The Legacies of William Borden and King Tut

The streets of Cairo were hot and dusty. Our missionary friends Pat and Rakel Thurman took us down an alley. We drove past Arabic signs to an overgrown graveyard for American missionaries. As Nanci and I and our daughters, Karina and Angela, followed, Pat pointed to a sun-scorched tombstone that read: “William Borden 1887–1913.” Borden, a Yale graduate and heir to great wealth, rejected a life of ease in order to bring the gospel to Muslims.

Refusing even to buy himself a car, Borden gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars to missions. After only four months of zealous ministry in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died at age twenty-five. I dusted off the epitaph on Borden’s grave. After describing his love for God and sacrifices for Muslim people, the inscription ended with a phrase I’ve never forgotten: “

Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life.” The Thurmans took us from Borden’s grave to the Egyptian Museum. The King Tut exhibit was mind-boggling. Tutankhamun died at age seventeen. He was buried with solid gold chariots and thousands of golden artifacts. His gold coffin was found buried within gold tombs within gold tombs. The ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife—one where they could take earthly treasures. But all the treasures intended for King Tut’s eternal enjoyment stayed right where they were for more than three thousand years, until Howard Carter discovered the burial chamber in 1922.

I was struck by the contrast between these two graves. Borden’s was obscure, dusty, and hidden off a back street littered with garbage. Tutankhamun’s tomb glittered with unimaginable wealth. Yet where are these two men now? One, who lived in opulence and called himself king, is in the misery of a Christless eternity. The other, who lived a modest life in service of the one true King, is enjoying everlasting reward in his Lord’s presence.