46. William Whiting Borden (1887–1913)
46
William Whiting Borden
1887–1913
One Sunday at the Chicago Avenue Church (which later became Moody Church), Dr. R. A. Torrey challenged believers to surrender their lives in total consecration to Jesus Christ. Many stood to their feet, among them a seven-year-old lad in a sailor-suit. No doubt some of the adults near him smiled at his action, but the boy was deadly serious. In fact, that step of dedication controlled his life until, eighteen short years later, he died in Egypt, preparing to go to China as a missionary.
That lad was William Whiting Borden, the subject of Mrs. Howard Taylor’s classic biography, Borden of Yale ’09. Since there has arisen a generation that knows not Borden, I think it is time they got acquainted.
Borden was born November 1, 1887, with blue blood in his veins and a silver spoon in his mouth. Both the Bordens and the Whitings (his mother’s family) came from distinguished English families noted for character and achievement. Bordens fought beside Duke William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. The first child born of European parents in Rhode Island was Matthew Borden; the year was 1638. Colonel William Whiting helped to found Hartford, Connecticut. Charles Whiting married Elizabeth Bradford, a descendant of Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony. William Bradford Whiting had a distinguished career during the Revolutionary War.
Borden’s father was prominent in Chicago. He had made his money in silver mining in Colorado, a venture that was backed by Chicago merchant Marshall Field. But it was his mother who had the stronger influence on her son, for she was a devoted Christian. The fellowship and ministry at the Chicago Avenue Church meant much to her, and she had little interest in the city’s society life. The fact that her ancestors came over on the Mayflower mattered little to Mrs. Borden. The fact that she was a Christian going to heaven was of far greater value.
William received the standard grade-school education in Chicago, and then went to Hill School in Pottsdown, Pennsylvania, for his high school training. There was a strong Christian influence on the campus, and famous preachers often spoke in chapel. “Campbell Morgan was there,” William wrote his mother in 1903, “and preached a fine sermon in the morning, which was said to be the best ever given here. . . . Some of the fellows thought it was a little long, but I did not and wanted more.”
The fact that William was the son of a millionaire did not interfere with his normal activities as a boy. He never tried to impress anyone; he was active in student sporting events, and he kept careful account of his money. He even sent his mother a monthly report of his spending. He served as chairman of the Missionary Study Band, and he listened carefully whenever Dr. Robert Speer, missionary statesman, came to speak to the students. William never forgot that act of consecration that he made when he was seven years old.
He graduated from Hill School in 1904, fourth in a class of forty-eight boys. He was only sixteen years old, endowed with unusual physical and mental ability, and too young to start university. It was decided that he should take a trip around the world. His traveling companion was Walter Erdman, a graduate of Princeton University and Seminary. They sailed from San Francisco on September 20, 1904, on the S.S. Korea. A number of missionary couples were on board, and William said that meeting them influenced him. In fact, the entire trip only strengthened his determination to be a missionary. “When I look ahead a few years,” he wrote his parents, “it seems as though the only thing to do is to prepare for the foreign field.”
William was moved by what he saw in Japan and China, and he was impressed by the work of the China Inland Mission. The sights in India stirred his heart, particularly the sacred city of Benares on the Ganges. A few years later, when a friend told William that he was “throwing his life away as a missionary,” William calmly replied, “You have never seen heathenism.”
But the trip involved more than sightseeing. “Walt and I have Bible study together every day when possible,” William wrote his mother, “and I enjoy it very much. . . . I pray every day for all my dear family. I also pray that God will take my life into his hands and use it for the furtherance of His kingdom as He sees best.” Then he added this significant sentence: “I have so much of everything in this life, and there are so many millions who have nothing and live in darkness!”
Back home in Chicago, Mrs. Borden shared with her husband William’s desire to be a missionary. I get the impression that Mr. Borden was not as spiritually minded as his wife, and no doubt his son’s decision greatly disturbed him. Had William Whiting Borden devoted his life to business interests, there is little question that he would have become a multimillionaire. But, as a missionary? That was quite something else!
“I am glad that you have told Father about my desire to be a missionary,” William confided in his mother, writing from Rome. “I am thinking about it all the time, and looking forward to it with a good deal of anticipation. I know that I am not at all fitted or prepared yet, but in the next four or five years I ought to be able to prepare myself.” A book on missions by Robert Speer especially touched him. “When I got through reading,” he wrote his mother, “I knelt right down and prayed more earnestly than I have for some time for the mission work and for God’s plan for my life. . . . Pray that I may be guided in everything, small and great!”
Dr. Torrey was preaching in London when William and Walt arrived there, and they attended some of his meetings. At the close of one of the meetings, William stood again to reaffirm the commitment he had made to Christ more than ten years before. This new step of dedication seemed to give him a greater burden for the lost and a new freedom in personal witness.
William would have preferred to attend Moody Bible Institute and then go to college, but his parents decided he should go to Yale University instead. He entered the freshman class in 1905 and discovered that, in spite of the school’s historic Christian background, there was a lack of spiritual life on campus. “The great majority [of students] smoke, go to the theatre Saturday night and do their studying on Sunday,” he wrote home. “Rather a hopeless state of affairs! However, there are some fine Christian men in College and in my own class too, I believe. And I hope to be able to do something, by the grace of God, to help in the right direction.”
And he did. He refused to join any secret societies or fraternities, and he chose friends whose spiritual interests were akin to his own. He boldly witnessed for Christ and backed up that witness with such a consistent life that even the unbelievers had to admit he was a Christian. He chose two texts as his mottos for his college years: “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. . . . Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee” (Ps. 119:9, 11).
William became burdened for the indigent people in the seaport town of New Haven where Yale was located. The result was the founding of the Yale Hope Mission, where William often went to witness for Christ and to help those whose lives had been battered by sin. “What has impressed you most since you came to America?” Dr. Henry Frost, China Inland Mission executive, asked a visitor. The reply: “The sight of that young millionaire kneeling with his arm around a ‘bum’ in the Yale Hope Mission.” Hundreds of lives were dramatically changed through the gospel witness at the mission.
While at Yale, William served as a delegate to the Student Volunteer Movement conference at Nashville, Tennessee. The one speaker who stood out to the young missionary candidate was Dr. Samuel Zwemer, noted missionary to the Muslims. When William learned that there were fifteen million Muslims in China, without a single missionary, his interest was aroused; and he committed himself to that ministry “should the Lord confirm the call.” Four years later, as a delegate to the historic Edinburgh Missionary Conference, when introduced Borden stated publicly that he planned to minister to the Muslims of northwest China.
He graduated from Yale in 1909 and that same year entered Princeton Seminary. He was also named a trustee of Moody Bible Institute. The next year, he became a member of the North American Council of the China Inland Mission. William’s father had died in 1906, and his mother moved to Princeton, New Jersey, to be near her son during those important years of preparation. Two interesting facts should be noted about his seminary years: he taught a Sunday school class in an African Methodist Episcopal Church, and he gave away $70,000 to various Christian causes.
The story now draws to a rapid close. He graduated from seminary in 1912 and, on September 9, was ordained at Moody Church in Chicago. Dr. James M. Gray preached the ordination sermon, and Dr. John Timothy Stone, pastor of Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church, gave the charge to the candidate. The newspapers gave great publicity to the event—so strange it was that a young millionaire would bury himself in China as a missionary. William wrote to his school friends: “I am sorry that there was such unnecessary publicity, and hope you fellows will discount what was said very liberally.”
Borden spent the next three months speaking in various colleges, representing the cause of world missions. On December 17, 1912, he sailed for Egypt, where he planned to study with Dr. Zwemer and get a grasp of the Muslim religion and culture. He threw himself into literature distribution and whatever ministry would help to reach the lost. But just at Easter season, 1913, he became ill with cerebral meningitis and died on April 9. The news of his death was reported around the world, with memorial services held in many schools and churches. In his will, Borden left his fortune to various Christian ministries. In his life and death he left to all of us an example of true devotion to Christ and to the things that matter most.
Why should such a gifted life be cut short? Perhaps the best answer was given by Sherwood Day, one of Borden’s missionary friends. “I have absolutely no feeling of a life cut short,” Day wrote. “A life abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short.” From many parts of the world Mrs. Borden received letters telling of the impact of her son’s life and death on Christian students and missionaries. Dr. Zwemer, in the funeral message, summarized the meaning of Borden’s testimony: “By some, the victory has to be won over poverty . . . but Borden won the victory over an environment of wealth. He felt that life consisted not in ‘the abundance of things that a man possesseth,’ but in the abundance of things which possess the man.”
After all, it is not the length of a person’s life that matters, but the strength of one’s influence for God. A Judas would read Borden’s life and sneer, “Why this waste!” but our Lord would evaluate it differently. William Whiting Borden never got to minister to the Muslims in China, but God knew the intent of his heart and rewarded him accordingly. Borden’s desire was to magnify Christ “whether it be by life, or by death,” and God gave him his desire.
One lesson is clear: never underestimate the decisions made by a child or a young man. At the age of seven, Borden consecrated himself to Christ. When a freshman at Yale, he wrote in his notebook: “Lord Jesus, I take hands off, as far as my life is concerned. I put Thee on the throne in my heart. Change, cleanse, use me as Thou shalt choose. I take the full power of Thy Holy Spirit. I thank Thee.” Then he added this revealing sentence: “May never know a tithe of the result until Morning.”
The words of martyred Jim Elliot come to mind: “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”1 And the words of our Savior: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).