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Chariots of Fire & Running the Race

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Are you searching for inspiration? The first article focused mainly on the great Harold Abrahams. This second part of the centennial tribute will look more closely at the life and legacy of Eric Liddell, how he ran and what it means to run the race of faith. There is no shortage of biographies on Liddell though I am drawing very heavily from ‘Running the Race’ by John Keddie which includes a foreword by Lord Sebastian Coe. Keddie was ably qualified to write having great interest in sport and he wrote a series of articles in Athletics Weekly. He befriended the late Scottish Athletics Historian David Jamieson and Keddie was also a minister. He knew the evangelist D.P. Thomson, the first biographer of Liddell and considers him to be the one whose shoulders subsequent biographers have stood on.

Chariots of Fire

We might have seen the quadruple Oscar winning film ‘Chariots of Fire,’ but how much do we really know about Eric Liddell? Eric was born in China; his parents were married there and he also died there at the age of just forty-three. Eric’s father, James, worked for the London Missionary Society and during the time of the Boxer Rebellion, Mary, Eric’s mother gave birth to his elder brother in Shanghai before settling in Tientsin in the north of China where Eric was born. His sister Jenny (whom many will remember from ‘Chariots of Fire’) was born in Siaochang and his youngest brother Ernest was born nine years later in Peking.

In contrast to Harold Abrahams who to some extent excelled at running as an opportunity to get even when faced with blatant antisemitism and other challenges at a not too friendly boarding school, Eric’s days at Eltham College were happier days. His older brother Robert was only slightly older than he was and attended the same College which provided an academic, sporting and spiritual curriculum which was the training ground for the muscular Christian.

A wide range of sporting activities were on offer though traditionally athletics, cricket and rugby were played in consecutive terms throughout the year. Opportunities were there for the taking and both brothers captained the cricket and rugby teams and swept the field in athletics. Sundays would centre around the student’s spiritual needs and there would be a rest from both sport and study. In addition, there were prayers in the chapel and an evangelical non-denominational Bible class. As Keddie explains, Rob then went onto study medicine and it must have been hard for Eric being the first time they were separated and it was not until two years later in 1920 that the family were reunited in Edinburgh when his father was on regular furlough.

Running the Race

In the opening paragraph I mentioned that John Keddie knew the evangelist D.P. Thompson who authored Liddell’s first biography. Thomson’s involvement in Liddell’s life was instrumental. Keddie explains that in 1923 there was a mission in West Lothian where Thompson asked Eric to speak at the closing meeting. This was a transformative time in Eric’s life and he spoke on being born again from John 3.

In this passage Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel approaches Jesus at night. Note that Nicodemus is a notable historical figure also mentioned in Josephus and the Talmud. He was impressed by the signs that Jesus had performed at Passover and recognises that Jesus is a Rabbi sent from God. Though Jesus says to Nicodemus that unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

What did Jesus mean by being born again? From a Jewish background, being born again could include a Bar Mitzvah, marriage, becoming a Rabbi or a Chief Rabbi.[i] After all, was not Nicodemus the Chief Rabbi? Nonetheless, he asks what most of us would probably ask concerning whether a man can enter his mother’s womb a second time. Jesus explained that what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of Spirit is spirit and though we cannot see the wind we can hear the sound of it and so it is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Eric was able to communicate spiritual truths clearly, concisely and with sincerity he wrote, “The new birth is God coming into your life and giving you a new nature, a nature of love to God and man. Nothing in life can make up for the lack of this; nothing can take its place.”[ii]

He sought to honour the Lord in all that he did whether on the playing field, running track or of it. Did his firmly held beliefs even aid his abilities in the sporting arena? Interestingly, Harold Abrahams thought so. “Eric Liddell was a man whose intense spiritual convictions contributed largely to his athletic triumphs. While his ability must have been great, but for his profound intensity of spirit he surely could not have achieved so much.”[iii]

Some people know that Eric represented Scotland at rugby but this aspect of his life is rarely, duly considered. Note that Keddie devoted two chapters in his biography to Liddell’s rugby days. Today we can watch YouTube highlights of sprinters who have played professional rugby usually on the wing and their injection of pace and extra gears renders their opponents almost helpless in their efforts to keep up. Liddell was an exceptional rugby player; a brave and reliable tackler and it is a wonder that he was not injured more often than he was and that he was able to compete so ably at the top level in both rugby and athletics.

Eric frequently won sprint trebles in university athletics competitions in the 100yards, 220 yards and 440 yards. For those competing in more than one event, the scheduling of events was quite frankly ridiculous! Admittedly interval training would help prepare an athlete for running races with such little time in between, though an AAA meeting scheduled the first round, second round and final of the 100 metres within one hour ten minutes. Some of those particular athletes might have been competing in another sprinting event or the long jump on the same day.

He was a true scholar, athlete and a gentleman. Sometimes today, athletes are able to acquire a scholarship with a university predicated much more on their sporting potential than academic rigour. Whilst Eric succeeded in sport and was highly committed to his evangelical causes, he was no mean scholar either. “In the 1920-21 session his marks were 94% in inorganic chemistry and 83% in mathematics. The following year he was 1st equal in two of his classes, and in his third-year 1st equal again in one, with 90%.”[iv]

Today before being called to their marks, some athletes stroll defiantly as if they own the track, try to psyche each other out and play games in being the last to settle at their blocks. Liddell offered his trowel to dig starting holes to each of his competitors and four of them accepted and he shook hands with all of them. Could you seriously imagine a hotly contested 100m race today when the favourite lends his starting blocks to the other competitors who for whatever reason do not have them?

In another sporting and kindly incident Liddell lent his blazer to an athlete who was waiting ill prepared in light running gear for his event to start. That was remembered and recalled by the competitor who Eric did that gesture for.[v] Keddie insightfully adds that in effect that this was an era prior to tracksuits and warmups were essentially basic.

There is a heartwarming scene in Chariots of Fire when Liddell is knocked off the track in a 440yard foot race and he somehow, gets back on his feet, claws back the huge margin and collapses gasping for breath having achieved a seemingly impossible victory. The race was actually run at Stoke and there were no lanes, so there was jostling for position from the outset. These occurrences eventually resulted in designated lanes for 440yards and 400 metre races.

Since Liddell bravely refused to race on the Lord’s Day (Jesus rose from the grave on the Sunday), so he ran in the 440 yards race at the 1924 Paris Olympics instead. It should not go unnoticed that Liddell managed to acquire a bronze medal in the 220 yards before the 440yards, the race for which he is most remembered. Heats for the 440yards were held on the same day as the 220yards final.

In the 440yards final, Liddell was given a note, “Those who honour Me, I will honour (1 Samuel 2:30).” Later Liddell would make reference to that note. Contrary to expectations, Liddell went out exceptionally hard for the first 200m which to many seasoned observers would have appeared akin to lunacy and they would have expected him to crumble in the home straight. Harold Abrahams watched the race, noted that Liddell ran like a man inspired and thought he would crack but somehow maintained his speed to the finish. He set a world and Olympic record of 47.6 seconds and the margin of victory was one of the greatest for the event.

To China and towards eternity

Liddell’s life started in China and ended in China. After Olympic success it was only a matter of time before he would be serving selflessly on the mission field. Firstly though, Eric Liddell and D.P. Thompson travelled across Scotland speaking in theatres, music halls, churches, various public buildings, schools and colleges.[vi]He undertook theological training and continued to run.

Eric was asked why he chose to serve on the mission field over his athletics career. He responded that he was running for an incorruptible crown, not a corruptible one. What exactly did he mean? Eric was referring to 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 where Paul writes of running the race all run and which one receives a prize and running in such a way to obtain the imperishable crown, not the perishable crown. In Ancient Greece, Corinth was the home of the Isthmian Games hosted every two years and athletes would receive a crown or a laurel wreath that would eventually fade away. Eric was living with an eternal perspective in mind and was not living simply in the here and now.

At the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin (Tianjin), Eric gave himself fully to the work, taught science and athletics for twelve years and his Bible Classes out of hours were well attended. Not surprisingly he was consistently involved in sporting activities and took part in athletic races in China. He was involved in evangelistic work in the countryside districts. He met and married Florence and they had three daughters before life became terribly difficult very quickly.

In 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, the Americans declared war against Japan and Eric Liddell and others were effectively under house arrest until they were rounded up for internment. Yet even at the internment camp Eric was involved in taking services, prayer meetings, Bible studies and tutoring the children. At the end of 1944 he suffered headaches and then later a suspected brain tumour following a light stroke. He then lapsed into a coma and went peacefully home. Later it was confirmed that he had died of an inoperable brain tumour.

Though on the day of his death he wrote to his wife Florence, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13). Death was not the end for Eric since he had run the race of faith having repented of his sins, trusted in the Lord’s atoning sacrifice for his salvation and obeyed Him with a life well lived to the praise of His glory.

The only way to conquer death is to be born again. Have you been born again? Are you trusting in Jesus the Messiah? Are you running in such a way to obtain an imperishable crown? Time races on but eternity is relentless and unceasing, so turn to the Lord and trust in Him whilst there is little, yet precious time.


[i] Greg Denham Nicodemus: A Conversation that Changed the World https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/nicodemus-a-conversation-that-changed-the-world/

[ii] Keddie, p46

[iii] Ibid, p48, cited from Obituary notice in the Sunday Times, 20 May 1945, quoted by D.P. Thompson, Eric Liddell, The Making of an Athlete and the Training of a Missionary (Glasgow: Eric Liddell Memorial Committee, 1945), p.39

[iv] Ibid, 62, cited from David Barnes & Peter Barnes with John Griffiths, Behind the Thistle. Playing Rugby for Scotland, (Edinburgh, 2015), p47

[v] Ibid, cited from D.P. Thompson Eric H. Liddell: Athlete and Missionary, p46

[vi] Ibid, p145