BOOK REVIEW:

C.T. Studd: 

Cricketer and Pioneer

By Norman Grubb

My first inclination to the prospective reader of this book: do not read it. Do not read it if you are comfortable with your uncontested, easygoing Christianity. Do not read it if you want to remain satisfied with a spiritual life that wakes up on Sunday mornings in time to go to church only to go back to sleep by Sunday night. Do not read it if you want to cling to possessions, positions, and people who keep you from expressing Jesus Christ in your daily lives. And above all, do not dare read this book if you want to escape the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life.

I felt hesitant to read C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer, since I knew something of what the book contained and knew that my life did not look very much like Studd’s life. I did not want to find myself in a position of comparing myself to a true Christian who gave up all worldly things, literally, to take the Gospel to China, India, and Africa. However, I did read the book, and I loved it. I found Studd’s life to be inspiring, exciting, fascinating, heart-warming, and reassuring. What particularly impacted me was the earnestness with which he approached his life. He simply looked to the Scriptures to find out what God commanded and then followed them.

C.T. Studd: Cricketer and Pioneer serves as an important historical record of a man who came to fame as a champion cricket player as prominent in his day as contemporary athletes such as John Elway or Mark McGwire. The reader learns how Studd’s conversion to Christianity can be traced back to D.L. Moody; C.T. in turn, played a role in the formation of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

Studd first hit the foreign mission field in inland China as one of HudsonTaylor’s famous "Seven." He spent several years in India, the country where his father’s farm was located. He then went to Africa, creating the Heart of Africa Mission, which later became the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade. Too many details of this man’s lifelong pilgrimage to fulfill God’s purpose in his life might spoil some of the surprises of this can’t-put-it-down read.

Norman Grubb married one of Studd’s daughters and served in the African mission field with him. Subsequently, the personal quality of this biography comes from the author’s first hand knowledge of many of the details of Studd’s life. Norman has said that the point of this book is to show the faith with which Studd lived his life, believing that God would enable, protect, fulfill, and provide for him if he only followed His will. With that perspective, I can read C.T. Studd and know that if I am faithful in my belief that Jesus Christ lives His life through me, God’s purpose in my life will be fulfilled. If my life happens to look like Studd’s, or if it doesn’t, that is God’s business.

My final inclination to the prospective reader of C.T. Studd; Cricketer and Pioneer: do not dare to not read it. Relish the new perspective you will have. Appreciate what others have done who have gone before you. Search for the Spirit’s conviction to fulfill God’s purpose in your own life. You too will want to tell someone else to read the book.