Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Why was William Booth scared of Brengle? This question reveals a culture of anti-education that existed win the Army for almost a hundred years.

Samuel Logan Brengle is one of the most significant figures in Salvation Army theology. His writing inspired, and continues to inspire, Salvationist holiness theology around the world. He was famous as a preacher and teacher of holiness. But, his service in the Army did not begin easily or well.

Brengle’s Previous Experience

Brengle was already well established as a pastor and preacher before he felt called to join The Salvation Army. He had studied at university. Convicted of his desire to become a preacher, he attended Boston Theological Seminary where he was ordained. Then he was offered the pastorship of a large Methodist church in South Bend, Indiana USA. He served that church with distinction as a noted preacher of holiness.

Brengle experienced his own moment of sanctification which dramatically changed his life forever. He was educated, experienced, and successful. He was passionate in his faith with a fiery preaching style. His preaching led hundreds to be saved and sanctified.

Brengle encountered the Army first when William Booth preached on the 1st of June 1885, at Tremont Temple in Boston. Brengle was initially impressed by Booth’s preaching. The strangeness of the Army intrigued him. Brengle’s admiration was truly won, however, when Booth dedicated a night to prayer after his preaching. His calling to the Army came through continued exposure because of Lily Swift, the person who would become his wife. Lily and Suzie Swift were already Salvationists and both became officers. Lily would not marry Brengle until he felt compelled to become an officer, so Brengle made his way to London.

Brengle Comes to London

On the 1st of June, 1887, Brengle arrived in London at the International Headquarters of the Army. However, when Brengle met William Booth he did not receive the welcome he had hoped for. Instead, Booth met him quite coldly. Booth regarded Brengle as being part of the ‘dangerous classes’ (i.e. people of education and culture, who had experience of the world and were already established in ministry). Booth believed that people of that kind could not submit to Army discipline. He thought they always wanted more than what they had. As such, they were not suitable for Army officership. William Booth was scared of Brengle and what he represented. He saw Brengle as a threat.

Brengle pushed back against Booth. He claimed that because he had been sanctified by the Holy Spirit, he was entirely qualified to be an officer. He was willing and desirous of joining the Army and wished to minister self-sacrificially to the poor. Therefore, he should be accepted.

Booth relented and sent Brengle to the Chief of the Staff, his son Bramwell Booth, for a second interview. The second interview went about as well as the first. Bramwell once again rejected Brengle. He regarded Brengle as one of the dangerous classes. Bramwell also thought Brengle was a little bit too big for his boots. Brengle was warned not to bother joining an organisation that he would probably leave in a year or two anyway. However, Brengle persisted. The Chief agreed to take him on a temporary basis for a trial. Then Brengle could withdraw. Bramwell was confident about this outcome. He believed Brengle would struggle with the Army’s demanding hierarchy.

Brengle Begins His Training

Brengle was sent to the field training garrison at Leamington. On the recommendation of Bramwell Booth, his fast task was not preaching or ministry. It was menial service. Brengle was already ordained, and had been educated at both university and seminary. The way he was treated is an example of William Booth being scared of Brengle.

In other similar cases, candidates immediately became officers. They did not need to spend time in one of the training garrisons. Those candidates who did train in the garrisons learned basic accountancy, Bible and preaching methods. They also learned the rules of the Army.

For many who entered the training garrisons, they had to learn to read and write at a level which would allow them to undertake officership, although some still needed extra help even after being commissioned as an officer. Into the garrison comes the educated, ordained, and successful preacher, Samuel Logan Brengle. It wasn’t just William Booth who was scared of Brengle and what he represented.

William Booth’s Fear Drove Brengle Into The Darkness

Brengle’s first job in the training garrison was to descend into a dark cellar to clean and polish the boots of the other cadets. Brengle initially took this as a slight (which it was) and he felt himself wronged. He said, “Lord God, am I burying my talent? Is this the best they can do for me in The Salvation Army?” However, in the darkness as he cleaned the boots of his fellow cadets, he received a vision of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. At that moment, Brengle felt humbled. He shouted out loud, “Dear Lord Thou didst wash their feet; I will black their boots!” Later in his life, Brengle reflected on those moments:

Brengle’s Reflections on Life

Jesus has a humble heart. Just a short time before his death, he took the menial place of a slave, washed his disciples’ feet, and then said: “I have given you an example, that ye should so as I have done to you.” How that did help me in the training home! The second day I was there, they sent me down into a dark little cellar to black half a carload of dirty boots for the cadets.

The devil came at me and reminded me that a few years before, I had graduated from a university, that I had spent a couple of years in a leading theological school, had been a pastor of a metropolitan church, had just left evangelistic work in which I saw hundreds seeking the Saviour, and that now I was only blackening boots for a lot of ignorant lads. My old enemy is the devil! But I reminded him of the example of my Lord, and he left me. Jesus said, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” I was doing them – the devil knew it and let me alone, and I was happy. That little cellar was changed into one of heaven’s own anterooms, and my Lord visited me there.

Brengle has a use

Within a month of being in the training garrison Brengle was already being utilised as a preacher, especially for holiness meetings. He became known for his talent as a preacher, although he was criticised for being long-winded, and overly erudite. He was encouraged to preach more like the Booths in a ‘Blood and Fire’ style. After a brief stint as a probationary corps officer, he finished his training at the Clapton training home and was commissioned as a Captain. He would later become the very first American commissioner in the Army.

Why Was William Booth Scared of Brengle? – Bias Against Education

Why was William Booth scared of Brengle? Why would the Booths initially reject someone like Brengle? He was educated, ordained, had proven experience in leading a growing church, and was successful as a holiness teacher and evangelist who had led hundreds to Jesus. You might have thought he would be a perfect catch for the growing Army, especially as it was trying to extend its work in America and finding it hard ground. However, both William and Bramwell Booth did not trust Brengle. Or, more to the point, they did not trust who they thought Brengle was.

William and Bramwell had a kind of inverse snobbery towards Brengle’s education and experience. They thought that he would not be teachable, that he would be too full of his own background, and that he would not be willing to submit in obedience to people with less education and less experience than he had. But this was not based on any evidence that Brengle had given. It came from an assumption about the educated classes, about people who came from a middle-class background, and fears about people with their own ideas.

The Army’s Weakness Exposed

This exposes perhaps the biggest weakness that the Booths had during the first decades of their work, a weakness that continued in the Army for a very long time and still affects the Army today. The early Army was anti-intellectual in a way that rejected people who had studied because they thought they would not be able to preach in a way that other people could understand him, or that they would not be willing to accept discipline.

Brengle was rejected not because of what he did, but because of he represented a perceived threat to the Booths and to their vision of the Army as a working-class church. They pushed Brengle by giving him menial tasks to see if he would leave, but that test became a moment of spiritual transformation and maturity for Brengle who was able to accept what had been done to him so that he could fulfil his vocation.

While the Army has become a lot better and far more accepting of education for its officers, no longer seeing it as a threat, and even in some circumstances seeing it as a positive, there still remains a general sense of anti-intellectualism within the Army. There remains a tendency to see education that is not directly practical or skills-based as a hobby, or as a nice thing to be able to do not directly relevant to the ministry of the Army. Thankfully, this is not the case everywhere, but it definitely does still remain within the Army.

Total Mobilisation

If the Army is going to live up to the General’s call for total mobilisation to mission, then we need to understand that full mobilisation includes intellectually as well as practically. We need to be an Army that thinks and reflects before we make decisions, not always justifying them after the decision has already been made. The Army needs to be encouraging Salvationist thinkers to produce Salvationist theology which empowers, supports, and provides a foundation for the Army’s mission. We need people who will critically engage with culture and ethical issues to ensure the Army is well resourced for its decisions. The Army needs Salvationist thinkers who are able to effectively teach and preach so that everyone is ready at all times to make a defence of their faith.

The Army is moving in the right direction, but there is still work to go. We do not need to be scared of these things. We need to embrace them and encourage them, not as an addition to ministry, but as ministry itself.

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