That success attended his efforts is, from this point of view, not of so much consequence as that the success was deserved by the patient, devout, and self-sacrificing zeal of the Founder of The Salvation Army.  Long ago William Booth prevailed against the easy scepticism of those who found fault with his aims, and the sincere dislike of humble and reverent men, who doubted whether the cause of religion could be advanced by such riotous methods.  Not only was The General of The Salvation Army a saint and a mystic, who lived in this world and yet was not of this world, but he also was possessed of much practical ability and common sense, without which the great work of his life could never have been accomplished.  We need only refer to that remarkable book which he published in 1890, In Darkest England, and the Way Out, in which will be found proposals to remedy the crying evils of pauperism and vice by such eminently wise expedients as Farm Colonies, Oversea Colonies, and Rescue Homes for Fallen Women; to say nothing of picturesque but also practical devices, such as the Prison-Gate Brigade, the Poor Man’s Bank, the Poor Man’s Lawyer, and Whitechapel-by-the-Sea.  How is it possible to ridicule the objects or character of a man who has proved himself so earnest a worker for God?  As a matter of fact, William Booth was nothing less than a genius, and towards the end of the nineteenth century the world at large gave very generous recognition, not only to the spirit and temper, but to the results of an extraordinarily effective, and, indeed, epoch-making Movement.  At the instance of King Edward VII The General was officially invited to be present at the Coronation ceremony in 1902.  Nothing could have marked more significantly than this single fact the completeness of the change of public feeling; and when, in 1905, William Booth went on a progress through England, he was welcomed in state by the Mayors and Corporations of many towns.

“Is it better to live in this world with no religion at all or with a narrow and violent form of religious belief?  People will judge the deceased teacher and chief, in respect of his theological and propagandist work, in accordance with the views which they hold upon this alternative.  As regards his social labours, his passionate efforts to help the ‘submerged tenth,’ his widespread helpfulness of the poor, his shelters and refuges, the feeling must and will be almost universal that he was an energetic and warm-hearted benefactor of his kind, who wrought much good to his times, and helped others to do it, and who had what Sir John Seeley called the ‘enthusiasm of humanity’ in very honourable, if noisy and demonstrative, form.  But, since The General mingled all this with a cult—­a distinct theological teaching, a theory of the Divine government and destiny of mankind which was in external form, as Huxley styled it, ’Corybantic’—­the question does and must arise whether religion of the Salvationist school does good or harm to the human natures which