Chapter Nineteen, Letter to Yangchow
Chapter Nineteen, Letter to Yangchow
A few months after his visit to Ashley Down (Chapter 16), Hudson Taylor set off on May 26th 1866 for Shanghai. With him in the Lammermuir were his wife Maria, six other men and nine women who would join the eight missionaries already in China, to form the new China Inland Mission.
The story of the dramatic events which led to the commencement of Muller’s substantial support of the CIM, at a time of crisis and controversy, well illustrates his great interest in the work of nearly two hundred missionaries in many parts of the world.
The ninety-one protestant missionaries of all societies already in China were confined to a few of the treaty ports; beyond, in the country’s vast interior, there was hardly a voice to preach the gospel to two hundred million Chinese. Taylor wrote, therefore, that ‘Our great desire and aim are to plant the standard of the Cross in the eleven provinces of China hitherto unoccupied ...’
Inspired by Muller’s example, the founders of the China Inland Mission went forth in faith—trusting in God to supply their needs. When anxious friends expressed concern that with no Committee to represent them at home, the missionaries would be forgotten in a distant land, Taylor replied:
I am taking my children with me, and I notice that it is not difficult for me to remember that the little ones need breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday, and something before they go to bed at night. Indeed, I could not forget it. And I find it impossible to suppose that our Heavenly Father is less tender or mindful than I.
While it is true that the CIM was not backed by the usual committee, Taylor and his colleagues were faithfully supported by the energetic Bergers of Saint Hill. William T. Berger, the wealthy owner of a large starch works, became the first Home Director of the CIM; with no family of their own, Mr and Mrs Berger had room in their hearts for all the interests of the mission. ‘Saint Hill* was the name of their mansion near East Grinstead, and it was there that Hudson and his wife had often enjoyed their hospitality before the foundation of the mission. It was a place which the whole family could enjoy: in the words of Dr and Mrs Howard Taylor, ‘the fine old house and grounds, sloping down to a little lake with meadows beyond, were a paradise to the children’.
The same authors have described how that when the mission was established and the Lammermuir party had arrived in China, Saint Hill became a hive of activity.
Already advanced in years, it was not easy for them to turn their quiet home into a Mission-centre, using as offices both diningroom and study; to encumber the billiard-room with packing-cases; to receive at their table candidates for China and friends of the missionaries; to direct wrappers, and send out with their own hands the Occasional Paper; to attend to a large correspondence, keep accounts, transmit money, arrange for the outgoing of new workers, help with their preparations, fit up their cabins, see them off from any port at any hour of the day or night, and correspond with those already on the field. Yet all this they did with the loving interest of a father’s and mother’s heart. When it became necessary they went further, and adapted a cottage in their grounds for the young men candidates and another for a tutor who gave secretarial help.
It was a great principle of the CIM that the Chinese should never have reason to feel that Christianity was a ‘western religion’, foreign to their own way of life. Taylor and his companions therefore went into the homes of the people, dressed as they were. One of the party, Jennie Faulding, wrote home,
It does so please them to see us liking to be like themselves in outward things. They express the greatest satisfaction, and are delighted especially that our shoes and style of hair-dressing should be the same as theirs. Instead of having difficulty in getting across to the people, they come here day after day saying, Fuh Kuniang, we want you to come to our house and teach us about the religion.
In April 1868 Jennie Faulding, Pastor Lae-djun, and Mr and Mrs John McCarthy were left in Hangchow, while Hudson Taylor (accompanied by Maria and the four children) led a party of missionaries—including six Chinese evangelists—on into the interior. In June they arrived at Yangchow, about fifteen miles up the Grand Canal from its junction with the Yangtze. Six hundred years earlier the city had been governed by Marco Polo, under the Kublai Khan.
At Yangchow, the party successfully procured and occupied a suitable house; not long after they had settled in, however, trouble began, stirred up by the ‘literati’. The literati—some of whom were themselves Mandarins—were a section of Chinese society vehemently hostile to foreigners, especially missionaries. These men held a meeting at which they decided to circulate anonymous hand-bills and posters designed to excite popular feeling against the missionaries. According to The Times correspondent in Shanghai the circulated material accused Taylor and his colleagues of ‘kidnapping children and boiling them up for medicine; of abstracting the heart and liver from dead bodies and eating it; of administering drugs and philters to Chinamen which turned them into foreigners ...’
By early August, this organised campaign was bringing about a change in the attitude of the people. Mr Reid, another CIM missionary who had come over from Nanking to join the party in Yangchow, wrote home that on Sunday August 16th (1868), the people assembled at an early hour, and began knocking and battering upon our door ... until we thought it best to go out and try to pacify them ... I think I never felt more the power and value of speaking gently than on that day. Dear Mr Taylor spoke often to those assembled in a very kind manner; and while we watched, those inside the house prayed, and God graciously brought us through, confirming to our hearts the promise, ‘Lo, I am with you alway.’
The trouble continued, however, and for the next few days, the missionaries were more or less continually in a state of siege. Tuesday had been placarded as the day for attacking and setting fire to their house, and once or twice the crowd seemed inclined to break into the rambling premises by force, but, as it turned out, the disturbances were less than on the Sunday. Emily Blatchley wrote, ‘We know that whatever happens will be by His permission, for we have put ourselves into His hands. He will not leave us.’ Even as- she wrote this, it began to thunder and to look like rain; Hudson Taylor comforted his companions by announcing that rain would do more than an army of soldiers. ‘The Chinese shim rain; the most important matters they will postpone on account of it.’ Miss Blatchley was able to continue her letter: ‘Any attempt to set the place on fire now would be vain indeed, for the rain is coming down in torrents’.
After this it seemed that the worst was over. Despite everything that had been said against the missionaries their quiet and friendly attitude was having its effect. Until Saturday they had some respite.
But on the Saturday two ‘foreigners’ came up to visit Yangchow, wearing not the native costume adopted by Taylor’s party but undisguised ‘foreign dress’. They were seen in various parts of the city before leaving with the impression that all was quiet. This was too good an opportunity for the literati to miss: they began to circulate reports that children were missing in all directions, entrapped by the ‘foreign devils’. Revenge was demanded against all foreigners, and the prospect of plunder in Taylor’s premises was held out as an incentive. The weather was intensely hot and feelings became easily excited; at last a crowd of ‘several thousand people’ (according to the account in The Times) surrounded the house.
Taylor managed to send a verbal message to the British Consular authorities informing them of the situation. Then, after night had fallen, he and Mr Duncan decided on a desperate attempt to summon aid from the Chinese authorities. Leaving their wives and children and the women missionaries in the care of Messrs Rudland, Reid and Judd, they set off to face the fury of the populace.
But for the protection afforded us by the darkness [Taylor wrote later] we should scarcely have reached the ya-men alive. Alarmed by the yells of the people the gate-keepers were just closing the doors as we approached, but the momentary delay gave time for the crowd to close in upon us: the as yet unbarred gates gave way to the pressure, and we were precipitated into the entrance hall. Had the gates been barred, I am convinced that they would not have been opened for us, and we should have been tom to pieces by the enraged mob.
Once in the ya-men, we rushed into the judgment hall, crying ‘Kiu-ming! Kiu-ming!’ (save life! save life!), a cry the Chinese Mandarin is bound to attend to at any hour of the day or night. We were taken to the room of the Chief Secretary, and kept waiting three-quarters of an hour before we had an audience with the Prefect, all the time hearing the yells of the mob a mile or more off, destroying for ought we knew, not only the property, but possibly the lives of those so dear to us. And at last when we did get an audience, it was almost more than we could bear with composure to be asked as to what we really did with the babies; whether it was true we had bought them, and how many; what was the cause of all this rioting? etc., etc.
At last I told His Excellency that the real cause of all the trouble was his own neglect in not taking measures when the matter was small and manageable; that I must now request him first to take steps to repress the riot and save any of our friends who might still be alive, and afterwards make such inquiries as he might wish, or I would not answer for the result.
‘Ah,’ said he, ‘very true, very true! First quiet the people, and then inquire. Sit still, and I will go to see what can be done.’
He went out telling us to remain, as the only chance of his effecting anything depended on our keeping out of sight; for by this time the number of rioters amounted to eight or ten thousand. The natives estimated them at twenty thousand.
We were kept in this torture of suspense for two hours, when the Prefect returned with the Ts’-ao-fu (Governor of the military forces of the city, some three thousand men) and told us that all was quiet; that the Ts’ao-fu himself, the Sheo-pe (Captain of the soldiers who guard the gates), and two local Mandarins had been to the scene of the disturbance; that they had seized several of those who were plundering the premises, and would have them punished. He then sent for chairs, and we were returned home under escort. On the way back we were told that all the foreigners we had left were killed. We had to cry to God to support us, though we hoped this might prove exaggerated or untrue.
When they reached the house it seemed sadly certain that the report was true.
Here, a pile of half-burned reeds showed where one of the attempts to fire the premises had been made; there, debris of a broken-down wall was lying; and strewn about everywhere were the remains of boxes and furniture, scattered papers and letters, broken work-boxes, writing-desks, dressing-cases, and surgical instrument cases, smouldering remains of valuable books, etc—but no trace of inhabitants within.
Taylor and Duncan were horrified. Where were their wives, their children, and their fellow-workers? Were they injured? Or were the reports that they had all been killed true? In great fear and with sickness of heart they began to search for their loved ones.
After Taylor and Duncan had set off for the ya-men to summon help, the women and children had assembled in Maria’s room. There they had pleaded for God’s protection on themselves and on the two men who were facing the anger of the people. Meanwhile Messrs Rudland and Reid had done their best to keep the crowd from entering the premises. But their attempts had failed. The rioters broke into the house and began to ransack its rooms. The ladies had to throw their children from the verandah roof into the arms of the men below; then Reid stood ready to catch Maria and Emily Blatchley, but as he braced himself he was struck in the eye by a brick-bat: he lost the eye. Maria jumped, and badly injured her leg; Emily followed and came down on her back on the stones. She was fortunate not to break her spine or skull. The rioters then set fire to the lower storey of the building.
Mercifully the terrified missionaries managed to escape in the darkness to a neighbour’s house. There, as the danger of discovery increased, they were taken from one room to another until finally they were left without a glimmer of light in the inner part of the house. Reid lay groaning with pain; Maria was almost fainting from loss of blood; Emily’s arm was bleeding from a bad cut and was so painful that she could not move it; all of them were stiff and sore with bruises. The children longed for sleep but their mothers dared not let them, not knowing when they might have to flee again.
It was here that Taylor and Duncan found them.
At last, [Maria recalled] after a much shorter time than it appeared to us, we heard my dear husband’s voice outside the door, which had been barred for greater safety ... He told us that the rioters had all been driven out, and he thought we might venture back to our own rooms (which had not been burned down) ... for there would be a guard around the premises. How our hearts went up to God in thanksgiving that He had spared us to each other! ... A short time before we heard my husband’s voice, I had felt encouraged to hope that help was at hand, by the fact that my own strength was rapidly ebbing away from loss of blood. I was anxious not to let any one know how much I was hurt, as I felt it would alarm them, and it seemed most important that all should keep calm.
It was after midnight when we returned ... We found the floor of my room strewn with clothes, etc., which had been turned out of boxes in the search for gold and silver. The leaves of my poor Bible, which I had been unable to take with me, were scattered about in every direction. Kind, loving hands collected them for me. Some, I was told, were found downstairs, and not a leaf is missing.
There was little sleep that night. Early on the Sunday morning, when the guard retired, the people began to come in again to plunder the building. Once more, Taylor was forced to go to the ya-men, and, once more, Maria’s room became their sanctuary. Just as it seemed the crowd would be upstairs, the alarm was given that the Mandarin had come, and his soldiers dispersed the people. Taylor managed to send a pencilled note to the Consular authorities informing them of the night’s developments.
That afternoon, Taylor and his group of CIM missionaries in Yangchow, their wives and children, left the city for Chin-Kiang under an escort of soldiers who saw them safely to the Yangstze. The Mandarins had insisted on their leaving for a while, so that the house might be repaired and the people quietened. The foreign residents of Chin-Kiang received them kindly and managed to accommodate all the refugees.
Unfortunately, as Dr and Mrs Howard Taylor have written, ‘the troubles at Yangchow were made public in a way Mr Taylor would have least desired. A resident at Chin-Kiang, with the kindest intentions, wrote stirring accounts to the Shanghai papers, and public feeling demanded that action, prompt and decisive, should be taken by the British authorities’.
At home, readers of The Times learnt of what followed from the paper’s Shanghai correspondent.
On hearing of the affair Mr Medhurst, the British Consul at Shanghai... went to Chin-Kiang and, finding how matters stood, ordered up Her Majesty’s ship Rinaldo, in order that he might be fittingly supported in his representations to the authorities. Meantime [The Times correspondent continued] excitement spread to Chin-Kiang, where a riot was got up among the Tartar soldiery, and threats expressed of destroying the foreign settlement and burning down the Consulate. But the scheme was thought better of next day, when the guns of the Rinaldo were seen looking over the town. There is every reason to believe that this riot was got up by the authorities; the people of Chin-Kiang took no part in it ... To the Viceroy it would be represented as a popular row, and the position of the Yangchow officials would be lightened. They would be able to point to Chin-Kiang to show how deep and widespread was the antipathy to foreigners. This, however, is by the way. Mr Medhurst went into the city with a guard of marines and blue jackets from the Rinaldo, and insisted on the punishment of the ringleaders.
On 8 September, still with a guard from the Rinaldo, Mr Medhurst went to Yangchow, visited the scene of the riot, and had an interview with the Prefect, from whom he demanded the release of the lessor of the mission-house, and the punishment of the ‘literati’, who were believed to have instigated the proclamation and the attack. The Prefect, who was white with fear, defended himself anxiously, as best he could, but failed signally, conceded at once the first part of the demand, but professed his utter inability to comply with the latter. Finding it impossible to settle matters satisfactorily on the spot, Mr Medhurst determined to go to Nankin and negotiate with the Viceroy himself, and requested the unhappy Prefect to accompany him. The latter did go as far as Chin-Kiang, and anchored his boat alongside the Rinaldo, but slipped out during the night, and went off in a fast row-boat, to try to get the start of Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul and to see Tseng-kwo-Fan [the Viceroy who held his court in Nankin] before him. He had miscalculated however the power of steam. The Rinaldo passed his boat about half-way next morning, and left him gesticulating wildly to be taken in tow. He arrived after Mr Medhurst’s interview with the Viceroy was over. This occurred on the nth (September), amid all due state and ceremony. His Excellency showed every disposition to concede the different points asked—the punishment of the instigators, the payment of an indemnity of 2,000 taels by the actual rioters, the release of the lessor of the house, and the engraving on stone of a proclamation declaring that foreigners had a right to live at Yangchow unmolested. Everything promised a speedy settlement of the affair, when suddenly Captain Bush withdrew the Rinaldo, and left Mr Medhurst to finish his negotiations in a Chinese house-boat. Relieved from her presence, the Viceroy retracted everything; abandoned politeness for insolence; became obstinate, instead of yielding; refused to punish anybody or to remove the magistrates; offered 1,000 taels only as compensation; and though offering to issue the notification, declined to give it the required importance by engraving it on stone. Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul had, of course, no option but to reject these terms, withdraw to Shanghai, and place the matter in the hands of Sir Rutherford Alcock [The British Ambassador], where it now rests.
It is time to explain that Captain Bush’s departure was occasioned by illness; but his withdrawal of the Rinaldo was utterly unnecessary ...
The effect of our temporary defeat is every day apparent. A proclamation posted in Chin-Kiang by order of the Viceroy, declaring that foreign missionaries had a right to reside in the interior, and that officials must aid them in obtaining houses, evoked a counterproclamation signed ‘The People of Chin-Kiang’, declaring that they would burn any house so let, and throw the missionaries and the landlord into the flames; that any official favouring the lease of a house should have his ya-men burnt down, and that he himself should be similarly treated. A placard has been posted outside the East Gate of Shanghai violently abusive of Catholic missionaries; but at the instance of the French Consul General it has been torn down, and a proclamation by the Taotai substituted condemning the terms of the original.
... it is believed by all who are familiar with the circumstances and with the country that the ... proclamations are issued by the ‘literati’ with the connivance of the Mandarins, and that the mob is only collected at their instigation....
The action taken by the British authorities caused grave concern to Hudson Taylor. He was, of course, grateful for Medhurst’s desire to help, but would have preferred to have returned quickly to Yangchow at his own risk to live down unfriendliness and opposition by patiently carrying on his work. In fact, by the time The Times report was published, on December 1st 1868, the party had already returned to Yangchow. Medhurst’s demands had all been conceded, even to the placing of a stone tablet at the entrance to the mission-house, stating that the foreigners were there with the full recognition of the authorities. Quite a function had been arranged by Chinese neighbours to reinstate the party; and on November 18th Taylor had written from Yangchow that ‘the result of the case will probably be greatly to facilitate work in the interior’.
Dr and Mrs Howard Taylor wrote that ‘it was the family life and friendly spirit of the missionaries that disarmed suspicion and gradually won its way among the people. They could not but be touched when the children were brought back after all that had taken place, and when it appeared that Mrs Taylor had not hesitated to return under conditions which made peace and quietness specially desirable’. And when Hudson and Maria’s fourth son was born, their Chinese neighbours joined in the congratulations.
The action of the Consular authorities, however, gave rise to a storm of protest at home. On the whole, the account of the affair by the Shanghai correspondent of The Times had been accurate and fair; but two days later the editor published a leader highly critical of the CIM.
The Gospel of Peace ought not to be made an occasion of war ... The Apostles and early missionaries certainly did not propagate their faith under the protection of fleets and armies. They did not bring war in their train ... When we read that imposing displays of force are made, heavy guns pointed against quiet inland cities, all on behalf of men whose mission is to preach and pray, we may be excused if we feel rather shocked.
In general, the British press misrepresented the situation by implying that Taylor had demanded the support of gunboats. In fact, as Maria Taylor pointed out in a letter to Mrs Berger, written on February nth 1869, ‘Mr Medhurst, and through him Sir Rutherford Alcock, took up the matter without application from us’. She suggested however that it would be undesirable to print this fact, as ‘it would be ungenerous and ungrateful were we to render their position still more difficult by throwing all the onus, as it were, on them’. The only contact which Taylor had had with the British authorities during the riot had been the verbal message on the Saturday and the pencilled note the following morning, referred to above, which simply informed the Consul of the situation. Yet Taylor was accused of bringing the country to the verge of war by his irresponsible conduct.
At Saint Hill, Berger bore the brunt of the accusations, receiving twenty or thirty letters a day on the subject. He recorded, ‘ The Times is very severe, and incorrect in some things. Whether to reply to the false statements I scarcely know ... At present the Yangchow outrage is the all-absorbing subject.’
On December 31st, in a letter to Taylor, Berger said, ‘I am so unable to say how, or how far, you called upon the Consul in the matter, that I greatly question the wisdom of replying [to the accusations in the press and in correspondence] at all. God is a refuge for us, “A very present help in time of trouble”.’
In February (1869), the Bergers spent a week in Bristol. He told Taylor: ‘The sympathy expressed for you and those with you in the late trial was great and very sweet; and none spoke more warmly of you than dear Mr Muller.’ Berger asked Muller his opinion respecting the ‘appeal’ to the British Consul; it is not clear whether he was yet in a position to tell Muller precisely what the circumstances and extent of Taylor’s appeal to the Consul had been—certainly he cannot at that time have received Maria’s letter of February nth. At all events Berger was able to tell Taylor in his letter, you would have rejoiced to have heard him [Muller] repudiate the spirit of judging you, or of fault-finding. He said he would never have spoken to me on the subject, had I not asked him for his judgment: after which he said that, had poor George Muller been in such circumstances, he cannot tell what he might have done; still he thought the more excellent way would have been to trust in God ... That we must not set up what we think the more excellent way, as a rule for others, he quite agreed with me ... Finally, Mr Muller only allowed me, upon my request, to refer to his opinion with the understanding that it was that we might help each other in serving the Lord, and not in any spirit of faultfinding or condemning you.
One result of all the bad publicity was a decline in the Mission’s income. Taylor would have been faced with a serious shortage of funds in China were it not for the fact that George Muller began to increase his gifts. He had been sending regularly to several members of the Mission since 1865, and now, within a few days of the Yang-chow riot, he wrote to Berger asking for the names of others who were satisfactory in their work whom he might add to his Institution’s list. Berger sent him six names from which to choose, and Muller’s decision was to support them all. ‘This was not only a substantial help,’ wrote Taylor’s biographers ‘it was a great encouragement, for it meant added sympathy and prayer on the part of one who knew the way to the Throne.’
In March the Yangchow incident was debated in the House of Lords. The Duke of Somerset said that when he heard that the mission’s name was the China Inland Mission he was not surprised at what had followed.
Now, what I wish to ask is,—what right have we to be sending inland missions to China—what right have we to be trying to convert the Chinese in the middle of their country? ... I have a decided objection to this system of supporting missionaries in the interior of China ... The fact is, we are propagating Christianity with gunboats; for the authorities of inland towns know perfectly well that if they get into trouble with a missionary a gunboat will soon come up ... We ought, I contend, to recall these inland missionaries ... A missionary, indeed, must be an enthusiast; if he is not an enthusiast, he is probably a rogue. No man would go and live up one of those rivers and preach Christianity unless he were an enthusiast, and being an enthusiast he is the more dangerous...
The Foreign Secretary, however, pointed out to his noble friend that ‘with regard to reducing the number of missionaries ... the Government is not precisely responsible in that matter, and that if missionaries chose to go or stay there our power of evicting them from China is small’. He went on to quote a letter he had sent to the LMS:... The London Missionary Society can, in Lord Clarendon’s opinion, render no better service to their missionaries than by inculcating on them circumspection in regard to their own conduct, and the utmost consideration for the feelings and character of the people among whom they dwell. The missionaries will do well to follow in the wake of trade when the people have learnt to see in it material advantage to themselves, rather than seek to lead the way in opening up new locations.
The Foreign Secretary hoped that the advice he had given the LMS would be sufficient to prevent further difficulty amongst all societies.
All this was too much for the Bishop of Peterborough. He rose to say that the Duke of Somerset had given a piece of advice which he thought no missionary would accept— namely, to leave some particular parts of the world unconverted, or flee from attempts to convert them, because, forsooth, these attempts might prejudice the interests of British trade. The youngest and least zealous of missionaries would probably reply that, important as were the interests of British trade, there was something in his eyes more sacred even than that sacred opium trade for which Great Britain once thought it worth while to wage war—namely, obedience to the command of his Master to go forth and seek to convey the Gospel to every living soul, at whatever risk to himself or others ... It was surely unworthy of a Christian nation to say that if its subjects engaged in any trade, however demoralizing, they should be protected from the least infraction of their rights, or from the least insult, by all the might of Great Britain; but that, if they became missionaries and happened to displease the susceptibilities of the Chinese, they should be left to their fate, or saved from the mob by a forcible expatriation.
The Bishop said that the Duke of Somerset had advocated stringent measures towards troublesome missionaries, but pointed out that had such a course been always and successfuly pursued, had the missionaries been prevented from becoming ‘troublesome’, then neither the noble Duke nor himself would have been Christians at all. Furthermore, the noble Earl, the Foreign Secretary, had advised the missionaries to ‘follow in the wake of trade’. Perhaps the noble Earl would mention the kind of trade in whose wake they were to follow? ... Were they to ‘follow in the wake’ of the opium trade..., or were they to wait until the British traders had inoculated them (the Chinese) with all their vices before they commenced teaching them the Gospel? Instead of waiting for this the missionary felt that he had a duty imposed on him by a higher Master to go forth and preach the Gospel...
The Lords debated the matter at some length and—at times—with considerable animation; but the Duke of Somerset was, of course, quite unsuccessful in his demand for the recall of missionaries from inland China. Indeed, by August (1869) Yangchow and Chin-Kiang had become virtually the headquarters of the CIM, and the growing church at Yangchow and the demands of the printing-press at Chin-Kiang were imposing an enormous work-load on Taylor. There were a number of baptisms at Yangchow that summer.
The Taylors spent Christmas in Yangchow with their family. They were visited by Mr C. T. Fishe, who recalled that he was touched by Mr Taylor’s amiability. He was very kind to me. I helped him in his dispensary and medical work ... He was, of course, exceedingly busy, and appeared quite a young and lively man. He loved playing with his children, and did not seem burdened with care. He was fond of music and singing, and used to play the harmonium for the Chinese on Sunday evenings for an hour at a time, and have them sing hymns... Times of Refreshing was our favourite hymn-book, and we often sang ‘Praise the Saviour’ and ‘Immanuel’s Land’.
They lived exclusively on Chinese food and I well remember the difficulty we had in hunting up a knife, fork and spoon when a foreigner unskilled in the use of chopsticks came to Yangchow. Condensed milk was not yet on the market, and they used few if any foreign stores. There was one luxury, however—a big barrel of treacle that had recently come out on the Lammermuir. This was eaten with rice and much appreciated.
But at the end of 1869, there is no doubt that the Taylors were feeling the shortage of funds and doing all they could to lessen personal expenses, in order to help their fellow-workers. Taylor wrote, ‘More than a thousand pounds less have been contributed during the first half of this (financial) year than last year. I do not keep a cook now. I find it cheaper to get cooked food brought in from outside at a dollar a head per month.’ It seems that Chinese take-away food has always been good value. ‘Let us pray in faith for funds,’ he continued in this letter to a fellow-worker, ‘that we may not have to diminish our work.’
The prayer was answered. The CIM did not have to diminish its work; on New Year’s Eve, in the words of Taylor’s biographers, ‘a beautiful thing happened’. A letter arrived from Saint Hill in Mr Berger’s familiar hand.
Mr Muller, after due consideration, has requested the names of all the brethren and sisters connected with the CIM, as he thinks it well to send help as he is able to each one, unless we know of anything to hinder ... Surely the Lord knew our funds were sinking, and thus put it into the heart of His honoured servant to help.
Muller’s cheques to each of the missionaries arrived by the same post; and with the cheques a letter ‘for all the dear brethren and sisters connected with the China Inland Mission’ which read:
My chief object is to tell you that I love you in the Lord; that I feel deeply interested about the Lord’s work in China, and that I pray daily for you. I thought it might be a little encouragement to you in your difficulties, trials, hardships and disappointments to hear of one more who felt for you and who remembered you before the Lord. But were it otherwise, had you even no one to care for you, or did you at least seem to be in a position as if no one cared for you, you will always have the Lord to be with you. Remember Paul’s case at Rome (2 Tim. 4:16-18). On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend; and be assured, if you walk with Him and look to Him, and expect help from Him, He will never fail you. An older brother who has known the Lord forty-four years, who writes this, says to you for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but, because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His Name.
The letter was read by each of the missionaries as they received their cheques. What a comfort it must have been to them after all they had been through in the last eighteen months! Many false rumours and half-truths had been circulating about Taylor and the CIM during 1869, but it is said that Muller did not believe them. In 1870 he sent Taylor £1,940, and for the next few years approximately £2,000 annually. He was now largely assisting twenty-one missionaries, who with twelve wives constituted the entire staff of the Mission—thirty-three, including Mr and Mrs Taylor. (The figures does not include the children.) The CIM itself (now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship) has recently commented that this was ‘a massive contribution when one considers the value of money then. In practice Muller almost if not completely supported the entire staff of the Mission in its early days’.