What a blow for The General!  He wrote at the end of the year:  “This has been, is, and will be, to the end of my earthly chapter, a mysterious and painful dispensation—­at least, so it appears at the moment.  What God may do for me in the future, and how He may make it work for my good does not at present appear.  But He is able to make it mightily helpful to His glory, and the Salvation of souls.  With this prospect, God forbid, then, that I should be other than content—­nay, filled with praise.  I am at present strangely supported and cheered; and not strangely either, for is it not what might have been expected, with so many loving prayers going up to Heaven on my account hour by hour.”

Remembering that he had lost not only the most tenderly beloved one left to him, but an Officer holding one of the most important posts he had to fill, we can somewhat estimate the grace that could thus sustain him, and make it possible, even then, to go gladly forward!

Yet again he was to drink the bitter cup of family bereavement, this time affecting his youngest daughter, who had married Commissioner Hellberg, already mentioned as one of our first Swedish Officers.

Not only had he kept all the promise of his first brave and sturdy stand for The Army as a student, but, gaining by every year’s experience in various lands, he had shown remarkable ability in many spheres.

With his no less able and devoted wife, he had laboured in India, at International Headquarters, in France and in Switzerland, when consumption, alas! showed itself, and, in spite of all that could be done for him, during years of suffering, in Algiers, and in various resorts of health-seekers, he steadily sank.  Though, of course, death had long threatened him, he was caught suddenly at the last, and died in Berlin on the journey homewards to Sweden from South Germany, at a time when his wife could not be with him.

It will be readily understood how much more trying this was to The General than if he had been near to comfort his daughter in all her sorrow.  And yet this blow, falling upon him when he was seventy-nine years old, found him no less resolute than ever.  He sent this widowed mother out into Denmark, where she was a stranger, to persevere in the fight.  She had showed herself, like her father; able to plead at the very grave-side with the crowd, for God.

In connexion with the loss of Mrs. Booth we began a system of special Memorial Services which have been wonderfully blessed.  The first one, held on the first anniversary of her death, in the Agricultural Hall—­one of the largest buildings in London, was altogether too large for any speaking to be heard.  The plan was adopted, therefore, as at the funeral, of a complete form of service, each point of which was indicated on the programme, and by large illuminated signs.  By this means the audience, of some 15,000, was able closely and unitedly to join in all the songs and prayers, whilst scenes from Mrs. Booth’s life, and messages taken from her writings and from The General’s, were also on the great lantern screen passed on to them.  Thousands of the most careless and thoughtless were present; but there was no break in the solemnity of the service.  Hundreds went as requested, from the Meeting to a room in the stables, to volunteer for life-service as Officers.