William Whiting Borden 
 
 A SHORT LIFE COMPLETE 
 IN CHRIST 
 
 “/ live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.” 
 
 Galatians 2: 20. 
 
 By CHARLES SOUTTER CAMPBELL 
 Yale, 1909 
 
CONTENTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR 
 DAILY BIBLE STUDY 
 
 I. Life Prior to Entering College . . 3 
 
 II. Borden at Yale ..... 7 
 
 III. At Princeton Seminary . . . .20 
 
 IV. The Final Year . . . . .25 
 
 I. Vision and Preparation, Isaiah 6 :1-8. 
 
 II. The Voice and the Commission, Acts 26: 12-20. 
 
 III. “The Rich Fool,” Luke 12:13-21. 
 
 IV. The Peril of Riches Avoided, Mark 10:17-31. 
 
 V. He “Preached unto Him Jesus,” Acts 8: 26-40. 
 
 VI. “I have Fought the Good Fight,” II Timothy 
 3 :14-4: 8. 
 
 VII. The Victor’s Song, Psalm 16. 
 
WILLIAM WHITING BORDEN 
 
 I. Life Prior to Entering College 
 
 This Yale man was born in Chicago, November 1, 
 1887. His home was one of refinement and comfort. 
 His mother was an earnest and capable woman, of 
 fine Christian character; his father a successful busi¬ 
 ness man, of brilliant mind, a lover of home and 
 children. Bill inherited his father’s business ability 
 and fairness of mind; he had, as well, his mother’s 
 earnest faith and intensity. From both he inherited 
 the affectionate nature that throughout life was one 
 of his finest traits. 
 
 It was in such surroundings that Bill spent his boy¬ 
 hood days. The parents planned for their children the 
 very best training and education. Spiritual guidance 
 and influences were prominent and the Bible had 
 the place of importance, so that Bill early became 
 acquainted with its characters and its teaching. There 
 were four children in the Borden family. Bill was the 
 third, having a brother and sister older and a second 
 sister younger than himself. His relations with this 
 younger sister were especially close and affectionate. 
 When she was a very small baby, Bill wrote the fol¬ 
 lowing letter about her: “I think the baby is awful 
 cunning. It has a little cold in her head. One day 
 the butcher came in and found the maids all so happy 
 because was a little baby, so he told Mrs. Hatch and 
 Mrs. Hatch told Mrs. Stone, and Mrs. Stone told Mrs. 
 Sheldon. Good by from William Borden.” 
 
 Bill was a boy through and through. He was so 
 
 3 
 
active and enthusiastic that he was always getting into 
 trouble. He fell off a wagon and sprained his wrists, 
 slid down a ladder and cut his hands, and was in many 
 scrapes that live boys of his age fall heir to. He saw 
 a bit of gang life, running the streets with his cousin 
 and other companions. There were fights and fights. 
 There was the little candy shop, where the candy was 
 displayed in open trays, from which these boys would 
 pilfer a piece when no one was looking. 
 
 During this period, there seemed to be an eagerness 
 to work hard at tasks that men are engaged in. Bill 
 toiled all day to clean an old cider press, which he had 
 been told was too dirty for use and could not be 
 cleaned. He worked by the day with the hands of a 
 strawberry-box factory and did it just for the fun. 
 When a wreck was cast up on the lake shore, he and 
 his cousin spent the day working with the regular 
 laborers and were paid off with the rest at night. 
 
 During these early years, Bill went to school in 
 Chicago, attending several different schools and doing 
 good scholarship work in them all. One of these 
 schools was the scene of an escapade which shows the 
 love of adventure that characterized him as a boy. 
 He and his cousin wished to get into the school gym¬ 
 nasium one Saturday but found the building locked 
 when they reached the school. After a short search, 
 they discovered the coal hole, through which they 
 dropped and groped their way to the gymnasium. 
 They played there for some time, took a shower and 
 left without being detected. 
 
 When thirteen years old, Bill entered the Hill 
 School. Here he was much interested in athletics and 
 followed keenly the fortunes of the Hill teams; he 
 went out for football and was a first team substitute 
 
 4 
 
before he left the School. The scores of the various 
 games figure often in his letters home. He was a 
 lover of all forms of competition and enjoyed every 
 sort of trick or stunt. A favorite one was to stand on 
 his head and in that position drink a cup of water. 
 He showed at this time evidence of care of money. 
 To one of his letters to his father, he appends the 
 following account: 
 
 Football supplies.$ 3.20 
 
 Posters. 1.05 
 
 Contribution. .50 
 
 Clothes pressed. 1.00 
 
 Eatables. .20 
 
 Screw driver. .14 
 
 Book rack. .20 
 
 Picture wire. .20 
 
 Class paper. 1.90 
 
 Clothes. 1.00 
 
 Eph’s [restaurant]. 1.00 
 
 Paper . .30 
 
 Stamps. .02 
 
 Eph’s.10 
 
 Contribution. 1.00 
 
 Window cushions. 9.98 
 
 Hill banner. .50 
 
 Thumb tacks. .09 
 
 Car fare. .10 
 
 Soda •••••••••••• .15 
 
 Pillow. 1.50 
 
 Reading room fee. 1.00 
 
 Eph’s . .35 
 
 Contribution. .65 
 
 Stamps. .10 
 
 $26.23 
 
 His letters give further glimpses of his school life: 
 a prize in geometry at the close of his first year; secre- 
 
 5 
 
tary of a debating club; learning his oration and wish¬ 
 ing the thing was over; president of the mission band 
 in his sixth form year. He shows interest in the 
 chapel preachers and writes his mother giving the 
 text and sketch of the sermons of a number of these, 
 commenting in school boy fashion on preacher and 
 sermon. “He was great!” or “He was very sad!” 
 show the boyish yet positive manner in which he sized 
 up some of the speakers. 
 
 In June of 1904, Bill graduated from the Hill 
 School, in scholarship rating as one of the first four 
 in his class. Before entering Yale, he took a year’s 
 trip around the world with an older friend. They 
 started from the Borden summer home in Maine, in 
 early August of 1904. Japan was the first country 
 reached, after crossing the United States and the 
 Pacific. Here Bill first saw missionaries at work. 
 That he became interested from the start is evident, 
 for he gave to one of them half of an allowance he 
 had just received from his father. Shortly after 
 reaching China, Bill had typhoid fever and celebrated 
 his first Christmas away from home in a hospital in 
 Hongkong. Fortunately, his illness was not severe 
 so that it was not long before he was able to go on 
 with the trip. The travelers moved on from China to 
 India and to Egypt. Bill’s interest in missions kept 
 growing as he saw more distinctly the destitution of 
 these countries and the inadequacy of their religions 
 to meet the needs of the hearts of the people. In 
 Egypt, they saw Cairo, the Nile, the Pyramids and 
 Karnak, and then passed on to Constantinople, Athens, 
 Syria and Palestine. They spent some time in Swit¬ 
 zerland and Paris. In Switzerland, Bill climbed some 
 of the mountains and was from that time an enthusi- 
 
 6 
 
astic mountain climber. On a later visit, he climbed a 
 number of the highest mountains in the Swiss Alps. 
 In Paris, he took automobile lessons and became pro¬ 
 ficient in driving a machine, though one day he ran 
 into a motor-cyclist and had to pay a fine. 
 
 From France, Bill crossed to England and went at 
 once to London. Dr. R. A. Torrey was then holding 
 evangelistic meetings in the Grand Hall on the Strand. 
 Under date of July 2, Bill wrote in his diary: “I went 
 back to Grand Hall Strand at 6.30 when it was already 
 quite well filled. Mr. Alexander leading. Fine address. 
 I was much helped and surrendered all to Jesus at the 
 invitation while Miss Davis was singing the song. Out 
 about 9.30.” Here then is Bill, at seventeen years of 
 age, calmly saying, “I was much helped and surren¬ 
 dered all to Jesus.” He had been following Christ 
 before this time, it is true, but this new decision meant 
 the complete consecration of his life to Christ. Bill 
 had been an average Christian before; this step made 
 it possible for God to use him as He cannot use those 
 who are only partly His. 
 
 About a month later, Bill arrived in Boston. In the 
 spirit of his new-made surrender to Jesus Christ, he 
 now entered Yale in September of 1905. 
 
 II. Borden at Yale 
 
 Bill roomed in Garland’s, occupying a second floor 
 rear room which served as both bedroom and study. 
 Garland’s, in those days, was one of the sweller dormi¬ 
 tories for freshmen. Pierson Hall was just opposite, 
 while on both sides of York Street were a number of 
 private dormitories. Bill was thrown into the life of 
 
 7 
 
this large university only a month or two after the 
 close of his world tour and his life decision for Christ. 
 It is no wonder if at first he felt somewhat lonely and 
 seemed to find few friends of like mind. Everywhere 
 about him were the hustle and uncertainty of freshman 
 beginnings. There is a sense of adjustment and of 
 feeling one’s way that pervades the atmosphere during 
 the first few days of college life. It seemed as though 
 everyone used a “trot” and Sunday study was almost 
 universal. All this was contrary to Bill’s home train¬ 
 ing and to his own convictions as well. 
 
 In spite of his natural feelings of loneliness and 
 adjustment, Bill was soon in the thick of the work 
 and play of college life. He went out for the fresh¬ 
 man football team, got in touch with the religious work 
 of the college and went to work at his studies. His 
 connection with the Christian Association was quickly 
 established, and he soon made friends with others 
 who were interested in the Cause of Christ. He 
 served on the committee in charge of the religious 
 work of his class and soon stamped himself as a leader 
 in the Christian activities of the college. In spite of 
 his age, he was far more mature in faith than many 
 considerably older. His grasp of the fundamentals 
 was, even at this time, firm and assured. He had 
 already decided to become a foreign missionary. A 
 fixed purpose of this sort gives a man a great single¬ 
 ness of aim that steadies not only himself, but those 
 with whom he is thrown in contact, and Bill’s char¬ 
 acter had a solidity about it directly traceable to his 
 surrender to Christ for a life of service among un¬ 
 christianized peoples. Interested as he was in football 
 and in all the wholesome activities of college, Bill let 
 it be known with no uncertainty that his heart was 
 
 8 
 
first in the service of his Master. He was evangelistic 
 in spirit from the beginning of his college course, ever 
 watching for opportunities for spreading the faith he 
 believed so firmly himself. An illustration of this 
 occurred in freshman year. He found that a student, 
 whom he had known before he entered Yale, was 
 drifting into open and flagrant sin and Bill set about 
 reaching him with Christ’s message of salvation. He 
 learned that his friend had gone to Savin Rock one 
 evening and went after him. He found him in some 
 low dive in company with a woman of the street. In 
 some way, almost by force, Bill managed to get hold 
 of his friend and bring him back to New Haven. 
 Perhaps he did not use just the same strong-arm 
 methods in later years, but he always sought with just 
 the same earnestness to lead men to a saving knowl¬ 
 edge of Christ. This was never easy for him, and his 
 letters tell of times when his courage failed and he 
 did not embrace the opportunities that came to him. 
 
 Football season was now over and Bill had failed 
 to make the team. He had practiced hard throughout 
 the season and was a first substitute for a line posi¬ 
 tion. During the winter, Bill spent his time of exer¬ 
 cise wrestling in the gymnasium. He liked nothing 
 better than to have his face rubbed in the wrestling 
 mat or to be rubbing someone’s else face in it. He 
 was a hard man to down, and, though he never made 
 the wrestling team, he was well up with the best of his 
 weight. 
 
 In February the Student Volunteer Movement held 
 its quadrennial conference at Nashville, and Bill was 
 one of the Yale delegation to attend. Studies were 
 dropped for the time, and the trip was made by special 
 train, crowded with delegates from many colleges and 
 
 9 
 
universities. Bill always had much superfluous energy 
 to get rid of and did this on the trip by roughhouse 
 and rather violent games which originated often from 
 his fertile brain. The baggage car proved to be the only 
 available place for extended activity, and to it a num¬ 
 ber of the delegates resorted for games of “hot-hand,” 
 high-kicking contests and other such games. 
 
 Arrived at Nashville, the delegates separated for 
 the various homes in which they were to be enter¬ 
 tained. About four thousand accredited delegates 
 attended this conference, coming from colleges and 
 universities in every part of the country. The great 
 hall accommodated nearly five thousand and was 
 crowded each meeting. Here Bill spent a week of 
 intense interest. The speakers on inspirational and 
 missionary subjects were all of the best, and each had 
 its own appeal. Still, out of the many-sided, world¬ 
 wide pictures, Bill was particularly interested in what 
 he heard of the Moslems. S. M. Zwemer of Arabia 
 spoke a number of times on the Mohammedan coun¬ 
 tries, and Bill was usually present. The Moslem prob¬ 
 lem gripped him to such an extent that his interest in 
 it was very keen from this time on. He had been 
 looking forward to being a missionary in China, but 
 now began to think seriously about going to Arabia or 
 some other Mohammedan country. 
 
 On the return journey, a side trip was made to the 
 Mammoth Cave. Soon, however, all the Yale men 
 were back in New Haven and hard at work making 
 up for lost time. The conference made a very deep 
 impression on the delegates from Yale. Many saw at 
 Nashville something of the world vision that Bill had 
 gained in his trip around the world. Missionary activi¬ 
 ties in the college took on new life. The churches of 
 
 10 
 
New Haven and vicinity were visited by groups of 
 two or three returned delegates, who told briefly about 
 the conference and its call to world evangelization. 
 Bill, with two others, formed one of the teams which 
 visited three of the New Haven churches. He writes 
 home about failure in speaking at one of these 
 churches and attributes the failure to “pride and 
 ambition inside.” 
 
 In the spring of 1906, Mr. Borden died in Chicago. 
 This was a very heavy loss for Bill, who had loved his 
 father greatly. This sad event also brought new 
 responsibilities into his life. He was only eighteen and 
 a half years old but bore the added cares with great 
 patience. Mrs. Borden was in poor health for a time, 
 which further added to Bill’s responsibilities. Quietly 
 he assumed all such cares and faithfully attended to 
 them in addition to his own work at college. There 
 seemed to be no worry or friction with it all. Surely 
 it was his life purpose of allegiance to Christ that 
 enabled Bill to live so quietly and serenely, bearing 
 other’s burdens, as well as his own, in the spirit of 
 Him who bears our burdens and makes smooth the 
 rough places for our feet. 
 
 The summer of freshman year was spent in Cam¬ 
 den, Maine, where the Borden summer home is 
 located. The house stands well up above the water, 
 overlooking Penobscot Bay, with its many islands. 
 Ocean, lakes and mountains are all near by and there 
 is opportunity for almost every kind of outdoor 
 recreation. Golf, tennis, fishing, swimming, boating 
 and especially sailing the sloop, Tsatsazmssa —all 
 had their share in making the vacation a happy and 
 healthy one. Bill enjoyed particularly a two or three 
 days’ cruise. Once he sailed to Deer Island to pick 
 
 11 
 
up a classmate and cruised with him from there to Bar 
 Harbor. Coming by Mount Desert, an off-shore squall 
 struck the boat, with all sail set, and threatened to tear 
 out the mast. It was a sight to see Bill throwing every 
 ounce of his truly unusual strength on the wheel in 
 his endeavor to keep the boat pointing far enough 
 off-shore. The result of all this was the boat 
 heeled over so far that his classmate, who was trying 
 to get the jib down, went up to his waist in water. 
 
 Even in this vacation time, following on his fresh¬ 
 man year, Bill showed a sense of balance, that was 
 further evidence of unusual maturity. He had decided 
 to anticipate a French course and stuck to the summer 
 work this necessitated with a perseverance that all 
 who have tried such summer work can appreciate. 
 Nor did Bill take a holiday in his work for Christ. 
 He spoke at open-air Y. M. C. A. services and at 
 Christian Endeavor and other church meetings. He 
 told the drunken gardener about Christ and had the 
 joy of seeing this man finding peace and respectability 
 in Him. Bilks faith was deepened, and he returnejd 
 from his vacation praising Him who had promised that 
 He, if He were lifted up, would draw all men unto 
 Himself. 
 
 During sophomore year he roomed in the “Hutchin¬ 
 son” on Crown Street. His roommates were of a dif¬ 
 ferent type from Bill. No doubt he had chosen them 
 with the hope and prayer that he might lead them 
 closer to his Master. He had determined to do better 
 scholarship work in sophomore year than as a fresh¬ 
 man, as he had not been satisfied with his first year’s 
 work. He was anxious to make Phi Beta Kappa and 
 set out to do it. He wanted to play football, but gave 
 up the game at his mother’s request. His interest in 
 
 12 
 
the Y. M. C. A. was quickened, if anything, and he 
 increasingly gave time and thought to this work. He 
 seemed to find time for regular exercise and many 
 other things besides his studying. 
 
 The society question was prominent in his thoughts 
 at this time. The junior fraternities were soon to give 
 out their first elections. Much prayer and thought and 
 consultation on this matter only served to deepen 
 Bill’s belief that he should not accept election if it 
 was offered to him, and he let his decision be known. 
 How bitter the mental struggle was, any Yale man can 
 picture to himself. Bill occupied a position of real 
 prominence which undoubtedly would have made him 
 an early choice for a fraternity. His brother and 
 uncle had both been fraternity and senior society men, 
 so Bill had. an inheritance which would naturally 
 attract him to the fraternities. Further than this, his 
 close friends in college, many of them earnest Chris¬ 
 tian men, were expecting to accept fraternity election 
 should this be offered them. Yet Bill stood firm in 
 his decision. It may be that the average Yale under¬ 
 graduate will be moved to exclaim in disgust, “What 
 foolishness have we here!” It is well to consider care¬ 
 fully before judgment is pronounced. Yale man, if 
 you thought such a stand was right, yet knew that you 
 were practically certain of early election to any fra¬ 
 ternity you wished, would you have the courage to 
 take the stand Bill did? Here was no ordinary cour¬ 
 age. Here was the conviction that for Bill Borden it 
 was not right to be a fraternity man and, with the 
 conviction, the courage to abide by it came to him. 
 
 What reason could there be for such a decision? 
 Back in London more than two years before, Bill had 
 given himself to a Master for life service. The bond 
 
 13 
 
between him and his Master had become stronger and 
 stronger, and he did not wish any secret fraternity 
 bond to come into his life lest it might weaken the 
 bond of friendship with Christ. Bill was always out 
 in the open. It seemed like walking in the dark to 
 join a secret organization. How real the struggle of 
 it all was, only his mother and a few others in some 
 small measure saw, but calmly he made the decision 
 which some said would cut him off from his position 
 and influence entirely. As a classmate wrote about 
 this decision, “Bill was willing to be ‘a fool for Christ’s 
 sake,’ and many people thought him such.” 
 
 Shortly before the time of the first fraternity elec¬ 
 tions, Bill had been elected one of the four class 
 deacons. He became increasingly earnest in the work 
 of the Christian Association. Mission study and Bible 
 study had his enthusiastic support. Towards the close 
 of the winter term, W. J. Dawson conducted a series 
 of special meetings at Yale. Something he said sug¬ 
 gested to John Magee, ’06, then general secretary qf 
 the Y. M. C. A., the idea of a rescue mission connected 
 with the work of the Association. He went to Bill 
 and the two worked out the matter with the result that 
 the Yale Hope Mission was started. This mission has 
 since served the double purpose of a place of refuge 
 and salvation for the hopeless bum of the streets and 
 as a concrete evidence to the students themselves of 
 the power of Christianity to save. It was not long 
 before the chief responsibility for this mission rested 
 upon Bill. 
 
 All this time there were the regular studies and the 
 daily times of exercise. Bill was not a one-sided man 
 at all, even though the casual observer may have 
 stamped him as such. Body, mind and spirit came to 
 
 14 
 
their own in his well-rounded character. Too often 
 the important claims of the spirit are ignored, and this 
 always results in real narrowness. In spite of this, 
 there are many who seem to be content to live their 
 lives without developing qualities of heart and soul, 
 which are, after all, the most important. 
 
 Bill was back at college ready for hard work at the 
 beginning of junior year. True to his determination 
 to raise his stand during sophomore year he had suc¬ 
 ceeded and could look forward with practical cer¬ 
 tainty to election to Phi Beta Kappa. He took up 
 rowing and made his class crew. In the Fall Regatta 
 on Lake Whitney his crew won the class championship. 
 He roomed now in White Hall. Some of his best 
 friends lived near by. It was a favorite pastime to 
 arouse Bill, to get him into a good roughhouse; not 
 because anyone had a chance with him, but because it 
 was really awe-inspiring to see him actually get going. 
 He would tear around the room like a cyclone, com¬ 
 pletely overthrowing all who came in his way. With 
 his knowledge of wrestling and his unusual strength, 
 the average man found himself quite helpless. It was 
 interesting to notice that such a roughhouse did not 
 upset Bill’s equilibrium for the evening. He would, 
 after such times, quiet down and turn to his work with 
 little waste time. It was just this sense of balance 
 that enabled him to carry the many different tasks he 
 did. 
 
 He was interested in many phases of religious work. 
 He was active in the Volunteer Band, in Bible and 
 mission study and in the Yale Hope Mission. He 
 attended a daily prayer group this year as in the two 
 previous ones. It was in a group such as this that his 
 earnest, assured faith showed most brightly. There 
 
 15 
 
was always someone whom he desired to see come to 
 the saving and abiding presence of Christ, and for 
 whom he would ask prayer. His simple faith in the 
 Bible and its promises was evident to all who were 
 with him in such gatherings as this and heard him read 
 from the Bible and comment upon it. A classmate 
 writes what many others thought about Bill and his 
 power of working and accomplishing. “I say he let 
 me work alongside of him, but what I did can’t be 
 called work when one is speaking of Bill. I had one 
 puny little Bible class which I kept up but poorly and 
 into which I put but little, either of time or enthu¬ 
 siasm. Bill did an enormous amount of work. My 
 share consisted in going to meetings and taking part 
 when occasion demanded and in worrying along with 
 this group for Bible study. Bill’s share consisted in 
 conducting at least two such classes, in helping to get 
 the Hope Mission started and in doing countless 
 things which I never dreamed were going on. I re¬ 
 member how he used to work over various men in the 
 class he thought were going wrong. Do you remember 
 the way Joe Twichell said to us once, ‘As for that 
 man Borden, he’d go out after the worst skunk in the 
 class’ ?” 
 
 Towards the close of the junior year, the senior 
 society elections found Bill in the same frame of mind 
 regarding accepting election to a secret organization. 
 He was, however, offered an election to the Elihu 
 Club and accepted. 
 
 In June of this year Bill attended the Northfield 
 Conference with the Yale delegation. He had 
 attended these summer conferences regularly and had 
 been active in the delegations. He was essentially 
 democratic and waited on the table at several of these 
 
 16 
 
conferences. He taught a Bible class and worked 
 hard in the interest of missions. He also took part in 
 the ball games and other sports which are a great 
 feature of the afternoons at Northfield. 
 
 Bill spent part of the summer vacation in Chicago, 
 where he gained some experience in business, and 
 part in Europe, where he went primarily to attend his 
 sister’s wedding in Switzerland. He enjoyed the busi¬ 
 ness experience and said he could easily have become 
 engrossed in ordinary business. When college opened 
 for his senior year, Mrs. Borden took a house in New 
 Haven for the winter. Bill, however, lived again on 
 The Oval. It was during this year that his close 
 friends were able to realize better how many extra 
 cares he had which the average undergraduate never 
 even thinks about. His mother’s health was not good 
 and Bill’s loving care of her was very noticeable 
 throughout the year. On November 1, Bill came of 
 age and into actual possession of his fortune. For a 
 careless man this would have meant little additional 
 burden, but for an earnest man it meant real responsi¬ 
 bility. His money was a trust and he the steward, who 
 must give careful account of the use of the trust. He 
 belonged to God and, of course, his money did too. 
 So it was impossible for him to be flippant in his use 
 of money. 
 
 Bill spent the Christmas vacation at Lake Placid in 
 the Adirondacks, where he invited a number of friends 
 to spend some days with him. He was on his vacation 
 and he entered into the good times as he knew how to 
 do so well. Tobogganing, tramping and indoor games, 
 or whatever else it might be, Bill was in the thick of it. 
 It was a great party and his rare social gifts and un¬ 
 selfishness were ever in evidence. 
 
 17 
 
Senior year was a very happy one in many ways and 
 a busy one too. Life was looming large, with the 
 college course so nearly completed. Bill had long ago 
 settled the foreign mission question and was now 
 hoping to be able to go to the Moslems of China. It 
 had been interesting for him to learn that there were 
 some millions of Mohammedans there, for he now saw 
 the chance of going to China and yet tackling the 
 Moslem question at the same time. He had his atten¬ 
 tion directed especially to the northwestern part of 
 China, where the Mohammedans were most numerous, 
 but to which only a few missionaries had as yet gone. 
 This attracted him the more, because he had a desire 
 to do pioneer work, if God so willed. 
 
 The Yale Hope Mission had now expanded from the 
 one rented room, where the services were held, to the 
 entire building which was now owned, largely through 
 Bill’s generosity. The major part of the building was 
 used as an inexpensive hotel for those who were in 
 search of clean lodging. It was named the “Hotel 
 Martin” after “Daddy Martin,” a reformed drunkard 
 who had been associated with the Mission from its 
 founding. Every year there were many who heard 
 Christ preached in the Mission and found Him able to 
 save to the uttermost. 
 
 The social life during senior year was much the 
 same as in previous years. Bill was the same happy, 
 lovable fellow, though there were always those who 
 thought him a little cold and severe; and so he did 
 seem at times to those who did not really know him. 
 He had a great heart of love underneath, which any 
 who have felt his hearty slap on the back or his arm 
 about their shoulders can vouch for. His impetuous 
 way of going into things did one good. If there was 
 
 18 
 
a car to be caught, a game to be played, or anything 
 else to be done, Bill was the first to be about the 
 doing of it. 
 
 Bill had made Phi Beta Kappa and was elected 
 president of that organization in his senior year. This 
 was one of the many evidences that his stand on the 
 fraternity question had not hurt his influence or popu¬ 
 larity. In this year it fell to Bill’s lot, as president, to 
 preside at the Phi Beta Kappa banquet. It was a 
 striking illustration of his poise and maturity to see 
 how naturally and appropriately he acted and spoke 
 on this occasion. 
 
 After the final examinations were taken, there was 
 a gap of four days before Commencement. Bill, with 
 three classmates, went to Camden, planning to sail the 
 Tsatsawassa back to New Haven. In spite of sailing 
 night and day, prevailing head winds or calm made 
 this impossible, so that the sailors only reached the 
 southern side of Cape Cod, where they had to put 
 ashore and take the train back to New Haven. 
 
 With Commencement time past and college days 
 over, a happy and busy ten days were put in at North- 
 field, followed by a summer at Camden. Here the 
 same mixture of open-air, active life, combined with 
 work of a more serious nature, was in evidence. There 
 were open-air meetings in the town and in a near-by 
 recreation park. There were long cruises, sailing 
 races, golf, tennis and swimming. One cruise was 
 made at night in a gale, in which the tender was lost, 
 but the Tsatsawassa came through safely. Another 
 cruise was made to Nova Scotia. 
 
 19 
 
III. At Princeton Seminary 
 
 Bill had been asked to return for another year as 
 university secretary of the Y. M. C. A. His earnest 
 evangelistic spirit, coupled with unusual ability for 
 executive work, made this selection a good one; but 
 Bill had his heart set on reaching his life work and he 
 could not bear to think of putting this off a year. 
 Moreover, though his convictions in the fundamental 
 doctrines were strong, he confessed that he had been 
 troubled by a number of questions during his college 
 course and was very anxious to get to his seminary 
 work, when he would have time to study into these 
 questions and settle them as far as possible. So he 
 decided that he would not return as university 
 secretary. 
 
 In the fall he entered Princeton Seminary and was 
 soon hard at work. He lived at home, as Mrs. Bftrden 
 lived in Princeton during the three years of his semi¬ 
 nary course. Bill took the full first-year course and 
 several extra-curriculum courses,—among these being 
 Arabic. He felt that he would be better prepared for 
 his work in China, if he knew the language of the 
 Koran and of the people to whom the Prophet had 
 belonged. It was about this time that he outlined with 
 Professor Beach of Yale a course of study in missions, 
 looking forward to the M. A. degree. There was 
 nothing halfway about such a preparation. It was 
 deep and thoroughgoing. 
 
 Bill entered upon three years of busy, happy life at 
 the Seminary. The studies were absorbing and the 
 social life congenial. He was a member of the Ben- 
 ham Club, the oldest eating club of the Seminary. He 
 played most of the games, but was especially fond of 
 
 20 
 
tennis. He was a leader among the student volunteers 
 of the Seminary and was always present at the early 
 morning prayer service of the Volunteer Band each 
 Wednesday. 
 
 In addition to the duties and pleasures that centered 
 about his life in the Seminary, Bill had many respon¬ 
 sibilities outside Princeton itself. In the fall of 1909 
 he had been made a trustee of the Moody Bible Insti¬ 
 tute in Chicago. In the spring of 1910 he was 
 appointed delegate to the Edinburgh Missionary Con¬ 
 ference 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 mem¬ 
 ber of the 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. There are not many men of his 
 age who could so well have handled the many duties 
 that pressed upon him from many quarters. His 
 singleness of purpose helped him and gave such direc¬ 
 tion to his life that no one, even among his best friends, 
 saw anything but quiet, consistent, and unhurried doing 
 of each task that fell to him. Almost every month he 
 went to New Haven to look over the work of the Yale 
 Hope Mission. The unusual feature of his relation¬ 
 ship 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, 
 and he usually conducted a service at the Mission 
 when he went to New Haven. New Haven, New 
 York 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 that, he stood very high in his scholarship. 
 
 21 
 
Life at Princeton was brightened by the happy home 
 influences that surrounded him. The Borden home 
 was hospitably open to all. Students, missionaries 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 
 his 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. 
 
 He was careful not to neglect his morning and 
 evening devotions. Though his classroom work was 
 along religious lines, he never substituted it for the 
 personal devotion and prayer that is absolutely essen¬ 
 tial to the Christian. It was his custom to read a 
 chapter from the New Testament in the morning and 
 two chapters from the Old Testament in the evening. 
 He did so because in this way he would be able to read 
 the entire Bible once each year. And what is more, he 
 seems to have stuck faithfully to his program. 
 
 Bill spent the summer of 1910 in Europe. He first 
 attended the World’s Missionary Conference in Edin¬ 
 burgh. Following that he went to Norway to visit 
 some friends. From Norway Bill proceeded to Ger¬ 
 many and spent a month there studying the language. 
 He had taken a year’s work in German at Yale, and 
 felt he could pick up a good deal of the spoken lan¬ 
 guage, if he could live in Germany for a short time. 
 So he spent a month, living with a German family, and 
 he certainly made remarkable progress. A Yale class- 
 
 22 
 
mate, whom Bill met in Switzerland just after his stay 
 in Germany, found him carrying on a good conversa¬ 
 tion with those with whom he had occasion to talk in 
 German. His mastery of the language was far from 
 complete, but still he had a speaking knowledge of it 
 that many a tourist would have envied. This was 
 characteristic of Bill. He was gifted with the ability of 
 seeing a thing, believing it was good and then going 
 ahead and doing it. Once started, he rarely stopped 
 before he had finished what he set out to accomplish. 
 
 Bill spent several days in Lucerne, where he gave 
 himself up to the enjoyment of the sights and sports 
 of the place. It was at times such as this that the 
 social qualities of Bill were seen to advantage. He 
 had a fertile imagination, a fund of ideas, and an 
 enthusiasm that was contagious. On Sunday he 
 attended the morning and afternoon services of the 
 little Scotch mission church; and for anyone who 
 knew Bill’s habits of giving, it was easy to tell where 
 the twenty-franc piece came from as it lay in the plate 
 each service, equaling perhaps the entire remaining 
 collection. 
 
 In the matter of giving, Bill always followed the 
 injunction, “Let not thy left hand know what thy 
 right hand doeth.” He insisted that not even his 
 initials should be put with a gift, when a list of bene¬ 
 factions was printed. He always asked that a gift of 
 his should not be made public. It almost seemed to 
 irritate him when he was found out. His best friends 
 never knew even a small percentage of the gifts he was 
 making. Many surprising incidents could be told, if 
 all who have been helped by him could be induced to 
 tell their stories. Bill’s check book would show how 
 little he spent for himself and how much he was con- 
 
 23 
 
stantly giving to others. With it all, he gave wisely 
 and conducted his financial affairs in a businesslike 
 fashion. 
 
 Sailing on the Minneapolis of the Atlantic Transport 
 Line in September, 1910, Bill was soon back at his 
 work in the Seminary. It was on this ocean voyage 
 that he copied the poem entitled “A Morning Prayer,” 
 which he kept among his favorite poems: 
 
 Guard me for yet another day, 
 
 For life is new with morning’s ray; 
 
 And foes are strange, untrod the way, 
 
 Guard me through this an unknown day. 
 
 Gird me for this another day, 
 
 Though guarded, I must fight and pray, 
 
 Teach me to draw my sword or stay: 
 
 O gird, while guarding me to-day. 
 
 Guide me for yet another day: 
 
 Guarded and girded, yet I stray, 
 
 Find paths for me, and I obey: 
 
 Guard, gird, and guide me one more day. 
 
 Guard, gird, and guide me every day, 
 
 So when all things of time decay, 
 
 In morn of heaven, by grace, I may 
 Enter thy perfectness of Day. 
 
 Seminary work was completed and Bill graduated in 
 May, 1912. About a month before this time, he had 
 offered himself to the China Inland Mission for work 
 in China and had been accepted as one of their mis¬ 
 sionaries. After leaving the Seminary, Bill spent part 
 of the summer doing executive work for the National 
 Bible Institute so that the president of the organization 
 could take a much needed rest. On September 21 he 
 was ordained in the Moody Church in Chicago. 
 
 24 
 
For the next three months he traveled among the 
 colleges as one of the secretaries of the Student Volun¬ 
 teer Movement. The list of colleges and universities 
 which he visited occupies considerable space and bears 
 witness to his activity during this short time. The 
 secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of the University of 
 Virginia pictures what must have been repeated at 
 many of the other colleges Bill visited. “Mr. Borden 
 has come and gone. His visit was an inspiring one. 
 His deep spiritual life, his splendid preparation for 
 service and his absolute dedication to the missionary 
 cause have made a lasting impression on our leaders. 
 In his quiet and unassuming way he met our men, 
 presented the claims of the foreign field and gave help¬ 
 ful counsel to the members of the Missionary Com¬ 
 mittee. The most helpful and abiding feature of his 
 visit, however, was the quiet, pervading influence of 
 his personality and of a life consecrated to the Master’s 
 cause. We know that our University has been blessed 
 by having Borden in our midst and that the missionary 
 cause has been materially strengthened.” 
 
 IV. The Final Year 
 
 Bill’s active service in America was finished, and the 
 time had come for him to leave the United States for 
 some final preparation and then proceed to China. He 
 had been appointed to the province of Kansu in north¬ 
 western China. This province lies south of Mongolia 
 and northeast of Tibet and contains more Mohamme¬ 
 dans than any other province in China. Marshall 
 Broomhall, in his “Islam in China,” places the number 
 at from two million to three million five hundred 
 thousand. Before going to China, Bill planned to do 
 
 25 
 
further studying in Cairo. On December 17, 1912, he 
 sailed from New York on the Mauretania. In spite 
 of eagerness to get to his work it caused him real 
 sorrow to leave his own country, friends, and espe¬ 
 cially his mother and sister. Still there was nothing 
 of this evident as he stood on the deck of the steamer 
 that evening. He never looked better, or more calm 
 and peaceful. He wrote at this time: “But it is not 
 easy. There are many temptations and adversaries. 
 Pray that I may have the strength.” He landed in 
 England and spent Christmas in the home of Mr. 
 Robert P. Wilder in London, whence he journeyed to 
 Cairo, crossing Europe to Brindisi, where he took a 
 steamer to Port Said. 
 
 Arrived in Cairo Bill settled down to steady hard 
 work of many kinds. His classes were chiefly in 
 Arabic and in the study of Islam. Cairo, as the intel¬ 
 lectual center of Islam, afforded splendid opportunities 
 for just such work. Study, however, filled only a part 
 of the time. He had the chance of doing missionary 
 work at first hand, and he was not the man to let the 
 opportunity pass. He saw the great Mohammedan 
 university of the city, watched the work of the older 
 missionaries, and helped in every possible way. He 
 spoke at the Y. M. C. A., where he roomed at first, 
 and took part in the English services in the various 
 missions. 
 
 He began to wear a fez and found this simple 
 change was sufficient to keep the natives from staring 
 at him; for many of the people themselves, except for 
 such a fez, wore European clothes. Later he con¬ 
 ceived the plan of distributing Christian leaflets, called 
 “Khutbas,” throughout the whole city. Obtaining a 
 good map of Cairo, he divided the city into sections 
 
 26 
 
which were to be covered systematically by seminary 
 students of the American Mission and himself. He 
 paid for most of these leaflets and was active in the 
 actual work of distribution. 
 
 To facilitate the study of the language, he moved to 
 the home of Mr. Haasoun, a Syrian Christian. He 
 describes his new quarters as follows: “The work of 
 the Study Center continues to be most interesting and 
 instructive, and now that I am here in this family I 
 hope that my progress in Arabic will be more rapid. 
 For while we do use a good deal of English, yet I hear 
 Arabic constantly all around me and am given lessons 
 by the various members of the family at meals and at 
 any other time I wish. The flat is on the third floor 
 of a house in the Shubra Quarter near the station and 
 right by the tracks, but I do not mind that. Of course, 
 there are some smells which occasionally come my 
 way which are not to be sought after, but it is really 
 very nice from this standpoint, as I have a room facing 
 the north and looking over other houses which are 
 lower, 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.” 
 
 On March 5, Dr. F. M. Pain of the Church Mission¬ 
 ary Society died after a short attack of cerebro-spinal 
 meningitis. Bill wrote regarding this: “An event here 
 in Cairo has saddened us all and made me realize anew 
 the heroism of the doctor in his everyday work. I 
 refer to the sudden death of Dr. Pain of the C. M. S. 
 here in Cairo, a man beloved by hundreds and filled 
 with the spirit of Christ. 
 
 “I only met him twice, once soon after my arrival, 
 and the next thing I knew he was dead. . . . 
 
 27 
 
“His funeral, attended as it was by a great crowd of 
 natives and Europeans, was a most eloquent testi¬ 
 monial of his loving faithfulness in serving the 
 Master.” As Bill left the cemetery, he whispered to 
 a companion, “Now we must all work harder, for the 
 night cometh.” 
 
 The night was indeed coming. Bill had somewhere 
 picked up the germ of the same disease and towards 
 the close of March was himself in the hospital, 
 struggling for his life. For three weeks he fought 
 through the attack, but found himself at the close too 
 weak to rally and passed on through the night into the 
 light of His Presence whom he had served so faith¬ 
 fully. His elder sister had been with him during the 
 latter half of his illness, but his mother and younger 
 sister did not reach Cairo until three hours after his 
 death. 
 
 The funeral was simple. The burial service and the 
 16th Psalm were read, after which two American mis¬ 
 sionaries offered prayer. The hymns sung were, “We 
 have heard a joyful sound, Jesus saves,” and “Face 
 to face with Christ my Saviour.” 
 
 At the age of twenty-five Bill had gone home to be 
 with “Christ his Saviour.” Seven years before, he 
 had seen Jesus Christ in the Grand Hall on the Strand, 
 Fondon, and had given his life to Him. For these 
 seven years he had faithfully walked with his Master 
 in consecrated service. All over the world were those 
 whose lives had been blessed and strengthened because 
 Bill Borden had lived. There are many to-day who 
 remember him with love for the richness of life that 
 came to them through him. Consistently, in life and 
 word, he upheld Christ as strong to save, and he left a 
 trail of changed lives behind him. In his short life he 
 
 28 
 
did more, through God, than most do in a full lifetime 
 and his influence will live after him. 
 
 The secret of his life lies in his relation to Christ. 
 He came to a time of choice and turned sharply away 
 from many things that were attractive to him in order 
 that Christ might have the chief place in his life. 
 Ever after there was a definiteness about his every act 
 that comes only to those who give themselves unre¬ 
 servedly to Christ Jesus. The center being right, the 
 outreaching of his life rang true. So it was that he 
 regarded his wealth as a trust, spending little on him¬ 
 self and much for others. So it was that his will is 
 such a remarkable document, in which all of his for¬ 
 tune was given away for the furtherance of the King¬ 
 dom of God at home and abroad. And because of the 
 same decision Bill’s life seemed to flow out with quiet 
 power into the hearts and lives of many wherever he 
 went. He had ever ahead a vision of service for Him 
 to whom he belonged, and life was full of peace and 
 quiet even though duties and cares pressed in upon 
 him. As was said of another young man who died in 
 his twenties: “He was a man of remarkable singleness 
 of heart. He lived but for one object—the glory of 
 the Redeemer in connection with the salvation of 
 immortal souls. Hence he carried a kind of hallowing 
 influence into every company into which he entered.” 
 
 When Bill was eight years old, Mrs. Borden had the 
 children write on slips of paper what they wanted to 
 be when they grew up. These slips were put away and 
 not looked at for some years. It is still possible to 
 read in Bill’s sprawling, boyish handwriting: “I want 
 to be an honeast man when I grow up, and true and 
 loveing and faithful man.” And because he trusted 
 not in his own strength but turned his life over to God 
 
 29 
 
to work upon as He willed, his boyhood wish came 
 true; so that honesty, truthfulness, love and faithful¬ 
 ness, with the last named quality preeminent, were 
 wrought into his very life. 
 
 And yet he was not perfect. He had his faults and 
 none knew them better than he. Still it was noticeable 
 that such faults as the outsider might notice were 
 gradually disappearing and that his whole character 
 seemed to soften and refine as the years went on. 
 Surely Christ was molding him year by year into His 
 likeness. 
 
 And Bill was not a genius. Things did not come to 
 him easily. He worked hard for all to which he 
 attained. He had no exceptional gifts, but he attained 
 the exceptional, so that memorial services were held in 
 many places; while his death and will attracted the 
 attention of thousands. He became great with a 
 greatness that resulted from his taking Christ Jesus 
 as the Lord and Master of his life. The Master’s love 
 for all mankind was put into his heart so that year 
 after year he pushed on to carry the message of God’s 
 love to the Mohammedans of China in the far-off 
 province of Kansu. Surely “a prince and a great man 
 has fallen this day,” but he abides and his influence 
 abides. Perhaps God will put it into the heart of some 
 Yale man to take up this work for which Bill was 
 preparing when God called him home. “Lord, with 
 thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death.” 
 
 30