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The result of this vision was the East London Christian Mission, which in 1878 became the Salvation Army. At the meeting where the change took place, Booth and his colleagues announced, "The Christian Mission has met in Congress to make War. It has organized a Salvation Army to carry the blood of Christ and the fire of the Holy Ghost into every corner of the world."

What the Salvation Army believes
Eleven articles of faith were included in the 1878 document establishing The Salvation Army. These are still, today, part of the "Articles of War" that each prospective "soldier" in the Army must sign:

1. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God; and that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

2. We believe there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect—the Creator, Preserver and Governor of all things—and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

3. We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead—the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost—undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.

4. We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the divine and human natures are united; so that He is truly and properly God, and truly and properly man.

5. We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness; and that in consequence of their fall all men [sic] have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

6. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by His suffering and death, made an atonement for the whole world, so that whosoever will may be saved.

7. We believe that repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.

8. We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.

9. We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

10. We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be 'wholly sanctified,' and that their 'whole spirit and soul and body' may 'be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

11. We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

The "submerged tenth"
Before the mid 1880s, Booth tended to see social services as a diversion from revivalism. Early Salvationists had begun various charitable enterprises, but it was only in the decade leading up to the writing of his widely acclaimed book In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890) that Booth changed his mind and integrated the social and spiritual emphases. In Issue 26, Murdoch tells how the firebrand evangelist was inspired by Salvationist workers on the urban "front lines" to begin working for the social salvation and physical well-being of the poorest city dwellers:

Social reform was in the air when Salvationist slum sisters living in London established refuges for unfortunate women in Soho and Picadilly areas. When the Salvationists discovered that slum dwellers, mostly Irish and southern and eastern European immigrants, opposed their Wesleyan/holiness salvation message as foreign to their culture, they opened homes for 'fallen women' and orphaned 'waifs and strays,' hunted down drunkards, and met released prisoners … at prison gates. The example of these women led the Booths to join the 1885 'Maiden Tribute' crusade of W. T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. Their efforts brought to world attention the need for legislation to save girls under sixteen from white slavery in London and Paris brothels. In short, 'social' Salvationists began to change the mind of William Booth.

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February (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48