This is an etext version of Mildred Duff, Catherine Booth: A Sketch, with preface by General Bramwell Booth. Originally published by Salvation Army Book Department, circa 1907. This edition was created by Jone Johnson Lewis, 2003.
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But you must not suppose, because Katie had the assurance of Salvation, that therefore she had no more fighting. No–indeed, her fighting days had only just begun.
One of her great difficulties, which many Corps Cadets will understand, was that she felt so nervous about doing anything in public. No one, of course, asked her to speak–such a thing was never dreamed of; but the lady who took the Bible Class which she attended regularly would now and then ask her to pray. ‘Miss Mumford will pray,’ the lady would say, when they were all kneeling together.
But Katie was too shy to begin, and sometimes they would wait for several minutes before she had courage to say a few words. ’Don’t ask me to pray again,’ she said one day to her leader; ’the excitement and agitation make me quite ill.’
‘I can’t help that,’ was the very wise answer; ’you must break through your timidity; for otherwise you will be of no use to God.’
And did Katie persevere? Yes, indeed, she did. Here is an entry made some time later in the diary that she kept, which shows you how very much her experience was like yours:–
’I have not been blessed so much for weeks as I was to-night. I prayed aloud. The cross was great, but so was the reward.
My heart beat violently, but I felt some liberty.’
Though Catherine’s spine difficulty was better, she was still very delicate, and at the age of eighteen every one felt sure she was going into a decline. But, sick or well, her soul grew stronger, and her desire to please and serve God better increased every day.
‘I do love Thee,’ she wrote in the same little diary, ’but I want to love Thee more.’
It was not till many years later that Catherine received the blessing of a clean heart; but even now she had begun to desire and long for it. She also writes at this time: ’I see that this Full Salvation is very necessary if I am to glorify God below, and find my way to Heaven. I want a clean heart. Lord, take me and seal me.’
