William Borden Grave

No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets.

 

WILLIAM WHITING BORDEN, OF YALE

The Man with a Million for the Kingdom

REV. HENRY W. FROST, America’s representative of the China Inland Mission, once asked a distinguished Englishman, “Of all that you have seen in America what has impressed you most?” Mr. Frost was expecting him to refer to the monuments of American ingenuity and enterprise, but he received this answer: “The sight of William Borden on his knees in the Yale Hope Mission of New Haven with his arm around a bum.”

On July 9, 1913, when word was received of the death of William Borden, in Cairo, Egypt, a Yale classmate wrote to a friend: ” The unbelievable has apparently happened and I feel overwhelmed with a sense of the smallness of life, but there is one thing I know: If ever a man was guided by God’s will in his life, that man was Bill. His life and his firm purpose to be a missionary have been an inspiration to me for more than six years and I know his influence will never depart from me.”

Faced from earliest youth with the temptations incident to great wealth, this young man passed through the varying experiences of preparatory school, college, and seminary life unscathed by the fires of impurity and unsullied by any form of selfishness.

Early in life he had been impressed with the saying of Mr. Moody, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a fully surrendered man.”

It was Borden’s desire to let God have his absolute way with him, and not one deliberate act of his from the time he arrived at years of discretion until his death at the age of twenty-five, was foreign to the attempt to live the completely surrendered and victorious life. In 1905, before entering Yale, he spent a year in foreign travel with Rev. Walter C. Erdman, of Korea. On his way home, he stopped in England and attended a meeting in London addressed by Rev. R. A. Torrey. He took careful notes of the speaker’s points and at that time registered a determination to dedicate his life. “Much helped and surrendered all,” was the brief entry in his diary.

Borden was born in Chicago, November 1, 1887, his parents being the late William B. and Mary deGarmo Whiting Borden. The influences of boyhood tended toward a rapid development of religious convictions and habits of daily Bible study and prayer. That the will of God might be wrought out in daily living was the constant objective of his mother who devoted herself to the development of her son’s character as few mothers have the opportunity or inclination to do.

The year of foreign travel produced in the lad, who had just graduated from the Hill School of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a passion to devote himself to Christian work in the mission field.

The revolting rites of heathenism, the degraded social state, the misery, cruelty, and destitution following in the wake of heathen superstition, roused the innermost impulses of his being, and he decided, during that year, to devote his energies and his wealth to the missionary cause. After eight weeks on the mission field, he wrote to his mother that he had decided to become a foreign missionary.

On one occasion, when asked by a quizzical friend why he was wasting his life in such a cause, he replied with a piercing look, “You have never seen heathenism. ”

Borden was not of the pietistic type; he had none of the look of an ascetic. Square-shouldered, with a rugged face, deep -set eyes, over-hanging eyebrows, and a shock of black hair, he was an ideal exponent of muscular and virile Christianity.

He was a devotee of the pure and wholesome pleasures of life, fond of every kind of healthful recreation, an enthusiastic yachtsman and mountain climber. Football, baseball, tennis, and golf, had their attractions for him.

When asked what form of exercise he enjoyed most, he answered, “Wrestling.”

There was not the slightest tinge of cant or sanctimony in his speech or actions. When leading in prayer or addressing a religious gathering, he was as simple as a child in his direct, forcible, and boyish way. He could be as serious as anyone when considering the great issues of life but at the same time there was an exuberance of spirits, a marvelous fund of joy that seemed to radiate from him. The contagion of his Christian optimism was manifest on all occasions.

Entering Yale University in 1905, he immediately took rank as a scholar and athlete. He was a well-known figure in the college gymnasium and on the athletic field .

On the river he rowed number four in his class crew. His scholarship was so high that he became president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and, in addition, received other academic honors.

Borden was not one of those who believed that in order to be popular and “a good mixer ” he would have to forego deep interest in religion while in college. He immediately went into the Christian Association and the Student Volunteer Band, throwing all his energies into various forms of definite Christian work in which he soon became an acknowledged leader. For several years he was president of the Connecticut Valley Missionary Union and assisted by generous contributions of time and money in the building up of the great Yale Mission in Central China. He devoted much of his spare time to the formation of Bible study and mission classes and prayer groups.

Discerning the needs of a certain section of New Haven practically unreached by the churches, he gathered a little prayer group in Dwight Hall for the purpose of opening up the way for a gospel mission for the outcast men of the city. The result was the founding of the Yale Hope Mission which, for a number of years, has been reaching hundreds of the “down and out,” and has perhaps done more to convince the men of Yale of the value of Christianity in individual regeneration than any other influence outside the campus. The Yale Hope Mission is perhaps the greatest earthly monument to Bill Borden’s faith in men and in God.

At the memorial service held in New Haven, many redeemed men from the mission testified to Borden’s wonderful personal help in bringing them to a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

During vacations Borden took sufficient time for the recruiting of his physical powers but his heart was in the work of saving men, and, on some of the hottest days in midsummer, he could be found working with the men of the National Bible Institute, of New York City, preaching to the throngs in the city streets, and dealing personally with those who were thus reached.

William Borden denied himself many personal indulgences in order that he might keep in line with the simplicities of the Christ life.

He refused to be elected to positions in fraternities, clubs, and class organizations, for the sake of devoting himself more largely to Christian work. With a splendid fortune at his command, he never made a show of his wealth but in a thousand quiet ways used his money for the upbuilding of the Kingdom. He recognized his stewardship by keeping careful accounts of all his expenditures. He lived on a moderate allowance in college and his large gifts were made possible by his economy. A missionary in his own name, he consecrated all that he had to God.

He did not feel that if he gave one tenth, he had a right to use the rest as he pleased. Ten tenths were the Lord’s, and he held every cent as a trust.

This constrained him to give practically all his income and sometimes part of his principal. An extra dividend of two thousand dollars he distributed to various charities, keeping nothing for himself. A munificent giver, he never allowed anyone to feel that he was conferring a favor upon the recipient. The spirit of patronage was farthest from his thought. He was a director of a number of Christian enterprises and sat on the Boards of Management as the youngest of the directors. He joined in discussions freely but without appearance of self-conceit.

What he had to say was thought out carefully and his judgments were broad and sane.

Of course it was to be expected that Borden would be a leader in the student activities of the theological seminary which he entered in the fall of 1909. Princeton soon felt the force of his strong personality. His mother moved to Princeton and opened a spacious home where the most generous hospitality was extended to the professors and students of the institution.

The first year of Borden’s life at Princeton he was made a delegate to the World’s Missionary Conference at Edinburgh, representing the China Inland Mission.

It was in Princeton that he entered into closer missionary relations, visiting schools and colleges and extending his influence throughout the churches.

About this time, he became a member of the American Committee of the Nile Press of Cairo and came into contact with the opportunities of the work in Egypt. After his graduation in 1912 he was engaged in evangelistic work in New York City, preaching upon the streets and doing office work in connection with the National Bible Institute.

In the fall he was ordained to the gospel ministry in the Moody Church, Chicago, where he was a member, and for three months thereafter traveled as a representative of the Student Volunteer Movement.

His deepest sympathies went out to those portions of the non – Christian world which were practically unreached by any of the mission forces.

He saw ten million Chinese Moslems for whom no provision had been made in the allotment of missionary responsibility among the missionary societies.

He therefore determined to apply for service under the China Inland Mission and was assigned to work in Kan -su in western China. In December he sailed for Cairo in order to perfect himself in Arabic and study the Moslem literature.

For three months he wrought and studied, distributing thousands of tracts among the Moslems

around Cairo and assisting with his money in the better equipment of the Nile Mission Press. During the three months of his stay in Cairo he personally superintended a house- to- house canvass with Christian literature.

Suddenly he was attacked by spinal meningitis and died April 9, 1913. His body was laid to rest in the American Mission Cemetery at Cairo.

Among the many great bequests left under his carefully drawn will was a quarter of aa million dollars to the China Inland Mission.

This fund will perpetuate the memory of his brief but wonderful career but will not make up for the loss of so vital a personality. The remembrance of his life, however, as that of a burning and shining light, will be an inspiration to many a life and will bring scores to an espousal of the missionary cause.

It was not William Borden’s money that gave him standing. His simple and consecrated life, unspoiled by wealth, was a miracle in itself, and bad William Borden been a poor boy God’s way with him would have been as wonderful.

The Church needs consecrated money, but more than this it needs consecrated men and women who live the life of Jesus as William Borden lived it.

 

See Paul Chappell and his wife at the grave.