note: a most readable biography of Taylor, where he comes alive (especially in his wooing and 'letting go of' his precious wife, Maria (this 'picture of him/them would have been immeasurably improved had i time to share pp 123-55 when he wins her and pp 240-2 when he loses her). am looking forward to reading the author's biographical work on George Mueller.
9 the HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN ADVANCE INTO CHINA begins with a remarkable adventure. in AD 431 a man named nestorius was condemned as a heretic, but by late in the fifth century the Persian church had become officially Nestorian and the nestorian church continued to reach out eastwards. in AD 635, nestorian christian A-lo-pen arrived in China, in the capital of the Tang Empire. the emperor received him well, studied christianity, approved of it and ordered that it should be propagated.
nestorian christianity lasted more than 2 centuries in china. its brand of the faith was mainly monastic - a familiar way of life in a land used to Buddhism - and the influence of the monks probably did not extend far beyond their monastery walls.
trouble hit the nestorians in 845 when another Tang Emperor, in a move against monasticism in general, issued a decree prohibiting buddhism, dissolving the monasteries, and ordering all monks to return to private life. the christian
12 church in china dwindled for several centuries after that; in 987 a monk returned to europe with the news that he could find no trace of christians in the whole chinese empire.
in the 13th century, the mongol Genghis Khan conquered northern china. he understood the importance of religion and laid it down that all religions were to be respected. as a result the nestorian church was re-established throughout central asia and in 1275 an archbishopric was set up in beijing (peking), the new capital of Genghis's grandson, Kublai Khan.
in this same period, the explorer Marco Polo visited china several times. on return from their first journey to china, marco polo's uncles brought a message to the Pope from kublai khan asking for 100 men of learning, devoted to the christian faith. their job would be to prove 'to the learned of (kublai khan's) dominions, by just and fair argument, that the faith professed by christians is superior to and founded on more evident truth than any other.
20 years passed before much attention was paid to this request and then the pope sent John of Monte Corvino to china. john arrived in beijing in about 1294 and was warmly received by Timur, kublai knan's successor. he didn't manage to convert the emperor, who had 'grown too old in idolatry'. but he built a church and claimed to have baptized 6000 people by 1305. pope Clement V mad john an archbishop, but following john's death in 1328 the christian church in china went into 200 years of decline.
in 1557 the Portuguese managed to install themselves in the tiny settlement of macao not far from Hong Kong. the colony became a jumping-of point for many missionary enterprises including those of Jesuit Matthew Ricci, one of the most famous Roman Catholic missionaries in the East. in 1600, ricci entered beijing and won the emperor's admiration through his ability as a clock repairer and map maker. ricci remained in the capital for 10 years, gradually bringing into being a church of about 2000 people which included some members of notable families and
13 distinguished intellectuals. he also produced a chinese liturgy and other christian literature.
like many misionaries after him, ricci had to grapple with the problem of finding chinese equivalents for christian terms and of deciding how far ancient chinese customs could be reconciled with the christian faith. if christianity were to be acceptable to the chinese, its foreign aspects would need to be minimized - but this was easier said than done. after much study and thought, he decided that chinese rites in honour of confucius and the family only had civil significance and that new converts to christianity could continue to engage in them. he would trust chinese christians to decide eventually what they could and couldn't do.
ricci was succeeded by a german Jesuit, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who arrived in beijing in 1622. schall was a clever astronomer who prophesied eclipses and earned himself a place on the board which regulated the calendar. baptisms into the christian church increased, including one of the Emperor's wives and her child. Schall survived the fall of the Ming dynasty by convincing the manchu conquerors that he was indispensable.
during the course of the 17th century other orders, mainly Franciscans and Dominicans, joined the Jesuits and worked with some success in china. in 1674 the pope appointed the first chinese bishop.
controversy continued, however, over which chinese terms to use for God in the liturgy and the extent to which chinese between the Vatican and the chinese church became sour. persecution of christians in china increased during the 18th century; congregations declined and churches were ruined. by the end of the century the work of roman catholic missionaries in the chinese empire had very nearly collapsed, although a few valiantly held on in secret, often in danger of their lives.
hudson taylor's father must often have told him about
14 the first protestant missionary to china, robert morrison, who arrived in Guangzhou (Canton) in an american ship in september 1807. for a while he was forced to live virtually in hiding; but by 1809 he was appointed translator to the East india Company. this gave him protection, a measure of security and an income to live on. he became an expert in chinese literature and wisdom, describing this as 'one of the greatest gifts ever bestowed by God on any race.
for more than 25 years morrison stayed in guangzhou, the only foothold europeans had been able to secure in mainland china. he believed that what the chinese needed above all was Christ and he worked long and hard to extend his knowledge of chinese culture and language so that he might communicate the gospel more effectively. morrison's first convert was baptized in 1814 and by 1819 he had translated the whole Bible into chinese; he then completed a great chinese dictionary. more chinese converts were baptized, one of whom was ordained to be an evangelist to his fellow-countrymen.
but when morrison died in 1834, two years after hudson taylor was born prospects for the evangelization of china were almost as bleak as when he had arrived, up to that time only 3 more protestant christians had gone to serve God in china. Walter Medhurst, a printer who had arrived in china in 1817, traveled inland in disguise to distribute christian literature in chinese. Dr. Wells Williams arrived in 1833, wrote a well known book The Middle Kingdom and worked in china fro many years. and an american surgeon, peter Parker, opened an eye hospital in guangzhou and began to reduce prejudice against missionaries.
during hudson's youth the name of the Honorable Dr Charies Guzlaff, a member of the Netherlans Missionary Society and later interpreter to the british government in hong kong, had been well known in England. his books had stirred the hearts of christians, and his exploits on the chinese coast were familiar among merchant, naval officers and politicians. he had imaginative ideas for the chinese
15 themselves to take the gospel to all 18 provinces of their country and he established an organization called the Chinese Christian union to distribute and teach the Scriptures in mainland china.
unfortuately gutzlaff was badly hoaxed by chinese evangelist members of his organization. almost all of them turned out to be frauds and opium addicts, writing journals of travels they had never made and producing lists of converts they had never bapized. gutzlaff, who seems to have been genuinely unaware of what had been going on, was overcome with grief when the scandals were exposed. he set out to reorganize his work but died before his new projects had got anywhere,
chines hostility to foreigners meant that, away from guangzhou, the empire was virtually inaccessible. for half a century english christians had prayed that missionaries would be allowed to work more freely in china. this eventually came about primarily because of commercial and political pressures on china from the western nations. the first 'opium war' between england and china broke out in 1839, partly because the british insisted on importing indian opium into china against the wishes of the chinese government. other factors were at work too, particularly general chinese obligations and their hostility to foreigners.
the war ended in the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, which secured a number of advantages for westerners in china. hong kong became a british colony; 5 'treaty ports' - guangzhou, xiamen (amoy), fuzhou, ningbo and shanghai - were opened so that foreigners could live there; foreigners were guaranteed the right of trial under their own laws and by officials of their own country. consuls were to take up residence in each treaty port, with equality of rank and access to the senior chinese officials, the mandarins. british citizens were to be guaranteed freedom (at least on paper) from molestation and restraints'. the treaty actually said little about religion, but it was clear that missionaries no less than merchants would take advantage of these privileges.
16 of course missionaries deplored the war, but they believed that God had overruled what was deplorable in itself to open up china to the gospel. however, the fact that christianity seemed to enter china in the wake of gunboats was often a handicap to it later.
news of the treaty alerted british christians to the new era of opportunity. the way was open for missionaries to study chinese on chinese soil, and even to build houses, schools, hospitals and churches in the british and international settlements in the treaty ports.
impressed by these opportunities and also by gutzlaff's energy and vision, british businessmen launched a magazine, The Gleaner in the Missionary Field, to promote overseas missions - and the taylor family took the publication from its beginnings in march 1850. hudson also discovered that an interdenominational society called the Chinese Association had been organized in London. it planned to employ chinese evangelists to cooperate with existing missions in taking the gospel to the unreached interior of china.
hudson wrote to the secretary of the Association, George Pearse, asking him to send circulars , collecting cards and anything which could help him introduce the work of the Association to his friends.
he also heard that Barnsley's Congregational minister had a copy of printer medhurst's China: Its State and Prospects and decided to try to borrow it.
'you may certainly borrow the book, the minister told him. 'and what, may i ask, is your interest in it?
'God has called me to spend my life in missionary service in china, hudson replied.
'and how do you propose to go there?
'I don't know. but i think it likely that i shall need to go as the 12 and the 70 disciples did in Judea, without stick, or bag, or food, or money - relying on Him who had sent them to supply all their needs.
the minister gently placed his hand on hudson's shoulder.
17 'Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will become wiser than that. such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.
many years later, taylor recalled the incident and wrote: 'i have grown older since then, but not wiser. i am more and more convinced that if we were to take the directions of our master and the assurance He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given.
medhurst's book stressed the value of medical missions, and taylor decided to concentrate on medical studies as a preparation for work in china. he also began to take more open air exercise and got rid of his feather bed and other comforts in order to prepare for a tougher life.
he embarked on the study of the chinese language with enormous enthusiasm. this was a task which an earlier missionary had said required 'bodies of iron, lungs of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring-steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels and lives of Methuselah.
hudson had neither a chinese grammar nor a dictionary, but he had been given a copy of the gospel of luke in the chinese mandarin dialect. he and cousin John set about learning together. they would select a short verse in the english version of luke and then pick out a dozen or more verses, also in english, which had one worked in common with the first verse. then they would turn up the first verse in chinese, and search through all the other verses for some character in common that seemed to represent the english word. they would write these down on a slip of paper as probable equivalents; then they would look through the chinese for this same character in different connections. if, in every case, they found the same word in the english version, they copied the character in ink in their dictionary adding the meaning in pencil. if later study confirmed this to be the true meaning, they inked it in.
after a while they grew familiar with most of the common
18 chinese characters.
hudson began to get up at 5 in the morning. 'I must study (he writes his sister) if i mean to go to china. i am fully decided to go and am making every preparation i can. i intend to rub up my Latin, to learn Greek and the rudiments of Hebrew, and to get as much general information as possible. i need all your prayers.
(interested in a young woman for his wife)..1850 turned out to be a year of turmoil for hudson. he was sure God had called him to china, but how could he be sure it was right to take Marianne with him? and yet he couldn't bear the thought of going to china without her. amelia suggested he could best provide for marianne by being sent out by a recognized missionary society.
'very true, replied hudson, but what society?
the wesleyans had no station in china . the church of england had one of two, but he was not a churchman and wouldn't, he thought, do for them. the Baptists and independent churches had stations there, but he didn't share their views. the Chinese Association was very poor. 'so God and God alone is my hope and I need no other...
19 5 years in his father's business had made hudson expert in dispensing medicines. but he needed to earn his own living....
24 in preparation for his great adventure, hudson now had 2 objectives: learning to endure hardships and to live cheaply. he found that he could survive on very much less than he had though possible. he discovered a brand of brown biscuits which were as cheap as bread and, he told his mother, much nicer. so for breakfast he ate brown biscuits and herring, which was cheaper than butter, washed down with coffee. lunch might be roast potatoes and tongue followed by prune-and-apple pie; or rice pudding, peas instead of potatoes and now and then some fish. he found a little place where he could buy cheese at 4 to 6 pence a pound
25 - and he fancied it tasted better than some he had had at home for eightpence. he pickled a penny red cabbage with three halfpence worth of vinegar and made a large jarful.
living cheaply but imaginatively meant that he was able to give away up to 60% of his earnings, and he discovered that the more he gave away the happier he became. he recorded: 'unspeakable joy all the day long and every day, was my happy experience. God, even my god, was a living, bright reality; and all i had to do was joyful service.
but still he felt that his 'spiritual muscles' needed strengthening. when I get to china, he thought, I shall have no claim on anyone for anything; my only claim will be on god. how important, therefore, to learn before leaving england TO MOVE MAN, THROUGH GOD, BY PRAYER ALONE.
and so he embarked on a series of experiments with God.
26 'remind me whenever your salary is due, Robert Hardey, (the doctor under whom hudson worked) had told taylor breezily. this was his cur. he made up his mind never to speak to his employer about his pay, but ask God to do the reminding.
for a while there was no difficulty. but then the time came when a quarter's salary was due and Hardy had apparently forgotten. on totting up his weekly accounts one saturday night, Taylor found he had only a single coin left - one half crown piece. He prayed hard.
next day, after the sunday morning service, he made his way along a familiar rutted farm track to the dockland area of Hull where hundreds of irish labourers lived crowded together in slums and lodging houses. the area was notorious for violence and crime and the police seldom visited it in groups of less than 6. perhaps because he worked for the will-loved Dr. Hardy, Taylor found he could go into much of the area alone visiting patients, handing out tracts and even preaching to small groups. 'at such times, he recorded, it almost seemed to me as if Heaven were begun below, and that all that could be looked for was an
27 enlargement of one's capacity for joy.
at about 10 o'clock in the evening, he was addressed in a strong Irish accent.
' my wife is dying. will you please come and pray with her?
Taylor agreed, but asked: 'why haven't you sent for the priest?
'I did. but he refused to come without a payment of 18 pence. i don't have enough - my family is starving.
Taylor thought of his solitary half-crown. it was all he had and it was in one coin. back in his room, he had enough food for tomorrow's breakfast by nothing for lunch.
'it's very wrong of you to have allowed matters to get to this state. why haven't you applied to the relieving officer?
'I have and am to meet him tomorrow. but i'm afraid she won't last the night.
if only, thought Taylor, I had 2 shilling coins and a sixpence instead of this half crown, how gladly I would give these poor people a shilling!
Taylor followed the man into a courtyard where, on his last visit, they had torn his tracts to pieces and promised far worse treatment if he ventured there again. anxiously he followed the man up a narrow flight of stairs into a dirty room.
5 children with hollow cheeks and eyes stood looking at him. their mother lay exhausted, holding a newly born baby.
If only I had 2 shillings and a sixpence, Taylor thought again.
'don't despair, he found himself saying, 'there's a kind and loving Father in Heaven.
but something inside him said, you hypocrite! telling these people about a loving God and not prepared yourself to trust Him without half a crown!
he turned to the man. 'you asked me to come and pray with your wife.
he knelt down. 'Our Father, who art in Heaven, he began.
28 but his conscience spoke too. Dare you kneel down and call Him Father with that half-crown in your pocket? he could hardly get through the prayer.
'you see what a terrible state we're in, sir, said the man.
'if you can help us, for God's sake do!
Taylor looked and him and then at his wife and children. he remembered the words in matthew 5.42, 'Give to the one who asks you.
he put his hand in his pocket and took out the half-crown.
'you may think it a small thing for me to give you this, he said as he handed over the coin.
''but it's all the money i have. what i have been trying to tell you is true. god really is a Father, and may be trusted.
as he walked through now-deserted streets and along the dark and muddy farm track to his cottage, his heart was 'as light as his pocket'. back at No 30 he ate a bowl of thin porridge and decided that he wouldn't have exchanged it for a prince's feast.
'dear God, he prayed as he knelt beside his bed, 'your Word says that he who gives to the poor lends to the Lord. don't let the loan be a long one or I shall have no lunch tomorrow!
the woman lived and the child's life was saved.
Taylor reflected that his own spiritual life might have been wrecked had he not had the courage to trust God at that time .
next morning, as he was eating his breakfast, Hudson Taylor heard the postman knock at the door. Mrs Finch handed him a letter. the handwriting was unfamiliar and his landlady's wet hand had smudged the postmark. opening it, held discovered a pair of kid gloves inside a blank sheet of paper. as he held them a gold half-sovereign fell to the floor.
'Praise the Lord! he exclaimed. '400% for 12 hours investment; that is good interest. how glad the merchants of Hull would be if they could lend their money at such a rate!
he resolved that 'the bank which could not break' -
29 - it was a phrase George Muller loved - should have all his money. 'if we are faithful in little things, he concluded we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life.
this experience boosted Taylor's faith. but 10 shillings, even then, didn't last forever and he had to keep praying for the larger sum he needed.
but now none of his prayers seemed to be answered. 10- days after receiving the half-sovereign he was in almost the same scrape as before.
'Dear God , please remind Dr. Hardey that my salary is over due, he prayed urgently. it was not only a question of money: if his power with God in prayer proved inadequate, he would feel unable, in good conscience, to go to china.
on the saturday a payment would be due to Mrs. Finch. shouldn't he, for her sake, speak to Hardy about his salary? but this would amount to admitting that he wasn't fit to be a missionary. he devoted nearly all his spare time on the thursday and friday to wrestling with God in prayer. on the saturday he prayed, 'Dear Father, please show me whether I should speak to Dr. hardy about my salary. it seemed to him that the answer came, 'wait. My time is best. he felt sure that God would act in some way on his behalf and was quite relaxed.
at about 5 o'clock on the saturday afternoon, Taylor and Hardey were together in the surgery. the doctor had finished his visiting rounds and had written all his prescriptions. he threw himself back in his armchair in his usual way and began talking about this and that.
Taylor was standing with his back to the doctor, watching a pan in which he was heating some medicine. suddenly, Hardey said: 'By the way, Taylor, isn't your salary due again?
Hudson swallowed three times before he answered. without lifting his eyes from the pan he replied, as unemotionally as he could, 'it has been overdue for some time.
'Oh, I'm sorry you didn't remind me. you know how busy i am. i wish I'd thought of it sooner, because only this afternoon
30 I sent all the money I had to the bank. otherwise i would pay you at once.
Taylor (T) felt sick. fortunately the pan boiled at that moment, and he had good reason to rush with it out of the room, where the doctor wouldn't see how upset he was.
as soon as Hardey had left the surgery, T poured out his heart in prayer to god. after a while, he regained his composure and felt sure that god would not fail him.
he spent the Saturday evening in the surgery reading his Bible and preparing some talks. at about 10 o'clock he put on his overcoat and prepared to leave for Cottingham terrace, glad that he would be able to let himself in with his own key. Mrs. Finch would have gone to bed and perhaps he would be able to pay her early the following week.
just as he was about to turn out the gaslight in thee surgery, he heard Hardey's footsteps in the garden. he was laughing heartily.
'let me have the ledger, T. an extraordinary thing has happened. one of my richest patients has just come to pay his bill - in cash!
T too thought it odd that a man rolling in money should come late in the evening to pay a doctor's bill and paying in cash rather than by cheque made it even odder. he joined in Hardey's laughter.
Hardey entered the amount in the ledger and was about to leave. then he turned to Hudson (H) and handed him the was of bank notes.
'by the way, T, you might as well take these notes. I haven't any change, but we can settle the balance next week.
T returned to Drainside praising God: he might, after all, go to China!
41 the Taiping rebellion was a response to the unpopularity of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). the manchus, who had established this dynasty, were still regarded as aliens by the Chinese. they had become lazy, weak and oppressive and during the first half of the 19th century discontent grew:; secret societies flourished and armed uprisings increased.
the founder of the Taiping rebellion was Hong Xiu-quan. Hong had been influenced by a series of christian books written by Lian A-fa, who had become a christian through the missionaries Robert Morrison and William Milne. in 1843, Hong Xiu-quan and his cousin baptized each other and began to preach to their relatives, some of whom where converted. Hong met the american missionary Issacher Roberts, who studied the Bible with him.
Later, as a result of Hong's preaching, a sect calling themselves Worshippers of shangdi (God worshippers) appeared on the scene and by 1849 , Hong was accepted as their leader. he kept in touch with Issacher Roberts who reported these developments in optimistic letter home.
some of the local leaders who emerged among the worshippers of shangdi were less well-taught and more militant than Hong. they began to drill fighting units and make common cause with members of a secret society, the
42 Triads, whose ambition was to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the ming.
hostilities between Hong's followers plus associated and the imperial manchu government began in 1850. the rebels saw themselves as he founders of a new dynasty, the 'heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace'. Hong was the emperor, the Tai Ping Wang, hence the name of the rebellion.
the Taipings set out their aims and objectives and established a system of belief and codes of conduct. they would overthrow the manchus, abolish idols and stamp out the abuse of opium. in the early days they honoured the Bible, attached great importance to the 10 commandments, used the lord's prayer, held daily services at which they sang hymns in honour of the triune God, recited creeds and listened to sermons. they baptized adults. although they permitted polygamy, their moral code was in many ways strict and wherever they went they destroyed idols.
these developments in China naturally aroused intense interest and excitement among christians in England, Europe and America. a christian dynasty and the abolition of idolatry and heathenism appeared possible. even more encouraging for christian missionaries was the apparent attitude of the Taipings to foreigners. 'the great God, one Taiping leader said, 'is the universal Father of all under heaven. china is under His government and care. foreign nations are equally so. there are many men under heaven, but all are brethren.
the Gleaner led the way in reporting details of what was going on and H T was strongly tempted to abandon his medical course and sail for china at once.
58 during the Han dynasty also, 4 centuries before the first christians came, Buddhist missionaries arrived from india and established Buddhism as a major religion. it made great advances in china. H T was to discover that Buddhist monks and shaven-headed priest in yellow robes were a familiar feature. Buddhism never, however, displace confucianism or Daoism. chinese religion was often an amazing mixture of the three.
166 in july 1861 H T had attended a series of meetings at Christ Church, Barnet, arranged by its evangelical vicar, william pennefather, author of the lovely hymn Jesus Stand Among Us in Thy Risen Power. Penne..has been describd as 'the George muller of the Church of england...a man who walked with God'. Horatius Bonar, the hymn writer, including miss stacey were there to hear pennefather expound the scriptures. in july 1862, H and maria were at Christ Church again for these meetings with were the forerunners of the mildmay Confrence, the first of which H T was to attend in 1864.
the Mildmay Conferences led on to the keswick Convention with its motto 'All One in Christ Jesus'. HT loved this openminded attitude -ecumenical in the best sense of the word - and during this period in england he gladly preached wherever he was invited, at Anglican, Baptist,
167 Methodist, Presbyterian, Brethren and many more churches, in the same spirit in which he worked with or for a great variety of missionary societies.
170 'The chinese will make the best christians in the world - they will thoroughly study the Bible as they do their own classics. HT was aware of this claim but also knew that the chinese would only become christians if missionaries went there in large numbers and penetrated the interior.
one task he had set himself was that of trying to persuade the boards of missionary societies to send men to work in the 11 unevangelized provinces of inland china. he had interviews or correspondence with all three main english societies, who listened to him sympathetically but over and over again gave him the same answer.
our funds are not equal to current demands, let alone new commitments, the societies told him. 'it is surely better to wait until in God's providence china is widely open to the gospel.
but where would European Christianity be, T wondered, if the apostles had waited for better conditions? if the existing
171 missionary societies cannot or will not rise to the occasion, then who will do so?
as he and Fredrick Gough spent those long hours working at the revision of the Ningbo New Testament, they often looked up at a large map of china on the wall and thought of the millions who had never heard the gospel 33,000 people will die in china today without hope - without god, T thought.
175 T intended that the CIM would have 6 distinctive features.
first, its missionaries would be drawn not from any particular denomination but from all the leading christian churches - provided they could sign a simple doctrinal declaration. in practice, as the mission developed, they would come from many different countries too.
second, the missionaries would have no guaranteed salary, but trust in the lord to supply their needs. income would be shared. no debts would be incurred.
third, no appeals for funds would be made; there would be no collectors; the names of donors wouldn't be published - instead each would receive a dated and numbered receipt by which he would be able to trace his own contribution into the list of donations and then into the annually published accounts.
fourth, anxious to learn from the mistakes made by the CES, H T was determined that the work abroad would be directed not by home committees, but by himself and eventually other leaders on the spot in china.
fifth, the activities of the mission would be systematic and practical. a comprehensive plan to evangelize the whole of china would seek to establish footholds in strategic centres. the aim would not be to secure the largest number of converts for the CIM, but rather to bring about as quickly as possible the evangelization of thee whole empire. who actually garnered the sheaves would be regarded as of secondary importance.
sixth, as a courtesy to the chinese people, the missionaries would wear chinese clothes and worship in buildings built in the chinese style - unlike the Gothic-style church in ningbo.
176 at the meeting HT used his large map of china and described to his audience the size, population and spiritual need of china. afterwards Colonel Puget, sensing that many in the hall were impressed by what they had heard, rose to speak. 'Mr T requested that the notices announcing
177 this meeting carried the words 'No collection'. however i do feel that many of you would be distressed if you were not given an opportunity to contribute to the work in china. as what i am about to propose emanates entirely from myself and, I'm sure, expresses the feeling of many in the audience, I trust that Mr T will not object to a collection being taken.
Mr T however jumped quickly to his feet.
'Mr. Chairman, i beg you to keep to the condition you agreed to. among other reasons for making no collection, the reason put forward by your kind self is, to my mind, one of the strongest. my wish is not that members of the audience should be relieved of making such contributions might now be convenient, under the influence of emotion, but that each one should go home burdened with the deep need of china and ask God what He would have them to do.
if after thought and prayer they are satisfied that a gift of money is what he wants of them, it can be given to any missionary society having agents in china; or it may be posted to our London office.
but in many cases what god wants is not a money contribution, but personal consecration to his service abroad; or the giving up of a son or a daughter - more precious than silver or gold - to his service. i think a collection tends to leave the impression that the all-important thing is money, whereas no amount of money can convert a single soul. what is needed is that men and women filled with the holy Ghost should give THEMSELVES to the work. there'll never be a shortage of funds for the support of such people.
206 HT's own understanding of the case for wearing chinese clothes was rooted in his deep respect for chinese culture and his sensitive perception of the role of the missionary, in which he was far ahead of his time.
'we have to deal with a people whose prejudices in favour of their own customs and habits are the growth of centuries and millenniums.nor are their preferences ill-founded. those who know them most intimately respect them most and see the necessity for many of their habits and customs - this being found in the climate, productions and conformation of the people.
'there is perhaps no country in the world where religious tolerance is carried to so great an extent as in china; the only objection that prince or people have to christianity is that it is a foreign religion and that its tendencies are to approximate believers to foreign nations.
'I am not peculiar in holding the opinion that the foreign dress and carriage of missionaries - to a certain extent affected by some of their converts and pupils - the foreign appearance of the chapels and indeed, the foreign air given to everything connected with religion, have very largely hindered the rapid dissemination of the truth among the chinese. but why need such a foreign aspect b given to christianity? the word of God does not require it; not I conceive would reason justify it. it is not their denationalization but the christianization that we seek.
'we wish to see christian chinese -true christins, but withal CHINESE in every sense of the word.we wish to see churches and christian chinese presided over by pastors and officers of their own countrymen, worshipping their true God in the land of their fathers, in the costume of their
207 fathers, in their own tongue wherein they were born and in edifices of a thoroughly chinese style of architecture...
'let us in everything unsinful become Chinese, that by all means we may save some. let us adopt their costume, acquire their language, study to imitate their habits and approximate to their diet as far as health and constitution will allow. let us live in their houses, making no unnecessary alterations to external appearance and only so far modifying internal arrangements as attention to health and efficiency for work absolutely require.
'our present experience is proving the advantage of this course. we do find that we are influencing the chinese around us in a way which we could not otherwise have done. we are daily coming into contact with them, not in one point, but in many; and we see the people becoming more or less influenced by the spirit, piety and earnestness of some of those labouring among them. but this cannot be attained without some temporary inconvenience, such as the sacrifice of some articles of diet. knives and forks, plates and dishes, cups and saucers, must give place to chopsticks, native spoons and basins (and food)...
'in chinese dress, the foreigner, though recognized as such, escapes the mobbing and crowding to which, in many places, his own costume would subject him. in preaching, while his dress attracts less notice his words attract more.he can purchase articles of dress and also get them washed and repaired without difficulty and at a trifling expense in any part of the country.
these were the ideas, and this was the vision, that inspired H and maria in their work. in directing the mission, H shied away from drawing up lists of rules and regulations. but he passionately believed that the Chinese would only be won for Christ if those from the west who brought them the gospel understood and respected their ancient culture. he expected the cheerful cooperation of his fellow workers in the task.
212 ...not everyone agreed with this strategy. william berger pleaded with Taylor to consolidate what had already been achieved, but most of the team in china agreed with his vision of expansion H expressed his thought well in a poem.
who spoke of rest? there is rest above.
no rest on earth for me. on, onto do
my Father's business. He, who sent me here,
Appointed me my time on earth to bide,
and set me all my work to do for Him,.
He will supply me with sufficient grace -
grace to be doing, to be suffering,
not to be resting. there is rest above.
214 the christian gospel's emphasis on the individual was at odds with the chinese ethic that the family was above the individual. might not person conversion undermine the very fabric of society? the act of preaching was often seen as an insult, for the preacher assumed the position of a teacher,
215 and who could teach the scholars? and didn't christian preachers challenge chinese ancestral practices and deny the truth and validity of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism?..
232 throughout the summer of 1869 HT's morale was low. irritability was his 'daily hourly failure', and sometimes he even wondered whether someone so dogged by failure could be a christian at all. long periods of separation from maria added to his inner tension and a bout of severe illness in august, probably pneumonia, didn't help.
with all this went a sense of need. he saw that both he himself and the CIM needed more holines, life and power. he believed the personal need was greater: 'I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God.
he prayed, he agonized, he fasted, he tried to do better, he made resolutions. he read the bible more carefully, he ordered his life to give more time for rest and meditation. but all this had little effect. 'every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. i knew that if only I could ABIDE in Christ all would be well, but I COULD NOT. I began the day with prayer, determined
not to take my mind off Him for a moment; but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget Him. then one's nerves get so fretted
233 in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control. each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack of power. to will was indeed present with me, but how to perform I found not.
he began to ask himself a series of questions: is there no rescue? must it be thus to the end - constant conflict and, instead of victory, too often defeat? how can i preach with sincerity that to those who receive Jesus, 'to them gave He power to become the sons of God' (ie. Godlike) when it is not in my experience.
instead of growing spiritually stronger, he seemed to be growing weaker and giving in more to sin. he hated himself, he hated his sin. ' I felt I was a child of God: His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, 'Abba, Father': but to rise to my privileges as a child I was utterly powerless...I began to think that, perhaps to make heaven the sweeter, God would not give it down here. I do not think I was striving to achieve it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so and asked Him to give me help and strength; and sometimes I almost believed He would keep and uphold me. but on looking back in the evening, alas! there was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God.
this wasn't his state of mind and spirit every minute or even every day of those summer months. rather, be said, it was a 'too frequent state of soul; that toward which i was tending and which almost ended in despair. and yet never did Christ seem more precious - a Saviour who COULD and WOULD save such a sinner!...and sometimes there were seasons not only of peace but of joy in the Lord. but they were transitory and at best there was a sad lack of power.
throughout the period, he recalled, 'I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out'. with the biblical picture of Christ as the vine (John 15) on his mind, he wrote, 'He was rich, truly, but I was poor; He strong, but I weak. I knew full
234 well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness; but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question.
gradually he began to gain insights which were to bring him through this period. first, he saw that FAITH was the precondition for gaining what he wanted - it was 'the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it my own. but he didn't have this faith. he struggled for it, but it wouldn't come . he tried to exercise it, but in vain. 'seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Saviour - my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. sins committed appeared by as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world - yet I indulged in it. i prayed for faith, but it came not. what was I to do?
the second insight came in the shape of a letter from John McCarthy. H had shared with Mc something of the turmoils through which he was passing and they had often discussed the pursuit of holiness together. T was working in Zhenjiang when Mc's letter arrived. Mc's struggles had echoed those of his leader.
I do wish I could have a talk with you now, about the way of holiness. at the time you were speaking to me about it, it was the subject of all others occupying my thoughts - not from anything I had read, not from what my brother had written even, so much as from a consciousness of failure: a constant falling short of that which i felt should be aimed at; and unrest; a perpetual striving to find some way by which I might continuously enjoy that communion, that fellowship at times so real, but more often so visionary, so far off!...
do you know, dear brother, I now think that this striving, effort, longing, hoping for better days to come, is not the true way to happiness, holiness or usefulness; better, no doubt far better, than being satisfied with
235 our poor attainments, but not the best way after all. I have been struck with a passage from a book of yours left here, entitled Christ is all. it says:
'the Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete.
'this (grace of faith) is the chain which binds the soul to Christ and makes the saviour and the sinner one...A channel is now formed by which Christ's fulness plenteously flows down. the barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem...One life reigns throughout the whole.
'they who most deeply feel that they have died in Christ and paid in Him sin's penalties, ascend to highest heights of godly life. he is most holy who has most of Christ within and joys most fully in the finished work. it is defective faith which clogs the feet and causes many a fall.
this last sentence I think I now fully endorse. to let my loving Saviour work in me His will, my sanctification is what I would live for by His grace. abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the love of an almighty Saviour, in the conscious joy of a complete salvation 'from all sin' (this is His Word); willing that His will should truly be supreme - this is not new, and yet 'tis new to me. i feel as if the first dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy. may he lead us into the realization of His unfathomable fulness. how then to have our faith increased/ only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all He is for us: His life, His
236 death, His work. He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need: a resting in the Lord One entirely, for time and for eternity.
H T put Mc's letter down and later recalled, 'as I read I saw it all! 'if we believe not, He abideth faithful. i looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed! ) that He had said, 'I will never leave you'. Ah, there is rest! I thought, I have striven in vain to rest in Him I'll strive no more. for has He not promised to abide with me -- never to leave me, never to fail me?
that day. T shared Mc's letter with the others who were staying in the CIM house in Zhenjiang. emily blatchley wrote in her journal, 'he too has now received the rest of soul that Jesus gave me some little time ago.
in the next few days, H T continued to reflect on the subject. god gave him new insights and clarified his thinking. 'as I thought of the vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured into my soul! how great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap, the fulness OUT of Him. I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that i was a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. the vine now I see, is not the root merely, but all - root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is oil and sunshine, air and showers and 10,000 times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth!
'...it is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Saviour; to be a member of Christ! think what it involves...
'the sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the REST which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything
237 as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His WILL and His will is mine.
...'I cannot say (I am sorry to have to confess it) that since I have seen this light I have not sinned; but I do feel there was no need to have done so. and further - walking more in the light, my conscience has been more tender; sin has been instantly seen, confessed, pardoned; and peace and joy (with humility) instantly restored...
'faith, I now see, is the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for', and not mere shadow. it is not LESS than sight, but MORE. sight only shows the outward forms of things; faith gives the substance. you can REST on substance, FEED on substance. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith (ie. His Word of Promise credited) is POWER indeed, is LIFE indeed. and Christ and sin will not dwell together; nor can we have His presence with love of the world, or carefulness about 'many things.
when he visited Yangzhou, one of the first people H T spoke to was charles judd. judd, who had joined the CIM the previous year through the influence of Dr. Barnardo, was recovering from an illness.
Oh, Mr Judd, T said, walking up and down the room as he so often did with his hands behind his back, '
God has made me a new man! God has made me a new man! I have not got to MAKE myself a branch, the Lord Jesus tells me I AM a branch. I am PART OF HIM, and have just to believe it. if I go to shanghai, having an account, and ask for 50 dollars, the clerk cannot refuse it to my outstretched had and say that it belongs to mr T. what belongs to Mr T my hand may take. it is a member of my body. and I am a member of Christ and may take all I need of His fullness. I have seen it long enough in the Bible, but I BELIEVE it now as a living reality.
'He was a joyous man now, Judd wrote, a bright happy christian. he had been a toiling, burdened one before, with latterly not much rest of soul. it was resting in Jesus now and letting Him do the work - which makes all the difference! whenever he spoke in meetings after that a new
238 power seemed to flow from him, and in the practical things of life a new peace possessed him. troubles did not worry him as before.
since 1868, The Revival magazine in britain had been publishing a series of articles on holiness by R Pearsall Smith, whose thinking was one of the main influences giving rise to the Keswick Convention meetings. copies of the magazine reached every CIM station in china during 1869; this almost certainly explains Emily Blatchley's comment that Taylor had 'received the same rest of soul that Jesus gave me some little time ago. 'the exchanged life and 'union with Christ' came to sum up the CIM thinking.
the bergers (in charge of CIM operations in england) who were familiar with The Revival articles, expressed reservations about overstressing the passive, receptive aspect of holiness; they under lined the need for active resistance to evil and of effort to obey God in his books a few years later, Bishop Ryle was also to correct what he considered the imbalance of the Keswick teaching. but there is no evidence that HT and his colleagues in china were deficient in effort or active service.
244 ...reflecting on Maria's death, william berger wrote, 'hers was indeed a useful life. to us its prolongation appeared necessary, for her dear husband's sake , the children's and the work's . but the Lord saw differently. her knowledge of the chinese customs, their language and modes of though was at once comprehensive and intimate; and at the very time of her last illness she was engaged in writing and correcting important works for the press. she is gone; she has ceased from her labours; she sleeps in Jesus. her sun went down while yet in its meridian and the place on earth which knew her, which she so efficiently and untiringly filled, will know her again no more. it remains for us to imitate so bright an example
in Robert White's home high above zhenjiang with a grand view of the yangzi, H T sat alone with his thoughts. he wrote: 'a few months ago, my house was full, now so silent and lonely - Samuel, Noel,(two of their children who also recently died of illnesses), my precious wife with Jesus; the elder children far, far away and even little Charles in Yangzhou. often, of late years, has duty called me from my loved ones, but i have returned and so warm has been the welcome. now I am alone. can it be that there is no return from this journey, no home-gathering to look forward to! is it real, and not a sorrowful dream, that those dearest to me lie beneath the cold so? Ah, it is indeed true. but not more so than that there is a homecoming awaiting me which no parting shall break into...'I go to prepare a place for you'. is not one part of the preparation the peopling it with those we love?
he wrote to Jennie Faulding, thanking her for her letter of sympathy: 'the more I feel how utterly i am bereaved, and how helpless and useless I am rendered, the more I joy in her joy and in the fact of her being beyond the reach of sorrow. but i cannot help sometimes feeling, oh! so weary...My poor heart would have been overwhelmed and broken, had I not been taught more of His fullness and indwelling...I am not far from her whom I have loved so long and
245 so well; and she is not far from me. soon we shall be together...Goodnight. and then he seems to have remembered that Jennie was single for he added, 'Jesus is your portion...Yours affectionately in Him, J Hudson Taylor.
'from my inmost soul, H wrote to his mother 10 days after maria's death, 'I delight in the knowledge that God does or deliberately permits ALL things and causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.
'He and He only, knew what my dear wife was to me. He knew how the light of my eyes and the joy of my heart were in her...but He saw that it was good to take her; good indeed for her and in His love he took her painlessly; and not less good for me who must henceforth toil and suffer alone - yet not alone, for God is nearer to me than ever.
252 in october, Hudson and Jennie Taylor arrive back in china, at first making their home in hangzhou. J took John mc's place as the overseer of the church there and H made plans to visit the cities south of Hangzhou after christmas.
in april 1873, jennie gave birth to stillborn twins. it was typical of her resilience tht she wrote to her mother, 'it was a very anxious time for H. she now looked forward to moving to Yangzhou in mid-may and making it their base in china.
T's plan was that much of the work in hanghou should now be done by chinese christians. this was typical of his overall strategy: he wanted to make the CIM's work more and more, as he put it, NATIVE AND INTERIOR with as few foreign workers as possible. his eventual aim was to have one superintendent and two assistant foreign missionaries in a province, with chinese helpers in each important city, and colporteurs (Bible distributors) in the less important places. he hoped that before the end of `873 he would be able to open a college to train chinese workers.
he was delighted to find that chinese christians were growing more and more efficient in the work of evangelism and church building and had no doubt that the future of the church in china lay with them. 'I look on all us foreign missionaries as a platform work round a rising building, he wrote. 'the sooner it can be transferred to other places, to serve the same temporary purpose, the better for the work sufficiently forward to dispense with it, and the better for the places yet to be evangelized. this approach remains a keystone of missionary strategy today.
257 Oh! my dear brother, T wrote to treasurer John Challice, 'the joy of KNOWING the LIVING God, of resting on the LIVING God...I am but His agent; He will look after His own honour, provide for His own servants, supply all our need according to His own riches, you helping by your prayers and work of faith and labour of love.
258 ..for his first birthday after their marriage, Jennie presented H with a new Baxter polyglot Bible. he began, as usual, to note the dates as he read it through. on a blank page at the end, he wrote in pencil:
January 27th, 1874. asked God for 50 to 100 additional native evangelists and as many foreign superintendents as may be needed to open up 4 fu (prefectures) and 48 xian (counties) still unoccupied in Zhejiang. also for the men to break into the 9 unoccupied also for the men to break into the 9 unoccupied provinces.
263 one donor to the mission, appropriately named Mrs Rich, wrote to say she had heard CIM missionaries were frequently so poor that they had to give up the work and take secular employment.
HT replied swiftly, asking mrs Rich to show her informant his reply. 'He has been entirely misled...I do not believe that any child or member of the family of anyone connected with our mission has evr lacked food or raiment for a single hour, though in many cases the supply may not have come BEFORE it was needed.
'NO ONE has been hindered in work by lack of funds; NO ONE has ever suffered in health from this cause; NO ONE has ever left the mission on this ground or has remained dissatisfied on this score, to my knowledge...' he conceded that there had been 'periods of stringency' but argued that these had stirred up the chinese to give their own money to sp5read the gospel, rather than thinking that rich societies could do it all. he explained why various members of the mission had left or been dismissed - in no case for financial reasons. mrs Rich resumed her support.
265 foreigners were now guaranteed safe travel throughout china, providing they held a passport. within 4 months of the signing of the Convention, CIM missionaries had entered 6 new provinces, travelling to parts of china never before reached by foreigners. the young missionaries met a mixture of friendliness and hostility. 'the women, recorded Henry Taylor, on a journey to honan, 'go in, heart and soul, for idolatry, as you know, but still find their hearts unsatisfied and their minds in a maze.
within a month T's box of documents turned up in Zhenjiang and from then on he was fully stretched. 'I have 4 times the amount of work i can do, he complained. Charles Fishe had gone home on furlough and there was no one else to take his place as secretary to the CIM in china. then there was the work of editing China's millions.
at the end of the day - or sometimes at 2 or3 am -H would sit down at his harmonium and play his favourite hymns, usually getting round to:
Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.
on one occasion, george nicol was with him when a pile of letters brought news of dangers and problems facing a number of missionaries. T leaned against his desk to read them and began to whistle JESUS, I AM RESTING, RESTING.
'how can you whistle, when our friends are in such danger? Nicol asked.
'suppose I were to sit down here and burden my heart with all these things; that wouldn't help them and it would unfit me for the work I have to do. I have just to roll the burden on the Lord.
271 ...his son Howard commented some years later, 'he prayed about things as if everything depended upon the praying...but he worked also, as if everything depended on the working.
290 'when God's grace is triumphant in my soul, T said at the Shanxi meetings, and I can look a chinaman in the face and say, 'GOD IS ABLE TO SAVE YOU, WHERE AND AS YOU ARE', that is when i have power. how else are you going to deal with a man under the craving for opium? the cause of want of success is very often that we are only half saved ourselves. if we are fully saved and confess it, we shall see results...
'let us feel that everything that is human, everything
291 outside the sufficiency of Christ, is only helpful in the measure in which it enables us to bring the soul to Him. if our medical missions draw people to us, and we can present to them the Christ of God, medical missions are a blessing; but to substitute medicine for the preaching of the gospel would be a profound mistake, if we put schools or education in the place of spiritual power to change the heart, it will be a profound mistake. if we get the idea that people are going to be converted by some educational PROCESS, instead of by a regenerative recreation, it will be a profound mistake. let all our auxiliaries by auxiliaries - means of bringing Christ and the soul into contact - then we may be truly thankful for them all...let us exalt the glorious gospel in our hearts and believe that IT is the power of God unto salvation. let everything else SIT AT ITS FEET ...We shall never be discouraged if we realize that in Christ is our Sufficiency.
292 ..'God was to him a tremendous reality. constantly and in everything he dealt with God, in a very real way he dealt with SATAN too. his conflicts with the evil one at time were such that he would give himself for days to fasting and prayer. even when travelling, i have known him fast a whole day over some difficult matter that needed clearing up. that was always his resource - FAST AND PRAY.
294 'we shall read from Philippians chapter three, T began. as he read the chapter through he seemed to place particular emphasis on verses seven and eight. 'that things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. yes doubtless and i count all things loss for Christ. yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may will Christ...
WHAT WE GIVE UP FOR CHRIST WE GAIN (my own) T said in his talk, AND WHAT WE KEEP BACK IS OUR REAL LOSS...(my own)
299 (note - when HT was on leave in england) ..'and now, if this principle of taking everything to God and accepting everything from God is a true one - and I think the experience of the China Inland Mission proves that it is - ought we not to bring it to bear more and
300 more in daily life? the Lord's will is that His people should be an unburdened people, fully supplied,strong, healthy and happy...shell we not determine to be 'careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving' bring those things that would become burdens or anxieties to God in prayer and live in His perfect peace?
...'I have not known what anxiety is since the Lord taught me that the work is His. MY GREAT BUSINESS IN LIFE IS TO PLEASE GOD. (mine) walking with Him in the light, I never feel a burden.
a friend wrote to T from Ireland: 'I have had conversations with 3 people, all of them christians, who seem to have received a new thought at your meetings - as if God really MEANS WHAT HE SAYS when He gives us His promises.
313 ..1888...'we are passing through wave after wave of trial, T wrote. 'each day has its full quota. God seems daily to be saying, 'can you say, 'even so, Father, to THAT? but He sustains and will sustain the spirit, however much the flesh may fail. our house has been a hospital; it is now an asylum. all that this means the Lord only knows...the night and day strain are almost unbearable...but I know the Lord's ways are all right and i would not have them otherwise.
on top of all this, some members of the London Council and other friends of the mission in england were disagreeing with what had happened in America. (note - as i recall, HT had gone to America with the firm thought of not having an American 'chapter' of the CIM there and while there he reversed himself 100% behind this new expansion) in reply to criticism, T wrote to one member of the Council telling him that he would be glad to have his views on the American question but pointing out that without visiting America it was difficult fully to understand the issue. 'I should have been as fearful as you are, if I had not been there...I purposely made all the arrangements tentative, pending my return to england and having opportunity for full conference about them. he told Jennie, 'Satan is simply raging. He sees his kingdom attacked all over the land and the conflict is awful. but that our Commander is Almighty, I should faint. I think I never knew anything like it, though we have passed through some trying times before.
he had been separated from Jennie for many months now. he wrote: 'I feel sometimes, dearie, as if the charm and even power of life were taken out of me by these long absences from you...Hope deferred makes the heart sick...but I cannot shake it off. longing removes the power of thought...the cross does not get more comfortable, does it? but it bears sweet fruit.
perhaps the fruit he had in mind was the spiritual life of the mission. he spoke of it as 'higher than ever before' and reported conversions to Christ in a number of areas.
trials hitting the mission and his own daughter's acute mania, naturally tested John Stevenson: 'I never went through such a distressful period; everything seemed crowded into
314 those terrible months. i do not know what we would have done without Mr T; but oh, the look on his face at times! the special day of fasting and prayer was a great help. we never found it to fail. in all our troubles, in all our forward movements, in times of need, whether as to funds or spiritual blessing, we always had recourse to fasting and prayer and with a quick response.
...T decide that tensions at home were too serious to deal with by letter. he hadn't achieved half he'd intended to on this visit - but Mary Stevenson was recovering and plans for the new CIM premises in Wusong Road, Shanghai, were complete and with the builder. a mission house, prayer meeting hall, business quarters and homes for senior mission staff were to be built . T had spent hundreds of hours working on the plans and pretty well knew by heart the measurement of every door and window.
he arrived back in england in may 1889. to his great relief he was able to report to John Stevenson, 'I do not think things have been so cordial for years. in all this there is abundant cause for gratitude and praise. however, tensions between the London and China Councils and complaints about T's leadership style were to rumble on for years. H
315 H and Jennie celebrated Jennie's 46th birthday on sunday Oct. 6..at her father's home in Hastings. on another sunday by the sea 24 years before, H T had committed his life to God for the evangelization of inland china. now he reflected on the words of Jesus recorded in Mark 156.15, 'God ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. until that day in Hastings he had never asked himself the question: 'what did our Lord REALLY mean by TO EVERY CREATURE? he'd worked for years carrying the gospel far and wide; he'd never realized the plain meaning of Christ's words.
'how are we going to treat the Lord Jesus with reference to this command? he wrote that sunday. 'shall we definitely drop the title 'Lord' as applied to Him and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as our Saviour, so far as the penalty of our sin is concerned, but are not prepared to own ourselves 'bought with a price' or Him as having any claim on our unquestioning obedience? what we say that we are our own masters, willing to yield something as His due, who bought us with his blood, provided He does not ask too much? our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His: we will give Him what we think fit and obey any of His requirements that do not demand too great a sacrifice? to be taken to heaven by Jesus Christ we are more than wiling, but we will not have this man to REIGN over us.
'the heart of every christian will undoubtedly reject the proposition,so formulated; but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though it were proper ground to take? how few of the Lord's peo-ple have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either LORD OF ALL, or
NOT LORD AT ALL! if we can judge God's Word, instead of being judged by that Word; if we an give to God as much or as little as we like, then WE are lords and He is the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole and obliged by our compliance with His wishes. if , on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such.
316 so HT made his decision. a definite, systematic effort must be made to carry the good news of the gospel to EVERY man, woman and child in china. that was Christ's command. it should be obeyed. this was how it could be done: if a 1000 evangelists each taught 250 people a day. but many years earlier he and William Burns had used methods which enabled them to do just that. he well understood that his calculation took no account of the work being done by more than a 1000 missionaries already in china; or of the immense work being done by chinese christians, which he knew would become increasingly important and effective.
another objection might be that at the end of Matthew's gospel the command was not just to preach but also to baptize and instruct - 'teaching them to observe all thins whatsoever I have commanded you. that was why so many missionaries were busy with schools work and in building up chinese churches. T recognized this and counted it a vital part of the work of the CIM. what he was suggesting was a new initiative in addition to the variety of work already being carried on.
so T prepared for the december edition of China's Millions a paper headed 'To Every Creature, arising from the insights and vision had given him at hastings. his target audience was the whole christian church, not just the CIM and its supporters. he argued for urgent action on 4 fronts.
first, prayer for 1000 evangelists for china;
second, 'united, simultaneous action by the whole body' of christians;
third, intelligent cooperation to avoid neglect in one region or duplication in another;
fourth, sacrificial giving by churches and individuals in support of their missions.
318 ...when T finally addressed the large audience in Shanghai drawn from all the protestant societies working in china, he spoke for an hour and departed from his prepared address with a passage on the power of the Holy spirit. this was to be one of his greatest themes during the closing
319 year of his life.
'if as an organized conference, we were to set ourselves to obey the command of the Lord to the full, we should have such an outpouring of the Holy spirit, such a Pentecost as the world has not seen since the Holy Spirit was outpoured in Jerusalem. God gives His Spirit not to those who desire to be filled always - but He DOES give His Holy spirit 'to them that OBEY Him'. if as an act of obedience we were to determine that every district, every town, every village, every hamlet in this land should hear the gospel and that speedily and were to set about doing it, I believe that the spirit would come down in such mighty power that we should find supplies springing up we know not how. we should find the fire spreading from missionary to flock and our native fellow workers and the whole Church of God would be blessed. god gives His Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. let us see to it that we really apprehend what His command to us is, now in the day of our opportunity -this day of the remarkable openness of the country, when there are so many facilities, when God has put steam and telegraph at the command of His people for the quick carrying out of His purposes...
'it would only take 25 evangelists to be associated with each society to give us 1000 additional workers.
the conference closed by issuing an appeal for a 1000 men within 5 years for all forms of missionary work in china including teachers and medics. it was a weighty appeal, coming as it did from the leaders of English, American and European societies. T was appointed chairman of the committee set up to report the outcome.
345 back home that summer, funds for the general purposes of the mission were low. T prayed and worked, taking
346 on a heavy load of meetings which eventually damaged his health. a severe bout of neuralgia and headaches forced him to accept his doctor's advice.
'take a complete rest. leave the running of the mission to others for several months.
so H and Jennie travelled to Davos in switzerland. the best tonic, over and above the healthy effect of the mountain air, was news of an answer to their prayers. J T Morton, a London wholesaler and merchant, had given 10,000 pounds to the mission's general fund.
within a few days of making this generous donation morton died. on their return to England, H and Jennie learned the contents of M's will. he had left the CIM a quarter of his estate, a share which would amount to at least 100,00 pounds! the legacy was to be used for evangelistic and educational work and would be paid in installments of 10 to 12,000 pounds a year for 10 years.
this gift represented a major transformation of the CIM's financial position, especially bearing in mind the value of money at that time and the purchasing power of the pound sterling in China. we should multiply the amount by 50 to appreciate its equivalent value today.
T saw that the donation could prove a mixed blessing. it might reduce the mission's sense of dependence on God, and cause difficulties at the end of the period when new initiative financed on the strength of the money would have to continue. he had no doubt that the gift was form God in answer to prayer, but it would be useless unless it went hand in hand with an increase in spiritual power, faith and prayer. he linked it in his mind with the prayers he had been bringing to God for 8 years - that christians from all over the world would support taking the good news of Jesus TO EVERY CREATURE in china.
H and Jennie sailed via America for china in november 1897, planning to do all they could to add impetus to evangelistic efforts in every province of the Empire.
349 ..for some months after arriving in Shanghai for his 10th visit to china, T was virtually confined to his room with another bout of illness. ..'Ah, how much pains the Lord takes to empty us and to show us He can do without us! T wrote to (AT) Pierson..(who had suffered a serious illness.)
...1898...first CIM martyr, Australian William Fleming..
350 the conference gave T a chance to meet and hold discussions with Bishop Cassels and other leaders of the CIM's work in Sichuan. but he had to abandon plans to visit other western mission stations, partly due to an outbreak of rioting in the area but also because the 66 year old T became very ill with bronchitis and seemed likely to die. Jennie nursed him night and day, holding on to god in faith that he would recover. then, in the quiteness of another room, she knelt to pray.
Lord, we can do nothing! do what You will. Undertake for us.
H knew nothing of Jennie's prayer, but when she returned to his room he looked up.
'I feel better, dear, he whispered.
from that moment he began to regain his strength....
H spent long hours that summer praying for the Forward Movement...despite his illnesses, T attended all but one of the
351 8 meeting of the China Council ..between January 1898 and September 1899. then (they)sailed..
3500 people filled every seat in the vast Carnegie Hall, New York, for the Ecumenical Missionary Conference in april 1900. large overflow meetings allowed the public to join the nearly 1900 official delegates from over 100 missionary societies. ...
the subject of HT's address had been billed as 'The source of power for foreign missionary work. now a month away from his 68th birthday, he sat on the platform with the most distinguished men in the missionary world. as he waited to speak he looked out into the great auditorium with its 2 tiers of boxes and 3 circular galleries. he stepped forward, characteristically stood a moment in silent prayer, then he raised his head and smiled briefly.
'Power belongeth unto God, he began.
...'as he begins to speak, his voice takes on a kindly, compassionate quality. a hush which can be felt falls on the vast audience. old and experienced leaders in missionary service, seated on the platform, lean forward to catch the quiet words.
T continued..'we have tried to do, many of us, as much good as we felt we could easily do, or conveniently do, but there is a wonderful power when the love of god in the heart raises us to this point that we are ready to suffer and with paul we desire to know Him in the power of His resurrection ( which implies the death of self) and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to his death. it is ever true that WHAT COSTS LITTLE IS WORTH LITTLE (mine)...
Frost recalled: 'the people in the body of the house are deeply moved. and all through the audience, hearts are opened to the Lord, spirits become eager to be and to do what God desires and resolutions are formed to give and go. over 30 years later, Frost still met men and women who told him that HT's address that morning radically changed their lives.
...series of meetings in boston with Dr ATPierson, now fit again after his illness. at one of these T seemed to lose his train of thought and began to repeat two sentences over and over again:
YOU MAY TRUST THE LORD TOO LITTLE, BUT YOU CAN NEVER TRUST HIM TOO MUCH. (mine) ...
T's doctor son, Howard, described the illness which followed as a 'rather serious breakdown'...his later biographer AJBroomhall says that the 'breakdown was physical exhaustion sapping his memory and mental ability. the American visit had to be cut short and H and Jennie arrived back in London in june 1900.
353 ...since H and Jennie had left china, in september 1899, the political situation had deteriorated. the country's defeat by japan, the seizure of ports by european powers, the beginning of railway construction by foreigners, fear that the Empire would be partitioned by European powers, bitter feeling against some missionaries and outbreaks of famine all contributed to a growing sense of unrest. the hostility to missionaries was stirred up, as so often, by rumors about cruel and immoral practices and disturbance of cherished customs.
the Empress Dowager ordered local militia units to stand ready to defend the country; becuse these units practised gymnastic exercises they became know as 'Boxers'. the units began to adopt the slogan mie yang, 'Destroy the foreigner'; they were joined by undisciplined mobs, became associated with secret societies and indulged in charms and occult practices which they believed would protect them from enemy weapons.
by the end of 1899, Boxer bands began to persecute christians with little discouragement from provincial authorities. on the last day of the year an english missionary from the society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts was murdered. the British authorities protested vigorously and succeeded in having several men punished. in June 1900 the Empress Dowager, ignoring more moderate counsel from some advisers and against the wishes of her son the Emperor, issued an edict ordering foreigners to be killed throughout the Empire. thus china pitted herself against the rest of the world.
354 although the Boxer uprising of 1900 was as much anti-foreign as anti-christian, missionaries and chinese converts to Christ became the chief sufferers. missionaries were more widely scattered outside the ports than other foreigners; and the Boxers dubbed Chinese Christians 'secondary devils', believing them to be traitors against their country and its culture.
violence was much worse in the northeast than in many other parts. this was partly because many chinese officials tried to protect foreigners, realizing how foolish it was for their country to take on the western world. in fact moderate officials managed to alter the words of the imperial order from 'whenever you meet a foreigner you must slay him' to 'you must protect him' in the telegrams sent to may provinces...
356 ..away from the northeast, the most severe persecution was in Zhejiang, south of shanghai. here the telegram ordering the extermination of foreigners seems to have come through unaltered. after hesitating, the governor published it, although he soon withdrew it. but at Qu Xian a mob killed the magistrate for striving to protect foreigners and went on to massacre 11 members of the CIM.
in other provinces, no protestant missionaries died. most of them seem to have taken the consuls' advice and made their way to the treaty ports. many churches and chapels were destroyed and chinese christians roughly handled, but comparatively little blood was shed.
altogether in china, over 130 protestant missionaries and over 50 of their children died. the CIM lost 58 missionaries and 21 children. the total number of chinese protestants killed may have approached 2000.
some attempt was made at first to keep the full story of the Boxer massacres from a very weak HT, convalescing in Davos. but it was inevitable that he eventually learned the tragic news contained in a succession of telegrams from china. still in the state of mental and physical exhaustion which had broken him down in America, he said 'I CANNOT READ ; I CANNOT THINK; I CANNOT EVEN PRAY; BUT I CAN TRUST. (mine)
Jennie sent a letter to china in july, part of which read: 'day and night our thoughts are with you all. my dear husband says 'i would do all I could to help them: and our heavenly Father, who has the power, WILL do for each one according to His wisdom and love. when some of the worst news arrived in the middle of august, T was so weak that he could hardly cross the room unaided; his pulse rate fell to only 40 per minute.
358 when it was all over, western countries agreed that the chinese government shold pay missionary societies and chinese christians a total of 450,000,000 taels (nearly 70,000,000pounds ) in compensation. at first HT believed that it would be right to refuse compensation for loss of life, but to accept it for mission premises and property. later after the London and China Councils discussed it, the CIM decided not to claim anything nor accept any compensation even if it was offered. they wanted to show the chinese 'the meekness and gentleness of Christ. this became the firm policy of the CIM, which had suffered more than any other society. individuals, however, could accept compensation for personal losses if they wished. some criticised the decision, but the British Foreign office approved of it and the British Minister in Beijing sent a private gift of 100 pounds to the CIM and expressed his admiration and sympathy.
..the heroism and steadfastness shown by both Roman Catholic and protestant missionaries in china during the Boxer uprising can hardly be praised too highly. not one missionary attempted to recant or wavered in the face of death. and none of the letters written by CIM members at this time reveal any bitterness against the men of violence or any thought of revenge.
359 the majority of chinese converts also remained true to their faith when a simple act of compromise could have saved their lives. some non-christian chinese officials also, at risk of imperial displeasure and sometimes at the cost of their lives, protected foreignersin their areas and helped others to escape.
'I have been writing to some relative of those we have lost, T said towards the end of 1900, 'to comfort them in their sorrow and to my surprise they forgot their own bereavement in sympathizing with me. in fact 300 members of the mission wrote to him from shanghai expressing sympathy at the news of his illness. he replied in december `900:
'as we have read over your signatures one by one we have thanked God for sparing you to us and to china. the sad circumstances through which we have all suffered have been permitted by god for His glory and our good and when He has tried us and our native brethren He will doubtless reopen the work at present closed, under more favourable circumstances than before.
'we thank god for the grace given to those who have suffered. it is a wonderful honour He has put upon us as a mission to be trusted with so great a trial, and to have among us so many counted worthy of a martyr's crown. some who have been spared have perhaps suffered more than some of those taken and our Lord will not forget. how much it has meant to us to be so far from you in the hour of trial we cannot express, but the throne of grace has been as near to us here as it would have been in china.
'when the resumption of our work in the interior becomes possible we may find circumstances changed, but the principles we have proved, being founded on His own unchanging Word, will be applicable as ever. may we all individually learn the lessons God would teach and be prepared by His Spirit for any further service to which He may call us while waiting for the coming of our Lord.
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