TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
A Grand National Winner
EDWARD STUDD, father of the three brothers Studd, who all became famous, had made a fortune in India.
He had a country house in Wilts., a town house in London, and not only kept race-horses, but had a private race-course on his estate. In 1866 he won the Grand National. The story of the change is most interesting, so we print, though longer than usual.
Mr. Studd, paterfamilias, at this period possessed a racehorse which he considered better than any he had ever had, and he was so sure of its coming in first in a certain race for which he had entered it that he wrote to a friend in London, whom he was going to see the following day: “If you are a wise man, you will put every penny you have on my horse.”
When he met his friend in London next day, he asked, “Well, how much have you put on my horse?” “Nothing at all,” was the surprising answer. “Then all I can say is that you are the biggest of fools,” growled Studd pater. “Didn’t I tell you what a good horse he was? Anyhow, come and dine with me.”
The two gentlemen had dinner together, and then Mr. Studd asked, “Now, where shall we go to amuse ourselves this evening? As you are the guest, you shall choose.” “Well, then,” replied his friend, “let us go and hear Moody preach.”
Now Studd senior had been highly amused at what the newspapers had said about Sankey and Moody; nevertheless, he had declared one evening after reading something attacking or scoffing at the pair as usual, “Anyhow, there must be some good about this man Moody or he would never be abused so much by the papers. When he comes to London, I must go and hear him.”
Forgetting this, however, he objected to going to hear Mr. Moody when his friend proposed they should. “It isn’t Sunday,” he made reply. “Let us go to a theatre or a concert.” His friend reminded him, “You promised to go wherever I chose.” So the two went to hear Mr. Moody.
The friend told Studd senior that he had heard Mr. Moody while he was over in Ireland. “I was about to leave Dublin,” he explained, “when I missed the train. It was a Saturday night, so I had to remain over Sunday. As I was strolling about the streets that evening I saw big bills advertising a meeting of Sankey and Moody, and I decided I would go and bear what they had to say.” He went, and, in Mr. Charles T. Studd’s own words, “God met him; he went again and God converted him. He was a new man, and yet when my father wrote that letter he never said anything about it”—about his conversion, of course, is meant.
When this gentleman and Studd senior got to the meeting-hall, they found it full to overflowing; there were no seats to be obtained, except special ones. The friend, however, was not to be beaten. He knew he would never get Mr. Studd there again, so he worked himself into the crowd until he came across one of the committee. He said to him, “Look here, I have brought a wealthy sporting gentleman here, but I will never get him here again if we do not get a seat.” The man took them in and put them right straight in front of Mr. Moody. Mr. Studd kept his eyes riveted on Mr. Moody the whole time he was speaking, and, after the meeting, said to his friend—to that friend’s great but secret delight: “/ will come and hear this man again. He just told me everything I had ever done.”
Edward Studd was a changed man from that hour. He attended service after service of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, “until he was right soundly converted.”
He felt he could not go on living the life he had been doing. He sought and obtained a private interview with Mr. Moody. “If I become a Christian, Mr. Moody,” he asked, “must I give up racing, and shooting, and hunting, and going to theatres and balls, and all that sort of thing?”
“Well, Mr. Studd,” answered Mr. Moody, “racing means betting, does it not? and betting means gambling, and I don’t see how a gambler can be a true Christian. As for the other things, do them as long as you like.” But Studd senior was still rather concerned about the theatre and cards, and said so; whereupon Mr. Moody rejoined, “You have children and people you love, Mr. Studd; and now you are a saved man yourself, desirous of living a more Christian life than hitherto, you want them to be saved also. As soon as ever you have won a soul, you will find that you won’t care about any of the other things.”
Mr. Studd went back to his country house, and sold his dogs and hunters, and devoted himself to Christian work thenceforward. His change of life and habits caused no small sensation amongst his old friends and neighbours. When his sons returned home from Eton for the holidays they could not understand “what had come over” him. He kept continually telling them that he was born again. “We thought that he was just born upside down, because he was always asking about our souls, and we didn’t like it,” says Charles.
He took them to hear Mr. Moody; but, although they were all three greatly impressed by that gentleman’s eloquence and arguments, they were not converted at the time. Mr. Studd senior had revivalist meetings held at his country-house in the evenings, inviting ministers and business acquaintances from London to attend and deliver addresses to the people about their souls. The people came from miles around, and many were converted to a better life.