Borden of Yale

No reserves. No retreat. No regrets. This is the story of William Whiting Borden, known as Borden of Yale.

William Borden was born in 1887 in Chicago to the very wealthy Borden family. This is the Borden Dairy Co., known for its mascot, Elsie the Cow. When William was a young man, his mother became a Christian and started taking William with her to church, and he too became a Christian. He was sent off to the Hill School, a boarding school in Pennsylvania, for his high school education.

When he graduated at the age of sixteen, his parents gave him a gift: a trip around the world. He was not on his own as a sixteen-year-old; he was with Walter Erdman, a minister and a missionary. They visited numerous countries, and along the way, Borden's calling became very clear to him: he would be a missionary. On this trip, he saw firsthand what they called in those days "heathenism"— entire people groups without a gospel witness. This left such an impression on this young seventeen-year-old that he knew he wanted to give his life to missions.

When he returned to the United States in 1905, he went to Yale University. There, he excelled at academics and in all sorts of athletics. He was on the boxing team, he was involved in yachting, and he was engaged in track and field. Between his academic and athletic abilities and his leadership skills, Borden clearly stood out. And with his family connections, Borden could've done anything with his life, but he remained committed to his calling to be a missionary.

When he graduated from Yale, he knew he needed more education and training, so he enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was there from 1909 to 1912. This was still the conservative era at Princeton Seminary, before the liberal takeover. He had J. Gresham Machen as a professor.

When he graduated in 1912, he was ordained and came under the auspices of the China Inland Mission. He spent a few months in New York City working with some missions agencies to learn firsthand, similar to an internship, how missions work operates. And it was about this time that he became aware of a people group in China—ten million Muslims without a gospel witness among them. This was a very difficult people group to reach and a very difficult people group to get to, but Borden was committed to this group as his calling.

He decided that he would go to Cairo to learn Arabic so that he could minister to these Muslims in China. He left America in December 1912. On March 21, he was taken ill with spinal meningitis; nineteen days later, he died. April 9, 1913, was the date. He never made it to China.

We should note two things about his legacy, however. The first is his will. In his will, he left his entire fortune, well over one million dollars, to Christian causes. But he also put in his will this specification: this money was to go to missionaries and teachers who are sound in the faith, believing in such fundamentals as the doctrine of the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture, the doctrine of the Trinity, including the deity of Christ, and the doctrine of the atonement through the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The other piece of his legacy is his Bible. When he died, his Bible was returned to his parents. When they opened it, they saw on the flyleaf these words, written by William Borden: "No reserves." Those words were written over the date when he decided that he would not take up a role in the family business but that he would become a missionary. At a later date, he wrote these words, "No retreat." And then, during his illness after March 21 and shortly before his death on April 9, he wrote these words: "No regrets." No reserves. No retreat. No regrets. This is the life of William Borden.