“If Jesus Christ be the Son of God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” C. T. Studd
Today marks the anniversary of the death of C. T. Studd. As well as being a first class cricketer – one of the team which played the infamous game against Australia which began the Ashes tradition – Studd was also a missionary to China and to Africa.
In 1885, he left his comfortable and successful life in England to travel to China, one of the Cambridge Seven who Hudson Taylor recruited for the China Inland Mission (now OMF). Ten years later, Studd toured universities across the USA to search for volunteers willing to give their lives for the furtherance of God’s word.
He was struck after hearing a talk, entitled ‘Cannibals want Missionaries’, and decided to travel to the region between the Nile and Lake Chad, at the time the least evangelised region in Africa. He set up there the ‘Heart of Africa Mission’, now WEC International.
He and his wife ran the mission, he in Africa, she back in the UK. They lived and worked separately until her death, two years before his. As well as this sacrifice of family, Studd continued to travel and preach despite severe warnings about his health; one doctor had described him as a ‘museum of diseases’.
He set up numerous mission bases across Africa, telling people the news about Jesus, as well as being involved in humanitarian work, and beginning a Bible translation at the age of 70! Of his life of dedication, he said, “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”
The challenge of his life may be best summed up in this verse he composed:
Only one life, yes only one,
Soon will its fleeting hours be done;
Then, in ‘that day’ my Lord to meet,
And stand before His Judgment seat;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Studd gave his life to sharing the Bible, the Story that everyone needs to hear. You can be involved in doing the same.
