The earliest record of a Salvation Army worship service is found in the publications of William and Catherine Booth’s London East End ministry that began in the late 1860s.
Introduction
The organization that would become The Salvation Army in 1878 commenced its ministry in July 1865 in a series of tent meetings in the East London district of Whitechapel (Robert Sandall, The History of the Salvation Army, Vol. 1: 1865–1878 [London: Thomas Nelson, 1947], 37).
William Booth. This is a likeness of the portrait presented in 1856 to Booth by his friends in Sheffield in appreciation of his labors there and in other parts of the country.
The format of these early day services was modeled on the “free and easy” nineteenth century Methodist song service. These unstructured services included a combination of extemporaneous prayer, hymns, numerous personal testimonies, and often a concluding sermon.
Text: The first recorded example that provides the details of these services are found in The East London Evangelist, the monthly periodical that William Booth first published October 1868 as a record of the “Christian Work Among the People” of his East London Christian Mission. The March 1869 issue includes a reprint of a report from The Revival, another religious periodical of the 1860s:
On the afternoon of Sunday, January 31, I was able to see some of the results of William Booth’s work in the East of London by attending his experience meeting, held in the New East London Theatre. Probably about 500 were present, though many came late. The meeting commenced at three, and lasted one hour and a half. During this period forty-three persons gave their experience, parts of eight hymns were sung, and prayer was offered by four persons. After singing Philip Phillips’ beautiful hymn, “I Will Sing for Jesus,” prayer by Mr. Booth and two others, a young man rose, and told of his conversion a year ago last Tuesday, thanking God that he had been kept through the year.
A negro of the name of Burton interested the meeting much by telling of his first open-air service, which he had held during the past week in Ratcliff Highway, one of the worst places in London. He said, when the people saw him kneel in the gutter, engaged in prayer for them, they thought he was mad.
Hymn, “Christ, He Sits on Zion’s Hill.”
A young man under the right-hand gallery having briefly spoken, one of Mr. Booth’s helpers, a genuine Yorkshire man, named Dimaline, with a strong voice and a hearty manner, told of the open-air meetings, the opposition they encountered, and his determination to go on, in spite of all opposition from men and devils.
A middle-aged man on the right, a sailor, told how he was brought to Christ during his passage home from Columbo. One of the Dublin tracts, entitled “Johns Difficulty,” was the means of his conversion.
A young man to the right having told how, as a backslider, he had recently been restored, a cabman said he had a deal to talk about. The Lord had pardoned his sins. He used to be in the public-houses constantly, but he thanked God he ever heard William Booth, for it led to his conversion.
Three young men on the right then spoke. The first, who comes five miles to these meeting, told how he was lost through the drink, and restored by the gospel; the second said he was unspeakably happy; and the third said he would go to the stake for Christ.
A middle-aged man in the centre spoke of his many trials. His sight was failing him, that of one eye having gone entirely, but the light of Christ shone brilliantly in his soul.
Hymn, “Let us walk in the light,” etc.
Two sailors followed each other. The first spoke of his conversion through reading a tract while on his way to the Indies four months ago. The other said he was going to sea next week, and was going to take some Bibles, hymns, and tracts with him to see what could be done for Christ on board. He thought the conversion of sailors was fulfilling the passage, “The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto Thee.”
Hymn, “I believe I shall be there, And walk with Him in White.”
A young man of the name of John, sometimes called, “Young Hallelujah,” told of his trials while selling fish in the streets, but he comforted himself by saying, “Tis better on before.” He had been drawn out in prayer at midnight on the previous night, and had dreamed all night that he was in a prayer meeting. He was followed by another, a converted thief, who told how he was “picked up,” as he termed his conversion, and of his persecutions daily while working in a shop with twenty unconverted men.
A man in the centre, who had been a great drunkard, said, “What a miserable wretch I was till the Lord met with me. I used to think I could not do without my pint a day, but the Lord pulled me right back out of a public-house into a place of worship.” (Gawin Kirkham, “An Afternoon with William Booth,” The East London Evangelist [March 1, 1869], 89–90).
The report continues in a similar vein for several more pages (the portion reproduced here is only one-third of the whole account), and concludes:
Mr. Booth offered a few concluding observations, and prayed. The meeting closed by singing: I will not be discouraged, for Jesus is my Friend.