These engagements quickly mounted up until Eric could hardly keep track of all the invitations he received. He hated to think that he might forget one by mistake, because he didn’t want to disappoint anyone. After a few weeks, the college at which he was studying to become an ordained minister set up an Eric Liddell committee to handle Eric’s appointments. This was a great relief to Eric, as it gave him more time during the week to study. On the weekends he spoke wherever the committee had arranged for him to be. He still got nervous when he spoke in public at these events, but he realized he had a wonderful opportunity to tell people about missionary work and the needs of China.
These events weren’t confined to Scotland. Eric traveled to England and Ireland to speak. Everywhere he went, the Flying Scotsman received a hero’s welcome, and many people who otherwise never went to church listened eagerly to his talks.
Eric was delighted to be back in Edinburgh living with his family. He spent time with many of his friends, too. D. P. Thomson, who had arranged Eric’s first talk in Armadale six years before, traveled to many of the meetings with Eric. Eric also visited Elsa McKechnie and her family. Elsa was still the head of his official fan club. She and Eric had written regularly to each other during the years he’d been in China, and she was delighted to see him again in person. Although Eric had two or three meetings to speak at every weekend during his furlough, he felt most comfortable when talking to people like Elsa one-on-one. When he looked out at a huge audience, he would try to think of them as individuals and not just one large group.
Eric always had a real concern for each person he met, and it was this attitude that made him different from many other famous people. On one occasion, Eric was visiting a large church. While there, the pastor asked him to sign the visitors’ book. Eric was happy to do so, and when he had finished signing his name, he wrote a Chinese character beside it.
“What does that mean?” asked the pastor.
“It’s Chinese for ‘keep smiling,’” replied Eric.
The pastor smiled. “How nice. I will be sure to show it to one of the women in my church. She always signs her letters and notes with those words—in English, of course.”
Eric nodded.
“Sometimes it doesn’t seem she has a lot to smile about,” continued the pastor. “She was in a bad accident five years ago, and she has been in and out of the hospital ever since.”
“What’s the matter with her?” asked Eric.
“Just about everything. Her scalp was torn off, and she lost one eye in the accident. The doctors were able to do skin grafts on her, but it has all been so very painful. She’s nearly blind and deaf and gets terrible headaches. But she will love to see ‘keep smiling’ in the visitors’ book. That’s her message to us all.”
“Would she have time for a visit from me?” inquired Eric.
The pastor looked surprised. “You would visit her? I can’t think of anything she would love more than a visit from you!”
And so it was that Eric visited Bella Montgomery in her small brick terrace home. The two of them spent an hour together, happily chatting away. Eric marveled at her wonderful attitude. After he’d left, Bella Montgomery wrote a letter thanking him for his visit. The letter arrived in the mail just as Eric was about to catch a train for London for a speaking engagement. Eric stuffed the letter into his jacket pocket so that he could read it on the train when he had more time.
Once on the train, Eric found himself alone in a compartment. When he had stowed his bags in the overhead rack, he sat down to read Bella Montgomery’s letter. He smiled as he read. The grammar and spelling were not perfect, but the letter told of how Bella had found Jesus Christ to be her best friend through all her problems. When he had finished reading, Eric folded the letter neatly and tucked it back in his jacket pocket.
At the next station, a young man boarded the train and seated himself in the same compartment with Eric. From the look on the man’s face, Eric could see that he was very unhappy. As the train chugged through the countryside, the young man’s story came out. He had lost his job, his girlfriend had left him, and his family had branded him a complete failure. He told Eric he could see no reason to go on living and wondered whether suicide might be the answer to how he was feeling.
At first Eric couldn’t think of the right words to say to the young man, but then he realized he didn’t have to. He slid his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out Bella Montgomery’s letter. “Here, read this,” he said as he handed it to the man.
“It’s no use,” the young man replied, placing his head in his hands.
“Please, read it. It’s only a page.”
Eric’s voice soothed the man, who reached out and took the letter. When the man had finished reading, Eric told him a little about Bella Montgomery and how she was able to see difficult circumstances as opportunities. By the time the train arrived in London, the young man was much happier than he had been. Bella Montgomery’s letter had inspired him. He was no longer talking about suicide but was considering the possibilities he would find in London.
While home on furlough, Eric had decided not to do any running, since there wasn’t enough time to fit it in. Eric made one exception, though. While in London, he visited his old school, Eltham College. All the boys who attended the school knew about its most famous “old boy.” The walls in the administration building were all lined with many athletic plaques and trophies that Eric and his brother had won for the school. Eric had been invited to Eltham College to present the prizes at the annual sports day. He was glad for the opportunity to do so, but it was not enough for the boys, who wanted to see Eric Liddell run on his “home track.” Finally, after a lot of good-natured nagging, Eric agreed to race in the 220 yards against the best runners in the school. He strolled up to the starting line in his regular shoes, his jacket draped casually over his arm, and not looking at all like a serious runner. When the starter’s pistol fired, though, it was another story. Eric shot off his mark and streaked around the track, finishing a long way in front of the best runner in the school. The students whistled and clapped for the champion who had once been just like them.
Wherever he went around the British Isles, people asked Eric what he thought about the political situation in China. Was there going to be a war? Who did he think would win it? These were difficult questions. Scotland was a long way from Tientsin, and circumstances were changing so rapidly in China that sometimes Eric didn’t know what to make of it all. The Nationalist army, under General Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist forces were engaged in many vicious clashes with each other across the country, especially in north-central China. Villages were burned, homes were looted, and crops were destroyed wherever there was fighting.
In 1931, Japan, realizing that China was in a weakened state, invaded Manchuria in the north. At first, Eric’s friends from the Anglo-Chinese college had written and told him that there was not much fighting around Tientsin and that life was going on as normal. Then about two-thirds of the way through his furlough, Eric began to get letters from China that confirmed what he’d read in the newspapers. The Japanese had become bolder. They had bombed Shanghai, the busiest port in China. Japanese gunboats and aircraft had flattened large tracts of the city with their relentless bombing. Eventually, Britain had been able to get Japan to stop the attack, but the future for China did not look stable. The country was in a three-way tug of war between the Communists, the Nationalists, and the Japanese, and Eric had no idea who would finally win. All the questions, though, made him want to get back to China more than ever. There was a lot of missionary work still to be done there!
Towards the end of his furlough, there was a lot of excitement in the Liddell home. Jenny was getting married to Dr. Charles Somerville, and Eric was able to attend the ceremony, as were Robert and his family, who had just arrived home on furlough. The whole family was together again, which made the wedding a wonderful occasion.
Another wonderful family event took place in June 1932, when Eric passed his exams and was ordained as a minister in the Scottish Congregational church. He was now the Reverend Eric Liddell. With his ordination, however, it was time for him to return to China. Of course, he hated leaving his parents again, especially since his father had been given some difficult news. Eric’s parents would not be returning to China as they had planned. The London Missionary Society had decided that James Liddell was not in very good health and it was time for him to retire from missionary work. As Eric made preparations for his return, he comforted himself with the thought that in some way, at least, he would be able to take his father’s place in China.
Eric was both sorry and excited as he set out for China again. Saying good-bye to his family was hard, but on the other hand, he had a visit in Toronto to look forward to.
Chapter 10
Together at Last
Eric spent six weeks with Flo and her family in Toronto. The time went by far too quickly, but Eric was able to tell Flo all about Jenny’s wedding, and together they made some early preparations for their own in wedding in Tientsin. They decided to be married in March 1934, right after Flo returned to China at the completion of her nursing training.
By September 1932, Eric was back in Tientsin ready for the start of a new school year. All of his old responsibilities were waiting for him. Eric was once again housefather to a group of boys and Sunday school superintendent at Union Church. He also took on some new responsibilities. He was made secretary of the Anglo-Chinese college and chairman of the sports committee. And now that he was an ordained minister, he took on more speaking engagements in churches. He also wrote long letters home to his parents once a week. Since his parents were no longer returning to China, they wanted to know all about what he was doing and whether he had seen any of their old friends. On top of all this, Eric was still a schoolteacher, with lessons to plan and papers to grade. But Eric liked all the extra work; it helped him pass the time while he waited for Flo to return.
Everything went well for Eric until November 1933, when he received a telegram telling him that his father had died suddenly the day before. Eric felt sad and helpless. He and Robert were both on the other side of the world at a time when their mother needed them most, with no way to make it home in time for the funeral. With the news of James Liddell’s death, many people, both missionaries and Chinese nationals, came to comfort Eric. Eric’s father had made an impact on a great many lives in and around Tientsin, and Eric renewed his determination to do the same.
During the next few weeks, Eric thought often about Jenny’s wedding. No one had suspected it then, but it was the last time the Liddells would be together as a family. Still, if he and Robert couldn’t be with their mother, Eric was comforted by the fact that Jenny and Ernest were there to help her. In one letter to his mother, shortly after James Liddell’s death, Eric wrote, “Jenny’s garden will soon be in bloom again. You must go there, Mother, and stay with her, especially at this time of year. I am glad that I recently had a furlough and was with you, for now I can picture it all so clearly and see what you are doing.”
If word of his father’s death saddened and depressed Eric, the news that Flo and her mother were aboard the Empress of Canada bound for Taku, China, lifted his spirits. Eric could hardly wait for Flo to arrive. Finally, he and Flo would be together. The ship was making stops in Hawaii and Japan and was due to dock in China on or about March 1, 1934. Flo wrote and told Eric that she would cable him from Japan with the exact date that the ship would arrive in Taku.
