The account was duly receipted in the ledger and Dr. Hardy was about to leave when suddenly he turned and, handing me some of the bank notes just received, said to my surprise and thankfulness, By the by, Taylor, you might as well take these notes. I have no change but can give you the balance next week. Again I was left, my feelings undiscovered, to go back to my little closet and praise the Lord with a joyful heart that after all I might go to China. The year 1852, 1853. With the impatience of an idealistic 19-year-old, Hudson wrote his sister a letter in March of 1852 in which he said, I feel I have not long to stay in this country now. I do not know what turn Providence is about to take, but I think some change is coming, and I am forewarned that I should be prepared. Pray for me that my faith shall not fail. Hudson saw no likely prospect for any immediate service with a missionary agency. They all required ordination and more training than he had. So he began to think of saving enough money to pay his own way to China. He would just trust God for provision once he was there. But even the thought of working to save up money for his own passage seemed an unacceptable and frustrating delay. So he began considering yet another alternative which he raised in the same letter to his sister. If I stay here another two years and save 50 or 60 pounds to pay my expenses to China, I shall land there no better off than I go if I go at once and work my passage out. In two years there will die in that land at least 24 million people. In six or eight months I should be able to talk a little Chinese. And if I could instruct in the truths of the gospel one poor sinner, then what would the hardship of a four or five months voyage weigh in comparison. Hudson hoped to find a berth as an assistant to a ship surgeon. If that wasn't possible, he'd go as a sailor. Though he was more than willing to endure the hardship which that would entail, the advice and prayers of family and friends convinced him that he had more to learn before he had set for the other side of the world. Dr. Hardy offered Hudson a medical apprenticeship, but his plan required a commitment that would last several years. And as eager as Hudson was to become a doctor, he felt he needed to be ready to go to China as soon as the opportunity opened up. So he turned down that kind doctor's offer. Shortly following, just months after his 20th birthday, Hudson decided to continue his medical studies in London. He felt certain that after a short time there, the way would open up for him to go to China. And he wasn't nearly as concerned about needing more money, more education, or even more maturity as he was about continuing to exercise and strengthen his faith. I felt I could not go to China without having still further developed and tested my power to rest upon his faithfulness, and a marked opportunity for doing so was providentially afforded me. My dear father had offered to bear all the expenses of my stay in London. I knew, however, that owing to recent losses it would mean a considerable sacrifice for him to undertake this just when it seemed necessary for me to go forward. I had recently become acquainted with the committee of the Chinese Evangelization Society, and not knowing of my father's proposition, the committee also kindly offered to bear my expense while in London. While these proposals were first made to me, I was not quite clear as to what I ought to do, and in writing to my father and the secretaries, told them that I would take a few days to pray about the matter before deciding any course of action. I mentioned to my father that I had had this offer from the Society, and told the secretaries also of his proffered aid. Subsequently, while waiting upon God in prayer for guidance, it became clear to my mind that I could without difficulty decline both offers. The secretaries of the Society would not know that I had cast myself wholly on God for supplies, and my father would conclude that I had accepted the other offer. I therefore wrote, declining both. and felt that without anyone having either care or anxiety on my account, I was simply in the hands of God, and that he who knew my heart, if he wished to encourage me to go to China, would bless my effort to depend upon him alone at home. Hudson did accept the mission society offered to cover his fees at the London hospital where he studied, and an uncle in Soho gave him a place to stay for a few weeks until he could find permanent lodging. But beyond that, Hudson Taylor, a small-town boy, was on his own in the hustle and bustle of London. Before leaving Hall, he had written to his mother, I am indeed proving the truth of that word, thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. My mind is quiet, as much at rest, and nay, more than, it would be if I had 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. About his search for a job that would pay living expenses and leave time for his studies, he wrote to his sister, Amelia. No situation has turned up in London that will suit me, but I'm not concerned about it, as he is the same yesterday and today and forever. 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 is all in love. Well, if He is glorified, I am content." Hudson decided that if his faith was going to fail him, better to make that discovery in London than in China. So he continued his test, living on his meager savings and God's provision. He wrote at this time, To lessen expenses I shared a room with a cousin four miles from the hospital, providing my own board, and after various experiments I found that the most economical way was to live almost exclusively on brown bread and water. Thus I was able to make the means that God gave me last longer and as much as possible. Some of my expenses I could not diminish, but my board was largely in my control. A large two-penny loaf of brown bread, purchased daily on my long walk from the hospital, furnished me with a supper and breakfast. And on this diet, with a few apples for lunch, I managed to walk eight or nine miles a day, besides being a good deal on foot, attending to the practice of the hospital. The following months further tested Hudson's patience. Even as he studied, he prayed for an open door to China. During that time he almost died of a fever contracted from a cadaver he and fellow students worked on at the hospital. But events were transpiring on the other side of the world that promised to change the course of Chinese history and suddenly made Hudson Taylor's longtime dream an immediate reality. In China, the Taiping Rebellion looked to be on the verge of success. Its capital, firmly established at Nanking, Its nominally Christian forces had swept over the central and northern provinces. Peking itself looked almost within their grasp. Hung Chua Tuan, founder of the Taipeng movement, had read a Christian tract that had been impressed with Christian teaching. He wrote to an American missionary, send me teachers, many teachers, to help in making known the truth. 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." Suddenly it seemed to the waiting Western world that China, closed for centuries to foreigners, was about to be thrown open to messengers of Christianity. The entire Christian Church in Europe and North America grew excited at the prospect. It seemed an opportunity too wonderful to miss. Money began pouring into the treasures of mission organizations for China-related projects. For example, the British and Foreign Bible Society decided to undertake an unprecedented printing of one million copies of the Chinese New Testament. And the society, paying Hudson's school expense, decided to send two men to Shanghai as soon as possible. One of these men, a Scottish physician, couldn't leave immediately. But they thought Hudson Taylor, single, and only 21, might go on short notice, even if it meant sacrificing the degrees he was pursuing in medicine and surgery. Despite his past impatience, the decision wasn't an easy one for Hudson. He had had enough dealings with the Chinese Evangelization Society to realize some of what it would mean to be accountable to its organization. He would need their approval for anything he did in China. They wanted to send him to Shanghai, But what happened if the way opened for him to move into the interior? He began to feel that God was calling him to inland China, where no Western missionary had ever gone. And now, with the seeming success of the Taiping Rebellion, the opportunity might be there. He began to wonder whether or not he would be better off returning to his earlier plan of going to China on his own, dependent on and accountable only to God. He asked his friends and family for counsel and prayer in his decision. But after an interview with one of the secretaries of the society, he wrote to his mother, Mr. Bird has removed most of the difficulties I've 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 to meet and part again forever. No, not forever. I cannot write more, but hope to see and 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 can we 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." And to his sister he wrote, "'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.'" The decision was soon made. Hudson Taylor was going to China, and he booked passage on the first ship he could find. Moored at her landing in a Liverpool dock, the double-masted sailing ship, the Dumfries, was bound for China. A small vessel of 470 tons, she was carrying only one passenger, so there was no crowd to see her off. Mr. Pierce, a representative of the Mission Society, and Hudson's father had made the trip to Liverpool, but when needed repairs delayed the ship's departure, they both had to return home, leaving only Hudson's mother to actually see him off. He later recalled the difficulty of that exciting and sad experience. On the 19th of September, 1853, a little service was held in the stern cabin of the Dumfries, which had been secured for me by the Chinese Evangelization Society, under whose auspices I was going to China. My beloved, now sainted mother, had come over to Liverpool to see me off. Never shall I forget that day. nor how she went with me into the cabin that was to be my home for nearly six months. With a mother's loving hand she smoothed the little bed. She sat by my side and joined in the last hymn we would sing together before parting. We knelt down and she prayed, the last mother's prayer I was to hear before leaving for China. Then notice was given that we must separate, and we had to say goodbye, never expecting to meet on earth again. For my sake she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted and she went ashore giving me her blessing. I stood alone on deck and she followed the ship as we moved toward the dock gates. As we passed through the gates and the separation really commenced, never shall I forget the cry of anguish rung from that mother's heart. It went through me like a knife. I never knew so fully until then what God so loved the world meant. And I'm quite sure my precious mother learned more of the love of God for the perishing in that one hour than in all her life before. As difficult and emotional as that parting must have been, the trials of Hudson's around-the-world journey had just begun. It was a journey nearly doomed before the little ship even reached the open sea. For twelve stormy days, the Dumfries beat about St. George's Channel in gale-force winds. alternately siding Ireland and the dangerous Welsh coast. Hudson's journals tell the story. All day on September the 24th, the barometer kept falling, and as darkness came on, the wind began to freshen. The sailors had a hard night of it, so the captain did not call them aft as is his custom to read prayers on Sunday morning. At noon it was blowing hard and we took in all possible sail, leaving only just as much as would keep the ship steady. I distributed tracks among the crew and then came down to my cabin as the increased motion was making me sick. The barometer was still falling, and the wind increased until it was a perfect hurricane. The captain and the mate said that they had never seen a wilder sea. Between two and three in the afternoon I managed to get on deck, though the pitching made it difficult. The scene I shall never forget. It was a grand one beyond description. The sea, lashing itself into fury, was white with foam. There was a large ship astern us, and a brig to our weather side. The ship gained on us, but drifted more. The waves, like hills on either side, seemed as if they might swamp us at any moment. But the ship bore up bravely. On account of the heavy sea, we were making little or no headway. And the wind being from the west, we were drifting quickly, irresistibly, toward a lee shore. Unless God help us, the captain said, there is no hope. I asked how far we might be from the Welsh coast. Fifteen to sixteen miles, was his reply. We can do nothing but carry all possible sail. The more we carry, the less we drift. It is for our lives. God grant the timbers may bear it. He then had two sails set on each mast. It was a fearful time. The wind was blowing terrifically, and we were tearing along at a frightful rate. one moment high in the air, and the next plunging head foremost into the trough of the sea, as if about to go to the bottom. The windward side of the ship was fearfully elevated, the lee side being as much depressed. Indeed, the sea at times poured over our lee buckwards. Thus the sun set, and I watched it ardently. Tomorrow thou wilt rise as usual, I thought. But unless the Lord work miraculously on our behalf, a few broken timbers will be all that is left of us. and our ship. The night was cold, the wind biting, and the seas, we shipped continually with foam and spray, wet us through and through. I went below, read a hymn or two, some psalms, and John 13 to 15, and was comforted, so much so that I fell asleep and slept for an hour. We then looked at the barometer and found it We had passed the Bardsley Island Lighthouse between Cardigan and Carnarvon Bays, running up the channel, and I asked the captain whether we could clear Hollyhead or not. If we make no leeway, he replied, we may just do it. But if we drift, God help us. And we did drift. First the Hollyhead Lighthouse was ahead of us, and then it was on our outside. Our fate now seemed sealed. I asked if we were sure of two more hours. The captain said, we could not be. The barometer was still rising, but too slowly to give much hope. I thought of my dear father and mother, sisters and special friends, and the tears would start. The captain was calm and courageous, trusting in the Lord for his soul's salvation. The steward said he knew that he was nothing, but Christ was all. I felt thankful for them, but I did pray earnestly that God would have mercy on us and spare us for the sake of the unconverted crew. as well as for his own glory as the God who hears and answers prayer. The passage was then brought to my mind. Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And very earnestly I pleaded the promise. Our position now was truly awful. The night was very light, the moon being unclouded, and we could just see land ahead. I went below. The barometer was improving, but the wind in no way abated. I took out my pocketbook and wrote in it my name and home address in case my body should be found. I also tied a few things in a hamper which I thought would float and perhaps help me or someone else to land. Then, commending my soul to God my Father and my friends and all to His care with one prayer that if it were possible this cup might pass from us, I went on deck. Satan now tempted me greatly, and I had a fearful struggle. But the Lord again calmed my mind, which from that time was so stayed upon him that I was kept in peace. I asked the captain whether lifeboats could live in such a sea. He answered, No. Could we not lash spars together and make some sort of a raft? He said we should probably not have time. The water was now becoming white. Land was just ahead. We must try to turn her intact, said the captain, or all is over. The sea may sweep the deck in turning and washing everything aboard, but we must try." This was a moment to make the stoutest heart tremble. He gave the word and we tried to turn outwardly, but in vain. This would have saved us room. He then tried the other way, and with God's blessing succeeded, clearing the rocks by not more than two ships' length. Just as we did so, the wind most providentially veered two points in our favor, and we were able to beat out of the bay. Had not the Lord thus helped us, all our efforts must have been in vain. Truly, His mercy is unfailing." Hudson Taylor's journal recorded the events of his voyage, and it is full of interesting experiences, occasional excitement, and even more monotony of 23 consecutive weeks of sailing without touching land. Much of his time was spent in his cabin, reading, studying, and preparing for his missionary ministry. but he also held more than 60 religious services for the sailors aboard the ship. The men seemed interested, and some came to Hudson at times for private talk and prayer, but he was somewhat discouraged that so little permanent change resulted in their lives, and that none of the men made complete commitments to Christ. But perhaps one of the most encouraging and most trying experiences of the voyage occurred during days of doldrums in the South Pacific when the only progress was made between sunset and dawn when the light evening breezes would blow. Of those days, Hudson wrote, never is one more helpless than in a sailing ship with a total absence of wind and the presence of a strong current setting toward a dangerous coast. In a storm, the ship is to some extent manageable, but be calmed, one can do nothing. The Lord must do all. This happened notably on one occasion when we were in a dangerous proximity to the north of New Guinea. Saturday night had brought us to a point some thirty miles off the land, and during the Sunday morning service, which was held on deck, I could not fail to see that the captain looked troubled, and frequently went over to the side of the ship. When the service was ended, I learned from him the cause. A four-knot current was carrying us toward 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 pulled out and all hands endeavored, without success though, to turn the ship's head from the shore. 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 wait the result. A thought occurred to me, and I replied, No, there is one thing we have not done yet. What is that? Four of us on board are Christians. 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." The captive complied with his proposal. I went and spoke to the other two men, and after prayer with the carpenter, we all four retired to wait upon God. 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 clues or corners of the mainsail, which had been drawn up in order to lessen the useless flapping of the sail against the rigging. What would be the good of that? he answered roughly. I told him we had been asking for 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 an oath and a look of contempt, he said he would rather see a wind than hear of it. But while he was speaking, I watched his eye, followed it up to the Royal, and there, sure enough, the corner of the topmost sail was beginning to tremble in the breeze. Don't you see the wind is coming? Look at the Royal, I exclaimed. No, it's 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 give us the benefit." This he was not slow to do. In another minute the heavy tread of the men on deck brought up the captain from his cabin to see what was the matter. The breeze had indeed come. In a few minutes we were plowing our way at six or seven knots an hour through the water, and though the wind was sometimes unsteady, we did not altogether lose it until the passing of the Palu Islands. Thus God encountered me ere landing on China's shores to bring a variety of need to him in prayer and to expect that he would honor the name of the Lord Jesus and give the help each emergency required. It was a lesson that he would soon put to the test. And now the years 1854 to 1855. China seemed even more forbidding to an uninvited foreigner in 1854 when Hudson Taylor first reached its shores than it would today. Shanghai and four other treaty ports were the only cities in which Westerners were allowed to reside. There was not a single Protestant missionary anywhere in the interior. The curiosity with which the Chinese people viewed foreigners was more than matched by deep feelings of suspicion and fear. Civil war was raging, and the entire country lived in chaos. The Taiping Rebellion, which started as a populist movement for social, economic, and religious reform, and was viewed by many Westerners as the best hope for an end to the repressive Manchu dynasty, had bogged down. Lack of unity and discipline among the ranks caused the movement to disintegrate slowly into factional, destructive political strife. What many had hoped might actually result in at least a nominally Christian Chinese culture, instead resulted in bitterness, violence, bloodshed, and turmoil that would continue for eleven years after Hudson Taylor's arrival in China, until the Manchu dynasty reestablished a large measure of its former power. Years afterward, when he would himself be responsible for the guidance of many missionaries, it would be much easier to see the value of all the hard lessons learned during his early time in China. But at that time there seemed so many lessons to learn, so many hardships to experience. Where Hudson had dreamed of traveling to the city of Nanking, and soon thereafter to minister as the first evangelist in China's interior, he now find nearly insurmountable difficulties just getting established in Shanghai. As Hudson neared the shores of China, Shanghai was in the grip of war. A renegade band of rebels known as the Red Turbans was in possession of the native city near the foreign settlement. And 40,000 to 50,000 imperial troops were encamped around the city. Fighting was almost continuous, and the foreign militia was frequently called upon to protect the settlement. But Hudson Taylor knew little or none of this when he finally arrived in Shanghai on March 1, 1854. My feelings on stepping ashore, he wrote. I cannot attempt to describe. My heart felt as though it had no room and must burst its bonds, while tears of gratitude and thankfulness fell from my eyes. Just as quickly the loneliness and reality of his situation sank in. Not a single person was there to meet him. Not even a stranger to shake his hand and welcome. In fact, no one in Shanghai knew he was coming. and not a soul on the entire continent even knew his name. He later wrote, Mingled with thankfulness for deliverance from many dangers, and joy at finding myself at last on Chinese soil, came a vivid realization of the great distance between me and those I loved, and that I was a stranger in a strange land. I had three letters of introduction, however, and counted on advice and help from one, especially to whom I had been commended by mutual friends. whom I knew well and highly valued. Of course, I inquired of him at once, only to learn that he had been buried a month or two previously, having died of a fever while we were at sea. Saddened by these tidings, I asked the whereabouts of the missionary to whom another of my introductions was addressed, but only to meet with further disappointment. He had recently left for America. The third letter remained, but it had been given me by a comparative stranger, and I expected less from it than from the others." Indeed, while inquiring about this third gentleman, only to be told he was no longer there, Hudson Taylor felt utterly alone. But a colleague of the third missionary invited Hudson to stay for a time on the property of the London Mission until he could be suitably settled. Hudson soon learned of some of the challenges he would face. All consumer goods were sold at famine prices. and both the city and settlement were so crowded that suitable housing could scarcely be obtained at any price. Had it not been for the hospitality of Dr. Lockhart of the London Mission, he would have had nowhere to stay. Even so, sharp fighting was to be seen from his windows, and he was unable to walk in any direction without witnessing more horrible suffering and human misery than he'd ever imagined. It was bitterly cold when Hudson Taylor first reached Shanghai, And since coal was selling at $50 a ton, it was not possible to do much to warm the houses. Fortunately, Hudson wasn't accustomed to luxuries, and he was thankful for a shelter anywhere ashore. Yet, he suffered from the penetrating chill and the dampness. Soon after his arrival, he wrote, My position is a very difficult one. 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 Canon. It is so cold that I can hardly think or hold the pen. You will see from my letter to Mr. Pierce 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. About his first Sunday in China, Hudson wrote to his sister. I attended two services at the London Mission, and in the afternoon went into the city with Mr. Wiley. You've never seen a city in a state of siege. God grant you never may. We walked some distance around 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 the 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 to be in dreadful agony. A ball had gone clean through the arm, breaking the bone in passing. A little further on we met some men bringing in a small cannon they had captured, and following them were others, dragging along by their tails, that is, their braided hair, five wretched prisoners. The poor fellows cried to us piteously to save them as they hurried by, but alas, we could do nothing. They would probably be at once decapitated. It just makes one's blood run cold to think of such things. What it means to be so far from home at the seat of war and not be 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 had come 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. There were other more personal trials as well. For the first time in his life, Hudson Taylor found himself in a position where he could hardly meet his financial obligations. He had willingly lived on next to nothing at home to keep within his means. But in Shanghai, he could not avoid expenses altogether beyond his income. Living with others who were receiving two or three times his salary, he was obligated to board as they did and saw his small resources melt away with alarming speed. At home in England he raised money for foreign missions. He knew what it was like to receive the hard-earned contributions of poor and working-class people from whom charitable giving was a true sacrifice. So missionary money was to him a sacred trust. To have to use it so freely caused him real distress. To make matters worse, the letters he wrote to the society asking for direction seldom received satisfactory replies. After waiting months for instructions, he might hear nothing at all in answer to his most urgent inquiries. The society in London was far away and could in no way imagine the circumstances he faced in China. The secretaries were mostly busy men, absorbed in their own affairs, who, despite their intentions and sincere dedication to missionary work, were simply unable to visualize a situation so different from anything they had ever known. Hudson Taylor did all he could to make matters clear to them in his regular letters. But month after month went by and he was left in uncertainty and financial distress. The Shanghai dollar, previously worth about 50 cents gold, was up to twice that sum and continually rising. Yet it had no more purchasing value. Obliged to exceed his salary for even the barest necessities of life, he finally had to use a letter of credit provided for emergencies. Yet he could obtain no assurance from the society at home that his bills would be honored. It was a painful situation for someone who always had been so conscientious in money matters, and it caused him many wakeful nights. Then, in the heat of summer, his financial crises became even more complicated. Hudson learned second-hand that the Scottish physician, who was to be his colleague, had already sailed from England with wife and children. He'd received no advance instructions regarding accommodations for the family. As the weeks went by with still no word, he realized that unless he took the initiative, an entire family would be welcomed without so much as a roof over their heads. With no authorization for such an expenditure, he had to find and rent rooms of some sort for five people in a war-torn city with little housing at a time of exorbitant prices. Unable even to afford a sedan chair, the proper means of transport for Europeans, he exhausted himself searching all through the city and settlement in the binding heat of August for houses that were not to be had. His friends from Shanghai suggested that the only thing to do was to buy land and build immediately. But how could he tell them the embarrassing truth and reveal his lack of funds? He felt there had already been too much criticism in the community for the mission he represented and for its inadequate organization. If there was any hope of continuing the work in China, he felt that he had to keep his troubles to himself, at least as much as possible, and to pray. Under these circumstances, he wrote, One who is really leaning on the beloved 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 the 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, but to no effect. So I've 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 writing that letter, Hudson Taylor heard of property that could be rented. And before the month was over, he found himself in possession of a house large enough to accommodate his expected colleagues. Five rooms upstairs and seven down seemed a spacious residence, even if it was only a poor Chinese place. Built of wood, full of enough debris to start a pestilence, he wrote. and extremely run down. On the positive side, it was right among the people, near the north gate of Shanghai. So it was there that he established himself six months after he arrived in China. And even though the location was so dangerous that his Mandarin teacher did not dare to go with him, he was able to engage a Chinese Christian, an educated man, who could help him begin to learn the local dialect. Finally, Hudson felt that his missionary work in China had begun. He was living right among the people in a place of his own. And with the help of his new teacher, he conducted Christian meetings mornings and evenings, and started a Christian day school for children, and established a dispensary where he could have as many as 20 or 30 patients a day who sought medical help. His letters home to family and the mission revealed his great excitement over all these developments, as well as his continued consternation over dwindling finances. It looked as if he had no choice but to borrow more money, and he still had no assurance that the mission would cover his basic expenditures. To complicate things, the location of the house that enabled him to establish a base of ministry was becoming more and more threatened by the fighting all around. In one letter to his family he wrote, Last Wednesday night, a fire that seemed very near awoke me at three o'clock in the morning. Dressing hastily, I climbed up onto the roof to ascertain if it were coming this way. Chinese houses like these, built only of wood, burn very quickly on a windy night. It was an anxious moment, for in the darkness I fancied the burning building was only four or five doors away. Just then, as I was praying earnestly for protection, It began to rain. The wind fell, for which I was most thankful, and gradually the fire smoldered down. But it was after five before I dared go to bed again. While there on the roof, several bullets struck the buildings around me, and two or three seemed to fall on the tiles of my own house. At last, a heavy ball struck the ridge of the opposite roof, carrying away a lot of tiles, the fragments of which fell around me, and itself flew off obliquely. You may be sure I didn't wait any longer. I got down. The day before, a ball of that size, evidently spent, struck the roof of this house, broke some tiles, and fell at the feet of my teacher's child who was standing in the doorway. Had he been a half a yard further out, it might have killed him. And that was at noon. I have never passed, as you will believe, such a trying time in my life. But it is all necessary, and I feel as being made a blessing to me. I may have to leave here suddenly, but whatever happens, I do not regret coming to this house and would do it again under similar circumstances. Our society must provide better, however, for its missionaries. This sort of thing will not do." It grew increasingly obvious that the house he had finally found in preparation for the arrival of his colleague's family could not serve its intended purpose. It was far too dangerous for a family. So by the end of October, as conditions worsened, he wrote the secretaries. There is a great deal of firing going on here now, so much so that I am seldom able to get half a night's sleep. What Dr. Parker and his family are to do, I do not know. Their coming here, as things are now, is out of the question. This constant anxiety for them, as well as for myself, together with another still more trying issue, the expense I'm unable to avoid, is by no means a desirable addition to the difficulties of language and climate. We have heard nothing of the swift shore, as you remember that's the boat they're coming on, but she is hardly due as yet. I shall be thankful when Dr. Parker is here and we are able to consult together about the future. You will find this a much more expensive mission, I fear, than was anticipated. I shall have to draw again this month, and with all possibility, the way the economy is and the high rate of prices, I may have to do so again in the future. The total expense of my first year will be little under two hundred pounds, and even so I feel confident that there is no other missionary in Shanghai who will not have cost considerably more." Indeed, Hudson Taylor had become the subject of much gossip in the foreign community of Not only had he chose to live outside the foreign settlement and among the Chinese, he did little socializing among other Westerners, and even his clothing was looking worn and tattered. When at last the house next door to Hudson's was set on fire in an attempt to drive him out, he felt he had no choice but to return to the foreign settlement and his friends at the London Mission. And it was at that time that a small home on the London Missionary Society property became available for rent. It had belonged to his closest friends in China, a missionary couple named Burden. Mrs. Burden had died shortly after giving birth, and Mr. Burden had left with his baby daughter. Their house was suddenly for rent. Since the arrival of the Parkers was expected daily, and though it left him only three dollars, Hudson rented the house on his own authority. Two days later, his long-awaited colleagues, the Parkers, arrived with two young children plus an infant born at sea. To make matters worse, Dr. Parker, after the expenses of the voyage, landed in Shanghai with only a few dollars. He was expecting a letter of credit from the Society to have already arrived, but it hadn't. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's revival book. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb dot com by phone at 780 450 3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton Alberta Canada T6L 3T5 You may also request a free printed catalog and remember that John Kelvin in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devise. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said That men assume too much wisdom, When they devise what he never required, Nay, what he never knew.