DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT TUESDAY - CLASSIC TESTIMONIES… Catherine McAuley.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. – Revelation 12:11.

Even before the famine which began in 1845, Ireland had its share of poverty. Orphans and waifs did not find the kind of governmental support which is now common everywhere in the western world. Although antipathy between Protestants and Catholics existed then as now, it did not prevent one Catholic orphan girl of Dublin from finding Protestant foster parents.

Catherine McAuley was taken into the home of Surgeon Conway. Although he was a rigid Protestant, Catherine refused to attend his Protestant church. When Catherine was 18, another couple, the Callahan’s, adopted her. She converted both of them to Roman Catholicism. When Mr. Callahan died in 1822, he left her a great fortune. She was then about 35.

Perhaps because she had lost her own parents, Catherine wanted to do work among the poor. She had already engaged in relief efforts for the needy and by 1824 contemplated plans for a centre for the charitable works she planned.

On September 24, 1827 she opened her House of Mercy. It consisted of a school and a home for working mothers. Because the need for jobs was great, she soon tacked on an employment agency and before long an orphanage.

Catherine had no interest in becoming a nun. Many of her helpers were inclined to religious vocations, but, except for a daily routine which included spiritual exercises and a uniform adopted for convenience sake, her House of Mercy made no effort to become a religious order. All the same, her inclusion of religious elements led to carping by jealous Roman Catholic orders. Her work was heretical, they griped. Catherine was trying to compete with the Sisters of Charity. An ugly prejudice developed against her.

The archbishop of Dublin, under whose care Catherine had placed her funds, spoke with her. Either she must drop the religious elements from her work or else bring it officially into the Catholic Church.

Rather than give up the work which had come to mean a good deal to her, Catherine agreed to receive religious instruction and develop her work into a charitable order. She adopted the Augustinian rule commonly used by the Sisters of Presentation, adding chapters on the care of distressed women and visitation of the sick. On December 12, 1831, she took her own vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Thus came into being the Sisters of Mercy.

Even in her lifetime the order grew and spread. She established a second house in London "to educate poor little girls, to lodge and maintain poor young ladies who are in danger and to visit the sick poor." After she died in November 1841, the Sisters of Mercy grew to be the largest order ever founded in an English speaking country.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes, and give all you have, to win the lost to Christ? Then like, Catherine McAuley, put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water, and dare to follow Jesus wherever He leads you?

Loving Father, I thank you for the life of Catherine McAuley, and I pray that anyone reading this may be inspired by her testimony to give their life to you, and that you would use them in the same way, as you used Catherine. By the power of the Holy Spirit, help me to be a person of like faith, that I may bring glory to your name. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged.

GBYAY

DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT TUESDAY - CLASSIC TESTIMONIES… Evangeline Cory Booth. – Part 2.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. – Revelation 12:11.

We conclude the story of Evangeline Cory Booth …

Thus in 1904, Evangeline Booth began her thirty-year career as leader of the rapidly growing Salvation Army forces in the United States. In this period the Army continued its evangelical efforts and expanded its broad program of social services -- "rescue homes" for "fallen women" and hospitals for unwed mothers, food and shelter depots, salvage brigades for the unemployed, prison work, and aid to released convicts. Evangeline Residences, homes away from home for young working women, were established in more than a dozen large cities. The Army forged its emergency disaster service during the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Its canteens for the American armed forces in France during World War I, with their "doughnuts for doughboys," won universal public enthusiasm and brought Evangeline Booth the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919.

As the Salvation Army's officers and institutions increased, it became necessary to divide the administration in the United States into four territories, each with its own headquarters, training college, and edition of the 'War Cry.' Still Commander Booth supervised the work in all four territories from national headquarters. Perhaps the climax of her administration was the dedication of a fine new headquarters building in New York City in 1930, the fiftieth anniversary of Salvation Army service in America.

An able administrator, Evangeline Booth readily adapted herself to American conditions. Whereas in England the Salvation Army depended largely on the work and support of its own members, in the United States it early developed a broad group of of unaffiliated sympathizers and benefactors. As far back as the 1890's an Auxiliary League had enrolled 6,000 members, among them the Rev. Lyman Abbott, Chauncey M. Depew, and Postmaster General John Wanamaker.

Evangeline Booth continued and expanded this policy, enlisting as advisers such influential figures as Myron T. Herrick, Otto H. Kahn, Bishop William T. Manning, and Helen Gould Shepard. In 1919, capitalizing on the Army's wide popular prestige, she conducted its first national fund drive, a well-planned campaign that raised $16,000,000. Her own personal commitment to the United States was symbolized on April 10, 1923, when she became an American citizen.

Her American experience undoubtedly influenced Evangeline Booth's willingness to lead the forces of reform during a new crisis that rocked the international Salvation Army in 1929. Before his death in 1912 General William Booth had named as his successor his oldest son and chief of staff, William Bramwell Booth (1856-1929), passing on to him the same absolute power that he himself had exercised. But a power that had seemed fitting in the prophet like founder soon aroused resentment in the hands of his more arbitrary son. Like Ballington Booth before her, Evangeline found herself increasingly at odds with the Army's high command. In 1929, invoking a policy of rotation of duty, Bramwell booth ordered his sister to relinquish her post.

Again, as in 1896, public protest mounted, and Bramwell Booth, unlike his father, had to back down. Prominent Salvationists the world over now urged a change in the Army's constitution and looked to Evangeline Booth for leadership. At first privately, then in concert with other high officials (including Frederick Booth-Tucker), she sought to persuade her brother to give up his autocratic and dynastic powers. All efforts having failed, a "High Council" of top Salvation Army officers met in London in 1929, deposed the now ailing Bramwell, and established the principle of electing the general rather than having him appoint his own successor. Though Evangeline Booth did not escape charges of personal ambition, it seems clear that principles were of greater importance than personalities.

The climax of Evangeline Booth's career came in 1934 when she was herself elected to the generalship. With a "pang," she left the land of her adoption to return to London. For five busy years she directed the international work of the Salvation Army in more than eighty countries and colonies, traveling around the world to visit the various outposts. Her retirement, in 1939, marked the end of an era for the Salvation Army, a shift from dominant individual leadership to corporate solidity. She was the last of the Booths to head the Salvation Army, the last commander in the United States to become a personal symbol of the institution.

For Evangeline Booth, the service of God was never joyless. The first Salvationist to ride a bicycle in the 1880's, she was also an accomplished horsewomen and enjoyed swimming and diving at her summer cottage on Lake George. Her temperament was such that she would drive herself unsparingly for weeks and then collapse for a period of absolute rest. Music was always a part of her life. Among the several instruments she played, her favorite was the harp. She composed a number of hymns, some of them still sung in Salvation Army meetings. A collection of her compositions was published in 1927 as 'Songs of the Evangel.'

Always an effective speaker, she drew large audiences at her public lectures in the United States. She used her own personal influence and that of the Salvation Army to support the movement for prohibition and later was in the vanguard of the forces opposing its repeal. A feminist by family heritage, she favored woman suffrage, though she took no part in the movement to obtain it. Unlike most of her brothers and sisters, she never married, though her dedicated resolve once wavered when, at twenty-nine, she was ardently courted by the idealistic Russian Prince Galitzin.

Following her retirement as General, Evangeline Booth returned to the United States to spend her last years at her home in Hartsdale, N.Y. She died there in her eighty-fifth year of arteriosclerosis. After public services in the Salvation Army citadel in New York City, she was buried in the Army's plot in Kensico Cemetery, near White Plains, N.Y. Among the many honors that had come to her were degrees from Tufts College (1921) and Columbia University (1939).

Are you willing to do whatever it takes, and give your all, to win the lost to Christ? Then like, the Evangeline Cory Booth, put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water, and dare to follow Jesus wherever He leads you?

Loving Father, I thank you for the life of Evangeline Cory Booth, and I pray that anyone reading this may be inspired by her testimony to give their life to you, and that you would use them in the same way, as you used Evangeline. By the power of the Holy Spirit, help me to be a person of like faith, that I may bring glory to your name. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged.
GBYAY

DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT MONDAY – A HEART STARTER #42.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. - Matthew 5:7.

A mother once approached Napoleon seeking a pardon for her son. The emperor replied that the young man had committed a certain offense twice and justice demanded death.
"But I don't ask for justice," the mother explained. "I plead for mercy."
"But your son does not deserve mercy," Napoleon replied.
"Sir," the woman cried, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for."
"Well, then," the emperor said, "I will have mercy." And he spared the woman's son. - Luis Palau.

Well folks, the weekends over, and it’s back to work for those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, for those who don’t, please continue to enjoy your weekend, but remember, Mondays coming! And as we know by experience, Mondays can be very sluggish, especially after a lovely weekend, where we managed to spend some quality time with our families and friends, and suddenly it’s back to the grind.

I thought by way of encouragement, that we could have a ‘Heart Starter’ from the word of God, rather than the six cups of coffee, or whatever it takes, to get started for the rest of the week!

As you will have realised earlier, our ‘Heart Starter’ today is… Blessed are the Merciful!

Surely it does not mean that we earn mercy because we extend mercy, for such an idea is foreign to Word of God. By its very definition, mercy cannot be earned any more than grace can be earned. The Beatitude is saying: "When you experience mercy, and share mercy, then your heart is in such a condition that you can receive more mercy to share with others. . . Jesus is not asking us to be merciful occasionally; He is asking us to be constant channels of mercy. "Give, and it shall be given unto you" (Luke 6:38). By extending mercy, we open our hearts to receive mercy; and having received, we can share again and again.

The Christian is surrounded by mercy. When he looks back, he can say, "Surely goodness, and mercy have followed me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6). When he looks ahead, he remembers the words of Jude 21--"Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." As he begins each new day, he can say; "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).

God responds to us on the basis of the heart. "With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward" (Psalm 18:25-26). . . When once we begin to cultivate one of the spiritual graces, God always provides more. When we show mercy, He gives mercy; and thus, we have more mercy to show.

When a Christian shows mercy, he experiences liberation. He is set free from grudges that drain the strength and unsettle the mind. . . The most miserable prison in the world is the prison we make for ourselves when we refuse to show mercy. Our thoughts become shackled, our emotions are chained, the will is almost paralyzed. But when we show mercy, all of these bonds are broken, and we enter into a joyful liberty that frees us to share God's love with others. This blessing of freedom is one way that we receive mercy as we show mercy. It is a blessed by-product of obeying God.

How thrilling to go through life sharing God's mercy and not having to judge people to see if they are "worthy" of what we have to offer. We stop looking at the externals and begin to see people through the merciful eyes of Christ. Every Christian we meet is a person in whom Jesus lives; every lost soul we meet is a person for whom Jesus died. In both cases, we have candidates for God's mercy. – Warren Wiersbe.

Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets. Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep.

Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus. Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet -- which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to give back! -- declared it to be a loan, and advised the young man to leave the way he had come so as to avoid the Secret Service! (Yes, the loan was paid back.) - Today in the Word.

Wow! Now that our hearts are beating regularly, let’s consider what we have just read over a cup of Java, and ask the Lord to help us by the power of the Holy Spirit, to realise, that blessed are the merciful!

Loving Father, I thank you for the beautiful weekend that I have just had. Help me by the power of the Holy Spirit to start off this week, by taking on board, some of the advice and inspirations that I have just read. In the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY