The first volume of the official biography of John Stott, by Timothy Dudley-Smith, is published by IVP. EN interviewed the subject and the author of the biography...
EN: John Stott, you came to Christ through the work of E.J.H. Nash (Bash) while you were at Rugby School in the 1930s. And the book gives the impression of you as quite an idealistic youth. What was it about the Lord Jesus Christ that led you to surrender your life to him?
JS: Well, I always said that I was very well aware of two things about myself in those far-off days. One was that I was separated from God. I, like most people of those days, believed there was a God. I had no idea what he was like. But if he existed, I was cut off and estranged from him. I tried to find him. I used to attend the services in the memorial chapel at Rugby. I used to read religious literature and try to pray, but I could not get through. Secondly, I was defeated. As you rightly say, I had high ideals of the kind of person I wanted to be. I was also weak-willed. There was a gap between the ideal and the reality.
