Eric Liddell

The man who would not run on a Sunday

If you have seen the film Chariots of Fire you will know about the British athlete Eric Liddell. At the time of the 1924 Olympics in Paris, France, he was one of the fastest men in the world and a favourite to win the gold in the 100 metres sprint. Then the news came out: the preliminary heats were going to be run on a Sunday. And very quietly, without any fuss, he said, “I’m not running on a Sunday.”

His decision sent shock waves throughout Britain. A gold medal in the 100 metres was regarded as “the jewel of the Games”, and in people’s eyes Liddell had simply thrown it away. Cruelly and hurtfully, they even called him a traitor to his country.

So what on earth was Liddell thinking about? Why was Sunday not a day for competitive sports? And what does his decision have to say to us, 100 years on?

It’s helpful to begin by thinking about Sunday as the Lord’s Day. It is called that in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and indicates to us whose day it is – not ours, but the Lord’s. It is a day that he has marked off from all the other days of the week as special. And as we read through the New Testament and look at church history we find Christian people keeping it special – fencing it off, as it were, and using it as far as possible for the purposes for which the Lord has given it. It is a day for resting from the activities of the other six days, for worship, for Christian fellowship, and for the service of others.

It is also a very valuable gift. To keep one day different from all the other days is not a burden (or at least it shouldn’t be!) but a blessing, and generations of Christians have found that the more carefully they fence off the day the more of a blessing it is to them.

But there is often a cost. So many sporting events are held on a Sunday now that Christians who are committed to keeping the Lord’s Day holy may find that the limit to which they can go in their sport is all too quickly reached. They may well be unable to achieve the success levels of which they are evidently capable.

Nor is sport the only area where sacrifice may have to be made. The Christian who would honour the Lord by keeping Sunday special may find himself in exactly the same position in regard to employment opportunities, or participation in recitals, musicals, plays, and other performances.

The Lord himself would assure us, however, that we will not be the poorer for such sacrifice. His promise is that “those who honour me I will honour” (1 Sam.2:30). Anything we give up for him he will certainly in some way or other make up to us.

So Eric Liddell found. On the morning of the 400 metres final – not Liddell’s best distance – one of the British team masseurs passed him a note which he read at the stadium: “In the old book it says, ‘He that honours me I will honour’. Wishing you the best of success always”. And Liddell got it, too, not only winning the gold but setting a new world record!

I cannot say how the Lord will honour you. But in some way he will if you faithfully honour him. It may be very costly to do so, but you have the promise of God himself that those who honour him he will honour. God will certainly bless any sacrifice that is made for him and for his special Day.

Running the Race

Running the Race is a biography of Eric Liddell. The author, John Keddie, a former runner himself, has had a life-long interest in Eric Liddell and is an acknowledged authority on his subject. He is also in complete sympathy with Liddell’s Christian faith and commitment to the Lord’s Day. Running the Race focuses particularly on Liddell’s prowess and achievements as an athlete. In one of the appendices, in fact, the full details are given of Liddell’s track record from 1921-1925. The biography relates, of course, the story outlined above of Liddell’s historic victory at the 1924 Paris Olympics. But it tells us the rest of his story as well.  

In 1925 Eric Liddell returned to the land of his birth – China. His father, the Rev. James Liddell, had gone out from his native Scotland to China in 1898 as a missionary with the London Missionary Society (LMS). Eric, now 23, was to serve with the same missionary society for the next twenty years. For twelve years he taught in the influential LMS School in Tientsin, the Anglo-Chinese College. Afterwards, until the Japanese invasion of China made it impossible to continue, he worked as an itinerant evangelist in the vast and densely populated North China plain.

In 1943 Eric and his missionary colleagues were taken to a Japanese internment camp for civilians in Weihsein, south of Beijing. There, two years later, on the 21st of February 1945, he died from a brain tumour.  He was only 43.

Eric Liddell was wonderfully human, a man who loved to run and who, when running, loved to win. He was ever the gentlemen – thoughtful, considerate and kind. Above all, he was a dedicated and deeply attractive Christian.  “His”, said a speaker at his funeral, “was a God-controlled life and he followed his Master and Lord with a devotion that never flagged and with an intensity of purpose that made men see both the reality and power of true religion”. Another said, “Of all the men I have known, Eric Liddell was the one in whose character and life the spirit of Jesus Christ was pre-eminently manifested”.

Running the Race is a fine piece of work. It will be of especial interest to young people passionate about sports. For Eric Liddell is an outstanding example of what a Christian athlete should be. Certainly in regard to the Lord’s Day. But more generally in making obedience to God’s will the controlling factor in all of life.