I have been longing all these years.  As I passed by the doors of the flaming gin-palaces to-night I seemed to hear a voice sounding in my ears, “Where can you go and find such heathen as these, and where is there so great a need for your labours?” And there and then in my soul I offered myself and you and the children up to this great work.  Those people shall be our people, and they shall have our God for their God.’”

Mrs. Booth herself wrote:—­

“I remember the emotion that this produced in my soul.  I sat gazing into the fire, and the Devil whispered to me, ’This means another departure, another start in life!’ The question of our support constituted a serious difficulty.  Hitherto we had been able to meet our expenses out of the collections which we had made from our more respectable audiences.  But it was impossible to suppose that we could do so among the poverty-stricken East-Enders—­we were afraid even to ask for a collection in such a locality.

“Nevertheless, I did not answer discouragingly.  After a momentary pause for thought and prayer, I replied, ’Well, if you feel you ought to stay, stay.  We have trusted the Lord once for our support, and we can trust Him again!’”

“That night,” says The General, “The Salvation Army was born.”

Before long God moved the heart of one of the most benevolent men in England, Mr. Samuel Morley, to promise them his influence and support without any condition but the continuance of the work thus begun.  But no amount of monetary help could have placed The General in a position to establish anything like the permanent work he desired.  He writes:—­

“I had hardly got successfully started on this new path before my old experience of difficulty met me once more.  On the third Sunday morning, I think it was, we found the old tent which formed our cathedral, blown down, and so damaged by the fall, as well as so rotten, that it could not be put up again.  Another tent was impossible, as we had no money to buy one; so, as no suitable building could be obtained, there was nothing for it but for us to do our best out of doors.

“After a time we secured an old dancing-room for Sunday Meetings.  But, there being no seats in it, our Converts had to come at 4 o’clock on Sunday morning to bring the benches in, and work till midnight, or later still, when the day’s Meetings were over, to move them out again.  For our week-night Meetings we had hired an old shed, formerly used to store rags in, and there we fought for months.”

What a testimony to the character of the work already accomplished, and the readiness of the little force already raised to toil like pioneer soldiers for the love of Christ!

Most of the Converts of those days “had been forgiven much.”  The following letter from one of them may give some idea both of the nature of the work done, and the surrounding circumstances:—­