Missions Monday

Missions Monday

Posted by Ashley Hoover

Hudson Taylor-Part 6

by Florence Huntington Jensen

(Part 5 here)

  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! 

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