He subsequently remarked that as he had served God and the people with his eyes he must now try to serve without them.  He continued to dictate letters, and even to write occasionally as he had been accustomed to do, with the help of his secretaries, and a frame that had been prepared for the purpose.  But the very struggles against depression and to cheer others, together with the sleeplessness that resulted took from his little remaining strength, and it became evident that he was gradually sinking.  Yet he was so remarkably cheerful and at times even confident that all around him were kept hoping up to the very last.

To a group of Commissioners who visited him he said:—­

“I am hoping speedily to be able to talk to Officers and help them all over the world.  I am still hoping to go to America and Canada as I had bargained for.  I am hoping for several things whether they come to pass or not.”

But on Tuesday, the 20th August, it became evident that the end was very near.  There gathered around his bed Mr. and Mrs. Bramwell Booth, Mrs. Commissioner Booth-Hellberg, Commissioner Howard, who had been summoned by telegram from his furlough, Colonel Kitching, Brigadier Cox, Adjutant Catherine Booth, Sergeant Bernard Booth, Captain Taylor, his last Assistant Secretary, Nurse Ada Timson of the London Hospital, and Captain Amelia Hill, his housekeeper.

The heart showed no sign of failure until within half an hour of his death, and the feet remained warm till within twenty minutes of the event.  But the heart and pulse became gradually weaker, the breathing faster and shorter and more irregular, and at thirteen minutes past ten o’clock at night it entirely ceased.

London awoke to find in our Headquarters window the notice, “General Booth has laid down his Sword.  God is with us.”

The day after his death, at a meeting of all the Commissioners present in London, the envelope containing the General’s appointment of his successor was produced by the Army’s Solicitors, endorsed in the General’s own writing and still sealed.  Upon being opened, it was found to be dated the 21st August, 1890, and that it appointed the Chief of the Staff, William Bramwell Booth, to succeed him.  The new General, in accepting the appointment, and promising by God’s help to fulfil its duties, expressed his great pleasure in discovering that it was dated during the lifetime of his mother, so that he could feel sure that her prayers had been joined with his father’s for him at the time.

Immediately there began to pour in upon us from every part of the world expressions of admiration and sympathy which were most valuable in their promise for the Army’s increased opportunity and usefulness in the future.

His Majesty, the King, who had manifested deep sympathy with The General in his illness, sent the following generous message, which was one of the first to come to hand:—­