that he could only say, "My dear wife wishes to speak!" and sat down. For
years he had been trying to persuade me to do it. Only that very week he
had wanted me to go and address a little Cottage Meeting of some twenty
working people, but I had refused.

'I stood--God only knows how--and if any mortal ever did hang on the arm
of Omnipotence, I did. I just stood and told the people how it had come
about. I confessed, as I think everybody should who has been in the wrong
and has misrepresented the religion of Jesus Christ. I said, "I dare say
many of you have been looking upon me as a very devoted woman, and one
who has been living faithfully to God. But I have come to realize that I
have been disobeying Him, and thus brought darkness and leanness into my
soul. I have promised the Lord to do so no longer, and have come to tell
you that henceforth I will be obedient to the holy vision."

'There was more weeping, they said, in the chapel that day than on any
previous occasion. Many dated a renewal in righteousness from that very
moment, and began a life of devotion and consecration to God.

'Now I might have "talked good" to them till now. That honest confession
did what twenty years of preaching could not have accomplished.'

After this wonderful victory Mrs. Booth never again drew back. The same
night she spoke once more, with even greater power than in the morning,
and before long invitations came pouring in from all parts, for wherever
she went souls were saved and people sanctified.

But it cost her a great deal to preach like this. She writes of one
Meeting held soon after:--