Featured

Our Master: Thoughts for Salvationists about Their Lord — Themes and Context

(0 User reviews) 1695

In Category - Sermons Devotion

Authors: Booth, Bramwell, 1856-1929 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2005 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Sermons, English; Jesus Christ -- Sermons Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 39,474

Reading time 172 min

Text sections 5

Before opening Our Master: Thoughts for Salvationists about Their Lord — Themes and Context, the edition data offers a quick orientation: 39,474 words, 2 hr 52 min estimated reading time, and 5 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 21.1 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Sermons, English,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #8191

Bramwell Booth's meditations on Christ's birth, death, and resurrection, drawn from Salvation Army periodicals, emphasize Christ's shared human experience and the transformation of death's horror into hope through His passage.

Editorial Edition Score 4.6/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

Calculated from edition completeness, EPUB availability, text structure and catalogue metadata. Not a user rating.

How this score is calculated

Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg8191

Read the Text

There was no home for Jesus in Bethlehem. There was no room for Him in the inn. There was no cradle in the stable. There was no protector when Herod arose to kill. What a strange world it is! Did ever babe open eyes on such a topsy-turvy condition of affairs? The King of Glory had not where to lay His head! Mary, it is true, was strong in faith, but both she and Joseph must needs soon fly into Egypt with the Babe. Refused at the inn, soon even the stable must cast them out!

He came to take all men into His heart, and they, ere ever they saw Him, cast Him forth as an outlaw!

And we who know what it means to be loved of Him, what can we say? Our hearts are bowed with something of shame and grief that He thus suffered, and yet we have a secret joy because He suffered so well! For of all the greatnesses of the Babe this is the greatest--the greatness of His heart. "The Sacred Heart of Jesus," the Romanists call it. "The All-Conquering Heart of Jesus," I prefer to name it. For it was His wealth of love that really gave Him the victory.

Does one read these lines who is poor, who is cast out by those who are dear, who is a stranger in a strange land, who is driven from "pillar to post," who is harassed by open foes and wounded by secret enmity? Well, to that one let me say, remember your Lord's poverty and friendlessness; remember the tossings up and down of His infancy; the frugal cottage home in Nazareth wherein His family was finally gathered--despite its bareness and toil--was a place of peace and abundance, compared with the stable, the flight into Egypt, and the sojourn among aliens there.

Are you, dear friend, tempted to complain of your narrow surroundings, of your small opportunity to shine before others, or of a want of appreciation of your service and gifts and powers by those who should know you? Oh, remember the Babe, and the long years of His condescension to men of low estate, to the cramped surroundings of the carpenter's shed, and the sleepy Jewish village. Are you tried sometimes because you have to suffer the hatred or jealousy, secret or open, of those for whom you feel nothing but goodwill, and who perhaps once thought themselves happy in your friendship? Well, in such hours, remember your Master, and the hatred of Herod seeking to kill the Child. Try to call to mind something of the secret, as well as the open, bitterness of men, religious and irreligious alike, which began to hunt Him while yet in swaddling clothes, and which hunted Him still all through His days.

But amidst it all, what a great heart of passionate love was His! Blessed be His Name for ever! Whether the poverty and suffering and hatred were or were not favourable to it, there it was--_the Great Heart of all the world_. What about you? Can you ever be again the same since you learned that He loved you? Can you ever be again content to remain little and narrow, with interests and affections that are little and narrow also? Will you not rise, as He rose, above the small ambitions of the spiritual pigmies who meet you at every turn, determined to look beyond your own tiny circle, and the low aims of those around you? Depend upon it, you ought to do so. Depend upon it, the Holy Saviour can enable you to do so. Depend upon it, the world's great need is "Great Hearts." Will you be one?

"_And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger_."--Luke ii. 7.

"_Christ formed in you_."--Gal. iv. 19.

The life of Jesus Christ in Palestine was a foreshadowing of His life in all who accept Him. God appointed Him a Saviour, not only because He should bring redemption nigh by a sacrifice which He alone could offer, but because He was also appointed to be the firstborn of many brethren, to be the head of a new family, the beginning--the new Adam--the first of a new line, in which character should cease to be merely human, even though perfect with all human perfections, and should become a union of the human and the Divine; in which, in fact, the body and mind and spirit of man should continue to exhibit the wonder of Christ's Incarnation, and show forth God clothed with man.

Continue Reading →

Bramwell Booth, General of the Salvation Army, addresses his fellow Salvationists in a series of meditations originally published in Army periodicals. The collection centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ, with a particular focus on His birth, death, and resurrection. Booth writes with a pastoral urgency, often confronting the fear and mystery surrounding death. He describes death as 'the king of terrors' and 'the great valley of the dark shadow,' yet insists that Christ's own death—'really, cruelly dead'—has transformed the tomb into 'the porch of a temple.' The excerpts reveal a preacher who does not shy away from the physical and emotional horrors of the crucifixion, but uses them to argue for Christ's solidarity with human suffering.

Christ's Shared Experience of Death

Booth repeatedly emphasizes that Christ underwent the full reality of human death. He lists the elements of horror: 'pain, bodily pain; there was mental anguish; the howling mob, the horrid contempt... the mystery of the Father's clouded face; the final sinking down.' This is not a sanitized or docetic Christ. Booth insists that 'nothing was wanting which could invest the scene... with horror and repulsion.' The purpose is to assure believers that Christ 'passed this same way before you.' The physical details—the shroud, the coffin, the grave—are not morbid but redemptive. By tasting death fully, Christ has made the deathbed 'fragrant with immortality.' Booth's language is visceral and concrete, avoiding abstract theology in favor of a shared journey through the valley of the shadow.

The Tension Between Doubt and Assurance

Booth acknowledges that even believers face the 'great "Why?" of unbelief' when confronting death. He admits that 'the death of some is a mystery' and that it is better to say so than to pretend understanding. This honesty creates a tension: the same Christ who is 'Mighty to save' also allows the 'persistency of that "Why?"' to intensify fear. Booth does not resolve this tension by dismissing doubt, but by pointing to Christ's own experience of abandonment. The vision of Christ's dead body, he argues, 'has something in it to charm away our fears.' The assurance is not that death will be easy, but that Christ has already crossed 'the chilly stream' alone. The believer can cry with Stephen, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' because Christ 'passed this way before with a worn and bruised body.'

A Salvationist's Practical Hope

Booth's meditations are not merely doctrinal; they are shaped for a movement that emphasized personal holiness and active service. The preface notes that these papers were first published in Salvation Army periodicals, suggesting they were meant to encourage soldiers in the field. The excerpt about the Roman emperor and the Christian—'The Galilean is making a coffin'—illustrates a confrontational, eschatological hope. Death is not an end but a defeat for the enemies of Christ. Booth's language is direct and homiletic, often using repetition ('He passed this way before us') to drive home his point. For the Salvationist reader, the message is clear: Christ's victory over death is not a distant doctrine but a present reality that empowers witness and endurance even in the face of persecution and personal loss.

Readers approaching Booth's work will find a devotional text that refuses to soften the harshness of death. The author's focus on Christ's physical suffering and the believer's honest doubts may challenge those expecting a triumphalist tract. Booth writes as a pastor who has walked with the dying, and his meditations reward slow reading. The structure—moving from birth to death to resurrection—invites reflection on the whole arc of Christ's work, but the most striking passages linger on the cross and the grave. For Salvationists and others seeking a robust, unsentimental faith, these pages offer a companion for the darkest hours.

I keep thinking about how Booth saw Christ’s death not as an ending but as a passage through the worst of our human fear. It stayed with me, quiet and steady. And later, I stumbled on something gentler—Fifty-Two Story Talks to Boys and Girls — Inside the Classic—which holds that same warmth, only spoken closer to a child’s ear. One felt like a hand on my shoulder.