Often in our Christian journey we inevitably face seasons of difficulty, staleness, times in the valley…it’s at times like these that a journey back into the pages of Christian history to look at the life of faithful saints often provides encouragement to persevere…
And so, this article is simply going to take a step back in time and explore the life of a faithful ambassador of Christ…
A question I have often found myself asking these faithful saints we read about is, “What were the influences that the Lord used in this person, that person, or that family’s life to turn from a pursuit of normalcy (some might say comfort), to a world of sacrifice from worldly stature, comfort, security…etc.?
Hudson Taylor (May 1832 – June 1905)
- A British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM) (now OMF International).
- Traveled to China 11x over his 51 years of ministry to China. During that China Inland Mission society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country that began 125 schools and directly resulted in 18,000 Christian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 500 local helpers in eighteen provinces of China.
- Some reports indicate that he raised $4 million dollars by faith (following George 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.
- He was known for his sensitivity to Chinese culture and zeal for evangelism. He adopted wearing native Chinese clothing even though this was rare among missionaries of that time. And because there continued to be so many Chinese to reach, Taylor instituted radical policies to reach them: he sent unmarried women into the interior, a move criticized by many veterans. But Taylor’s boldness knew no bounds. In 1881, he asked God for another 70 missionaries by the close of 1884: he got 76. In late 1886, Taylor prayed for another 100 within a year: by November 1887, he announced 102 candidates had been accepted for service.
- He would say, “China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women,” he wrote. “The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, [and] souls first and foremost in everything and at every time—even life itself must be secondary.”
- He was also a man who faced tremendous loss and tragedy, his wife Maria died at age 33 (12 years married), and four of eight of their children died before they reached the age of 10. Hudson did remarry, and lost his second wife, Jennie, a year before he died.
- He also faced much spiritual and physical difficulty:
- Facing defamation, depression, mental and physical breakdowns, and severe health problems; however, he pressed on…
- At one point, “Hudson later confessed that only his wife’s love stood between him and suicide.”
- This was a man who was not immune, freed of, or in some way prevented from facing and plodding through possibly life’s greatest trials and tragedies…but he continued…
- One historian summarizes the theme of his life by saying:
“No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.“
- Taylor was able to preach in several varieties of Chinese…and was able to help prepare a colloquial edition of the New Testament.
- Between his work ethic and his absolute trust in God (despite never soliciting funds, his CIM grew and prospered), he inspired thousands to forsake the comforts of the West to bring the Christian message to the vast and unknown interior of China. Though mission work in China was interrupted by the communist takeover in 1949, the CIM continues to this day under the name Overseas Missionary Fellowship (International).
So…
“What were the influences that the Lord used in Hudson Taylor to turn him from a pursuit of normalcy to a life of sacrifice for the gospel?
We’ll look at 5 things the Lord used to prepare him for the ministry of the gospel (taken from The Autobiography of Hudson Taylor: Missionary to China):
1. Prayer: for a man surrendered to God…
Before he was even born, his parents prayed, “Lord, we see the gospel need for China; would You give us a child who could be a missionary to this foreign land?” Hudson would run from his parents’ prayer for a time, sowing wild oats, but God would soon answer the cry of his praying mother…but there were setbacks and time before he would convert…
“All thought of my becoming a missionary was abandoned for many years by my dear parents on account of the feebleness of my health. When the time came, however, God gave increased health, and my life has been spared, and strength has been given for not a little toilsome service both in the mission field and at home, while many stronger men and women have succumbed.
While in this state of mind (teenage years) I came in contact with persons holding skeptical and infidel views, and accepted their teaching, only too thankful for some hope of escape from the doom which, if my parents were right and the Bible true, awaited the unrepentant. It may seem strange to say it, but I have often felt thankful for the experience of this time of skepticism. The inconsistencies of Christian people, who while professing to believe their Bibles were yet content to live just as they would if there were no such book, had been one of the strongest arguments of my skeptical companions; and I frequently felt at that time, and said, that if I pretended to believe the Bible I would at any rate attempt to live by it, putting it fairly to the test, and if it failed to prove true and reliable, would throw it overboard altogether. These views I retained when the Lord was pleased to bring me to Himself; and I think I may say that since then I have put God’s Word to the test. Certainly it has never failed me. I have never had reason to regret the confidence I have placed in its promises, or to deplore following the guidance I have found in its directions.”
2. Conversion: The day the Lord answered his parent’s prayer arrived…
“Let me tell you how God answered the prayers of my family for my conversion. On a day which I shall never forget, when I was about fifteen years of age, my dear mother being away from home, I had a holiday, and in the afternoon looked through my father’s library to find some book with which to while away the unoccupied hours. Nothing attracting me, I turned over a little basket of pamphlets, and selected from amongst them a Gospel tract which looked interesting, saying to myself, “There will be a story at the commencement, and a sermon or moral at the close: I will take the former and leave the latter for those who like it.” I sat down to read the little book in an utterly unconcerned state of mind, believing indeed at the time that if there were any salvation it was not for me, and with a distinct intention to put away the tract as soon as it should seem tedious. I may say that it was not uncommon in those days to call conversion “becoming serious”; and judging by the faces of some of its professors, it appeared to be a very serious matter indeed. Would it not be well if the people of God had always tell-tale faces, showing the blessings and gladness of salvation so clearly that unconverted people might have to call conversion “becoming joyful” instead of “becoming serious”?
Little did I know at the time what was going on in the heart of my dear mother, seventy or eighty miles away. She rose from the dinner-table that afternoon with an intense yearning for the conversion of her boy, and feeling that—absent from home, and having more leisure than she could otherwise secure—a special opportunity was afforded her of pleading with God on my behalf. She went to her room and turned the key in the door, resolved not to leave that spot until her prayers were answered. Hour after hour did that dear mother plead for me, until at length she could pray no longer, but was constrained to praise God for that which His Spirit taught her had already been accomplished—the conversion of her only son.
I in the meantime had been led in the way I have mentioned to take up this little tract, and while reading it was struck with the sentence, “The finished work of Christ.” The thought passed through my mind, “Why does the author use this expression? Why not say the atoning or propitiatory work of Christ?” Immediately the words “It is finished” suggested themselves to my mind. What was finished? And I 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.” 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 was 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 for evermore. Thus 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.
Not many months after my conversion, having a leisure afternoon, I retired to my own chamber to spend it largely in communion with God. Well do I remember that occasion. How in the gladness of my heart 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, and that I might do for Him who had done so much for me. For what service I was accepted I knew not; but a deep consciousness that I was no longer my own took possession of me, which has never since been destroyed.”
3. Call to Service & Motivation: His heart burned with a single passion for the Lord and His Word…his life changes…
“Two or three years later favorable propositions were made to me with regard to medical study, on the condition of my becoming an apprentice to the medical man who was my friend and teacher. Within a few months of this time of consecration the impression was formed into my soul that it was in China 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. I learned, however, that the Congregational minister of my native town possessed a copy of Medhurst’s China, and I called upon him to ask a loan of the book. This he kindly granted, asking me why I wished to read it. 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 Judæa—go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who had 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, 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 to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given.
Medhurst’s book on China emphasized the value of medical missions there, and this directed my attention to medical studies as a valuable mode of preparation. I began also to take more exercise in the open air to strengthen my physique. My feather bed I had taken away, and sought to dispense with as many other home comforts as I could, in order to prepare myself for rougher lines of life.
I began also to do what Christian work was in my power, in the way of gospel-tract distribution, Sunday-school teaching, and visiting the poor and sick, as opportunity afforded. After a time of preparatory study at home, I went to Hull for medical and surgical training. There I became assistant to a doctor who was connected with the Hull school of medicine, and was surgeon also to a number of factories, which brought many accident cases to our dispensary, and gave me the opportunity of seeing and practicing the minor operations of surgery. And here an event took place that I must not omit to mention.
Before leaving home 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. 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. The salary I received as medical assistant in Hull at the time now referred to would have allowed me with ease to do this. After much thought and prayer I was led to leave the comfortable quarters and happy circle in which I was now residing, and to engage a little lodging in the suburbs—a sitting-room and bedroom in one—undertaking to room by myself. In this way I was able without difficulty to tithe the whole of my income; and while I felt the change a good deal, it was attended with no small blessing.
More time was given in my solitude to the study of the Word of God, to visiting the poor, and to evangelistic work on summer evenings than would otherwise have been the case. Brought into contact in this way with many who were in distress, I soon saw the privilege of still being frugal, and found it easy to give away much more than the proportion of my income I had at first intended.
About this time a friend drew my attention to the question of the personal and pre-millennial 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, that His feet were to stand on the Mount of Olives, and that He was to take possession of the temporal throne of His father David which was promised before His birth. 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 the Lord; that thus living it was immaterial, so to speak, whether He should or should not come at anyparticular hour, the important thing being to be so ready for Him as to be able, whenever He might appear, to give an account of one’s stewardship with joy, and not with grief. 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 the far greater benefit of my own and that I found I had articles of clothing also which might be put to better advantage in other directions.”
4. The silver coin: learning to live with open hands…
“It was to me a very grave matter to contemplate going out to China, far away from all human aid, there to depend upon the living God alone for protection, supplies, and help of every kind. I felt that one’s spiritual muscles required strengthening for such an undertaking. There was no doubt that if faith did not fail, God would not fail; but, then, what if one’s faith should prove insufficient? I had not at that time learned that even “if we believe not, He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself”; and it was consequently a very serious question to my mind, not whether He was faithful, but whether I had strong enough faith to warrant my embarking in the enterprise set before me. I thought to myself, “When I get out to China, I shall have no claim on any one for anything; my only claim will be on God. How important, therefore, to learn before leaving England to move man, through God, by prayer alone.”
A commitment was made to trust that God would remind his boss to pay Hudson his salary. Hudson determined that this would build his faith in trusting God to meet his every need. Well, his boss forgot to pay his salary…and he thus was left without pay…hungry, and only a single silver coin to his estate…
“That Sunday was a very happy one. As usual my heart was full and brimming over with blessing. After attending service in the morning, my afternoons and evenings were filled with Gospel work, in the various lodging-houses I was accustomed to visit in the lowest part of the town. After concluding my last service about ten o’clock that night, a poor man asked me to go and pray with his wife, saying that she was dying. I readily agreed, and on the way to his house asked him why he had not sent for the priest, as his accent told me he was an Irishman. He had done so, he said, but the priest refused to come without a payment, which the man did not possess, as the family was starving.
Immediately it occurred to my mind that all the money I had in the world was the solitary silver coin; moreover, I had only food for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning…I certainly had nothing for dinner on the coming day. Somehow or other there was at once a stoppage in the flow of joy in my heart; but instead of reproving myself I began to reprove the poor man, telling him that it was very wrong to have allowed matters to get into such a state as he described, and that he ought to have applied to the relieving officer. His answer was that he had done so, and was told to come at eleven o’clock the next morning, but that he feared that his wife might not live through the night.
“Ah,” thought I, “if only I had several gold coins instead of this silver coin, how gladly would I give these poor people one shilling of it!” But to part with the silver coin was far from my thoughts. I little dreamed that the real truth of the matter simply was that I could trust in God plus gold coins (or security), but was not yet prepared to trust Him only, without any money at all in my pocket. This man led me into a court, down which I followed him with some degree of nervousness. I had found myself there before, and at my last visit had been very roughly handled, while my gospel-tracts were torn to pieces, and I received such a warning not to come again that I felt more than a little concerned.
Still, it was the path of duty, and I followed on. Up a miserable flight of stairs, into a wretched room, he led me; and oh 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, for it too seemed spent and failing. “Ah!” thought I, “if I had gold coins instead of a silver coin, how gladly should they have at least half 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 poor 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 a silver coin!” I was nearly choked. How gladly would I have compromised with conscience if I had had those gold coins! I would have given the more coins if I had them thankfully and kept the rest; but I was not yet prepared to trust in God alone and give my one silver coin.
To talk was impossible under these circumstances; yet, strange to say, I thought I should have no difficulty in praying. Prayer was a delightful occupation to me in those days; time thus spent never seemed wearisome, and I knew nothing of lack of words. I seemed to think that all I should have to do would be to kneel down and engage in prayer, and that relief would come to them and to myself together. “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 silver coin 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, and whether the words uttered were connected or disconnected I cannot tell; but I arose 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 word 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 silver coin, 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; what I had been trying to tell him was indeed true—God really was a Father, and might be trusted. 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, for ever. 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 striving 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 at dinner food 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.”
5. Setting sail for China: a 5 ½ month journey…
“The voyage was a very tedious one. Usually a breeze would spring up soon after sunset, and last until about dawn. The utmost use was made of it, but during the day we lay still with flapping sails, often drifting back and losing a good deal of the advantage we had gained during the night. This happened notably on one occasion, when we were in dangerous proximity to the north of New Guinea.
Saturday night had brought us to a point some thirty miles off the land; but during the Sunday morning service, which was held on deck, I could not fail to notice that the captain looked troubled, and frequently went over to the side of the ship. When the service was ended, I learnt from him the cause—a four-knot current was carrying us rapidly towards some sunken reefs, and we were already so near that it seemed improbable that we should get through the afternoon in safety. After dinner the long-boat was put out, and all hands endeavored, without success, to turn the ship’s head from the shore.
As we drifted nearer we could plainly see the natives rushing about the sands and lighting fires every here and there. The captain’s horn-book informed him that these people were cannibals, so that our position was not a little alarming. After standing together on the deck for some time in silence, the captain said to me, “Well, we have done everything that can be done; we can only await the result.” A thought occurred to me, and I replied, “No, there is one thing we have not done yet.” “What is it?” he queried. “Four of us on board are Christians,” I answered, “let us each retire to his own cabin, and in agreed prayer ask the Lord to give us immediately a breeze. He can as easily send it now as at sunset.” I had a good but very brief season in prayer, and then felt so satisfied that our request was granted that I could not continue asking, and very soon went up again on deck.
The first officer, a godless man, was in charge. I went over and asked him to let down the clews or corners of the mainsail, which had been drawn up in order to lessen the useless flapping of the sail against the rigging. He answered, “What would be the good of that?” I told him we had been asking a wind from God, that it was coming immediately, and we were so near the reef by this time that there was not a minute to lose. With a look of disbelief and contempt, he said with an oath that he would rather see a wind than hear of it! But while he was speaking I watched his eye, and followed it up to the royal (the topmost sail), and there, sure enough, the corner of the sail was beginning to tremble in the coming breeze. “Don’t you see the wind is coming? Look at the royal!” I exclaimed. “No, it is only a cat’s-paw,” he rejoined (a mere puff of wind). “Cat’s-paw or not,” I cried, “pray let down the mainsail, and let us have the benefit!” This he was not slow to do. In another minute the heavy tread of the men on the deck brought up the captain from his cabin to see what was the matter; and he saw that the breeze had indeed come. In a few minutes we were ploughing our way at six or seven knots an hour through the water, and the multitude of naked savages whom we had seen on the beach had no wreckage that night. We were soon out of danger; and though the wind was sometimes unsteady, we did not altogether lose it until after passing the Pelew Islands. Thus God encouraged me, 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.”
Conclusion: I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13)
7 Points from Hudson Taylor’s life that we can apply to our lives today:
- He was a man surrendered to prayer and the filling up on God’s Word…
- His life had one purpose…share the gospel to the unreached people…
- His lived a sacrificial life in every area…giving the Lord the first-fruits…
- He learned to have faith by allowing situations for faith…
- He was content with the life and the lot and life given by the Lord…
- His tenacity was unwavering…
- He, like Paul, wanted more and more of Christ…he was never satisfied…
Ephesians 3:19 “…to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”
In his book, EM Bounds, uses the following quote from Hudson Taylor in the context of answered prayer…
“A young man had been called to the foreign field. He had not been in the habit of preaching, but he knew one thing, how to prevail with God; and going one day to a friend he said: “I don’t see how God can use me on the field. I have no special talent.” His friend said: “My brother, God wants men on the field who can pray. There are too many preachers now and too few pray-ers.” He went. In his own room in the early dawn a voice was heard weeping and pleading for souls. All through the day, the shut door and the hush that prevailed made you feel like walking softly, for a soul was wrestling with God. Yet to this home, hungry souls would flock, drawn by some irresistible power. Ah, the mystery was unlocked. In the secret chamber lost souls were pleaded for and claimed. The Holy Ghost knew just where they were and sent them along.” — HUDSON TAYLOR
What Equipment Do You Need In Order to Be a Missionary? By J. Hudson Taylor
- A life yielded to God.
- A restful trust in Him to supply your needs.
- A willingness to take a lowly place.
- Adaptability towards circumstances.
- Steadfastness in discouragement.
- Love for prayer and study of the Word.
- Some experience and blessing in the Lord’s work at home.
Much of the material used in this article is adapted from, The Autobiography of Hudson Taylor: Missionary to China, J. Hudson Taylor.
— August 14, 2020