Catherine Booth | Page 4

read a chapter she would
shut the book, and write down as much as she could remember of it.
This helped her to think clearly and to remember what she read, and
also to put her thoughts into words.
But she never wasted her time reading stories and novels. Later on in
her life she said she was so thankful for this, for she thought that novels
and silly story books made people discontented with their own homes
and duties, and put wrong, hurtful ideas into their minds. Let us
recollect and follow our Army Mother's example here, and not waste
time on stories which are not true.
We, if we had known Katie Mumford in those three years of pain and
weariness, should have pitied her very much. We might have been
tempted to feel that God was hard in not letting her be strong like other
girls; but we now see that all the time He was fitting her for the
wonderful future before her; and when she became Mrs. Booth, the
great preacher, she herself understood this.
'Being so much alone in my youth,' she said, 'and so thrown on my own

thoughts and on those expressed in books, has been very helpful to me.
Had I been given to gossip, and had there been people for me to gossip
with, I should certainly never have accomplished what I did.'
So, you see, God was all the time giving her the very best training He
could, and teaching her, as she lay there alone on her bed, what she
never could have learned in the ordinary way. And He will train you,
too, in the very best way for your future, if you will but determine to
trust and serve Him as did Catherine Mumford.

II
CONVERSION AND SOUL STRUGGLES

'No soul was ever yet saved who was too idle to seek.'--MRS. BOOTH.
Perhaps you, the Corps Cadet, for whom I am especially writing this
little book, have been tempted to break your vows by becoming
engaged to some one who does not want to be an Officer. And you
think, perhaps, that no one understands your feelings.
You will be surprised, then, to know that our Army Mother had just
such a battle to fight when she was a girl.
She had a cousin, a little older than herself, who was tall and very
clever. He came with his parents to stay in her home, and Katie had not
seen him since they were young children. He quickly grew very fond of
his cousin, and Catherine found how nice it was to have some one to
give her presents and to love her as he did. At last he begged her to
promise that by and by she would be engaged to him. Now Katie was
very perplexed. On the one hand she loved her cousin, and did not want
to grieve him, and yet in her heart she knew he was not truly given up
to God, and would not help her in her soul.
'Go to the Meeting with you, Katie?' he used to say. 'Of course, I'll go
anywhere to please you.' But then, while she was trying to get a
blessing, he would be scratching little pictures on the back of the seat to
make her laugh. Perhaps you can guess the struggle it was for Katie to
decide what her answer should be. 'If you will only say "yes," and be
engaged to him, I am sure you will be able to help him, and very likely
get him properly saved,' the Devil would whisper. 'Break it off now,
Katie; do not go another step; you know God cannot smile on it.' That

was how her conscience spoke.
At last, one day as she was truly praying and seeking for light, she read
the verse in 2 Corinthians vi. 14: 'Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers.' It came to her as the voice of God.
'I will do it, Lord,' she said, after a long struggle; and she sat down, and
wrote her cousin a letter, telling him just why she could never be
engaged to him, and breaking it all off for ever. Then she turned back
to her home duties, and did not re-open the question.
And did our Army Mother in after years regret that she had acted like
this? No, indeed; she has told us that she saw plainly later on that, if
just then she had chosen to follow her own feelings and wishes, instead
of obeying God's command, all her life would have been altered, and
she would never have done the glorious work He had planned for her. It
was a hard battle at the time, and cost her many tears; but