James T. Cleland - "The Race That Is Set before Us" (January 14, 1968)

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-	Father who art in heaven,	0:03
	hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come ,	0:06
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	0:10
	Give us this day our daily bread,	0:14
	and forgive us our trespasses,	0:17
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	0:19
	and lead us not into temptation,	0:23
	but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom	0:25
	and the power and the glory forever.	0:30
	Amen.	0:34
-	Peace be unto you within this house of God,	0:57
	and to all who worship with us.	1:01
	There are three reasons why this particular sermon,	1:08
	is being preached this morning.	1:12
	First, there was insufficient time,	1:16
	to complete the intended sermon	1:21
	because of the concatenation of weather,	1:25
	sickness, death and a funeral.	1:28
	Second, 1968, is a year of the Olympic games.	1:34
	And if the National Collegiate Athletic Association	1:43
	and the Amateur Athletic Union	1:48
	can terminate their civil war,	1:50
	and if black power does not boycott the games,	1:54
	we shall look forward to an exciting meet.	1:59
	Usually during an Olympic year,	2:04
	I preach at least once on a Scottish sprinter,	2:07
	who made an unusual name for himself,	2:13
	in the Paris Olympics, of 1924.	2:16
	And third, during Christmas,	2:22
	I read an intriguing book by Langdon Gilkey,	2:25
	Professor of Theology	2:30
	at the University of Chicago Divinity School,	2:31
	entitled Shantung Compound.	2:36
	The story of his two and a half years imprisonment,	2:41
	in a Japanese internment camp, in China.	2:46
	The memories are enriched by reflection,	2:52
	because the book was not published until 1966.	2:56
	And in that volume,	3:02
	he tells of the Scottish Olympic sprinter.	3:04
	Let me read you two paragraphs	3:10
	with a one sentence prologue from the preface.	3:12
	Here is the sentence, to save embarrassment all around,	3:18
	I have changed the name of every person in the book.	3:23
	The two paragraphs deal with	3:30
	the explosive problem of teenagers in the camp,	3:32
	a crisis situation.	3:38
	And I quote, "the man who more than anyone	3:42
	brought about the solution of the teenage problem,	3:47
	was Eric Ridley.	3:50
	It is rare indeed	3:53
	when a person has the good fortune to meet a Saint,	3:55
	but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known.	4:00
	Often in an evening of that last year,	4:05
	I headed for some pleasant rendezvous with my girlfriend,	4:08
	would pass the game room,	4:14
	and peer in to see what the missionaries	4:16
	had cooking for the teenagers.	4:18
	As often as not Eric Ridley would be bent over a chessboard	4:21
	or a model boat or directing some sort of square dance,	4:26
	absorbed, warm, and interested,	4:31
	pouring all of himself into this effort to capture the minds	4:35
	and imagination of those pinned up youths.	4:39
	If anyone could have done it, he could.	4:44
	Attract men, he had won the 440 in the Olympics	4:48
	for England in the twenties,	4:52
	and then had come to China as a missionary.	4:54
	In camp, he was in his middle forties,	4:58
	life and springy of step,	5:01
	and above all overflowing with good humor and love of life.	5:04
	He was aided by others to be sure,	5:09
	but it was Eric's enthusiasm and charm	5:12
	that carried the day with the whole effort.	5:14
	Shortly before the camp ended,	5:18
	he was stricken suddenly with a brain tumor	5:21
	and died the same day.	5:25
	For the entire camp,	5:28
	especially its youth was stunned for days.	5:29
	So great was the vacuum that Eric's death had left."	5:34
	Who was this Eric Ridley?	5:41
	Beloved of teenagers?	5:45
	A saint to Langdon Gilkey.	5:48
	He was Eric Liddell.	5:53
	And I want to tell you about him now.	5:57
	Eric Liddell was born in Tientsin in North China,	6:02
	on January 16th 1902.	6:06
	The son of missionary parents,	6:10
	both of whom hailed from Scotland.	6:13
	He spent the first six years of his life in China,	6:16
	1907 saw him at a school in Scotland	6:20
	and from 1908 to 1920, he was a pupil in England,	6:26
	at the school for the sons of missionaries.	6:31
	He came to Edinburgh University in 1920 and graduated	6:35
	with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pure Science in 1924.	6:40
	He spent the next year at the congregational college,	6:48
	and in 1925, returned to China as a missionary,	6:52
	and died there in the Shantung Compound age 43.	6:57
	Now that is a good life well spent, but as outlined,	7:06
	there is nothing unusually unusual about him,	7:13
	Liddell is worthy of a steam,	7:19
	but others have lived similar lives of service	7:23
	without public acclaim.	7:27
	There is nothing in that Curriculum Vitae which tells how	7:30
	or why he captured the imagination of his fellow Scouts,	7:36
	especially the student generation.	7:42
	Why his name was a household word in my undergraduate days	7:46
	throughout Scotland, yes, and even in England.	7:52
	To another aspect of his life,	7:58
	we must turn for his astounding popularity.	8:01
	When he came up to Edinburgh university in 1920,	8:07
	he brought with him quite a record as an athlete.	8:11
	At his prep school, he had been captain of cricket,	8:15
	which is a point of view rather than a game,	8:21
	and captain of rugby,	8:27
	which is a refined form of American Football.	8:29
	He also won several cups for his prowess in track.	8:35
	At Edinburgh, he continued his track career,	8:41
	which left his opponents both breathless and defeated,	8:45
	and made him the most popular	8:50
	and best loved athlete, Scotland has ever produced.	8:52
	He was primarily a sprinter, but from 1921 to 23,	8:58
	he played rugby for Edinburgh university	9:04
	and was chosen to represent Scotland as a wing three quarter	9:08
	in the international matches against France, Ireland, Wales,	9:14
	and England.	9:19
	But rugby interfered with track.	9:21
	And so after these two seasons, he dropped it,	9:25
	to concentrate on running.	9:29
	Now, how can I help you to capture the enthusiasm	9:33
	and admiration for him which grew and grew,	9:38
	as meet after meet, he emerged the winner.	9:43
	He was a Scottish Dave Sim plus.	9:49
	Will statistics help?	9:56
	As a freshman in 1921, he won the 100 and 200,	9:59
	I mean 100 and 220 at Edinburgh university.	10:05
	He also won both races in the inter-varsity meet	10:09
	and he won them both again in the Scottish Championship.	10:13
	In fact, he won the 100 and the 220	10:18
	in the Scottish championships from 1921 to 25,	10:22
	and added the 440 in 24 and 25.	10:28
	And on four of these five occasions,	10:34
	he also led the Edinburgh University relay team to victory.	10:37
	In 1923, he was the British, not the Scottish,	10:44
	but the British amateur champion in the 100 and 220	10:48
	and a week later at the triangular international contest	10:54
	with England and Ireland,	10:58
	he not only won the a 100 and the 220,	11:00
	but added a first in the 440.	11:03
	Something that had never been done before,	11:07
	and to my knowledge has never been accomplished since,	11:10
	in great Britain, a triple international victory	11:13
	in the short distance races.	11:18
	That winter, he looked forward to one thing,	11:23
	the hundred meters at the Olympic games	11:27
	to be held in Paris, in 1924.	11:32
	He was the first choice of the British Olympic Committee.	11:37
	He went into serious training and then refused to run.	11:43
	The heats for the 100 were scheduled to be run on a Sunday.	11:52
	The British committee had done all in its power	12:02
	to have the day altered.	12:05
	Its members knew that Liddell would not run on Sunday.	12:07
	They recognized that they were dealing	12:13
	with a man of religious principle.	12:15
	Liddell made his statement in three words,	12:19
	"I'm not running."	12:23
	It took President Calvin Coolidge,	12:28
	six words to say the same thing.	12:30
	"I do not choose to run."	12:33
	But Liddell was on economic Scott.	12:38
	However, it was not the end	12:44
	of the Olympic games for Liddell.	12:46
	He switched his training to the 400 meters	12:50
	and on Friday, July 11th, 1924, he won that race,	12:55
	breaking the world record 47.6 seconds.	13:03
	In 1964 it came down to 45.1,	13:12
	but he broke the world record in his day.	13:16
	And there's one incident connected with that race,	13:20
	which suggests that truth is stranger than fiction.	13:23
	Just before the final,	13:28
	a man came to him and slipped a piece of paper into his hand	13:30
	and on the paper was written,	13:37
	'them that honor me, I will honor, 1st Samuel 2:30.'	13:41
	Liddell never knew who the man was.	13:52
	A week later Liddell was back in Edinburgh to graduate.	13:58
	I wish there were time to tell you,	14:03
	of the reaction of Edinburgh to her most recent hero,	14:05
	a laurel wreath, as well as a hood at graduation,	14:11
	when the president of the university said to him,	14:17
	Mr. Lindell, you have proved that no one can pass you,	14:19
	except the examiners.	14:25
	I drive through the streets	14:30
	with the carriage drawn by a group of university blues,	14:31
	which being interpreted is Letterman,	14:36
	and three complimentary dinners.	14:39
	Staid old Edinburgh,	14:44
	lifted her petticoats and did a Highland fling.	14:47
	1924, 25 was spent in special study	14:53
	for his projected work in China	14:57
	and in evangelistic campaigns,	15:00
	among students and the unemployed	15:03
	and not unreasonable combination.	15:07
	Then for 20 years, he served his Lord in China	15:12
	with occasional fuddlers to Scotland,	15:18
	to persuade others, to join him in the Far East.	15:21
	And he died of a brain tumor in that internment camp	15:25
	on May 8th, 1945.	15:31
	And Scotland went into mourning for the man	15:36
	whom Langdon Gilkey in Shantung Compound calls a Saint.	15:41
	There is but one aspect of his life story	15:50
	that we might reflect on.	15:52
	I shall say nothing about the academic aspect of his life,	15:55
	except for the observation that while you	16:00
	who are undergraduates may rejoice to know	16:03
	that he was not a brilliant student.	16:06
	You may be embarrassed to know just before exams,	16:09
	that he was a steady and conscientious worker.	16:13
	I shall say nothing about the athletic aspect of his life,	16:20
	except to come in that while he trained	16:24
	with serious purpose, there was fun in it.	16:27
	He used to race the corporation buses	16:32
	up the mound in Edinburgh,	16:35
	regularly winning to the chagrin of the transit company.	16:38
	And he also practiced mashie shots,	16:45
	over the home of the President of the University.	16:50
	It's the spiritual aspect of his character,	16:56
	which would interest us just now,	16:59
	which would say something to us.	17:02
	The things of the spirit, were basic for Liddell,	17:05
	the groundwork on which all else was built.	17:10
	Eichem Abrahams, the British Olympic captain in 1924,	17:15
	who interestingly enough, took Liddell's place,	17:20
	in the hundred meters and won it.	17:24
	He said this about his teammate,	17:28
	"Eric Liddell was a man whose intense spiritual convictions	17:31
	contributed largely to his athletic triumphs.	17:36
	While his ability must've been great,	17:41
	but for his profound intensity of spirit,	17:44
	he surely could not have achieved so much.	17:48
	He sought first the kingdom	17:56
	and the other things were added to him."	18:00
	Here are two reflections on his spiritual life	18:05
	which I would share with you.	18:07
	First, his refusal to run on Sunday,	18:11
	was the symbol of a principle,	18:17
	his primary loyalty to God.	18:21
	Religion is self committal to the more than self.	18:26
	It's the recognition of something, someone,	18:34
	other than ourselves, greater than ourselves,	18:39
	to whom we render a willing obedience,	18:43
	homage, worship.	18:47
	God is first.	18:50
	Nothing may come before him.	18:53
	That's all was the central fact in any higher religion,	18:56
	Liddell knew that, he believed that.	19:01
	The keeping of the Lord's day holy,	19:06
	in a different manner from the other days of the week	19:10
	was for him, both a requirement	19:14
	and the sign of his particular,	19:18
	conservative Christian loyalty.	19:22
	In an age and in a world of compromise.	19:27
	It is salutary to have one central loyalty,	19:32
	which is constant and one symbol,	19:36
	which signifies an eternal value.	19:41
	I do not suggest that you choose Liddell's symbol.	19:46
	It is not mine.	19:53
	I shall watch the Superbowl this afternoon.	19:56
	And yet Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers would not pitch	20:02
	on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day.	20:07
	And Bobby Richardson to the Yankees arrived late	20:13
	for batting practice every Sunday	20:17
	because he worshiped at 11:00 AM.	20:21
	What I am asking is that we have one hill in our heart,	20:26
	which towers above the rolling Plains	20:35
	of inevitable compromise in our lives.	20:39
	It may be our attitude to people of other races,	20:44
	born of religious conviction.	20:48
	It may be our attitude to the use of alcohol,	20:52
	born of religious conviction.	20:56
	It may be a religious pacifism in a bewildered world,	21:00
	which resorts to undeclared, un-understood war.	21:06
	It may center on honesty and on an honor code	21:13
	on chastity or noblesse oblige.	21:20
	And one day on that hill in the heart,	21:26
	a cross maybe erected and any one of us,	21:33
	maybe on that cross.	21:39
	The second reflection is this,	21:47
	Liddell did not insist,	21:51
	that others should not run on Sunday.	21:55
	He never tried to change the day of the heats.	22:02
	Though The British Committee did for patriotic reasons.	22:09
	He did not force his view on others.	22:15
	The freedom here rightfully claimed to keep the Sabbath,	22:22
	He willingly granted to others to ignore the Sabbath,	22:26
	or more accurately The Lord's Day.	22:32
	Liddell did not demand that others,	22:36
	have the courage of his convictions,	22:40
	but he had the courage not to yield	22:45
	to the convictions of others, when they were contrary	22:49
	to that which he considered	22:53
	to be of spiritual importance.	22:56
	Therefore, what I am suggesting is that as Christians,	23:00
	we do not insist or even expect that others accept	23:04
	the symbol of ultimate loyalty,	23:11
	which is particularly dear to us.	23:14
	Be it total abstinence or no movies on Sunday	23:19
	or church attendance morning and evening,	23:26
	or tithing or the like.	23:30
	we live under tremendous pressures to conform,	23:36
	even our non-conformity is in a conforming mode,	23:41
	weird hairstyles, innumerable matches,	23:48
	noisy picketing, petition signing.	23:54
	Grant every person the spiritual freedom we desire.	23:59
	Grant him the right to be different from us,	24:06
	provided he's reasonably quiet,	24:11
	during the normal hours for sleep and study.	24:13
	And doesn't so express himself on the street,	24:18
	that he frightens the horses.	24:24
	It is good to have a center of reference which is holy,	24:28
	and a symbol of that holiness, which is sacred.	24:35
	It is also good to make no demands	24:41
	that others accept that center and that symbol.	24:47
	These were twin loyalties for Eric Liddell.	24:53
	For many of you it is normal	25:01
	that a sermon begin with a text from the Bible,	25:03
	I would close with one.	25:07
	If I had been asked to choose	25:10
	the words to place on a Memorial tablet to Eric Liddell,	25:12
	I would have turned to the two verses from our lesson,	25:18
	which opened the 12th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews,	25:22
	wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about	25:28
	with so great, a cloud of witnesses,	25:35
	let us lay aside every weight and the sin,	25:39
	which doth so easily beset us.	25:43
	And let us run with patience,	25:48
	the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus,	25:51
	the author and finisher of our faith.	25:57
	Remember the race that is set before us, us.	26:02
	Eric Liddell might be a good coach for that race.	26:13
	Let us pray.	26:23
	Almighty God,	26:28
	seeing we also are compassed about	26:31
	with so great a cloud of witnesses,	26:33
	help us to lay aside every weight and the sin,	26:36
	which does so easily beset us, and to run with patience.	26:39
	The race that is set before us looking unto Jesus	26:44
	the author and finisher of our faith,	26:49
	who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,	26:53
	despising the shame and is set down	26:59
	at the right hand of thy throne.	27:03
	Amen.	27:09
	(gentle music playing)	27:21

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "The Race That Is Set before Us" (January 14, 1968)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4ww7c16n

Date:

January 14, 1968

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0414
ref6031_l20
uachapelsermaud
duke:628176
dcrau002406
ark:/87924/r4ww7c16n
067f616d-fe71-4e9b-88c5-0ba1d629b59b

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "The Race That Is Set before Us" (January 14, 1968)

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1. James T. Cleland - "The Race That Is Set Before Us" (January 14, 1968)

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James T. Cleland - "The Race That Is Set before Us" (January 14, 1968)

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