History Book: William Borden

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Today the story of William Borden. A millionaire who gave it up and chose missionary service over a life of wealth.

EICHER: After years of training, it’s during this week in 1912 that Borden says goodbye to his family, boards an ocean liner, and heads East, never to return. Here’s WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde.

CALEB WELDE: The night before William Borden is to set sail, his mother is uneasy. She goes to bed—in her words—“worn, weary, and sad.” She’s asking herself over and over again… “Is it, after all, worthwhile?” Her son is twenty-five and a celebrity inside Christendom and outside it. American newspapers are filled with the news about the millionaire’s trip.

When the morning comes on December 17th, 1912 William Borden begins his day like he always does.

BELMONTE: He called his morning times with the Lord “his morning watch.” It’s a wonderful phrase, and it was the first thing he did.

Kevin Belmonte is author of the Borden biography, “Beacon-Light.”

BELMONTE: As soon as he was out of bed and dressed he was having a time of personal prayer. A time to go deep with the Lord. He would never miss it.

He prays and reads God’s words for at least an hour.

BELMONTE: Why is that significant? If you're at Princeton, for example, training in seminary, well, I'm studying Scripture all the time. You could say to yourself, I could, you know, miss a day or two. He never did.

People are curious why this young millionaire is giving up everything.

Borden grew up second-generation rich. His father made his fortune in Colorado, mining and in real estate. Borden desired closeness with God early on and was mentored in D.L. Moody’s Chicago church. One of his mentors helped lead Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission and Borden meets many missionaries.

BELMONTE: And Borden began to be deeply impressed with their sense of calling, their sense of mission and purpose. The way that they wanted to commend the faith…not only to the people in Asia, other places in the world. I personally think that’s what planted seed initially of him wanting to go to China eventually.

He entered Yale on fire for Christ. He organized prayer groups and Bible studies. He preached on street corners where he talked with homeless people. Moved by their needs, he bought a four-story building with his own fortune to house the local homeless, to feed them, and equip them.

BELMONTE: He had a very winsome personality. It was hard not to like him. He was also a very good listener. That was something that came through all the correspondence I read.

One of the men Borden helped was alcoholic Jack Clark.

BELMONTE: Borden came alongside him and said that God loved him.

Borden modeled God’s generosity by pointing people to his benefactor.

BELMONTE: And Jack Clark said, that's the way he used to talk “He who made the universe holds you in the hollow of his hand will help you.” Borden was present at Jack Clark's renewal of his marriage vows to the wife who was estranged from him and the children, and when he had a home and he had a whole new life, he said, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for William Borden. So that's one vignette, one story, that is representative of everything Borden became.

When he graduated from Yale, Borden felt the pull to the mission field, stronger than ever.

BELMONTE: He wanted to make sure that he was thoroughly trained.

He enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary.

BELMONTE: He thought, if you're going to do it, you have to prepare well. So that’s what he was really doing.

After three years at Princeton, Borden finally feels ready for the next step.

December 1912, he leaves for Cairo. The plan is to learn Arabic there for a year. Then on to London to study medicine while he learns Chinese on the side.

When he arrives in Egypt, he immediately links up with veteran missionaries Samuel and Amy Zwemer. He moves in with a Syrian family thinking, what better way to learn the language? He also begins working with a local seminary. Within weeks, he’s put together a plan to pass out Gospel tracts to every Muslim in Cairo.

BELMONTE: He loved to go out and mingle among the native peoples when they would gather for festivals, and that seems to be how it happened.

Just three months after arriving in Cairo, Borden contracts spinal meningitis. The virus kills most people in several days. As soon as his family gets word Borden’s mother and sister set sail for Egypt.

Boden dies four hours before they get to him.

BELMONTE: We don't know, because we can't see all things. Our perspective is limited. We're finite, and God is infinite. We can't know all ends. What I do know is that when Borden passed away, and his story went all over the world, was covered in all the major newspapers.

Memorial services are held around the world from Yale and Princeton, to South Africa, India, Japan, and Korea.

But for Borden’s mother, her thoughts return to that night in December when she struggled to fall asleep in New York. “Is it, after all, worthwhile?” She later writes this: “In the morning, as I awoke to consciousness, a still small voice was speaking in my heart, answering the question with these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…’”

BELMONTE: We won’t know on this side of eternity all the whys and wherefores…but as I say, out of that tragedy, so many ripple effects unfolded, so many streams of good.

The Hui Muslims remain largely unreached. Mission groups estimate of the fifteen million Hui currently living in China, less than two-thousand know Christ. There are currently about one hundred Christian workers in the region.

BELMONTE: He was willing to go and do and be for the Lord, for however long or short that time might have been. So all these years later, you know, one hundred and twelve years after his passing, there are parts of his legacy that still live on and I find that very moving.

William Borden once wrote: “If ten men are carrying a log — nine of them on the little end and one at the heavy end — and you want to help, which end will you lift on?”

For WORLD, I’m Caleb Welde.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.