Run with patience

In 1981 20th-Century Fox released a David Puttnam film about two British athletes who won gold medals in the Olympic Games in Paris almost 60 years before (in 1924). The film won critical acclaim and has been shown many times on television since then.

It brought to the public eye Eric Liddell, a Christian man who turned down the opportunity to compete in the 100 metres, the blue riband event at the Games, because its heats were to be held on a Sunday.

Although Eric was proud to be a Scot, he spent most of his life outside Scotland. He was born in China to godly missionary parents just 100 years ago this year, and the first five years of his life were spent there. They were days of real tension for foreigners. For generations China had been badly treated by more powerful foreign nations and there were times of severe backlash against all foreigners including missionaries.

When Eric was five his parents returned for furlough to Scotland, but two years later he was sent, with his elder brother, Rob, to a boarding school for missionaries' children in Blackheath, south London, while his parents and younger sister returned to China.

In those days it was normal practice for missionary families, but it was very hard for all concerned. Unlike his brother, Eric was a quiet and shy lad at school. He was adequate in his studies and had a real interest in science, but it was on the sports fields that the Liddells excelled. They both set records in athletics and played rugby for the college. Both also attended voluntary Bible studies but Eric never joined in any of the discussions, yet God's Word was at work in him.

Sports coach

Eric left college in 1920 and followed his brother to Edinburgh University. Rob was studying to be a doctor so that he could return to China, but Eric could not think so far ahead. He simply knew he wanted to study science, and live with his family who had once more returned from China for furlough. In Edinburgh he joined the Morningside Congregational Church, and thus nailed his colours to the mast as a Christian.

Persuaded by a fellow student to enter the university sports day, Eric turned a few heads there with his strange, ungainly style, his never-say-die attitude and his fast times. Soon Eric had a helpful coach in Tom McKerchar and a growing reputation, rising to celebrity status, in the Scottish sporting world. He became a double international at running and rugby, and only gave up the latter to concentrate on preparation for the Paris Olympics in 1924.

Public speaking

A year earlier, his world had been turned upside down when he received a request from the Glasgow Students' Evangelistic Union to speak for them at a men's meeting in a mining town. The students knew Eric was a celebrity and felt that he could get a hearing from men who would not otherwise have taken any notice of an evangelistic meeting.

Eric had never attempted any public speaking, but he agreed. And any lingering doubts he had were lifted the very next day by the letter he received from his sister, now back in China. To her newsy epistle she had added the words from Isaiah 41: 'Fear not for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you - yes, I will help you.' This was the reassurance he needed.
At the meeting Eric spoke simply of what Jesus Christ meant to him. Neither then nor at any time later did he excel in public speaking. What shone through was his earnestness, which caused many to take notice. But in the early days of his speaking, the most profound effect was on Eric himself. He discovered that his willingness to do public work (from which he had always shrunk) brought him new joy in the Lord.

1924 and marriage

In the Olympic year Eric was not only busy training and racing, but studying science and speaking for his Saviour. When he discovered that the heats of the 100 metres were on Sunday he was profoundly disappointed, but there was no struggle in his mind as to what he must do. He could not run on the Sabbath, and that was that. Thankfully for Eric, although his decision annoyed some of the athletics hierarchy and might have tempted them to leave him out of the team altogether, his prowess and star status saw him entered for both the 200 and 400 metres.

After a credible third place in the shorter race, Eric qualified for the final of the quarter mile, and was unfortunate to be drawn in the outside lane. The favourites for the race were the American, Horatio Fitch, and the world record-holder from Switzerland, Joseph Imbach. Eric started so quickly that everyone felt he would tie up on the last straight. But he sustained his relentless pace and won the race decisively in a new world-record time. The stadium erupted in admiration of the gentle Scot.

He returned to Scotland as a hero, and even his degree ceremony coming a couple of days later, was a chance for all to acclaim his sporting triumph. Yet he stunned the land with the news that in a year's time he would leave Scotland and athletics to head for missionary service in China.

He was mobbed by the people of Edinburgh who waved him a hearty farewell at the start of his long railway journey to teach science at the Anglo-Chinese college in Tientsin. It was run by the London Missionary Society, the organisation with which his father, James, had worked for many years.

In the summer of 1928, just when the Olympics were starting in Amsterdam, Eric's thoughts were turning in a very different direction. His heart was being drawn to the daughter of Canadian missionaries who were also working in Tientsin. Florence Mackenzie was a pretty young woman of just 17, ten years younger than Eric. She was full of life and grace and Eric was drawn to her. Yet he found it almost impossible to get her on her own as she had a whole tribe of younger siblings who also loved her company.

A little more than a year later, Eric's big chance came. He was out for a stroll with Flo when the conversation turned to her future. She told Eric that she was committed to training as a nurse back in her native Canada, but wasn't sure whether she would ever return to China. Then, completely out of the blue, Eric told his unsuspecting young friend that he had been hoping that she would be willing to return from Canada to be his wife! Flo was stunned - but having asked Eric if he was really serious, she agreed to marry him, admitting that she had long worshipped the ground on which he stood.

It was more than four years before they could be married. Flo trained as a nurse and Eric continued teaching. There were spiritual encouragements among some of the Chinese students, although the political situation was becoming still more tense. One of Eric's colleagues was shot and killed by robbers, and there were increased regulations for the college to comply with if it was to remain open. Tientsin's Christian community was alive to God, and many of the students were being converted. Prayer became a greater priority. Yet storm clouds were gathering over the missionary work.

Japanese invasion

The Chinese authorities were increasingly unhappy about the Western and Christian dominance of the college. The political situation was very unstable with the smouldering war between communists and nationalists, and the Japanese showing imperialist designs on great tracts of China. After the arrival of two daughters, Patricia and Heather, to Flo and Eric, Eric was pressured into venturing out into rural work by a combination of restrictions on foreigners at the college and the needs of the mission. That meant their being apart for months on end which filled them both with foreboding. Yet it was a sacrifice they were willing to make for the Lord's sake.

Eventually the Japanese overran Tientsin and pressures on Westerners increased still further. Eric faced considerable dangers in his journeys into the interior and in his stays at the mission station at Siaochang, where his brother Rob served as a doctor. Therefore it was a respite for him and Flo to be able to take their girls to visit family in Canada and Britain in 1940, and to do deputation work for the mission.

Notwithstanding the dangers from German U-boats in the North Atlantic, the Liddell family managed to return to China in October that year, after having visited Canada again on the way. Eric then set out for the mission station at Siaochang, but the Japanese decided that all foreigners must live in the 'foreign concessions', so Eric returned to Flo in Tientsin. Not long after, the news that a third baby was on the way forced them to consider their future in China. Together they made the agonising decision that Flo and the girls must return to Canada, and await Eric's arrival when he could be spared from the work in Tientsin.

Separation and internment

It was a heartbreaking separation, lightened only by the thought that it would be temporary. Yet their much-longed-for reunion was not to be in this world. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the expatriate community in Tientsin was effectively put under house arrest, and although some Westerners were repatriated in exchange for Japanese citizens in the West, Eric was not among them. Eventually, in March 1943, he was sent to Weihszien internment camp with all the Westerners in Japanese-controlled China.

There Eric made a tremendous impact on his fellow-detainees - with his wholehearted commitment to serving others. In a place where some Protestant missionaries were despised as self-righteous hypocrites, Eric was universally loved. He was the one who treated all people alike, even putting up shelves for a former prostitute, cold-shouldered by most in the camp. He was the one who tore up his bedsheets to mend hockey sticks for the enjoyment of the youngsters; who willingly taught chemistry to teenagers without textbooks or apparatus for experiments. And, most strikingly of all, he was the one who was prepared to give hours on a Sunday, refereeing games rather than have youngsters fighting. The man who would not run on a Sunday to get gold medal glory was willing to sacrifice his precious Sabbath joys to help others survive.

Greatest lesson

Late in 1944 Eric began to suffer acute pain in his head, He chastised himself for being grumpy and not his usual cheerful self, but unknown to him he was suffering with a brain tumour. Eventually he had a small stroke, and the doctors feared his end might be near.

Having requested, on February 18, that the Salvation Army band play his favourite hymn ('Be still, my soul') outside his hospital window, three days later he fell into a coma and died. The camp was stunned and when the news eventually reached his native Scotland, a shocked nation mourned in disbelief that one so full of life and goodness could die at only 42.

Perhaps the greatest lesson that Eric teaches the Christian church is the importance and power of a life of humble service for others. Eric Liddell may have been an extraordinary athlete, but his other talents were limited. And yet he had an astonishing influence for good and for God on the lives of vast numbers of ordinary people who met him. In what way? Because he was unfailingly serious about putting the commands of his gracious Saviour into practice in his life.

The story of Eric Liddell, born 100 years ago

Sports coach

Public speaking

1924 and marriage

Japanese invasion

Separation and internment

Greatest lesson

Graham Heaps

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