For the Glory: Erick Liddell's Journey from Olympic Champion to Modern Martyr

Duncan Hamilton

This is a superb biography of Eric Liddell, the famed Christian and Olympian who was featured in the 1980 movie “Chariots of Fire,” which won an Oscar for best picture.  The biographer did a superb job, including extensive research on Liddell in China, Britain and Canada, where his family moved after he was martyred in 1945. 

Liddell was born in China of missionary parents from Scotland.  He went to boarding school in Britain and later attended Edinburgh University.

He was a superb athlete and began winning races all over England.  He was named to the British Olympic Team for the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris.  However, the preliminaries of his main event, the 100 meters, were held on a Sunday.  It was his strong conviction that Christians should not compete in sports on Sunday.

Unlike the movie, which is mostly but not completely accurate, Liddell knew months in advance of this conflict.  British officials tried long and hard to dissuade him from his convictions about racing on Sunday.  He was also widely criticized in the press.  But it was to no avail.  Though Liddell was a gentle and humble man in many ways, he was also a man of iron convictions and he would not budge about racing on Sunday. 

Liddell did compete at the Paris Olympic games, but he competed in the 400 meters, which did not have the Sunday conflict.  There were four rounds in the 400.  In the first round, a runner from Switzerland set a world record.  In the next round an American runner broke that record.  There was no record in the third round, but in the final round, Liddell, who was not a favorite to win or even place in this event, won with a stirring upset of these two record holders.

Though he had previously been widely criticized for his refusal to run on Sunday, after winning a gold medal in the 400 he was widely acclaimed for his convictions.  He became the British hero of the 1924 Olympics, who could win a gold medal even when it wasn’t his main event. 

After the Olympic Games Liddell spoke widely for the gospel.  He turned down lucrative opportunities to make money through speaking fees, writing fees, and endorsements.  He was not interested in fame or money.  Rather he was resolute in going to China as a missionary.  As he put it, “God made me for China.”  He would stay another year at Edinburgh, finishing his work, before making the journey to China, where he would live the rest of his life except for a furlough.

Praying Hyde

Basil Miller

John Hyde was a missionary in India from 1892 to 1911.  He was such a man of prayer that he became known during his lifetime and in church history as Praying Hyde.  He had great fruitfulness doing evangelism work in villages in northern India, in what was then called Punjab.  But what he really became known for was his heart for prayer.

The man prayed!  He would pray all night and not that infrequently, and then carry on the next day.  He would get on his knees and pray throughout the day.  He would walk and pray.  When there were important events or services being held, he would not attend them but go to the prayer room next door and seek God in fervent intercession.  He would rather do the work of intercession than the work of preaching.

Hyde had remarkable impact on people in his life.  He understood that prayer was not only the greatest privilege, but prayer was where the power was.

This brief biography will inspire you with the power of prayer.

Saving My Assassin

By Virginia Prodan

This is Virginia Prodan’s autobiographical account of growing up in Communist Romania under the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu.  She was raised somewhat mysteriously by an unloving aunt, then  made her way to law school before becoming a believer in Jesus Christ.  She began to represent repressed churches and pastors and gained a national and international reputation for her work under the repressive Ceausescu regime.  President Reagan enabled her to obtain religious asylum along with her family.  She settled in Dallas, Texas, where she again went to law school and established her own practice.

She could easily have been killed or thrown in jail many times, but God protected her and she eventually made her way to the United States, where she still lives today.  A thrilling story.

Augustine of Hippo

By Peter Brown

Augustine of Hippo by Peter Brown is considered the standard biography of Augustine.  I attacked it with considerable excitement, but I was a bit underwhelmed.  I don’t think it gave the insights into his spiritual life and even life as a pastor that I was looking for.  It is a scholarly work with copious notes, just about all of which are in Latin.

Clouds of Glory The life and Legend of Robert E. Lee

By Michael Korda

Robert E. Lee is known in history as the leading Confederate general in the Civil War.  He was so much more and his sterling reputation and legacy pay tribute to his remarkable life.  Michael Korda has written a major biography of Robert E. Lee.  This man is a paradox in many ways.  How could the losing general of the Civil War be so loved and lionized after that war, not only by the South but also by much of the North?

Lee was a lifelong soldier, a brilliant military engineer who led the mission of the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure that the Mississippi River did not bypass St. Louis.  In the Mexican War of the 1840s, he fought brilliantly and fearlessly as a soldier.  General Winfield Scott considered him the finest soldier in the U.S. Army.  Later, he would become the superintendent of West Point.  When the Civil War broke out, President Abraham Lincoln offered him the command of the Union Army in 1861.  But he turned Lincoln down because he could not “draw his sword” against his own children, his neighbors, and his beloved Virginia.  Shortly after that Jefferson Davis offered the post of General of the Army of Northern Virginia.   He would become the leading general for the Confederacy.

With far fewer resources and far fewer troops than the Northern generals, he gave them fits.  He was a daring, bold, aggressive, fiercely determined general.  He had no qualms about attacking a much larger opposing army.  He was considered a brilliant military strategist.

Personally, he was fearless in battle.  He had no concern for his own life.  He felt that his life was in God’s hands and he had complete peace.  He would expose himself to dangerous situations just as his close friend and fellow general Stonewall Jackson would do.  Both were men of deep Christian faith and conviction.

In fact, his faith shaped his life.  He was influenced by his wife Mary Lee, and his wife’s mother, Mary Custis, and their devotion to Jesus Christ.  He was fully surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and trusted God deeply in times of peace and in times of war.

He was a man of deep and genuine humility, which is not an easy matter when you command 100,000 soldiers in battle and you are revered by millions.  But he seemed to be free of all desire for acclaim and recognition.

Paradoxically, his father was considered a scoundrel when it came to character.  He was a military hero in the Revolutionary War, a close friend of George Washington, but he mismanaged money terribly and he lacked moral integrity.  However, despite this lineage Lee had incredible integrity and character all his life.  He was a devoted husband and father.  He loved being with his family even though he had to spend long stretches away from them while with the U.S. Army.  Along this line, it is interesting that Lee continually questioned his choice of profession as a soldier.  Should he have taken a different route?  In fact, until the Civil War broke out he would have considered himself a failure in life. 

It should be noted that Lee was no fan of slavery.  He did not oppose it as the abolitionists did, but he was no fan of it either.  He thought it was a moral evil and that it would pass away in God’s good time.  But he did not want the country to split apart and he would not oppose his native Virginia when it left the Union.

Why did Lee live such a remarkable life, and make such an impact on the people of his day and on subsequent history?  The only explanation is God’s hand upon him.  He was a flawed man, a man who chose the wrong side in the war.  And yet a man deeply devoted to Christ and perhaps the most brilliant general that the United States has ever had.