Missions Monday

Missions Monday

Posted by Ashley Hoover

Hudson Taylor-Part 2

by Florence Huntington Jensen

(Part 1 here)

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...

Copied by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org from Hearts Aflame by Florence Huntington Jensen. Waukesha, Wisc.: Metropolitan Church Assn., ©1932.