Women Who Have Worked And Won,

Women Who Have Worked And Won,

WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON,

JJXrs. C % Spiu'scoiu

CHAPTER I.

WHEN ' LOVE TOOK UP THE HARP OF LIFE.'

FOR all the purposes of the biographer, Airs. Charles Haddon Spurgeon seems to have begun to live only when her existence came first within the orbit of that wonderful personality by which it was destined thence-, forward to be inspired and absorbed.

For twenty-one years Susannah Thompson led a life of such uneventful privacy that of her childhood and youth we have little to relate.

She was the daughter of Mr. Robert Thompson, of Falcon Square, E.C., and with her parents was accustomed to attend New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. Here the chief thing that seems to have impressed her childish mind was the cock-robin-like side-view of the senior leacon, as it was presented to her gaze Sunday after Sunday in the open desk immediately below the pulpit I This was owing to the fact that he was a " short, stout man," who still wore the silk stockings and knee-breeches of a previous generation. His " rotund body, perched on

lo WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

undraped legs, was, moreover, clothed in a long-tailed coat," and " when he chirped out the verses of the hymn in a piping, twittering voice," little Susie thought the likeness complete.

But another object in this memorable place of worship which in the interval between prayers and sermon continually excited the little girl's nnagination was, strange to say, that pulpit where hereafter was to rise the sun and glory of her earthly existence.

Without staircase, or visible entrance, this rostrum hung upon the chapel wall like a swallow's nest. " One moment," Mrs. Spurgeon tells us, " the big box would be empty ; the next—if I had but glanced down at Bible or hymn-book, and raised my eyes again—there was the preacher, comfortably seated, or standing ready to commence the service ! 1 found it very interesting, and though I knew there was a matter-of-fact door . . . this knowledge was not allowed to interfere with, or even explain, the fanciful notions I loved to indulge in concerning that mysterious entrance and exit."

Thus, unheralded and suddenly, on December i8, 1853, young Charles Haddon Spurgeon stepped into that pulpit, and into " little Susie's " life.

He was to preach both morning and evening, with a view to being chosen as permanent pastor of the then vacant church. But although the friends (Mr. and Mrs. Olney) with whom Miss Susie was just then staying went to the forenoon service, the young lady herself did not accompany them, having somewhat of a prejudice against the " boy preacher " on account of his extreme youth, for Charles Spiirgeon was at that time not out of his teens.

The morning congregation, however, was so poor, that Mr. Olney, fearing the young stranger might feel discouraged, did all he could to collect a larger gathering for the later service. The Olney family, of course, went in full force, and their guest could not do otherwise than accompany them.

Once again, as so often before, Susie Thompson's expectant gaze was riveted upon the " swallow's nest"

MRS. C, H. SPURGEON n

pulpit, and into her view there stepped a figure that at first sight gave her a disagreeable shock.

The lad's countrified manner and attire, liis loose crop of somewhat unkempt dark hair, a physiognomy that inadequately suggested the mental and spiritual gifts which lay behind, his big, antiquated black satin " stock," and the appalling blue pocket-handkerchief with white spots that he grasped in his hand, all more or less offended the maiden's fastidious taste, and diverted her mind from the unmistakable power and earnestness of the address which he delivered.

Only one phrase of the whole sermon remained in her mind, and that because of its singularity ; for he likened the body of Christians to " living stones in the Heavenly Temple perfectly joined together with the vermilion cement of Christ's blood "—scarcely an improvement, we venture to think, on the more chaste scriptural symbol which evidently suggested it.

However, Miss Thompson was not so unfavourably impressed by the " boy preacher from VVaterbeach " but that she was willing to go and hear him again. Introduced by their mutual friends, the Olneys, she became personally acquainted with him. Gradually her prejudice wore away, and his earnestness began to make an impression on her. Indeed, before very long the pendulum of sentiment had swung so far in an opposite direction from the first aversion, that, Spurgeon being settled at New Park Street Chapel, we find our young lady exerting herself most strenuously to collect money for a proposed enlargement of the building. She got together for this purpose no less than one hundred pounds. This speaks volumes.

It was but four months from the date of Charles Spurgeon's first appearance at New Park Street, when his acquaintance with Susannah had become sufficiently advanced to permit of his presenting her with a book— of course, to her great surprise.

This volume was an illustrated copy of The Pilgrim's Progress, and contained the inscription, " Miss Thompson, /vith desires for her progress in the blessed pilgrimage, from C. H. Spurgeon, April 20, 1854."

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Mrs. Spurgeon in after years declared her belief that the young pastor had at that time no other thought than to help a struggling soul heavenward. But we know how, in pure and ardent natures, the earthly and heavenly love become so readily intertwined and so mutually enkindling that it is ofttimes difficult to perceive the dividing line. We are not unprepared, therefore, to learn that Miss Thompson was " greatly impressed " by Mr. Spurgeon's concern for her, and that " the book became very precious as well as helpful to her soul."

A little later, she was drawn to consult him as to her state before God. Conversations upon her spiritual welfare ensued, and ultimately she is able to record that she was led " through the power of the Holy Spirit to the Cross of Christ for the peace and pardon my weary soul was longing for."

After that, she tells us, she was happier than she had been at any time since the days when, at the Poultry Chapel, her heart had experienced its first stirrings towards the Divine life, and although she little dreamed of the great joy that was speeding towards her, the steady development of a friendship between her and her pastor may have lent its quota to that blessedness of which she speaks.

The intimacy seems to have progressed with fair rapidity. Less than three months subsequent to the gift of The Pilgrim's Progress occurred the grand opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, when a party of New Park Street friends was made up to witness the ceremony, and included both the young people in whom we are interested.

They occupied some raised seats in a good position for viewing the spectacle, and while Miss Thompson and her companions beguiled the waiting time with talking and laughter, their pastor was seen to be improving his spare moments in dipping into a book. This proved to be a volume of Martin Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy, then but recently published.

Suddenly, he turned to Miss Thompson, and handing her the book, with his finger marking a particular page, he

asked, " What do you think of the poet's suggestion in

those verses ? "

With a deepening flush upon her cheeks, the young girl noticed that the chapter was headed " On Marriage." and the lines especially pointed out to her were these—

" Seek a good wife of thy God, for she is the best gift of His Providence ; Yet ask not in bold confidence that which He hath not promised : Thou knowest not His good will; be thy prayer then submissive thereunto; . ,

And leave thy petition to His mercy, assured He will deal well with

thee. , . ,. . . ^,

If thou art to have a wife of thy youth, she is now living on the earth ; Therefore think of her, and pray for her weal 1"

As she reached this point, there came a soft, low whisper in her ear:—" Do you pray for him who is to be your husband?" ^ ^.

Thus delicately conveyed, the hidden meanmg of this query was not misunderstood. Little of the brilliant procession did Susannah Thompson that day behold, few words of the speeches entered her ears. Her whole soul had been filled with a new and all-absorbing emotion.

" Will you come and walk round the Palace with me ? " whispered some one, as the spectators began to leave their

seats.

Miss Thompson consented; friends were obligingly obli\nous of their disappearance, and the pair wandered long and blissfully through the Palace, round about the gardens, and as far as the lake, where antediluvian monsters placidly witnessed the newest and oldest thing on earth— the first enthralling ecstasies of " love's young dream."

"During that walk, I believe," wrote Mrs. Spurgeon nearly half-a-century afterwards, " God Himself united our hearts in indissoluble bonds of true affection, and, though we knew it not, gave us to each other for ever. From that time our friendship grew apace, and quickly ripened into deepest love—a love which lives in my heart to-day as truly, aye, and more solemnly and strongly than it did in those early davs ; for though God has seen fit to call my beloved up to higher service. He has left me the consolation of still loving him with all my heart, and believing our

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love shall be perfected when we meet in that blessed Land where Love reigns supreme and eternal."

Young men, however, were discreet and maidens demure in those old-fashioned days, and although a unanimous " understanding " was arrived at that memorable June day in the Crystal Palace, it was not until two months later that Charles Spurgeon formally " proposed " to the lady of his choice.

The spot which this incident glorified and endeared for ever to both their hearts was a prosaic little London back-garden, attached to the residence of Miss Thompson's grandfather,

" To this day," writes Mrs. Spurgeon, forty years later. " I think of that old garden as a sacred place, a paradise of happiness, since there my beloved sought me for his very own, and told me how much he loved me." This confession, she adds, was " wonderful," and asks, " Was there ever quite such bliss on earth before ? "

Being a truly good, Christian girl, Susannah fully realized her happiness as a gift from God, and kneeling alone in her room, she praised and thanked Him, with happy tears, for His great mercy " in giving her the love of so good a man."

Soon after, Miss Thompson requested baptism at the hands of her pastor and fiance. The confession of faith which she made as a preliminary to this ordinance touched him deeply for its true spirituality of tone. " I could weep with joy (as I certainly am doing now)," he wrote in his reply, " to think that my beloved can so well testify to a work of grace in her soul."

He went on to encourage her with his assurance that she must indeed be one of God's chosen—which at the outset of their acquaintance he had feared she might not be, for, said he, " If the Lord had intended your destruction. He would not have told you such things as these, nor would He enable you so unreservedly to cast yourself upon His faithful promise. . . . Dear purchase of a Saviour's blood, you are to me a Saviour's gift, and my heart is full to overflowing with the thought of such continued goodness. . . . Whatever .befall us, trouble, adversity,

sickness or death, we need not fear a final separation, either from each other or from our God."

The baptism of Miss Thompson was performed as quietly as circumstances would allow, but that the actual position of affairs was not absolutely unsuspected by others than immediate relatives was suggested by a rather amusing incident.

Preceding the young lady in the list of candidates for the examination " before the church," was an old man named Johnny Dear. When he had been passed and was departed, an elderly dame at the back of the room was heard to whisper—" I suppose it will be ' sister dear ' next! "

It may be a comfort to some young people who read these pages to learn that even such a love as that between Charles and Susannah, inspired and blessed hy God as it undoubtedly was, did not run its course with perfectly unruffled smoothness. For both were human, and the thoughtlessness of the young preacher and the sensitive pride of the maiden on one occasion brought about what, with some natures, might have been a serious misunderstanding.

On this occasion, Mr. Spurgeon was to preach in a large hall at Kennington, and Miss Thompson went with him in a cab.

An immense crowd was thronging the entrance and the staircase, through which the preacher himself, in the absence of any private entrance, had to force his way. So great was the crush that his poor little fiancSe was somehow separated from him, and, terrible to relate, he never missed her / Turning in at a side-door, which presumably led to the vestry, he passed from her sight without another word or look, and left her struggling helplessly among a mass of strangers.

Worse still, he was- so occupied with the message he had to deliver, that he actually for the time forgot her existence. Hurt beyond expression, bewildered, then angry, the young girl straightway turned back without entering the building, and carried her wounded heart home to her mother.

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The slight and only glimpse we at this point catch of Susannah Thompson's mother goes far to explain the sweetness of character possessed by Mr. Spurgeon's wife.

" She wisely reasoned," the latter relates, " that my chosen husband was no ordinary man, that his whole life was absolutely dedicated to God and His service, and that I must never, never hinder him by trying to put myself first in his heart."

Susannah, who had akeady much good sense, was gradually calmed and softened by her mother's soothing words, and by the time Charles returned, in a state of great anxiety about Susie, Susie was ready to forgive his negligence, not unashamed in her inmost heart of having so quickly doubted and taken offence at him, when not the least unkindness was intended. It was a hard lesson, as she owns, but it was learnt then hy heart, and never again did she seek to assert any right to her lover's time and attention when they were claimed by his service to God.

" The end of this Httle ' rift in the lute,' " to use Mrs. Spurgeon's own beautiful similitude, " was ... an increase of that fervent love which can look a misunderstanding in the face till it melts away and vanishes, as a morning cloud before the ardent glances of the sun."

Miss Thompson's next experience was a visit to Colchester to make the acquaintance of her prospective father and mother-in-law, always something of an ordeal to a timid young girl. If, however, Charles Spurgeon's fiancSe felt any nervousness, her fears were soon dispelled by the hearty and affectionate welcome which she then received. She was entertained, and petted, and taken to see every object and place of interest in all the neighbourhood, but owing to the superlative delight of her lover's society, no distinct remembrance of any incident of that halcyon time was carried away. " The joy of being all day long with my beloved, and this for three or four days together, was enough to fill my heart with gladness, and render me oblivious of any other pleasure."

It is good to see this girl and boy—for they were no more—so deeply and frankly in love with one another, but better still to know that though other earthly joys

were obscured by this overmastering bliss, the young people never lost sight of its Source and Giver.

Shortly after Miss Thompson's return home, her betrothed wrote as follows :—

" My own doubly-dear Susie,

" How much we have enjoyed in each other's society ! It seems almost impossible that I can either have conferred or received so much happiness. I feel now, like you, very low in spirits. ... Let us take heed of putting ourselves too prominently in our own hearts, but let us commit our way unto the Lord. ' What I have in my own hand, I usually lose,' said Luther, ' but what I put into God's Hand, is still, and ever will be, in my possession.'"

The first parting of any length between this devoted pair was when Mr. Spurgeon went on a preaching tour into Scotland—in those days farther off from London than it is now. While he was away he constantly wrote letters, in which, the happy recipient relates, "Little rills of tenderness run between the sentences, hke the singing, dancing waters among the boulders of a brook. ... To the end of his beautiful life it was the same, his letters were always those of a devoted lover as well as of a tender husband '. not only did the brook never dry up, but the stream grew deeper and broader, and the rhythm of its song waxed sweeter and stronger."

It was during these pre-nuptial days that Miss Thompson attempted, at her lover's request, her first piece of literary work. This was to compile for him a selection of extracts from the writings of the Puritan Divine, Thomas Brooks. The young girl's critical taste was both tested and trained by the direction to mark every paragraph and sentence that struck her as " particularly sweet, or quaint, 01 instructive."

This seems simple enough, but so new was the task that to her it appeared most important and diiificult. That it was performed with discrimination and to Mr. Spurgeon's satisfaction is proved by the fact that the little volume was ultimately published under the some-

i8 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

what playful title of "Smooth Stones taken from Ancient Brooks."

Thus pleasantly sped the year 1855. Their favourite meeting-place was the Crystal Fountain in the newly-opened palace of glass on S3-denham Hill. With palpitating heart the young girl would wait for the whispered message in the chapel aisle at the close of the week-night service— " Three o'clock to-morrow ! " and joyfully would she, when the longed-for hour arrived, set out on her walk from the Brixton Road to keep that happy tryst.

But another appointment was swiftly approaching. The young people's engagement, notwithstanding Mr. Spurgeon's youth, was not unduly prolonged. The wedding-day was fixed for the first week of the next new year.

CHAPTER H.

AN IDEAL pastor's WIFE.

TF there were any truth in the adage that " Happy is the -^ bride that the sun shines on," the married life of Mrs. Charles Haddon Spurgeon would not have been among the most blessed, for her wedding-day, January 8, 1856, was, we are told, " dark, damp, and cold."

That was the outward weather. Inwardly " most of its hours were veiled in a golden mist," through which they afterwards looked to memory " luminous but indistinct."

Susannah knelt by her bedside in the early morning, " awed and deeply moved b}^ a sense of the responsibilities to be taken up that day, yet happy beyond expression that the Lord had so favoured her." And there, alone with God, she earnestly sought " strength and blessing and guidance for the new life opening before her."

Multitudes assembled at New Park Street Chapel to ' witness the interesting ceremony. The building was filled to overflowing, and those who were imable to gain admittance waited in the streets to catch a glimpse of the bride and bridegroom in such numbers that traffic in the

i

AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF MR. AND MRS. SPURGEON, TAKEN IN THEIR HOME.

20 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

vicinity of the chapel was practical!}' brought to a standstill, and the aid of a special body of police was required to prevent accidents.

The young bride, very simply attired, drove to New Park Street in a cab with her father, astonished to find herself gazed at almost as though she had been a royal princess, and wondering if the people all knew what a marvellous bridegroom she was going to meet.

The ceremony was performed by " dear old Dr. Alexander Fletcher," and then amid the enthusiastic cheering of crowds, Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon drove away to start on their brief honeymoon tour.

Some of the sights they gazed upon together during that blissful ten days in Paris are sketched for us by Mrs. Spurgeon's pen, with a grace and vividness which justifies her husband's discrimination in encouraging the development of her literary gift.

Of La Sainte Chapelle, which Mrs. Spurgeon described as " a little heaven of stained glass," she says: "Its loveliness looked almost celestial as we stood enwrapped in its radiance, the light of the sinking sun glorifying its matchless windows into a very dream of dazzling grace and harmony of colour."

In the crypt of the Pantheon, once a temple, now a church, they saw the tombs of Rousseau, Voltaire, and others, and heard, " with something like fear, the thunderous echo which lurks there. ... It is very loud and terrible, like a cannon fired off, and it gives one quite an uncanny feeling to hear such a deafening roar down in the bowels of the earth."

The view from St. Cloud she pronounces " glorious." "The Seine flowed far below, the suburbs of the city lay beyond ; Mont Valerien on the right, Paris straight before one's eyes, with the gilded dome of the Invalides shining in the clear air; St. Sulpice, and the Pantheon, and countless towers and spires forming landmarks in the great sea of houses and streets, the twin heights of Montmartre and Pere la Chaise in the background ; all these grouped together and viewed from the hill, formed an indescribably charming picture."

As Mrs. Spurgeon was familiar with Paris and spoke French fluently, the delight of both was miituallv increased by her ability to act as guide to the various spots of interest, and years afterwards her husband wrote to her during one of his visits alone to the gay capital : " My heart flies to you, as I remember my first visit to this city under your dear guidance. I love you now as then, only multiplied many times."

On returning home the young couple commenced housekeeping in a small residence in the New Kent Road. As is always the case in hearts where God rules, their own happiness made them long to reach out in help and joy to others. From the outset they denied themselves in order to contribute to the support and education of one young man who was being prepared for the ministry. To provide such training for suitable and earnest young men was already a dear dream of Charles Spurgeon's heart, and this first student for whom they so gladly " planned and pinched " was the nucleus of the future Pastors' College.

So real was this self-sacrifice that at times during those early days the young preacher and his wife had a difficulty in making ends meet, and to " tie a bow " was an unimagined luxury.

In a special period of need there occurred to them one of those marvellous supplies which a le^s sceptical age would have called a miracle, but which we meet in every record of the lives of God's trusting children.

" Some demand came in for payment," writes Mrs. Spurgeon—" I think it must have been a tax or rate, for I never had bills owing to tradesmen—and we had nothing wherewith to meet it. What a distressing condition of excitement seized us! ' Wifey, what can we do ? I must give up hiring the horse and walk to New Park Street every time I preach ! ' ' Impossible ! ' I replied. ' With so many services you simply could not do it.' Long and anxiously we pondered over wa3S and means, and laid our burden before the Lord, entreating Him to come to our aid. And of course He heard and answered, for He is a faithful God. That night, or next day, a letter was received containing ;/^20 for our own use, and

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we never knew who sent it, save that it came in answer to prayer! "

How happy were the peaceful Sabbath evenings of that first wedded year, when, the labours of the day being over, the weary young preacher would rest in an easy-chair by the fireside, while his little wife nestled on a low stool at his feet, and sought to soothe and refresh his spirit by reading aloud ! Sometimes the volume chosen would be Christian poetry, but there were occasions when the pastor's tender conscience (and, we venture to add, overwrought nerves !) sought the self-flagellation of Baxter's Reformed Pastor, and he would sob over his shortcomings, while the sj^mpathetic girl cried too, because she " loved him. and wanted to share his grief."

But tears are the heritage of all, and even those blissful months were not wholly undimmed by them. Not indeed on account of any lack of love or tenderness on the husband's part towards his j'oung wife—she had by this time learned to laugh at even the absorption of mind that now and then caused him to ceremoniously shake hands with her in his own vestry, with a cool " How are you ?" as if to a stranger —but his frequent absences from home on preaching engagements were a sore trial to her.

How we can go with her, as she paced up and down the little front passage late at night, longing and listening for his return, praj'ing with trembling heart that the train might bring him safely, and rushing to the door in an ecstasy of relief and thankfulness the moment his footstep was heard outside !

Once, when he was leaving her, she broke down and sobbed at the thought of the coming hours of loneliness. But he tenderly reminded her that she was offering him as a sacrifice to God, in thus letting him go from her to preach the Gospel, and must not spoil it by weeping.

She took the reproof at once to heart, and, ever after, the half-bantering query, " What, crying over your lamb, \v\iey ? " would keep back the rising tears, at least until the parting was over.

One very striking incident of Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon's early married life we must not omit.

On a certain Saturday evening the pastor had \vrestled long but vainly with the text from which he wished to speak the following day. He was utterly worn out and dispirited. He sat up long past his usual hour for retiring, but his mind seemed completely blank on the subject. Only his wife's promise to arouse him very early in the morning to renew his efforts at length induced him to go to bed and get the rest he so much needed.

In the early hours of Sunday, Mrs. Spurgeon was herself awakened by the sound of his voice. He was preaching in his sleep, and, wonderful to relate, was giving a clear, fresh, and forceful exposition of the very verse which had baffled him the night before 1

It was a quaint situation—the preacher himself asleep, the solitary hearer intensely wide awake, listening to his unconscious discourse with trembling eagerness, fearful of letting one precious word slip.

She had meant to keep awake till it was time to call her husband, but while going over and over in her mind the points she was so anxious to remember, she, not unnaturally, dropped off again, and they both slept on until with a cry of dismay Mr. Spurgeon sprang up to find the time he had hoped to spend in preparation already past.

What was his amazement and joy to hear from the lips of his \vife the extraordinary result of the " unconscious cerebration " that had been going on while his body was in a state of repose ! " Why, that's just what I wanted ! " he exclaimed. " That is the true explanation of the whole verse ! ... It is wonderful! "

" And we both," adds Mrs. Spurgeon, " praised the Lord for so remarkable a manifestation of His power and

love."

On September 20, 1856, the young people found themselves the parents of twin sons. Needless to say the advent of the babies was hailed with joy. Charles and Thomas were the names chosen for them, and great were the hopes of what, given to God and trained for Him, those precious children might some day do for the world.

Meanwhile, the ever-increasing numbers of those who crowded to hear the famous young preacher suggested

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the desirability of finding a larger building in which his powers might have fuller scope. After some negotiation, the Surrey Gardens Music Hall, capable of seating ten or twelve thousand people, was secured for Sunday evening services. And on October 19, just one month after the birth of the twins, Mr. Spurgeon, full of prayerful anticipation of the great task before him, left home to preach in that immense building for the first time.

Alone on her sofa, in the Sabbath evening stillness, his wife was thinking of him, and of the darling little ones asleep at her side —" dreaming," she says, " of all sorts of lovely possibilities and pleasures"—when she was startled by the unaccustomed sound of wheels stopping at the garden gate. It was far too early for the preacher to be coming back, and Mrs. Spurgeon wondered much who the arrival could be.

Soon, a deacon from the chapel entered the room, his grave and embarrassed air portending serious news to the frightened young wife. What could it be ? What had happened ?' She begged him to tell her quickly, her thoughts doubtless reverting to those occasions when the strain of addressing large congregations had reduced her dear one to the verge of fainting.

It was a terrible tale which the good deacon was forced

to unfold.

The Music Hall was crammed to overflowing, when, during the hush of the second prayer, wild cries had suddenly rent the air—" Fire ! " " The galleries are givmg way ! " " The place is falling ! " " Fire—Fire ! "

It is difficult to imagine the scene of awful confusion at once created. People struggling and fighting their way to the doors, some in the excess of terror even flingmg themselves over the balconies upon the seething mass below. With marvellous self-possession the young preacher, believing the panic to be groundless, besought his audience to be calm, and tried to go on with the service. But his efforts were unavailing. The tragic result of the episode was the death of seven persons and the injury of many others, while Mr. Spurgeon himself, after being for some time unconscious, was carried home to his wife a mere

26 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

wreck of the buoyant and hopeful young man who had left her little over an hour before. The bitterest drop in his cup was the conviction that, the alarm having been utterly unfounded, the whole disaster was the work of the Evil One, acting either upon the malice or cupidity of his emissaries, and uncontrollable anguish of mind, that at one time seemed to threaten reason itself, overcame him.

At length, however, light was restored, ana the dedication service of the twin babies was performed amid the returning health and hopefulness of the young parents.

The following year they removed to Helensburgh House, Nightingale Lane, Clapham, then a countrified spot, where a large, rambling, half-wild garden was a delight to them both.

The house was very old, but its quaintness was half its charm, and the grounds were almost unique in possessing a well nearly five hundred feet deep. Some former owner, with both money and perseverance, had had such firm faith that water would eventually be reached, that he persisted in borings being continued down to and through the solid rock, till the efforts of his workmen were at last rewarded by a gush of water, " pure, sparkling, and cold as ice." So delicious was it, that in Mrs. Spurgeon's time neighbours frequently sent jugs to Helensburgh House, begging to have them filled from this spring.

Here, although Mrs. Spurgeon's strength had never been fully restored since that terrible shock of the Music Hall disaster, she passed what she decided, on looking back upon them, were the least shadowed years of her married life. Tending the garden, taming the wild song-birds in which it abounded, and wandering in the pleasant green lanes in the neighbourhood, free from the too great observation, flattering but not always welcome, to which the popular pastor and his wife had in the New Kent Road been subjected, the life of the young couple was at that time an ideally happy one.

The large sale of Mr. Spurgeon's sermons, the generous treatment of his publishers, and an increased income from his pastorate, rendered possible the purchase of the free-

MRS, C. H. SPURGEON

27

hold of Helensburgh House, and the carrying out of improvements which otherwise it might not have been worth while to make.

An amusing incident occurring during the early days of residence in Nightingale Lane, proves that the ability to

HELENSBURGH HOUSE, NIGHTINGALE LANE, CLAPHAM.

keep a gardener and to take holiday trips is not always an unmixed joy.

Returning to their beloved garden, after a short absence, Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon found that the man left in charge had made groat preparations to welcome them. But these, to their horror, had included the painting of certain ancient stone vases and stucco work a brilliant combination

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of blue and yellow ! " Only dear Mr. Spurgeon," writes his fond wife, " could have managed to get them restored to their former purity without hurting the feelings of the well-meaning gardener."

It was at Helensburgh House that the Spurgeons had the pleasure of entertaining John Ruskin. He was a neighbour, and frequently attended Mr. Spurgeon's ministry. On one occasion, when Mr. Spurgeon was recovering from an illness, the great teacher came to see him, bringing the characteristic offering of two choice engravings and some bottles of rare wine.

On seeing the preacher lie weak and prostrate on the sofa, Ruskin flung himself on his knees beside him, and " embracing him with tender affection and tears," exclaimed : " My brother ! my dear brother, how grieved I am to see you thus ! "

In the pure, sweet air of the Clapham of the " fifties " the twin boys grew and flourished apace. Often unable, owing to the weak state of her health, to attend evening service at the Tabernacle, Mrs. Spurgeon would devote the sacred hour to reading to and teaching her darling children. Her son Thomas directly traces his conversion to these early lessons, and years afterwards she was able with deep thankfulness to write: " Happy mother! whose two beloved sons count it their highest honour to spend and be spent in the service of God ! "

But it was in her intense love for her husband that Mrs. Spurgeon then, as ever, found her chief joy. Writing long aftenvards, when suffering the deprivations of a confirmed invalid, she says: "I may here record my heartfelt gratitude to God that for a period of ten blessed years I was permitted to encircle him with all the comforting care and tender affection which it was in a wife's power to bestow. Afterwards, God ordered it otherwise. He saw lit to reverse our position to each other, and for a long season, suffering instead of service became my daily portion, and the care of comforting a sick wife fell upon my beloved."

As long as her health admitted, Mrs. Spurgeon faithfully fulfilled the duties of a pastor's wife. Especially was her

symj^athy and loving wisdom appreciated by the female candidates for baptism. She would counsel, cheer, and advise them in preparation for that imjwrtant rite, and when the hour for immersion came, the courtly dignity and inimitable modesty with which she assisted tlie trembling neophytes was " the admiration of all who beheld her."

" To this day." writes the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon, " many greet me with such glad words as these : ' She led lue to the baptismal pool, you know, and I shall never forget her loving words to me.' "

That Mrs. Spurgeon's wifely devotion was fully appreciated, the following inscription in the first volume of a sot of Calvin's Commentaries, presented by her to the pastor, will testify—

" The volumes making up a complete set of Calvm were a gift to me from my own most dear and tender wife. Blessed may she be among women. How much of comfort and strength she has ministered unto me it is not in my power to estimate. She has been to me God's best earthly gift, and not a httle even of Heavenly treasure has come to me by her means. She has often been as an angel of God unto me.

"C. H. Spurgeon."

CHAPTER HI.

THE PRISONER OF PAIN.

TT was in the year 1868 that Mrs. Spurgeon's tailing *- health became so alarmingly worse as to cause a complete breakdown. An operation was performed under the direction of the distinguished surgeon. Sir James Simpson, of Edinburgh, but although her hfe was prolonged thereby, she was thenceforward doomed to the secluded existence of an invalid.

One of the bitterest privations which such a condition entailed was that of being no longer able to accompany her husband on his holiday trips to the Continent. After

30 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

thirteen years of married life, the pastor's wife was the same tender-hearted " Susie " who had such hard work to keep from weeping over her sacrificial " lamb," and these partings were a constantly recurring wrench to her clinging affections. Added to this natural loneliness was at one period the torture of nervous terrors at night. Thoughts of burglars, fire, and other imaginations of a similar nature that will occur when bod^/ and mind are alike worn by sickness, made the hours of darkness a horror to her.

One night, when dwelling upon the two texts, " What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee," and " I will trust and not be afraid," Mrs. Spurgeon suddenly realized that " ' What time ' meant ' now,' when the creaking of a piece of furniture startles me, and the very thought of the bark of a dog strikes terror to my heart."

" 1 will trust in Thee ! " murmured the timid soul, and as she said it deliverance came. " ' I will trust, and not be afraid.' I surrendered myself and all my belongings to the Father's keeping, and," she writes, " I have had no more gloomy fancies, or midnight watchings. I have laid me down in peace and slept, because ' He only made me to dwell in safety.' "

There is no recipe for nervous fears to be compared with this, and many a one besides Mrs. Spurgeon has proved its efi&cacy ; but this glimpse of weakness makes the subject of our sketch appear very human and lovable.

The silver lining to these separations between the fond couple was doubtless to be found in the lovely letters to which they necessarily gave rise. No wife could possibly have craved more tender outpourings of affection than those which Charles Haddon Spurgeon showered in such lavish profusion upon his suffering " wifey."

Nothing, for example, could be more lover-like than the following, written to Mrs. Spurgeon when, during her absence in Brighton for the operation above named, her husband had been superintending the rebuilding of Helensburgh House—which took place about this time—and the refurnishing of his wife's rooms in particular.

" My own Dear Sufferer,

" I am pained indeed to learn from T 's kind

note that you are still in so sad a condition. Oh, may the ever-merciful God be pleased to give you ease !

" I have been quite a long round to-day—if a ' round ' can be ' long.' First to Finsbury, to buy the wardrobe,— a beauty. I hope you will live long to hang your garments in it, every thread of them precious to me for your dear sake. Next to Hewlett's, for a chandelier for the dining-room. Found one quite to my taste and yours. Then to Negretti and Zambra's to buy a barometer for my own very fancy, for I have long promised to treat myself to one. On the road I obtained the Presburg biscuits, and within their box I send this note, hoping it may reach you the more quickly. They are sweetened with my love and prayers.

" The bedroom will look well with the wardrobe in it ; at least, so I hope. It is well made, and I believe, as nearly as I could tell, precisely all you wished for. Joe " (Mr. Joseph Passmore had given this as a present) " is very good, and should have a wee note whenever darling feels she could write it without too much fatigue ; but not yet. I bought also a table for you, in case you should have to keep your bed. It rises or falls by a screw, and also winds sideways, so as to go over the bed, and then has a flap for a book or a paper, so that my dear one may read or write in comfort while lying down. I could not resist the pleasure of making this little gift to my poor suffering wifey, only hoping it might not often be in requisition, but might be a help when there was a needs-be for it. Remember, all I buy I pay for. I have paid for everything as yet with the earnings of my pen, graciously sent me in time of need. It is my ambition to leave nothing for you to be anxious about. I shall find the money for the curtains, etc., and you will amuse yourself by giving orders for them after your own delightful taste.

" I must not write more ; and indeed matter runs short except the old, old story of a love which grieves over you and would fain work a miracle and raise you up to perfect

32 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

health. I fear the heat afflicts j'ou. Well did the Elder say to John in Patmos concerning those who are before the throne of God, ' Neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat.'

" Yours to love in Ufe and death and eternally,

" C. H. S."

Mrs. Spurgeon's keen sense of the beautiful in Nature, and her ability to take pleasure in small things, were also a source of much delight to her in her secluded life.

One summer day we find her noticing with something approaching rapture, " on one of the broad-leaved grasses, a rain-drop sparkling like a diamond, and by its side had settled a large and beautiful greenish-blue fly. The safety of the drop was secured by its position on the leaf, and from this crystal goblet so cunningly contrived and balanced the insect was drinking, with full enjoyment and satisfaction. . . . Looking long and lovingly," the invalid thought she learned this lesson—

" Te.ich tliem that not a leaf can grow. Till life from Thee within it flow, That not a drop of dew can be, O Fount of being, save by Ihee."

Another time she was charmed as a child in having succeeded in tempting a " Red Admiral " butterfly to settle on a bursting egg-plum in her hand, and so be carried down the garden in triumph. "The exquisite contrast of colour," said Mrs. Spurgeon, " was perfect between the topaz-hued fruit and the regal robes of the quivering little beauty upon it, while her fairy-like poise on the plum, and the alternate opening and folding of her gorgeous wings were details which completed the fascination of the beholders." And she realized a fellowship of feeling with the poet Wordsworth, when he writes—

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

Thus was a spiritual and poetic nature ever drawn heavenward by the innocent loveliness that lies all around us upon God's earth.

I

MRS. C. H. SPURGEON 33

Sometimes the tender lessons drawn from bird or flower were a means of blessing to others, as was notably the case in the story of " The Lark's Nest," which was embodied in one of Mrs. Spurgeon's Book Fund Reports.

Rambling in a meadow near their home one day, Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon came upon a lark's nest with eggs in it, almost hidden among the long grass. Having carefully peeped at the treasure they went away, determined, if possible, to watch the progress of the hatching brood. But what was their horror next day to see that several cows had been turned into the meadow to graze ! This must mean inevitable destruction to the birdies' lowly home ; and quite anxiously Mrs. Spurgeon revisited the spot as soon as she could to see how the little family had fared.

Some readers may be able in imagination to share the relief which she felt to find the nest intact, and the nestlings alive and safe ! The grass had been closely cropped all round, but the lark's home had, almost miraculously as it seemed, been preserved from the devouring mouths and clumsy hoofs of the huge creatures which had trampled so near it. From this Mrs. Spurgeon's ready pen wove a parable of our Father's providence.

The little story, in due course, was read to a dying woman, whose fatherless little ones lay a heavy burden upon her heart. It came as a message from God, and so cheered her last hours that she died happily confiding in the goodness of Him who has even the falling sparrow in His care.

The widow's faith was justified, her four baimies were all provided for by a relative, and for years aftenvards they all sent tiny donations to Mrs. Spurgeon's Book Fund, " for mother's sake." Even by and by, from a new home in Canada, came little remembrances from " Birdie No. i," or " Birdie No. 2," to show that " The Lark's Nest " was not forgotten.

Their story was in its turn related in a subsequent report, and this again reached the hands of another poor mother whom death was calling from her dear ones. In this case, there is every reason to believe that the message of the

c

34 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

birds was the means not only of comforting the dying one's heart, but of turning it towards God. Thus, Mrs. Spurgeon had the happiness of knowing that her Httle parable was doubly blessed, and how much of unknown good it may have done, eternity only can show.

Possessing such an instinct for beauty, and the spiritual truths of which it is the garment, we are not surprised to find that the subject of our sketch was attracted to the production of literary work.

Mrs. Spurgeon's magnum opus was of course the editing, and no inconsiderable share in the writing, of her illustrious husband's Autobiography. This work, in four large volumes, contains many interesting and charmingly written chapters by the pastor's wife. In addition to this, however, she published a series of three little devotional books— A Cluster of Camphire, or Words of Cheer and Comfort for Sick and Sorrowful Souls, A Carillon of Bells, and A Basket of Summer Fruit.

The graceful and poetic touch of the author is well illustrated in the opening words of A Carillon of Bells. " ' He that spared not His own Son, . . . how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ?' Dear Lord, faith's fingers are touching the keys of this carillon of sweet bells this morning, and making them sing jubilantly to the praise of Thy gracious name !

"How shall He not! How shall He not!

He that spared not! How shall He not! "

" What a peal of absolute triumph it is ! Not a note of doubt or uncertainty mars the Heavenly music. Awake, my heart, and realize that it is thy faith which is making such glorious melody. . . . These silver bells have truly the power to scare away all evil things."

The attractiveness of these little volumes was enhanced by their dainty get-up ; shape, tint of covers, and outward embellishment being in every respect most artistic. Her husband used to say, with a twinkle in his eye, that her books were much superior to his in taste and finish, but

MRS. C. H. SPURGEON 35

that he was not without serious misgivings as to the contents !

A friend and frequent visitor after the Spurgeons' removal to " Westwood," relates an incident in which the pastor's admiration for his wife's taste led to one of the many witticisms for which he was noted.

Sitting at tea with the pair was one of the Tabernacle deacons, a silk mercer, noticeable for the brilliant auburn shade of his beard. Repeating to the latter a complimentary remark of Mrs. Spurgeon's respecting the artistic arrangement of goods in the mercer's window, Mr. Spurgeon added, " But I can't imagine how a man of your exquisite taste in colours could have chosen red whiskers ! "

" Golden, you mean! " rejoined the mercer, good-humouredly.

" Golden ! " responded Mr. Spurgeon instantly, " then I'll pledge my word it is twenty-two carrot ! "

Mrs. Spurgeon wrote her cheering words for fellow-Christians out of the wealth of her own experience. Again and again had she proved the Father's loving care for His children in small things as well as great. But in none of the incidents which we might easily multiply is that minute care so wonderfully exemplified as in the story of her wish for " an opal ring and a piping bullfinch."

It was during one of the invalid's serious attacks of illness that she half-jokingly mentioned to her husband her longing for these two luxuries. But even he, tender as he was, and solicitous to gratify her every possible desire, did not seriously consider the question of procuring either the jewel or the bird.

But not long after, he came into her room with a small box in his hand and delight upon his face. " There is your opal ring, my darling ! " hn said, and then told the astonishing tale of how an old lady he had once seen when she was ill had sent a note to the Tabernacle to say that she wished to give Mrs. Spurgeon a little present, if some one could be sent to fetch it.

Mr. Spurgeon's private secretary accordingly went, and received from the old lady's hands a small parcel, which on being opened was found to contain an opal ring !

36 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

As if this were almost, had it stood alone, too wonderful to believe, the gift—to the Spurgeons beyond doubt a proof of gracious indulgence to the sick one from the Lord Himself—was shortly after followed by the arrival of the coveted bullfinch, and in quite as singular a manner.

Mrs. Spurgeon had been removed to Brighton, there to undergo the operation to which we have already alluded. While she was away, the wife of a sick friend of the pastor's asked him to give a home to her pet songster, whose piping was too much for the sufferer. " I would give him to none but Mrs. Spurgeon,'' she said ; " Bully will interest and amuse her in her loneliness while you are so much away from her."

We can imagine the pleasure with which Mr. Spurgeon carried the bird to Brighton, and the joy with which it was received. We can hardly be surprised that the pastor's comment to his wife was, " I think you are one of your Heavenly Father's spoiled children, and He just gives you whatever you ask for."

Allowing that this conclusion bears somewhat hardly on many who are as undoubtedly God's children, but nevertheless do not have every wish gratified, we leave the remarkable story on record for our readers to furnish their own theory with regard to it. Mrs, Spurgeon herself says: "If our faith were stronger and our love more perfect, we should see far greater marvels than these in our daily lives."

On September 21, 1874, Mrs. Spurgeon had the joy of being present at the baptism of her two sons. The ceremony was of course performed by their father at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and an immense crowd of spectators were present.

The thankful and happy mother was presented by the church on this occasion with an illuminated address, commemorating the goodness of " Our gracious Lord that it should have pleased Him to use so greatly the pious teachings and example of our dear sister, Mrs. Spurgeon, to the quickening and fostering of the Divine life in the hearts of her twin sons."

But doubtless the greatest blessing, the most unfailing

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38 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

solace and alleviation of Mrs. Spurgeon's invalid seclusion which was ever bestowed upon her, was that which arose from her many years of loving service for the Book Fund. The story of this inspired work we must rviserve to speak of in a separate chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

A TREE OF THE LORD's OWN PLANTING.

'T^HE inception of the Book Fund scheme dates from the -*- summer of 1875.

In that year Mr. Spurgeon finished the first volume of his Lectures to my Students. Lying on the couch in her husband's study, Mrs. Spurgeon eagerly perused the proof-sheets.

" How do you like it ? " asked the pastor.

" I wish," was the enthusiastic reply, " that I could place it in the hands of every minister in England."

The author of John Ploughman was nothing if not practical. He promptly struck the iron while it was hot by rejoining, " Then why not do so ? How much will you

Now it just happened that in a drawer upstairs was a pile of crown-pieces, which it had been a kind of hobby with Mrs. Spurgeon to withdraw from circulation whenever they fell into her hands. She little guessed all through those years for what purpose the cumbrous, medal-like coins were being reser\^ed ! She went to her hoard, and counted the money out. There was exactly sufficient to pay for one hundred copies of her husband's book. She at once resolved to offer the treasured coins to the Lord, and "in that moment . . . the Book Fund was inaugurated."

The next number of the Sword and Trowel contained an invitation to poor Baptist ministers to apply for gratuitous copies of Lectures to my Students. They responded so freely, that Mrs. Spurgeon distributed two hundred of the

volumes instead of the one hundred she had at first contemplated.

The next month Mr. Spurgeon inserted in his magazine a brief appeal to friends who would like to help in this work of free circulation. " Cannot something be done to provide ministers with books ?" he asked. " If they cannot be made rich in money, they ought not, for their people's sake, to be starved in soul."

This resulted in a generous response, and the scheme was soon officially known as " Mrs. Spurgeon's Book Fund."

It was an interesting coincidence that just about the time that the pastor's invalid wife was watching the early development of her plan for helping needy ministers, she was also carefully cherishing a tiny lemon-plant grown from a pip placed some months before in a garden-pot. The idea suggested itself that the seedling was a fitting emblem of her embryo Fund, and thenceforward the two were inseparably connected in her mind.

At first this notion was the source of a good deal of merry teasing from the mirthful twins, who would saucily ask whether any lemons had yet appeared. But " You'll see," answered their mother, " the Lord will send me hundreds of pounds for this work yet."

Friends outside were rather charmed with the poetical fancy, and would send donations as '' A few drops of water for the lemon-plant," or " Another leaf for your tree."

In little over twelve months the tiny tree boasted no less than twenty-one leaves, and one of the boys, who was clever enough to not only draw but engrave, executed a small picture of it for insertion in the magazine. And the growth of the Fund kept pace with the plant.

The receiving of the gifts of subscribers, the sending out of the parcels of books, and the arrival of the letters of delighted thanks which were evoked, combined to constitute a source of perpetual interest and pleasure to the invalid. " The gold," she wrote, " has seemed to lose its earthly dross when consecrated to Him, and has often shed a light as of Heaven's own golden streets upon my pathway ! Coming in seasons of great pain and suffering, these gifts have been like precious anodynes to soothe

40 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

my weary spirit and hush my restless thoughts. . , . They have almost charmed away my sorrow, by teaching me to plan for others'joy, and . , . leading to blessed commerce with Heaven, by supplying frequent occasions for prayer and praise."

One little girl wrote :—" Dear Mrs. Spurgeon,—I shall be eleven years old to-morrow, and papa says it will be your silver wedding-day. I have not a present worth sending you, but I should hke to send you half-a-crown towards a book for some poor minister who cannot buy books for himself. My papa is a minister, and I know how pleased he is if we make him a present of a book, but mamma says there are scores of ministers who have no one to make them presents of books except you. I wish I could send you ever so much more. Papa and mamma hope you and Mr. Spurgeon will live to see your golden wedding. I shall be grown up by that time, and perhaps have more money ; then I can give you what will send more than one book. Yours affectionately, Nellie."

Several times Mrs. Spurgeon was helped by large gifts of books and cards from publishers ; and one friend sent an annual Easter Gift of a generous quantity of note-paper and envelopes, all prettily stamped with initials and address, for the Book Fund correspondence. The same friend subsequently sent parcels of stationery for enclosure with the books for the use of poor ministers.

The year Frances Havergal died, Mrs. Spurgeon decided to send out as long as she could afford it the poetess' beautiful little work on Consecration —that " pearl of books," as Mrs. Spurgeon called it—as an extra blessing with every parcel dispatched.

In the year 1880 the lemon-tree was found to have attained a height of seven feet, while the Book Fund had distributed considerably over 20,000 volumes.

Very touching were many of the letters of application and tributes of thanks which found their way to Mrs. Spurgeon's hands. The appalling fact was revealed that many ministers' incomes were far below a hundred a year ! No wonder that such confessions as the following were common:—

MR. AND MRS. SPURGEON IN THEIR GARDEN.

42 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

" I have little to spend on books. My salary is only £60 per annum, so that when a new book comes it is like bread to the hungry. I do not say this to make you think I am a martyr—if so I am a very happy one, for I have chosen willingly Christ's service, and my very wants are a means of grace to me."

" Dear Mrs, Spurgeon,—I have this morning enjoyed the almost forgotten luxury of inspecting and handling a parcel of new books. ... As I sat with your books spread before me, a gleam of the old happiness returned, and I was glad to find that my old love had not been quite starved nor crushed to death."

Another, as warmly, but somewhat less sadly, wrote :— " The parcel of books has arrived safely. No words of mine can express my gratitude to you for so rich a gift. It is the most valuable present I have received during my twenty years' ministry. . . . May the Lord Jesus bless you more and more, and spare you many, many years, and send you friends and give you joy in seeing this noble work growing by your hands ! If those who contribute of their wealth only knew the gladness awakened in our hearts, the stimulus and food supplied to weary, jaded minds, the instruction and precious truth which find their way into our sermons, and which in turn cheer and bless many other souls through these noble presents, they would feel themselves more than recompensed even in this world, and before the Master shall say ' Well done! ' "

But there were some that suggested, in their very gratitude, needs more urgent even than the want of books. For example, one poor minister says:—

" When I witness the self-denial, and hard, unremitting labour to which my wife cheerfully submits herself to keep our household moving in comfort in the sphere God has given, I cannot with any pleasure add to her difficulty by purchasing the books I often covet, though this doubtless hinders the freshness and variety of my ministry."

Another, with still greater frankness, wrote:—" I never dare now to think of a new book. Two or three times I have begun to save a little money towards the purchase of a long-coveted work, but every time it has gone for

sometliing else. John, or little Harry or Walter, must have boots, or mother is ill, or the girls' frocks are getting shabby, and so the precious volumes are still unattainable."

Glimpses into the lives of poor ministers as letters such as these afforded suggested to Mrs. Spurgeon's mind the need for another fund. Thus was presently started the Pastors' Aid Society, which, running side by side with the Book Fund, assisted poor ministers with grants of money in times of special adversity, as well as of clothing both new and second-hand.

When it came to be known that sometimes a pastor's children were forced to lie in bed while their clothes were washed because they did not possess a change, friends came forward who thought it a joy to subscribe to this Fund in both coin and kind, as well as to that for providing books.

The letters of thanks these gifts evoked were even more touching than those received in response to the parcels of books, though revealing a most deplorable state of things in some cases.

A friend in Scotland having sent a regular supply of soft woollen shawls, one of these was, said the recipient, " a strangely acceptable present, as you will see when I tell you that last winter I so much needed a large scarf or plaid such as Scotchmen wear, that my wife cut her shawl (of the same kind as the one now sent, but a different colour) to make this said wrap, and now, as the winter is upon us and she requires such a comfort, it comes ! "

One might indeed devote a whole chapter to incidents showing how marvellously in ntimberless instances did the presents sent fit in detail the needs of the particular persons to whom they were dispatched.

" You must have been Divinely directed what to send," wrote one grateful recipent. " Only about ten days ago my dear wife said tliat she really ought to have a water-l)roof cloak ; we both agreed that it was quite needful, but how to get one was the difiiculty ; when, lo ! on opening your parcel, almost the first thing we came across was the very garment we had been talking about, and it fits splendidly ! "

44 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

"Was this," asks Mrs. Spurgeon, "a mere matter of chance, think you ? "

Another time she wrote :—" A mother put on a dress which I had sent her, and found that, i^ measurements had been taken, its proportions could not have been more correct. Her children were in the room, all delighted to see how nice she looked, when her eldest girl thoughtfully said, ' Mother, what puzzles me is, how Mrs. Spurgeon knows our fit for boots and dresses, and all those things she sends us ; it is as if they had been made for us ! ' ' My darling,' was the answer, ' Mrs. Spurgeon herself could not know, but our God does, and He put it into her heart to send just the things suitable for us.' "

One more instance, and surely our readers will be ready to agree with Mrs. Spurgeon that the Father by whom even the hairs of our head are numbered was specially watching—if there could be such a thing as speciality with the Infinite !—over the distribution of the bounty committed to her trust.

There reached her, on one occasion, a huge package of gentlemen's clothes, the whole of an extensive and valuable wardrobe, sufficient in quantity to supply substantial outfits to six or seven poor pastors. It was unsolicited and unexpected, and at the moment Mrs. Spurgeon felt rather at a loss as to its disposal. But almost immediately after came letters of appeal from six different applicants, disclosing such pressing need that the almoner could but exclaim, " The Lord must have meant these coats and vests and beautiful under-garments for these special people ! "

One of those who shared in this bounty wrote :—" I had been asking God to send me a pair of new shoes and a pair of trousers, and how to begin to thank Him I do not know."

Besides clothing, the money gifts disbursed amounted to an average of £350 per annum, and • represented assistance in every variety of need. Doctors' bills were paid in innumerable cases, food and medicine procured, comforts provided for the new baby and its mother, or the little gathered flower laid decently away under the turf without privation to those who were left. How many heavy burdens were lightened, how many precious lives prolonged

A

by the timely help of the Pastors' Aid Fund, He only knows from whom its inspiration came.

And still the lemon-tree flourished. " It is brought up to the house, ma'am," said the gardener one day. " It's making a deal of new wood." While to the Book Fund, and the Pastors' Aid Fund, and the clothing supply was added another branch of usefulness, the regular grant of The Sword and Trowel to a number of poor ministers unable to afford to buy it themselves ; and other off-shoots were still to follow.

The year 1878 was a season of great suffering to Mrs. Spurgeon. Her chronic malady reached a crisis at that time, through which it at one period seemed doubtful if she would survive.

It was during these days of pain and darkness that she who had so often been strangely and sweetly comforted by unlooked-for messages from her Heavenly Father, received one of the loveliest through the simple vehicle of an oaken log burning upon her fire.

After describing her trouble of mind one very gloomy day, as she strove in vain to understand what seemed the hard dealings of Providence in permitting her service to be so often hindered by ill-health, Mrs. Spurgeon goes on to say :—

" For a while silence reigned in the little room .... Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound, a little clear musical note, like the tender trill of a robin beneath my window. ' What can it be ? ' I said to my companion, who was dozing in the firelight; ' surely no bird can be singing out there at this time of the year and night ! ' We listened, and again heard the faint, plaintive notes, so sweet, so melodious, yet mysterious enough to provoke for a moment our undisguised wonder. Presently my friend exclaimed, * It comes from the log on the fire ! ' and we soon ascertained that her surprised assertion was correct. The fire was letting loose the imprisoned music from the old oak's inmost heart. Perchance he had garnered up this song in the days when all went well with him, when birds twittered merrily on his branches, and the soft sunlight flecked his tender leaves with gold ; but he had grown old since

46 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

then, and hardened ; ring after ring of knotty growth had sealed up the long-forgotten melody until the fierce tongues of the flame came to consume his callousness and the vehement heat of the fire wrung from him at once a song and a sacrifice.

" * Oh ! ' thought I, * when the fire of affliction draws songs of praise from us, then indeed are we purified and our God glorified ! Perhaps some of us are like this old oak log—cold, hard, and insensible ; we should give forth no melodious sounds were it not for the fire which kindles round us, and releases tender notes of trust in Him, and cheerful compliance with His will. As I mused, the fire burned and my soul found sweet comfort in the parable so strangely set forth before me. Singing in the fire ! Yes, God helping us, if that is the only way to get harmony out of these hard, apathetic hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hotter than before.'"

Thus did the gracious, poetic soul draw honey from the humblest flowers that bloomed around her path.

Once more the suffering abated, and eagerly did Mrs. Spurgeon resume her beloved work. Year by year was published the cheering record of growing usefulness. Ministers of all denominations were assisted. In one year, amongst thousands of others, applications were received from and granted to Quakers, Waldensians, Irvingites, Moravians, and a Unitarian. Even members of the Anglican section of the Church of England were not loth to avail themselves of the opportunity of enriching their minds with Lectures to my Students or The Treasiiry of David, and Mrs. Spurgeon records the fact that some of the most courteous and gracefully appreciative letters of thanks she received were those from clergymen.

The countries to which parcels of books and packets of sermons were dispatched were as diversified and wide apart as the religious views of the recipients—India, America, China, Labrador, Jamaica, the West Indies, Natal, Newfoundland, Buenos Ayres, every comer of the globe was visited by these ever-welcome gifts. The correspondence entailed was enormous, the average number of letters received per month being about five hundred,

and once the total for four weeks reached the amazing number of seven hundred and fifty-five.

As in the annals of every work carried on in childlike faith from the pure motive of love to God and desire to help the needy, the story of Mrs. Spurgeon's Book Fund abounds in instances of gifts that came, unasked, save of Him; sweet surprises, and timely deliverances from threatened debt which cannot be ascribed to anything but Divine intervention. Donations of £25 or £50 from individuals were comparatively common, and on one memorable occasion a friend called with a cheque for £100, just before the arrival of a quarterly account for expenditure so unexpectedly heavy that a sleepless night of anxiety would have been the inevitable result but for this merciful provision. " Before I called, He answered," is Mrs. Spurgeon's thankful record. " And though trouble was not very distant, He had said, ' It shall not come nigh thee.' O, my soul, bless thou the Lord and forget not this His loving ' benefit! ' "

By the close of the year 1880 the lemon-tree had reached the height of seven feet. It had also developed some sharp thorns, which found a parallel in sundry experiences in connection with the Book Fund, causing its owner to exclaim, " Dear emblem tree, are you so true to your mystical character as all that ? "

Some of these prickings were inflicted by the donors of books from their own libraries. There were instances, of course, in which most valuable additions were by this means made to the parcels sent out, but there was the usual tendency among the " benevolent " to clear lumber off their shelves by dispatching it to Mrs, Spurgeon.

The lady almoner thought the depths of disappointment from this source had been reached when a French Grammar, Mangnall's Questions, and Advice to a Newly-Married Pair had been received as aids to pulpit preparation. But soon after came The Complete Housewife and Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion, published in 1766.

" After this," she says, " I thought I might have borne anything, but to-day has brought me a sharper experience. ... I had received an anonymous note, bidding

48 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

me expect the arrival of a case of books for the ' Clerical Library,' ' Carriage paid as far as possible.' With much anxiety I awaited the advent of the case. When it made its appearance its size was so imposing that I did not grudge the nine shillings I had to pay for transit, confidently hoping to find many choice treasures in the contents But the case was chiefly filled with old

hymn-books, works by Unitarians, and books against Believers' Baptism."

Mrs. Spurgeon's justifiable chagrin at such a slap in the face might well be imagined, especially as she was compelled to disappoint several longing applicants, to whom she had promised a share in the hoped-for treasure.

Occasionall}^ also, painful rebuffs were deaJt to her kind heart even by those whom she desired to benefit. A few ministers so strangely misunderstood the spirit of her service that the gifts were either " claimed as a right or disdained as a charity." But, after all, the thorns on the tree were few and far between compared with its foliage and flowers.

The last record we have of the lemon-tree is in 1895, when it had reached a height of eleven feet, while it measiued seven feet across. The total receipts of the Book Fund up to the same date were £23,500, in addition to many thousands distributed through the Pastors' Aid Fund, together with the substantial total of the fund " For General use in the Lord's Work," and also the value of books and clothes given by friends.

Writing at the close of twenty years' labour, when a magnificent total of 199,315 volumes had been distributed, Mrs. Spurgeon writes—keeping up the symbolism between the fund and the tree—" The great central stem is, metaphorically. The Book Fund itself, out of which all the branches have naturally grown, and with which they all continue to be vitally connected. Springing from the main trunk, and almost rivalling it in strength and usefulness, is the largest limb of the tree, which represents The Pastors' Aid Fund. This, in its turn, has thrown out the widely-spreading branch from which the well-filled boxes of The Westwood Clothing Society have dropped

into many a poor pastor's home. Peering between the thickly-interlaced foliage I s]:)y a sturdy bough bearing the inscription Home Distribution of Sermons, and an equally vigorous off-shoot dedicated to The Circitlaiion of Sermons Abroad, while the topmost twigs, on whicli / can plainly read the words Foreign Translations of Sermons, bid fair to rival in all respects their older companions."

Perhaps we cannot do better than close this chapter of our sketch with a few verses from the conclusion of a cheerful poem on the Book Fund and the lemon-tree which " darling son Tom " sent his mother when he was in New Zealand.

"From what a very tiny seed

The glorious Book Fund grew ; To what proportions it would reach

Not e'en its planter knew. ♦ » * * *

And now the Fund Tree firmly stands With shacle, and sap, and scent;

A tree of knowledge—all its leaves For Pastors' blessing meant.

Live on, live on, dear lemon-tree

Be never moribund. Fit emblem from the very first

Of Mrs. Spurgeon's Fund."

CHAPTER V.

WALKING ALONE.

OVER the closing years of Mrs. Spurgeon's life space forbids us to linger. On January 31, 1892, the light of her eyes, the chosen of her youth, and the no less fond lover of her grey hairs, was taken from her. It is not for us to venture to describe the anguish of that bereavement; but many years before, in one of those pictures or parables by means of which this sensitively organized woman so many times received spiritual teaching, a foreshadowing had been given her of

D

so WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

the manner in which her soul should be sustained when the dreaded moment came.

At the time of her great sorrow, Mrs. Spurgeon recalled as almost prophetic the words iii which she had recorded a memorable natural phenomenon of the year 1881, during one of her husband's health-seeking visits to the south of France.

" At 3.30 P.M.," she wrote—the exact date is not given, but the circumstance will be in the memory of many of our readers—" midnight had taken the place of day, and spread its sable \vings over the earth prematurely. Nothing could be seen all around but black, lowering masses of dense darkness, which hung like fimeral palls from the sky, and now and again lifted their heavy folds only to reveal a deeper gloom beyond. Not a ray of heaven's light pierced this dreadful overshadowing, and a stillness more awesome than that of real night hushed all familiar sounds.

" Into this dismal murkiness came two letters from Mentone, telling of a placid sea, warm breezes, and clear, bright skies—letters so full of joy and good news and glad delight, that for the moment the unbidden tears would gather from the sheer longing I had to be in the sunshine too ! But when the shutters were closed and the curtains drawn, and the dreary scene without excluded, I found I still had light in my dwelling, for, like a star, better seen from the depths of a well than from higher ground, shone the conspicuous mercy that my beloved was spared this doleful experience. I knew that the fearful darkness could not spread its black wings as far as the Riviera, and I blessed God for the comfortable certainty that * over there ' the beauty and splendour of an unclouded sky were doing their sweet, restful work on a tired heart and brain. So my gloom was dispelled by the light of my husband's happiness, and the sunbeams imprisoned in his precious letters had travelled a thousand miles to turn my night into day !

" I wonder if this is a faint picture of the comfort wherewith God consoles His bereaved children by enabling them to realize the unspeakable blessedness of those who have

' gone before.' Temporary separations by distance are but the foreshadowing of a sterner parting, which, sooner or later, must divide us from those whose love seems to be our very life. Happy they who can look beyond the grim darkness of such a sorrow to the unsullied light and bliss which the hope of eternal reunion affords ! "

This was ever the one unbroken string of her harp of joy, in which, like the pathetic figure of " Hope " conceived by Mr. G. F. Watts, the heart-wning widow still found heavenly music. We see the same thought constantly recurring in all she wrote on the subject of her great loss through the twelve solitary years that remained of her life.

Before long she was able to testify : " In my deep and increasing loneliness I still found sweetest comfort in praising God for His will concerning my beloved and myself, and have even been able to thank Him for taking His dear servant from this sorrowful land of sin and darkness to the bliss and glory of His eternal presence. . . . Many a time, when the weight of my dreadful loss seemed as if it must crush me, it has been lifted by the remembrance that in heaven my dear one is now perfectly praising his Lord, and that if I can sing too, I shall even here on earth be joining him in holy service and acceptable worship."

It had been a source of joy to the devoted couple that on Mr. Spurgeon's last visit to Mentone his wife had accompanied him ; thus their wish of many unsatisfied years was granted, and together they gazed upon those scenes of beauty which previously Mrs. Spurgeon had only known through her husband's description of them. But this added poignancy to the grief of the one left behind, when, staying for a while as the guest of Mr. Hanbury in his palatial home at La Martola, she constantly came upon new treasures—something " more rare, costly or beautiful " than she had ever seen before, and her first impulse was to f.o and tell him about it, and bring him to share her pleasure. Then, remembering that he was gone, her grief would awaken again with terrible intensity, till it was borne in upon her that our Lord's estimate of true affection was expressed in the words, "If ye loved Me, ye would

52 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

rejoice," and she strove to calm the passionate yearning of her spirit by dwelHng on the thought that no matter how she longed to share with him the loveliness all around her, he was " with Christ, which is far httter."

In 1895 the balm of Divine healing had so far accomplished its blessed work that Mrs. Spurgeon was able to write : " The thought of my dear one's happiness in Heaven alwaj'S brings soothing to my heart, be its pain never so fierce. There is a likeness of him in the study just over against where he used to sit—so natural, so life-like, that for these three years I have averted my eyes from it when entering the room rather than have the fountain of tears and grief continually unlocked. But I am now beginning to school myself to look up in his dear face, and say, with hands uplifted to God in praise, ' I give thee joy, beloved, that thou art with Him !'"

It was during this year that Mrs. Spurgeon, while visiting Bexhill, learned that the town possessed no Baptist Chapel. It occurred to her to busy herself in establishing one as a memorial of her husband. Soon, through the instrumentality of her prayers and work, a school-chapel was opened, and two years later she had the privilege of laying the foundation-stone of a handsome building, erected "To the glory of God, and in perpetual remembrance of her beloved husband's blameless hfe, forty years' public ministrj^ and still continued proclamation of the Gospel by his printed sermons."

In 1899, on February? 8, Mrs. Spurgeon held a reception in the basement of the Tabernacle, where, in one day, she received no less than £6,367 towards the Rebuilding Fund.

Thus the years of separation wore on, cheered by the presence of both her sons and the love of a ^^dde circle of friends. Her constant companion was Miss E. H. Thome, with whom she enjoyed a close and happy intimacy for nearly forty years. As long as strength w^ould permit Mrs. Spurgeon continued to work for her beloved Book Fund, with its many branches, and also to expend much loving care upon the selection of the daily texts for " Spur-geon's Illustrated Almanack," which had been her pleasant

From aj>hoto. by\

MRS. SPURGEON.

54 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

task for about thirty years. But the special occupation of her widowhood was, of course, her biography of her husband, to which we have already alluded, a work in four large volumes, in the compilation of which she was assisted by Mr. Spurgeon's private secretary, Mr. Harrald.

In the summer of 1903 Mrs. Spurgeon was seized by the malady, the result of a chill, from which she never really recovered. She did not leave her bed again. Early in September it was believed that every day might be her last, yet she lingered for nearly two months.

Miss Thorne was her constant and devoted nurse. One day, when growing steadily weaker, the invalid asked, " Whom shall I see next ? " referring to the many friends who craved the privilege of a farewell visit.

" Whom would you like to see, darling ? " inquired Miss Thome.

Her face radiant with deathless love, Mrs. Spurgeon at once exclaimed, " My husband ! "

The weary waiting time was fast drawing to its close. On October 17 the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon received from his dying mother her blessing for himself and his twin brother. " The blessing—the double blessing of your father's God be upon you ! " she murmured, and bade him a tender farewell.

Later still, with clasped hands, she breathed, " Blessed Jesus ! Blessed Jesus! I can see the King in His Glory ! "

In the forenoon of Thursday, October 22, 1903, a notice was placed outside the Tabernacle to announce that "Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon entered Heaven at 8.30 this

mornmg."

The crowded funeral service, which was conducted by the Rev. Archibald Brown and the Rev. C. B, Sawday, was divested, as far as possible, of the usual sombre trappings of grief. No black horses drew the many mourning carriages, no crape or hat-bands were seen, and there was no black border to the special sheet of hymns.

Concluding his touching and appropriate address, Mr. Brown reminded his hearers, in words with which we may fitly bring this sketch of a true woman and devoted workei

to a close, that, in the early days of their mutual love, Mr. Spurgeon's frequent word to his dear one would be— " Meet me at the Palace," and the Crystal Fountain was the appointed spot.

" The phrase," said Mr. Brown, " seemed to glow with prophetic fire. The tryst is kept, and there is glory at the fountain to-day."

(Bnwm Bootlj^CucIur.

CHAPTER I.

' A SWEET AND PLEASANT CHILD.*

IT seems no exaggeration to say that in the annals of Christian workers, in the history of the rise and progress of the many rehgious sects and organizations in existence to-day, the Booth family and their achievements are absolutely unique.

Other reformers may have been as enthusiastic and capable as " The General," but none have ^^delded so mighty and far-reaching a power for the regeneration of the world. Many have been unmarried or childless, or hampered with a partner uncongenial towards their aims and ideals. Thus their influence has been limited to the comparatively few with whom they could come into personal touch, and their work when they were called away passed into other hands and the guidance of different minds. But General Booth, enabled by the perfect sympathy of his wife to bring up his large family in complete accord with the one absorbing motive of his life, has, as it were, extended himself into every part of the world. His own flesh and blood, inspired by his own thoughts and feelings, rendering him as loyal obedience as the very members of his own body, are carrying on his work all over the civilized globe. The Salvation Army resembles a huge banyan-tree, of which every branch springing from the parent stem

strikes roots into the earth and shoots forth branches of its own as an independent tree while still in living connection with the main trunk.

We cannot all be banyan-trees,—God has a place and a use for plants and shrubs of every kind,—but we must perforce admire this colossal and beneficent growth, and one of the most beautiful and fruitful of the offspring stems was the consecrated life of the General's second daughter, Emma, afterwards Mrs. Booth-Tucker, widely known as " The Consul."

Born in i860, Emma Booth's birth and infancy were singularly coincident with her mother's first printed exposition and personal example of the right of women, if so called, to publicly expound the Scriptures.

A very short time before this little daughter saw the light, Mrs. Booth's mind had been deeply exercised in producing a pamphlet in defence of an American woman-evangelist whose work had been the subject of hostile criticism. When the baby was but three months old, the mother made her debut in her husband's pulpit, delivered a sermon, and thus began her own career as a preacher. From that time forward her thoughts were filled with her new work, and if ever an infant may be considered to have imbibed any particular tendency of disposition witli its earliest natural sustenance, Emma Booth must have thus drawn into her veins a desire to spread the Gospel.

In common with other members of this remarkable family, little Emma professed conversion at an extremely tender age, and the really serious view which she took of her responsibilities may be judged from the fact that even her dolls were thencefonvard condemned to a severely Puritanical style of dress. " I feel that we must be so careful," said the small mother to a friend who vainly tempted her with the offer of a flounce to a doll's frock, " even in trifles like that. We must not even dress our dollies in worldly clothes."

She was exceedingly fond of these said dolls, nevertheless, and one of the handsomest she possessed was given her under very interesting circumstances.

58 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

Among Emma's mates at a small day-school which for a time she attended was a motherless child of somewhat deficient intellect, who, because of her general unattractive-ness, had become the object of the derision and persecution of her thoughtless school-fellows. It was a touching proof of the maternal tenderness of Emma's heart, and an earnest of her future work among the uncared-for masses, that she soon took this poor little creature under her wing, washed her face, did her hair, and defended her from the teasing to which she had previously been subjected. The large doll above mentioned was a gift from this child's father, in token of his gratitude for Emma's kindness to his little one.

Some years later, but while still in her early teens, Mr. and Mrs. Booth allowed this daughter to have a live protege in place of her ere while beloved dolls.

To comfort the last moments of a poor woman whom she had been in the habit of visiting, Emma promised to look after her youngest child, a boy of about two years old. Being permitted to have the little fellow in her own care under her father's roof, the young girl spared no trouble in faithfully fulfilling her trust. She even washed his little socks ^^dth her own hands, and when he was restless at night would walk up and down the room with him in her arms that no one else in the house might be disturbed. Through her loving tact the child became in course of time a permanent inmate of the General's home, and was treated as one of the family. He is now the " Major Secunda," one of the Army's medical officers in India,

It is needless to say that, when necessity arose, Emma devotedly mothered her own small sisters and brothers. " I can safely leave all the younger children in her and Willie's charge," \wote Mrs. Booth, when the little girl was only about eleven years old.

At this age, being not quite satisfied with the completeness of her earlier conversion, Emma once more gave herself to God and His service. Although, owing to excessive nervousness and timidity, she did not speak in public or to adults until quite grown-up, she began to hold meetings for children in her own home when only thirteen years

EMMA BOOTH PRAYING IN THE COTTAGE WITH THE FISHER FOLK.

6o WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

old. On these occasions the practical young evangelist of cleanliness as well as godliness would wash and brush up the members of her congregation in the scullery before introducing them to the school-room where the service was to be held.

" I loved children," she said. " I longed to help them, I was not afraid of children, but grown-up people."

And, having excluded even the members of her own family with the exception of her younger sister, Eva, she would sing, pray, and talk with the little urchins she thus gathered in, until she absolutely brought them to the penitent form in tears.

But retiring as was Emma's natural disposition, she could be bold and courageous when her sense of duty compelled. There is no doubt that the strong feeling of personal importance and responsibility which the General and his wife appear to have cultivated in all their children was a great support in many crises when young people differently brought up would have failed through a lower estimate of their own powers.

On one occasion Emma actually ventured to separate boys whom she saw fighting in the Park opposite her home, and talked to them until she effected a reconciliation.

Another time, when in the country, she ran after a boy who was driving a donkey-cart and cruelly beating his little steed. Remonstrances proving ineffectual, she seized the reins and stopped the cart. Then, snatching the stick from the angry young ruffian, she soundly chastised him with it about his head and face.

The boy appears to have been too much astonished to make any resistance, and finally he was prevailed upon to kneel down with the little lady in the sandy road, and pray for forgiveness. Then, promising never to ill-treat his donkey again, he offered to drive her home. On the way Emma told him how to bathe the bruises her wholesome beating had caused, and thereafter the reformed lad looked upon her as one of his best friends.

Once when Emma was staying at the seaside apart from her parents, she heard of a fisherman who was in the habit of boiling his lobsters alive. The thought of

such cruelty was agony to her, but instead of suffering in hcljjless silence, as most children would have done, the future Consul set off at once to put a stop to it. Alone she visited the fisherman's cottage, and prayed and pleaded with him and his wife until they promised, with contrition, never to commit such barbarity again.

A sensitive conscientiousness as well as a tender heart was a marked characteristic of Emma Booth's childhood.

Adjutant Parkins, once the maid " Polly " of the Booth household, testifies that had Miss Emma been sent up to bed supperless as punishment for some childish fault, no amount of persuasion would have induced her to touch a single bite of anything taken up to her on the sly. And Emma herself has said that when her mother was away from home, and she was left more or less in charge of the younger ones, she used to " imagine mamma was in the room all the time, and could see everything that was done."

On another occasion, having been sent with her nurse to have a tooth out, Emma's courage at the crucial moment utterly broke down, and she left the surgery without having had the operation performed.

On the way home, however, it suddenly occurred to her that her disobedience to her parents' wishes might have "hurt the dentist in his soul." Then conscientiousness and that exalted opinion of the weight of her own personal influence which we have before remarked, actually triumphed over natural fear, and the child went bravely back, confessed her anxiety to the dentist, and had the tooth removed forthwith. The gentleman, we are told, was touched to tears by the concern expressed for the well-being of his soul, and assured his Httle patient that if any harm had been inflicted it was more than atoned for by the prompt and practical repentance which had followed.

But for an absolutely self-oblivious regard for the feelings of another, one anecdote told of Emma Booth when scarcely more than an infant goes beyond anything we have ever heard or read. Mrs. Booth having had occasion to give her little daughter a whipping, the child was anxious for days afterwards lest her mother's own hand should

fi^

62 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

have been injured by the severity of the blows it had inflicted !

After this, it is needless to assure our readers that as a daughter Emma Booth was conspicuous for devoted filial affection. " If mamma was resting, Emma would keep the house quiet, and would sit on the stair to prevent any one passing the door; if mamma was troubled, Emma would try in every way to help and cheer her. She spent her life in planning and arranging how she could best spare her mother trouble, and bring her joy."

And these loving ministrations were warmly appreciated. Mrs. Booth was aware of the moral superiority of her own carefully-trained children over ordinary young people, nor was she afraid of letting them know her good opinion of them.

Writing on one occasion when away from home, to Emma, who was suffering from one of those attacks of low spirits to which, from nervous weakness, she was prone, Mrs. Booth said :—" I am quite willing to admit that most girls of sixteen would feel very much as you did about Katie coming, my being away, etc. But then, my Emma is not one of these ' most girls.' She has more sense, more dignity of character, and above all more religion. She only got into the dumps, and for once felt and spoke like ' one of the foolish women.' "

We might easily multiply stories of Emma Booth's unselfishness, helpfulness, and remarkably early piety. A lady who was governess to the Booth children for some years assures us that Emma talked frequently about her conversion and religious experience. " Always modestly and unaffectedly, 3'et with no uncertainty," writes this witness. " One day I said to her, ' Emma, you are a very happy little girl; you look happy, and you are so often smiling ! ' 'Oh yes,' she replied, gently, ' don't you think it is because I am a Christian child ? You have often told me it is the Christian who is happy-' Then after thinking a little she went on, ' Now a child who does not love Jesus cannot really look happy.' Indeed, she had a very sweet smile, though she was such an earnest, grave little maiden. She always felt the responsibility of being an elder sister,

and used to say, ' You see the little ones will copy

me.

This lady also relates that one of the first steps that led to the ultimate conversion of her own mother was the incident of little Emma and one of her sisters kneeling one on either side of her, holding her hands and praying for her, when one day she called at their home.

" She stands before me," the governess concludes, " just a sweet and pleasant child, always loving, always unselfish, with ever the ready word ' Never mind me.' Surely with the life and character of such a Mother in Israel, her children shall rise up to call her blessed."

CHAPTER II.

' A SORT OF HUNT ' FOR THE LOST.

"pMMA BOOTH'S public ministration seems to have ^-^ actually commenced at the age of ten, though shortly afterwards a severe accident to her hand, which shattered her nervous system, interrupted her work for many years.

Her first testimony was given at an experience meeting held after a poor children's tea at Bethnal Green.

ALfter some hesitation, owing to a remembered fault during the day, Emma stood up, and, strengthened by inward prayer, faltered, with the tears rolling down her cheeks—" I cannot say much, but I can say I love Jesus. I have many trials, but—

'When fierce temptations try my heart, I'll sing, Jesus is mine! And so, though tears at times may start, I'm singing all the time.'"

She retained to the last a firm belief in the efficacy of tears, having many times proved that a falling tear would do more towards softening a hard heart than many exhortations.

64 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

Very soon after this, Emma made her second appearance, and briefly addressed a hall full of the roughest East End children. Following her elder sister and brother, she spoke very simply and lovingly from the words, " Suffer the little children to come unto Me." Ana many children, we are told, sought the Saviour that evening.

For the reason mentioned above, this was little Emma's last platform effort for many a long day, though in private she constantly sought to win souls.

It was about this time that she made her first personal convert—a Jewish child. Having made this little girl's acquaintance one day when out bowling her hoop, a warm friendship sprang up between them, and Emma was allowed to accept invitations to visit at her new friend's house.

Soon after, the little Jewess was called upon to undergo a severe operation to one of her eyes, and so helped and strengthened was she by Emma's earnest prayers on her behalf, that it resulted in a confession of belief in the Christian's Saviour.

We have already spoken of the meetings which Emma used to hold for poor children in her own home, and we find that she seemed always able to pray with as well as for any one in whose welfare she was interested, and though unable to address audiences at the public Holiness meetings which her brother and sister attended, she was able to lift her voice in supplication for the anxious ones.

When she was about fifteen, Emma had what was probably her first personal dealing with one of the adult " masses."

She was on her way to the Mission Hall in Hackney, where a meeting was to be held, when she noticed a rough-looking man leaning dejectedly against a wall. Something whispered to the young girl that this man's need was very great, and, mastering her timidity, she crossed over to him, and talked to him until she persuaded him to go to the meeting with her.

But, as this episode seemed to mark another decision-point in Emma's early life, we will continue the story in her own words.

" That night that man was saved. I found afterwards

EMMA BOOTH AS A YOUNG GIRL.

66 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

that he was a prodigal boy—a boy who had been away from home for years. Though a man now, he had left it when quite young. I asked him if he would like me to go home with him. He was crying ver^' much. He had been telling out the long catalogue of sins at Christ's feet; but a new ray of happiness lit up his face as we trotted off together to find that little mother's home. Of course, not being there you would not understand my feelings, but I shall never forget the impression that little mother's face made upon my heart. She was very short, and her face was very wan. As she lifted her arms to get them round this long-lost boy's neck, I thought she would never have succeeded, for he was a very big man indeed. As he knelt down at her feet she put her arms round him, and their tears mingled together. As she talked to him some of the sentences seemed written upon my heart, never to be effaced. ' With every blessing I have asked at my breakfast I have prayed for you ; and every time I have been out in the open air I have looked for you ! Indeed, all my life, Ben, has been a sort of hunt after you.'

" As I left them there, weeping and praising God together, and went home, I looked up through the darkness of that night into Christ's face, and said, ' Lord, let that be so with me ; whatever I have and am, let that be my experience, known in Heaven, and known amongst all who shall know me down here, that my whole life may be ' a sort of hunt' after those Thou didst die to redeem— whether eating or drinking, single or married, or whatever comes to me—that I may be able to say equally, when I recognize the prodigals whom Thou shalt help even me to bring home, my whole existence has been a ' sort of hunt' after them, and that my supreme joy was in their salvation."

Earnestly, indeed, and strenuously did Emma Booth seek to fulfil this, her girlhood's ideal. Having received from no less an authority than the late Sir Morell Mackenzie the assurance that she was gifted with one of the best throats he had ever known for public speaking, she prayed and strove earnestly for power to overcome her peculiar shrinking from platform testimon3^ But it was not until she was seventeen years of age—early enough, one may

say, for ordinary mortals, but abnormally late for one of the Booth family—that Emma at length conquered this repugnance and came out boldly in the same kind of work in which her sisters and brothers had already been long engaged.

Her first appearance was at St. Leonards, and astonished her relatives, who were unprepared for so sudden an accession of courage.

As so many times before in her young life, it was love and sympathy for another which wrought the victory. A " good little woman evangelist " was struggling in the poorer parts of that fashionable 3easide town with a lot of rough people and insufficient support. Emma Booth promised to help her, but did not go so far as to say she would take a service.

The evangelist was therefore as much surprised as anybody when, on the Sunday evening, Emma, obeying an inward impulse, ascended the rostrum, gave out a hymn, and subsequently announced her text.

This was the third verse of the tenth chapter of Isaiah, and the ice once broken she spoke with a fluency and apparent ease that betrayed little of the " unutterable things " which, she afterwards confessed to her mother, she was feeling inside.

The meeting was a great success, five souls being induced to seek salvation. And from that time forward Emma's rich, persuasive voice, with that originality of ideas and wonderful forcefulness of expression which, her biographer tells us, " combined to mark her out as one of Nature's orators," was heard with increasing frequency at the meetings of the " Christian Mission."

When Emma was eighteen that mission was definitely organized into the Salvation Army of world-wide fame, and it was her taste chiefly that assisted Mrs. Booth in the selection of that becoming " Hallelujah " bonnet which may have had not a little to do with the success and popularity of the whole scheme.

When Emma Booth was twenty years old, it seemed necessary to the General and his wife that some sort of training should be bestowed upon their young soldiers

68 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

before the latter could be properly equipped for sending out to fight the world.

The first house devoted to the purpose of a Training Home was the very one in which Emma had passed so many of her childish years, and where her first meetings for neglected little ones were held. And Emma herself, mature in character and religious experience, though so young in years, was appointed Matron of the female department.

One of the earliest " cadets " to come under the girlish " Mother's " influence was the present Mrs. " Colonel " Wilson. She now writes:—" From the first she exercised a Divine influence upon us all ; to me she became the ideal of all that was womanly and Christ-like. . . . Her lectures in those days were more like Bible-readings. She clung to her Bible, and taught us from it, giving us whole chapters to learn by heart. , . . Often would we be bathed in tears while she spoke to us on the love of God in Christ to souls, and a passion for sinners was kindled in our hearts that made us willing to go through loneliness and difficulty, fearing nothing.

" She inspired the nervous and fearful with confidence by assuring us that she was praying and believing for our triumph;

" She never discouraged any one, however dark, or tiresome, or wayward. Her life made us detest meanness or selfishness, to hate sin in every form."

It was unceasingly impressed upon these young soldiers that, in the language of St. Paul, the old man with his deeds must be crucified, so that they should cease to lust after the flesh, being delivered from all desire for worldly aggrandizement, pleasure, or ease, from all love of money, care about praise and esteem, and satisfaction in anything which was not fulfilment of duty and honourable to God.

The mornings in the Training Homes were usually devoted to Bible-study and the learning of sacred " songs " from the Army " song-book." The first chapter to be committed to heart was the fifty-third of Isaiah. Miss Booth at this time trained a Songsters' Brigade, which she subsequently took with her on a tour in the north of

England and Scotland to raise funds for the Training Home.

In the afternoons the cadets, under the title of the " Cellar, Gutter, and Garret Brigade," visited the dwellers in the slums. Here the nature of their work may be fittingly described by quoting some simple verses by the pen of the Training Home Mother herself.

"Cioing down with gladness at tlie Master's call, Going down to seek and save the worst of all, Going down to bid the sinning sin no more. Going down to point their eyes to Canaan's shore-

Going down to share the widow's lonely lot, Going down that I may rock the outcast's cot, Going down to clasp the orphan to my breast, Toiling hard that I may bring the toilers rest.

Going down to make the shimmer's dwelling neat, Going down to clothe the children's naked feet, Going down where eyes of mercy seldom see, Going down to make the poor a cup of tea.

Going down that I may send the lost ones up, Going down that by and by with Christ they'll sup, Going down while life shall last—still deeper down, Finding precious jewels for my Master's crown."

When one remembers what all this really meant for the girl cadets—dressing in old. shabby clothes that the poorest might feel thoroughly at home with them, sometimes with an old shawl in lieu of a bonnet—tramping weary miles through vilest streets, boldly entering the dens of the worst characters, sitting often upon the floors (and such floors !) to wash babies whose rags had not been removed from their poor little vermin-eaten bodies for days—tending the most loathsome and long-neglected of sick persons, facing the return of drunken parents or infuriated husbands —we cannot but heartily endorse Miss Booth's exclamation, " They are real heroines ! "

In the evenings came the Home Holiness and Experience meetings, when all shyness, diffidence and reserve as to

70 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

even the most sacred and inmost feelings were to be overcome. Not least among the disciplinary severities of the soldiers' training must have been the agonies of this Protestant confessional. But we a^e assured that it was not uncommon under stress of the emotions then evoked for the young people to stand up, and, bathed in tears, to voluntarily expose their own hidden inconsistencies and failures which no one had previously perceived.

The happiness of the cadets and their affection for the Home was, however, evinced by " spontaneous outbursts of joyous praise to God whenever one of the Staff officers appeared in the midst of an assembled company of them, or when even the name of the Training Home was mentioned."

When the Training Home was removed into much larger and more commodious quarters, Miss Booth still maintained her responsible position ; she cared tenderly for the bodies as well as the souls of those under her charge, even to tasting the cadets' food to see if it were of regulation quality, and visiting their dormitories at night to assure herself that they were sufficiently warm in bed.

" Her impartiality was no less remarkable than her individual care for each. If there was any danger of a Training Home girl going wrong, Mother would leave no stone unturned to save the tempted one. . . . Her chief thought in those days was undoubtedly for the women she was training for the world's salvation, but she always found time to sympathize with, and pray for, the aged, the poor, and the suffering."

Miss Booth's day's work at that time is thus described by one of her Staff:—

" She used to come in the morning, meet her Heads of Departments, hurry through the most pressing of her letters, and then go into the lecture-room, to use every fibre of her being in the most intense sort of public speaking for an hour; then come out, take a cup of cocoa, and go straight at her ' Personals' (interviews with cadets) for the rest of the day.

" Her lectures were always forceful and original. She has cultivated the art of saying deep things simply, of

making all matters whereon she dwells clear to minds unwonted to close thought. She gathers illustrations diligently from walks of life daily familiar to her listeners."

The same writer testifies to Miss Booth's self-forgetfulness in the interests of those whose spiritual life she felt to be dependent upon her,

" Few Field girls but can recall, for the help and cheer of their owti hours of weakness and weariness, more than one day when they saw Miss Booth leaning on a chair, almost too exhausted to stand, through the fiery address she would give them ; or some time when they crept into her room for the ' Personal,' grieving silently over the bandaged brow and throbbing temples which she was disregarding in her passionate eagerness for their advancement."

Indomitable energy, that natural combativeness of temperament which resists all opposition whether from within or without, and in any cause makes the victorious fighters of the world, was as strong in this fragile woman as in the other members of her family.

An instance of this trait, though belonging to a later period of Miss Booth's career, may well be given here.

On one occasion she had been invited to conduct a Sunday's Campaign in the town of Reading, where, owing to serious riots which a previous visit of Salvationists had provoked, a bye-law had been framed forbidding processions after dark.

After an arduous day's work, resulting in the conversion of fifty-two men and women, Miss Booth, exhausted as she was, at eleven p.m. proposed a march through the town. Some one reminded her of the bye-law. This clinched the argument. " Oh, bother the bye-law ! " she exclaimed. " Let's show the people we are anxious about their souls ! "

Accordingly, the band, the soldiers and the converts lined up, and, accompanied by the warlike lady, paraded the streets till one o'clock next morning.

This incident well illustrates the unquenchable zeal and the impatience of secular control which characterized at that time the leaders of the Army movement. This

72 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

spirit was readily imbibed by that class of persons from which most of the early converts were drawn, and much stone-throwing and mud-flinging was the result. But the ardour of neither soldiers nor officers was in any way damped thereby.

During the eight j^ears that Emma Booth held the important position of Mother to the Salvation Army Training Home, no less than seven hundred girls and women came under her influence, and she made a separate life-study of every one. Like her father and mother, she evidently included among her many and varied gifts of mind and heart the faculty for reading human nature.

Another who saw her often during those early days at the Training Home writes :—" Her (Miss Emma Booth's) enthusiasm and encouragement were unfailing. How often her smile smoothed away difficulties here as elsewhere, and her cheery words chased away many, many clouds from the young cadets, who often trembled in view of what was expected from them in their singing and musical work as well as in connection with the ordinary work of ' Officers.'"

We are told that the young " Mother " very seldom gave cqt order to any one under her control. She ruled solely by love, and it was necessary only for her to express a wish, and the result was an immediate and affectionate response.

This power is the more remarkable when we consider how strict and unremitting was the discipline maintained among those who offered themselves as candidates for the work of the Army. Miss Booth's own description of the training of these cadets tells us that they were " taught and continually reminded that true religion consists in pure, unselfish love towards God, their comrades, and a dying world. Anything approaching self-gratification was to be spumed, and the utmost and most constant self-denial and the taking up of the cross, however new or painful that cross may be, was daily urged upon them. They were taught to rest on nothing less than the immediate assurance of forgiveness of sins and cleansing from impurity ; that as holy men and women and representatives

of God they must abandon hatred and avoid the appearance of all bitterness, wrath, malice, revenge, harshness, evil-speaking, evil-thinking, tale-bearing, and all that would offend or grieve the Holy Spirit."

The " Mother" soon perceived the weak point of each cadet, and devoted all her tact and wisdom, with love and patience, to remedying it. The private " Personal " talks already alluded to, with their heart-searching questions, elicited confessions, and faithful advice—all absolutely secret and sacred to herself and the one they most concerned —were the principal means to this end. But she also advised them to embroider across their red jerseys the name of the virtue they most lacked—such as "Courage" for the timid, " Faith " for the wavering, a constant reminder to themselves and others of their special failing.

Albeit, whatever the methods which Miss Booth employed for the moulding and strengthening of her cadets in the wavs of righteousness and rules of the Army, there seems no doubt that she possessed in general their hearty obedience and most loyal love. So long as it was possible, she kept up a personal correspondence with each " soldier " when the latter left the Training Home for the " field."

Most of these letters were autograph, and were individual answers to special difficulties. But occasionally a circular address would be sent. Here is part of one of them, addressed to " Sisters in the Field," a fair specimen of both matter and style :—

" You remember, dear girls, it was Goodness we looked upon as the one and all-important necessity when in the Training Home. On that hangs all the rest. Without it you, and any effort you may make, must come to naught; but while your hearts are perfectly right, and your lives are being lived with the one view of bringing pleasure and glory to Him, it matters not what may come to you before next Christmas. You are blessedly safe in the Master's own keeping, and if He is for you, who can be against you ?

" Only look sufficiently into your own inner lives, which are lived by each one of us openly before Him from whom no secrets are hid. Be quite certain that all is as He would like it to be in your hearts, then, in faith more confident

74 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

than you have ever before exercised, lay hold of the strength Heaven ever offers to such as take it by force, and rush into the New Year battles with a heart set upon victory.

"... God still loves the whole world. He sent His Son to live and die that He might seek and save every creature in it, and to-day He wants daughters who shall so catch that spirit that their entire lives may be lived with no less object than to seek the end of that life—the salvation of all the lost."

With such aims and inspirations as the foregoing words express. Miss Booth wielded an immense power for good over men as well as women who came under her influence. Although she took no pains to promulgate theories as to the equality or superiority of the feminine mind, she proved herself in daily practice an efficient commander of both sexes. The male cadets respected and obeyed her as unquestioningly as did the girls. One who knew her intimately says :—" With a temperament emphatically masterful and militant, she did the things that other women talk about."

CHAPTER HI.

* THERE WAS NO ONE LIKE HER ! *

OTRONG leader, capable organizer, militant officer as ^ she undoubtedly was, Emma Booth was nevertheless a truly womanly woman. In her twenty-seventh year came to her woman's most precious heritage of a good man's love, and she accepted it with joy.

Already there had been working for some years with the Army in India a gentleman of education and refinement, formerly occupying a high position in the Civil Service, by name Frederick Tucker. Convinced of the essential necessity of a closer approach to the Hindoo on the social plane than is usually attempted by Christian missionaries, he had adopted the native costume and subsisted on native food ; he walked barefoot Hke the Indian

MRS. BOOTH-TUCKER AND HKR FAiULY.

76 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

fakir, and carried the begging-bowl which is a distinguishing badge of the Hindoo holy man. He had also endured a month's imprisonment for obeying what he believed to be the law of God in opposition to a law of man.

In 1887 the splendid donation of £5000 was given by an unknown friend for the furtherance of the work of the Salvation Army in India ; and General Booth decided that fifty additional officers should be at once dispatched. A large proportion of these were to be women, and among them Miss Booth was selected to take a foremost place. Major Tucker came to England to superintend the getting together of this contingent, and then for the first time became acquainted with the young Mother of the Training Home.

The moral, spiritual and intellectual gifts with which Emma Booth was so richly endowed were united to physical attractions of no mean order. Her enthusiasm over this new development of the work in India, and her eagerness to throw herself heart and soul into it, charmed Major Tucker ; her ability as a ruler commanded his admiration, his admiration warmed into " something stronger and more ardent " still, and at length he besought Miss Emma for her love.

Nothing more suitable in every way than such a union could well be imagined, and after a brief period of consideration the engagement was made known.

It is good to find that there was some real and very human love-making between these two. Miss Booth had always been addicted to slipping charming httle pencilled notes into the hands of those she specially cared for, telling them what she had no opportunity of saying verbally. One of these found its way into the hand of her fiayice, in which she declared that having once let her heart go, his love was nowhere as compared with hers ! Of course, no lover could let such a challenge as that pass. So a few moments later, she was reading the following reply :—

"As taper to the noonday sun, As seedling to the tree, As million sand-grains are to one, As dewdrop to the sea:

TIuis measure thou tliy love with mine,

And know by these indeed, That thus much more is mine than thine,

And doth all bounds exceed. It rises higher than the skies,

'Twill last on after death ; My love thy rivalry defies,

It grows with eveiy breath."

It was on April lo, 1888, that General Booth's birthday and the wedding of his daughter Emma were simultaneously celebrated at the Army Congress Hall, Clapton, in the presence of five thousand enthusiastic sympathizers.

That dramatic touch with which the Salvation Army so well knows how to appeal to a primary instinct of human nature, impressing the spectator through his eyes as well as his ears, was on this memorable occasion supj)lied by the striking appearance of the bridegroom.

Major Frederick Tucker appeared on the platform in Oriental attire—the calico robe of the fakir, or Hindoo begging friar, surmounted by a scarlet jacket and a turban bearing the badge of the Salvation Army. His feet were bare, as to conciliate the natives of India he had in every respect conformed to their customs, and his begging-bowl lay at his side. The bride was still dressed in her dark blue European uniform, relieved for this one important ceremony by a white sash inscribed with the word " Hallelujah," but it was understood that, once in India, she too had determined to adopt native costume, eat curried rice with her fingers, and walk shoe-and-stockingless over the burning tropical roads. However, love delights to share to the uttermost the life of the loved one, and Emma Booth was supremely happy in all the prospect that lay before her.

In her speech after the ceremony she said: " When they came to ask me what was to be the motto of the day, I took a little time to think and gather up the feelings of my heart, and I could not find a better expression of them than this one word ' Hallelujah ! ' "

The only cloud upon the joyful wedding-day of Emma Booth was the serious condition of her dear mother's health. But a short time previously the terrible nature

78 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

of Mrs. Booth's illness had been declared by a specialist, and as she entertained the strongest objection to undergoing an operation, her friends and relatives could not conceal from themselves the sad certainty that the days of that precious life were already numbered.

Nevertheless, the brave " Mother of the Army " gave her daughter—the one who had perhaps seemed preeminently her own—to the Indian missionary and his far-away work, with an heroic smile. In a touching and eloquent address, she admitted to the assembled thousands that " When the contemplation of this union was first put before me, I confess I found more of the mother left in me than I had imagined. I thought the mother was almost swallowed up in the soldier. I found, however, that there was much of the mother left. There was a great deal of that natural clinging to my precious child, who has been to me more than a daughter ; who in time of sickness and during the absence of her beloved father, and in seasons of family affliction, has been to me as a husband and friend. When this marriage came before me, and I saw at a glance what it involved, and as I thought of her value to the war in this country, and especially to those who are so dear to me and to my principles—our female officers all over the world—I staggered. The first impulse was to resist, and say, ' No, it cannot be ! ' Then I remembered, ' But she is not yours ; you gave her at her birth, and you have given her ever since. You have kept her on the altar, and now God wants to go a step in advance of your notions of what 3^ou think will be for her physical well-being, are you going to draw back ? ' I looked up to Heaven and said, ' No, Lord, she is Thine. Whatever it may cost, Thou shalt have her for this particular service if Thou dost want her.' "

So, the " wedding banquet " over, the wedding gifts, amounting to some ;£5ooo for the carrying on of the foreign work of the Army, received, and farewells uttered. Commander and Mrs. Booth-Tucker departed to their Oriental field.

Arrived in Bombay, the bride took the Hindoo name of Raheeman, which signifies " Mercy," and at once

commenced her new work with all her accustomed enthusiasm.

Before long she left Bombay to visit Ceylon, where she addressed crowded meetings, being received with delight and affection everywhere. From one village, a contingent of red-coated Army soldiers walked out ten miles in the cool of the morning to meet " Commissioner Raheeman's " party. They seated the lady in their village "war-chariot" —an antiquated rush-bottomed chair turned upside down and lashed to two poles—and there was quite a rivalry as to who should have the honour of acting as "war-horses" to carry her.

From Ceylon Mrs. Booth-Tucker travelled to South India, where she held a number of interesting meetings. But her Indian career was for the time being brought to an abrupt close by the sorrowful news from England of the increase of her mother's malady, and her need of the presence and ministrations of her daughter. " Raheeman " therefore returned to England, and remained with Mrs. Booth until the latter was released from her sufferings by death in October 1890.

This period of absence from her husband and the devoted workers in India was a great trial to the Commissioner, but it occasioned the sending of many beautiful and much-prized letters to those she had left behind. In one of these, to a Staff-Captain in the Army, she wrote:—

" I am more and more convinced that in order to do anything in India we must be enthusiastically in love with its people, and I believe God will hear my cry, and make out of my Training Home lassies some of the truest heroines He has ever owned, who shall by His might produce out of their Indian sisters hundreds more. ... I love you all with a love unspeakable, and look forward, with a longing that I cannot express, to the time when I shall be in your midst, fighting for you and with you all, whether Europeans or natives, as one family."

As soon as possible after her mother's death Mrs. Booth-Tucker sailed back to India, and again was Ceylon the scene of some of her most memorable gatherings.

One of the most interesting of these was a feast given to

8o WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

fifteen hundred beggars in Colombo, on Commissioner Raheeman's birthday. The guests on this occasion included 500 men, 650 women, and 360 children, of whom many were blind, crippled, lepers, or diseased in other ways. No wonder a spectator wrote ; " Somehow, looking at the beggars, it made one feel Jesus Christ's religion more real here than in England." It was truly an ideal feast, surely after our Saviour's own heart. Thus fed and comforted—though the viands were nothing more sumptuous than rice and curry—these poor creatures must have found it easy to believe the assurances of " Commissioner Fakir Singh " (Booth-Tucker), that God loved them and the Salvation Army loved them, and it would be good for them to have food for their starving souls as well.

Mrs. Booth-Tucker's second visit to India was, however, destined to be almost as brief as her first. Landing already worn and wasted by her long period of nursing and her grievous bereavement, the toils and privations of her work in so trying a climate proved too much for her strength. This Christian Amazon was but a woman, and her appetite completely failing, her friends with keen pain saw her grow thinner and weaker day by day. The General was appealed to, and he ordered her immediate return to England. This time, so precarious seemed her condition of health, that both her husband and her sister Lucy accompanied her.

Even then her heart yearned passionately towards the great dark land with its teeming millions. " Cheer up ! " she said to one of the officers she was leaving behind, " I am coming back again, and you will be true."

Short as was Commissioner Raheeman's time of service in India, it was long enough to leave behind an abiding fragrance of love and Christ-like deeds.

" You will scarcely," writes one officer, " find one home or mud-hut Officers' Quarters in India without a photo of the Consul. Again and again some Indian lassie officer has asked permission to cut out from some American or other Salvation Army publication a photo of the Consul, and has carried it away as a treasure; and the reason why is, that among all the officers in India, European and Indian,

.-Si

MRS. BOOTH-TUCKEK AS KAHEtMAN.

82 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

and especially among the lassies, our sainted Consul Raheeman was their ideal saint and woman of God."

Wrote another :—" We had only been a little time in India when the Canadian contingent was to join us, and, oh, how anxious Raheeman was that they should feel thoroughly at home with us!

" She would gather us round her and say, ' Now, there must be no party feeling ; they are mine, just as you are. Commissioner and I do not agree on all points, yet there is no division between us. So you and the dear Canadians will not see eye to eye on everything, yet there need be no division between you. You can be truly united ! ' . . .

" She had wonderful hands. I can feel the touch of her fingers still, as she stroked my face and told me she was going home to Mrs. Booth. . . .

" Ah, there was no one like her ! "

Thousands were longing and praying for Raheeman's speedy restoration to health and to the work in India, but the General was advised by the doctors that on no account must his daughter again risk her life in a tropical climate, and he therefore appointed her husband to the Foreign Secretaryship at the International Head-quarters in London.

Here, then, for the next few years Commander and Mrs. Booth-Tucker resided, and here were born to them several of the dear children, nine in all, with which their imion was blessed.

Three of these precious gifts were recalled to Heaven in infancy, but six still live to mourn their mother's loss. The eldest, a handsome boy, Frederick Kristo Das, is gifted with musical taste. He plays the piano and violin, and also a comet in the Staff Band. The next, Catherine Motee, is also musical, and at the age of twelve she composed the air for a Christmas Carol of which her father wrote the words. This song has been sung by the Army. Mina is a delicate, "angelic" child, with pathetic brown eyes. Lincoln is a bonny boy, possessing a wonderful crop of curly hair—all the Booths have magnificent dark hair—and is, apparently, more distinctly human than his sister Mina; for when about five years old he one day

asked his school-teacher if he could tell mamma that he had been " as good as an angel, or only as good as a good boy ? " John Myron, the youngest boy, has, we are told, " beautiful eyes," which are a birthright. The baby-girl, Muriel, was only five months old when her mother died.

To these children " Consul " Booth-Tucker was a most devoted mother. Although the exigencies of " the War " demanded frequent and prolonged absences from home, she was careful to leave utterly trustworthy persons in charge, who could be relied on to carry out her own wise arrangements and to let her hear of her little ones every

day.

Although her training of the children was systematically in accordance with Army principles and the rule of non-worldliness, " she did not consider it superfluous to buy them pretty things," nor wrong to dress them with becoming taste. Whenever at home she delighted to give them their Saturday night tubbing as well as their Sunday evening Bible-reading. She was well adapted for a truly domestic life had not Providence called her to a public career, for " she was an excellent needlewoman, and would cut and make a dress or trim a hat as deftly as she could make a pudding or write an article."

It is needless to add that the children of Consul Booth-Tucker were from their earliest years trained as " Soldiers," and that their mother's highest ambition for them was that they should ultimately become officers in the Salvation Army.

CHAPTER IV.

* DEAD UPON THE FIELD.'

IN the year 1896, painfully memorable in the annals of the Salvation Army for the revolt of Mr. and Mrs. Ballington Booth from the control of the General, and their consequent relinquishment of the posts which they had held under him. Major and Mrs. Booth-Tucker were

84 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

appointed in their place to take charge of the work in America.

Mrs. Booth-Tucker at once made a most favourable impression upon the Americans, her intellectual gifts, charming personality, and unbounded energy being all of a quality which they could readily appreciate.

The influence of the Army in the United States had naturally been considerably shaken by the episode above-mentioned, and the first work of Mrs. Booth-Tucker was to travel up and down the length and breadth of the great continent, explaining to crowded audiences the principles and aims of the organization and endeavouring to re-establish public confidence.

In this task she was more than successful. Her favourite lecture, entitled " Love and Sorrow," was given in half-a-hundred American towns and cities. It was accompanied by illustrations of the work of the Salvation Army as set forth by the stereopticon, living pictures, and descriptive music and songs, and although occupying nearly three hours to deliver, the attention of the hearers was invariably maintained to the last. In many places it was repeated by special request, and its effect was to strengthen the numbers of the Army's supporters and break down prejudice wherever heard.

But whatever public claims there may have been upon her time and strength, the Consul, as we must now call her, never lost an opportunity of personal dealing with troubled souls. Whether in the evangelistic meetings of the Army, on the street car, in the railway train, or visiting the homes of the suffering poor, she was the same enthusiast for winning converts as ever.

Her confidence in her own gift of power over those with whom she came in contact, early developed and encouraged in her childhood's home, was undoubtedly used by God for the blessing of others. She expected to be able to influence even the most hardened sinners, and she was rarely disappointed. The most obdurate were again and again melted to penitence and tears by her appeals.

On one occasion the Consul visited Sing-Sing Prison, expressly to see and soften a young criminal who seemed

EMMA BOOTH-TUCKER

85

Utterly inaccessible to good influence. Ihis lad-he was indeed scarcely more than a child in years—had lately been sentenced to the longest possible term of imprisonment for no less a crime than the deliberate murder of a boy

PLEADING WITH THE YOUNG MURDERER.

companion, but nothing seemed able to break through his

sullen indifference. . . , . • , •

Having obtained permission to visit the prisoner in his cell Mrs. Booth-Tucker began by telling him about her owtI dear boy at home, " almost as big as you," and gently

86 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

assuring him how much she longed to comfort him. Then she spoke to him of his own mother, who had died when he was a baby.

" Just fancy I'm your mother," she said, " and tell me what is in your heart."

Soon this lad, who had seemed to judge, and warders, and even the prison chaplain, as hard as a mill-stone, was wiping his irrepressible tears on the Consul's own handkerchief. She prayed with him, and promised to think of him and pray for him again at a certain hour that night. She gave him a Testament, and he smiled when she bade him good-bj'e.

The warder who had witnessed the scene was scarcely less impressed than the boy himself. He willingly promised to try and follow up the good work that had been begun, and there is reason to hope that the unhappy young convict has started, even in prison, a new and better life.

Mourners evervwhere, especially bereaved parents, found in Mrs. Booth-Tucker a ready and tender sympathizer. She was never too busy to write a letter of condolence to any among the officers of the Army who had lost a child.

Among the many hymns and sacred songs of which she was the author, none probably were the vehicle of more comfort than some verses which she had specially printed on a card to send to all who were enduring the same kind of sorrow as that which she had already more than once passed through.

From her earliest years, as we know, childhood had held a very tender place in Emma Booth's heart. An orphanage, sheltering at one time between twenty and thirty little ones, had been carried on in connection with the Training Home. In America the Army Orphanages were to the Consul an ever-fresh delight, and she took as much interest in arranging the details of their management as in planning for her own precious children at home.

It is needless to say that the rescue of fallen women was an object for which the Consul felt the keenest solicitude, and one of the last of her public duties was to open a new Rescue Home in Buffalo.

The Working Men's Hotels, where for from five cents

{2\d.) and upwards a poor man can be decently and comfortably lodged for the night, the Hotels for Women on the same plan, the Industrial Homes for the Unemployed, the Land Colonies for the establishment of Country Homes for the City Poor, each and ever^- department of the Army's colossal schemes for " Social Relief" received the warmest sympathy and the most intelligent oversight from this gifted lady, who was so eminently adapted to occupy the position of female head of the Army in America.

Travelling North, South, East, and West, to inspect institutions and colonies, encourage the workers, inaugurate new developments, and everywhere conduct meetings for the extension of the Army and the salvation of souls, the day at length arrived when, all unknowingly. Consul Booth-Tucker set out upon that fateful journey from which she was never to return.

Before leaving New York for the last time she conducted a remarkable meeting in one of the largest theatres of the notorious " Bowery," a district of the city given up entirely to the Yankee " Hooligan " and criminal of every shade and type.

Dressed entirely in scarlet, in honour of what was termed the " Red Crusade," Mrs. Booth-Tucker took her stand upon the platform, beside an empty coffin, which had been borrowed for the purpose, and spoke powerfully to the thousands present on the awful certainty of approaching death and judgment. Thirty-one persons on this occasion professed conversion.

This was on Sunday. On the following Wednesday the Consul addressed a Council of Field Officers at the National Head-quarters, and she is reported to have spoken with a freedom and power which even those who have heard her oftenest had seldom known.

On Thursday, October 8, she after breakfast prayed as usual with her children in her own bedroom ; then, as the four elder ones started for school, she kissed them " gocd-bye "—for the last time.

Later in the day, she left New York on that fatal " Western Tour."

During the next three weeks Mrs. Booth-Tucker's life,

88 WOMEN WHO HAVE WORKED AND WON

as so often before, was a constant round of travelling, visiting, and holding public meetings. Buffalo, Bradford, Du Bois, Punxsuta^\^ley, and Titusville were in turn refreshed by the presence and voice of the beloved Consul.

The next halting-place on the list was St. Louis. One of the daily papers of that city welcomed her in the following graceful terms :—

" A light in the window !

" There are many human lights—men and women who by the warm light of love are calling wanderers home. Mrs. Booth-Tucker is such a one.

" A woman whose work of rescue has the approval of both God and man. A woman whose daily life is based on those beautiful lines—

' Brightly beams our Father's mercy from His lighthouse ever more, But He gives to us the keeping of the lights along the shore.'

" Because of her work on behalf of God's erring ones, The World bids Emma Booth-Tucker welcome.

" May her life be blessed, even as she is blessing the lives of many, and may she long remain a light in the window ! "

At St. Louis the Consul spoke to business men in the Merchants' Exchange—a distinction never before enjoyed by a woman speaker—and subsequently delivered to a crowded audience in the Odeon Music Hall her great lecture on " Want, Waste, and Work." Her own account of these events was penned to her father when once more on the railroad^the last autograph letter he ever received from her. It was delivered to him some days after the sad news of her death.

" On the train,

October 20, 1903.

" My Precious General,

" I am still on the wing. We were at St. Louis on Sunday, where we had in some respects a rather remarkable day. The entire feeling of the city has been distinctly diferent since your visit. The sympathy is most marked.

I had the big Odeon Music Hall in the afternoon, and the crowd was splendid.

" I spoke for ' fifteen minutes ' (stretched a little) in the Merchants' Exchange, a huge marble structure. No woman, they say, has ever been heard there before. This was on Saturday at noon, and quite a number of leading men turned up at the Odeon the next day.

" Good-night! Would that you were here, so that I could say it, and hear all you would like to say, and then start off again to try and carry out your wishes with better success as

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