Eric continued in his report, saying,
Ku Lou Hsi has been and still is a difficult problem. There is no ordained Chinese Pastor in charge and I think the evangelist feels his hands tied by one or two of the deacons who have been there for many years. In the class, we have the Evangelist, a man who has started a Christian bookshop, one or two of the Sunday School teachers, and some others. We have banded ourselves together to pray for one another daily for power, for we feel that we must start with ourselves. We want depth in ourselves first. I have tried to incorporate some of the Oxford Group principles which made such a difference to my own life.[55]
The final days of January 1933 brought news of a major health concern for Florence. Exhausted from an intensive three months of clinicals in a psychiatric hospital, she struggled with a bout of anemia and had been forced to spend two weeks in bed. This was an alarmingly long scare as she drew nearer to her nursing school graduation finish line in May. In the dark hours of the night Florence wondered if she would see Eric again. Eric figured a nursing school was as good a place as any to fall ill but tossed and turned as he waited for news that Florence had pulled through with renewed health and vigor.
That summer Hugh MacKenzie and Florence’s brother Finlay returned to China. Florence had graduated with her class in May, they told him, but still had six months of work left to complete before she could come home to Eric and their wedding plans. After being apart for so long, Eric deemed the short span of time doable.
The good cheer and stories were welcomed, but other news shook him, such as when he heard of the sudden death of a missionary’s young wife.
Eric penned a letter to the LMS Foreign Secretary Francis Hawkins:
To think that she was at the May meetings being farewelled and then that within a few months God wanted her. . . . During my time at home last year I too was passing through a greater struggle than I had ever had before. It has brought me back here with a clearer message than before and a more personal Christ.[56]
By early autumn, Rob and Ria returned to China. Rob had been anxious to get back to medical service as hospital superintendent in Siaochang, where he and Eric had been small boys together. There, Rob and Annie Buchan went to work together.
As James and Mary had once left their children in England, Rob and Ria, on this trip back to their work, had done the same, leaving seven-year-old Peggy sobbing as their train pulled away from Waverley Station. She would now enter the School for the Daughters of Missionaries; they would not see her again for six years and, in their absence, she would go from little girl to teenager. As difficult a decision as it had been, Rob and Ria knew this was the way of missionary parents.
But Eric couldn’t help but think that he had always had Rob to lean on as they grew up without the physical presence of their parents. When he heard of Peggy’s tears, he found himself dreading similar experiences that might await him as a father. Knowing how it felt to be on the receiving end, he considered the other side of the perspective even less comforting.
On Sunday, November 12, 1933, Eric preached at Union Church. As he spoke from the pulpit, he felt the comforting presence of his father near him. The following morning Eric received a cable as he finished up breakfast. At only sixty-three years of age, James Liddell had passed away on Saturday at Eric’s Aunt Maggie’s home in Drymen, where he had gone to observe Remembrance Day. After taking a walk and visiting with friends, James had returned to Maggie’s, sat in a chair, suffered a massive stroke, and died.
Eric sat stunned by the loss but comforted in the remembrance of all the love his father had bestowed on those he encountered in his too-short years.
[53] Russell W. Ramsey, God’s Joyful Runner (South Plainfield, NJ: Bridge, 1987), 180.
[54] David McCasland, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold: A New Biography of the Olympic Champion Who Inspired Chariots of Fire (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 2001), 174.
[55] Ibid.
[56] Ibid., 176.
CHAPTER 15
STEADFAST WEDLOCK
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24
March 27, 1934
Nearly a decade had passed since Eric sprinted across the finish line in Paris, a leap that catapulted him to greater fame than he had known previously. Scotland’s greatest athlete became an Olympic gold medalist.
Now, as he waited at the altar of Union Church in Tientsin beside his friend George Dorling, he stood ready to cross another line (single to married) and to add another title (husband).
Eric crossed his hands and held them low and in front. He breathed in the scent of the altar flowers. Then, as the church pianist played the final stanza of a song carefully chosen by Florence, he looked at George and smiled so broadly his cheeks hurt.
“Easy, boy,” George teased in a whisper.
Eric allowed the smile to falter, but only a little. “Thank you, George,” he said.
“Whatever for?”
“For being here.”
The music changed, and the bridal march began. All eyes turned to the back of the church as Flo’s sister, Agnes Louise, and George’s fiancée, Gwyneth Rees, began their slow stride down the aisle. Eric glanced at
