Appendix D: Notes on Sources and Method

“it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write unto thee in order … that thou mightest know the certainty concerning the things wherein thou wast instructed.”

— Luke 1:3-4, ASV

This appendix explains where the story told in this book comes from, how the sources were weighed, and which popular claims have been corrected or left open. It is written for readers who want to check the story for themselves, and for anyone who will retell it.

Grubb’s Biography

The standard life of Studd is Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer (London, 1933), reissued many times. Grubb was Studd’s son-in-law, his colleague in the Congo, and his successor as leader of WEC. His book is the main source for Studd’s inner life, his letters, and many of the best-known stories about him. It remains in copyright. This biography has therefore not quoted Grubb, has not followed his wording, and has used his book only as a source of facts, chiefly as those facts are reported in modern reference works and studies. Where an important fact appears to rest on Grubb alone, the text says so, or speaks of “the accounts” or “the family tradition.” Grubb’s later book about the Congo field, Christ in Congo Forests (1945), and his recorded reminiscences, as described by later reviewers, have been used in the same way.

Grubb was candid about many of Studd’s faults, including his quarrels and his use of morphine, and much of the hard material in this book ultimately comes from him. He was also a partisan in the crisis of 1931, and his account of it is the account of one side.

Public-Domain Sources

Broomhall. Benjamin Broomhall’s record of the Cambridge Seven, A Missionary Band (London: Morgan and Scott, 1886), enlarged as The Evangelisation of the World (1887), is in the public domain. It is the contemporary record of the Seven’s meetings and testimonies. The scanned editions could not be consulted directly while this book was being prepared, so Studd’s testimony from those years has been given in paraphrase, not quotation. Readers who wish to see his own words should consult the 1886 or 1887 text.

Studd’s own writings. Studd’s tract The Chocolate Soldier, or Heroism—The Lost Chord of Christianity is in the public domain and widely available. It is usually dated 1912, but its published text speaks of the Great War, so the familiar version cannot be earlier than 1914. Quaint Rhymes for the Battlefield (London: James Clarke, 1914), published under the pen-name of a Quondam Cricketer, and Christ’s Etceteras (1915) are also his. The D.C.D. booklet appeared in 1928. Studd’s letters, including his farewell letter to his grandchildren, have not been published in full in any source available to this book; the only words quoted from them are the two lines of verse he is recorded as including in that letter.

Cricket records. Studd’s scores and figures are taken from the standard cricket records, as gathered by CricketArchive and ESPNcricinfo, and from the published accounts of the 1882 Oval Test, including Wisden’s report. The mock obituary of English cricket appeared in The Sporting Times on 2 September 1882.

Other Witnesses and Studies

The diary of Hayes Perkins, who worked at Niangara in 1914, has been published online in instalments. It is the only independent eyewitness account of the mission’s first year used here. It has been used with care, as the view of one observer who did not share all of Studd’s convictions.

The entries on C. T. Studd, Alfred Buxton and Norman Grubb in the Dictionary of African Christian Biography provided the most important modern assessments of Studd’s leadership and of Buxton’s dismissal. A modern article in the Evangelical Times, based on research in the archives of the Africa Inland Mission, is the source for Studd’s brief membership of that mission in 1912–13. H. van ’t Veld’s study of Swahili Bible translation (1966) is the source for the Kingwana translation begun by Studd, Stapleton and Lowder. The histories published by WEC International and by Crossworld, the successor of the Unevangelized Fields Mission, were used for the mission’s later history and for the split of 1931. A modern chronology of Studd’s life compiled by Dorothy Ross was used for orientation. Genealogical records and local histories were used for the Studd family, Tedworth House and the births of the Studd daughters. Eileen Vincent’s life of Priscilla Studd, No Sacrifice Too Great, was not available to this book; it may contain details that would add to or correct what is said here about her.

These modern works remain in copyright, and this book has not reproduced them beyond a very few short quotations, which are attributed in the text.

The Congolese Side

The sources available for this book say very little about the Congolese men and women who were converted through the mission, worked with it, preached for it, and sometimes resisted it. That is a limitation of the sources, not of the people. This book has not invented names, speeches or scenes to fill the gap. It has tried instead to describe, from what is known, the choices and the costs of Congolese Christians, the colonial burdens under which they lived, and the church they built. A fuller history of the Congolese evangelists and pastors of the Heart of Africa Mission, drawing on the memory and records of CECCA 16, remains to be written, and would be a great gift to the wider Church.

Corrections to the Popular Story

His father’s conversion. It is often dated to 1877, the year of Edward Studd’s death. The accounts give dates from 1874 to 1877, but Moody’s great London campaign was in 1875, and the family tradition that Edward lived about two years after his conversion fits that date best.

George’s illness. It is often placed in 1884. The more detailed chronologies place it in November 1883, with Studd’s restoration following in the winter of 1883–84.

The Oval, 1882. Studd made no runs in the match. He was bowled by Spofforth for 0 in the first innings and was left not out, without facing a ball, in the second, when Ted Peate was bowled with England seven runs short.

The fortune. The amount is variously given as £25,000 or £29,000. The four gifts of about £5,000 each are well attested; the rest is less precisely recorded.

The Moody Bible Institute. Studd’s gift to Moody is often said to have founded the Moody Bible Institute. The Institute grew out of Moody’s training work in Chicago, which was being organised at about the time of the gift; it is fairer to say that the gift went to that work, if the usual account is right.

The wedding. Some accounts say that Xi Shengmo (Pastor Hsi) conducted it. This could not be confirmed and is left open.

Lungan. The city where the Studds worked in China is spelled in many ways in the older books, including Lungan-fu and Lungang-fu. It is the city then called Lu’an (Lu-ngan in the China Inland Mission’s spelling), now Changzhi, in south-eastern Shanxi.

The doctors. It is often said that the doctors forbade him to go to Africa. The sources say that he went against medical advice, which is not quite the same thing.

The Chocolate Soldier. It is sometimes called a late tract. It belongs to the beginning of the Africa years, not the end.

His death. Some accounts say that he refused the medical care his body needed. The cause of death was gallstones, for which no surgical treatment was available within reach of Ibambi; the fairer statement is that he had chosen long before not to leave the Congo.

Legends not used. Several dramatic stories told in popular books, including invented dialogue at his conversion, at his proposal and at the handing over of the £3,400, and a story of his cycling past every mission station in Africa in search of the unreached, have no source that could be checked and have not been used.

Quotations

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” Universally attributed to Studd and wholly in keeping with his life, but no printing in his lifetime has been traced, and the wording varies. It is quoted in this book as the saying traditionally associated with him.

“Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” Always attributed to Studd, usually as a rhyme. The original printing has not been traced, and it is not quoted as his in the text.

“Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Studd is recorded as quoting this couplet to his grandchildren in a farewell letter in 1931. A longer poem built around it is often printed under his name, but the poem itself says that its author first heard the couplet from someone else, and no evidence has been found that Studd wrote either the couplet or the poem. It should be quoted as lines he loved, not as his composition.

“Hallelujah.” The tradition that this was his last word comes from his family and colleagues. There is no reason to doubt it, but it cannot be checked.

The Dictionary’s verdict. The judgement that he proved an obstinate and unreasonable leader and colleague comes from the Dictionary of African Christian Biography, not from any contemporary, and is given in this book in paraphrase.

Unconfirmed wording. Where the exact words of a source could not be checked against the original text, including the passages of The Chocolate Soldier, the Christ’s Etceteras pamphlet, Studd’s testimony of 1885, Ted Peate’s remark at the Oval and the mock obituary of English cricket, this book gives them in clearly attributed paraphrase rather than in quotation marks. The sayings traditionally attributed to Studd are quoted only where the text labels them as such.

Dates Still Uncertain

Several dates remain uncertain or disputed: the year of Edward Studd’s conversion and the exact date of his death; the date of the wedding at Tianjin; the details and dates of the deaths of the Studds’ two infant sons; whether Studd travelled alone to the Sudan in 1910; the date of sailing in 1913 (30 January in most accounts); the year of the move to Ibambi (1921 or 1922); the date and terms of Alfred Buxton’s dismissal; the length of Priscilla’s visit in 1928; and the day of Studd’s death (16 July in most sources, 15 July in one). The numbers given for the crowd at his funeral, from more than a thousand to two thousand, cannot be checked.

Scripture

All Scripture quotations are from the American Standard Version of 1901, in the public domain, checked against its published text. Words printed in italics in that version, as supplied by the translators, are given here in ordinary type.