I cannot, need not, tell you how much I miss you. But God is making me feel how rich we are in his presence and love. He is helping me to rejoice in our adverse circumstances, in our poverty, in the retirements from our mission. All these difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of his grace, his power, and his love. I am very busy, he continued from Hua Chung when his meetings there had begun. God is giving us a happy time of fellowship together, and is confirming us in the principles on which we are acting." Now that last statement was a crucial declaration of confidence for the time. Hudson, alone, and along with all the other missionaries who gathered at Huacheng, had recommitted themselves to continue the current course of the mission. And the mission was fast approaching another point of crisis. After years of prayer, patience, and persevering effort, A position of unparalleled opportunity had been reached. Inland China lay open before them. But reinforcements were needed at all the settlement stations in the far north, the south, and the west. Not to advance would be to retreat from the position of faith taken up at the beginning. Not advancing would mean surrendering to difficulties rather than trusting the living God. True, funds were low and had been for years. It was also true that the new workers coming out to China were few. So it would have been easy to say, for the present, no further extension is possible. But not to move forward would mean throwing away the new opportunities God had given. And the feeling among the missionaries was that pulling back could not be God's way for the evangelization of inland China. So the members of the China Inland Mission instead took a bold and startling step of faith. They agreed and then sent home word of their agreement to pray for 70 new workers to come to China. Now at a time when the entire membership of the mission totaled only a little more than 100 workers, when funds for their own support were greatly strained, the missionaries agreed to pray for 70 more. Since it didn't seem practical to receive and arrange for so many new missionaries in a shorter time, they set a three-year time frame on the expansion. As the conference came to agreement on the matter, someone exclaimed, if only we could meet again and have a united praise meeting when the last of the 70 had reached China. We shall be widely scattered then, said another missionary. But why not have the praise meeting now? Why not give thanks for the 70 before we separate? So they held another prayer service, this time to give thanks in advance for God's answer to their request. But despite this great display of faith, there were many people back in England, friends and critics alike, who doubted that it would ever happen. 1882 to 1888. In faith, Hudson and his fellow missionaries waited for encouraging word and added support from home. But instead of having their faith rewarded with new and greater resources for advancing into the territory, the existing work of the mission suffered a greater shortage of funds than ever. In October 1882 he wrote, We were at table when we received our letters, the home mail, and when on opening one of them I found instead of seven or eight hundred pounds for the month's supplies, only just over ninety-six pounds. My feelings I shall not soon forget. I closed the envelope again and, seeking my room, knelt down and spread the letter before the Lord, asking Him what was to be done with less than 97 pounds, a sum it was impossible to distribute over 70 stations in which were 80 or 90 missionaries, including their wives, not to speak of a hundred native helpers and more than the number of native children to be fed and clothed in all of the schools. Having first rolled the burden on the Lord, I then mentioned the matter to others of our own mission in Kaifu, and we unitedly looked to Him to come to our aid, but no hint as to our circumstances was allowed to reach anyone outside. Soon the answers began to come, kind gifts from local friends who little knew the peculiar value of their donations, and help in other ways, until the needs of the month were all met with our without our having been burdened with anxious thoughts even for an hour. We had similar experiences in November and December. Thus the Lord made our hearts sing for joy and provided through local contributions in China for the needs of the work as never before or since. Experiencing this provision for their current needs, the missionaries felt all the more reassured that God would answer their prayers for the 70 new workers. But realizing the growing doubts back in England, Hudson and his friends gathered for a prayer meeting on the 2nd of February to ask God for some sign that would serve as his stamp of approval and encourage the doubters back home. As Hudson explained, we knew that our father loves to please his children and we asked him lovingly to please us as well as to encourage timid ones at home by leading someone of his wealthy stewards to make room for large blessing for himself and his family by giving liberally to this special object. It was just a few days later when Hudson sailed for England, so he didn't hear the results of that prayer until his ship stopped at Aiden. Though no word of that special prayer meeting had reached home, the home staff at Peril and Road had been thrilled to receive, on the second of February, an anonymous gift of three thousand pounds. Enclosed with the gift was a verse, Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for my possession." And that wasn't all. The gift was sent in an unusual way. It was signed from father, mother, and five children. It was striking, wrote Hudson, to see how literally God had answered our prayer and led his faithful steward to make room for a large blessing for himself and his family. And by the time Hudson reached London that spring, he recognized a growing respect for and interest in the work of the China Inland Mission. Word of their pioneering work had begun to spread. Alexander Wiley of the London Missionary Society had written, They are opening up the country and this is what we want. Other missions are doing a good work, but they are not doing this kind of work. John McCarthy had just returned on furlough after walking clear across China from east to west preaching in cities all along the way. Henry Salteau and J.W. Stevenson, the first Europeans to enter western China from Burma, had also arrived to share their experiences. So when Hudson arrived and began making known the appeal for the Seventy, the Christian community took a new interest in China. Hudson's brother-in-law, Benjamin Brumall, had taken over the responsibility of General Secretary of the Home Council and had made many new friends for the mission. So Hudson was invited all over the country to talk about the work. And everywhere he went, people were moved as they heard the story of the mission and the ongoing needs of China. One of the mission's new friends, a minister from Gloucester, said of Hudson's extensive speaking to her, you could be quite sure that whatever else he might say, he would make no plea for funds. Often I used to hearing him explain almost apologetically. that his great desire was that no funds should be diverted from other societies to the China Inland Mission, and that it was for this reason he had taken up lines of working which he hoped would preclude interference with other organizations. Nothing gave him more genuine pleasure than to speak well of other missions. Oh, the self-emptied spirit, the dignified way in which his life of faith was lived out, the reality of it all! Instead of wanting to get anything out of it, he was always ready to give to you. His heart and mind were full of that. Some people seemed to be asking all the time, though they may not do so in actual words. He never. At one conference where he spoke about the needs of China and didn't even mention his own mission's name, even though no collection was taken, the people emptied their purses and stripped off their jewelry to donate it to the cause. And, according to one contemporary account, Fifteen or sixteen offers for the mission field were the result, and the whole jewelry case was sent in the next day. People had received so much that they felt they could give anything. Even those who had only heard about Hudson Taylor responded. One child from Cambridge, to whom Hudson Taylor was a household name, wrote saying, If you are not dead yet, I want to send you the money I have saved up to help the little boys and girls of China to love Jesus. Canon Wilberforce of Southampton also wrote at this time urging, will you do me the kindness to give a Bible reading in my house to about 60 people and spend the night with us? Please do us this favor in the master's name. And Lord Bradstock wrote from the continent saying, much love to you and the Lord. You are a great help to us in England by strengthening our faith. And from Dr. Andrew Bonar came 100 pounds forwarded from an unknown Presbyterian friend. who cares for the land of Sinai. Spurgeon invited him to speak at the tabernacle, and Miss McPherson invited him to Bethnal Green. My heart is still in the glorious work, wrote Mr. Burger with a check of five hundred pounds. Most heartily do I join you in praying for seventy more laborers, but I do not stop at seventy. Surely we shall see greater things than these if we are empty of self, seeking only God's glory and the salvation of souls. So full was Hudson's time with meetings that it seemed he hardly had time for his directorial duties. And yet one volume, used to note mission correspondence when received, when answered, and a line about the contents, shows that Hudson personally attended to 2,600 letters in the course of only ten months' time. There always seemed to be so much work to do, and yet that work was being rewarded. Representatives of the China Inland Mission speaking at Oxford and Cambridge played a major role in the beginning of a student revival which flamed bright and blazed across Britain and eventually to North America. Even at its beginning, it inspired so many to consider missionary services that the China Inland Mission was soon flooded with inquiries and enough support that Hudson was able to sail for China to help prepare for the imminent arrival of the last of the 70, even before the full three-year period was up. Though heartened to know that the mission and its work had grown popular at home, Hudson knew that the expansion in China would mean even greater challenges. Soon we shall be in the midst of the battle, he wrote from the China Sea, but the Lord our God in the midst of us is mighty, so we will trust and not be afraid. He will save. He will save all the time and in everything. And again, some months later, he wrote to Jenny, flesh and heart often fail. Let them fail. He faileth not. Pray very much. Pray constantly, for Satan rages against us. There is much to distress. Your absence is a great and ever-present trial, and there is all the ordinary and extraordinary conflict. But the encouragements are also wonderful. No other word approaches the truth, and a half of them cannot be told in writing. No one dreams of the mighty work going on in connection with our mission. Other missions, too, doubtless, are being greatly used. I look for a wonderful year. When he sailed for China, he planned to be back in England by the end of the year. But the unfinished work kept him into and through 1886, the most fruitful year the mission had yet experienced. Hudson spent months on an extensive inland tour, visiting new stations, instructing his missionaries, holding conferences, meeting with Chinese Christians, and even engaging in new evangelistic ventures. Old colleagues in distant stations, some he hadn't seen for years, shared old memories and rejoiced with Hudson at the exciting new growth of the mission. Younger missionaries found inspiration in the presence and the faithful example of the mission's leader. And in discussions with Hudson, they all dreamed and planned about the future of the work. We all saw visions at that time, recalled one missionary who traveled with Hudson. Those were days of heaven upon earth. Nothing seemed difficult. Hudson amazed his younger colleagues with his endurance as they traveled by foot and pack mule over rugged terrain in the remotest regions of China. Often the inns where they stayed were so crude that the travelers shared sleeping quarters with their mules who would be so hungry that they would eat the straw from the missionaries' pallets as they tried to sleep. Many times there were no inns to be found at all, and in the hottest weather the missionaries were sometimes forced to travel at night. One young missionary, a noted athlete back in England, wrote about the rigors of Chinese travel. Night traveling was one of the hardest experiences I've ever had because I could not sleep by day. Occasionally, when I did drop off, I would wait to find that Mr. Taylor had been looking after me, rigging up mosquito netting to keep the flies away. Walking at night, I had been so sleepy that even the motion could not keep me awake, and having fallen right down while plodding on, the tumble was all that roused one for the time being. The inns being closed at night, we often used to lie down by the roadside where the animals had to be fed. Our own fare consistently consisted chiefly of rice and millet. Occasionally, we were able to purchase a chicken, eggs, cucumbers, or a little fruit. But we did not stop at regular stages, and as it was the rainy season, nothing was brought out for sale in the places through which we passed. With so much rain, we often got soaked completely through. The way we managed was to take off our garments, one by one, and dry them in front of the fire. On one occasion, this so offended the kitchen god that Mr. Taylor had to come and make peace. Of course, we carried no bedding, though Mr. Taylor always had two pillows, one for the head and one for the thigh, and we each carried a plaid. The medicine chest sometimes came in useful as an extra pillow. I remember coming to one river where there were a few houses and people who made a harvest by carrying travelers over. They met us saying that the river was impassable. Nevertheless, for a thousand cash apiece, they would take us across. This was outrageous. So I went into the water which was rising by inches, the rain being a perfect deluge. When the men saw we were not to be deterred, they came and gave some help, glad to be paid a fair price for their work. After we were over, the water rose by feet. Had we been half an hour later, no crossing would have been possible. The river was by that time a wild, raging torrent. On the farther side there was a small village, but no inn. To go on was impossible. stay, we must, though the only shelter we could find was apparently a pig's die. So we turned the occupant out, borrowed a few forms, took the doors off their hinges to lie on, and, rolling ourselves in our plaids, prepared to pass the night as comfortably as circumstances would permit. We were only masters of the situation for a short time, however, for the pig came back, charged the makeshift door, which at once fell in, and settled down to share the apartment with us. After reflection, I concluded that it was too cold to turn out on the chance of ignominious defeat at the hands of the enemy. Next day was still cold, high mountains instead of the scion plain, drenching rain instead of burning sun. The road was washed away in places, but still Mr. Taylor would push on. Where the riverside was impassable, we had to clamber up steep banks as best that we could and follow crumbling tracks on the mountains. Nothing would stop him. though he often begged me to remain behind. We had several narrow escapes from landslides, the path giving way behind us and rolling stones and earth into the stream. We had no fear of robbers and the wolves, though we saw them, they did not attack us. We went forty-eight to fifty miles one day, and the last three stages we made in two, not to miss the mail boat at Han Jong. Hearing Hudson sing on one occasion when the entire party was exhausted and extremely hungry, One of those with him noticed the words, We thank thee, Lord, for this our food, and couldn't help but ask where the food was. Why, it can't be far away, Hudson smiled. Our father knows that we are hungry and will send our breakfast soon, but you'll have to wait and say your grace when it comes, while I shall be ready to begin eating at once. And sure enough, just ahead they met a man with ready-cooked rice to sell, which made an excellent meal. Well, whatever else he had to leave behind on his journey, he always carried a box of matches, candles, and his four-volume Bible. He would invariably get his quiet time an hour before dawn, one of his companions wrote, and then possibly sleep again. When I woke to feed the animals, I always found him reading the Bible by the light of his candle. No matter what the surroundings or the noise in those dirty inns, he never neglected this. He used to pray on such journeys, lying down, for he usually spent long times in prayer, and to kneel would have been too exhausting. The last segment of Hudson's great inland journey looked to be the easiest, a thousand-mile boat ride down the Han River from the northern provinces to the coast. But on this last stage of the trip, Hudson volunteered to take charge of Annie Pierce, the little five-year-old daughter of Han Chung missionaries who feared for the sickly girl's life. Her only hope seemed to be the changed climate at the coast. Annie's parents, knowing that there were no women in Hudson's party, worried about burdening him with their daughter's care for the four to six week journey. But Hudson insisted and personally saw to the child's clothes and meals on the trip, caring for her and watching over her day and night. My little charge is wonderfully improving, he was able to write Jenny from the boat. She clings to me very lovingly and it is sweet to feel little arms about one's neck once more. No sooner did Hudson conclude his extensive tour of China than he convened the first meeting of the newly formed China Council of the Mission. As 1886 drew to a close, the recently appointed superintendents of the provinces gathered at Anqing, where Hudson planned to share the results of his trip, discuss the most pressing needs of the mission, and then challenge the leaders of the mission in China to begin thinking about larger future developments. But even Hudson was surprised when after an entire week given to prayer and fasting, those attending the conference agreed that to make any significant advances at all, a hundred new workers were needed right away. A hundred! But as they carefully detailed the needs, Hudson had to agree that with 50 central stations already established, even a hundred new workers would be all too few for the new expansion they planned. So with Hudson's permission, the group cabled a message to London Pray for a hundred new workers in 1887. What a stir that cable created in England. No mission in history had ever dreamed of sending out such an army of missionary reinforcements. The China Inland Mission only had 190 members then. People could hardly believe that they would pray for an increase of more than 50% in one year, until Hudson arrived home to tell of the three-part prayer being prayed by the missionaries in China. Before he left, The mission leaders in China agreed to pray not just that God would bring them 100 new missionaries, but also that, unsolicited, an extra $50,000 would be received above and beyond the present income so that all the new missionaries' needs would be met. And third, that the extra money would come in large sums so that the small office staff at the Home Office wouldn't be burdened with extra correspondence and record keeping. And what happened in 1887? 600 men and women actually volunteered for services with the China Inland Mission during that year. 102 were chosen, equipped, and sent out. Not just $50,000, but $55,000 in extra income was received without solicitation so that every need was met. Perhaps more amazingly, just 11 gifts covered it all, scarcely adding to the work of the staff. Even so, the answers to prayer placed greater demands on Hudson. He spoke two, three, sometimes four times a day. He seemed to be constantly interviewing interested candidates and still managing a prodigious correspondence load, averaging 13 or 14 letters a day, every day for 12 months. But the story of the hundred was told by Christians far and wide, creating an even greater interest in China and the work of the mission. As a result, Hudson was invited by Dwight L. Moody to stop in America on his way back to China in 1888. Hudson wrote, I had not the remotest idea in coming to America that anything specially bearing upon the work of the China Inland Mission would grow out of it. I was glad to come when my way was providentially open. I wanted to see Mr. Moody and had heard of over 2,000 students wishful to consecrate their lives to God's service abroad. But the American societies, I thought, are not quite in a position to take up these 2,000. And perhaps if we tell them about God's faithfulness, they will find it written in their Bibles not to be sent, but go. I believed in verbal inspiration and that God would have said, be sent, if that's what he had wished. Instead, he wrote, go. I hoped I might be able to encourage some to go. After Hudson spoke to a large student conference Dr. Moody had organized, the inspired students took it upon themselves to raise money to be given as support for missionaries in China. The total amount of their giving was enough to pay the yearly expenses of eight missionaries. But far from being joyous over this development, Hudson felt a new burden. As he explained, to have missionaries and no money would be no trouble for me for the Lord is bound to take care of his own. He does not want me to assume his responsibility. But to have money and no missionaries is very serious indeed. And I do not think it would be kind of you, dear friends in America, to put this burden upon us, and not to send some from among yourselves to use the money. We have the dollars. Where are the people?" Hudson was anxious to get to China, and as he said, if he had missionaries without money, he would be ready to leave immediately, trusting that the money would come. He had done just that on numerous occasions, but he couldn't just take the money and leave without the missionaries it was to support. Moody encouraged Hudson to make a direct appeal for workers. So he did. And when the first three were accepted, he began to feel glad about having the money in hand. But another complication developed. Every time he accepted another candidate, that person's friends, family, and church pledged to underwrite his support. So that when the first eight were chosen, the original fund remained untouched. It seemed to Hudson that consecrated money was something like consecrated loaves and fishes, there appeared to be no using it up. So it was, though he had no previous intention to do so, that Hudson immediately established an American branch of the China Inland Mission, and with only three months of his arrival, sailed from the United States with fourteen young North American missionaries to China. From that time on, the China Inland Mission, which had always been interdenominational, was an international mission as well. In the following years, the China Inland Mission mushroomed into a truly worldwide ministry. Thirty-five Scandinavian missionaries ready for service arrived unannounced in Shanghai, not long after Hudson had toured Norway and Sweden to speak about the spiritual needs of China. Germany sent contingents of workers from their mission, and Australia and New Zealand also joined in the work. Before long, the China Council in Shanghai became the center of a greater organization than its founder had ever imagined. But even though the spiritual overflow of his life's work now reached to the ends of the earth, even though his sense of responsibility and his workload grew in proportion, Hudson Taylor's faith held him up and kept him steady. Those around him noted his strength, and an Episcopalian minister who hosted him on a stay in Australia observed, he was an object lesson in quietness. He drew from the bank of heaven every farthing of his daily income. My peace I give unto you. Whatever did not agitate the Savior or ruffle His spirit was not to agitate him. The serenity of the Lord Jesus concerning any matter and at its most crucial moment was His ideal and practical possession. He knew nothing of rush or hurry, of quivering nerves or vexation of spirit. He knew that there is a peace passing all understanding and that all He could not do without it. I am in the study. You are in the big spare room, I said to Mr. Taylor at length. You are occupied with millions, I with tens. Your letters are pressingly important, mine are comparatively little moments. Yet I am worried and distressed, while you are always calm. Do tell me, what makes the difference?" My dear McCartney, he replied, the peace you speak of is, in my case, more than a delightful privilege. It is a necessity. I could not possibly get through the work I have to do without the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeping my mind and heart. That was my chief experience of Mr. Taylor. Are you in a hurry, flurried, distressed? Look up. See the man in the glory. See the face of Jesus shining upon you, the wonderful face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he worried or distressed? There is no care on his brow, no least shade of anxiety, yet the affairs are his as much as yours. Keswick teaching, as it is called, was not new to me. I had received those glorious truths and was preaching them to others. But there was the real thing, an embodiment of Keswick teaching such as I had never hoped to see. It impressed me profoundly. Here was a man, almost sixty years of age, bearing tremendous burdens, yet absolutely calm and untroubled. Oh, the pile of letters, any one of which might contain news of death, the lack of funds, of riots, or serious trouble. Yet all were opened, read, and answered with the same tranquility. Christ, His reason for peace. His power for calm. Dwelling in Christ, He drew upon His very being and resources in the midst of and concerning the matters in question. And this He did by an attitude of faith as simple as it was continuous. Yet He was delightfully free and natural. I can find no words to describe it save the scriptural lesson or expression, In God. He was in God all the time, and God in Him. It was the true abiding of John 15. But oh, the lover-like attitude that underlay it! He had in relation to Christ a most bountiful experience of the Song of Solomon. It was a wonderful combination. The strength and tenderness of one who amid stern preoccupation, like that of a judge on the bench, carried in his heart the light and love of home. And through it all, the vision and spiritual urgency of his earlier years remained undimmed. In fact, his sense of responsibility to obey the last command of the Lord Jesus Christ only increased. as he came to see more clearly the meaning of the Great Commission. He wrote in 1889, I confess with shame that the question, what did our Lord really mean by his command to preach the gospel to every creature, has never been raised by me. I had labored for many years to carry the gospel further afield, as having many others, had laid plans for reaching every un-evangelized province and many smaller districts in China, without realizing the plain meaning of our Savior's words. to every creature. There were only 40,000 Protestant Christians in all of China. Double that, triple the number, and suppose each one could take the message of the gospel to just eight of his friends and neighbors. That would only be a million. The inadequacy of all his previous efforts convicted Hudson as he wrote, How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ with regard to this last command? Shall we definitively drop the title Lord as applied to Him? Shall we take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as Savior as far as the penalty of sin is concerned, but are not prepared to own ourselves bought with a price? Or Christ as having claim to our unquestioning obedience? How few of the Lord's people have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. If we can judge God's word instead of being judged by it, if we can give God as much or little as we like, then we are lords and He the indebted one to be grateful for our dole and obliged by our compliance with His wishes. If, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? So it was that at 60 years of age, Hudson Taylor, missionary to all of inland China, broadened his mission's vision even farther. Nothing less would do but to begin a systematic effort to obey Jesus' command and share the story of his love and sacrifice with every man, woman, and child in all of China. Ginny returned to China with Hudson in 1891, amazed at how much the mission had grown and was still growing. As remarkable as it had seemed in 1887, with a hundred missionaries went to China in one year. In 1890 and 91, the China Inland Mission welcomed a hundred and thirty-one new missionaries in Shanghai in less than six months time. Sixty-six of them arriving in one three-week period. The history of Christian missions had seen nothing like it. And the advances in China weren't limited to the work of the China Inland Mission. Between 1890 and 1895, 1,153 new missionaries went to China through various mission agencies. And the work continued to grow. By 1900, there were 750 China Inland Mission members. Four million dollars had been raised without anyone but God being asked to give, and there was no debt. Over 700 Chinese workers were connected with the mission, and 13,000 Chinese believers had been baptized. Prospects for the brand new century looked even more exciting. with the first steps begun in a deliberately strategy designed to reach every person in China with the gospel. But then the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 broke out and its madness swept the country. With the official blessing of the Dowager Empress, the fanatical boxers rose up from one end of China to the other in religious and patriotic fervor to drive out the devil foreigners. Hudson, his health broken during his tenth term of active missionary work in China, 1898 and 1899, had, at Jenny's insistence, agreed to travel to Switzerland to rest and try to recuperate. They no sooner arrived there when the terrible word reached them. Telegram after telegram came telling of riots, massacres, and of hunting down of refugees in station after station of the China Inland Mission. Each new word brought greater and greater sorrow until Hudson weakened emotionally and physically to the point that he thought he could bear no more. I cannot read, he said at that point. I cannot pray, I cannot scarcely even think, but I can trust." Before the rebellion ended and order was restored in China, thousands had died, including 58 China Inland Missionary members, along with 21 of their children, and countless Chinese converts of the mission. Yet when the violence did end, The China emblem mission returned to its centers, many of which had been destroyed, and resumed the work without so much as a single demand of the Chinese government for compensation. That attitude of courage and forgiveness made such an impression that helped set the stage for a new era of effective evangelism in China. The words of a white-haired Chinese pastor in Shanxi came true. Kingdoms may perish, he said just before he was killed at the Boxer Rebellion, but the Church of Christ can never be destroyed. Hudson stepped down from the directorship of the mission in 1900, and his health prevented his return to China for some time. By the time he regained enough strength for another round-the-world journey, Jenny was herself dying of cancer. So he stayed and cared for her until she died in July of 1904. During her last night, though she had obvious difficulty breathing, she kept assuring Hudson that she felt no pain, no pain. But toward morning, seeing the anguish on his face, she finally whispered, Ask him to take me quickly." Never had Hudson prayed such a difficult prayer, but for his wife's sake he asked God to free her spirit. Within five minutes Jenny's breathing grew quieter, and then all was at peace. Hudson's sense of desolation was unspeakable. On the wall of the tailor's sitting room hung a scripture text, the last purchase the couple had made together. Many times in the days following Jenny's death Hudson looked upon this through tears to those words in blue on their white background. It said, faithful is he who made the promises. He told a friend, all we have to do is look up with patience to see how we will prove it true. Early the following year, Hudson sailed with his son and daughter-in-law to China. At 73 years of age, he made a long, remarkable tour of the country that took him to many spots and even into the province of Hunan, where he had never journeyed before. And oh, how the people responded, both missionaries and the Chinese, everywhere he went. He was called Venerable Father and Benefactor of China by many who came to greet him. Crowds gathered to hear him whenever he spoke, and sometimes just to see him pass. The trip into Hunan had to be especially gratifying. It was the last of the provinces to get a permanent China Inland Mission station, and it hadn't been fully accessible until after the Boxer Rebellion. Hudson was anxious to see that part of the country. And as his party crossed the wide expanse of Tongting Lake and steamed upriver toward the capital, Qingsha, he couldn't help but have thought about all the toil and prayer that had gone into opening up the last province of China to the gospel. Less than 10 years before, not one missionary had settled there. Now there were no fewer than 111 from 13 different mission agencies with work in 17 different cities and a strong band of Chinese Christians working along with them. The advances were indeed remarkable. A work of God was the only way people could think to describe the impact of Hudson Taylor's life and of the China Inland Mission. But Hudson's response was summed up in his words, we cannot do much, but we can do a little, and God can do a great deal. On Saturday, June 30th, 1905, the missionaries in Hunan's capital city welcomed Hudson with a reception. That evening, his daughter-in-law went into his room to check on him. Dear Father was in bed, the lamp burning on the chair beside him, and he was leaning over it with his pocketbook lying open, and the home letters it contained spread out as he loved to have them. I drew the pillow up more comfortably under his head and sat down on the low chair close beside him, and he said nothing. I began talking a little about the pictures in the missionary review lying open on the bed, and I was just in the middle of a sentence when Dear Father turned his head quickly and gave a little gasp. I looked up, thinking he was going to sneeze. But another came, then another. He was not choking or distressed for breath. He did not look at me or seem conscious of anything. I ran to the door and called Howard, his son. But before he could reach the bedside, it was evident that the end had come. I ran back to call Dr. Keller, who was just at the foot of the stairs. In less time than it takes to write it, he was with us, but only to see dear father draw his last breath. It was not death, but the glad, swift entry upon life immortal. And oh, the look of rest and calm that came over the dear face was wonderful. The weight of years seemed to pass away in a few moments. The weary lines vanished. He looked like a child quietly sleeping, and the very room seemed full of unutterable peace. Hudson Taylor's body was taken in a casket generously purchased by poor Chinese Christians from the province of Hunan to the family plot in a little cemetery at Xinjiang. There his body was buried beside those of his wife and children on the banks of the mighty Yangtze River. In the heart of the land he loved and lived and died for. And what was to become of the China Inland Mission? Hudson Taylor had been a man of such unusual faith. God had always blessed the mission while he lived and prayed for it. But what now? Hudson Taylor's legacy lived on and continued to grow through the ministry of the China Inland Mission. By the time the Japanese invaded China during the 1930s in the first stages of the Second World War, the mission's membership had swelled to 1,285. The total income since 1900 had reached $20 million unsolicited. There were between 3,000 and 4,000 Chinese workers with the mission, and the baptisms in the first three decades of the 1900s had totaled more than 100,000. The China Inland Mission, like all Christian organizations, was expelled from China when Mao Tse-tung and his communists took over the country after World War II. But the mission continues today under the name of Overseas Missionary Fellowship with its headquarters in Singapore, and over 1,000 missionaries serving in nine countries throughout Southeast Asia. And the China Inland Mission's impact, like that of Hudson Taylor himself, lives on today in communist China. Despite the reprehensive decades of communist persecution, The Chinese Church, just as during the Boxer Rebellion, could not be destroyed. So that when Western Christians regained a measure of access to inland China again in the 70s and 80s, the worldwide Christian Church learned that there were by then millions of Chinese Christians and thousands of house churches throughout China. And many, if not most, of those millions of Chinese Christians must trace their Christian heritage back to the work of the China Inland Mission and its spiritual father, Hudson Taylor. What was the secret of the spiritual giant strength that enabled his life to make such an impact? Part of his secret was expressed in the words to one of his favorite verses. He told me of a river bright that flows from him to me that I might be for his delight a fair and fruitful tree. It is very simple, he wrote. But has he not planted us by the river of living water that we may be for his delight fair and fruitful to his people? God came first to Hudson Taylor's life, not the work, not the needs of China or of the mission, not his own experiences. He knew that the promise was true. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. From a practical standpoint he knew the truth of Oswald Chambers' statement. God does not give us overcoming life He gives us life as we overcome. And to Hudson Taylor, the secret of overcoming lay in daily, hourly fellowship with God. This, he learned, could only be maintained by personal prayer and faithful meditation on God's word. With the life he lived and its demands on his time and energy, finding opportunity for his own spiritual maintenance wasn't easy, but he made it a priority. On his last journey through China with his son and daughter-in-law, they traveled month after month through northern China by cart and by wheelbarrow. The inns they stayed in by night offered only the crudest accommodations. Often then, there would be only one large room for everyone spending the night in the inn. His children would screen off a portion of the room for their father with curtains of some sort. Then after everyone was asleep, they would be wakened to the sound of a match striking, and see the flicker of candlelight which told them Hudson was awake and reading his Bible. From 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. was his usual prayer time, the time he could count on being undisturbed in prayer. And that flicker of candlelight said more to his children about prayer than anything they ever read or heard on the subject. And he not only read it, he lived it. Hudson Taylor stopped at no sacrifice in following Christ. Cross-loving men are needed, he wrote in the midst of his labors in China. And if he could speak to us today, he would no doubt say again, There is a needs be for us to give ourselves for the life of the world. An easy, non-self-denying life will never be one of power. Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. There are not two Christs, an easy-going one for easy-going Christians and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are you willing to abide in Him and thus to bear much fruit? And with this, we complete the book, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, published by Discovery House. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. 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, Thank you. by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. 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 devised. 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 God 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.