William Booth was a major reformer and reform writer of the last half of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries. From 1865—when he and his wife, Catherine, put up a tent at Whitechapel and began a mission to the "Heathen of our own Country"—until his death Booth urged social reform in his writings by encouraging the poor to battle against sin and vice. Using military language and organization, Booth wrote that people should be saints and soldiers for Jesus Christ. His writings stress holy living and sanctification, which he saw as the primary means of reforming England.

An ardent evangelist who devoted his life to helping the poor, Booth was the founder and first general of the Salvation Army. He combined a passion for social justice and righteousness with a genius for organization and leadership. During his lifetime the Salvation Army became one of...