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BR 9220" SB ie le Opie 
 Taylor, Howard, 
 Borden of Yale '09 
 
 
 

 
WILLIAM WHITING BORDEN. 
 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 
 
Borden of Yale ’og 
 
 AAA CF PRine> ih bE 
 
 “The Life abet Counts 7" 
 dub 2-198 
 
 
 
 By 
 Mrs. Howard Taylor 
 
 Author of 
 “ Pastor Hsi”, ‘‘ Hudson Taylor”’, 
 “The Call of China’s Great North-West’, etc 
 
 With Portraits, Illustrations and Maps 
 
 THE CHINA INLAND MISSION, LONDON 
 PHILADELPHIA, TORONTO, MELBOURNE, AND 
 SHANGHAI 
 
 AGENTS: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 4 BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON, E.C.4. . . 1926 
 
The life 
 that I now live in the flesh 
 I live 
 by the faith of the Son of God 
 Who loved me 
 
 and gave Himself for me. 
 GAL. ii. 20. 
 
 Printed in Great Britain dy R. & R. Ciank, Limitep, Edinburgh. 
 
To 
 THE MOTHER 
 WHO LOVED AND GAVE 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/bordenofyaleO9thoOtay| 
 
On the far reef the breakers 
 Recoil in shattered foam, 
 Yet still the sea behind them 
 Urges its forces home ; 
 Its chant of triumph surges 
 Through all the thunderous din— 
 The wave may break in failure, 
 But the tide is sure to win. 
 
 O mighty sea, thy message 
 
 In changing spray is cast : 
 Within God’s plans of progress 
 
 It matters not at last 
 How wide the shores of evil, 
 
 How strong the reefs of sin— 
 The wave may be defeated, 
 
 But the tide is sure to win. 
 
 Selected. 
 
 vii 
 

 
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INTRODUCTION 
 
 WHEN the death of William Whiting Borden was 
 cabled from Egypt, it seemed as though a wave of 
 sorrow went round the world. There was scarcely 
 a newspaper in the United States that did not pub- 
 lish some account of a life which had combined 
 elements so unusual, and letters from many lands 
 attested the influence of its high ideals and un- 
 selfish service. It is probably true, as was stated 
 in the Princeton Seminary Bulletin, that no young 
 man of his age had ever ‘given more to the service 
 of God and humanity; for Borden not only gave 
 his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and 
 natural that it was manifestly a privilege rather 
 than a sacrifice. 
 
 From Chicago, the city of his birth, came the 
 following testimony : 
 
 ‘** A church friend of mine, working in the office 
 of the Western Union Telegraph Company, was 
 much tried by the scoffings of an unbeliever con- 
 cerning everything to do with religion. Whatever 
 might be said on the other side was met with argu- 
 ment and denial. My friend, though an intelligent 
 man and an earnest Christian, has little time for 
 
 general reading and did not know of your son until 
 1X 
 
x BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 an account of his consecrated life appeared in the 
 daily paper. Upon reading it he at once felt that 
 it might mean something to this unbeliever, so he 
 laid the paper on his desk and awaited results. The 
 scoffer read the article through, then coming to my 
 friend said : 
 
 *** T cannot understand it! There is no account- 
 ing for such a life.’ 
 
 ‘* He was completely silenced by the revelation 
 of the power of God in the life your son lived. 
 This is a small incident, Madam, but my friend 
 has been deeply impressed and, with me, rejoices 
 to know that Mr. Borden’s biography is to be 
 published.” 
 
 A Richmond journal, reaching a hundred thou- 
 sand young people in the South, admitted that 
 Borden’s theory of converting his many possessions 
 of talent, vigorous strength and wealth into eternal 
 values might not accord with the popular receipt 
 for making the most of life. 
 
 But”, the editorial continued, ‘“‘ even though 
 he was cut off in his early prime, before actually 
 reaching his distant sphere of labour, it is doubtful 
 whether any life of modern times has flung out to 
 the world a more inspiring example. His invest- 
 ment has borne rich returns already and will con- 
 tinue to yield its peculiar fruit. There are thou- 
 sands of talented and favoured young men who 
 will, in the light of Borden’s conception of invest- 
 ment values, come to a new view of Christian service. 
 Material possessions and natural endowments will 
 
INTRODUCTION Xl 
 
 be appraised not by a standard of self-indulgence 
 or worldly ambition but by their adaptability for 
 building the Kingdom of God. Here was a fearless 
 spirit, not fettered by worldly wisdom in the dis- 
 position of his powers and possessions, who looked 
 out and up, beyond all these, and grasped the really 
 great thing of value for which to spend them.” 
 
 “Tt was not the million dollars that came to\Y 
 this young American ’’, commented another editor, 
 ‘‘ which made his life a victory and his death a 
 world-wide call to young men and women to learn 
 the secret of that victory. It was in things that — 
 every man can share that William Borden found 
 the way to the life which is Christ and the death 
 which is gain. And China and the Moslem world 
 shall yet share that gain, as his burning torch is 
 used to kindle in other lives the fires of a like 
 passion for Jesus Christ.”’ 
 
ae 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 me ee “ 
 
 ead 
 
 
 
 
 
 w ik 7 
 j ‘ie 4 aN P 
 
 “a S a fa’ 
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 i a 
 
 bE 
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 = Sp 
 
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Conn oD 
 
 ll. 
 12. 
 13. 
 14. 
 
 15. 
 16. 
 Ly, 
 18. 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 PART I.—EARLY YEARS 
 
 . BOYHOOD 
 
 Tue Hitt ScHoou 
 
 . RouND THE WORLD 
 
 RounpD THE WorLD—continued 
 
 . Cominc Home 
 
 PART IJ.—YALE UNIVERSITY 
 
 . FRESHMAN i 
 . FRESHMAN—continued . 
 . SOPHOMORE 
 
 . Upper CLASSMAN 
 
 10. 
 
 VACATIONS 
 
 PART III].—PRINCETON SEMINARY 
 
 STUDIES AND Home LIFE 
 WipER ACTIVITIES 
 MISSIONARY OUTLOOK . 
 STEWARDSHIP 
 
 PART IV.—AFTERWARDS 
 
 CAIRO i 
 
 Tue FInisHED COURSE 
 ‘* ROUND FAITHFUL ”’ 
 Tur UNFINISHED TASK 
 
 Xili 
 
 106 
 124 
 133 
 156 
 
 173 
 187 
 206 
 226 
 
 237 
 257 
 266 
 282 
 

 
 
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ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 William Whiting Borden : : . Frontispiece 
 William’s Birthplace . : j : 5 
 William at Five Years old . 7 
 Borden Hall, near Canterbury ; NB og8 
 The Hill School ; : ; ; eigen! Ee: 
 William in 1904 ; : ‘ id eG 
 Outline Map of India . oh iby ou 
 The Golden Temple at Aine : : ruGte 
 The Dak Bungalow near Madura. ; Sh api ite: 
 Borden and his Guide on the Alps . : He ty i 
 Yale Campus from Harkness Tower. ‘ ! teas 
 Yale—Branford Court Memorial Quadrangle : iy ee 
 Borden in his Freshman Year : ' ‘ 1 ABS 
 Map of the Moslem World : : ‘ er LOs 
 Conference Group at Lakeville ; : : i Loe 
 Class Deacons of Borden’s Year , : Rete Rey 
 Borden as he graduated ‘ : : : . 148 
 Borden at entrance to Yale Hope Mission . dhl 
 The white-sailed T’satsawassa. : : : Bahr bis 
 Picnicking near Shelving Rock : : ; s) PEGS 
 Princeton Seminary . f ; ; : . 208 
 The Moody Church, Chicago . A : iO 
 Map showing Distribution of Moslems in China : . 214 
 His Last Resting-place ; ; : . Si 260 
 Map of China and Dependencies ; ; . 283 
 Tibetans at ‘‘ The Gospel Inn ”’ , ; . 284 
 
 xV 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 UAE AT a Le Pe ea bet ya Ot See 
 | Bs i oc baa idhenbogipihl ty 
 
 Pea ee Rags anh 
 
 Br3 
 
 
 
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 an me bi: 
 
PART I 
 EARLY YEARS 
 
‘Oh, what a glorious yoke are youth and Grace, Christ and 
 
 a young man!” 
 SAMUEL RUTHERFORD. 
 
 “Jt is the God-governed and not the self-governed life which 
 
 counts for most, which is the best worth while.”’ 
 Selected. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 BOYHOOD 
 Born, November 1, 1887 
 
 ** Out of the heart are the issues of life.”,-— Prov. iv. 23. 
 
 THERE must be beginnings. To those who knew 
 Borden only in student days it may seem out of 
 keeping with such virility and strength to present 
 him as a child. Yet childhood comes first and 1s 
 full of the germs and seeds of later developments. 
 While he was a sophomore at Yale, for example, an 
 unexpected discovery connected him in an interest- 
 ing way with the curly-headed little fellow of ten 
 years previously. 
 
 His elder brother had recently married, and in 
 preparing the Chicago home for the occupation of 
 the young couple some papers came to light that 
 recalled a long-past experience. One Sunday after- 
 noon when William was only six, Mrs. Borden had 
 gathered the children around her as usual for a 
 Scripture lesson. Several cousins of their own ages 
 were with them, the eldest being about eleven. 
 Apropos of something in the lesson, Mrs. Borden 
 suggested that they should each take a slip of paper 
 and write down what they would most like to be 
 when they grew up. 
 
 This was done in a serious spirit. No one saw 
 
 3 
 
A BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 what the others had written, and all the slips were 
 put away in a sealed envelope and forgotten. 
 When found ten years later and returned to those 
 who had written them, the ideals of those early 
 days proved to have been realized to a remarkable 
 degree. One boy had wanted to be a gentleman 
 like his father. One of the girls wished to travel 
 abroad, another ‘“‘ to help God and the soldiers of 
 my country ” :—all through the world-war the 
 latter was to render exceptional service. And 
 William had written : 
 
 y whol 42 an ontest WWW Wher 
 
 % ee uf, purr tre cr dpprrey 
 wrk tenel antl fb pbaner. 
 
 To his last day, by the grace of God, the man could 
 have looked into the eyes of the child without shame. 
 
 Borden’s love of a good ‘‘ roughhouse”’ was early 
 foreshadowed by his devotion to active and even 
 dangerous games. He was “a regular little 
 monkey ’’, his mother recalled, “for running round 
 and having a good time”. His cousin, John 
 Whiting, was his chief ally in escapades of all sorts. 
 Together they attended successive schools in 
 Chicago, and with another companion spent their 
 holidays in congenial ways. It was nothing un- 
 usual for the three to start out on Saturday at five 
 A.M., ending up at supper time, John Whiting tells 
 
 us, ‘“‘ dead tired out ”’. 
 
 1 William attended the University School and the Latin and Manual 
 Training Schools in Chicago, before going to the Hill School, Pottstown, 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
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 89 BELLEVUE PLACE, CHICAGO. 
 William's birthplace and the home of his childhood, 
 
 To face page 5. 
 
BOYHOOD Bs 
 
 We found that by the use of ropes we could travel along 
 the roofs of the houses in Bellevue Place, almost the entire 
 length of the block. For a time this afforded us consider- 
 able amusement. Another diversion was to go down to 
 the river and put in the day knocking around among the 
 boats tied to the various docks. We used to go all over 
 the boats, climbing the rigging, ete. The noon meal we 
 would get wherever we could, generally from the kitchen 
 of one of the three houses. 
 
 Late one Saturday afternoon we decided that we wanted 
 to play in the gymnasium of the school William and Kelso 
 attended. That the building was locked up for the week- 
 end made no difference. We found the cover of a coal- 
 hole loose ‘and dropped in through that. We fooled around 
 the gym until tired, then took a leisurely shower and 
 dressed, not realising how late it was. We got out by a 
 window which we had to leave unfastened. I was visiting 
 William at the time and when we reached home, about 
 seven-thirty P.M., we were met by Mr. and Mrs. Borden, 
 worried and almost alarmed over our non-appearance. 
 When the cause of our tardiness was discovered, we were 
 promptly sent to bed with bread and milk for supper. It 
 was meant for punishment, but nothing could have suited 
 us better. We were tired and hungry, and while it was 
 only bread and milk, the supply was unlimited. 
 
 A marked characteristic of Borden in later life 
 was his unflinching loyalty to the doing of hard 
 things. Fishing, hunting, sailing, all had their - 
 attractions for the boy, as may be seen from his 
 early letters, but he seems to have loved hard jobs 
 best of all. When he and his cousin, for example, 
 discovered a wreck after a terrible storm and the 
 Lake Shore Drive was flooded and covered with 
 débris, it was second nature to turn in at once and 
 help. A ship loaded with lumber had gone to 
 pieces and the great timbers were lying at all angles 
 along the shore. Seeing from the windows the work 
 
6 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 that had to be done, the little fellows of seven or 
 eight were soon out in the storm, gathering up the 
 lumber and putting it in orderly piles. A gang of 
 Italian labourers appeared before long, but William 
 and John Whiting kept on working, and at the end 
 of the day lined up with the others and received 
 their pay. 
 
 A chief enjoyment when about ten years old 
 was to go down on Saturday to their uncle’s foundry, 
 some distance from Chicago, and spend their holiday 
 working around with the men. Of this they never 
 seemed to tire. The house of an uncle in Indiana also 
 offered attractions along the line of work, and that of 
 all sorts. It was a farm to which as a child William 
 had often been sent to escape the severe winds of 
 the Chicago spring. Of these visits his aunt wrote: 
 
 He was never idle, always inclined to make work his 
 play and to find in work well done ample compensation 
 for his efforts. I remember that on his visit in the spring 
 of 1898 William wanted to make cider. His uncle told 
 him that after years of neglect the cider-press was unfit for 
 use and could never be made sufficiently clean again. But 
 William cleaned the cider-press. I can see the little fellow 
 now, making many trips up the hill for hot water, carrying his 
 buckets two atatime. After several hours of scraping and 
 scrubbing, the press was spotless and cider-making began. 
 
 On a visit in the spring of 1900, when he was twelve, 
 William was up at sunrise and in the barn before the men 
 arrived, beginning their day’s work for them. This was 
 the time he took such interest in the McKinley saw-mill, 
 making strawberry-boxes, going to work and stopping with 
 the mill whistle. At the end of his visit Mr. McKinley 
 handed him a sum of money, saying he had earned it, but 
 William declined payment on the ground that it had been 
 a privilege to learn. 
 
 On his last stay with us, May 1912, he was the same 
 
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 WILLIAM AT FIVE YEARS OLD. 
 
 ~ 
 
 To face page 7. 
 
BOYHOOD 7 
 
 dear, affectionate, lovable boy as of old. He arrived at 
 six A.M. and we had an early breakfast, after which we went 
 out on the porch and William saw the teamster, an old 
 man of seventy-five who had been in the employ of the 
 family for about forty years, driving toward the corn-cut. 
 William hailed him joyously, jumped off the porch, ran 
 down the hill and was soon beside him on the wagon. 
 Gently he put his arm round the old man’s shoulder, and 
 when they reached the corn-crib he took the shovel and 
 filled the wagon with corn, driving off with him and empty- 
 ing the load at its destination. He then went over to the 
 McKinley saw-mill, greeting many acquaintances and help- 
 ing them in their work as in earlier years. 
 
 I always think of William as I used to see him when a 
 boy, coming home after a day’s work in his blue sweater— 
 rosy cheeks, eyes full of love and hair covered with shavings 
 —calling to me as he started to run up the hill, hoping he 
 had not detained supper. Was there ever another boy 
 of his means, so humble, with a heart so full of love and 
 with such pure thoughts ! 
 
 One of the deepest things in Borden’s life was 
 devotion to his mother, and that too was very mani- 
 fest in the child. From the time when he used to 
 play quietly in her room “ not to disturb her writ- 
 ing’, and leaving his toys would steal up behind 
 her chair to raise the wavy hair at the back of her 
 neck and kiss her without a word, on to the days 
 of bereavement, after his father’s death, when he 
 made time in the midst of college claims and studies 
 to write to her every day, he was more like a lover 
 than a son. This attitude comes out in his very 
 first letter, written when just five years old : 
 
 Nov. 23, 1892. 
 
 Dear Mama—lI send my love to you. I wish you would 
 come to my house. Sorry that you don’t come home. 
 Well I am. 
 
8 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 And a little later, on her birthday : 
 
 Dear Mama—lI did not have enything to give you. I 
 am very sorry that I did not enything for you. So I gave 
 you a bunch of flowers and this letter. 
 
 Goodbye, from Witi1amM BorDEN. 
 
 He was quite a correspondent, even in those days, 
 and the observation and attention to detail apparent 
 in his early letters gave promise of the man whom 
 nothing escaped. 
 
 89 BELLEVUE PLACE. 
 
 DEAR GRrANDMAMA—How are you feeling. I think 
 the baby is awful cuning. It has a little cold in her head. 
 She is 19 in. long, and weighs 6 lbs. One day the butcher 
 came in and found the maids all so happy because it was a 
 little baby, so he told Mrs. Hatch and Mrs. Hatch told 
 Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Stone told Mrs. Shelden. 
 
 Goodby from WILLIAM BORDEN. 
 
 LAKE GENEVA, WIS. 
 
 Dear GRANDMOTHER—Papa bought a new sailboat for 
 us. We have sailed down to Golf Club and back twice. 
 The first day we fished I caught 11 fish, Papa 11, John 3. 
 The baby has been in the bathtub for the first time. Miss 
 Duns has gone. Every night the baby comes downstairs, 
 and Mama reads John Halafax aloud to us. Papa bought 
 a new covered carriage for Mama and the baby. We are 
 going ciscoe-fishing to-day.—Yours truly, 
 
 W. BorDEN. 
 
 98 BELLEVUE PLACE, 
 January 1898. 
 
 Dear Para—I hope you and your father are feeling 
 well and enjoying your visit to New York. . . . Saturday 
 Jan. 15th it snowed all day nearly. Friday 14th we had 
 thirteen children hear and played all sorts of games. After 
 everybody was gone and everybody asleep except Marie, 
 
BOYHOOD 9 
 
 Mama and myself, we smelt gas and went searching all over 
 the house trying to find it. We did not find it but opened 
 some windows, by that time it was twelve o’clock. It was 
 snowing when I went to bed, and on Saturday as I told 
 you before. In the morning we went out by the build-out 
 and coasted down those day-hills onto a pond of ice. There 
 was skating but it was not good so we didn’t go. About 
 ten o’clock we came back and hitched on wagons. One 
 time I got laughing so I couldn’t hold onto my rope and 
 let go, and then I couldn’t run fast enough to catch up 
 with it again. In the afternoon a lot of boys were out 
 hitching, and we all hitched our sleds together and made a 
 long train that reached from our house to the Maniers 
 nearly. I was at the front and it pulled my arms nearly 
 off. Kelso was at the end and it switched him all over 
 into the curbstone and everywhere. We had supper at 
 7 o'clock. . . . Your loving son, 
 WitiiaM WuitTinc BorpeEn. 
 
 The baby is just as sweet as can be, hair is all curled. 
 
 BORDEN, INDIANA. 
 
 Derar Mama—We have arrived here safe and sound, 
 the train was 20 minutes late. After breakfast John and 
 Papa went hunting, I did not go with them, papa shot one 
 bird, he was a nice fat quail and that is all they got. 
 
 After lunch John and I went out and shot at a target 
 with a rifle and revolver and papa went off hunting but 
 did not get anything. He is asleep now and it is just 
 20 minutes of 5 and is getting dark. This is written on 
 Wednsday.—Your loving son, W. W. Borpben. 
 
 BORDEN, INDIANA. 
 
 Dear Mama—Monday I was down at Mr. McKinley’s 
 saw mill, they sawed long boads off and made short ones 
 for krates and me and another man stacked them up. In 
 the afternoon I went with Jim McKinley up on the knobs 
 for hay, the roads were very mudy and we had to let the 
 horses rest. When we got back they had the big rip-saw 
 going. . . . Monday morning Mr. Burns and I fed the pigs 
 
10 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 and then began to boil some potatoes for them. We built 
 such a big fire that they boiled over and put part of the 
 fire out. Tuesday morning Fraulein and Mary went out 
 walking and I went down to the saw mill and stayed all 
 morning. They have been getting a drag-saw ready, and 
 will have it going before we get back in the afternoon. 
 We were sawing a big red oak and nearly in the middle we 
 found two big bullets. The saw had sawd them in two. 
 It took an hour to get through sawing that one big log. 
 
 Hope all are well.—Your loving 
 WILLIAM. 
 
 Written Tuesday. 
 
 ELKHORN LODGE, 
 Estes Park, COLORADO. 
 
 Dear Grama—lI hope you are feeling well. The 3rd 
 day that we were up here Papa, Mary and I went fishing 
 over to the Big Thomson which is about half a mile south 
 of our house, but we didn’t catch anything. .. . A little 
 while after that we went fishing again, and John caught 
 10 but the rest of us didn’t catch anything. 
 
 About two weeks ago, this being Tuesday the 18th, 
 John, Mary, Ella James and I went out after some of 
 James’s horses. We went out about 2 o’clock and we 
 hunted the country high and low all over Beaver Flat and 
 didn’t get home until 8 o’clock, and Papa was just starting 
 out in the buggy after us. 
 
 Now I’m going to tell you where we went and what we 
 did. Well first we forded the Fall River and rode way up 
 into Horshoe Park, but we didn’t find the horses there, so 
 we came back and crossed the river in a place where it 
 was pretty deep and then we had to go through a lot of 
 bushes which nearly swept us off our saddles. Then we 
 crossed the ridge right near Deer Mountain. We found to 
 get across into Beaver Flat that we had to go across a rail 
 fence, so John took off some of the rails but one and then 
 the horses jumped or stepped over the one. Well we went 
 on and came to another rail fence and managed it in the 
 same way. Then we came to a Barb Wire Fence! Well 
 we finally managed to pull up one of the posts and laid it 
 down and made the horses go over, all but mine who’s 
 
BOYHOOD 11 
 
 name was Buckskin and he positively refused to go over, 
 and in trying to make him go over he backed off and pulled 
 him onto the Barb Wire and tore his pants and cut his 
 finger. 
 
 Well, seeing my horse wouldn’t go over, I had to go 
 back and get out as best I could. . . . I then rode up into 
 Beaver Flat about 3 miles, and was just about half way 
 back when I met John, Ella and Mary. We went back 
 where I’d been, only we went farther, but could not find 
 the horses, so we went home. 
 
 On Saturday the 22nd their was going to be a Base Ball 
 game, so we all went in the hayracks. We stopped at the 
 Post Office and got some balls, and most everybody bought 
 candy and gum and treated everybody to it. We got to 
 the field which was up the Thomson a little way. They 
 started to make the diamond. It began to rain and every- 
 body that could got under the wagon, it stopped after a 
 while and they practised. I will give you a copy of the 
 score card. . . . We won as you see, and coming back 
 yelled, 
 
 ** Ripetak, sipetak, siss bum ba! 
 Elkhorn, Elkhorn, ra! ra! ra! 
 Who are we ? who are we ? 
 We are the gang from James’, see! ”’ 
 
 Here I say goodby, your loving grandson, 
 Witiram W. BorpDeEn. 
 
 It was a happy, wholesome life, and in their 
 father the children had an understanding friend. 
 Every night he worked with them over their lessons, 
 and they knew that he was no less interested in 
 their games and sports. He was a man of few 
 words, but the intimacies of home-life revealed the 
 strength and nobility of his character. The follow- - 
 ing lines give an impression of his influence over his 
 children. They were written by William’s elder 
 sister, while still at Vassar College. 
 
12 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Oh Lord, I thank Thee that Thou gavest me 
 
 This strength to cling to all my childhood years, 
 This noble man, my father, mine to be— 
 
 Though not as now—mine through eternity. 
 
 See, Lord ! I am almost smiling through these tears, 
 For Thou hast made me rich of all mankind 
 
 By giving me to be his daughter-friend ; 
 
 For his was caim nobility of mind 
 
 That, selfless, saw the truth and gave clear-lined 
 Full justice unto all things, to the end ! 
 
 A sense of justice born of a pure heart 
 
 That loved a few dear ones, how sacredly ! 
 Silent and grave, long hours he spent apart 
 
 In thought, until a word of love would start 
 
 A deep sweet look behind his eyes, and he 
 Would sit with us and talk from his great store, 
 Of beauty, poetry, and of great men. 
 
 And as the days and years opened the door 
 
 Of his dear heart to me I loved him more, 
 
 As I had more of love to give, and then— 
 
 Then, Lord, you took him from me and I wept. 
 
 It seemed so piteous, for I loved him so, 
 
 Until I fell upon my knees and crept 
 
 A little child to Thee, and wearied slept, 
 
 While quiet drifted down like cooling snow 
 
 Upon my throbbing heart. A voice then said, 
 
 ‘“* Dear child, give Me yourself and all your fears, 
 He now is living, loving you, not dead ; 
 
 For him, for you, for this, My blood was shed.” 
 And I awoke—strange—smiling through my tears. 
 
 Some of his strongest traits Borden inherited 
 through his father, who came of old Puritan stock. 
 For the love of conquest which had taken the 
 Bordens of Bourdonnaye to England with the 
 Norman Duke (1066) was followed centuries later 
 by the love of freedom which made them exiles for 
 conscience’ sake. To exchange the rich pastures 
 

 
 
 
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 BOYHOOD 13 
 
 and woodlands of Kent for the barren shore and 
 tangled forests of New England was no easy step, 
 but Richard and John Borden, who seem to have 
 been brothers, were driven to it by the distress of 
 the times. The burning of heretics had ceased in 
 their day, but ostracism and persecution were still 
 the common lot of “* dissenters ”’. 
 
 And so it came about that the first child born of 
 European parents in Rhode Island (1688) was 
 Matthew, third son of Richard Borden. Much in- 
 teresting information is available concerning the 
 family, for at an early period they joined the Society 
 of Friends, whose practice it is to keep careful 
 records concerning its members. “ Glad should 
 every Borden be that his ancestors were Quakers,” 
 writes their historian in California, and as one turns 
 her illuminating pages,! noting the contribution of 
 generation after generation to the development of 
 this great country, one cannot but echo the senti- 
 ment. 
 
 ' The tendency of the family was always to move 
 westward, and in the sixth generation a certain 
 John Borden settled in Indiana, who was the great- 
 grandfather of the William Borden of this record. 
 
 On his mother’s side Borden came of a long line 
 of soldiers, magistrates and preachers, reaching back 
 to the early annals of English history. The best 
 blood of the old country was in their veins, but the 
 terrible years of Archbishop Laud’s administration 
 (1628-1640) had driven them too from the land 
 
 1 Historical and Genealogical Record of the Borden Family, by Hattie 
 Borden Weld, Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
14 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 they loved. Colonel William Whiting, who brought 
 the name to America, belonged to the Suffolk branch 
 of the family, and came with his wife Susannah 
 from Yarmouth on the East Coast. With about a 
 hundred others, they founded the city of Hartford, 
 Connecticut, and became members of the first church 
 established there, under ‘“‘ the animated and able 
 ministry ’ of the Rev. Thomas Hooker.! 
 
 Three generations later, Charles Whiting married 
 the beautiful Elizabeth Bradford, a descendant of 
 Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony 
 and of John Alden, who won as his bride “‘ the 
 Puritan maiden Priscilla’’.2 The sons of this 
 Charles Whiting, himself a soldier, lived in the 
 stormy days of the Revolutionary War and bore a 
 brave part in its vicissitudes. A tribute is paid to 
 one of them, William Bradford Whiting, in the 
 family records, where he is spoken of as “ a gentle- 
 man and a Christian, an upright, honourable man, 
 possessing great dignity of manner and such in- 
 tegrity of character that his very presence was a 
 rebuke to the wicked”. In middle life he moved 
 his home from Connecticut to Canaan, a beautiful 
 part of the State of New York, which thus became 
 
 1 The old records show that Colonel William Whiting was ‘‘ one of the 
 civil and religious fathers of Connecticut ’’ ; Magistrate of the colony, and 
 Treasurer until his death. In his will he left the sum of five pounds toward 
 mending the highways betwixt his dwelling and the meeting-house, and no 
 less than twenty-five pounds to his “dear and loving Pastor toward the 
 publication of his work on the 17th of John, and any else he doth 
 intend ”’. 
 
 * Governor Bradford, “the very prop and glory of Plymouth Colony”’, 
 and John Alden were thus among Mrs. Borden’s ancestors who came over 
 on the Mayflower, and so were Priscilla Mullins and her parents, and a 
 certain Thomas Rogers from whom, on the maternal side, Elizabeth 
 Bradford was descended. 
 
BOYHOOD 15 
 
 the residence of Mrs. Borden’s more immediate 
 ancestors. 
 
 William Bradford Whiting’s descendants moved 
 with the times, and the old homestead at Canaan 
 was forsaken for regions further west. Detroit was 
 little more than a village when Mrs. Borden’s father 
 settled there, John Talman Whiting, long associated 
 with shipping interests on the Great Lakes. Mrs. 
 Borden (Mary de Garmo) was one of seven children, 
 and passed on many of his lovable qualities to her 
 son, William Whiting. 
 
 But there was something more important that — 
 
 she passed on to this child, for when William was — 
 about seven years old Mrs. Borden entered upon a 
 new experience spiritually which was deeply to 
 affect his life. A devoted mother before, she now 
 became an earnest, rejoicing Christian. To her, 
 Christ was real and fellowship with Him satisfying 
 in no ordinary degree. Instead of losing every- 
 thing when she turned to Him from the gaieties and 
 allurements of the world, she found that she had 
 gained not only peace with God but a new zest in 
 living, a new joy in home and loved ones. New 
 friends were brought into the family circle; new 
 interests and ideals filled her life. In the Moody 
 Church to which she transferred her membership, 
 she found opportunities for service and the clear 
 Bible teaching she coveted for the children. The 
 result was very evident in the life of her younger 
 son, who owed the strength and grasp of his spiritual 
 convictions largely to that church home. 
 
 It was there he took his first step in open 
 
16 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 confession of Christ. Seated by his mother one 
 Sunday morning, he heard Dr. R. A. Torrey, then 
 pastor of the Moody Church, give the invitation 
 to the communion service about to be held. 
 
 “Ts it not time that you were thinking about 
 this yourself, William ? ” his mother whispered. 
 
 ‘‘T have been,”’ was the unexpected reply. 
 
 When the elements were handed from pew to 
 pew, to Mrs. Borden’s surprise, William quietly took 
 the bread and wine as did those about him.’ Rather 
 taken aback at this interpretation of her question, 
 Mrs. Borden mentioned the matter to Dr. Torrey, 
 who smiled and said : 
 
 ‘“‘ Let him come and see me about it to-morrow.” 
 
 Young though he was, his answers to Dr. Torrey’s 
 questions made it evident that he was ready for 
 the step he had taken, and the interview led to his 
 joining the church in the regular way. 
 
 Another important decision was made when Dr. 
 Torrey gave an opportunity for all who wished to 
 dedicate their lives to the service of God to indicate 
 this purpose by rising for prayer. He made his 
 meaning very plain, that it, was a step of life-con- 
 secration. William quietly rose—a little fellow in 
 a blue sailor-suit. He had to stand a long, long 
 time while the service went on, but there was no 
 wavering, and it was a consecration from which he 
 never drew back. 
 
 Dependence upon prayer and love for the Word 
 of God were becoming even then the warp and woof 
 of his life. ‘* Getting off to school ”’ was a rush for 
 him as for other boys. He hated to be late, and with 
 
BOYHOOD 17 
 
 books strapped on his back and cap and lunch-box 
 in hand might be in “a tearing hurry”. But, 
 somehow, there was always time for the little word 
 of prayer with Mother without which the day 
 would not have been right. They would just drop 
 on their knees together and pray that William 
 might know in his experience the power of the blood 
 of Jesus Christ. That was their daily prayer in 
 those early years, and later it was that the will of ~ 
 God might be done in his life. 
 
 As to his love of the Bible, Mrs. Borden can never 
 forget the picture she saw one evening on going to 
 his room when the children had returned from a 
 delightful party. Instead of finding William un- 
 dressing, there he was, just as he had come home, 
 in his velvet suit with knee-breeches, pumps and a 
 stiff collar, seated on the edge of the bed, eagerly 
 and serenely reading his Bible, from which he looked 
 up at her with beaming eyes. 
 
 Later, on a journey round the world, his com- \ 
 panion remarked that however long the day of 
 sight-seeing might be, the boy never failed to close 
 it with Bible reading and prayer. All through 
 college and seminary it was the same. Strenuous 
 as life was for him in their Princeton home—with 
 all his work in theology, religious and social claims, 
 business responsibilities, and examinations looming 
 ever in the background—when his mother went to 
 his study the last thing at night, it would be to find 
 him deep in the Book he loved, from which he would 
 look up with the same light in his eyes. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE HILL SCHOOL 
 1902-1904. Ait. 14-16 
 
 «What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your 
 own? For ye are bought with a price : therefore glorify God in your 
 body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”—1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. 
 
 Birthday verse given to William by his mother, when he was about 
 
 eight years old, which became the keynote of his life. 
 Tux glory of The Hill School when William entered 
 ‘+ as a lad of fourteen was not its assembly-hall and 
 library, its gymnasium or athletic fields. Much of 
 the splendid equipment of to-day had not yet come 
 into existence. But the school had reached high- 
 water mark in the last decade of the life of its great 
 head master. What he was among his boys, four 
 hundred of whom overflowed class-rooms and 
 dining-hall, may be judged from the inscription on 
 the simple marble that marks his resting-place in 
 the ivy-covered cloister of the chapel : 
 
 JOHN MEIGS 
 STRONG, IMPETUOUS, TENDER, 
 SERVANT OF CHRIST 
 MASTER OF BOYS 
 MAKER OF MEN 
 HIS COURAGE WAS THE FOUNDATION OF THE SCHOOL 
 
 HIS PASSION FOR TRUTH ITS LIGHT 
 18 
 
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THE HILL SCHOOL 19 
 
 ‘‘ Obstacles are the glory of life ’’, was one of his - 
 Sayings, and no slackness or shirking was tolerated 
 at “The Hill”. “ Prompt, alert, indefatigable 
 himself, he demanded the same of all about him *, 
 and masters as well as boys awoke under his in- 
 fluence to a new, stimulating realization of what 
 they could accomplish. There was a buoyancy, a 
 spirit of energetic enthusiasm that was contagious, 
 as a head master wrote who had once been on the 
 faculty of The Hill. 
 
 Everybody was systematically yet happily busy. There 
 seemed to be never an idle minute. And the background 
 of the picture was equally satisfying—a combination of 
 perfectly-kept equipment and quiet appointments, bespeak- 
 ing good breeding, artistic taste and culture. Through it 
 all appeared a seriousness of purpose, not obtrusive yet 
 hardly concealed by the various devices for interesting the 
 boys in the realities of life. . . . Whether in the genial, 
 comfortable air of the dining-room, amid the varied activity 
 of the athletic field, or in the more rarefied atmosphere of 
 the schoolroom-chapel, there was the same heartiness and 
 stimulus, physical, intellectual and spiritual, and the centre 
 of it all, the animating spirit of this city on the hill was 
 ‘ Professor’ . . . Its ideals were his ideals and its system 
 was the device of his genius for making those ideals practical 
 and applying them to the everyday problems of life. 
 
 There was, under the influence of Dr. Meigs, a 
 splendid insistence upon the sanctity of the body, 
 “its reverent, radiant uses”’. With all his power 
 he sought to make his boys understand that the 
 strength of noblest manhood is built on purity, and 
 that impurity is weakness and shame. “ Self-rever- 
 ence, self-knowledge, self-control ’’, he ‘believed 
 
 * From The Master of the Hill, by Walter Russell Bowie, from which 
 further quotations are made in this chapter. 
 
20 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 with Tennyson, “lead life to sovereign power ’”’. 
 But he was far from trusting in moral training alone 
 to develop the all-round manhood he had in view. 
 A pencilled memorandum gives some of his deeper 
 thoughts in this connection. 
 
 The school must educate, develop, guide and instruct 
 that spiritual faculty which, by whatever name we call it, 
 is supreme. There is no other restraining power [than 
 religion]. Sympathy, the innate horror of doing wrong to 
 a fellow creature; self-respect, the innate horror of doing 
 wrong to ourselves, are real powers in all finer natures. 
 But a restraining power is needed. . . . The problem of 
 school morality will be solved by a religious motive or none. 
 
 Coming from a great educator this statement 1s 
 notable, and the way in which he and his colleagues 
 acted upon it gave a character all its own to The Hill 
 School. The religion which John Meigs led the 
 boys to understand and seek after was no artificial 
 piousness ; “‘ it was a deep and manly and straight- 
 forward choice of Christ as pattern and Master and 
 Lord”. In this connection he noted: 
 
 As with the aspiring athlete and the eager learner, so 
 must it be with the young Christian. He must be taught 
 to study the great Book of rules for daily living; to seek 
 his great Captain in difficulty, and to ask for guidance in 
 prayer ; to heed the coach who has gained wisdom and 
 victory in his longer game of life; and to share counsels, 
 joy and confidences in brotherly meetings for prayer. He 
 ‘must realise that the test of his religious life is what he is 
 and what he does when he is not on his knees in prayer, not 
 reading his Bible, not listening to great preachers and not 
 participating in religious meetings. 
 
 About the Sunday services of the school there | 
 
 was the same naturalness and appeal to the boy 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 21 
 
 *“ where he lives’. Distinguished preachers came 
 for the regular “ Chapel”’, but the characteristic 
 thing was the Vesper Hour, when hymns were sung 
 and the man who knew and understood them best 
 would sometimes speak and always pray. One of 
 his boys wrote : 
 
 The real picture of the Professor, which always comes 
 clear and distinct from memories of the old school-days, 
 is as he sat at his desk in the schoolroom of a Sunday evening 
 at the song service, and the hymn [I always associate with 
 him is ‘‘ Kin Feste Burg’. . . . That is what he looked and 
 what he was—a firm, strong, kindly, helpful citadel. There 
 seemed to be something in the Professor’s face as he came 
 down the aisle at the close of those song services on Sunday 
 nights that I never quite caught at any other time, a some- 
 thing words will not tell. 
 
 And there were other things Hill boys could never 
 forget, among them the Professor’s utter sincerity 
 and truthfulness and his hatred of everything mean 
 and underhand. They remember that he never 
 stole upon them unawares, but that “ always his 
 heavy footfall—every ounce of his great frame 
 telling at each step—resounded through the cor- 
 ridors as he approached ; and in the memory of that 
 sound they find their most vivid impression of what 
 is meant by the hatred of sham, subterfuge and 
 - unfairness ”’. 
 
 ‘““ Truth-speaking and truth-loving”’, he con- 
 sidered, ‘‘ the very bedrock of character ’’, and with 
 these he classed obedience, which in his thought 
 stood for ‘* willing conformity to the right standards 
 of the school, which all must aceept who accept 
 its life’? ; obedience not so much to rules as to “ the 
 
22 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 high majesty of accepted duty”. On this point 
 he could have “no refusal and no evasion”. To 
 the father of a boy about to be expelled he wrote : 
 
 His vital and fatal lack is that of obedience. He has 
 so indulged himself that self-pleasing is the law of his life, 
 and deference to a higher law seems repugnant. Your... 
 experience will reinforce my position touching the vital 
 necessity of submission to law as the primal condition of 
 moral as well as physical life and well-being. 
 
 Dr. Meigs was keenly alive also to the importance 
 of organised games and athletics, on account of the 
 moral training they afford and their contribution 
 to purity of life. He was fortunate in having se- 
 cured the services of Michael F. Sweeney, the holder 
 when he came to The Hill, and for years afterwards, 
 of the world’s record for the high jump. A member 
 of the faculty tells us that— 
 
 He became not only the physical director of the 
 gymnasium and track-work but also the coach and con- 
 trolling spirit of all the organised games in the school. 
 Between him and the head master there was a sympathy 
 and understanding which grew into the most loving identity 
 of purpose, and into all his relationships with the boys .. . 
 Mr. Sweeney brought not only his technical skill but the 
 power of a Christian idealism which left its deep impress on 
 the spirit of many a lad who would hardly have been reached 
 through any other channel. 
 
 Borden had come to the great school well grounded 
 in the principles for which it stood. Sincerity and 
 truthfulness were part of his character; one could 
 never think of him in connection with any sham. 
 There was so little self-consciousness about him, or 
 morbid craving for appreciation, that one who 
 knew him most intimately could say : 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 23 
 
 In all the years I was in close touch with him, I never 
 saw him do one thing for effect. 
 
 A school friend, while he spoke of William as “ a 
 sturdy fighter”, recalled also his “reserve and 
 dignity and steady, quiet strength”. Outwardly 
 he was undemonstrative, but his home letters reveal 
 the same warm-hearted, earnest, impetuous boy as 
 
 of yore. 
 Sept. 27, 1902. 
 
 Dear MorHEeR—To-day is the first time since I left 
 Boston that we have seen the blue sky or sunshine. It has 
 been raining steady since the eveningsI arrived until 
 yesterday evening. I like the school very much, all the 
 old fellows are nice to the new fellows, asking us to come 
 and see them in their rooms, etc. 
 
 My room is in the east wing, second floor, number 4. 
 Mv roommate is a very nice fellow, a little older than I am, 
 and two or three inches taller. . . . A great many of the 
 old fellows here knew John [his elder brother], most of them 
 are sixth formers. All the old teachers are very nice to 
 me and they seem very jolly, especially Mr. Rolfe, Mr. 
 Hallock and Mr. Weed whom I suppose you met... . 
 
 I like Professor and Mrs. John-very much from what I 
 have seen of them so far. Many parents came down with 
 the fellows the first day, and even some sisters. Our room 
 is very nice; it has two large windows looking out on the 
 quadrangle. Under the sill of each is a small window-seat 
 which could be made quite nice if they had cushions and 
 pillows on them... . | 
 
 I am taking football for exercise and I am now trying 
 for the second team, but I don’t think there is much chance 
 of my making it. 
 
 Last night they had the first meeting of the Y.M.C.A. 
 Throop Wilder is President and John Holabird is Vice- 
 President. The meeting was great! Throop spoke first, 
 and then a good many of the old fellows got up and spoke. 
 Dwight Meigs led in prayer, and then other fellows gave 
 
 short prayers. 
 
24 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 This year there are more new fellows than ever, and 
 Professor had to turn away some because he couldn’t 
 accommodate them. I sit at Mr. Weed’s end of the fifth- 
 form table, which is right at the end of Mrs. John’s table. 
 
 Give my love to Granny and everybody and tell them I 
 expect to write soon.—Your loving son, WILLIAM. 
 
 Oct. 4, 1902. 
 
 Dear Sis—I received your letter yesterday and thank 
 you for it very much. As my roommate gets about three 
 letters every mail, I like to get one once in a while. 
 
 Talk about work—I have six studies, Chemistry, English 
 History, French, Greek, English and Bible History. The 
 Eng. Comp. is fierce. We have to make a literal translation 
 of parts of Virgil or Cesar, and in class change this into 
 idiomatic English. Then again we have to write on the 
 character of people in the Sir Roger de Coverley papers, in 
 the style of Steele. 
 
 We have had two Y.M.C.A. meetings, at one of which 
 Boyd Edwards, who was at Northfield, spoke. I have 
 joined it, also my “ wife’’.2 Throop Wilder is fine, he 
 is Pres. of Y.M.C.A. and of the Athletic Association. 
 
 I am out trying for the second team, it is pretty hard 
 work. There are a great many Chicago fellows here. .. . 
 
 Hoping you will write soon again.—I am, Your loving 
 brother, BILL. 
 
 I haven’t been homesick a bit. 
 
 Oci. 26, 1902. 
 
 Dear FatHER—Mother says you are working over the 
 plans of our Camden house day and night. I haven’t 
 
 1 There were two Mrs. Meigs, beloved of the Hill School—one the 
 mother of the Professor, who for many years had been the mainspring of 
 its life, and the other ‘‘ Mrs. John’ who came to it as his bride in the fall 
 of 1882. Of the value of her contribution to the school it would be difficult 
 to speak adequately. ‘‘ That which, joined to the influence of John Meigs 
 himself,’ wrote his biographer, ‘‘ more than any other thing set the tone 
 and created the spirit of The Hill was the touch of Mrs. Meigs upon the 
 boys. In the lovely ‘sky-parlour’, up in the tower of the old stone 
 building of the head master’s house, with its wide windows looking out 
 over the tranquil trees, many a boy in his talks with her has caught the 
 gleam of new meanings for his life, going down to the school again with the 
 
 power of finer purpose in his soul.”’ 
 * His roommate, Eugene Delarno. 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 25 
 
 noticed any pictures of summer houses in the magazines. 
 Harry Widener is the son of the man who owns that house 
 you liked so much. You remember we were looking at it 
 in a magazine at Camden last summer. . . . 
 
 We have had three football games so far. The first two 
 were with the Haverford Grammar School and Princeton 
 Freshmen, the score in each game was 0 to 0. The third 
 game was a perfect cinch for us, the score being 41 to 0 in 
 favour of Hill. Only one goal was missed. Monday [to- 
 morrow] the annual interclass track will be held, Iam going 
 into the shot-put. It is a handicap meet, so I will have a 
 little show but not much. 
 
 I wish you would get me a shot gun and give it me for 
 my birthday, so that I could have it down here and shoot a 
 little, so that I could go hunting at Christmas vacation. | 
 will put an account of my expenses up to the present time 
 in here. 
 
 
 
 With lots of love.—Your son, WILLIAM. 
 Football supplies $3-20 Class paper . $1:90 Stamps . - $0-10 
 Posters .. . 1:05 Clothes : . 1:00 Hill banner : -50 
 Contribution . -50 Enpp’s (t.e. tuck) ‘30 Thumb Tacks . 09 
 Clothes pressed 1:00 Paper . é : ‘02 Carfare : : 10 
 Eatables . : -20 Stamps . ; ‘10 Soda . ‘ : “15 
 Screw Driver . -14 Epp’s . ; . 45 Pillow ; | E50 
 Book-rack : -20 Contribution . 1:00 Reading-room fee 1-00 
 Picture wire. -20 Window cushions 9:98 Epp’s. ; ‘ 35 
 
 Contribution . 65 
 $25-68 
 Oct. 26, 1902. 
 
 Dear Motuer—Last Saturday we only danced for a 
 little while and all sat around on the floor and sang songs. 
 I liked it much more than dancing and hope we will do it 
 again. . . . I suppose you are waiting until Nov. 1 | his 
 birthday] to send down anything, but when you do I wish 
 you would send plenty of fruit and cake ; and we can have 
 jam, so I wish you would throw in a few glasses of different 
 kinds of jelly, which help along the sandwiches we have 
 daily at 11.45. 
 
 Mr. Speer! was here to-day and preached, he was fine. 
 
 1 Dr. Robert E. Speer. 
 
26 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 He seems to have changed a great deal, his voice is terribly 
 
 deep bass. 
 I will have to stop now as the Prep bell for bed has rung. 
 With lots of love, WILLIAM. 
 
 Jan. 18, 1903. 
 
 DEear MotHer—We have had good weather lately, and 
 today is simply fine. The sky is clear and cloudless. The 
 air is cool and bracing. I intend to take a long walk this 
 afternoon with some fellows. 
 
 About my examinations. I passed Algebra easy enough, 
 and got a 100 in it I think. But I did not pass Geometry. 
 However, Mr. Shephard let me go into the class, and I will 
 try again to pass it Monday and he will help me, sort of 
 tutoring and I hope to pass it to-morrow. I took an exam. 
 in Lorna Doone and the result was rather surprising. I 
 got 95 in it. There wasn’t a single mistake in spelling or 
 punctuation in the whole thing, and he had not made a 
 single mark of correction anywhere. It was quite long, 
 taking me nearly two hours of steady writing. 
 
 I have a terribly hard time in studying now, in fact I 
 scarcely do anything but study. Study at night, every 
 spare minute from the time I get up until school begins. 
 Then at the recesses. After lunch I have about an hour 
 and a half spare time. Then I have to prepare my lessons 
 for the afternoon session, and then begin the same program 
 again after supper. 
 
 Feb. 2, 1903. 
 
 DEAR MoTHER—You say you like my hard work, well I 
 don’t think you would if you knew how terrible it is. I 
 work every little spare minute that I have, almost, and 
 when Saturday comes you’re just about played out and 
 don’t get a decent rest before it begins again the next week. 
 And then if you get a “ third list ” after working so terribly 
 hard it makes you feel sort of discouraged. Our English 
 is the worst stuff imaginable. It is Carlyle’s Essay on 
 Burns. Why it is something awful! You can’t make 
 head or tail out of it, and it takes about two hours’ hard 
 study to know anything about it at all. 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 27 
 
 We look forward to getting through with this term and 
 scratch off a day on the calendar every day. There are 
 now about eight weeks left of toil and drudgery. The 
 weather here is awful too, one day it’s summer and the next 
 winter, first rain and then snow, etc. 
 
 I am losing weight quite fast now under Mr. Sweeney’s 
 work. I have lost 4 Ibs. and lose about 3 Ibs. a week. I 
 will soon be a skeleton, won’t I! But I guess it won’t 
 matter much. . . . Yours with lots of love, WILLIAM. 
 
 Mar. 1, 1908. 
 
 Dear MotuEer—lI was very glad to get your letter as I 
 had not had one for almost a week. 
 
 This evening we had a fine recital by Leland T. Powers 
 of Boston. He gave Monsieur Beaucaire and was simply 
 great. He is wonderful the way in which he can change 
 his voice and expression from that of a woman to that of a 
 man in aninstant. You wouldn’t think it possible he could 
 change his appearance so much as he does by simply 
 mussing up his hair, or some other little thing like that. 
 After giving M. Beaucaire he gave a short and very funny 
 thing about some old country parson and other country 
 people. This simply kept us roaring all the time. 
 
 Mr. Speer was here today and preached both this morning 
 and afternoon. Many of the fellows here criticize him, and 
 one of the teachers. But I don’t think they know what 
 they are talking about, and it makes me sore to hear them. 
 I am getting to like Mr. Rolfe more and more all the 
 time. He is simply great. Always happy and cheery, 
 never harsh or gruff except when he has to stop fellows from 
 rough-housing, and even then he is nice and makes a joke 
 out of it or does something else... . 
 
 Just think only three weeks more of study. If I escape 
 exams. I might be able to leave here Tuesday afternoon or 
 evening, March 24th. My, but won’t I be glad when I get 
 out of here! I tell you it will be a relief to get away from 
 the toil and grind of this place for a little while at least. 
 
 You must tell me about Johnny and everything you can 
 about J , Teddy, and anything that is going on at home. 
 
 With lots of love to everyone,—Your loving son, 
 
 WILLIAM. 
 
 
 
28 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Mar. 8, 1908. 
 
 Dear MotuEer—I was awfully glad to hear from you 
 twice this week. 
 
 About my coming home and my vacation, I am not in 
 for any exams. so far, and I think I am safe for this last 
 week. Now ifIcan possibly manage by toil and labour and 
 grinding to keep out for two weeks more, then I will be safe. 
 Just think Mother, exams. begin the 24th of this month, and 
 I hope to be able to leave that night, getting to Chicago 
 the next evening! Only sixteen more days and I may be 
 out of this awful working place, and the winter term will 
 be over. You can never appreciate how terrible this winter 
 term is. As for the length of my vacation, it will be just 
 three weeks I think. 
 
 That he realized his hope is evident from the 
 following letter : 
 
 My DEAR Mr. BorpEN—I am very happy to congratulate 
 you on William’s excellent record for the past term and to 
 inform you that he is one of twenty members of the school 
 who have been excused from all of their examinations.— 
 Faithfully yours, JoHN MEIGs. 
 
 March 31st, 1908. 
 
 The summer term brought new and varied ex- 
 periences. ‘To his mother he wrote: 
 
 April 17, 1903. 
 
 The trees here have quite large leaves and fruit trees 
 are in full bloom. Everything is fine and I think this term 
 will pass pretty quick. 
 
 I want you to write me as often as possible and give me 
 all the news about everything you possibly can. Some- 
 times I feel like punching the fellow’s head who sits in the 
 mail window and says, ‘‘ Nothing for Borden ”’, three times 
 a day for sometimes three and four days in succession ! 
 Tell me about the doings of John, Mary and Baby, ete. 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 29 
 
 April 20, 1903. 
 
 Dear Motuer—The weather continues simply fine 
 here; beautiful warm sunshiny days, everything blooming 
 as if it were midsummer. 
 
 We have lots of fun now, playing outdoor games, base- 
 ball, track, etc. The Gun Club shooting is good fun and I 
 have improved greatly since last term. If I keep on im- 
 proving I might have some chance of making the Gun Team 
 and I will certainly work hard for it. 
 
 My studies will be pretty hard this term I think. But 
 I can manage to get along all right, so you needn’t worry. 
 This last week I got two seconds and five firsts in subjects. 
 
 I came very near forgetting to tell you about the sermon 
 on Sunday. Campbell Morgan was here and preached a 
 fine sermon in the morning, which was said to be the best 
 ever given here. It certainly was fine. It was on Mark 
 1.11 and 6.3. ‘ Thou art my beloved son in whom [ am 
 well pleased ”, and, “Is not this the carpenter” : man’s 
 view and God’s view. Mr. Morgan demonstrated that it 
 must have been the eighteen years of Christ’s life of which 
 we know nothing, save that he was a carpenter, in which he 
 had pleased God. Then he went on to meditate on how 
 much good an apprentice of His would have gotten. He 
 said he did not think Christ would have talked of heaven 
 or hell, but would have simply given him an example to 
 follow, by His every-day life in which there was no blemish. 
 
 Some of the fellows thought it was a little long, but I did 
 not and wanted more. It was wonderful, the way he held 
 everyone spellbound by his talk. For five or ten minutes 
 no one would stir while he talked, then as if to relieve the 
 strain he would change his tone. Then the people would 
 shift their positions slightly and settle down again and so 
 on. It certainly was fine and I hope he comes again. 
 
 June 14, 1908. 
 Dear MoruEr—I got your letter from Camden and was 
 glad to hear from you. 
 Now Commencement is all over and we have begun work 
 again, at least what’s left of us. For there are only fifth 
 and sixth formers here now. . . . On Tuesday morning the 
 
30 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 swimming contests were held. Our team was scratch in 
 the relay-race, and we got second place. 
 
 In the afternoon, it being clear, the inter-class track 
 meet was held. It was very close and exciting throughout. 
 The sixth form won with 48 points, we were second with 40. 
 . . . The next morning the drill was held on the field. It 
 was not very hot and hence the drill did not seem very bad. 
 Our company did not drill very well and so we did not get 
 the prize. Right after the drill, the closing exercises were 
 held in the gym. Prizes were given out and also gold 
 medals. . . . Eugene got three prizes of books for ex- 
 cellence in Latin, Greek and Bible History. I got one in 
 Geom. I am seventeenth in the school, twelfth on second 
 honour list and seventh in our form. 
 
 Lunch right after that was simply great. Only one 
 table was left in, to serve stuff from, and everybody stood 
 up. There was salmon, chicken croquettes, two or three 
 kinds of salad, sandwiches, bouillion and everything. 
 About half a dozen different desserts. I took a liberal 
 portion of everything and came very near regretting it. 
 
 November 22, 1903. 
 
 Dear MotuER—It seems a perfect age since I had any 
 communication with the outside world. We have been 
 to Lawrenceville, and our team got beaten by a score of 
 six to five. It seems awfully queer—the feeling that 
 football is over. It seems unnatural, as if something had 
 come to an end. But I will tell you about our trip to 
 Lawrenceville. 
 
 I was taken with the team as a sub. We left here 
 Friday afternoon and got to Trenton about 8.00. We went 
 to the Trenton House for the night. It is an awfully old 
 affair, must have been there in Washington’s time. The 
 hall-ways were a regular labyrinth, and we walked a terrible 
 way before finding our rooms. In the morning after 
 breakfast Mr. Sweeney gave us a talk in one of the fellows’ 
 rooms. I never knew what he was like before. He was 
 wonderful. He talked to us for about an hour on all points 
 in football, and especially “‘ fighting ”. I’m sure he thrilled 
 every fellow, he did me I know. 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 31 
 
 After lunch we went out to Lawrenceville. The game 
 was at 2 o’clock. Their team outweighed ours nearly 
 twenty pounds to the man, but that didn’t keep our fellows 
 from fighting just as hard. Lawrenceville teams usually 
 have weight, while ours have Hill spirit. In the first half 
 no scoring was done, and the ball was in their territory 
 most of the time. In the second half we scored a touch- 
 down. Our man was so tired that he missed the goal, 
 which really lost us the game. Then with only a few 
 minutes left to play, the teams lined up again. Their 
 weight told now and they pushed us down to about our 
 ten yard line. We held them and punted out. They 
 came on again, were held again, and then came on and 
 crossed the line. They kicked the goal, making the score 
 6to 5. It was mighty hard for our fellows to lose like that, 
 and they all felt mighty badly over it. They played simply 
 fine and nobody has any kick coming. 
 
 I hope to be home in less than three weeks from now. 
 Not very long, is it? Ill be mighty glad to get home and 
 see you. I’m going to work these next two weeks, and then 
 maybe I won’t have any third week here.—Y our loving son, 
 
 WILLIAM. 
 
 After the Christmas vacation : 
 January 31, 1904. 
 
 Dear Motuer—We have been having pretty good 
 weather here and lots of snow. Yesterday we hired a 
 bobsled and went coasting out here on a hill and had pretty 
 good fun. The sled was an enormous one and held nine 
 or ten. 
 
 A Dr. —— was here to-day to preach, he was very sad. 
 In the morning he read a thing he called the first chapter 
 of the Ephesians, but it wasn’t out of the Bible and was 
 as different as you could imagine. Then his sermon wasn’t 
 
 any good and was without a point. In the afternoon he 
 
 didn’t even try to preach a Christian sermon but gave us 
 one from a Confucianist in Japan. He has spent about 
 twenty years in Japan and is quite an authority on it. 
 This was about some fool and a class of fools, and the point 
 was ‘What we had come into the world for’. It was 
 
32 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ‘better I thought than his morning attempt, but nothing 
 much at that. He is a teacher or something at the Union 
 ‘Theological Seminary. Gene thinks it the best in the 
 country, and says practically everyone goes there to prepare 
 for the ministry. I disagreed, and he said his grandfather 
 had founded it. I then said that it had probably changed 
 a great deal since that time. That man getting up there 
 and reading his text out of some book which didn’t resemble 
 a Bible in any way, just made me tired and fixed him for 
 me. I thought how bad things are getting to be. 
 
 I don’t know whether I told you about Mr. Weed or not, 
 but anyway he was off nearly two weeks. His mother was 
 expected to die any moment, but she didn’t and has now 
 recovered. As a result he is feeling mighty happy and 
 thankful. In Bible Class tonight he read about the miracle 
 of the wine at the marriage feast. Then he said that it was 
 the modern idea that the man who believed in miracles was 
 way behind the times. But he said things would happen in 
 our lives so that we would have to believe in them. He 
 said, ‘‘ I have seen miracles within the last two weeks and 
 believe in them.’ It was good that, after some of Dr.—’s 
 trash. I know you think the same way, and it makes me 
 tired to hear all this talk against the old beliefs. 
 
 Mr. Weed is going to put the lights out in just a minute 
 and I will have to say good night.—Your loving son, 
 
 WILLIAM. 
 
 Happily for the boy’s faith he was well-grounded 
 in the Word of God, so that anything that seemed 
 to him contrary to the truth awoke an energetic 
 reaction in his soul. Looking back on these and 
 similar experiences, he wrote to the Committee of 
 the Chicago Avenue Church some years later : 
 
 I am very thankful for the teaching I received at the 
 Moody Church and Institute before I was fifteen years of 
 age, because it kept me firm in my beliefs in spite of 
 opposition and criticism which I was not able to answer. 
 
 The great truths of the deity of Christ, His vicarious atone- 
 ment, and the inspiration and authority of the Bible had 
 
THE HILL SCHOOL 33 
 
 been indelibly impressed upon me. I was specially im- 
 pressed by the testimony of our Lord Himself to this last 
 matter, and was willing to wait until I could go to Seminary 
 and be prepared to meet the critics on their own ground. 
 Hoping that the good work may go on and that many 
 may be won to Christ and strengthened in the faith as I was. 
 —Il remain, Very sincerely yours, 
 Witiram W. Borpen. 
 
 Debates, orations and the Class dance were ab- 
 sorbing as spring came again, not to speak of the 
 war news from the Far East. 
 
 February 3, 1904. 
 
 Dear MotuEer—I have heard from both Mary and 
 Marjorie and each says she can come. Mary said Miss 
 Kellogg would chaperon her. It was the first I knew about 
 such a thing and it might have made trouble. But it is 
 all right, and I am all fixed now except to order more flowers 
 for Miss Kellogg. 
 
 We have to get two sets of flowers, one for the dance on 
 Friday night and the other for the show on Saturday night. 
 I have ordered violets and bridesmaid roses to the amount 
 of six dollars. Then we have to have a rig to go riding in, 
 dramatic-club seats, etc., besides the fourteen dollars I 
 spoke of in my last letter... . 
 
 Gene delivered his oration the other night, and it went 
 off very well. In fact, all the orations so far have been 
 remarkably good, and it’s up to us who come later to do as 
 well. As I have told you, mine comes Friday, the second 
 speaker. I get scared off and on by spells. 
 
 I am very much interested in watching this war between 
 Russia and Japan, and I suppose you must be. We rush 
 over to the reading room after breakfast for a glimpse at 
 the morning papers before going to study. The newsboy 
 who sells papers here in the evening does a flourishing 
 business, and you have to hustle to get one. Japan seems 
 to be doing the Russians up on the sea. . . . I should think 
 you might write to Huntingdon Wilson for news, although 
 it would be rather old by the time it reached here. 
 
 D 
 
; 
 
 34 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 The remaining letters for the year are missing— 
 save one, which gives a last impression of Borden 
 at The Hill. He graduated in 1904, receiving a 
 grade of 83:6; standing fourth in a form of forty- 
 eight boys of whom he was the youngest. 
 
 February 21, 1904. 
 
 DEAR MotTHER—This morning we had Communion 
 Service in the (new) chapel at eight o’clock. Mr. Speer and 
 Dr. Cuthbert Hall conducted and it was very nice. Of 
 course attendance was not compulsary ; only a few were 
 Bere pares 
 
 The Dedication Service was very good. Mr. Speer and 
 Dr. Hall both made addresses. 
 
 It is after lights now, and I will have to say, Good-bye.— 
 Your loving son, WILLIAM. 
 

 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ROUND THE WORLD 
 1904-1905. Ait. 16-17 
 
 “Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the 
 Ranges— 
 Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!” 
 R. KIpuine. 
 THE war between Japan and Russia was still in 
 progress when, in the summer of 1904, Borden set 
 out on a journey round the world. He had 
 graduated from The Hill at sixteen, and his parents 
 felt that a year spent in this way would be well 
 
 _ worth while before he entered college. It was no 
 
 small responsibility Mr. Walter Erdman had under- 
 taken in consenting to travel with him. Scholarly, 
 brilliant, full of humour, recently graduated from 
 Princeton University and Seminary, a more de- 
 lightful companion could hardly have been found, 
 but his chief recommendation in Mr. and Mrs. 
 Borden’s eyes lay in his fine Christian character. 
 
 ‘’ T remember our talks about William down in 
 the pine grove at Camden,” he wrote years later, 
 ‘“ when you were wondering what sort of companion 
 I should make for him, and I was wondering how 
 I could measure up to your ideals.” 
 
 He remembered also Mr. Borden’s helpfulness 
 35 
 
36 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 when seeing them off from Chicago. Partly in boy- 
 ish bravado, William prolonged his farewells, swing- 
 ing on to the train when it was already in motion. 
 
 ‘ William,” called his father sharply, “ don’t do 
 things like that! It isn’t fair to Mr. Erdman.” 
 
 “Tt was a word of caution that was not for- 
 gotten,” wrote the latter, ‘save possibly on two 
 occasions—once when he was clambering over the 
 fortifications of the old castle at Ajmere, and once 
 when his familiarity with nautical matters and the 
 management of a yacht tempted him to climb 
 thoughtlessly on the rail and swing from the hal- 
 liards of an ocean liner. The Captain administered 
 a sharp rebuke on that occasion. William called 
 him ‘ an old stiff’ in private—but he came down. 
 
 ‘Tt was inevitable that a boy of his physical 
 endowments and active disposition should be on 
 the whole more interested in doing than in seeing 
 things, and one does not wonder that he was more 
 enthusiastic over a swim in the phosphorescent sea 
 before the shrine at Kamakura than in studying the 
 wonderful lines and graceful bulk of its great bronze 
 Buddha. He remonstrated with me a little for 
 being willing to see it twice! One might have sup- 
 posed that so active and independent a nature 
 would be impatient of advice or restraint. Yet, 
 excepting the occasions mentioned, his activity 
 never gave cause for concern, and there was no 
 time when he failed to accept suggestions or recog- 
 nize the force of another’s judgment.” 
 
 It was a September day when the s.s. Korea put 
 out from San Francisco. Fog hung over the Golden 
 

 
 WILLIAM IN 1904. 
 
 To face page 36. 
 
7 
 => 
 —— 
 
 oa 
 
 \ rao 
 
 Ake 
 
 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 37 
 
 Gate, and the departure seemed a small affair com- 
 pared with the outgoing of the transatlantic liners 
 from New York. What Borden thought of it all 
 may be seen from his unstudied letters : 
 
 Sept. 20, 1904. » 
 
 DrEAREST MotuER—We are off at last, and so far it 
 seems quite nice, although in some respects a little speck 
 disappointing. 
 
 We went down to the wharf quite early and our bags 
 were taken up to the room by a lot of little Chinamen 
 dressed in dark blue with a round black hat with a red top- 
 knot to it. They were certainly very funny and cute. 
 Most of them take the end of their queue and put it in their 
 coat pocket. Our steward is a very nice Chinaman dressed 
 like the ones I have just described... . 
 
 The scene at the dock was quite queer, very different 
 from the departure of an Atlantic steamer. Chinamen 
 swarmed everywhere, and there were also a good many 
 Japs mixed in. All the servants and sailors are Chinamen 
 and they seem to be very competent. Some of them are 
 comical in their appearance and actions and I enjoy watch- 
 ing them, especially the sailors about their work. 
 
 Our fellow passengers are mostly married people, in fact 
 there aren’t more than half a dozen young folk that I have 
 noticed. The Chinamen are by far the most interesting 
 bunch. There is an open space between the promenade 
 deck and the poop where they congregate—fat, thin, old 
 and young, some with gray queues and others with black. 
 I watched them eating this afternoon with their chopsticks. 
 About ten of them squatted around one pot of rice and a 
 pot of some sort of meat. Each man had a little tin pan 
 which he filled with rice. They ate by holding the pan up 
 to the mouth and then shoving in the rice with their chop- 
 sticks, which they held in one hand. They picked up 
 pieces of meat with their chopsticks and smeared them 
 round in a common bowl of gravy. Several of these groups 
 were scattered over the deck and it made a very queer 
 spectacle. 
 
38 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Sept. 21, 1904. 
 
 Dear MotuEer—To-day we have gotten pretty well 
 settled and have had a chance to look around a bit. Our 
 chairs are located on the port side, near the forward end 
 of the promenade deck. Our neighbours are a couple of 
 young men starting out as missionaries. They are Jones 
 and Gibb, and were on the train with us coming out to San 
 Francisco. 
 
 Then there is a Mr. Lamb and his wife and little boy. 
 Mr. Lamb is a classmate of Walter’s, and he and his wife are 
 going to the Philippines as missionaries. They are very 
 nice and awfully jolly. Mr. Lamb and I got permission 
 from the chief engineer and went all through the engine- 
 room. One of the assistants showed us over and explained 
 everything. He also took us into the stoking rooms of 
 which there are five or six. It wasn’t nearly as hot as I 
 expected, in fact I don’t believe it troubled the stokers at 
 all. The stokers are Chinese and they work for seven 
 dollars a month, rather small wages, isn’t it? Whenever 
 they get hungry, they haul out a few coals, build a fire 
 right on the floor and cook themselves some chow. It 
 seems that there are a lot of Chinese on board who travel 
 back and forth just to gamble. They certainly do it with 
 a vengeance. To-day revealed five or six new games, and 
 they were busy playing most of the day. 
 
 The colour of the water out here as it surges away from 
 the ship is remarkable. It is a deep indigo blue and 
 doesn’t seem to be affected by the colour of the sky. 
 
 A day at Honolulu, where the water was like 
 melted opals in colouring and clear as crystal, was 
 welcome. Native boys, eager to dive for money, 
 swam out to meet the ship, some of whom, scrambling 
 on board, took-off even from boats on the hurricane 
 deck. The Aquarium with its rainbow-coloured fish, 
 bathing, surf-riding, and a drive to various points 
 of interest made the time pass quickly, until a fresh 
 contingent of passengers came on board, wearing 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 39 
 
 wreaths of flowers after the custom of the island, 
 and the journey was resumed toward the setting 
 sun. 
 
 Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1904. 
 
 Dear UNCLE FRED AND AuntT LaurA—I received the 
 Round Robin to which you contributed so much and thank 
 you very much for it. I often wish to be sailing (yachting) 
 out here, where the trades blow steadily and the sea is 
 comparatively smooth. 
 
 Going round the world may be quite a trip, but it isn’t 
 anything uncommon among these passengers. There are 
 three or four who are on their fourth trip around, and several 
 on their third and second. So we sink into insignificance. 
 We have a couple of German and Austrian Counts and 
 Countesses, an Italian doctor and also several German 
 university men, one with scars on his cheek. Then there 
 is an Admiral of the U.S. Navy and a Bishop. So you see 
 we have quite a few celebrities. 
 
 We have only seen the smoke of one boat since we left 
 San Francisco. The Pacific is quite large. 
 
 With love.—Your nephew, 
 
 Wixti1am W. BorpbeEn. 
 
 His respect for the Pacific was further increased 
 by encountering a typhoon before they reached 
 Japan, as we learn from his journal : 
 
 Strong breeze from the south-east and fairly big sea 
 running. Life-lines put up on the lower deck and all 
 awnings taken down. Wind developed to a gale in the 
 afternoon. Hove to about seven and rode typhoon during 
 the night. 
 
 Rained hard early in the morning with wind still blowing 
 a gale. Engines started and kept at half speed from 
 5.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Shipped big seas over the prow. 
 Sea quieted down in the afternoon and full speed was 
 put on. 
 
 Next day they were in Yokohama. 
 
40 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Japan was not the fascinating vision it would 
 have been had they visited it in spring, when the 
 cherry and wistaria are in bloom. Fall colours 
 touched the hills with beauty, but it was more the 
 people than the country that appealed to Borden. 
 
 Fifty years only had elapsed since Commodore 
 Perry had effected, in 1853-4, the introduction of 
 the Island Kingdom into the family of nations, and 
 only thirty years since the famous Iwakura Commis- 
 sion had been sent out “‘ to survey the world and 
 cull its best for the future development of Japan ”’. 
 But what had not that brief period witnessed of 
 progress along the lines of national education, re- 
 presentative government and facility of communica- 
 tion! Hundreds of miles of railway connected all 
 the important cities of the main island, where previ- 
 ously there had been none. Schools, colleges and 
 universities had sprung up in which tens of thousands 
 were pursuing an up-to-date curriculum, and to the 
 worship of the imperial line which had occupied the 
 throne for more than two thousand years had been 
 added modern parliamentary government, with a 
 constitution granting liberty hitherto undreamed 
 of in oriental lands. 
 
 Side by side with all this had gone territorial 
 expansion and increase of prestige and population. 
 The war with China concluded ten years previously 
 had brought Formosa under the sovereignty of 
 Japan; and the war with Russia still in progress 
 had raised her to the first rank among naval and 
 military powers. So it was a new Japan to which 
 our travellers came, and yet the old was everywhere 
 
ROUND THE WORLD Al 
 
 present, and the mingling of East and West was 
 almost bewildering. In the fine station at Yoko- 
 hama, for example, the clatter of wooden clogs on 
 the pavement was deafening, and in the narrow 
 oriental streets it was alarming to see children play- 
 ing almost under the wheels of modern vehicles. 
 One of his first letters was to his younger sister : 
 
 IMPERIAL HOTEL, TOKIO, 
 October 18, 1904. 
 
 DEAR, DEAR JoycE—lI wish you were here to enjoy all 
 the funny little people with their queer ways and dress. I 
 know you would have a beautiful time. But as you can’t 
 see them, I will try and tell you about them. 
 
 I never saw so many children before as there are here 
 in Japan. They seem to be everywhere, in groups of four 
 or five and sometimes more, playing in the streets. None 
 of the boys and girls that run around wear any socks, but 
 they all wear queer little wooden clogs which they hold on 
 with the big toe and the next one. I should think that they 
 would keep coming off all the time, but they never do. 
 The little girls all wear kimonos, something like Mary’s 
 only much prettier, some of them being all gold and red 
 and purple. As soon as their hair is long enough, they do 
 it up in a queer little bunch on top of their head just like 
 their mothers. None of the girls or women wears any kind 
 of hat, as it would muss their hair all up. 
 
 The boys wear the same kind of shoes and kimonos as 
 the girls but their hair is fixed different. It is clipped 
 quite short, in a ring all round the head. Then right on 
 top a little round spot is shaved to make it look nice. The 
 boys, or at least a good many of them, wear little soldier 
 hats and look very cute. 
 
 Girls littler than you go around playing with a tiny 
 little baby tied on their back. The baby hangs there in 
 warm weather with its little bare feet hanging down and 
 in cold weather is all bundled up so that you can only see 
 the top of its head. The baby sleeps whenever it feels 
 like it, and the little girl goes right on playing just the 
 
A2 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 same. Do you think you could sleep while I was running 
 around with you on my back? I don’t. All the boys 
 and girls seem very good. It is rare to see one crying 
 unless it is very young or has been hurt. They haven’t 
 any toys to speak of, although there are plenty in the 
 stores, yet they seem very happy and have a good time. 
 
 The newspaper men, not boys, go running through the 
 streets shouting the news, with bells jangling at their 
 waists to attract attention. They are mostly extras that 
 are sold in this way, and the paper itself is about the size 
 of this sheet I am writing on. 
 
 When it rains the people all carry big paper umbrellas, 
 some of them very pretty. Some of the men have big straw 
 hats instead of umbrellas, and sometimes a whole suit, or 
 long coat, made out of this rice-straw. I shouldn’t think 
 it would be very dry or comfortable, but they wear them 
 anyway. 
 
 With lots and lots of love, WILLIAM. 
 
 Their first railway journey was a short one, south 
 from Yokohama to the shrines of Kamakura, about 
 which he wrote to his mother : 
 
 October 9, 1904. 
 
 At the station we took rickshaws and went first to see 
 the Dai Butsu.! . . . We approached the statue by a stone 
 walk through a very pretty garden, only there wasn’t a 
 bit of grass. On account of the trees we couldn’t see the 
 statue until quite close to it. It is a very impressive and 
 remarkable piece of work considering it dates from A.D. 
 1243. Around the image foundation stones may be seen 
 in the ground. These supported the temple that once 
 covered the statue. It has been gone a long time, as a 
 result of tidal waves. .. . 
 
 1 Buddhism had been in Japan for four centuries before it could be 
 said to have become part of the national life. ‘This colossal image of 
 Buddha (the Dai Butsu) was erected to commemorate the welding together 
 of the alien faith, first brought over by Korean missionaries, with the 
 indigenous cult of Japan. ‘‘ The copper used in the construction of this 
 magnificent image was to represent Shintoism while the gold was to repre- 
 sent Buddhism.” 
 
. 
 
 ROUND THE WORLD A3 
 
 From the Dai Butsu we went to another Buddhist 
 temple on the top of a hill overlooking the sea. This was 
 the temple of the Goddess of Mercy, and there were many 
 small idols round the walls. One of them was all stuck-up 
 with pieces of paper. These are prayers, and a string of 
 them hangs near by to which the worshipper helps himself. 
 After chewing it a while, he throws it—if it sticks, the 
 prayers are answered ; otherwise not. 
 
 Tokyo, the capital, and beautiful Nikko in the 
 mountains north of it, were no disappointment. 
 Through the kindness of a Japanese friend, they 
 were permitted to drive through the grounds of 
 the Palace, seeing something of the surroundings 
 of the Mikado who was the hundred and twenty- 
 second representative of his imperial line. No 
 other dynasty in the world approaches such a 
 record, and it was easy to understand the passionate 
 loyalty of the people to a family which they believe 
 to have been descended from the gods and which 
 has given them such a succession of almost uni- 
 formly good rulers. 
 
 Parliamentary government had existed for only 
 fifteen years—‘‘ a time, no doubt, of many thrills 
 on the part of the people, far and near, who for the 
 first time in the nation’s history were taking part in 
 the administration of national affairs ”’. 
 
 Nikko, Oct. 16, 1904. 
 
 Dear MotHER—At present we are at Nikko, a beautiful 
 spot up in the mountains. In the valley is a very pretty 
 little stream and the mountains are covered with maples 
 which are just beginning to change their colour. Well, I 
 must go back and tell you what we did in Tokyo. 
 
 Last Wednesday we were shown through the Houses of 
 Parliament by a very nice Jap, He took us into all the 
 
AA, BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 various offices and we saw the pictures of several presidents, 
 etc. The room in which the Representatives meet is 
 simple and not unusual. The House of Peers is much 
 more gorgeous, especially the Mikado’s office-room. This 
 is beautifully fitted out with gold-lacquer screens and a 
 cloth of gold over the desk. The Imperial box also is very 
 fine with such things as silks and gold lace, ete. . 
 
 Friday we had a very interesting time. In the morning 
 we went to the school where Mr. Hatta teaches and then 
 went to call on a Japanese lady, Mrs. Fuki O. Kami. Her 
 house was in the suburbs of the city in a pretty little 
 compound. After walking through the garden we came to 
 a very nice house with sliding walls made of rice paper. 
 The maid greeted us to her knees and bumped her head on 
 the floor at nearly every word. While we waited we were 
 served tea and were then informed by Mr. Hatta that we 
 were to be received at another house, as Mrs. Kami wished 
 to treat us as very distinguished visitors. So we walked a 
 short distance to another cute little house and after 
 removing our shoes went in. 
 
 Walt had known Mrs. Kami in America, so we took the 
 liberty of asking to be allowed to sit Japanese style instead 
 of in the chairs offered to us. After we had talked a while 
 (Mrs. Kami speaks very good English) the maid came on her 
 knees pushing a tray with tea before her. There were also 
 some small green and pink rice-cakes which we had some 
 difficulty in picking up with chop-sticks, but which were 
 really very good. We were informed that Mrs. O. Kami 
 was quite rich, and that probably accounts for her two 
 houses and also for the gown she had on. It was a kimono 
 with very long sleeves. The cloth was a mixture of brown 
 silk and old gold and it was simply stunning. . . . 
 
 In company with Mr. O. Kami they went to see 
 some war-pictures. 
 
 We arrived at the theatre and checked our shoes, as 
 everyone here does instead of leaving their hats and coats. 
 The floor of the theatre was divided into little squares, 
 about four feet each way, and in one of these we squatted. 
 
ROUND THE WORLD AB 
 
 Between the pictures, tea and cigarettes flourished on all 
 sides. The pictures themselves weren’t anything special 
 and we found the people more interesting. 
 
 A visit to the hospital enabled them to realize 
 something of what the war was costing day by day. 
 
 We met two officers, both of whom had been fearfully 
 wounded while fighting at Port Arthur. The first one, 
 who spoke English very well, told us a little about it. 
 He said they were so close to the Russians that they could 
 hear one another talking and could throw stones across. 
 Everything was very neat, clean and comfortable. The 
 nurses looked nice in their white uniforms and high caps. 
 We distributed flowers and books and towels which are 
 appropriate Japanese gifts. 
 
 Of their journey westward to the former capital 
 of the islands, lovely Kyoto, he tells in more than 
 one letter. For they stopped by the way to obtain 
 near views of Fujiyama, to enjoy the hot springs of 
 a remote valley, and to climb passes from which 
 the clouds lifted giving glimpses of the sacred 
 mountain. After one climb, 
 
 ‘¢ We had a hot sulphur bath,” he wrote, “ which 
 was simply great! The Japanese tubs are made of 
 wood and are about three feet deep and oblong in 
 shape. Instead of climbing into them you step 
 down. I think they are fine, and enjoy boiling in 
 them up to my neck! I am afraid they will spoil 
 me for any others.” 
 
 To reach Nagoya they had to travel part of the 
 way on a man-power railroad. 
 
 The car we got into was a perfect cube, measuring about 
 
 five feet on a side. It was meant to seat four, but at 
 various stages on the journey we had a number of fellow- 
 
46 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 passengers. Three coolies pushed us slowly up the hill and 
 then jumped on while we coasted down at a terrific rate. 
 Just why the car stayed on the track going round sharp 
 curves I cannot tell, but it did, and that’s the main point. 
 
 Kyoto palaces, gardens, temples and shops were 
 of the finest, but they found, as Dr. Charles Erdman 
 wrote on his later visit, that 
 
 “It is a city ‘wholly given to idolatry’. Of 
 course one will enjoy a visit to the grounds and 
 buildings of the Mikado’s palace; he will struggle 
 against the temptation to bankrupt himself in the 
 shops, which are the most attractive in the land, 
 but his real concern in Kyoto will be with its count- 
 less temples. We rambled through acres of these, 
 carefully depositing our shoes outside in the rain 
 and walking in cloth slippers over vast expanses of 
 polished floors and becoming more and more de- 
 pressed by realizing the familiar fact that a proud 
 modern empire, one of the five great powers of the 
 world, is in the deadening grasp of false religions 
 and degrading cults.”’ 
 
 Of one of the temples at Kyoto Borden wrote : 
 
 November 5, 1904. 
 
 The most interesting temple we visited was the Sangu- 
 sanguido or Temple of the 33,333 Gods. The building that 
 contains this outfit is a shabby-looking place about four 
 hundred feet long by sixty wide. The images all represent 
 the same goddess, Kivanna, Goddess of Mercy. They are 
 made of wood and gilded. Right opposite the entrance 
 is a huge image said to be carved out of one willow-tree. 
 On either side are five hundred idols, each about five feet 
 high. They are arranged in ten rows of fifty, each row 
 rising above the one in front of it. The images are meant 
 to represent the eleven-faced-thousand-handed Goddess of 
 
ROUND THE WORLD AIT 
 
 Mercy, but they only have one face and twenty-one pairs 
 of hands. I suppose it would have been too much work 
 to make them all. The 33,333 are obtained by counting 
 the small effigies held in the hands and in the haloes of the 
 large ones. It is a very strange sight.! 
 
 In the midst of all he was seeing and doing, these 
 were the things that went deepest. There is one 
 picturesque letter on Japanese paper, six inches 
 wide and seven feet long, in which he gives a de- 
 tailed account of a display of national wrestling at 
 Osaka, which they watched for hours. But there 
 is another letter, written to his mother, that shows 
 what his first contact with heathenism was meaning 
 in his own life. He had been less than a month in 
 Japan when he wrote : 
 
 Kyoto, November 8, 1904. 
 
 I have received your birthday note with all the others, 
 which was a very pleasant surprise. Your request that I 
 pray to God for His very best plan for my life is not a hard 
 thing to do, for I have been praying that very thing for a 
 long time. Although I have never thought very seriously 
 about being a missionary until lately, I was somewhat 
 interested in that line as you know.? I think this trip is 
 going to be a great help in showing things to me in a new 
 light. I can’t explain what my views were, but I met such 
 pleasant young people on the steamer who were going out 
 as missionaries, and meeting them influenced me... . 
 
 1 Seventy per cent of the population of Japan (which is given at 78 
 millions) is to be found in rural districts. They live in hamlets, of which 
 there are 56 thousand. ‘* Scarcely any penetration has as yet been made 
 by missionary forces into this rural area. Even near Tokyo there are 
 large districts in which the missionaries are only as one to more than a 
 million of the population. Over 40 millions, it is stated, are even to-day 
 practically untouched by the Gospel. To these farmer-folk, fishermen and 
 boat-people, idolatry is a very sordid thing. It leaves unmet the real 
 hunger of the heart.” —The Missionary Review of the World, for October 1903. 
 
 2 At the Hill School Borden had been chairman of the Mission Study 
 Band. 
 
48 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Walt has so many friends here whom we meet in nearly 
 every city that I have seen a great deal of the work that is 
 being done. While talking with them we learn of the work 
 and the opportunities, etc., so that I realize things as I never 
 did before. When I look ahead a few years it seems as 
 though the only thing to do is to prepare for the foreign 
 field. Of course, I want a college course and then perhaps 
 some medical study, and certainly Bible study, at Moody 
 Institute perhaps. 
 
 I may be a little premature, but I am beginning to think 
 a little different. I don’t know what you will think of this, 
 but anyway I know you can help me. 
 
 With lots of love, WILLIAM. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ROUND THE WORLD—continued 
 
 1904-1905. it. 17 
 
 “Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work to-day ; 
 He has no feet but our feet to lead men in His way ; 
 He has no tongue but our tongue to tell men how He died ; 
 He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.”’ 
 Selected. 
 
 CHINA may not have the charm of Japan, but to 
 Borden it appealed immediately. ‘“‘ I think I am 
 going to like it better,” he wrote, impressed with 
 the strength and virility of the people. 
 
 SHANGHAI, Nov. 19, 1904. 
 
 DEAR MotHEeR—We are now in China and such a change ! 
 It is perfectly impossible to imagine how different itis. . 
 This is the most cosmopolitan place I have ever seen, and 
 yet we hear that Hongkong is even more so, but I can’t 
 see how it could be. 
 
 At the Bund where we landed we were immediately 
 introduced to several very Chinese things. Of course the 
 rickshas were nothing new, but the wheelbarrows! They 
 are the queerest affairs I have ever seen. One wheel about 
 two feet in diameter and a frame on either side for the load. 
 The coolie has a strap from the handles which goes under 
 his arms and over his neck. Four grown people is the most 
 they carry and that is a pretty heavy load. The load 
 isn’t always balanced and of course that makes it harder 
 yet. I think I would prefer to walk every time. The 
 Chinese merchants go up and down the Bund in their 
 
 49 E 
 
50 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 carriages and practically every foreign resident has one, 
 so that there is a continual stream of carriages, rickshas 
 and wheelbarrows. There are several varieties of policemen 
 but the most impressive are the Indians with their large 
 red turbans, heavy braided beards and immense stature. 
 Most of them are over six feet and some nearly seven. 
 
 We are staying at the Astor House which is very nice 
 and is the place where you meet everyone, that is everyone 
 who is travelling. We went over to the China Inland 
 Mission and consulted Mr. Stevenson on our plans for China. 
 
 The plan worked out in Mr. Stevenson’s study 
 filled the time to be given to China in the most 
 interesting way possible, and when the travellers 
 left by river-steamer for Hankow they were antici- 
 pating visits to Pekin and not a few other places. 
 In his journal Borden noted : 
 
 November 20, 1904. 
 
 Travelling all day up the mouth of the Yangtze, which 
 
 is practically a sea, it is so wide. Immense reeds, fifteen 
 or twenty feet high, grow along the banks. 
 
 November 21. 
 
 Lots of fun to watch the steerage passengers all try to 
 get in and out of the junks and up and down the narrow 
 gangway of the steamer at the same time. The result was 
 they got very excited, and all shouted and argued and 
 pushed and shoved each other until I expected most of 
 them would go overboard. But only one did, and he got 
 out all right. 
 
 The river varies in width from one to six or seven miles. 
 At times the current is very swift. 
 
 November 22. 
 
 Arrived at Kiu-kiang about four in the afternoon. Two 
 Chinese fell in and nearly got drowned, between the 
 steamer and the dock. When they were hauled out, they 
 went for each other and had a pig-tail pulling contest which 
 was rather unique and interesting. 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 51 
 And in a letter to his father : 
 
 It took us four days to cover the six hundred miles to 
 Hankow. On Wednesday morning we came in sight of 
 the city, and while we were still several miles off a number 
 of men came out in sampans and jumped on board while 
 the steamer was going fullspeed. This is rather a dangerous 
 proceeding and requires some skill. They were the repre- 
 sentatives of native inns, eager to secure business. 
 
 At Hankow there is a difference of fifty feet in the depth 
 of the water in summer and winter. Also the tide is some- 
 times felt up there. This would be the tide they had had 
 at Shanghai two or three days previously. So there must 
 be two or three high tides on the river at the same time, 
 with as many low ones in between. 
 
 Hankow has a large foreign concession and a fine Bund, 
 better even than Shanghai. The foreign and native cities 
 do not overlap much. You just step through a gate from 
 the concession and are at once plunged into the narrow 
 dirty streets of the crowded Chinese city. Across the 
 Yangtze is Wu-chang, a purely native city which is larger 
 than Hankow. On the opposite bank of the Han River, 
 which flows into the Yangtze at this point, is another city. 
 The combined population of all three is about a million and 
 a half. 
 
 But it is the unexpected that happens, and instead 
 of travelling extensively in China, Borden was soon 
 confined to a sick bed in a hospital. They did, 
 however, get in two weeks in the Yangtze Valley, 
 including a delightful time at Nanking where they 
 were guests of Dr. Stewart of the American Methodist 
 College. They had crossed the Pacific with these 
 friends, and were more than glad to see again one 
 bright girl who had had much to do with their 
 enjoyment of the voyage. Borden missed the 
 society of people of his own age, and it is safe to 
 say that the Ming tombs did not suffer in interest 
 
52 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 through the companionship they had at Nanking. 
 In this connection he wrote : 
 
 I have come to the conclusion that young people of 
 either sex never travel out here and in fact don’t exist! I 
 almost feel as though we were breaking the rules. We have 
 met scarcely any young people. There were two fellows 
 and two or three girls on the Korea, no more. In Japan, 
 none. However, we hope for better things as we reach 
 more civilized regions. 
 
 All the early part of December, William was 
 suffering from fever, and when they reached Canton 
 it was found to be typhoid. This added seriously 
 to Mr. Erdman’s responsibilities, who was thankful 
 to get him safely to the hospital on Victoria Peak 
 overlooking the city and harbour of Hongkong. 
 Happily the illness proved to be a mild attack and 
 the patient was soon convalescent. On Christmas 
 Day he was writing : 
 
 Although in bed, I manage to pass the time very well, 
 reading a good deal, magazines, interesting books and my 
 Bible. . . . We see a few American papers now and then, 
 and I have learned most of the scores of the big games. 
 
 We stayed in Canton four days and saw a good deal and 
 met some of the missionaries. Canton is a most interesting 
 city, but I won’t weary you with any more accounts of 
 temples and the like. We were conveyed through the 
 narrow streets in chairs carried by three bearers. They 
 are quite comfortable. The streets with their busy throngs 
 and open shops are always interesting. They vary in 
 width from about twenty feet, in residence portions, to six 
 or seven in business quarters. Sometimes they were so 
 narrow that the chairs almost scraped both sides at once. 
 I saw dried rats in great quantities hung up in the food- 
 shopsffor sale, but no edible birds’-nests though we looked 
 for them. 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 53 
 
 His love of yachting and boat life generally made 
 him specially interested in the river population of 
 Canton. He was accustomed on their own boat, 
 the T'satsawassa, to narrow quarters, but never had 
 imagined that people could be born and married, 
 live and die, rear their families and marry off their 
 children without ever having a home on shore. 
 And so many of them ! 
 
 HONGKONG, December 27, 1904. 
 
 DEAR FATHER—There are some three hundred and 
 fifty thousand boat-people in Canton I am told. They 
 live in small sampans which line the river-banks about 
 ten deep, and simply choke all the small canals. <A boat 
 perhaps twenty feet long will hold a family of six or 
 seven. I couldn’t see where they stowed themselves 
 away, but they do it somehow. A great many keep 
 chickens as well, hung out over the stern in a basket 
 which serves as a chicken-yard. Some of the kids and 
 women have empty cans tied to their backs to act as life- 
 preservers if they should fall overboard. For one China- 
 man will seldom rescue another, because the rescuer has to 
 keep the rescued for the rest of his life, if he happens to 
 want to be kept. And sometimes they will bargain with a 
 drowning man before pulling him out! But to return to 
 the river-people—they live and die on their boats, and are 
 not allowed on shore by the land-people, who do not want 
 their business taken away from them. 
 
 The work of the Y.M.C.A. in Canton had greatly 
 interested him, as he wrote in that same Christmas 
 letter, and he had been trying to take part in it a 
 little. a 
 
 I got into conversation with a young business man who \ 
 said he was a Christian and made it a great point that he 
 always went to church. The start of our argument was 
 
 that he was railing at missions and saying they were no 
 good, etc. Well, I tried to defend them, and we got deeper 
 
54 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 and he turned out to be practically an infidel, not believing 
 in anything the Bible said. I told him what I believed 
 and he said I was young and didn’t know better, that in a 
 few years I would think differently. He couldn’t have 
 been more than twenty-five himself. I managed to quote 
 a few verses to which he could not say anything, but I 
 didn’t put up a very good argument as I got rather fussed 
 and excited. I wished at the time that I knew my Bible 
 Berbers). ae 
 
 This is my first Christmas away from home and my 
 first one spent in bed. It is rather different from what I 
 suppose is going on at 89.1 But I am not kicking.: As I 
 lie here several thousand miles away, home seems pretty 
 nice and I feel it would be fine to be there. But when I do 
 get back, it will be nice to think that I’ve been out here. 
 We may get home before the first of September by a good 
 deal, but cannot tell just now. 
 
 That he was home-sick was not to be disguised, 
 but as he became stronger the desire to shorten their 
 trip passed away. Java had to be given up and 
 their plans for India curtailed, but what he and 
 Mr. Erdman lost in this way was more than made 
 up by the deepening friendship between them. Of 
 those days Mr. Erdman wrote : 
 
 His Bible was always on his bed in the hospital, except 
 when the fever was at its height. I remember finding him 
 poring over the tenth chapter of Genesis one morning, with 
 a new interest in its geographical and ethnological state- 
 ments aroused by his first impressions of new races and men 
 of other tongues. It was a little Bible with fine print, too 
 fine indeed for practical use, but it must have become dear 
 to him, for I have seen it since, open, on his study table at 
 Princeton. 
 
 The voyage to India completely brought back his 
 strength and he was eager for all possible excursions among 
 the foot-hills of the Himalayas, at Darjeeling and elsewhere, 
 
 1 89 Bellevue Place, his home in Chicago. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 Outline Map 
 of 
 
 (ee INDIA 
 eS Miles 
 
 100 0 100 200 300 
 
 Route taken by M! Erdman and 
 William shown thus :— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CENTRAL - 
 PROVINCES: 
 
 
 
 “MY SORE . » Madras 
 be ey eer 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tantord’s beog. Estab, london, 
 
 OUTLINE MAP OF INDIA. 
 
 The black line showing the journey made by Mr. Erdman and William. 
 
 To face page 54. 
 
a wens 
 
 _ 
 
 a ie 4 
 
 — 
 
 “>, 3 
 
 o 
 
 ae 
 : 
 
 — ae mii. 
 
 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 55 
 
 and for opportunities not open to the ordinary tourist of 
 shooting the spiral-horned black-buck when we were visit- 
 ing friends in an isolated mission-station in the Central 
 Provinces. His interest in the archeological and archi- 
 tectural features of the Orient was rapidly increasing, 
 quickened by visits to the wonderful temples in South 
 India and by the fascination of the Taj Mahal, and his 
 imagination was stirred by the monuments of Egypt. In 
 the closing months of travel, his growing interest in the 
 achievements of man was manifested in what was to his 
 fellow-traveller at least an unexpected appreciation of the 
 art treasures of the galleries of Europe. But all the time, 
 though one did not realize it then, he was being specially 
 impressed with the spiritual destitution of the people of the 
 countries we were visiting. 
 
 Sunrise over the Himalayas was the sight of a 
 lifetime! Borden and his companion had_ been 
 two weeks in India. They had left Calcutta the 
 night before and had come up from the teeming 
 plains of the Ganges by a mountain railway with a 
 gauge of only two feet, through a dense jungle 
 which did not lose in interest because ‘ everyone 
 said it was full of tigers and leopards ’—a regular 
 Mowgli jungle! It was misty when they reached 
 Darjeeling and cold enough to make them realize 
 that they were at an altitude of seven thousand feet. 
 Few Hindus were to be seen, but in the crowded 
 bazaar they found themselves surrounded by hardy 
 mountain people, distinctly Mongol in appearance. 
 There were Tibetans clad in sheepskins, from the 
 land of mystery beyond the Himalayas; Nepalese 
 and Bhooties from the equally forbidden countries 
 lying to the east and west, and enterprising mer- 
 chants even from China. 
 
56 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 It seemed a little strange, on leaving the railway, 
 to have one’s things carried up the steep hill-paths 
 by women, and at the hotel to have men chamber- 
 maids as well as waiters. But the women of 
 Bhootan are said to be the strongest in the world. 
 Barefooted, with large triangular baskets on their 
 backs and the help of a strap that goes over the head, 
 they carry the heaviest loads, apparently with ease. 
 Men and children share the labour, carrying stone, 
 wood, grain and what not, up the steep hillsides— 
 sturdy, healthy, cheerful creatures, a contrast in 
 almost every way with the enervated people of the 
 plains. But nowhere in Bhootan, Nepal or Tibet 
 was there a voice raised to tell these mountain 
 races sunk in immorality, living in fear of demons 
 and in dread of death, of the one and only Saviour. 
 
 The next morning was still misty, and they were 
 not called at four A.M. to take the expected ride to 
 Tiger Hill. But about six they woke to their first 
 view of the highest mountains in the world. 
 
 To his father William wrote : 
 
 We looked right from the hotel porch, out across deep 
 ravines filled with mist, at the mighty range of the Hima- 
 layas. The ranges we could see from the hotel were about 
 forty miles away, and consisted of about ten peaks of 
 which Kinshinjunga, twenty-eight thousand feet, was the 
 highest. They were a solid mass of snow and towered above 
 us clearly outlined against the blue sky. Our first view 
 was very good but we had a better one next morning. 
 
 We got started a little after four, while the stars and 
 moon were still bright, for Tiger Hill. This “ hill’’, only 
 nine thousand feet high, is about six miles from the hotel. 
 I enjoyed the horseback ride very much although I nearly 
 froze. We got to the top just as dawn began to break, 
 
ROUND THE WORLD BY 
 
 and the effects of light and shade were wonderful. To our 
 right was a perfect wall of snow-capped peaks about twenty 
 thousand feet high, stretching away for a hundred miles. 
 Directly west was the great range with Junga init. Then 
 more to the left was a line of foot-hills about eleven or 
 twelve thousand feet high, wooded and without snow. 
 Beyond these, when the sun got higher, we could plainly see 
 the peak of Mt. Everest, a hundred and twenty miles away. 
 With the glasses we could see very distinctly the sharp lines 
 and great bare cliffs. We spent nearly two hours on the hill 
 and enjoyed every minute. 
 
 Oh, the wonder of that mighty rampart beyond 
 which lies Tibet! What words can paint the 
 grandeur, purity and loveliness of its eternal snows, 
 “shining in the dawn-light like some celestial 
 country high above this lower world of human life 
 and pain’’? All around them at Darjeeling were 
 touching evidences of the unsatisfied longing of 
 hearts that search in vain for comfort amid life’s 
 mysteries. The faith of the mountain people is 
 more simple and appealing than the heathenism of 
 the plains. 
 
 It was at Madura, near the sandy, southern point 
 of the Indian peninsula, that they had their intro- 
 duction to the worship of Siva, whose mark—a 
 horizontal smear—they had seen on so many fore- 
 heads. Imagine “a hot plain, a red road, shaded 
 by the foliage of great overhanging trees in which 
 monkeys were playing; the village folk coming 
 home from the fields in the evening time ; the village 
 wells surrounded by women and girls with their 
 water-jars; bullocks and buffaloes resting after 
 the toils of the day, and the smoke of little wood 
 
58 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 or weed fires filling the air”. In such surroundings 
 they spent the night at a dak bungalow before 
 visiting the great temple at Madura, one of the 
 largest of the Dravidian temples of southern India. 
 Covering a square twelve acres in extent, it domin- 
 ated the surrounding country with its massive 
 gopura, something between a pagoda and a pyramid, 
 rising to a commanding height above each entrance. 
 William’s description of this place shows his re- 
 action to Hinduism.seen for the first time. 
 
 January 1905. 
 
 The Madura temple has five large gopura which are over 
 two hundred feet high and four smaller ones. The outside 
 of these structures is a solid mass of carved stone images 
 of Hindu gods. Inside the wall is another enclosure with 
 its gopura, and inside this is the sacred place which none 
 but Hindus are allowed to enter. The rest of the space 
 is taken up with bazaars, priests’ quarters, etc. . . . The 
 interior of the temple contains many images and corridors 
 with wonderful stone monoliths. In the centre is the 
 ‘‘ Tank of the Golden Lilies’. I am sure I didn’t discover 
 any appropriateness about the name. The water was 
 covered with green slime, and yet pilgrims were washing 
 themselves and their clothes in it as well as drinking 
 from it. It is supposed to wash away their sins... . Of 
 course we were not allowed to go into some of the inner 
 chambers and I guess it was just as well, for the worship 
 of Siva to which the temple is given over is the foulest 
 thing imaginable. 
 
 The three principal Hindu gods are Brahma the creator, 
 Vishnu the preserver and Siva the destroyer and reproducer. 
 All the large temples we have seen and innumerable small 
 shrines, are dedicated to the worship of Siva. You 
 probably know something about this already—but if you 
 don’t I can’t tell you, as it is too awful. The fact that 
 this vile teaching is the most universal and popular thing 
 in Hinduism is enough to offset everything that Hinduism 
 

 
 TWO OF BORDEN’S PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IN INDIA. 
 
 1. The Golden Temple at Amritzar. Headquarters of the Sikh religion. 
 2. The dak-bungalow near Madura. 
 
 To fice page 58. 
 
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ROUND THE WORLD 59 
 
 may have done for the people, if it has done anything but 
 degrade them. 
 
 It makes me tired to have a person who knows little or 
 nothing about it say that these people are as well off with 
 their religion as we are with ours, or rather that theirs is 
 as good as ours. Five minutes’ explanation of facts in any 
 one of a dozen temples I have visited would disillusion such 
 a person. 
 
 He would not put in plainer language the things 
 these temples stand for—the deification of lust, the 
 actual worship of symbols of vice, and the slavery 
 of tens of thousands of women and girls “ married 
 to the gods’. Around the tempies in this part of 
 India many monkeys gather and are looked upon 
 as sacred. It was saying a good deal when one who 
 knows the conditions wrote : 
 
 ‘Wealth and labour could not have been de- 
 voted to baser practices than the erection of the 
 vast enclosures dedicated to Siva and Vishnu. Even 
 the sacred monkeys are disgraced by association 
 with indescribable vileness.”’ 
 
 Another aspect of idolatry and superstition was 
 seen when they reached Madras just in time for the 
 annual festival of Juggernaut. It was impossible 
 to describe it adequately, but Borden did the best 
 he could under difficulties. 
 
 Feb. 1, 1905. 
 
 Well I must hurry on to Madras. The city itself is 
 nothing to see, but we were fortunate in being able to 
 witness the festival of the Juggernaut. This had always 
 been a sort of unreal fairy tale to me until I saw it. We 
 took a carriage about nine thirty p.m. and drove towards 
 the native quarter of the city. On the way we passed 
 groups of people all hurrying in the same direction, some 
 
60 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 on foot and some crowded into little bullock carts. The 
 whole native population seemed to be centering on one 
 point. 
 
 Immediately we entered the native city, it was all we 
 could do to get the carriage through the crowds of people. 
 Imagine the crowd at a parade at home, only dress them 
 differently—-men and women with red shawls about them- 
 selves, fakirs smeared from head to foot with ashes and 
 dirt, making a ghastly combination, naked children and 
 nearly everyone with some kind of a caste mark on his or 
 her face. The street along which the procession was to 
 pass was dimly lit up, adding to the weirdness of the 
 scene. 
 
 Finally the approach of the car was heralded by the 
 pushing of the crowds and a vanguard of men beating 
 kettledrums and a number of men with torches. And 
 then came the car itself, a truly wonderful sight, drawn 
 by two long lines of men. It was a square shrine about 
 thirty feet high on wheels. The whole thing was a solid 
 mass of gilt and was brilliantly lit up by numerous torches. 
 The men would raise a great shout and then pull the 
 clumsy affair a short distance, stop and start again, and 
 so on. Of course since the British Government came into 
 power, the practice of people throwing themselves beneath 
 the wheels of the car, to procure immediate transition to 
 heaven, has been stopped. Nevertheless, I can easily see 
 how a religiously fanatical people could, under the excite- 
 ment of the moment, do such a thing. I was very glad 
 that I had seen it all, and am sure I won’t forget it for some 
 time. 
 
 And now they were at Benares, the sacred city 
 on the Ganges, which is much the same to-day as 
 when Macaulay wrote, “ It was commonly believed 
 that half a million human beings were crowded into 
 that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines and 
 minarets, and balconies, and carved oriels, to which 
 the sacred apes clung by hundreds. The traveller 
 could scarcely make his way through the press of 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 61 
 
 holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The 
 broad and stately steps which descended from these 
 swarming haunts to the bathing places were worn 
 every day by the feet of an innumerable multitude 
 of worshippers.” 
 
 In Borden’s letter to his mother it is interesting 
 to get the point of view of a healthy-minded boy 
 
 among such scenes. 
 February 6, 1905. 
 
 DEAR MotHER—I was rather disappointed in Benares 
 as a sacred city, it is too dirty, and its temples are com- 
 paratively poor and small affairs. However, it has 
 interesting features, of which the ghats are foremost. 
 
 These ghats are steps or landing places which lead down 
 to the Ganges. They are very numerous and practically 
 line the whole water front. Some, in fact the majority, are 
 bathing ghats for all classes of people. I mean there is a 
 separate ghat for nearly every caste. There is only one 
 burning ghat worthy of mention, and there all the dead 
 of Benares are cremated. Benares is so holy that death 
 within its precincts practically insures eternal happiness 
 for the Hindu. The result is pilgrims come there simply 
 to die. The best way to see these ghats is to take a boat 
 on the river, which we did twice. In this way you get a 
 very good view of everything. People are bathing con- 
 tinually in the sacred stream. They wash themselves and 
 their clothes in it, pray to it, drink it and throw their dead 
 into it. It is quite a sight to see all this going on. The 
 people bathe in their clothes, and many of them have no 
 dry things to put on, and go away shivering in their wet 
 garments. And it is cold here now in India. There is 
 frost at night, and an overcoat is comfortable even during 
 the day. It is really the strangest climate I ever met. I 
 shivered all day, and then read in the paper that in the sun 
 it had been 120° Fahrenheit ! 
 
 But to return, we took a boat and went down stream 
 for some distance, seeing people of all classes at their 
 religious duties. ... The burning ghat, though not a 
 
62 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 pleasant sight, was quite interesting. Several corpses were 
 in the process of cremation when we saw it. The bodies 
 are placed on piles of wood right in the open, and the ashes 
 are thrown into the Ganges with people bathing not fifty 
 feet off. The bodies are placed in certain positions 
 according to the creed of the deceased, some with the head 
 pointing east, others west, etc. All day long throughout 
 the year the smoke of one or more pyres rises from this 
 place. Another method of disposing of the dea@ is to 
 weight the bodies with stones and drop them in mid-stream. 
 We saw several disposed of in this way. 
 
 “Holy”? men and priests die, if possible, looking out 
 over the river. As we passed down we saw an old man, 
 a living skeleton, seated on the bottom step near the water 
 with a friend propping him up. When we came back he 
 was dead. He was one of the “ holy’ men. I hope you 
 won’t mind hearing about these things, but they are actual 
 everyday occurrences and I couldn’t well help seeing them. 
 
 The city itself is a dirty hole, full of beggars, fakirs and 
 temples, with narrow streets in which sacred cows, donkeys 
 and goats run around loose, getting in everyone’s way. 
 Right in the midst of this Hindu sanctum is the Mosque 
 of Aurungzebe, the Mohammedan invader. He built this 
 thing there just to insult the Hindus, and it is there yet, 
 but his present followers have to enter by the side door as 
 the Hindus have blocked up the main entrance. I have 
 learned that, as a rule, any native with a beard is a 
 Mohammedan, and those who have their whiskers dyed 
 red have been to Mecca. Well this mosque has two tall 
 minarets, one of which we climbed to get a view of the 
 city. 
 
 The temples are disappointing. They are right in the 
 crowded part of the city and are very dingy places indeed. 
 We were only allowed to look in and not to enter, of which 
 I was not sorry. Cows came and went with impunity in 
 the Golden Temple, which was positively sickening even 
 from the doorway. The ‘“‘ Well of Knowledge” was a 
 foul-smelling hole into which everyone threw flowers and 
 water. We didn’t approach very close, though the priest 
 wanted us to make an offering of flowers. 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 63 
 
 And here the millions come and go, still seeking 
 to wash away their sins. The “sacred” cow is 
 still the emblem, more than the emblem, the em- 
 bodiment of the Hindu’s highest hope, and if they 
 cannot die by the Ganges, even scholarly men will 
 send for a cow to be brought into the room and have 
 the hgirs of its tail spread over their faces, that they 
 may breathe their souls away in the most sacred 
 atmosphere they know.? 
 
 And we know that “‘ God so loved the world that 
 He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever be- 
 lieveth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life ”’. 
 
 From Benares the travellers passed on up the 
 Ganges to Allahabad, at the junction of that river 
 with the Jumna—another focus of idolatrous 
 worship, though at one time and for centuries under 
 the heel of Moslem power. They reached the city 
 as the annual Mela was commencing, when thousands 
 of pilgrims were pouring in from far and near. For 
 Allahabad is the site of “ the greatest Mela in India, 
 when more than a million devout Hindus pour up 
 from all over the land to bathe in the mingling of 
 the waters of the two sacred rivers. There is 
 probably no religious spectacle equal to it any- 
 where else in the world. Under no other religion 
 and in no other land could hundreds of naked men 
 with matted locks and grotesquely daubed bodies 
 
 1 There are temples like the temple of Vithoba, at Pandharpur, the 
 great place of pilgrimage in the Deccan, where the cow is actually made an 
 object of worship. The belief that the excreta of the cow have power to 
 cleanse men from sin is well-nigh universal among Hindus.—From the 
 Report on India and Persia, by Dr. Robert E. Speer, published in 1922, 
 p. 152. 
 
64 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 be regarded as the highest embodiment of holiness, 
 nor could such rites pass for religion and as accept- 
 able with God.” 4 
 
 It was these fakirs who specially interested 
 Borden, though the vast concourse of people, their 
 absorption in their devotions and the sadness and 
 weariness of many faces made also a deep impres- 
 sion. All the questions he wanted to ask at Alla- 
 habad found ready answers, for they were privileged 
 to have as their escort a missionary who had been 
 long in India. ‘‘ You can learn more from a mis- 
 sionary in half an hour,” he wrote with appreciation, 
 ‘than you can pick up yourself in a couple of months 
 of travel.”’ 
 
 February 12, 1905. 
 
 Dr. Lucas came in on Friday from his camp. He goes 
 to the country and visits villages through the week. He 
 has been out thirty-four years and knows a thing or two. 
 He told us that the Tessul Dhar, a native official, had 
 promised him an elephant to use at the Mela. So Saturday 
 morning we started off for the Mela grounds. 
 
 On the way we passed groups of pilgrims, some in 
 bullock carts but most walking. Many of the men carried 
 baskets in which Dr. Lucas told us they would carry back 
 bottles of the sacred water to their friends far away, after 
 getting a priest to seal it and mark it as the original 
 article. Groups of women passed along the road chanting 
 mournfully. All the pilgrims had the same sad expression 
 on their faces—no trace of hope or happiness. They had 
 been coming there and their ancestors before them, and 
 yet were just as badly off as ever. But they keep on 
 coming. 
 
 After some delay the elephant appeared and four of us 
 clung to his back while he got on his feet, somewhat in the 
 
 1 From the Report on India and Persia, by Dr. Robert E. Speer, 
 published in 1922, p. 54. 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 65 
 
 fashion of the camels at the World’s Fair. From the back 
 of this creature we had a splendid view of the sea of 
 turbaned heads. The road leading up to the levee was 
 lined with shops containing all sorts of things. Bottles for 
 holy water, powder for caste marks, flowers for offerings, 
 jewelry, shawls, ete. This levee, called a “‘ bund” out 
 here, was a good place to watch the approach of the 
 pilgrims. They would come up the slope until they saw 
 the river and then prostrate themselves in the dust and 
 hurry on. I noticed that the women were much more 
 painstaking than the men, who often did not stop at all. 
 We rode with our elephant through the throng to the river 
 bank, where we saw the crowds in bathing. It was cold 
 and some of the poor beggars nearly shook to pieces in 
 their wet clothes. . 
 
 When we had gone as far as practicable, on account of 
 the crowd, Walt and I got down and walked with Dr. Lucas 
 to see the shrines, fakirs, etc. At the road sides were 
 crowds of beggars with all sorts of deformities. Dr. Lucas 
 explained that they consider any deformity a mark of divine 
 power and consequently a holy thing. There were so many 
 of these that a poor pilgrim could hardly be expected to 
 offer something to all. But they would walk down the line 
 with a bag of rice and drop a few grains at each place. In 
 this way small heaps of rice and other food stuffs would 
 collect in front of each one. 
 
 But the fakirs were the most interesting sight of all. 
 I don’t believe I have attempted to describe a fakir. He 
 wears nothing but a loin cloth; his body is smeared or 
 painted with ash-dust in such a way that it never comes 
 off, but remains a dull grey color; his hair is long, and 
 from sprinklings of ashes and more sprinklings of water, it 
 hangs like pieces of half-inch rope. There were about two 
 dozen of these men, but not all of them were self-torturists. 
 However, there were about ten, either sitting or lying on 
 boards full of spikes. To be sure the spikes were somewhat 
 blunted, but it must have been very uncomfortable until 
 they got hardened to it. There was one man sitting in a 
 swing with one leg on the ground and his hands above his 
 head. I noticed that his arms were very small and 
 
 rp 
 
66 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 shrunken, and on inquiring we learned that he had held 
 them up that way for seven years. The pain at first must 
 have been frightful, but now he couldn’t get them down 
 if he wanted to and can only move his hands a very little. 
 I had never expected to see anything like this. Dr. Lucas 
 says that the British Government has put a stop to the 
 worst of their self-torturing practices, and he told us some 
 that he had seen which I won’t repeat. 
 
 It is difficult for westerners to enter with any 
 understanding into the state of mind that produces 
 such results. To see a man kneel or lie on his back 
 in the blazing sun with his head completely buried 
 in the ground, for a whole day at a time, would not 
 impress us with a sense of his holiness or with any 
 desire to worship him. But it is very different with 
 those whose one hope for the next life is the accumu- 
 lation of merit in this. 
 
 At that very time there was in Bengal a woman 
 who had been a fakir like the worst of those Borden 
 saw at Allahabad. Having means of her own, she 
 had visited all the most important temples in India, 
 north, south, east and west, to try to escape the 
 burden of sin. Her awful guilt was that her 
 husband had died young, when she was only a 
 child of thirteen, and of course it was attributed 
 
 1 ** The Hindu devotee ”’, as Bishop Thoburn tells us, “‘ flatters himself 
 that he can by his penances of various kinds accumulate merit. The word 
 penance to his mind conveys no idea of repentance, but solely that of a 
 means of acquiring personal merit. In the next place he is possessed with 
 the idea that matter is inherently evil, and that, since his union with a 
 material body is the source of most of his misfortunes, he must make war 
 on the body to liberate the soul. . , 
 
 ‘©No doubt a large number, of both sexes, choose a life of asceticism 
 because they find it the simplest and easiest way of securing their daily 
 bread. . . . But many of them show abundant evidence that they are 
 sincere in their purpose, and persist through long lives of severe suffering 
 and privation in faithfully following the course they have chosen.” 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 67 
 
 to some wickedness on her part in a previous life. 
 To atone for this unknown sin and to obtain relief 
 for heart and conscience she spent seven long years 
 travelling on foot from shrine to shrine, facing un- 
 told hardship and danger; but the burden grew 
 only heavier as time went on. 
 
 Then she determined to become a fakir. She 
 had not suffered enough. She would give three 
 years to self-inflicted torture, in the ways enjoined 
 by the sacred books as pleasing to the gods. And 
 this plan she carried out, though the sufferings she 
 endured seem incredible. 
 
 For one period of six months she sat without 
 shelter in the sun all day with five fires burning 
 around her, the perspiration streaming from every- 
 pore. Even wealthy men would bring wood and 
 keep the fires burning as an act of merit. With no 
 clothing but a loin-cloth, her body smeared with 
 ashes and her long hair with cow-dung, she was an 
 object of veneration to the pilgrims, many of whom 
 worshipped her as they fed the fires. At night she 
 took her place in the temple, standing before the 
 idol—actually standing on one foot with the other 
 drawn up against it, from midnight until daylight 
 —her hands pressed together in the attitude of 
 prayer, imploring the god to reveal himself to her. 
 
 And then, to increase her sufferings, when the 
 cold season came with frosty nights, she went down 
 at dark to the sacred pond and sat with the water 
 up to her neck, counting her beads hour after hour, 
 till dawn appeared. Thus she called upon Ram 
 day and night, with no response. 
 
68 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 “Tf thou art God,” she used to plead, “ reveal 
 thyself to me. Reach forth and take the offering 
 I bring. Let me see, hear or feel something by 
 which I may know that I have pleased thee, and 
 that my sin is pardoned ’—but there was no sign, 
 no rest, no peace. 
 
 When the years of her long endurance were 
 ended, she went to Calcutta, eut off her once- 
 beautiful hair and threw it into the Ganges as an 
 offering, exclaiming : 
 
 ‘““There—I have done and suffered all that can 
 be required of mortal man, yet without avail !” 
 
 She had lost faith in the idols and had ceased to 
 worship them. 
 
 “There is nothing in Hinduism,” was the con- 
 clusion forced upon her, “ or I would have found 
 then. 
 
 Think of the privilege of bringing to such a soul 
 the message of the love of God in Christ. Think 
 of the joy on earth as well as in heaven when the 
 seeking sinner and the seeking Saviour met at last. 
 That, indeed, is something worth living for, worth 
 dying for, the glorious compensation of the mission- 
 ary’s life! And when the poor tortured fakir be- 
 comes the spirit-filled preacher, telling by lip and 
 life the riches of redeeming grace, think of the 
 wonder of that transformation? Chundra Lela, 
 Pandita Ramabai, Sadhu Sundra Singh—what wit- 
 nesses these and many another to the power of the 
 living Christ ! 
 
 1 For a fuller account of this wonderful woman, see the brief biography 
 entitled, An Indian Priestess : The Life of Chundra Lela, by Mis. Ada Lee. 
 Morgan and Scott, London, E.C. 
 
ROUND THE WORLD 69 
 
 This was the brighter side to our travellers’ ex- 
 periences in India, for they did see and hear much of 
 the transformation that is coming, slowly but surely, 
 over the mingled peoples of that great land.1 
 
 That Borden was thinking over these things is 
 evident from his last letter from India. He had 
 been writing to his sister at Vassar College about 
 the native state of Rajputana—of Jeypore, the 
 capital, with its wide streets, pink houses and 
 fascinating medley of colour, its magnificent horses, 
 trains of camels, and the “ Barbaric splendour ”’ of 
 its Maharajah, who kept elephants and tigers to 
 fight in his arena. But it was Sunday, and he 
 turned to other things. 
 
 RAJPUTANA HOTEL, ABU. 
 February 26, 1905. 
 
 Dear MotHer—I have just been reading over some of 
 your letters and enjoying them so much. I do not expect 
 to get any more until we reach Cairo. 
 
 Walt and I have Bible study together every day when 
 possible, and I enjoy it very much. He is able to point 
 out many things that are new to me, and I am beginning to 
 see what a wonderful storehouse of good things the Bible is. 
 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 
 
 1 “India is being converted. The ideas that lie at the heart of the 
 Gospel are slowly but steadily permeating the whole of Hindu society, 
 modifying every phase of Hindu thought.—A prominent non-Christian 
 judge, a native of India. 
 
 “It is the Christian’s Bible that sooner or later will work out the 
 regeneration of India.’”’—The Maharajah of Travancore. 
 
 “It is a new heart that India requires, a transformation of life and 
 character. Who can give that to India except a divine Saviour ? Send us 
 missionaries who are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, who are not 
 ashamed of the Cross; men and women who are living in close personal 
 touch with the Master ; men and women who have sat at His feet. They 
 will meet India’s need ’’.—-Words of an Indian Christian. See ‘* Jesus 
 Christ in the Thinking of Asia”? in The Missionary Review of the World 
 for April 1924, p. 252 et seq. 
 
70 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 furtherance of His Kingdom as He sees best. I feel sure 
 that He will answer my prayer. It strengthens me to know 
 that you are also praying for this. 
 
 I have so much of everything in this life, and there are 
 so many millions who have nothing and live in darkness ! 
 I don’t think it is possible to realise it until one sees the 
 East. I know it is no easy thing to serve the Lord, but 
 others have been enabled to do so, and there is no reason 
 why I should not. Mark 10. 27. 
 
 Among the letters he had been re-reading was a 
 sheet of paper he had carried with him all the way 
 from Japan—not a letter, only a few verses in his 
 mother’s writing, sent to him for the birthday he 
 had spent so far from home. All through college 
 and seminary years he kept it. It was among his 
 special papers to the last. 
 
 Just as I am, Thine own to be, 
 Friend of the young, who lovest me, 
 To consecrate myself to Thee— 
 
 O Jesus Christ, I come. 
 
 In the glad morning of my day, 
 
 My life to give, my vows to pay, 
 
 With no reserve and no delay— 
 With all my heart, I come. 
 
 I would live ever in the light, 
 
 I would work ever for the right, 
 
 I would serve Thee with all my might— 
 Therefore to Thee I come. 
 
 Just as I am, young, strong and free, 
 
 To be the best that I can be 
 
 For truth and righteousness and Thee— 
 Lord of my life, I come. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 COMING HOME 
 
 Summer 1905. Aet. 17 
 
 ‘**The meaning of being a Christian is that in response for the gift 
 of a whole Christ I give my whole self to Him.” 
 ALEX. MacLarEn, D.D. 
 
 Ir was not until they were in Rome that Borden 
 seems to have received a reply to his special letter 
 from Japan. His mother understood and rejoiced ; 
 his father wanted him to wait until he was twenty- 
 one before committing himself to any decision as 
 to his life-work. In the meanwhile the travellers 
 had visited not only China, the Straits Settlements 
 and India, but Egypt, Palestine and Asia Minor, 
 and the chief treasure cities of Greece and Italy. 
 To his father, William wrote from Naples : 
 
 May 18, 1905. 
 
 I have been enjoying myself more since we got into 
 civilization again. . . . French is certainly useful here in 
 Italy, although a great deal of English is spoken. I can 
 understand French when not spoken at express speed, and 
 some Italian, but the difficulty is to make oneself under- 
 stood! It is really quite amusing. You ought to hear 
 my attempts in Italian and French and English all at once. 
 
 I hope to have my Homer pretty well in shape by the 
 time I get back, so as not to be bothered with it at Camden. 
 I suppose you will be going up there soon. Have my golf 
 
 71 
 
72 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 clubs ready ; I am longing for a whack at the ball. Have 
 you any kind of automobile in mind which you prefer? I 
 would like to know. 
 
 Please tell me a little about Chicago polities. How is 
 Dunne? Whom did you vote for and what do you think 
 about municipal ownership ? 
 
 FLORENCE, May 28, 1905. 
 
 We were nearly two weeks in Rome and saw a great 
 many interesting things. I am curious to know how long 
 you and Mother spent there on your wedding trip. There is 
 an awful lot to see, isn’t there? I wrote to Mother telling 
 her about some of the places and pictures we had seen, but 
 not nearly all. So I will tell you what we did and enjoyed 
 most. 
 
 The afternoon of our first day we drove by the Colosseum, 
 through the Arch of Constantine, around across the Tiber 
 and back to our hotel, stopping at the Pantheon on the way. 
 Horatius must have been a pretty good swimmer to cross 
 the Tiber, if it flowed as swiftly then as it does now. The 
 Colosseum is very interesting, I think. We went all over it 
 from top to bottom. They have excavated some since you 
 were in Rome and have laid bare the old pavement outside 
 the amphitheatre on the side opposite the Forum. There 
 was a wooden model, a reconstruction of the original, which 
 gave one a very good idea of what it must have looked like 
 in all its glory. 
 
 The Pantheon, you remember, is the only building of 
 ancient Rome in anything like perfect preservation. Its 
 dome is very large and has a hole, thirty feet across, in the 
 centre. The caldarium (hot room) of the baths was always 
 made in this way, a dome with a hole closed by bronze 
 doors in order to be able to control the temperature of the 
 room. This hadn’t struck me until Dr. Forbes pointed it 
 out. He says that the Pantheon was really at one time 
 nothing but the caldarium of the baths of Agrippa, son-in- 
 law of Augustus. 
 
 Dr. Forbes, by the way, has been in Rome thirty-four 
 years and is now the leading archaeological authority. You 
 may have heard him lecture when you were here. We went 
 with him three times and found him exceedingly interesting. 
 
 I 
 
COMING HOME 73 
 
 The places we went to were the Palatine Hill, the Forum and 
 the excursion to Tivoli and Hadrian’s Villa. His talks were 
 very interesting and instructive, given as they were on the 
 exact spot where the events related took place. Romulus 
 and Remus are facts and no longer legends. The legend of 
 the wolf is explained by the fact that the wife of Faustulus 
 was named Luca. Faustulus was one of the Sabines who 
 lived by the Tiber, and his wife brought up Romulus and 
 Remus. In the quarrel between Romulus and Remus, the 
 two parties were led by Faustulus and Quintibius. The 
 legend was that these two men were buried where they fell. 
 Dr. Forbes has discovered their tombs seven feet below the 
 level of the Forum of Caesar—I mean the Roman Forum, 
 but at the period around a.p. As no one could be buried 
 within the limits of Roma Quadrata this proves that the 
 walls did not extend that far, and that the Forum was the 
 battle-ground between the rival clans of Romulus and 
 Remus on the Palatine and Quirinal hills. We were shown 
 where Cicero delivered his orations and the spot where 
 Julius Caesar’s body was burned. It was exceedingly 
 interesting, but I couldn’t begin to tell you all about it. 
 
 I enjoyed the collections of antiques about as much as 
 anything. My, but aren’t there a lot of fine statues! [Dm 
 not sure which I prefer. As a group, I guess the Laocoén 
 is about as good as any. I think I prefer Perseus with the 
 head of Medusa to the Apollo Belvedere. And I certainly 
 prefer the features and expression of Mercury. But then, 
 I didn’t have time enough to study them, although I did 
 go to it two or three times. Now that I have seen the 
 Marble Faun I must read the book, and shall when I find 
 time. Undoubtedly, Rome excels in its collections of 
 statues and antiques, but the pictures aren’t in it with 
 those here in Florence for instance. So perhaps I’m not 
 all wrong when I say that I didn’t care much for the 
 pictures, while I did enjoy the sculptures. 
 
 I learned of two pictures, or rather a whole gallery 
 which I hadn’t visited, the Corcini. I wanted very much 
 to see Van Dyck’s Madonna and also Carlo Dolci’s. But 
 I made a mistake about the hour to which the gallery 
 remained open, and consequently missed seeing them. J 
 
74 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 was very much struck by the prints, and may say they 
 were the only ones which I really cared for. Carlo Dolci’s 
 is simply great, and it will be one of the first things I see 
 if I ever get to Rome again. You may not remember the 
 picture, but I have a fine carbon print of it to show you 
 when [I arrive. 
 
 Venice brought delightful relaxation. 
 
 June 1, 1905. 
 
 We are now in the city of watery streets and gondolas, 
 having arrived last night. After dinner we strolled over to 
 St. Mark’s, heard the band play and had some ice cream. I 
 expect to enjoy our stay here. 
 
 It was warm June weather, and every day they 
 had a swim at the Lido followed by afternoon-tea, 
 much appreciated after the sight-seeing of the 
 morning, while evening was spent in a gondola, 
 meeting friends, listening to music and watching 
 the lights over the water. In the Doges’ Palace 
 they met an American party of seven young ladies 
 with a chaperone who proved to be friendly as well 
 as interesting, and they had already joined company 
 with a Mrs. A. and her daughter, the latter a 
 young graduate of Bryn Mawr under appointment 
 as a missionary to India. So the week in Venice 
 passed all too quickly, filled with many interests. 
 
 June 4, 1905. 
 
 Mrs. A. invited us to go out in their gondola last night. 
 It was simply great! The lights on the Grand Canal and 
 the little dark Rios were a picture. We went way up to 
 the north-eastern corner of the city, to the Three Bridges, 
 and then out by the Guidecca and back down the Grand 
 Canal. We lay alongside one of the singing barges and 
 listened to the music for an hour or so. It was fine! I 
 suppose you know all about it, for you and father must 
 
COMING HOME a: 
 
 have enjoyed just such nights here together. I think I 
 would like to come here on my wedding trip, if I ever have 
 one. . . . Walt and I were remarking the other day that 
 we had only met three American girls on our whole trip, 
 until now. There’s nothing like a real true American girl : 
 French, German, English or Irish aren’t in it ! 
 
 In the midst of all this gaiety it is surprising to 
 find how earnestly he was thinking about deeper 
 things. From Rome he had written : 
 
 May 17, 1905. 
 
 Daruinc MotHEer—I am glad that you have told Father 
 about my desire to be a missionary. 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. I have been reading Mr. Speer’s book on 
 Missionary Principles and Practice. It is very good, in 
 my opinion. He takes up the different kinds of missionary 
 work, educational, medical and evangelistic, and discusses 
 them with regard to the different countries. You may have 
 read it, and if you haven’t I think you would like it. 
 
 I don’t think I want to go through a Seminary, but 
 thorough Bible study is what I do need. As Dr. Torrey 
 says, “It’s much more important and profitable to know 
 what God has to say on a subject than what men have to 
 say.” I would like some medical skill . . . enough so as 
 not to be absolutely helpless and ignorant. But I really 
 oughtn’t to try and form plans of my own but let God do 
 
 it for me, and then it’s sure to be right. . . . I will be 
 mighty glad when I can talk things over meth you. 
 Lots and lots of love, WILLIAM. 
 
 And now amid all the charms of Venice : 
 
 June 4, 1905. 
 
 I have just finished reading Mr. Speer’s book. It has 
 helped me a great deal. I especially noticed the two 
 chapters he takes to the Student Volunteer Movement. He 
 
76 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 shows very clearly what the motto, ‘‘ The Evangelization of 
 the World in this Generation ’’ means, and how perfectly 
 possible it is, provided we pray the Lord of the harvest to 
 send forth labourers. There is something inspiring in the 
 project tome. It is something fine, something worth every 
 effort to accomplish and which will repay us when we have 
 done our duty. 
 
 When I got through reading, 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, and also for 
 His plan for the lives of every one of my family. Oh 
 Mother, do pray for me. College is so near and there will 
 be such a lot of things to do, tremendous opportunities ! 
 Pray that I may be guided in everything, small and great. 
 
 A month had been kept for England ; but before 
 crossing the Channel, a brief visit to Switzerland 
 introduced Borden to real mountain climbing, which 
 was to become his highest enthusiasm as far as 
 personal enjoyment was concerned. Their first 
 mountain was the Titlis, eleven thousand feet high, 
 and with nails in their boots and a good guide they 
 
 set out from Engelberg. 
 June 18, 1905. 
 
 We walked that afternoon for an hour and a half to 
 Trubsee. There we found a little hotel perched on the edge 
 of a cliff, overlooking the town and valley of Engelberg. 
 It was simply great, and after our walk a nice simple Swiss 
 meal tasted pretty fine. We had our first glass of fresh milk 
 since leaving America. Right back of the hotel rose the 
 range of snowy mountains, some of them quite peaked, 
 others less so. The Titlis is not peaked, but its summit is 
 entirely covered with snow. 
 
 At 2.15 A.M. we arose and had something to eat. Two 
 other parties, Germans, were going up also. After the first 
 few minutes we left them and went on ahead, slowly but 
 steadily, hardly stopping at all for an hour and a half. 
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COMING HOME ri 
 
 foothill and had crossed some snowfields. The snow at 
 this altitude was soft, still we didn’t sink in more than an 
 inch or so. When we had rested a moment we hitched up, 
 the guide taking the lead, I next and Walt last. 
 
 From there on it was all snow and quite a pull, but we 
 reached the top in about an hour and twenty minutes, 
 which was fair time. It was then about six and the sun 
 was up and giving considerable warmth. We were very 
 lucky in having a fine view of the mountains over towards 
 Interlaken, Monte Rosa and the Dome in the distance, with 
 the Jungfrau and many others nearer. It was worth three 
 hours’ hard work. I felt fine; the last stretch had gone 
 very easily as I had gotten my stride and second wind. 
 After we had eaten a little we started down, Walt leading 
 and the guide last. We slid wherever we could, standing 
 up and leaning back on our alpenstocks. It was great 
 sport, and we laughed and shouted and had a fine time. 
 After a bit the crust got thinner and we couldn’t go so well, 
 as we would break through and tumble over. We stopped 
 only a few moments at the hotel to gather our belongings, 
 and then went right on down to Engelberg, getting the nine 
 A.M. train back to Lucerne. 
 
 In some ways the best was reserved for the last, 
 for the travellers reached England in the midst of 
 the London season, when the international cham- 
 pionships were being contested in tennis, cricket 
 and other sports. Paris had been delightful, and 
 Borden had taken special lessons in a school for 
 chauffeurs, learning to drive a car in the Bois de 
 Boulogne. He had wandered through miles of 
 pictures in the Louvre and had marvelled at the 
 glory of Versailles, a palace indeed! But the 
 Anglo-Saxon in him rejoiced to set foot on British 
 — soil. 
 
 ‘‘ What bliss to be back in a land”’, he wrote, 
 ‘where people talk English !”’ 
 
78 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 LONDON, July 7, 1905. 
 
 We have been having delightful weather here for a week 
 and have enjoyed ourselves very much. 
 
 We went out to Wimbledon and saw some fine tennis 
 last Tuesday. To-morrow we will go and see some of the 
 finals which will be very good. Wednesday we went to the 
 Henley Regatta, at Henley on Thames. It was a fine sight. 
 We got a canoe and paddled around among the crowd. The 
 very first boat we went alongside had Barbara (a cousin) 
 and her friends init. It was rather remarkable considering 
 that there were ten thousand people there. We only 
 stayed for the morning races and returned to London about 
 two. We saw the American eight defeated by the famous 
 Leander crew. 
 
 Went to St. Paul’s Cathedral the other day and climbed 
 up to the whispering gallery and down into the crypt to the 
 tombs of Wellington, Nelson and others. The Bank of 
 England and Exchange are in that part of the town, so we 
 visited them also. On the way back we went down a little 
 court off Fleet Street and saw the Church of the Knight 
 Templars, a pretty little old building. Oliver Goldsmith’s 
 Tomb was just outside. ‘The most interesting thing we did 
 was to take lunch at the Cheshire Cheese. This is the 
 original Inn at which Dr. Sam Johnson and others used to 
 meet, “‘ Ye Olde Cheshyre Cheese.” 
 
 In the afternoon we went over to Lord’s cricket grounds 
 to see the Cambridge-Oxford match. It was evidently 
 quite a social event, as everyone was there and in their 
 best. The field also was fine, but after watching the 
 match for a while we had had enough of cricket and retired. 
 To-day we spent our morning at the Tower which I found 
 very interesting. 
 
 There were museums and picture galleries to see, 
 the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and 
 Hampton Court. There was boating on the Thames, 
 coming home in the long summer evening by four- 
 horse coach, shopping, calling on friends, and more 
 than one visit to Shepherd’s Bush where “ the 
 
COMING HOME 79 
 
 finest tennis in the world ”’ was being played. And 
 amidst it all there was a new and deeper gladness, 
 for to Borden had come perhaps the most vital ex- 
 perience of his life. ‘“‘ I believe and I belong” was 
 henceforth to have new meaning. His own account 
 of what took place is better than anything that can 
 be said about it. 
 
 HoTEL RUSSELL, LONDON, 
 Friday, July 7, 1905. 
 
 Drar MotuEer—lI thought I would write you two letters 
 this time, as I have several things to speak about. Last 
 Sunday and Monday were a sort of Convention to me. I 
 went to four meetings, every one of which was fine. 
 
 Sunday morning, Walt and I went over to Dr. Campbell 
 Morgan’s church, to hear Dr. Dixon of Boston preach. 
 The sermon was very good. As I took notes, I can tell you 
 all about it. One thing he said after the Scripture reading 
 was, “ Don’t test the Bible by the book or the sermon ; 
 test the book or the sermon by the Bible... .” Heisa 
 man who preaches the Gospel, like Dr. Torrey. 
 
 Dr. Torrey, as you know, has been holding meetings 
 here in London for five months. This last month or so 
 they have been in a specially constructed hall on the Strand, 
 seating about five thousand. Sunday was the last day of 
 these meetings. Walt and I went in the afternoon. The 
 hall was by no means full, but there were fifteen hundred I 
 guess. 
 
 Dr. Torrey spoke about being “‘ born again’”’, and 
 mentioned some of the foolish ideas people have about it. 
 His sermon was meant to straighten things out. I know 
 that my own ideas were somewhat hazy, and I wasn’t at 
 all sure about it. ButIamnow. The text was John 3. 6, 
 ‘“* That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is 
 born of the Spirit is spirit ’’>—and Dr. Torrey gave five 
 proofs by which we can tell whether we are “ born again ”’, 
 born of the Spirit, or not. Every proof was a verse of 
 Seripture. That’s what I like, lots of the Word of God and 
 little of man. The five proofs were very convincing and 
 plain. 
 
80 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 In the letter he could only state the points made, 
 but in the full notes taken at the time he went more 
 into detail. The proofs as he gave them were the 
 following : 
 
 Ist. 1 John 2.29. ‘“* Every one that doeth righteousness 1s 
 born of Him.” Righteousness equals such actions as are 
 straight. Straight action is conduct that is conformed to 
 a straight edge. And the straight edge of life is the Word 
 of God. Righteousness equals the practice of such actions 
 as are conformed to the Word of God. Do we practise 
 righteousness ? If we-do, we are born of God. 
 
 2nd. 1 John 3. 9. ‘‘ Whatsoever is born of God doth not 
 commit sin.’ Sin is something done, a breaking of the 
 law; and the law is the revealed will of God. Sin, there- 
 fore, is transgression of the will of God. “ Every one that 
 doeth sin, doeth also lawlessness: and sin is lawlessness.”’ 
 1 John 3. 4. The regenerate man does not wilfully and 
 intentionally sin. 
 
 3rd. 1 John 3. 14. “* We know that we have passed out 
 of death into life because we love the brethren.” The brethren 
 are all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Love 
 for the brethren, positive and negative, is explained in 
 verses 16-18. We ought to love to the extent of giving 
 our lives—literally, if necessary—as God did for us. “ Let 
 us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed 
 and in truth’, v. 18. Love for the brethren is a proof of 
 rebirth. 
 
 4th. 1 John 5.1. ‘* Whosoever believeth that Jesus ts the 
 Christ is born of God.” Christ equals the Anointed One 
 of God. Belief equals absolute conviction. Whosoever 
 is convinced absolutely that Jesus is the Anointed One of 
 God is born of God. 
 
 5th. 1 John 5. 4. ‘* Whosoever is born of God over- 
 cometh the world.” A regenerate person has that within 
 him which overcomes the world. 
 
 Summary: One who is “born again” practises 
 righteousness ; is not committing sin; loves the brethren ; 
 believes that Jesus is the Christ ; overcomes the world. 
 We cannot do all this by ourselves, therefore what are we 
 
COMING HOME 81 
 
 todo? Answer, John1.12. ‘“ As many as received Him, 
 to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to 
 them that believe on His Name.” So we have only to 
 believe in Jesus and receive Him, and immediately we have 
 power to become sons of God. 
 
 (The next thing to do is to use this power. W. W. B.) 
 
 Missing dinner at the hotel, Borden hastened 
 back to the evening meeting. The vast hall, seated 
 for five thousand, was filled to capacity, and a deep 
 hush fell on the listeners as Dr. Torrey gave his 
 closing message. To-day versus To-morrow was his 
 theme, and men were made to feel that they simply 
 
 could not afford to put off the vital matter of 
 salvation. 
 
 “ To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your 
 hearts. 7°" Heb. 3'7. 
 
 ‘“ Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou 
 knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Prov. 
 27.1. 
 
 The wise man accepts Christ to-day ; the foolish 
 puts it off till to-morrow. 
 
 Of his experience that night Borden continued 
 in the letter to his mother : 
 
 After this Dr. Torrey called for decisions. Fifty or 
 sixty came forward and confessed Christ. Dr. Torrey told 
 us to speak to those about us. I had an awful tussle, and 
 almost didn’t, for I thought the people around me were all 
 Christians. However I wasn’t sure, and so decided not to 
 be the foolish man of “to-morrow”. I spoke to a lady 
 next to me, and others, but they were all saved. However, 
 I felt much better, and know it will be easier to do next 
 time. 
 
 In the After Meeting, Miss Davis sang the song, “I 
 surrender all”’, and an invitation was given to those who 
 
 G 
 
82 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 had never publicly done so, whether Christians or not, to 
 do so then. I stood up with several others, and we sang 
 the chorus : 
 
 I surrender all, I surrender all ; 
 All to Thee, my blessed Saviour, 
 I surrender all. 
 
 Dr. Torrey then gave us a little talk on, The Way of 
 Life. He also spoke on, How to keep on with the Christian 
 Life when it is begun : 
 
 1. Look always at Jesus. 
 
 2. Keep confessing Jesus everywhere. 
 
 3. Keep studying God’s Word, Matt. 4. 4. 
 
 4. Keep praying every day, 1 Thess. 5. 17. 
 
 5. Go to work. 
 
 The first four I am doing and the fifth I will do. 
 
 Well, when I got home that night I felt there was a 
 difference. You know the expression, “‘ for heaven’s sake ”’, 
 that I have used so much. I knew it was wrong and yet 
 I couldn’t stop it. Before last Sunday I had been praying 
 about it, but not very earnestly I am afraid, for though I 
 managed to keep it from my lips, it got started several 
 times. That night I prayed not only that my life might 
 be controlled but my thoughts also, and I meant it. I 
 expected a direct answer and got it the next day, and I 
 have been kept in that matter ever since. I don’t think 
 I ever had any real definite experience like that before, and 
 it has strengthened my faith. And now I am praying more 
 earnestly about things for which we have been praying 
 SOMETIME ieee 
 
 You won’t be able to get any answer to me about all 
 this, but we will talk things over when I arrive. 
 
 A deep conviction that to accept Christ as 
 Saviour means to accept Him as Lord was part of 
 this experience, and a conviction leading to action. 
 Personal work was the outcome. It was no easier 
 for Borden at seventeen to witness for Christ than 
 it is for other young fellows of his age. He was 
 

 
 COMING HOME 83 
 
 reserved by nature. But he had taken a step that 
 must have consequences. In his journal he had 
 
 written for that Sunday : 
 July 2, 1905. 
 
 Fine address. I was greatly helped and surrendered all 
 to Jesus at the invitation. 
 
 Surrender in his case meant not only giving up 
 worldly amusements and indulgences, it meant 
 taking on his Master’s yoke, living with Him for 
 others, always and everywhere. And it was very 
 practical. Of the very next Sunday he wrote to 
 his mother : 
 
 In the evening I started out to call on E. W. at the 
 Coburg Hotel. I didn’t feel just right about it, as I know 
 you don’t like us to make such calls on Sunday. However, 
 I went ahead. Walking down Oxford Street, I came to a 
 place where an out-door service was being held. Some- 
 thing told me to stop and help, but I went on. I had 
 almost gotten to the Coburg when I heard the singing of 
 another group and after a few minutes decided to go back. 
 So I did and joined the group. It was a Wesleyan Mission 
 Band, holding a Gospel service. 
 
 After the meeting was over, I spoke to a young fellow 
 and asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ. He said he 
 didn’t and didn’t ever intend to. We stood on the street 
 corner and talked until eleven p.m. He had evidently read 
 some books written by a destructive critic, and I wasn’t 
 well enough versed to meet his questions in a way to con- 
 vince him. He was a very nice young fellow, and gave 
 me his address and said he would be very glad if I could 
 convince him. I am going to get Pierson’s Many Infallible 
 Proofs, and try some more with him. 
 
 And he did, spending an entire afternoon hunting 
 him up in Shoreditch, a very unattractive part of 
 London. But the address proved to be fictitious. 
 
84 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 There was no such house or person to be found. It 
 was a keen disappointment ; but who shall say how 
 much of blessing came to Borden himself—and to 
 countless others—through his faithfulness in _per- 
 sonal work which began with that full and glad 
 surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord ? 
 
 It is the surrendered life that counts, for through 
 it God can work. 
 
PART II 
 YALE UNIVERSITY 
 
Tue life that counts must toil and fight ; 
 
 Must hate the wrong and love the right ; 
 
 Must stand for truth, by day, by night— 
 This is the life that counts. 
 
 The life that counts must hopeful be ; 
 
 In darkest night make melody ; 
 
 Must wait the dawn on bended knee— 
 This is the life that counts. 
 
 The life that counts must aim to rise 
 Above the earth to sunlit skies ; 
 Must fix its gaze on Paradise— 
 
 This is the life that counts. 
 
 The life that counts must helpful be ; 
 
 The cares and needs of others see ; 
 
 Must seek the slaves of sin to free— 
 This is the life that counts. 
 
 The life that counts is linked with God ; 
 And turns not from the cross, the rod ; 
 But walks with joy where Jesus trod— 
 This is the life that counts. 
 A. W. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 FRESHMAN 
 1905-1906. dit. 17-18 
 
 ** Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? by taking 
 heed thereto according to thy word.’’—Ps. 119. 9. 
 
 ‘Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against 
 thee.’’—Ps. 119. 11. 
 
 Borden’s college mottos ; the first he illuminated for his room ai 
 Yale, the second he wrote in full on the fly-leaf of his pocket Testament. 
 It was at Camden that the reunion took place—the 
 summer home on the coast of Maine which Mr. 
 Borden had recently built. The golf-links, bathing 
 and yachting, delightful as they were, all took a 
 secondary place compared with the renewed family 
 intercourse and especially the times when William 
 could be alone with his mother. College was draw- 
 ing near, and there was more to look forward to than 
 to look back upon after the first few days. 
 
 Is life anywhere on earth more real, more intense, 
 more crowded with interest and full of opportunity 
 than during the brief formative years of a college 
 course ? Into this absorbing life Borden plunged 
 a month or so after his return to America. Yale 
 with its fine old campus and still finer traditions 
 was a new world to him, but one in which he was 
 
 soon to take no unworthy part. 
 87 
 
88 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 YALE, September 28, 1905. 
 
 DEAR MotuEer—I am here, as you know, and the crises 
 have passed. Yesterday I took my Iliad examination and 
 this afternoon learned that I had successfully passed it. 
 As this was my only condition, I am now a member in full 
 standing of the class of 1909... . 
 
 On our arrival in New Haven, John [his brother] came 
 up with me to this house, 242 York Street. My room is at 
 the back and has a large bay-window in three sections, with 
 an immense window-seat. As none of my trunks had 
 arrived, I went over with him to his rooms in White Hall. 
 He and George have a very nice suite, two bedrooms and a 
 sitting-room. Things were in an awful mess though, as 
 last year’s occupants hadn’t removed their stuff. We 
 wandered around a while and met a good many fellows I 
 knew. My trunks came in the afternoon, but I didn’t 
 unpack much, as the general opinion is that it is best not 
 to do so until Thursday. John took M. H. and myself 
 down to Mori’s to dine. This is a little place—quite 
 historic—where the fellows feed more or less. The tables 
 have initials carved all over them, and in one room there 
 is a special table on which seniors leave their trade marks. 
 
 After dinner I went back home and John left me. 
 About 8.30 some sophomores came in and made me do a 
 few foolish stunts which didn’t amount to much. I sang 
 them a song and attempted to “ scramble ” like an egg, a 
 very difficult thing to do, I assure you! However, they 
 went after a few minutes and I was left in peace for the rest 
 of the night. 
 
 The next morning I passed my Iliad examination, and 
 in the afternoon registered at Alumni Hall. There also we 
 were assigned to divisions and given study schedules, etc. 
 In the afternoon I went out and watched the football 
 practice and while out there met Bob Noyes, a Hill fellow, 
 who very kindly invited me to dinner. So that night, the 
 ‘* awful night ’’, I dined with him and some other fellows, 
 after which we went over to the campus to see the wrestling. 
 Our dinner had taken us a long time, so we were late and 
 the wrestling had already begun when we arrived. The 
 seniors, without hats and with coats on inside out, were 
 
FRESHMAN 89 
 
 seated in a large circle with their torches on the ground in 
 front of them. In the centre were all the big “ Y ”’ men 
 who were running the performance. I could only get a 
 glimpse now and then of the doings inside, but the 
 sophomores won the match by winning the third bout, 
 the heavy weight, after the first two had been drawn. 
 
 After this the whole crowd adjourned to York Street 
 and for a few minutes things were quite lively. Being 
 peacefully inclined, we stayed up on the porch of 242 and 
 looked on. Later, one of my visitors of the night before 
 arrived, more or less drunk. There might have been 
 something doing only Bob Noyes told him to leave me alone, 
 for which I was thankful. I went over and slept with John 
 that night, as George was putting up with someone else. 
 So you see I have been well taken care of. I must quit 
 now as there are lots of things to be done. 
 
 Oct. 1, 1905. 
 
 Dear MotHER—This is Sunday evening and I have time 
 to write you. I will take up the tale where I left off. 
 
 Friday morning our recitation began and I rather 
 enjoyed mine. I don’t think the work will be very hard. 
 However I won’t loaf just because it seems easy. . . . Lam 
 out trying for the freshman football eleven. As there are 
 ninety-nine others doing likewise, there is a pretty good 
 chance of your wish being fulfilled—that I should not make 
 the team. 
 
 The opening of College has brought out all sorts of 
 things. Nearly everyone uses a translation in his studies, 
 that is in Greek and Latin. The great majority smoke, go 
 to the theatre Saturday night and do their studying on 
 Sunday. 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. I am 
 taking meals next door at a table with seven other fellows. 
 One of these fellows only, besides myself, doesn’t smoke 
 and study on Sunday. I have only just met him but he 
 seems like a pretty nice fellow. I must not criticise but 
 rejoice that I am here in a position to give to others a little 
 
90 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 of what I have received. I am thankful for all the true 
 teaching I have had from you, dear Mother, and Mr. 
 Lombard, Walt and others. I know you are praying for 
 me, so I don’t have to ask you to. And there are others 
 also. I just had a letter from Walt, in which he said that 
 an old English lady in the Mission had told him that she 
 had prayed for us every day for the past year. What a 
 thing Christian fellowship is and what a power prayer! I 
 wish I had that little poem you sent me once, about the 
 ploughman at his work, praying, and the missionaries 
 wondering how their words had such power, ‘“‘ because they 
 did not see someone unknown, perhaps, and far away, on 
 bended knee.” 4 
 
 This morning President Hadley preached in Chapel and 
 gave a very good sermon for the opening of a college year. 
 Only in impressing the necessity of having a fixed purpose 
 in life and distinguishing between right and wrong, he 
 neglected to say what our purpose should be, and where we 
 should get the ability to persevere and the strength to 
 resist temptations—things which seemed rather essential 
 to me. 
 
 I forgot to mention the Dwight Hall reception which 
 was held Friday night. The freshman class was invited to 
 meet the President. I went and after we had all been 
 introduced the President spoke and then others—the 
 captains of the various teams and John Magee. The 
 quartet also added to the entertainment and refreshments 
 were served. It was a very nice informal gathering and I 
 met a good many fellows. .. . 
 
 * The weary ones had rest, the sad had joy 
 That day, and wondered ‘“ how? ” 
 A ploughman singing at his work had prayed, 
 ‘** Lord, bless them now.” 
 
 Away in foreign lands they wondered “ how ”’ 
 Their simple word had power. 
 
 At home, the “** Gleaners ”’, two or three, had met 
 To pray an hour. 
 
 Yes, we are always wondering “* how ? ” 
 Because we do not see 
 
 Someone, unknown perhaps, and far away, 
 On bended knee. 
 
FRESHMAN 91 
 
 Oh, I nearly forgot about this evening’s meeting! Dr. 
 Henry Wright, son of the Dean, gave us a splendid address 
 in Dwight Hall. It was the real true thing, and as he dealt 
 with matters closely related to college life it was very 
 
 helpralers 5°. 
 
 Dwight Hall and Henry Wright were to have so 
 large a part in Borden’s experiences at Yale that it 
 is important to understand their relation to the life 
 of the University. From the recently published 
 biography of Dr. Wright it is evident that he was in 
 America very much what Henry Drummond had 
 been in Scotland. His brilliant scholarship was 
 almost lost sight of in his spiritual fervour, complete 
 consecration and passion for winning men to Christ. 
 He had a genius for friendship, and was young 
 enough (twenty-eight when Borden entered) to be 
 closely in touch with student life. He had taken 
 his Doctor’s degree in classics and had already been 
 two years on the faculty, of which his father was 
 Dean, as a Tutor in Greek and Latin. He had also 
 been General Secretary of the Yale Y.M.C.A. (1898- 
 1901), and it was during that period of his post- 
 graduate studies that he came to be a campus figure. 
 
 Dignified, kindly, a trifle shy at times, always eager to 
 be of use, he grew into the hearts of faculty and students 
 alike. ‘‘ In connection with my own undergraduate days,”’ 
 said Prof. B. W. Kunkel of Lafayette College, * I look upon 
 Henry’s smile of greeting at the head of the stairs in Dwight 
 Hall, as we came to the meetings, as one of the benedictions 
 which helped me through the week.” ! 
 
 Dwight Hall, the home of the Y.M.C.A., was 
 still, when Borden entered Yale, what Henry Wright 
 
 1 Krom The Life of Henry B. Wright, by George Stewart, Jr. Association 
 Press, New York, p. 32. 
 
92 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 had made it. It stood for a high type of scholar- 
 ship as well as Christian manhood. From the Sun- 
 day evening services, often gathering hundreds, to 
 the group meetings and personal talks in the little 
 room on the top floor, it was the scene of much of 
 the best work done in the University. And it was 
 the inheritor of a glorious past. For the Y.M.C.A., 
 organized in 1881, had not been a beginning so 
 much as a culmination of Christian activity in the 
 University. It had- been “adopted as the best 
 channel for the expression of the rich heritage of 
 two centuries of Yale’s religious traditions ”’. 
 
 Founded in the first instance (in 1701) as a 
 college for training men for the ministry of the 
 gospel, Yale has always had a deeply religious basis, 
 and has been visited in the past by many remark- 
 able revivals of spiritual life. Under the mighty 
 preaching of Whitfield, then only twenty-five years 
 of age, the first of these took place (1740) and they 
 have been repeated at intervals, so that we read of 
 a whole series of revivals under the presidency of 
 the first Dr. Timothy Dwight, continued through 
 the lifetime of his devoted colleague, Professor 
 Chauncey A. Goodrich. ‘As an undergraduate or 
 instructor, the latter must have witnessed and was 
 an important factor in all but two of the nine- 
 teen revivals that graciously visited Yale from 
 the accession of President Dwight up to the Civil 
 War ”’.? 
 
 1 See Two Centuries of Christian Activity at Yale, by Henry B. Wright 
 
 and others. Published in 1901. 
 2 Ibid. p. 74. 
 
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FRESHMAN 93 
 
 As far back as 1812-13 a revival swept the 
 College which was distinctly a student movement. 
 Several members of the senior class had been pray- 
 ing, mostly unknown to each other, for a spiritual 
 awakening. Active opposition was expected from 
 one student in particular, Elias Cornelius by name, 
 and definite prayer was made for his conversion. 
 Not long after, a sudden and complete change in 
 this man made a great impression on the student 
 body. He broke with evil companions and _ pro- 
 fanity, and soon was rejoicing in the consciousness 
 of Christ’s presence and power to save. ‘“ He led 
 nearly twenty members of his own class to the 
 Christian faith . . . and by his labours from eighty 
 to a hundred of all classes were awakened to a new 
 sense of their Christian responsibility.” 1 
 
 Another remarkable revival in 1825 was due to 
 the prayers of a single individual of but little stand- 
 ing in the College. He invited members of the 
 University Church of more influence than himself 
 to his room and besought them to awaken others 
 to prayer and effort for the conversion of those 
 around them. His earnestness was used of God, 
 and a deeply spiritual movement was the result. 
 
 From the period of the Civil War to the visits 
 of D. L. Moody, the control of the voluntary re- 
 ligious life of the University was passing more and 
 more into the hands of the students themselves. 
 Christian work by students for students, in time 
 became centred in the Y.M.C.A., under whose 
 auspices several revivals of more recent date had 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 68. 
 
94 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 taken place, including that of 1900, when John R. 
 Mott and Robert E. Speer were so powerfully used 
 of God that no fewer than a hundred undergraduates 
 professed conversion. 
 
 Five years later, with a new generation of 
 students, there was need for all the prayer and 
 effort centred at Dwight Hall, into which Borden 
 wholeheartedly entered. John Magee, now a mis- 
 sionary at Nanking, was the Graduate Secretary, 
 and it was not long before he discerned the intense 
 reality behind the young freshman’s spiritual life 
 and convictions. 
 
 ‘The school is not a knowledge shop so much 
 as a great assay of human souls,’’ Professor Meigs 
 of ‘The Hill” had written. Borden, at Yale, was 
 being tested in that great assay, and was conscious 
 of the same process in the lives of others. All 
 around him it was going on—men making or marring 
 their future. To him the Word of God meant so 
 much in meeting the temptations of daily life 
 and he was finding such strength in the companion- 
 ship of the Lord Jesus Christ that he longed to 
 share these great realities with others. So the 
 purpose was forming in his heart of attempting 
 to start a group for Bible study among those who 
 would not avail themselves of the influences of 
 Dwight Hall. The intimate correspondence with 
 
 his mother continued : 
 SUNDAY, October 15, 1905. 
 
 Just after chapel service this morning we had our class 
 prayer meeting at which several of us spoke on the 
 possibilities of the year. John Magee invited me to come 
 to the Volunteer Band at five this afternoon. There were 
 
FRESHMAN 95 
 
 about ten present and we had a very nice little meeting and 
 time of prayer. There are some fine fellows here in the 
 upper classes, I can tell you. 
 
 I have talked over the matter of my group Bible Study 
 Class with Arthur Bradford and decided that paraphrasing 
 Galatians is a little too strenuous for the sort of men to be 
 reached. The object of these groups is to interest fellows 
 who do not attend the Wednesday evening meeting in 
 Dwight Hall, led by Dr. Wright. So I have been looking 
 over methods of Bible study suggested by Dr. Torrey and 
 decided upon Chapter Study as the best. You know the 
 method, giving out questions to be answered. And I think 
 John is the book to take, because it is written that men 
 might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, “ ane 
 that believing ye might have life through his name”. 1 
 haven’t spoken to the fellows yet but expect to do so thie 
 
 evening. 
 October 20, 1905. 
 
 Am I busy ? I will tell you what I am doing, and you 
 can judge for yourself. To begin with I have twelve 
 recitations a week to prepare, which isn’t much, very little 
 in fact. 
 
 Monday evening at 6.45, Freshman Religious Committee 
 .meets in Bill Barnes’ room, Vice-President of Dwight Hall. 
 
 Wednesday evening at 6.40, the 1909 Bible Class meets 
 in Dwight Hall, led by Dr. Wright. 
 
 Thursday evening at 6.45, our Mission Study Class 
 meets. Herbert Malcolm, a member of the Volunteer Band, 
 1907 man, leads this. 
 
 And then Sunday. That day starts with Chapel at 
 10.30. Immediately after this comes our Class Prayer 
 Meeting with which I have more or less to do and will 
 probably lead at times. At five in the afternoon there is a 
 meeting of the Volunteer Band, and at 6.40 a general meet- 
 ing held in Dwight Hall. The preacher of the morning 
 _usually addresses this. 
 
 Besides these things, I intend to go down at least twice 
 a week to the Oak Street Boys’ Club. 
 
 Then [I have been appointed chairman of a com- 
 mittee to promote interest and collect funds for the Yale 
 
96 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Hall work here in New Haven and the Yale Mission in 
 China... . 
 
 My exercise, that is football, takes rather more time than 
 
 I wish it did. ... 
 
 I spoke to M. H. tonight about starting up a class in 
 Bible Study. I approached him first as he is the key, so 
 to speak, of a certain bunch of fellows I want to get at. 
 He thought it would be a very good thing and said he would 
 consider it. If possible I would like to have a first sort of 
 explanatory meeting next Sunday. But I have my doubts 
 about accomplishing this. However, a beginning has been 
 made, for which I am thankful. 
 
 Please send me Dr. Torrey’s Vest Pocket Companion for 
 Christian Workers, best text for personal use. I have lost 
 mine. 
 
 It was at one of those many mectings in Dwight 
 Hall that Borden met his friend, the one who more 
 than any other was to share his college life. Of 
 that first meeting and his own impressions, Charley 
 Campbell wrote : 
 
 We were crowded together in Bill Barnes’ room. Barnes 
 was a junior at the time, Vice-President of the Y.M.C.A., 
 and leader of the freshman religious work. Bill Borden 
 was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and 
 his knees drawn up near his chin. I remember noticing 
 him particularly. As we left the meeting he joined me and 
 we walked back together to York Street. Bill told me then, 
 as I remember, of his trip around the world and of his 
 interest in missions. This was the beginning of the friend- 
 ship which has meant so much to me. 
 
 About the early days of our acquaintance I would like 
 to say a little, as they show one of Bill’s finest character- 
 istics, real democracy. I lived in freshman year in Pierson 
 Hall, the one college-owned dormitory on York Street and 
 not considered so swell as the private-owned dormitories. 
 I not only lived in Pierson, but away up on the fifth floor. 
 Anyone had to have courage to climb to the top of Pierson. 
 My first impulse after meeting Bill and seeing his room at 
 
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FRESHMAN 97 
 
 Garland’s was to hold aloof. I felt he was too well off, and 
 imagined he would not care to have much to do with me. 
 How appreciative I felt and how drawn to Bill when I found 
 him climbing up those Pierson steps, not once but often ! 
 And what times we would have! There was always the 
 religious bond that drew us together; but Bill’s spirit of 
 fun was sure to show itself, and a good “ rough-house ”’ or 
 game was in order. I think of one evening when we staged 
 a complete track-meet in my room and Bill was the heavy 
 competitor in all the events possible. 
 
 During this fall [1905] Bill went out for the freshman 
 football team, and played very good ball. He did not 
 make the team but came very near doing so. In fact in 
 the game with Princeton freshmen he was told to warm 
 up to go in, but time was called or something of that sort 
 
 prevented. 
 
 It was well on in the first term when Bill and I began to 
 pray together in the morning before breakfast. I cannot 
 say positively whose suggestion it was, but I feel sure it 
 must have originated with Bill. We had been meeting 
 only a short time when a third, Farrand Williams, joined 
 us and soon after a fourth, James M. Howard. These 
 meetings were held in Bill’s room just before we went to 
 breakfast. The time was spent in prayer after a brief 
 reading of Scripture. Our object was to pray for the 
 religious work of the class and college, and also for those of 
 our friends we were seeking to bring to Christ. I remember 
 so well the stimulus Bill gave us in those meetings. His 
 handling of Scripture was always helpful. From the very 
 beginning of the years I knew him he would read to us from 
 the Bible, show us something that God had promised and 
 
 then proceed to claim the promise with assurance. 
 
 This group for prayer was the beginning of the daily 
 groups that spread to everyone of the college classes. From 
 the membership of two at the start, the group in our class 
 grew until it had to be divided in sophomore year, and by 
 
 _the end of that year there were similar groups in each of the 
 
 | 
 
 ) 
 
 
 
 —————— er reo eS 
 
 classes. _ It was not passed down from the seniors to the * 
 
 juniors, but came up from the freshmen to the seniors. And 
 
 very real blessing was given in answer to our prayers—quite 
 H 
 
98 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 a number were converted. \ I remember one with whom Bill 
 worked very hard, a fellow with a scientific turn of mind 
 who wanted everything proved. Bill must have looked 
 down with joy from the Place to which he has gone when, 
 some years later, this man came out brightly as a Christian. 
 
 Bill was always picking out the toughest proposition 
 and going through thick and thin to win him for Christ. 
 
 . His life, how true it rang! He came to college far 
 ahead, spiritually, of any of us. He had already given his 
 heart in full surrender to Christ—had really done it. He 
 had formed his purpose to become a foreign missionary, 
 and all through college and seminary that purpose never 
 wavered. One can easily see the advantage this would 
 give aman. His life was determined. We who were his 
 classmates learned to lean on him and find in him a strength 
 that was solid as a rock, just because of this settled purpose 
 and consecration. 
 
 Unconsciously the young freshman was becoming 
 a force in the best life of the University, but so un- 
 consciously ! To himself it seemed quite otherwise. 
 One cannot but notice, in the letters to his mother 
 of that fall and winter, the earnestness with which 
 she was seeking to overcome inconsistencies and 
 weaknesses. 
 
 October 29, 1905. 
 
 My group work has not commenced yet, but I hope to 
 get it going before long, by the end of the football season. 
 Mr. Mott was here last Sunday and I had a few moments’ 
 talk with him in the afternoon. He wished to be re- 
 membered to you. This Sunday also he was here and 
 gave us a couple of very fine talks—this morning on the 
 required characteristics of leadership and this evening in 
 Dwight Hall, a distinctly evangelistic meeting, something 
 rather unusual for this place. Mr. Mott spoke very 
 strongly on Sin, especially on ‘‘ Be sure your sin will find 
 you out’”’. After his time was up he asked the fellows who 
 wanted eh learn how to deal with temptation to meet in 
 
BORDEN IN HIS FRESHMAN YEAR. 
 
 To face page 98. 
 
 
 

 
FRESHMAN 99 
 
 another room. So we met, only about two-fifths having 
 left, and there again he spoke very earnestly. . . . 
 
 The following Sundays brought a different ex- 
 perience. A preacher with an international repu- 
 tation led the services, but to an earnest mind 
 grappling with the realities of life left much to be 
 desired. 
 
 November 12, 1905. 
 
 Dr. has been here for the last two Sundays, preaching 
 in Chapel and talking in Dwight Hall in the evenings. He 
 makes me tired, he’s so smooth and subtle and pleasing to 
 everyone. His talks are interesting in a way, but what he 
 
 says merely amounts to human ethics. He takes texts 
 simply “ as pegs to hang his own thoughts on ”’. | 
 
 
 
 Perhaps the preacher did not realize what that 
 hour might mean, as he faced the serried ranks in 
 the college chapel. Had he had the vision of what 
 lay behind in those hundreds upon hundreds of 
 lives, the temptations and dangers, possibilities and 
 needs, he surely would have wanted to give them 
 more than just eloquence and ethics. Borden was 
 having his own struggles. 
 
 December 3, 1905. 
 
 I am at present a little discouraged about my Bible 
 Class. . . . I find it very difficult to get started somehow, 
 and am a little afraid of what may happen when it is started. 
 There is a great deal to be done here and I don’t feel that I 
 am doing much of anything. 
 
 I am sorry to say that I don’t even manage to keep up 
 my own Bible study systematically, without breaks. I 
 keep it up for a week or so, and then something happens 
 
 and I miss a day. 
 
 In my opinion we get the saddest bunch of preachers you 
 could scrape up in the U.S.A., and to-day we had one from 
 
 Scotland who almost takes the cake. I think I'll live at 
 
100 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 the Moody Institute when I get back to Chicago. But 
 seriously, I will go with you whenever there’s anything to 
 go to. You know I won’t be going to dances, so I'll have 
 lots of time. 
 
 The Christmas vacation was evidently a time 
 when his armour was buckled on afresh, and he 
 came back determined to put first things first in a 
 new way. 
 
 January 14, 1906. 
 
 It seems sort of nice and very natural to be back here 
 again. I am thankful to say that I have been enabled to 
 get up every morning, so far, in time to have Bible study 
 and prayer before beginning the day’s work. I hope with 
 God’s help to keep it up... . 
 
 The term has started well as far as sermons go. Mr. 
 Speer was here this morning and evening and gave us two 
 very good talks. In the morning he read a part of the tenth 
 of Matthew, taking as his text verses 32 and 33, the subject 
 being “‘ Confession and Denial’’. He spoke on character 
 as essential to strong manhood, and religion as necessary to 
 character, and showed that religion—Christianity—is a 
 question of personal attitude toward Jesus Christ. It is 
 confession or—denial. 
 
 The Dwight Hall meeting as you know is voluntary, but 
 the room was packed, some fellows even standing, a thing 
 they wouldn’t think of doing in Chapel. I guess there were 
 about five hundred present. There, too, he gave a very 
 powerful talk on ** Apart from me ye can do nothing ”’, and 
 ““T can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
 mele t 
 
 I have a regular night now for going to the Boys’ Club. 
 I go down every Saturday with Charlie Campbell. He is a 
 corker, and I am glad I’m getting to know him. 
 
 This afternoon I had quite atime. I thought I’d study 
 up the question of procrastination. So I did, and as a 
 result I felt that it was up to me to go and speak to B.B. 
 about Bible study. Well, I went to his room about quarter 
 of four and he was reading a magazine. I tried to start the 
 
FRESHMAN 101 
 
 subject and couldn’t seem to get up courage. I sat there 
 for a solid hour scarcely saying a word and didn’t accomplish 
 anything. I had a Mission Band meeting at five, so I had 
 to go, but I got B. to walk along with me as he was going 
 that way, towards Dwight Hall, thinking I might speak to 
 him on the way. I didn’t however. 
 
 Ned Harvey led the Band Meeting and gave us a very 
 good talk from Philippians 1. 6, 9 and 10. When he was 
 through he asked as usual whether there was anything 
 special to be brought up. I immediately thought of that 
 verse in James, ‘‘ Confess your faults one to another and 
 pray one for another’. I felt that I ought to confess. 
 For a moment I hesitated, but I was given strength to do 
 so, thank God. I read the verse and said that I knew that 
 I must learn to save people here before I could hope to do so 
 anywhere else, and that I had had a good chance this 
 afternoon to speak to a fellow and had failed, and that I 
 wanted their prayers. I just managed to get this out 
 before I was overcome with emotion and sat down. This 
 evening I had another chance at B. and finally managed to 
 get on the track by a roundabout way, still cowardly and 
 fearful! The result is that B. has said he will study with 
 me. We haven’t arranged the details, but 1 have more 
 confidence and faith that through Christ I can carry out 
 what is begun. Philippians 1. 6, ‘‘ Being confident of this 
 very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you 
 will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ ”’. 
 
 Get the Church to pray for me. I’ve only “ begun ”’. 
 And you may be sure I am praying for you, dear Mother, 
 who have done so much for me and for each member of our 
 dear family. 
 
 Another letter affords a glimpse into a very 
 different side of college life. The week of the 
 annual *“‘ Promenade ”’ had come, and many of the 
 
 students had visitors. 
 January 21, 1906. 
 Chapel this morning was chuck full of Prom girls, 
 naturally, and also full of fellows, as many as could get 
 in, who came to “‘rubber”’. Mr. Speer preached a good 
 
102 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 sermon on distinctions between right and wrong. After 
 the service, according to college custom, the sophs all lined 
 up outside and made remarks about the girls as they came 
 out, and yelled! It wasn’t exactly a Sunday performance. 
 
 However, we had a very nice little prayer meeting, 
 fairly well attended. The subject was Sabbath Observance. 
 Various subjects, studying, travelling, playing games, etc., 
 were brought up. Finally one of the fellows got up and 
 reminded us of what Mr. Speer had just said—that if there 
 was any doubt about a thing, it was pretty sure to be wrong, 
 and it was best to give it a wide margin. It seemed to me 
 that that just about hit the nail on the head... . 
 
 You probably know that fellows, a good many, go to 
 the theatre and then afterwards go around and “ pick up ”’ 
 chorus girls and usually come home drunk about one A.M. 
 Well one of the leaders of this sort of thing made rather 
 elaborate plans for a spree. He invited a good many 
 fellows, about thirty out of our class, each to chip in five 
 dollars. The plan was to take the whole chorus of the play, 
 the one that was here last night, and drive out to some 
 dance hall and have a high old time. The way I learned 
 of it was this—another fellow was asked who wouldn’t go, 
 and he came and told me, to see what we could do to stop it. 
 He had been informed that they would have about ninety 
 dollars’ worth of punch. However, that’s a mere detail. 
 I didn’t know any of the fellows at all well who were going, 
 so couldn’t do much. However, we saw a good many of 
 the upper classmen, and the result was it didn’t come off, 
 for which I am very thankful. This is, of course, an 
 extreme case, but it’s an example of what sometimes 
 happens. I heard someone in the hall, just this minute, 
 say that there would have been about fifty chorus girls and 
 seventy-five fellows. 
 
 That he was far from thinking himself better 
 than other people comes out in many letters, but 
 he was growing. 
 
 To-day hasn’t been just as I would have liked. The 
 morning sermon . . . was simply “sad”. However, our 
 
FRESHMAN 103 
 
 little prayer meeting was better attended and a better 
 spirit shown in it than ever before. I went off walking in 
 the afternoon. ‘Tried to find Bethany Mission and as we 
 failed, kept on walking and didn’t get back until supper 
 time. Spent the early part of the evening in watching one 
 of the fellows do tricks, and now it’s late and B. is studying. 
 So you see I have been pretty successfully “‘ hindered ’’, or 
 rather I have allowed myself to be, for I confess I didn’t 
 make much effort, sort of shirked my duty. Oh yes, and I 
 absolutely forgot about our Band Meeting, and missed that. 
 I don’t know just what’s wrong—but the fact is I’ve failed 
 again. Guess I haven’t fed upon God’s Word enough, nor 
 prayed enough. I will try again. 
 Your loving son, WILLIAM. 
 
 January 31, 1906. 
 
 There is a group of men here in College, it might be 
 called a personal-workers’ group, which meets every 
 Tuesday in Dr. Wright’s room. James Howard, Charlie 
 Campbell and I were chosen from our class. As Dr. Wright 
 says, it doesn’t mean any honour, it means work... . There 
 are about fourteen in the group now. Dr. Wright first 
 reads a short passage and says a few words. Then there 
 is general discussion, each one bringing up his case, and 
 then prayer. It is fine. We get to know some of the best 
 men in college intimately. I realize here more than ever 
 before that a man’s true friends are his Christian friends. 
 . . . I am sure these little gatherings will be a help to me 
 and will accomplish great things here at Yale.1 
 
 February 18, 1906. 
 I have only missed my Morning Watch once or twice this 
 
 term. . . . I can easily believe that it is next in importance | 
 
 1 Professor Benjamin Wisner Bacon, who was then college pastor, 
 spoke of these gatherings as the very ‘“* heart of heart ” of Christian activity 
 at Yale. ‘* They were held in the little room under the eaves on the top 
 floor at Dwight Hall, none being asked save the little inside group whom 
 Henry (Wright) and the rest believed to be 100 per cent consecrated. 
 You may be sure I felt it an honour to be with these heart and soul Christian 
 boys. . . . Henry was of course always the leader, richest in experience, 
 wisest in counsel, most indefatigable in effort. It was the very breath of 
 life to him to be about his Father’s business.”’ 
 
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 104 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 to accepting Christ. For I know that when I don’t wait 
 
 __upon God in prayer and Bible study, things go wrong. The 
 
 other night I had a fine chance to testify to that very fact, 
 or rather to the fact that when I do pray and study things 
 go better, and I am sorry to say didn’t make good use of it. 
 I happened to mention to a fellow that I was nearly always 
 up and dressed by 7.30, and knowing that I seldom went to 
 breakfast before 8.00 he wanted to know what I did in the 
 interval. I don’t think I was exactly ashamed or afraid, 
 but I didn’t reply as I should have done. I merely said in 
 a vague way that I attended to certain things. Wasn’t it 
 foolish! I’m afraid it’s one of my great troubles, not 
 explaining myself. I know I’ve gotten into the habit of 
 refusing to do things without saying why I refuse. I 
 
 suppose the reason is that I feel that it would be like 
 
 judging the fellows who are doing the thing, whatever it 
 may be. However, in the future I am going to pray that 
 I may be on the lookout for opportunities of confessing my 
 belief and may stand for right against wrong. I’m sorry to 
 say that I have done nothing with B. or any of the other 
 fellows lately... . ) 
 
 In our Band Meeting this afternoon, there were only five 
 of us; the point was brought out very strongly that 
 “ Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that 
 build it ” and “‘ Apart from me ye can do nothing’”’. We 
 all felt our need of God’s help and the necessity for greater 
 consecration on our part. One of the fellows confessed that 
 he wasn’t wholly consecrated by any means, and I’m afraid 
 I’m not. But I want tobe... . Keep praying for me. 
 
 “I am keeping up my wrestling,’ he wrote to 
 his father about the same time, “ and like it very 
 much. It certainly is a science! The last few 
 days I have had to go easy because of a mat-burn 
 on my arm—+.e., the skin rubbed off and rather an 
 awkward sore made.”’ 
 
 “ Yesterday I wrestled in the tournament and 
 got beaten,” he added a little later, “ My class is 
 
FRESHMAN 105 
 
 ‘middle heavy weight’. My opponent was about 
 a head taller than I am, but the same weight. He 
 is a senior and knows John. We had two bouts of 
 five minutes each, and neither succeeded in putting 
 the other down. So after the rest we went at it 
 again, and this time were to wrestle till one of us 
 was thrown. Well, after forty-nine minutes of 
 rather strenuous exercise he succeeded in getting 
 me down. I lost about three pounds in the process, 
 but did not suffer any injuries and feel fine now.” 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 FRESHMAN—continued 
 
 1906. At. 18 
 
 * «* God has His best things for the few 
 Who dare to stand the test : 
 God has His second best for those 
 Who will not have His best. 
 
 *¢ J want in this short life of mine 
 As much as may be pressed 
 Of service true to God and men ; 
 
 Help me to have Thy best.” 
 Selected. 
 
 ‘‘Ir one would understand the student life of 
 America at its best during the last three decades, 
 he should turn to the student conferences,’’ wrote 
 the biographer of Dr. Henry Wright, °° for there are 
 focussed the aspirations of Christian youth in its 
 highest mood of dedication. . .. Among all the 
 events of the college year making for emancipation 
 of the spirit and dedication of life, he placed the 
 student conferences first.’’ In the middle and at 
 the close of Borden’s freshman year came two out- 
 standing experiences of this sort. 
 
 The first was the Missionary Convention of the 
 Student Volunteer Movement at Nashville, attended 
 by over four thousand delegates. The Yale con- 
 
 tingent was a strong one, and the way in which 
 106 
 
FRESHMAN 107 
 
 Charley Campbell came to be included in it was a 
 surprise to himself if not to his friend. 
 
 I was not one of those chosen. The last night before 
 the delegation was to leave, I was in bed and almost asleep 
 when a number of upper-classmen filed into my room. I 
 believe Bill was with them. They told me that it was 
 financially possible for them to take one more delegate, and 
 wanted me to go. Ofcourse, I went. I have always had a 
 conviction that Bill was back of that. If not, it was at 
 any rate the kind of thing he was always doing, while keep- 
 ing out of sight himself. 
 
 What a time we had on that long train journey to 
 Nashville! Bill and others of us would adjourn to the 
 baggage car occasionally, to let off steam in games that 
 usually came from his fertile imagination. One of his 
 games went by the name of “ hot-hand ”.1_ The man who 
 was “it”? must face the side of the car, with his eyes closed, 
 supporting his head against the car. The rest would then 
 group themselves behind him, and anyone was at liberty 
 to take a whack. After each impact he had to guess who 
 it was that had hit him. If his guess was correct, the giver 
 of the blow had to change places with him; if incorrect, 
 another whack was in order. Bill shone at this game, 
 in both capacities! Then there would be high-kicking 
 contests and other games, all in the rapidly-moving car. 
 
 And so we reached Nashville, full of life and spirits, 
 where we separated for the different homes in which we 
 were to be entertained. Those were days of wonderful 
 inspiration for us all. . . . If Bill was responsible for my 
 going to Nashville, he was used of God to bring me a step 
 further on in Christian experience, for it was there I gave 
 my life to God in consecration for any work to which He 
 might call me. 3 
 
 Among the speakers, secretaries of boards and \’ 
 visitors to the Convention, of whom there were 
 hundreds, and the foreign missionaries representing 
 
 * Learned from watching sailors on a German steamer, on his trip round 
 the world. 
 
108 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 twenty-six countries, one man stood out for Borden 
 with a burning message. He was a man with a map. 
 Charged with facts and with enthusiasm, grim with 
 earnestness, filled with a passion of love for Christ 
 and the perishing, Samuel Zwemer made that great 
 map live, voicing the silent appeal of the Moham- 
 medan world. Two hundred millions of our fellow- 
 creatures in the lands coloured green on the map— 
 two hundred millions under the sway of Islam, held 
 in a bondage than which none on earth is more 
 relentless, more deadening, and to its womanhood 
 more degrading—what a challenge to the Christian 
 church! From China to the west coast of Africa 
 and from the steppes of Russia right down to Zanzi- 
 bar stretched that great sweep of green, sparsely 
 dotted here and there with centres from which 
 Christian light was spreading. Yet, as Dr. Zwemer 
 showed, never before had there been such open doors 
 for the evangelization of the Moslem world. ‘‘ The 
 hour is ripe”? was the burden of his message, and 
 he sustained it with startling facts. 
 
 Making full allowance for all that was being done 
 by missionaries in Moslem lands, the speaker pointed 
 out country after country, province after province, 
 still absolutely without the Light of Life, as far 
 as their Mohammedan population was concerned. 
 Some had no missionaries at all, such as Afghanistan 
 with its four million Moslems; some had mission- 
 aries among their heathen races but none for the 
 followers of the prophet. In China, for example, 
 with fifteen million Moslems, not a single missionary 
 was set apart for their evangelization. Yet the 
 
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FRESHMAN 109 
 
 door was no longer closed to the inland provinces 
 in which most of them are found. 
 
 ‘“‘ When the door opens,” Dr. Zwemer urged, “‘ we ought 
 to press in, sacrificing our lives if need be for God, as the 
 Moslems did at Khartum for their Prophet. If the call 
 voiced by those who have already spoken moved us deeply, 
 coming from Persia, from Turkey, from Egypt, from India, 
 if that was a call from God, what shall be said of the mute 
 appeal of the seventy millions of the wholly unevangelized 
 Moslem world? Shall we stand by and allow these seventy 
 millions to continue under the curse and in the snare of a 
 false religion, with no knowledge of the saving love and 
 power of Christ, not because they have proved fanatical and 
 refused to listen, not because they have thrust us back, but 
 because none of us has ever had the courage to go to those 
 lands and win them to Jesus Christ ? 
 
 ‘Of course it will cost life. It is not an expedition 
 of ease nor a picnic excursion to which we are called... . 
 It is going to cost many a life, and not lives only, but 
 prayers and tears and blood. Leadership in this movement 
 has always been a leadership in suffering. There was 
 Raymond Lull, the first missionary to the Moslems, stoned 
 to death in Algiers; Henry Martyn, pioneering in Persia 
 with the cry, ‘Let me burn out for God’. We who are 
 missionaries to Moslems to-day call upon you to follow with 
 us in their train, to go to these waiting lands and light the 
 beacon of the love of Christ in all the Mohammedan world, 
 Did He not live, pray, suffer for Moslems as well as for us ? 
 Shall we do less if the call comes? Let us be like those 
 Scots of Bruce who were ready to falter until that man on 
 the white charger took the heart of Bruce in its casket and 
 swinging it round cried out, ‘ Oh, heart of Bruce, lead on!’ 
 As he flung it toward the enemy and bore down upon them 
 you could not have held those soldiers back with bands of 
 steel. Say not it is the appeal of the Mohammedan world 
 or of the missionaries—it is the call of the Master. Let us 
 answer with the shout, ‘Oh, heart of Christ, lead on!’ 
 And we will follow that ery and win the Mohammedan 
 world for Him.” 
 
110 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 More Moslems in China than there are in Persia ; 
 more Moslems in China than in the whole of Egypt ; 
 more Moslems in China even than in Arabia, home 
 and cradle of Islam, and no one giving himself to 
 their evangelization—little wonder that with a 
 nature like Borden’s the facts demanded a response. 
 -“ We do not plead for missions,” Dr. Zwemer is 
 wont to say. “ We simply bring the facts before 
 you and ask for a verdict.” 
 
 ‘If thou forbear to’deliver them that are drawn unto 
 death, and those that are ready to be slain ; if thou sayest, 
 Behold we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the 
 heart consider it ? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not 
 he know it ? and shall not he render to every man according 
 to his works ?”’ } 
 
 Borden went back from Nashville committed 
 in heart to that great enterprise, should the Lord 
 confirm the call. He did not say much about it, 
 but from that time his most intimate friends knew 
 that he was definitely considering work among 
 Moslems in some unoccupied field. 
 
 On the return of the Yale delegation, reports 
 had to be given in various meetings, and he wrote 
 about one particular Sunday : 
 
 March 26, 1906. 
 
 DEAR Motuer—Yesterday was a rather strenuous day 
 and I’m glad it’s over. Our prayer meeting was well 
 attended and the fellows did very well. One fellow’s 
 testimony was especially good. He said he had gone down 
 there [Nashville S.V. Convention] believing that foreign 
 missions were useless, but that he had come back ashamed 
 of himself and thoroughly convinced that they were doing 
 
 1 Proverbs 24. 12. 
 
FRESHMAN 111 
 
 good. Another of the fellows gave a brief sketch of the 
 Student Volunteer Movement. Another told a little about 
 Medical Missions. Harold Stokes spoke on The Inadequacy 
 of the Non-Christian Religions. I followed, on The Ade- 
 quacy of the Christian Religion, and told the story Dr. 
 Leary of Malaita told us ; also I made things personal and 
 hope I hit somebody. Charley Campbell spoke last on 
 Responsibility, and did splendidly. I am indeed thankful 
 for the way God helped us. 
 
 In the evening Ken Latourette, a senior, Charley and 
 myself, spoke at the Calvary Baptist Church. I tried to 
 say too much, and as I only had ten minutes, got balled-up 
 and did rather poorly. However, the other fellows did very 
 well, and as I came in between it didn’t matter so much. 
 I’m afraid there was a little pride and ambition inside. 
 The three of us speak again Friday and Sunday evening 
 next, and I’m going to be more careful. 
 
 Took some exercise to-day for the first time. My marks 
 for this term are all A’s except Greek, which is C; my 
 general average is A. We have to pick our courses for 
 Sophomore year soon, and I will send a book giving courses 
 of study so that you and Father can look it over. . . 
 
 Wish I were in Lakewood with you, but 
 
 Lots of love, your son, WILLIAM. 
 
 
 
 He did not mention, in connection with his 
 Greek, something that came out in a letter from his 
 friend, Ken Latourette, now Professor of Missions 
 at. Yale. 
 
 My first recollection of Bill is in a Greek class in which 
 we both recited to Professor ——-. Dear old Professor 
 was a rare scholar and a splendid Christian gentleman, but 
 he had a quick temper and at times was subject to queer 
 dislikes. For some reason I could never account for, he 
 seemed totally to misunderstand and thoroughly to dislike 
 Bill. For one who prepared as conscientiously as did Bill, 
 it was very galling to be systematically, openly and unjustly 
 berated. Although very indignant, he never retorted in 
 any way, and I cannot now remember that he ever spoke 
 
 
 
112 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 of the experience, except when someone else mentioned 
 it, and then he said only a few words of apology for 
 Professor 
 
 
 
 Just at this time the course of life in the Univer- 
 sity was arrested for Borden and his more intimate 
 friends by the sudden death of one of their class- 
 mates. How much it meant to him may be seen 
 from the following letter : 
 
 April 1, 1906. 
 
 There was a fellow in our class, from Ohio, who was very 
 bright in his studies but who came here with no reference 
 for moral character. The Faculty let him in hoping it would 
 be all right, but it wasn’t. He got in with the wrong bunch 
 and led a fast life. Last Monday he was taken sick and 
 removed to the Infirmary. It was found that he had 
 pleurisy, pneumonia and water on the heart, the last being 
 the most serious. 
 
 Now I had been meaning to try and get hold of this 
 fellow, but had never done anything. Few of us knew his 
 sickness was serious until Wednesday, when it was rumoured 
 that he was dying. Charley, Bill Williams and I went to 
 the Infirmary, to find out for sure. We were told that he 
 was unconscious and not likely to live out the day. Im- 
 mediately, we came back here to my room and prayed— 
 there was nothing we could do. This was about two o’clock. 
 He died at three, and I don’t know whether he regained 
 consciousness or not. . . . It’s an awful lesson to me, and 
 should make the whole University stop and think. Yet, 
 already the thing is being forgotten. 
 
 The class decided to send flowers for the funeral 
 and to wear mourning buttons for a month, and 
 Borden as chairman of a committee for the purpose 
 was to draw up a resolution to send to the family. 
 
 I appointed the committee, consisting of three of his 
 most intimate friends, and Charley. We did what was to 
 be done, and it was but little. Now, Charley and I want 
 
FRESHMAN 113 
 
 to get hold of the three other fellows, who are all fast 
 themselves. I went up to see them the other night, and 
 found them playing cards with poker chips on the table 
 and the door locked ! 
 
 And yet, it is not hopeless. Charley has been working 
 with a fellow who was about the same as these. Formerly 
 he avoided Charley, but now he looks for him. I can see a 
 change in his face already. I do hope and will work hard 
 and pray for these fellows, one of whom by the way may 
 be rusticated for six weeks. It’s awful—the need for Christ 
 here at Yale! I am thankful for our Personal Workers’ 
 Group, for our Volunteer Band and for friends like Charley 
 and others. 
 
 The current of his thoughts was changed a few 
 days later by an unexpected visit from his parents. 
 It was early in April, and everything was tingling 
 with the new life of spring. To John and William 
 it was a special pleasure to show their father the 
 college campus, and the joy of those hours was un- 
 shadowed by any premonition of coming sorrow. 
 Strange to say, it was only a week later that William 
 was writing from Chicago, telling of the grief of their 
 home-coming : ! 
 
 Friday, April 13, 1906. 
 
 Father and Mother were east about a week ago and had 
 a fine visit with us. First they went to Vassar and heard 
 the debate, in which Mary did very well. This pleased 
 Father immensely. Then they came on to Yale, and John 
 and I had a nice visit with them. It was the first time 
 Father had visited either John or myself at school or college. 
 After leaving us they went down to New York, got Mary 
 and went to Lakewood. There Mary spent a day or two 
 with them and had a fine time... . 
 
 Back in Chicago, Father was perfectly well apparently, 
 and had nice visits with most of his near relatives and 
 
 ? A letter to Dr. Henry W. Frost of the China Inland Mission. 
 I 
 
114 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 friends. Saturday evening last he was taken sick, and on 
 Sunday became critically ill. It was then we were 
 summoned. Mary got here Monday evening in time to 
 see him, though he was unconscious. John and I arrived 
 on Tuesday morning, three or four hours after he had 
 passed away. 
 
 William was only eighteen, but from that time 
 he took more than a son’s place at his mother’s side. 
 With him, love was a matter of deeds rather than 
 of words, and in the midst of his college work he 
 made time to write to her daily, with few excep- 
 tions. What that correspondence meant, keeping 
 him in touch with all that concerned her, bringing 
 the strong comfort of his sympathy into her aching 
 loneliness, only a mother’s heart can understand. 
 If it cost some sacrifice, some moments of weariness 
 after the strenuous day, the letters never showed 
 it. They were always cheery and tender, and fre- 
 quently contained charges not to reply unless she 
 felt equal to writing. 
 
 April 21, 1906. 
 
 DrAr MotrHer—lI haven’t much to tell you this evening, 
 but just thought I’d write a little note to send you my 
 love. ... The weather continues pleasant and I can 
 literally see the leaves grow from day to day. ... I will 
 try and write often, but don’t you try to. 
 
 April 24, 1906. 
 
 Tuesdays are always my hard days, that is, busy ones, 
 as you can easily see when I tell you how my time is 
 occupied. 
 
 I get up about seven, dress, have my Morning Watch, 
 which I like to call my “ breakfast ’’—for “* man doth not 
 live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out 
 of the mouth of God ’’—go to breakfast and then Chapel. — 
 
FRESHMAN ES 
 
 From eight thirty until four in the afternoon my studies 
 keep me busy. From four to five I try and get in an 
 hour’s practice (piano) and at five we have our meeting for 
 personal workers. After that, supper and study until nine, 
 when my Bible Study Group meets for about an hour. 
 
 This has been the program to-day, so you see that until 
 now, 10.30 p.m., I have been kept moving. But I sort of 
 like it; it’s just about enough. 
 
 Farrand brought another fellow down to my room 
 to-night for our Bible Class. He is sort of an earnest- 
 minded agnostic, and we hope to get hold of him as well 
 as the others. 
 
 April 28, 1906. 
 
 This afternoon Jim Whittaker and I went off on a 
 glorious horseback ride together. We went way out in 
 the country and then struck down to the Sound and came 
 back to New Haven along the shore. The air and every- 
 thing was fine and I enjoyed it immensely. 
 
 May 3, 1906. 
 
 We had an examination in Ruskin and Byron the other 
 day in which I am quite sure I did well. Also my standing 
 in Analytical Geometry is nearly as good as in Trigonometry. 
 In fact everything goes well but my Greek. I somehow 
 find that hard and tiresome and don’t seem to make a great 
 success of it. But I’m going to work hard these few, for 
 they are few, remaining weeks and see if I can’t get as good 
 in it as in my other subjects. 
 
 May 4, 1906. 
 
 At our last group meeting I asked the fellows what they 
 thought about our present method, and the majority were 
 for continuing it. Some of them are doing work outside 
 (Bible Study). . . . I gave Tom the name of Dawson’s book, 
 Modern Ideas of Evolution, and think he will get it soon if 
 
 he hasn’t already done so. I have gotten my sceptical 
 
 friend a little bit interested on the evolution theory, and 
 may be able to do something with him. 
 
116 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 May 5, 1906. 
 
 To-day was the day of the track games and the old Hill 
 distinguished herself by winning the meet with a margin of 
 ten and a half points. I saw Mr. Sweeney and the fellows, 
 most all of whom I knew. It was fine. . . . After supper 
 Farrand and I went over to Charley’s room and had a good 
 rough-house. It was real interesting and amusing. I 
 have to relax Saturday afternoon and evening, but now 
 I’m going to do a little work for Monday. 
 
 To-morrow being Communion, we don’t have any prayer 
 meeting. I think Ill try and get in a little more Bible 
 study and have a few talks with fellows. . . . Mother, I 
 know youw’re tired. I can see it in your handwriting. 
 You’ve got to get rested and strong. So don’t try and 
 write or exert yourself unnecessarily in any way. 
 
 May 9, 1906. 
 
 I am rather enjoying my track work and as Johnny 
 Mack, the trainer and coach, condescends to say a word 
 now and then, I’m almost getting a “‘ swelled head’, but 
 not quite. I suppose if I work hard, after two or three 
 years I may be some good. I am working with both shot 
 and hammer, each weighing sixteen pounds. 
 
 May 12, 1906. 
 
 To-day, Yale distinguished herself in many ways. They 
 easily won from Princeton in Track, won the Inter-collegiate 
 shoot from Penn, beat Holy Cross in Baseball, 10-7 I believe, 
 the Freshman Crew beat out the Columbia Freshmen, and 
 the Freshman Ball team was also victorious. Quite a day, 
 was it not? I relaxed all right! 
 
 May 13, 1906. 
 
 Charley has just been in and told me some very en- 
 couraging things about his work with certain fellows. The 
 more I see of him and the better I come to know him, the 
 more I see to wonder at and admire. He’s taught me more 
 than one lesson. A fellow said to me the other day, “ It 
 would be a mighty good thing for the College if there were 
 a few more fellows like Charley Campbell.”? He’s as near 
 
FRESHMAN 117 
 
 perfect as anyone I have ever known. If I’m to be up at 
 six (for their early prayer meeting) I must go to bed. Lots 
 otf love. 
 
 May 15, 1906. 
 
 This evening we had our little Bible study group, seven 
 fellows being present. We took up the fifth chapter of 
 John which has important teachings on the Divinity of 
 Christ, the Second Coming and the Resurrection, the 
 Authority of the Old Testament, ete. We had an interest- 
 ing and I hope a profitable time. 
 
 I have a good many openings now which I ought to 
 make use of. You know I said Charley had taught me a 
 good many things. Well perhaps two principal ones are 
 __to_have patience and not to waste time. I was up in his 
 room the other day and when he had finished what he was 
 doing he said, “* What useful thing can I do next ?”’ With 
 such an example, and there are others, I guess there’s hope 
 for me. 
 
 May 17, 1906. 
 
 Thank you for the book, God’s Image in Man, which 
 arrived to-day. . . . As I was up at a quarter to six and 
 have been going pretty well all day, I am a little tired. 
 However, it is early yet, and I have my work ready for 
 to-morrow, so I expect a good rest. I’m sorry, but I haven’t 
 anything much to say. I love you very dearly and am 
 looking forward to the time when I shall see you. 
 
 May 21, 1906. 
 
 We have just celebrated Omega Lambda Chi to-night, 
 which is a rather strenuous proceeding. First we all—the 
 whole college—danced around hippity-hop, finally ending 
 up at the campus. ‘Then there was a race between the 
 sophomores and freshmen. After this we had a tug-of-war. 
 Nearly the whole college tacked on, seniors and sophs at 
 one end and juniors and freshmen at the other. We just 
 walked it over to York Street when somebody foolishly 
 tried to take it into Pearson Hall. Then the sophs got it 
 going and we couldn’t stop them for quite a while. Had 
 an awful scrap which finally ended up on Chapel Street. I 
 have a small piece of the rope... . 
 
118 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 But there is something more interesting to tell you. As 
 things have worked out it seems almost providential that I 
 stayed here. For Saturday night Farrand and I went down 
 to Savin Rock, one of those ‘“‘ rotten ’’ summer resorts. 
 They have a lot of merry-go-rounds and such amusements, 
 but also saloons and dance halls. We went to the dance 
 hall and found a mess in the saloon. A lot of college 
 fellows in various stages of drunkenness with a lot of loose 
 women, also more or less drunk. It was positively dis- 
 gusting. I am thankful to say that there were no fellows 
 from our class there. 
 
 But there was a fellow there who had been expelled from 
 Hill, whom I knew.- He is living here in New Haven, 
 tutoring. Well, I watched him and spoke to him after I 
 saw him go to a couple of these women. But he wouldn’t 
 come away. So we just literally followed them and got 
 on the same car as they did to return to New Haven. 
 There’s no use describing that ride. Finally his girl got 
 off alone and said “‘ Good-night ”’ very distinctly, for us to 
 hear. I went and spoke to the fellow and he was mad as 
 thunder and a little under the influence of liquor. After a 
 block or two he slipped off and was starting back. I spoke 
 to him but he wouldn’t stop, so Farrand and I had to use a 
 little physical force to restrain him. . . . We had to stop 
 him. Of course he was very obstinate, but after about 
 half or three-quarters of an hour we won him around and 
 he walked home with us. We said everything we could 
 think of and prayed when we got home. He’s in with an 
 awful bunch and I don’t know just what to do. But we 
 know that “‘ with God all things are possible”. 
 
 Charley has been working with a fellow most of the 
 year. His boast was that he’d broken every commandment 
 but one. As he isn’t in jail, [ suppose that one is murder. 
 Well, Charley and I prayed that he might get a talk with X. 
 The other day his uncle died and on returning he nearly 
 went off again (that is to the bad) but went up to Charley’s 
 room instead, and he was there alone. Charley told me 
 how hard it was, how he beat around the bush, and prayed. 
 But thank God, he won out, and had a fine talk with X., 
 who has decided to give Christ a chance in his life. Charley 
 
FRESHMAN 119 
 
 and I prayed and took Christ’s words, ‘‘ Him that cometh 
 unto me, I will in no wise cast out’’. I feel convinced 
 that X. is started all right, and what’s more I think he’s 
 going to be a power. For he is a skilful debater and if he 
 found Christ he could have a strong influence. It’s 
 wonderful, isn’t it, and glorious ! 
 
 Sunday I had another talk with S., my sceptical, 
 indifferent friend, but accomplished very little apparently. 
 The preacher was fine I thought and very helpful. 
 
 This morning we met again at 6.30 and had a fine time 
 of prayer. 
 
 May 238, 1906. 
 
 This afternoon I went down and called on my friend 
 whom I was with at Savin Rock, the other night. He was 
 tutoring, but came down and saw me. Later we went to 
 the ball game together. I had hoped to bring him to the 
 Bible Class and then maybe have a talk afterwards, but I 
 couldn’t do this. However he isn’t mad at me and I’m 
 going to see him again. 
 
 May 24, 1906. 
 
 This was Tap Day, rather an interesting event to 
 witness for the first time! On the first stroke of five 
 o’clock the tapping began, and continued for about three- 
 quarters of an hour. Tapping is rather a misnomer, for 
 they hit the men most tremendously and rush them off to 
 their rooms. B.C. went Scroll and Keys and B.B. was the 
 last man tapped for Skull and Bones. Bill Barnes also 
 went Bones. This is a great honour, as it means he is 
 head of that Society for next year. It’s all very well in a 
 way, but they make entirely too much of it, it seems to me. 
 
 Well as a result of this excitement I haven’t done my 
 work as I should, and must get busy now. 
 
 1 The day when the senior societies make known their elections—the 
 most coveted honour in an undergraduate’s career. Skull and Bones, 
 Scroll and Keys and Wolf’s Head are the senior fraternities. As, collec- 
 tively, they only take in about forty-five new members each year, the large 
 majority of aspirants is necessarily disappointed. 
 
120 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 May 25, 1906. 
 
 We have only a week and a half more of recitations now. 
 It is hard to realize that freshman year is nearly over. I 
 have seen nine fellows to-day about Bible study next year, 
 and all have expressed their willingness to join a group. 
 S., my sceptical friend, is one of these, and a fellow who 
 doubts the immortality of the soul is another. I think it is 
 going fine. 
 May 28, 1906. 
 Farrand is working now with a fellow who has been 
 going with women. He is the son of a Presbyterian Elder, 
 and says his father would be simply dumbfounded if he 
 should hear about it. It’s pitiful and awful. I keep 
 hearing things, and am beginning to realize that it’s much 
 more widespread than I had supposed. 
 May 29, 1906. 
 
 We have just had quite a time with a fellow. Charley, 
 Farrand and I were walking along when a man, a town 
 fellow, came up half-drunk and spoke to us. He swore, 
 as they always do, and Charley asked him if he knew who 
 Christ was, whose name he had just spoken. Well, this 
 started things and I brought him up to my room and we 
 talked things over and prayed with him. He was quite 
 deeply touched once or twice, but wouldn’t take any 
 definite action. However, we saw him home after having 
 filled him up with water so that he didn’t want any more 
 liquor. He was quite intelligent and said he would come 
 and see us again. We did what we could and are trusting 
 God for the rest. 
 
 May 30, 1906. 
 
 To-day we have had a holiday. In the morning Mitch, 
 Jim, Whitaker, Farrand and I went off for a horseback 
 ride. The horses were frisky, the country beautiful and 
 the air fine. . . . In the afternoon we went down to the 
 harbour and got a motor-boat, which I ran, being the 
 only one who had had much experience with engines. 
 We had some good fun and I enjoyed being on the water, 
 the first time since last summer. Altogether it has been a 
 day of pure sport, and I guess it has done us all good. 
 
FRESHMAN 121 
 
 Borden’s freshman year came to a wonderful 
 climax in the Yale Summer Conference that fol- 
 lowed Commencement. Debarred from the Student 
 Conference at Northfield on account of its early 
 date that year, they arranged for a gathering of 
 their own under the leadership of Dr. Henry 
 Wright, availing themselves of the grounds and 
 buildings of the Hotchkiss School at Lakeville, 
 Conn. One feature of the conference was a special 
 course of training given to men who were to be 
 leaders of voluntary groups for Bible study in the 
 following year, for Borden’s plan of small separate 
 groups was to be extended to all the classes. A 
 canvass had already been made, and out of Borden’s 
 class alone more than a hundred and fifty men were 
 reported as willing to take up regular study in this 
 way. ‘This meant the preparation of a large body 
 of leaders, who were keen to get all they could from 
 the full programme of the conference. 
 
 Half the substantial reporter’s notebook Borden 
 had had with him in London is filled with jottings 
 from this Lakeville Conference, showing how very 
 much it meant to him. Even in those full days of 
 meetings, sports and personal work—for he was 
 leading one of the daily groups for Bible study—he 
 found time to write with the same loving thought- 
 fulness to his mother. 
 
 July 8, 1906. 
 
 Whom do you suppose we had with us Sunday? S. D. 
 Gordon! Before breakfast a few of us met in Henry 
 Wright’s room for prayer—our personal workers’ group. 
 Afterwards we met with Mr. Gordon. At 10 a.m. he gave 
 
122 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 us a talk on Power. It was wonderful. I will tell you 
 more about it later. In the afternoon, down by the 
 brook, he spoke on John 7. 37-39 in his quiet way. 
 
 Monday our regular Bible study groups started. The 
 subject was Jesus and the Father. Beginnings are all 
 hard, and possibly this was a hard subject to draw the 
 fellows out on... . To-day the subject was Jesus and 
 Sin, a splendid one indeed, and we all got along much 
 better. In my group is a Chinese nobleman’s son. I’m not 
 sure but that he is a Viceroy’s son. He is one of our 
 classmates, and is interested, as is shown by the fact that 
 he is here. 
 
 In the course of study on Student Summer Missions, 
 Henry (Dr. Wright) is outlining for us ten studies on Traits 
 of Manhood. We had “ Honesty ” this morning, and it 
 was splendid. I must get some boys together as soon as I 
 get back to Camden. 
 
 Charley and all the rest are here, and it’s fine! I am 
 rooming with Farrand and think he may come to Camden 
 with me. . . . Charley, I am afraid, can’t come. I must 
 close now, as I am to play on The Hill team against the 
 Grads. Until just a moment ago I forgot that you were 
 praying forme. The recollection has given me strength. 
 
 I am remembering you. Don’t be lonely. 
 
 In his notebook Borden had written after Sun- 
 day’s talks : 
 
 Say “ No ” to self, ‘‘ Yes ” to Jesus every time. A steep 
 road—hard work? But every man on this road has One 
 who walks with him in lock-step. His presence overtops 
 
 everything that has been cut out... . 
 In every man’s heart there is a throne and a cross. If 
 Christ is on the throne, self is on the cross; and if self, 
 even a little bit, is on the throne, Jesus is on the cross in 
 that man’s heart. . . . If Jesus is on the throne, you will 
 
 1 “Tf any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that 
 believeth on me . . . out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” Rivers, 
 Jordans, but clear as crystal. The proposition of the world is into, turning 
 man into a Dead Sea. The proposition of Jesus is out of. Note that 
 out of.—F rom Borden’s notes. 
 
FRESHMAN 123 
 
 go where He wants you to go. Jesus on the throne 
 glorifies any work or spot. . 
 
 If you are thirsty, and ae is enthroned, drink. Drink- 
 ing, the simplest act there is, means taking. ‘‘ He that 
 _ believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water. 
 This spake He of the Spirit.”” To “believe” is to know, 
 because of His word. How shall I know that I have power 
 to meet temptation, to witness for Him? Believe His 
 word : it will come. 
 
 Lord Jesus, I take hands off, as far as my life is con- 
 cerned. 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.—May never know a 
 tithe of the result until Morning. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SOPHOMORE 
 
 1906-1907. Att. 18-19 
 
 ‘** His lamps are we, 
 To shine where He shall say : 
 And lamps are not for sunny rooms 
 Nor for the light of day ; 
 But for dark places of the earth 
 Where shame and wrong and crime have birth; 
 _ Or for the murky twilight grey 
 Where wandering sheep have gone astray, 
 Or where the lamp of faith burns dim 
 
 And souls are groping after Him.” 
 A. J. FLINT. 
 
 Was it one result of the step taken at the Lakeville 
 Conference that in sophomore year Borden was 
 drawn into most unexpected and fruitful work for 
 others? The Living Water was flowing out in 
 new, unlooked-for channels. 
 
 But first he had to face the fraternity question 
 which had been causing him a good deal of exercise 
 of mind. There were five junior (Greek letter) 
 societies at Yale, as well as the three senior frater- 
 nities already referred to in Borden’s letters. Un- 
 less a man had been elected in sophomore year to 
 membership in one of the five, the senior societies 
 would as a matter of course pass him by. Each of 
 
 the junior societies received thirty new members 
 124 
 
SOPHOMORE 125 
 
 annually, and as with the senior fraternities, the 
 greatest possible secrecy was observed in all their 
 proceedings. A fraternity man would “ keep still ”’ 
 if his society were even mentioned. It was this 
 secrecy and the exclusiveness of the system that 
 troubled Borden, whose uncle had been one of the 
 founders of Wolf’s Head, of which his brother was 
 amember. “He could have had anything here that 
 he wanted,”’ wrote Dr. Kenneth Latourette in this 
 connection. But, though feeling no less than others 
 how hard it would be to be shut out, Borden had 
 his misgivings. His friend Charles Campbell re- 
 calls : 
 
 Shortly before college opened, Bill asked me to come to 
 Poughkeepsie! to talk over the society question. He 
 invited James M. Howard and E. F. Jefferson at the same 
 time. The discussion centred about such questions as 
 these: Could we as Christians go into a secret society ? 
 Would such action harm or help our work for Christ ? It 
 was a new thought to most of us. We had taken the society 
 system very much for granted, and had never questioned 
 whether it was right or wrong for us to join one of the 
 fraternities. But Bill took nothing for granted. He wasa 
 servant of Jesus Christ, and everything must be tested 
 and bear the stamp of Christ’s approval before he would 
 enter upon it. 
 
 The element of secrecy was one of Bill’s difficulties with 
 regard to joining a fraternity. As a Christian he felt that 
 he should not go into anything that he did not clearly 
 understand beforehand. Then he feared that the fraternity 
 system led to the forming of cliques in the college. He did 
 not wish to be set apart from the class. Further, Bill did 
 not wish to have anything come between him and God. 
 He had given himself wholeheartedly to Christ, to be His 
 
 1 A place on one of the most beautiful reaches of the Hudson River, 
 
 where Mrs. Borden had taken a house to be near Vassar College in her 
 daughter’s senior year. 
 
} 
 
 126 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 follower pure and simple, and he wanted that relation 
 kept always real. Therefore he felt he had no right to 
 vow allegiance to any secret, man-made organization. 
 
 This attitude is entirely comprehensible to the thought- 
 ful Yale man who thinks back to his freshman year and 
 remembers how certain men lose their heads and set out 
 to make a fraternity as the be-all and end-all of existence. 
 I remember Bill’s telling me of one classmate who said that 
 he should consider his college course a failure unless he 
 made Delta Kappa Epsilon among the first ten elected. 
 Happily such insanity does not continue long after the 
 verdant stage. This man, as I remember, never made 
 Delta Kappa at all, but another fraternity in its second 
 election, and I am sure he did not, as a senior, think his 
 course a failure—certainly we, his classmates, did not. 
 
 The discussions at Poughkeepsie brought out 
 much that was to be said on both sides, but no 
 definite decision was arrived at. The first fraternity 
 elections would not be given out until a month after 
 college reopened, so Borden and his friends went 
 back with the question more or less unsettled. The 
 position this little group held in the estimation of 
 their classmates is seen in an interesting light as 
 the letter continues : 
 
 A short time before the fraternity elections were given 
 out, the class elected the ‘‘ Deacons”. At Yale, during 
 our time, each class chose four men at the beginning of 
 sophomore year who acted as deacons in the University 
 Church and were charged with responsibility for the reli- 
 gious work of their class. The day of the elections, Bill, 
 Jim Howard, Pop Jefferson and I prayed that God would 
 guide the choice, so that the right people should be 
 appointed. As it turned out, the four of us were chosen ! 
 We always used to laugh about that—it seemed so like 
 praying for ourselves. 
 
 Soon after came the first elections to the junior frater- 
 nities. We had talked together many times since the visit 
 
SOPHOMORE 127 
 
 in Poughkeepsie, and had discussed the society question 
 from every point of view. I think Bill talked the matter 
 over with Henry Wright and one or two others, and of 
 course with his mother. The final outcome was Bill’s 
 decision to go into no society. The others of us decided to 
 join if we had the opportunity.1 Bill adhered to this 
 decision all through his college course, never joining a 
 secret society, though he did join the Elihu Club, a non- 
 secret organization, at the close of his junior year. 
 
 That the decision cost him a good deal is evident 
 from letters to his mother: 
 October 8, 1906. 
 
 Last night I had several callers—two bunches of Psi U 
 men, one of Delta K.E., one of Zeta Psi. But as I’m not 
 worrying, it didn’t bother me, and I was able to study 
 between their visits. I knew most of them. 
 
 October 6, 1906. 
 
 I have had more ups and downs in the last day or two 
 than I’ve ever had before, I think. Nothing very serious 
 to be sure, but annoying. Just at present I’m recovering 
 from a down. Your little notes are a great source of com- 
 fort and enjoyment. I am going out to get some exercise 
 now, throwing the hammer. 
 
 October 18, 1906. 
 
 Well, I guess I wanted to go in a good deal more than I 
 realized. . . . I have not slept much the last few nights I 
 know. The question yesterday resolved itself into this: 
 Are secret societies a good thing—from the Christian 
 standpoint, of course? I cannot feel that they are either 
 good or necessary, therefore I cannot go into one and lend 
 them my support. I hope that God will bless Jim and Jeff 
 and Charley and use them mightily, but I cannot see my 
 way clear. It is settled. 
 
 He felt like a different man, he wrote as soon as 
 this decision was reached. ‘ Busy and happy ” 
 
 1 All three were among the first elected. 
 
128 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 was his next report. The sacrifice had been great, 
 greater perhaps than anyone realized, but the 
 reward was great too. Far from losing influence 
 by not being a member of a fraternity, Dr. Kenneth 
 Latourette stated that “‘as a matter of fact he had 
 more influence with his classmates in his senior 
 year than ever before”. He had more freedom 
 also, and more time to give to his work as a deacon 
 and in other spiritual ways. And this meant much, 
 as it proved, in connection with unexpected de- 
 velopments. 
 
 It was on his nineteenth birthday, the first of 
 November, that John Magee, the graduate Secretary 
 of the Y.M.C.A., stopped him in Dwight Hall and 
 asked for a few minutes’ conversation. There were 
 matters in which he needed help that he felt Borden 
 could give. 
 
 New Haven, a seaport town midway between 
 New York and Boston, was a place where vagrants 
 of all sorts were apt to congregate. Work was to 
 be had on the docks, and it was a half-way house 
 for tramps and hoboes moving from one city to the 
 other. It was also the location of the county jail, 
 from which prisoners were constantly being dis- 
 charged with no one to give them a helping hand. 
 For while drinking saloons and infamous resorts 
 were to be found in abundance there was no Rescue 
 Mission with its doors always open to those who 
 needed succour. This state of things appealed to 
 John Magee from a double point of view. He saw 
 the need of the down-and-out; he saw also the 
 possible influence of such a mission upon the college 
 
SOPHOMORE 129 
 
 community, as a witness to the living, saving power 
 of Christ. And he believed that Borden would see 
 and feel it too. 
 
 “For,” as a modern writer has well stated, 
 “there is an empiricism of religion which is worth 
 attention. It challenges the sceptic to explain both 
 the conversion of the sinner and the beauty of the 
 saint. If religion can change a man’s whole char- 
 acter in the twinkling of an eye, if it can give a 
 beauty of holiness to human nature such as is felt 
 by all men to be the highest expression of man’s 
 spirit, truly it is a science of life which works and 
 one which its critics must explain. ... Let the 
 sceptic bring his indictment against the lives of 
 those who attribute to Christ alone the daily 
 miracle of their gladness.” 
 
 What could the unbeliever make, for example, 
 of a man who had been the terror of the worst ward . 
 in New York, a river-thief who would not have 
 hesitated, as he said himself, “‘ to cut a man’s throat 
 for a five dollar bill, and kick him overboard ’, who 
 was sentenced to fifteen years’ hard labour in Sing- 
 sing when he was only nineteen, and came out to sink 
 ever deeper into drunkenness and sin, with no power 
 to break his chains—until Christ met and trans- 
 formed him? Yet that man was Jerry McAuley, 
 who established in his old haunts the first of such 
 Rescue Missions, and was a means of temporal and 
 spiritual blessing to thousands. 
 
 What would the sceptic do with the educated, 
 able man of business, entangled in the meshes of 
 
 the drinking habit, sinking from depth to depth of 
 K 
 
130 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 misery, until his friends, home and wife all gone, 
 haunted by crimes he had committed—a hundred 
 and twenty forgeries against one man alone—tor- 
 mented with the horrors of delirium tremens, there 
 was nothing before him but the jail or suicide, and 
 he had chosen the latter? Yet that man was Samuel 
 H. Hadley, McAuley’s successor in the Water Street 
 Mission, and like him an apostle of the lost. 
 Truly “‘if any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new 
 creation ”’. 
 
 Knowing such facts as these it was little wonder 
 that Magee and Borden began to pray that a similar 
 mission might be established in New Haven, for the 
 sake of the University no less than for the unfor- 
 tunate. To his mother Borden wrote : 
 
 November 1, 1906. 
 
 John Magee is trying his best to do just what we have 
 wanted done—to develop the evangelistic element and 
 spirit here at Yale. As you may know, Dr. J. W. Dawson 
 is to be here for a week in February.t. The present head 
 of the McAuley Mission in New York is a college graduate 
 who went down, down, and was converted about two years 
 ago, Edward C. Mercer. They had him at Princeton 
 recently, and John has been enquiring to see how it went 
 down there. He found that it was fine, and he is going to 
 invite him here to speak at Dwight. That’s just what I’ve 
 been hoping for, and I think you have too. John is really 
 a corker and is doing a lot. 
 
 He had me up in his room to-day to speak about the need 
 for a good City Mission here in New Haven. . . . The plan 
 is to get a suitable building in the down-town district and 
 have a real Rescue Mission, run by a man from Water 
 Street, or some such place, and a few picked men from the 
 
 1 A well-known writer and preacher who had had remarkable experiences 
 in revival and midnight meetings. 
 
SOPHOMORE 131 
 
 University. . . . It would be great !—just the thing to take 
 a few sceptics down and let them see the Spirit of God really 
 at work regenerating men. 
 
 November 8, 1906. 
 
 Last night I went over and saw Magee. Mr. Skinner 
 and old Brother Martin (converted drunkards) met with us, 
 and we talked over plans for the City Mission. I tell you 
 it was inspiring to hear those men talk! . . . We decided 
 to pray over the matter for a week and see what would 
 develop. I hope to go to the prison with them a week from 
 Sunday. They go once a month. The prospects for the 
 Mission are very bright, and I feel sure we shall have it, if 
 it is the Lord’s will. 
 
 Meanwhile his classroom work was not neglected. 
 At the close of freshman year Borden had discovered 
 that his marks were not up to Phi Beta Kappa 
 standard, and he decided to change his habits of 
 study. Previously he had gone on the method of 
 studying up for each recitation just before it came. 
 Now he set himself to prepare a day ahead, and 
 never retired for the night without having all his 
 preparation completed for the following day. 
 
 “Tt was a hard method to live up to”, com- 
 mented his friend Campbell, “and showed his 
 strength of will. Think of what it meant on Satur- 
 day to get all Monday’s work out of hand. For 
 Bill never studied on Sunday. He would work till 
 eleven or eleven-thirty at night, but not later. Then 
 he could sleep quietly, and be ready for whatever 
 calls upon his time might come. It meant much 
 in his mental make-up and when it came to ex- 
 aminations.” 
 
 “I figured up yesterday where my time went 
 per week ’’, Borden wrote early in sophomore year, 
 
132 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ‘and found that about thirty-five hours are wasted 
 somehow. I am going to see if I can’t systematize, 
 so as to get the most use out of them.”’ 
 
 That he must have been successful in this effort 
 is evident from the amount of work he was able to 
 get through in addition to his studies as the year 
 went on. The daily prayer-groups were still kept 
 up, as he wrote to his mother in December : 
 
 You just must come to New Haven and meet these 
 fellows, J. B. and B. R: especially. The latter is the latest 
 addition to our group and is growing every day. It is 
 interesting that out of our bunch of eleven, eight should 
 be A men, one B and two C; a pretty good showing I 
 think. 
 
 The responsibilities of Class Deacon were taken 
 seriously by the four friends. It seems that the 
 office, which is much respected, dates back to the » 
 founding of “The Church of Christ in Yale”, in 
 1756. Up to that time the students and faculty 
 had attended the old Congregational Church on 
 The Green, but it was felt that a different style of 
 preaching was desirable from that suited to the 
 usual mixed assembly. Much opposition had to 
 be overcome, but ultimately the University Church 
 was organized on Congregational lines. As in that 
 fellowship the officers are not elders but deacons, 
 the term “ Class Deacon ” was adopted to designate 
 the students chosen by the undergraduate body as 
 their representatives in church affairs. 
 
 In Borden’s time they held their meetings weekly, 
 a committee of twelve men, four from each of 
 the sophomore, junior and senior classes, charged 
 

 
 CONFERENCE GROUP AT LAKEVILLE, 1906. 
 Borden is in the middle of the front row, marked with an xX. Campbell is on the reader’s 
 
 right, at the back. The Chinese Classmate, probably C. T. Wang, is seated next 
 to Borden. 
 
 
 
 THE CLASS DEACONS OF BORDEN’S YEAR. 
 
 On the famous Yale fence. Left to right, Jefferson, Campbell, Howard, Borden. 
 
 To face page 132. 
 

 
SOPHOMORE 133 
 
 with the spiritual interests of their fellow-students.2 
 These meetings were times of sincere prayer for 
 help and guidance, and resulted in “ strong friend- 
 ships that gave a certain sense of unity to the reli- 
 gious life in the college”. Borden and his friends 
 had been already on the Freshman Religious Com- 
 mittee, and brought to these new opportunities 
 the same earnest aggressive spirit. 
 
 And all the while, Borden was writing just as 
 
 frequently to his mother. 
 October 21, 1906. 
 
 Charley, Jeff and I got together to-day and divided up | 
 the class (consisting of about three hundred men). The 
 plan is for each deacon to have a quarter of the class as his 
 parish and to know every individual man. It will take time, - 
 but we believe it will pay. 
 
 October 24, 1906. 
 
 Things are going to hum this year, or I’m very much 
 mistaken. We deacons meet with Joe Twitchell, ’06, the 
 College Y.M.C.A. Secretary, every Wednesday evening. 
 He is very amusing in his impetuosity, but very frank 
 and good-natured. 
 
 December 10, 1906. 
 
 You will be pleased to hear that X. is getting on very 
 well in every way (the classmate who formerly boasted that 
 he had broken every commandment but one). He leads a 
 Sunday School class and has a Phi Beta Kappa stand in his 
 studies. Rather a contrast with last year ! 
 
 Had my first exam. to-day, Physics. It was very hard. 
 
 Have received six Christmas invitations. Guess I’m 
 still in society ! 
 
 1 “ The verdict of men most in touch with life on the campus is that 
 the morals and tone of the undergraduates are unusually high and clean, 
 
 and steadily improving. That such is the case is largely due to the presence ; 
 
 year after year of this small, earnest body of men, elected by the classes, but 
 connected with and under the control of the Church, to lead the Christian 
 work and set an example of manly living.” From Two Centuries of 
 Christian Activity at Yale. Chapter on ‘“‘ The Class Deacons ”, by S. H. 
 Fisher, p. 208. 
 
134 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Sunday, January 20, 1907. 
 
 We have had a fine time to-day, and I feel like singing 
 the Doxology. .. . 
 
 You remember I told you that the first meeting of our 
 Bible Class with the new teacher wasn’t much good. Well, 
 Wednesday we had an extra good prayer meeting at noon, 
 and had faith. The result was we had a fine meeting that 
 evening, though not many fellows were present. Charley 
 and I spoke to Mr. C. afterwards and said that we were 
 behind him in prayer. He was very nice, and we feel 
 confident for the future. 
 
 My Mission Study class went very nicely on Thursday. 
 
 I am thankful to say I have been doing a little more 
 real work for Christ. I asked N.S. to go and hear Gipsy 
 Smith, and he said he would if possible. I also wrote to 
 M. T., following up our talk at Camden. D. W. was on my 
 heart, and I wrote a pretty plain letter to him. This is 
 about all my long-distance work. 
 
 With F. I haven’t done much more, but the door is open. 
 My work with S. is going finely. After our Bible groups 
 to-day, which went very well, I had the best talk with him 
 I’ve ever had. He’s nearly there, I believe. 
 
 Charley’s work is going well. He has a new group 
 started to-day (Bible Study) among some seemingly 
 impossible fellows. He is getting hold of perhaps the 
 brightest man in the class, who is also one of the most 
 dissipated. . . . 
 
 This afternoon and evening though were the best. At 
 Band Meeting a Mr. Smeet from China spoke to us. He 
 was filled with the Spirit and gave a wonderful message 
 which stirred Ken and me deeply, and we are going to work 
 more for volunteers out of 1909. The evening service had 
 a fine message for us too. Everything is leading up to the 
 meetings Feb. 3-9, in answer to prayer. 
 
 Here on my floor things are going badly. The fellows 
 play cards a great deal—most of it is gambling, and on 
 Sunday too. 
 
 January 25, 1907. 
 
 Things have been moving here in a great way. We went 
 over our class again among the group leaders and made a 
 
SOPHOMORE 135 
 
 new canvass. Charley and I each took a hard bunch of 
 fellows, and after a little prayer went trusting in God. The 
 way opened up wonderfully, and we each have a new group 
 started, mine of four men, his of ten. Charley has three 
 groups now, and I two beside my Mission Study Class. So 
 we are busy-—with our studies and exercise. 
 
 Yet at this very time they were planning for the 
 rescue work which early in the new year took shape 
 as The Yale Hope Mission. The visit of Dr. Dawson 
 and Mr. Mercer could hardly have been more oppor- 
 tune, demonstrating the power of Christ and the 
 need in men’s lives for such a Saviour. 
 
 February 10, 1907. 
 
 I have just come from the last of our special services, 
 and it was fine. . . . The meetings have had a great effect. 
 Mr. Mercer’s talks have opened men’s eyes to the evil of the 
 “social glass”. (That was what ruined him, while in the 
 University of Virginia.) ‘‘ Shef’”’? has been moved as never 
 before and is ripe for the reaping.1 Every man in the 
 University must be reached! .. . 
 
 I just want to say right now that any day in which work 
 is not done for Christ is wasted. Moreover, I’m a fool for 
 letting such days be—for they are not pleasant. 
 
 It was a welcome development therefore when, 
 a few weeks later, the Rescue Mission was opened 
 which provided new opportunities for the work he 
 and others were learning to put first in their lives. 
 Much of hope and prayer lay behind the modest 
 beginning, of which Charley Campbell wrote : 
 
 A room had been rented in a cheap hotel in just the 
 right quarter—the room which has been used ever since for 
 the meetings. It had hideous dark red paper in those days. 
 Later on, Bill bought the entire building, and we now have 
 
 * “ Shef”, or Sheffield, was the scientific department of the University 
 with over a thousand students. 
 
136 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 downstairs dormitories and shower baths, and a place in 
 which clothes can be fumigated, as well as a good, in- 
 expensive lodging-house upstairs, known as the Hotel 
 Martin. For two dollars a week a man can have a room 
 to himself, a little home. 
 
 But we had no such helps in those early days and did 
 the more ourselves in consequence. I can remember 
 distinctly how we carted hymn-books in my suit-case 
 down to the hall for that first meeting. _ The handle of the 
 suit-case broke, and we had to hoist it up on our shoulders 
 and carry it through the streets ! ~ Bill was heart and soul 
 in it all. It was great to see him in those meetings—so 
 earnest in his presentation of the truth and in dealing with 
 those who came forward for prayer. Afterwards, he would 
 often take men around until he could find a place for them 
 _ to sleep, and pay the lodging-house charge himself so as to | 
 avoid putting temptation in their way by giving them 
 money. 
 
 It was the sixteenth of March when this begin- 
 ning was made, and before the month was over 
 Borden was writing to his mother of a man from 
 Water Street who was coming to live on the pre- 
 mises and take charge of the growing work. 
 
 Mr. Bernhardt was a graduate of the University of 
 Georgia and did post-graduate work at Vanderbilt. He 
 rose to the position of cashier in a big southern Express 
 Company. Then, through gambling, he got into debt. 
 This led to stealing, first a little, then more, then a large 
 sum and he was caught. Result—five years in a southern 
 prison which he found to be “‘ a literal hell’. He went in 
 a comparatively innocent boy, and came out “a fiend ”’. 
 He could get nothing to do, so he deliberately became a 
 professional criminal and was before long an international 
 character. One of his sentences was, ‘‘ work in the mines 
 under the lash for three and a half years, never seeing 
 daylight’? ! 
 
 + After ‘‘ Daddy Martin ”’, greatly beloved. 
 
SOPHOMORE 137 
 
 In all, he spent over twenty-two years in prison. After 
 the last term he “lost his nerve” and determined to be 
 aman. He travelled eight thousand miles in search of 
 employment, without success. At last, stranded in New 
 York, he was about to commit suicide. On his way to the 
 river he heard singing from the Water Street Mission and 
 turned in. Nothing happened that night or the next, but 
 the third night the great change came. I cannot tell you 
 all about it—but he is a Christian now and no mistake ! 
 
 His present job is clerking in a cheap Bowery hotel, 
 but he is always ready, Mr. Mercer says, to go anywhere 
 and speak for Christ. His ambition is to get into rescue 
 work and devote his whole time to it. This is the man we 
 have asked to come and take the Yale Hope Mission. All 
 he wants is a clean place to sleep, three meals a day, 
 decent clothes and some money in his pocket to “ help the 
 other fellow”. Sixty dollars a month he says is too much, 
 in addition to board and lodging, so we are to give him 
 fifty. 
 
 Bernhardt was no disappointment. Many a 
 man on the Yale campus as well as on the streets 
 of New Haven had reason to thank God for his 
 coming. 
 
 ‘The Yale Hope Mission is booming at present 
 beyond all expectation ”, Borden wrote at the end 
 of the month. ‘“ Bernhardt began last Sunday, 
 and that evening eight men came forward, several 
 of them in dead earnest. I was unable to go down 
 last night, but Magee told me that seven more were 
 seeking salvation. Bernhardt is fine, and is taking 
 hold of the work wonderfully ”. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 UPPER CLASSMAN 
 
 1907-1909 Att. 19-21 
 
 ‘It takes great strength to bring your life up square 
 With your accepted thought and hold it there : 
 
 It is so easy to drift back, to sink, 
 So hard to live abreast of what you think.” 
 C.P.S. 
 
 It was characteristic of Borden and of his friend 
 Campbell that they did not room together either 
 in junior or senior year. But they were on the 
 same floor in White Hall and had what they valued 
 most, the opportunity of being helpful to others. 
 With lively recollections Campbell wrote : 
 
 In the selection of quarters for junior year, Bill had 
 chosen a room in White Hall on Berkeley Oval, just off 
 the old college campus. Malcolm B. Vilas of Cleveland was 
 his room-mate, a boy of fine character who had taken a 
 positive Christian stand at the Lakeville Conference at the 
 close of freshman year.!_ Next door, I lived with Louis G. 
 Audette, and across the way were two other class-mates, 
 Sandford D. Stockton and Frank Assman. It was a great 
 combination, made up of very different types, and what 
 times we did have! Every now and then we would get 
 rid of superfluous energy in a big rough-house. We would 
 
 1 The suite occupied by Borden and Vilas, a study and two bedrooms, 
 was on the fourth floor of White Hall (number 380) with an open outlook 
 toward the Yale gymnasium and West Rock. 
 
 138 
 
UPPER CLASSMAN 139 
 
 nag at Bill until we had him roused and then something 
 would be doing. Around that room he would go like a 
 tornado, crushing all opposition. It was a sight to see 
 him really roused. He was a fellow of unusual physical 
 strength and knew how to use it to advantage. I found 
 that the best way to treat Bill when he went at me was to 
 give right in. This seemed to mollify him, while resistance 
 only spurred him on to greater efforts. We used to have 
 many a tussle, but he was altogether too strong for the 
 average man, and with his knowledge of wrestling was 
 more than a match for any of us. We would laugh at him 
 because of his strength and call him a “ brute ”’. 
 
 The activities in the religious work went along much the 
 same. There were the Bible groups, the mission study 
 classes, the daily prayer groups, the Wednesday evening 
 Bible classes, the Volunteer Band meetings and the Yale 
 Hope Mission, all of which occupied Bill’s time. The last 
 named was specially absorbing for Bill this year. I 
 believe he took one night a week at the Mission, conducting 
 the service. 
 
 In our Christmas vacation (junior year) Bill went with 
 Mrs. Borden and Joyce to the Lake Placid Club in the 
 Adirondacks. It was a beautiful winter with several feet 
 of snow on the ground in the mountains. Bill and his 
 mother with their wonted hospitality decided to have a 
 house-party. So invitations came to Isabel Corbiere, 
 Mary Abbe and three of my sisters, with Mac Vilas, Bill 
 Roberts, Lou Audette and myself. All but Mac Vilas were 
 able to accept, and we arrived on New Year’s Eve. 
 
 How crisp the mountain air was as we drove up in 
 sleighs from the station and started in for a glorious party ! 
 We cast off all thought of work and settled down to healthy 
 outdoor sport. Bill was in the thick of it. We would all 
 dress up in our warmest old clothes and go out to the 
 toboggan course. The snow was soft and all kinds of 
 stunts were possible. We spent a good deal of time trying 
 to go down the hill standing on the toboggans. Four or 
 five of us would get on one toboggan, standing up, and 
 would then launch out. There always came the time when 
 one would lose balance and upset the rest, and away we 
 
140 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 would go head first into the snow. It was fine healthy 
 sport, and Bill was right in his element. 
 
 Over on the road, coasting on the bob-sled was possible, 
 and near the Club was good skating. One day we all 
 ploughed off in the deep snow and climbed a little mountain 
 near by. Every night we would turn up tired, healthily 
 so, and ready for the biggest kind of dinner and the soundest 
 sort of sleep. Bill simply revelled in good fellowship and 
 sport such as this, and it did one good to be with him. He 
 made an ideal host and always saw that his guests had a 
 good time. 
 
 Few letters are.available for junior and none 
 for senior years, as Mrs. Borden, who was at that 
 time in very poor health, was living in New Haven 
 to be near her son, but the recollections of class- 
 mates tell a good deal. The last of his own letters 
 follow that Christmas in the Adirondacks. 
 
 January 13, 1908. 
 
 Dear Moruer—Things have been moving here since 
 we came back and I am very thankful. 
 
 I believe I wrote you that we had gotten our prayer 
 group started. It has been going nicely so far and will 
 continue so I’m sure. Our mission study work promises 
 very well indeed, not only the group I spoke of, but all the 
 others. We shall have about twice as many men as we 
 have had before. 
 
 Well, Saturday, things began to happen. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Asher (Saloon Evangelists) conducted a union meeting of 
 the missions in town. Charley and I prayed that it might 
 be the right kind of meeting and then went to get some 
 fellows to go. I got the whole of my last year’s group, the 
 tough bunch, and they stayed until the invitation was 
 given. The meeting was fine, and Dr. Dawson who was 
 here last year contributed not a little to its success. 
 
 Afterwards, I talked with a man until eleven, and hope 
 to be able to help him more. On Friday Charley got a 
 fellow he is working with to go to one of the Chapman 
 
UPPER CLASSMAN 141 
 
 meetings and I went to the Mission, and as the fellow who 
 was leading (Bernhardt being away) didn’t want to give the 
 invitation, I did it. About'eight men came forward and I 
 conducted things as best I could. I feel very hopeful about 
 some of them and that we’ve got a most important work on 
 our hands. 
 
 As it’s late, I’ll reserve the rest, and best, for to-morrow. 
 
 Lots of love, WILLIAM 
 
 January 14, 1908. 
 
 I think you will be interested in my report of Sunday’s 
 happenings. The evening service was led by Dr. Dawson 
 and was one of the most remarkable I’ve seen here yet. He 
 spoke on the Price of Perfectness, from the rich young ruler 
 passage, and put it very straight to the fellows. At the 
 close he gave an invitation for all who wanted to follow 
 Christ (I’ve forgotten just his words) and about twenty 
 responded. 
 
 Right after I went over and saw a fellow named B., one 
 of those I’d had at the Mission the night before. I started 
 right in—having found him alone providentially—and we 
 talked for about two hours, with the result that he finally 
 decided that he would take Christ and try it. There are 
 three others I want to get after. 
 
 January 20, 1908. 
 
 Had a very nice group meeting which I didn’t deserve, 
 as I had expected the “ Prom” to be more attractive. 
 After it was over, S. spoke up and said that he was practi- 
 cally a Christian, believing almost as I did. He is (or was) 
 the sceptical fellow I’ve been working with for months, 
 since freshman year in fact. I expect to see him come out 
 openly now in a very short time. It is wonderful. 
 
 * To him that hath shall be given ”’ was certainly 
 true in Borden’s case, for one upon another, even 
 in junior year, responsibilities came crowding upon 
 him. The Student Missionary Union of colleges in 
 the Connecticut Valley held its annual conference 
 
142 “ BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 at New Haven that fall and Borden was chairman 
 at all the meetings. Months of preparation lay 
 behind the success of the gathering, and all the 
 responsibility for speakers and arrangements had 
 been on his shoulders. Stephen W. Ryder, a class- 
 mate who helped him, wrote : 
 
 As a stenographer and typewriter, I often took his 
 dictation of letters to his friends. I specially remember 
 quite an extensive correspondence which devolved upon him 
 as chairman of Connecticut Valley Student Missionary 
 Conference. His apologies, his thoughtful explanations 
 and general care to avoid misunderstandings, his desire to 
 please, encourage and inspire others often impressed me. 
 He sought no subterfuges or excuses, nor dealt in flattery 
 to serve his ends. There was always frankness and sin- 
 cerity in his letters. 
 
 John Magee among others was impressed with 
 the organizing ability Borden showed in handling 
 this undertaking. 
 
 Bill was busy enough with all he was doing in College 
 to take the time of any ordinary man. But he seemed to 
 have little difficulty in running this Conference, in spite of 
 the large amount of work connected with it, of which I had 
 had experience. It was held in New Haven that year 
 (1908) and I remember hearing a number of people remark 
 on Bill’s ability as a presiding officer. He was a regular 
 John R. Mott, and had everything at his fingers’ ends, 
 everybody knowing just what meetings were to be held, 
 and where, through his conciseness and clearness. All his 
 correspondence beforehand, tentative programmes, bills, 
 etc., were kept in such orderly fashion that he never had to 
 waste time looking for anything. 
 
 This same ability in handling affairs came out in our 
 work together in the Yale Hope Mission. Bill gave a great 
 deal of attention to it, though he did not let it interfere 
 with his other work as far as I could see. He went down to 
 

 
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 UPPER CLASSMAN 143 
 
 the meetings a great deal, and might often be found in the 
 lower parts of the city at night—on the street, in a cheap 
 lodging-house or some restaurant to which he had taken a 
 poor hungry fellow to feed him—seeking to lead men to 
 Christ. 
 
 Yet his studies were not neglected, for in Feb- 
 ruary of junior year when the list of those who had 
 made Phi Beta Kappa was announced, Borden was 
 one of thirty chosen, and when the society organized 
 a little later he was elected president for the coming 
 year. In this connection Charles Campbell recalled : 
 
 At the Phi Beta Kappa banquet, which came late in the 
 winter of 1908, Bill as president of the society took the lead. 
 The Phi Beta Kappa banquet is perhaps the finest of the 
 yearly banquets given at Yale. Many celebrated men are 
 invited from other colleges and most of the best known 
 professors of the University itself, so that the dinner is 
 quite an affair. I have a pleasant recollection of the digni- 
 fied way in which Bill presided and made the opening 
 address. It was a striking illustration of the maturity and 
 balance of the man. 
 
 Borden’s college activities were summarized in 
 the Yale Alumni Weekly as follows : 
 
 He was president of Phi Beta Kappa. In athletics he 
 was active in football, baseball, crew and wrestling, rowing 
 on the winning, 1909, club crew in the fall of junior year,! 
 and playing on the winning Philosophical and High Oration 
 baseball team and on the Phi Beta Kappateam. He served 
 on the Class Book Committee and on the Senior Council. 
 Elected a Class Deacon, he devoted himself largely to 
 religious work. He was unwilling to join any fraternity or 
 
 1 “ One of the events of the regatta on Lake Whitney ”, wrote Mr. C. 
 Campbell, “ was a race between the four class crews. This was won by 
 1909, Bill’s class. I have before me the cup awarded to him for his part 
 in this race. It is inscribed: ‘ Fall Regatta, 1907 ; Club Championship, 
 won by 1909. W. W. Borden, Number four ’.” 
 
144 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 secret society, because he feared that it might set him 
 apart from the body of the class. He accepted, however, 
 an election to the Elihu Club. 
 
 Not a little additional work was entailed by his 
 election to the Senior Council, with its special rela- 
 tion to the faculty, and by his duties as a member 
 of the Senior Class Book Committee. 
 
 ‘‘ Bill was keenly interested in doing his full 
 share of drudgery for the good of his class ”’, wrote 
 a fellow-deacon. ‘‘ I remember going into his room 
 frequently when he was summing up class-statistics. 
 He spent hours collecting from the blanks the votes 
 for individual preferences. Often he would pause 
 for a rest, and joke about some bright answer to a 
 question.” 
 
 His own standing, when the Class Book appeared, 
 was third in the vote for ‘‘ the hardest worker ”’, 
 fourth among “‘ the most energetic ”’, ninth among 
 ‘‘ the most to be admired ”’, and seventh in the vote 
 for ‘‘ the one who had done most for Yale”; this 
 in a class of close upon three hundred. 
 
 But it was in the small, intimate meetings of the 
 Student Volunteer Band that Borden was most 
 himself, as Stephen W. Ryder recalls : 
 
 It was there the flame of his spiritual life seemed to glow 
 most brightly. There reserve was thrown aside; he was 
 among those who were in sympathy with his life-purpose. 
 
 His presence in the Band kept the spiritual tone right up to 
 concert pitch. ... It will always be an inspiration to 
 
 \remember him there, in his true element. 
 
 ' And Dr. Kenneth Latourette : 
 
 j 
 
 j 
 ' is his missionary motive. He was so sane and unpre- 
 
 ty, 
 
 Of course the outstanding thing in one’s memory of Bill 
 

 
 UPPER CLASSMAN 145 
 
 tending about it, and yet it was so completely a part of his 
 life. The memory of it and his courage to carry the gospel 
 to unreached fields is a constant rebuke and inspiration to 
 me. He had the Pauline spirit. I recall how he quoted 
 him, about not wanting to build on another man’s founda- 
 tion (Romans 15. 20, 21). The stedfastness of that purpose 
 of Bill’s had no small part, I am sure, in bringing the largest 
 Volunteer Band in Yale’s history into the days of his college 
 life. 
 
 The same friend touched the secret of the power 
 of that life when he wrote: 
 
 How easy Bill was to pray with! He was a jolly 
 fellow—loved a rough-house: delighted to get hold of a 
 man and crack his ribs! He could be jolly with the rest, 
 and when the crowd was gone it would be Just as natural 
 for him to say, 
 
 “Come into the bedroom and let us have prayer 
 together.”’ 
 
 There was no sense of incongruity about it. I remember 
 very vividly—how could one ever forget—those times of 
 prayer, when just the two of us would kneel down and take 
 to God some of the problems we were facing. Bill was so 
 simple in his prayer life, so natural, so trustful! He was 
 the easiest man to pray with I have ever known. 
 
 Prayer was to him his most important work, as » 
 
 well as the breath of his life. He hada card-system 
 for recording prayers and their answers in connec- 
 tion with individuals who were on his heart, and a 
 loose-leaf note-book in which he listed subjects for 
 prayer in groups, one for each day of the week. To 
 take in the meaning of those notes even for one day 
 is a revelation of the depth and thoroughness of the 
 prayer life they represent, reaching out to the ends 
 of the earth. It helps one to understand the state- 
 
 ment made by his most intimate friend, Campbell : 
 L 
 
146 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Through all the time I have known him, when there has 
 been opportunity, we have never parted without going on 
 our knees‘and praying for God’s work. 
 
 It is easy to see how much this friendship must 
 have meant to the two who were in every way so 
 fitted for and worthy of each other.1_ But there 
 was nothing exclusive about it, any more than 
 about Borden’s religion. ‘“‘ Bill was to me the rarest 
 Christian spirit I have ever known ”’, was the esti- 
 mate of one now on the faculty—and yet he was so 
 very human too! 
 
 ‘No picture of Bill at New Haven would be 
 complete”, wrote Jefferson to another of the Class 
 Deacons, ‘“‘ without the old slouch hat he used to 
 wear so often. Remember it? It was of brownish 
 grey, pointed at the top, torn on the side, and with 
 a large convenient hole used to hang it up by. One 
 time I set fire to Bill’s hat. When he discovered 
 the flame he was suddenly active to rescue the 
 treasure and punish me for my presumption.” The 
 hat, it may be added, was not discarded even after 
 this fiery ordeal. 
 
 Mac Vilas, his room-mate for two years at Yale, 
 spoke of him as, “‘ a Christian, first, last and all the 
 time ’’; but he was interested in recalling details 
 that showed that he was not narrow in his sym- 
 
 1 ‘‘ Campbell prepared for Yale at Kingsley School and at the Montclair 
 Military Academy. He got a Philosophical Oration appointment and is a 
 member of Phi Beta Kappa; a member of the University track team for 
 the last three years ; he won his ‘ Y’ in the pole vault in the inter-collegiate 
 meet, sophomore year. Elected a Deacon, sophomore year, his chief 
 interest in college has been Dwight Hall, of which he is president. He is 
 an active Bible group leader. He served on the Class Day committee. 
 Zeta Psi. Skull and Bones.”—From The History of the Class of 1909, Yale 
 College. 
 

 
 
 
 UPPER CLASSMAN 147 
 
 pathies, and that socially as well as physically he 
 was an all-round man. 
 
 In the letter he wrote accepting an invitation to be 
 usher at my wedding, Bill spoke about not being a social 
 light, etc., but we were delighted with the way he entered 
 into the spirit of the occasion, and I believe he had just as 
 much fun as the most frivolous of the rest of us. I mention 
 this because it shows that his social instinct was strong. 
 Here were a dozen or more young men and women, and 
 Bill was simply one of us. All the girls told Helen that he 
 was most entertaining and attractive to them, and they 
 were girls used to meeting all sorts of men. ; 
 
 Bill also went to the 1909 Tea at our Junior Prom., with 
 Helen and me and my aunt, who chaperoned Helen, and 
 was very much at home on that occasion. I had a good 
 time, too. Bill was not slow at the ‘fussing game’’, as 
 his taking girls to the inter-collegiate matches also indicates. 
 I, personally, was very happy to see this trait in him, and if 
 it had not been there to a considerable extent our Cleveland 
 ~ social butterflies ” would never have enthused over him 
 as they did. 
 
 Bill’s interest in business affairs was something I 
 frequently observed. He read the N ew York Times 
 regularly at College, and also took and read the Wall Street 
 Journal. I know that he was fairly conversant with the 
 stock quotations from day to day and that he followed the 
 big financial developments eagerly. How he could go the 
 Wall Street Journal was a mystery to me. I think Prof. 
 Emery’s lectures in economics had something to do with 
 starting his interest in those things. 
 
 Bill was very reticent about mentioning his financial 
 affairs tome. In fact, I don’t remember ever asking him a 
 single thing about them, as I considered it none of my 
 business. This reticence was, to my mind, another indication 
 that he would have been a shrewd business man. He was 
 
 able to keep his own counsel, to say little but think and 
 
 work hard. Bill seemed to pay considerable attention to 
 his Chicago business affairs, for he corresponded a good 
 deal with Mr. Spink (I used to see the printed envelopes), 
 
148 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 and I remember his mentioning several business trips to 
 Chicago. ... 
 
 As to his wrestling, you know what a bull he was and 
 how hard he wrestled and rough-housed. I remember in 
 senior year one night, when Jeff was holding Lou and 
 Frank at bay easily, how Bill just for fun rushed in, grabbed 
 Jeff by the legs and tossed him back on his couch without 
 much effort. You were there, I am sure. How thankful 
 I am for those happy, happy days together, Charley ! 
 Len Parks can also witness to Bill’s physical prowess and 
 athletic enthusiasm. They used to wrestle together quite 
 frequently, and Len was no slouch, but he couldn’t throw 
 Bill. He told me once that Bill was a “‘ regular bear ’”’, 
 and that though he didn’t go in for fancy holds, etc., he was 
 the hardest man to tackle in the whole gym. Len, I believe, 
 threw even Bill Goebel a few times, but not Bill Borden. 
 
 Bill was also a loyal rooter for the teams at Yale. He 
 attended practically all the games and meets, as I recall it. 
 I remember well how he stood on Derby Avenue, between 
 the bridge and the lower entrance to the track and baseball 
 field, on the day in November 1907 when we had the first 
 cross-country run with Harvard. As we came up the little 
 rise on Derby Avenue, before entering the gate, there was 
 Bill, who had come down to meet us runners. When he 
 saw that I was in the lead, he let out a most encouraging 
 yell! Perhaps it was partly surprise—and I wouldn’t 
 blame him if it was. You and all the other fellows may 
 have been there, I don’t remember about that, but Bill’s 
 enthusiasm for and interest in his room-mate I can never 
 forget. He had come down a little further than most of 
 the fellows to give his encouraging support. 
 
 I believe I am right in saying that Bill was elected to 
 every class office for which he was nominated, and I well 
 remember one stormy class-meeting—we could scarcely 
 hear ourselves speak—when a word of suggestion from him 
 brought order out of the chaos, and showed very clearly 
 the quality of the fellows’ respect and admiration for him. 
 
 Others also recall characteristics which impressed 
 them : 
 
UPPER CLASSMAN 149 
 
 No matter if some said he was too religious, or others 
 that he was too narrow, or that he was heavy, there was 
 one thing nobody at Yale ever questioned—that was that 
 he was strong. He was red-blooded and he had the punch. 
 He played hard and he studied hard and was intense in his 
 religious beliefs. When he bucked the football line, every 
 ounce of his hundred and seventy-five was back of him. 
 When he was elected to the presidency of Phi Beta Kappa 
 he received the highest scholarship honour in Yale. There | 
 was power written all over him. You either followed him 
 or you let him alone. . . . I can vouch that he was the 
 strongest religious force in our class at Yale.! 
 
 He certainly was one of the strongest characters I have 
 ever known,” and he put backbone into the rest of us at 
 College, who were interested in the same things but did not 
 have the strength he had. There was real iron in him, and 
 I always felt he was of the stuff martyrs were made of, and 
 heroic missionaries of more modern times. Our point of 
 view differed on many things ; but it was always refreshing 
 to discuss matters with him even if we disagreed, because 
 I knew so well his strength of purpose and consecration. I 
 had complete trust in him asa man. . . . He never seemed 
 to lose his vision for a single instant. . . . Among many 
 fine qualities, the supreme impression he made upon others, 
 it seems to me, was that of moral rectitude. 
 
 Bill was the great example to me of one who seemed to 
 realize always that he must be about his Father’s business, 
 and not wasting time in the pursuit of amusement... . 
 He was a man who had very high ideals and lived up to 
 them ; who impressed his sincerity upon you by his daily 
 life among his fellows, no matter how restricting his beliefs 
 might be. We disagreed about some things, and I thought 
 Bill narrow, but as the years pass I am beginning to see 
 that his perspective was the one which I am only just 
 reaching. But I want to say that even when I disagreed 
 with him, there was never a moment that I did not respect 
 
 + Max Parry, a leading member of the class of 1909. 
 * John Magee, writing from China. 
 
150 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 him for those same beliefs and the way in which he lived 
 up to them.? 
 
 In his sophomore year we organized Bible-study groups 
 and divided up the class of three hundred or more, each 
 man interested taking a certain number, so that all might, 
 if possible, be reached. The names were gone over one by 
 one, and the question asked, ‘“‘ Who will take this person or 
 that ?”? When it came to one who was a hard proposition 
 there would be an ominous pause. Nobody wanted the 
 responsibility. Then Bill’s voice would be heard: ‘‘ Put 
 him down to me.” 
 
 Thus he got together a group of the hardest to reach, 
 the least attractive, and worked for them faithfully. Ina 
 house in College Street he had three of his incorrigibles, 
 anything but promising material for a Bible class. I re- 
 member one meeting of the group when only one man was 
 present, while another listened through a half-open door 
 into the next room. But Bill held on, glad that they gave 
 him the opportunity. 
 
 His rugged yet simple faith in Christ as Saviour and 
 Lord, and in the Bible as God’s inspired Word, is a tonic to 
 me, for one, whenever I am tempted to drift into barren 
 doubtings or a purely intellectual attitude toward our 
 faith. But with all his convictions as to the futility of 
 higher criticism and his distrust of the so-called new 
 theology, I cannot recall hearing him speak unkindly, or 
 even frequently, of the many who preached it to us from 
 the Yale pulpit or lecture desk. He was always the 
 Christian gentleman.? 
 
 There never was a time during those years when Bill 
 was not looking for the opportunity of doing personal 
 work.? 
 
 Joe Twitchell’s remark in our Deacons’ meeting one 
 night was interesting, as showing something of Bill’s idea 
 of personal work. Joe said, ‘‘ Bill hunts up the worst 
 skunk in College, and goes after him.” 4 
 
 1 Farrand Williams. * Professor Kenneth Latourette. 
 3 Charles Campbell. 
 * KE. I, Jefferson, Class Deacon and famous Yale first baseman, 
 
UPPER CLASSMAN 151 
 
 One of the passions of his life was for righteousness. He 
 had indeed that ‘“ hunger and thirst’? we read about in 
 Matt. 5. 6. His prayer-life was full of petitions that 
 illustrated this, and his actual living illustrated it too. 
 
 I remember, in this connection, that after we had finished 
 our final examinations in College we had a four days’ 
 interval before Commencement, and Bill with a few others 
 of us ran up to his place in Maine and attempted to sail his 
 boat down to New Haven. We had head-winds all the 
 way, and could do no better than reach Cape Cod and put 
 in to Hyannisport in time to take a train to New Haven. 
 As we walked up the streets of Hyannisport, where Bill had 
 spent a summer as a boy, he remembered that at the close 
 of that vacation he had gone away owing some shopkeeper 
 in the place a few cents. He had forgotten all about it, but 
 it came back to him as we walked up the street that day, 
 and he must needs find the little shop and pay the debt, that 
 he might be straight with the world. That was his nature 
 all through. If he found anything wrong with his life, he. . 
 set to work to make it right. 
 
 But there is another characteristic of Bill’s that I want 
 
 to speak about, that is his great loving heart, which always 
 seemed to me his richest and rarest quality. There were 
 many, perhaps, who, seeing him in a casual way busy with 
 the work he had to do, set him down as severe and un- 
 approachable. We knew that the very opposite was true. 
 He had one of the most affectionate, lovable natures of any 
 man I have ever known. No one who visited in his home 
 could for a moment doubt this. But I mean more than 
 family love. He had a way, for example, when walking 
 with a friend, of putting his arm over his shoulder as they 
 talked. I can feel the great loving touch of his arm about 
 my shoulder now. 
 
 After graduation we attended Northfield again, sleeping 
 ina tent as before. For two summers, at least, Bill waited 
 at table during the Conference. He never did this if there 
 was a man needing the job to help to make expenses. But 
 if the coast was clear, on would go the waiter’s apron and he 
 would do the work, getting nothing to eat himself until the 
 crowd had left the dining-room. He never told me why he 
 
152 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 did this. It may have been partly to keep friends company 
 who had to wait for monetary reasons. But I always felt 
 it went deeper than that, and that Bill was trying to be 
 among us as “he that serveth”’.} 
 
 Just one more picture from the Yale Hope Mis- 
 sion, from one of the early converts : 
 
 I came in here on the twenty-seventh of March, 1908. 
 I was on a drunk and hadn’t much use for religion. I’m 
 not going to tell the worst part of my life, but I was a 
 rambler all right—a down-and-out bum. There was only 
 three states in the Union I hadn’t been in. I had heard of 
 the Mission, same as a good many of them do. I knew it 
 was the only thing that would save me from booze. Well, 
 I went out, that first night. I had a Christian mother, and 
 I got to thinking of her and I came back. That was the 
 twenty-ninth of March, and that night Bill was here and he 
 spoketome. Bill was a great personal worker. He always 
 believed in getting right down and talking to a man. If 
 Bill had anything to say he gave it right out. I know the 
 gist of what he said to me that night. 
 
 “What are you going to do about it? Can’t you see 
 where you’ve missed the road ?”’ 
 
 He would tell you to hope again; tell you of the God 
 who’d made the universe and held you in the hollow of His 
 hand and could help you if you’d only ask. That’s the way 
 he talked. He was one good boy. I could never forget him 
 as long as I breathe—no, I never forget him. And he barely 
 twenty that night I first knew him! He was at Yale 
 College here then, and Louis Bernhardt was superintendent 
 of the Mission. 
 
 I went forward and kneeled down and Bill came and 
 kneeled down beside me, and he explained as much as he 
 could the power of Jesus Christ, and how it was only Him 
 who could help me. I never drank from that night to this, 
 never felt like it—never felt like it, from that twenty-ninth 
 day of March to this—and before that I was drunk most 
 of the time. I had been drunk about all that winter. Bill 
 
 1 Charles Campbell. The reference is to Luke 22. 27. 
 

 
 BORDEN AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE YALE HOPE MISSION. 
 
 ** Never knowed his like in this world. He must have done for hundreds just what he done 
 for me. He was always trying to study into the lives of men, to see how they’d work out 
 and how he could help ‘e1n.”’ 
 
 To face page 152, 
 
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UPPER CLASSMAN 153 
 
 was a great man to watch you and not say much, but just 
 ask how you were getting along. Well, after I was con- 
 verted I come every night—didn’t miss a night after that 
 for seven weeks. 
 
 It’s all fresh in my mind yet. I got work, too, soon. 
 I got a job on an ice-wagon. That was one of the greatest 
 tests on the booze question that a man ever got. I was 
 boss of the team that year, and went back and was boss 
 again the second summer. I was boss sixteen or seventeen 
 months altogether. I hadn’t worked only three weeks 
 when they put me in charge of the team. 
 
 I saw Bill right along those times, except in his vacation ; 
 then he was in Europe. And he wrote me a letter. After 
 some time I went back to the shop, and then I was foreman 
 in the New Haven County Jail, where I’d served time in a 
 cell. About two years after I was converted I was re- 
 married right in this building, right up-stairs. I think Bill 
 sent a letter that he couldn’t come. He knew I was going 
 to be married. He met my wife and family—seemed 
 tickled to death, too, to meet ’em. We've got a home now 
 in Yalesville, Connecticut, and a big garden, plenty of land, 
 lots of chickens, and a piano in the house—makes quite a 
 change from when I first came to the Mission drunk, with 
 no prospects but whiskey! There’s not been a day since 
 my conversion that I haven’t had money in my pocket, 
 not a day from that day to this. God has wonderfully 
 blessed me. 
 
 After my conversion I was baptized and joined the 
 Church. If Bill hadn’t opened this Mission I’d been dead. 
 My old chum who was once on bums with me, he’d never 
 have been converted if it hadn’t been for this Mission. We 
 was holding prayer meetings at different houses. They'd 
 come in drunk sometimes. Then I always took ’em after 
 the meetings and gave ’em a talking to just before they left. 
 Told ’em about this work here at Yale Hope Mission. 
 There’s no time in a drunkard’s life when he don’t have 
 serious thoughts. When he drowns his conscience in booze, 
 he’s tearing away from the voice of God, I think. Well, 
 someone asked my chum to come when the meeting was 
 at my house. He said he would if Jack Clark would lead. 
 
154 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 He knew that what God did for Jack Clark He could do for 
 him. There was about twenty-four there and I led, and 
 that night Whitney Todd, my chum, was converted. He 
 lives right in Yalesville now and is foreman of a shop. 
 He’s got his wife and children with him, and he’s always 
 got his hand out to the man that’s down. So you see you 
 cannot trace what Yale Hope Mission’s done by what you 
 see lying around. Not till the books of Heaven are opened 
 will you know what Bill Borden done by opening Yale Hope 
 Mission. .. . 
 
 He was great at individual work. As a talker, he’d 
 hasten through his address and get to work with the men, 
 always aiming to get close to the man he was talking with 
 always with his hand on nis shoulder. He didn’t believe 
 in talking over peoples’ heads, but tried to land right on his 
 man and bring his thoughts right home. He would interest 
 you quicker than the ordinary man, because he had a more 
 sympathetic way to start in. He seemed to reach out and 
 win you. I watched him from night to night, and always, 
 as soon as the invitation was given to come forward, he 
 would be off the platform and right down among the men, 
 and he’d urge them to accept a better life. He was always 
 sympathetic, and he never went at a man in the same way 
 twice. He had a habit of putting his hand on a man’s 
 shoulder, and they’d most always break down when he 
 spoke to them. 
 
 I never knew a feller just like Bill. I’d like to get a hold 
 of one of his pictures. Seems to me if I saw one I’d ’most 
 try to steal it. I never knew a feller like him. He was 
 a gentleman in every sense of the word, and a Christian 
 through and through. That was first and last in his life. 
 He enjoyed life, and people who came in contact with him, 
 seeing his happy spirit, would say, ‘“‘ Why, life is worth 
 living after all.” 
 
 Why, the way he came amongst us, you would never 
 think he was a man of wealth, and he always dressed so 
 plain. He had a peculiar way, very interesting to me. 
 He wouldn’t tell you anything about himself, but he had a 
 way of making you talk and tell things. It seemed to be 
 his whole object, to know how I was and about my life so 
 
UPPER CLASSMAN am LG 
 
 as he could help. It couldn’t seem possible a man could be 
 so humble and yet so great. He could talk to anyone, 
 didn’t matter who they was. And he’d get down with his 
 arms round the poor burly bum and hug him up. 
 
 Never knowed his like in this world. I know he must 
 have done for hundreds just what he done for me. He was 
 always trying to study into the lives of men, to see how 
 they’d work out and how he could help ’em. 
 
 It was Professor Henry Wright who said, ‘ It 
 is my firm conviction that the Yale Hope Mission 
 has done more to convince all classes of men at Yale 
 of the power and practicability of Christianity to 
 regenerate individuals and communities than any 
 other force in the University.” 
 
CHAPTER X 
 VACATIONS 
 
 1906-1912. At. 18-24 
 
 ‘* No duty could overtask him, 
 No need his will outrun ; 
 Or ever we could ask him 
 His hands the work had done.” 
 J. G. WHITTIER. 
 
 BorpDEN loved the sea, and was at home on it and 
 in it. Most of his vacations during student years 
 were spent at Camden, Maine, where he almost 
 lived on the white-sailed Tsatsawassa. Talking 
 with the captain of the yacht one day, who knew 
 and loved him as did few others, Mrs. Borden re- 
 marked : 
 
 “You at any rate must have seen him off duty— 
 off his guard.” 
 
 “Mrs. Borden,” was the unexpected reply, 
 * William was never off his guard.” 
 
 It was a true word, for in spite of all the good 
 times, in the midst of them indeed, he was as steady 
 in his higher allegiance as the needle to the pole. 
 This comes out in the recollections of those who 
 played as well as worked with him. 
 
 * There were few things that Bill liked better 
 
 than to don his canvas jeans and jumper and sit 
 156 
 

 
Ch Sam 
 a oe 
 
 
 
 SA. 
 
 S: 
 PUZZLING OUT A PROBLEM, 
 
 WHITE-SAILED TSATSAI A; 
 
 THE 
 A QUIET MOMENT ON BOARD 
 
 Me 
 
 ») 
 
 To face page 157. 
 
VACATIONS 157 
 
 behind the tiller of his yacht in a spanking good 
 breeze,” wrote a medical-student friend. ‘“ Many 
 a pleasant sail I have had with Bill, and many a 
 time we have been together in sloppy weather. 
 One well-remembered summer we took a cruise down 
 the Nova Scotia shore, and there is no time like a 
 cruise for getting to know one another. Bill was 
 our skipper and an ideal one, but he didn’t stop at 
 being in charge. There were few meals we ate that 
 he hadn’t cooked. Life on the boat was full of joy 
 from beginning to end with Bill to keep things 
 going. 
 
 ‘‘One morning we were becalmed in the middle 
 of the Bay of Fundy. It was a hot sultry day, and 
 we had been talking about sharks. Suddenly Bill 
 said: ‘Sharks or no sharks, here goes!’ And he 
 was overboard in a moment, swimming round the 
 yacht. 
 
 ‘“‘ One learned in those days more of the secret of 
 Bill’s life, that his strength lay in his prayer-life. 
 No matter what the weather might be, he would 
 always hand over his trick at the wheel and go 
 below for his times of quiet. I remember him dis- 
 tinctly one very rough day, with the boat standing 
 on her beam-end, coming below and climbing up 
 on his berth and losing himself in his God.” 
 
 ‘¢'The time I came to know him best was on the © 
 
 cruise we had in August, 1911,” wrote Mrs. Henry W. 
 Frost, who had chaperoned a merry house-party 
 on the yacht. “I cannot think of an instance 
 during those seven days of good thorough testing 
 in close quarters, when William did not put every- 
 
158 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 one’s comfort and pleasure before his own. He 
 was captain and steersman, steward and cook for a 
 party of ten hungry people, and well he did it. It 
 was something more than the salt sea air that made 
 his coffee and tea and corned-beef hash and pan- 
 cakes so popular. 
 
 ‘Between times he was ready for any game. 
 Stretched out in the cockpit at dominoes, his hearty 
 laugh rang out with any success that was achieved. 
 
 “ On Sunday we went to morning service ashore, 
 and in the evening as we finished our meal and had 
 a sing, with perfect naturalness and simplicity he 
 led in a brief prayer service. It was always a 
 pleasure to me to have him conduct prayers. His 
 Scripture reading, while reverent, was so natural 
 and his prayers so direct and simple, conveying the 
 feeling that God was near and real.” 
 
 Many were the happy days at Camden that Mr. 
 Charles Campbell recalled. 
 
 Three weeks of one summer and the larger part of 
 another I was with Bill Borden. That time, spent largely 
 out of doors, opened my eyes to Bill’s real self even more 
 than had close association with him at College. At Yale I 
 had learned that he was a rare man to work with; our 
 weeks together in his summer home showed me that he 
 was a rare man indeed to play with. At College I knew, 
 as did all his friends, the strength and intensity of the 
 serious purpose of his life; our happy, every-day comrade- 
 ship at Camden taught me more of his very human and 
 lovable boyishness, and his enjoyment of outdoor life and 
 play. There was no mistaking the fact that Bill liked to 
 sail, that he liked to swim, play tennis and golf. His laugh 
 was always the heartiest, his enthusiasm the most contagi- 
 
 ous, and his delight at doing well the most evident. 
 One of our sailing trips was from Camden to Beverley 
 
VACATIONS 159 
 
 Farms, on the Massachusetts north-shore. We had hardly 
 rounded the lighthouse at the entrance to Camden harbour 
 when we realized that a stiff breeze was blowing. A few 
 hours later, with Monhegan Island astern, we were facing 
 the full force of the open ocean. By six P.M. we were off 
 Portland and, with wind and rain-storms becoming more 
 frequent, held a consultation as to whether we should run 
 for shelter. Just then a coaster, which had been wallowing 
 southward, emerged from a squall, her top-sail and top- 
 mast gone, and, changing her course, ran for Portland 
 Harbour. That decided Bill; but his decision was that, 
 having started for Beverley, to Beverley we would go. 
 Through the stormy night that followed, Bill was quiet 
 and self-possessed, and I remember that when he took his 
 turn at the wheel his strength and confidence seemed an 
 assurance that all would be well. Serious though the 
 situation was, Bill could laugh when he sang out to us at 
 midnight that the lines with which we had been towing our 
 power-dinghy had parted, taking pleasure in fighting the 
 battle out with only our own resources to depend on. 
 
 Some of my most vivid recollections of Bill cluster round 
 those different sailing trips. They range from the above 
 experience to the spectacle of Bill in rough weather, 
 seated in the cabin, calmly disposing of quantities of grape- 
 nuts and condensed milk. Great was our secret admiration 
 for one who could perform such a feat at a time when the 
 rolling of the boat had put some of us hors de combat. 
 
 I remember one evening anchoring off Bar Harbour 
 about seven o’clock. By the time all was ship-shape the 
 sun had set and the riding lights were shining from all the 
 boats in the harbour. Before getting supper, Bill sug- 
 gested that we have a swim. The air was chilly, and the 
 black water rippling by with the outgoing tide looked 
 colder than I had ever seen it. But overboard we went, 
 swam a few strokes, took another dive, and were out 
 again and dressing. The splendid reaction put us in the 
 best of spirits as we prepared supper. I can see Bill now, 
 hustling round that cabin, whistling, singing, just full of the 
 joy of living. 
 
 It was that same time, I think, that we sat on deck talk- 
 
160 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ing of another trip when we had put into Bar Harbour after 
 sailing the entire preceding night. We had anchored at 
 about the same spot, and as soon as possible had turned in 
 for a little sleep. Before long we had wakened to find the 
 boat dragging her anchor and almost upon the rocks. I can 
 feel Bill’s hearty slap upon my back and hear his laughter 
 still, as we recalled how we had had to hustle to get out 
 of danger. 
 
 Of another sort was an experience one day off the 
 Massachusetts coast. We had been watching a school of 
 whales blowing at some little distance. A few moments 
 later one of them came lazily to the surface, not a hundred 
 feet from our fifty-foot yacht. In some alarm one of the 
 party called to Bill, who was at the wheel, to keep the 
 boat off. His response was to edge in a little nearer, with— 
 ‘“‘ Oh, let’s have a good look!” 
 
 He was brushing up his Greek, the summer of our 
 graduation from Yale, with a view to the entrance examina- 
 tion at Princeton. Out in the yacht he would often go 
 below and plug away at Greek. He did a great deal of 
 studying aboard his boat during the years I knew him, 
 and was a past-master at making the odd moments count. 
 
 One day we sailed over to Eagle Island to take part in 
 some races that were being run there. The wind was very 
 light, and we came to the starting-line just after our race 
 had begun. There was no time to report to the judges and 
 no time to put the tender ashore. Bill managed everything. 
 We just hauled the tender up on deck and went after the 
 boats that had already started. All through the race Bill 
 was captain, giving his orders and making every point to 
 get the most out of his boat. We were heeled far over 
 most of the time, as a good wind had sprung up. It all 
 resulted in our crossing the winning line well in the lead. 
 We were not allowed the victory, because we had not 
 reported beforehand, but the winning was just as real all 
 the same. 
 
 Sailing and tennis with Bill were always great fun, but 
 the best hours of our visits were passed in quite another 
 way. Before going to Camden a friend had wonderfully 
 opened the Bible to me, giving me a new insight into its 
 
VACATIONS 161 
 
 content. I mentioned this to Bill, and he at once suggested 
 further Bible-study together. It had been good to play 
 with him, but to join him in the one thing nearest his heart 
 was worth incomparably more. 
 
 And it was not only to his guests that Borden’s 
 life meant much during the summer vacations. 
 Many residents in Camden and the vicinity looked 
 forward to his coming, and through his friendship 
 some found the Friend who transforms life from 
 within. 
 
 Among those was the gardener, a valuable em- 
 ployee of the family, who had fallen under the power 
 of strong drink. Mrs. Borden had done all she 
 could to help him, but without success, and one day 
 when she was away from home he was found in- 
 toxicated near the house. Next morning he sent a 
 note to William saying that he was ill and could 
 not come to work, a situation which was explained 
 by Melanie, who had found him—the children’s 
 former nurse. Waiting only to get her to pray with 
 him about the visit, William set out to see the 
 gardener. But when he reached the house it was 
 only to be told that he did not feel like seeing any- 
 one that day. 
 
 ** I know the reason,” William said to his wife, 
 ** but please ask him to let me come in.”’ 
 
 The talk that followed resulted in a transforma- 
 tion that brought blessing to the whole family. 
 For the man himself a new life began that day, and 
 months later William was writing from College: 
 
 J. is a constant source of joy and thanksgiving 
 
 to God, is he not?” 
 M 
 
162 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 But of all his Camden friends it was Captain 
 Arey who knew Borden best and to whom his life 
 meant most. The following recollections are given 
 just as they came from his heart: 
 
 I’ve known him ever since he first come to Camden, and 
 that must have been about nine years ago. If anyone 
 showed on their outside the happiness of being a Christian 
 it was Mr. Borden. When he talked it just seemed as if 
 you could feel his earnestness. 
 
 When we two was out alone—we went all the way to 
 New Haven alone once—I have seen him kneel for perhaps 
 an hour at a time and never lift his head. The villagers 
 loved him, everybody loved him. He was so noble-looking! 
 When he came up in the spring, he always shook hands 
 with everybody. All the summer-people don’t do that. 
 If twas a stranger or a fisherman, didn’t make no difference. 
 He always spoke to everybody, like as if he wanted to, 
 and shook hands with them. 
 
 William was a nice hand to sail a boat. You didn’t 
 need no one else when he was along. I used to be afraid 
 he’d fall in the water, at first. He was always singing and 
 jumping around. He’d climb away up the riggin’ and get 
 into the row-boat behind. He did everything well he tried 
 to do. He was so strong, too! When he’d go out and work 
 at the riggin’, I’d be afraid he’d break the sail, he was so 
 strong. Sometimes he’d steer and sometimes he’d help 
 with the sails, but he was an expert on the boat. He could 
 take a chart and go anywhere with it. Of course, he’d 
 studied into it and learned it. It didn’t seem hard for him 
 to go through with anything he undertook—it just seemed 
 easy. 
 
 One awful good feature he had ; if the boat wasn’t fixed 
 up quite as it ought to be, perhaps if ladies came aboard 
 and the brass wasn’t cleaned, I’d tell him about it, and he’d 
 smile and say it was allright. He never spoke a cross word 
 to me all the time I was with him. 
 
 He lent me two books by Gordon, J'alks on Prayer 
 and J'alks on Power. We have a Young Peoples’ Meeting 
 
VACATIONS 163 
 
 in the Baptist Church here. After the summer in London 
 when he was converted, he would sometimes lead our 
 prayer-meeting. If I had the job, I’d get him to do it 
 for me. Others did too, for they liked to hear him. He 
 could always hold the audience. Sometimes the young 
 people are a little noisy at their meeting, but they was still 
 when he spoke. 
 
 Sometimes he’d tell us he was going to be a missionary— 
 seemed to think he was mapped out forit. If *twas worldly 
 pleasure he’d wanted, he could have had everything. But 
 he was so much different from others! All his pleasure 
 seemed to be in going about doin’ people good. The last 
 summer here at one of the meetings he said he was goin’ to 
 the Mohammedans. He spoke about the National Bible 
 Institute one night, but I don’t remember just what he said. 
 
 If we was out all night on the boat, he’d roll in the 
 blanket and sleep on deck. The others would be in the 
 cabin. There might be a bed to spare, but he’d take the 
 deck. He liked it better. 
 
 One summer here, he and Mr. T. held open-air meetings. 
 They’d begin right in front of the hotel, about 7.30, and 
 get the crowds sort of interested. They had a little organ 
 and would sing. William could sing quite well. He had a 
 strong voice. ‘Then they’d go into the Opera House, which 
 they’d rented for a while. Sometimes it was crowded full. 
 The last two evenings they’d have after-meetin’s, and many 
 stayed. After the meeting was opened—in the Opera 
 House—anybody could speak. Many did. The superin- 
 tendent of the mills spoke one night, and sometimes 
 ministers would come and speak. 
 
 It was blowin’ awful heavy one night—dark and rainy. 
 Two other fellers was out with us, his friends. About two 
 o’clock in the morning, the bran’ new boat we was towin’, 
 the steam-launch, rolled over and sunk, the rope parted. 
 I remember what he said. 
 
 ‘ The boat’s gone,” he called down to the other fellers. 
 * We can go faster now!” 
 
 Lots and lots of boats that night that was about as big 
 as the T'satsawassa was wrecked—that is, the sails were 
 torn and the spars broke, so that they had to be towed in. 
 
164 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 The storm commenced about eleven o’clock. James Perry 
 and another of William’s friends was with us. I don’t 
 think any of us slept. I know I didn’t, and I know William 
 didn’t. It was about six o’clock next morning when we 
 got into Beverley Farms and anchored (after a record run 
 of nearly two hundred miles in eighteen hours). When all 
 was made safe, William said : 
 
 “Now we'll have family prayers, and give thanks for 
 gettin’ in.” 
 
 He always had prayers for us every mornin’. Whoever 
 was on the boat, we always had prayers and a blessin’ at 
 table. Sometimes she’d be so keeled over that we’d be 
 standin’ up, but that didn’t make no difference. We always 
 had a blessin’. If we was in port Sunday mornin’, we'd 
 go ashore to church. Perhaps I’d stay aboard—someone 
 had to be there. But before he’d go ashore, he’d have 
 prayers with me on the boat. He was always thoughtful, 
 that way, of others. If he’d been my own brother he 
 couldn’t have used me any better. 
 
 Once he and Mary was out, and a fog and heavy sea came 
 on. We couldn’t get back to the landing stage, so they 
 went to my house and stayed all night. He just said so 
 natural-like to my wife: 
 
 “Have you anything to eat? We didn’t get much 
 supper! Can you give us some milk and cake?” 
 
 My wife went to all the meetin’s. She likes him, too. 
 He wasn’t like one of the summer people! Td be awful 
 glad to have his picture, so’d my wife. 
 
 When he and I’d go out alone sometimes, I’d ask where 
 he’d like to go. 
 
 ‘““ Anywhere,” he’d say, “so as to get out where it’s 
 quiet.”’ 
 
 And he’d go down into the cabin with his Bible or some 
 other book and study all the time we was out. It might be 
 three hours or so. And when we’d come in, he seem to be 
 kind of refreshed in his mind. 
 
 He always read the Bible before turnin’ in at night. It 
 didn’t matter who was there. If I was alone with him, 
 he’d read it to me and explain it. Yes, he was jolly and 
 he was happy in the work he was undertakin’. 
 

 

 
 PICNICKING NEAR SHELVING ROCK, 
 
 Harriet and ‘The Parson”. 
 
 Pa 
 
 To fuce page 165. 
 
VACATIONS 165 
 
 A group of later recollections, running on into 
 Princeton years, come from the family of his College 
 friend, Sherwood Day. The Days were fortunate 
 in having a camp of their own, tucked away on the 
 low shoulder of a mountain overlooking Lake 
 George. William loved the spot, close to that ex- 
 quisite expanse of water, and loved still more the 
 Christian fellowship recalled in the following letters 
 from Mrs. Day and two of her daughters, Bryn 
 Mawr students : 
 
 In the very first conversation I ever had with Bill, we 
 discovered that we both believed in the inerrancy of the 
 Bible, and I can feel yet the hearty grasp of his outstretched 
 hand as we laughed in serious sympathy over our common 
 orthodoxy! That was the summer he joined us at Shelving 
 Rock. I had hesitated to invite him, because it was real 
 camping, and I fancied he might need some conveniences 
 which are no longer considered luxuries but necessaries. I 
 soon learned, however, that comforts were easily dispensable 
 with him, and that no change of surroundings interfered 
 with his habitual walk with God. 
 
 That same summer Harriet was withus. You remember 
 how she dubbed him “‘ the Parson ’’, but you cannot know 
 the amused little smile with which he responded to her fun. 
 They two frolicked together so much that I remember 
 Sherwood’s saying : 
 
 ‘I wish the College fellows could see this side of Bill!” 
 
 We knew that he went in for athletics and out-door life, 
 but until then it seemed as if even they were serious under- 
 takings. But with Harriet the playful side was brought 
 out, and we were so glad to know the boy under the manly 
 exterior. 
 
 I, too, loved his standing simply and firmly for the eternal - 
 verities of our faith. That staunchness of his, after all his 
 thought and study, has meant much to me. And I have 
 learned much, too, from the way Bill stood for truth. We 
 
166 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 always noticed that the more earnest he became, the lower, 
 not the louder, he spoke. When others in argument would 
 raise their voices, he would grow more quiet and speak more 
 low, with the result that everyone listened. 
 
 I recall one day a somewhat heated discussion of the 
 suffrage question. We finally got down to Genesis, Mother 
 basing her plea against it on the teachings of that book, 
 upon which one of our pro-suffrage guests denied much 
 belief in Genesis, anyway. I don’t remember that up to 
 that point Bill had said much, but somehow, the first thing 
 I knew, he was talking along and the other guests were 
 listening. We all listened. Much that he said was beyond 
 us. We did not know enough to follow it fully. But the 
 impression was made that there is such a thing as a deep 
 scholarly conviction as to the authority and inspiration of 
 the book (Genesis) and that the speaker was no unthinking 
 conservative, but an intelligent believer in the Bible. 
 
 I do not know that he convinced the friends in question. 
 They did not talk long. But he did what I felt at the time 
 was perhaps more needed, showed that we could hold to 
 the old views in these matters, after thinking. Real 
 certainty and security in the truth is unruffled when the 
 attack comes. He was so sure, as on that occasion, of what 
 he believed—Him whom he believed—that he did not get 
 excited and loudly insist on his opinions. He could wait 
 to say what he knew. And the more you knew him the 
 more sure you felt that, keen and active as his intellect was, 
 that knowledge was the result of no mere theological train- 
 ing, but of personal experience, and prayerful Spirit-guided 
 study of the Word of God. 
 
 The thought of him always challenges me. I mean that 
 one knew that he was holding himself and always would 
 hold himself to what he felt to be best and highest. He 
 would not stoop to petty excuses or take advantage of 
 loopholes for self-indulgence. Here at camp he was up 
 early for his Morning Watch as regularly as, I am sure, he 
 must have been at the Seminary. I can see his Testament 
 coming out of his pocket now! As surely as he carried 
 that Testament he carried his religion. You felt he would 
 never be one to want a vacation from religious duties. 
 
VACATIONS 167 
 
 They were not “‘ duties”? to him. It was just natural to 
 him to take that morning hour for fellowship with God, 
 and he bore its imprint all through the day. 
 
 It was always an opportune time with Bill to speak of 
 the deepest things, because with him they were the realest 
 things. His spiritual life affected all his living, the hearti- 
 ness and wholesomeness of his fun as well as his religious 
 activities. . . . If there arose in his mind a doubt about 
 the rightness of something, he put the doubtful thing aside 
 at once. For example, he became much interested in a 
 card-game someone was playing here in camp and took 
 some share in it. Then, one day he would not play it any 
 more, and you knew he had questioned the rightness of his 
 taking such a keen interest in the game and had shut down 
 on it immediately. It was this steadfast turning from 
 doubtful things that gave him, I think, the atmosphere of 
 separateness that was part of his power. 
 
 And then, I suppose, this single-mindedness in his 
 spiritual life was the secret of that fixity of purpose which 
 took him straight along whither he had set out. What Bill 
 started, you might be quite sure he would finish. From the 
 room in which I write I can see where a limb has been cut 
 off a tree, high up from the ground. He cut it off. Someone 
 had expressed a wish that the dead limb might go, because 
 it looked like an ugly clenched fist, and he set out to do it. 
 The ladder was not long enough and he had to prop it up— 
 it was on a steep hillside, and almost dangerous to do so. 
 He had to hang on with his right arm and saw with his left, 
 in an almost impossible position. I can see him doing it 
 now, sawing and resting and sawing again, but sticking at 
 it until the limb fell. 
 
 One other thing I want to speak of, but I don’t quite 
 know what to call it. It was something that made you 
 feel that everything would be all right as long as he was 
 around. It was partly, I suppose, his consideration for 
 others. 
 
 When, one evening last September, we ran down to the 
 Sagamore, to take him there to get an automobile for Lake 
 George, he discovered that we had no flash-light in the 
 launch with which to examine the engine if necessary. He 
 
168 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 insisted upon giving us his, one from his travelling bag, 
 because he felt we ought not to be without it. And as we 
 started home, leaving him there on the dock, he called out 
 to Rosalie and me—novices at running the engine—not to 
 forget about an oil-cup, I think it was, that it was important 
 we should attend to. | 
 
 He was such a one to rely on! And it seemed to me 
 that his Lord’s spirit of service had so permeated his life 
 that it not only led him to set his face to the field of greatest 
 need, but meanwhile made his life full of little services, day 
 by day, that many would not see the occasion for. It was 
 easy to see his force, his devotion to Christ’s cause, but it 
 was only after having him around that you began to 
 appreciate what a Christlike man he was. / 
 
 A kindness he did in a New York station is one of the 
 things I have recalled repeatedly. We were going out to 
 take a train, when I noticed that he had dropped behind, 
 and turning, I saw him helping a very poor immigrant 
 woman who was struggling along with many bundles and 
 a baby in her arms. How well I remember, at camp, how 
 he used to stand near the kitchen door and watch for a 
 chance to be of use. We often said that the table was never 
 cleared so quickly as when Bill did it. 
 
 And what a help he was in some German I had to do (for 
 an examination at Bryn Mawr)! The days at camp were 
 pretty well filled with picnics, canoeing, swimming, etc., 
 and it was not easy to make time for study. He was 
 anxious that I should finish that German reading. If a 
 thing had to be done, it was his way to do it and then put 
 it from his mind. When there were a few minutes before 
 it was time to start on a picnic or other outing he would 
 say: °° Can’t we get some of that German done now?” I 
 do not know how I should ever have “ tackled ”’ it without 
 this encouragement. His help during the few days he was 
 there gave me, so to speak, “a running start’’, and I was 
 able to finish it in the required time. .. . 
 
 But with all his seriousness there was abundant playful- 
 ness and love of fun. He had an inexhaustible store of 
 
VACATIONS 169 
 
 tricks, which kept us entertained many an evening. I 
 remember specially a spelling-game called ‘“‘ Ghost ’’ which 
 he enjoyed immensely. 
 
 And one other thing about Bill—his instant and full 
 obedience to the will of God. There never seemed to be 
 any conflict in his life between duty and pleasure, for the 
 moment he saw what his duty was, he did it. There was 
 no procrastination about him. If the thing was hard to 
 do, it made no difference. Feelings were out of the reckon- 
 ing. ‘‘ Obedience irrespective of feeling’? was, perhaps, 
 the strongest thing about his life. 
 
 One of the most vivid memories I have of him is as he 
 sat before our open fire at camp one Sunday evening. We 
 were all there singing hymns, and the only light was that of 
 the fire which shone full on his face. How earnest it was, 
 and with what joyousness he sang the hymns he loved best ! 
 “ O Love that will not let me go” and “ In the secret of 
 His presence ” were among his favourites. But it was not 
 the firelight only that brought that light to his face. These 
 lines come to me as I recall the scene and especially that 
 look of joy and calm: 
 
 ** Beautiful now his face had grown, 
 But the beauty was something not his own; 
 A solemn light from that blessed land 
 Within whose border he soon must stand.” 
 
 ‘“ His ideals and ambitions were so great,” wrote 
 Klsa Frost, then a young nurse in a hospital, “‘ that 
 anyone who knew him at all could not but be in- 
 fluenced by them, and to us who counted ourselves 
 friends of his they were much more. 
 
 “My most vivid remembrance of William has 
 not to do with any football game or sailing, but with 
 a Communion Service we all attended together at 
 Camden. I somehow think of him most often then 
 —not that he did or said anything to fix it in my 
 mind, but just that he seemed to be so in the spirit 
 
170 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 of the service. When at times I am tempted to 
 wonder whether the end in view is worth all the 
 work and struggle, just to remember the separa- — 
 tions and hardships he was facing is enough to start 
 me on again.”’ 
 
 
 
PART III 
 PRINCETON SEMINARY 
 
Many crowd the Saviour’s kingdom, 
 Few receive His Cross. 
 
 Many seek His consolation, 
 Few will suffer loss, 
 
 For the dear sake of the Master, 
 Counting all but dross. 
 
 Many sit at Jesus’ table, 
 Few will fast with Him, 
 
 When the sorrow-cup of anguish 
 Trembles to the brim: 
 
 Few watch with Him in the garden 
 Who have sung the hymn. 
 
 But the souls who love Him truly 
 Both in woe and bliss, 
 
 These will count their very heart’s blood 
 Not their own but His ! 
 
 Saviour, Thou who thus hast loved me, 
 
 Give me love like this. 
 Selected. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 
 1909-1912. dit. 21-24 
 
 **'The purpose of his life had been ‘ to turn many to righteousness.’ 
 . - . The Bible was the source of all his power. He learned it, he 
 loved it, he lived it. It made him what he was. And I am hearing 
 from all parts of the world testimonies from men and women who 
 were drawn to give their lives to the Saviour through his teaching. 
 That is a noble purpose to live for, is it not ?’’—Written of the Rev. 
 Prebendary Webb Peploe, by his widow. 
 BorvDEn’s life at Princeton was strenuous almost 
 beyond belief, for in addition to his studies, many 
 outside claims were crowding upon him. He was 
 now of age and had considerable share in the 
 management of large financial interests. His 
 mother had come to live at Princeton, partly in 
 order that his younger sister might see as much of 
 him as possible. Their home was a centre of hos- 
 pitality, and as Mrs. Borden was still far from 
 strong, upon William devolved the keeping of house- 
 hold accounts as well as a host’s responsibilities. 
 His studies were absorbing, even more so than he 
 had anticipated, and the pressure of other interests 
 was not allowed to encroach upon the time they 
 demanded. All this meant a heavy programme 
 and no little exercise of self-discipline. 
 
 He had decided upon taking the full course at 
 173 
 
174 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Princeton Seminary largely on account of ques- 
 tionings that had disturbed his mind during his 
 senior year at Yale. When urged to return as 
 graduate secretary of the Y.M.C.A. he exclaimed to 
 a College friend : 
 
 ** Gee whiz! I want to pull out for a while and 
 see where [am. I must take time for thought and 
 study rather than rush on in the same sort of 
 activities.”’ 
 
 So honest and earnest a nature could not be 
 satisfied with uncertainty in the most vital issues. 
 Three years of close mental application was a price 
 he willingly paid for the strength that comes from 
 knowledge and settled convictions. He was at the 
 same time enlarging his missionary outlook by a 
 special course of study for his Yale M.A. This had 
 been gone over in detail with Professor Harlan P. 
 Beach, before leaving College, who wrote : 
 
 The ground covered was enough Arabic to secure the 
 degree if offered alone, and in addition a broad course of 
 missionary reading, mostly having to do with the science of 
 missions, Mohammedanism and missionary biographies. 
 He was duly entered as a graduate student with permission 
 to pass his examinations at his convenience. Had he done 
 so, he would have covered more than even the best Master’s 
 
 Degree men are required to take. ‘“ Factors in Missionary 
 Efficiency ’’ was the theme decided upon for his thesis. 
 
 Borden did not share the view expressed by some 
 Student Volunteers that it will be time enough when 
 they reach the mission field to study missions. 
 Even amid the pressure of College and Seminary life 
 he was following out a steady course of missionary 
 reading, which made him always interesting and 
 
STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 175 
 
 helpful at the Band meeting and gave definiteness 
 to his prayers. There was nothing half-way about 
 such a preparation. It was deep and thorough- 
 going. 
 
 “Thus Bill entered upon three years of busy, 
 happy life at Princeton,”’ wrote his friend Campbell. 
 “The studies were absorbing and the social life 
 
 congenial. He was a member of the Benham Club, 
 
 the oldest eating club of the Seminary. He played 
 most of the games, but was especially fond of tennis. 
 He was a leader among the Student Volunteers and 
 was always present at the early morning prayer 
 service of the Band each Wednesday. 
 
 “In addition to the duties and pleasures that 
 centred about his life in the Seminary, Bill had many 
 responsibilities outside Princeton itself. In the fall 
 of 1909 he had been made a trustee of the Moody 
 Bible Institute in Chicago. In the spring of 1910 
 he was appointed a delegate to the Edinburgh Mis- 
 sionary Conference by the China Inland Mission, 
 and in the fall was made one of the directors of the 
 National Bible Institute of New York City. He 
 also became a member of the North American 
 Council of the China Inland Mission and of the 
 American Committee of the Nile Mission Press. 
 
 ‘“ It is easy to see that the calls on his time would 
 be many. Few men of his age could so well have 
 handled the duties that pressed upon him from all 
 these quarters. His singleness of purpose helped 
 him and gave such direction to his life that no one, 
 even among his nearest friends, saw anything but a 
 quiet, consistent, unhurried doing of each task that 
 
 vv 
 
176 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 came. Almost every month he went to New Haven 
 to look over the work of the Yale Hope Mission. 
 The unusual feature of his relationship to all such 
 organizations was that he was never satisfied with 
 merely giving generous financial aid. In addition, 
 he always gave time, thought and counsel, usually 
 conducting a service at the Mission when he went 
 to New Haven. New York, New Haven and 
 Chicago trips succeeded one another, and still he 
 never seemed to neglect his work, though he 
 carried a much heavier schedule than the average 
 man. More than this, he stood very high in 
 scholarship. 
 
 ‘* Life at Princeton was brightened by the happy 
 home influences that surrounded him. The Borden 
 home was hospitably open to all. Students, mis- 
 sionaries and prominent lay workers were frequent 
 visitors. The tennis court, back of the house, was 
 the scene of many hotly contested games. In spite 
 of his busy life, Bill never neglected his body. He 
 made it a point to get an hour’s exercise daily if it 
 was possible. How his eyes would light up at the 
 prospect of a good game of tennis! Back he would 
 come from a class, hustle into tennis clothes and then 
 out to the court. He was never more than an 
 average tennis player, but he played hard all the 
 time and gave his opponent plenty of work.” 
 
 It is interesting to see from letters written only 
 a little later the impression Borden made upon 
 members of the Faculty during those full years at 
 Princeton. 
 
STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 177 
 
 “I never saw, perhaps, a finer example of mens 
 sana wm corpore sano,” recalled Professor Brenton 
 Greene. “I used to think as I saw him from my 
 study window dashing down Library Place on his 
 bicycle to the early morning recitations, ‘ that man 
 is so strong and so sane that his prospect of life is 
 better than that of any other student in our 
 Seminary.’ 
 
 ‘* His memory was as wax to receive an impres- 
 sion and as marble to retain it. He had the happy 
 faculty of seeing at once the gist of a question and 
 going straight to the point. Yet he never relied on 
 this power, but used every means at his command. 
 Rarely if ever was he absent from the classes, and I 
 cannot recall a single instance of inattention on his 
 part. As might have been expected, he attained 
 the natural result. He became distinguished as a 
 scholar. . . . I well remember my deep regret, the 
 feeling of positive loss, at the time of his graduation, 
 when I read his last paper, knowing that I should 
 never have another from him.” 
 
 ‘*‘ No student has exerted a greater personal in- 
 fluence over me than did William Borden,” wrote 
 Professor Charles Erdman. “ This was due both 
 to the fact of our intimate friendship and to his 
 peculiarly strong and impressive personality. His 
 judgment was so unerring and so mature that I 
 always forgot there was such a difference in our 
 ages. His complete consecration and devotion to 
 Christ were a revelation to me, and his confidence 
 
 in prayer a continual inspiration. 
 N 
 
178 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ‘* He had doubtless inherited unusual gifts, but 
 these were developed by the most careful and per- 
 sistent discipline, requiring great determination and 
 fixity of purpose. . . . There was much in his life 
 to tempt him to less strenuous work, to lure him to 
 self-indulgence and content with imperfect achieve- 
 ment. There was also the test of resolution that 
 comes from apparently conflicting duties. His re- 
 sponsibilities were great, his days crowded with a 
 multiplicity of demands. Neither social duties, 
 however, nor filial duties, nor the duties of Christian 
 stewardship were allowed to draw him from the 
 supreme duty of preparation for his chosen work. 
 The strain of unremitting application was relieved 
 by a keen sense of humour and a delight in the 
 society of relatives and friends. His friendship was 
 one of the most stimulating with which I have been 
 blessed.” 
 
 ‘It was as his teacher in Church History that I 
 knew him best,” said Dr. John de Witt. “ His 
 fidelity, high intelligence and rare grasp of the sub- 
 jects brought before him made on me a deep im- 
 pression. But it was his spiritual ideal of life, his 
 absolute loyalty to it, the sound judgment he showed 
 in actualizing it, not only in the choice of his work 
 and field, but in the details of daily activity and the 
 simplicity and sincerity of his character, that led me 
 not only to respect but to reverence him. I have 
 had a few students among the many I have taught 
 who have distinctly called into action this feeling 
 of reverence, and he was one of them.” 
 
STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 179 
 
 A like note is found in not a few other letters 
 from men of experience and Christian standing. 
 Dr. Henry W. Frost, for example, Director in North 
 America of the China Inland Mission, invited Borden, 
 when only twenty-two, to a seat on its Council. 
 They had been in correspondence for years, and Dr. 
 Frost, who knew him intimately, felt no hesitation 
 in asking him to become one of the burden-bearers 
 at the heart of the Mission, sharing the prayer and 
 faith as well as the problems of those responsible 
 for rts direction. 
 
 The disparity in age was seldom noticed,’ he 
 recalled. “ There was an equality of mind which 
 made him one with those with whom he was associ- 
 ated. None could help noticing the freshness of 
 thought and enthusiasm of spirit characteristic of 
 youth, and the Council rejoiced in these. But they 
 were not accompanied by immaturity of judgment. 
 When he spoke, it was evident that he was thinking 
 carefully and broadly. He was a constant illustra- 
 tion of the fact that it is no vain thing for a man, 
 even a young man, to obey the injunction ‘If any 
 of you lack wisdom let him ask of God.’ Christ, 
 through the study of the Word and through prayer, 
 was made unto him ‘ wisdom’. His advice, there- 
 fore, was sought by not a few who, in the average 
 case, would have gone to the man of more years. 
 And he seldom failed to help. If he did fail, his 
 eagerness to be of assistance made him a greater 
 help than the average man would have been, though 
 more wise through experience.” 
 
 Borden’s love for the faith principles of the China 
 
180 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Inland Mission was strong and growing. He owed 
 not a little in the deeper things of the spiritual life 
 to his friendship with Dr. Frost, whose love for him 
 was almost that of a father for a son. William had 
 long consulted him in matters of importance, and 
 especially as to his prospective relations with the 
 Mission. In this connection, Dr. Frost continued : 
 
 The first time William Borden spoke to me about offering 
 himself to the China Inland Mission was while he was in his 
 sophomore year at Yale. He had already come to feel that 
 his work should be in China and desired to put himself in a 
 position to reach that land. But I felt he was then too 
 young to come to a positive conclusion as to the country in 
 which he should serve, and I advised him to postpone 
 considering the matter. 
 
 At the end of his university course he again consulted 
 me about going to China. Once more I advised him to 
 defer the decision, and urged him to prepare himself further 
 by taking the seminary course at Princeton. This he did, 
 with credit to himself and to the Seminary. 
 
 Toward the end of his studies at Princeton, he again 
 offered himself to the Mission for work in China. This time 
 I was persuaded that God was indeed in the matter of his 
 _ application. But to further test him, I asked if he had 
 considered offering himself to the Presbyterian Board rather 
 than to us. He replied that he had; that he highly 
 esteemed the Presbyterian Board, but that there were three 
 reasons why he was more drawn to the China Inland 
 Mission—firstly, on account of its imter-denominational 
 character ; secondly, because of its emphasis upon evange- 
 listic work; and thirdly, because it held the personal and 
 pre-millennial coming of Christ. So at last we considered 
 his application and accepted him for service in China. 
 
 This was only ten days before Borden’s gradua- 
 tion from Princeton, so that he had already been for 
 more than two years a member of the Council. It 
 
STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 181 
 
 was an unusual coincidence when his case came up 
 for final consideration and, as a candidate, he had 
 to be asked to withdraw while the Council pro- 
 ceeded to accept one of its own members as a pro- 
 bationer of the Mission. 
 
 But all this took place gradually, while the busy 
 years at Princeton were passing on. During his 
 first summer vacation from the Seminary, Borden 
 went to Europe, as we have seen, representing the 
 China Inland Mission at the Gicumenical Missionary 
 Conference in Edinburgh (1910), where he was the 
 youngest of two thousand delegates. It was there 
 that Mrs. Borden learned for the first time that his 
 decision was taken to give himself definitely to 
 work for Mohammedans in China, if that proved to 
 be the Lord’s will. Miss Annie Van Sommer had 
 arranged for a gathering of representative workers 
 from Mohammedan lands at the house where she 
 was staying. Dr. Zwemer was chairman, and Mr. 
 (now Canon) Gairdner and Dr. St. Clare Tisdall, all 
 from Cairo, were there. In order to introduce 
 people to one another, Dr. Zwemer asked each to 
 rise and give his or her name and field. When 
 Borden’s turn came, he mentioned without hesita- 
 tion as his prospective field the Mohammedans of 
 North-West China. 
 
 That was a full summer! The missionary 
 gatherings in Edinburgh were followed by a brief 
 visit to Norway with Mr. Robert P. Wilder, who 
 was then working among students in England and 
 on the Continent. Of Borden’s stay in their Nor- 
 wegian home Mr. Wilder wrote: 
 
182 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 He took a real interest in our home-life and all our 
 doings. He helped the children to learn to ride their 
 bicycles, running by each of them in turn. Mrs. Wilder 
 specially remembers how, when a box of aerated water had 
 come by train and she was thinking of sending to the station 
 for it, we saw to our surprise William Borden coming up the 
 steep hill with the box on his shoulder. . . . He and I had 
 long talks over God’s Word and work, frequently pausing to 
 pray about the matter we were discussing. He seemed 
 never out of sight of the Mercy Seat. 
 
 A week in the Engadine gave Borden the con- 
 quest of the Piz Pallu and the Piz Julier as glorious 
 memories, and a few days at Lucerne brought de- 
 lightful intercourse with Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
 Campbell, who were there on their wedding journey. 
 
 He joined us in Lucerne. There were also a young 
 Trishman and his bride in the same Pension, and for several 
 days we five had a great time! We went to the Glacier 
 Garten ; went rowing on the lake and swimming in it, and 
 altogether acted like a bunch of kids. Our afternoon teas 
 were a wonderful mixture of assorted cakes and unlimited 
 cups of tea. 
 
 Three weeks in Hanover were given to intensive 
 study of German, and opened Borden’s eyes to 
 threatened dangers. To Dr. Frost he wrote : 
 
 HANOVER, July 20, 1910. 
 
 Only to-day I read in a London paper “ Unity of 
 Christendom — gigantic task! Twenty-four American 
 Episcopalians have undertaken to bring about a union of 
 Christians all over the world—Protestants, Greek Catholics, 
 Roman Catholics, everybody, everywhere!’ Things are 
 certainly rushing to the climax. I wonder what will come 
 next ? 
 
 People talk about peace in Peace Congresses, but in 
 reality here in Europe they are preparing for a great 
 
STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 183 
 
 struggle I believe. . . . How wonderful that we have “ that 
 blessed hope”’ to look forward to, ‘“‘ the glorious appearing 
 of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ ! ” 
 
 On the voyage home he was deep in Arabic with 
 a view to the advanced course he was taking in that 
 language and Aramaic. ‘I spent most of my time 
 in London buying books,” he wrote to his friend 
 Campbell, ‘‘and am taking home a small library of 
 theological and Oriental literature.” 
 
 Back in Princeton he threw himself as before into 
 all the religious and other activities of seminary 
 life. Letters from many of his classmates might 
 be quoted, but the following from the Rev. James 
 M‘Cammon, now a missionary in China, will suffice 
 to give an impression of his influence. 
 
 His thoroughness, especially in his studies, was evident 
 to us all. He kept up his work from day to day, so that he 
 was not ‘‘ rushed ”’ as many of us were when examinations 
 came round. So well did he have his knowledge in hand 
 that long before the three hours’ period for an exam was 
 over he would have finished his paper and handed it in, to 
 the plaudits of his fellow-students. It was my habit to 
 look in on a class-mate in Alexander Hall daily, and there, 
 two or three afternoons in the week, I was sure to find Bill 
 Borden and his friend, Mr. Fowler, doing extra-curriculum 
 work on Arabic. On one such occasion I discovered that 
 they had formed the project of making an Arabic Concord- 
 ance of the Bible, and had actually begun work upon it. I 
 had known of their studiousness before, but this more than 
 astonished me. 
 
 He was one of the most faithful attendants we had at the 
 Y.M.C.A. and Student Volunteer meetings in the Seminary. 
 He took his turn in leading such meetings, and his messages 
 were of a devotional and missionary character that 
 evidenced thorough preparation of mind and heart. One 
 term he undertook to go through the Reports of the 
 
184 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 World’s Missionary Conference which he had attended in 
 Edinburgh, giving them in the form of a résumé week by 
 week. Those talks I shall never forget. His mastery of 
 the facts was astonishing. He gave us in clear, condensed 
 statements, from carefully prepared notes, a synopsis of 
 each of these Reports, bringing out the spiritual bearing 
 of the facts dealt with. It was a remarkable evidence 
 of his knowledge as well as zeal in connection with foreign 
 missions. ... 
 
 He was a convinced believer in the personal and pre- 
 millennial coming of our Lord. He looked for that glorious 
 Advent as the hope of the Church and the only hope for the 
 world. I often had conversations with him on this subject, 
 and the extent of his knowledge and intensity of his con- 
 victions left their mark on my mind. One of my most 
 prized possessions is a book on the Lord’s Coming he once 
 gave me as we were talking together. 
 
 Another conviction that dominated his life was that the 
 Bible, from first to last, is the inspired Word of God. To 
 him it was the Book of books. He had not only an 
 intellectual grasp of its teachings such as one may get in a 
 theological seminary, but he had the spiritual understanding 
 of it which only comes through prayerful and devotional 
 study in humble dependence on the Spirit of God. . . . 
 
 The secret of William Borden’s life, as it seems to a 
 fellow-student, was his belief in the sufficiency and abiding 
 presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. For this was more than 
 a belief, it was with him an experimental reality. 
 
 This reality and the strength he derived daily 
 from his study of the Word of God made him feel 
 intensely the drift away from these things in 
 modern university life, a subject upon which he had 
 written to Mr. Wilder, as leader of the Student 
 Volunteer Movement, in the hope of Te him 
 to return to America : 
 
STUDIES AND HOME LIFE 185 
 
 PRINCETON, January 29, 1910. 
 
 The spirit that prevails is this: in all scientific studies 
 Darwinian evolution is taught, often anti-theistically, and 
 seldom is any attempt made to harmonize it with the early 
 part of Genesis, for example. Ussher’s chronology is still 
 the cause of trouble, in the light of geology, ete. But these 
 are the least serious issues. Much more serious is the 
 general agnostic atmosphere pervading everything and 
 deadening all convictions, those as to sin and truth 
 included. In line with this, a broad spirit of tolerance 
 is insisted upon, especially in matters of religion, and any 
 and all are branded as narrow who dare think otherwise. 
 That word “ narrow ”’ is one of Satan’s deadliest weapons, 
 it seems to me; for most people would apparently rather 
 
 be shot than be called narrow. Thus it is even as Christ. ~ 
 
 predicted—the broad way to destruction is thronged, but © 
 few are climbing the narrow way that leads to life. 
 
 When we come to distinctively Christian and religious 
 matters, the situation is even worse. “ Practically every- 
 one ”’ believes that the Bible is full of contradictions and 
 errors, etc., ete. Kven earnest Christians seem to feel that 
 it doesn’t matter. The New Testament fares little better 
 than the Old at the hands of critics, and the supernatural 
 is expunged from both. And against all this scarcely a 
 voice of any authority is raised in protest, from within the 
 ranks. In the women’s colleges things are even worse, as 
 I know from my sister who was at Vassar and from a recent 
 conversation with one of the Y.W.C.A. secretaries, who is 
 firm in the faith and alive to the situation. 
 
 In spite of everything the work of the Y.M.C.A. goes 
 on, men are really won to Christ, and many good workers 
 are sent into active Christian service. But it is in spite of 
 all this. 
 
 Now the leaders, I feel, do not all of them by any means 
 see the real tendency of this modern teaching, especially 
 of the Biblical teaching, which in the name of Christianity 
 really discredits Christ and the Christian faith. Either 
 they do not clearly see the issues, or if they do, they seek to 
 compromise. This is evident from the kind of speakers 
 
186 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 approved of, and still more so from the Bible teachers and 
 teaching that are popular. There is tremendous zeal and 
 energy among many students and leaders here, and my 
 only desire is that they should find the truth. Dr. Zwemer 
 sees all these things clearly and has helped a lot, but now 
 he is going, and as far as I know there is no one with a 
 theological training (which is almost essential, to enable 
 one to see the real issues) who can take his place and help 
 to keep the student movement pure, strong and evangelical. 
 The need is tremendous and the opportunity immense. I 
 should like nothing better than to get into the fight, right 
 here in the American colleges, should the Lord close my 
 way to the foreign field. 
 
 One other word I would like toadd. The teaching about 
 the kingdom of God is entirely with the idea that it is 
 gradually to be brought in by our making the world better. 
 This of course fits in with the socialistic ideas of the day, 
 but hardly with Scripture! And here again, in the college 
 world scarcely a voice is raised in support of God’s Word. 
 
 I do hope you will come and help. I feel sure it would 
 mean a better quality of work here, and a greater number of 
 really equipped men for the work abroad. And I would 
 like to add a word about the China Inland Mission, which 
 I am only beginning really to know and with which you 
 doubtless are better acquainted. What I want to say is 
 that if you join yourself with them in some capacity, you 
 will have a praying constituency behind you such as no 
 other organization I know of would afford. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 WIDER ACTIVITIES 
 
 1910-1912. At. 22-24 
 
 ** And evermore beside him on his way 
 The unseen Christ shall move, 
 That he may lean upon His arm and say, 
 ‘Dost Thou, dear Lord, approve ?’ ” 
 H. W. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Ir was the summer of 1910. Borden was leaving 
 for Europe to attend the Edinburgh Conference, , 
 and on the steamer, amid all the bustle of departure, ~ 
 was engrossed in conversation with a friend whose 
 acquaintance he had recently made. 
 
 ‘* T want to help you in the work you are doing,” 
 he said quietly, ‘“‘and will send you a hundred 
 dollars a month for the next year. If you will come 
 to my cabin I will write the first cheque now.” 
 
 ‘*We went down’, Mr. Don O. Shelton recalled 
 when that friendship had become one of the most 
 precious in his life, ‘‘ and he wrote the cheque and 
 gave it to me. When I reached home I found it 
 was for two hundred dollars. ‘ He is going abroad’, 
 I thought, ‘and has made it for two months this 
 time.’ But exactly one month later came another 
 cheque for two hundred dollars, and again the 
 
 following month, two hundred. ‘ He is giving it 
 187 
 
188 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 all in six months’, was my conclusion. But when 
 he returned at the end of the summer he continued 
 to send two hundred dollars a month through the 
 entire year. _ 
 
 **I was learning to know Will Borden, one of 
 whose characteristics it was always to do better than 
 he promised, more and not less than he led you to 
 expects: 
 
 Needless to say, this was when he felt his con- 
 fidence to be well founded, as in the case of The 
 National Bible Institute under the leadership of 
 Mr. Shelton. 
 
 Twenty years of work in the Y.M.C.A. and in 
 Bible Conferences had convinced this earnest evan- 
 gelist that something new and different in the way 
 of approach was needed if the multitudes who never 
 darken a church door were to hear the gospel. He 
 had given up a promising career for no other reason 
 than that he realised the Christian man’s responsi- 
 bility for a situation such as we have around us 
 to-day. More than half the people in the United 
 States, as he well knew, are outside the membership 
 of any church. Seventy-five per cent of the young 
 men are bowing down to gods of wealth, lust and 
 pleasure, and are worshipping them alone. 
 
 ** Of what value is it preaching to empty seats,”’ 
 he questioned, “ when the people who ought to 
 occupy them are in crowded tenements or on street 
 corners or in the parks, and do not hear the faintest 
 whisper of the message ? ” 
 
 The outcome, after much prayer and considera- 
 tion, was a simple, earnest effort on the part of busi- 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 189 
 
 ness men, chiefly, to reach the crowds in the city of 
 New York. It was on a June day in 1907 that the 
 first meeting was held at the busy hour of noon. A 
 low platform under a tree in Madison Square 
 Garden was all the equipment, with a little organ 
 and a group of singers to lead familiar hymns. The 
 speakers were business men, the language was that 
 of the newspaper rather than the theological hall. 
 But the results were amazing. It was no unusual 
 thing to see three hundred men listening with 
 riveted attention through the daily half-hour, and 
 very soon other noon meetings had to be com- 
 menced—and a School for Lay Evangelists, to meet 
 the need of training for such work. 
 
 ‘‘ The people hear the gospel gladly,”’ Mr. Shelton 
 was writing a few weeks later. ‘ In Madison Square 
 Garden more men have assembled daily to hear the 
 message than gather on Sundays for any Protestant 
 church service in Greater New York, with two or 
 three exceptions. And what representative throngs 
 we have! Working-men from near-by buildings, 
 clerks from offices, boot- blacks sitting on their 
 kits, street cleaners, messenger boys, police officers, 
 contractors, well-to-do business men, drunkards, 
 the unemployed and discouraged, editors and pro- 
 fessional people, all listening with the same interest. 
 The attention is so close at times as to be pathetic. 
 . . . The gospel is still the most winsome message 
 in the world. 
 
 ‘* We never take up a collection. The one object 
 is to reach men, and from the beginning we have had 
 crowds of them. The work thus far has resulted in 
 
190 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 many transformations of character. Some of those 
 who have been greatly helped have expressed their 
 purpose to unite with churches at once. We be- 
 lieve that we are carrying out Christ’s idea in going 
 to the people and not waiting for them to come to 
 
 23 
 
 us. 
 
 All this interested Borden deeply, and further 
 acquaintance with the work only increased his sense 
 of its value, so that when he was asked in the fall 
 of 1910 to become one of the directors of the 
 National Bible Institute, it was a call he could not 
 refuse. The position was no sinecure. It involved 
 frequent journeys to New York to attend the 
 Board Meetings, and the problems of the work 
 called for much thought and prayer. A large part 
 of his vacation in the summer of 1911 was spent in 
 the heat and hurry of New York, taking a full share 
 in meetings and other activities. Of this Mr. 
 Shelton writes : 
 
 I find in my diary under date of May 8, 1911, the follow- 
 ing sentences: “‘ Mr. William W. Borden came up from 
 Princeton to-day to co-operate for a few weeks in the work 
 of the National Bible Institute. A noble, generous, 
 Christ-like young man—a rare gift of God to the work 
 under his care!” 
 
 We placed a desk for him in my own office, and he con- 
 tinually manifested an eager desire to enter into the work 
 in every possible way. Responsibility for our four gospel 
 halls was delegated to him, and he kept in close touch with 
 the superintendents, counselling with them in regard to all 
 the details. He investigated men who were being con- 
 sidered for positions of trust. He gave much thought and 
 prayer to drafting the “‘ Principles and Practice” of the 
 National Bible Institute, and prepared a document which 
 has been of exceeding great value in its development. . . . 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 191 
 
 It is a joy to recall his first appearance at our Madison 
 Square meeting in the open air. His address was brief, but 
 remarkably vigorous and direct. He stood there as a 
 witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ. As he spoke, 
 I rejoiced that the large company of listeners had before 
 them one of the manliest, purest and noblest of our Lord’s 
 modern witnesses. His radiant face, unaffected manner, 
 and joyous, fervent testimony to the power of the Christian 
 faith made the occasion memorable. .. . 
 
 As a member of the Board of Directors he was a valued 
 counsellor. He turned the white light of Scripture on every 
 matter that came up for consideration. His presence in any 
 meeting was a moral and spiritual tonic. 
 
 A 
 mond 
 
 All his work began, continued and ended in prayer. m 
 
 Again and again, at our office, he would suggest before tak- 
 ing up the consideration of any important matter that 
 we should unite in waiting upon God. Prayer was to him 
 the first means to be used in accomplishing any object. 
 And how simple, direct, unselfish and childlike his prayers 
 were! He prayed as one confident that his aon rast 
 Father would hear and answer. 
 
 That he was thinking deeply about the work of 
 the National Bible Institute was evident from the 
 fact that he had arranged, before coming to New 
 York, for a visit that he thought would be helpful 
 from a representative of the China Inland Mission. 
 “ Owe no man anything, but to love one another ” 
 was a scriptural injunction that was pontine 
 with him, and he wanted the practical methods 
 explained by which a Mission with a thousand 
 foreign and four thousand native workers was en- 
 abled to carry it out. With an intimate knowledge of 
 the book-keeping of the Mission, Miss Mary Brayton, 
 now its Assistant Treasurer in Philadelphia, had 
 consented to make the matter plain, and it was an 
 
192 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 interesting hour in the New York office as it was all 
 talked over in detail. 
 
 By never making a purchase, large or small, 
 until there was money in hand to pay for it, the 
 visitor explained, and by carefully estimating run- 
 ning expenses and putting aside a daily proportion 
 of the income, whatever it might be, to meet them, 
 there were always funds in hand for coming charges. 
 
 One cannot be running out every day to pay one’s gas 
 bill! But we can and do put aside a dollar and a half a 
 day, or whatever the proportion may be, towards it. We 
 do the same for our rent, fuel, electric light, taxes on pro- 
 perty and all other running expenses, so that the money 
 is there when it is needed. We paid the rent on Saturday, 
 for example, but on Monday we begin just the same putting 
 away for the next month or quarter. And these funds are 
 never drawn upon for any other purpose. We reckon that 
 we have spent that money already. And as to other things, 
 we never give an order unless we have actual cash in hand 
 to meet it. We do not draw upon probabilities. 
 
 *“ If the China Inland Mission can do it, never 
 making an appeal for funds nor taking a collection,”’ 
 Borden exclaimed, “surely we can, by prayer and 
 watchfulness! And I do think we ought not to 
 buy even a broom until we have money in hand to 
 pay for it.” 
 
 But it was not only in these ways he sought to 
 be of use. The work was growing fast and it was 
 hard to keep pace with its requirements. Per- 
 manent offices were badly needed, and some place 
 
 in which the students could meet for their classes. 
 A hall also was required for the old Jerry McAuley 
 Mission which had passed into Mr. Shelton’s care. 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 198 
 
 The neighbourhood in which they hoped to locate 
 was a desperate one, almost every corner for 
 many blocks in all directions being occupied by 
 saloons or dance-halls, with a plentiful sprinkling of 
 moving-picture houses. Thousands of young people 
 thronged the streets at night, and there were few 
 places open to them in which the influences were 
 not harmful. 
 
 The time had come for action, so Borden set to 
 work under Mr. Shelton’s direction to make the 
 needs and opportunities known and to gather a 
 circle of praying friends. Together they investi- 
 gated every street in that section of ‘“‘ the tender- 
 loin”, and made a map showing exactly what there 
 was and was not—a map which was in itself the 
 most powerful of appeals. The circular Borden 
 sent out, signed with his own name as chairman of 
 the Building Committee, contained the map in full, 
 dotted over with more than three hundred ‘hell-traps 
 of various sorts, and the plea for the activities of 
 the National Bible Institute where it was so much 
 needed “‘as a protest against iniquity and for the 
 reaching of the sin-sick and the protection of the 
 innocent ”’. 
 
 More important still was his work that summer 
 in forming the “ Circle of Intercession’. This was 
 his own idea, born of his conviction that prayer is 
 fundamental and not secondary in work for God. 
 Buildings might be put up and organization de- 
 veloped, but unless prayer kept pace with these 
 activities all would be in vain. So it was for prayer 
 
 Borden appealed most earnestly of all. 
 O 
 
194 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ‘‘Our Circle of Intercession has become most 
 dear to us,’’ Mrs. Shelton wrote, when these efforts 
 had been rewarded, ‘‘ for we realize that it was 
 through Mr. Borden’s consecrated energy and per- 
 severance that it was formed two years ago. That 
 was a wonderful summer for us—Mr. Borden gave 
 so much time and thought in Mr. Shelton’s office 
 to the work; and for me there stands out vividly 
 the morning when he most feelingly expressed his 
 sympathy because of a dreaded ordeal before me. 
 Every contact with him revealed the depths of a 
 wonderful Christian character.” 
 
 Back for his last year at Princeton, Borden was 
 harder at work than ever, preparing a course of 
 lectures he was to deliver to the students of the 
 National Bible Institute. The Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians was his subject, and the long list of books he 
 consulted shows how thorough was his preparation. 
 Luther’s commentary he enjoyed especially, but it 
 was only one of several. How he could possibly 
 make time in the midst of his third year in Seminary 
 to complete and deliver these seven lectures is a 
 mystery. Week by week his class in the Marble 
 Collegiate Church numbered from sixty to a hundred. 
 
 “His handling of this difficult Epistle showed 
 that he had completely mastered his material,” 
 was Mr. Shelton’s comment. ‘‘ His outlines were 
 clear and comprehensive, and he made the book a 
 living message to the hearers.” 
 
 Early in 1912 the National Bible Institute was 
 passing through a time of no little trial. In spite 
 of the Directors’ efforts to keep clear of debt, a 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 195 
 
 deficit of five thousand dollars had accumulated. 
 There was much prayer about it, and an earnest 
 desire to learn by past experience. But how was 
 the deficit to be wiped out ? 
 
 A meeting of the Board was called, for it looked 
 as though there would have to be serious retrench- 
 ment. Borden had come up from Princeton. His 
 financial contributions to the work were consider- 
 able, and no one was looking to him to do more. 
 The morning had passed in earnest conference and 
 prayer. 
 
 ~ I must make the 2.04 train,” he said at length, 
 ‘and shall have to run for it.” 
 
 He was writing on a slip of paper as he spoke, 
 and pushing it across the table to the Treasurer, 
 Mr. Hugh Monro, he made for the door. It was a 
 cheque for five thousand two hundred dollars! 
 Without a word he had taken up the entire indebted- 
 ness. It was not only the gift, but the way in which 
 it was done that was so like him! Nobody dreamed 
 he was writing a cheque, and before they realized 
 it he was gone. 
 
 But he gave more than money. A few weeks 
 later he was in the throes of his final examinations 
 at Princeton. The mountains were calling him. 
 After a heavy winter’s work he was eager for a few 
 weeks in Switzerland among the glaciers he loved. 
 His passage was taken and everything was ready 
 when it came to his knowledge that Mr. Shelton 
 was on the verge of a breakdown. Calling at his 
 office Borden found that the doctor had ordered him 
 
196 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 to take complete rest and change. The need for it 
 was urgent, but there seemed no one to take his place. 
 
 ‘Looks as though I might have to change my 
 plans a bit, and help,” was the entry in Borden’s 
 journal for that day. 
 
 Quietly then his passage was given up and the 
 trip postponed. He was sufficiently familiar with 
 the National Bible Institute to step in effectively, and 
 before long was fully in charge. This meant that 
 he was responsible not only for the office-work. 
 There were the daily open-air meetings, the over- 
 sight of the students in their classes and practical 
 training, the charge of four Rescue Missions and of 
 the monthly magazine, as well as the financial care 
 of all this work. 
 
 It was a serious undertaking, the more so as 
 Borden had decided before entering upon it that 
 he must not be his own Providence in the matter of 
 supplies. Mr. Shelton was not himself in a position 
 to finance the work, and when sufficient means were 
 not forthcoming he and his helpers had no resource 
 but prayer. To strengthen them in their attitude ~ 
 of looking to the Lord in faith had long been Borden’s 
 desire. He believed that the promises of God were 
 absolutely true and dependable. Here then was 
 an opportunity for proving the reality of his own 
 faith as well as strengthening that of his fellow- 
 workers. He would continue to give just as he had 
 been giving, but would not permit himself to escape 
 difficulties by the easy method of drawing upon his 
 own banking account. And this led to a remark- 
 able experience, as Mrs. Shelton writes : 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 197 
 
 There followed a time of severe testing along financial 
 lines for the young substitute. Days passed without a 
 dollar coming in—and mission superintendents and others 
 needing their salaries! Some time before, Mr. Borden had 
 faced the question of making up known deficiencies in the 
 various Christian enterprises in which he was interested, 
 and as his gifts were always thoughtfully and prayerfully 
 given he had decided against it. Yet here was a tempta- 
 tion! How much easier to put his hand in his pocket and 
 make up this lack than to spend hours in prayer alone and 
 with friends, awaiting God’s gracious answer. But the 
 answers came—and with them such a sense of the reality 
 and nearness of the living God as days and hours of ease 
 could never have afforded. 
 
 It was the hottest summer that had been known 
 in New York for many years, and the Bordens had 
 just moved from Princeton to a house on Fifty- 
 fifth Street for the time being. It was convenient 
 to be nearer the office, but the heat of the city was 
 overpowering. In spite of this, Mrs. Borden went 
 with her son to some of the noonday meetings and 
 put off her sailing for Europe until he could come. 
 But that was weeks ahead and meanwhile the pres- 
 sure of the work was heavy. 
 
 ‘* Gee,’ William exclaimed in the office one day, 
 ‘“‘if I had known what I was coming up against, I 
 doubt whether I would have made this suggestion ! ”’ 
 
 Yet in addition to all his other occupations he 
 was caring for an invalid uncle that summer. He 
 made time to go frequently to Long Beach, where 
 his relatives were staying, to be a cheer to his aunt 
 and to wheel the patient up and down the board- 
 walk in a chair, returning to the city by an early 
 train in the morning. 
 
198 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ‘<'The Price of Power ” was the title of an article he 
 was writing at Long Beach one Sunday for the paper 
 of which Mr. Shelton was editor. It was the out- 
 growth of a thought that had long been in his mind. 
 A saying quoted by Mr. Moody had deeply impressed 
 
 him: “ The world has yet to see what God can do > 
 
 with a fully consecrated man.” To be such a man 
 was his highest ambition, and he was learning how 
 real and practical is the price that has to be paid. 
 He was learning that it comes into everything, and 
 that it may be expressed in the one inclusive word, 
 obedience. Obedience toward God had come to be 
 the keynote of his life—instant, glad obedience. To 
 him, the Word of God was final. 
 
 *’ On the other hand—” some of us are tempted 
 to say. 
 
 To him there was no “ other hand ”’. 
 
 If he saw that in anything his life did not square 
 with the Word of God, that ended it. The secret 
 of power, he had learned, was that secret open to all 
 — ‘the Holy Spirit whom God hath given to them 
 that obey Him” (Acts 5. 82). He was speaking 
 from experience when he wrote : 
 
 There must be a definite determination to do God’s will 
 —a will to obey. Christ laid down the conditions of 
 discipleship as denying self and following Him, and that is 
 just what is required here. Each one must examine his 
 life and put away all sin, not holding on to anything which 
 the Spirit tells him he should let go. 
 
 One of the hardest things anyone can have to do is to 
 confess he has wronged another. But we read, “ If thou 
 bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy 
 brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 199 
 
 before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy 
 brother, and then come and offer thy gift”’.1 We touch 
 upon this matter of confession to others because it has 
 played such a prominent part in spiritual awakenings, and 
 because of the conviction that lack of such confession is the 
 cause of much powerlessness in Christian service. 
 
 Questions of life-work also need to be met squarely and 
 the enquiry honestly made: ‘‘ Lord, what wilt Thou have 
 metodo?” The answer may not come at once, but there 
 should be a willingness and determination to do His will, 
 whatever service it may involve, at home or abroad. These 
 are but suggestions to indicate what is involved in absolute 
 consecration to Christ, which is so necessary to real 
 obedience. Do you lack power? Ask yourself, Have | 
 ever fully surrendered? Have I definitely consecrated 
 myself, put myself at God’s disposal, to use as He deems 
 best ? 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that there are those who 
 at some time of vision or conflict have won a victory and 
 taken this great step, and yet have not subsequently had 
 real power in their lives. What is the reason? Cases 
 differ, but may we not say that it was probably through 
 failure to make this principle of complete obedience per- 
 manent in their lives? Christ’s rule for discipleship as 
 given in Matthew 16. 24 has been referred to above. Do 
 you know how it reads in Luke, and what the additional 
 feature is which has there been preserved for us? It is 
 just one word: ‘If any man would come after me, let 
 him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow 
 me.” Daily—that is the thing to note. It is not enough 
 to take up the cross once and then lay it down when the 
 burden grows wearisome. 
 
 The need for daily application of this principle appears 
 in two ways : first, old questions which have been faced and 
 downed as we thought, will come up again; and secondly, 
 there will arise new problems which were not covered by 
 the original act of consecration. Many who have faced the 
 question of life-work, and decided for the foreign field, 
 illustrate this. It was at tremendous cost they made the 
 
 1 Matthew 5. 23, 24. 
 
200 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 decision, and possibly there was the thought that after- 
 wards all would be plain sailing. But no: the same old 
 problems had to be fought out, and there were new ones 
 too to face. The principle of Christ’s supremacy could not 
 be lost sight of for a moment. Satan, when defeated, left 
 Christ but for a little season. How much less, when he has 
 been ousted from our lives at some conference or on some 
 mountain-top, will he despair of finding a foothold when we 
 are on the plain of everyday living again. Obedience, 
 which is the price of power, must not only be absolute but 
 daily. Are we paying this part of the price ? 
 
 It may be there are others who have consecrated them- 
 selves to Christ and do seek to make this a daily attitude of 
 life, and yet fail to receive real power. Where this is the 
 case, may it not be due to imperfect application of the 
 principle of obedience ? It is comparatively easy to isolate 
 the great issues, the big problems, and to deal with them 
 by the grace of God. But there are many so-called “ little 
 things’? which are apt to be overlooked. These grieve 
 and quench the Spirit in no less real a way than the others.! 
 They are difficult to deal with, and many Christians do not 
 seem to recognize what they are at all—though ignorance 
 does not save us from the consequences in this any more 
 than in other spheres. We must study the Word of God, 
 daily see ourselves in that glass, asking God to search us 
 and know our hearts, try us and know our thoughts, and 
 see if there be any wicked way in us. 
 
 Mr. Speer in his Principles of Jesus has indicated four 
 great guiding principles that our Lord laid down—namely, 
 purity, honesty, unselfishness and love. These are simple 
 and plain enough; yet how many of us are checking up 
 our every thought and word and deed by these? How 
 many of us are asking in everything, “ Is this pleasing to 
 Him?” Our personal habits, our amusements, all our 
 intercourse with others, business or social, should be con- 
 sidered in this light. We must seek not merely to avoid 
 
 1 “ Self-pleasing in little things brings darkness. The lightest cloud 
 before the sun will prevent it from focussing its rays to a burning point 
 through the convex glass. Spiritually, the result is the same, even 
 with small, thin, scarcely visible acts of  self-will.”—ALEXANDER 
 MactarENn, D.D. 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 201 
 
 quenching the Spirit; we must be careful lest we grieve 
 Him. 
 
 Obedience, absolute and unqualified, which is made a 
 daily principle of living, carried even into little things, this 
 is the price of power. 
 
 Of course there must not be a selfish motive, and we 
 must not fail to ask in definite believing prayer for the Holy 
 Spirit. But if the conditions are met, God will make good 
 His promise, “‘ Ye shall receive power”. How the power 
 will manifest itself in our lives need not concern us here. 
 The saying still holds good—* The world has yet to see 
 what God can do with a fully consecrated man.” Only as 
 filled with His Spirit can we hope to win men from darkness 
 to light and to faith in Christ. Shall we not each one 
 resolve, from henceforth, to obey Him absolutely in all 
 things, small and great ? 
 
 Reality was what gave his words their power. 
 Before Mr. Shelton’s return to the office Borden 
 was tested, himself, in the matter of putting duty 
 before pleasure. A great occasion was on hand, 
 the first reunion of his class at Yale, and he managed 
 to get away for the week-end. But the triennial 
 banquet, the climax of the proceedings, did not 
 come until Monday, and there was a Board meeting 
 of the National Bible Institute that day that he felt 
 he should attend. Great was the consternation of 
 his class-mates when it appeared that he was leaving 
 before the banquet. Many old friends were there, 
 among them his room-mate, Mac Vilas. 
 
 “ Indeed you won’t go to New York,” they ex- 
 claimed with insistence. ‘‘ We won’t let you go!” 
 
 ‘** But we might as well have talked to the Rock 
 of Gibraltar,’’ Vilas said. 
 
 Borden managed to return the following day, 
 and that he entered fully into the spirit of the 
 occasion may be seen from the note in his journal : 
 
202 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 “ Attended to a few things at the office and left for 
 New Haven, getting there just in time for the picture 
 and the parade to the field for the game, which Yale 
 won from Harvard, 9-6. Our class wore farmers’ 
 costumes. It was a great jollification ! ” 
 
 The summer had taken more out of the young 
 substitute than he realized, but even on the voyage 
 to Europe for a much-curtailed holiday he was 
 working at an important task. The Moody Bible 
 Institute of Chicago, of which he was a Director, 
 thought it timely to prepare a statement setting 
 forth the doctrinal standards of the institution. 
 Borden was on the committee appointed for that 
 purpose. His application papers to the China In- 
 land Mission had already called for such a statement, 
 and he had with him the Doctrinal Basis of the 
 National Bible Institute, covering the same ground, 
 which had been largely his work. This he enclosed 
 with his letter to Chicago, concerning which Dr. 
 Gray wrote to Mrs. Borden: “ The letter is much 
 valued by me, and I trust that when the biographer 
 has finished with it, it may be returned to my hands.” 
 
 Kronprinz Wilhelm, 
 July 21, 1912. 
 
 Dear Dr. Gray—In accordance with your wishes I am 
 taking this opportunity to draw up my suggestions for the 
 proposed doctrinal basis of the Moody Institute. 
 
 First, the purpose : 
 
 As I understand it, the need is for a statement embodying 
 what we feel is essential to sound doctrine in the teaching 
 and work of the Institute. This statement should be an 
 aid to the trustees, not only as a standard for checking up 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 203 
 
 the teaching staff, but also to guide them in the selection 
 of new trustees at any time—written assent to the doctrinal 
 basis being required of all present and future members of 
 the Board of Trustees as well as the teaching staff, and also 
 a pledge to give notice of any future change of opinion, and 
 willingness to resign if requested to do so. 
 
 Second : 
 
 What is the essential to sound doctrine? I feel that 
 the inspiration and authority of Scripture; God: His 
 being and attributes; Christ: His person (Deity) and 
 work (atonement) ; the Holy Spirit : His person and work ; 
 man’s sinful state and need of regeneration; the way of 
 salvation from the guilt of sin (justification by faith alone) 
 and from the power of sin (sanctification) ; the return of 
 Christ and future rewards and punishments are the 
 essentials, 
 
 Third: 
 
 The order and phrasing of the statement. I would say 
 at once that I do not feel that it will be possible to employ 
 Scripture language only, both from the nature and extent 
 of the ground to be covered and the exigencies of the 
 present day with its requirement of great exactness. We 
 should, however, seek to be as brief as may be consistent 
 with clearness. Coming then to the actual phrasing, I 
 would suggest the following : 
 
 DocTRINAL Basis 
 OF 
 THE Moopy BIBLE INSTITUTE 
 
 We believe in the inspiration, integrity, and authority 
 of the Bible. By this is meant a miraculous guiding work 
 of the Holy Spirit in their original writing, extending to all 
 parts of the Scriptures equally, applying even to the choice 
 of words. Moreover, it is our conviction that God has 
 exercised such singular care and providence through the 
 ages in preserving the written word, that the Scriptures as 
 we now have them are in every essential particular as 
 originally given, so that the result is the very word of God, 
 
204 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 the only infallible rule of faith and practice, containing all 
 things necessary to salvation and sound doctrine. 
 
 We believe that there is one living and true God, a 
 spirit infinite, eternal and incomparable, etc. (see West- 
 minster Shorter Catechism). And we believe that in unity 
 of this Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the 
 Son and the Holy Spirit (see Episcopalian Prayer Book). 
 
 We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ and in 
 His death on the cross as a true substitute, and that His 
 death was a sufficient expiation for the guilt of all men. 
 
 We believe in the Holy Spirit as a Divine person, 
 distinct from the Father and the Son, who convicts the 
 world of sin, regenerates and dwells in the true believer, 
 quickening and empowering him in all his life and service. 
 
 We believe that all men are by nature sinful and unable 
 to save themselves, and that “‘ except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God ”’. 
 
 We believe that men are justified by faith (in Jesus 
 Christ) alone and are accounted righteous before God only 
 for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 We believe that sanctification is a work of God’s free 
 grace whereby, being renewed in the whole man, we are 
 enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto 
 righteousness. 
 
 We believe in the second coming of our Lord, as a 
 personal, visible and glorious advent on this earth. 
 
 We believe in the everlasting conscious blessedness of the 
 saved and in the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost. 
 
 As a conclusion I would suggest an adaptation of the 
 paragraph in the Moody Church statement to the effect 
 that while specifying these doctrines, we by no means 
 undervalue or set aside any Scriptures of the Old or New 
 Testaments. 
 
 Of course I do not pretend that this is final, but it em- 
 bodies my thoughts for the present. I hope you can read 
 it all. Kindly keep the enclosed typewritten statement 
 with this letter (of which I have no copy by the way) as I 
 would like to refer to the two together in Chicago when we 
 meet next fall, p.v.—Sincerely yours, 
 
 Wiuu1am W. Borven. 
 
WIDER ACTIVITIES 205 
 
 ‘So often nowadays we are told that it does 
 not matter what men think, it only matters what 
 they do,” wrote a friend of Borden’s from Bryn 
 Mawr College. “It is a striking contrast to turn 
 back to the Gospels and find the Lord Himself re- 
 versing this emphasis. His great question was, 
 ‘What think ye of Christ?’ ‘Who do men say 
 that Iam ?’ 
 
 “This Bill realized fully. He knew that it 
 mattered supremely what he thought. He was a 
 great help to me always in the Christian life, and I 
 wish that more might know of his devotion to 
 Christ. I wish that people who say it doesn’t 
 matter what you believe could only see how much 
 it mattered to him, and the results those very beliefs 
 produced in his life.” 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 
 
 1912. Att. 24 
 
 ‘‘The Master said, ‘ Come, follow ’— 
 That was all. 
 Earth’s joys grew dim, 
 My soul went after Him ; 
 I rose and followed— 
 That was all. 
 
 Will you not follow if you hear His call ?”’ 
 Selected. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT exercises were especially memor- 
 able the year that Borden graduated from Princeton, 
 as they coincided with the Centennial celebrations 
 of the Seminary. From all over the world came 
 congratulatory messages, for Princeton—the oldest 
 seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America— 
 had graduated almost six thousand students, over 
 four hundred of whom had gone abroad as mission- 
 aries. Many distinguished visitors were there for 
 the occasion and the Borden home was full of guests. 
 ‘* President Patton was at his best,’? William 
 wrote, ‘“‘and preached a tremendous sermon on 
 ‘The faith once for all delivered to the saints ’.”’ 
 Dr. Speer’s missionary address was equally 
 inspiring. After recalling the devoted lives of 
 
 Princeton graduates in many a field, he continued : 
 206 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 207 
 
 We owe it to the fathers who went before us to stand 
 afraid at no opportunity and flinch at no call. They taught — 
 us the glory of unswerving fidelity. The men who have.’ 
 gone out from these halls have always known the duty of — 
 staying by duty until the sun went down. They were | 
 taught that God is patient and that His servants need not 
 be anxious or afraid. mi 
 
 The world-situation which confronts us in these 
 days he spoke of as God’s gift to us, and not God’s 
 gift only, but God’s test of our worthiness to be the 
 heirs and executors of such a past. 
 
 od 
 
 The Seminary has always sought to breed in her sons a 
 dauntless and unfearing supernaturalism. The missionary 
 enterprise is too vast for a mere human will to sustain. 
 Its difficulties, its necessities, its problems, its ideals call 
 for God. Its sufficiency is in Him alone. Here, men 
 learned that God was in the beginning and that God stands 
 back of the end. With God and for God such men have 
 dared all things, and have not fainted nor grown weary. 
 
 In the midst of the celebrations came the granting 
 
 of diplomas to the graduating students. In his 
 Line-A-Day journal, Borden noted : 
 
 May 6, 1912. 
 
 Got our diplomas in Alexandria Hall. The academic 
 procession was quite brilliant. Four fine addresses in the 
 afternoon. Speer’s was best, on Princeton in the Mission 
 Field. 
 
 And the following day : 
 Had our final prayer-meeting of the Benham Club. 
 
 Little more than six months remained for Borden 
 of life in his own land, but how full they were of 
 far-reaching activities! ‘‘ He fulfilled a great time 
 
208 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 in a short time,’ as was said of Keith Falconer. 
 He was running a race, and his eye was on the 
 goal. 
 
 The very day that he had taken this last ex- 
 amination at Princeton, for example, found him in 
 New York with Dr. John R. Mott, deep in plans for 
 the work he was to take up in the fall in connection 
 with the Student Volunteer Movement. A three 
 months’ schedule had been made out for visits to 
 many colleges. He was to speak especially on the 
 need of the Moslem world, before sailing himself for 
 Egypt on his way to China. It was felt that a few 
 months at Cairo, in the language school, would be 
 of advantage, not only for the study of Arabic and 
 the Koran but of Mohammedanism generally, before 
 attempting to meet it in its strongholds in Western 
 China. 
 
 Released from his responsibilities in Mr. Shelton’s 
 office, Borden had spent a few weeks in Switzerland, 
 climbing the Jungfrau and the Wetterhorn, and had 
 returned to New York refreshed for his work in the 
 colleges. Then came his ordination, which took 
 place in the Moody Church, Chicago, as its elders 
 recorded : 
 
 He was one of our boys. This was the church of his 
 childhood. . . . Here he returned for ordination after com- 
 pleting his Seminary course, and as we examined him in 
 view of that step his testimony rang true as steel to every 
 cardinal doctrine of Holy Writ. 
 
 On September 9, 1912, we set him apart to the ministry 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in a foreign land, 
 little thinking that his ministry was to be to our Lord 
 himself in the better land. 
 
"806 2bnd anf O7, 
 
 “AUVNIWAS NOL 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 209 
 
 The service was simple but impressive, marked 
 by contrasts that gave the daily papers a good deal 
 to say at the time. That a man of his age and 
 prospects should turn away from all the world could 
 offer and devote himself to a life of loneliness and 
 hardship in a remote province in China, “ the darkest 
 and meanest section of the Orient’, as one paper 
 seriously said, became a nine days’ wonder. But 
 another Chicago daily gave an account of the pro- 
 ceedings that must have arrested attention, printing 
 in full on its front page the hymn that seemed to 
 sum up all there was to be said : 
 
 When I survey the wondrous cross 
 On which the Prince of Glory died, 
 
 My richest gain I count but loss 
 And pour contempt on all my pride. 
 
 Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
 That were an offering far too small ; 
 Love so amazing, so divine, 
 Demands my life, my soul, my all. 
 
 Borden did not see the papers. That side of the 
 matter was painful to him. In a circular letter to 
 twelve Princeton class-mates who kept up a corre- 
 spondence, he mentioned the fact of his ordination, 
 adding : 
 
 I am sorry there was such unnecessary publicity, and 
 hope you fellows will discount what was said very liberally. 
 
 The real impressiveness of the service lay in the 
 love and sympathy of the great assembly for one 
 who had grown up among them, whose consecration 
 to Christ they knew full well; in the sermon by Dr. 
 
 James Gray, Dean of the Bible Institute, and the 
 P 
 
210 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 charge given by Dr. John Timothy Stone, Pastor of 
 the Fourth Presbyterian Church, and in the prayers 
 with which Borden was committed to the Lord, on 
 the spot from which Moody had so often preached, 
 as the ministers and elders gathered round him: 
 
 We set him apart for the work to which he was called. 
 The hands of the lowly were laid upon his head. The 
 Holy Spirit filled him. The grace of the Omnipotent was 
 in his life. 
 
 That grace was very real in his mother’s experi- 
 ence as well, in the hour which was to her the climax 
 of her sacrifice. From his childhood she had con- 
 secrated him to the Lord, and his call to missionary 
 work had come as an answer to her many prayers. 
 Yet, since his father’s death, she had learned to 
 lean upon him in everything, and the very thought 
 of separation seemed at times unbearable. Firm 
 as a rock, there had been no wavering in his purpose. 
 He knew as well as she did that her deepest desire 
 was one with his own. They stood together, and 
 his strength had helped her no less than his tender- 
 ness. But the separation had hitherto been pro- 
 spective. Now it was coming near. His ordination 
 meant, as Mrs. Borden realized, that they were 
 committed to the sacrifice that seemed as if it must 
 cost her very life. 
 
 And then—there is no explaining it apart from 
 the presence of the Lord Himself—in that hour she 
 held back nothing, a wonderful peace filled her 
 heart. Physical weakness, even, was replaced by 
 strength, so that she was able to meet all the de- 
 mands of the dreaded situation when it came, with 
 

 
 O. 
 
 JHICAG 
 
 isl,, {C 
 
 1 
 
 THE MOODY CHURGC 
 
 ce page 210, 
 
 a 
 
 To f 
 

 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 211 
 
 gladness. For there is a fellowship with Christ 
 which infinitely compensates any cost at which it 
 is won. 
 
 To a friend who expressed surprise, about this | 
 time, that he was “throwing himself away as a | 
 missionary ”’, Borden replied : 
 
 ** You have not seen heathenism.”’ | 
 
 He had; and the constraining love of Christ 
 made him, as one of his Princeton class-mates put it, 
 ‘a missionary, first, last and all the time”. ar 
 
 ‘No one would have known from Borden’s life | 
 and talk that he was a millionaire,”’ wrote another, | 
 ‘ but no one could have helped knowing that he was | 
 a Christian and alive for missions.”’ 
 
 Yet, to him, souls were just as precious in America 
 as across the ocean, and his responsibility as great 
 for all whom he could reach. His friend, Mr. Hugh 
 Monro, Treasurer of the National Bible Institute, 
 said in this connection : 
 
 Not a few of us, under the influence of evangelistic 
 services, or some other spiritual tonic, are filled with zeal 
 for the salvation of others. At certain seasons, when we 
 have given ourselves specially to prayer, perhaps, and the 
 study of God’s Word, we are awakened to a new concern 
 about the spiritual welfare of those around us. But there 
 was nothing spasmodic about Borden’s zeal. He had that 
 _ unique thing, an abiding passion for the souls of men. It 
 was his constant thought; it seemed never absent from 
 his mind. 
 
 Most of us look for occasions which may afford a suit- 
 able opportunity for soul-winning, and excuse our lack of 
 devotion and diligence because we feel that such an oppor- 
 tunity is not present. We continually hesitate to broach 
 
212 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 the subject of another’s salvation, lest the occasion should 
 not be favourable. Yet Borden found such opportunities 
 continually. 
 
 Visiting with his mother, for example, in the 
 home of some relatives, he became concerned about 
 the butler, who was giving way to drink. At dinner 
 one evening, when not sober, he let some ice-cream 
 slip off a plate, almost ruining a Worth gown. 
 Learning that he had been dismissed, Mrs. Borden 
 mentioned the matter to William. It was not 
 their responsibility, maybe, but the following 
 Sunday his mother’s maid, walking in the direction 
 of the butler’s house, heard quick steps behind her 
 and found William at her side. 
 
 ‘* Melanie,’ he said, ‘‘ I am going to enquire for 
 X. Couldn’t we have prayer together that God 
 will speak to him to-day ? ” 
 
 ‘‘So we stopped right there on the street,” his 
 old friend recalled. ‘“‘ Then Mr. William went on 
 to the house, and the butler truly turned to the 
 Lord that day. Only a fortnight later, he took 
 pneumonia and died.” 
 
 Did Borden regret the effort he had made to see 
 him ? 
 
 It was not easy in his busy life to make time for 
 correspondence, but did he regret the letters he 
 wrote, at some sacrifice, to a poor fellow in jail to 
 whom, apparently, he was a stranger ? 
 
 ‘‘T think of you a great deal,’’ came the answer 
 from a Connecticut prison, “and I am more than 
 thankful for what you have done for me. I have 
 had a hard time getting back to faith, but with your 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 213 
 
 help and the help of God I can call myself a Christian 
 again. . . . I have received a letter from my wife 
 saying that you have sent her a copy of St. John’s 
 Gospel. She is very thankful to you for it, also for 
 what you have done for me. You cannot imagine 
 how much the brute I feel when I think of having 
 done what I have—leaving my wife and baby, to 
 be locked up in a felon’s cell. . . . I hope with the 
 help of God that henceforth I will be a better man.” 
 
 The real test for fitness for missionary work 
 abroad is not so much a high educational standard 
 as the faith and love, the prayer and devotedness, 
 that win men at home. 
 
 Borden’s message in the colleges was of the sort | 
 to appeal to a strong type of personality. Fuller 
 knowledge had but deepened his conviction that 
 the two hundred millions of the Moslem world offered 
 by far the hardest as well as the most neglected field 
 for missionary enterprise. The very difficulties } 
 attracted him. | 
 
 Kansu, for example—that lonely, far-off province 
 in North-West China, with its three million Moslems 
 among a hardy population of Mongols, Tibetans 
 and Chinese—was the sphere in which he hoped to 
 labour. Peking was much more central, strategic, 
 some would have said. There were not a few 
 mosques in the capital, and a post as organizing 
 secretary for work among Mohammedans through- 
 out China could easily have been arranged. But 
 Borden was looking for a harder billet. Just 
 because Kansu was isolated, thrust out between 
 
214 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Mongolia and Tibet, because the missionaries were 
 few and the work difficult, because the people he 
 longed to reach were there in multitudes, and no 
 one was set apart for work among them, Kansu was 
 the place of his choice. 
 
 Ho-chow was there with its bigoted, proud race 
 of Moslems, Arab by descent. ‘There, too, were the 
 Tung-hsiang, remnants of the old Hun tribes in the 
 mountains, long since converted to Islam at the 
 point of the sword. And there were the Salas from 
 distant Samarkand, with their Turkish speech and 
 faces, Moslem exiles who had tramped across Central 
 Asia, hundreds of years ago, to find a home beside 
 the Yellow River. And these virile, dominating 
 sons of Islam were mingled in the western part 
 of the province with Tibetans from the border- 
 marches and Mongols from north of the Great Wall. 
 More than this, the Great Road running through 
 the province—itself a thousand miles from east to 
 west—led on across the Gobi Desert to the Moslem 
 heart of Central Asia, linking up city after city in 
 which no missionary had ever laboured, and giving 
 access to the mingled peoples of that vast region, 
 one of the most neglected, from the missionary point 
 of view, in the world. That waiting heart of Asia, 
 how it appealed to him, just because so few were 
 willing to lay down their lives that these, too, might 
 have the message of Redeeming Love ! 
 
 A handful of brave men and women were there, 
 representing the two missions working in the 
 province, and forty days’ Journey westward, two 
 lonely pioneers, almost as far from the nearest mis- 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 215 
 
 sionaries on the other side.!_ More than sixty cities 
 in Kansu itself without a witness for Christ; four- 
 fifths of its population still unreached ; three million 
 Moslems for whom no one could be spared, because 
 the inadequate staff was absorbed in work among 
 the Chinese; no doctor, no hospital in the entire 
 province, and those vast lands beyond with millions 
 more for whom there were so few to care—that was 
 the sphere that attracted Borden. And that is the 
 sphere that with but little change as regards its 
 Mohammedan population is waiting still.? 
 
 With a background of such thoughts and pur- 
 poses, Borden brought to his work in the colleges 
 a reality that could not but be felt. The joy and 
 inspiration of a great task possessed him, and he 
 could not speak of missionary work, even in its 
 hardest phases, as sacrifice. To him it was privilege 
 of the highest order, the privilege that comes not to 
 angels but to men, and to us once only, now, in this 
 fleeting life. 
 
 Two books were his travelling companions at 
 this time, and give some idea as to his talks in the 
 colleges—one, the mission-study book for the year, 
 Dr. Zwemer’s Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa 
 and Asia, full of facts that were the strongest argu- 
 
 1 The China Inland Mission and the Christian and Missionary Alliance 
 were the only missions working in Kansu at that time. The solitary 
 outpost in Central Asia is the city of Ti-hwa-fu, in which Mr. George Hunter 
 and Mr. P. C. Mather of the China Inland Mission are still holding the fort 
 alone. Pray for them and for the people to whom their lives are given. 
 
 2 Fuller information about this most interesting province can be obtained 
 from two books written on the spot, recent publications of the China Inland 
 Mission : The Call of China’s Great North-West, by the present writer, and 
 
 Despatches from North-West China, by Miss Mildred Cable and Miss 
 Francesca French. 
 
 Pere ai 
 ‘ 
 
 we Oe ae 
 
216 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 ments, and the other a little paper-covered volume 
 so worn and marked as to tell its own story. Many 
 a journey it had taken with him, and its truths 
 were being wrought into his deepest life. The little 
 book cannot be purchased but it can be obtained 
 as a gift from the author, and in that way is in keep- 
 ing with its theme, ‘“‘ The Threefold Secret of the 
 Spirit”. Divided into three parts, it deals first 
 with the secret of the incoming of the Holy Spirit ; 
 then with the secret of His fulness ; and lastly with 
 the secret of His constant manifestation in our lives. 
 Borden’s copy is marked in the way he had with all 
 his best-loved books, one sentence standing out as 
 meaning much to him. 
 
 “The supreme human condition of the fulness of 
 the Spirit is a life wholly surrendered to God to do 
 His will.” 
 
 To do His will”: nothing greater or more 
 glorious could be desired, and Borden knew of 
 nothing that brought deeper satisfaction. Life was 
 not, to him, a question of being or having this or 
 that ; it was simply a question of the will of God— 
 knowing it, doing it, loving it. And such a life, he 
 knew, was possible even in college, through the in- 
 dwelling of the Holy Spirit. So his message was 
 one of gladness and power. 
 
 Beginning at Schenectady, New York, in Sep- 
 tember, he managed to visit no fewer than thirty 
 colleges and seminaries before sailing for Egypt in 
 
 1 A copy of The Threefold Secret of the Spirit, by James H. McConkey, 
 will be sent free, post paid, to anyone who will write to the publishers 
 for it. Address: Silver Publishing Company, 1013 Bessemer Buildings, 
 Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 217 
 
 December. One to three days in a place gave 
 opportunity for interviews as well as meetings, and 
 his time was so filled that it was with difficulty he 
 got away on his twenty-fifth birthday to spend the 
 evening with his mother. 
 
 In many an interview Mr. Robert Wilder’s 
 question came to his mind, and with the background 
 of all experience at sea he would ask : 
 
 ‘* Are you steering or drifting ? % Wr 
 
 The question served to open up the subject of a 
 student’s choices in life. The danger of drifting 
 was manifest. If a man said he was steering, it 
 was easy to go on: 
 
 *’ What is your goal, and Who is with you on 
 board ? ” q 
 
 To cut out indecision was what Borden urged. 
 
 In a Greek Testament given to a friend he had 
 written: “ If any man wills to do His-will,.he.shall 
 know .. .”’ (John 7. 17). 
 - “Tt was a favourite passage of his,’ wrote the 
 class-mate, “‘and one upon which his own Christian 
 activities were built up. Like his Master, he realized 
 that it was nearly always a question of whether a 
 man wanted to or not. Bill always referred the 
 matter back to the will. In talking over a Bible 
 group which was failing, the leader having grown 
 lax, Iremember Bill’s saying that it might have been 
 the best group in our class if the leader had been 
 willing to pay the price.”’ 
 
 The uttermost for the utmost was the price as 
 he saw it—the uttermost of surrender on our part 
 for the utmost of what God will do in and through 
 
 ? 
 
218 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 us. It was a high ideal. Often Borden would meet 
 one to whom it seemed too high with another 
 question : 
 
 ‘Are you willing to be made willing ? ” 
 
 ‘‘T remember that to some of us this directness 
 of appeal seemed at times to lack sympathy with 
 the other person’s point of view,” continued his 
 friend. ‘‘ But it was the sort of thing to draw out 
 the best that was in a man, and gathered to itself 
 those who were willing.”’ 
 
 One thing evident to all was that the speaker 
 himself was paying the price and finding it a wonder- 
 fulexchange. And this gave force to the missionary 
 side of his message, which consisted chiefly in a clear 
 presentation of facts. For Borden felt with Dr. 
 Zwemer that we do not need to plead the cause 
 of missions. The case is there. All we ask is a 
 _ verdict. | 
 | ‘‘Tf ten men are carrying a log,” he said, at 
 Andover, ‘‘ nine of them on the little end and one 
 at the heavy end, and you want to help, which end 
 will you lift on?” } 
 
 Difficulties he spoke of as a challenge to faith 
 and consecration, and while not minimizing them, 
 especially in presenting the situation in Moslem 
 lands, he laid but the more emphasis on our Lord’s 
 own words: ‘‘ The things that are impossible with 
 men are possible with God.” 
 
 Of his own spirit in this work and the impression 
 
 he made on students and others, something may be 
 1 In proportion to the population, there were five hundred times as 
 
 many ministers of the gospel in the United States as there were ordained 
 
 missionaries in China. | 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 219 
 
 gathered from the following letters. Mrs. Henry W. 
 Frost wrote of his visit to Philadelphia : 
 
 While in and near the city we had asked him to stay 
 with us. One morning I met him in the hall, just starting 
 for one of the theological schools. He stopped hesitatingly, 
 and then said : 
 
 “Mrs. Frost, would you have a little prayer with me 
 before I go? I don’t think they want me very much, as 
 my invitation comes from quite a small group of students.” 
 
 We had prayer together, and I said, ‘‘ Will you be back 
 to luncheon, William ? ” 
 
 “Oh, I don’t know,” was his reply: and then laughingly, 
 * They may not want me any longer ! ”’ 
 
 As a matter of fact he stayed all day and had a very 
 interesting time. 
 
 An intimate friend heard him when he addressed 
 the German department of the Rochester Theo- 
 logical Seminary. 
 
 After the address, he said that if there were any questions 
 they cared to ask, though he would not promise to answer 
 them all, he would be glad to try. Many questions followed 
 —wise and otherwise—and I marvelled at his unfailing 
 patience and complete lack of pride or self-consciousness, 
 though he, the teacher, was probably the youngest of them 
 all. During the months since I had seen him, a wonderful 
 grace and sweetness had come into his life, but there was 
 not one whit less of strength or humour. 
 
 And a Yale class-mate, who attempted to draw 
 him out on the subject of marriage, wrote from 
 New Brunswick : 
 
 At the end of November, when Bill was here to give a 
 talk in the Seminary, he came to my room and lay down 
 on the couch, having caught a feverish cold. We talked 
 over many matters. In a joking way I asked him when he 
 was going to marry. He replied seriously that he thought 
 
220 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 it was cruel for a man who was going into one of the most 
 difficult of missionary fields to ask any girl to go with him, 
 because the woman always fared the worst, often suecumb- 
 ing when the man survived ; that he had no intention of 
 marrying—it would be wrong to the girl and would hinder 
 his highest efficiency in the field he had in view. Bill’s 
 thorough-going decision on this question, which is so hard 
 for many to settle, is another indication of his complete 
 surrender of himself to the great work to which he was 
 called. 
 
 Borden strongly approved the rule of the China 
 Inland Mission with regard to out-going mission- 
 aries, whether mén or women, that they should 
 remain unmarried for the first two years in China, 
 so as to give undivided attention to the study of 
 the language and have the best opportunity of 
 becoming acclimatized and getting into touch with 
 the people. It hardly needed the experience of the 
 Mission to prove that this was wise and helpful. 
 To him it seemed common sense, and an obvious 
 application of the Master’s words: ‘‘ Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of God... .” 
 
 His own problem extended, however, far beyond 
 the two years. What about the period, long or 
 short, when he would be practically homeless and 
 exposed to no little hardship and danger? In one 
 of his much-read books he had marked the lines 
 from Meyer’s St. Paul: 
 
 Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter, 
 Yes, without stay of father or of son, 
 
 Lone on the land and homeless on the water 
 Pass I in patience till the work be done. 
 
 After his last meeting in December, concluding 
 his three months’ work in the colleges, he was dining 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 221 
 
 with Dr. and Mrs. Angell in Rochester, and the 
 latter wrote of being “ deeply impressed with the 
 fire and ardour of his faith ”’. 
 
 As he sat at table with us, talking of all he hoped to do 
 for and in China, his face became glorified, his eyes shone 
 with a light which only divine things can awaken. At the 
 same time there was a poise, a dignity and balance which 
 showed that his was not the mind of a fanatic. He was 
 one who had counted the cost but never flinched for a 
 moment. 
 
 ** Those were fruitful months,’ wrote Mr. Fennell 
 P. Turner, General Secretary of the Student Volun- 
 teer Movement. “ William was used to lead 
 students in many colleges and universities to give 
 their lives to foreign missionary service. The last 
 letter I received from him enclosed the ‘ declaration 
 card’ of a Student Volunteer who had signed it 
 after his visit, and sent it on to him in Cairo. In 
 years to come there will be missionaries in many 
 fields who owe their decision, under God, to William’s 
 unselfish service during his last months in this 
 country.” 
 
 One cannot wonder that the leaders of the 
 Volunteer Movement desired that such strong 
 effective work should be continued. But Borden 
 had last arrangements to make before leaving for 
 Kgypt and felt that his departure should not be 
 delayed. It was like him not to put off going until 
 after Christmas even. His work in the colleges did 
 not end until the tenth of December, and it would 
 have seemed natural to take the Christmas vacation 
 at home and set out early in the new year. But 
 the S.S. Mauretania was sailing on the seventeenth 
 
222 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 and was due to reach Port Said on New Year’s Day. 
 It meant only one week for packing and final pre- 
 parations, but two or three weeks longer at the 
 other end. Time was to Borden one of his most 
 important stewardships. His mother did not hold 
 him back, so it was a foregone conclusion. To him 
 could never be imputed “the ungirt loin and the 
 untrimmed lamp ’’. 
 
 One last touch there had been with Yale class- 
 mates, of which his friend Campbell wrote : 
 
 On November twenty-eighth, Bill was usher at my 
 sister’s wedding to Louis G. Audette. Other Yale fellows 
 were there. We had a jolly time and Bill was in for all the 
 fun. The wedding was an evening affair, after which Bill 
 packed off to the city to be with his mother, as the days 
 before he sailed were getting few. 
 
 He had kept up his visits to the Yale Hope 
 Mission through all his other engagements and had 
 provided, financially, for its being carried on under 
 the care of Mr. Don O. Shelton of the National Bible 
 Institute. Even in December he managed to run 
 down again to New Haven, giving a Sunday evening 
 to the dear old work. His love for it was just the 
 same as when he had gone into it with all the hopes 
 and fears of a beginner, six years previously. Bern- 
 hardt had been called to a larger sphere,? but his 
 place was ably filled by Mr. and Mrs. William Ellis, 
 the latter saved, himself, from the depths of sin and 
 misery. ‘‘ Bill Ellis”? and “ Bill Borden” were a 
 great combination when they could be together in 
 the meetings. 
 
 1 Prison Reform work in Atlanta, Georgia, 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 223 
 
 ‘** What has impressed you most since you came ~ 
 to America?” Dr. Henry W. Frost asked a much- 
 travelled visitor. 
 
 Without hesitation came the reply: “ The sight 
 of that young millionaire kneeling with his arm 
 around a ‘bum’ in the Yale Hope Mission.”’ 
 
 The last Sunday of all William spent quietly 
 with his mother. They went to church together 
 in the morning, little thinking it was for the last 
 time, and on the following day he took part in the 
 meeting held regularly in their home for prayer for 
 the Moslem world. Several friends came to dinner 
 that evening, including Dr. and Mrs. Frost and Mr. 
 Shelton. William was leaving the next day, and 
 by common consent the five or six men with whom 
 he had been most closely associated in work for 
 God foregathered in his room for a last hour of 
 prayer and fellowship. It was Mr. Shelton who 
 wrote : 
 
 We prayed that our beloved friend might be kept in 
 safety throughout his long journey, and guided and upheld 
 in all his ways. And then he prayed for us, and for the 
 work we represented. He was so strong and vigorous in 
 
 body and mind that night that we anticipated for him long 
 and useful service. And in less than four months... 
 
 But happily they did not know it then. 
 
 In the quiet of her room that night, weary and 
 worn and sad, Mrs. Borden fell asleep, asking herself 
 again and again, “Is it, after all, worth while ? ”’ 
 In the morning as she awoke to consciousness, the 
 still small voice was speaking in her heart, answering 
 
224 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 the question with these words: ‘‘ God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son . . .” 
 
 ‘Tt was strength for the day,” she said, “ 
 for all the days to come.”’ 
 
 From childhood, William’s constant prayer with 
 his mother had been that the will of God might be 
 done in his life, and as they parted on the Maure- 
 tania it was still the same. Did it come back to 
 him afterwards, as it did to her, that their last 
 petition together was that he might be taken to 
 China and made a blessing among its Moslem 
 millions—but only, ‘if it be Thy will” ? 
 
 To the companion of his first long journey, 
 Mr. Walter Erdman, Borden wrote after leaving : 
 
 and 
 
 It is not easy. There are many temptations and 
 adversaries. Pray for me that I may have strength. 
 
 Among the Christmas letters opened in England 
 was a faded sheet bearing a Christmas carol, with 
 the refrain : 
 
 Glory in the highest and goodwill to men. 
 Peace on earth, peace on earth. 
 
 Beneath the verses and on the back of the page 
 Mrs. Borden had written : 
 
 Darling, a blessed Christmas to you! This is one of 
 our old song-sheets used at “‘89”’, years and years ago, 
 when we were all together. Never did I realize so clearly 
 the missionary meaning of Luke 2. 101 as I did yesterday | 
 morning while sitting by your side in church. 
 
 Just one word more: I will never cease to be grateful 
 for the rich blessing you have been to me, Dear, a comfort 
 
 1 ** Good tidings of great joy which shall be éo all people.” 
 
MISSIONARY OUTLOOK 225 
 
 and a strength all your years to your devoted mother. 
 What a rich New Year is unfolding before you! It was so 
 beautiful having you with us in our little prayer-circle— 
 just one more of the loving touches God has put to these 
 last days. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 STEWARDSHIP 
 
 1912. Ait. 24 
 
 *‘ Who is there to-night who can always see the shadow of the Cross 
 falling upon his banking account ? Who is there who has the mark 
 of the nails and the print of the spear in his plans and life, his love 
 and devotion and daily program of intercession? Who is there 
 who has heard the word of Jesus and is quietly, obediently, every 
 day, as He has told you and me, taking up his cross to follow Him ?”’ 
 
 Rev. SAMUEL M. Zwemer, D.D. 
 
 Two remarkable wills were probated within a few 
 days of each other in the spring that followed 
 Borden’s sailing for Egypt, one his own, made in 
 the fall of 1912, and the other that of J. Pierpont 
 Morgan, who died possessed of almost a hundred 
 million dollars. Though a devout believer, who 
 prefaced his will with the statement, ‘‘ I commit 
 my soul into the hands of my Saviour, in full con- 
 fidence that having redeemed it and washed it in 
 His most precious blood, He will present it faultless 
 before the throne of my Heavenly Father’’, Mr. 
 Morgan at the age of seventy-five left little more 
 than half as much to the work of God as William 
 Borden left at twenty-five. 
 
 Mrs. Borden and her sister, going over William’s 
 
 cheque books recently, found that during the three 
 226 
 
STEWARDSHIP 227 
 
 years at Princeton Seminary he had given away 
 about seventy thousand dollars to Christian work, 
 as far as the stubs in hand show. This was a sur- 
 prise to them, as he never referred to his giving. 
 
 Perhaps nothing is more distinctive than the 
 way in which people do kindnesses, especially in 
 the matter of financial help. Easy as it may seem, 
 it is one of the most difficult things to give helpfully. 
 Borden’s way was characteristic. 
 
 * Few Christians of ample means ”’, said Mr. 
 Hugh Monro, “succeed in realizing such a degree 
 of detachment from their possessions as to remove 
 all sense of restraint in their dealings with their 
 fellows of every station. Borden had learned the 
 art of administering wealth on a large and generous 
 scale, without a trace of self-consciousness and with 
 complete self-effacement.”’ 
 
 And his friend Campbell recalled : 
 
 Bill always followed the injunction, ‘“‘ Let not thy left 
 hand know what thy right hand doeth’’. He insisted that 
 not even his initials should appear when a list of bene- 
 factions was published. It almost seemed to irritate him 
 if he was found out. His best friends never knew even a 
 small percentage of the gifts he was making. Many 
 surprising incidents would come to light if all who had been 
 helped by him could be induced to tell their stories. Bill’s 
 cheque-books show how little he spent for himself and how 
 much he was doing for others. 
 
 Standing in the doorway of their Princeton home, 
 Borden’s love of cars was awakened one day as a 
 fine automobile flashed by. 
 
 *“ Gee!” he exclaimed, ‘‘ Wouldn’t I like a car 
 like that!” 
 
_ 228 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 “Why do you not get one, William?” asked 
 a friend who was with him. 
 
 ‘ T cannot afford it’, was the unexpected reply. 
 
 His money was not his own, and there were 
 always ways in which it was needed for the Master. 
 A Princeton class-mate wrote : 
 
 I have been told that he felt one of his temptations was 
 to ownacar. He never purchased one, because he thought 
 that for him it would be an unjustifiable luxury, I 
 remember one Saturday afternoon in New York going with 
 him to the automobile show in a hall at Madison Square 
 Garden. He knew all the various makes, and pointed out 
 to me the advantages of the different cars. But we left 
 the hall to take dinner at the Y.M.C.A. and spend the 
 evening down at the Katherine Slip and Doyer Street 
 Missions. And he had filled his pockets and mine with 
 copies of St. John’s Gospel to use in personal work.' 
 
 And Mrs. Borden said : 
 
 I think William’s real reason for the stand he took about 
 a car was that he deprecated the luxury seen in the lives of 
 so many Christians. He did not feel justified in using his 
 money, which he held distinctly as a stewardship, for any 
 such purpose. All the time we were in Princeton I think 
 he was longing to get away into simpler living. 
 
 The impression that his giving made upon his 
 own home-church is interesting. Sometimes even 
 generous gifts produce a strained relationship in 
 church-life, but there is nothing of that sort in the 
 picture his Chicago friends put before us : 
 
 . Though separated from us a good deal during the last 
 ten years, Borden never lost his heart-interest in the work 
 of the Lord in this place. His frequent letters and visits 
 and his constant gifts bore witness to that... . 
 
 1 Rev. L. C. M. Smythe of Charleston, S.C., now a missionary in Japan. 
 
STEWARDSHIP 229 
 
 He inaugurated and supported in this church the largest 
 Daily Vacation Bible School in Chicago, which brought more 
 street children into our Sunday School and services than 
 any other movement we are undertaking. 
 
 He was the largest giver to our Fresh Air Work, to our 
 Sunday School and to the general expenses of the church 
 during the last years of his life, and he left to this church 
 one hundred thousand dollars, realizing the wonderful 
 opportunity it has as a down-town church to “ preach the 
 gospel to every creature ” within the reach of its influence, 
 in this teeming city of thirty different nationalities. .. . 
 
 He believed that this church could do a great foreign 
 missionary work here at home . . . but he did not stop 
 at that. During his lifetime he made use of his money in a 
 world-wide ministry, yet so quietly that his left hand knew 
 not what his right hand did. After his departure, how- 
 ever, his statesmanlike grasp of the problem of the 
 evangelization of the world in this generation became 
 apparent, for he bequeathed practically the whole of his 
 inheritance, about one million dollars, in four nearly equal 
 parts, all for the purpose of preaching Christ—one-fourth 
 to be used in Chicago, another quarter in other parts of the 
 home-land, the third portion in China, and the remainder 
 in other foreign countries. .. . ? 
 
 This was Borden: quiet but powerful; saying little 
 but doing much; rich but self-denying ; humble in spirit 
 but imperial in purpose; a general in organization, but 
 always willing to be a private in service. He declined our 
 urgent invitation to preach in the Moody Church, on the 
 ground that he was not capable, but he was not ashamed 
 to tell of his faith in Jesus on the street corner. His heart 
 went out to the uncared for, Christless millions of Kansu, 
 but he did not overlook the worthy widow, orphan and 
 cripple in the back streets of Chicago, as some of us well 
 knew. He was intent upon seeking to win for Christ and 
 His service the young men of our colleges and universities, 
 and to this end the last months of his life in America 
 were given, but that did not prevent his thinking of, 
 praying for and giving to the care of little children and 
 the aged. 
 
230 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 His provision for the China Inland Mission mani- 
 fested the same breadth of mind and tenderness of 
 spirit. 
 
 “I do not like to speak of his money ”’, Dr. 
 Henry W. Frost said in this connection. ‘‘ We 
 seldom thought of it while he was with us. But I 
 refer to his bequest to the mission that I may 
 mention his desire with regard to a portion of it. 
 He asked that a hundred thousand dollars might 
 be invested in order that the interest upon it should 
 be used for aged and infirm missionaries. A young 
 man of twenty-four thinking of and providing for 
 old and infirm missionaries! Could anything be 
 more far-reaching in thought and sympathy ? ” 
 
 When the provisions of the will were made public, 
 the Rev. E. Y. Woolley, acting pastor of the Moody 
 Church, wrote to Mrs. Borden : 
 
 ‘’ What a remarkable document it is! The Chi- 
 cago Tribune has the best report of it, which no 
 doubt you have seen. Its testimony to Jesus Christ 
 as Lord and Saviour will do untold good. And 
 what noble bequests! The whole world will be 
 touched for Christ by your son’s life and act. . . . 
 
 Mr. Borden’s magnificent gift to the work of 
 the Lord in and through the Moody Church has 
 inspired our people to do and dare greater things 
 for His glory. One very poor and very sick old 
 lady, who has been praying and giving for a new 
 church for several years, was just transported with 
 praise to God when she heard of this.” 
 
 The Rev. Charles R. Erdman, D.D., of Princeton 
 Seminary, in his published sketch of Borden’s life, 
 

 
 STEWARDSHIP 231 
 
 An Ideal Missionary Volunteer, made the following 
 statement with regard to his will : 
 
 It is an extraordinary document, not only in view of 
 the actual bequests which it provides, but also because of 
 the spirit it manifests of loyalty to Christ and devotion to 
 the work of world evangelization. It is in itself a missionary 
 appeal. Its largest provision is for the China Inland 
 Mission, in connection with which the donor had expected 
 to serve and on whose Council he held a place. For the 
 work of this mission he bequeathed the sum of $250,000 ; 
 and with unique sympathy and thoughtfulness for one so 
 young, this was added: “I suggest that $100,000 of this 
 amount be invested, and the income thereof be used for the 
 support and maintenance of missionaries and other workers 
 connected with said Mission who through age or infirmity have 
 become incapacitated for active service in the mission field 
 or at home, and who are in need of and deserving of aid.” 
 
 The sum of $100,000 was left to the National Bible 
 Institute of New York; and like amounts to the Moody 
 Bible Institute of Chicago, and to the Chicago Avenue 
 Church ; $50,000 each was given to Princeton Theological 
 Seminary, to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- 
 terian Church, U.S.A., to the Board of Foreign Missions of 
 the Presbyterian Church, U.S. (South), to the Board of 
 Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, and to 
 the Chicago Hebrew Mission; and $25,000 each to the Nile 
 Mission Press, to the American Bible Society, to the Chicago 
 Tract Society, and to the Africa Inland Mission. Of the 
 remaining estate the China Inland Mission and the three 
 Presbyterian Boards were made the residuary legatees. . . . 
 
 Another provision suggests that William Borden had a 
 definite and adequate missionary message. Nothing troubled 
 him more than to see men of culture, ability and devotion 
 planning to undertake missionary work while they were 
 evidently ignorant of the great essential truths of the 
 gospel. He therefore requested that his money should be 
 used in the support of only such men as held absolutely to — 
 the deity of Christ and His vicarious atoning death for 
 sinners. ‘‘ It is further my desire”, so runs the will, “ that 
 
232 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 the said bequests hereinbefore made be used and disposed 
 of in accordance with the following recommendations by 
 me, to wit: That each of said bequests be used for and in 
 connection with missionaries and teachers who are sound 
 in the faith, believing in such fundamentals as the doctrine 
 of the divine inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, including the deity of Jesus 
 Christ, and in the doctrine of the atonement through the 
 substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 So statesmanlike a leader as Dr. John R. Mott 
 was profoundly impressed with the quality of this 
 young man’s living and giving, as may be seen from 
 the following letter to his mother : 
 
 My association with William has given me a keen 
 appreciation of the value of the service which he accom- 
 plished for Christ and His kingdom by his life, by his 
 witness, by his gifts, and by his activities. It has been on 
 my mind for some time to write you to express my personal 
 conviction as to the marked contribution which he made to 
 his generation within the sphere of his influence. He 
 exerted a great influence in the direction of the conservation 
 and expansion of the spiritual life of our colleges. This 
 he did through his constant and helpful work in the 
 Christian Association and Volunteer Movement during his 
 student days, as well as in his many personal relationships. 
 
 The sincere solicitude he manifested that the central 
 points of our Christian faith might be preserved in purity 
 and reality was one of the strong personal factors of which 
 we have not had too many in resisting the movements and 
 influences tending to disintegrate faith, The manner in 
 which he sought to bring to bear the vital and superhuman 
 power of Christianity upon the needs and problems of 
 individuals and of society both during his college and 
 seminary days was simply splendid. From the time I 
 became acquainted with him as an undergraduate until I 
 last saw him, his dominant ambition seemed to be the 
 world-wide spread of the kingdom of Christ. He did as 
 much as any young man whom I knew to help realize the 
 

 
 STEWARDSHIP 233 
 
 watchword of the Volunteer Movement—‘‘ The Evangeliza- 
 tion of the World in this Generation.” 
 
 There is another aspect of his life and work which 
 impressed me very deeply, and that was his attitude and 
 practice with reference to money. I have read many 
 comments in religious periodicals of different countries 
 regarding the disposition which he made of his estate in his 
 will. Without doubt he set an example to the rapidly 
 multiplying number of wealthy young men and women ; 
 but to my mind even more instructive than his final will was 
 his life-habit as a young man with reference to his money. 
 This to my mind was truly remarkable. As you know, ] 
 was brought into the most intimate relations with him on 
 this side of his life, in connection with different Christian 
 enterprises which he so generously helped to promote. 
 
 I would like to mention a few things which characterized 
 his giving. It manifested foresight and rare discernment. 
 I have seldom met a person who showed such penetration 
 of mind in estimating the worthiness of causes, in seizing 
 opportunity at the flood and in anticipating results. His 
 conscientiousness in the use of his money was always 
 apparent. His chief concern seemed to be that of not 
 making simply a good use of the money but the very best 
 use of it. One was conscious of the fact that he regarded 
 himself as a trustee and in no sense a proprietor. 
 
 His thoroughness in investigating objects was nothing 
 less than remarkable. I have known a great many wise 
 donors, but only one or two others who employed as 
 thorough processes in seeking to estimate the worthiness 
 of causes and the wisest ways of helping. He had evidently 
 chosen a few clear guiding principles to help him determine 
 his duty as he faced opportunity to relate his gifts to the 
 plans of the Kingdom. These principles were such as led 
 him to devote his money to promoting the most vital 
 spiritual processes. 
 
 These traits, together with his prayerfulness in deter- 
 mining what to do with his money and in following his gifts, 
 and above all his wonderful generosity, mark him out as a 
 model to the young men of his generation to whom God 
 may have entrusted financial power. 
 

 
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PART IV 
 AFTERWARDS 
 
Oh, let me live as if Christ died 
 But yestertide— 
 And I had seen and touched His pierced side : 
 
 I would rejoice as one who knows 
 How soon he rose, 
 To tread beneath His feet our unseen foes. 
 
 And I would work as if heaven bright 
 Were now in sight ! 
 What if to-morrow bring that great delight ! 
 
 Selected. 
 
 — — 
 ee ee 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 CAIRO 
 
 1913. Ait. 25 
 
 ‘‘ Having set my hand to the plough, my resolution was peremptorily 
 taken, the Lord helping me, never to look back any more, and never 
 to make a half-hearted work of it. Having chosen missionary work 
 in India, I gave myself wholly up to it in the determination of my 
 own mind. I united or wedded myself to it in a covenant the ties of 
 which should be severed only by death.” 
 
 Rev. ALEXANDER Durr, D.D. 
 
 Catro with its brilliant sunshine and lure of colour 
 and all its dust and heat was not new to Borden. 
 He had visited it with Rev. Walter Erdman eight 
 years previously, when they had travelled up the 
 Nile to Assouan, seven hundred miles toward the 
 heart of the dark continent. The colossal ruins of 
 Karnak, the rock-hewn tombs of the kings, the 
 temples of Thebes and Phile, the statues of Memnon 
 and other remains of the ancient world stirred them 
 profoundly. From Assouan William had written : 
 
 Upper Egypt completely fulfils my expectations—the 
 Nile itself, the contrast of the fresh green fields with the 
 quivering sand beyond, the groves of date palms, villages of 
 flat-roofed houses, camels with their dusky riders crossing 
 the desert which stretches away as far as eye can see. It 
 really is delightful. 
 
 Our first donkey-ride in Egypt took us through the town 
 
 and out into the desert to the Bishareen encampment. 
 237 
 
238 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 These people are Soudanese, I believe, and very different 
 from any others we have seen. They wear their hair 
 hanging in loose gimlet-curls, about eight inches long. 
 They are quite black and have clear-cut features, at least 
 those we have seen have. 
 
 There really is an awful mess of Orientals here in 
 Egypt, very difficult to sort out! There are Egyptians 
 and Turks as white as any of us, who wear the red fez, the 
 only way I have of knowing them to be natives. Then there 
 are people of various shades of blackness who wear the fez 
 also. Besides these there are innumerable Arabs, Soudanese 
 and other races. 
 
 But now it was as-a missionary, not a traveller, 
 that Borden was in Cairo—that great city that Dr. 
 Maltbie Babcock wrote of as ‘“‘a huge melange, an 
 ecumenical potpourri, a huddle of the ends of the 
 earth and the first and last of civilizations ”’. 
 
 It was not at Shepheard’s Hotel, where he 
 had stayed before, but at the Y.M.C.A. that he 
 took up his quarters. Met at the railway station 
 by Dr: Zwemer, he was soon introduced to the very 
 heart of things in the missionary community. He 
 found himself unexpectedly in touch with China as 
 well, for a missionary from Hongkong had dis- 
 covered a Chinese student in El Azhar university, 
 of whom he spoke to Borden on the day of his 
 arrival. The lonely student, it appeared, was from 
 the very province in which William was hoping to 
 labour (Kansu), and was so cut off from his own 
 country that he did not even know of the fall of the 
 Manchu dynasty or the establishment of the new 
 republic. Borden was eager to meet him, and 
 almost the first entry in his journal was : 
 
CAIRO 239 
 
 January 7, 1913. 
 
 Went to El Azhar with Mr. Gairdner. Met the only 
 Chinese student there—the first Chinese Moslem I have 
 ever seen, so far as I know. 
 
 What a world of interest that El Azhar proved 
 to be, with its white-turbaned students, nine or ten 
 thousand of them, from many lands, including 
 Russia, Persia, North and Central Africa, Abyssinia, 
 India, Arabia, and a couple of hundred professors 
 (Sheikhs) every one of whom had spent at least twelve 
 years studying in the university itself! Old as it 
 was, dating from the tenth century, and entrenched 
 in Moslem bigotry and pride, it was not unaffected 
 by the Christian influences at work around it. Only 
 a few months before Borden’s coming an article had 
 appeared in a religious paper in which one of its 
 professors had written : 
 
 Do not say that it is impossible to convert an Azhar 
 Sheikh and bring him to Christ, for with God all things are 
 possible. Was I not a fanatical sheikh in El Azhar, and was 
 I not by God’s grace converted ? To-day I pray that my 
 fellow-sheikhs may be won even as I was. 
 
 Numbers of students were attending the Monday 
 evening meetings for Moslems that winter, at which 
 Michael Mansour was speaking in great power. 
 ‘‘ Mighty in the Scriptures and in the Koran as well”, 
 he was attracting great crowds. A foreign mis- 
 sionary was always in the chair, to keep order, and 
 Borden was soon in his element distributing Arabic 
 Scriptures and tracts. | 
 
 From the Y.M.C.A. headquarters it was no great - 
 
240 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 distance to the American Mission where Dr. Zwemer 
 lived, and where these Monday evening meetings 
 were held, or to the compound of the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society at which a good deal of Borden’s 
 time was spent. For it was there that the students 
 of the new Study Centre took their courses in Arabic 
 with the Rev. W. H. T. Gairdner, and in Islam and 
 practical work with other missionaries. Hight or 
 ten were taking the complete course and were at- 
 tending Dr. Zwemer’s lectures at the Y.M.C.A. and 
 in the theological seminary. It was a keen, live 
 circle, and one to which Borden was soon contri- 
 buting a good deal. Mr. Gairdner found him “ brim 
 full of energy and hope, bringing a new element into 
 our midst’. And Dr. Zwemer wrote : 
 
 I never saw a man come to Egypt with eyes more open 
 to see the kingdom of God. Other men come to see the 
 dead Pharaohs, to study history or join the great company 
 of tourists all over the land, never once lifting their eyes to 
 see the fields “‘ white unto harvest’’. Borden had not been 
 in Cairo two weeks before he organized the students of the 
 theological seminary to attempt a house-to-house canvass 
 with Christian literature for the whole city with its eight 
 hundred thousand people. 
 
 Here was a man with the frame of an athlete, the mind 
 of a scholar, the grasp of a theologian as regards God’s truth, 
 and the heart of a little child, full of faith and love; a man 
 who was so tender in the relations of home-life that our 
 children used to nestle upon his knee as if they had known 
 him for years—and he a comparative stranger. . 
 
 Knowing that he had to learn Chinese, he came to Cairo 
 to perfect himself in Arabic. Some people shrink from the 
 foreign field, questioning, * Could I learn the language ? ”’ 
 Here was a man who deliberately set before himself the task 
 of learning not one but two of the most difficult languages 
 in the world, before entering upon his life-work of declaring 
 
CATRO 241 
 
 the unsearchable riches of Christ to Chinese Moham- 
 medans. ... 
 
 At Yale, at Princeton, in Cairo we see him digging deep, 
 thinking deep and studying hard. . . . He did not import 
 doubts to the Orient, he imported his great convictions of 
 the eternal truth of God. . . . When he lived in Cairo he 
 was a friend to the Coptic Christians and the Armenian 
 Christians. He was a brother to the American missionaries 
 and to the British missionaries. He attended the Scotch 
 church and the American church, and at the last all sorts 
 and conditions of Christians met together to do him honour. 
 
 Borden’s Cairo letters are interesting in the light 
 of these recollections, brief though they had to be 
 on account of his studies. His eagerness to acquire 
 Arabic may be judged from the fact that two weeks 
 after his arrival in Cairo he was making arrange- 
 ments to board in a Syrian family, so that he might 
 hear it spoken as much as possible. The plan about 
 which he wrote to his mother did not materialize 
 until a month later. 
 
 January 15, 19138. 
 
 Saturday we had a very interesting session at the Study 
 Centre, and in the afternoon I went out with Mr. Gairdner 
 to visit old Cairo and the C.M.S. hospital. As this is well 
 on the outskirts of the city we got a good ride on our wheels. 
 Later we called on a Syrian family in which Mr. Gairdner 
 thought I might be received as a paying guest. They hada 
 surprisingly nice place, and as it was an unexpected visit 
 the cleanliness and order could not have been put on for 
 our benefit. They insisted upon giving us refreshments, 
 which consisted of some kind of liquid in little liqueur 
 glasses, quite harmless, followed by a teaspoonful of grated 
 cocoanut put into our mouths by our hostess ! 
 
 Sunday, I started my first work for Moslems by distri- 
 buting khutbas, little sermons in Koranic style gotten out 
 by the Nile Press. It required some courage to take the 
 first plunge, with my two words of the spoken language, 
 
 R 
 
242 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 “ Do you read Arabic ?” and begin offering these booklets 
 on the streets. But I soon found that it went very well, 
 and I have given out about fifty already. Only one or two 
 have declined to take them. 
 
 Monday night I went to my first service in Arabic. It 
 was at the American Mission headquarters and most inter- 
 esting. A few weeks ago, it seems, a rumour got abroad 
 that Mudbuli, a Moslem saint, had come out of his tomb 
 and had taken refuge in the Greek church near by—a 
 pretty good exchange, considering the dilapidated state of 
 the tomb. Of course, the more educated scoffed at the 
 idea, but multitudes believed it, with the result that there 
 was quite a riot at the time. Soon after, in a newly pub- 
 lished Moslem book attacking Christianity, the author said 
 that the resurrection of Christ was just like this Mudbuli 
 affair, the story of alot of silly women. He called attention 
 to this as a great joke! But there is a Moslem convert here, 
 Michael Mansour, a former El Azhar student, who went to 
 the place where the book was printed and got out five 
 hundred circulars saying he would answer the above 
 statement, debating it with anyone who would come. 
 This was the gathering Dr. Zwemer and I attended. He 
 was half expecting a riot, as the place was packed with 
 Moslems. The meeting opened and closed with prayer, 
 however, and Mansour spoke for nearly an hour, holding 
 their attention so that there was no disturbance and only 
 one or two went out. It was a great triumph, and though 
 I could only understand an occasional word, I was very 
 glad to be there. 
 
 This afternoon I had a fine time, going off into the native 
 bazaar with Dr. Zwemer to a book shop. It was near the 
 Azhar, and we had a fine chance to get rid of all the 
 khutbas we had, to students and others, and one of them 
 bought a Gospel. Among the books we purchased were 
 some Korans, and when these were put in the bottom of the 
 carriage there were strong objections immediately and they 
 had to be put up on the seat beside the driver. The outing 
 was great fun, for we not only did this work but had a 
 great time together. This book-shop man, by the way, is 
 an enquirer who has been already a couple of times to see 
 
CAIRO 243 
 
 Dr. Zwemer. Things are on the jump here, especially when 
 you are with Dr. Zwemer. ; 
 
 He had not time to write about the fascination 
 of the street-life in Cairo, with all its movement 
 and colour. ‘“* Old Cairo is a bazaar,” as Dr. Bab- 
 cock put it, “‘ its narrow lanes overhung with cornice 
 that almost touch ; with awnings of rugs, balconies, 
 grated windows through which secluded eyes peep; 
 booths, like mere vestibules, with no windows or 
 doors, their owners sitting, Turk-fashion, smoking, 
 haggling, finally demanding your ‘ last price’, and 
 following you often far along the way ; with camels, 
 donkeys, dogs, water-sellers with their clanging 
 brass cups, vendors of everything with cries to 
 match, whips cracking like torpedoes ; with Nubians, 
 Abyssinians, Greeks, Copts, Arabs, veiled women 
 in black silk baloons and high-heeled slippers, fel- 
 lahin women with no veils but with tattooed skin 
 and with babies on their backs, rug men and scarab- 
 sellers, jewellers and brass-workers dragging you 
 into their dens, beggars, cripples, children crying 
 ‘ Baksheesh ’. Oh, the streets of Cairo! The 
 Mouski Bazaar no one who has seen can ever forget.”’ 
 
 Every phase of missionary work in this cosmo- 
 politan city interested Borden, and his sympathy 
 and eagerness to learn were winning many friends. 
 He was finding ways, too, in which he could wisely 
 give financial help. At the Y.M.C.A. he was in 
 touch with young men of various nationalities, 
 whom he joined in sports as well as meetings. ‘‘ He 
 was a splendid young man, so healthy, mentally, 
 
244 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 morally and spiritually,” wrote a Syrian friend 
 with whom he was reading French. And _ the 
 Christian Endeavour Mecting was long remembered 
 at which he spoke on the topic, ‘‘ Be a Christian : 
 Why not ?” 
 
 He laid himself out to encourage the Egyptian 
 Student Movement. It was a gift of his that made 
 possible the obtaining of much better quarters, 
 including a room set apart for Bible study. Here 
 the students of different institutions could meet in 
 sroups, one school-having one night, and another 
 school another. 
 
 “It is for this Bible-room that they are asking 
 for a picture of Mr. Borden,” one of their missionary 
 friends wrote a little later. ‘‘ They say that he 
 was such a help to them, and his blessing is still with 
 them in their work.” 
 
 He was making time also for what in earlier days 
 he used to call his “‘ long-distance work ’’—letters 
 to people with whom he had spiritual contacts. To 
 a Mr. H., for example, he wrote in March : 
 
 I’can sympathize with you in the matter of controlling 
 your thoughts, for that is a thing we all have to fight for. 
 You are right in saying we may commit great sins in our 
 minds, though we do not do so outwardly. This is the 
 view of sin which Christ gives us in the Sermon on the 
 Mount, Matthew 5 and 6. However, I believe that in this 
 as in all other things we can gain the victory by faith, 
 through His aid, who was “‘ tempted in all points like as we 
 are, yet without sin.” .. . 
 
 The principle on which we want to work is to crowd 
 out the bad with the good. If we merely seek to put away 
 evil without replacing it with active good, we may find that 
 worse things come in. ° I have been helped by the suggestion 
 
CAIRO 245 
 
 that when we are tempted to harbour evil thoughts we 
 should at once think of Christ, or repeat some verse of 
 Seripture—in this way spoiling the picture, so to speak, 
 by letting in a flood of light. Our object must be to bring 
 ‘‘ every thought into subjection to the obedience of Christ.” 
 2 Cor. 10. 5. | 
 
 Chief among his interests at this time was the 
 distribution of the booklets in Koranic style to) 
 which allusion has been made already. The idea 
 had come to Borden early in his stay in Cairo. 
 Writing about it to friends in New York, Dr. Zwemer 
 said : 
 
 ‘* How glad I am to hear of your good prayer 
 meetings at the home of Mrs. Borden. Her son is 
 a benediction to the work here, not only at the 
 Y.M.C.A. but in both the missions. He is a spiritual 
 power and up-to-date in his methods. At his sug- 
 gestion we are starting the distribution of khutbas all 
 over Cairo, the students of the theological seminary 
 working with us.” 
 
 It was a movement with prayer power behind 
 it, and before long it was taken up by others in the 
 missionary community, so that within six months 
 of its beginning Mr. A. T. Upson, superintendent of 
 the Nile Mission Press could say : 
 
 ‘‘ There never has been a time in the history of 
 mission-work at this centre when there were so 
 many enquirers.”’ 
 
 For the tract distribution led to many talks and 
 much personal work. And who shall say how much 
 further the results were carried, remembering that 
 Cairo is the intellectual centre of the Mohammedan 
 world ? 
 
246 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 All unconscious of the forces his earnest purpose 
 would set in motion, Borden was giving every hour 
 he could spare to his own share in this work. ‘The 
 khutbas were brief pointed discourses, written by 
 Sheikh Abdullah, a converted El Azhar man, be- 
 ginning with some passage from the Koran and 
 leading up to clear teaching from the Bible. Borden 
 appreciated their value. His idea was that there 
 should be a shop-to-shop and, if possible, house-to- 
 house distribution of these tracts. In his direct 
 way he went to the Seminary students and put it 
 
 before them. 
 
 ‘“‘T will pay for the khutbas, if you fellows will 
 help me carry them.”’ 
 
 And help they did right. heartily, seeking to 
 reach out with the gospel all through that great city 
 of Cairo. To his mother Borden wrote : 
 
 February 5, 1918. 
 
 Yesterday, we had a report of our khutba distribution 
 and found that all had gone off without excitement, save in 
 the case of Dr. Zwemer and the students who had accom- 
 panied him to a fanatical part of the city. With them, too, 
 all went well for a time, till they met an old man who 
 wanted to know by whom the tracts had been written, and 
 who got quite excited when he learned that it was a former 
 El Azhar student who had become a Christian. Dr. 
 Zwemer, seeing that there was going to be trouble, tried 
 to get the students away and to disperse the crowd by going 
 into a shop. But the crowd waited outside, and there was 
 no way of escape. Finally, the old man continuing his 
 attack, they were all marched off to the police station. 
 
 The officer looked at the khutbas and listened to the 
 charge. ‘“‘ Why,” he said, “this is nothing but Chris- 
 tianity ! You can read about this any day.” And he let 
 them go. 
 
CAIRO 247 
 
 The result was that the wind was quite taken out of 
 the old man’s sails, and they were able to distribute a lot 
 of khutbas right in the police headquarters, which would 
 have been inaccessible to them otherwise. They invited 
 the people to come to the Monday night meeting for 
 Moslems, and the man who made the trouble was there 
 all right last Monday night. Sorry I missed the excite- 
 ment! But I have another section of the city which is less 
 liable to afford interest of this kind. 
 
 February 12, 1918. 
 
 Dr. Zwemer has just started a new thing—putting 
 Christian notices into the daily papers, inviting inquiry 
 by letter or in person. He has already received several 
 answers. ; 
 
 My Arabic is going rather slowly just at present. I 
 seem to have struck a snag. It certainly is difficult ! 
 However, I hope to overcome by the help of God and with 
 due perseverance. . . . Dr. Zwemer preached a fine sermon 
 at the American Mission, Sunday night. Afterwards we 
 met an American girl, a graduate of Holyoke, whom we 
 had both known in Student Volunteer days. She had 
 just arrived with a party. It was nice to see someone like 
 that. 
 
 February 17, 1913. 
 
 I have bought a ‘“‘ tarboush”’, as they call the red fez 
 here, to wear when we go to investigate Islam in some form 
 or other, that I may not be so liable to be the one investi- 
 gated. It is really remarkable how effective such a slight 
 change proves as a disguise. A great many of the natives 
 wear European dress, you see, save for just this hat. So 
 when we put it on they do not know whether we are 
 ‘“‘ Christians ’’ or not, and can be quite sure that we are not 
 tourists. All of which is valuable. 
 
 I bought mine as we were going to a zikr the other night 
 with Mr. Swan of the Egypt General Mission, but it rained 
 so that we called it off. . . . I have not yet explained what 
 a zikr is: briefly, a repetition of the Moslem creed by 
 Dervishes, until they are exhausted. To-morrow is the 
 Prophet’s birthday, so we expect to see plenty of them, as 
 they go on all night. 
 
248 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 We are still distributing khutbas, and it is going all right. 
 Dr. Zwemer seems to think that as they are read more and 
 more by Moslems all over the city there may be some kind 
 of an outburst that would hinder our distributing them 
 freely. We shall soon have the Sermon on the Mount, 
 however, ready for distribution in the same form, and that 
 no one can take exception to. 
 
 March 1, 1918. 
 
 Thursday night we had an interesting trip with Mr. 
 Swan into the back streets of Cairo. The zikr we were 
 going to see had been changed, we found, to another night, 
 but just before reaching the place we came into a cemetery 
 and heard the chanting of another zikr coming from a little 
 old house off to one side. The star-lit night, the graves 
 and their surroundings, all made a wonderful setting for 
 the weird intonation we could hear so distinctly, even at a 
 distance. 
 
 Mr. Swan talked with the men at the place we went to, 
 telling them of Him who is the Way. The same Arabic word 
 is used in the Bible for ‘‘ way ” as these Dervishes apply to 
 themselves, in the sense of sect or order. It was really 
 quite remarkable how they listened and seemed to take it 
 all in. At one place, while I was waiting for the others, 
 I was asked by a woman to read an Arabic letter for her. 
 I was wearing the fez, of course. And later in the evening 
 when we met a drunken Moslem who was rather talkative, 
 he addressed me as ‘*‘ Mahmoud Effendi ’”—Mahmoud being 
 a Moslem name! 
 
 Not only the Egyptian woman took him for a 
 native. An American gentleman and _ his family 
 who visited Cairo about this time had a similar 
 experience. They put up at Shepheard’s, and in 
 the evening went out to see if they could find any 
 preaching going on. 
 
 “ Only a few steps from the hotel’, wrote Mr. 
 J. S. Kimber, “‘ we found one of the mission halls. 
 
CAIRO 249 
 
 Near the door we saw a man who, though he was 
 wearing a fez, we thought might understand English. 
 While I was asking him one or two questions, my 
 eldest son came up and said : 
 
 ‘““¢T think I must have met you at Princeton. 
 Are you not Mr. Borden ? ’ 
 
 ‘‘To my surprise the stranger said he was. He 
 then gave us all the information we needed, and 
 volunteered to guide us amid the tremendous scenes 
 of the celebration of Mahomet’s birthday. 
 
 ‘Sometime later, we had been to hear Dr. 
 Zwemer preach and had returned to the hotel, when 
 I saw our friend in the lobby talking with a lady 
 from the States, a young graduate from Mount 
 Holyoke. I asked my son whether it would not be 
 worth while for him to wait until the conversation 
 was finished, and then to invite Mr. Borden to take 
 a late dinner with us. After remonstrating a little 
 about not being suitably dressed, or something of 
 that sort, he consented. The dinner was pretty 
 well under way when he joined us at table. He 
 took his seat smilingly, and at once bowed his head 
 in a reverent and silent ‘ blessing’. It was a beauti- 
 ful sight, and one, as we remarked, not often seen at 
 Shepheard’s.”’ 
 
 By this time Borden was living in the family to 
 whom he had paid a surprise visit with Mr. Gairdner. 
 He had moved from the Y.M.C.A. to this Syrian 
 home in the Shubra quarter, glad to be entirely 
 among Arabic-speaking people. Of the kindness of 
 the Hassoons and the comfort of his surroundings 
 he wrote to his mother : 
 
 “e cacreneeienathanaaencinate tur ae REY TOT 
 
250 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 March 1, 1918. 
 
 While we do use a good deal of English, I hear Arabic 
 spoken all around me, and am given lessons by various 
 members of the family, at meals and any other time I wish. 
 The flat is on the third floor of a house near the station, 
 right by the tracks, but I do not mind that. I have a room 
 facing north looking over other, lower houses, so that I 
 get quite a view. My room is rather small for what I have 
 in it, but as I have the use of the dining-room and library 
 as well, for study and writing, it does not much matter. 
 
 The family consist of Mr. and Mrs. Hassoon, his sister, 
 who goes by the name of Sitt (Miss) Paulina, and a niece, 
 Sitt Negla. They are all very nice and most solicitous in 
 trying to stuff me at every meal, claiming that I do not like 
 the food unless I eat a great deal! It is really very good, 
 and if I do not eat more it is simply because I have had 
 enough. I have forgotten to mention the two little kiddies, 
 Hilda and Vera. Vera, the younger, has great big brown 
 eyes, and is really very cute. ... 
 
 You ask if I am getting proper food, and I can honestly 
 say that Iam. Some of the dishes are strange, and one or 
 two not much to my liking, but in the main they are 
 excellent. Some things which at home are luxuries are in 
 common use here, artichokes for instance, which we often 
 have, cooked in the most delicious manner. Then we have 
 a good deal of rice, which you know I like. 
 
 It was a time of a good deal of excitement in 
 the city, on account of the Prophet’s birthday and 
 subsequent festivities. The Dervish dances were 
 in full swing, attracting great crowds day and night. 
 For Cairo, as Borden was learning, is the centre of 
 the secret organization known as the Dervishes, 
 with its thirty-two great mystic orders, “‘ the very 
 warp and woof of the Mohammedan religion ”’. 
 While giving most of his time to the language, which 
 he wrote was “no afternoon-tea party ”’, Borden 
 
CATRO 251 
 
 was making a study of this strange development in 
 the life of the people round him. The day he moved 
 to the Hassoons he had “‘ put in some hard licks at 
 Arabic”, as he wrote in his journal, had called on 
 Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan at Shepheard’s Hotel with 
 Dr. Zwemer, and was writing to his mother at night 
 describing some of their experiences. 
 
 Feb. 20, 19138. 
 
 I mentioned in a recent letter that we were going to 
 see some zikrs at the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday. 
 This we did on Monday night, and it certainly was interest- 
 ing, though I fear I shall not be able to describe it at all 
 adequately. A large piece of level ground had been taken 
 and tents erected in a great square, an entrance being left at 
 oneside. Each of the tents was assigned to a Dervish order, 
 or some department of the Government. The tents them- 
 selves were very attractive, made of Oriental tapestries in 
 rich red hues, and lighted with glass chandeliers, each of 
 which had a dozen or more big candles. The effect was 
 very brilliant. The floor in the centre of each tent was 
 occupied by the Dervishes, who stood or sat in a circle, 
 or if there were many of them in two long rows facing one 
 another. 
 
 They all repeat more or less the same things—the name 
 of Allah, the Moslem Creed, the opening sura of the Koran, 
 or the ninety-nine beautiful names of God—but the accom- 
 panying motions differ. Some sit and move their heads, 
 first to one side, then to the other and down on the chest, 
 swaying their bodies at the same time, back and forth. 
 Others stand, bending from the waist in rhythmic motions. 
 This was what the Merganiyeh Order were doing as they 
 repeated : 
 
 ‘La illaha il Allah, 
 Muhammed raisul Allah”. 
 
 At first they would bend slowly, then gradually increase the 
 pace till they were all going full speed, the leader keeping 
 time by clapping his hands or coming in with a solo refrain 
 
252 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 in the marvellous way of intoning these fellows have. One 
 could not watch them without feeling the grip of the thing, 
 although knowing it was nothing but a deliberate attempt 
 to induce a state of ecstasy or auto-hypnosis. The Govern- 
 ment has put a stop to many of the worst excesses, so that 
 now these big functions are comparatively tame, and they 
 seldom go to the former extremes. 
 
 One man Mr. Swan pointed out to us is known as “ the 
 Protestant Dervish”. He preached repentance from sin, 
 very much like a Protestant minister, though, of course, 
 without any mention of Christ as the atonement and the 
 One who delivers from the power of sin. He had quite an 
 audience, which he managed much as an evangelist would 
 at home—getting responses from them and letting them ask 
 questions, first of all telling them good stories to get them 
 in a favourable humour. Dr. Zwemer calls him “ the Billy 
 Sunday of Islam ”’! 
 
 The next night, Tuesday, was the climax of the cele- 
 brations. . . . The Dervishes all paraded through the city, 
 chanting and dancing, each Order making a company with 
 its Sheikh riding on horseback. I followed them a long way, 
 and saw them as they came into the grounds at Abbasiyeh. 
 It was really very picturesque. . . . In the evening there 
 was an immense crowd, chiefly to see the fireworks—“ an 
 invention of the evil one ” that Mohammed certainly never 
 supposed would come to be connected with his birthday. 
 The crowds hurrying through the streets, the brilliant lights 
 and all the excitement, reminded me very much of the 
 festival of Juggernaut in Madras. 
 
 It was not only as a student, however, but as a 
 missionary that Borden went ‘“ zikr-hunting” as 
 he called it. His companion was often a young 
 German missionary named Straub, who was with 
 him at the Study Centre. The following letter has 
 an interest all its own, describing as it does the last 
 night of Borden’s active service. 
 
 “ His zeal made me ashamed of myself,’ wrote 
 
CAIRO 253 
 
 Mr. Straub. ‘He always had his pockets full of 
 khutbas, and lost no opportunity of distributing 
 them. .. . He was greatly interested in getting 
 acquainted with the national life and the doings of 
 the Dervishes. For this purpose we went to Mo- 
 hammedan festivals where ztkrs were taking place, 
 each wearing a red fez so as not to attract attention. 
 
 “ The last time we went together was on Thurs- 
 day in Passion Week (March 20). It was the 
 anniversary of the saint Abul Llya 11k SUL. ort 
 What crowds of people were there to be seen— 
 people of all classes and ages, men and women, 
 people who were well and people who were sick! 
 As these occasions partake of the character of 
 national holidays, all sorts of amusements were 
 going on. The illumination was truly fairy-like. 
 
 ‘“ Ags our chief interest was in the various 22krs, 
 we were drawn to one tent from which the sound of 
 chanting reached us— Allah, Allah!’ For a long 
 time we stood, side by side, watching the strange 
 motions of the men who were swinging forward and 
 backward in strict rhythm, shouting their ‘ Allah, 
 Allah’. The tempo of these motions grew quicker 
 and quicker; ° Allah, Allah’ sounded hoarser and 
 hoarser, until finally nothing but heavy breathing 
 could be heard. Several of the Dervishes fell un- 
 conscious to the ground. We noticed one man 
 close beside us wrought up to the highest pitch, and 
 saw foam gushing from his mouth. We, too, felt the 
 excitement, and were full of pity for these poor, 
 deluded people, whose way of worship was so un- 
 worthy. . . . About midnight we started, arm in 
 
254 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 arm, for home, and had scarcely seated ourselves 
 in the trolley when Mr. Borden took his remaining 
 khutbas and handed them to those nearest to him.” 
 His earnestness of spirit had been not a little 
 deepened by a startling occurrence of which he 
 wrote to his friend, Dr. Inglis Frost, in March : 
 
 An event here in Cairo has saddened us all and made 
 me realize afresh the heroism of the doctor in his every-day 
 work, I refer to the sudden death of Dr. Payne of the 
 Church Missionary Society, a man beloved by hundreds and 
 filled with the Spirit of Christ. I only met him twice, soon 
 after my arrival, and the next thing I knew he was dead. 
 
 I wish I could give you the full medical particulars, as 
 you would be interested. As far as I could ascertain he 
 was attending a patient suffering from spinal meningitis. 
 The patient coughed in his face, and infection followed 
 apparently. This took place on a Sunday, and the follow- 
 ing Wednesday, about 5 a.m., he passed to the home above. 
 
 His funeral, attended as it was by a great crowd of 
 natives and Europeans, was a most eloquent testimony to 
 his loving faithfulness in serving his Master. 
 
 As they were leaving the cemetery Borden said 
 to a companion: ‘‘ Now we must work all the 
 harder, for the time is short.”’ 
 
 This made him the more appreciate his oppor- 
 tunities for learning the spoken language and coming 
 into touch with the life of the people in the home 
 of his Syrian friends. From a letter written by Mr. 
 Gamil B. Hassoon, we may almost see him with 
 their eyes : 
 
 It is beyond power to describe his great zeal and diligence 
 in studying the difficult Arabic language. But though he 
 was so absorbed, so fond, so overwhelmed with his studies, 
 he did not make Arabic his only aim. He looked to what 
 was higher and nobler, and appointed a large portion of 
 
CAIRO 255 
 
 his time for reading the sacred Scriptures. His Bibles, and 
 he had many of them, were all visited by his eyes. Many 
 were the remarks on their margins made in his hand-writing, 
 and the texts underlined, which showed that he had chosen 
 them and probably put them into memory. His reading 
 the Scriptures was not in the order of a daily duty. He 
 read them because he loved them. 
 
 His life and deeds agreed to what he read. He loved 
 everybody ; and as arule when you find one who loves like 
 that you may be sure of his love to God. . . . In a conver- 
 sation I had with him I found that he loved the Y.M.C.A. 
 with a wonderful love; and when our talk turned on the 
 Arabic branch, his love to this seemed not less than to the 
 other. I knew from him that he wanted to strengthen the 
 Arabic branch by all the power he could, financially, morally 
 and mentally, so that it might attain a level with the 
 greatest European associations, and surpass them if possible. 
 Many times he expressed to me his pleasure in the progress 
 this branch had taken in the short time since it was 
 organized, despite all obstacles. 
 
 His love to Orient and Orientals was a profound, true 
 love. He was very pleased with many of our noble habits 
 which he had not experienced before. He was very kindly 
 sociable in our society, and in a few days, not exceeding 
 the number of the fingers of one hand, he became one of us— 
 Orientalist, with the full meaning of the word. He loved 
 to communicate and mix up himself with us and we with 
 him, preferring to change his long-accustomed habits and 
 acquire our ways, so that he might prepare himself with 
 what would agree with the taste of Orientals among whom 
 he hoped to live. . . . The kindness and sociability God 
 endowed him with were very great. 
 
 He denied himself, and had a special motto written on a 
 paper in his pocket: “‘ My Lord, enable me to conquer my 
 will and overcome my desires.”” And he had another motto: 
 ‘* Not my will but Thine be done.” .. . 
 
 What impressed me most was his strong faith. He did 
 not think that there was anything impossible to do in the 
 service of the Lord. In the books he and I read, we found 
 that it is nearly impossible to enter into Tibet or Afghani- 
 
256 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 stan, to bring the gospel to the Mohammedans there. But 
 that fact was not to shake his faith. And he went further, 
 believing that it is most possible that the gospel shall in a 
 few years be preached in Mecca, the centre of Islam itself. 
 He loved to be where the fight is hottest. . . . The un- 
 occupied fields of the Moslem world were his target, and 
 all the time he was preparing himself for the evangelization 
 of such fields. . 
 
 He was very fond of Mohammedans. Once he came 
 home with a very pleased face. 
 
 ‘* What is it makes you look so happy?” I asked. 
 
 He had met, he said, two Azhar Sheikhs, and stopped 
 them by the way. They spoke to him in Arabic, something 
 he could not understand. But he did all he could, and led 
 them a long distance to Dr. Zwemer’s house. Showing 
 them the house, he said, “‘ Koll yom gomaa ” (every Friday). 
 And he spent with them fifteen minutes by the roadside, 
 using the few Arabic words he knew. 
 
 I asked him to repeat the Arabic he used, and we had 
 great fun of it! But it was good enough to make those 
 men understand that he wanted to gain them for Christ, 
 and they parted with peace. To my full belief they went 
 to Dr. Zwemer’s on Friday. . . . 
 
 William had a winning look and an attractive spirit. 
 He was meek and kind. My love to him is very great, and 
 I remember every movement of his. . . . Although he was 
 a rich man he denied himself the privileges of rich people, 
 and lived as simply as any missionary could live. He was 
 following the footsteps of Jesus. 
 
 Once a friend said to me: ‘‘ Your guest is a millionaire.” 
 
 ‘Ido not know anything about his dollars,” I replied. 
 
 When I came in I told Mr. Borden what I heard, but he 
 did not confirm it. 
 
 “People often mistake us”, he said, “for the rich 
 Condensed Milk firm that bears the name of Borden.” 
 
 This put me into an opinion that he was not so rich, 
 and I kept on treating him as a brother, not as to please a 
 millionaire. I am sure he liked it that way. He was 
 perfectly at home with that poor family of mine, and we 
 lived together with great peace and love. 
 

 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE FINISHED COURSE 
 
 April 1918. Et. 25 
 
 ** Greater love hath no man than this”. . . .—JoHw 15. 18. 
 
 Dr. ZwEMER had left for Yedda when a telephone 
 call came from the Hassoon family on Good Friday, 
 the twenty-first of March. It was to say that their 
 guest was far from well. Mrs. Zwemer went over 
 at once to the house by the railroad station, and 
 found that Borden had seen the doctor already, who 
 had told him to stay in bed. There was headache 
 and some fever, but nothing serious apparently. 
 He had been out a good deal in connection with his 
 canvass of the city and with the zikrs that were 
 going on, and might have contracted influenza, 
 which was prevalent at the time. 
 
 Next morning the message was that he was better, 
 so that it was a surprise to hear in the afternoon 
 that he had been taken to the hospital. It was 
 probably heat stroke, the doctors said, but no one 
 could see the patient. 
 
 Easter Sunday came with all its gladness, but a 
 shadow lay on the little missionary community, 
 
 for Borden’s place was empty. The hospital was 
 257 S 
 
258 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 five miles away, but after the morning service one 
 of his friends went out to obtain fuller information. 
 
 “He was told”, wrote Mrs. Zwemer, scarcely 
 believing it possible, ‘‘ that Mr. Borden had cerebral 
 meningitis—which stunned us all. I chased the 
 doctor from place to place, and saw him personally 
 that evening, but he would not give any hope, only 
 that Mr. Borden was no worse, and that serum had 
 been injected into the spinal cord.” 
 
 So the blow fell, and that bright strong young 
 life was suddenly challenged by suffering, if not 
 death itself. Over the succeeding days a veil of 
 mystery is hung—at least for those who were watch- 
 ing, near and far, with stricken hearts. As day by 
 day the cables carried messages of alternate hope 
 and fear, life seemed to stand still for many, and a 
 great volume of prayer went up to God without 
 ceasing. 
 
 One tragic element in the situation was that the 
 relatives in America were unable to communicate 
 with Mrs. Borden. She had already left with her 
 younger daughter to join William in the Lebanon 
 Mountains for the summer, sailing for Alexandria 
 direct. They were not due in Gibraltar till the first 
 of April, and efforts to reach them by wireless proved 
 unsuccessful. Happily the older sister, who had 
 just returned from India with her family, was still 
 in London. Upon hearing of the illness she set out 
 for Cairo at once, but it was the second of April 
 before she could arrive. 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Gairdner was visiting the patient 
 daily, and Mr. Giffen of the American Mission ob- 
 
 a —— Sl 
 
THE FINISHED COURSE 259 
 
 tained permission to see him once and again. The 
 
 _ risk of infection was very serious, but Mrs. Zwemer 
 could not keep away. Repeatedly she visited and 
 prayed with him, bearing also all the burden of 
 communication by letter and cable with those at 
 home. 
 
 It was there in America that consternation and 
 sorrow found their fullest expression. Miss Whiting, 
 Mrs. Borden’s sister, set aside everything to be in 
 the Borden home in New York, answering letters 
 and cables and keeping in touch with the large circle 
 of enquiring friends. To her sister she wrote : 
 
 I telephoned Mr. Frost and he came up of his own accord 
 and remained until the following day at noon. He was 
 most kind and could do a good deal of enquiring, writing 
 notes, etc., while I had to be out. Mr. Delavan Pierson 
 suggested a circle of prayer in which he and his wife would 
 join; so Mr. Frost arranged this with Mr. Don O. Shelton. 
 
 Mr. Shelton telephoned me that hardly anything else 
 had been thought of for the day—all the workers of the 
 Institute met with him in the morning, and the Board of 
 Directors in the afternoon, and that prayer would be con- 
 tinued strong and steady until William’s recovery was 
 assured. 
 
 Laura telegraphed Mrs. H. who went at once to Dr. 
 A. B. Simpson, and there also daily prayer is offered. 
 You, of course, are as earnestly thought of as William. .. . 
 I telephoned the Erdmans and telegraphed to many others, 
 trying not to leave out any one you would wish to have 
 
 reached. Mr. Frost wrote to Mr. Crowell . . . who would 
 be the one to speak to William’s friends at the Moody 
 Church. . . . Charlie Campbell spent all one afternoon 
 
 here. In many ways he made William seem so near ! 
 
 And then, a little later : 
 
 It has been a blessing and even a joy to be here, where 
 
260 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 I could come in touch with your friends and William’s, 
 and to hear them speak the words of love and admiration 
 and sorrow. Even the men are not ashamed to be found 
 in tears. No one, no one can understand. They and we 
 can only know. Dr. W. J. Erdman showed the marks of the 
 struggle in his face and bearing as he said : 
 
 “It is the strangest, most mysterious working of the 
 divine providence I have ever experienced. The world had 
 such need of William ! ” 
 
 But in Cairo, in the shaded room at the Anglo- 
 American hospital, who shall say that there was 
 question or mystery ? Suffering there was, intense 
 and prolonged, for Borden was fighting the bravest 
 fight of all his life. But he was not alone. Had not 
 his prayer from childhood been that the will of 
 God should be done in his life? There was no 
 shrinking now. All those Easter days, as he lay 
 there, he could not but think of the young doctor- 
 missionary whose sudden call had come just in the 
 same way. Only a few weeks previously he had 
 stood by that new-made grave. What if, for him- 
 self too, the call had come ?_ No reserve, no retreat, 
 no regrets had any place in Borden’s consecration 
 to God. With Adam McCall, the young leader on 
 the Congo, falling as one of the first missionary 
 pioneers in that great region of Central Africa, he 
 might have said : 
 
 Thou knowest the circumstances, Lord. Do as Thou 
 pleasest, I have nothing to say. Iam not dissatisfied that 
 Thou are about to take me away. Why should I be? I 
 gave myself, body, mind and spirit to Thee—consecrated 
 my whole life and being to Thy service. And now, if it 
 please Thee to take me instead of the work I would have 
 done for Thee, what is that tome? Thy will be done. 
 
 a i a le a la Pe 
 

 
 THE FINISHED COURSE 261 
 
 Glory, not only mystery, surrounds the earthly 
 close of such a life. 
 
 Among the friends who risked infection and were 
 permitted to see him was his dear Syrian host, who 
 wrote : 
 
 As soon as I stepped into the room, he, in spite of his 
 great suffering, gave me a wonderful smile which is printed 
 on my memory. He then sat up in bed, but very soon 
 had to lay himself down again. . . . I sat by his bedside 
 for a short time and spoke to him with all the oriental and 
 brotherly kindness I could master at that critical moment. 
 I was greatly astonished that all his sufferings did not 
 hinder him from showing gratitude and love. I passed my 
 hand over his forehead and wiped away the drops of sweat 
 that stood there, and asked God to help and cure him. He 
 smiled again and held my hand in his and pressed it very 
 gently but warmly, in such a manner which made me feel 
 his love. He was not so very able to speak much, but his 
 eyes spoke, and transmitted to my heart all that was in his 
 heart and mind. And thus I left him for the last time. 
 
 Meanwhile Mrs. Borden and her younger daughter 
 were nearing Cairo. Dr. Zwemer had returned from 
 Yedda, where he had been enabled to witness for 
 Christ within thirty miles of Mecca itself, and while 
 in quarantine at Suez had received “the terrible 
 tidings of Borden’s illness”. From the second 
 Sunday he was with him frequently, and even then 
 there seemed hope, at times, that the patient’s 
 splendid constitution would hold out. He recog- 
 nized his elder sister who had come from London 
 and with the nurses was doing all that love and skill 
 could devise. He knew that his mother was ex- 
 pected, and asked for her in semi-consciousness, 
 often saying: “‘ Poor Mother! Poor Mother!” His 
 
262 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 work, too, was much upon his heart, for in delirium 
 he talked about it constantly. 
 
 ‘ This is the fifteenth day ’’, Dr. Zwemer wrote 
 early in April, “‘ and he is slightly better to-night, 
 although this morning the doctor had no hope. Mrs. 
 Zwemer has done heroic work, both in visiting and 
 In praying, as well as keeping in touch with Mrs. 
 Borden by cable. The latter will be in Brindisi 
 to-night and sails for Port Said to-morrow.” 
 
 Three days later it was still with a glimmer of 
 hope that he left for Port Said to meet the steamer. 
 They had hardly cast anchor before he was on board, 
 at five A.M., bringing what seemed good news to 
 those who had so dreaded the arrival. In the relief 
 of hearing that William was still living, the beauty 
 of the spring morning and the novelty of all around 
 them impressed itself upon the iar members 
 of the party, one of whom wrote : 
 
 We went ashore in small boats, and everything was 
 very interesting and strange. Our steamer was over-run 
 with Arabs and negroes of all descriptions. The harbour 
 sparkled with light and bright colours. The ride from the 
 water’s edge to the railway station was also fascinating, 
 with the first high palms, the veiled women and the bright 
 picturesque costumes of the Arabs. 
 
 We left by train at 8 a.m. and had a fine run to Ismailia, 
 following for many miles the banks of the Suez Canal. It 
 was surprising to find the canal so narrow, and that yet 
 the largest ocean-steamers can pass through. . . . Almost 
 at once after leaving the canal, the desert began—long 
 stretches of sand with beautiful vistas, far away, where the 
 sand would look bright pink. Here and there would be a 
 
 * A young Swiss lady, Miss Ada von Fallenberg, who had been with 
 Mrs. Borden for some years as companion to her younger daughter. 
 
 
 
 ~— ee 
 

 
 THE FINISHED COURSE 263 
 
 green patch, wherever water was to be found, while hard 
 by the same soil was just barren wilderness. ‘ 
 
 After a long time the Nile deposit began to apinedtrdarle 
 soil, very different from the sandy stretches, and getting 
 more and more black as we came into the cultivated land 
 of Goshen. There, Arab life was all around us. Already 
 in the desert we had seen camels wandering about, either 
 alone or with Bedouin in floating garments. Now we passed 
 real native villages—mud huts, people sitting around, 
 children, veiled Moslem women, men loading camels, 
 families riding on donkeys. . . . We had morning prayers 
 and sang hymns, that one especially with the chorus : 
 
 ‘Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest ; 
 Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.”’ 
 
 Afterwards this meant so much to Mrs. Borden and 
 Joyce. 
 
 At Ismailia, half-way to Cairo, a telegram was brought 
 to us: ‘* William not so well.” Dr. Zwemer said it had 
 been like that all the time. Having reached a certain 
 satisfactory level, he would drop below that level every 
 second day, improving again the next day, so that we need 
 not be over-anxious... . 
 
 We went on. It was only a few stations farther that a 
 second telegram came to Dr. Zwemer, right to the car. It 
 was the end. 
 
 I cannot tell you about that next hour or so on the 
 train. Dr. Zwemer was the greatest comfort—but oh, it 
 was dreadful! It broke my heart to see Mrs. Borden and 
 sweet little Joyce. We reached Cairo at 1 p.m. William 
 had passed away at 9. a.m. I cannot believe it even yet.... 
 
 The funeral had to be the same afternoon. His death 
 was absolutely peaceful, without any struggle; he just 
 simply stopped breathing. Dear, dear Mrs. Borden—what 
 a sorrow, what a loss ! 
 
 When she could write, ten days later, Mrs. Borden 
 herself told all the rest there was to tell—and it was 
 everything : 
 
264 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 I do not want you to think of us as overwhelmed, for 
 wearenot. God’s loving care and mercy have been evident 
 on every side ; and it has been a real joy to be in the place 
 where William, in those few short weeks, became so 
 honoured and loved, and was so happy |“ The missionaries 
 have all been most kind and thoughtful, and Dr. and Mrs. 
 Zwemer wonderful in their loving sympathy and untiring 
 efforts on our behalf. Dr. Zwemer has been son and brother 
 in one. He loved William and could scarcely speak of him 
 with unbroken voice. Mr. Gairdner, head of the language 
 school where William was studying, visited him daily 
 through all his illness, though it is considered dangerous 
 to go near the sufferer. The nurses they tell me were 
 devoted, and so were the Arab boy-attendants, night and 
 day, keeping the flies away. As yet, it is all more like a 
 dream than reality. 
 
 But I wanted to tell you just one thing that you may 
 not hear from anyone else: and that is that, when we saw 
 | him, it seemed as though William had been transformed 
 into the very likeness of Christ, through suffering. I should 
 never have known him, his beard and moustache had grown 
 and the contour of his face was changed. 
 
 We had been in doubt as to whether to go to the hospital 
 | to see him, altered as he would inevitably be; but thank 
 God, we did—Joyce and I with Mr. Gairdner. We were 
 told not to go near the bed, but that at a distance it would 
 be safe. We approached a long, low building, standing 
 right on the ground, so that it seemed as though we might 
 be going to the tomb itself, and the question “ Who will 
 roll us away the stone?” was almost on my lips. The 
 door was opened, and immediately we were in the presence 
 of all that remained here of our William. 
 
 I was so shocked at the change that I turned to beg 
 Joyce not to look or to come in, but she had already done 
 so, and said in the gentlest voice—afterwards, I thought, 
 like the voice of an angel : 
 
 “ But Mother, did you see how he looks like all the 
 pictures of Christ ? ”’ 
 
 I looked again, and then indeed I saw. 
 
 One hardly dared speak of it to others, fearing it would 
 

 
 THE FINISHED COURSE 265 
 
 be thought irreverent or fanciful. But I did mention it 
 to Douglas in Mr. Gairdner’s hearing, who quietly said : 
 
 ‘““ Yes, and you only stood at the threshold. If you had 
 gone nearer you would have seen the resemblance more 
 clearly.”’ e 
 
 I said that, standing there, I could only think of the 
 words: ‘‘ His visage was more marred than any man’s.” 
 
 “ Yes,”? said Mr. Gairdner, ‘“‘ His visage—more marred 
 than any man’s.” 
 
 It put such a holy, wonderful touch upon it all. 
 
 ‘* Perfect through suffering.’ It was as though we had 
 been permitted a glimpse into the mystery of suffering, 
 human and Divine, and had seen that through it God had, 
 so to speak, given the final touches to William’s life. 
 
 “ Christ Jesus my Lord — for whom I have 
 suffered the loss of all things, and do count them 
 but refuse, that I may win Christ, and be found 
 in Him.” 
 
 ‘And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him.” 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 ‘* FOUND FAITHFUL ”’ 
 
 99 
 
 ‘‘ His servants shall serve Him and they shall see His face... 
 —Rev. 22. 3, 4. 
 
 Far away in Kashmir, a Yale man, one of Borden’s 
 friends, was anxiously awaiting tidings. The mail 
 arrived, bringing home-letters, and was leaving 
 again in a few hours. In his loneliness, Sherwood 
 Day, the young missionary, wrote : 
 
 I cannot realize it yet. Last week when your letter 
 told of Bill’s illness, I knew that the crisis must be over, 
 and asked that all might be well; and it has been so, I am 
 sure. I feel that I want to be by myself a while and think, 
 yet this must go to-night. I cannot say all I would, but 
 you will understand. 
 
 Somehow, as I read your letter, I have a sense of victory 
 and power that seems to bring that ‘‘ Other Room ”’ very 
 near. Bill seems nearer and more gloriously living than 
 he did at Yale or Cairo. . . . I cannot put on paper what 
 his change of field means to me. He is the first of my 
 friends whom I really loved, to be in that Other Place, and 
 it makes that place very real. In fact, except for the pain 
 to Mrs. Borden and his family, I am very happy in it all— 
 a happiness that hurts, but one that rejoices in the victory 
 of the thing. All victory is gained through pain, but it is a 
 pain that spells joy—one of those strange things in life. 
 
 I have absolutely no feeling of a life cut short. A life 
 abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short. ‘‘ Cut short” 
 
 means not complete, interrupted, and we know that our 
 266 
 

 
 “FOUND FAITHFUL’’ 267 
 
 Master does no half-way jobs. We must pray, now, that 
 those to whom God wants this to appeal, may listen. I am 
 sure we can feel that He wants to use it, and that He counts 
 on us to help. 
 
 I am glad for Bill! In His immediate presence—no 
 longer a clouded, imperfect experience, but a wholly satis- 
 fying one. What his life means to us all! I mean the life 
 we knew, the one he has finished, or the part he has finished. 
 Put that loyalty, that staunchness, the quality for which 
 weaker men called him “narrow’’, over against the 
 “modern ”’ line of things, and how Bill’s life stands out ! 
 A splendid mind, a splendid body and a great soul—all 
 handed over to the One who does all things well. It will 
 mean more and more to me, as I try to do what my Master 
 wants of me in this country, to know that Bill has finished 
 his job and is just Over There. It all seems so near! . . 
 
 I feel this is the greatest thing Bill ever meant to me— a 
 sort of volunteering for another, shall we call it, ‘‘ foreign 
 field ”’ ? 
 
 Amid the flood of sorrow that flowed so deep 
 and wide, this was the conviction that seemed to 
 dominate all others. 
 
 There could scarcely a greater loss befall us 
 than this ’’, wrote Dr. Robert E. Speer, in the first 
 shock of grief. ‘‘ William Borden was one among 
 a million. There was no better among the younger 
 men who have gone out from our colleges in the last 
 ten years. . . . It seems impossible that all that 
 strength and devotion can have been taken away 
 from the work of the Church down here. Evidently 
 there are missionary undertakings of even greater 
 importance elsewhere.”’ 
 
 And to Mrs. Borden : 
 
 “You do not need to be told anything of your 
 son’s noble qualities of character, his simply rock- 
 
268 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 like faith, his loyalty that knew no limit, his re- 
 markable abilities and above al! the unreserved 
 devotion to his Master. It is not possible to under- 
 stand the providence that has taken him, except on 
 the supposition that God has more important mis- 
 sionary work to be done elsewhere than it is possible 
 for men to do here on earth, and that He needed 
 your son in the ministry of those who serve Him 
 day and night, and who look upon His face as they 
 do service.”’ 
 
 In Cairo also this note was struck of triumphant 
 faith. It was so manifest in Mrs. Borden’s life that 
 the Syrian friend whose home seemed so empty 
 could write of her help in their grief ! 
 
 ** I shall not forget that smiling, loving face of 
 yours as long as I live. You were a great comfort ° 
 to us, and we thank God for your coming to Cairo 
 in the time of our trial.” 
 
 From the hospital, the nurse who had been in 
 charge wrote of “‘ the memory of a brave man who 
 had faced illness with fortitude and patience, and 
 never grumbled or complained, and a brave mother 
 who did not make other people suffer because she 
 was heart-broken ”’. 
 
 "The funeral was very informal’’, a_ friend 
 who was with Mrs. Borden could write. ‘‘ The 
 Anglo-American hospital is beautifully located on 
 the island of Gezira, in the midst of green meadows, 
 palms and roses. From there we went to the 
 American cemetery. How strange it was to have 
 Arabs doing everything! A great many friends 
 and missionaries were present, the Syrian gentleman, 
 
HIS LA 
 
 
 
 T RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 
 
 To face page 269. 
 
 — 
 
“FOUND FAITHFUL” 269 
 
 too, in whose family William had lived. They are 
 lovely people, simply devoted to William. Mrs. 
 Zwemer says that the conditions in their home were 
 perfectly all right, and that there was no risk to 
 health in being there. The food was good, and 
 William was in no way tired or run-down when he 
 contracted the disease. 
 
 ‘Mr. Gairdner read the service and the Scrip- 
 tures. Dear old Dr. Watson prayed, and so did 
 Dr. Giffen and Dr. Zwemer. We sang ‘ Face to 
 face with Christ, my Saviour’. I shall never forget 
 it as long as I live. We stayed to the very last. 
 The sun was going down, and the glow in the west 
 was wonderful. They planted flowers on the grave, 
 and it looked very beautiful.” 
 
 A missionary who was present added : 
 
 As we sang hymns during the service the Mohammedan 
 grave-diggers, standing a little way back, looked astonished, 
 for 1t was all in such sharp contrast with the hideous and 
 meaningless wailing which takes place at a Moslem funeral. 
 Still greater was their astonishment as they watched the 
 little company of native Christians weeping over the grave 
 of a foreigner—one they had learned to love as a brother. 
 Never shall I forget the feeling that came to us with our 
 closing hymn : 
 
 “Sing it softly through the gloom, 
 While the heart for mercy craves ; 
 Sing in triumph o’er the tomb— 
 Jesus saves, Jesus saves !”’ 
 
 Our very souls were lifted out of their mourning into a 
 glad and glorious triumph, and we could indeed say: “‘ O 
 death, where is thy sting ; O grave, where is thy victory ? ” 
 
 Even the rude, varnished coffin could bring no 
 
270 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 pang to the mother’s heart, different as it was from 
 the casket that would have been provided at home. 
 As she saw it lowered into the grave, containing 
 all that was mortal of her son, a feeling not of pain 
 at the outward lack of harmony swept over her, 
 but of wonderful joy and comfort in the thought of 
 that entire life spent for Christ, scarcely a moment 
 of it wasted. 
 
 The surroundings were very different in Prince- 
 ton when the Memorial Service was held that 
 gathered professors, students and friends in one 
 common grief, but the note of victory was the same. 
 Miss Whiting wrote : 
 
 Some day you will read the true and appreciative words 
 spoken at Princeton on Friday, but I wish you could have 
 been there to feel the spirit of love and reverence. Dr. 
 Charles Erdman said it was the most wonderful testimony 
 and tribute he had ever listened to. .. . 
 
 The day was ideal—Princeton in its first spring beauty ; 
 the hour, five o’clock, was perfect. Dr. Patton himself 
 conducted the service in a way so dignified, reverent and 
 affectionate that nothing more seemed needed. The chapel 
 was nearly filled with students who had known William, 
 and the service throughout was simple, strong, solemn, 
 tender and triumphant. . .. As I listened, the whole of 
 William’s life seemed to sweep before me. There was not 
 one word too much, nor undeserved. I marvelled that 
 they had understood so truly and loved so deeply in the 
 space of but three years. 
 
 Another Memorial Service in Princeton had a 
 significance all its own. It was held in the little 
 African Methodist Church, where Borden had taught 
 in the Sunday School for two winters. The pastor 
 learned in that meeting, for the first time, that 
 
“FOUND FAITHFUL ” 271 
 
 Borden had been wealthy in his own right. They 
 had loved him for himself : 
 
 “For his deep consecration and unassuming 
 Christ-like life. We never at any time asked him to 
 contribute a single dollar. We asked him to teach, 
 not to give.” 
 
 So the coloured children sorrowed for the loss 
 of their friend. 
 
 At New Haven too, in the Yale Hope Mission, 
 a touching service was held, the room packed with 
 men of the very class Borden had sought to reach. 
 One after another told of the new life that had come 
 to them because of what he was and did, and one 
 of the professors who had differed from him widely 
 as to theological views, spoke of the house being 
 filled with the fragrance of his love and service. 
 
 There and in the Moody Church in Chicago men 
 were riveted by the story of what the grace of God 
 had done in one they had known so well. <A friend 
 who was present wrote : 
 
 2 Chron. 16. 9 has been in my mind ever since Friday 
 evening. God is ever intently looking for those whose 
 hearts are right toward Him, that in and through them He 
 may “ show himself strong’. And oh, the joy of his heart 
 when He finds such a one! As William grew in knowledge 
 of God, he lived up to that knowledge ; as he learned more 
 of God’s will, he obeyed that will. He followed the Lord 
 wholly. As with absorbing interest the great company 
 listened to what God had wrought, one could not but feel 
 that the fire of a holy purpose was lighted in the hearts of 
 some of those young men and women. 
 
 In the Marble Collegiate Church, New York, 
 crowded to its full capacity, the number of students 
 
272 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 present and their interest were also remarkable. 
 Mr. Charles Campbell was among the speakers and 
 Mr. Delavan Pierson, Editor of The Missionary~ 
 Review of the World, who was impressed with “ the 
 strong note of triumph and praise to God”. Mr. 
 Don O. Shelton presided. The words of Mr. Hugh 
 R. Monro had special weight, as the testimony of a 
 business man well known in the great city : 
 
 The thing that impressed me in my contact with 
 William Borden was the fact that he was living the Christian 
 life successfully. I suppose we all recognize the deep and 
 abiding blessings of our discipleship. Some of us have a 
 continuous consciousness of the abundant grace brought 
 to us in Christ. Yet even in advanced Christian experience 
 there is often an overpowering sense of insufficiency and 
 failure, so that we are constrained to confess and bewail 
 our weaknesses. Where there is triumph in one direction 
 there may be failure in another. But more than any other 
 young man I have ever known Borden seemed to have con- 
 tinuous victory. His life was so truly under the control 
 of divine power that it breathed the spirit of the conqueror. 
 It was an imperial spiritual life. 
 
 To myself there comes a new sense of assurance as I 
 think of it, because I recognize that this overcoming life 
 was not lived in the strength of any innate ability or natural 
 gifts. It was the grace of God in him that made his life 
 victorious and such a benediction to those with whom he 
 came in contact. The same resources are available to your 
 faith and to mine, so that while his life is a rebuke to the 
 poverty of our spiritual experience it is a summons also to 
 a closer following of the Saviour. .. . 
 
 So it was in other Memorial Services, in Japan, 
 Korea, India and South Africa, for the circle touched 
 by this young life was practically world wide. As 
 to America, a friend could write, ‘‘ All the papers 
 in the country seem to have told about William ” ; 
 
“FOUND FAITHFUL” 273 
 
 and another, “‘I never heard, on all sides, such 
 regret and sorrow expressed over the death of any 
 young man. . . . Surely you must feel the volume 
 of prayer that is rising for you from many hearts.”’ 
 
 ‘* How strong his influence is, even in this re- 
 mote corner!’ wrote a missionary in Korea. 
 “Many of our Christians know of him and his 
 faithful consecration to the Lord. So he continues 
 _ to live here below in many souls made better by his 
 example.”’ 
 
 And from Cape Town came the following : 
 
 ** You have no idea, Mrs. Borden, what William’s 
 life has meant to the South African students who 
 knew him at Princeton, and what it means just now 
 to the whole Dutch Reformed Church out here. 
 Next Sunday the story will be told to the children 
 practically throughout the whole Union of South 
 Africa, in hundreds of Sunday Schools.”’ 
 
 More permanent records, also, carried the message 
 of his life far and wide, in several languages. Two 
 of his own addresses were put into Arabic by Dr. 
 Zwemer’s arrangement,! who wrote of the booklet : 
 “Tt will make a fine message. I am calling it 
 in Arabic: Two Questions by a Young Man to 
 Young Men.” 
 
 A sketch intended especially for Moslem readers 
 was prepared by Mr. St. Clair Tisdall and published 
 in English and in Arabic. A little later it was 
 translated into Persian and Hindustani and cir- 
 culated by the thousand, then into Dutch and 
 Chinese. Of the latter translation made by a 
 
 1 What it Means to be a Christian and The Price of Power. 
 A 
 
274 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 master of that difficult language,’ Mr. F. H. Rhodes 
 of the China Inland Mission said : 
 
 As the first Chinese booklet published for free dis- 
 tribution among Mohammedans in China, this story of 
 Borden’s life marks a distinct advance in bringing the 
 gospel to these neglected millions. Requests for the book 
 have come from practically all the districts where mission- 
 aries are in contact with Islam, and some even from 
 Mohammedans themselves who have heard of the memorial. 
 Thirty-five thousand copies have been put into the hands 
 of Moslems, and as they are now being read, passed on to 
 others and carried farther into regions where Christ is not 
 named, we trust that the number who will hear the message 
 will be much larger than the number published. Already 
 the story seems to have opened the way for several mission- 
 aries to get into closer touch with the followers of Islam in 
 their fields. 
 
 Thus in nearly every province of China proper, 
 in Manchuria and far out on the great road across 
 Central Asia, Borden’s love to Christ was the means 
 of making known the love of God in Christ to 
 followers of the Prophet. It was a wonderful 
 ministry, wider possibly than he might have accom- 
 plished in person, and its outcome who can tell ? 
 
 But to come back to America. A sketch of 
 Borden’s life by Dr. Charles Erdman appeared in 
 The Missionary Review of the World, and was so 
 much valued that it had to be published separately 
 in pamphlet form. Yet another, written from the 
 point of view of the college student, came from the 
 pen of Charles Campbell, with all the freshness of a 
 class-mate’s understanding and appreciation. 
 
 A volume in itself might be made of the letters 
 
 1 The Rev. F. W. Baller. 
 
“FOUND FAITHFUL” 275 
 
 that flowed in—letters from leaders in the front 
 rank of Christian activity, as well as from fellow- 
 students and friends of his own age. From the 
 National Parliament in Peking and the House of 
 Commons in London, from great city churches, 
 oriental universities and lonely mission-stations 
 came the same testimony. 
 
 “Mr. Borden has become a national character 
 in his life and influence’”’, said a leading man in 
 Chicago. “It gratified me to hear him speak as 
 he did ’”’, wrote Dr. J. Timothy Stone, ‘‘ because 
 he is careful as to what he says, and views every- 
 thing with a broad and real justice.”’ 
 
 From the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in 
 New York, Dr. Jowett wrote : 
 
 “His life just now is standing before the 
 American people like some perfumed flower from 
 the garden of God.” 
 
 ‘‘Apart from Christ, there is no explanation of 
 such a life’’, said Professor Charles Erdman at 
 Princeton. 
 
 *’ I know of no young man in this country or in 
 England ”’, wrote Dr. R. A. Torrey, ‘‘ from whose 
 life I expected greater things. But God has His 
 own way of carrying out His purposes. He has 
 some larger plan of usefulness through your son’s 
 departure than could have been realized by his 
 remaining here.”’ 
 
 The loss is wholly inexplicable ’’, came in a 
 letter from Dr. Charles R. Watson of Egypt, ‘‘ but 
 the thing which forbids doubt or criticism is, from 
 the human side, William’s own spirit of perfect 
 
276 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 surrender. He had given himself to his Lord for 
 life or for death, and where he trusted we cannot 
 but share his trust.” 
 
 On his return from Asia, Dr. John R. Mott said 
 that missionaries in every part of the world bore testi- 
 mony to the influence of the life of William Borden, 
 and that at the Student Conferences that summer 
 (1913) no appeal was being used with such power as 
 the story of his consecration. 
 
 "Many young men live stronger, purer, more 
 yielded lives’, wrote a fellow-student, ‘‘ because 
 of the life your boy lived and because of the death 
 he died. You cannot hear of them all. You will 
 know some day. The name of Will Borden was 
 more used than any other during the recent great 
 Convention in Kansas City. Japanese students 
 remarked that the investment of life as Borden 
 invested it was the greatest of all investments. 
 The memory of such a son must be a blessing. 
 I am glad he lived and lives.” 
 
 ‘At Bryn Mawr ”’, a girl friend wrote, ‘“‘ when 
 Dr. W. J. Erdman preached here in May, he told 
 of William as an example of the Spirit-filled life— 
 and oh, Mrs. Borden, it was a marvellous witness ! 
 I know it must have struck deep into many hearts.” 
 
 Dr. Henry W. Wright, of Yale University 
 said : 
 
 *’ No undergraduate since I have been connected 
 with Yale has done so much for Christ in four short 
 years as Bill did. I feel very lonely trying to work 
 without his visible presence to cheer and inspire 
 me," 
 
“FOUND FAITHFUL” 277 
 
 Mrs. Walter Erdman wrote from Korea : 
 
 *’ William’s life has touched many of whom you 
 have never heard, and no one can measure its in- 
 fluence. As for Walter, you can hardly realize 
 what a blow it has been to him. It is the loss of a 
 cherished brother, rather than a friend.”’ 
 
 And the Rev. Walter Erdman himself : 
 
 “We have been praying to-night that you may 
 be comforted in the assurance that the love of God 
 does not change, even when our understanding is 
 baffled by His acts, and that our lives may be puri- 
 fied and made stronger through the inspiration of 
 William’s friendship and love and his loyalty to 
 Christ. I learned more things from William about 
 simplicity of faith and steadfastness of purpose than 
 he did from me, during the year we were together 
 while he was still a boy, and the memory of our 
 comradeship will be dearly prized until we meet 
 BPA. ss 
 
 ‘** T have been thinking more and more, since the 
 news came, that the length of time God permits us 
 to stay here is not related to a certain amount of 
 work He wants us to do, so much as to a certain 
 closeness of relationship to Himself He wants us to 
 attain. Some of us who are less useful, perhaps, 
 are allowed to live on longer that we may learn 
 more and be perfected in understanding. And as 
 for the mystery of the interruption of such a work 
 as his was and promised increasingly to be, while 
 there is no explanation now, I like to think that it 
 is not interrupted, but that as he desired to serve 
 so he will be permitted to serve, only with higher 
 
278 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 powers. I think of him as still working for Mo- 
 hammedans in some relation to the proclamation 
 of the gospel.” 
 
 Mr. Fennell P. Turner of the Student Volunteer 
 Movement wrote of the fellow-worker he had 
 loved : 
 
 ‘’ Few men plan their preparation with such care 
 and earnestness or carry out their plans with such 
 faithfulness. What great things we expected of 
 him, and how he is missed! But we have this 
 assurance : the life so truly given to God was His 
 life and the work William was preparing to do was 
 His work. On His heart rests a far greater burden 
 for the Moslems of China than we can possibly feel. 
 He will not permit His work to suffer or be hindered 
 because His servant was not allowed to enter upon 
 it as he had planned.” 
 
 And a class-mate who had preceded Borden to 
 China wrote from Nanking : 
 
 ‘* Somehow, already, I seem able to look down 
 the years a bit and see, not one, but many giving 
 their all to the Master to take up the work for 
 Mohammedans here in China which William had — 
 planned to do. Just as Keith Falconer and Horace 
 Pitkin did more even in death than in life, may we 
 not believe that God will, out of seeming loss, get 
 great glory to Himself and call many to fill the 
 breach? William was taken while doing with great 
 joy and enthusiasm the work to which God had 
 called him. When my call comes, I pray that I 
 may be found doing my Lord’s work with like faith- 
 fulness and devotion.” , 
 

 
 ‘*FOUND FAITHFUL” 279 
 
 Finally our thoughts are carried back to Cairo, 
 for the words of Dr. Zwemer linger longest, spoken 
 in the place and among the friends Borden had last 
 loved. There in the American Mission were gathered 
 representatives of all forms of Christian service 
 through the city, and with them men wearing the 
 fez and the white turban of the Azhar student. 
 Few leaders had influenced Borden more than Dr. 
 Zwemer, and none could have had truer insight as 
 he spoke at that Memorial Service from the words : 
 “IT have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
 course, I have kept the faith ’’.! 
 
 One of the great characteristics of this life we mourn 
 and in which we rejoice is that our friend and brother was 
 a soldier, every inch—a soldier of Jesus Christ. Those 
 who knew him best knew that he was fighting, and now he 
 “has fought ”’. 
 
 He won that greatest victory of all, the victory over 
 himself. Charles Kingsley, who knew that life was not a 
 bed of ease or a garden of roses, wrote : 
 
 « The very air teems thick with leaguéd fiends ; 
 Each word we speak has infinite effects ; 
 Each soul we pass must go to heaven or hell. . . . 
 Be earnest, earnest, earnest—mad an thou wilt : 
 Do what thou doest as if the stake were heaven 
 And this thy last deed ere the judgment day.” 
 
 And Borden was earnest. No one could say of him that 
 he trifled with the thing men are trifling with all around, 
 the great talent of life. | 
 He won the victory over his environment. By some 
 the victory has to be won over poverty; by others over 
 heredity, or over shame and temptation ; but Borden won 
 the victory over an environment of wealth. He felt that 
 life consisted not in “the abundance of things a man 
 
 1 2 Timothy 4. 7, 8. 
 
ee 
 
 280 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 possesseth ”, but in the abundance of things which possess 
 the man. 
 
 - He won the victory in great measure over sin and 
 temptation. There is not a young man living in America 
 to-day who has not to fight a deadly battle for character. 
 Borden fought and won—for two reasons: he always 
 carried his sword and looked up for strength. He was a 
 man of the Bible, as his Greek Testament and the Bibles 
 he used for study and devotion show, and he was a man of 
 prayer. . . . Even in the smallest details of life he looked 
 up for wisdom and strength. 
 
 Another great thing that comes into a man’s life is 
 “urgency”. At college as well as here in Cairo, Borden 
 felt the call of urgency, and to him this was linked with 
 thoughts of the Moslem world. I found underlined in his 
 Testament: “I must work the works of Him that sent 
 me while it is day.” 
 
 The real secret of this full-orbed life was that, like St. 
 Paul, Borden could say, ““I have kept the faith’. How 
 many men in these days—men at the beginning of their 
 ministry, or in pulpits, or at the end of their service—have 
 to cry, “ God knows, I have lost the faith”. Borden held 
 to the Bible. He believed it from cover to cover. His 
 faith had been tested, for he had met destructive criticism 
 in his college course. He hada grasp of the oracles of God, 
 and to us it was a great joy to see that belief in the Book 
 had made him a missionary. 
 
 He gripped the essentials; he had no shibboleth ; his 
 was no narrow creed. This gathering is indicative of his 
 wide fellowship. His Egyptian brethren could never have 
 told to which regiment he belonged in the army of God. 
 He was too big a man to wear the distinctive colours of any 
 regiment. He kept the faith—but he did not keep the 
 faith to himself. Ask the man who met him. 
 
 ‘‘ Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
 ness.’ He now wears the crown of life and glory. ‘“O 
 God, to us may grace be given to follow in his train | ” 
 
 ~~ Only to-day I was reading in Pilgrim’s Progress of the 
 
 death of Valiant for Truth : 
 ~ “ My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my 
 
“FOUND FAITHFUL” 281 
 
 pilgrimage, and my courage and strength to him that can 
 getit. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness 
 for me that I have fought His battles who will now be my 
 rewarder.’ . . . So he passed over, and all the trumpets 
 sounded for him on the other side.” 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE UNFINISHED TASK 
 
 1926 
 
 “What though he standeth at no earthly altar, 
 Yet in white raiment on the golden floor, 
 Where love is perfect and no footsteps falter, 
 
 He serveth as a priest for evermore.” 
 Selected. 
 
 In far-away Kansu some new influence is telling. 
 Since Borden passed to the place of higher powers 
 a great change has come over the province to which 
 his life was given, so that far from being what it was, 
 one of the most barren fields in China, it is becoming 
 fruitful. Wonderful things are happening there, 
 right in the midst of that great Mohammedan popu- 
 lation, that put to shame our small expectations 
 and little faith. 
 
 But the position is critical. That part of China 
 is becoming one of the most charged with high explo- 
 sive powers in the world. Bolshevism has to be 
 reckoned with there now, as well as Mohammedanism 
 and the most bigoted forms of idolatrous worship. 
 The doors are open still for the most wide-spread 
 proclamation of the gospel, and hungry hearts are ~ 
 welcoming the Bread of Life. Men, women—yes, 
 
 and many children—are coming to the Saviour who 
 282 
 

 
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THE UNFINISHED TASK 283 
 
 never had a chance to hear of Him before. But who 
 can tell how long the doors may remain open ? 
 
 God needs lives that count, up there in these 
 days—the world needs them, China needs them, 
 Mongolia needs them, Tibet needs them unspeak- 
 ably, the Moslems of Central Asia need them, wait- 
 ing in age-long darkness. 
 
 *“ From many a mosque there comes the call to prayer ; 
 I hear no voice that calls on Christ for light, 
 But still I wait 
 For the messenger of Christ who cometh late.” 
 
 Remote as it is, that province is on the firing 
 line to-day. It is strategic in the most vital sense. 
 Russia knows this, and is tightening her grasp 
 upon the great highway that runs through Kansu 
 into China. China knows this, and is making her 
 railway and motor road as rapidly as possible, to 
 connect Peking with this imperilled line of communi- 
 cation between her populous provinces and vast 
 outlying dependencies. Islam knows this, and is 
 appropriating every place of power, firmly intrenched 
 already in that western corner of the republic. There 
 is no time to be lost. Already the tension is great, 
 and the few missionaries who are toiling amid 
 wonderful opportunities write of an outlook that 
 could hardly be more serious. Bolshevism is coming 
 in like a flood. Look at that long frontier-line of 
 Russia right up against China, north and west, for 
 thousands of miles, and consider what the pressure 
 must be where the one road runs through that is 
 most practicable. This must be the route of the 
 
284 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 coming railway. Already General Feng’s officers 
 are there putting through the line. Their Christian 
 influence is telling. It was a cheer to see two of 
 them come in to the most remote of all the little 
 Christian churches out on the great road, to join 
 reverently in the Communion Service not long 
 ago. 
 
 The last station in the province at which there 
 are foreign missionaries (men) is away back at 
 Liangchow, more than two weeks’ journey from the 
 outpost missionary women have reached at Su-chow, 
 the Western Gate of China. The next station be- 
 yond, in the heart of Central Asia, is forty days’ 
 journey farther west, and there are no witnesses for 
 Christ (missionaries) between, or northward in 
 Mongolia or southward in Tibet for hundreds and 
 hundreds of miles. The population is not great : 
 —no, but it numbers millions. The field is hard in 
 every possible way :—yes, it needs lives that count, 
 ‘ stedfast through union with the Anointed One ’’.1 
 The people are wild and rough :—but what hearts ! 
 Look at the faces of these three Tibetans! See the 
 light beginning to dawn there, responsive to Chris- 
 tian love. 
 
 Think of that band of preachers sent out by the 
 last little church to be founded in that far north- 
 west, a church only six years old, but which is 
 evangelizing the whole region with its own unpaid, 
 voluntary workers, men and women. Think of the 
 need of prayer—for them, for their leader, the young 
 Chinese doctor who was used to bring the Light, 
 
 1 2 Cor. 1. 21; Rotherham’s version. 
 
 ————ae* 
 

 
 TIBETANS WELCOMED AT ‘‘THE GOSPEL INN”, 
 
 This Inn has been opened for them at Sining, Kansu. Pray that the Light of Life may shine 
 indeed into many such hearts. 
 
 To face page 284, 
 
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 ‘ ae i en, ee Pe Te 5-7 
 
THE UNFINISHED TASK 285 
 
 for the missionaries who are helping them, three 
 ladies all alone. Think of the longing of the heart 
 of Christ over that waiting world of Central Asia in 
 all its darkness, sin and need, and over the Moslems 
 of Kansu itself, three millions, for whom one young 
 missionary has recently been set apart. 
 
 Think of him and his wife and little children (boys 
 of three and five years old) in the first Christian home 
 in the crowded Moslem suburb of Ho-chow, the 
 Mecca of China. A little hospital has been opened. 
 there, the only Moslem hospital in China. It has 
 no doctor and no nurse, save when Dr. and Mrs. 
 George King or some of their helpers can come over 
 from the Borden Memorial Hospital at Lanchow, 
 three days’ journey away. And round that little 
 new light-centre is a population of hundreds of 
 thousands of Moslems, possibly a million, within 
 easy reach. Are not lives that count needed there? 
 Will you by constant, earnest prayer help to make 
 and keep those young missionaries spiritually, men- 
 tally, physically efficient ? For there are prayers 
 that count as well as lives that count. Will you 
 pray such prayers? 3 
 
 Borden’s life counted because it was rooted in 
 Christ, fed daily upon His word, was subject to His 
 Spirit, breathed the atmosphere of prayer, was 
 poured out for others. 
 
 Each of us can put a fulness of meaning all our a 
 
 own into his simple act of faith: 
 
 “Lord Jesus, I take hands off as far as my life 
 is concerned. I put Thee on the throne in my heart. 
 
286 BORDEN OF YALE ’09 
 
 Change, cleanse, use me as Thou shalt choose. I 
 take the full power of Thy Holy Spirit. I thank 
 Thee.” 
 
 We too, ‘‘ may never know a tithe of the result 
 until Morning ”’. 
 
COMMISSIONED 287 
 
 COMMISSIONED 
 
 “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”—Joun 20. 21. 
 
 Out from the realm of the glory-light 
 
 Into the far-away land of night, 
 
 Out from the bliss of worshipful song / 
 
 Into the pain of hatred and wrong, 
 
 Out from the holy rapture above 
 
 Into the grief of rejected love, 
 
 Out from the life at the Father’s side 
 
 Into the death of the crucified, 
 
 Out of high honour and into shame 
 
 The Master willingly, gladly came: 
 And now, since He may not suffer anew, 
 As the Father sent Him so sendeth He you. 
 
 Henry W. Frost, D.D. 
 
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