SUMMER 1905. AGE 17
The meaning of being a Christian is that in response for the pit of a whole Christ I give my whole self to Him.
ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D.
IT 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 lifework. In the meanwhile the travelers 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 13, 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 understood! 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 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 politics. 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 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 amphitheater 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 center. 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. 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.D. As no one could be buried within the limits of Roma Quadrata this proves that the wall: did not extend that far, and that the Forum was the battleground 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! I’m not sure which I prefer. As a group, I guess the Laocoon 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. I 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 way 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 sightseeing 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 northeastern 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 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
DARLING MOTHER―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 that 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 with 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 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 laborers. There is something inspiring in the project to me. 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 plans 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. During that time we had been climbing up an easy sloping 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 travelers reached England in the midst of the London season, when the international championships 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 marveled 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!”
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. Tomorrow 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 in it. 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. Today 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 finest tennis in the world” was being played. And amid it all there was a new and deeper gladness, for to Borden had come perhaps the most vital experience 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
DEAR MOTHER―I 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...” He is a 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. But I am now. The text was John 3:66That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (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 Scripture. That’s what I like, lots of the Word of God and little of man. The five proofs were very convincing and plain.
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:
1st. 1 John 2:2929If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. (1 John 2:29). “Every one that doeth righteousness is 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 practice righteousness? If we do, we are born of God.
2nd. 1 John 3:99Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (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, therefore, is transgression of the will of God. “Every one that doeth sin, doeth also lawlessness: and sin is lawlessness.” 1 John 3:44Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. (1 John 3:4). The regenerate man does not willfully and intentionally sin.
3rd. 1 John 3:1414We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. (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 5:11Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (1 John 5:1). “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is 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.
Summary: One who is “born again” practices 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 to do? Answer, John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12). “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. Today versus Tomorrow was his theme, and men were made to feel that they simply could not afford to put off the vital matter of salvation.
The wise man accepts Christ today; the foolish puts it off till tomorrow.
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 “tomorrow.” 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 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:
Look always at Jesus.
Keep confessing Jesus everywhere.
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 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 some time...
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 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 outdoor service was being held. Something 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 convince 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. 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 personal 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.