A General view ...
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A movement is forged and shaped – essentially moulded – by its founders. The influence that William Booth, his wife Catherine and his family have had, and continue to have, on The Salvation Army’s mission, culture, philosophy and practice remains prominent to this day. Salvos Online today presents a new series of unexpected and decidedly prescriptive teachings that General William Booth gave to his soldiers 124 years ago, excerpting the 1902 publication Letters to Salvationists on Religion for Every Day (volume 1). Over the next few months, we will publish General Booth’s thoughts on everyday topics, including sickness and bereavement, sleep, clothing, hygiene, life challenges, poverty, the Bible and the Sabbath, industrial relations, food and drink and more.
Poverty and feeling poor
BY GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH Salvation Army co-founder
My dear comrades, many of God’s people are poor. “Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?”
For a long time in the early history of the Church, poverty was, with few exceptions, a necessity. The man who embraced Christ had to leave his houses and his lands.
Every door of business was closed to him; no one would employ him, buy from him, or sell to him. His own family rose up against him and cast him out. Unless he was seized and made a slave, the wilderness became his dwelling place and the eaves of the earth his home. It is true that there were exceptions to this state of things, but they were not very numerous.
Poverty is the lot of the majority of Christ’s followers today. Few who are not poor will comply with the terms of Salvation. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called ... It is still true, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God!”
They are called, but they will not come, and even when those who might gain riches have entered the Kingdom, the opportunities for money-making are often closed to them, on account of their conscientious scruples and their high standard of right and wrong. However, they prefer poverty, with a good conscience, to wealth without it.
While there is no doubt that extreme poverty is an evil, and is one of the results of “the thorns and thistles” that followed the first transgression of our first parents, it is also evident that to be poor (when there is not actual want of the necessities of life) is not an unmixed evil. On the contrary, it has many advantages, both for this life and the life that is to come. I am quite sure, from my own observation, that, as a whole, the poor, in the sense in which we usually use the word, are, as a rule, more content, are more usefully occupied, enjoy better health, are less burdened by anxiety, and, in fact, are happier than the well-to-do classes.
When I come to consider the advantages enjoyed by the poor, in regard to things of God, it is manifest that poverty has some great compensations.
A poor man is more likely to be saved than a rich man. That is, he will be more ready to hearken to the call to repentance. Being more loosely bound to the world, it will be easier for him to break away from it and fall in with God’s offers of mercy. On the other hand, the rich man will be much better satisfied with his present condition and disinclined to leave it. He will be so comfortable that he will not care about a change; and, heavier sacrifices being demanded in his case than in that of a poor man, he will be far more unwilling to make the surrender.
The pride of a rich man will make it more difficult for him to face the scorn that comes upon the followers of Jesus Christ. The Cross, which the poor have to carry in making an open confession of Salvation, is heavy enough; but, in the case of the proud and well-to-do person, that Cross will be heavier still.
Poverty is favourable to Holy Living. The same things that operate in favour of a poor man commencing a truly religious life operate in favour of his persevering and attaining eminence in it.
Poverty is conducive to a life of usefulness. The greatest of the world’s benefactors have been poor. Moses came from a family of bondsmen, and when God called him to deliver Israel, he was working as a shepherd in the land of Midian. The great Prophets of God to His ancient people were nearly all poor.
David began life as a keeper of sheep. Elijah and Elisha were in a position answering very nearly to that of our Captains, without any Divisional Officer to fall back upon when driven into a corner! Nehemiah, Daniel, and the three Hebrew Children were slaves. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, and the other Prophets were all poor men, and the children of poor men.
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself grew up in a cottage home at Nazareth, and was a working man. The Apostles and Disciples who established the first Communities of Christ’s people, and who shook the world, mostly came from the ranks of the poor, as also did the great bulk of the Fathers of the Early Church.
If you come down to later times, the Franciscan and other Religious Orders, who have, at one time or another, saved Christianity from extinction, have been composed of men and women who were either poor in their parentage and breeding, or voluntarily made themselves poor for Christ’s sake.
Luther and Melanethon, and the other masterminds of the Reformation, were poor men, as also were Huss and Wycliffe, and a host of others who stood up for the truth, and wrote their names in blessings on the world.
The Salvationists, with very few exceptions, have been poor people, poor not only as to money and houses and lands, but destitute also of the learning of the schools, and ignorant of the worldly wisdom of the colleges. And yet, they have done more to revolutionise the religion of the Nineteenth Century than any other people who have operated in the world during that time, and have been the means, also, of rescuing and saving multitudes of the most hopeless classes of society.
Poverty demands and encourages energy. Luxury and ease weaken and destroy these traits of character that make brave men and women. “Necessity is the mother of invention” … Hardship is the friend of activity, of push and go, in the affairs of men.
Poverty is favourable to that sympathy and compassion that help make successful soulwinners. Without which, successful soul-winners cannot be made.
Now, let me give a few counsels to the children of God who are called to occupy a humble position in this life. Those Salvationists who are poor should praise God for the measure of the good things of this world they do possess. Look around you, my Comrades, and you will find large numbers of people who are, so far as this world goes, much less favourably circumstanced than yourselves.
Remember, there is nothing in your poverty to shut you out from “the peace that passeth all understanding” and “the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory”. Some of the brightest and most triumphant Saints have been amongst the poorest of the poor.
If an opportunity of improving your circumstances presents itself, and, after prayer and reflection, you believe the position offered will be in harmony with righteousness, the promotion of the glory of God in you and your family, and the good of the Army, you are at liberty to embrace it. There is no sin in the possession of wealth. It is the use which you make of it, which is the all-important matter.
If God prospers you, do not forget His goodness, [do not] grow proud, and [do not] cease to be the same humble, devoted, self-sacrificing Salvationist that you were in the days of your hardship and poverty. Let all you have be His.
Whatever your lot may be, do not worry. Have faith in God.
NEXT WEEK: General William Booth’s thoughts on clothing.
*This series has been compiled by Barry Gittins, The Salvation Army Australia Museum Specialist (Melbourne)
