Edinburgh - Catherine Booth
Date: 1868 · Place: Edinburgh, Edinburgh · Type: Local well
The Booths were invited to take over the work of a gentleman amongst the poor in Edinburgh. They went there full of trepidation as the Scots had a strong reputation for Presbyterianism and Calvinism and so were expected to be a very hard nut to crack.
The venue was a dirty loft in the poorest area of the city, holding 500.
It was quickly seen that no people were quicker to appreciate and more enthusiastic to admire, the incisive and unanswerable reasonings of Catherine Booth. She could have reminded them of John Knox in her denunciation of evil.
'The sympathetic feeling of that first Scottish audience was unmistakable. The spirit of conviction worked irresistibly in their hearts. The people fell in every part of the building, In the pews, in the gallery, round the pulpit, in the dingy little vestry, there were men and women sobbing and crying aloud for Salvation.'
Unfortunately, due to a prior engagement, Catherine unwillingly had to leave for London.
From, 'Catherine Booth, mother of the Salvation Army, Volume I, by Booth-Tucker, pages 343-5.
I do not know where the building was.
