| How the East London Cristian Mission became the Sa |
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By the middle of the nineteenth century the fires that had burned so brightly during the great awakening of the previous century were burning very low, the Methodist society had bcome just anothr sect within the dissent. William Booth hailed from Nottingham he was a lay preacher with the Methodist New Connection.
When he arrived in London's east end he was staggered by the grinding poverty he encountered among the working classes. He resigned his commission with the New Connection to form the East London Christian Mission.
His first preaching engagement was outside the notorious "Blind Beggar" pub on Whitechapel rd. A known hive of prostitution and gambling and every kind of vice.
He threw his hat upon the ground on the pavement outside the pub and began to preach to it the love of Christ. Among the missiles that were hurled at his loving invitation to men and women to turn from their wicked ways and recieve Christ as Saviour were human waste, offal and at least one live cat. But three persons got saved and the following evening they set up a tent in the field opposite and by and by God blessed the work and many were saved and added to the company of believers.
One freezing november night as Booth was walking across London bridge with his son BRAMWELL he peerd over the side and noticed what appeared to be rows of cardboard boxes stuffed with newspaper, he enquired what they were, "why father" came the reply "those are homeless men and women, they sleep in those boxes." William Booth was distraught, he went home in an agony of grief that such a thing could be . He paced his room back and forth pulling on his beard "and you knew about it, you knew but you did nothing." From that time forward the E.L.C.M. started to buy up or rent vacant warehouses and other such buildings and the first hostels were formed. Upon the wall of each hostel were these words, NO MAN NEED STEAL OR BEG OR TO STARVE OR TO SLEEP OUT AT NIGHT OR TO COMMIT SUICIDE-WE WILL HELP YOU.
In may 1887 Booth called upon his closest friend and ally GEORGE RAILTON along with Bramwell to help him review the annual report of the E.L.C.M. written at the top of the document were the words, the christian mission is a voluntary society. Bramwell objected strongly to those words saying "I am not a volunteer, I have to serve." William Booth took his pen and crossed the offending sentence out and wrote in it's stead THE SALVATION ARMY.
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