TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
The Lord Mayor of London
SIR J.E. KYNASTON STUDD, the son of Edward Studd of Tidworth House, Wilts., was born in 1858, educated at Eton, and Trinity College, Cambridge; is brother of C. T. Studd, the missionary, and G. B. Studd. “G.B., C.T., and J.E.K.,” three famous cricketers in their day, were referred to as “a set of studs.” J.E.K. followed Quinton Hogg, the founder, in the management of Regent Street Polytechnic. A.J. Hullah, chaplain at the Polytechnic makes this statement:
“It is many years since he felt the call to give his life to the Master. It is generally believed that it was in one of D. L. Moody’s evangelistic services that his conversion took place, but I have a little note from him, in which he states that his decision was made very quietly in his own room when he was a lad at Eton. Religion is the passion of his life. All interests are subservient to the interest of religion; and to him Christ is religion’s central fact and supreme inspiration.”
Sir Wilfred Grenfell, the hero of Labrador, speaking in Wesley Chapel, attributed his conversion and call to Christian work to an address he heard 41 years ago from Sir Kynaston Studd, and that Dr. John Mott, the great missionary leader, was also won for Christ through Sir Kynaston.
Confirmation of above is given in the Evening Standard, London, for Saturday, 24th Nov., 1928. Convinced that nothing makes so ready an appeal to man or woman as a frank affirmation of faith, the editor of the Church Page invited well-known men and women to express, each Saturday, their fundamental belief. The first Of the series is by the Lord Mayor, Sir Kynaston Studd, well-known for the prominent part he has taken in religious and social work in London for many years, especially in connection with the Regent Street Polytechnic, whose welfare he has very much at heart, and of which he is president. His statement is truly important :
“I believe that every man and woman should constantly endeavour to develop the spiritual side of their nature. We all have a spiritual side, and if we neglect it we are like a four-cylinder car with only three cylinders working. The form that development will take, however, we must each decide for ourselves, but faith is essential. Every man, even the humblest and least important, wields an influence for good or ill (and if it is not one it is the other), far greater than he ever dreams. He wields it all the time and he never knows which moment—which word or action, is going to have the most lasting effect.
“My own deepest belief is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe His teachings embody the highest ideals ever given to man, and have been the most powefrful influence the world has known.”
“It seems to me that our religious faith ought to form part of our daily life. If we think of it only on Sunday and live without it for six days we are one-sided, like a cripple.”
Hard experience with the world, with the masses of young people connected with the Polytechnic, as well as with many of the ablest business men in the City of worldwide fame, only deepens and confirms the Lord Mayor as to the value of the life and the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and above all, His Death for sinners, for “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5. 8).
A Threefold Cord. In this threefold testimony of the STUDDS—Father, a noted sportsman; one son, a noted cricketer and pioneer; the other, Lord Mayor of famous London Town, the Grace of God is truly manifest. He who saved them will save you.