Catherine Booth, Mother of the Salvation Army
For 140 years The Salvation Army (SA) has been ministering to the material and spiritual needs of underprivileged people in different parts of the world. This Perspectives article will sketch Catherine Booth’s vital role in the founding and dramatic early decades of The SA’s ministry.

In 1865 Catherine Booth’s husband, William, established The Christian Mission to minister to lower-class individuals in London’s degraded East End. Over the course of the next ten years The Christian Mission expanded to more than thirty ministry centers and preaching stations in towns scattered throughout England. In June of 1877 The Christian Mission was reorganized and renamed The Salvation Army.

William and Catherine Booth ministering in a street meeting

William and Catherine Booth ministering in a street meeting

Considerable military terminology and symbolism soon came to be used. Lay members of the mission were now soldiers, and evangelists were captains and lieutenants. Mission stations were called corps. William Booth, The Salvation Army’s general superintendent, was referred to as the General. Catherine never held a rank in The SA, but she did eventually assume the honorary title of the Army mother.

During 1878 and 1879 Catherine was kept constantly on the go, speaking at “war councils” in various cities and towns, presenting The Salvation Army flag to new corps, and explaining as well as defending the Army’s mission and methods to supporters and critics alike. Such ministries took her to fifty-nine towns in 1879. The SA was then experiencing explosive growth, growing to 130 corps and 195 officers in England that year.

Beginning in 1880 The Salvation Army’s ministry mushroomed beyond England and Wales to other parts of the world. That year and the next a dozen corps were established in both the United States and Australia. Within a year and a half of the first Salvation Army street meeting in Canada, a whopping 200 corps under the direction of 400 officers had been established in that country.

Despite its dramatic success (or because of it), The Salvation Army attracted many critics and opponents. Catherine played a major role in defending The SA against its numerous detractors. Anglican clergy denounced the Army as having no part in historic orthodox Christianity. Upper class individuals and members of the Established Church were especially critical of some of the Army’s novel methods: SA soldiers marching in the streets; “Hallelujah Lasses” preaching in the streets or speaking publicly in churches; the Gospel being preached in theatres and circuses; adapting secular tunes to many of the spiritual songs employed in their services; showcasing in public meetings trophy converts rescued from notorious pasts.

William and Catherine Booth, Founders of The Salvation Army

William and Catherine Booth, Founders of The Salvation Army

To one critic of such measures Catherine responded earnestly: “Oh, my dear sir, if you only knew the indifferent, besotted, semi-heathenish condition of the classes on whom we operate, you would, I am sure, deem any lawful means expedient, if only they succeeded in bringing such people under the sound of the Gospel. It is a standing mystery to me that thoughtful Christian men can contemplate the existing state of the world without perceiving the desperate need of some more effective and aggressive agency on the side of God and righteousness.”

The Salvation Army also experienced persecution from the “Skeleton Army.” Mobs, many of which were incited by individuals with vested interest in the alcohol industry, used intimidation and physical violence in an effort to silence Nonconformist groups that dared to challenge traditional social customs and religious beliefs. Quakers, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and The Salvation Army were all targets of such mob violence. Police and local magistrates often turned a blind eye to the brutal attacks.

In 1882 alone, sixty buildings used for Salvation Army purposes were attacked (and sometimes all but destroyed) by rioting crowds. That year 669 Salvationists were assaulted, including 251 women and twenty-three young people under the age of fifteen. A group of SA lasses in Whitechapel, East London, were tied together with rope and pelted with live coals. Two female Salvationists died as the result of injuries sustained in an attack at Guildford.

Such harrowing incidents drew considerable attention to the unjust treatment The Salvation Army was experiencing in various parts of Britain. Public sympathy began turning in its favor. The right of the Army to conduct street marches was defended in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

In 1885 the number of SA corps in Great Britain increased from 637 to 802 while foreign corps rose from 273 to 520. By the end of that year the Army had 1,322 corps and 3,076 officers stationed around the world.

Catherine Booth's Gravestone

Catherine Booth’s Gravestone

In the closing years of her life Catherine was one of the key individuals who assisted her husband in working out an extensive plan to minister to the pressing economic needs of England’s “submerged tenth,” the percentage of the nation without the basics of food, shelter and work. The Salvation Army launched a greatly expanded program for addressing those needs.

But in the Booths’ minds, social work was clearly secondary to the primary spiritual ministry of leading people to Christ. Social ministry was appropriate and necessary to alleviate human suffering and to gain a hearing for the Gospel. But lasting economic and moral reform in individual lives and in society could only come about as people were led to saving faith in Jesus Christ and had their lives transformed by His Spirit.

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A much-fuller account of Catherine Booth’s life and ministries is related in my book Women of Faith and Courage (Christian Focus, 2011). Roger Green’s Catherine Booth, A Biography of the Cofounder of the Salvation Army (Baker, 1996) provides a more comprehensive account of her life. Other encouraging and instructive incidents from the lives of William and Catherine Booth are included in my book Timeless Stories, God’s Incredible Work in the Lives of Inspiring Christians (Christian Focus, 2010).

Copyright 2017 by Vance E. Christie

My book Women of Faith and Courage presents abbreviated biographical accounts of the lives and ministries of five outstanding Christian women: Susanna Wesley, Fanny Crosby, Catherine Booth, Mary Slessor and Corrie ten Boom. (You can read a thumbnail sketch of each of their lives in my March 6, 2014, blog “Five Inspiring Christian Women Worth Getting to Know.”) Here are several reasons I’d encourage you to get and read the book:

Fanny Crosby

Fanny Crosby

1. It provides the opportunity to become acquainted (or reacquainted) with a handful of Christ’s choicest female servants from the past three centuries. These women gained great and abiding renown (which they certainly did not seek) for their exceptional Christian piety and service. Their examples are absolutely worthy of our consideration; through them we will be encouraged, inspired and instructed in our own Christian life and service.

2. Not only women, but also young people as well as men can profit greatly from the examples of these consecrated Christians. Women of Faith and Courage would be a great book to read with one’s children as part of family devotions. It could also be used beneficially in ladies study and discussion groups.

Susanna Wesley

Susanna Wesley

3. The lives of these women show that God has different ministries for each of His servants to fulfill. Susanna Wesley’s ministries centered on her children in her home and, to a lesser degree, on the people in her husband’s parish. Fanny Crosby’s primary ministry was hymnwriting. But she also used that as a platform for speaking ministries in missions, YMCAs and other public settings. In addition to placing a priority on the spiritual upbringing of her children, Catherine Booth carried out a powerful preaching ministry, especially emphasizing evangelism and a proper Christian response to the down-and-out of society.

Mary Slessor and adopted children

Mary Slessor and adopted children

Mary Slessor’s missionary career in Calabar (southern Nigeria) involved school teaching, itinerate evangelism, church planting, foster care and judicial responsibilities. Corrie ten Boom’s varied service included ministering to young people and feebleminded individuals of her community, harboring fugitives from the Nazis, providing a bright Christian witness in the darkness of German concentration camps and, after the war, heralding the message of God’s love and forgiveness throughout the world. Their examples remind us to identify and fulfill the unique ministries the Lord has for us, and to remain sensitive to new ministries He will lead us into as we go along in our service of Him.

Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom

4. Each of these women experienced marked hardships in life. For most if not all of them, difficulties were regular rather than periodic occurrences. Instead of turning away from God because of such adversity, they drew near to Him for His help and strength in getting through the trials. As a result, their faith was progressively strengthened rather than weakened. As it was with them, so it is with contemporary believers: Hardships tend to be part and parcel of the Christian life; God uses those difficulties to strengthen the faith and develop the character of His children.

5. All these women were characterized by selfless service of the Lord and others. Their lives were all about serving Christ and benefiting others, not at all about living for self. They sacrificed many personal conveniences and comforts in order to faithfully serve as they did. Periodically they were tempted to feel sorry for themselves in light of the constant and sometimes heavy sacrifices their service required of them. But the vast majority of the time they bore their self-sacrificial service willingly and without complaint. Their example is a necessary corrective to many modern Christians who are absorbed with their own interests and comforts while manifesting little inclination or willingness to expend their lives in serving Christ and those around them.

6. Another commendable characteristic of these ladies was their proper balancing of family and other ministry responsibilities. As younger women, Mary and Corrie were both extremely devoted to helping care and provide for their family members. In addition, for many years Mary served as a loving foster mother and Corrie as an affectionate adopted aunt to numbers of children. Neither of them married, though they had that fond desire for a season. They were content to remain single and thus be freer to carry out the specialized ministries the Lord had for them to fulfill.

Catherine Booth

Catherine Booth

Susanna and Catherine were loyal to and supportive of their husbands’ ministries. At times that required considerable effort on their part, due to heavy ministry demands, straitened finances or, in Susanna’s case, having a domineering and insensitive husband. Susanna and Catherine also dedicated a great deal of time and effort to the training of their several children. They raised their children with strict but loving discipline. Their primary concern with their children was that they would develop into devout, active Christians.

The positive examples and high principles of all these women with regard to fulfilling one’s family responsibilities, deciding whether or not to marry, and raising children for the Lord are worthy of emulation by Christian singles, spouses and parents today.

Copyright 2014 by Vance E. Christie