Booths Writing Boldly: Part 4

by Colonel Richard Munn 

This 10-part series will look at bold written exhortations from William, Catherine, Bramwell, Herbert, and Evangeline. The force of their collective convictions still lands. Often quoted, they have the capacity to pierce straight into the heart of the matter, impatiently swatting aside distractions and equivocations. General John Larsson titled his 2015 book on the clan simply, Those Incredible Booths.  

Booths Writing Boldly: Part 4

“If holiness is possible anywhere for anyone at anytime,

it is possible anywhere for anyone at all times.”  

—Bramwell Booth 

Bramwell Booth, eldest child of William and Catherine, exceptional administrator, ardent internationalist, militant vegetarian, and gifted holiness preacher, is “not only the second General, but next to William Booth the greatest General of the Army,” writes John Larsson. Heady stuff. 

Here we find bold Bramwell extolling the cherished Salvationist belief that sanctification is for “all believers” and that we can be “preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, daily holiness right here on earth during our lifetimes, not later in Heaven or when the Lord chooses to return. 

Everyone, holy. Every day, holy. 

General Paul Rader writes eloquently: “It is not the exclusive prerogative of a morally superior cadre of Christians or those few who opt out of engagement with our fouled human situation.” We might say, holiness is for the believer on the factory floor, and the homemaker, and the student in the dorm, as much as for those in the monastery. The idea is astonishing because it includes you and me. No exit clause. 

We might expect our preachers and theologians to extol holiness; however, when we hear it testified in straight talk from a friend or a peer, it can pack extra force.  

Anyone, holy. Anytime, holy. 

The “Father of Salvation Army music,” Richard Slater, recounts that it was the simple testimony of a cockney teenage chambermaid — “My missus says she believes I am saved because I sweep beneath the mats now and I didn’t before” — that grabbed his skeptical attention. Writer Brindley Boon notes “those words caused him to wish a triumphant power like that would come into his life.” 

Anywhere holy. All times, holy. 

To own this, we might paraphrase: “If holiness is possible anywhere for me at anytime, it is possible anywhere for me at all times.”