William Whiting Borden (November 1, 1887 – April 9, 1913) was an American philanthropist and millionaire
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
candidate who died in Egypt before reaching his chosen field,
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
province in China.
Life and work
Childhood and youth
William Whiting Borden was born into a prominent and wealthy
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
family, the third child of William and Mary DeGarmo Whiting Borden. Borden's father had made a fortune in Colorado silver mining, but the family was unrelated to the
Borden Condensed Milk Company—an advantage for Borden since if asked about his wealth, he could honestly reply that his family was often mistaken for "the rich Condensed Milk firm that bears the name of Borden." Borden had three siblings: John (1884-1961), Joyce (1897-1971), and novelist and poet
Mary Borden Spears (1886-1968).
After his mother converted to evangelical Christianity in 1894, she took Borden to Chicago Avenue Church, later
Moody Church
The Moody Church (often referred to as Moody Memorial Church, after a sign hung on the North Avenue side of the building) is a historic evangelical Christian (Nondenominational Christianity) church in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Ill ...
, where he responded to the gospel preaching of
R. A. Torrey
Reuben Archer Torrey (28 January 1856 – 26 October 1928) was an American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer. He aligned with Keswick theology.
Biography
Torrey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of a banker. He graduated from ...
. From that juncture, prayer and Bible study became hallmarks of his life. After he graduated from
The Hill School
The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO).
...
,
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888 ...
, at age 16, his parents gave him the gift of a chaperoned trip around the world, during which he first developed a desire to become a foreign missionary. In London, once again under the preaching of Torrey who was holding meetings there, Borden surrendered his life for Christian service.
Yale
Borden entered
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
in 1905, and with the encouragement of young classics tutor
Henry Burt Wright, Borden began daily prayer groups that within two years reached the entire university from the freshman class to the senior. At a 1906
Student Volunteer Movement
The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions was an organization founded in 1886 that sought to recruit college and university students in the United States for missionary service abroad. It also sought to publicize and encourage the mission ...
convention in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
,
Samuel Marinus Zwemer
Samuel Marinus Zwemer (April 12, 1867 – April 2, 1952), nicknamed The Apostle to Islam, was an American missionary, traveler, and scholar. He was born at Vriesland, Michigan. In 1887 he received an A.B. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, ...
, "a man with a map," impressed Borden with his emphasis on the open doors for evangelizing the Muslim world.
Borden had a charismatic personality, was sociable, athletic, and fun loving but also was an intense and hardworking natural leader. At Yale, he was elected president of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
and was active in several collegiate sports, especially wrestling and crew. He also became the master of his own
sailing yacht
A sailing yacht (US ship prefixes SY or S/Y), is a leisure craft that uses sails as its primary means of propulsion. A yacht may be a sail or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, so the term applie ...
. Borden refused to join a fraternity fearing "it might set him apart from the body of the class," but he was elected to the
Elihu society. Though an opponent of
liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, also known as Liberal Theology and historically as Christian Modernism (see Catholic modernism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 bill ...
, Borden was
ecumenical
Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
in spirit. With his own money, he funded a New Haven
rescue mission and there did personal work himself. One well-traveled English visitor, when asked what had most impressed him about America, is said to have replied, "The sight of that young millionaire kneeling with his arm around a 'bum' in the Yale Hope Mission."
Brief career
After graduating from Yale in 1909, Borden attended
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...
before graduating in 1912. Professor
Charles R. Erdman wrote that no other student had exerted a greater personal influence over him than Borden. "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." Meanwhile, Borden's reputation was such that he became a board member of the National Bible Institute in New York City and at one point temporarily took charge of the whole ministry, including office management, oversight of student practical training, and the operations of four rescue missions. He also became a director of
Moody Bible Institute
Moody Bible Institute (MBI) is a private evangelical Christian Bible college founded in the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, US by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Historically, MBI has maintained positions that have i ...
and, at age 22, a member of the North American Council of the
China Inland Mission
OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...
. (He was asked to withdraw from the meeting when the Council officially passed on his own fitness to become a probationer of the Mission.)
Borden's intention was to become a missionary to
Uyghur Muslims in northwestern China, but he decided first to study Islam and Arabic in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, boarding with a Syrian family there so that he would hear Arabic spoken as much as possible. He also spent time distributing on the streets Christian sermons written in a Koranic style.
In March 1913 he contracted
cerebral meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion o ...
, exhibiting symptoms on March 21 and dying less than three weeks later. He was 25. Ironically, his mother had just arrived from America to vacation with him in the mountains of Lebanon, and she was present for the simple funeral in which Samuel Zwemer participated. Borden is buried in the American Cemetery in Cairo. On his grave were inscribed words suggested by Charles Erdman: "Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation of such a life." Memorial services were conducted for Borden at Princeton University and at a little African Methodist church where Borden had taught
Sunday school
A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West.
Su ...
for two years. Other services were held at Yale Hope Mission, at Moody Church, at
Marble Collegiate Church
The Marble Collegiate Church, founded in 1628, is one of the oldest continuous Protestant congregations in North America. The congregation, which is part of two denominations in the Reformed tradition—the United Church of Christ and the Reform ...
in New York, and in Japan, Korea, India and South Africa.
Borden bequeathed $800,000 to the
China Inland Mission
OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...
and other Christian agencies. China Inland Mission named
Borden Memorial Hospital in
Lanzhou
Lanzhou (, ; ) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. H ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, in his memory.
[Jayson Casper, "The Forgotten Final Resting Place of William Borden," ''Christianity Today'', February 24, 2017]
/ref>
Apocryphal anecdote
According to an oft-repeated anecdote, following Borden's death, his mother found in his Bible the words "No Reserve" and a date suggesting it had been written shortly after he had renounced his fortune in favor of missions. Later he was said to have written "No Retreat," after his father supposedly told him that he would never hold a position in the family business. Finally, shortly before he died in Egypt, he is supposed to have added the phrase "No Regrets." There is no evidence for the historicity of this anecdote. If Borden ever wrote those words in a Bible, the Bible has not been discovered.[On December 31, 1988, the apocryphal story was featured in the popular devotional '' Our Daily Bread'']
Bible.org
The anecdote was likely developed from a sentence in an early biography of Borden by Mary Geraldine Guinness Taylor:"Had not his prayer from childhood been that the will of God should be done in his life? There was no shrinking now... What if, for himself too, the call had come? No reserve, no retreat, no regrets had any place in Borden's consecration to God." Taylor, ''Borden of Yale'' (China Inland Mission, 1926), 260.
References
Further reading
*Campbell, Charles Soutter, ''William Whiting Borden: A Short Life Complete In Christ'', 1909
*''Borden of Yale '09: "The Life that Counts"'', Mrs. Howard Taylor; China Inland Mission, 1913
*Erdman, C. R. (Charles Rosenbury), ''An ideal missionary volunteer : a sketch of the life and character of William Whiting Borden'', London: South Africa General Mission, (c.1913?)
*''Hudson Taylor & China’s Open Century'' Volume Seven: ''It Is Not Death To Die''; Alfred James Broomhall; Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1989
External links
No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets
a short biographical article about Borden
*
Christian Union biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Borden, William Whiting
1887 births
1913 deaths
Protestant missionaries in Egypt
American Protestant missionaries
American evangelicals
Yale University alumni
Princeton University alumni
The Hill School alumni