On Saturday, November 1, 1884, Stanley Smith, a friend and prizewinning rower from Cambridge University, invited C.T. to a meeting at the China Inland Mission headquarters at Pryland Road in London. Stanley, along with Dixon Hoste and William Cassels, had been accepted as missionaries with the China Inland Mission and were due to leave for Shanghai before Christmas. C.T. knew both Dixon and William. Dixon was leaving behind a promising career in the army to become a missionary, and upon graduating from Cambridge, William had been converted and then became a minister in South Lambeth, one of London’s poorest slum areas.
That night at the China Inland Mission headquarters, a missionary who was returning to China the next day spoke. His name was John McCarthy, and as C.T. listened to what he had to say, his heart pounded. John spoke of his adventures walking across China from Wuhan in the east to Burma in the west. He spoke of thousands of Chinese people perishing every day with no knowledge of Jesus Christ.
By the end of the meeting, C.T. felt called to go to China himself, but he decided not to tell anyone right away. He thought that other people might consider it an impulsive decision, and he had his widowed mother to be concerned about. Even though Christianity had turned his family upside down, C.T. did not think his mother would be happy to see him leave for China.
For the next two weeks, C.T. prayed harder than he had ever prayed before. At the end of that time, he was even more convinced that God was calling him to work in China. He announced the decision to his mother as gently as he could.
Just as C.T. suspected, his mother was horrified. C.T.’s uncle accused him of breaking his mother’s heart with foolish nonsense, and other family members begged C.T. not to throw his life away. They even sent Christian workers to explain to him how much work there was to be done in England. Even Kinny tried to dissuade C.T. from going. The whole family was in an uproar, and C.T. hated to go downstairs, where someone would inevitably be sobbing or preparing to plead with him to change his mind.
One night it was all too much for C.T., especially when Kinny asked him if he was proud of himself for breaking his mother’s heart. The last thing C.T. wanted was to upset his widowed mother and bring stress to his family.
“Let’s pray together,” C.T. suggested to Kinny. “I don’t want to be pigheaded. I just want to do God’s will.”
The two brothers prayed together about the situation, though neither of their minds was changed.
That night C.T. lay awake for a long time praying that God would give him peace. As he prayed, he heard the words, “Ask of Me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” That was enough for C.T. He got up the next morning with the assurance that God was truly calling him to China. And as long as he was sure about that, everything else paled in comparison. He determined to live for eternity, no matter what it cost him in terms of family ties or public opinion.
Now that the decision was final, C.T. visited Hudson Taylor, the founder and director of the China Inland Mission. At fifty-two years of age, Hudson Taylor had become a legend in missionary circles. Despite having buried a wife and two children in China, he had toiled on, making frequent trips inland himself and setting up a mission whose goal was to see the inland cities and towns evangelized.
C.T. liked Hudson Taylor from the moment they met. Taylor was a direct man who liked to get straight down to business. He made no promises other than hardships and deprivation, but he spoke of the wonderful blessing of preaching to people who had never once heard the name of Jesus Christ or the story of salvation. When C.T. announced that he felt called to China, Taylor was delighted. As the two of them talked, Taylor told C.T. that he would like to use his fame to challenge other young men with the needs of China. As a result, Taylor decided to delay the departure of Stanley Smith, Dixon Hoste, and William Cassels for China so that the three of them could join C.T. on a farewell tour of universities in Great Britain.
Another member was soon added to the group. Montagu Beauchamp, the son of a baron, was a childhood friend of the Studd family. In fact, his sister and Kinny Studd had just announced their engagement. Montagu, or Monty, as everyone called him, was also a Cambridge graduate and felt challenged by C.T.’s decision to go to China. The Beauchamp family were supporters of the China Inland Mission, but until C.T. announced his plan to go to China, Monty had never given any thought to the idea of being a missionary. Now, he told C.T., the thought gripped his heart, and he signed up to go with the group to China.
C.T. was stunned to think that his decision to become a missionary was already having an effect on other people. And although he was nervous speaking in front of crowds and often mumbled when he spoke, he liked being part of a team of young men who would go to China together. C.T. also continued to pray that his mother and family would be able to accept his going.
Within days of the meeting with Taylor, C.T. found himself at the center of a whirlwind of activity. The China Inland Mission (CIM) arranged for C.T., Stanley, Dixon, William, and Montagu to travel to Cambridge for a series of meetings. The news that one of the most famous cricketers in England, and one of their own, was headed to China caused quite a stir on campus. Hundreds of past and present students came to hear C.T. give his reasons for coming to such a decision.
C.T. explained his choice as simply as possible. When he was finished speaking, he invited anyone who wished to give his life to Christ or to dedicate himself to missions to come forward. He did not expect many to come, simply because he felt it would be difficult for young men to do such a thing in front of their peers. But he was wrong. As soon as the invitation was given, a stampede headed for the platform. One of those who came forward was Arthur Polhill-Turner, one of C.T.’s oldest and closet friends. Arthur confessed that God had also called him, along with his brother Cecil, to China.
Arthur and Cecil visited Hudson Taylor, and within days seven young men were preparing to go to China. Since all of them except Dixon Hoste had graduated from Cambridge University, the press dubbed them the “Cambridge Seven” and followed their every move.
The group continued its farewell tour, going as far north as Edinburgh. Everywhere they went they caused a sensation. Thousands of people came to hear why seven of the most privileged young men in all England would “throw away” everything to become missionaries half a world away.
Whenever he could find the time, C.T. wrote to his mother about the extraordinary tour. In one letter he wrote, “We had a grand meeting. They say there had never been such a meeting there before. The hall was crammed. We had a huge after-meeting. It was as if a charge of dynamite exploded among them.”
When he got to Liverpool, he took out his fountain pen and began writing another letter to his mother. “Splendid news,” he began. “The fire is still burning and over sixty professed conversions on that one night. I cannot tell how very much the Lord has blessed us…what a different life from my former one; why, cricket and racquets and shooting are nothing to this overwhelming joy. Finding out so much about not only the needs of the heathen, but also of the poor in London and all great towns has increased my horror at the luxurious way I have been living; so many suits and clothes of all sorts, while thousands are starving and perishing of cold.”
C.T. lifted his pen from the paper and thought for a moment about all the needs of the people he had met since starting the tour with the Cambridge Seven. Until then he had barely spoken to a member of the English working class, except to his servants. Now he was filled with compassion for the hopeless lives they led. He began writing again. “So all must be sold when I come home if it has not been so before. Mother dear, I do pray God to show you that it is such a privilege to give up a child to be used of God to saving poor sinners who have never even heard the name of Jesus. God bless you, dear darling mother, and I know He will do it, and turn your sorrow into joy.”
By the end of January the tour was coming to a close, and the China Inland Mission arranged for three final meetings, one at Cambridge, one at Oxford, and one in London. At 7:30 pm on February 2, 1885, the Guild Hall at Cambridge was overflowing with twelve hundred people, some of whom stood in the orchestra pit and crowded into the gallery. One of C.T.’s old teachers, Professor Babington, introduced the program. Then one by one the seven young men rose to speak. It was just three days before they were due to set sail for China, and the crowd listened with rapt attention.
Stanley Smith spoke first. “The love of Christ constrains us,“ he began, “to go into the world. Unless we spread abroad the light, we will find in England that we cannot hold our own with the powers of darkness.”
The crowd cheered loudly.
When it was C.T.’s turn to speak, he rose and walked to the podium. He looked out at the sea of faces and said, “I want to recommend you to my Master. I have had many pleasures in my time, and have tasted most of the delights this world can give: but I can tell you that these pleasures are as nothing compared with my present joy. I had formerly as much love for cricket as any man could have, but when the Lord Jesus came into my heart, I found that I had something infinitely better. My heart was no longer set on the game: I wanted to win souls to serve and please Him.”
Hundreds of people came forward at the end of the meeting, as they did in Oxford the following night.
On Wednesday, February 4, the Cambridge Seven held their last meeting, in Exeter Hall in London. It was the biggest of all their meetings, and once again the men took turns speaking, telling how they had come to the decision to go to China and of their love for God. C.T. was the last to speak, and he summed up the evening with a challenge.
“Are you living for the day, or are you living for life eternal?” he asked. “Are you going to care for the opinion of men here, or for the opinion of God? The opinion of men won’t avail us much when we get before the judgment throne. But the opinion of God will. Had we not, then, better take His word and implicitly obey it?”
Following the meeting, C.T. spent the night at his family’s house in Hyde Park. Although it was only eight years since the three oldest boys had dined there with their father after hearing Dwight Moody speak at Drury Lane, it seemed an age ago to C.T., so much had happened in his life since then. What would his father think of him now? Would he approve of his son’s setting out for China to share the gospel? C.T. hoped he would, and he hoped his mother would come to accept it soon too.
C.T. hardly slept that night. He tossed and turned in his bed. Memories and questions haunted him. It was one thing to talk about giving up everything for Christ, but how would he feel when he was alone in a strange land, cold and hungry and missing his family? Would he long for his old life back? He hoped not, but he could not properly answer the question. Only the passage of time could do that.
Chapter 5
China at Last
A huge cheer went up from the crowd at Victoria Station in London as the whistle blew and a puff of steam engulfed the bystanders.
On board, twenty-four-year-old C.T. Studd strained for one last look at his family. The last person he could pick out of the crowd was his sixteen-year-old sister, Dora, who was wearing a bright blue dress. Kinny, his new wife, and his mother-in-law, Lady Beauchamp, were on board the train. They were accompanying the Cambridge Seven to Dover and then across the English Channel to Calais, France, where the missionary recruits would board a ship bound for the Orient.
Once they reached Calais, the Cambridge Seven found their second-class cabins and gathered for a time of prayer and singing. The other passengers were shocked to find that the young men, sons of England’s finest gentlemen, were traveling second-class. But C.T. did not care; in fact, he welcomed it, knowing that his circumstances would be a lot grimmer when he ventured into China’s inland territories.
