William Borden was already a millionaire when he graduated from a Chicago high school in 1904. As heir to the Borden Dairy estate, he could have anything he wanted and as a graduation present his parents gave him a trip around the world. During Borden's travels through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he found a burden growing in him for the world's hurting people. Finally, he wrote home to say, "I'm going to give my life to prepare for the mission field." After making this decision, William Borden wrote two words in the back of his Bible: "No Reserves."

Borden arrived at Yale University (Connecticut) in 1905 as just one more freshman, but during his first semester, Borden started a movement that transformed the campus. A friend of described how it happened: " Bill and I began to pray together in the morning before breakfast. We had been meeting only a short time when a third student joined us and soon after a fourth. The time was spent in prayer after a brief reading of Scripture. Bill's handling of Scripture was helpful...he would read to us from the Bible, show us something that God had promised and then proceed to claim the promise with assurance."

Borden's group was the beginning of the daily groups of prayer that spread to every one of the college classes. By the end of his first year, 150 freshmen were meeting for weekly Bible studies. By the time he was a senior, 1,000 out of Yale's 1,300 students were meeting in such groups. Upon graduation from Yale, Borden turned down some high paying job offers. He also wrote two more words in his Bible: "No Retreats."

He went on to graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. While there, he signed the "Princeton Pledge," stating that " We, the undersigned, declare ourselves willing and desirous, God permitting, to go to the unevangelized portions of the world.'' Borden's missionary call came to focus on Muslims in China and from that goal he never wavered. When he finished his studies at Princeton, Borden sailed directly for China, stopping first in Egypt to study Arabic. While in Egypt, however, he came down with spinal meningitis. Within a month 25-year-old William Borden was dead.

"When the death of William Whiting Borden was cabled from Egypt, it seemed as though a wave of sorrow went round the world...Borden not only gave his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and natural that it was manifestly a privilege rather than a sacrifice."

A waste, you say? Not according to William Borden. Prior to his death Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words "No Reserves" and "No Retreats," he had written: "No Regrets."

Portions reprinted from Daily Bread, December 31, 1988, and The Yale Standard, Fall 1970 edition.

Quotations taken from Borden of Yale, by Mrs. Howard Taylor, Moody Press, Chicago

Princeton Pledge quoted from "We Can Do It, If We Will," The SVM and Robert Wilder by Dr. Dan Pierce, Princeton UBF http://www.dayofdiscovery.org/article-SVM.htm