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The Mile End Waste Blessing
(circa 1990s)
Crowds of curious, cynical, and hopeful
people have been flocking to The Salvation Army to see what
has been dubbed, ‘The Mile End Waste Blessing.’ This reporter
wanted to get to the bottom of it all, and so here present
eyewitness accounts, as well as comment from some of the Army
leaders, for your information.
Said one long-time
Christian, “I have seen men in our meetings, who were raving
and blaspheming when the service began, suddenly broken down
as though some physical power had laid them prostrate on the
floor and after a time of silence, weeping, and penitence,
they were confessing their sins” (1).
At another meeting, “From the very
first Jehovah was passing by, searching, softening, and
subduing every heart. The power of the Holy Ghost fell on
Robinson and prostrated him... he entered into full liberty,
and then he shouted, wept, clapped his hands, danced, amid a
scene of the most heavenly and glorious enthusiasm. Others
meanwhile were lying prostrate on the floor, some of them
groaning aloud for perfect deliverance”.(2).
We approached the Chief of the Staff,
Bramwell Booth, for an explanation: “May it not be,” he
suggested, “that as far as the merely physical is concerned,
certainly divine influences come upon a crowd of people... and
that such persons, being overweighted as it were on the
physical, lose their balance and fall down?”(3)
Indeed! And of one officer, I can say
she fell, and stayed! “She lay for nearly five hours
unconscious... her countenance was most evidently
brightened... it helped her to win hundreds of souls for God”
(4). In other meetings, “people went into trances
from which they might not recover for hours”.(5).
One account in particular was
noteworthy. “The Holy Spirit descended on them. Many fell to
the floor as dead, and remained thus for hours. When they
recovered consciousness they related wonderful experiences.
Their faces shone as with light from another world, and their
lives afterward bore evidence of being in close touch with
their Lord”.(6).
All this can be supplemented with
reports of healing and even levitation! (7). The
Army Mother has gone on record thus: “Give me someone able to
cast out demons and I don’t care if they can read or write, or
put a grammatical sentence together! “As if wanting to prove
her point, she continued:
“The Holy Spirit does come, and
sometimes He prostrates our bodies.” “People have fallen on
their faces under the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our
meetings.” “I never did shout in my life, but... I couldn’t
help it,” admitted one attendee.
“People drop down with joy. People shriek with grief...
The manifestation will be according to your nature. One will
fall down and weep in quietness, and the other will get up and
shout and jump. You cannot help it” (C. Booth, p99).
“Many more of God’s people might have
(this experience)... but they are not willing to be wrapped in
His arms; they are not willing to be pressed to His bosom;
they are not willing to know Him in a Scriptural sense; they
are not willing to be given up and consumed by God”.(8).
In explanation, her husband added, “The
passion was on us and in us. We had to go, to do, to dare. It
was for our Christ, who has inspired us with this passion, to
see to the consequences”.(9).
The Mile End Waste Blessing is
characterized by what Salvationists call ‘Glory Fits’. To help
us understand this supernatural phenomenon we asked
Commissioner Cadman:
“The soul itself has nothing to do with
the body. It is wholly superior to the body. When the soul is
not the first concern, it can be hindered by the body. The
soul of the saved man or woman cannot be controlled by the
body. A ‘Glory Fit’ is nothing more than the complete
conquering of the body by the soul in its reach upward to its
Creator and Redeemer. It is the condescension of Infinite Love
in Christ to so uplift itself to Himself for a foretaste of
joy with Him in heaven. Doctors often examined people in this
state but could not explain it. The fact is, I believe, the
soldiers were ‘absent from the body and present with the
Lord’. These ‘Fits’ and bodily cures were nothing to do with
any of us. They were manifestations of the power of God... we
only saw them as signs of His presence”. (10)
As the WAR CRY reports Cadman, “When I
gave the invitation, 700 men and women came down, and the Holy
Ghost broke upon them, and fell upon us all in such a manner,
it seemed to nearly carry me out of my clothes. I had hard
work to stop on earth. Some jumped and jumped, ‘til they
jumped into third heaven. When they got the blessing they swam
about the floor in glory”. (11)
After going into hiding for many years,
the Mile End Waste Blessing is back in an Army Hall near you!
Doubts about being prayed over are being allayed when it is
remembered that Commissioner Ed Read, this generation’s
Brengle, has been known in his meetings to ask for people to
lay hands on him to pray for anointing. If a holy man, filled
with the Spirit, can ask for prayer for anointing, surely we
all can.
Thus, theologically, in many instances
the effect will be something apart from sanctification. One
formulation is as follows. The Spirit is in you at salvation,
filling you at sanctification, and upon you at anointing. Holy
Spirit regenerates you at conversion, purifies you at
sanctification, and empowers you at anointing.
The fruit of holiness is righteousness,
as seen in character. The fruit of the anointing seems to be
fruit also- changed lives of others. It seems like an
anointing for service,(12) (“But you shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you shall be My
witnesses...” Acts 1:8). I know some who have been radically
changed as in sanctification, some taken and shaken by God for
extended periods, rolling, laughing, crying...
“No one could do the works that are
being done except God was with them. All glory to Jesus. He is
enabling you to give proof of your calling. But how much more
might be done had you all received this pentecostal baptism in
all its fullness? If every soul was inflamed and every lip
touched, and every mind illuminated, and every heart purified
with a hallowed flame?”.(13). What is happening is
for us all. Take the plunge!
Endnotes:
1) Bramwell Booth, ECHOES AND MEMORIES. p66.
2) Bramwell Booth, ibid. p68.
3) Bramwell Booth, ibid. p69.
4) Bramwell Booth, ibid. p70.
5) Minnie Carpenter, JOHN DEAN. p33.
6) Minnie Carpenter, ibid. ‘31.
7) Bramwell Booth, ECHOES AND MEMORIES. P71.
8) Catherine Booth, AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY.
p55, 98, 99, 157, 158.
9) William Booth, in Catherine
Bramwell-Booth, LETTERS. p102.
10) Elijah Cadman, in H. Wallis, HAPPY
WARRIOR. p110,111.
11) Elijah Cadman, in J. Rhemick, A NEW
PEOPLE OF GOD.
12) Milton Agnew, TRANSFORMED CHRISTIANS
p63.
13) William Booth, in J. Rhemick, A NEW
PEOPLE OF GOD. p102.
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