VII
GOD’S WAY — “PERFECT”

We thank Thee, Lord, for pilgrim days
When desert springs were dry,
When first we knew what depths of need
Thy Love could satisfy.
SELECTED.
OVER the political horizon, storm clouds had long been gathering, and the
very mail that brought tidings of the arrest of Mr. Burns told also of the
outbreak of hostilities between England and China. It was at Ningpo that
Hudson Taylor heard of the bombardment of Canton by the British fleet,
and the commencement of the war which did not finally terminate until
four years later. His first thought, naturally, was for Mr. Burns. What a
mercy that he was no longer at Swatow, exposed to the rage of that
hot-headed southern people!
As you are aware (he wrote to his sister in November) I have been
detained in Ningpo by various circumstances, and a sufficient cause has at
length appeared in the disturbances which have broken out in the South.
The latest news we now have is that Canton has been bombarded for two
days, a breach being made on the second, and that the British entered the
city, the Viceroy refusing to give any satisfaction. We are anxiously
awaiting later and fuller accounts.... I know not the merits of the present
course of action... and therefore refrain from writing my thoughts about it.
But I would just refer to the goodness of God in removing Mr. Burns from
Swatow in time. For if one may judge of the feelings of the Cantonese in
Swatow by what one sees here at present, it would go hard with any one
at their mercy.
So, already, the circumstance that had seemed a great calamity was being
recognized as among the “all things” that work together for good “to them
that love God.” It was one of not a few hard lessons through which
Hudson Taylor was learning to think of God as The One Great
Circumstance of Life, and of all lesser, external circumstances as
necessarily the kindest, wisest, best, because either ordered or permitted
by him. And it was not long before he came to see in his detention in
Ningpo another remarkable evidence of the love and care of God. For it
was there he was brought into contact with the life that was so perfectly
to complete his own.
In the southern section of the city, near the ancient pagoda, was a quiet
street between two lakes which went by the name of Bridge Street. There
Dr. Parker had opened a dispensary, a mile or two from his hospital, and
there as autumn was advancing Hudson Taylor was glad to find a
temporary home. The little place is of interest, as later on it was to be the
first station of the China Inland Mission — working now from hundreds
of centers throughout many provinces. Looking back upon those early
days, Mr. Taylor wrote:
I have a distinct remembrance of tracing my initials on the snow which
during the night had collected on my coverlet in the large, barn like upper
room now divided into four or five smaller ones, each of which is
comfortably celled. The tiling of a Chinese house may keep off the rain, if
it happens to be sound, but does not afford so good protection against
snow, which will beat up through the crannies and crevices and find its
way within. But however unfinished may have been its fittings, the little
house was well adapted for work among the people, and there I thankfully
settled, finding ample scope for service, morning, noon and night.
The only other foreigners in that part of the city were Mr. and Mrs. J.
Jones, also of the Chinese Evangelization Society, and a lady who with
two young helpers was carrying on a remarkably successful school for
girls, the first ever opened in China. This Miss Aldersey was fortunate in
having secured the assistance of the daughters of the Rev. Samuel Dyer,
who had been one of the earliest missionaries to the Chinese and a
colleague of Robert Morrison’s. When Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their
family came to live not far from the school, the younger of the sisters
found many opportunities of being helpful to the busy mother. As often
as possible they went out visiting in the neighborhood, Miss Dyer’s
fluency in the language making such work a pleasure. Young as she was,
not yet twenty, and much occupied with her school duties, this bright,
gifted girl was a real soul-winner. With her, missionary work was not
teaching merely, it was definitely leading people to Christ.
This was what drew out Hudson Taylor’s interest. For in the home of his
fellow-workers he could not but meet Miss Dyer from time to time, and
could not but be attracted. She was so frank and natural that they were
soon good friends, and she proved so like-minded in all important ways
that unconsciously almost to himself she began to fill a place in his heart
never filled before.
But before long the friendship was interrupted by unexpected happenings
which broke up the missionary community in Ningpo. A plot was
discovered to massacre all foreigners, and though thwarted in their design,
the hatred of the Cantonese throughout the district was so great that it
seemed necessary to send families with children to the coast. His
familiarity with the Shanghai dialect made Hudson Taylor the most
suitable escort for the party, and hard though it was to leave at such a time
he could not refuse the service.
Miss Aldersey was not to be persuaded to seek a place of greater safety.
On account of advancing age, she was handing over her school to the
American Presbyterian Mission. It was no time for unnecessary changes,
and taking what precautions were possible she encouraged her young
helpers to remain with her. The elder of the sisters had become engaged to
Hudson Taylor’s special friend, Mr. J. S. Burdon, and the younger seemed
the more lonely and unprotected by comparison. How hard it was to leave
her at such a time! But Hudson Taylor had no reason to suppose that his
presence would be any comfort. And besides — was he not trying to
forget?
For one thing, he realized keenly how little he had to offer the one he
loved. His position as an agent of the Chinese Evangelization Society had
of late become increasingly embarrassing. For some time he had known
that the Society was in debt and that his salary was paid from borrowed
money.
Personally (he wrote, recalling the circumstances) I had always avoided
debt, though at times only by very careful economy. Now there was no
difficulty in doing this, for my income was larger, but the Society itself
was in debt. The quarterly bills which I and others were instructed to draw
were often met with borrowed money, and a correspondence commenced
which terminated in the following year by my resigning from conscientious
motives.
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.
Could that which was wrong for one Christian be right for an association
of Christians? Or could any amount of precedents make a wrong course
justifiable? 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 my connection with the Society.... It was a great
satisfaction to me that my friend and colleague, Mr. Jones,... was led to
take the same step, and we were both profoundly thankful that the
separation took place without the least breach of friendly feeling on either
side....
The step we had taken was not a little trying to faith. I was not at all sure
what God would have me do or whether He would so meet my need as to
enable me to continue working as before.... But God blessed and prospered
me, and how glad and thankful I felt when the separation was really
effected! 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.
And how blessedly He did lead me I can never, never tell. It was like a
continuation of some of my earlier experiences at home. My faith was not
untried; it often, often failed, and I was so sorry and ashamed of the failure
to trust such a Father. But oh! I was learning to know Him. I would not
even then have missed the trial. He became so near, so real, so intimate!
The occasional difficulty about funds never came from an insufficient
supply for personal needs, but in consequence of ministering to the wants
of scores of the hungry and dying around us. And trials far more searching
in other ways quite eclipsed these difficulties and being deeper brought
forth in consequence richer fruits.
The poor whom they were feeding that winter were famine refugees who
had crowded to Shanghai from districts devastated by the Taiping
Rebellion. In all stages of nakedness, sickness and starvation, these
sufferers were living in low, arched tombs which they had broken open, or
in any discarded building half in ruins. In addition to taking charge of one
of the chapels of the London Mission, Hudson Taylor was preaching daily
in the City Temple, but he made time to visit these haunts of misery with
Mr. Jones, ministering regularly to the sick and feeding many of the
hungry.
Thus it was from no lack of occupation that his thoughts turned
constantly to Ningpo, nor was it without misgiving that he found himself
so urgently impelled to consider the question of marriage. “Never marry if
you can help it” is cryptic advice which may easily be misunderstood, but
Hudson Taylor was finding out its meaning. For a great, God given love
had come to him, and there was no disguising its implications.
Meanwhile, in Ningpo, the same gracious Providence was working, though
there was much more in the way of hindrance to overcome. The difficulty,
however, was not on the part of the one most concerned. Maria Dyer’s
was a deep and tender nature. Lonely from childhood, she had grown up
longing for a real heart-friend. Her father she could hardly remember, and
her mother had died when she was only ten years old. Her true conversion,
when on the way to China to join Miss Aldersey, made missionary work
very different from what it would otherwise have been, but it was a lonely
post for a girl still in her teens, especially after her sister became engaged
to be married.
And then, he had come — the young missionary who impressed her as
having longings like her own after holiness, usefulness, nearness to God.
He was different from others — not more gifted or attractive, though he
was bright and pleasing and full of quiet fun, but with a something about
him that made her feel rested and understood. He seemed to live in such a
real world and to have such a real, great God. Though she saw but little of
him it was a comfort to know that he was near, and she was startled to
find how much she missed him when after only seven weeks he left to
return to Swatow.
And then the way was closed, as we have seen, and to her joy as well as
surprise, he was back in Ningpo again. Perhaps it was this that opened her
eyes to the feeling with which she was beginning to regard him. At any
rate she soon knew and with her sweet true nature did not try to hide it
from her own heart and God. There was no one else to whom she cared to
speak about him, for others did not always see in him what she saw. They
disliked his wearing Chinese dress, and did not approve of his making
himself so entirely one with the people. His Chinese dress — how she
loved it! or what it represented, rather, of his spirit. His poverty and
generous giving to the destitute — how well she understood, how much
she sympathized! Did others think him visionary in his longing to reach
the great beyond of untouched need? Why, that was just the burden on her
heart, the life she too would live, only for a woman it seemed if anything
more impracticable. So she prayed much about her friend, though to him
she showed but little.
Month after month went by, when he had to be in Shanghai, and she did
not know it cost him anything to leave her. And then, at last — a letter!
Sudden as was the joy, the great and wonderful joy, it was no surprise,
only a quiet outshining of what had long shone within. So she was not
mistaken after all. They were for one another — “two whom God hath
chosen to walk together before Him.”
When she could break away from her first glad thanksgiving she went to
find her sister, who was most sympathetic. The next thing was to tell
Miss Aldersey, hoping she would approve this engagement as she had
Burella’s. But great was the indignation with which the older lady heard
the story.
“Mr. Taylor! that young, poor, unconnected Nobody. How dare he
presume to think of such a thing? Of course the proposal must be refused
at once, and that finally.”
In vain Maria tried to explain how much he was to her. That only made
matters worse. She must be saved without delay from such folly. And her
kind friend, with the best intentions, proceeded to take the matter entirely
into her own hands. The result was a letter written almost at Miss
Aldersey’s dictation, not only closing the whole affair but requesting most
decidedly that it might never be reopened.
Bewildered and heartbroken, the poor girl had no choice. She was too
young and inexperienced, and far too shy in such matters, to withstand the
decision of Miss Aldersey, strongly reinforced by others of her friends.
Stung to the quick with grief and shame, she could only leave it in the
hands of her heavenly Father. He knew, He understood. And in the long,
lonely days that followed, even when her sister was won over to Miss
Aldersey’s position, she took refuge in the certainty that nothing, nothing
was too hard for the Lord. “If He has to slay my Isaac,” she assured
herself again and again, “I know He can restore.”
But when spring came again and the absentees were able to return from
Shanghai, the position became increasingly difficult. For Miss Aldersey,
indignant at Hudson Taylor’s reappearance, felt it her duty to disparage
him in every possible way. He could not attempt to see Miss Dyer, after
the letter she had written, and had no clue to her changed attitude. Gifted
and attractive, she had no lack of suitors who were openly encouraged.
And Chinese etiquette combined with well-meant diplomacy made it
almost impossible for the two to meet. But both were praying. Both
hearts so sorely tried were open to God, truly desiring His will. And He
has wonderful ways of working!
It was a sultry afternoon in July, and in regular rotation it had come to
Mrs. Jones’s turn to be hostess for the prayer meeting. The usual number
of ladies gathered, but as the sequel proved it was easier to come to the
meeting that day than to get away. For with scarcely any warning a
waterspout, sweeping up the tidal river, broke over Ningpo in a perfect
deluge followed by torrents of rain. Mr. Jones and Hudson Taylor, by this
time a boarder in their family, were over at the dispensary, and on account
of the flooded streets were late in returning. Most of the visitors had left
before they reached home, but a servant from the school was there who
said that Miss Maria Dyer and a companion were still waiting for sedan
chairs.
“Go into my study” said Mr. Jones, “and I will see what can be arranged.”
It was not long before he returned, saying that the ladies were alone with
Mrs. Jones, and would be glad to see Mr. Taylor.
Hardly knowing what he did, the young man went upstairs and found
himself meeting the one he supremely loved. True there were others
present — that was unavoidable on account of Chinese conventions. But
he hardly saw them, hardly saw anything but her face. He had only meant
to ask if he might write to her guardian in London — for permission. But
now it all came out, he could not help it! And she? Well, there were only
intimate friends with them, and it might be so long before they could meet
again! Yes, she consented, and did much more than that. With a true
woman’s heart, she relieved his fears by letting him understand that he
was just as dear to her as she could be to him. And then Hudson Taylor
relieved the situation by saying, “Let us take it all to the Lord in prayer.”
Four months was a long, long time to wait, especially when they knew
that Miss Aldersey had written home to bring the distant relatives to her
own point of view. What if the guardian in London should be influenced
by her strong representations? What if he refused his consent to the
marriage? Both the young people were clear in their convictions that the
blessing of God rested upon obedience to parents, or those in parental
authority.
I have never known (Mr. Taylor wrote in later years) disobedience to the
definite command of a parent, even if that parent were mistaken, that was
not followed by retribution. Conquer through the Lord. He can open any
door.6 The responsibility is with the parent in such a case, and it is a
serious one. When the son or daughter can say in all sincerity, “I am
waiting for Thee, Lord, to open the way, the matter is in His hands and He
will take it up.
And take it up He did; for toward the end of November the
long-looked-for letters came, and were favorable! After careful inquiry, the
uncle in London had satisfied himself that Hudson Taylor was a
missionary of unusual promise. The secretaries of the Chinese
Evangelization Society had nothing but good to say of him, and from other
sources also he had the highest references. Taking, therefore, any
disquieting rumors he may have heard for no more than they were worth,
he cordially consented to his niece’s engagement, requesting only that the
marriage should be delayed until she came of age. And that would be in
little more than two months’ time.
After that they were openly engaged, and how those happy winter days
made up for all that had gone before! On Saturday, January 16, the
bride-elect would be twenty-one years of age, and the wedding was
arranged for the week following.
I never felt in better health or spirits in my life (wrote Hudson Taylor).... I
can scarcely realize, dear Mother, what has happened; that after all the
agony and suspense we have suffered we are not only at liberty to meet
and be much with each other, but that within a few days, D.V., we are to
be married! God has been good to us. He has indeed answered our prayer
and taken our part against the mighty. Oh may we walk more closely with
Him and serve Him more faithfully. I wish you knew my Precious One.
She is such a treasure! She is all that I desire.
And then, six weeks later:
Oh, to be married to the one you do love, and love most tenderly and
devotedly... that is bliss beyond the power of words to express or
imagination conceive. There is no disappointment there. And every day as
it shows more of the mind of your Beloved, when you have such a
treasure as mine, makes you only more proud, more happy, more humbly
thankful to the Giver of all good for this best of earthly gifts.