"If, instead of aiming at that which will all fade away, I turn my
attention to making the best of my life for God and for others, may I
not also accomplish something that will afford me satisfaction at last
and bear reflection in the world to come?"

I hope also that to some, at least, the great message of this life will
stand revealed in these pages. I believe it to be that, while God can do
little or nothing by us until we are completely submitted and given up
to Him, He can work wonders of infinite moment to the world when we are.
Asked, a few months before his death, if he would put into a sentence
the secret as he saw it, of all the blessings which had attended him
during his seventy years of service, The General replied: "Well, if I am
to put it into one sentence, I would say that I made up my mind that God
Almighty should have all there was of William Booth." It was, in the
beginning, that entire devotion to God and its continued maintenance
which could, alone, account for the story told in these brief records.

The book is, of course, written in the main from the Salvationist point
of view; much of it, indeed, is simply a reproduction of my father's own
sayings and writings to his own people. This, to all thoughtful readers,
must be our defence against any appearance of self-glorification, or any
omission to refer to the work in the world that others are doing for
Christ. No attempt has been made to tell the story of The General's
"life and times," but simply to note some of the things he said and did
himself. And I trust the record may be found useful by all the many
servants of God who do not think exactly as he thought, but who yet
rejoiced in the triumphs of the Cross through his labours.

To continue and to amplify the results of his work must needs be my