover of mankind." (Applause) .

At the close of General Booth's address, Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P. moved that a hearty vote of thanks be accorded General Booth for his adr dress. Mr. Wright said he was satisfied that General Bramwell Booth was following in the footsteps, of his father and was .doing the utmost possible on behalf of the fallen and (broken people of the world. The motion was carried by acclamation.