Prayers Yet to be Answered

Prayers Yet to be Answered

Chapter XLII(TOC)

Prayers Yet to be Answered

ADONIRAM JUDSON, the Apostle of Burma, less than two weeks before his death, heard of a definite answer to prayers he had offered with great earnestness long years before, and which had seemed to be unheard. His heart had been deeply burdened about the Jewish people-so much so that he had even sought to found a mission in Palestine for their benefit-but nothing came of it. And then, only a few days before he passed away, he learned from a daily paper of the conversion of a number of Jews in Trebizond through a tract concerning his own life-work, and that they had sent to Constantinople asking for a Christian teacher. With tears in his eyes the veteran missionary exclaimed:

I never was deeply interested in any object, I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything, but it came. At some time, no matter how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have devised, it came. And yet I have always had so little faith. May God forgive me … and cleanse the sin of unbelief from my heart.

Prayers yet to be answered—how rich the inheritance Hudson Taylor left to the land he loved, to the Church of God in China for which his life was given! In one sense the prayers of that life-time had indeed been answered.

He sowed with tears;

He laboured, suffered, strove for one great field,

And saw it yield,

His every hope of half a hundred years. [408]

But in another sense do not those prayers lie beyond us yet, marking out wide possessions upon which the foot of faith has trodden, possessions still to be possessed?

Nothing could have been more definite than Mr. Taylor's own conviction as to the thoughts that had come to him in 1889. Once he had seen it he could never doubt again the Master's will and purpose that "every creature" in China should hear the glad tidings of salvation. Through all the years that followed, though hindered again and again, and postponed for a time by the Boxer crisis, his purpose never wavered.

"This work will not be done without crucifixion," he said in the C.I.M. Conference of May 1890, "without consecration that is prepared at any cost to carry out the Master's command." But, given that, I believe in my inmost soul that it will be done. If ever in my life I was conscious of being led of God, it was in the writing and publication of those papers, the first of which came out in November of last year."

The time had not come for it then, as events were to prove, but who shall say that the time has not come for it now? Many are the indications that these are the lines on which the Spirit of God is working. A recent survey of missionary operations in China during the last ten years reveals nothing more clearly than the new spirit of evangelism which is taking, hold of the Chinese Church. In the province of Ho-nan, for example, with its twenty-five millions-the province in which Mr. Taylor spent more than half his last brief visit to China-all the Societies and churches are at the present' moment united in an effort to carry the Gospel to every home and "ever creature "within a period of five years. At the beginning of 1917 this forward movement was entered upon, its definite aim being" to enlist the co-operation of every Christian in Ho-nan and bring the Gospel to the ears of every nonChristian in the province" within the time agreed upon. And this effort, which will command the prayerful sympathy of all who long for the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, is but part of the larger movement which in varying degrees is making itself felt throughout China. [409]

Equally encouraging are the tidings that come from Hu-nan, where the Floating Bible School is proving an effective method of developing soul-winners. Started by Dr. Keller, from whose home in Chang-sha Mr. Hudson Taylor had passed to his reward, this remarkable movement has for its aim "the speedy and thorough evangelisation of the twenty-two millions" of that province by means of itinerant bands labouring in connection with all the Societies. Taking advantage of the waterways which abound, the students of the Bible School-who must be men of a living faith in Christ and a serious call to His service-spend most of the year with a trained Chinese leader, visited by their missionary superintendents, on a boat large enough to accommodate twelve or more. . [410] On the invitation of the missionary in charge they go to a given district and take whatever time is necessary to reach its entire population, whether in town or country, with the Message of Salvation.

"We now have three parties at work," Dr. Keller wrote in 1917, "and we hope to add three more parties this year. In hundreds of homes the people have given up idolatry, and have accepted Christ as their Saviour and Lord. Bible-study classes have been formed; new churches have been organised, always by the missionary of the district, never by our men; and many thousands who never heard the Gospel before have had their misconceptions cleared away, their prejudices broker} down, and their hearts opened to the Gospel message."

Then once a year the bands gather together for two months of special study in their Autumn Bible School among the mountains, where a famous shrine (Nan-yoh) attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims annually. There the students are joined by pastors and evangelists from all over the province who come up for rest and spiritual refreshment, and take part in the "intense, fruitful, heartto-heart work "carried on among the pilgrims, a large proportion of whom are earnest, religiously-inclined young men. Forty thousand personal conversations were recorded in 1916, and many cases of conversion of the deepest interest. These methods of training and work, Dr. Keller believes, could be adapted to the special needs of other provinces, and would go far to solve the problem of the evangelisation of China in this generation.

In the Bible Mr. Taylor used up to the time of his Home going a little map was found, traced on thin paper, of the province of Kwei-chow, showing the stations especially in which the work among the tribes-people was beginning. Often prayed over, that fragment of paper bears its silent testimony to the longing of his heart after those wild, neglected children of the mountains—living at enmity with their Chinese neighbours, worshipping demons and charms, and bound by the grossest superstition and sin. Coming home on his first furlough from Kwei-chow, Mr.James R. Adam, who had been doing what he could among the Miao people round An-shun, met Mr. Taylor in Dundee in the home of Mr. William Scott. The work was difficult though full of promise, and how to follow it up Mr. Adam hardly knew, with the charge of the station on his hands. Yet there seemed no prospect of fellow-workers. What was Mr. Adam' to do? Should he give up the effort to reach the tribes-folk, and confine himself to work among the Chinese?

"Never shall I forget your dear father's kindness," he wrote, that last time I met him. With affectionate sympathy he wished me Godspeed in this work among the Chinese and Miao, telling me to go on as I had been doing and to do the best I could for both."

Little did either of them think as they parted in Dundee of the answer that was to be given to their prayers; of the wonderful movement that, beginning in the An-shun district, was to extend to the adjacent province (Yun-nan), gathering many thousands of these simple mountain people into the kingdom of God, and raising up from among them ardent missionaries to carry the Gospel on from tribe to tribe in ever-widening circles of blessing.

"The sun has never risen upon China without finding me at prayer," Mr. Taylor could say of long years of his labours in that land; and perhaps no part of those labours had more to do with the results we see today. But he not only prayed. The foregoing pages have revealed a little of what lay behind those prayers. "I do want to give up myself and you too, darling, for the life of the Chinese and of our fellow-workers," he wrote to Mrs. Taylor in one of their many separations: and, "Notice, in 1 Corinthians 1:18 the connection of the Cross with power. 'Do not many lives lack power because they do not love the Cross? May your life be full of the power of God, and mine."

The needs that moved him, the command that revealed the yearning of the heart of Christ—Whom we, too, call Master and Lord—remain the same to-day. Great changes have come and are coming in China. New methods are needed in missionary work to meet the new conditions, and are being prayerfully developed and applied. But the great underlying facts remain the same. Idolatry has not lost its hold. Writing from the far north-west (June 1918), a member of the Mission tells of Guilds in one city numbering thousands of men and women sworn to regular worship at stated times. In one of these some fifteen hundred women are pledged to go to a certain temple on the second and sixth of every month, "where they kneel upright on the verandahs and in the courtyard, each holding a stick of incense between the two hands raised to the level of the forehead. This position has to be maintained and prayers recited until the stick of incense has burned away-quite a long process." And offerings of money must be made on every one of the stated worship days, which go to the building and beautifying of temples and making fresh idols. And this is only one city out of hundreds that have as yet no resident missionary. Do the people need light in their darkness? Do' they not care about the unknown future and what becomes of the soul? Is it for them too that the precious blood was shed which alone can cleanse from sin and bring us nigh to God? And what shall be said of the responsibility that rests upon us if, these things, we are not doing our utmost whether by prayer or gifts or personal service-to bring to them too the knowledge which is life eternal?

Much is being done; but much more is needed if the present opportunity—perhaps the most glorious that has ever come to Christian men and women—is to be dealt with faithfully. "When China is moved," Napoleon used to say, "it will change the face of the globe." China is moved, is moving: shall it, not be home to the heart of God?

"We must advance upon our knees," said Bishop Cassels in view of the needs, the possibilities of that vast country. "There must be a fresh taking hold of God in prayer. I thank God that this Mission lives upon prayer. But I say, God will do 'a new thing 'for us when there is a new spirit of prayer among us. God will do 'a new thing' for us when there is a new spirit of consecration among us."

If the one whose steps we have followed through a life of toil and sacrifice, yet of radiant joy in fellowship with Christ, could speak to us to-day from "the exceeding and eternal weight of glory," would he not say again as he said in the midst of the fight:

There is a needs-be for us to give ourselves for the life of the world-as He gave His flesh for the feeding of the lifeless and of living souls whose life can only be nourished by the same lifegiving Bread. An easy-going non-self-denying life will never be one of power.

Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone." We know how the Lord Jesus became fruitful-not by bearing His Cross merely, but by dying on it. Do we know much of fellowship with Him in this? There, are not two Christs-an easy-going one for easy-going Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are you willing to abide in Him, and thus to bear much fruit?

Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there; Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of joy by the conversion to Him of many concerning whom He prayed, "Father, I long that those whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory."

 [1] Quoted from an address by Mr. Edward Taylor of Barnsley, Yorkshire, reported in the Barnsley Chronicle,January 1880.

 [2] It was the custom in that part of England to leave the sheaves in stacks instead of at once threshing out the wheat. As the flour was needed for use, two or three sheaves would be threshed at a time and the grain taken to the mill for grinding.

 [3] See the Account of an Extraordinary Deliverance, by Rev. J. Pawson in the Arminian Magazine for 1796, pp. 409-411. This experience was related to him at Staincross by Dame Betty herself, in the year 1775, and confirmed by many witnesses.

 [4] This, we learn from Wesley's journal, was on July 27, 1761. That it was Mapplewell "Feast Monday" is given on the authority of The Barnsley.

 [5] Mapplewell, as it was called in those days, is now the busy mining town of Staincross, near Barnsley, and the Shaws' cottage still stands on the Ridge which divides it from the neighbouring parish of Royston. Substantially built of stone, it hardly shows the wear and tear of two centuries, and is the best preserved of the few remaining dwellings that is the oldest part of the town. How interesting it was to find oneself in the pleasant kitchen in which Wesley was once entertained, talking by the fireside with a member of the very family that had shown him hospitality. For the cottage still belongs to the Shaws, who have occupied it from the first; and their next-door neighbours have been Taylors for many generations.

 [6] The definiteness of the stone-mason's conversion on the morning of his wedding-day, and under the circumstances narrated, is ascertained from the careful researches of Mr. Edward Taylor, embodied in several Lectures.

Mr. Edward Taylor's name is one of the most respected in Barnsley. He was for many years a Local Preacher and leader in the Methodist "Reform Movement." Omnivorous in his reading and of strongly antiquarian tastes, he made it his business to search out all available information regarding early Methodism and its supporters in the district, and left a considerable library now in the possession of his widow, his son Mr. William Taylor, and his son-in-law Mr. John Knee, to whom belong most of his Lectures and other MSS. To each of these members of Mr. Taylor's family we are indebted for valuable help. Though not related to James Taylor the stone-mason, Mr. Edward Taylor was specially interested in his history as the pioneer and practically the founder of the Methodist Movement in Barnsley, and to his records we owe many of the facts related in this chapter concerning the marriage and after experiences of the greatgrandparent of Mr. Hudson Taylor.

 [7] The details of Betty Taylor's conversion are gathered from an address by Mr. Edward Taylor, already quoted, and from the written Recollections of the Rev. Samuel Taylor, late of St. Leonards, the last surviving grandson of James and Betty Taylor, and uncle of the subject of this Memoir. With his death in 1904 there passed away a man of God indeed, whose memory will long be fragrant.

 [8] In this we cannot be mistaken," said an archbishop of the time, "that an open and professed disregard of religion is become, through a variety of unhappy causes, the distinguishing character of the age. Such are the dissoluteness and contempt of principle in the higher part of the world, and the profligacy, intemperance, and fearlessness of committing crimes in the lower part, as must, if the torrent of impiety stop not, become absolutely fatal." See Archbishop Secker's Eight Charges.Bishop Butler went further when he wrote in the preface to his Analogy: It has come to be taken for granted that Christianity is no longer a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly it is treated as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all persons of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject for mirth and ridicule."

 [9] The Taylors' cottage has recently been demolished, with several others, to make room for a row of shops and houses at the top of Old Mill Lane.

 [10] From Rev. Samuel Taylor's Recollections.

 [11] See The Christian Leaders of the Eighteenth Century, by Bishop Ryle.

 [12] See Life of Henry Longden, by the Rev. William Bramwell.

 [13] The first Methodist Class Meeting in Barnsley was composed of seven members, i.e. James and Betty Taylor, Jonathan Pashley, John Denton, weaver, Timothy Peckett, mason, Thomas Blackburn, farmer, and his wife" Early Methodism in Barnsley and District, by Mr. John knee).

 [14] Recollections of the Rev. Samuel Taylor.

 [15] Whitfield and Wesley transformed England by giving to conversion once more its proper value."—Rev. R. F. Horton, D.D.

 [16] Well might John Wesley be called "the best-known man in England." His labours had been prodigious for well-nigh fifty years. Travelling on horseback or by chaise from four to five thousand miles annually, he had established in Great Britain alone more than a hundred circuits, in which three hundred ministers and over a thousand local preachers were making known the truth as it is in Jesus. Acting on his own memorable words, "simplify religion and every part of learning," he had enlisted the press in the work of popular reformation. "Cheaper, shorter, plainer books "was his motto. Amid all other labours he found time to keep up a constant supply of pamphlets, tracts and sermons, carried by his preachers to the remotest parts of the country, besides providing them with a library of over two hundred volumes on a great variety of subjects, written or edited by himself, five works on music and forty-nine collections of hymns.He preached in all 42,400 sermons after his return from Georgia, in 1738, an average up to the time of his death in 1791 of more than fifteen every week for fifty-three consecutive years. His last words were, "The best of all is God is with us." See History of Methodism, by Abel Stevens, LL.D.,vol. ii. PP. 320, 494, 508, etc.

 [17] The late William Woodcock, Esq., one of the chief authorities upon the history of Methodism in the Barnsley district. This gentleman left a valuable library and collection of manuscripts, now in the care of his daughter Miss L. Woodcock, who generously spared no pains in making them available for the purposes of this book.

 [18] Quoted from the excellent Rules drawn up by John Wesley for the guidance of his young preachers; and from the bright, practical Conversations with his fellow-workers that have come down to us. The full title of this interesting work is: Minutes of several Conversations between the Rev. John Wesley, A.M., and the Preachers in connection with him, from yhe year 1744; published in Leeds in 1803.

 [19] In the Public Library of Barnsley may be seen today a record of no little interest in this connection. It was penned by one Hugh Burland, who filled several large calf-bound volumes with the ancient "Annals" of the town, among which we come upon the following in his handwriting

 

"1791—The Wesleyans of Barnsley determined to build themselves a Chapel. Since the visit of John Wesley they had held Divine Service in a room in Eastgate. In about three years they accomplished their object; for their Chapel, which was erected on Pinfold Hill, was opened for public worship in 1794. The whole was accomplished, including the cost of site, for the sum of 473 Sterling £:18 Schilling: 3 1/2 pence."

 

But old Hugh Burland does not tell of all the love and self-denial, the faith and prayer that went into that building; the hours of unpaid labour James and his friends devoted; the care they lavished upon every detail, and the joy that came to them when at length the whole was completed and dedicated to the service of God.

 [20] The following quaint epitome of the life of John Taylor appeared in the Leeds Intelligencer for October 11, 1834:

 

"October 6, Died, Mr. John Taylor, Linen-reed Maker, Barnsley, aged 56: an excellent man and most highly respected. Mr. Taylor has been an inhabitant of Barnsley a great number of years, and in his business has been of great consequence to the staple trade of the town. He was a member of the Methodist Connexion, and evinced a remarkable fondness for sacredmusic. His voice was a powerful counter, and was considered by men of science to possess great harmony."

 [21] The old home of John and Mary Taylor is now known as "Sten Court, five house," and is occupied by an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. William Irving, who well remember its former owners.

 [22] Seven of John Taylor's children lived to grow up: Elizabeth became Mrs. Cope; John took up his father's business and left a large family; Mary became Mrs. Norman; James was the father of Hudson Taylor William was a stockbroker in Manchester; Sarah died unmarried; and Samuel was for many years useful and beloved as a Wesleyan Minister. He had a great admiration for his mother, and used to say that he owed everything to her, his father dying while he was still a child.

 [23] In whatsoever he doeth, he shall prosper (Psalm 1:3, R.V. margin).

 [24] The revival commenced in Westgate Chapel, as it was then called, with the Watch Night Service on December 31, 1832, and one of the lads converted in James Taylor's class was his cousin John Bashforth, whose mother was a daughter of James and Betty Taylor, brought up in the little cottage on Old Mill Lane. The Bashforths became one of the leading families in Barnsley. Young John Bashforth from this time onward lived a consistent Christian life, and was for many years Superintendent of the Sunday School.

 [25] "Possessing good natural abilities, which he carefully improved by study, James Taylor was a most able and effective preacher. His manner was at once pleasant and dignified. His sermons bore evidence of much thought and study, and as literary compositions were considerably above the average of lay discourses "(from the Obituary Notice in The Barnsley Chronicle).

 [26] "He was one of the founders and for many years Acting Manager of the Barnsley Permanent Building Society. … After his retirement from business, about 1864 or 1865, he was able to devote a considerable amount of time to the work of the Society, which had by this time attained important dimensions, and all its members will agree that from first to last he had its interests thoroughly at heart. … On the eve of his leaving Barnsley he was presented by the directors, officers, and members of the Society with a solid silver tea-service and an illuminated address 'as a mark of their esteem for his personal character, and in recognition of his faithful services as Manager of the Society from 1853 to 1875.

 

"During the long period of his residence in Barnsley, Mr. Taylor enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all sections of his fellow-townsmen, and of him it could with truth be said as his active, well-knit figure was seen passing along our streets: 'An honest man, close-button'd to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.'"—Ibid.

 [27] Afterwards Mrs. Benjamin Broomhall.

 [28] "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." (St. Mark 3:35).

 [29] To Mrs. B. Broomhall, the "little Amelia" of those days, we are indebted for many of the recollections incorporated in this chapter.

 [30a] Romanism in China was just recovering from its second period of decline, and foreign priests were to be found at a few points in the interior on the ground of ancient rights. The Order of Jesuits, suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773, had been re-established half a century later, and from that time (1822) the Roman Catholic Church entered upon a stronger, more aggressive policy in China.

 [30]Long years after, when Mr. Henry Reed had become a warm friend and supporter of the China Inland Mission, Mr. Hudson Taylor, writing to him about other matters, recalled these facts.

 

"It must be about thirty years ago that I had the privilege of hearing you speak at a missionary meeting in a park near Leeds. I was then a boy, and unconverted. But one incident you narrated, showing the danger of quenching the strivings of the Spirit of God, riveted itself on my memory, and in after years has been often repeated by me to Chinese audiences… I believe that in several instances in China it has been used of God to bring persons in a hesitating state of mind to the point of decision for Christ."

 [31] In a letter printed later in this book

 [32] Three years before, in 1846, the congregation had migrated from the Chapel on Pinfold Hill to larger premises. The new building on Pitt Street was very near the Methodist Manse in which the Hudsons had lived.

 [33] Ezekiel 36:25-27

 [34] This is stated in his mother's written recollections.

 [35] The Treaty Ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo and Shanghai, opened by the Treaty of Nanking, which concluded the first opium war with England, in 1842.

 [36] The order in which the British Societies commenced work in China, up to this point, is as follows:

 

1807. The London Missionary Society; sending Robert Morrison to Canton.

 

After the Treaty of Nanking—

 

1843. The British and Foreign Bible Society.

 

1844. The Church Missionary Society.

 

1845. The Baptist Missionary Society.

 

1847. The English Presbyterian Mission, whose first representative was the Rev. William Burns; see Chaps. 25-29.

 [37] Quoted from his own brief but well-known Autobiography, A Retrospect, from which extracts have already been made.

 [38] The Rev. William Milne, who joined Dr. Morrison in 1813. A man of remarkable linguistic gifts, he took a large share in Morrison's literary labours. His lamented death took place in 1822; but far and wide, wherever Chinese is spoken, Milne is at work to-day. His well-known dialogue The Two Friends is circulated still by tens of thousands, and is generally regarded as "the most popular tract in China."

 [39] Dr. Gutzlaff reached Europe early in 1850.

 [40] Dr. Gutzlaff, wearing Chinese dress, made seven journeys during the years 1831-35 along the Chinese coast, landing at places even as far north as Tien-tsin, and risking his life again and again in earnest efforts to make known the Gospel. Dr. Medhurst, at the request of the L.M.S., made a similar journey in 1835, seven years before the opening of the Treaty Ports.

 [41] See Ball's China, published in 1854, PP. 59, 60

 [42] This interesting paper, The Gleaner in the Missionary Field, seems to have been edited by the Secretaries of the Chinese Association, or, as it was afterwards called, the Chinese Evangelisation Society. Although no names are given, it is easy to recognise Mr. George Pearse of the London Stock Exchange as well as Mr. Richard Ball of Taunton in many of its articles. The latter was a man of literary gift as well as spiritual insight, and both were deeply taught in the Word of God.

 [43] Dr. Gutzlaff passed away at Hong-kong on the 9th of August 1851, devotedly labouring among the Chinese until his brief but fatal illness came on. The Gleaner for January 1852 supplied the following details.

 

"Even in his last hours, 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 China upon his heart."

 [44] See Frontispiece.

 [45] The Rev. Andrew jukes, previously a clergyman of the Church of England, did not hold in those days, or at any rate did not teach, the views with which his name was afterwards connected.

 [46] Philippians 3:7-12

 [47] Revelation 3:8; 1 Corinthians 16:9

 [48] A letter to his mother, dated December 15, 1851.

 [49] Along the little canal, in the dark.

 [50] This uncle, a brother of Mrs. James Taylor's, was the seventh and youngest child of the Rev. Benjamin Hudson. He went to Calcutta, shortly after this period, and made quite a fortune by painting Indian princes and officials, entertaining them the while with amusing stories.

 [51] It was Tom's elder brother, John Hodson, who had been apprenticed to Hudson Taylor's father in Barnsley for three years, and was now in Hull with Dr. Hardey.

 [52] Mr. Pearse, it should be remembered, while acting as Hon. Secretary to the Chinese Evangelisation Society, was at the same time much engrossed la business. It was no lack of interest that made him dismiss Hudson Taylor so curtly, but simply the pressure of other claims, and a failure to realise what this coming to London meant to his young friend.

 [53] It has been one of the privileges of my life," wrote Miss Elizabeth Wilson of Kendal, "to have known so much of your beloved and honoured father. The first time I ever met him was when as a young girl I was on a visit to Miss Stacey. He came for one of the little rests he so much needed and that Miss Stacey rejoiced to give him, leaving him the run of the garden and library and protecting him from much company or conversation. He was then a medical student and living I think on very little. For years after, when I asked him how he had been able to afford the omnibus so often, he replied, 'Miss Stacey was not one who could forget details of that sort. She never let me pay my fare.' So no doubt the excellent dinners now and then did him good, as well as the ministry of the Tottenham meeting."

 

Little could Miss Wilson have imagined at that time that she too would be called to China, and used as one of the most devoted pioneers of the Inland Mission.

 

Another friend of those days, though still a lad at school, was Theodore Howard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Howard of Bruce Grove: now and for many years Home Director of the China Inland Mission. "I do certainly think," he wrote concerning Mr. Taylor's visits to Tottenham, "that the intercourse he had with friends there must have considerably influenced his views of Christian faith, doctrine, and practice. Those were palmy days in which there was much of the Holy Spirit's teaching, and I believe they have left their mark on many branches of the Evangelical Church. And they were followed by the blessed gatherings at Barnet and Mildmay, through which the same truths became the heritage of an everwidening circle of believers. Thank God that light has never died away, but has grown brighter and brighter amid the darkness of sacerdotalism, ritualism, and scientific criticism in these days of 'modem thought."'

 [54] This was the Rev. F. J. Roberts of the American Baptist Missionary Union. Hung Siu-ts'uen, founder and leader of the Tai-ping movement, first learned the Truth from a tract given him during a literary examination in Canton, by Liang A-fah, one of Morrison's converts. Subsequently he returned to Canton to hear more of the New Doctrine, and spent two or three months in studying the Scriptures under the direction of Mr. Roberts. Though he did not remain long enough to be baptized and received into Church fellowship, he had learned enough of the spirit and teaching of Christianity to make him a missionary to his own people on his return to Kwang-si, the province in which his fervent propaganda began. It was not until bitter persecution from the Chinese authorities had driven his followers to arms, that the movement took on a revolutionary character.

 [55] The title taken by the Tai-ping leader or "Emperor."

 [56] T'ien-teh was probably the only aspirant to a throne who ever made it a chief object to print and circulate the Christian Scriptures. So eager was he that his people should possess the Word of God that he kept four hundred men employed in Nanking, under his own supervision, printing and binding various books of both the Old and New Testament. The version used was that of Dr. Gutzlaff, which thus found its way in actual fact to the remotest part of the empire. The title-page of every copy bore the inscription: "A new edition, published in the third year of the Tai-ping Dynasty. "Around the title itself, the imperial arms were emblazoned, and a large red stamp, four inches square, stated that the book was sent out on the authority of the new emperor, the man before whom Peking itself trembled.

 [57] The impression made by the young assistant upon those with whom he lived at this time may be judged from the following recollections, kindly communicated to the writers more than fifty years later by a member of Mr. Brown's family.

 

"Early in 1853, Mr. Hudson Taylor went to assist Mr. Thomas Brown, Surgeon, who then resided at the comer of St. Mary Axe and Camomile Street, London. Mr. Brown's youngest child was a baby of a year old. Dr. Brown did not approve of perambulators for children living in the city, so on week-days the baby went out in his father's carriage. On Sundays, however, Dr. Brown never took any of the children with him on his necessary rounds. As little Henry was too heavy for his nurse to carry, he would have had to remain indoors all Sunday, if Mr. Taylor had not taken compassion on him. But he was fond of children, and before church time on Sunday used to carry the little fellow in his arms around Finsbury Circus which was near at hand. Soon after Mr. Taylor left for China, Dr. Brown and his family moved to Finsbury Circus, where one of his sons still practises—MARY E. BROWN."

 [58] Isaiah 64:4, R.V.

 [59] What the Tai-ping propaganda might have become, had it retained its earlier characteristics, who can say? Success, as is so often the case, led to dissension and decline. From the zenith of its triumphant advance on Peking commenced this summer (1853), it degenerated into a corrupt political movement, deluging the country with blood and sufferings untold during the eleven remaining years of its course. Even so the Imperial Government was powerless to bring it to an end until succoured by Western Powers. England, in the person of General Gordon, Chinese Gordon as he is still appreciatively called, delivered the empire at last from what had become an intolerable evil. Nanking fell before General Gordon in 1864.

 [60] So great was the interest in the Tai-ping Rebellion and the hope that by the sympathetic co-operation of Christian nations it might lead to the conversion of multitudes to Christianity, that in September of this year (1853) the British and Foreign Bible Society decided to celebrate its Jubilee by printing a million New Testaments for use in that country, an undertaking almost incredibly great in those days.

 [61] The following paragraph gives all the notice that appeared in The Gleaner of Hudson Taylor's departure for China:

 

"On Friday, the 9th of September, a meeting was held at the rooms of the Chinese Evangelisation Society at 7 o'clock in the evening, for the purpose of commending to the protection and blessing of God, Mr. James Taylor, on going out as a missionary to China. Mr. J. H. Taylor embarked on the Dumfries, Captain A. Morris, for Shanghai. The vessel left Liverpool on the 19th of September."

 

It is interesting to notice that the same day witnessed also the departure for China of the Rev. J. L. Nevius (of the American Presbyterian Mission) with his bride. They sailed from Boston "in a small, old, unseaworthy vessel," and after a trying voyage round Cape Horn arrived in Shanghai just three weeks later than Mr. Hudson Taylor. These distinguished missionaries became, and continued through life, sincere and valued friends of Mr. Taylor's.

 

But September 19 is chiefly memorable as the day upon which the following decision was reached by the British and Foreign Bible Society. "The attention of the British and Foreign Bible Society having been directed to the unprecedented movement in China, and to the hopeful prospects thereby presented for the wider introduction of the Sacred Scriptures into that extensive and densely populated empire, it was resolved, September 19,1853, 'that the Committee, relying upon the sympathy of the British public in this desirable object, are prepared to take upon themselves all measures necessary for printing, with the least practicable delay, one million copies of the Chinese New Testament."

 

—Robert Frost, George Brown, Secretaries.

 [62] One thing was a great trouble to me that night. I was a very young believer, and had not sufficient faith in God to see Him in and through the use of means. I had felt it a duty to comply with the earnest wish of my beloved and honoured mother, and for her sake to procure a swimmingbelt. But in my own soul I felt as if I could not simply trust in God while I had this swimming-belt, and my heart had no rest until on that night, after all hope of being saved was gone, I had given it away. Then I had perfect peace, and strange to say put several light things together, likely to float at the time we struck, without any thought of inconsistency or scruple.

 

Ever since, I have seen clearly the mistake I made; a mistake that is very common in these days, when erroneous teaching on faith-healing does much harm, misleading some as to the purposes of God, shaking the faith of others and distressing the minds of many. The use of means ought not to lessen our faith in God, and our faith in God ought not to hinder our using whatever means He has given us for the accomplishment of His own purposes.

 

For years after this I always took a swimming-belt with me and never had any trouble about it; for after the storm was over, the question was settled for me through the prayerful study of the Scriptures. God gave me then to see my mistake, probably to deliver me from a great deal of trouble on similar questions now so constantly raised. When in medical or surgical charge of any case, I have never thought of neglecting to ask God's guidance and blessing in the use of appropriate means, nor yet of omitting to give thanks for answered prayer and restored health. But to me it would appear as presumptuous and wrong to neglect the use of those measures which He Himself has put within our reach, as to neglect to take daily food, and suppose that life and health might be maintained by prayer alone" (from Mr. Taylor's Retrospect).

 [63] I They rounded the Cape of Good Hope early in December, and soon after Christmas Day "began to make northing,' having run 14,500 miles since leaving the Mersey. On January 5 they reached the nearest point to Western Australia, only 120 miles away, and thence steered a perilous course through the East Indian Islands to the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea, dropping anchor at Woo-sung, in the mouth of the Shanghai River on March 1, 1854.

 [64] This war, which was to cost England twenty-four thousand men, and to add forty-one millions sterling to the national debt, commenced on March 27, 1854, and was not concluded until two years later.

 [65] The name of the London Mission Compound on Shantung Road, familiar and beloved. The three characters mean, "Medhurst Family Enclosure."

 [66] It is a matter of no little interest to think of Hudson Taylor on his arrival as welcomed by this group of distinguished missionaries. "There were giants … in those days," and certainly the L.M.S. had their share! Among the honoured names on the long roll of its missionaries few take a higher place than Medhurst, Lockhart, Wylie, Muirhead, Edkins, and Griffith John who joined them a few months later.

 

"Most of the large cities in Kiang-su and North Cheh-kiang first heard the Word of Life from this band of devoted young men who in the years before 1860 were associated with the pioneer evangelist to central China, Dr. Medhurst" (A Century of Missions in China, p. 7).

 

Of Dr. Lockhart it need only be said that he was the first medicalmissionary from England to China. He landed in Canton four years after Dr. Peter Parker from America, and accompanied Dr. Medhurst when, in 1843, he commenced missionary operations in central China.

 

At the time of Hudson Taylor's arrival, Dr. Medhurst and Dr. Lockhart had already been eleven years in Shanghai. Both were in middle life. Dr. Medhurst being fifty-eight and Dr. Lockhart forty-three years of age. Mr. Wylie was a man of thirty-nine, and a widower. Messrs. Edkins and Muirhead were thirty-one and thirty-two respectively, and had been in Shanghai already six and seven years: the important centre in which they were still to be fellow-labourers after more than half a century had gone by.

 

The literary as well as evangelistic labours of these men were most remarkable Dr. Medhurst was proficient in eight or ten languages, and published fifty-nine works in Chinese, six in Malay, and twenty-seven in English. Dr. Lockhart wrote and translated valuable books on medicine and medical-missions. Alexander Wylie "acquired French, Russian, German, and the Manchu and Mongol languages while in charge of the L.M.S. Press in Shanghai, and published numerous works of great value both in English and Chinese." The venerable and beloved Dr. Muirhead, during his fifty-three years of incessant evangelistic and pastoral labours, "translated the first considerable work on Geography ever published in Chinese … and was the author also of many theological works, and a member of the Bible Revision Committee." While the well-known Dr. Edkins, who survived them all, with "an extraordinary gift for languages and a profound knowledge of Chinese," was one of the leading sinologues of his day.

 

The Rev. J. S. Burdon also continued for nearly half a century in missionary labours in China. He was the first representative of the Church Missionary Society to commence work in Peking, which became his headquarters for eleven years. "He translated the Prayer Book and a Bible History, and published several lesser works, besides aiding in the translation of the Scriptures." In 1873 he was consecrated third Bishop d Victoria, Hong-kong, which responsible office he held for more than twenty years.

 

A remarkable group of men, reinforced by a remarkable addition in the coming among them of Hudson Taylor.

 [67] The Treaty of Nanking, opening the "Five Ports" to Western commerce, had only been signed twelve years previously, in 1842.

 [68] Sir Thomas Sutherland, G.C.M.G.; article entitled "Far Eastern Shipping, Fifty Years Ago," in The London and China Express for November 27, 1908: Fiftieth Anniversary Number.

 

The next paragraph continues: Exchange was constant at not less than 4s. 6d. for the dollar and 6s. 8d. for the tael. The current rate of interest was twelve per cent. per annum. Alas 1 a change came over the spirit of the dream a few years later, when the telegraph reached China and the centre of gravity in trade was in large measure transferred to Europe. No longer could China merchants store their silk and teas in London with the tolerable certainty that if they held their merchandise long enough the price would rise to meet their demands. Following the telegraph, the opening of the Suez Canal and the rapid development of steam-shipping changed completely the character of Eastern trade. But I am anticipating events that were undreamed of in China or India fifty years ago."

 [69] The beloved and now departed Herr Inspektor, C. H. Rappard-Gobat, Director of the "Pilgrim Mission" of St. Chrischona, near Basel, himself in early years a foreign missionary.

 [70] The idea of commencing a new dialect," he had written a mouth before (August 18), "is rather overwhelming, one being a tolerable dose But if you mean to learn Chinese, you must not say, 'Can I do it?' but 'I can and will, by the blessing of God.'"

 [71] Based as it was upon his own correspondence, it was little wonder that this Resolution produced a painful impression on his mind. It hurt like a wound inflicted by one from whom he had expected sympathy. In a letter to Mr. Pearse of November 2, he expressed himself as follows:

 

"And lastly, in reference to the Resolution of June 29, 1854: your Board ought to be very careful how they bind their Secretaries to such a course in present times. Your missionaries are sent into a country in a state of revolution, where it is literally true that they know not what a day or an hour may bring forth. They should be well provided against contingencies before you adopt such an ultra measure, a measure that would at once and forever destroy their credit, if they have any, and compared with which their dismissal by the Society would not be severe. At any rate, if not accepted, such bills should not be positively refused before you hear the reasons which led to their being drawn. But more I need not say. Your hearts are in the work as well as ours, and I know you will excuse these remarks when you remember that half the world lies between us."

 [72] Though written at the North Gate house just before the arrival of the Parkers, what he said then seems even more applicable a little later.

 [73] To his intimate friend Mr. B. Broomhall, dated November 19, 1854.

 [74] During October, November and the first part of December, Hudson Taylor distributed, with help from Dr. Parker, more than eighteen hundred New Testaments and Scripture portions and two thousand two hundred Christian books and tracts.

 [75] A Fu is the governing city of a prefecture (or group of counties), seven to fourteen of which go to make up a province. The word is also applied to the prefect himself and to the district he governs. So that the Sung kiang Fu (mandarin) resides in Sung-kiang Fu (the city) and from that centre controls the entire Sung-kiang Fu (prefecture).

 [76] The province of Kiang-su in which Shanghai is situated, and the province of Cheh-kiang immediately to the south, with Hang-chow and Ning-po among its well-known cities.

 [77] Pah-ko ts'ien ih pun, "Eight cash a copy," is a phrase that early becomes familiar to the missionary who in these days presents his Scriptures for sale rather than free distribution. And certainly they are a wonder at the price (one farthing), printed in clear, large type, and attractively bound in tinted paper covers.

 [78] Nan-hwei "Hsien," the latter word standing for a county-town or governing city next in importance to a "Fu."

 [79] The Ya-men is the residence of the local Mandarin.

 [80] A period of only three months: January-March 1855.

 [81] Should there be only one traveller, and no luggage or corresponding burden on the other side, the barrow is simply tilted till his weight is well over the wheel, and in this seemingly precarious position he is trundled from behind.

 [82] Six months later two wealthy men, brothers, sent a servant all the way to Shanghai to invite the missionaries to return to Hai-men. They had obtained books, it appeared, on the occasion of this first visit, and were anxious to have "the foreign teachers" make a long stay in their home. Unfortunately it was not possible to accept the invitation in person. See Chap. 22, p.341, footnote.

 [83] The Lang-span group, facing the heights of Fu-shan on the opposite side of the river.

 [84] Offerings of money and other objects made in paper, expressly for burning before the idols.

 [85] This young man, a brother of the pupil they had adopted on the strength of Mr. Berger's gift, proved increasingly satisfactory as time went on, and was the first convert Mr. Taylor baptized in China.

 [86] This dispensary and "outstation" Dr. Parker opened in May, when he had been about six months in China. It was in the town of Yang-king, across the Hwang-poo river, a few miles east of Shanghai.

 [87] Paul Gerhardt; translated by John Wesley.

 [88] Miss Aldersey, an English lady 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 was the first to commence a school for girls on Chinese soil-coming to Ning-po in 1843 as one of the pioneer missionaries to settle in that city.

 [89] In a letter dated June 28, 1855.

 [90] See Chap 22, P. 273.

 [91] Jeremiah 48:11.

 [92] On September 7, writing to his mother, Hudson-Taylor alluded to their disappointment as follows:

 

"The hospital project for here, as you will see, is over. The Society's objection is not, 'We cannot do it.' Had that been all, I believe we here could. But they say, 'Our professed intentions are not to work in the five Ports, but in the interior. We do not wish our representatives to spend money in Shanghai.'"

 [93] A letter to a friend in Hull.

 [94] For protection from sunstroke Mr. Taylor carried a native umbrella.

 [95] A letter to his sister Amelia, dated October 3.

 [96] It is a common impression among the Chinese, especially in places new to missionary work, that the attractions of their native land must be great in order to induce foreigners to travel so far to settle among them. Clearly they can have nothing so beautiful at home, or they would not leave it! Material comfort especially, they conclude, must be immeasurably greater among themselves than anything "outside barbarians" know. This of course only applies in the present day to districts remote from the coast.

 [97] In a letter to an uncle by marriage, the Rev. Edward King, dated October 23, 1855, in which Mr. Taylor also says: "That I have succeeded in renting a house here so easily is due no doubt to my having adopted the native costume, not losing sight of the fact that the hearts of all are in the Lord's hands, to be moved by Him as He will."

 [98] Written from Sin-k'ai-ho at the end of November.

 [99] Presumably Kuei-hua's full literary name.

 [100] This was in the summer after Mr. Taylor's return from his long journey up the Yang-tze. In a letter to his mother dated July 29 he referred to the circumstance as follows:

 

"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."

 [101] This was happily incorrect: no one had been arrested.

 [102] Worth at that time considerably over a hundred pounds.

 [103] A letter from the South Gate to Mr. Pearse, dated December 7, 1855.

 [104] For details of this truly Apostolic life, see Memoir of the Rev. William Burns, M.A., by his brother, the Rev. Islay Bums, D.D.

 [105] Residence on Tsung-wing had been forbidden, but he saw no reason why he should not accompany another missionary to whose itinerations no objection had been raised.

 [106] Mr. Taylor had his teacher with him, but Tsien and Kuei-hua had been sent to the island of Hai-men in response to an urgent invitation from two gentlemen, brothers, who had received books on Mr. Taylor's visit with Mr. Burdon and desired to learn more of the way of Salvation. They rejoined Mr. Taylor at Nan-zin just after the New Year.

 [107] Extracted from Mr. Taylor's journal for December 28, 1855, and from a letter of the same date.

 [108] His whole life was literally a life of prayer, and his whole ministry a series of battles fought at the mercy-seat."

 

"Who among us has the spirit of prayer?" he wrote from Swatow. "They are mighty who have this spirit, and weak who have it not."

 

"In digging in the field of the Word," said an intimate friend, "he threw up now and then great nuggets which formed part of one's spiritual wealth every after."

 

"He was mighty in the Scriptures, and his greatest power in preaching was the way in which he used 'the Sword of the Spirit' upon men's consciences and hearts…. Sometimes one might have thought, in listening to his solemn appeals, that one was hearing a new chapter in the Bible when first spoken by a living prophet."

 

Quoted from the Memoir by the Rev. Islay Bums, D.D., pp. 545, 237, 549.

 [109] Quoted from the Memoir by the Rev. Islay Burns, D.D., p. 551.

 [110] Confucianists, i.e. scholarly men, affect to despise Buddhism and its grosser forms of idolatry, together with many superstitions of the uneducated.

 [111] The Fu cities of Hu-chow near the Great Lake and Ka-shing on the Grand Canal.

 [112] Tsien and Kuei-hua, Mr. Taylor's valued helpers, had just rejoined him, having returned from their visit to the island of Hai-men. See Chap. 27. p. 341.

 [113] This second campaign with Mr. Bums lasted between two and three weeks. They left Shanghai for Sung-kiang Fu on January 28 or 29, returning about February 18, 1856. It was Mr. Taylor's Eleventh Evangelistic Journey since reaching China.

 [114] The Rev. and Mrs. Robert Lowrie, of the American Presbyterian Mission.

 [115] February 26, 1854.

 [116] "Faith looks to Jesus," he wrote in April of this year, "and walks the troubled sea in spite of winds and waves. I understand that the funds of the Chinese Evangelisation Society were much reduced a short time ago, on account, I suppose, of the [Crimean) war. It does not affect me, however…. as I have not needed to draw on my Society for the last two quarters, and have now in hand enough for six months to come. Only by last mail a valued friend and devoted servant of Christ who has sent me one hundred pounds since last October, wrote urging me to tell him of any additional way in which he could forward the work by supplying the means. So as you truly say, if we are in the will of God, difficulty or trial as to circumstances cannot hinder us. Nothing can by any means harm us or frustrate His designs."

 [117] Written on March 29, after they had occupied the room for two weeks.

 [118] Although in the first five years after Mr. Burns commenced work in Swatow only thirty-nine converts were received into church fellowship, more than 4400 adults have been baptized since that time in connection with the English Presbyterian Mission alone, of whom 2700 are actual communicants to-day (1911). A strong native ministry has been developed which is now entirely supported by the native Church.

 [119] This devoted servant of God, the Rev. R. Lechler, was sent out by the Basel Missionary Society in 1846, and with the Rev. Th. Hamburg was the first representative of the Society in. China. Mr. Lechler went to Swatow in x848, and did not retire from that difficult field until obliged to do so in 1852. For more than fifty years he was almost continuously at work in China, witnessing the development of a Church which now numbers, by the blessing of God, over 5700 communicants.

 [120] The usual term "Foreign Devil" was here reinforced by more offensive epithets, "Foreign Dog," "Foreign Fig" and worse, hissed out with bitterest scorn.

 [121] A Christian man, who entertained the warmest friendship for Mr. Taylor and Mr. Burns, and subsequently joined the latter as a medical missionary in Swatow.

 [122] Dialect for Ch'ao-chow, the name, of the Prefecture of which Swatow is the commercial centre.

 [123] On account of danger from evil men, not to mention the malarial climate.

 [124] One missionary journey had been made in Manchuria some time previously, that of Dr. Alexander Williamson, who as Agent of the Scottish Bible Society traversed this important region between the years 1866 and 1868, even reaching a point-San-sin, on the Sungari river-which the Church has not yet overtaken. See A Century of Missions in China, p. sob.

 [125] The Rev. Wm. C. Bums passed away on April 4, 1868, just two years after the formation of the China Inland Mission which he had watched with the warmest interest.

 

To the far-away homeland he sent as his last message an appeal to tab up the work he was thus laying down; an appeal nobly responded to by the arrival of the first representative of the Irish Presbyterian Mission in the following year, and of the sister Church in Scotland three years later. The united Irish and Scotch Presbyterian Missions in Manchuria (one Chinese Church) now number no fewer than 16,075 actual communicants, with a missionary staff of sixty-nine Europeans. Thus blessedly has the confidence of William Bums been justified: "God," he said, "will carry on the good work. Ah no, I have no fears for that!"

 [126] Up to this point Mr. Taylor had distributed with his usual care as many as 200 copies of the New Testament and 3000 other books and tracts. He had been two weeks upon his way (July 22-August 4) and was able to write: "Never since I have been in China have I had such opportunities for preaching the Gospel.

 

"The account that follows of the rest of the journey is taken from letters to his mother and to the Secretary of the C.E.S., published in part in The Gleaner for December 1856.

 [127] Thirty miles, a good day's journey by ordinary houseboat.

 [128] Isaiah 65:24.

 [129] Arriving at Ning-po (the "City of the Peaceful Wave" as the Chinese characters imply) on August 22, Mr. Taylor remained for seven weeks with Dr. Parker, taking an active share in his work.

 [130] The first President of the Peking University, author of A Cycle of Cathay and many other works, and now the oldest representative of the missionary body in China.

 [131] See Chap. 24. p. 308

 [132] Quoted from his well-known book, A Cycle of Cathay.

 [133] He was the son of a certain John Dyer, who held a post in the Admiralty about the time of the accession of Queen Victoria.

 [134] To this devoted missionary belongs the honour of introducing a process which greatly Simplified the manufacture of movable Chinese type, thus facilitating the way for the rapid production of Christian literature for one-fourth of the human race.

 [135] He was singularly happy in his marriage with Miss Maria Tam, eldest daughter of Joseph Tam, Esq., one of the early directors of the London Missionary Society.

 [136] Mr. and Mrs. Jones had been seven months in China; but had not reached Ning-po until June of this year. Detained at Hong-kong by serious illness, and by the death of their eldest child, they had suffered much for the land to which their lives were given. But in it all their faith and love only deepened, and their longing to comfort others with the comfort wherewith they themselves were "comforted of God."

 [137] Ku-niang (aunt-mother) is the title in courtesy of an unmarried lady, and the combined, monosyllables Da-yia form the nearest Ning-po soundequivalent for the English surname Dyer.

 [138] Growing out of the paltry affair of the Arrow in October 1856, this war did not come to a final conclusion until four years later (October 1860), when Peking was in the hands of the enemy.

 [139] Fourteen years since the conclusion, in 1842, of England's first war with China, justly called "the Opium War." See Chap VII.

 [140] The rapacity and lawlessness of the Cantonese when away from their native province cause them to be both dreaded and disliked by the people in general. From their habit of confederating themselves together in secret clubs or societies, the local government officials are often powerless to act against them."

 [141] One little orphan, Tien-hsi, adopted as a result of this work, grew up to be a valued helper at Shao-hing, and one of the first native preachers in connection with the China Inland Mission.

 [142] See Romans 8:1, 16; and indeed the whole chapter.

 [143] In the previous October, when he had left Ning-po to return, as he hoped, to Mr. Bums.

 [144] Mr. Hudson Taylor's Bible Readings on the Song of Solomon are published under the title Union and Communion.

 [145] Mr. Taylor was then dealing specially with the question of a call to missionary work, the consent of one or both parents being withheld.

 [146] In August 1905, nearly fifty years later, a sister of Mrs. Way's wrote as follows—

 

"from Mrs. R. Way of Ning-po would have given delightful reminiscences of Mr. Hudson Taylor, but these letters, so much prized, were unavoidably lost…. Mr. Way was absent from the city when the sickness of Mr. Quarterman, proving to be smallpox, rendered the situation of Mrs. Way an her children very alarming. The doctor had him isolated, and I suppose he would have been left to the care of the Chinese, had not our Heavenly Father interposed and moved the heart of His faithful servant, Mr. Hudson Taylor, to take upon himself to be nurse, brother, and comforter in one. Actuated by the very spirit of Christ, he cut himself off from every one, and devoted himself to the care of my suffering brother.

 

"The sad details-his sore sickness and death-brought sorrow to our hearts; but how this was tempered by the knowledge that loving hands and devoted care had done all that could be done for our brother!"

 

"For this dear servant of the Lord, Mr. Hudson Taylor," added another member of the family (Miss G. S. Way, of Savannah, Georgia), "we have always felt the deepest gratitude; and we ever rejoiced in the great things he was enabled to accomplish in winning China for Christ."

 [147] "I conclude," writes Dr. W. A. P. Martin recalling early Ning-po days, "with two names more eminent than any of the preceding, the names of Robert Hart and Hudson Taylor. From a budding interpreter the former has blossomed into the famous statesman known as the 'Great I.G.' (Inspector-General of the Chinese Customs Service). His career to which there is no parallel in East or West will be further noticed in connection with Peking. The latter, who rules as many men and with a sway not less absolute, is the Loyola of Protestant Missions. When I first met him he was a mystic absorbed in religious dreams, waiting to have his work revealed; not idle, but aimless. When he had money he spent it on charity to needy Chinese, and then was reduced to sore straits himself. When the vocation found him it made him a new man, with iron will and untiring energy. He erred [?] in leading his followers to make war on ancestral worship, instead of seeking to reform it; still in founding the China Inland Mission he has made an epoch in the history of missionary enterprise" (from A Cycle of Cathay).

 [148] January 20, 1858.

 [149] It was a needless alarm for the time being, for not until three and a half years later (December 1861) did the Rebels succeed in possessing themselves of Ning-po. But the tragedy when it came justified only too fully all the terrible apprehensions, reducing the population of the city and its immediate surroundings to barely a twentieth part of its former number.

 [150] The Kuen-kiao-teo house had been given up soon after Mr. Taylor's marriage, and Mr. and Mrs. Jones were now living in a purely Chinese residence, about a mile from Bridge Street.

 [151] Mr. Taylor spent the larger part of his first furlough (in association with the Rev. F. F. Gough) in carefully revising this, Romanised New Testament, and supplying it with marginal references: a work which Archdeacon Moule of Ning-po stated many years later to have been of "the greatest value to Christians throughout the province.

 [152] Those were red-letter days indeed when Neng-kuei the basket-maker and the Teacher's mother were baptized and received into the little Church. This took place on August 15 and 29, Sundays when the Chapel of the American Baptist Mission was available. Mrs. Tsiu was the first Chinese woman Mr. Taylor had ever baptized, and his address on the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt came from a full heart.

 [153] This Treaty, signed on June z6, 1858, was of the utmost importance in our relations with China. It contained excellent provisions, such as the right of maintaining an Ambassador at Peking, freedom for foreigners to travel in the interior of China, and toleration for Christianity, so that, "persons teaching it or professing it should alike be entitled to the protection of the Chinese authorities." But alas, under the Tariff Supplement, it also contained a clause legalising the importation of opium, against which the Chinese had striven so long!

 [154] The labours of Mrs. Tsiu and her devoted son, of Nyi the cottonmerchant, Neng-kuei the basket-maker, Wang the farmer and Wang the painter (see next chapter), not to speak of Loh Ah-tsih and others, can never be forgotten. It would be difficult to overestimate the services of that little band in connection with the earliest stations of the Mission—services extending over ten, twenty, forty and even fifty years, and ending in unclouded testimony to the glory of God.

 [155] Seven baptisms within a year was cause indeed for thanksgiving, representing as it did fully as much of prayer, labour and progress as would ten times that number in the same localities to-day. One Mission then in Ning-po, after fifteen years of faithful labour, had a Church Roll of only twenty members; though another, not quite so long in the field, had considerably more.

 [156] The Ven. Arthur E. Moule, B.D., Archdeacon in Mid-China and C.M.S. Missionary at Ning-po. Quoted from The Story of the Cheh-hiang Mission, p. 76.

 [157] For the Treaty of Tien-tsin, signed in June of the previous summer, was to have been ratified at Peking a year later. Upon the arrival of the fleet of nineteen vessels representing the Allies (England, France, Russia and America) they were attacked in the mouth of the Pei-ho river and driven back with considerable loss; and the capture of Peking itself was necessary before the Chinese Government realised that they must carry out their terms of surrender. The Treaty was finally ratified in October 1860. In August of the following year the heart-broken Emperor (Hienfeng) died. The ratification of these Treaties had swept away the barriers he had so long striven to maintain against the importation of opium, which, from this time, alas I spread with fatal rapidity throughout the length and breadth of the land.

 [158] This was the same valued servant who had been with Mr. Taylor in Shanghai, Tsung-wing and elsewhere; and who was now a bright Christian.

 [159] This was on February 13, 1860, when to his parents he wrote: "You will rejoice to hear that on the 5th inst. we received five men into our little Church, to whom I had the privilege of administering the Lord's Supper yesterday…. We have now therefore eleven men and six women in fellowship with us, though one, I regret to say (dear Neng-kuei), is suspended for the present. May God grant him speedy restoration. To-morrow we are to have a Church-meeting, D.V., to consider the cases of other candidates, twelve in all, I believe."

 [160] 1 Corinthians 1:26; R.V. margin; and vers. 27-31 from A.V.

 [161] In a letter to his parents in Barnsley, dated January 16, 1860.

 [162] First of the five was the Rev. J. J. Meadows, who, after half a century of devoted labours in China, is still working within a hundred miles of Ning And fifth of that little group was the Rev. J. W. Stevenson, now and for more than twenty years the Deputy Director on the field of the China Inland Mission.

 [163] A letter written on March 25.

 [164] In the train on his way from Aberdeen to Perth, Mr. Taylor had written to his wife in London, his chief helper in prayer "

 

September. 5, 1865: Through God's goodness I have got some letters of introduction to Perth. May the Lord help and guide and use me there. My hope is in Him. I do desire not to please myself, but to lay myself open for China's sake. I much need to add to faith courage: may God give it me."

 [165] One of the very few gatherings which, at that time, united Christians,, of all denominations, Perth was taking much the place in Scotland that the Barnet Conference (afterwards moved to Mildmay) occupied in London. The occasion of Mr. Taylor's visit to Perth was the third Conference, presided over in the City Hall by the Revs. J. Milne of Perth and Macdowall Grant of Arndilly, and attended by Messrs. Stevenson A. Blackwood, R. C. Morgan of The Revival (afterwards The Christian), the Rev. Hay Aitken of Penzance, Brownlow North and other visitors from England, as well as by such well-known Scottish leaders as the Revs. Andrew Bonar, J. Macpherson, Moody Stuart, M'Gregor of Dundee, Yule of Cargill, General Macdowall, George Barbour, Esq., of Bonskeid, Messrs. Colville and Gillett of Glasgow, and Mr. Jenkinson of Edinburgh, who in the Carrubber's Close Mission had for six years been dealing almost nightly with anxious inquirers, seeking and finding salvation, an outcome of the great Revival of 1859. The Conference was attended by about two thousand people.

 [166] Worth at the time more than thirty shillings—J. H. T.

 [167] It was on Friday, October 10, 1856, that this incident took place, when young Hudson Taylor was returning to Ningpo with Mr. J. Jones, whose colleague he became a little later.

 [168] "I spoke on China yesterday," Mr. Taylor wrote from the Conference, and have one or more meetings to-morrow for this purpose exclusively. I am staying with General Sir Alexander Lindsay…. I should not wonder if many men are raised up for China."

 [169] The story of Mr. Taylor's first period of work in China will be found in Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul, published by the China Inland Mission and the Religious Tract Society, to which this volume forms the sequel.

 [170] For the conversion of this remarkable man and his early labours, see The Growth of a Soul, Ch.39

 [171] The Rev. F. F. Gough of the. Church Missionary Society, also on furlough from Ningpo, who had joined Mr. Taylor in the revision.

 [172] Mr. Meadows and his bride sailed for China in January 1862, first of the five workers prayed for to reinforce Mr. and Mrs. Jones in the Ningpo Mission.

 [173] In a letter of July 27, 1862.

 [174] ie. December 1862 to the end of 1865.

 [175] The only Chinese Christian within reach, Lae-djun was not neglected spiritually. Regularly, as the journals testify, Mr. Taylor spent hours with him on Sunday, tired though they must often have been: hours of prayer and Bible study that had not a little to do with Lae-djun's subsequent usefulness as the first and for thirty years one of the most devoted native Pastors in the China Inland Mission.

 [176] The walk to and from Tottenham, twelve miles in all, mutt have been fatiguing to Mr. Taylor; but he had strong conscientious objections to Sunday travelling, and felt the effort well repaid by intercourse with the Howards and other friends, and the helpful fellowship of the Brook Street Meeting

 [177] Bayswater was the home at this time of Mr. and Mrs. B. Broomhall, the beloved sister Amelia, for many years Mr. Taylor's chief correspondent. The Rev. W. G. Lewis was the minister of the Baptist Church, of which Mr. Taylor had become and long remained a member.

 [178] The Rev. E. C. Lard of Ningpo, formerly of the American Baptist Missionary Union, was a highly esteemed friend of Mr. Taylor's. Although very busy in his own work, he found time to replace Mr. Jones in the pastoral oversight of the Bridge Street Church, and to give much help to Mr. Meadows. Mr. Jones had had to leave China in broken health, and reached the better Home before the journey could be completed.

 [179] Hon. Secretary of the Church Missionary Society.

 [180] As much was to grow out of this association, it is interesting to recall that the introduction was through a mutual friend, Mr. George Pearse of the stock Exchange, Secretary of the Society that was sending the young missionary to China, who, after the Hackney Meeting one Sunday morning, took Hudson Taylor and his friend (later on his brother-in-law), Mr. B. Broomhall, to dine with the Bergers, then living at Hornsey Rise.

 [181] The beautiful mansion near East Grinstead to which they had moved from London.

 [182] It is interesting that this experience took place on March 13, 1865, little more than three months before Mr. Taylor himself met the crisis of k's life on the sands at Brighton.

 [183] With the sailing of the bride-elect the prayer was fully answered which had been going up since 1860, for five additional workers for the Ningpo Mission. The five thus sent out were: Mr. Meadows (who had already lost his wife in China), Miss Notman, Messrs. Barchet and Crombie, and Miss Skinner (Mrs. Crombie).

 [184] The Rev. Sir Montagu Beauchamp, C.F., who after thirty years of devoted service in China has recently succeeded to the title, through the lamented death of his brother, Col. Sir Horace Beauchamp, Bart., at the front.

 [185] "The writer has seen God, in answer to prayer, quell the raging of the storm," Mr. Taylor continued, "alter the direction of the wind and give rain in the midst of prolonged drought. He has seen Him, in answer to prayer, stay the angry passions and murderous intentions of violent men, and bring the machinations of His people's foes to nought. He has seen Him, in answer to prayer, raise the dying from the bed of death, when human aid was vain; has seen Him preserve from the pestilence that walketh in, darkness, and from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. For more than eight years and a half he has proved the faithfulness of God in supplying his own temporal wants and the needs of the work in which he has been engaged." See Hudson Taylor in Early years; The Growth of a Soul, especially pp. 429-492.

 [186] Herr Spittler, connected with "The Pilgrim Mission" of St. Chrischona, near Basel, Switzerland.

 [187] From Mr. Rudland's centre at Tai-chow-fu three other cities were opened during his lifetime and thirty-seven out-stations. In connection with these, over 3000 persons have been baptized; and at the time of Mr. Rudland's death, in 1912, there were more than 1500 communicants. He had translated into the local dialect the whole New Testament and a large part of the Old, printing himself edition after edition on the Mission press, for which he was responsible.

 [188] In January 1866 Mr. Taylor relinquished into the hands of his colleague, the Rev. F. F. Gough, the work that had occupied so large a part of his time fog four and a half years. Finally completed by the Rev. George Moule (afterwards Bishop in mid-China), the book became, as a C.M.S. authority stated, "of the greatest value to Christians throughout the province" (Che-kiang).

 [189] T. J. Barnardo, coming to Coborn Street as a candidate for the China Inland Mission, was advised by Mr. Taylor to study medicine, and introduced accordingly to the London Hospital. His sayings and doings were a source of constant amusement to the missionary household. In his Bible he had written "Tom Barnardo, China"; and long after the work for waifs and strays began which has attained such wonderful proportions, he fully intended leaving it to others and going out himself to the land of his prayers and longings.

 [190] Mr. and Mrs. Grattan Guinness were also attracted to East London by their interest in the new Mission. "Strangely enough," as he wrote of this experience, "Harley House—for more than thirty years our Missionary Training Institute—is but a few steps from Coborn Street, where Mr. Taylor received his first volunteers for the China Inland Mission. How little when I visited the small, crowded home of the out-going 'Lammermuir party,' did I imagine that close to that spot we were to build a college which should train more than a thousand evangelists for the foreign field. ….About a hundred of our students have become missionaries in China, some of them being numbered amoung the martyrs of the Boxer Outbreak. The acquaintance between Dr. Howard Taylor and our beloved daughter Geraldine, which subsequently led to their marrige, arose from Dr. Taylor's residence in East London while studying for several years at the London Hospital. All these things were linked together and connected with Hudson Taylor's choice of that humble home in Coborn Street, amid the poverty and obscurity of East London, for the reception of the 'Lammermuir party.' It would be impossible to estimate the results for good in East London and throughout the world which have followed the selection of that lowly dwelling in the mighty city."

 [191] Shortly thereafter increased to two thousand, and later on to double that number.

 [192] No fewer than six members of this family (of which the father, Mr. Henry W. Soltau, was then at the height of his great usefulness by voice and pen as a Bible teacher) have for longer or shorter periods been connected with the C.I.M—as well as the son-in-law mentioned above and a grand-daughter, Miss Mabel Soltau, now in China. Messrs. George and Henry Soltau were members of the first Council, formed in 1872, and the latter went with Mr. J. W. Stevenson to Burma to attempt the opening up of Western China. Mr. William Soltau, prior to his devoted work in France, gave much assistance in the home department. Mr. Richard Hill, who had been largely instrumental in forming the Council, became its Hon. Secretary, and rendered valued service in this and other capacities for nearly forty years. Mrs. William Warren (Miss Charlotte Soltau), in her Training Home for missionaries in Melbourne, prepared not a few of its first Australian workers; and Miss H. E. Soltau (assisted latterly by Miss Elsie Soltau and Miss Edith Smith) was for many years entirely responsible for the Women's Department in London, sending out hundreds of workers and following them with helpful ministrations.

 [193] Saturday was the day Mr. Robert Chapman set apart for special waiting upon God, though it was his habit to rise always at or before daylight and give hours to fervent intercession-and this until he was well over ninety years of age. His "workshop" claimed him, however, in a special way at the close of every week. It was his sanctum, containing little but his turning-lathe and a shelf on which he could lay his open Bible. Here he spent hours at a time, denying himself on Saturdays to any and every visitor, and going without his midday meal that he might be the more free in spirit. The mechanical occupation of the lathe he found helpful to a connected line of thought; so looking at the Bible from time to time, or dropping on his knees in prayer, he would turn out plates and trenchers, his mind occupied the while with the eternal interests of the Kingdom of God. "Dear Brother," he exclaimed on meeting Mr. Taylor again six or seven years later, I have visited you every day since you went to China." Who can tell how much the Inland Mission owes to the prayers that went up from that hidden corner in Barnstaple?

 [194] "Your plan of seeking to plant two missionaries in each of the unoccupied provinces is a noble one," wrote the Rev. William Burns from Peking in January of this year (1866), "and if, by the help of God, it is but half accomplished, a great step will have been taken in advance, and the necessities of China will become more visible and clamant in the view of all the Protestant Churches."

 [195] The Rev. Alexander M'Aulay, then a minister in East London, saw a good deal of Mr. Taylor and his fellow-workers at this time. "I watched very closely the manner and spirit of those about to proceed to China," he said as President of the Wesleyan Conference ten years later., "I was delighted to find the spirit of self-sacrifice very deep in every one of them, so far as I could discern. They were given to prayer, and had all the elements about them that were likely to make them successful missionaries in any field to which God might call them."

 [196] From The Voice of thy Brother's Blood, by H. Grattan Guinness.

 [197] The Saturday prayer-meeting was continued by Mr. and Mrs. Gough (the widow of Mr. J. Jones of Ningpo) in their home on Bow Road, near Coborn Street. Another weekly prayer-meeting was held by Mr. and Mrs.Berger at Saint Hill, who also kept up the noon half-hour daily, no matter what guests or occupations they might have. There were praying circles also in Scotland, Ireland, and the provinces, in which the needs of the mission found constant remembrance.

 [198] This they had all to themselves, with its three port-holes at the stem, and sky-light over the table from the poop deck. Immediately outside this saloon (or "stern-cabin") was the main-mast, forward of which lay the well-deck with officers' quarters, and the forecastle. The Lammermuir was a three-masted iron sailing-ship of 760 tons burden.

 [199] "Mr. Brunton's conversion was very interesting," wrote Miss Rose, who was going out to be married to Mr. Meadows." For several weeks he was miserable. He had been brought up a Roman Catholic, and there were many prejudices to overcome. Every means was used to help him, and again and again requests' came from those who were going to converse with him, that they might be prayed for. One night Mr. Sell came running down from the deck at twelve o'clock saying that Mr. Brunton had just asked him to go to his cabin and pray with him. Two of us were up and we united in prayer: but he did not find peace that night, nor for many weeks following.

 

"By the first week in August, matters came to a climax, and it was felt that if he were to be saved it must be at once. He was wretched it seemed a life and death question. The enemy was determined not to let him go, and the struggle was fearful. On the night of the 3rd his watch ended at twelve o'clock, Mr. Taylor went just after and had a long conversation with him, those who were up retiring to the stern-cabin for prayer. When Mr. Taylor came down and the answer had not yet been given, he and another continued in prayer till three o'clock. The Bible next day was turned into a prayer-meeting, another special meeting was called in the forenoon; and a third would have been held later, but bad weather prevented it. God, however, knew the longing of our hearts, and took the work into His own hands. Mr. Taylor again met Mr. Brunton at midnight, in his-cabin; and while he was explaining to him the passage,When I see the blood, I will pass over you,' light broke I He saw the plan of salvation; peace and joy took possession of his heart and he at once poured out his soul to God in praise and prayer-remembering us each one by name, all who were unsaved on board, and his own wife and children. Mr. Taylor was so overjoyed that he went and awoke Mr. Sell, to tell him the good news. The latter got up and woke me, and at three in the morning we gave thanks together. It is impossible to describe the rejoicing of that day I You know what it is to have the burden of souls upon your hearts, and the joy that follows their conversion."

 [200] "All through the storm," said Mr. Rudland, "Mr. Taylor was perfectly calm. When almost at its height the men refused to work any longer. The Captain had advised all to put on life-belts. 'She can scarcely hold together two hours,' was his verdict. At this juncture he was going to the forecastle, where the men were taking refuge, revolver in hand. Mr. Taylor went up to him. 'Don't use force,' he said, 'till everything else has been tried.' He then went in quietly and talked to the men, telling them he believed God would bring, us through, but that everything depended upon the greatest care in navigating the ship, in other words, upon the men themselves. 'We will all help,' he added 1, our lives are in jeopardy as much as yours.' The men were completely reassured by his quiet demeanour and friendly reasoning, and with officers, midshipmen, and the rest of us went to work in earnest at the wreckage, and before long got in the great iron spars that were ramming the side of the ship."

 [201] It is impossible, in view of the cosmopolitan city of to-day, to imagine how primitive were the conditions in Shanghai as recently as 1866. A temporary building, since used as a gymnasium, did duty for the Cathedral. The British Consulate, though occupying the same site as at present, was an insignificant structure. The Garden Bridge, now traversed daily by a ceaseless stream of vehicles, was so narrow that two wheelbarrows could barely pass each other, and pedestrians had to pay a three cash toll. As to conveyances, the choice lay between sedan-chairs and wheelbarrows, rickshaws not having yet come over from Japan. One of the Consuls possessed a carriage, and so did the Commissioner of Customs; but there was little use for them, the Bund scarcely extending beyond the British Settlement, and the Nanking Road soon running off into fields and marketgardens. Other roads were just tracks and footpaths, save where they awed the river, and the Gardens of to-day were, at low tide, an unsavoury mud bank. As for the native city, walled in and crowded with a dense population, the less said of it the better, from a European standpoint.

 [202] The primitive Chinese gondola.

 [203] In the great city of Shao-hing-fu with a quarter of a million inhabitants they had succeeded in obtaining a footing, adding thus a fourth station to those already opened by the Mission before the arrival of the Lammermuir party. Living over their little chapel at the junction of three busy streets, hard by one of the water-ways of that Venice of midChina, they were "feeling very happy and getting on with the language," not another foreigner to be found in a long day's journey. Neng-kwei, the basket-maker of Ningpo, was their helper; for whose story see Hudson Taylor in Early Years, pp. 461-2.

 [204] Hang-chow and Ningpo, about a hundred miles apart, form approximately an equilateral triangle, with Shanghai as its apex.

 [205] Psalm 68:2. R.V.

 [206] The letter, which was a long one, was written to help Mr. Berger in putting the matter before young people at home who were candidates for the Mission.

 [207] It is interesting to recall the names of those who in x866 formed the staff of the two British and four American societies at work in Shanghai: they were the Revs. W. Muirhead and G. Owen (L.M.S.); Mr. Alex. Wylie (B. & F. Bible Society); the Revs. E. H. Thomson (Protes. Epis.); M. T. Yates (Southern Baptist); W. G. Cunnyngham, J. W. Lambuth, J. J. Allen, and M. L. Wood (Meth. Epis., South); J. M. Farnham, J. Wherry (Presby. Board), and Mr. W. Gamble of the Presby. Press. The kindness of Mr. Farnham and Mr. Gamble established a special sympathy between their mission and the C.I.M. which continues to this day.

 [208] To the sorrow of the missionary party, who had continued to hold meetings on board, some of the crew had fallen back into old habits amid the temptations of port life. "Their deep contrition, however," Mr.Taylor was able to write, "encourage us to hope that they are really children of God"; and others, both among the officers and men, gave only cause for rejoicing.

 [209] One link with the Lammermuir still remained, for Mr. Brunton, formerly the dread of the crew, was with the young men on their boat. He came a little way up-country with us," continued Miss Blatchley; and on Sunday, in the beautiful sunset light, Mr. Taylor baptized him in the river."

 

Hearing from this officer, doubtless, of their being without much in the way of European comforts, Captain Bell sent after them-before they could finally get away-two pots of butter, a barrel of treacle, a cooked ham, a joint of beef, and a cheese! To him the party had given a beautiful Bible and a travelling rug.

 [210] A letter to the Hon. Miss Waldegrave, one of many written by Miss Blatchley as Mr. Taylor's secretary.

 [211] To her mother's care it was due that a complete series of the bright, girlish letters have been preserved that give so natural a picture of daily life at Sin-kai-long (Hang-chow) from the first. Miss Faulding was only twenty-two when she went to China, and her parents, who were old friends of Mr. Taylor's, did much to maintain a prayerful interest in the Mission throughout a large circle.

 [212] "I think of him as I ever knew him," wrote Mr. McCarthy from Western China thirty-eight years later, "kind, loving, thoughtful of every one but himself, a blessing wherever he went and a strength and comfort to all with whom he came in contact … a constant example of all that a missionary ought to be."

 [213] See Hudson Taylor in Early Years, pages 420 et sqq.

 [214] Chronicles 4:9, 10.

 [215] In February and March, after the riotous disturbance at Siao-shan, matters looked very serious for the missionary community in Hang-chow as well as for the native Christians. A plot to get rid of all foreigners—worked up by so-called "doctors" of the city, who saw their gains imperilled—might easily have been successful but for the prompt action of the local authorities. As it was, the young converts were tested in a very real way and had practical demonstration of the power of prayer.

 [216] Miss Bowyer also wrote from Hang-chow at the time: "never saw anything so lovely as dear little Gracie the evening after her death (on August 23): it was the sweetest expression of countenance one could behold on earth."

 [217] "It is a great blessing when God gives one a hunger for souls," Mr. Taylor wrote many years later (November 11902). "A good many of our early workers had it. We get better people now in some ways, better educated and so on, but it is not often you find that real hunger for soulspeople willing to live anywhere and endure anything if only souls may be saved. They were very often humble people. If they were to offer to our Mission now, they might not be accepted-George Duncan, for example I But nothing can take its place, or make up for the lack of it. … It is so much more important than any ability."

 [218] Fuh, the character chosen as the nearest in sound to Miss Faulding's surname, means happiness: "Miss Happiness," a suitable name for the bright-faced girl who was a messenger of life and peace to so many in Hang-chow, and who is lovingly remembered there to this day.

 [219] From Mr. Taylor's first general letter to friends at home after reaching Hang-chow, dated October 1867.

 [220] In addition to Siao-shan, which was near Hang-chow, Tai-chow-fu, Nanking, and Wen-chow-had been opened—all important governing cities and centres of population.

 [221] Mrs. Taylor was accompanied by Miss Blatchley and the children's nurse, Mrs. Bohanan (who had replaced Mary Bell, her sister, now married to Mr. Rudland). Mr. Taylor followed ten days later, having been detained by illness in the family of one of the American missionaries in Hang-chow.

 [222] I The charm as well as importance of this place from the Chinese point of view may be judged from their proverb, "Above is Heaven; below Hang-chow and Soo-chow." Mr. Charles Schmidt—formerly an officer under General Gordon in the "Ever-Victorious Force"—had been the first to live and preach Christ in this city. Converted through the instrumentality of Mr. Meadows, he was a warm friend to the C.I.M., and at his request the Mission had also undertaken work in Soo-chow. Mr. Henry Cordon had succeeded in renting premises a few weeks previously, in which regular services were now commenced with help from Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.

 [223] In the interests of this kindly host, Mr. Taylor had called upon the local Mandarin, making his presence and purposes known, and had obtained an assurance that there should be no interference.

 [224] But for the difficulties at Chin-kiang there never would have been, humanly speaking, a Yang-chow riot. Arriving there with a large quantity of goods and finding no house available, Mr. and Mrs. Rudland and Miss Desgraz had come on to Yang-chow early in August. Thus three additional foreigners, and all the paraphernalia needed for a printing-press and a second household, had been crowded into Mr. Taylor's premises. No wonder the Yang-chow people were tempted with thoughts of plunder!

 [225] "In the Yang-chow riot," Mr. Taylor wrote some years later, "when she and the little children were in danger of being massacred at any moment, she was as calm as in her own parlour in London: and I am quite certain that if she could have altered any of the circumstances she would not have done it, so satisfied was she at all times that God's ordering was best."

 [226] Mr. Judd recalls that it was "her calmness and the fact that she spoke such beautiful Chinese" that disarmed the man whose band she stayed in a murderous attack on Mr. Rudland.

 [227] Quoted front Mr. Taylor's letter of dismissal, September 12, 1868: a letter that cost him untold sorrow, and was only written "after many weeks of anxious, prayerful thought."

 [228] Writing of a missionary candidate at home who had manifestly mistaken his calling, Mrs. Taylor said:

 

"One thing seems very clear from Mr. M.'s letter, namely, that he is not likely to be one who would work happily in the C.I.M. And oh, we will be thankful to God when He makes this plain in England, and thus prevents persons from coming out who might work sorrow in our midst. Not that I would repine at the past or the present. The Lord was entreated to guide about those who should come out, and if He has suffered some to come who have caused us untold sorrow, may we not regard this as part of the storms that are to make our young Mission strike its roots deeper into the soil?"

 [229] In February 1869 Miss Faulding wrote to her mother: "Mr. Taylor longs to go forward now more than ever, and is hoping that the end of this year may find him in Sze-chwan."

 [230] "Many of our number are much stirred up to press into the interior," Mr. Taylor wrote from Chin-kiang about the middle of September, "and our recent disasters, if such I may call them, only make us the more determined to go on, leaning on the Almighty Power of our Captain. Pray for us. We need much grace. You cannot conceive the many daily calls there are for patience, for forbearance, for tact in dealing with the many cases of difficulty, of misunderstanding that arise among so many persons of different nationality and language temperament. Pray the Lord ever to give me the single eye, the clear judgment, the wise and gentle manner, the patient forbearing spirit, the unwavering purpose, the unshaken faith, the Christ-like love that are needed for the efficient discharge of my duties. And ask Him to send us sufficient means and suitable helpers for the great work which we have as yet barely commenced."

 [231] In a long letter to Mrs. Berger, explaining all the circumstances that attended the riot, Mrs. Taylor said (February 11, 1869): "As to the harsh judgings of the world or the more painful misunderstandings of Christian brethren, I generally feel that the best plan is to go on with our work and leave God to vindicate our cause. But it is right that you should know intimately how we have acted, and why. I would suggest, however, that it would be undesirable to print the fact that Mr. Medhurst, and through him Sir Rutherford Alcock, took up the matter without application from us. The new Ministry at home censures those out here for the policy which the late Ministry enjoined upon them. 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.

 

"Perhaps one secret of our matter being taken up so warmly was that it was looked upon as a climax to a series of provocations which the English had suffered from the Chinese; and the representatives of our Government were, I believe, not sorry to have an opportunity of, and good ground for, settling off a number of 'old counts.'"

 [232] The only appeal of any kind that Mr. Taylor had made to the Consular authorities had been a verbal message on August 22, and a pencilled note the following morning-when the riot was beginning all over again after that awful night of suspense and anguish—simply informing them of the situation.

 [233] Letter to Lady Boyd from Aberdeen, May 1, 1637.

 [234] Titus 2:54 in Weymouth's translation reads: "Who gave Himself for us, to purchase our freedom from all iniquity, and purify for Himself a people who should be specially His own, zealous for doing good works."

 [235] September 4 saw the following entry in Miss Blatchley's journal: "Mr. Taylor here (Chin-kiang) by about breakfast-time. He had met the Duncans, and they came back with him. Soon after, the Cordons also arrived. All are to stay over Sunday for special prayer re: holiness. Mr. McCarthy's letter on the subject, awaiting Mr. Taylor, God used for a channel of blessing to him. He too has now received the rest of soul that Jesus gave to me some little time ago. Mr. McCarthy and Jennie (Miss Faulding) both seem to have obtained it, as also had Miss Desgraz before we returned from the South. Others too, the Rudlands, Cordons, Duncans, Judds, and Miss Bowyer have had their minds much exercised on the same subject-how to attain holiness of heart and life."

 [236] Written in a boat, near Yang-chow, December 4, 1869. By the blessing of God the missionaries were not only reinstated at An-king without special difficulty, but the station became the centre from which a widespread work was carried on in districts never before reached by the Gospel; and when Yang-chow developed into a receiving home for the women of the Mission, where they could have special help in the study of the language, An-king came to fill the same important role for the men. Both are to this day training homes of the Mission.

 [237] Mr. Miller's gifts for the next few years amounted to nearly £2000 annually. In 1870 he sent Mr. Taylor £1940. 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.

 [238] The booklet quoted above was one they specially valued. Mr.Taylor sent one to every member of the Mission at this time. It had appeared in full as an article in The Revival.

 [239] Lines written by Miss Blatchley a few months later.

 [240] To Mr. Berger, March 22, 1870.

 [241] To Mr. Berger, February 11, 1870.

 [242] "To know," he added in connection with the promise above quoted (John 4:14), "that 'shall' means shall, that 'never' means never, and that' thirst' means any unsatisfied need may be one of the greatest revelations God ever made to our souls."

 [243] One of these married, a few years later, the daughter of Wang Laedjun, becoming his co-pastor in Hang-chow, and is still (1918) in charge of the Sin-kai-long Church.

 [244] "Never in my lifetime has any year witnessed such events as has the year 1870," Mr. Berger had gone on to sayin the letter of July 30, quoted above, whether in relation to our mission or the world at large. Rome is now I suppose the capital of free Italy. France lies humiliated to a degree. The Pope's temporal power is no more. China seems to be rising to expel foreigners, the heralds of the Cross among them. And personally we have suffered the loss of the most devoted labourer for China's millions that could be found, as well as of a beloved friend. 'Be still and know that I am God,' is a word appropriate at such a juncture. May we all have grace to give heed to it."

 [245] To Mr. and Mrs. Grattan Guinness he had written in January (1871) thanking them for no little help afforded to Miss Blatchley and his children while in Paris, and saying as to his own experiences:

 

"I need not tell you of the difficulties and dangers, the pressure daily changing, and the sickness and sorrows of the past year. I think I may say that in the aggregate they have equalled, if not exceeded, those of the sixteen previous years of my missionary labour. Be this as it may, the Lord had previously taught me practically, as I never knew-it before, our present, real oneness with Christ; and with the exception of the past two months, it has been the happiest, the most joyous year of my life. For the last two months my liver has been so deranged that I have rather realised the Lord Jesus as my refuge than as my abounding joy; but none the less precious are the blessings I receive in Him. Oh, my dear Brother! in this dark, dark land, one does need a deep assurance of the presence of Jesus."

 [246] To Miss Desgraz at Yang-chow, written from Salisbury at 5 AM, on a wintry morning, February 8. 1872.

 [247] The letter appeared in Occasional Paper, No. 29.

 [248] The name of Mr. F. W. Bailer is well known to students of Chinese, who are indebted to him for many valuable helps, including his Primer and Dictionary. A member of the Mandarin Bible Revision Committee, his work is now chiefly literary; but it is interesting to recall that long before he became distinguished in this realm he was among the early pioneers of the Mission whose itinerations did so much to open inland China to the Gospel.

 [249] At the first regular meeting of the Council, October 4, 5872, Mr. Henry Soltau was appointed to act as joint Honorary Secretary with Mr. Richard Hill. The remaining members were Messrs. John Challice, William Hall, Joseph Weatherley, and George Soltau. The late Mr. Theodore Howard, for thirty-five years the Home Director of the Mission, and Mr. William Sharp, now the senior member of the Council, joined a little later-the former in 5872 and the latter in 1879.

 [250] A letter dated Chin-kiang, January 18, 1873.

 [251] It was with great interest he visited Mr. Cardwell at this time, and learned from his own lips something of the pioneering work in which he was engaged in the beautiful province of Kiang-si. All round the Poyang Lake he had travelled, and up the four main rivers on which the important cities were found. In scores of these, besides populous towns and villages, he had preached the Gospel, selling 15,500 Scripture portions and tracts. Throughout the whole of these journeys, steadily pursued for a year and a half (1871-72), he had not met a single missionary or native preacher, nor come across a mission station or a convert—for in the whole great province with its twenty millions he was the only evangelist outside the treaty port of Kiu-kiang. Well might Mr. Taylor say, "The importance of such journeys is very great, and the need of these districts truly appalling."

 [252] Or as Weymouth renders it: "Gentle as a mother, when she tenderly nurses her own children."

 [253] "I feel, Darling," Mrs. Taylor wrote in one of their long partings (November. 10, 1873), "that we must lean fully and constantly on Jesus if we are to get on at all, and I have been seeking to do it, and in believing prayer to bring our many needs to Him. I have written down the names of our foreign and native helpers, that I may be able to plead for them all daily. If we would have power for what Jesus calls us to do, we must not expend it in bearing burdens that He would have us cast on Him, must we? And there is abundant supply, with Him, for all this work, for all we need, isn't there? It's unbelief that saps our strength and makes everything look dark; and yet He reigns, and we are one with Him, and He is making everything happen for the very best; and so we ought always to rejoice in Him, and rest, though it is not always easy. We must triumph with God, and then we shall succeed with men, and be made blessings to them. You know these things, and can put them much better than I can, but still it does us good to remind one another, doesn't it?"

 [254] Hang-chow, December 16, 1872.

 [255] 'Miss Emmeline Turner: a letter dated Nanking, March 19, 1873.

 [256] "Beloved Younger-sister," the Chinese equivalent of Emily, Miss Blatchley's Christian name.

 [257] Some distance down Broadway in the American Settlement, five little native shops were taken, almost opposite the old Sailors' Home. The open fronts were built up, and the whole connected with a long up stairs passage. Such was the first C.I.M. Home in Shanghai, arranged for by Mr. Taylor in November, and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Edward Fishe before the close of 1873.

 [258] From Tai-chow Mrs. Taylor had written a few weeks earlier (November 17, 1873): "When I think of your responsibilities and burdens which I am not with you to share, my heart would sink if I did not feel that Jesus is with you, loving you so tenderly and ready to meet each need of every moment, and abundantly to bless you. I am asking Him continually to uphold, strengthen and guide you, to refresh you with His unspeakable love, and to give you richly every blessing. I am very, very happy in Jesus. My joy and rest were never so full before. He has taken all my cares away. We have Jesus, and He is ready always to do for us every good thing. I must tell you more of the burdens I have been bearing, and the way God has been leading me when you come. As far as I know the reasons for and against going to England, they seem to me stronger for remaining here: the Lord will guide."

 [259] The Bible, a leather-bound Bagster, had been a gift from Mrs. Taylor on his first birthday after their marriage, and was his constant companion at this time. It was given by him to his third son, Mr. C. E. Taylor.

 [260] To his parents, Mr. Taylor wrote in April: "To seven new counties we have been enabled to carry the Gospel since I reached China, and in nearly as many others fresh towns have been opened up. The Hang-chow Church has sent out its first missionary, chosen by themselves and supported by their own gifts." He added in May: "Mr. Stevenson has blessing in all his stations, and has baptized eight since I was with him. Wang Lae-djun is also prospered. Recently he has baptized the first converts in three out-stations. Mr. Crombie writes of blessing in Feng-hwa and Ning-hai; and we are meeting with encouragement in the northern stations.

 

To Mr. Hill he gave further details (May 29): "We have the joy of cheering reports as to spiritual progress from all the stations nearly. Mr. Stott writes that the work has not been so encouraging at Wen-chow for a year and a half or two years. Mr. Rudland tells of another, the seventeenth candidate for baptism. at Dien-tsi (when an idol temple had been given for a place of worship). Four persons were baptized here (Chin-kiang) yesterday, and we had good meetings. One of these is a native of Hunan, one of the unoccupied provinces which has long been on our hearts. ('His soul seems all on fire for the conversion of his own people,' Mr. Taylor added in, a later letter.) Is it not good of God so to encourage us when we are sorely tried for want of funds?"

 

And in June Mr. Taylor reported five or six enquirers at Tai-ping where he had met the old man who did not know what to do with his sins and baptisms also from several other stations.

 [261] Most opportunely had this help arrived at the beginning of the quarter (gifts of L325 in all)—ten cheques for members of the Minion, including one of L30 for himself.

 [262] Not that the house first rented proved to be the permanent headquarters of the Western Branch of the C.I.M. No fewer than twelve different arrangements had to be made-twelve houses found and rented, if not occupied for longer or shorter periods-before the missionaries were allowed to settle in that proud, anti-foreign capital of two provinces. Across the river in the treaty, port of Hankow, it might have been easier to obtain premises; but the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Mission were already there, represented by able and devoted workers. Time after time, as they faced their seemingly endless difficulties, Mr. and Mrs. Judd found, in common with all the pioneers of the Mission, that a day set apart for prayer and fasting turned the tide, and brought deliverance as well as blessing.

 [263] In their newly founded East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, Mr. and Mrs. Guinness were even then preparing not a few of the pioneers destined to open up inland China. Messrs. Baller and Henry Taylor, already in China, proved to be the first of a thousand and more young workers who from Harley House, Bow, went out to the ends of the earth, including all Mr. and Mrs. Guinness's own children.

 [264] Miss Blatchley entered into rest on Sunday morning July 26, 1874, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery. The above appreciation-a wreath of tender thoughts to lay upon her grave-appeared in The Christian a few days later.

 [265] Just as the launching of the Mission had coincided with an epoch of spiritual revival in the home churches (see p. 48), so now the commencement of its larger growth synchronised with a remarkable movement for the deepening of spiritual life. Messy' Moody and Sankey were in the midst of their first great missions in London, crowding among other places the Agricultural Hall, with its seating capacity of twenty thousand. Dr. Boardman's memorable book The Higher Christian Life was-being widely read, and conferences on the lines of "Keswick," which indeed grew out of them, were drawing together Christians of all denominations. Notable among these was the Brighton Convention of this summer (ten days in June 1875), when audiences of two to three thousand filled the Corn Exchange, and rivers of blessing were opened in many hearts that were to flow to the ends of the earth. From the deep experience through which he had himself been brought in China, Mr. Taylor was able to enter into the spirit and purpose of these gatherings in no ordinary way. He was sufficiently recovered to be one of the speakers at the Brighton Convention, and his life-long connection with "Keswick" may thus be said to have dated from its very inception.

 [266] Dr. Elder Cumming mentioned this incident to the writers as having taken place when he and Mr. Taylor were driving together to the funeral of the venerable Dr. Somerville of Glasgow.

 [267] It had been quite a problem as to how arrangements were to be made for the outgoing of party after party with the leader of the Mission a helpless invalid; but in this too the Lord provided unexpected and most efficient help. Mr. Taylor had prayed much about it, and rejoiced to find that a warm friend from Glasgow, whom he had last met on the steamer at the time of his accident, was passing through London. Mr. Thomas Weir, from his connection with China shipping and his love for the Mission, was the one person whose advice Mr. Taylor would most have welcomed; and when it proved that he could give the matter personal attention it was a cause for great thankfulness. The economical arrangement Mr. Weir made at that time with the Directors of the Castle Line continued to work well for a number of years.

 [268] "What a life of praise and joy and rest," he wrote a few weeks later, we should all lead, did we but fully believe in God's wisdom and love; and, gladly acquiescing in His will and way, cast every care on Him in trustful prayer—China's Millions for August 1875.

 [269] To one of the missionaries in China Mr. Taylor wrote at the end of February: "You will have heard that Mr. Stevenson sails, D. V., March 30, for Bhamo-via Rangoon, Burma-to open a new mission there, before returning to Shao-hing. Pray much for this mission to Western China. It is giving a wonderful impetus to interest in the whole work."

 [270] To Mrs. Hudson Taylor the Mission was indebted for this title, its first form being China's Millions and Our Work among Them.

 [271] From a letter to Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Douthwaite, who was taking up settled work in Chit-chow Fu, near the Kiang-si border of Che-kiang.

 [272] As to the correctness of this modified translation, Mr. Taylor noted For the rendering 'God's faithfulness,' see Romans 3:3 where 'the faith of God evidently, means His faithfulness. The verb translated 'hold,' is thus rendered in Matthew 21:26, 'all hold John as a prophet.' In the corresponding passage in Mark 11:32, it is rendered 'count'; and in that in Luke 20:6, a different Greek verb is used, which well illustrates the meaning, 'They be persuaded that John was a prophet.' Let us see that in theory we hold that God is faithful; that in daily life we count upon it; and that at all times and under all circumstances we are fully persuaded of this blessed truth."

 [273] "We have never had to leave an open door unentered from lack of funds," said Mr. Taylor's Report on this occasion; "and although the last penny had not unfrequently been spent, none of our native agents or foreign missionaries have ever lacked the promised 'daily bread.' Times of trial have always been times of blessing, and needed supplies have never failed" or come too late.

 [274] The Rev. C. G. Moore, for many years a member of the China Inland Mission.

 [275] From the distant city of Si-an-fu, capital of Shen-si, Mr. Easton wrote on his first journey (December. 20, 1876): "At every city and village of any size, a large proclamation from the Peking Foreign Office makes it easy for us to travel. At Shen-chow we first noticed it; the officials putting it out after our arrival, and being very polite to us."

 [276] This journey and another taken in 1875-a few months only after the murder of Margary-show that the pioneers who were ready did not wait for the Chefoo Convention, or any other Government assistance, thankful though they were for the new Treaty when it came.

 [277] At Kio-shan Hsien, near which in "a beautiful mountain stream" the baptisms had taken place. As the first-fruits of Ho-nan, it is interesting to record that these converts were baptized on April 1, 1876, by Mr.Henry Taylor, Mr. G. W. Clarke, and the Evangelist Yao, who accompanied them. "We returned to our inn," wrote Mr. Clarke, "and after instructing them from several portions of Scripture on the Lord's Supper, partook of it with them for the first time."

 [278] The perplexing question, that is, as to what Chinese term should be adopted as the nearest and most unambiguous equivalent for the Scriptural idea of God.

 [279] Without saying anything of their hopes in this connection, Mr. Taylor and he made plans for a walk right across China-from the Yangtze to the Irrawaddy; which Mr. McCarthy was enabled to accomplish in seven months, taking time to preach the Gospel fully in many places, and opening Chung-king, the first Mission-station in the province of Szechwan with its population of nearly seventy millions. The only foreigner met with on this long journey—on which he was accompanied by the faithful soldier-evangelist Yang Ts'tien-ling-was Mr. Broumton, alone in the city of Kwei-yang; until at Bhamo Messrs. Stevenson and Soltau welcomed the wayworn travellers. This journey laid the needs of the women so deeply on Mr. McCarthy's heart that he was used to stir up many to pray and labour for their salvation, and much of his subsequent usefulness was connected with the development of Women's Work in the inland provinces.

 [280] To Mr. and Mrs. Edward Pearse, who joined him at An-king, this chain of stations was committed, the importance of the work being seen in the fact that the converts baptized on this journey (March 1877) represented no fewer than six provinces.

 [281] The C.I.M. house was closed, Mr. and Mrs. Cardwell being at home on furlough.

 [282] Thus was opened in February 1877 the first permanent Missionstation in any of the nine hitherto unoccupied provinces. Kwei-yang is still a centre of the C.I.M. in that province, in which it has now ten stations, 57 out-stations, and 6330 communicants.

 [283] It was a sore trial to Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Soltau to be withheld from. carrying out the purpose with which they had gone to Bhamo, not through any difficulty with the Burman or Chinese authorities, but through the attitude of the Indian Government, which declined to grant the passports needed to cross into Chinese territory. News of this unexpected difficulty reached Mr. Taylor in the Yangtze valley, in February 1877.

 [284] On the s.s. Kiarig-yung, travelling up to Wu-chang, January 6, 1877.

 [285] The C.I.M. Headquarters in Shanghai had been moved by this time to 7 Seward Road, Hongkew, Mr. and Mrs. Cranston generously acting as house-father and house-mother. While paying, for the rooms they occupied, they undertook all the Mission business that had to be transacted in that port, and boarded the missionaries as they came and went. In spirit they were almost members of the Mission, and with Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Weir, also residents in Shanghai, were, and still are, among its most valued friends.

 [286] "God greatly helped me this afternoon with my paper," he wrote himself; "the feeling, now, is very kind toward us."—To Mrs. Taylor, May 12, 1877.

 [287] Mr. Taylor not only visited on this journey (May to October 1877) all the stations and out-stations of the Mission in Che-kiang, with one exception (illness at Wen-chow obliging him to hurry past Hwang-yen);he crossed over from Wen-chow to Chu-chow-fu on the Tsien-tang river, staying at Chu-chow (the district now occupied by the Barmen Mission), at Yung-kang, Kin-hwa-fu and Lan-chi on the way. In all this' region there was then no resident missionary. At Chu-chow-fu, under Mr. Douthwaite's care, he met the first converts from Yu-shan, in the neighbouring province of Kiang-si (see pp. 334. 335). Thence he returned down the Tsien-tang river to Hang-chow.

 [288] Miss Wilson. a sister of the well-known Convener of the Keswick Convention, Mr. Robert Wilson, went out as a self-supporting worker with the last party of the Eighteen (1876), and remained twelve years in China. "Whether she will be strong enough to go back, as she so much desires, I do not know, Mr. Taylor wrote after her return (1888), "but I do know that her life there has been an immense blessing."

 [289] The one member of the Mission be had not met on this visit to China was Mr. Broumton, holding the fort alone in the distant province of Kweichow-the only Protestant missionary south of the Yangtze, at that time, in the western half of China.

 [290] The party, which included Adam Dorward, J. H. Riley, and S. R. Clarke, men of notable usefulness in later years, sailed on the 2nd of May 1878.

 [291] 'The day after Mrs. Taylor had sailed, the one who was missing her most sorely wrote: "Your dear Mother has borne up bravely, and says she is 'proud of you.' I, darling, am grateful for the grace which has take you from me, and which I count on to sustain you all the way. He will not fail me either, or the work He has given us to do. We will trust Him in all and for all."

 [292] How real were Mr. Taylor's convictions on this point may be judged from the unstudied expression of his feelings in a letter to Mrs. Taylor of September 20

"Nothing is coming in for the general fund scarcely; but this is usual at this time of year. We must all get nearer to God; we must all abide in Christ; our lives must be more up to our principles and privileges, and all will be well. Let us trust for all, and we shall find all. God can bless each member of the Mission; let us ask it in faith, and expect it. Nothing else, nothing less can satisfy Him; nothing less must satisfy us."

 [293] The very day one October party sailed, for example, Mr. Taylor wrote to two young men of much promise; accepting them for work in Shan-si. Although he had nothing, as he frankly told them, toward the expense of passages and outfits, he invited them to come to London with a view to an early departure. These communications were posted at 5.15 P.M., and by the nine o'clock delivery, that same evening, a letter was received from Lord Radstock (then in Stockholm) enclosing, among other gifts, the sum of one hundred pounds to send two new workers to the faminestricken province of Shan-si. Thus, even before the young men could set out in faith for London, the money needed was in hand and the way open for them to go forward.

 [294] A letter dated March 18, 1879.

 [295] Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were accompanied on this journey by Mr. J. J. Coulthard, one of the party just arrived from England who was much with them this summer, acting as Mr. Taylor's secretary; and who afterwards became his son-in-law.

 [296] The dollar was 35. 9d. that summer.

 [297] The journey occupied from December 9 to January 3 (1880), when they rejoined Mrs. Taylor at Chin-kiang, the latter having gone round by sea.

 [298] "During the year which followed this visit to Ta-yang, Dr. Douthwaits baptized fifteen converts from that village, and an equal number from other villages in the same district-all the fruit of the labours of Captain Yu and Farmer Tung. In this obscure village, on the eastern border of Kiang-si, the first Christian Church in the Kwang-sin River district was organised. Subsequently a house was rented in the city of Yfi-shan, which was made the centre of missionary effort in that district, and preaching-halls were soon opened in other places "(from The Jubilee Story of the C.I.M., by Marshall Broomhall, p. 138).

 [299] Failure of health had obliged Dr. and Mrs. Douthwaite to remove to more favourable surroundings (at Wen-chow), and before long led to their finding the sphere for which they were ideally suited, in the rapidly growing C.I.M. colony at Chefoo.

 [300] From a letter to Mr. Sowerby, then a young missionary at Hweichow, An-hwei. October 26. 1880.

 [301] Chung-king, in Sze-chwan: a letter dated February 1880.

 [302] Mr. Henry Soltau, in giving an account of his visit to Chung-king (January. 1881) says: "At the service on Sunday I was much struck with the number of women present, all of whom remained to the close, and afterwards, when the men had left, had a service by themselves with Mrs. Nicoll and the old Cantonese Christian. This work among the women is a most important portion of the mission here. They pay great respect to Mrs. Nicoll and really seem to have an affection for her, while she is deeply interested in them, finding more work to do than she can compass. I could not help feeling what an honour I should regard it had I one of my own sisters labouring in such a field as this. Mrs. Nicoll has access to the homes of the rich and poor. Some of the women I have seen have been dressed in the most handsomely embroidered silks and satins and come in chairs. Mrs. Nicoll helps the women with a few medicines. And she is the only foreign lady in all this province of twenty-one million people! the first Christian woman who has ever lived and worked among the women of Sze-chwan." It is now known that there are from sixty to seventy millions in this province.

 [303] "We set out on our journey with considerable fear and trembling," Mr. Bailer recalled. "We did not know what might happen…. We found, however, contrary to our expectations, that the people received us with a great deal of kindness. There is a very large floating population in Hu-nan, and many of the boats on the Tung-ting lake are manned by women and worked by them. These women came round our boat as soon as we anchored, and our sisters had not the slightest difficulty in preaching the Gospel to them; and instead of being hostile, they were highly delighted to see the foreign ladies. They stroked their hands and stroked their cheeks and said: 'Dear me, what beautiful white skins you have! good looks, and enquired what they had come for. This our sisters were not slow to explain. They sang Chinese hymns to the women, with which they were delighted."

 [304] Shortly before Mrs. Hudson Taylor had left home (May 1878) to lead in this pioneer movement, a special Prayer Union had been formed in England "to seek blessing upon the one hundred and twenty-five millions of heathen women in China." Daily prayer for those labouring among them was the condition of membership; and who shall say how much the safety, happiness, and success of the first women workers to go to the far inland provinces was due to the united, definite prayer focussed thus upon their labours? The circular setting forth the objects of the Union was headed with the promise: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven" (Matthew 18:19).

 [305] It is interesting, in view of Pastor Hsi's subsequent usefulness, to quote Mr. Turner's reference to his baptism, with that of several others at Ping-yang Fu, in November 1880. Mr. David Hill, who had been the means of his conversion, had by that time returned to his regular work in the Yangtze valley. "On Saturday the 27th, five of our native brethren were baptized. Hsi Liao-chuh, aged forty-five, a native of a village thirty li (so miles) from here, is a man of great ability and influence. He came to us at the beginning of-the year. He had read Christian books, and he soon broke off his opium, demolished his idols, and accepted Christ as his Saviour. He is a man of quick temperament, and his conversion was rapid and full of joy. He is serving the Lord in his own neighborhood……Last evening these dear brethren were formally received into Christian fellowship, and the newly formed church—the first Protestant church of Shan-si—gathered around the table of our Lord." For the subsequent life of this man of God see Pastor Hsi: on of China's Christians, published by the China Inland Mission and Messrs. Morgan & Scott.

 [306] There had been little or no prearrangement about these meetings. As Mr. Taylor came up-river, he brought with him one and another who seemed to need refreshment, and Mr. Coulthard's bachelor housekeeping was taxed to the utmost. Dorward was there from Hu-nan, Parrott and Pigott from the north, Trench and Miss Kidd from the far south-west, and other workers from Central China. Just a family-party they seemed—overjoyed to have Mr. Taylor all to themselves, quite unconscious of what was to be the outcome. A spirit of prayer prevailed; and in their daily Bible Readings, morning and evening, Mr. Taylor was seeking to establish these younger workers in the Scriptural principles on which the Mission was based.

 [307] This letter to Mrs. Taylor was written, as it happened, on the very day of her arrival in England, December 1, 1881. Tidings of a fresh bereavement awaited her, for Mr. Taylor's father had passed away a few weeks previously.

 

"My dear and honoured father," he wrote on hearing of it, "has been taken Home, painlessly and without a moment's warning. None was needed: to him, to die was gain. I realised very thankfully that the long, dreary winter we had dreaded for him, alone-without my dear mother, for fifty years his companion-would not distress him now; but I could not help a feeling of desolation at the thought of no more Father's or Mother's welcome; no old home to go to, should I return to England again. But it dawned on, me that not only are they both at rest, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, but they are reunited, freed from infirmity and imperfection for ever: and then the old home feeling came back to my heart—only centred there, where I would have it, instead of down here. It has made me so happy!"

 [308] Shortly before this was written, Mr. Taylor had' welcomed his eldest son to China, Mr. Herbert Taylor, who for thirty-six years has continued in faithful labours-first in the Chefoo Schools, and subsequently in evangelistic and pastoral work.

 [309] From Wesley's noble hymn commencing, "Come, O Thou Traveller unknown," familiar to Hudson Taylor from childhood.

 [310] This and the following quotations are all from letters to Mrs. Taylor.

 [311] The "Shanghai Free Christian Church" was by this time well established, and had been meeting in the Masonic Hall for twelve months. Mr. Taylor was so much interested in its beginnings and preached for them so frequently that he was practically its first Pastor. He was succeeded by Messrs. Pearse, Judd, and other members of the Mission, for longer or shorter periods. Notes of many of Mr. Taylor's sermons are preserved, showing how faithfully he gave himself to this ministry.

 [312] A literal "rendering of Romans 15: 4. See The New Testament in Modern Speech-Dr. Weymouth.

 [313] It is worthy of notice that just as Mr. Taylor's first insight into the spiritual teaching of the Song of Solomon was obtained in the period of trial and testing that preceded his first marriage (see Hudson Taylor in Early Years, p. 426), so now in heart-loneliness and prolonged separation from home and loved ones it became as never before his "garden of delights." In Union and Communion will be found the line of thought which made him to many the most practically helpful expositor of this book.

 [314] One outgrowth of the manifold testings of this year was the increasing attention given to the question of organisation within the Mission, about which several circular letters were sent to all the stations. One of them, dated August 12, 1882, gave permanence to the arrangement by which Mr. Coulthard had for some time been acting as Mr. Taylor's representative at Wu-chang, especially in financial matters for the western and north-western provinces, and Mr. Parrott as Corresponding Secretary dealing with letters that did not need the Director's personal attention.

 [315] And Mr. Luce himself, who wished he could have gone to China, became not only one of Mr. Taylor's best-loved friends, but a member of the London Council and a true prayer helper in the Mission; a ministry continued to this day.

 [316] "It is important to secure that no contingency shall alter the character of the Mission," Mr. Taylor wrote (August. 24, 1883), "or throw us off those lines which God has so signally owned and blessed from the commencement. But our home arrangement of assisting the Director by a Council may be introduced into the China work; the members of that Council may themselves be Superintendents-of' districts, in which capacity they may in their turn be assisted by district Councils of our missionaries. In all this no new principle will be introduced, yet our work will be rendered capable of indefinite expansion while maintaining its original character. Many local matters can thus be locally considered and attended to without delay, and local as well as general developments will be facilitated. I have hitherto had the opportunity of conferring only with those of our number who might be within reach, and that at irregular intervals. The plan I now propose will, through the district Superintendents, bring me into conference with all our missionaries of experience, and will secure an increasingly effective supervision of the whole work. It will also make apparent what has all along been the case-that all important measures are adopted only after full conference with those best qualified to throw light upon them. I shall be glad to hear from you how these suggestions strike you, and how far they commend themselves to your mind."

 [317] The first to sail after Mr. Taylor's return was Mr. Marcus Wood, now and for many years the beloved Secretary of the Mission in England, with whom Mr. J. N. Hayward, for many years Treasurer in Shanghai, has recently been associated.

 [318] Published a year or two later (188s) under the title A Missionary Band, this remarkable work by Mr. B. Broomhall had a large circulation, and powerfully influenced the founders of the Student Volunteer Movement which came into existence a few-months later, and which Dr. A. T. Pierson characterised as "the epiphany of youth." Apart from the Bible, Dr. Robert Speer has stated, no books so influenced his career as The Evangelisation of the World and Blaikie's Personal Life of Livingstone.

 [319] This was Miss Murray's party, which, proceeding at once to Yangchow, formed the nucleus of the present invaluable Training Home for the study of the language (still under Miss Murray's care), and included the little band who were used of God to inaugurate the now fruitful and extensive work on the Kwang-sin River.

 [320] By this time Messrs. D. E. Hoste and Stanley P. Smith (stroke of the Cambridge Eight a couple of years previously) and the Rev. W. W. Cassels of St. John's, Cambridge (late curate of All Souls, South Lambeth, and now Bishop in Western China) had been joined by Mr. C. T. Studd, ex-captain of the Cambridge Eleven. A little later Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, nephew of Lord Radstock, also a university oar, and Messrs. C. P. and A. T. Polhill, sons of a late M.P. for Bedford ("the former an officer in the 2nd Dragoon Guards, and the latter a Ridley Hall Theological student, and both of them prominent Eton and Cambridge cricketers") made up the party to seven-a strong team from the university man's point of view.

 [321] "The visit of Messrs. Stanley Smith and Studd to Melbourne Hall (Leicester) will always mark an epoch in my own life," wrote the Rev. F. B. Meyer. "Before that time my Christian life had been spasmodic and fitful; now flaming up with enthusiasm, and then pacing weariedly over leagues of grey ashes and cold cinders. I saw that these young men had something which I had not, but which was within them a constant source of rest and strength and joy. And never shall I forget a scene at 7 A.M. in the grey November morning, as daylight was flickering into the bedroom, paling the guttered candles, which from a very early hour had been lighting up the page of Scripture, and revealing the figures of the devoted Bible-students, who wore the old cricketing or boating costume of earlier days, to render them less sensible of the raw, damp climate. The talk then held was one of the formative influences of my life."

 [322] The gift of such a band to the China Inland Mission-truly it was a gift from God," continued the Editorial Secretary of the C.M.S., "was a just reward to Mr. Hudson Taylor and his colleagues for the genuine unselfishness' with which they had always pleaded the cause of China and the world, and not of their own particular organisation, and for the deep spirituality which had always marked their meetings: And that spirituality marked most emphatically the densely crowded meeting in different places at which these seven men said farewell. They told, modestly and yet fearlessly, of the Lord's goodness to them, and of the joy of serving Him; and they appealed to young men, not for their Mission, but for their Divine Master. No such missionary meeting had ever been known as the final gathering at Exeter Hall on February 4, 1885. We have become familiar since then with meetings more or less of the same type, but it was a new thing then. In many ways the Church Missionary Society owes a deep debt of gratitude to theChina Inland Mission and the Cambridge Seven. The Lord Himself spoke through them; and it was by His grace that the Society had ears to hear." (From The History of the Church Missionary Society, Vol. 3, p.285.)

 [323] We were then unable to stop," continued the same writer. "Professor Drummond took up the meetings. Every Sunday evening the Oddfellows' Hall was crowded with students, and each address was followed by an after-meeting. Many students during that never-to-be-forgotten winter session (1884-1885) were converted."

 [324] The Rev. C. E. Searle, D.D.

 [325] Three months later (May 1885) an Edinburgh student came up to the Annual Meetings of the C.I.M. in London to tell of further developments:"

The story with which I have to deal," he said, "is that of a movement, perhaps the most wonderful that ever had place in the history of university students, certainly the strangest that ever took place in the history of Scottish universities. I have to tell you how our great Edinburgh University and the allied medical schools, with between three and four thousand students, have been shaken to their very depths; how the work has spread to all the other universities of Scotland; and how, already, as the students of these universities have gone far and wide, the work is spreading in all its depth and reality throughout the whole country, I might almost say, throughout the world…."

The present work has been carried forward by the very best men in our university. Some of our best-known professors and assistant professors … have been actively engaged in it. And among the students it has not been any one set, but our best intellects, our medallists, our scholars, our bursars, our prize-men-these have been among the most prominent in carrying forward this work. As to results, as I said before, we cannot estimate them. I believe that the number of conversions, even in our own university, is to be counted by hundreds and not by scores. And, as one result, scores of men have given themselves to missionary work, and have entered on medical courses in preparation for it.I have just to ask you to praise God with me, and with Edinburgh University, for sending among us those two missionaries-elect of the China Inland Mission, Studd and Stanley Smith."

In the following year, a similar work of grace commenced among university men in North America, from which developed the Student Volunteer Movement and ultimately the World's Student Christian Federation. And, back of it all, one remembers Harold Schofield's prayers.

 [326] As early as 1870, Mr. Taylor had sought to develop helpers upon whom he might devolve responsibility in the supervision of the work; but as he wrote to Mr. McCarthy at that time, "such a position has to be gained, and the ability is only in and from the Lord."

A year later he wrote again (January. 18, 1871): "I wish you to feel responsible before the Lord for seeking to help the brethren in all these stations. Really help them; really feel responsibility about them; really pray much for them, and as far as possible with them. Feel and evince a deep interest in all their out-stations and work generally. And above all, do not let them dream you are taking a higher place than their own leave God to show that in due time. You are really their head as you become their servant and helper."

 [327] A week spent at that station in November 1885, when the training home was decided upon, enabled Mr. Taylor to hold a conference in which he went over the Principles and Practice of the C.I.M. signed by the members of the Mission before leaving England. The addresses embodied in the Retrospect—which has since, in many editions, attained so wide a circulation—were originally given in those meetings, to the refreshment of all present.

 [328] "Ever since the Keswick Convention," he had written before leaving England, "my cup has been running over."

 [329] Shortly afterwards Mr. J. F. Broumton, prevented by unavoidable circumstances from returning to his former sphere in Kwei-chow, consented to take up the account-keeping and statistics of the Mission. 'The first cash-book I had handed to me," he recalled, "and the only one in use at that time, was an ordinary threepenny account book [preferred, until then, for convenience in travelling]—very different from the large ledgers we use now! I took over the accounts from Mr. Taylor himself, and arranged with him about carrying on the work at Wu-chang rather than in Shanghai. It was midnight on the 1st of May (1886) before the transfer was made and we set off for the steamer. Everything had to be balanced up to the cent. Mr. Taylor was very particular about details. Five and a half years at Wu-chang, followed by eleven years in Shanghai as Treasurer, so demonstrated Mr. Broumton's ability and devotion to his arduous task that more than once Mr. Taylor wrote of him with thankfulness as second to none in his value to the Mission.

Mr. J. E. Cardwell in the business department and Miss Mary Black in charge of the Mission-house (Yuen-ming-yuen Buildings) were also much associated with Mr. Taylor at this time.

 [330] So much were they in earnest that they were ready, at their own expense, to put down a board floor and make other alterations in the Mission house (toward which they had put aside ten dollars) if only Mr. Taylor would send them a teacher of their own. This he could not at the moment arrange for, though ladies were appointed to the district soon after. The station in question (Chang-shan) has now for many years been occupied by Miss Marie Guex from Vevey and her sister Madame Just, Swiss members of the mission.

 [331] "As to Miss Mackintosh, Miss Gibson and Miss Gray," he wrote at the time, "they read the Mandarin Testament as fluently as English, and with few mistakes. They have been wonderfully prospered both in their studies and work. It would do you good to see them among a group of Chinese women."

 [332] Within the first year of Women's Work on the Kwang-sin river forty-two additional converts were, baptized, and within four years the Yu-shan Church alone had grown from about thirty to one hundred and eight members. At the present time, in a complete chain of ten central stations and sixty out-stations, there are over two thousand two hundred communicants and a large number of enquirers, pupils in schools, etc., cared for by native leaders—ladies being still the only foreign missionaries.

As early as 1868, Mr. Taylor had written to Miss Faulding, upon leaving Hang-chow: "I do not know when I may be able to return, and it will not do for Church affairs to wait forms. You cannot take a Pastor's place in name, but you must help (Wang) Lae-djun to act in matters of receiving and excluding as far as you can. You can speak privately to candidates, and can be present at Church meetings, and might even, through others, suggest questions to be asked of those desiring, baptism. Then after the meeting you can talk privately with Lae-djun about them, and suggest who you think he might receive next time they meet. Thus he may have the help he needs, and there will be nothing that any one could regard as unseemly." Upon these lines the Kwang-sin river work has prospered by the blessing of God.

In reply to a letter from Dr. Happer of Canton, Mr. Taylor wrote in July 1890: "The principal reasons to my mind for the safety and, comfort of Women's Work among the Chinese are, firstly, that the ladies walk with God, and the 'beauty of holiness' upon them gives a dignity before which lewdness cannot live; and secondly, that they are really entrusted to the care of the Lord Himself as their Escort, when commended to Him for their work. And He is faithful to the trust, and does keep those who are committed to Him. We expect Him to do it, and He does not disappoint as."

 [333] Who that ever travelled with him could forget his unfailing care and thought for others, and the practical way in which he could turn his hand to anything. Cooking was quite in his line. "All the way Mr. Taylor prepared food for me," recalled Miss Murray of the journey down the Kwang-sin river, when she was recovering from her serious illness. "He used to make omelets in the back of the boat. We would hear him beating up the eggs. He managed to get the things somehow!"

 [334] With help from Mr. Baller, four new stations had been opened (1885-1886) by Messrs. Hoste, Cassels, Beauchamp and Stanley Smith, in the following order-Ku-wo, Si-chow, Ta-ning, and Hung-tung. In the extreme north of the province Kwei-hwa-ting and Ta-tung-fu had also been occupied by members of the C.I.M.

 [335] Edited by Mr. (now Sir) Montagu Beauchamp.

 [336] Speaking of the Lord Jesus as our Sufficiency, Mr. Taylor said It is well to remind ourselves of the close connection that exists between the written Word of God and the incarnate Word of God. We shall never enjoy the one apart from the other. It is through, God's own revelation in the written Word that we really see and know the Word Who was made flesh, and Who rose from the dead. It is through the written Word we shall feed on Him, not through our own speculations. It is important that we bear in mind that as the Incarnate Word is a 'Divine Person, so is the written Word a Divine Message; and as we may rest all our soul's interests on Jesus Christ, so we may rest all our soul's weight on the Word of God. To be unsettled on the question of inspiration is to be overcome by temptation, and to be unable to accomplish God's work. The connection between full faith in God's will as revealed in His written Word and in the Incarnate Word is so close and intimate, that you can no more separate them than you can separate between body and soul, or soul and spirit. Begin to separate them, and to study theology instead of the Word of God (rather than as a mere aid in gaining a fuller grasp of it) and if it does not make you weaker rather than stronger you will be fortunate indeed. No I Take God's Word as it stands, and God's Christ as He reveals Himself to us, and enjoy all in Him" (Days of Blessing, p. 55).

 [337] It was remarkable that in that city (Tai-yuan-fu) where the blood of martyrs was to be so freely shed, Mr. Taylor should dwell upon the necessity for sacrifice, and the certainty not only that persecution must come, but that it-would be overruled for blessing.

"Paul was in bonds in Rome, and we might have imagined that his position was one that would have deterred the brethren. But what does he tell us? That they waxed confident through his bonds. So far from his sufferings taking courage out of the believers, when they found what a little thing a chain was to an Apostle, they felt, 'we can preach with good courage! What is it, after all, if only Christ is in us?' Christ living, Christ reigning, made the Apostle so superior to these things that it encouraged others to go forward, though at the risk of the-same trials…

"There is no better way of proving to the world that the devil's power is not so great after all than by letting him have his fling, and showing in the midst of it what a triumph over him the believer has in Christ. Just as Jesus, by dying, conquered him who had the power of death, so frail, feeble martyrs, many of them women, were able to show that all the power of Pagan Rome could do nothing against those who were filled with Christ. Hence there were many conversions in the very arena…and the blood of the martyrs proved itself to be indeed the seed of the Church…Their foes thought they had succeeded; it was even announced in their edicts that Christianity was defunct; but it was paganism that tottered.

"We need not be afraid of persecution. It is coming; it is sure to come. Only let us have such success as to make the people fear the abolition of their customs, and we shall see severe persecution. But are we to fear lest the Gospel should triumph sufficiently to bring such results about? Or are we to feel that, when it does come, it will bring to us the very conditions that will ensure still greater success?" (Days of Blessing, PP. 41-43.)

 [338] Dr. Edwards and Messrs. Stevenson, Stanley Smith, and Beauchamp were with him, as well as his son, Mr. Herbert Taylor, who had been his companion all the way from Shanghai.

 [339] For the remarkable sequel see Miss Cable's The Fulfilment of a Dream, published by Messrs. Morgan & Scott and the China Inland Mission.

 [340] With regard to the denominational position of the Mission, Mr. Taylor had written as early as 1866 (a few weeks only after the arrival of the Lammermuir party) in reply to an inquiry from the Rev. W. Muir head of the. L.M.S., Shanghai:

"Those already associated with me represent all the leading denominations of our native land-Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist and Paedobaptist. Besides these, two are or have been connected with the 'Brethren' so called. It is intended that those whose view of discipline correspond shall work together, and thus all difficulty on that score will be avoided. Each one is perfectly at liberty to teach his own views on these minor points to his own converts; the one great object we have in view being to bring heathen from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. We all hold alike the great fundamentals of our faith, and in the presence of heathenism can leave the discussion of discipline while together, and act as before God when in separate stations."

 [341] It is, difficult in these days to realise how young the Mission still was. It had been founded little more than twenty years, and while several scores of its members had been out more than five years, by far the larger number were new-comers. Out of a total of a hundred and eighty-even no fewer than a hundred and ten were junior missionaries or probationers, which meant that they were young in years as well as in experience. It was clearly desirable, therefore, to formulate for their benefit much that had been learned at great cost by those to whom they looked for help and guidance.

 [342] In a letter to Mrs. Hudson Taylor from Tai-yuan-fu, September. 16, 1886.

 [343] "To-morrow and the day after we give to waiting on God for blessing," he wrote to Mrs. Taylor on December 29. "We need two days at least, this year. We have much to praise for, much to expect; but Satan will be busy, and we must be prepared by living near to God, by putting on the whole armour of God."

 [344] Mr. Taylor completed, his fifty-fifth year on May 21, 1887, and the 26th of the same month brought the anniversary of the sailing of the Lammermuir, twenty-one years previously.

 [345] "I am far more afraid of unconsecrated money than of no money at all." Mr. Taylor said again a few weeks later. "The Lord did not tell His disciples to carry loads of provisions into the wilderness. There was a lad there with five barley loaves and two fishes: it was enough. The Lord wants His people to be, not rich, but in full fellowship with Him Who is rich. Why, as Christians, we are all children of a King!"

 [346] Fifteen hundred people were present on that occasion in the Town Hall at Motherwell, near Glasgow.

 [347] One of the valuable workers over and above the Hundred, given to the Mission toward the close of this year, was the Rev. E. O. Williams, Vicar of St. Stephen's, Leeds. He-and Mrs. Williams gladly gave up their important sphere, to go with their young children to the far west of China the district the Rev. W. Cassels was opening up, in which were millions destitute of the Word of Life.

 [348] "Six times that number offered," wrote Mr. Eugene Stock in the History of the Church Missionary Society, "but the Council faithful to its principles, declined to lower the standard, and rejected five-sixths of the applicants; yet the exact number of one hundred-not ninety-nine nor a hundred and one, but one hundred-actually sailed within the year. (This did not include two Associates—ED.) Still more significant of God's blessing is the fact that, seven years later, seventy-eight of the Hundred were still on the C.I.M. staff; and of the remainder, five had died, and most of the others were still labouring in China, though in other connections. Does the whole history of Missions afford quite a parallel to this?"

 [349] In his New Year's greeting to the members of the now greatly enlarged Mission (January. 1888) Mr. Taylor said in this connection: "Let us never forget that, if we make no appeal to man, we need very, very definitely to continue our appeal to God. A God-given, God-guided, spiritual impulse is expressed in every donation we receive; and this, which makes our work peculiarly blessed, will always keep us peculiarly dependent upon Him. How can we sufficiently praise Him for this happy position, this necessity of trustfulness?"

 [350] His second son, Howard, who was travelling with him, though an accepted member of the Mission, had to go back from America to complete his appointments at the London Hospital as House-Surgeon, Physician, etc.

 [351] Mr. Taylor discovered before Mr. Radcliffe, as it happened, that boots and shoes in America are usually attended to by those to whom they belong—a little polishing outfit forming part of one's personal equipment. Having provided himself in this way, it was with real enjoyment he would slip along, when travelling alone with Mr. Radcliffe, and fetch the boots the latter put outside his door, and after cleaning them to perfection, as quietly put them back again.

 [352] The Student Volunteer Movement, only called into being two summers before, had already attained remarkable proportions-over two thousand undergraduates having signed the declaration: "I am willing and desirous, God permitting, to become a foreign missionary." To Mr. Taylor it must have been no little encouragement to learn of the connection of all this with the China Inland Mission. "The story … of the Cambridge band, particularly the account of the visits of a deputation of these students to other British universities, with their missionary message, made a profound impression on us," wrote one of the early leaders. "Here really was he germ thought of the Student Volunteer Movement" (Charles K. Ober).

 [353] An unstarched white or coloured shirt and collar, a tie, a belt and light-coloured trousers is the summer costume of the American student, completed with a "sweater," or coat, when warmth is needed. This is en regle for Sundays even at Student Conferences.

 [354] The Rev. W. J. Erdman. D.D., Secretary to the Conference.

 [355] This proved inadequate, however, as it made no allowance for incidental and travelling expenses, house rent, and the like.

 [356] "I never felt more timid." he said a year later, "about anything in my life."

 [357] Eight hundred and twenty-six letters were received by Mr. Taylor between July 1, when he arrived in New York, and October 5, when he sailed from Vancouver.

 [358] In this connection, an incident that happened in Toronto could not but confirm Mr. Taylor's assurance that he was being guided of God. Prayerful consideration of the circumstances had led him and Mr. Frost to the conclusion that it would be well to secure the help of a few leading, godly men, as a temporary Council, until, after consultation with friends in London and Shanghai, more permanent arrangements could be made. As most of the young missionaries were from Canada, Toronto seemed the centre indicated, and the valuable help of Mr. Sandham of the Christian Institute, who was editor also of a religious paper, opened the way for such an arrangement, With wide, interdenominational connections, he very kindly undertook the responsibility of Hon. Secretary in Canada, Mr. Frost occupying a similar position in the States. But time was short in which to arrange for a Council.

 

In an upper room at the Institute Mr. Taylor was in conference with Messrs. Frost and Sandham, the day after the farewell meetings which moved Toronto so profoundly (September. 25). The names of several suitable persons had been mentioned who might be asked to join a provisional Council, and among them Dr. Parsons, Mr. Gooderham and Mr. Nasmith, all of that city. It was with regret Mr. Taylor found that he could not arrange for interviews, to put the matter before them in person. He had to leave that very day for Montreal, and was about to request Mr. Sandham to act for him, when a knock was heard at the door. Great was the surprise of those within when the visitor proved to be one of the gentlemen in question. Hardly had Mr. Taylor explained to him the circumstances, and received his assurance of willing co-operation however, before another knock came, and a second of the three appeared. He, too, was glad to serve on the Council, and they were all feeling impressed with the hand of God in the matter, when yet another visitor came seeking Mr. Sandham. It did seem almost too wonderful to be true when the third of the friends entered whom Mr. Taylor had desired to meet before leaving-especially when it transpired that two of the three had not been in the building for months and had no idea that he was there. "They were indeed sent by the Lord," was Mr. Frost's comment, "and we were never disappointed in the choice He had made."

 [359] Ephesians 3:16, 17, in Weymouth's version: The Now Testament in Modern Speech.

 [360] "Many thanks for your good wishes for my birthday," Mr. Taylor wrote to Mr. Stevenson some weeks later. "I reached England on that day, and found the stone already rolled away."

 [361] To-day the American branch of the C.I.M. is represented by a hundred and fifteen missionaries, working in fifty-seven stations in thirteen of the eighteen provinces.

 [362] Mr. Taylor spent most of November in Sweden and Denmarkpassing on to Norway, and returning via Hamburg and Rotterdam early in December 1889.

 [363] Mr. Taylor at that time estimated the population of China at 230 millions, but pointed out that if, as some supposed, it reached 400 millions, the work on the scale indicated would only take five years instead of three.

 [364] "We cannot take hold of this thing in earnest," was his conviction, "without getting more than a thousand; and oh, the enlargement, the enrichment that would come in the train of such a movement! Could China be blessed alone? Would not the whole world 'necessarily share in the blessing? For we could not be blessed on the field without out home churches being brought into it; and if they were filled with spiritual, life, every land would be thought of and cared for. The Church is well able to evangelise the whole world and to do it with rapidity."

 [365] The Australian Council, formed on the 22nd of May 1890, two days after the close of the Shanghai Conference, consisted of a representative group of ministers and laymen: the Revs. H. B. Macartney (Chairman), S. Chapman, Alfred Bird (Hon. Secretary), W. Lockhart Morton, D. O'Donnell, and George Soltau; the Hon. James Campbell, Dr. Simpson Flett, and Mr. Philip Kitchen (Treasurer). At their first session they had the names of eight candidates for the Mission before them.

 [366] Crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria, Mr. Taylor had noted in his journal that' it was a gulf so large that the whole of Ireland might lie upon its waters and be out of sight of land. Many of the islands passed before reaching Australia appealed to him both by their great natural beauty and spiritual darkness. The fine mountains of Celebes and the hills of Timor, wooded down to the water's edge, made a picture not soon to be forgotten. Of the latter he wrote: "It is thirty-six years since I saw this island before, and still nothing is being done for the souls of its people."

 [367] Christmas being midsummer, of course, in that southern world.

 [368] The analysis of these arrivals was as follows: from October 19 to December 25, 1890, nine parties reached Shanghai from Europe, Canada, and Australia, numbering in all fifty-three new workers. From January 1 to April 12, 1891, seven parties from Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia were received, adding seventy-eight new workers, the last party being that of Mr. Southey.

The sixty-six who arrived in little over three weeks were the Scandinavian thirty-five on February 17, followed by nine from England on February 21, four from Canada on February 26, three from Australia on the 7th of March, and the second detachment of the Scandinavian party, which arrived on March 10, proved to number fifteen—five more than had been expected. Well was it that the new C.I.M. Home in Shanghai was not only spacious but elastic, and in good working order.

 [369] Much sympathy was felt for the Wesleyans in the loss of this promising young worker, Mr. Argent of the Joyful News Mission, killed at Wusueh in May 1891.

 [370] Dated June 17, 1895.

 [371] "I should feel anxious if the work were my work," he had written to a friend in England (January. 1891), "but it is the Lord's work; and though I do not see my way, the Lord sees His way, and I am thinking of Miss Warner's hymn: 'My heart is resting, O my God, I will give thanks and sing,' etc. I never saw my way less, or felt more at rest."

And in February, to another correspondent: "I need your prayers for strength and guidance. I should feel very concerned at the present aspect of matters had I not a deep consciousness that God is with us, and that He will care and provide for His own work. Thank God, I never had more deep rest and manifest help than in this hour of need. 'The LORD reigneth,' how can we but rejoice!"

 [372] Mr. Southey, who had just arrived from Queensland, and Mr. Taylor also took part in this conference.

 [373] From a letter to Mr.Taylor of a few weeks later, dated December 15, 1891.

 [374] Dated March 29, 1892.

 [375] At Barmen Mr. Taylor had the pleasure of seeing Messrs. Paas and Polnick in the midst of the encouraging work of which he had heard on their visit to Pyrland Road in February. At Frankfort-on-Main he was impressed with the Student Conference in which he took part, and with the earnest, aggressive efforts of Pastor Bernus, whose guest he was; and at Heidelberg he was much attracted to a young minister in whose church he held two meetings-the Rev. H. Coerper, whose interest in China and love for himself personally were to bear rich fruit in days to come.

 [376] Mr. and Mrs. Hudson Taylor sailed for New York on February 14, 1894, accompanied by Miss Geraldine Guinness, whose marriage to Dr. Howard Taylor took place on their arrival in Shanghai.

 [377] This faithful friend, Dr. Howard Taylor's special coolie, was subsequently a great help in opening two new cities in Ho-nan to the Gospel—Chen-chow-fu and Tai-kang. His years were not shortened in the way he anticipated. for he outlived Mr. Hudson Taylor.

 [378] The beautiful suite of rooms was as new to Mr. Hoste as it was to the travellers, and later on he let out the secret of the transformation scene. The building really was a barn, consisting of nothing but a roof and three bare walls. The new front and windows, partitions, plastering, white washing, and hangings had been put in expressly for their use, and the furniture carried from Pastor Hsi's own rooms across several courtyards. And all this for a visit of a day or two!

 [379] From a circular letter dated Shanghai, May 22, 1895.

 [380] The capital of the great western province of Sze-chwan.

 [381] At the end of March 1895 the Mission numbered 621 members, settled in 122 central stations, go of which were in the eleven formerly unoccupied provinces.

 [382] So great was the love of this woman for the things of God that she frequently walked the long distance from her home to the Mission-station to attend the Sunday services, starting on Saturday morning to be in time. Unable on one occasion to leave before evening, she set out to walk the whole of Saturday night, assuring her neighbours who remonstrated—urging the danger of wolves and brigands—that she would not be alone, the best of Protectors was with her. So she "sang hymns by the way, and was not afriad."

 [383] It was wonderful how they were helped, for neither Mr. Ridley nor Mr. Hall had had medical training, and though Mrs. Ridley was experienced in sickness she was not a qualified nurse. Operations without chloroform that would have daunted many a strong man she bravely took her part in, and they never once lost a life by cutting an artery in the extraction of bullets, etc. Cotton wool and oil for burns, and common needles and silk for sewing up wounds they were able to buy in the city, as also the sulphur with which they treated diphtheritic patients. A foreign razor helped out the pocket-knife in surgical cases.

 [384] Si-ning lies in a valley 8000 feet above sea-level.

 [385] A like generous gift was sent to every station in the Mission, from Mr. J. T. Morton, a London wholesale provision merchant, who was becoming deeply interested in the Mission.

 [386] Writing to Mr. Easton, the Superintendent of the district, on October 30 (1895), Mr. Taylor said: "We are praying, I may literally say, night and day for our dear friends in Si-ning and in all the other Kansu stations. … I am almost hourly praying that God will give more souls 'this winter than have ever been given before in the north-west."

 [387] The Rev. Denholm Brash, the devoted pastor and evangelist, of whom his son presents so beautiful a picture in the Memoir entitled, Love and Life, published by Kelly & Co.

 [388] With much gentleness of spirit, Mr. Cooper possessed strong individuality and was fearless as to his convictions. Mr. Taylor's relationship with the leaders in the Mission, and with this beloved friend in particular, may be judged from an incident that took place in the early days of the China Council.

"I do not like so often to oppose you," said Mr. Cooper on one occasion; "I think I had better resign."

"No, indeed!" was the reply, "I value such opposition: it saves me from many a mistake."

 [389] Mr. Stevenson being at home in England, Mr. Taylor was glad to leave the matter, as concerned the C.I.M., largely in his hands. While regretting the partial loss of Mr. Cassels to the Mission, inevitable through the enlargement of his sphere, "I cannot but think," he wrote to a member of the London Council, "that it will be for the advantage of China. Mr. Cassel's department is surpassed by nothing in the Mission for spirituality or success."

 [390] Toward the erection of these premises Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had themselves given £900, though only one or two members of the Council were aware of the fact.

 [391] During Mr. Taylor's next visit to China, Mr. Berger passed swiftly and painlessly into the presence of the Lord he loved, on the 9th of January 1899. Few expressions of his thoughtful sympathy in the work had been more precious to Mr. Taylor than his gift a few years previously of L4000 to commence a Superannuation Fund for the members of the Mission. To this Fund, any profits from the sale of the present volume, as from Hudson Taylor in Early Years. are devoted.

 [392] Of the origin of the Liebenzell work and Mr. Taylor's visit of the previous summer, Pastor Coerper wrote:

 

"When in 1896 the dear Hudson Taylor came to see me at Essen, his clear simple testimonies were a great joy and inspiration for me and others. He was just then helping to form a German branch of the C.I.M., as there was much interest for the Mission in 'China in districts not attainable for Lie Barmen Alliance Mission. He mentioned the matter to me several times, asking me to join him in prayer about it. How I longed to offer myself for this work! But I did not feel free to do so, fearing that I might be following merely the desires of my own heart. When in 1899, however. the call came to me quite clearly … to take charge of the work, the Lord had opened the way and had made me willing to devote my life to Him for this service."

The Liebenzell Mission, still (1918) under the care of Pastor Coerper, has twelve central stations and sixty missionaries in the province of Hunan (Associates of the C.I.M.) with almost a thousand church members. It has also nineteen representatives in the South Sea Islands. All that such figures mean of prayer, labour, and self-sacrificing gifts at home, as well as devoted service abroad, the Lord only knows. It is a privilege to record here that nowhere in connection with the C.I.M. has the spirit of Christ been more manifest in these ways, or more steadfastly maintained, than in the Barmen and the Liebenzell Missions.

 [393] See Hudson Taylor in Early Years, pp. 132-138.

 [394] In times of financial straitness Mr. Taylor more than once took occasion to remind his fellow-workers of this principle. "The position of faith is incompatible with borrowing or going into debt, or forcing our way forward when the Lord closes the door before us," he wrote in November 1898. "If we propose a certain extension for which the Lord sees the time has not come, or which is not in accordance with His will, how can He more clearly guide us than by withholding the means? It would be a serious mistake, therefore, to refuse to listen to the Lord's 'No,' and by borrowing or going into debt do the thing to which He had objected by withholding the needed funds or facilities. All the work we are engaged in is His rather than ours; and if the Master can afford to wait, surely the servant can also."

 [395] Mr. Taylor's thought, as set forth in these papers, was that centre should be arranged for, in charge of experienced missionaries, to which the new workers (foreign) should go on arrival for study of the language and training in evangelistic method, and to which they could return from time to time for rest and refreshment after their itinerations. Chinese evangelists should also have training and Bible study in such centres.

 

"A special Itinerant Missionary Evangelistic Band would, then be required," he wrote, "willing to consecrate five years of their lives to itinerant work, without thought of marriage or of settling down till their special work is accomplished. The work would be arduous, involving much self-denial, but it would bring with it much blessing and great spiritual joy, as the command, 'Preach the Gospel to every creature,' was being obeyed: in keeping of His commandments there is great reward (see Psalm 19:11).

 

"The workers, when ready, would go out two and two, i.e. two missionaries and two native helpers, to previously arranged districts, to sell Scriptures and Gospel tracts, and to preach the Glad Tidings. Living together in the same inns, for companionship and fellowship, they would often separate during the day, one missionary and native brother going in one direction, and the other two in another, and meeting again at night, to commend to GOD the work of the day, as before setting out they had unitedly sought His blessing. Two-thirds to three-quarters of their time being thus occupied, the remainder would afford opportunity for bodily and spiritual rest and refreshment, for continuing the Chinese studies of the missionaries, and the systematic Bible studies of the native helpers. As the work progresses the number of these centres would need increasing."

 [396] Written from Ku-ling, September. 2, 1898.

 [397] "They are weak enough for God to use," Mr. Taylor had written of similar workers in Shan-si, "and they believe in being filled with the Holy Ghost. They seek a blessing with fasting and prayer, and they do not seek in vain. The people feel that there is power in connection with their work."

 [398] "Though we cannot scold people right we may often love them right," he had written to Mr. Stevenson before leaving England. "It will not do for us to lose expectant faith and Holy Ghost power, and let those whom God gives us drift away, if prayer and fasting, pains and patience will hold them together. … We must claim from God by faith the love and spiritual power that will make men wish to obey. I do long for myself and for all of us to be more filled with the Spirit, and thus fitted for God's work. Then we shall always overflow with love, joy, peace, gentleness, and all the fruit of the Spirit, and every one will be attracted and helped as far as possible."

 [399] When Dr. Keller was willing to accept Mr. Taylor's advice and help, the latter arranged for a more experienced missionary, the Rev. Ed. Pearse, to go to the capital of the province and call on the Governor to make a friendly representation. This, by the blessing of God, proved entirely successful. The Governor sent a. deputy to Cha-ling-chow, who arranged with the local authorities to repair the house and re-establish the missionaries according to Chinese law. In order that the landlord might be fully compensated, Dr. Keller waived all claim to indemnity.

"Every one was delighted with this arrangement," the Doctor wrote after his return, "and all the secretaries and petty officials in the ye-men rushed in to thank us for our gracious, treatment of the Chow (the local Mandarin). From this time the Chow and his family were our warm friends. I became their family physician … and the Chow himself came to Chang-sha (the capital) years after to be treated by me in his last illness. They proved the sincerity of their friendship at the time of the Boxer uprising. After the Italian priests had been killed at Hengchow, a band of soldiers came over to Cha-ling and wanted to kill me. The Chow protected me for a week in his ya-men, and at last, when things got beyond control and his own life was in danger, he got me away by night, and sent me with a strong escort safely to Kiang-si. A year later we went to Chang-sha, and our kindly reception there, together with the confidence and friendship of the officials which were such a help to us, were largely due to the settlement at Cha-ling made in answer to Mr.Taylor's prayers.'

 [400] Pastor Hsi would doubtless have been among the number had he not passed away four years previously. Song, ordained with him in 1886, was the Pastor of the Ping-yang church above referred to.

 [401] A precious heritage to the people of God is found in the full story of the Boxer crisis as it affected the Inland Mission, told by Mr. Marshall Broomhall in his Martyred Missionaries of the C.I.M., by the Rev. A. Glover in A Thousand Miles of Miracle in China, and by Mr. C. H. Green in his equally touching record of personal experiences, In Deaths Oft.

 [402] From his own experience Mr. Taylor said: "The hardest part of a missionary career is to maintain regular, prayerful Bible study. Satan will always find you something to do when you ought to be occupied about that—if it is only arranging a window-blind!"

 [403] Work among God's ancient people occupied a special place in the prayerful sympathy of both Mr. and Mrs. Taylor; and Mr. John Wilkinson, founder of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews, recalled an interesting phase of their long friendship. Taking advantage of a New Year's Day spent at home (1897), Mr. Taylor went round to Mr. Wilkinson's house with a brotherly note enclosing a gift for the Mission. "To the Jew first," were the words with which the cheque was accompanied. Mr. Wilkinson's warm heart was touched, and he immediately wrote a brotherly reply, enclosing his own cheque for the same amount, with the words: "And also to the Gentile." This helpful interchange of sympathy was kept up ever after, the only change being that each doubled the amount of their contribution.

 [404] To a friend called to pass through similar sorrow Mr. Taylor wrote on August 6, one week after his own bereavement: "You may have noticed the French version of Hebrew 10:23, 'Celui qui a fait les promessesest fidele' ('Faithful is He who made the promises'). All we have to do is to look out with patience to see how He will prove it true."

 [405] Dr. Martin, who reached China in 1850, was seventy-eight years of age; Mr. Hudson Taylor, who arrived in 1854, was seventy-three; and Dr. Griffith John, who arrived in 1855, was a year older. They were photographed together at Hankow on the 29th of April 1905.

 [406] With reference to the Business Department, Mr. W. E. Geil, author of A Yankee on the Yangtze, wrote to Mr. Stevenson after his journey across China: "I am emphatically endorsing (in my book) the management of the missionary merchandise by the C.I.M. Never have I seen the people's money made to go so far as under your wise administration. As to my own accounts, without exception they were promptly, politely, properly attended to. In an age of commerce and high-pressure commercial enterprises worked by vast combinations, it is good to find equally wise methods applied to the gifts of the Church in this economical and wise distribution…. I have been impressed too when among the C.I.M. workers by a spiritual atmosphere saturated with two good things, kindness and common sense…. Your missionaries receive very small pay, but never once have I heard complaint, and never has-salary been mentioned but the ready reply has come, 'It is sufficient.' God bless the self-sacrificing missionaries in Inland China."

 [407] Miss J. of Sandeberg and Dr. Whitfield Guinness were engaged a few days later.

 [408] From an In Memoriam poem by his niece, Miss Marian Fishe, now Mrs. J. L. Rowe.

 [409] On this subject the China Mission Year-Book (1917) gives definite and most encouraging testimony. Following the great evangelistic meetings among students held by Dr. John R. Mott and Mr. Sherwood Eddy, (1913 and 1915), which evoked a response undreamed of before among the educated classes to the character and claims of Christ, has come a "new vitality in evangelistic work," fostered by the "Special Committee on a Forward Evangelistic Movement," of which Bishop Price of the C.M.S. (Fukien) is Chairman and Dr. Warnshuis the National Evangelistic Secretary. Such a movement, uniting all Societies labouring in China, is new indeed, and so is the Week of Evangelism it has promoted the first attempt ever made to mobilise the spiritual forces of the Chinese Church in a united evangelistic forward movement" (p. 343).

In their report for 1917 the Forward Evangelistic Committee states: "Wherever this national Week of Evangelism was thoroughly prepared for and carried through with energy, the churches have been awakened and found themselves able to move forward on a wide front. As stated in last year's report, the purpose was to create a persistent, organised, and enthusiastic missionary endeavour in the whole Church, among both pastors and lay-people, of which this Week of Evangelism would be but the beginning. This ideal still remains to be achieved, and the programme which the Committee recommends for the ensuing year contains proposals for a continuation of this effort."

 [410] The course of study, which is thoroughly supervised and systematic, "covers two years and includes Biblical introduction, book, chapter, and topical Bible study, Bible doctrine, outlines of church history, music, the preparation of Gospel addresses, and individual training in chapel and street preaching, and in personal work. Much care is taken to foster a deep prayer life in each worker, real, living fellowship with God, and a consciousness of absolute dependence on the indwelling Holy Spirit for a holy life and fruitful service."

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