Love letters from C. T. Studd to his wife to be

“July 25, 1887. But here I do say that after 8 days spent alone in prayer and fasting, I do believe the Lord has shown me that your determination is wrong and will not stand, and that you yourself will see this presently, if the Lord has not shown you already. . . .

“Day after day passes and I only get more and more convinced about it, and I cannot doubt it is of the Lord, for you know somewhat of how I have spent the time since receiving your letter: everything else has been laid aside, occupation, sleep and food, and I have sought His face and to know His will, and He has led me straight forward, and day by day He speaks to me and gives me encouragement and emboldens me to ask definitely for you.”

Remarkable love-letters they are too, full of the consuming passion of his life, fuller by a long way of messages from the Bible, and plans for spending their lives for Christ, than of her. She, being a sensible woman, bound him over to burn hers, so only one has survived. Two of his, written when he was recovering from a serious illness, run into 68 and 69 pages respectively of tiny writing! The following are one or two extracts:

“July 25. It will be no easy life, no life of ease which I could offer you, but one of toil and hardship; in fact, if I did not know you to be a woman of God, I would not dream of asking you. It is to be a fellow-soldier in His Army. It is to live a life of faith in God, a fighting life, remembering that here we have no abiding city, no certain dwelling-place, but only a home eternal in the Father’s House above. Such would be the life: may the Lord alone guide you.”

“Oct. 8. Now before I go further, I just want to beseech you, darling, that we may both make the same request every day to our Father, that we may give each other up to Jesus every single day of our lives to be separated or not just as He pleases, that neither of us may ever make an idol of the other.

“I must write and tell darling mother this mail, and others too, for I cannot keep it secret; only I do laugh when I think of how little I know of or about you, my own darling, not even your age or anything; only it is more than enough for me that you are a true child and lover of the Lord Jesus, that He has knit my heart to yours and yours to mine to work together for Him with all our hearts and souls and minds till He come.”

Norman Grubb, C T Studd