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

at the same time, and died in consequence thereof. The surgeon said to him, "You are a dead man." Indeed he was brought to death's door; but he had formed more than a speaking acquaintance with One who has power over disease and death, and he spread out his case before Him; and he says, "I was spared in answer to prayer, to work for God in China." "If you have been living moderately," another doctor said, "you may pull through; but if you have been going in for beer and that sort of thing, there is no manner of chance for you." His meager diet was a benefit at this time at least.

One more demonstration of the power of prevailing prayer, — an experience for which the others were preparatory: One of his medical duties was to dress the foot of a patient suffering from gangrene. As a sympathetic Christian nurse, he longed to acquaint his patient with his Saviour. But the patient was an avowed atheist, and very antagonistic to religion. A Scripture reader who had visited him had been ordered from the room, and he had spit in the face of the visiting vicar of the district.

"Upon first commencing to attend him," says Taylor, I prayed much about it, but for two or three days said nothing to him of a religious nature. By special care in dressing his diseased limb, I was able considerably to lessen his sufferings, and he soon began to manifest grateful appreciation of my services. One day, with a trembling heart, I took advantage of his warm acknowledgments to tell him what was the spring of my action, and to speak of his own solemn position and need of God's mercy through Christ. It was evidently only by a powerful effort of self-restraint that he kept his lips closed. He turned over in bed with his back to me, and uttered no word.

"I could not get the poor man out of my mind, and very often through each day I pleaded with God, by His Spirit, to save him. ... After dressing the wound and relieving his pain, I never failed to say a few words to him, which I hoped the Lord would bless. He always turned his back to me, looking annoyed, but never spoke a word in reply.

"After continuing this for some time, my heart sank. It seemed to me that I was not only doing no good, but perhaps really hardening him and increasing his guilt. One day, after dressing his limb and washing my hands, instead of returning to the bedside to speak to him, I went to the door, and stood hesitating for a few moments with the thought in my mind, 'Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.' I looked at the man and saw his surprise, as it was the first time since speaking to him that I had attempted to leave without going up to his bedside to say a few words for my Master.

"I could bear it no longer. Bursting into tears, I crossed the room and said, 'My friend, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear, I must deliver my soul,' and went on to speak very earnestly with him, telling him with many tears how much I wished that he would let me pray with him. To my unspeakable joy he did not turn away, but replied, 'If it will be a relief to you, do.' I need scarcely say that I fell on my knees and poured out my whole soul to God on his behalf. I believe that God then and there wrought a change in his soul, ... and within a few days he definitely accepted Christ as his Saviour. O, the joy it was to me to see that dear man rejoicing in hope of the glory of God!" He had not entered a church for forty years.

"I have often thought since, in connection with this case and the work of God generally, of the words, 'He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.' Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our own feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things, may be the true cause of our want of success."

In Mr. Taylor's voyage to China, September 19, 1853, to March 1, 1854, shipwreck among cannibals was avoided through prayer. In China he met among other missionaries, Drs. Medhurst, Parker, Edkins, Burdon, and William Burns. The latter he called "such a spiritual father," and tells how "with true spiritual insight he often pointed out God's purposes in trial in a way that made all life assume quite a new aspect and value. His views especially about evangelism as the great work of the church, and the order of lay evangelists as a lost order that Scripture required to be restored, were seed thoughts which were to prove fruitful in the subsequent organization of the China Inland Mission."

Upon the burning of his belongings at Shanghai, he observes: "To me this appeared a great calamity, and I fear I was more disposed with faithless Jacob to say, 'All these things are against me,' than to recognize that 'all things work together for good.' I had not then learned to think of God as the one great Circumstance 'in whom we live and move and have our being;' and of all lesser, external circumstances as necessarily the kindest, wisest, best, because either ordered or permitted by Him. Hence my

disappointment and trial were very great." But it was one of the many providences that finally led to the establishment of the great system of missions.

On a journey from Shanghai to Ning-po, "among the passengers on board the boat was one intelligent man, who in the course of his travels had been a good deal abroad. ... On the previous evening I had drawn him into earnest converse about his soul's salvation. The man listened with attention, and was even moved to tears; but still no definite result was apparent. I was pleased, therefore, when he asked to be allowed to accompany me, and to hear me preach." As Mr. Taylor was in the cabin a few moments, he heard a splash and a cry, and running out, found this man was overboard and had sunk in the water. Instantly lowering the sail of the boat, he sprang into the water, and called to a near-by fishing-boat to come with their drag hooks.

"'Come!' I cried, as hope revived in my heart. 'Come and drag over this spot directly. A man is drowning just here!'

"'It is not convenient,' was the unfeeling answer.

"'Don't talk of convenience!' cried I in agony; 'a man is drowning, I tell you!'

"'We are busy fishing,' they responded, 'and can not come.'

"'Never mind your fishing,' I said; 'I will give you more money than many a day's fishing will bring; only come — come at once!'

'How much money will you give us?' ' We can not stay to discuss that now! Come, or it will be too late. I will give you five dollars' (then worth about thirty shillings in English money).

"'We won't do it for that,' replied the men. 'Give us twenty dollars, and we will drag!'

'I do not possess so much. Do come quickly, and I will give you all I have!'

'How much may that be?'

'I don't know exactly; about fourteen dollars.'

At last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was paddled over, and the net let down. Less than a minute sufficed to bring up the body of the missing man. ... But all was in vain — life was extinct.

"To myself this incident was profoundly sad and full of significance, suggesting a far more mournful reality. Were not those fishermen actually guilty of this poor China man's death, in that they had the means of saving him at hand, if they would but have used them? Assuredly they were guilty. And yet, let us pause ere we pronounce judgment against them, lest a greater than Nathan answer, 'Thou art the man.' Is it so hard-hearted, so wicked a thing to neglect to save the body? Of how much sorer punishment, then, is he worthy who leaves the soul to perish, and Cain-like says, 'Am I my brother's keeper?'

"The Lord Jesus commands, commands me, commands you, my brother, and you, my sister. 'Go,' says He, 'go ye 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 fishing, and can not go? that we have bought a piece of ground, and can not go? ... Let us consider who it is that has said, 'If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death. ... doth not He that

pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works?'"

The work of J. Hudson Taylor in China can only be fully understood by knowing how he came to sever his connection with his society, the Chinese Evangelization Society. The following gives his reason and reasoning: "The society itself was in debt. ... To me it seemed that the teaching of God's word was unmistakably clear: 'Owe no man anything.' To borrow money implied, to my mind, a contradiction of Scripture — a confession that God had withheld some good thing, and a determination to get for ourselves what He had not given. ... If the Word taught me anything, it taught me to have no connection with debt.

"I could not think that God was poor, that He was short of resources, or unwilling to supply any want of whatever work was really His. It seemed to me that if there were lack of funds to carry on work, then to that degree, in that special development, or at that time, it could not be the work of God. To satisfy my conscience I was therefore compelled to resign connection with the society which had hitherto supplied my salary."

His colleague, Mr. Jones, was led to take the same step. The brave, conscientious men depended upon God alone for supplies, and He honored their faith. Mr. Taylor says, "I could look right up into my Father's face with a satisfied heart, ready, by His grace, to do the next thing as He might teach me, and feeling very sure of His loving care."

As Mr. Taylor was preaching one day, in 1857, there was a pleasing interruption; a middle-aged man stood up and said: "I have long sought for the truth, as my fathers did before

me; but I have never found it. I have traveled far and near, but without obtaining it. I have found no rest in Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here tonight. Henceforth I am a believer in Jesus."

This was their first convert. "A few nights after his conversion he asked how long this gospel had been known in England. He was told that they had known it for some hundreds of years. 'What!' said he, amazed; 'is it possible that for hundreds of years you have had the knowledge of these glad tidings in your possession, and yet have only now come to preach it to us? My father sought after the truth for more than twenty years, and died without finding it! O, why did you not come sooner!'"

Mr. Taylor was married in 1858, to the daughter of the devoted missionary, Samuel Dyer, who had gone to the Straits in 1827.

When Dr. Parker was obliged to return with his motherless children to Scotland, Dr. Taylor took charge of his dispensary and hospital at Ningpo, "relying solely upon the faithfulness of a prayer-hearing God to furnish the means required for its support. ... Had not God said that whatever we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus shall be done? And are we not told to seek first the kingdom of God, — not means to advance it?"

Hundreds of patients were to be provided for, and only money enough left for about a month's expenses! Dr. Parker's native staff, having no such faith, resigned. But some members of the little church volunteered to help Dr.

Taylor, "depending," he says, "like myself, upon the Lord; and they with me continued to wait upon God, that in some way or other He would provide for His own work.

"Day by day the stores diminished, and they were all but exhausted when one day a remarkable letter reached me from a friend in England which contained a check for fifty pounds. After a little season of thanksgiving with my dear wife, I called my native helpers into our little chapel, and translated to them the letter. I need not say how rejoiced they were, and that we together praised God. ... When, nine months later, I was obliged, through failure of health, to relinquish this charge, I was able to leave more funds in hand for the support of the hospital than were forthcoming at the time I took it.

By the year 1860 thirty or forty native Christians had been gathered into the church at Ning-po; but Dr. Taylor's health failed, and a return to England was the only hope of restoration. While there the whole great field, daily reviewed upon a large map on his study wall, seemed as near to him as when he was in China. With returning strength he engaged in a revision of the New Testament, and observes, "I have often seen since, that without those months of feeding and feasting on the word of God, I should have been quite unprepared to form, on its present basis, a mission like the China Inland Mission.

"In the study of that divine Word I learned that, to obtain successful laborers, not elaborate appeals for help, but first, earnest prayer to God to thrust forth laborers, and second, the deepening of the spiritual life of the church, so that men should be unable to stay at home, were what was needed. I saw that the apostolic plan was not to raise ways and

means, but to go and do the work, trusting in His sure word who has said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'"

Mr. Taylor asked God for five workers. These were forthcoming, the fifth reaching the field in 1865. He was encouraged to ask for greater things. "Months of earnest prayer and not a few abortive efforts had resulted in a deep conviction that a special agency was essential for the evangelization of Inland China. ... I had also a growing conviction that God would have me to seek from Him the needed workers, and to go forth with them. But for a long time unbelief hindered my taking the first step. How inconsistent unbelief always is! I had no doubt that, if I prayed for workers, 'in the name' of the Lord Jesus Christ, they would be given me. I had no doubt that, in answer to prayer, the means for our going forth would be provided, and that doors would be opened before us in unreached parts of the empire. But I had not then learned to trust God for keeping power and grace for myself, so no wonder that I could not trust Him to keep others who might be prepared to go with me. I feared that in the midst of the dangers, difficulties, and trials which would necessarily be connected with such a work, some who were comparatively inexperienced Christians might break down, and bitterly reproach me for having encouraged them to undertake an enterprise for which they were unequal. ...

"Yet, what was I to do? The feeling of blood-guiltiness became more and more intense. Simply because I refused to ask for them, the laborers did not come forward — did not go out to China — and every day tens of thousands were passing away to Christless graves! Perishing China so filled

my heart and mind that there was no rest by day and little sleep by night, till health broke down. At the invitation of my beloved and honored friend, Mr. George Pearse, I went to spend a few days with him at Brighton.

"On Sunday, June 25, 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony; and there the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told Him that all the responsibilities as to issues and consequences must rest with Him; that as His servant, it was mine to obey and to follow Him — His to direct, to care for, and to guide me and those who might labor with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart?" J. Hudson Taylor called, Heaven answered; and men and women were in waiting for the hour. Soon there were a goodly number in training for China.

"I had determined never to use personal solicitation, or to issue collecting books. Missionary boxes were thought unobjectionable, and we had a few prepared for those who might ask for them, and have continued to use them ever since."

On being invited to speak on China at a village near London, Dr. Taylor consented on condition that no collection be taken. At the close the chairman was so impressed with China's needs that he wished to take a collection notwithstanding the doctor's objections. But he says: "My wish was, not that those present should be relieved by making such a contribution as might there and then be convenient, under the influence of a present emotion; but

that each one should go home burdened with the deep need of China, and ask God what He would have them do. If, after thought and prayer, they were satisfied that a pecuniary contribution was what He wanted of them, it could be given to any missionary society having agents in China, or it might be posted to our London office; but perhaps in many cases, what God wanted was not a money contribution, but personal consecration to His service abroad, or the giving up of son or daughter — more precious than silver or gold — to His service. I added that I thought the tendency of a collection was to leave the impression that the all-important thing was money, whereas no amount of money could convert a single soul; that what was needed was that men and women, filled with the Holy Ghost, should give themselves to the work. For the support of such there would never be a lack of funds."

In February, 1866, the doctor's mission band began a daily prayer-meeting to ask God for funds for this, His enterprise. In five weeks, nearly nine thousand dollars had been received; and in May a party of twenty-two, including children, sailed for China.

Figures have but feeble tongues to tell the story of benefit and blessing that followed that consecrated band. "The missionary career of J. Hudson Taylor," says Arthur H. Smith, himself a missionary thirty-five years in China, "having its quiet and unnoticed beginnings in 1853, culminated in the amazing breadth and sweep of the China Inland Mission, until at life's close he laid down its leadership in 1905."'

Statistics published in the same book for 1905, give 849 missionaries, including missionaries' wives and associates,

with 1,282 native workers; 205 stations, and 632 sub-stations, and 35,726 communicants; 188 schools, with nearly 3,000 pupils, and 44 hospitals and dispensaries. What an agency for bearing the living Word to a dying people! No other society has in China so many workers; and these go out trusting for support in the God who called J. Hudson Taylor to the work.

May many more laborers listen to the divine appeal that stirred this great leader's soul, until "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations;" and then the Saviour for whom J. Hudson Taylor looked and longed will come and take His people home.

The Missionary Incentive

May it please the reader to take an interim after the sketch of this godly man — converted from boyhood infidelity into a lover of the Saviour's coming — to listen to the voice of one — the late Dr. Arthur T. Pierson upon this subject, whose words are so reasonable, whose knowledge of missions was so remarkable, whose love for his Master so wonderful, that he was well prepared to speak upon so exalted a theme as is thus introduced in his precious book on missions, "The New Acts of the Apostles":

"One powerful incentive, of which not only the Acts of the Apostles but the whole New Testament is full, is, we fear, far less prominent in the thoughts of the modern church. We refer to the blessed hope of our Lord's return.

"Revive this hope of our Lord's coming, and it begets hourly watching, ceaseless praying, tireless toiling, patient waiting. Moreover, this blessed hope is forever linked with the

glorious compensation for all service and sacrifice for Christ. 'Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.'

"His coming, then, not our death, opens the door to the wedding feast, and the 'joy of the Lord.' Then the prize awaits the successful runner. Then the crowns are given.

"We shall never have apostolic missions till this apostolic hope claims again its rightful place. Daily dying — so that in the body one bears the marks of the Lord Jesus — will be easy only to him who feels redemption drawing nigh, and who follows the Son of man in His humiliation, as one who is to sit with Him on the throne of His glory.

His expected appearing is His saints' avenging and rewarding. ... Then, however dark and dismal the failure of mission work, faithfulness and not success will be the standard and measure of reward. ...

"This blessed hope both loosens the hold we have on this world and the hold this world has on us. If we are to build heaven here, we may be justified in laying deep and firm foundations; but if all these things are to be dissolved, if all work not done for God is to be burned up as wood, hay, stubble, and the work done for God is to be tried by fire — then what folly to spend our faculty and vital force upon what is to be turned to ashes! Let us walk with God and work with God, and so prepare a structure of character and of service which shall survive the fiery ordeal.

"Perhaps at no one point does the hope of our Lord's return touch our need so closely and vitally as in this — that it incites to unselfish service. ... The miser dies when the

missionary is born; the carnal is cast out if the spiritual is to come in; only he who loses himself can save others.

"But just here the hope of the Lord's coming supplies exactly what is needed. ... In those seven epistles to the churches which open the Apocalypse, our Lord uses His imminent coming as a perpetual hope, motive, incentive; and this is enough to make it a sin, if not a crime, to lose sight of it. ...

"This blessed hope is the crown of all other hopes, and suggests to us an expectation that will be realized.

...Does the Scripture justify us in looking for the conversion of the world during the present dispensation, or is this the period of the out gathering of the church from all nations? For what are we to labor, and what is our rational Scriptural hope? James bade the first council at Jerusalem hearken unto him as he reminded them of God's purpose as declared by Simeon, visiting the gentiles 'to take out of them a people for His name.' That is not only uniformly declared to be the exact purpose of the gospel witness during these times of the gentiles, but it has been the actual result of these nearly two thousand years of such witness. At this advanced age, history is interpreting prophecy and expounding Scripture, if we will but hear it. ...

"Our highest 'Christian civilization' is an amalgamation of the church and the world. ... The great body of disciples are only nominally such, either wholly worldly or worldly holy; at the door of frivolous gaiety they drop their Christian consistency, as an Oriental guest shuffles off his sandals, and mix freely with the idolaters of folly and fashion. The church is to-day in danger of the moral putrefaction that loses all godly savor, and the moral petrifaction that loses all godly sensibility. Apostolic piety scarcely survives in the

church at large. Disciples rarely keep themselves unspotted from the world; and it is only here and there that we find a few who seem to be filled with the Spirit. ... Some who have drawn their very life from Christianity now turn to curse the dam that nursed, and wound the breast that fed them.

"The ripeness of modern civilization borders on rottenness; and while men boast of society, its foundations sink; and the anarchy which is the natural end of atheism, threatens all with wreck. Science itself has furnished the lawless with weapons which are equally mighty against ballot or bullet; and Germany and Russia, France and Britain, and the great republic, are to-day at the mercy of the dynamite fiend.

"Notwithstanding such signs of the times, there are some who regard the outlook as so hopeful that they think the recent 'Parliament of Religions' was the inauguration of the millennium. What enviable sleight of mind that can turn everything into signs of progress! ...

"From all such frivolous methods of dealing with the Scripture and with facts, we turn candidly to ask, What does the New Testament encourage us to hope for as the outcome of our missionary work?

"If we read aright, the teaching of our Lord is plain. God's present purpose is that the gospel shall everywhere be preached for a witness unto the nations and for the gathering of the ecclesia; and then shall the end come, and the Lord Himself return and possess the kingdom, and carry its triumphs to completion. ... The devil's great wrath may only be due to the shortness of his time; and the ripeness of the tares may only hint the nearness of the harvest.

"If we are discouraged or despairing, our need and remedy is, perhaps, a laying hold of the hope set before us, in the gospel. As the Scriptures warrant no expectation of the world's conversion in this age of witness, so far as we look for such result, we work on a wrong basis, and will either be disappointed or deceived in the outcome. ...

"Let the disciples once get firmly planted on this rock basis, that we are sent forth, not to accomplish a world's conversion, but only its evangelization, and victory springs up out of defeat. Hope that had lost wings, plumes herself for a new flight, and over the grave of buried expectation, rises with the song of a lark."

Conversion of J. Hudson Taylor: Founder of China Inland Mission

compiled by Hy. Pickering

J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, was saved when a lad, through reading a Gospel tract which he found in his father's library. He had been frequently troubled about his soul, and had again and again "tried" to become a Christian, but had failed so often that he concluded there was no use in him "trying."

His conversion occurred in this way. On the afternoon of a holiday, whilst looking over some booklets and tracts in his father's library, he came across one which appeared more attractive than the others. He glanced at it, and then sat down to read the story, resolving to omit the application. When he took up the tract, as he himself testified, he was in an utterly unconcerned state, and had made up his mind to lay it down whenever it began to be "prosy."

At the time when he was perusing the little Gospel message, his mother was on her knees in her bedroom, seventy miles distant, pleading with God for the conversion of her only boy. Whilst on a visit to some friends, at the time alluded to, she became so burdened and exercised about Hudson's spiritual and eternal welfare that she turned the key in her bedroom door, and on bended knees, resolved that she would not leave the room until the Lord had saved him.

Hour after hour she continued in fervent, importunate, believing prayer. Suddenly she felt she could no longer pray for his conversion. Thoroughly persuaded that God had answered her petitions and given her the desire of her heart, she poured out her soul in thanksgiving and praise to God for the salvation of her boy.

Strange as it may appear to some, at that very time the lad had come to an expression in the tract, which he could not at first understand. It is one which is often employed by preachers of the Gospel, and is full of deep meaning and significance— "The finished work of Christ."

"Why did the author say 'the finished work' instead of the propitiatory work?" was the question that came before him. "What was finished?" he asked himself; "a full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin was made, and the debt was paid," he mentally replied. "Then," thought he, "if the work of atonement is finished, if the mighty debt of sin is paid, what is there left for me to do?" In a moment God's wondrous salvation was apprehended. He perceived that on account of what the Lord Jesus had done and suffered, Divine justice was satisfied, and by believing on Him who bore the wrath and curse due to sin, he was saved and had eternal life.

On his mother's return, he hastened to tell her the story of his conversion, and having done so, he was more than surprised when he heard her narrative.

His labours for China, in founding and guiding the C.I.M. [China Inland Mission], with 1000 missionaries in the field, are so well known that they need not be rehearsed here.

Hudson Taylor by Florence Huntington Jensen

"When I am a man, I mean to be a missionary and go to China," said a little boy many, many years ago. And that is exactly what came to pass.

This little boy was James Hudson Taylor, who was born in Barnsley, England, May 1, 1832. His father, James Taylor, was the son and the grandson of preachers, and was a local preacher himself. He loved God and served Him so faithfully that every one knew he was a Christian. And his wife, Amelia Hudson Taylor, was as good and as true to God as he was. No boy could have had better parents than little Hudson had.

As a baby, he was sweet and bright, but not very strong, and it would have been easy to spoil him. But his father and mother knew he must be taught obedience and self-control, and they agreed to teach him these lessons, even though he was a frail child.

When he was just a little fellow of two or three, he went with his father and mother to church. If he was good all through the long service, after the benediction was pronounced, they would hand him back to his grandfather, who sat in the pew behind them. This was something he remembered all through his life.

One of the things he enjoyed as a little boy was playing meeting with his little brother. When his little sister Amelia was big enough to walk, it was Hudson who taught her how to take the first little steps. When his two little brothers died, Hudson learned that sorrow, as well as joy, is a part of this life.

One day there was a fair in town, and the one great attraction for Hudson was a collection of stuffed birds and animals, for he loved the things of nature. To his dismay, he found that they were enclosed within a high board fence. In his hand was a hard-earned penny which he offered to the man at the entrance, only to be told that the admittance fee was "tuppence" [twopence]. "But I haven't got another penny, and don't you see that it would be better to have one penny than none at all?" he reasoned. The argument was logical, but the gate-keeper remained firm, and little Hudson went away to tell his troubles to his mother. She explained that it was the man's duty to charge two pennies for admission, and then she found a very satisfactory way of solving the problem. She said that he had been so good and worked so well in the past days that she would give him another penny for his work, and off he ran with a glad heart.

The Taylor children were taught that it was just as important to keep themselves neat, with hands and faces clean, shoes polished, and nails well kept, when at home as when in company.

Punctuality was another valuable lesson they learned. Each child was expected to be on time at meals and for every other appointment. Mr. Taylor said, "If there are five people, and they are kept waiting one minute, do you not see that five minutes are lost, which can never be found again?" He had not much to give his children in the way of wealth or worldly advantage, but he bequeathed to them something far better -- a simple strong faith in God and reverence for His Word.

Not being strong enough to go to school when he was small, Hudson's education was mostly gained at home; and from

his sensible and wise parents he learned more valuable lessons than he would have learned at school.

Mr. Taylor was interested in foreign missionary work, and especially in China. The children shared his interest, and a little book: Peter Parley was read and reread. Both Hudson and his sister Amelia declared that they intended to go to that country some day.

Hudson's schooldays began when he was eleven. It was a help to him to be in the company of other boys, yet these were not especially happy days for him. He lost the simple faith of his younger days, and it was a number of years before he yielded himself fully to God.

At the age of fifteen he began working as a clerk in a bank. His old-fashioned ideas were laughed at by an older clerk, and when he returned home after nine months, he was further away from God than ever before.

Mother and father were burdened for the salvation of their boy. His sister Amelia made up her mind that she would go alone three times a day to pray for him, and it was not long before those prayers were answered.

One day when he had nothing in particular to do, his eyes fell on a tract. "There will be a story at the beginning and a sermon or moral at the close," he said to himself; "I will take the former and leave the latter for those who like it." But as he read, conviction seized him and he gave himself to God. Amelia was the first to hear the joyful news, as his mother was away from home. Upon her return he greeted her gladly, eager to tell her about his conversion. "I know, my boy," she said, "I have been rejoicing a fortnight in the glad tidings you have to tell."

"Why, has Amelia broken her promise?" he asked. "She said she would tell no one."

"Ah, my son," was the answer, "no one has told me. But my heart became so burdened for you a fortnight ago that I determined not to arise from prayer until the assurance of your salvation came. So clearly did it come that I have been praising God ever since.

There was peace and joy in Hudson's heart, and in his gratitude he offered himself to God, to work wherever He might call him. "Then go for Me to China," God said. The call seemed as clear as if God had spoken in an audible voice, and the young man did not hesitate.

He told his Sunday-school teacher of his call, and was encouraged and given a copy of the gospel of Luke in a Chinese dialect. He tried to prepare himself in every possible way for the life of a missionary. He gave up his feather bed and other things he had enjoyed, so that he would be used to a rugged life. Plenty of outdoor exercise made him stronger in body and Christian work strengthened his soul. He felt that if he wanted to win souls in China he must begin at home, so he distributed tracts, taught a Sunday-school class, called on the sick and the poor, and did everything he could find to do for God.

Then he began studying the meaning of the Chinese letters in the little book his Sunday-school superintendent had given him. He knew that it would not be an easy task to learn the Chinese language and he wanted to begin as soon as possible. Some one had said that those who learned it needed "bodies of iron, lungs of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah." Though far from

possessing all these qualifications Hudson went at it courageously and made good progress.

The next definite step in his preparation was to become the assistant of Doctor Hardey. He knew that if he could become skilful in caring for sick bodies, it would give him a good chance to help souls. At first he lived in Doctor Hardey's home, which was very comfortable and pleasant, but not the best preparation for a missionary's life. The next move was to his aunt's home, which was less luxurious than the doctor's. Still he felt there was much more chance for self-denial, and it was not long until he found just the kind of place he felt he needed.

About this time Hudson met a German missionary who had come back from China. When this man noticed the light hair and eyes of the younger one he said, "Why, you would never do for China. They call me 'red-haired devil,' and they would run from you in terror! You could never get them to listen at all." This might have discouraged some, but Hudson only replied quietly, "And yet it is God who has called me and He knows all about the color of my hair and eyes."

Hudson Taylor's next abode -- and the one where he felt that he could get real training for China -- was in a very undesirable portion of the city of Hull. Two rows of poor little cottages faced each other, and between them was a ditch where rubbish was thrown. The neighborhood was called "Drainside." When the tide rose high enough the rubbish was carried away. Unattractive as this was, Hudson Taylor selected one of these cottages as his dwelling-place. A room less than twelve feet square was his, while his landlady, Mrs. Finch, with her children, occupied the upstairs room and the kitchen. Mr. Finch was away at sea most of the time, and his

wife was glad of the three shillings a week paid her by Hudson Taylor.

He boarded himself and lived mostly on oatmeal, rice, and brown bread, finding it a pleasure to deny himself in order that he might have money with which to help others. At the close of his day's work he would take his lonely walk to his comfortless room, and on Sundays he visited the sick and helped the poor. It was not the kind of life one would be apt to choose, but God's blessing was upon him, and that is more than all the world has to offer.

There was one lesson that young Mr. Taylor knew he must learn, if he wanted to be a successful missionary in China, and that was the lesson of faith. He knew there would be many times in that far-away country when he would have no one to depend upon but God, and he must know how to get his prayers through and receive an answer. He wanted to know how to "move man, through God, by prayer alone."

Dr. Hardey had told Hudson Taylor to remind him when it was time for his salary to be paid, as he was a very busy man, and probably rather forgetful, but Hudson made up his mind that he would do nothing except to pray about it. He felt that God could remind Dr. Hardey in answer to his prayers, and this would strengthen his faith.

One time the day drew near, and passed by, and the salary was not paid. At the end of the week, he found he had just a half-crown left. Still he said nothing, except to God. Sunday night, after a meeting with the poor people to whom he often preached, a man asked him to come and pray for his wife, who seemed to be dying. He had asked the priest to come, but he was too poor to pay the eighteen pence which

the priest asked. His family was starving and the poor man was discouraged.

Taylor knew they needed food and he thought, "Ah, if I only had two shillings and sixpence instead of this half-crown, how gladly would I give these poor people a shilling." He had something at home for supper that night and for breakfast the next morning, but nothing more than that. Could he give up all he had and trust God to supply his need?

Through a dark court they went, then up some rickety stairs, and reached the poor room where the man's wife lay, with a baby thirty-six hours old, moaning at her side. Four or five hungry children stood about the room. When Taylor saw this scene of poverty, he thought he would like to give them a shilling and a half, but had not made up his mind to give up the whole coin. He tried to tell them of a loving heavenly Father who would care for them, but he could not say very much. Then he knelt to pray, but his conscience troubled him. How could he pray when he was not willing to give to these poor people who needed help so desperately? "You see what a terrible state we are in, sir; if you can help us, for God's sake do!" the poor man said. Taylor remembered that Jesus said, "Give to him that asketh thee," and he obeyed the command. He gave up his all, and in doing that he not only helped the poor people in their distress, but he won a victory and was happy.

"Give, and it shall be given unto you," the Bible says, "good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." Early the next morning the mailman left an envelop containing no letter, nor even the name of the sender, but a pair of new kid gloves and a half-sovereign coin. This was

five times as much as he had given away, and he felt that God had paid him good interest.

Two weeks more passed by and still the salary was unpaid. His room rent would be due on Saturday night and his landlady really needed the money. But he had made up his mind not to say anything to the doctor about it, and he adhered to his purpose.

Late Saturday afternoon Dr. Hardey suddenly asked, "By the by, Taylor, is not your salary due?" Quietly the young man replied, "It is overdue some little time."

"Oh, I am sorry you didn't remind me," the doctor said. "You know how busy I am. Wish I had thought a little sooner, for only this afternoon I sent all the money I had to the bank. Otherwise I would pay you at once."

This was a test of the young man's faith, indeed, but as soon as he could, he found a quiet place to pray, and God assured him that everything would work out all right. That evening he prepared for Sunday's meetings among the poor people, and was just ready to go home, when the doctor appeared on the scene, laughing. "Such a funny thing has just happened," he said. "One of my wealthiest patients has just come at this late hour to pay his doctor bill. Look up the ledger, Taylor, and see how much it is. Strange, isn't it, that he should come at this hour of the night, when he could write a check any day?" The bill was paid and the money turned over to Taylor. He was very happy, for several reasons. His needs were supplied, and more than that his landlady could be paid. But the greatest reason of all for his happiness was that prayer was answered. Dr. Hardey had been "moved, through God, by prayer alone." It was a big step in his preparation for a missionary's life.

It was not long after this that he went to London for further preparation. He had very little money, and met with some difficulties, but in due time he found a hospital where he could continue his studies. His lodging-place was a long distance from the hospital, and he could not afford to ride on the omnibus, so he had plenty of exercise going back and forth. He also had chances to exercise his faith.

As an act of kindness to Mrs. Finch, who had rented him his room at "Drainside," Taylor went to the shipping company for which Mr. Finch worked, and obtained his wages, which he sent to Mrs. Finch, saving her the cost of the commission which would have been charged if the money had been forwarded by the company.

Being especially in need of money at one time, she asked him to send the monthly salary as early as possible. Taylor was very busy at the time, and rather than spend a day in going to the city he sent money of his own, expecting to replace it when he should draw his pay. When he went to the company and asked for the money, the clerk said, "In looking this matter up, I find that the officer whose pay you wish to draw has run away from the ship and gone to the gold-diggings. Therefore, we have no money of his to be drawn."

"Well, that is very inconvenient for me, as I have already advanced the money and I know his wife will have no means of repaying it." The clerk could do nothing for him, and it was indeed a test, but he placed his trust in God.

It was not long until there was another faith test. He pricked his finger one day while sewing some sheets of paper together for a note book to use in the lecture room. The next day he helped dissect the body of some one who had

died with a very dangerous fever. He had forgotten all about the finger-prick until he felt himself becoming tired and sick. The poison from the dead body had entered his system through that tiny needle-prick and the surgeon said, "Go home and arrange your affairs as quickly as possible, for you are a dead man."

Hudson Taylor told the surgeon that the thought of being with his Lord very soon filled him with joy, "but," he added, "I do not think I shall die, for unless I am much mistaken I have work to do in China; and if so, however severe the struggle, I must be brought through."

"That is all very well," said the surgeon, who did not believe in God, "but get a carriage and drive home as soon as possible. You have no time to lose, for you will soon be incapable of winding up your affairs."

When he reached his room he bathed his hand in hot water, and while doing this, talked to the servant about salvation. He was "instant in season, out of season," always watching for an opportunity to say something for Jesus. The doctor who was called to see him told him there was a chance of his pulling through if he had been living simply. "But," he said, "if you have been going in for beer and that kind of thing, there is no manner of chance for you." For some time his meals consisted of brown bread and water, which was about as simple as the diet of the Hebrew children in Babylon, and the plain food worked well in both cases.

When the worst of the disease was over and he was slowly recovering, he was told of the death of two fellow-students who had worked with him in the dissecting room that day. God had work for Hudson Taylor to do and had spared his life. He was advised to take a trip to the country, but had

not the necessary money. As usual, he took the matter to the Lord in prayer and God answered in an unexpected way.

One day while he was still very weak he thought of going to the office of the shipping company to inquire about Mr. Finch's wages. It seemed unlikely that it would do any good, and the two-mile walk looked like an impossibility. But as he prayed about it God made it very plain that He wanted him to go, and he started out, trusting Him for strength. As soon as he entered the office the clerk said, "Oh, I am so glad you have come, for it turns out that it was an able seaman by the same name that ran away. The mate is still on board." He gladly paid the money, which Taylor received with joy. Though severely tested, his faith had been rewarded.

The next day he saw the doctor who had attended him during his sickness, and told him all about his answers to prayer. When he mentioned the long walk he had taken to get the money, the doctor said, "Impossible! Why I left you lying there more like a ghost than a man." When he was convinced that the walk had actually been taken and that the money received was just enough to take him to the country, after making all necessary payments, his eyes filled with tears and he said, "I would give all the world for a faith like yours."

Over three years had gone by since Hudson Taylor heard the voice of God say, "Go for Me to China," and he was becoming anxious to go. His medical course was not finished, but he felt inclined to give it up, and go as soon as the way should open. Very earnestly he prayed for guidance, and the more he prayed, the more he felt that it would be God's plan for him to go at once.

China seemed to be opening her doors for missionary work and the Missionary Society decided to send their young candidate without delay to that distant land.

An ocean voyage in those days was a very different matter from one today, and Hudson Taylor spent five months and a half on the sailing vessel Dumfries, which took him from Liverpool to Shanghai. September 19, 1853, he left his native land. His mother and one or two friends boarded the boat with him and in his cabin they prayed and sang and read a Psalm, before the boat started. "Dear Mother," he said, "do not weep. It is but for a little while and we shall meet again. Think of the glorious object I have in leaving you! It is not for wealth or fame, but to try to bring the poor Chinese to the knowledge of Jesus." When the others had gone ashore, he wrote on a piece of paper, "The love of God which passeth knowledge. J.H.T." This little parting word was tossed across to his mother as she stood on the pier. As the ship sailed away, he climbed a mast that he might have a longer view of the friends on the shore. There he waved his hat, while they waved their handkerchiefs until the boat was out of sight. Hudson Taylor was actually on his way to China!

The next twelve days were stormy ones. The captain said, "Unless God helps us, there is no hope." And God did help them. The young missionary remembered the promise "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me," and calmly looked to God.

At last the storm was over. Around the Cape of Good Hope, past Australia, and into the Pacific ocean, then through the China Sea they sailed, reaching their destination March 1, 1854. During that time Taylor had not been idle, but had

held meetings for the ship's crew, assisted by another Christian young man who was on the ship.

Can you imagine how a missionary feels as he nears the shores of the country where he has chosen to spend his life? Hudson Taylor felt when he had his first glimpse of China's shores, that the prayers of years were answered, and when he saw a group of natives, and heard them chatter in their strange tongue, he longed to be able to tell them the glad tidings of salvation. "My feelings on stepping ashore," he wrote, "I cannot describe. My heart felt as though it had not room and must burst its bonds, while tears of gratitude and thankfulness fell from my eyes."

Mr. Taylor had been given three letters of introduction, and started out to look up the people to whom they were addressed. The first one, he found, had died a month before, and the second one had left for America. Then he found his way to the London Mission Compound, and the missionaries there, though strangers, made him welcome and gave him a place to stay. Eager to prepare for real work, he began studying the language the next morning.

After much searching he found at last a house which he could rent. It was dilapidated and very dirty but he was glad to have a place for himself, as he disliked to be dependent upon others. People found out that he was a doctor, and many sick came to him. As he ministered to the needs of their bodies, he told them of the cure for sin-sick souls. A school for boys and girls was started and Mr. Taylor was happy. There were difficulties too, but Taylor had fitted himself for hard things by the rugged life he had lived before leaving England.

Busy months and years followed, filled with joys and disappointments. He took a number of journeys in a houseboat, preaching the Gospel in villages and cities where the name of Jesus had never been heard. Hardships were many and sometimes his life was in danger, but he did not turn back.

For some time he considered the question of adopting Chinese dress, and finally decided to do so, believing he could accomplish more for the Lord in that way. He had his head shaved, leaving a little hair which would grow into a Chinese cue [hair tied at the back of the head in a braid], and with baggy trousers, white calico socks, satin shoes, and to complete the costume, a loose silk gown with wide sleeves, he attracted less attention, and won the hearts of the natives as he could not do when in English dress.

It would take too long to tell of all Hudson Taylor's strange experiences in that strange land. Once he started to go from Shanghai to Ningpo. The first part of the trip was made by boat, then he proceeded on foot, with coolies to carry his luggage. Stopping at an inn, the only supper he could obtain was one of cold rice and snakes fried in lamp oil. It was not very appetizing, but he tried to eat, fearing he would be recognized as a foreigner if he refused. His room was shared with ten or eleven other men, and a board laid across two stools, with his umbrella and shoes for a pillow, formed his bed.

In the morning he began looking for the bed and box which had been carried by coolies, and was greatly disappointed upon finding no trace of them. Search as he would, they were not to be found. The next night he tried in vain to find

a place to lodge, and at last lay down on the steps of the temple, with his money under his head.

It was not long until he heard footsteps approaching, and soon stealthy hands were feeling about him. "What do you want?" he asked quietly, and the man disappeared, returning later with a companion.

"What do you want?" Taylor asked.

"We are passing the night outside the temple as you are," they answered.

He then suggested that as there was plenty of room on the other side, they'd better leave that side for him, but his advice didn't seem to be appreciated, so he decided he would sit up, to watch them more closely.

"You had better lie down and sleep, or you will not be able to work tomorrow," they said. "Don't be afraid, we shall not leave you, and shall see that no one does you harm."

Taylor knew better than to believe them and said, "Listen to me. I do not want your protection. I am not a Chinese and I do not worship your vain idols. I worship God. He is my Father and I trust in Him. I know well what you are, and what you wish to do, and shall keep my eye on you and shall not sleep." One of the men disappeared, only to return with another man. They watched for some time, hoping he would go to sleep, but he began to repeat verses of Scripture and sing hymns. They did not appreciate this, and finally went away.

Since Taylor's luggage was not to be found, he was obliged to return to Shanghai instead of going on to Ningpo. Later on it fell to his lot to nurse a man who was sick with

smallpox, and when it was all over, he was obliged to burn the clothing he had used in the sick room. He had given his money away freely and was unable to buy a new supply. Then, just at the right time, the box lost on the way to Ningpo, turned up unexpectedly, and his needs were supplied.

This was only one of the almost numberless incidents which fulfilled the promise--"The LORD will provide" [Jehovah-jireh, Genesis 22:14]. This verse and "Hitherto hath the LORD helped us," were Taylor's favorite mottoes.

In the course of his work, Mr. Taylor became acquainted with Miss Maria Dyer, an English girl whose father had been a missionary in China. Her uncle in England, who acted as her guardian, gave his consent to her marriage, and in January, 1858, there was a wedding in one of the missions. In a humble little place in Ningpo they began their work together and were very happy as they told the beautiful old story of Jesus and His love.

It was well for Hudson Taylor that he learned before leaving England, "to move man, through God, by prayer alone," for he had many and many an opportunity to put the lesson into practice. At one time he was in charge of a hospital, and the workers were trusting God to supply the needs. One day the cook told him that their rice was almost gone -- the last bag had been opened. And this was his answer -- "Then the Lord's time for helping us must be close at hand." And sure enough, before the rice was gone, $250 came from England. Great was the joy of the workers, and patients in the hospital, listening to the songs and shouts of praise, said, "Where is the idol that can do anything like that? Have they

ever delivered us in our troubles, or answered prayer after this sort?"

After six years in China the missionary was worn out, and a trip to England was planned, with Mrs. Taylor. It was a very profitable trip, for their health was built up, and the China Inland Mission was founded. Then back to China he went, for many more years of work for his Master. England was again visited, then America, and there was a period of rest in Switzerland. But his heart was in the land to which God called him in his young manhood, and there he laid his armor down. June 3, 1905 was the day of his death. Chinese Christians bought the most beautiful coffin they could find. However, his work did not die with him, and many souls in Heaven, won to God through the work of the China Inland Mission, will thank God because its founder, James Hudson Taylor, went to China.