Emptied from Vessel to Vessel (1855-1856) (part 1 of 2)

The joy of preaching Christ where He had never before been named had now laid hold of Hudson Taylor, weaning his heart at last from plans and hopes of settled work in Shanghai. For months that thought had occupied him, but now it began to take a secondary place.

No answer had yet been received from the Committee as to the plans laid before them, so it was all the more natural that Hudson Taylor should be drawn in the one direction that was providentially open, that of evangelistic journeys. His fitness for this work was becoming so evident that the British and Foreign Bible Society was willing not only to supply him with as many Scriptures as he could distribute, but also to meet the larger part of his travelling expenses.

Ten days at home and the young evangelist set out upon a longer absence than any he had previously undertaken, this time alone. He seems to have had in view the purpose with which he had been sent to China, of penetrating inland as far as Nanking, the headquarters of the Taiping Rebellion. Be that as it may, he steered his course up the Yangtze, exploring the southern shore, travelling a distance of over 400 miles.

Starting on May 8th he did not reach home again until June Ist, having preached in fifty-eight cities, towns and larger villages, fifty-one of which had never before been visited by a Protestant missionary. It was a lonely journey and a courageous one. He was exceeding the most liberal interpretation of treaty rights, and could claim no protection either from his own Consul or from the local authorities. At any point he knew that he might be seized, tortured, and even put to death as a rebel or foreign spy.

‘I have felt a degree of nervousness since we were so roughly treated in Tungchow which is quite a new experience, a feeling that is not lessened by being quite alone,’ he wrote in his diary on the third day out. ‘I could not help feeling sad and downcast.’

Nevertheless, his diary for the twenty-five days gives a record of almost unremitting labour, continuing until early June when he returned to Shanghai. Here a warm welcome awaited him in more ways than one. Ina letter to his mother he reported:

The Chinese authorities have had me up before the Consul for violating the treaty with England by travelling in the interior. He said very little, not more than he was obliged to, but told me that if I continued to exceed treaty rights his position admitted of no respect of persons; he must punish me as he would a merchant.

Hudson Taylor was to hear more of this later. Meanwhile, he embarked on another itineration of a slightly different nature, little realising all it was to bring into his life.

He, Burdon and Dr. Parker set out on a preaching tour that was to include a visit to Ningpo for partial rest and change. Missionaries of several societies were at work in that important city, and the blessing of God was manifestly resting upon their labours. Hudson Taylor and his colleague looked forward to much‘help from this visit. Twilight was falling when after several days’ travel they made their way through the multitudinous craft that lined the chief approaches to the city, and following Burdon through the darkness of the narrow streets it was good to be welcomed into a hospitable mission compound. During the next few days they were introduced to a peculiarly united community in which they were received with great kindness.

Eleven foreigners in all represented several British and American societies. In addition there was a school carried on by an Englishwoman, Miss Aldersey, who six years before China was opened to the residence of foreigners had settled in Java to work among Chinese women there. After the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 she sailed for China, and coming to Ningpo in 1843 was one of the pioneer missionaries to settle in that city, where she opened the first school for girls on Chinese soil.

She had as her assistants the orphan daughters of one of the earliest members of the London Missionary Society. Born under the tropical sun of the Straits Settlements, and brought up in a missionary home, Burella and Maria Dyer at eighteen and twenty years of age were already fluent in _ the Ningpo vernacular, efficient and well loved in the work to which they were devoting themselves. Not surprisingly the presence of these girls enhanced the attraction of the foreign community in Ningpo. ee

Only one thing seemed lacking to the all-round development of the missions in the area. There was no hospital. The missionaries felt this drawback keenly, and as they came to know something of Dr. Parker a new hope sprang up. It was not until after he and his companions had returned to Shanghai, however, that a unanimous invitation was given to him to come and join them. When he and Hudson Taylor settled in again in the little house in Ma-ka-k’tien, it was as crowded as ever, and there seemed no prospect of relief. Gradually it was becoming evident that the Chinese Evangelisation Society was not prepared to endorse their suggestion with regard to mission headquarters in any of the Treaty Ports. ‘Our professed intentions are not to work in the five Ports, but in the interior,’ they wrote. “We do not wish our representatives to spend money in Shanghai.’ It was a matter of principle with the Committee not to put money into bricks and mortar, even though it seemed that their representatives could be housed in no other way.

It is easy enough now for us to realise that the Shanghai idea, as far as Hudson Taylor and Dr. Parker were concerned, was a mistaken one, but it was anything but easy for them. The Scottish physician had not yet received the invitation to Ningpo, and Hudson Taylor, eager though he was to go inland, knew all too well the need for a good home base.

‘It is hard to be ever on the move,’ he wrote to his sister, ‘and to have no settled dwelling. I have some thought of buying a set of Chinese garments soon, and seeing how I could get on with them. If I could get a little place somewhere in the interior, perhaps I might settle down and be useful. As things are at present, we cannot hope to see much fruit—for we have no station, no chapel, no hospital, no house even of our own. Pray for me, for | am very weak and unworthy, and have been a good deal tried of late.’

It was August 6" when Hudson Taylor and his colleague received the long-expected notice that the house they were occupying must be vacated by the end of September. Two new missionaries were on the way from England and would require the premises. Just then further letters from their own Committee put a final veto upon their plans for Shanghai as a permanent centre. No, they were not to build, though permission was given Dr. Parker to rent rooms for a dispensary. How or where they were to live was left a matter of uncertainty, the Committee apparently having no suggestion to make.

The Lord, however, was caring for His workers as well as His work. Another letter, also received early in August, gave full proof of this. Several weeks previously the unanimous invitation of the missionaries in Ningpo had reached Dr. Parker, earnestly requesting that he would go and settle among them. He had replied that he could not feel justified in doing so unless assured that in connection with such a position he could support a hospital for the Chinese, the expense of which would be at least 800 dollars per annum. And now, after eight months in China, the opening came that was to determine his life-work.

“You will be glad, I am sure, to learn,’ he wrote to his Committee on August 22nd, ‘that the friends in Ningpo have become surety for the amount required, and rejoice in the prospect of a missionary hospital there — the only Treaty Port without one.

‘This, of course, shuts me up to taking the steps, unless I set at nought the plain indications of Providence. And as I believe it to be God’s will, I have resolved to go, and to do so at once.’

While this cleared the way for Dr. Parker and his family, it only left Hudson Taylor the more cast upon God. Now he would be lonely indeed, bereft of companionship as well as home. Feeling, as he did, that his work in Shanghai was not yet finished, he at once set about seeking quarters to which he might remove his belongings. But, as before, the search proved useless.

‘They all want heavy deposits that I am not able to pay,’ he wrote to his sister. ‘It is wearisome work, and if I do not succeed soon IJ shall adopt Chinese dress and seek a place in the country. These changes are not easy. Do pray for me.’

Chinese dress and a home somewhere in the country—the thought was becoming familiar. But it was an expedient almost unheard of in those days. Sometimes on inland journeys a missionary would wear Chinese dress as a precautionary measure, and Dr. Medhurst himself had suggested it to Hudson Taylor. But it was invariably discarded on the traveller’s return, and he would have been careless of public opinion indeed who would have ventured to wear it always, and in the Settlement.

Nevertheless it was nothing less than this that the young missionary was meditating, driven to it by his longing to identify himself with the people, and by the force of outward circumstances.

Another week went by in almost incessant househunting, and the time drew near when Dr. Parker was to leave for Ningpo. Hudson Taylor had promised to escort him as far as Hangchow Bay, to see him through the more difficult part of the journey. They were to start on Friday morning the 24th, and up to Thursday afternoon the search for premises had been in vain.

Yes, it was growing clearer. For him, probably, the right thing was a closer identification with the people, including chopsticks, Chinese. cooking and Chinese dress at all times—even to the queue. How much it would simplify travelling in the interior! Already he had purchased an outfit of Chinese clothing. If, after all the prayer there had been about it, he really could not get accommodation in Shanghai, it must be that the Lord had other purposes. He would send his few things down to Ningpo with Dr. Parker, who had offered to store them, and living on boats would give himself to evangelistic work until his way opened up somewhere in the interior.

Thursday night came, and Dr. Parker was to leave the following morning. It was useless, to seek premises any longer, so Hudson Taylor went down to engage the junk that was to take them to Hangchow Bay with their belongings. His Chinese dress was ready for the following morning when he expected to begin a pilgrim life indeed.

This, apparently, was the point to which it had been necessary to lead him. On these new lines could now be given the answer to weeks and months of prayer. Even as he was on his way, a man met him. Did he want a house in the Chinese city? Would a small one do, with only five rooms? Because near the South Gate there was such a house, only it was not quite finished building. The owner had run short of money and hardly knew how to complete the work. If it suited the foreign teacher, no deposit would be asked: it could be had in all probability for an advance of six months’ rent.

Feeling as though in a dream, Hudson Taylor followed his guide to the southern quarter of the city, and there found a small, compact house, perfectly new and clean, with two rooms.upstairs and two down, and a

fifth across the courtyard for the servants—just the very thing he needed, in the locality that suited him best, and all for the moderate sum of £10 to cover a half-year’s rent.

What it must have been to him to pay the money over that night, and secure the premises, is more easily imagined than described. The Lord had indeed worked on his behalf. Prayer was being answered. He had not missed or mistaken the guidance for which he had waited so long. It almost seemed as if the Lord had broken silence, to confirm and encourage His servant at this critical time. And best of all was the wondering consciousness that He Himself had done it when, humanly speaking, it seemed impossible: ‘I being in the way, the Lord led me.’

That night he took the final step in transforming himself into a Chinese. He described the experience a few days later in a letter to his sister:

...I had better tell you at once that on Thursday last at 11p.m. I resigned my locks to the barber, dyed my hair a good black, and in the morning had a proper queue plaited in with my own, and a quantity of heavy silk to lengthen it out according to Chinese custom. Then, in Chinese dress, I set out with Dr. Parker, accompanying him about 100 miles-on his way to Ningpo. This journey we made an occasion for evangelistic work, and now that I am returning alone I hope to have even better facilities for book distribution and preaching.

But I have not commenced the recital of my tribulations, and the sooner I begin the better. First then, it is a very sore thing to have one’s head shaved for the first time, especially if the skin is irritable with prickly heat. And I can assure you that the subsequent application of hair-dye for five or six hours (litharge 1 part; quick lime, freshly slaked, 3 parts; water enough to make a cream) does not do much to soothe the irritation. But when it comes to combing out the remaining hair which has been allowed to grow longer than usual, the climax is reached! But there are no gains without pains, and certainly if suffering for a thing makes it dearer, I shall regard my queue when I attain one with no small amount of pride and affection.

Secondly, when you proceed to your toilet, you no longer wonder that many Chinese in the employ of Europeans wear foreign shoes and stockings as soon as they can get them. For Chinese socks are made of calico and of course are not elastic, and average toes decidedly object to be squeezed out of shape, nor do one’s heels appreciate their low position in perfectly flatsoled shoes. Next come the breeches—but oh, what unheard-of garments! Mine are two feet too wide for me round the waist, which amplitude is laid in a fold in front, and kept in place by a strong girdle. The legs are short, not coming much below the knee, and wide in proportion with the waist measurement. Tucked into the long, white socks, they have a bloomer-like fullness capable, as Dr. Parker remarked, of storing a fortnight’s provisions! No shirt is worn. But a white, washing jacket, with sleeves as wide as ladies affected twenty years ago, supplies its place. And over all goes a heavy silk gown of some rich or delicate colour, with sleeves equally wide and reaching twelve or fifteen inches beyond the tips of one’s fingers—folded back, of course, when the hands are in use.

While still with Dr. Parker on the way to Hangchow Bay I was frequently recognized as a foreigner, because of having to speak to him in English, but today in going about Haiyen City no one even guessed that such a being was near. It was not until I began to distribute books and see patients that I became known. Medical work is evidently to be one’s chief help for the interior. Women and children, it seems to me, manifest more readiness to come for medical aid now than they did before, and in this way too, I think the Chinese costume will be of service.

aA,

Thus he returned to Shanghai as summer merged into autumn, to take up in the old surroundings a very different life. For the change he had made after so much prayer was soon found to affect more than his outward appearance. The Chinese felt it, Europeans felt it, and above all he felt it himself—putting an intangible barrier between him and foreign associations, and throwing him back as never before upon the people of his adoption.

The covert sneer or undisguised contempt of the European community he found less difficult to bear than the disapproval of fellow-missionaries. But this also had to be faced, for he was practically alone in his convictions, and certainly the only one to carry them into effect. The more he suffered for them, however, the more they deepened, and the more he gave himself to the Chinese in consequence.

It was Monday, September 17th, when he resumed upon moving into his new quarters a solitary life. Within the walls of the native city his living arrangements were of the simplest, but only three weeks later he wrote to tell his mother of the sweetest joy he had ever known.

This morning my heart was gladdened by the request of Kueihua (my adopted pupil’s brother) to be baptised. I cannot tell you the joy this has brought me. Were my work ended here, I feel I could say with Simeon, ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace... for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.’ If one soul is worth worlds, mother, am I not abundantly repaid? And are not you too?

Kuei-hua was the first convert he baptised in China. But this was not the only encouragement of which he had to tell before the month was over. For that October mail brought another letter from W. T. Berger. Satisfied with the use made of his first gift of £10, this kind friend now repeated it, undertaking to do so every half year, and thus provide entirely for Han-pan’s education. But more than this, he wrote ‘a very affectionate letter,’ urging the young missionary to expect great things from God, and enclosing a further sum of £40 to be used as he thought best in the interests of the work.

It seems to have been with an almost solemnised sense of the goodness of God that Hudson Taylor pondered all this in the light of the past, and in its relation to the future. How long he had looked forward to the joy of winning his first convert among the heathen! How keenly he had felt lack of means properly to develop the work! Now souls were being given, not Kuei-hua only, but one or two other promising inquirers; and this generous friend in England was being drawn more and more into sympathy with the line of things to which he felt himself called.

Already the Lord was more than making up for all the trials undergone. And straight to his heart came the message of Mr. Berger’s letter:

‘Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” O yes! God is not straightened. If we expect much from Him, He surely will not disappoint us.

It was during that autumn that Taylor obtained a home of his own in the interior. It must have seemed like a dream to him, to be quietly living among the people, in Sin-k’aiho, a day’s journey from the nearest Treaty Port.

It all came about in answer to prayer no doubt, but the Chinese dress he was wearing had had a great deal to do with it. As soon as he could leave the South Gate house in charge of Teacher Si he had set out on another evangelistic journey, which was to include a second visit to the island of Tsungming. But he had got no further than this first place at which he landed, for there the people simply would not hear of his leaving.

What made them want so much to have him does not appear. Perhaps it was the medicine chest. Perhaps it was the preaching. At any rate there was nothing in his outward appearance to frighten them away, and the difference between this experience and anything he had met with on previous journeys taught him afresh the value of Chinese dress.

The second day of his stay there a house had been discovered with some sort of an upper storey whose owner was quite willing to receive the missionary. Indeed he could rent the entire premises, if they pleased him, for a moderate sum. Before Monday was half over the agreement was concluded that gave him possession of his first home in ‘inland China’.

Busy indeed were the days that followed—one of the hardest worked and happiest times the young missionary had ever known in his life. His servant Kuei-hua and an earnest enquirer from the South Gate named Ts’ien were invaluable in helping him to preach the Gospel, morning, noon and night. But even so he finished up the week with an attack of ague, due to over-weariness and the change to autumn weather.

After that things settled down to a regular routine. Patients were seen and daily meetings held, and a few enquirers began to gather. One of these was a blacksmith named Chang, and another an assistant in a grocery store. Ts’ien was invaluable in helping these beginners and in receiving guests, and both he and Kuei-hua were so eager to learn more themselves that they made the most of the little while Taylor could give them at night when outsiders had all gone home. _

And all about them stretched the populous island a parish of a million, every one of whom he longed to reach. The town itself contained only twenty to thirty thousand, but villages were numerous in every direction, and the medical work was making friends. Wherever Taylor and his helpers went they found somebody ready to welcome them, and as frequently as possible they spent a day in the country preaching the Gospel.

‘It is almost too much to expect,’ he wrote at the beginning of this work, “that I shall be allowed to remain on without molestation, so I must use every effort to sow the good seed of the Kingdom while I may, and be earnest in prayer for blessing. Should it please the Lord to establish me in this place and raise up a band of believers, it seems to me that by making a circuit somewhat on the Wesleyan plan we should be enabled to do the greatest amount of good.

‘Pray for me. I sometimes feel a sense of responsibility that is quite oppressive—the only light-bearer among so many. But this is wrong. It is Jesus who is to shine in me. I am not left to my own resources. The two Christians are a great comfort. May I be enabled to help them by life as well as teaching.’

After three weeks supplies began to run short and Taylor had to return to Shanghai for money and medicines. Not anticipating a long absence, he arranged for the meetings to go on without him, and leaving Ts’ien in charge, sailed for the mainland. oS

He was absent little more than a week from the island, but much may happen in that time. A storm was brewing at Sin-k’ai-ho. Ts’ien had come over hurriedly, and finding no one at the South Gate had returned to his post leaving letters to explain the situation. Amid many exciting rumours one clear fact emerged: a proclamation had been issued to the effect that the foreigner who had unwarrantably taken up his abode on Tsungming was to be sent back to Shanghai at once where he would suffer the severest penalty, and that all persons who had aided his presumptuous action would also be punished after the strictest letter of the law. A fortnight later he wrote to his parents,

It seems that the two doctors and four druggists of this town have begun to find me rather a serious rival. Bad legs of many years’ standing have been cured in a few days. Eye medicine exceeding theirs in potency can be obtained for nothing. A whole host of itch cases, regular customers for plasters (!) have in some way disappeared. Ague patients are saying that the doctors are without talent, and asthmatics are loud in praise of foreign cough powders. What was to be the end of it all? That was the question.

So the fraternity met together, took tea, tobacco and counsel, and sent twelve dollars to the Mandarin to have the intruder expelled.

On my return I felt a little anxious, not for my own sake but on account of those who would be implicated if trouble were to arise. But I continued to see patients as before, going every alternate day to preach in neighbouring towns and villages till Monday, November 26th, which with yesterday have been days of intense anxiety.

On Monday morning while we were at breakfast the Mandarin from Tsungming city passed by, his attendants making it known that he had come for the double purpose of seizing some pirates at a town below and of examining into our affairs. Ts’ien and Kuei-hua were to be dragged before him, the landlord also, and an old man of over seventy who had acted as go-between; and unless their replies were ‘satisfactory’ they would be beaten from 300 to 1,000 blows each. We had morning worship, specially praying for protection, and then preached and saw patients as usual. Towards the close of the afternoon we were told that the Mandarin had gone to seize the pirates first, and would deal with our matters on his return journey.

Next day I kept all who were concerned in the house, that none might be taken without my knowledge. We saw patients, some having come many miles, and preached as usual: In the afternoon, as I was operating on the eye of a woman, who should pass but the Mandarin with all his followers. It was well that the operation was over, or I should have found it difficult to complete it, for I was trembling with excitement. It was not until two hours later that we definitely learned that he had gone on to the capital without stopping. Then our prayers were turned into praise indeed! It may be that he is not even aware of my presence, and that the whole story was an attempt to extort money on the part of his underlings.

Now that the storm had blown over, the young missionary was more than ever earnest in making the most of his opportunities. To see the enquirers growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord was a joy no words could express. The blacksmith, Chang, now closed his shop on Sundays, and both he and Sung openly declared themselves Christians. The change that had come over them awakened interest among their fellow-townsmen, several of whom were attending the services regularly. So that the blow when it fell was all the more painful for being unexpected—and it came from, an unforeseen quarter.

It was December Ist, and Hudson Taylor had gone over to Shanghai to obtain money and send off letters. To his surprise an important looking document was awaiting him at the South Gate, which read as follows:

British Consulate, Shanghai is November 23rd, 1855 British Consul to Mr. J. H. Taylor

Sir—I am directed by Her Majesty’s Consul to inform you that information has been lodged at this office by His Excellency the Intendant of Circuit, to the effect that you have rented a house from a Chinese named Si Sung-an, at a place called Sink’ai-ho in the island of Tsungming, and opened this house as a physician’s establishment in charge of one of your servants named Lew Yang-tsuen, you yourself visiting it occasionally. His Excellency refers to a former complaint lodged against you for visiting Ts’ingkiang, upon which subject you appeared before Her Majesty’s Consul.

Her Majesty’s Consul has therefore to call upon you to appear at this office without delay, in order that he may investigate the matter referred to.

—I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

Frederick Harvey (Vice-Consul)

Of course he went at once and explained the true facts of the case, but his plea to be allowed to remain on at Sink’ai-ho where all now seemed peaceful and friendly was in vain. The Consul reminded him that the British Treaty only provided for residence in the five ports, and that if he attempted to settle elsewhere he rendered himself liable to a fine of 500 dollars. The young missionary well knew that there was a supplementary treaty in which it was stipulated that all immunities and privileges granted to other nations should apply to British subjects also. Roman Catholic priests, Frenchmen, were living on the island supported by the authority of their Government, and why should he be forbidden the same consideration?

Yes, replied the Consul, that was undoubtedly a point, and if he wished to appeal for a higher decision, Her Majesty’s representative (Sir John Bowring) would be arriving in Shanghai before long. As far as his own jurisdiction went, the matter was at an end. Mr. Taylor must return to Tsungming at once, give up his house, remove his belongings to Shanghai, and understand that he was liable to a fine of 500 dollars if he again attempted residence in the interior.

‘I shall probably appeal against the Consular decision, Hudson Taylor wrote to Mr. Pearse a few days later. “I feel the importance of this case in many respects. It will test the footing on which Protestant missionaries really stand...’

Sir John Bowring, however, was unaccountably delayed just then. He did not arrive by the mail steamer on which he was expected, nor by the next: and meanwhile the young missionary was brought into contact with the one God had prepared to help him at this stage in his life.

The name of William Burns was in the best sense a household word in Scotland, for where in town or country was there a Christian family that did not recall the Revival of 1839? The young evangelist of those days, moving in Pentecostal power from place to place, everywhere accompanied by marvellous tokens of the divine presence and blessing, had become the toil-worn missionary—his hair already tinged with grey, his spirit more’mellow though no less fervent, his sympathies enlarged through experience and deeper fellowship with the sufferings of Christ.

Just returned to China after his first and only furlough, Burns had not resumed, as might have been expected, his - former successful work in Amoy. He felt strongly drawn to the Yangtze Valley, for Nanking was on his heart, and the unknown leaders of the Taiping movement in whose hands the future of China still seemed to lie. But as events had already proved, this was not the purpose for which he had been brought to central China.

Unsuccessful in his attempt to reach Nanking, he had returned to Shanghai by the southern reaches of the Grand Canal, much impressed with the need and accessibility of that part of the country. With the concurrence of the local missionaries, all too few to meet the overwhelming needs, he had devoted himself for several months to its evangelisation—living on boats in very simple style, and travelling up and down the endless waterways spread like a network over the vast alluvial plain. Thus it was that he was still in that locality when Hudson Taylor returned from Tsungming, and engaged in the very work so dear to the younger missionary’s heart.

Where and how they met does not appear, but one can readily believe that they were drawn together by sympathies of no ordinary kind. The grave, keen-eyed Scotsman soon detected in the English missionary, a kindred spirit, and one sorely in need of help that he might give. The attraction was mutual. Each was without a companion, and before long they had arranged to join forces in the work.

In a little house at the South Gate or on Burns’s boat almost the first subject they would discuss would be the difficulty about Tsungming with its bearing on the future, and it was not long before the spiritual point of view of the older man seemed to change the whole situation. It was not a question really of standing on one’s rights, or claiming what it might be justifiable to claim. Why deal with second causes? Nothing would have been easier for the Master to whom ‘all power’ is given than to have established His servant permanently on the island, had He so desired it. And of what use was it, if He had other plans, to attempt to carry the thing through on the strength of Government help? No, ‘the servant of the Lord must not strive,’ but must be willing to be led by just such indications of the Divine will, relying not on the help of man to accomplish a work of his own choosing, but on the unfailing guidance, resources and purposes of God.

And so, very thankfully, Hudson Taylor came to realise that perhaps he had felt unduly discouraged. Nothing the Lord permitted could permanently hinder His own work. All the while had He not been preparing for His servant this unexpected blessing, by far the most helpful companionship he had ever known?

It was the middle of December when Hudson Taylor left Shanghai once more, setting out on his tenth evangelistic journey, the first with William Burns. Residence on Tsungming had been forbidden, but he saw no reason why he should not accompany another missionary to whose itinerations no objection had been raised. Travelling in two boats, each with their Chinese helpers and a good supply of literature, they were at the same time independent and a comfort to one another. Practical and methodical in all his ways, Burns had a line of his own in such work that his companion was glad to follow. =

Choosing an important centre, in this case the town of Nanzin, just south of the Great Lake, in Chekiang, they remained there eighteen days, including Christmas and the New Year. Every morning they set out early with a definite plan, sometimes working together and sometimes separating to visit different parts of the town. Burns believed in beginning quietly on the outskirts of a place in which foreigners had rarely if ever been seen, and working his way by degrees to the more crowded quarters. Accordingly they gave some days to the suburban streets, preaching whenever a number of people collected and giving away gospels and tracts. This was repeated in all the quieter parts of the town, gradually approaching its centre, until at length they could pass along the busiest streets without endangering the shopkeepers’ tempers as well as their wares.

Then they visited temples, schools and tea-shops, returning regularly to the most suitable places for preaching. Announcing after each meeting when they would come again, they had the satisfaction of seeing the same faces frequently.

But everywhere, Burns noticed, his young companion had the more attentive hearers and was occasionally asked into private houses, he himself being requested to wait outside. The riffraff of the crowd always seemed to gather round the preacher in foreign dress, while those who wished to hear what was being said followed his less noticeable friend. The result was a conclusion come to, and communicated to his mother a few weeks later:

Twenty-Five Miles From Shanghai

January 26th, 1856 Taking advantage of a rainy day which confines me to my boat, I pen a few lines in addition to a letter to Dundee containing particulars which I need not repeat.

It is now forty-one days since I left Shanghai on this last occasion. An excellent young English missionary, Mr. Taylor of the Chinese Evangelisation Society, has been my companion, he in his boat and I in mine, and we have experienced much mercy, and on some occasions considerable assistance in our work.

I must once more tell the story I have had to tell more than once already, how four weeks ago, on the 29th December, I put on Chinese dress, which I am now wearing. Mr. Taylor had made this change a few months before, and I found that he was in consequence so much less incommoded in preaching, etc., by the crowd, that I concluded that it was my duty to follow his example.

This change into Chinese dress was found to have so many advantages that Burns never again resumed European clothing. Of the comfort of the dress there could be no doubt.

‘It is real winter now,’ wrote Hudson Taylor on New Year’s eve, ‘and the north wind is very cutting, but I am, thanks to the Chinese costume, as warm as toast.

‘Indeed, we have many mercies to be thankful for. A good boat, costing about two shillings a day, gives me a nice little room to myself, with an oyster-shell window that gives light while it prevents people from peeping in, a table at which I write and take meals, a locker on which my bed is spread at night and a seat round the remaining space, so that two visitors, or even three, can be accommcedated.

‘How very differently our Master was lodged! Nowhere to lay His head. Oh, may I be enabled to glorify Him with my whole spirit, soul and body, which are His.’ ’

Deep as his longing had ever been for likeness to and fellowship with the Lord, Hudson Taylor was increasingly conscious of this heart-hunger in companionship with William Burns. He too had found how sadly possible it is to be professedly a witness for Christ amid the darkness of a heathen land, ‘and yet breathe little of the love of God or the grace of the Gospel.’ Nothing was more real to him than the fact that a low-level missionary life can, and too often does, make even ‘the cross of Christ of none effect’.

‘I was preaching last Sabbath day,’ Burns wrote on one occasion, “from Matthew 24.12, “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold”; and alas! I felt it was solemnly applicable to my own state of heart. Unless the Lord the Spirit continually uphold and quicken, oh how benumbing is daily contact with heathenism! But the Lord is faithful, and has promised to be “as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow ofa great rock in a weary land.”

Upon such promises he counted, and he had not found them fail. The presence of the Lord was the one thing real to him in China as it had been at home. ‘He did not consider that he had a warrant to proceed in any sacred duty,’ his biographer tells us, ‘without a consciousness of that Divine presence. Without it, he could not speak even to a handful of little children in a Sunday School; with it he could stand unabashed before the mightiest and wisest in the land.’

Ruled by such a master principle, it was no wonder there was something about his life that impressed and attracted others. Prayer was as natural to him as breathing, and the Word of God as necessary as daily food. He was always cheerful, always happy, witnessing to the truth of his own memorable words:

I think I can say, through grace, that God’s presence or absence alone distinguishes places to me.

Simplicity in living was his great delight. ‘He enjoyed quietness and the luxury of having few things to take care of,’ and thought the happiest state on earth for a Christian was ‘that he should have few wants’.

‘If a man have Christ in his heart,’ he used to say, ‘Heaven before his eyes, and only as much of temporal blessing as is just needful to carry him safely through life, then pain and sorrow have little to shoot at.’

Cultured, genial and overflowing with mother-wit, he was a delightful companion. A wonderful fund of varied anecdotes gave charm to his society, and he was generous in recalling his experiences for the benefit of others. Many a time his life had been in danger in Ireland and elsewhere at the hands of a violent mob, and the stories he had to tell could not but encourage faith and zeal, although at times they might provoke a smile.

‘The devil's dead,’ shouted one Irish voice above the uproar of a crowd determined to put an end to his streetpreaching. But the quick-witted reply, touched with sarcasm, ‘Ah then, you are a poor fatherless bairn’ not only won the day, but carried home a deeply solemn lesson.

Sacred music was his delight, greatly to the satisfaction of his young companion. Many were the hymns they sang together both in English and Chinese. The fact that they did not belong to the same missionary society, the same denomination, the same country even, made no difference in their relations. Burns was far too large-hearted to be narrowed by circumstances or creeds.

Yet his faithfulness to conviction was unflinching, and his testimony against wrong-doing never withheld. His denunciations of sin could be terrible, strong men cowering before them, pale and trembling, under an overwhelming sense of the Divine presence. He did not hesitate, for example, on this very journey, to mount the stage of a Chinese theatre in the presence of thousands of people and stop an immoral play in full swing, calling upon the audience gathered under the open heavens to repent of their iniquities and turn to the living God.

But it was towards himself he was most of all severe, in the true apostolic spirit, “We suffer all things, Jest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.’ There are glimpses in his journal of many a day or night spent in prayer—’seeking personal holiness, the fundamental requisite for a successful ministry.’ Yet he felt himself wholly unworthy to represent the Lord he loved. ‘Oh, that I had a martyr’s heart,’ he wrote, ‘if not a martyr’s death and a martyr’s crown.’

The friendship of this man was the gift of God to Hudson Taylor at this particular juncture. Week after week, month after month they lived and travelled together, the exigencies of their work bringing out resources of mind and heart that otherwise might have remained hidden. Such a friendship is one of the crowning blessings of life. It comes as love unsought, and only to the equal soul. Young and immature as he was, Hudson Taylor had the capacity to appreciate, after long years of loneliness, the preciousness of this gift. Under its influence he grew and expanded, and came to an understanding of himself and his providential position that left its impress on all after-life. William Burns was better to him than a college course with all its advantages, because he lived out before him right there in China the reality of all he most needed to be and know.