Sixty Hours

Sixty Hours

They abandoned their war hero.

CHARLES GORDON was born in 1833 to a large military family in Victorian England. At the age of sixteen he went to military school. Although he showed promise as a soldier, he was also independent and rebellious, often exhibiting a short fuse toward authority figures.

Consistent with his fiercely independent personality, young Gordon was not a fan of organized religion and refused to be confirmed. However, from the time he was a boy he always believed that the Bible was true and that every human event was preordained by God. These two beliefs were to be foundational for him throughout life.

In 1854 during his second military assignment after becoming a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, he became friends with his captain, who was a Christian. Captain Drew gave him Andrew Bonar’s Memoir of Robert Murray M’Cheyne and other Christian books. Through Captain Drew and the books he read, Charles Gordon passed from death to life.

For thirty years he dedicated his life to serving his country, working his way up to general. Gordon possessed bravery, wisdom, and an intensity unlike others. He was widely decorated for his role in military operations in Armenia, the Crimea, China, and throughout central Africa.

Gordon’s next spiritual step came in the mid-1860s. His good friend Mrs. Freese recalls how he discovered what he called “the secret”: “While dressing rather listlessly before dinner his eye fell on an opened Bible on the table and on these words: ‘Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God.’ Suddenly it flashed upon him that he had found a jewel of priceless value—he had found what alone could satisfy him, oneness with God: Henceforth that was the key to his whole after life, and he wondered he had never seen it before. He wondered far more that anyone could read such words and be indifferent to them, and he now tried to make them known to as many as he could.”

Gordon had always had a burden for the poor. But after realizing his “secret,” he spent as much time as he could with the poor and the sick. He shared the gospel with as many people as would listen.

In April of 1884 while in the Sudan defending the city of Khartoum against the Mahdi Muslims, Gordon found himself surrounded by the enemy. His repeated requests for reinforcements fell on deaf ears. With few men or resources, he masterfully maintained the morale of his troops while holding off the enemy.

Back in Britain, popular opinion was that the government should send Gordon more reinforcements. Finally, on August 5, 1884, Prime Minister Gladstone authorized a little money for a relief operation for General Gordon. When the relief force finally arrived in Khartoum in January, they were sixty hours too late. After a 317-day siege Khartoum had fallen, and Gordon was dead.

Gordon’s last letter to his sister said, “I am quite happy, thank God . . . I have tried to do my duty.” His diary ended on the same day with “I have done the best for the honour of my country. Good-bye.”

When the news of Gordon’s death reached England, there was an outburst of public grief. It was internationally acknowledged that the world had lost a hero. A national day of mourning was held for him and a monument erected.

Loved and respected not only for his military accomplishments but also for his unique character, Gordon was dominated by his simple yet unshakable Christian faith.

Lord Tennyson wrote his epitaph:

Warrior of God, man’s friend, not here below,

But somewhere dead far in the waste Sudan,

Thou livest in all hearts, for all men know

This earth hath borne no simpler, nobler man.

Reflection

General Charles Gordon trusted God in every circumstance—no matter how hopeless. He was able to rest in the knowledge that God was in control and could be trusted implicitly. To what extent do circumstances affect your faith in God?

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:7