The New Starting Point (1850-1851)

Thus closed the old year and the old life, and with the dawn of 1850 came a new beginning of things for Hudson Taylor. A work of which he still knew next to nothing claimed him; a work that must absorb every energy of his being, and might require the sacrifice of life itself. How to set about it he had no idea. What could he, a chemist’s assistant in a provincial town, do for China? But the call of God had come, and there could be no looking back. Whatever might be involved, the future held but one thing for him-to do his master’s will in and for China. So he began at once to pray for guidance and to learn all he could about his future field.

Very little was known about China in the middle of last century. True, five ports had been opened along the coast to the residence of foreigners,' and the London Missionary Society, for nearly forty years the only British Mission at work in that land, had been reinforced by several newly organised efforts.’ But they were all in their infancy; and beyond the Treaty Ports practically nothing was being attempted. In the absence of definite knowledge about the interior, exaggerated rumours were afloat. The wealth and

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learning of the people and the wonders of their ancient civilisation, as reported by some travellers, were only exceeded by the cruelty and ignorance enlarged upon by others. But travellers of any kind who had penetrated beyond the coast were few and far between. Even for books upon the subject Hudson Taylor hardly knew where to turn. One friend might be able to help him, and that was Mr. Whitworth, the founder and superintendent of the Sunday School, who had recently become connected with the British and Foreign Bible Society. He would know something at any rate about the circulation of the Bible in China, and might possess a copy of the Chinese Scriptures in whole or part. So to Mr. Whitworth he went.

The visit was encouraging, for his old friend was able to give him a copy, in the Mandarin dialect, of the writings of St. Luke. This was a treasure indeed. From him he may also have heard for the first time of Dr. Medhurst of the London Missionary Society, who had written a book on China which was actually in the library of the Congregational minister at Barnsley. This he was able to borrow, and, through it was given guidance concerning the sort of training that he should seek, as he observed the value of medical work on the mission field. Not yet eighteen years of age, he could not embark on that yet, but he could and did start to study Chinese.

Courageous in his inexperience Hudson Taylor set to work, despite the fact that he had neither teacher nor books with the exception of that one little volume of the writings of St. Luke. A grammar would have cost no less than four guineas, and a dictionary could hardly have been purchased for fifteen. Needless to say, he had neither.

But hard work and ingenuity accomplished wonders, as may be judged from the fact that within weeks he and the cousin who was with him in the shop had found out the meaning of over 500 characters. Writing to Amelia he explained their method.

We find a short verse in the English version, and then look out a dozen or more (also in English) that have one word in common with it. We then turn up the first verse in Chinese, and search through all the others for some character in common that seems to stand for the English word. This we write down on a slip of paper as its probable equivalent. Then we look all through the Chinese Gospel for this same character in different connections. It occurs as a rule pretty frequently. And if in every case we find the same word in the English version, we copy the character in ink into our dictionary, adding the meaning in pencil. Afterwards, if further acquaintance shows it to be the true meaning, we ink that over also. At first we made slow progress, but now we can work much faster, as with few exceptions we know all the most common characters.

I have begun to get up at five in the morning, and so find it necessary to go to bed early at night. I must study if I mean to go to China. I am fully decided to go, and am making every preparation I can. I intend to rub up my Latin, to learn Greek and the rudiments of Hebrew, and to get as much general information as possible.

He dispensed with his cosy feather bed at this time also, in order to prepare for a rougher sort of life. And with his practical turn of mind he saw that something could be done, right here and now, in Barnsley, to forward the cause to which his life was given. He could pray and lead others to pray, give and encourage others in giving. The only draw-

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back was that he hardly knew how to communicate with China since, large as the field was, the Methodists had no mission there. Work in the Treaty Ports was being carried on by other societies; but even then Hudson Taylor longed after the vast waiting world of the unreached interior, still destitute of the Gospel.

Just at this juncture a new movement set on foot by Dr. Gutzlaff of Hong Kong came to his knowledge through papers lent to him by Mr. Whitworth. With what joy did he read that a society had been organised in London to do the very work on which his heart was set! Interdenominational in character, ‘The Chinese Association,’ as it was called, aimed at employing Chinese evangelists to co-operate with Dr. Gutzlaff in an enterprise that bid fair to solve the problem of how to send the Gospel to the unreached interior. Quite a number were already working under his supervision, and great was the success that seemed to attend their efforts.

Burning with love to Christ and zeal for the advancement of His cause Dr. Gutzlaff had returned from Hong Kong a few months previously, and had commenced in London as a starting point a missionary crusade of the most remarkable kind. From Ireland to Hungary he passed, proclaiming in the capitals of Europe the duty of the Christian Church toward the unevangelised millions of China. For the first time the need and claims of that great land came home to many a heart, with the result that many were on their knees praying as never before. It was prayer for which Gutzlaff primarily appealed, prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon China in its age-long darkness. But true prayer, potent in itself, is sure to bring about practical results, and in this case quite a number of organised efforts grew up in London and on the Continent. Gutzlaff’s piety was deep and real, his schemes were large and his optimism unbounded. He was a man of unusual gifts, and as Interpreter to the British Government in Hong Kong occupied a position of influence. So great was his enthusiasm for the spread of the Gospel that he had risked his life repeatedly in daring attempts to reach the interior, as well as in voyages along the entire coast. Wearing Chinese dress, he made seven journeys during the years 1831-35, landing at places as far north as Tientsin. With considerable experience as a sailor he even engaged himself as mate on a Chinese junk, and at another time as cook, in order to visit places to which no foreign vessels sailed, and thus obtained opportunities for making known the truth as it is in Jesus. He lived for one thing only—the extension of the Kingdom of God. To this he devoted his large salary, his remarkable powers of mind and body and all his available time. He wrote and published eighty works in no fewer than eight different languages, including a translation into Chinese of both the Old and New Testaments. He founded ‘The Chinese Union,’ a native missionary society whose members were to carry the Gospel far and wide to every part of the eighteen provinces, and one may almost say he awakened Europe with enthusiasm in support of this cause, everywhere organising prayer meetings and associations to carry on the work. The new society in London was one of these, and immediately claimed the sympathy of Hudson Taylor.

According to tabulated reports brought home by

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Dr. Gutzlaff, the evangelists of ‘The Chinese Union’ inaugurated six years-previously had met with amazing encouragement. They now numbered 130 men, engaged in systematic preaching throughout the interior and in the distribution of Christian literature. They had circulated over 10,000 New Testaments, besides many Bibles and countless books and tracts. They wrote long and detailed letters from almost all the provinces of China, telling of journeys even to the borders of Mongolia and Tibet. And last but not least, they had baptised, ‘upon examination and satisfactory confession of their faith,’ no fewer than 2,871 converts. Such results, within so short a time, could not but arouse the deepest interest.

All through the spring and summer these developments were delighting Hudson Taylor. He took from the first an excellent magazine which was commenced in March of this year to supply the latest tidings from Dr. Gutzlaff’s workers, as well as missionary information from other parts of the world. The careful study with which he followed it for years formed in itself a valuable education in missionary principles and practice. From its pages he learned of many on the Continent as well as in Great Britain who were engaged in active efforts for the evangelisation of China. It informed him also of the varied labours of George Muller of Bristol, who during this and _ the previous year had expended more than £2,500 on missionary work. God used this well-directed magazine to introduce Hudson Taylor into a new world of Christian enterprise, unsectarian in its character and international in its interests, preparing him while still in his teens for the far-reaching associations of coming years.

The Gleaner was evidently edited by the secretaries of the Chinese Association, a new society in London, and on July 29th, 1850, he wrote to one of them, Mr. George Pearse, asking him to, forward ‘a few circulars or collecting cards, as well as any information, rules, etc., calculated to assist me in introducing the work to my friends.’ He little realised to what that modest overture would eventually lead.

Reports meanwhile had begun to reach England of the doubtful character of Dr. Gutzlaff’s organisation, and the reply from Mr. Pearse was discouraging. Further developments tended only to confirm the fear that, with all his brilliant gifts and rare devotion, Gutzlaff sadly lacked common sense. In a word, he had been systematically swindled, as the German missionary acting as his locum tenens in Hong Kong discovered. Few of his so-called evangelists had travelled beyond Canton, and many of their glowing reports had been concocted in opium dens a few minutes only from his own door. It was a painful and almost incredible exposure, and no one suffered more from grief and disappointment than the noble-minded leader, who did not long survive the failure of his work.’

And yet—had Gutzlaff failed? His plans miscarried grievously and his projects came to nothing. But prayer and faith cannot fail. ‘Even in his last hours,’ The Gleaner reported, ‘all his thoughts were directed to the evangelisation of China. He spoke of it with great confidence, and in, the delirium of fever frequently expressed bright hopes for the blessing and regeneration of his beloved Sinim. Truly of him it may be said that he departed this life and entered the presence of the Lord bearing the millions of

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China upon his heart.’ And the aims he had never been able to realise, the ideals that seemed to fail, fell as good seed into other hearts.;

Long years after, when the China Inland Mission had become a fact in all the inland provinces, its founder loved to refer to Dr. Gutzlaff as in a very real sense the father of the work.

The failure of Gutzlaff’s plans was not the only disappointment that came to test the reality of Hudson Taylor’s call to China. He was overtaken by trial of a very different kind, that went with him through months and even years, bringing the strongest influences to bear against unquestioning obedience. He had just received a wonderful baptism of love and power. He had come to know the will of God for his future and was entering with unreserved consecration upon his life service. At that very point the tempter met him with suggestions so natural and attractive that a powerful counter-current set in.

It all began with the Christmas holidays when Amelia returned from school with the young music teacher to whom she had become very attached during the term. Miss V. was decidedly attractive. Bright and gifted, with a voice SO sweet it was a pleasure to listen to her, she was happy in the family circle and interested especially in the son of - the household. When the little sister, with whom there was much talk over his call to China, discovered that someone else was beginning to take first place in her brother’s affections, she rejoiced unselfishly. Life would not be so lonely for him now, she thought, far away from home.

It was Hudson who saw difficulties ahead, though it had not occurred to him that the one he loved might be quite unsuited for the life he hoped to live in China. While sympathising to a certain extent with his feelings, there was something lacking and she would gladly have held him back. This he did not realise, or if he did feel it intangibly from the first he did not admit it even to himself. What concerned him was his lack of means, prospectively, to support a wife. How he was to go to China he had no idea, for he knew of no society that sent out unordained men, unless perhaps the Chinese Association. The collapse of Dr. Gutzlaff’s enterprise was seriously affecting missionary interest in China. It seemed more than likely that he would have to be a selfsupporting missionary, trusting the Lord who sent him to provide. But that precluded any thought of marriage, at any rate for a long time to come. And meanwhile his lips were sealed. Someone else was sure to love her. Everyone must who was near her and free to win her love. No one could care as he did! That was beyond question. And yet, with such: prospects or lack of prospects before him he must be silent.:

This was the ground, then, on which the conflict commenced: not so much a struggle between love and duty, though it came to that at last, as a long fight of faith with questionings and fears. ‘No good thing will he withhold.’ Would it prove really true? Could he leave all in the hands of God and simply trust—nothing but uncertainty ahead?

The year that followed was full of perplexity and pain, in the midst of which his spiritual life was deepening. Sharing a room with his cousin made it difficult to obtain much privacy, but ‘I go into the warehouse, stable or anywhere,’

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he wrote, ‘to be alone with God. And some most precious seasons I have.’ On another occasion he wrote,

I have a stronger desire than ever to go to China. That land is ever in my thoughts. Think of it—360 million souls, without God or hope in the world! Think of more than twelve millions of our fellow creatures dying every year without any of the consolations of the Gospel. Barnsley including the Common has only 15,000 inhabitants. Imagine what it would be if all these were to die in twelve months! Yet in China year by year hundreds are dying, for every man, woman and child in Barnsley. Poor, neglected China! Scarcely anyone cares about it.

As the unstudied correspondence of a lad of only eighteen with a sister several years younger, the above quotations have a special interest. So also has the following letter bearing more directly upon the matter that was exercising his heart.

In your last note you suggest that it might be a good plan to write to the Chinese Association and ask whether they could send me out as a married man. I think that to do so would be effectually to prevent them. They would naturally conclude that I wanted to get married without means, and that I hoped they would insure me from the consequences of such conduct. It would not do to write to them at all at present.

I have not, as you know, the slightest idea how I shall go. But _ this I know, I shall go, either alone or married. I know God has called me to the work, and He will provide the means. But as you see I cannot send the information you desire. It is not reasonable to suppose that Miss V. would be willing to go and starve in a foreign land. I am sure I love her too well to wish her to do so. You well know I have nothing, and nothing (financially) to hope for. Consequently I'can enter into no engagement under present circumstances. I cannot deny that these things make me very sad. But my Father knows what is best. ‘No good thing will he withhold.’ I must live by faith, hang on by faith, simple faith, and He will do all things well.

Think not I am cold or indifferent. But what can I do? I know I love her. To go without her would make the world a blank. But I cannot bring her to want. Oh, pray for me! It is enough to distract me.:

You say you are sure I might win her if I could see my way to provide for her. But you see I cannot. And if I could, how do you know that I might have her? Do let me know, for I am so anxious about it. You say I should ensure this best by being sent out. Very true. But who is to send me? The Wesleyans have no station in China. The Established Church have one or two, but I am not a Churchman, and would not do for them. The Baptists and Independents have stations there, but I do not hold their views. The Chinese Association is very low in funds. So God and God alone is my hope, and I need no other.

With you I could wish, were it possible, that the matter should be decided at Christmas. But what reason have you for thinking it might if circumstances were favourable? Do you suppose she thinks or knows that I love her? Or does she, think you, care about me? Do answer these questions plainly.

A reply seems to have come from his sister that perplexed while it encouraged him.

‘I wonder how often I have read and re-read your letters,’ he wrote a fortnight later, ‘especially the last. As I do so, my mind is filled with conflicting hopes and fears. But I am determined to trust in God.’

Thus winter passed slowly by, and with early spring came a first step toward China. He felt the time had come for

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more definite preparation for his life-work. Five years in his father’s business had made him quite at home in dispensing medicines and even prescribing for ordinary ailments. He needed still to earn his own living, but felt that as assistant to a doctor in good practice he might at the same time make progress with his medical studies.

‘I am determined not to waste time any more in writing letters as I have done,’ he wrote to his sister, ‘but to endeavour in all things to be about my Master’s work. May He help me. It is my desire in all my ways to acknowledge Him: and He shall direct my path.

‘Now that I have decided to leave home, I want you to ask that the Lord will guide me into a suitable situation, where I may get and do good and become fitted for China.’

Shortly after this he had occasion to write again to Mr. Pearse in London. The letter is worth quoting, as illustrating his careful attention to detail, and sense of stewardship.

21 Cheapside, Barnsley,

March 31°, 1851 Mr. George Pearse,

Dear Sir—You will almost think I have forgotten the Chinese Union and have not its interests at heart, on account of my long _ silence. Such, however, is not the case, although from pressure of business I have not been able to devote to it the attention it deserves. I have collected rather more than £2. Please send me word as to how I shall remit this sum to you. If I send a post office order it will cost sixpence; but I can get it placed to your credit at Glynn & ‘Co. or any other London banker’s for two or three pence. Meanwhile I will do all in my power to get a few more subscribers, as the interests of China lie very near my heart. May I be fitted to engage in this great work. Please excuse haste, and—

Believe me, yours in our Risen Lord,

J. H. Taylor. \

On receiving the necessary information, he wrote again:

... [have paid through our Bankers £2.5s. to your credit at Messrs. Jones, Lloyd & Co., Lothbury, according to your directions, and you will receive it on Monday. Please acknowledge the receipt of this sum, that I may be able to show the subscribers that it has been remitted. Have you a Report, or any other publication telling of the work done by your Society, and how the funds are applied? I enclose a list of the contributors. The amounts are small, but I have no doubt that when more is known about the Society and its operations I shall be able to collect more.

The field truly is great, and the means at present employed for its cultivation appear very inadequate. But it is ‘not by might nor by power’ but by the influence of the Holy Spirit alone that good can be accomplished, and God often makes the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. He and He only can raise up and qualify suitable labourers and own and bless those already on the field.

I have devoted myself to missionary work in China in obedience, I believe, to His call, and am at present studying medicine and surgery that I may have more opportunities of usefulness and perhaps be able to support myself when there. This, however, I leave in His hands believing that if I seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness all these things shall be ‘added’ according to His promise.

Any suggestions you may be able to give me as to means for promoting the cause or fitting myself for more extensive usefulness would be thankfully received by

Yours in our Risen Lord,

J. H. Taylor.

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Mr. Pearse was evidently interested. He seems to have consulted his Committee and to have written intimating that the Society might be willing to help in the expense of a medical education if they considered young Hudson Taylor a suitable candidate for China.

Meanwhile an opening had occurred in Hull for an assistant to one of the busiest doctors there, Dr. Hardey, brother-in-law to one of Hudson Taylor’s aunts. It was not London, but in many ways it seemed the very thing he needed, and from his point of view was none the less desirable for being within easy reach of Barton, where Amelia and the young music teacher were still in Mrs. Hodson’s school.

It was on his nineteenth birthday that the new apprentice took up his duties and the day was naturally a busy one. Not till nearly midnight did he find time for the few lines to his sister that could not be omitted.

Then his thoughts carried him away from his new surroundings and across the Humber to the quiet, old-world township in which not only Amelia, but the attractive young music teacher lived. How near he was to her at last! His heart beat quick with hope as he realised that almost any day he might see her.

_ ‘Tam to have an hour to myself at dinner and another at teatime,’ he wrote eagerly to Amelia. ‘I almost think I shall be able to run over to Barton sometimes in the evening, by a little arrangement and being willing to stay overtime when needed.

“You cannot think how happy I feel in my Saviour’s love. Oh, He has loved me, the chief of sinners! love Him for it. He has hitherto granted all my prayers and He will grant me more before midsummer. “The crooked shall be made straight.” You understand, Love. Farewell.’