| Children Of William & Catherine Booth - The Summary back to 'Children of William & Catherine Booth'
Children of William and Catherine Booth
It was in his home in London, England, that William Booth dreamed of evangelising the whole world. From the first, his family was in the thick of the campaign. In 1868, almost as soon as the Christian Mission was begun, home life mingled with the life of the Mission. Even the nursery became a kind of Christian Mission seminary where the children re-enacted the Bible's dramas, dolls were preached to, and pillows were converted.
It wasn't that William and Catherine constantly demanded that the children live their kind of life: the pattern was plain to see. Years later, Evangeline recalled, "My parents did not have to say a word to me about Christianity. I saw it in action"
It was a warm and devoted household, where Booth sang loudly as he dressed in the morning or ran swiftly up and down stairs. Though funds were scarce and meals often meatless, they did not rise hungry from the table. In later years, Bramwell recalled that his mother "not only patched our clothes, but made us proud of the patches"
With children remarkable and headstrong, full of his own turbulence and his own genius, William Booth was the centre and master of the household; Catherine was the quiet bulwark of their spiritual life. However, since it was not until after their mother's death that the children began to question their father's orders, their earlier unity must have been in some part due to her example.
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