THEOLOGICAL ROOTS OF IN DARKEST ENGLAND
AND THE WAY OUT

by
Roger Joseph Green

Introduction

William Booth (18291912) was a nineteenth century British Methodist evangelist who, with his wife Catherine, founded what became known as The Christian Mission in 1865. This evolved into The Salvation Army in 1878, with William Booth as the first General.1

There were many forces which shaped the life, ministry, and thinking of Booth, and three are worth noting by way of introduction. First, he was Evangelical. His loyalties were, nevertheless, not only to that broad evangelical tradition of Victorian England which had crossed denominational lines, but more specifically to the Wesleyan distinctives of that tradition. Beginning with his early associations with the Wesleyans in Nottingham, under whose ministry he was converted in 1844, and continuing throughout his life, he would have a great appreciation for John Wesley. In a letter to his son, Bramwell Booth, on August 27, 1876, he wrote:

I have been reading Tyreman's Wesley in my illness and have, by comparing his (Wesley's) experience with my own, I think, derived some important lessons. One is that, under God, Wesley made Methodists not [only] by converting sinners, but by making well instructed saints. We must follow in his track, or we are a rope of sand. He laid as much stress on visiting the members privately, and in classes, as on preaching. Let us profit by the experience of those who have trod similar paths before us.2

Booth claimed that by the age of twenty he had become an admirer of John Wesley. He said this of himself:

I worshiped everything that bore the name of Methodist. To me there was one God, and John Wesley was his prophet. I had devoured the story of his life. No human compositions seemed to me to be comparable to his writings, as to the hymns of his brother Charles, and all that was wanted, in my estimation, for the salvation of the world was the faithful carrying into practice of the letter and the spirit of his instructions.3

William Booth understood his inheritance from John Wesley to be twofold: first, he considered himself the theological heir of John Wesley, especially in his understanding of sanctification by grace. He was correct in this self-assessment, he articulated the doctrine very much as Wesley had a century before. Second, he considered himself a disciple of John Wesley in principles of organization. W. T. Stead noted this in his biography when comparing Booth and Wesley, and claimed that Booth's admonition to "Remember Wesley's success" was a reference to Wesley's organizational and leadership abilities.4

A second influence was that of the culture in which Booth was reared and in which he developed his theology. He was a product of urban England, and, having experienced poverty himself in his boyhood knew of the insufferable poverty, misery, and deprivation which was the dark side of the industrial revolution. The cities of Nottingham and London were the cities which he knew best. Nottingham was the place of his birth and his rearing until the age of twenty. He moved to London in 1849, and, while he preached often in other parts of England up to 1865, his theology took shape as he attempted to understand how he could reach the urban masses with the gospel A pressing religious question in Victorian England was this: could the Christian churches "adjust themselves to industrial revolution, speedy growth of population, and empire overseas?"5 In 1865, William and Catherine Booth focused their ministry in London, and in that year they founded The East London Christian Revival Union.6

Third, Booth's theology reflected his shifting ministry. As an Evangelical revivalistic preacher from 1849 to 1861 with both the Wesleyans and with New Connection Methodism, and from 1861 to 1865 in an independent ministry after leaving New Connection Methodism, Booth couched his theology in individualistic terms, personal conversion and personal sanctification.

However, there were notable changes in his theology, especially after the founding of The Salvation Army in 1878. His theology demonstrated growing institutional loyalty, visionary direction for the institution, and organizational legitimation.

Within this context, therefore, the theology of William Booth was shaped. He was not a systematic theologian, and it is necessary to impose an order upon his theology from his voluminous writings. Nevertheless, the central theological motif was clearly that of redemption. He explained redemption in many ways, but three categories emerge which best illuminate his redemptive theology. Those three are sanctification, salvation, and the kingdom of God. I will demonstrate in this paper that Booth developed a theology which evolved from the use of individual categories, such as personal conversion and sanctification, to the use of both personal and institutional categories, such as corporate sanctification and the establishment of a physical kingdom of God on earth. The most dramatic change, however, was in Booth's comprehension of salvation as both personal and social, as demonstrated, for example, in his 1890 book entitled In Darkest England and the Way Out. And while it is true that certain factors, social, organizational. and personal, contributed to his writing of In Darkest England, one will not understand the book fully without considering its theological roots.

It will also be demonstrated that the categories central to Booth's theology of redemption were interrelated. Therefore, corporate sanctification was necessary for a fully developed view of that doctrine because only a holy people could do a holy work usher in the millennium. Likewise, Booth's kingdom imagery, postmillennial in its framework, provided the ultimate goal, the perfect vision, and the final hope toward which a sanctified people were moving.

However, preparatory to that final goal, and functioning as a living and continuing sign of its ultimate fulfillment, there had to be the work of social redemption which would complement Booth's continued emphasis upon personal redemption. The work by which a holy people finally brought about the kingdom included not only the conversion of sinners and the raising up of saints, but the establishment of a rightly ordered society. In Darkest England and the Way Out was, among other things, the vision of such a society. Social as well as personal salvation became the means, not only of ushering in the future millennium, but of preparing the way of the Lord. The road to the New Heaven and the New Earth for Booth's sanctified Army led right through darkest England.

I. Redemption: Sanctification

William Booth, the evangelist, preached a message of salvation. For him, redemption begins with justification by faith in Christ. Those who believe by faith are pardoned of their sins and are at one with God. Juridical language was less evident in his preaching than the language of salvation and rescue Although not consistent in his analogies, basically his revivalistic preaching consisted of three steps: pointing out people's personal sin and rebellion against God, calling people to repentance, and inviting them to believe by faith in Christ, or to be rescued from the waters in which they were perishing. They would then be reconciled with God, be at one with God, or be saved and safely on the shore of God's new kingdom, and likewise be ready to work for that kingdom. Atonement, reconciliation, redemption, and salvation were used synonymously by Booth, and the images which controlled these concepts were used interchangeably.

However, from the inception of his revivalistic ministry personal salvation was not the only focal point in Booth's doctrine of redemption. He was Wesleyan, and as such he believed with growing intensity throughout his ministry that the doctrine of sanctification by faith was also central to redemption. Along with Catherine's growing awareness of and commitment to this doctrine came William's preaching of sanctification, so that by 1860, during William's ministry at Gateshead with New Connexion Methodism, the Booths "decided that it was incumbent on them to set forth the doctrine definitely and regularly."7 The first official publication of The Christian Mission was The East London Evangelist, and in the first number of that publication, in 1868, it was stated that "The importance of this theme nor tongue nor pen can possibly overrate."8The Christian Mission Magazine, the successor to The East London Evangelist, recording a message of William Booth at the January, 1877, Conference of The Christian Mission, stated: Holiness to the Lord is to us a fundamental truth; it stands to the forefront of our doctrines. We write it on our banners. It is in no shape or form an open debatable question as to whether God can sanctify wholly, whether Jesus does save His people from their sins. In the estimation of The Christian Mission that is settled forever, and any evangelist who did not hold and proclaim the ability of Jesus Christ to save His people to the uttermost from sin and sinning I should consider out of place among us.9

The doctrine of entire sanctification was central to the teaching and preaching of John Wesley, and in the nineteenth century even people outside of Methodism, such as Charles Grandison Finney, who was so influential upon the Booths, were preaching and teaching some form of it. Likewise, American Methodists, such as James Caughey and Phoebe Palmer, were in England in the 1840's and 1850's proclaiming holiness. Both William and Catherine Booth would also be influenced by the style and the theology of these evangelists.10

With his understanding of sanctification, Booth embraced Wesley fully: along with justification comes initial sanctification people grow in God's grace until, by faith, they receive perfect love, after which they continue in their Christian growth. Thus Christians are both purified and empowered for the work of the kingdom. This was distinct from both the monastic notion of perfection by separation from the world and good works and the Reformed understanding of sanctification as that which is continual after justification and made complete at death. Booth wanted to raise saints as well as to convert sinners.

Called by whatever name, holiness, perfect love, the pure heart, the clean heart, baptism of the Holy Spirit, full salvation, this was a second, definite work of grace. Booth taught that purity of heart was the first "great need" of believers,11 and held that, just as justification was appropriated by faith, so it was with holiness. He asked, "If you think with me, will you not tarry for it? Offer yourselves to God for the fullness."12 Aware that some may oppose the doctrine, he warned his readers, "Don't doubt, or fear, or reason; but steadily believe, though the fearful flesh, a lying devil, an infidel world, and coldhearted professors all suggest that it is impossible that God should, according to His unfailing promise, cleanse you from all unrighteousness and preserve you blameless, and fill you with all the divine fullness."13

Analogous to Booth's commitment to unlimited atonement, was his teaching that the possibility of perfect love is open to all; however, only those who believe by faith enjoy the reality of it. Once received, one would have the assurance of such an experience by the witness of the Holy Spirit. As with justification, one must be sure not to backslide from the experience either by continual rebellion against God or by growing lack of trust that God will persist in His good work. The best way to maintain the assurance of full salvation is to confess it openly and often in public.

As an ultimate solution to the gnawing problem of "the roots of bitterness" and guilt in the believer, such a view of full salvation was critical to Booth's redemptive theology, and this would continue to be the case until his death in 1912. In fact, his best work on this subject, Purity of Heart, was written in 1902. However, with time he increasingly understood sanctification in corporate categories and images as well as personal ones. There were many compelling reasons for this: first, sanctification was a final answer not only to sin in the believer, but to corporate evil as well. By allying sanctification with the ultimate conquest of the world and of evil, as Booth would do, he eliminated any idea of the finality of evil.

Secondly, his expanded view of holiness gave legitimacy to his growing movement. He became convinced that God sanctifies not only individuals, He also sanctifies the group in the sense that it is purified and empowered for the ultimate redemptive work of God. Holiness took on this new dimension especially with the growth of The Salvation Army, and to the optimistic Booth such corporate sanctification served as an important sign that The Salvation Army was of divine, and not merely human, origin. This continued to characterize his later theology. For example, in a War Cry article in 1892, the Founder exhorted his readers in this way: "Cast yourselves upon God. Keep on watching and praying and believing and expecting for me, for yourselves, for the whole Army at home and abroad, for the mighty baptism of burning fire!"14 He reiterated this theme throughout his term of leadership of the Army. In 1909 he wrote:

The Salvation Army has known a great deal of this Divine inspiration It is itself the creation of the Holy Spirit. All it knows of life and vitality, and all the power it possesses to bless the world, come from the Holy Spirit; and to this day waves of Divine influence, in a greater or lesser measure, are sweeping over it which proceed from Him alone.15

Thirdly, Booth's wider understanding of sanctification became fundamental because this work of the Holy Spirit was preparation for the final redemptive purpose of God, the establishment of the kingdom. This aspect of sanctification prevented holiness from being monastic. Sanctification was not a doctrine which called for personal and institutional separation from the evil world until the work of redemption was completed by God Himself alone.

Booth began to see the relationships between the various aspects of his theology and found that there was a natural transition from sanctification as a means of preparation for ultimate redemption and the kingdom of God as the chief result of the work of redemption by God's holy people. In short, the doctrines of sanctification and the kingdom of God became so inextricably linked to one another that it became impossible to consider one doctrine without giving allegiance to the other. They could no longer be treated separately. "If you are a Holy Man or Woman you will help forward the War, and spread the glory of Christ's Name far more effectively than you will if you are not fully saved," Booth wrote in 190216 "Holy people are the great need of the world. I am sure they are one of the great wants of the Army."17 Not surprisingly, those who shared the organizational and institutional power with Booth espoused institutional holiness which dealt with evil, legitimated the organization as created by the Holy Spirit, and envisioned the ultimate redemptive purpose of such holiness, the conquest of the world.18

II. Redemption: The Kingdom of God

Booth's redemptive theology included also a developing understanding of the kingdom of God. This eschatological strain, especially prominent in Booth's writing after he founded the Army, served several purposes. The establishment of the kingdom of God on earth was part of the answer to the problem of evil and was envisioned as the final triumph over evil. The ushering in of the kingdom also legitimated the very existence of The Salvation Army, which Booth was increasingly certain had been chosen by God as the chief instrument to bring about such a kingdom. And finally his theology of the kingdom provided a vision, a hope, a direction for the work of social reformation which was inaugurated in an organized fashion with the publication of In Darkest England and the Way Out in October of 1890. Likewise, such a vision for a perfected world was part of what drew Booth into social reform on a wide scale.

As has already been noted, from 1849 to 1865 the primary emphasis of Booth's redemptive theology was upon justification by faith for the sinner and sanctification by faith for the believer. In his later ministry, with the launching of The Christian Mission and The Salvation Army, he expanded both his vision of redemption and his language, which took into account this enlarged vision. He believed in the redemption of the world by the overthrow of the forces which were in rebellion against God, by universal submission to God and His laws, and by the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth. Such redemption would be accomplished as a cooperative venture between God and His people, and especially by those people known as Salvationists.

He used the language common to his day when he spoke of the kingdom of God. He envisioned the establishment of the millennium. Millennial themes had been the subject of countless books, articles, discussions, and movements from the period of the New Testament to the nineteenth century. However, new emphasis was placed upon millennialism in the nineteenth century both in America and in Europe, largely in relationship to other subjects dealing with Jesus Christ which the Church felt increasingly pressured to defend e.g., the deity of Christ, His vicarious atoning work, His resurrection and ascension, and His literal second coming Neither Booth's millennial concepts nor his practical application of those concepts was new, but he did make distinctive contributions to the thinking of his era in relating justification and sanctification to his vision of the kingdom and in insisting that his unique organization would play a distinctive role in ushering in the millennium.

Many, if not most, nineteenth-century scripturalistic Protestants gave much thought to the matter of the millennium, most of them finally coming to accept one or the other of two views. One of these was pre-millennialism which began to capture the evangelical imagination in the 1870's, and had by 1900, become predominant among all but the Wesleyans. It is . . . the belief that the gospel was not intended nor was it going to accomplish the salvation of the world, but that, instead, the world was growing increasingly corrupt and rushing toward imminent judgment; the belief that Christ would literally return to this earth and the Jews [be] restored to Palestine before the commencement of that millennial age; and the belief that this whole panorama of coming glory and judgment was explicitly foretold in the prophecies where one could, if taught by the Spirit, discover the truth and be ready for the coming of the bridegroom.19

Postmillennialism, the other dominant view, "holds that the millennium will come first, . . . 'as the fruit of the [the labors of] present Christian agencies now at work in the world,' and that the second coming or the delivering agency will occur at the end of the process."20 Or, as Donald Dayton more succinctly puts it, postmillennialism expects "Christ to return in judgment after a millennial reign of one thousand years."21 Dayton adds, "reform activity was in part [intended] to prepare the way for the millennium, which was in turn a reflection of the vision of the 'state of the perfect society' that drew Evangelicals into reform."22

Wesleyans in significant ratio came to accept pre-millennialism only after about 1900. William Booth, like most Wesleyans of his time, British or American, was a post-millennialist.

Booth's millennial thinking became part of the fabric of the theology of The Salvation Army in his day, although no official millennial position ever found its way into the formally stated eleven doctrines of the Army. In this regard, his millennialism, in the context of his redemptive theology, and in the context of The Salvation Army and its ministry and increasing social concern was not odd, strange, or insignificantly visionary. Rather, it provided his answer to the problem of evil and justification for the existence of the Army, as well as ultimate hope for the work of the Army.

However, as desirous as Booth was for the full inauguration of the kingdom, he held that such a kingdom was primarily spiritual, and could not be created and sustained by human effort apart from God. He knew that many people who made no claims to a saving relationship with God or to Christianity hoped for some sort of millennium, and even sought occasionally to fulfill such longing. But such social, educational or political endeavors, apart from the work of God, seemed to Booth to be quite useless. And nowhere was it more important for him to articulate his theological presuppositions concerning the kingdom, and the concomitant belief that human endeavors alone could not bring about the kingdom of God on earth, than in his Darkest England Scheme. He stated clearly that he was under no delusion "as to the possibility of inaugurating the Millennium by any social specific."23

He was, nevertheless, a practical man. He was not opposed to aid and assistance from secular sources for his program of physical and spiritual redemption. Those sources had to meet two criteria. First, they had to be in conformity with his theology. That is, they could not in any way be in direct opposition to God and orthodox Christianity. Secondly, they had to be practical. He would have no part of some visionary, mystical existence which had no relationship to people's present life here on earth. He set forth those two criteria in In Darkest England and the Way Out:

Of the schemes of those who propose to bring in a new heaven and a new earth by a more scientific distribution of the pieces of gold and silver in the trouser pockets of mankind, I need not say anything here. They may be good or they may not. I say nothing against any short cut to the Millennium that is compatible with the ten commandments. I intensely sympathize with the aspirations that lie behind all these Socialist dreams. But whether it is Henry George's Single Tax on Land Values, or Edward Bellamy's Nationalism, or the more elaborate schemes of the Collectivists, my attitude toward them all is the same. What these good people do, I also want to do. But I am a practical man, dealing with the actualities of today. I have no preconceived theories, and I flatter myself I am singularly free from prejudices. I am ready to sit at the feet of any who will show me any good. I keep my mind open on all these subjects: and I am quite prepared to hail with open arms any Utopia that is offered to me. But it must be within range of my fingertips. It is of no use to me if it is in the clouds. Checks on the Bank of Futurity I accept gladly enough as a free gift, but I can hardly be expected to take them as if they were current coin, or to try to cash them at the Bank of England.24

Equally at fault were religious people who offered little hope because of their theological presuppositions. They were as deserving of criticism as those who wished to bring about the millennium in some way apart from Christianity. He wrote:

What are we to do with John Jones? That is the question. And to the solution of that question none of the Utopias give me much help. For practical purposes these dreamers fall under the condemnation they lavish so freely upon the conventional religious people who relieve themselves of all anxiety for the welfare of the poor by saying that in the next world all will be put right.

This religious cant, which rids itself of all the importunity of suffering humanity by drawing unnegotiable bills payable on the other side of the grave, is not more impractical than the Socialist claptrap which postpones all redress of human suffering until after the general overturn. Both take refuge in the Future to escape a solution of a problem of the present, and it matters little to the sufferers whether the Future is on thus side of the grave or the other. Both are, for them, equally out of reach.25

Booth was concerned to steer his theological course between two dangers. On the one hand he wished to stay clear of perceiving the kingdom of God in strictly spiritual, mystical, or utopian dimensions which had no relation to the actual lives of people in their daily struggle for existence. On the other hand, he believed that the kingdom of God could be established only by religious means, and he was aware of one of the potential pitfalls of his own theology if improperly understood by others, that of setting the social work of The Salvation Army loose from its theological moorings and eventually trusting in plans and programs which have no Christian foundation to accomplish the task of establishing the kingdom of God.

Booth made references to the kingdom of God and the millennium prior to 1890. However, his millennial thinking came into focus in that year, and the clearest and most extensive treatment of the millennium was set forth in an article entitled "The Millennium; or, the Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles." Two months after the writing of that article, Booth published In Darkest England and the Way Out, making that year one of the most significant in the development of his theology. The dual mission of The Salvation Army and an appropriate understanding of redemption were preparatory to the establishment of the millennial kingdom on earth. Moreover the increased emphasis on the possibility of a millennium provided the eschatological vision necessary to move people in the direction of the work of universal social redemption.

While Booth did not expend his energies trying to localize the millennium precisely either temporally or spatially, in either scientific or theological terms, he did concern himself with identifying certain millennial distinctives so that people would know the ultimate goal of their warfare. "I am not over particular where I find the new heavens and the new earth," he wrote, "[just] so that I do find them."26 He did expect that "the good time coming"27 would have certain characteristics, and that no lasting human blessedness would be possible without the presence of those characteristics.

The first characteristic would be the presence of God among the people, and that people in return would gratefully acknowledge that presence.28The second would be personal righteousness practiced in every aspect of life. "My comrades," Booth wrote, "we must be ready for the New Heavens and the New Earth, new, indeed, to you and me because therein will dwell righteousness."29 He envisioned that "the new earth will be for the special occupation and enjoyment of man. For, although he has cursed one world, oh, wonderful munificence!God is to make him a present of another, for is it not to be a world wherein dwelleth righteousness, that is, righteous men and women?"30 The natural result of personal righteousness would be corporate righteousness: a righteous government administering just laws; a righteous business world conducting fair business practices; and righteous family relationships. There would be satisfactory institutional arrangements on the basis of mutual interest and concern. This would be the case, for example, between employer and employee, or between capital and labor. "Goodness, and truth, and integrity will control every action of life.''31

The third characteristic of the millennium would be the prevailing of self-sacrificing love, people would love God, love their neighbors, and love themselves.32 Fourthly, human happiness would be experienced in the millennium. The present miseries of people would be abolished, and "the inhabitants of that New World will be happy."33 Booth's theology required a resolution to the problem of evil, but it called especially for an end to human misery and suffering caused by such forces as the wickedness of parents, crime, vices, evil passions, drunkenness, poverty, hunger, disease, and the afflictions caused by selfishness, greed, hatred, jealousies, envyings, and revenge. "God shall rend the heavens and come down, and this mountain shall flow down at His presence, and the place whereon it stands shall know it no more, and instead of its misery there shall be happiness, instead of its groans and gnashing of teeth, there shall be songs of gladness.''34

Fifth, the millennium would mean the literal, physical transformation of the world. Booth preached that "we are going to have a NEW WORLD."35 His eschatology reflected not only institutional loyalties, but national ones as well, and he envisioned the heart of the millennial kingdom to be in London: "Oh London, that ought to be the New Jerusalem in this lower world."36 This is what London might be like after the millennial transformation:

First, we should have Hyde Park roofed in, with towers climbing toward the stars, as the WORLD'S GREAT GRAND CENTRAL TEMPLE. Only think what this would mean. And then, what demonstrations, what processions, what mighty assemblies, what grand reviews, what crowded streets, impassable with the joyful multitude marching to and fro. The bells of Saint Paul's and Westminster Abbey and every other sanctuary, together with the trumpet calls from the roof of every Salvation Army barracks, would announce to the people the hours of prayer and praise. Methinks that at the summons for the 12:30 Daily Service the whole city would be prostrate, business and traffic, buying and selling, discussions and conversations, would all Cease and for a season the Five Million hearts, whether in home or factory, shop or exchange, warehouse or street, would turn to God with the voice of thanksgiving and with shouts of praise.37

Finally, the complete conquest of godliness over evil would be ushered in by the personal reign of Christ, the millennium which precedes that final event being characterized "by further and mightier outpourings of the Holy Ghost than any yet known."38 Concluding the millennium, then, "will be a wonderful moment when He comes in the clouds of Heaven, and when, on the judgement seat, He summons the world before Him."39

In conclusion, it needs to be reiterated, Booth was increasingly convinced that his sanctified Salvation Army was the special agent ordained by God to usher in such a millennium. He concluded that if people everywhere would follow the principles laid down by him and share his hope for the future, this would go "a long way towards bringing in the millennium."40Both his institutional and theological loyalties were shared by many of those who were members of the hierarchy of The Salvation Army, and who therefore also needed to legitimate the work of the Army and even the structure of the Army, while at the same time holding out the promise of the new kingdom as motivation for the increasing ministry of the Army. Booth's millennial dreams were shared dreams.41

III. Redemption: Salvation for Both Worlds

The key to a full comprehension of Booth's theology lies in his developed understanding of salvation. He was consistent throughout his long life and ministry in affirming salvation by faith for the individual. Nothing in his developed theology of salvation diminished this basic concept of salvation. He constantly insisted that it came from the Bible and that it was confirmed by his own experience through the witness of the Holy Spirit.

However, the most important change in Booth's theology came when his doctrine of salvation took on social dimensions. In his later theology of redemption, finally articulated in 1889, salvation was not only individual, personal, and spiritual, it was also corporate, social, and physical. Booth adjusted his theological language to embrace such thinking "As Christ came to call not saints but sinners to repentance, so the New Message of Temporal Salvation, of salvation from pinching poverty, from rags and misery, must be offered to all.''42

Booth was not a trained theologian, so he used language broadly to accommodate his insights. The subtle nuances implied in his stated theology of salvation escaped him, though he did try to remain consistent in his analogies between personal and corporate salvation.

Just as there was the possibility of universal spiritual redemption (i.e. salvation was not limited to the elect), so there was the possibility of universal social redemption, and Booth's postmillennialism constantly kept that hope alive. Likewise, just as individuals were responsible for either accepting or rejecting personal salvation, so theirs was also the responsibility for accepting or rejecting social salvation. "But we who call ourselves by the name of Christ are not worthy to profess to be his disciples until we have set an open door before the least and the worst of these who are now apparently imprisoned for life in a horrible dungeon of misery and despair. The responsibility for its rejection must be theirs, not ours."43

The timing of this broadened vision of salvation is critical. It occurred from 1889 to 1890 and remained consistent until Booth's death in 1912. This later view of salvation was first articulated in one of his most important articles, "Salvation for Both Worlds," published in an Army missionary publication entitled All the World in January of 1889. The article was designed not only to explain his new understanding of salvation to his Salvationists, but to prepare them also for both personal and institutional allegiance to the double mission of The Salvation Army. Ten months later Booth commenced work on In Darkest England and the Way Out, written for the general public but with the same purposes in mind, to articulate a developed theology, and to seek support for the social and spiritual mission of the Army.

"Salvation for Both Worlds" provides the most important theological prelude to In Darkest England, and, indeed, to understand Booth fully on this issue one should not study one without studying the other. The article is illuminating for many reasons, four of which are enumerated here. First, this article is subtitled "A Retrospect," and in it Booth reflected upon his forty-four years of serving God. He spoke of his growing awareness of the miseries of people to whom he was preaching, and mentioned many such miseries. "I saw poor women and children compelled to live in hovels of the most wretched squalor and filth, from which light and air were all but excluded. I saw the people dying prematurely of disease from the want of food and attention. I knew that thousands of young women were being sacrificed to the gratification of the lusts of men who bought and sold them, body and soul, for the most paltry prices."44 He was likewise critical of those who had the means to help the poor and yet were indifferent, and of what he perceived to be unjust laws "that seemed to favor the perpetuation of the calamitous circumstances that pressed so heavily on the wretched multitudes."45

However, Booth's past experiences among the poor explain in part why he eventually comprehended h gospel which included salvation for both worlds. Expressed in this article is the culmination of one man's thinking, the full illumination, as it were, of his comprehension of the many dimensions of the gospel:

Now I shouted, "I have found the remedy indeed!" Now I saw that this was the work that Jesus Christ came to accomplish - that he was manifested to dispossess all these fiends of evil for the souls of men, to destroy the work of the devil in the present time, and to set up in the soul the kingdom of heaven instead.

And I said to myself, and I have been saying to others ever since, "Christ is the deliverer for time as truly as for eternity." He is the Joshua who leads men in our own day out of the wilderness into the promised land, as his forerunner did the children of Israel thousands of years ago. He is the Messiah who brings glad tidings! He is come to open the prison doors. He is come to set men free from their bonds. He is indeed the Savior of the world! Men can have liberty, gladness here and now through Him, and I will consecrate my life to persuade them to apply to Him for the deliverance that He came to bring.46

Secondly, there was an admission in this article that, although Booth had always been aware of the physical impoverishment of the people to whom he had preached, having also experienced poverty himself, he nevertheless, at the outset of his ministry, saw no remedy for that, "and I said to myself, 'If we cannot save them for time, we will save them for eternity!' The very thought that there was no lightening of their lot in time, quickened and stimulated me in seeking to brighten their condition in eternity."47 He would, by his own admission, learn otherwise as time went on.

Thirdly, his own experiences with the poor, in the context of the increasing social ministry of Salvationists, had provided him with an education. He became aware of the physical and the institutional dimensions of evil, and gradually learned "that the miseries from which I sought to save man in the next world were substantially the same as those from which I everywhere found him suffering in this."48 With his enhanced doctrinal understanding, both as cause and effect, came a broadened and more subtle language which would take into account his own developing theological perspective.

Lastly, concomitant with this heightened awareness of evil was a belief that there were now two gospels to preach, a gospel of redemption from personal sin, and a gospel of redemption from social evil. Again, the language was shaped in ways which would accommodate and articulate this belief. He added new dimension and new meaning to the words which he had been using for years. Salvation was now social as well as personal. He wrote:

But with this discovery, there also came another, which has been growing and growing in clearness and intensity from that hour to this, which was that I had two gospels of deliverance to preach one for each world, or rather, one gospel which applied alike to both. I saw that when the Bible said, "He that believeth shall be saved," it meant not only saved from the miseries of the future world, but from the miseries of this also. That it came with the promise of salvation here and now; from hell and sin and vice and crime and idleness and extravagance, and consequently very largely from poverty and disease, and the majority of kindred foes.49

Once again, some of the nuances of technical theology escaped the notice of Booth, and beyond all doubt his exegesis of certain Biblical passages is open to dispute. Likewise, his selective memory of events of the past must be questioned. But in any case, the argument used in this article was an attempt to explain a critical theological shift, and to persuade fellow Salvationists of the validity of such a move for the dual mission to which the Army was increasingly committed. The dual mission would be launched in an organized fashion by October of 1890.

By the time of the publication of In Darkest England and the Way Out, The Salvation Army had already demonstrated both the willingness and the capability to enter into social ministries, and by 1890 a Social Reform Wing had been established under the brief leadership of Commissioner Frank Smith to give oversight to such ministries.50 Moreover, Booth became convinced of the theological justification of both personal and social salvation, and with the writing of this book he was now ready to commit his Salvation Army to an organized war on two fronts. His hitherto unrelated expressions of social salvation "took shape and coherence"51 with this publication.

Booth wrote In Darkest England and the Way Out to explain his developed theology to the public, and thereby to clarify the evolution which had taken place in his own thinking and in the mission of the Army, which was increasingly placing itself in the public eye. He also sought public financial support for the social mission of the Army. The date of the publication of the book is important because it clearly represents not only the broadening of his redemptive theology and his theological vision of salvation to include social as well as personal categories, but it also demonstrates his desire and his willingness to act in a way which was consistent with that theology.52

While it is true that In Darkest England provided statistical data and institutional goals which would help to alleviate the miseries of the poor, those who read and interpret the book only in that light will miss an important intention of the work, and will thereby misinterpret William Booth. The book is also and at times primarily, an expression of Booth's expanded vision of redemption. Booth's theological intentions in the book were clear, he wanted to maintain the delicate balance between personal and social salvation. This was necessary for at least two reasons. First, he feared that social salvation would break loose from its ties to spiritual salvation, thus rendering The Salvation Army merely an ineffectual social agency. And, he wished to respond to his critics on the one hand who denied the validity of his social work and to those on the other hand who denied the validity of his religious work.

He was not equally precise, however, in spelling out those intentions. There were times when his whole redemptive picture included social and personal redemption side by side, and times when they were presented as two sides of the same coin. Both were necessary in helping God to redeem this world and in establishing a physical kingdom of God on earth. Another image of redemption is more dominant in the book however, as Booth goes to great length to explain that social salvation is not an end in itself. Physical redemption was preparatory, necessarily he said, to the work of spiritual redemption, especially the redemption of the poor. He claimed to have learned by experience that "these multitudes will not be saved in their present circumstances."53 There was, he held, a natural order of redemption for the poor, and "if these people are to believe in Jesus Christ, become the servants of God, and escape the miseries of the wrath to come, they must be helped out of their present social miseries."54 In In Darkest England he wrote:

To change the nature of the individual, to get at the heart, to save his soul is the only real, lasting method of doing him any good. In many modern schemes of social regeneration it is forgotten that "it takes a soul to move a body, e'en to a cleaner sty," and at the risk of being misunderstood and misrepresented, I must assert in the most unqualified way that it is primarily and mainly for the sake of saving the soul that I seek the salvation of the body.55

Booth struggled with this relationship between social and spiritual salvation long after 1890, and in 1909, in a letter to his officers on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, he admonished his officers in dealing with people to seek "the salvation of their souls and their deliverance from the wrath to come. It will be a very small reward for all your toils if, after bringing them into condition of wellbeing here, they perish hereafter."56

There was good reason for Booth's continued attempt at clarification. There had been nearly universal sympathy in the Army with Booth's understanding of sanctification and with his postmillennialism. This was true not only of the soldiers, but of the faithful followers within the Army's hierarchy. Universal approbation was not forthcoming, however, in this later aspect of his theology, and at the very least there were some reservations about the direction of the Army with this broadened theological expression. Up to 1890, two of the most significant persons in Booth's life were his wife, Catherine, and the first Commissioner of The Salvation Army, and confidant of William Booth, George Scott Railton. Both were adamant that the primary work of the ministry was the conversion of sinners and the raising up of saints.

Catherine Booth had been ill for quite some time previous to 1890, and her influence in the Army was chiefly in the realm of encouraging the officers and soldiers in the battle, preaching and teaching such doctrines as holiness, and affirming women in ministry. This is not to say that she did not have sympathy with this second mission. William Booth consulted her on the writing of In Darkest England and dedicated the book to her. However, it remains a moot question precisely how critical Catherine, who was never one to fear expressing her convictions, would have been of the new understanding of redemption once she saw it fully inaugurated in practice. George Scott Railton is another story. His reservations concerning the growing social emphasis of The Salvation Army climaxed in 1894, with the launching in protest of The Salvation Army Assurance Society.57

Other leaders in the Army obviously agreed with Booth. Bramwell Booth, the eldest son of the Booths, the chief of the staff under William Booth, and the successor to William as General, had long been convinced of the necessity of social ministries. So had Frank Smith, the Commissioner in charge of the Social Reform Wing of The Salvation Army before the Darkest England Scheme was proposed to the public Encouraging William Booth, Bramwell Booth, Frank Smith and others was W. T. Stead, a journalist and friend of the Booths whose personal sympathies were for the betterment of society by any means, not the least of which was the work of The Salvation Army.

He helped Booth with the writing of In Darkest England. 58

In the meantime, whatever the protests, Booth's theology of the millennial kingdom was in place, drawing people into spiritual and social reclamation with its vision of hope for the future, as well as with its promise that whatever the physical plight of people in this world, there was a better world ahead. That ultimate work of God could be understood to involve spiritual and social redemption in this world, providing both the sign and the promise of the coming kingdom. Such work was the challenge to Christians in general, and to Salvationists in particular. This sanctified group, convinced that the various aspects of this redemptive theology were rooted "in the very heart of God Himself,"59 participated in spiritual and social salvation with a steady eye fixed upon the new kingdom.

Conclusion

It has been argued here that William Booth, in the context of his life and ministry as an Evangelical in nineteenth-century England, and in the context of the expansion of The Christian Mission and The Salvation Army, developed a redemptive theology which treated both personal and social salvation. The three basic aspects of that theology, sanctification, salvation, and kingdom, were transformed from being solely personal categories, such as personal sin and personal sanctification, to include institutional dimensions. Thus, for Booth, redemptive theology came to include consideration of both personal and corporate sanctification. A holy people were called and equipped and empowered to do a holy work, establish the millennium of Jesus Christ.

With his concept of the fully manifested kingdom of God as the final vision, the worthy goal, and the ultimate hope, Booth eventually understood even salvation as both personal and social. Thus, with the publication of In Darkest England and the Way Out, he articulated his conviction that salvation is for both worlds. It was a definitive expression of his developed understanding of redemption in both personal and physical terms. Such redemption, carried out by a holy people, would ultimately prepare the way for the millennium.

Likewise, Booth's vision of the millennial kingdom became part of the motivation that drew this holy group into social reform. With the publication of In Darkest England, Booth and his Army were engaged in a systematic way in a war on two fronts, the war for souls, and the war for a rightly ordered society.

Notes

1There are many biographies of William Booth. Among the most helpful are Harold Begbie, The Life of General William Booth (2 vols.; New York: Macmillan Company, 1920); St. John Ervine, God 's Soldier: General William Booth (2 vols.; New York: Macmillan Company,1935); and W. T. Stead, General Booth (London: Isbister and Company,1891). Also useful are Charles T. Bateman, Life of General Booth (New York: Association Press, 1912); Frederick de Latour Booth-Tucker, William Booth, The General of The Salvation Army (New York: The Salvation Army Printing and Publishing House, 1898); Thomas F. Coates, The Prophet of the Poor (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905) Alex M. Nichol General Booth and The Salvation Army (London: Herbert and Daniel, ;911); G. S. Railton, The Authoritative Life of General William Booth (New York: Reliance Trading Company,1912); J. Evan Smith, Booth the Beloved (London: Oxford University Press, 1949); and Harold S. Steele, I Was a Stranger (New York: Exposition Press, 1954).

For Catherine Booth, the most helpful biographies are Frederick de Latour BoothTucker, The Life of Catherine Booth, The Mother of The Salvation Army (2 vols.; New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1892); Catherine BramwellBooth, Catherine Booth: The Story of Her Loves (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1970); W. T. Stead, Mrs. Booth of The Salvation Army (London: John Nisbet and Company, Ltd.,1900). Also useful is Charles Ludwig, Mother of an Army (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1987).

The best complete history of The Salvation Army is Robert Sandall, Arch Wiggins, and Frederick Coutts, The History of The Salvation Army (7 vols.; London; Thomas Nelson and Sons, 194786). Sandall wrote vols. 13; Wiggins, 45; and Coutts, 67. Two shorter but helpful volumes are Frederick Coutts, No Discharge in This War (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1974); and also by Coutts, Bread for My Neighbor (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1978).

2Quoted in Begbie, op. cit., 1:36768.

3BoothTucker, The Life of Catherine Booth, The Mother of The Salvation Army, 1:74.

4Stead, op. cit., pp. 8788. See also Begbie, op. cit., 1:367368; 2:74, 141, 170, 305; Booth-Tucker, op. cit., 2:138, 16468; Ervine, op. cit., 1:165; Norman H. Murdoch, "Wesleyan Influence on William and Catherine Booth," Wesleyan Theological Journal 20 (Fall, 1985), pp. 97103; G. M. Trevelyan, English Social History (New York: David McKay Company, 1965), p. 569; Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 4:219. Stead, op. cit., p. 13, writes, "The Salvation Army represents, in the General's theory, what Wesleyanism would have come to if it had not ceased to develop when its founder died."

5Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church, (2 vols.; London: Adam and Charles Black, 1966), 1:6.

6This was the original name of the Booths' organization, appearing in print on a ticket of membership and a temperance pledge card. Many name changes ensued: The East London Christian Revival Society, The East London Christian Mission, The Christian Mission, and finally, in 1878, The Salvation Army. Sandall, in Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 1:85, notes,

"At this time there were in various parts of London organizations known as Christian Missions, with prefixes denoting the districts in which they worked, or the church with which they were connected."

7Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 2:128.

8William Booth, "Our Purpose," The East London Evangelist (October, 1868), p. 2.

9William Booth, "Holiness. An Address at the Conference," The Christian Mission Magazine (August, 1877), p. 193.

10 In the 1840's, James Caughey preached in England and William Booth heard him. Philip Needham, "Redemption and Social Reformation; A Theological Study of William Booth and His Movement" (unpublished M.Th. thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1967), p. 59, says, writing of Caughey's influence on Booth, "[Booth] learned much from this man that was to be of both theological and practical value in his future work among the poor and simple people." See also pp. 10609; Begbie op. cit., 1:9, 6162, 163, 284; and Ervine, op. cit., 1:37, 74.

Caughey's Wesleyan understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and of the doctrine of holiness were primary influences on William Booth's thought and life. This is clearly seen in "Dr. Adam Clarke and The General's Spiritual Father," The Conqueror 5 (July, 1896), p. 306, though the article itself is mistaken in saying that Booth was converted under

Caughey's ministry. (The article begins thus: "In view of the fact that the General was converted under the preaching of the late Rev. James Caughey, the following passage from the pen of this renowned evangelist becomes of almost historical interest.") Begbie, op. cit., 1:51, says that Booth was converted in 1844, two years before first hearing Caughey. Also see Chadwick, op. cit., 1:379; and "Holiness, Extracts from James Caughey," The War Cry (March 6, 1880), pp. 12.

Catherine Booth's appreciation of Charles Finney is often noted in Booth Tucker. Cf. op. cit., 1:86; 2:133, 136,14951; cf. esp. pp. 2:149150, where Booth Tucker writes, "Finney was to Mrs. Booth what Wesley had been to the General." The best, most comprehensive treatment of the influence of these Americans upon the Booths is Norman H. Murdoch, "The Salvation Army:

An Anglo-American Revivalist Social Mission" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cincinnati, 1985), Part I, Chapter 1.

"William Booth, "Letter from William Booth to the Brethren and Sisters Labouring for Jesus in Connection with the Dunedin Hall Christian Mission, Edinburgh," The East London Evangelist (April, 1869), p. 105.

12Ibid.

13Ibid.

14William Booth, "Christianity on Fire, No. IV," The War Cry (May 21, 1892), pp. 910. See also William Booth, The General's Letters, 1885 (London: International Headquarters, 1890), p. 35; William Booth, Orders and Regulations for Field Officers of The Salvation Army (London: Salvation Army, 1888).

15William Booth, To My Officers: A Letter from the General on His Eightieth Birthday (St. Albans: Salvation Army Printing Works, 1909), p. 33.

16William Booth, Purity of Heart (London: Salvation Army Book Room, 1902), pp. 7171.

17Ibid., p. 72.

18There are many examples of this, but the following will suffice: See Catherine Booth, "Do Something," The Salvation News (July, 1880), p. 1; Catherine Booth, "The Holy Ghost," All the World 21 (June, 1900), p. 341; Arthur Booth-Clibborn, "The Pentecostal Programme," All the World 15 (June, 1895), p. 402 [Booth-Clibborn was one of the older Booths' sons-in-law]. See also "The Conquest of the World," All the World 22 (February,1901), p. 60; and "As It Was in the Beginning!" All the World 22 (July, 1901), pp. 340, 342.

19Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 39.

20James Black, New Forms of Old Faith (London: n.p., 1948), p. 232, quoted in George Shepperson, "The Comparative Study of Millenarian Movements," Millennial Dreams in Action, Sylvia Thrupp, ed. (The Hague: Mouton, 1962), p. 44.

2lDonald W. Dayton, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), p. 125.

22Ibid., p. 126.

23William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (London: Funk and Wagnalls, 1890), pp. 4445. Also see William Booth, "The Imitation of Jesus Christ, No. III," The War Cry (October 7, 1893), p. 1; William Booth, "Salvation for Both Worlds," All the World 5 (January, 1889), p. 3.

24William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 79.

25Ibid, p. 80.

26William Booth, "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August,1890), p.342. The front cover of The War Cry for March 18, 1911, showed Salvationists journeying on a road, and the signpost of the road reads, "Straight on to the New Heaven and the New Earth."

27This was a synonym for the millennium. See William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 80; and various references to "the good time coming" in William Booth, "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August, 1890).

28See In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 338. Also see William Booth, "Forward," The War Cry (January 29, 1887), p. 9.

29William Booth, The General's Letters, 1885, pp. 3233.

30William Booth, "All Things New," All the World 15 (January,1895), p.4.

31William Booth, "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August, 1890), p. 338.

32See William Booth, "The Christ-Man," Full Salvation 9 (December, 1892), p. 378; William Booth, The General's Letters, 1885, p. 61; William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 217; William Booth, "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August, 1890), pp. 338, 339, 342; William Booth, "A Passion for Souls," The Conqueror 1 (October, 1892), p.275; William Booth, Religion for Every Day (London; Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, n.d.), pp.6061.

33William Booth, "All Things New," All the World 15 (January,1895), p. 4.

34William Booth, "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August, 1890), p. 339. See also William Booth, The General's Letters, 1885, p. 123.

35William Booth, "All Things New," All the World 15 (January, 1895), p. 3. See also "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August, 1890), pp. 340341. Booth is unclear as to the degree of perfectibility attainable on earth during the millennium. He appears to hold that some imperfections will not be done away with until the Second Advent.

36William Booth, "Christianity on Fire, No. I," The War Cry, (April 30, 1892), p. 9. Booth had good reason for such national loyalty. Eventually both he and The Salvation Army received recognition in England. By 1897, Queen Victoria was referring to Booth as General. Booth had sent a message to the Queen in connection with her Diamond Jubilee, and the Queen's reply, from

Windsor Castle, was addressed to General Booth. In Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 4:240, Wiggins writes, "It was noted with considerable satisfaction that Her Majesty had graciously and specifically acknowledged the General's well-won right to his title, so bringing to an end the small-minded prejudice which from time to time had denied this to him." Four subsequent events in Booth's later years confirmed such acceptance: in 1904, King Edward VII received William Booth in Buckingham Palace; in 1905, Booth was granted the freedom of the City of London and the freedom of the City of Nottingham; and, in 1907, Oxford University granted him the degree Doctor of Civil Law. See William Booth, "An Interview with His Late Majesty King Edward VII," The War Cry (May 21, 1910), pp. 910; William Booth, "Rise and Fall," The Christian Mission Magazine (January, 1878), p. 3.

37William Booth, "The Millennium; or, The Ultimate Triumph of Salvation Army Principles," All the World 6 (August, 1890), p. 341.

38Ibid., p. 337.

39William Booth, "Will You Let Me In?" The War Cry (May 18,1912), p.2.

40William Booth, The General's Letters, 1885, p. 145.

41The evidence is overwhelming that those who shared the hierarchical power with William Booth also shared much of his theology, especially his understanding of the kingdom of God. Examples abound, but see the following: Catherine Booth, "The Holy Ghost," All the World 21 (June, 1900), pp. 33942, Catherine Booth, "The Kingdom of Christ," All the World 1 (August, 1885), pp. 18384, and 1 (September, 1885), 20709; Catherine Booth, Popular Christianity (London: Salvation Army Book Depot, 1887), p.197. For Bramwell Booth, a son and immediate successor to William Booth as General of the Salvation Army, see his article, "Salvation Army," Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, ed. (12 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,1921),11:151. For Evangeline Booth, a daughter of William and Catherine and fourth General, see her Toward a Better World (Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Co,1928), p.241. Evangeline Booth later wrote a song entitled "The World for God." For Arthur Booth-Clibborn, who, like all of William and Catherine's sons-in-law, took the Booth name, see his "The Pentecostal Programme," All the World 15 (June, 1895), pp. 40105. For John Lawley, one of William Booth's earliest evangelists and eventually a Commissioner in the Army, see John Lawley, "Down With the Gates!" The War Cry (November 4, 1893), p. 6. For Elijah Cadman, another evangelist and Commissioner, see his "The New Kingdom," All the World 16 (July,1895), pp.34. Roland Robertson, "The Salvation Army: The Persistence of Sectarianism," in Brian R. Wilson, ed., Patterns of Sectarianism (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1967), p. 71, rightly observes that during William Booth's lifetime, millennial teachings were important in The Salvation Army, and "from time to time the question of the millennium was viewed with some degree of urgency."

However, nowhere are Booth's doctrine of redemption, his doctrine of the kingdom of God, and his postmillennial sympathies better expressed in practical ways than in the songs which were written by Salvationists. Many songs which were composed and sung by Salvationists around the world during Booth's lifetime expressed his theology of redemption, a redemption which would usher in the kingdom of God and the millennium. When Booth compiled collections of songs, he incorporated those relating to these themes into a section of the song book appropriately called "War Songs." Such songs, which were numerous, were not designed to give definitive expression to the theology from which they arose. They were written to give practical expression to the vital theology of William Booth and his Army. They made it clear that Booth's declarations concerning the kingdom of God and the millennium were not theological abstractions, remote from the hue and cry of Salvationists. Rather, these songs were for the faithful, and they served to stimulate men and women to faith in God and to encourage them to engage in, and continue in, the holy war to which God had called them, with a promise of ultimate victory. See William Booth, compiler, Salvation Army Songs (London: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, n.d.); William Booth, compiler, The Salvation Soldiers ' Song Book (Toronto: Salvation Army Publishing House, n.d.); "For the Lord We Go to War," The Conqueror 4 (June,1895), p. 247 (a song characteristic of the genre); Howard Chesham and Sallie Chesham, Combat Songs of the Salvation Army (New York: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1976); Gordon Avery, Companion to the Song Book of The Salvation Army (London: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1961).

42William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 36.

43Ibid. Booth had resolved issues revolving around what he called the "Calvinistic Controversy" early in his ministry and had come down on the side of unlimited atonement and human responsibility. See "Fifty Years' Salvation Service: Some of Its Lessons and Results. Interview with the general" All the World 14 (July, 1894), p. 5. See also Begbie, op. cit., 1:367; William

Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 36; William Booth, The General's Letters, 1885, p. 147. For Catherine Booth's theological views, which are very similar, see her Life and Death (London: International Headquarters, 1890), p 203. See also Booth-Tucker, op. cit., 2:14952.

44William Booth, "Salvation for Both Worlds," All the World 5 (January, 1889), p. 2.

45Ibid

46Ibid., pp. 23.

47Ibid., p. 2.

48Ibid.

49Ibid. A second form of activity may be seen to have entered into the programs of the preaching stations of the Christian Mission in its first official Report, written in September, 1867. It indicates that the Missioners were conducting house to house visitation, running Sabbath and day schools, establishing maternal societies, and supplying clothes for the needy. The "Programme of the East London Christian Mission," a part of that first official Report, reveals that the weekly schedule included classes in writing, reading, and arithmetic, a Drunkards' Rescue Society, and the opening of a savings bank. See Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 1:266 and Appendix H (pp. 265266) for the entire program.

Perhaps the most popular expression of the desire to bless people in body as well as in soul was the establishment of soup-kitchens. Under the slogan, "Food for the Millions," the Mission operated at one time as many as five food shops, set up to feed the poor. The meals were not gratuitous, but were inexpensive and nourishing. They were placed under the control of Bramwell Booth, who was ably assisted by James Flawn. However, these soup-kitchens had to be closed for lack of funds, the last of them shutting its doors in 1874. In fact, by 1877, the general relief work of the Mission could no longer be undertaken by the Mission itself. "General relief work seems later to have been abandoned by The Christian Mission, for writing to the Rev. Arthur Wedgewood (Hon. Secretary of the Whitechapel Union Division of the Charity Organization Society) in June, 1877, William Booth stated that the Mission had ceased almost entirely to administer relief to strangers, but instead referred them to the Charity Organization Society" (cf Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 1:196). This sentiment was expressed again in ibid., 3:63:

"When [Booth] found that giving relief to the poor, to the extent and in the manner which were within the means of The Christian Mission, was doing more harm than good he ended it forthwith." The first and primary involvement of The Christian Mission continued to be the preaching of the gospel to sinners, and Booth's writings at this time reflect that priority. Booth's theology was still in an early stage of its development and there is no sign as yet of this application of theological terms such as salvation or redemption to the physical realities around him. Salvation was still primarily salvation of the soul. It was not yet the social salvation which would be envisioned and articulated later.

Coutts attributes Booth's change during Christian Mission days not to Booth's theological priorities but to his need to attend to the organizational problems of the Mission. So Coutt's, Bread for My Neighbor, p. 37, writes: "It might seem to a superficial observer that over this period William Booth was losing interest in social welfare but it should be remembered that he was grappling with the orderly organization of a Movement which, unless adequately structured, could outgrow its strength." See Murdoch's assessment of this statement in "The Salvation Army: An Anglo-American Revivalist Social Mission," pp. 43748.

50See Norman H. Murdoch, "Frank Smith, M. P., Father of Salvation Army Social Work," (unpublished paper presented at The Salvation Army Historical Commission Conference New York, New York, September 16,1978).

51Coutts, No Discharge in This War, p. 113.

52The details of Booth's "Darkest England Scheme" and the outline and direction of In Darkest England and the Way Out do not need to be rehearsed in this paper. For that information, see Begbie, op. cit., 2:7895; 10919; 263 65; Coutts, Bread for My Neighbor, pp. 7392; Coutts, No Discharge in This War, pp.10222; Ervine, op. cit., 1:376; 2:67679, 690, 698734; Roger J. Green, "The Theology of William Booth" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Boston College, 1985), pp. 14249; Murdoch, "The Salvation Army: An Anglo- American Revivalist Social Mission," pp. 468506; Needham, op. cit., pp. 72 91; John R. Rhemick, "The Theology of a Movement: The Salvation Army in Its Formative Years" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1984), pp. 6869; Sandall, Wiggins, and Coutts, op. cit., 3:7596.

For further information see William Booth, "Darkest England and Other Affairs," The War Cry (January 24, 1891), p. 9; and Dean Farrar, "Social Amelioration," The War Cry (May 13,1911), p. 2. For both positive and negative critical reviews by Booth's contemporaries, see "An American Review of Darkest England," Review of Reviews 4 (July-December, 1891), p. 390; Thomas H. Huxley, Evolution and Ethics (9 vols.; New York: Appleton and Company, 1884); "In Darkest England-Progress Along the Way Out," Review of Reviews 3 (January-June, 1891), pp. 16061; C. S. Loch, Bernard Bosanquet, and Philip Dwyer, Criticisms of "General " Booth's Social Scheme (London: Swan Sonnenschein and Son,1891); Francis Peek, "In Darkest England and the Way Out," The Contemporary Review 58 (December, 1890), pp. 796807; W. T. Stead, "In Darkest England and the Way Out," Review of Reviews 2 (July-December, 1890), 492507; W. T. Stead, "The Book of the Year In Darkest England," Review of Reviews 2 (July-December, 1890), pp. 65156; W. T. Stead, "The Darkest England Scheme," Review of Reviews 3 (January-June, 1891), pp. 1417. For a more contemporary criticism see Herman Ausubel, "General Booth's Scheme of Social Salvation," American Historical Review 56 (April, 1951), pp. 51925. Two other works which treat Booth's scheme in depth are K. S. Inglis, Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1963), and Norris

Magnuson, Salvation in the Slums: Evangelical Social Work, 1865-1920, American Theological Library Association Monograph Series, No. 10, Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, 1977).

53William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, p. 257.

54Ibid

55Ibid, p. 45.

56William Booth, To My Officers: A Letter from the General on His Eightieth Birthday, p. 44. See also pp. 1920. Begbie, op. cit., 2:113,329, 331; Needham, op. cit, pp. 7476, 80, 8384. Begbie sensed this struggle in Booth and wrote, "To the end of his life [Booth] never perhaps perfectly apprehended the entirely spiritual and religious character of his own social service" (cf. 2:79). See also John Coutts, The Salvationists (London: A. R. Mowbray and Company,1978), p.142; Chadwick, op. cit., 2:297: "The most revivalist of sects was now willing to allow that a Christian had other duties to his neighbor apart from his duty to convert him. Yet in Booth's lonely old age . . . he sometimes wondered whether he had been right to allow the Army to divert its energies from conversion."

57See Bernard Watson, Soldier Saint (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1970), chapter 17.

58See Begbie, op. cit., 2:8788; Ervine, op. cit., 2:690; William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out, Preface.

59Ibid., p. 270.

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