1912. AGE 24
Who is there tonight 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 his spear in the 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 fall confidence 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 check books recently, found that during the three 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 surprise 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 benefactions 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 checkbooks 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!”
“Why do you not get one, William?” asked a friend who was with him.
“I 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 classmate wrote:
I have been told that he felt one of his temptations was to own a car. 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....
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 downtown church to “preach the gospel to every creature” within the reach of its influence, in this teeming city of thirty different nationalities... [1955: more than forty].
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 worldwide ministry, yet so quietly that his left hand knew not what his right hand did. After his departure, however, 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 homeland, 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.
His provision for the China Inland Mission manifested 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 Chicago 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, DD., of Princeton Seminary, in his published sketch of Borden’s life, 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 Presbyterian 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 hint 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 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 accomplished 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 worldwide spread of the kingdom of Christ. He did as much as any young man whom I knew to help realize the watchword of the Volunteer Movement― “The Evangelization 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, I 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 determining 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.