A Time of Confinement
Unfortunately, when Catherine was fourteen, she was diagnosed with a severe curvature of the spine, and had to withdraw from school. The only remedy was to lie flat for three months while her body healed itself. For most children her age, such a treatment would have been akin to solitary confinement but Catherine had a welcome occupation – she returned to her beloved books
Seeking Truth
Although her body was inactive, her mind was not. She focused on church history and theology, devouring the writings of such revivalists as John Wesley and Charles Finney, as well as those of John Newton, who penned the lines of the hymn “Amazing Grace”. While she grasped the logic of each theologian’s arguments, she was struck by the fact that they did not always agree. She became perplexed by the question of how to determine who was correct, or more precisely, how to discern the truth so that she could live by it.
A Personal Conviction
Years later, she would describe her struggle in this way: ‘When I was fourteen years old, I rejected all theories about God and religion which contradicted with my innate conceptions of right and wrong. I said, “No, I will never believe any theory which represents that a course of procedure is good and benevolent in God, which in man would be despicable and contemptible. I cannot receive it.”‘
Her Stand on Truth
I could not then put it into this language, but I remember distinctly the feelings of my soul. I said, “No, all that there is in me akin to goodness and truth, God has put there, and I will never believe that what God has put in me contradicts what He has put into this book. There must be a mistake somewhere,” and thank God, I came to the Scriptures for myself, which I recommend you to do.
Warning Against Misguided Views
Do not imagine that the repugnant views of the character of God which have been forced upon you by professed theologians will form any excuse for your rejections of His book or of the divine authority of it in the great day of account. God will say, “Had you not the light for yourself?”
Scripture and the Holy Spirit
In other words, she clung deeply to the truth of 1 John 2:27: ‘But the anointing (of the Holy Spirit) which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.’ Her guides would be Scripture and the hand of the Holy Spirit upon her heart, whose job it was to bring her to Jesus and His teachings.
A New Chapter
Before long, Catherine’s back responded favourably to sustained rest, and her period of confinement ended. In 1844, her family moved to London, and Catherine recommenced her schooling. She still had a voracious appetite for knowledge and study, but in the next few years, she would face one of the biggest questions of her life: ‘How could she know that she was saved?’
To Be Continued…
Tale Tuesday 081
Date: 9th April, 2024
Title: : William & Catherine Booth (Part 6)
Source: God’s generals- The Revivalists
Author: Roberts Liardon
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