V
FAITH TRIED AND STRENGTHENED

Enough that God my Father knows: —
Nothing this faith can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.
SELECTED.
“AFTER all, I might go to China!” But how many testings still lay ahead.
The life that was to be exceptionally fruitful had to be rooted and
grounded in God in no ordinary way.
London followed Hull, and there Hudson Taylor entered as a medical
student at one of the great hospitals. He was still depending on the Lord
alone for supplies, for though his father and the Society which ultimately
sent him to China both offered to help with his expenses, he felt he must
not lose the opportunity of further testing the promises of God. When he
declined his father’s generous offer, the home circle concluded that the
Society was meeting his needs. It did undertake his fees at the London
Hospital, and an uncle in Soho gave him a home for a few weeks, but
beyond this there was nothing between him and want in the great city,
save the faithfulness of God. Before leaving Hull he had written to his
mother:
I am indeed proving the truth of that word, “Thou will keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” My
mind is quite as much at rest as, nay more than, it would be if I had a
hundred pounds in my pocket. May He keep me ever thus, simply
depending on Him for every blessing, temporal as well as spiritual. And to
his sister Amelia:
No situation has turned up in London that will suit me, but I am not
concerned about it, as HE is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for
ever.” His love is unfailing, His Word unchangeable, His power ever the
same; therefore the heart that trusts Him is kept in “perfect peace”.... I
know He tries me only to increase my faith, and that it is all in love. Well,
if He is glorified, I am content.
For the future, near as well as distant, Hudson Taylor had one
all-sufficient confidence. If that could fail, it were better to make the
discovery in London than far away in China. Deliberately and of his own
free will, he cut himself off from possible sources of supply. It was God,
the living God he needed — a stronger faith to grasp His faithfulness, and
more experience of the practicability of dealing with Him about every
situation. Comfort or discomfort in London, means or the lack of means,
seemed a small matter compared with deeper knowledge of the One on
whom everything depends. Now that a further opportunity had come for
putting that knowledge to the test, he did not hesitate, though he knew
that no little trial might be involved.
The outcome proved that in this decision the young medical student was
indeed led of God. Many and unmistakable were the answers to prayer in
London which strengthened his faith, affording just the preparation needed
for unforeseen developments which hastened his departure for China
within the next twelve months. In his own brief Retrospect Mr. Taylor
tells the story of these experiences.1 Suffice it to say here, that the
loneliness and privations that were permitted, the test of endurance —
when for months together he lived on nothing but brown bread and apples,
walking more than eight miles a day to and from the hospital — and all the
uncertainty as to his connection with the one and only society prepared to
send him to China without university training, went far to make him the
man of faith he was even at this early age.
For Hudson Taylor was only twenty-one when the way opened
unexpectedly, and he was requested by the Chinese Evangelization Society
to sail for Shanghai as soon as a vessel could be found. The Taiping
Rebellion had reached the zenith of its triumphant advance. With its
capital firmly established at Nanking, its nominally Christian forces had
swept over the central and northern provinces, and Peking itself was
almost within their grasp. “Send me teachers, many teachers to help in
making known the Truth,” wrote their leader to an American missionary
whom he trusted.2 “Hereafter, when my enterprise is successfully
terminated, I will disseminate the Doctrine throughout the whole Empire,
that all may return to the one Lord and worship the true God only. This is
what my heart earnestly desires.”
In a word, it seemed as though China would be forthwith thrown open to
messengers of the Gospel. Christian hearts everywhere were deeply
moved. Something must be done and done at once to meet so great a crisis,
and for a time money poured into the treasuries. Among other projects for
advance, the British and Foreign Bible Society undertook to celebrate its
Jubilee by printing a million copies of the Chinese New Testament, and
the society with which Hudson Taylor was in correspondence decided to
send two men to Shanghai for work in the interior. One of these, a Scotch
physician, could not leave immediately, but they counted upon the
younger man to go at short notice, even though it meant sacrificing the
degrees he was working for in medicine and surgery.
It was a serious step to take, and Hudson Taylor naturally turned to his
parents for counsel and prayer. After an interview with one of the
secretaries of the Chinese Evangelization Society he wrote to his mother:
Mr. Bird has removed most of the difficulties I have been feeling, and I
think it will be well to comply with his suggestion and at once propose
myself to the Committee. I shall await your answer, however, and rely
upon your prayers. If I should be accepted to go at once, would you
advise me to come home before sailing? I long to be with you once more,
and I know you would naturally wish to see me; but I almost think it
would be easier for us not to meet, than having met to part again forever.
No, not forever!
“A little while: ‘twill soon be past!
Why should we shun the promised cross?
Oh let us in His footsteps haste,
Counting for Him all else but loss:
Then, how will recompense His smile
The sufferings of this little while!”
I cannot write more, but hope to hear from you as soon as possible. Pray
much for me. It is easy to talk of leaving all for Christ, but when it comes
to the proof — it is only as we stand “complete in Him” we can go
through with it. God be with you and bless you, my own dear Mother,
and give you so to realize the preciousness of Jesus that you may wish for
nothing but “to know him”... even in “the fellowship of his sufferings.”
And to his sister:
Pray for me, dear Amelia, that He who has promised to meet all our need
may be with me in this painful though long-expected hour.
When we look at ourselves, at the littleness of our love, the barrenness of
our service and the small progress we make toward perfection, how soul
refreshing it is to turn away to Him; to plunge afresh in “the fountain
opened for sin and for uncleanness”; to remember that we are “accepted in
the beloved”... “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption.” Oh! the fullness of Christ, the
fullness of Christ
. . . . .
China in 1854, when after a perilous voyage of five months Hudson
Taylor first reached its shores, was even more of a problem to the
evangelist than it is today. Shanghai and four other Treaty Ports were the
only places at which foreigners were allowed to reside, and there was not a
single Protestant missionary anywhere in the interior, i.e., away from the
coast. Civil war was raging, and the Taiping propaganda had begun to lose
its earlier characteristics. Already it was degenerating into the corrupt
political movement which deluged the country with blood and sufferings
untold during the remaining eleven years of its course. Instead of being able
to reach Nanking and evangelize upcountry, Hudson Taylor had the
greatest difficulty in gaining a foothold even in Shanghai, and only at the
most serious risk could itinerations be undertaken.
Years afterwards, when responsible himself for the guidance of many
missionaries, it was easy to see that the trials of those early days were all
needed. He was pioneering a way in China, little as he or any one else
could imagine it, for hundreds who were to follow. Every burden must be
his, every testing real as only experience can make it. As iron is tempered
to steel, his heart must be stronger and more patient than others, through
having loved and assured more. He who was to encourage thousands in a
life of childlike trust, must himself learn yet deeper lessons of a Father’s
loving care. So difficulties were permitted to gather about him, especially
at first when impressions are deep and lasting, difficulties attended by
many a deliverance which made them a lifelong blessing.
To begin with, Shanghai was in the grip of war. A band of rebels known as
the “Red Turbans” was in possession of the native city, close to the
Foreign Settlement, and forty to fifty thousand of the national forces were
encamped round about. Fighting was almost continuous, and the foreign
militia had frequently to be called out to protect the Settlement.
Everything was at famine prices, and both the city and Settlement were so
crowded that accommodation was scarcely to be obtained at any price.
Had it not been that Dr. Lockhart of the London Mission was able to
receive him for a time, the new arrival would have been hard put to it.
Even so, sharp fighting was to be seen from his windows, and he was
unable to walk in any direction without witnessing misery such as he had
never dreamed of before.
It was also bitterly cold when Hudson Taylor first reached Shangai, and as
coal was selling at fifty dollars a ton it was not possible to do much to
warm the houses. He was not accustomed to luxuries and was thankful for
a shelter anywhere ashore, but he suffered not a little from the penetrating
chill and damp.
My position is a very difficult one (he wrote soon after his arrival). Dr.
Lockhart has taken me to reside with him for the present, as houses are
not to be had for love or money.... No one can live in the city.... They are
fighting now while I write, and the house shakes with the report of
cannon.
It is so cold that I can hardly think or hold the pen. You will see from my
letter to Mr. Pearse 3 how perplexed I am. It will be four months before I
can hear in reply, and the very kindness of the missionaries who have
received me with open arms makes me fear to be burdensome. Jesus will
guide me aright.... I love the Chinese more than ever. Oh to be useful
among them!
Of his first Sunday in China he wrote:
I attended two services at the London Mission and in the afternoon went
into the city with Mr. Wylie. You have never seen a city in a state of
siege.... God grant you never may! We walked some distance round the
wall, and sad it was to see the wreck of rows upon rows of houses. Burnt
down, blown down, battered to pieces — in all stages of ruin they were!
And the misery of those who once occupied them and now, at this
inclement season, are driven from home and shelter is terrible to think of....
By the time we came to the North Gate they were fighting fiercely outside
the city. One man was carried in dead, another shot through the chest, and
a third whose arm I examined seemed in dreadful agony. A ball had gone
clean through the arm breaking the bone in passing.... A little farther on we
met some men bringing in a small cannon they had captured, and following
them were others dragging along by their tails (queues) five wretched
prisoners.
The poor fellows cried to us piteously to save them as they were hurried
by, but alas, we could do nothing! They would probably be at once
decapitated. It makes one’s blood run cold to think of such things.
The sufferings of those around him, and the fact that he could do little or
nothing to help, would have been overwhelming, but for the strengthening
of Him who suffers most.
What it means to be so far from home, at the seat of war (he added) and
not able to understand or be understood by the people was fully realized.
Their utter wretchedness and misery and my inability to help them or
even point them to Jesus powerfully affected me. Satan came in as a flood,
but there was One who lifted up a standard against him. Jesus is here, and
though unknown to the majority and uncared-for by many who might
know Him, He is present and precious to His own.
Personal trials, too, were not lacking. For the first time in his life, Hudson
Taylor found himself in a position in which he could hardly meet his
financial obligations. He had willingly lived on next to nothing at home, to
keep within his means, but now he could not avoid expenses altogether
beyond his income. Living with others who were receiving three or four
times his salary, he was obliged to board as they did, and saw his small
resources melt away with alarming rapidity. At home he had been a
collector for foreign missions, and knew what it was to receive the hardly
earned contributions of the poor. Missionary money was to him a sacred
trust, and to have to use it so freely caused him real distress. Then the
letters he wrote to the Society received but unsatisfactory replies. After
waiting months for instructions, he might hear nothing at all in answer to
his most urgent questions. The Committee in London was far away and
little able to understand his circumstances. They were mostly busy men,
absorbed in their own affairs, and with the best intentions and a real desire
to forward the work of God they were unable to visualize a situation so
different from anything they had ever known. Hudson Taylor did his best
to make matters clear to them, but month after month went by and he was
left in uncertainty and financial distress.
The Shanghai dollar, previously worth about fifty cents gold, was up to
twice that sum and continually rising higher, yet had no more purchasing
value. Obliged to exceed his salary for the necessaries of life, he made use
of a letter of credit provided against emergencies but could not obtain any
assurance that his bills would be honored. It was a painful situation for
one so conscientious in money matters, and cost him many a wakeful
night.
Then with the heat of summer came added perplexities. Not from his own
Committee, but in a roundabout way Hudson Taylor learned that the
Scotch physician who was to be his colleague had already sailed from
England with wife and children. No instructions had reached him as to
providing accommodation for the family, and as the weeks went by he
realized that unless he took steps in the matter they would be left without
a roof over their heads. Without authorization for such an expenditure, he
had to find and rent rooms of some sort for five people, and a difficult
proposition it proved to be. Not daring to afford a sedan chair — the
proper means of transport — he spent himself searching all through city
and Settlement, in the blinding heat of August, for houses that were not to
be had. His Shanghai friends assured him that the only thing to do was to
buy land and build immediately. How could he tell them the true situation
or reveal his lack of funds? Criticism was already too current in the
community as to the management of the society he represented; so he had
to keep his troubles to himself, as far as possible, and seek to cast his
burden upon the Lord.
One who is really leaning on the Beloved (he wrote under these
circumstances) finds it always possible to say, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. But I am so apt, like Peter, to take my eyes off the One to be
trusted and look at the winds and waves.... Oh for more stability! The
reading of the Word and meditation on the promises have been increasingly
precious to me of late. At first I allowed my desire to acquire the language
speedily to have undue prominence and a deadening effect on my soul. But
now, in the grace that passes all understanding, the Lord has again caused
His face to shine upon me.
And to his sister he added:
I have been puzzling my brains again about a house, etc., but to no effect.
So I have made it a matter of prayer, and have given it entirely into the
Lord’s hands, and now I feel quite at peace about it. He will provide and
be my guide in this and every other perplexing step.
It must have seemed almost too good to be true when, only two days after
the above was written, Hudson Taylor heard of premises that could be
rented, and before the month was over found himself in possession of a
house large enough to accommodate his expected colleagues. Five rooms
upstairs and seven down seemed indeed a spacious residence. And though
it was only a poor Chinese place, built of wood and very ramshackle, it
was right among the people, near the North Gate of the city. Here then he
established himself six months after his arrival in China, and though the
situation was so dangerous that his teacher did not dare to go with him, he
was able to engage a Shanghai Christian, an educated man, who could help
him with the local dialect.
To be alone among the Chinese in a place of his own, and able, with the
help of his new teacher, to carry on daily meetings and do a good deal of
medical work, was joy indeed! But the location proved more perilous than
he had anticipated. It was beyond the protection of the Settlement and
within range of the Imperial artillery constantly covering the North Gate,
so that it was not difficult to discover why the house had been left vacant.
For almost three months the young missionary was able to hold on in the
hope of some change for the better. But then the situation became
desperate. His life had repeatedly been in danger, and he was obliged to
witness day by day scenes of fiendish cruelty. At last the premises next
door was set on fire with the intention of driving out the foreigner. No
choice was left but to go back to the London Mission and there, just in
time for the arrival of the Parkers, a refuge was found.
A little house on the London Missionary Society property, close to Dr.
Lockhart’s, had been the home of Hudson Taylor’s dearest friends in
China. Often had he shared their fireside, rejoicing in the happiness of the
young English missionary and his wife.4 But with the coming of their first
child the home had been broken up and the father had taken his motherless
little one to the care of fellow workers. In his sorrow for his friend,
Hudson Taylor had not realized the bearing upon his own situation of the
empty house so rich in memories. But before he had to leave his dangerous
location near the North Gate, the Burdon home was for rent. The arrival of
the Parkers was expected daily, and though it left him with only three
dollars in hand, Hudson Taylor secured the house on his own
responsibility, just in time to receive his colleagues, including a baby born
at sea.
To help the situation he was glad to sublet half the house to another
missionary family in distress, but that left only three rooms for the
Parkers and himself. Even so he was not able to furnish them adequately,
his few belongings making a poor show when six people had to be
provided for. But this was only the beginning of troubles; for Dr. Parker,
too, had but a few dollars in hand, after the long voyage by sailing ship,
and was depending upon a letter of credit from the Society, which by
some mistake did not turn up. It was supposed to have been sent off
before the Parkers left England, but month after month went by and there
was no word of it or reference to its non-appearance. Not having been led
to expect severe winters, the family were in sore need of warmer clothing
and bedding. How they lived at all through those trying months it is hard
to see, and the comments of the foreign community can easily be imagined.
Quietly Dr. and Mrs. Parker held on, not turned aside from their
missionary work by the tempting possibilities open to a medical man in
Shanghai. He went out regularly with his young colleague to evangelize in