William Whiting Borden

1887–1913

One Sunday at the Chicago Avenue Church (which later became Moody Church), Dr. R. A. Torrey challenged believers to surrender their lives in total consecration to Jesus Christ. Many stood to their feet, among them a seven- year-old lad in a sailor-suit. No doubt some of the adults near him smiled at his action, but the boy was deadly serious. That lad was William Whiting Borden, the subject of [Person 1]’s classic biography, Borden of Yale ’09. Since there has arisen a generation that knows not Borden, I think it is time they got acquainted.

Borden was born November 1, 1887, with blue blood in his veins and a silver spoon in his mouth. Both the Bordens and the Whitings (his mother’s family) came from distinguished English families noted for ...