William Booth: Who holds back

Home » Meditations » Meditations » William Booth: Who holds back

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” Mark 12:41-44

“How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! It is easier to make a hundred poor men sacrifice their lives than it is to induce one rich man to sacrifice his fortune, or even a portion of it, to a cause in which, in his half-hearted fashion, he seems to believe. When I look over the roll of men and women who have given up friends, parents, home prospects, and everything they possess…

I sometimes marvel how it is that they should be so eager to give up all, even life itself, in a cause which has not power enough in it to induce any reasonable number of wealthy men to give to it the mere superfluities and luxuries of their existence. From those to whom much is given much is expected; but, alas, alas, how little is realised! It is still the widow who casts her all into the Lord’s treasury — the wealthy deem it a preposterous suggestion…

I give what I have. If you give what you have the work will be done. If it is not done, and the dark river of wretchedness rolls on, as wide and deep as ever, the consequences will lie at the door of him who holds back.”

William Booth (1829-1912) in In Darkest England and The Way Out (London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1980) 279, 285.

Few Christian authors that I have ever read match the zeal of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. In this work, which I was unaware of, until just recently, he spells out the dark difficulties of England in the late 1800’s and how God’s people were positioned to make a difference. Seriously, you need only scan the table of contents of the digital copy of this book to see his plan.

I read various sections. Best I can summarize them: he sketched practical ideas to help offer “hand ups” and not “hand outs” to those in need, while addressing various forms of corruption that were destroying lives and communities. Booth reminded people that failure to engage when positioned to make a difference would leave them responsible. Doing nothing was not an option.

Booth was moved at how common people would give cheerfully and sacrificially, and yet those who had great wealth, seemed unwilling to exchange even superfluities and luxuries for participation in God’s work. Then in the conclusion of the manuscript I located this profound statement: “the consequences will lie at the door of him who holds back.”

It struck me. The world looks at our outward appearance in giving, but God looks at our hearts. The world celebrates how much we give, but God sees who holds back. The world blames others for the problems around us, but God has situated us, the Church, to share Christ, the solution. What should we do? Let us give to God’s work cheerfully and sacrificially, and hold nothing back!