The boy who worked in a Pawnbroker’s shop
As young as this boy was, his heart was always touched by the desperate plight of the many poor folk that came into the Pawnbroker’s shop where he worked.
These folk would try to pawn almost anything, in a desperate attempt to get the money they needed just to buy food for their families and themselves.
After working in the shop for about a year, the boy’s father died and his own mother and sisters found themselves left in a state of poverty. Whilst he was still in his teens, the boy began preaching in the streets – first in Nottingham, and by the age of 20, he was proclaiming his message of hope and faith in Jesus in London where he was regularly pelted with cabbages and rotten eggs for his pains. But totally undaunted, and in faith, he set up a mission of his own to reach out to the poor in the city. His name was William Booth, and from these humble beginnings sprang up the great mission of mercy which we know today as the Salvation Army.
Here we see the mercy of God rewarding the faith of man with the joy of leading others into a saving knowledge of God’s own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God knows our small acts of faith, upon which He bestows great blessings, to build His eternal kingdom and glorify His own wonderful Name.
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.”
(Deuteronomy 28:1-3)