Hudson Taylor's Life and Ministry as a Missionary in China

THE LIFE AND MINISTRY OF

James Hudson Taylor
Born in Yorkshire, England, May 21, 1832.
Died at Chang-Sha, China, June 3, 1905.

BY ED REESE

Hudson Taylor was the most widely used missionary in
China's history. During his 51 years of service there, his
China Inland Mission established 20 mission stations,
brought 849 missionaries to the field (968 by 1911), trained
some 700 Chinese workers, raised four million dollars by
faith (following Mueller's example), and developed a
witnessing Chinese church of 125,000. It has been said at
least 35,000 were his own converts and that he baptized
some 50,000. His gift for inspiring people to give themselves
and their possessions to Christ was amazing.

Taylor was born into a Christian home. His father was a
chemist and a local Methodist preacher who himself was
fascinated by China in his youth. Once at age 4, Hudson
piped up, "When I am a man I mean to be a missionary and
go to China." Father's faith and mother's prayers meant
much. Before he was born they had prayed about him going
to China someday. However, soon young Taylor became a
skeptical and worldly young man. He decided to live for this
life only. At 15 he entered a local bank and worked as a
junior clerk where, being well adjusted and happy, he was a
popular teen. Worldly friends helped him scoff and swear.
The gaslight and the murk of this winter left his eyes weak
the rest of his life. He left the bank in 1848 to work in his
father's shop.

His conversion is an amazing story. When he was 17 years
of age he went into his father's library one afternoon in
June, 1849 in search of a book to read. This was in a barn or
warehouse adjacent to the house. Finally he picked up a
gospel tract entitled, "It is Finished," and decided to read

the story on the front. He came upon the expression, "The
Finished work of Christ," Remembering the words, "It is
Finished," he raised the question — "What was finished?"
The answers seemed to fall in place and he received Christ
as his Saviour. The same afternoon and time, his mother
was visiting some 75 miles away. Experiencing an intense
yearning for the conversion of her son, she turned the key in
the door and resolved not to leave the spot until her prayers
were answered. Hours later she left with assurance. She
returned 10 days later and was met at the door by her son
who said he had good news for her. She said, "I know, my
boy. I have been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings
you have to tell me." Mother Taylor had learned of the
incident from no human source, but God had assured her.

Months later he began to feel a great dissatisfaction with his
spiritual state. His "first love" and his zeal for souls had
grown cold. On Dec. 2, 1849 he retired to be alone with the
Lord and it seemed this was the time to promise the Lord he
would go to China. Hudson started to prepare immediately
by exercising in the open air and exchanging his feather bed
for a hard mattress. He distributed tracts and held cottage
meetings. With the aid of a copy of Luke's Gospel in the
Mandarin dialect, he studied the Chinese language. He
borrowed a book on China from a Congregational minister
and began the study of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.

In November, 1851, Hudson moved his lodging to a noisy
suburb of Darinside, a neighborhood on the edge of town.
Here he began a rigorous regime of saving and self-denial,
spending spare time as a self-appointed medical missionary
in cheerless streets where low wages, ever large families
and gin produced brutalized husbands and wives and sickly

children. Here he set up a test situation regarding his salary.
His employer had asked Hudson to remind him when his
salary became due. Taylor did not do this. One day in a poor
home with evidently starving children, he prayed for them
but had no peace until he gave the family all he had even
down to his last coin. He went home happy in heart and the
next day the postman brought a letter with enough money
to make a 400% profit for only a twelve hour investment.
He was convinced that money given in Christ's name was a
loan which God would repay...and He did! One night about
10 p.m. on the day his rent was due (and his pockets were
empty), his employer came by with his back wages.
Experiences like these prepared him for his future life of
faith.

In the Fall of 1852, he came to London under the auspices
of the Chinese Evangelization Society, who arranged to pay
for his training as a doctor at the London Hospital in the
East End.

Glowing reports came from China and the CES urged Taylor
to leave at once, medical course unfinished, to reach the
Taipings (new rebel group called Heavenly Kingdom of Great
Peace) at Nanking. These were supposedly Christian rebels
that toppled Nanking in March, 1853. This Chinese rebellion
lasted from 1850 to 1864. After further medical studies in
London, he accepted appointment under the CES and sailed
from Liverpool on September 19, 1853. He was the only
passenger in the sailing vessel, Dumfries. He had a
tempestuous voyage as the ship on two occasions was
within a few feet of being wrecked. One harrowing
experience is worth remembering. The sailing vessel was
becalmed in the vicinity of New Guinea. The captain

dispaired as a four knot current carried them swiftly toward
sunken reefs near shore. "Our fate is sealed!" Cannibals
were eagerly awaiting with delight and fires burning ready.
Taylor and three others retired to pray and the Lord
immediately sent a strong breeze that sent them on their
way. Again one of his favorite texts, John 14:13 was proven.
He finally reached Shanghai, China, March 1, 1854.

China at last...age 21 years, 10 months old! He was not
prepared for the civil war on his doorstep. It was a shock to
find that if the rebels did embrace Christianity, it was
nominally on the part of the leaders alone from political
motives. "Of the spirit of Christianity they knew little and
manifested none." He was forlorn, miserable and homesick.
His eyes were inflamed, he suffered headaches and was
simply cold in the climate. His leisure time was consumed
with long letters home to parents and sister. 1854 was still
uncertain. As the military situation allowed, he explored the
countryside, pursuing a hobby of insect and plant collecting,
plus photography. Other missionaries took him on preaching
tours and the Imperial Fleet once nearly opened fire on their
boats at night in Woosung Creek. He was the only
missionary actually a resident in Shanghai and this renewed
his zeal for souls. But physical set backs and the possible
civil war coming ever closer made him realize life was no
longer safe. He soon evacuated to the International
Settlement geared for the foreign population. He was
appalled at the idleness of many missionaries and their
critical, sarcastic remarks. In early 1855 he started
preaching tours — a week or more with another missionary
or alone. There were ten such journeys his first two years.
In February, 1855, the Imperial armies with rebel French
support had stormed and sacked the starving city of

Shanghai, making the streets hideous with human suffering.
As peace returned he considered permanent residence in
some interior city, or else he must find his way 700 miles to
Nanking, capital of the Taipings. Either would forfeit
consular protection. Before deciding, he went up the
Yangtze River for three weeks in April with John Burdon. It
was a trip that nearly cost their lives. At Tungchow, a city of
evil repute, they were attacked by ruffians and were brought
to a magistrate of sorts who saw that they were escorted
safely out of the city.

Back at Shanghai, Taylor decided to reach the Taipings. Ten
days later he was off. Partly to explore openings for future
residence and partly to throw Imperialists off his trail, he
proceeded up the Yangtze leisurely. From his boat, he
visited 58 villages. Only seven of them had ever seen a
Protestant missionary. He preached, removed tumors and
distributed books. The people would run from him at times
or throw mud and stones. Medical box and skill was the only
thing used to combat this. Passing his 23rd birthday he
came within 70 miles of the Taipings. However he was
divinely hindered in his attempt to reach Nanking, and in
five more years the rebels were all but extinguished
anyway. Taylor returned to Shanghai and on August 24,
1855, he toured southward to Ningpo. Now he was writing a
girl back home, Elizabeth Sisson, proposing marriage...not
even noticing young Maria Dyer who lived there (whom he
eventually did marry).

On October 18, 1855 he left Shanghai again, this time going
to Tsungming, a large island in the Yangtze mouth. He felt
this would be a good place to labor and on November 5 he
returned to Shanghai to restock the medicine chest, collect

letters and fit himself with winter clothes. However he was
then ordered out of Tsungming permanently, as local
doctors complained to the magistrate that they were losing
business to the foreign doctor. These six weeks were his
first "inland" experience.

William Burns, a Scottish evangelist, came across his path
and for seven months, 1855-56, they worked together as a
gospel team. In February of 1856, they both felt called to
Swatown, 1,000 miles south. They decided to go and arrived
March 12. It was no easy place to get the attention of a
hardened embittered people. Tropical summer soon put
Taylor into a state of exhaustion as the prickly heat and
unending perspiration plus the stench of the night soil pails
left him weak. He left his rice diet in May and added tea,
eggs and toast. The mail was not encouraging either. Miss
Sisson rejected his proposal to join him, and the CES, his
mission board, informed him there were no funds left to
send to him. By midsummer, 1856, he was torn 100
different ways, but in July he decided to go back north, at
Burns request, to get much needed medical equipment from
Shanghai. Taylor arrived to find nearly all his medical
supplies had been accidentally destroyed by fire. Then came
the distressing news that Burns was arrested by Chinese
authorities and sent on a 31 day journey to Canton.

Hudson then decided to settle at Ningpo and in October,
1856, made his way back there. On his way down he was
robbed of his traveling bed, spare clothes, two watches,
surgical instruments, concertina, sister Amelia's photo and a
Bible given to him by his mother. With no salary coming in
now he would have been destitute and helpless had not his
expenses fallen sharply because he had adopted the Chinese

dress and level of living. Despite his setbacks he continued
to preach to those who were in darkness.

As 1856 ended and the new year began, he knew he would
have to resign from his mission board, CES. He considered
joining some other society but a letter from George Mueller
encouraged him to live by faith. So in June he resigned at
age 25.

Dr. Parker, a fellow missionary, had established a hospital
and dispensary at Ningpo. A new family, the Jones', had
arrived and the missionary community was fervent in spirit.
Once a week they all dined at the school run by Miss Mary
Ann Aldersey, a 60 year old Englishwoman, reputed to be
the first woman missionary to China. She had two young
helpers, Burella and Maria Dyer. Burella became engaged to
missionary associate, John Burdon.

On Christmas day, 1856, the missionary compound had a
party where a friendship between Hudson and Maria
developed. Taylor had to return to Shanghai, but on March
23 he wrote asking to be engaged. Ordered by Miss Aldersey
(a guardian of sorts), Maria painfully refused. However, as
both plunged into the Lord's work and prayed, they decided
to get engaged on November 14, 1857, approval or not.

As 1859 came around, Maria turned 21 (born January 16,
1837), and four days later on the 20th, she married Hudson
Taylor. A happier couple could not be found...they had
waited over two years.

The work in the compound continued. John Jones became
the pastor, Maria ran the little school as Taylor's small group

at Ningpo kept pursuing mission work in a great heathen
city. In 1859, Mrs. Taylor fell grievously ill, recovering to
give birth to their first child, Grace, on July 31.

The treaty of Tientsin, ratified in 1860, gave missionaries
new freedoms but Taylor's health was so bad with all the
pressures that a furlough seemed to be his only hope for
life. So in August they left Shanghai, arriving back in
England in November, 1860, seven years after he first left
for China. They lived in Bayswater where their first son,
Herbert, was born (2nd child) in April, 1861. Taylor,
realizing he could not soon return, undertook various
responsibilities. First, the translating and revision of the
Ningpo New Testament (a five year project) and then
enrolling in a medical course. He also wrote a book, China,
It's Spiritual Needs and Claims (October, 1865). Other
children were born. Bertie (number 3) came in 1862,
followed by Freddie in 1863 and Samuel in 1864. As only
four children returned to China, it is thought that Herbert
must have died in infancy. These London years brought
tests as severe as any that followed with poor health, funds
and a growing family.

The China Inland Mission was born on Sunday, June 25,
1865 on the sands of Brington's beach where Hudson Taylor
was gripped with a heavy burden and asked God for 24
missionaries to return with him to China. He opened a bank
account with $50.00 and soon the volunteers and money
began coming in. At this time Spurgeon heard Taylor and
was impressed by his zeal for China. Apparently God was
too, for within the year, he had raised $13,000.00 and
accepted 24 volunteers. On December 7, a baby born
prematurely died at birth. Maria's lungs were permanently

affected with tuberculosis at about this time and it took
months for her to recover.

On May 26, 1866, the Taylors left for China after 5½ years
of working and recruiting at home. Of the 24 volunteers,
eight preceded him and 16 came with the family. On board
were a married couple, five single men and nine single
ladies. They ran into a terrible typhoon in the South China
Sea and only prayer and work beyond measure aboard the
Lammermuir prevented a catastrophe.

On September 30, 1866, they were towed towards Shanghai
by a steam tug. It was back to Ningpo by canal, but over
crowded conditions at the missionary compound compelled
him to go to Hangchow in December. Taylor's methods were
met with scorn, the Chinese dress being the big item that
annoyed the western community as it did previously.
Keeping his new missionaries in line with his policies was
somewhat a task also. In early February, 1867, little Maria
was born (number 6). By April the group was in danger of a
split. Taylor admitted his folly in rebaptizing Anglicans and
never again swerved from a true interdenominational
position.

He went westward in June looking for new stations. The heat
climbed to 103 degrees in August. Taylor was recovering
from inflamed eyes and wife Maria was ill. The death of 8
year old Gracie Taylor on August 23, 1867 probably saved
the mission. The girl was praying for an idol maker just
before she died and it united the mission. In September,
1868 the last dissident was dismissed.

The Taylors had gone to Yangchow on June 1, 1868 with
their four children. By July 20 they had their own compound.
Suddenly handbills warned against the foreigners. Ignorance
and priestly hostility brought fear of the West. Not only that,
but the foreigners (Taylors) offered exceptional prospects
for looting. Saturday, August 22, 1868 has to be one of the
most traumatic days in the mission's history. The mission
compound was attacked and as Taylor and a friend ran for
help, the home was looted and burned causing serious
injuries on several individuals. The battered missionaries left
Yangchow for Chinkiang where they were made comfortable.
Maria Taylor could not walk unaided and ached in every
bone. However, they did not want to press charges. The
British Navy, hearing of the problem, sailed up the Yangtze
deep into the territory to protest this outrage. This was to
produce negative results as Western Imperialism became
the excuse for Communist infiltration later.

The Taylors returned to Yangchow on November 18, 1868.
Charles Edward was born November 28 (number 7).

Although Europeans in Shanghai appreciated the problem in
Yangchow, back in England the stories were perverted and
the Taylors sneered at. In Yangchow the natives were
impressed that the Taylors would come back and the next
year saw a time of reaping. In England, George Mueller
refused to believe the libel and his contributions ($10,000
annually) made up for the support that stopped.

Exhausted and depressed, Hudson later confessed that only
his wife's love stood between him and suicide. At this point
in his life God used the situation to do a new thing. Hudson
Taylor could not go on as he was bankrupt in spirit and

strength. It finally dawned on him reading a missionary
friend's letter. "I have striven in vain to abide in Him, I'll
strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with
me...never to leave me, never to fail me?" He then entered
into what he thereafter called the "Exchanged Life" where
his work for the Lord was no longer done in his own
strength.

In 1870 a most heart rendering decision had to be made.
The children (older four), ages 9,7,5 and 3 should go back
to England, leaving only baby Charles with the parents. Fear
of parting was too much for Sammy. He died on a boat on
the Yangtze River on February 4, 1870. On March 22 at
Shanghai, the parents wept as they said farewell to Bertie,
Freddie and little Maria who would go home with missionary
Emily Blatchley who would act as their foster-mother. Little
did Mrs. Taylor know how wise a decision this would be for
she herself would be dead four months later. On June 21, a
massacre of many foreigners in Tientsin made things tense
again. But is was Maria's tuberculosis condition worsening
under the extremely hot sun that caused the greatest
concern. On July 7, little Noel (number 8) was born. he lived
for 13 days as throat problems in the oppressive heat were
just too much for him. Four children were now in heaven as
July 20th added another.

Three days later the brave Maria died on Saturday, July 23,
1870. She just got weaker and weaker and passed on
peacefully. Official conclusion was prostration by cholera.
She was 33 and during their 12 years of marriage gave birth
to eight children plus one stillborn. She was a tower of
strength to her husband. Certainly, along with Ann Judson,
Maria Taylor was one of the most heroic wives in Christian

history. Two days before she died they received word that
the other children had arrived safely in England. She was
buried at Chinkiang.

Taylor himself had a breakdown in 1871. A badly deranged
liver made him sleepless leading to painful depression of
spirit, and difficulty in breathing. At the same time, the
Bergers back in England could no longer care for the home
side of the Mission because of failing health and he was
retiring in March 1872. Hence Taylor had to return to
England to care for this need as well as his health. He
returned home in July, 1871 where a Miss Faulding came
into his life. He married her in London later that year. He
also formed the London Council of the CIM on August 6,
1872, and at a Bible Conference that year, young Dwight
Moody heard him preach. he returned to China on October
9, 1872 bidding farewell to his beloved children and taking
his new bride with him. Mission work continued. An
interesting conversation on January 26, 1874 challenged
him further.

In April, 1874 he wrote a friend, "We have $.87 and all the
promises of God." In June came a letter from an unknown
friend in England with $4,000 marked for extension of his
work into new, untouched provinces. Also, that month he
opened the western branch of the Mission in Wuchang with
Mr. Judd.

Now the emergency was back in England as the foster-
mother Miss Blatchley died July 26, 1874. Again the Taylors
hurried home, and on the way up the Yangtze a fall
seriously injured Mr. Taylor. General paralysis of the limbs
confined him to the couch. He could only later turn in bed

with the help of a rope fixed above him. Health finally came
back after the long 1874-75 winter. Mrs. Taylor had to stay
in England to care for her own two children recently born
(including Howard, the biographer and author of his father's
life story), plus the four from the previous marriage and an
adopted daughter.

In January 1875 Taylor appealed in prayer for 18 pioneers
for the nine unevangelized provinces. On September 13,
1876 a political settlement was reached between England
and China with the signing of the Chefoo Convention which
opened inland China to the gospel. Hudson, himself went
back to China where he was to travel 30,000 miles the next
two years (1876-78) opening new stations. His journey kept
him on the road months at a time in widespread evangelistic
journeys inland. In hours of trial and loneliness he would
play his harmonium and sing some of the great Christian
hymns — his favorite being, "Jesus, I am resting, resting, in
the joy of what thou art."

In 1878 his wife was able to rejoin him on the mission field.
She led in the advance of women's missionary activity into
the far interior in the fall of 1878. The following fall, Mrs.
Nicoll and Mrs. Clark pioneered the way for women's work in
western China. The first woman missionary allowed to go
into the interior on a resident status was Emily King who
died in May of 1881 at Hanchung. There were now about
100 missionaries in the organization and they decided to
pray in November 1881 at Wuchang for another seventy to
come out in 1882-84.

Taylor sailed home in February, 1883 and was powerfully
used by the Lord. At the end of the year he had 70 new

workers sailing for China and $14,000 raised. These
included the Cambridge University Seven that sailed on
February 5, 1885. Taylor returned to China rejoicing in the
developments. They now had 225 missionaries, 59 churches
and 1,655 members. Taylor decided that to open China up
from end to end would take 100 new workers, so London
was cabled,—"Praying for 100 new workers in 1887." This
was the first meeting of the China Council held in Anking.
Taylor went back to England to challenge recruits to join
him. Actually 600 offered to go, but Taylor screened and
chose 102. He prayed for $50,000 and raised $105,000. At
the years end all 102 had joined the staff on the field. More
than $22,000 was raised to pay their passages.

Taylor was about to return when urgent invitations from
Henry Frost came to visit America in December. He decided
to go and on his only trip to America he preached at Moody's
Northfield Conference and a few other places making a
profound impression. As he went back to China in the Fall of
1888, he was able to take 14 candidates along from
America.

Taylor had to return to England because of ill health and was
semi-retired in Switzerland as a result. He was brought to
the very doors of death by the terrible news of the Boxer
Rebellion, the resulting disruption of the work and murder of
hundreds of missionaries along with the native Christians. It
was May, 1900, and as the telegrams came telling of riots
and massacres, he gasped, "I cannot read, I cannot pray, I
can scarcely think...but I can trust." Although the anguish of
heart nearly killed him, the stories coming out of the
holocaust actually inspired great interest in missions
everywhere and gave new life to the CIM. D.E. Hoste was

appointed Acting General Director in August, 1900. In
November, 1902, Taylor resigned to turn the reigns over to
younger men.

Not knowing he had only three months to live, he left for
China one last time...his 11th trip there, leaving in February,
1905, and arriving in March. He went alone as his beloved
wife had passed on in Switzerland on July 30, 1904.

He spent Easter at Yangchow where 32 years before, his
house was burnt to the ground. Then to Chinkiang where he
buried his first wife 35 years previously. Then on to Honan,
Hankow, and finally to Changsha, the capital of Hunan. This
was the most difficult of the nine unevangelized provinces
entered by his workers.

Here he visited various parts of the city, inspected a site for
a new hospital, spoke to a congregation of Chinese
Christians, attending a reception given in his honor in a
garden, and was planning to speak on Sunday. But he died
quite suddenly on Saturday evening. He had retired to his
home, his daughter-in-law, Mary (Mrs. Howard Taylor)
visited him as he was busy going over his homeland letters.
One gasp and he was gone. Christians carried his body to
Chinkiang where he was buried with his Maria at the foot of
green hills near the Yangtze River.

"He must move men through God — by prayer," that was
the philosophy of J. Hudson Taylor, first missionary to the
interior of China and the founder of the China Inland
Mission. And from that December day when as a teenager
he heard from Heaven, "Go for Me to China, "this young
Englishman set out to prove his philosophy. That he did so
successfully and miraculously makes for some of the most
exciting reading in the records of evangelism.

After his call Taylor first moved from the comforts of his
home with his parents and two sisters in beautiful Barnsley
of Yorkshire to Drainside, Hull, a poverty-stricken,
depressing area named after and notorized by its foul ditch.
Taylor had gone there purposely to work for a doctor and
accumulate a little medical knowledge, and also to accustom
himself to something of the loneliness and dangers of living
in a strange land where his only companion would be God.

It was at Drainside Taylor learned one can trust God with his
last cent. He had been called out late one night to witness to
and pray over a sick woman with starving children. As he
tried to pray, his words choked in his mouth because he had
in his possession a silver coin that would answer his prayer
and alleviate their sufferings somewhat. "Hypocrite!" he
heard his heart condemn him. "Telling people about a kind
and loving Father in Heaven — and not prepared to trust
Him yourself, without your money!" He gave them his last
coin -- only one bowl of porridge between him and poverty!
As he ate that last meal he remembered the Scripture, "He
that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord."

The next day he received a package. In it was a gold coin —
worth ten times the silver coin. Taylor cried out

triumphantly, "That's good interest! Ha! Ha! Invested in
God's bank for twelve hours and it brings me this! That's the
bank for me!"

Thus at nineteen years of age, Taylor learned he could trust
and obey God in every area of his life. There were many
lessons to learn, but at the first he learned that a man can
take God at His Word. Three years earlier he had taken
Christ and trusted Him as his Saviour. At sixteen years of
age Taylor had already been disappointed and sated with
life. He found the religious life of his parents very dull,
although he attended church very dutifully with them. He
really desired horses, hunting, luxuries. Alone at home one
day he looked for something to read. He picked up a gospel
tract and began to read it. At the very same moment
seventy miles away his mother was earnestly praying for her
son's salvation. That same day Taylor prayed — his first
prayer — and it was answered. He was converted to Christ!

Praying! And answers to prayer! That became the passion of
his life. He learned to move men through God by prayer. He
asked no man for any material thing. He laid all needs
before his Lord. That doctor he had worked for at Drainside
had suggested to his young assistant, "Taylor, please do
remind me when it is time to pay your salary. I'm so busy,
you know, I'm quite likely to forget." And forget he did. But
Taylor remembered that in China he would have no one to
ask anything of, only God, so he simply asked God to
remind the doctor.

Three weeks later the doctor remembered — but only after
he had banked his money. Taylor was broke. It was
Saturday. He had no money to pay his rent. He had no

money for food. He prayed as he worked until ten o'clock,
glad he would not have to face his landlady. As he prepared
to leave, the doctor surprised him, "What do you think? One
of my patients has just come to pay his bill! He's one of my
richest patients and he could have paid me by check
anytime. Yet, there he is, bringing in the money at ten
o'clock on Saturday night." Then he added, "By the way,
Taylor, you might as well take these notes. I have no
change, but I can give you the balance of your salary next
week ... Good night!"

Taylor's prayers were answered. He could not only pay his
rent, he had money in hand for weeks ahead — but more
than that, he had proven again: God answers prayer and
moves men. He could go on to China!

And he did! There were storms at sea and miraculous
deliverances in that five-and-one-half months' journey to
China. There was civil war when he landed at Shanghai,
rebels holding the city. Fires, famine, fearsome
circumstances were fought by the young missionary on his
knees and God delivered him. And at the age of twenty-two,
eight months a missionary, he also found himself
responsible for supplying the needs of newly-arriving
missionaries, the Parker family.

Taylor ministered in the river towns, married a wife and saw
many miracles in converted Chinese. But on June 25, 1865,
he made his move to minister to the millions of China "West
of the Mountains, South of the Clouds, North of the Lake"--
Inland China. At Brighton, England, on furlough, he opened
a bank account: "Ten pounds" (Fifty dollars) in the name of
"The China Inland Mission." His initial goal was twenty-four

workers. The next May the twenty-four sailed. Then there
were seventy more. And another hundred. And finally more
than eight hundred missionaries ministered across the far-
flung miles of China's interior. Truly this man of faith and
fortitude had mastered in the ministry of moving men
through God by prayer.

J. Hudson Taylor died in 1905, before the communist
takeover of his beloved China. His days were days of
extensive and effective evangelism. Multitudes of converted
Chinese will rise up in Heaven and call him blessed. And
many Christian workers whose lives were challenged and
changed by the contagious Christian character of Taylor will
follow in their train.

James Hudson Taylor: Founder of the China Inland Mission; born at
Barnsley (18 miles south. of Leeds), Yorkshire, England, May 21,
1832; died at Changsha (340 miles north of Canton), China, June 3,
1905. His father was an eloquent and able Methodist local preacher
and his mother a woman of more than ordinary sweet and patient
spirit. Hudson Taylor combined the ability of his father with the gentle
disposition of his mother. He was converted through the reading of a
tract at the age of fifteen, and not long afterward passed through a
remarkable experience, at which time he dedicated himself to God for
whatever service might be appointed. Unknown to himself, his father,
who had been deeply interested in China, had prayed that his son
might go to that land as a missionary, and very early, through the
reading of Walter Henry Medhurst's China (London, 1838), the
thoughts of young Taylor were directed to that country.

With a view to preparing himself for his lifework, he engaged
as assistant to a physician at Hull, and subsequently studied
medicine at the London Hospital. The great interest
awakened in China through the Taiping Rebellion, which was
then erroneously supposed to be a mass movement toward
Christianity, together with the glowing but exaggerated
reports made by Carl Friedrich August Gutzlaff concerning
China's accessibility, led to the founding of the China
Evangelization Society, to the service of which Hudson
Taylor offered himself and on September 19, 1853, he sailed
for China before the completion of his medical studies. The
six years from 1854 to 1860 were spent in Shanghai,
Swatow, and Ningpo, working sometimes in company with
older missionaries of other societies and especially with
William Chalmers Bums of the English Presbyterian Mission.
During this period he retired from the China Evangelization
Society, which subsequently ceased to exist, and continued
as an independent worker, trusting God to supply his need.
His experiences of God's faithfulness in meeting his own

personal needs and the needs of a hospital at Ningpo, of
which he had taken charge, had much to do with the
subsequent step of founding the China Inland Mission. While
at Ningpo he married Miss Maria Dyer, daughter of the Rev.
Samuel Dyer of the London Missionary Society. Of the
children born by this marriage, three survive their father's
decease, and two are today missionaries in China.

Invalided home in 1860, he spent the next five years in
England, and, in company with the Rev. Frederick Foster
Gough of the Church Missionary Society, completed the
revision of a version of the New Testament in the colloquial
of Ningpo for the British and Foreign Bible Society, and also
finished his medical course. To arouse interest in the great
Middle Kingdom he published a book entitled China, its
Spiritual Need and Claims (London, 1865, 8th ed., 1890),
which has been much used in calling forth sympathy for
China and volunteers for the field, who began to go out in
1862, the first being James J. Meadows. In 1865, at
Brighton, Taylor definitely dedicated himself to God for the
founding of a new society to undertake the evangelization of
inland China. In May, 1866, he, with his wife and children
and a party of sixteen missionaries, sailed for China. Thus
was definitely launched that organization which, on January
1, 1911, had 968 missionaries (including wives) connected
with it, and in the support of which more than £1,471,000
had been contributed in answer to prayer and without public
or private solicitation of funds. From the founding of the
mission in 1865 Taylor's time became more and more
occupied as general director of a growing work. His duties
necessitated extensive journeys in China and frequent visits
to the home country. In 1888 a wider ministry was
commenced through the formation of a home center in
North America. This arose through Taylor's presence at the

Northfield Convention. Two years later another center was
founded in Australasia. Various visits to the continent of
Europe led to the inception of associate missions, which
recognized Taylor as their general director on the field. In
January, 1911, these associate missions had 216 workers on
the field.

The constant pressure and increasing strain inseparable
from such a work frequently threatened a serious
breakdown; but Taylor, though far from strong as a child,
manifested remarkable recuperative powers. In 1900,
however, at the New York Conference, the first serious signs
of failing health began to manifest themselves. Having
already associated Dixon Edward Hoste with himself in the
directorate of the mission, he slowly resigned his great
responsibilities, still seeking to assist the work as consulting
director while living quietly in retirement in Switzerland. His
second wife (née Faulding), to whom he had been married in
1871, and by whom he had two children, died in the
summer of 1904. Early in 1905 Taylor determined, though
extremely feeble, to pay another visit to China. After visiting
various centers he reached Changsha, the capital of the
previously anti-foreign province of Hunan, where he
suddenly and peacefully passed from his labors. His remains
were interred at Chinkiang, by the side of his first wife and
those of his children who had died in China.

As a Bible student Taylor was unique. Holding firmly to the
plenary inspiration of the Scriptures and putting them to
daily test in his life and work, he became a most helpful and
remarkable expositor, his Bible readings being greatly
appreciated at the various conventions held in Europe and
North America. As a leader of men and careful organizer he
had preeminent gifts. Being convinced of his duty, every

detail was carefully thought out and arranged for, and then
no subsequent difficulty or opposition was allowed to daunt
him. Gifted with the power to command sleep whenever
needed, he labored night and day, resting only when
exhausted nature compelled him, No day, however, was
entered upon without a period of quiet prayer and Bible
study. James Hudson Taylor was, to quote the pregnant
words of Prof. Gustav Warneck, "A man full of the Holy
Ghost and of faith, of entire surrender to God and his call, of
great self-denial, heart-felt compassion, rare power in
prayer, marvelous organizing faculty, energetic initiative,
indefatigable perseverance, and of astonishing influence
with men, and withal of child-like humility." Taylor was the
author of: Union and Communion (London, 1893); A
Retrospect (1894); Separation and Service (1898); and A
Ribband of Blue, and other Bible Studies (1899). Marshall
Broomhall.

Bibliography: M. G. Guinness, Story of the China Inland
Mission. 2 vols., London, 1893; M. Broomhall, Pioneer Work
in Hunan, ib. 1906; idem, The Chinese Empire, a General
and Missionary Survey, ib. 1908; idem, Faith and Facts as
Illustrated in the Hist. of the China Inland Mission, ib. 1909.

In the year 1854 a sailing vessel was becalmed in the vicinity of New
Guinea. Seeing the distressed look on the captain's face as he
peered intently into the sea, a young Englishman inquired as to the
cause of his anxiety. This was the reply: "A four-knot current is
carrying us swiftly toward some sunken reefs over there. Our fate
seems to be sealed." On the shores of the island, cannibals were
rushing about and lighting fires in great glee. Presently the captain
spoke again: "We have done everything that can be done." "No,"
responded the young man, "there is one thing we haven't done. Four
of us on board are Christians. Let each of us retire to his cabin and in
agreed prayer ask the Lord to give us a breeze immediately." This
was agreed upon and done. After a few minutes of earnest
intercession, the young man came up on deck confident that the
petition had been granted. Finding the first officer, a godless man, in
charge, he requested him to let down the corners of the mainsail.
"What would be the good of that?" he asked. The young man told him
that he and three others had been asking God to send a wind, that it
was coming immediately and that there was not a minute to lose,
since they were so near the reefs. With a look of contempt, the officer
replied with an oath: "Nonsense! You can't pray up a wind." Noticing
a few moments later that the topmost sail was beginning to tremble,
he said: "That is only a cat's-paw -- a mere puff of wind." "Never mind
what you think," cried the young man. "Let down the mainsail
quickly."

This he was not slow to do. Hearing the heavy tread of the
men on deck, the captain came up from his cabin and saw
that the breeze had indeed come. In a few minutes they
were sailing away from the dangerous reefs, much to the
disappointment of the native cannibals on the beach.

Writing of this and similar experiences, the young man said:
"Thus God encouraged me, ere landing on China's shores, to
bring every variety of need to Him in prayer, and to expect

that He would honor the name of the Lord Jesus and give
the help which each emergency required."

So we have been introduced to a remarkable man, J.
Hudson Taylor, and to the text, John 14:13, which was
woven into the fabric of his life and into the texture of his
stupendous achievements: "And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son."
The Fountain That Cleanses From Sin

James Hudson Taylor was born at Barnsley, England, May
21, 1832. He was fortunate to have been born in a home of
genuine piety. Heaven lay about him in his infancy. He saw
it in his father's faith and in his mother's prayers. Even prior
to his birth his parents had dedicated him to God and prayed
that he might be a missionary to China, though this
information was withheld from him until long after he had
reached that land.

Despite the godly example and teaching of his parents,
Hudson became a skeptical and worldly young man. He
began to think that for some reason or other he could not be
saved and that the only thing for him to do was to take his
fill of this world, since there was no hope for him in the
next.

Hudson Taylor's conversion, like all else in his life, is a
monument to the power of prayer. When he was about
seventeen years of age he went one afternoon into his
father's library in search of a book with which to while away
the time. Finally he picked up a gospel tract which looked
interesting, saying to himself: "There will be a story at the

beginning and a sermon at the end. I will read the former
and skip the latter."

Little did he know what was going on at that very time in
the heart of his mother, who was on a visit seventy or
eighty miles away. That very afternoon she went to her
room with an intense yearning for the conversion of her son,
turned the key in the door and resolved not to leave the
spot until her prayers were answered. Hour after hour she
continued pleading, until at length she arose with glad
assurance that the object of her prayers had already been
accomplished.

Meanwhile, in the course of reading the tract, Hudson had
come upon the expression, "The finished work of Christ."
Remembering the words, "It is finished," he raised the
question, "What was finished?" He at once replied: "A full
and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin. The debt was
paid by the Substitute. Christ died for our sins and not for
ours only but also for the sins of the whole world." Next
came the thought, "If the whole work was finished and the
whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?" Then came
the blessed realization that there was nothing in the world to
be done but to fall down on one's knees in prayer and in
faith accept the salvation wrought out by Christ. "Thus,"
says Hudson, "while my dear mother was praising God on
her knees in her chamber, I was praising Him in the old
warehouse to which I had gone alone to read at my leisure
this little book."

Several days later he told his sister of his new-found joy in
Christ and secured her promise not to speak of it to anyone.
When the mother returned a fortnight later, he met her at
the door and told her he had a piece of good news for her.

Writing many years later, Hudson Taylor said: "I can almost
feel that dear mother's arms around my neck, as she
pressed me to her bosom and said, 'I know, my boy. I have
been rejoicing for a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to
tell me.' 'Has Amelia broken her promise?' I asked in
surprise. 'She said she would tell no one.' My dear mother
assured me that it was not from any human source that she
had learned the tidings and went on to tell the incident
mentioned above."

While the mother far away was praying in faith that he
might that very day enter into the experience of salvation,
he actually tasted its felicity, having realized that there was
nothing for him to do but to lay hold of the finished work of
Calvary, in faith believing, in prayer receiving. Mother and
son alike were casting their anchor in the promise of John
14:13, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The text was
precious to him, first of all, because it led his polluted soul
to Calvary's cleansing fountain, and because it brought him
to--
The Altar of Consecration

After some months young Taylor began to feel a great
dissatisfaction with his spiritual state. His "first love" and his
zeal for souls had grown cold and he did not have victory
over sin. He did not doubt his conversion, but he was
convinced from his knowledge of the Scriptures and of the
lives of certain outstanding Christians that a deeper
experience of divine blessing could be his portion. He could
not be satisfied with anything less than the best, God's best.
How could he obtain it? He thought of the text that blazed
across his pathway at every hour of need and of high

decision: "Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do
it." He believed that salvation is like "honey from the rock" -
- the honey for sweetness, the rock for strength. By prayer
he had entered into the sweetness of salvation. By prayer he
now sought the strength of salvation. Moved by deep
longings he retired one afternoon to be alone with God.

"Well do I remember," he says, how I poured out my soul
before God. Again and again confessing my grateful love to
Him who had done everything for me ... I besought Him to
give me some work to do for Him as an outlet for love and
gratitude ... Well do I remember as I put myself, my life, my
all upon the altar, the deep solemnity that came over my
soul with the assurance that my offer was accepted ... A
deep consciousness that I was not my own took possession
of me." Having made the great surrender, he was ready to
hear the voice of his Lord saying, "Who will go for Me to
China?" and to reply, "Here am I, send me." At once he
began to prepare for the strenuous life of a pioneer. He took
more exercise in the open air and exchanged his feather bed
for a hard mattress. Regularly each week he distributed
tracts and held cottage meetings. With the aid of a copy of
Luke's Gospel in the Mandarin dialect he began to study the
Chinese language.

One day he called on the Congregational minister and asked
to borrow his copy of Medhurst's China, explaining that God
had called him to missionary service in that land. "And how
do you propose to go there?" the minister inquired. Taylor
replied that he did not know but in all probability he would
go forth as did the Twelve and the Seventy, relying solely on
the One who sent him to supply all his needs. Placing his
hand on the lad's shoulder the minister replied: "Ah, my
boy, as you grow older you will become wiser than that.

Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ
himself was on earth, but not now."

Since his all was upon the altar, Taylor could say: "God and
God alone is my hope and I need no other."

The Text Taught Him to Move Man, Through God, by Prayer
Alone

Young Taylor began the study of medicine as well as Greek,
Hebrew, and Latin. He realized, however, that the most
important preparation of all must take place in the realm of
his own soul. In China he would have to depend utterly upon
his Lord for protection, supplies -- everything. Lest a dismal
failure befall him later on, he determined to test thoroughly
the Saviour's promise: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my
name, that I will do." He resolved to learn, as he said,
"before leaving England, to move man, through God, by
prayer alone."

He made the test in a specific situation relative to his salary.
His employer had asked Hudson to remind him whenever his
salary became due. This he determined not to do as per the
usual custom but rather to leave it wholly in the hands of
the Lord. While he was continuing in earnest prayer about
the matter, the time came for the payment of a quarter's
salary. On settling up his accounts one Saturday night he
found himself possessed of only one remaining coin -- a half
crown piece. About ten o'clock on Sunday night as he was
doing gospel work in the various lodging houses, a poor man
asked him to go and pray with his wife who was dying. He
was led down a court and up a miserable flight of stairs into
a wretched room. What a pathetic sight there presented

itself. Four or five children stood about, their sunken cheeks
and temples telling unmistakably the story of slow
starvation, and lying on a wretched pallet was a forlorn-
looking mother with a tiny infant moaning at her side. "Ah,"
thought Taylor, "if I had two shillings and a sixpence,
instead of half-a-crown, how gladly should they have one-
and-sixpence of it." He was willing to give them part of what
he had, but not the entire coin. He sought to comfort them
by saying that however distressing their circumstances,
there was a kind and loving Father looking down from
Heaven. But something within him cried, "You hypocrite!
Telling these unconverted people about a kind and loving
Father in Heaven, and not prepared yourself to trust Him
without half-a-crown."

He was now feeling very miserable. If his coin were only
changed, he would gladly give a florin and keep only the
sixpence remaining. But he was not yet prepared to trust in
God alone, without the sixpence. Not being able to continue
the conversation, he said to the man: "You asked me to
come and pray with your wife. Let us pray." He knelt down,
but no sooner had he said, "Our Father," than he heard a
voice within saying, "Dare you mock God? Dare you kneel
down and call Him Father with that half crown in your
pocket?" Finishing the prayer, he arose.

"I put my hand into my pocket," he says, "and slowly
drawing out the half crown gave it to the man, telling him
that it might seem a small matter for me to relieve them,
seeing that I was comparatively well off, but that in parting
with that coin I was giving him my all; but that what I had
been trying to tell them was indeed true -- God really is a
Father and may be trusted. And how the joy came back in
full flood-tide in my heart! Not only was the poor woman's

life saved, but my life had been saved too." He was
convinced that money thus given in Christ's name was a
loan which He would repay.

He went home happy in heart, and before retiring asked the
Lord not to let his loan be a long one or he would have
nothing to eat the next day. Early the next morning the
postman's knock was heard at the door. He very rarely ever
received a letter on Monday morning, hence he was
surprised when the landlady came in with a letter. On
opening the envelope he found a sheet of blank paper and a
half sovereign. "Praise the Lord!" he exclaimed. "Four
hundred percent for a twelve hours' investment!" He then
and there learned that the bank of Heaven is always
dependable and pays good dividends.

His faith in the power of prayer was greatly strengthened,
but in the course of two weeks his money was spent and still
his employer had not remembered to pay him his salary. He
devoted much time to wrestling with God in prayer. On
Saturday night his landlady would be expecting a payment.
About five o'clock that afternoon Dr. Hardey came up to him
and said, "By the way, Taylor, is not your salary due again?"
Informed that it was due and past due, the doctor expressed
regret that he had not thought of it earlier, "For," he said,
"only this afternoon I sent all the money I had to the bank.
Otherwise I would pay you at once."

Deeply disappointed, though careful not to let his employer
know it, Taylor went to a quiet place and poured out his
heart to the Lord. About ten o'clock that evening Dr. Hardey
appeared, laughing heartily. "A strange thing happened just
now," he stated. "One of my wealthiest patients felt
constrained to come to my house at ten o'clock at night to

pay his bill, instead of sending a check as per his custom.
Very strange!" Having credited the payment in the ledger,
the doctor was about to leave, when suddenly he handed
young Taylor several of the banknotes and said: "By the
way, you might as well take these notes as payment on your
salary." "Again I was left," concludes Taylor's account of this
incident, "my feelings undiscovered, to go back to my little
closet and praise the Lord with a joyful heart that after all I
might go to China."

Those last words -- "after all I might go to China" --
revealed the consuming obsession of his being. After further
medical studies in London, he accepted appointment under
the Chinese Evangelization Society and sailed on September
19, 1853. After a tempestuous voyage, and after the ship on
two occasions was within a few feet of being wrecked,
Shanghai was safely reached March 1, 1854.

In China at last! He was not there for his health or on a
pleasure jaunt, but as Christ's ambassador. He plunged into
the study of the language, on which he had made some
progress in England and on shipboard. Now that he was at
close grips with idolatry and superstition, he was almost
overwhelmed by the enormity of the undertaking to which
he had committed himself. For many months he talked and
preached with no evidence of results. What must he do to
obtain success in his endeavors? Once again John 14:13
came to his assistance.
The Secret of Concern and Success in Soul Winning

Taylor longed for the compassion of heart that issues in
fervent and successful soul winning, and the words of Jesus,
"Ask whatsoever ye will in my name," made it clear that
prayer is the appointed means of obtaining a spiritual end.

The Divine sequence is illustrated in Psalm 126, verses 4-6:
(1) Petition for blessing, (2) Sowing in tears, (3) Reaping in
joy. In other words, praying issues in concern or "weeping,"
and "weeping" in "reaping."

While traveling by boat one day, Taylor entered into
conversation with a Chinaman who had once visited
England, where he went by the name of Peter. The man
listened attentively to the missionary's account of Christ's
saving love and was even moved to tears, but refused the
immediate acceptance of the proffered salvation. A little
later, evidently in a mood of great despondency, Peter
jumped overboard and sank. In agonized suspense Taylor
looked around for assistance and saw close by a fishing boat
with a dragnet furnished with hooks.

"Come!" shouted Taylor to the fishermen. "Drag over this
spot. A man sank here and is drowning!"

"It is not convenient," was the unfeeling reply.

"Don't talk of convenience!" cried the missionary. "A man is
drowning."

"We are busy fishing and cannot come," they responded.

When Taylor urged them to come at once and offered to pay
them, they demanded to know how much. His offer of five
dollars was refused. He then said: "Do come quickly and I
will give you all the money I have -- about fourteen dollars."
Finally, the boat was brought and the hooks let down. Less
than a minute was required to bring up the body but all
efforts at resuscitation failed. Life was extinct.

To Hudson Taylor this incident was profoundly sad in itself
and pathetic in its parabolic significance. Were not those

fishermen guilty of the death of the Chinaman, in that they
had the opportunity and means of saving him but refused to
use them? Most assuredly they were guilty. "And yet," says
Taylor, "let us pause ere we pronounce judgment against
them, lest a greater than Nathan answer, 'Thou art the
man.' Is it so wicked a thing to neglect to save the body? Of
how much sorer punishment, then, is he worthy who leaves
the immortal soul to perish. The Lord Jesus commands me,
commands you: 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature.' Shall we say to Him, 'No, it is not
convenient?' Shall we tell Him that we are busy at fishing or
other business and cannot go? It is of no use for us to sing
as we often do: 'Waft, waft ye winds the story.' The winds
will never waft the story but they may waft us. Oh, let us
pray and let us labor for the salvation of China's
unevangelized millions. Hudson Taylor believed that only by
fervent prayer could the cold hearts of Christians be fanned
into a flame of concern on behalf of a lost world for which
Christ died.

After some years of unwearied labors, the servant of God
found himself beset by a period of manifold disappointments
and severe sorrows. A number of the workers were
incapacitated by ill health, while others had died; some of
the native converts had lapsed into sin and idolatry; and
funds were very low. Instead of looking at circumstances,
however, he thought of God as the One Great Circumstance
and cried out to Him for blessing in the harvesting of souls.
He wrote to a fellow worker: "Pray on! Labor on! Do not be
afraid of the toil or the cross. They will pay well."

And so they did, in God's way and time. From the steps of
the principal temple in Cheng-hsien, he preached long and
earnestly to a crowd that gathered; and when from sheer

weariness he could make himself heard no longer, he went
farther up the hill to pour out his heart in intercession for
China's multitudes, living, dying, without God and without
hope. A few nights later he found himself surrounded by a
company of devout believers, who for long years shone as
lights in a dark world. One of the converts was Mr. Nying, a
proud Confucianist scholar, who became a Christian witness
of great zeal and power. Another was Lao Kuen,
transformed from being the terror of the town into a gentle,
flaming evangel of Christ. Another was the keeper of a
gambling-den and house of ill-fame. Upon his conversion he
banished the gambling-tables, emptied his house of bad
characters, and turned his largest room into a chapel.
Moreover, he had it cleaned and whitewashed before
offering it, free of cost, as a place of worship. In faith
believing, in prayer receiving, Taylor had been looking to
Christ for souls. He rejoiced in these miracles of grace and in
the confidence that they were the first-fruits of a great
harvest in that section of China. He had been asking and the
answer in part had come, "that the Father might be glorified
in the Son."
The Sustaining and Protecting Presence that Never Fails

Of all the Divine blessings, Hudson Taylor longed most for
the unfailing presence of His Lord. Nothing else really
mattered, for in His presence was adequate protection,
abounding strength, and fullness of joy. And he was
convinced that this blessing, as all others, was included in
the Saviour's "whatsoever" and obtained on the same
condition-- "ask." John 14:13 made it clear that by prayer
he was to enter into the Presence. Did that Presence ever
fail him? We shall see.

On January 20, 1858, Hudson Taylor married Maria Dyer, a
missionary located at Ningpo. In the summer of 1867 their
little Gracie, eight years old, idol of their hearts, fell critically
ill. A few days earlier Gracie saw a man making an idol.

"Oh, Papa," she exclaimed seriously, "he doesn't know about
Jesus or he would never do that! Won't you tell him?" He did
so, the little girl following with eager interest. Later on she
prayed most earnestly for the idol maker and for all the idol-
making, idol-worshiping Chinese.

Just a week later Gracie was dying. Their loss was
overwhelming and the tempter whispered, "Your God has
forsaken you." But the father wrote a few weeks later: "Our
dear little Gracie! How we miss her sweet voice ... and the
sparkle of those bright eyes. But He who said, 'I will never
leave thee,' is with us ... nothing can ever substitute for the
Presence of Christ."

"I will never leave thee" said the promise.

"Nothing can substitute for the Presence of Christ" said the
missionary amid his tears.

The notorious bombardment of Canton by the British in
1837 produced a most serious crisis for the missionaries.
When the awful news of the bombardment reached the
Cantonese in Ningo [i.e. Ningpo], their wrath knew no
bounds and they immediately plotted the death of all
foreigners in the city. Knowing that a number of foreigners
met each Sunday night for worship in a certain house, the
plotters arranged to surround the place one night and
murder them all. Hearing of the plot and that between fifty
and sixty Portuguese had already been slain, the

missionaries met to seek the protecting presence of the
Most High and to hide under the shadow of His wings.

At the very time they were praying the Lord was working.
An unknown official came to their rescue and prevented the
attack. "Thus again," says Taylor, "we were led to prove that

'Sufficient is His arm alone, And our defense is sure.'"

The Protecting Presence heard their plea and failed them not
in their hour of desperate need. On July 7, 1870, Mrs. Taylor
gave birth to her sixth child -- a son who lived only one
week. Prostrated by cholera, the mother was in critical
condition. She was only thirty-three. For twelve years she
had been the light and joy of her husband's life, and the
deep mutual love that bound their hearts together made
unthinkable the thought of separation. Yet the light of his
life faded before his eyes and he was left alone to nurse his
bitter sorrow.

Alone? In the hour of crushing grief, was he alone? "I am
left," wrote the heart-broken missionary, "to toil and suffer
alone -- yet not alone, for God is nearer to me than ever ...
I am cast down but not forsaken. Jesus is my life and
strength, and His bosom is my resting-place now and for
ever."

Alone, yet not alone!
Cast down but not forsaken!
His bosom ... my resting place forever!

The promise, "I will never leave thee," was valid. The
Protecting Presence never failed. The text continued its
amazing ministry.

The Text Opened to Him a Deeper Experience of Divine Grace

Others may not have sensed it, but there was in Hudson
Taylor's heart a poignant sense of dissatisfaction.
Confronted by enormous demands in the conduct of the
rapidly expanding Mission, buffeted by disappointments and
criticisms, "emptied from vessel to vessel," his spiritual life
seemed to him more like a cracked cistern than the gushing
fountain of fullness which Jesus depicted when He said: "He
that believeth on me, from within him shall flow rivers of
living water." From his knowledge of the Scriptures and of
the lives of Christian saints, he was convinced that there
was available to him a deeper experience of the Divine
fullness. He yearned for a life characterized by the filling of
the Holy Spirit, unbroken fellowship with his Lord, peace in
the storm, joy in adversity, and attainments in holy living.
How was he to enter into this deeper work of grace, this
plenitude of spiritual power? His favorite text pointed the
way: "Ask in my name." John 14:13 affirms that every
blessing of God and every promise of Christ is made
available through the channel of prayer.

Writing to his parents in England he spoke freely of his need
and of his longing: "I cannot tell you how I am buffeted
sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I
had ... Do pray for me. Pray that the Lord will keep me from
sin, will sanctify me wholly and use me more largely in His
service."

As he read the Word and poured out his heart yearnings in
prayer, he was impressed with the evident expectation of
Jesus that all of His followers should be "endued with power
from on high" and "walk in holiness before Him." Eventually
he recognized that what he needed was not striving and

struggling, but resting; that sanctification, like salvation, is
not an attainment, but is a gift from above in response to
the prayer of faith; that holiness is not a status of perfection
but is rather a relationship -- a resting in Jesus; that abiding
in Christ means oneness with Him and oneness means that
all the fullness of Christ is ours. Having entered into this
sublime experience, his life was strangely and beautifully
enriched. He writes to a fellow missionary:

"I have the very passage for you, a passage God has so
blessed to my own soul, John 7:37-39, 'If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink'... No matter how difficult my
service, how sad my bereavement, how helpless I am, how
deep are my soul-yearnings, Jesus can meet all my needs.
Moreover, He says: 'He who believes Me, trusts Me fully,
from within him shall flow...' Can it be so? Can the thirsty
soul not only be refreshed, but so saturated that streams
flow down from it? Even so! And not mere mountain
torrents, full while the rain lasts, then dry again; but 'from
within him shall flow rivers of living water' -- rivers like the
Yangtze, always a mighty stream, always flowing, deep and
irresistible."

All his letters henceforth pulsate with this one absorbing
theme. To his sister he writes: "It is a wonderful thing to be
really one with Christ. Think what it involves. Can Christ be
rich and I poor? Can your head be well fed while your body
starves? Could a bank clerk say to a customer, 'I cannot pay
this sum to your hand but only to your self'? No more can
your prayers, or mine, be discredited if offered in the name
of Jesus; that is, on the ground that we are His, members of
His body."

His mind was once again reverting to the transcendent
truths of John 14:13-- "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my
name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son."
The Storehouse of God's Unlimited Bounty

Hudson Taylor staked everything on the plain words of
Jesus: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do."
He believed, as Jesus taught, that the Heavenly Father is
not embarrassed by any shortage of supplies, and that if we
ask, in childlike trust, our every need will be supplied.
"Depend on it," he stoutly contended, "God's work done in
God's way will never lack God's supplies." Was a confidence
so artless justified? Jesus said: "Your Father knoweth that
you have need ... Ask and ye shall receive." Was it as simple
as that? We shall see.

Over the mantlepiece in Hudson Taylor's humble home in
Ningpo were two scrolls, in Chinese characters -- Ebenezer,
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," and Jehovah Jireb, "The
Lord will provide." The faith expressed in these mottoes was
subjected to many severe testings. Quite suddenly the angel
of death took the wife of his missionary associate, Dr.
Parker, leaving him with four motherless children. On their
account and because his own health was shattered, Dr.
Parker was compelled to return to Scotland. This created a
crisis in the Mission, for Dr. Parker was the only doctor in
Ningpo. It looked as though the mission dispensary and
hospital would have to be closed, for hitherto the expense of
their maintenance had been met by the proceeds of Dr.
Parker's practice among the Europeans. This income was
now cut off. Taylor believed that to close the hospital and
dispensary on financial grounds would be nothing less than

doubting God. Calling the hospital assistants together, he
explained the situation and said: "If you are prepared to
trust God to supply our needs, you are invited to continue
your work here. Otherwise you are free to leave. I am
confident that His grace is sufficient. Hath not our God said
that whatsoever we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus shall
be done?"

As the weeks passed, supplies decreased. One day the cook
said that the last bag of rice had been opened. This was his
answer: "Then the Lord's time for helping us must be close
at hand." And so it was. Before the rice was completely
gone, fifty pounds ($250) arrived from England. With
overflowing hearts the workers went among the patients
telling what had occurred and asking, "Have your idols ever
delivered you in your troubles or answered prayer after this
sort?"

Whenever Taylor needed workers, he asked in the name of
Christ and to His glory, and expected the need to be
supplied. Furloughed to England on account of critical ill
health, he was confined to his room for many months. As he
lay on his bed occupied in thought and prayer, he heard the
ascending cry of China's Christless millions. In the room
were two ever-accusing, ever-challenging objects:

The open Bible with its insistent "Go ... to every creature."

The map of China with its urgent "Come ... and help us."

When his health was improved, he was encouraged by Mr.
Lewis, his pastor and editor of the Baptist Magazine, to write
a series of articles on "China's Spiritual Needs and Claims."
Every sentence was steeped in prayer. "They are perishing,"
he wrote, "a thousand every hour, a million every month,

while to me and to every believer is given to ask in prayer
whatsoever we will; to ask without limit in the name of
Jesus."

The matchless name-- "Jesus!" The incomparable privilege--
"ask in prayer!" The unlimited offer-- "whatsoever we will!"

Writing to his mother at this time, he quoted the same text,
John 14:13, and urged her to fervent, believing prayer.

Then came June 25, 1865, and the epochal decision on the
sands of Brighton Beach. As was said long ago in the time of
Jacob, so once again, "There wrestled a man with him until
the breaking of the day." The conviction came upon Hudson
Taylor that he ought to ask for two new workers for each of
the eleven unoccupied provinces and two for Chinese
Tartary and Tibet, or twenty-four in all. But would support
for so many be forthcoming? Would their anchor hold amid
the trials of service in China? Or would they lose heart and
blame him for bringing them into such hardships?
Eventually, a shaft of light broke over his mind and he
exclaimed, "If we are obeying the Lord, the responsibility
rests with Him, not with us." Straightway he wrote in his
Bible: "At Brighton, June 25, 1865, prayed for twenty-four
willing, skillful laborers for China." That date marks the
birthday of the China Inland Mission, so marvelously used of
God. The Lord of the harvest did "thrust forth laborers" in
answer to prayer and moved some of His stewards to supply
the necessary funds for passage and support.

Whenever there was any need in connection with the Lord's
work, he believed in asking according to the explicit
instructions of John 14:13. On one occasion, while in

England, he counted up the contributions received from the
fourth of the month to the twenty-fourth and found that
they amounted to sixty-eight pounds. Calling several friends
together he related the facts and added: "This is about 235
pounds less than our average expenditure in China for a
period of three weeks. Let us ask the Lord to remind some
of His stewards of the needs of the work." The answer was
not long delayed. That very evening a letter arrived telling
how a dear Christian felt constrained to sell some jewelry
and donate the proceeds to the spread of the saving gospel.
The amount of the enclosed check was 235 pounds, 7
shillings, 9 pence.

One day while on an evangelistic tour in China, he entered
into conversation with an old man, by the name of Dzing,
who said: "What am I to do with my sins? Our scholars say
we should worship idols and live only on vegetables. But a
vegetable diet seems to leave the question of sin untouched
and worshiping idols does not satisfy me. I lie on my bed
and think. I sit alone in the daytime and think. I am
seventy-two years old and today knows not tomorrow's lot.
Oh, sir! Can you tell me what is to be done about my sins?"
Tenderly the missionary told "the old, old story of Jesus and
His love." Then, hearing several hundred millions of Chinese
echoing the old man's cry, "What is to be done about my
sins?" he spent long hours in fervent intercession for more
heralds of the Cross. In his Bible he wrote: "Asked God for
fifty or one hundred additional native evangelists and for
men to break into the unoccupied provinces. Asked in the
name of Jesus. I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for the promise
whereon Thou hast given me to rest."

Audacious faith -- asking for scores of new workers when
the funds for the support of the Mission had dwindled almost

to nothing. He wrote to a friend: "We have twenty-seven
cents and all the promises of God." Two months later a
letter arrived from an unknown friend in England, saying she
was contributing eight hundred pounds ($4,000.00) for
extension of the C. I. M. into new, untouched provinces.

The promises! Twenty-seven cents and the promises! Best
of all, the promise that includes all others:
"Ask whatsoever ye will in my name."

Many new workers volunteered and funds for their support
were provided. Well could Taylor say: "In all our calculations
we calculate on God's faithfulness."

Taylor's second wife was Miss [Faulding] of the China Inland
Mission. His evangelistic journeys kept him away from home
for months at a time; and there were yet longer separations
when Mrs. Taylor and the children were in England.
"Sometimes it seems hard," he wrote to his wife, "to be so
long away from you and the children. But when I think of
One who spent thirty-three years away from His home and
finished them on Calvary, I feel ashamed of my selfishness."
Again and again in times of trial he would play his
harmonium and sing some of the great Christian hymns.
This was his favorite:

"Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart."

At the time when there were about one hundred
missionaries in the C. I. M., Hudson Taylor began to entreat
the Lord to send forth, as of old, "other seventy also." With
this object in view, he called some of his fellow-missionaries
together for "a day of fasting and prayer," and there was

much midnight wrestling of this man of prayer, all alone
with his Lord.

Returning to England, he was powerfully used of God as the
woes of China's lost millions poured through the channels of
his burdened heart and as he pleaded for "other seventy
also" to join the work. Although he never asked for funds
and never permitted a collection, consecrated gifts poured in
to the home treasurer. Many also offered their lives, and
thus before the end of that year, more than seventy new
workers had sailed for China. Still there were vast areas
untouched and about a million souls for each missionary on
the field. Once again the heart of Hudson Taylor turned to
his favorite verse. "We have been led," he says, "to pray for
one hundred new workers this year. We have the sure word,
'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son.' The work of God will
never lack God's supplies."

The sure word: "Whatsoever."
The certain answer: "that will I do."
The abundant supply: "Will never lack."

Before the year ended, 102 new missionaries had sailed
and, with no appeal for funds other than those sent up to
God, more than eleven thousand pounds had come in to pay
their passage to the field. With abounding joy, Taylor
recalled the quaint remark of a colored evangelist: "When
God does anything, He does it handsome!"

In response to urgent invitations, Hudson Taylor decided to
visit America on his way back to China. His messages at
Moody's Northfield Conference and other places made a
profound impression. After he had spoken to the Conference
at Niagara-on-the-Lake and had departed for other

engagements, Robert Wilder brought a burning message on
"Go into all the world." In the course of his address he said
that he had learned from a certain Christian woman the
wonderful secret of how to work for Christ twenty-four hours
a day and to keep on doing so all the year round. When
asked how it was possible, she replied: "I work twelve hours
and when I have to rest, my representative in India, whom I
support, begins her day and works the other twelve." Wilder
urged those who could not go to the foreign field to support
a representative and thus work twenty-four hours a day for
Christ. The idea caught fire, not only in this group but in
many others. Within a short time enough money was
contributed to support scores of missionaries, and scores of
earnest young lives were offered for foreign service.

Arriving in China, Taylor found "many adversaries" but he
rejoiced in the glad tidings of many souls saved and of
pentecostal blessings in many areas.

Taylor next issued a world-wide appeal entitled, "To Every
Creature." The taking of the gospel to all the world was not
a human project but a divine command to be taken in
utmost seriousness by all those who acknowledged the
Lordship of Christ. "How few of the Lord's people," he said,
"have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either
Lord of all or is not Lord at all." He felt "God's sigh in the
heart of the world" and appealed to Christians everywhere
to do exactly what Jesus had commanded-- "preach the
gospel to EVERY creature." He was thinking in terms of a
thousand new workers in China alone within five years. For
so great a victory he was looking solely to Christ and to
those unlimited resources which He makes available to those
who lift up hearts of prayer and reach out hands of faith.
"Christ is infinitely worthy and gracious," he declared. "For

in return for our little all, He will give us Himself and His
great all."

Prevailing prayer was soon in process of being answered, as
the Lord of the Harvest called out laborers and put it on the
hearts of His servants in England, America, Europe, and
Australia to pour out their gifts. One of the parties to arrive
was a group of fifty earnest, singing Scandinavians, who, as
they plunged into the darkness of interior China, sent back
this confident message: "March along -- we are going to
conquer! We have victory through the blood."
The Text Piloted the Traveler Home

Hudson Taylor was often refreshed in his labors by thinking
of the home-coming that awaited him in the Father's house.
As he grew older that prospect became increasingly sweet
and he prayed that in God's own time his last climbing
footstep would bring him into the "house not made with
hands," to go out nevermore. As he read the beautiful
promise, "I go to prepare a place for you," his heart
responded, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

Having returned to England in ill health, he was brought to
the very doors of death by the terrible news of the
disruption of the work and the murder of hundreds of
missionaries, as well as hundreds of native Christians, in
connection with the Boxer uprising of 1900. Anguish of heart
was killing him. Yet he believed that this baptism of blood
would, under God, work out to the furtherance of the
gospel. And so it did, for the hearts of Christians around the
world were thrilled to new faith and new devotion by the
heroism of those who perished, as well as by the courage of
those who, having survived the season of horrors, returned
to their labors as soon as the storm subsided. The spirit of

the martyrs is indicated by the tender mother, who, dying
on the road after witnessing the death of one of her children
and the prolonged suffering of others, whispered to her
husband: "I wish I could have lived and could have gone
back to tell the dear people more about Jesus."

Quite fittingly, Taylor's last earthly days were spent in
China. It was a delight to have fellowship with old friends, to
hear wonderful reports of a great harvest being reaped, and
to be greeted by the native Christians, who lovingly called
him the "Venerable Chief Pastor."

When, in 1900, he had heard the heart-rending news of the
martyr deaths of the Boxer Rebellion, he had
exclaimed:"Oh, to think what it must have been to exchange
that murderous mob for His Presence, His bosom, His
smile." On June 3, 1905, the soul of Hudson Taylor passed
beyond the veil.

His was now-- The rapture of His presence! The peace of His
bosom! The benediction of His smile!

A few minutes after the noble spirit had departed, a Chinese
evangelist and his wife entered the room. "Dear and
Venerable Pastor," he said, "we love you. We are your
children. You opened for us the road, the road to heaven.
You loved us and prayed for us long years."

And so, in the land of perpetual sunrise, God's Man of
Mighty Prayer is still engaged in the holy business of asking
in Jesus' name for a rebirth of missionary passion and the
gathering of earth's perishing millions into the fold of the
Good Shepherd.

Hudson Taylor: Founder of the China Inland Mission by Clifford
G. Howell

The opening chapter of J. Hudson Taylor's Retrospect of his
work in China, is entitled "The Power of Prayer;" and that
chapter, with the other contents of the book, reveals such
reverent attention to the voice of God that it seemed to
partake of the atmosphere which the angels breathe as they
execute the Father's commands.

Such a work as he accomplished was not preceded by any
happen so, haphazard preparation. He did not feel that his
call, distinct and definite though it was, was the only thing
needful; but, having this, he held on to it through such a
process of thrashing and winnowing of the seed he was to
scatter that he became a most successful sower in the land
of Sinim. The steps to accomplish this are well worth
tracing, and none other could do so as well as he.

In acknowledging "an unspeakable debt of gratitude" to his
beloved parents, Mr. Taylor tells that before his birth his
father was deeply moved in behalf of China's suffering
millions, and "was led to pray that if God should give him a
son, he might be called and privileged to labor in the vast
and needy empire which was then apparently so sealed
against the truth."

In following the fulfillment of that inspired petition, one is
impressed that unless there is earnest attention to heed
God's voice, the divine plan for the individual will be marred.
God's purpose cherished in the heart, will, as the buds of the
rose, develop into flowers of fragrance; yet unless the
human will shall submit to divine control, the heavenly plan
for that life is as easily broken as are the petals of the
flower.

Young Taylor never knew of his father's desire and prayer
until he had himself fought his way to China and laid seven
years of service upon her barren altar. But that petition was
written in heaven, and its spirit was cherished in holy
influences in the home. One mountain in the way of its
fulfillment, amounting even to infidelity in the boy, was
removed by the prayers of his mother and sister, after the
father had lost all hope of his going to China.

At fifteen he was a stranger to Christ. "Often I had tried to
make myself a Christian," he says, "and failing, of course, in
such efforts, I began at last to think that for some reason or
other I could not be saved." Discouragement caused him to
drift to infidelity; but one day, when his mother was visiting
about seventy or eighty miles from home, she went to her
room, determined to pray for her only son until he was born
into the heavenly family. For hours she laid hold of the
mighty arm of power which surrounds every imperiled soul.
And there she remained till she received evidence that her
son was converted. In the meantime, his attention was
drawn to a little tract in the home library, and the words
"The finished work of Christ" especially impressed him.

"What was finished?" he questioned; and thus he answered:
"A full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin; the
debt was paid by the Substitute; Christ died for our sins,
'and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.' Then came the thought, 'If the whole work was
finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to
do?' And with this dawned the joyful conviction, as light
flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there was
nothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one's
knees, and, accepting this Saviour and His salvation, to
praise Him forevermore."

Just one month before, his sister had begun daily prayers
for him, to be continued till his conversion.

"Brought up in such a circle and saved under such
circumstances, it was perhaps natural that from the
commencement of my Christian life, I was led to feel that
the promises were very real, and that prayer was, in sober
matter of fact, transacting business with God, whether on
one's own behalf or on behalf of those for whom one sought
His blessing."

A few months after his conversion he took time for a special
season of seeking God. "In the gladness of my heart," he
says, "I poured out my soul before God; and again and
again confessing my grateful love to Him who had done
everything for me — who had saved me when I had given
up all hope and even desire for salvation — I besought Him
to give me some work to do for Him, as an outlet for love
and gratitude; some self-denying service, no matter what it
might be, however trying or however trivial — something
with which He would be pleased!" "Well do I remember, as
in unreserved consecration I put myself, my life, my friends,
my all, upon the altar, the deep solemnity that came over
my soul with the assurance that my offering was accepted."

No more his own, henceforth a worker for God, His
ambassador, His representative, he must be about his
Father's business. Thus was he Heaven-anointed; and his
place of service was also Heaven-appointed. His call to
China came as certainly from the same great Source as his
call to service. He says: "Within a few months of this time of
consecration, the impression was wrought into my soul that
it was in China that the Lord wanted me. It seemed to me
highly probable that the work to which I was thus called

might cost my life; for China was not then open as it is now.
But few missionary societies had at that time workers in
China, and but few books on the subject of China missions
were accessible to me."

He borrowed Medhurst's "China" of a minister, who asked
his purpose. "I told him that God had called me to spend my
life in missionary service in that land. 'And how do you
propose to go there?' he inquired. I answered that I did not
at all know; that it seemed to me probable that I should
need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in
Judea — go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who
called me to supply all my need. Kindly placing his hand
upon my shoulder, the minister replied: 'Ah, my boy, as you
grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would
do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth,
but not now.'

"I have grown older since then," he wrote after many years
of labor in China, "but not wiser. I am more than ever
convinced that if we were to take the directions of our
Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples
more fully as our guide, we should find them just as suited
to our times as to those in which they were originally given."

Now began the pruning and planting process which became
so productive on Chinese soil. Of such feeble constitution
that his parents had abandoned all hope of a missionary
career, the called and consecrated youth laid hold anew
upon life, and "God gave increased health."

I began to take more exercise in the open air to strengthen
my physique. My feather bed I had taken away, and I
sought to dispense with as many other home comforts as I
could, in order to prepare myself for rougher lines of life. I

also began to do what Christian work was in my power, in
the way of tract distribution, Sunday-school teaching, and
visiting the poor and sick, as opportunity afforded."

Medhurst's book had recommended medical work; and the
missionary-to-be took up this study. But he did not forget
his Guide-Book. "Before leaving home," he says, "my
attention was drawn to the subject of setting apart the first-
fruits of all one's increase and a proportionate part of one's
possessions to the Lord's service. I thought it well to study
the question with my Bible in hand before I went away from
home and was placed in circumstances which might bias my
conclusions by the pressure of surrounding wants and cares.
I was thus led to the determination to set apart not less
than one tenth of whatever moneys I might earn or become
possessed of for the Lord's service." Not only did he do this,
but found great blessing in giving much more than this to
the Lord's cause.

He was next led to investigate another subject of deep
importance. He says: "A friend drew my attention to the
question of the personal and premillennial coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and gave me a list of passages bearing
upon it, without note or comment, advising me to ponder
the subject. For a while I gave much time to studying the
scriptures about it, with the result that I was led to see that
this same Jesus who left our earth in His resurrection body
was so to come again. ... I saw, further, that all through the
New Testament the coming of the Lord was the great hope
of His people, and was always appealed to as the strongest
motive for consecration and service, and as the greatest
comfort in trial and affliction. I learned, too, that the period
of His return for His people was not revealed, and that it

was their privilege, from day to day and from hour to hour,
to live as men who wait for their Lord. ...

"The effect of this blessed hope was a thoroughly practical
one. It led me to look carefully through my little library to
see if there were any books there that were not needed or
likely to be of further service, and to examine my small
wardrobe, to be quite sure that it contained nothing that I
should be sorry to give an account of should the Master
come at once. The result was that the library was
considerably diminished, to the benefit of some poor
neighbors, and to a far greater benefit of my own soul, and
that I found I had articles of clothing also which might be
put to better advantage in other directions.

"It has been very helpful to me from time to time through
life, as occasion has served, to act again in a similar way;
and I have never gone through my house, from basement to
attic, with this object in view, without receiving a great
accession of spiritual joy and blessing. I believe we are all in
danger of accumulating — it may be from thoughtlessness,
or from pressure of occupation things which would be useful
to others, while not needed by ourselves, and the retention
of which entails loss of blessing. If the whole resources of
the church of God were well utilized, how much more might
be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked
clothed, and to how many of those as yet unreached the
gospel might be carried! Let me advise this line of things as
a constant habit of mind, and a profitable course to be
practically adopted whenever circumstances permit."

Mr. Taylor plunged heartily into gospel work in Hull, where
he went for medical training. Late one night he was asked
by a man to come and pray with his wife, who he said was

dying. "Up a miserable flight of stairs, into a wretched room,
he led me; and O, what a sight there presented itself to our
eyes! Four or five poor children stood about, their sunken
cheeks and temples all telling unmistakably the story of slow
starvation; and lying on a wretched pallet was a poor,
exhausted mother, with a tiny infant thirty-six hours old,
moaning rather than crying, at her side. ... 'Ah!' thought I,
'if I had two shillings and a sixpence instead of half a crown,
how gladly should they have one-and-sixpence of it!' But
still a wretched unbelief prevented me from obeying the
impulse to relieve their distress at the cost of all I
possessed.

"It will scarcely seem strange that I was unable to say much
to comfort these people. I needed comfort myself. I began
to tell them, however, that they must not be cast down, that
though their circumstances were very distressing, there was
a kind and loving Father in heaven; but something within
me said, 'You hypocrite! telling these unconverted people
about a kind and loving Father in heaven, and not prepared
yourself to trust Him without half a crown!'

"I was nearly choked. ... To talk was impossible under these
circumstances; yet, strange to say, I thought I should have
no difficulty in praying. ... 'You asked me to come and pray
with your wife,' I said to the man; 'let us pray.' And I knelt
down. But scarcely had I opened my lips with 'Our Father
who art in heaven,' than conscience said within: 'Dare you
mock God? Dare you kneel down and call Him Father with
that half crown in your pocket?' Such a time of conflict came
upon me then as I have never experienced before or since.
How I got through that form of prayer I know not, ... but I
rose from my knees in great distress of mind."

"The poor father turned to me and said: 'You see what a
terrible state we are in, sir; if you can help us, for God's
sake do!' Just then the words flashed into my mind, 'Give to
him that asketh of thee,' and in the word of a King there is
power. I put my hand into my pocket, and slowly drawing
forth the half crown, gave it to the man. ... The joy all came
back in full flood tide to my heart; I could say anything and
feel it then, and the hindrance to blessing was gone — gone,
I trust, forever!

"Not only was the poor woman's life saved, but I realized
that my life was saved, too! It might have been a wreck —
would have been a wreck probably, as a Christian life — had
not grace at that time conquered, and the strivings of God's
Spirit been obeyed. I well remember how that night, as I
went home to my lodgings, my heart was as light as my
pocket. The lonely, deserted streets resounded with a hymn
of praise which I could not restrain. When I took my basin of
gruel before retiring, I would not have exchanged it for a
prince's feast. I reminded the Lord, as I knelt at my bedside,
of His own word, that he who giveth to the poor lendeth to
the Lord; I asked Him not to let my loan be a long one, or I
should have no dinner next day; and with peace within and
peace without, I spent a happy, restful night."

The morning mail brought him a gift four times as great as
he had given the poor family, and he says: "I then and there
determined that a bank which could not break should have
my savings or earnings as the case might be — a
determination I have not yet learned to regret. ... If we are
faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and
strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials
of life."

Another test in money matters upon which not only hinged
answers to prayer, but which touched his life plan of going
to China, served greatly to strengthen Mr. Taylor's growing
faith. He believed that men might be influenced through
prayer. The doctor by whom he was employed while
studying was a forgetful paymaster, and pay-day passed
without Mr. Taylor's receiving his much-needed wages. He
prayed earnestly about it; but still his employer forgot.
Finally, on a day when his landlady should be paid, the
doctor turned suddenly to him with, "By the [way], Taylor, is
not your salary due again?"

"My emotion may be imagined! I told him as quietly as I
could that it was overdue some little time. How thankful I
felt at that moment! God had surely heard my prayer, and
caused him, in this time of my great need, to remember the
salary without any word or suggestion from me. He replied:
'O, I am so sorry you did not remind me! You know how
busy I am. I wish I had thought of it a little sooner, for only
this afternoon I sent all the money I had to the bank;
otherwise I would pay you at once.' It is impossible to
describe the revulsion of feeling caused by this unexpected
statement. I knew not what to do. ...

"As soon as he was gone I had to seek my little sanctum
and pour out my heart before the Lord for some time, before
calmness — and more than calmness — thankfulness and
joy, were restored to me. I felt that God had His own way,
and was not going to fail me. I had sought to know His will
early in the day, and as far as I could judge, had received
guidance to wait patiently."

And so he waited, spending the evening at the doctor's
office, reading the Bible and preparing texts for his services

at the lodging-houses in the lowest parts of the town, where
he expected to speak next day. Just as he was putting on
his overcoat to go, about ten o'clock, he heard the doctor
coming. One of his wealthiest patients had just come and
paid his bill. "It seemed that somehow or other he could not
rest with this on his mind, and had been constrained to
come at that unusual hour to discharge his liability." This
time the doctor remembered, and turned over part of the
bills to the prayerful boy.

"Again I was left," he says, "to go back to my own little
closet and praise the Lord with a joyful heart that after all I
might go to China!" A mighty weight hung on the golden
chain of answered prayer. If his faith grasped not the
promises to influence a man at home who was acquainted
with God, how could it prevail with men in China who knew
Him not? To him, "this incident was not a trivial one; and to
recall it sometimes, in circumstances of great difficulty, in
China or elsewhere, has proved no small comfort and
strength."

Later Mr. Taylor went to London for further medical studies.
He was led to trust in Him who feeds the sparrows, for his
support in that great metropolis; for if he could not trust
Him in a land of Christian influences, where was food in
plenty, how could he trust Him where at almost any time he
might be cut off from all human aid? The question of support
was settled through prayer. Every bill was met promptly;
and though at times he lived on bread and fruit and water,
he grew rich in faith and experience.

He also had another severe test. In the dissecting-room he
received deadly blood-poisoning through a needle prick in
the finger. Two other medical students had similar accidents

Hudson Taylor's Life and Ministry as a Missionary in China

Hudson Taylor's Life and Ministry as a Missionary in China

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