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O' man greatly beloved
This week's meditation is entitled, 'O' man greatly beloved'. This was the title the Chinese Christians gave to James Hudson Taylor on the occasion of his 73rd birthday in Henan on his last visit to China. This title was written on a scarlet satin banner and presented to him by the Chinese brethren. Eight days later James Hudson Taylor passed into glory in Changsha and was buried by the side of Maria and his four children. Thus ended the life of a remarkable man who was certainly greatly loved and immensely used by God. What was his secret and by what power did he live his life? In this short time we will try to compress 73 years of a rich and fruitful life so as to teach us as well as spur us on to a life in Christ.
The foundations of faith We shall begin our meditation by looking at his years of foundation. We believe that the manifestation of a life is dictated very much by what was implanted at the very beginning. James Hudson Taylor's character shows the kind of upbringing he received. He was born on May 21st, 1832 to James Taylor and Amelia Hudson. His father and mother were Methodist. His father was a chemist in Barnsley. Great grandfather James Taylor had once hosted John Wesley who stayed in their home during one of his preaching tours in that district of Barnsely. From the beginning, Hudson Taylor as child had already nursed an ambition to go to China as a missionary. He would say, 'When I am a man I mean to be a missionary and go to China. This ambition no doubt had its roots in his father's interest in China, when he would slip in as a matter of interest, facts about China and its people during their lessons of French, Latin and Arithmetic.
At 11 years old he started school but only stayed for 2 years of formal schooling. At 15 he became a junior clerk at a Bank. He came to know Christ at the age of 17 quite by accident. One day he happened to pick up a gospel tract and read quietly that afternoon. Unknown to him, his mother was also praying for him during this time. She had made up her mind not to leave her prayer closet until her prayers were answered. She emerged with an assurance that he will indeed come to know Him as Lord and Savior.
As Hudson Taylor read the tract he became intensely aware of his own sin and the dangers of doing nothing about it. When he finally committed his life to the Lord he was conscious of Christ redeeming work for him. Like as if a flash of light flooded into his soul and that there was nothing in the world to be done except to fall down on his knees, he received Christ into his heart. On returning home he disclosed the good news to his mother, and she rejoiced with him. In later year she will tell him how she too had prayed for him on that afternoon.
As with budding missionaries and for all true children of God, true salvation shows itself in fruitful ministry at the local Church. There were 3 major influences that impinged on his life. The first was that he began to put into practice the teaching that he obtained through reading an article in the Wesleyan magazine entitled, 'The beauty of holiness'. This was to mark him for the rest of his life. The second was in a verse given to him specially when he became a member of the local Church. This verse was from Ezekiel 36:26 where the Lord promised him a heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone. This helped him to be a passionate and kindly person in the face of great and difficult challenges in the latter years of his life. Thirdly, he was given the responsibility to be a counselor among the young people in the Pitt Street Chapel. More than a hundred became Christians under his patient work of witnessing and counsel.
The call to service in China occurred when he was serving and worshipping in this Church. One day he read a book by a missionary called Walter Henry Medhurst whose book 'China: Its state and prospects' made a deep impression on him. However a local minister dissuaded him with these words, 'Ah my boy, as you grow older you will become wiser than that such idea would do very well in the days when Christ himself was on earth but not now.' But Hudson Taylor was not convinced and began to study Chinese, Latin, Greek and Hebrew for the work ahead.
In 1850 he was apprenticed to a Dr. Robert Hardey who practised in Hull to train as a doctor. While working there he began attending a non-exclusive Plymouth Brethren Church and met George Mueller of Bristol. George Mueller will later become a great friend of Hudson Taylor and of the mission he founded as well. We can see the beginnings of a inter-denominational flavor in the work associated with Hudson Taylor where Methodist, Brethren, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Baptist and Independent Churches will come together to work for one common goal.
During this time of apprenticeship he learnt the all important lesson of relying on prayer and faith in a rich God. His experiment was as follows, his salary which was paid to him weekly was usually obtained by reminding his employer of the date of payment. However, Hudson Taylor resolved not to remind his employer of his salary but to pray to God to remind Dr. Robert Hardey of his salary. When he carried this out he found that Dr. Hardey promptly forgot his salary for a number of weeks. And when his crown was given to a needy Irish family, Dr. Hardey remembered in time that his salary was due. But since he did not have the cash, he will delay paying his salary to the following day. Dr. Hardey came back a few minutes after he said this to Hudson Taylor stating that he will pay him his salary as one of the rich patients had decided to give him cash for his services. Hudson Taylor gave thanks to God for being a prayer answering God. This was what he learned, 'When I get to China. 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.'
Also at this point in time, he began to learn to live in a simple way. He substituted the luxury of white bread and butter for brown biscuit and herring, meat for fish, potatoes for peas, and expensive cheese for cheaper cheese. For vegetables, he pickled his own cabbages in vinegar. With cheaper lodgings in a seamier part of town, he was able in this way to tithe 60% of his earnings.
In 1852, he went to London to take his final examinations. While dissecting a corpse, he contracted malignant fever from the corpse. The surgeon who examined Taylor advised with these words, 'Get a hansom, drive home as fast you can, and arrange your affairs, for you are a dead man.' But Hudson Taylor did not become a dead man. As long as he had the Lord's work to do, he was immortal. And this was a lesson he would treasure in his heart. The later years of difficulty and danger would remind him that he was about his father's business and he will certainly live until the will of his father has been accomplished.
Meanwhile events in China was becoming very conducive to missions. The China Society which sponsored his medical studies had put out a call for workers for China. Since the society had decided to sponsor him fully in his medical studies, Hudson Taylor felt that later, this will impose upon him an obligation of full time service with the society that would be hard to break when he wanted to set out on his own. Hence he applied to go to China without completing his final examinations. This China experience will prove to be invaluable as experience gained during this period will guide the formation of the China Inland Mission in later years.
On September 19th, 1853, Hudson Taylor sailed in the Dumfries for China. After a 6 month voyage he reached China on January 13th, 1854. During this period the Taiping Revolution was at its height and civil unrest had made things very difficult for a new missionary. Furthermore, the China Society which sent him now known as Chinese Evangelisation Society or CES was inept in their supplying his physical and emotional needs. The reasons were that communications were not helped by distance as well as that they failed to appreciate the dire situation that young Hudson Taylor was in. Inflation in China during the Taiping revolution had wiped away his meagre resources and that pastoral care and supervision was only through sea-mail with the society in England. In spite of the difficulties, Hudson Taylor settled down to learn Mandarin and managed to distribute tracts in the surrounding countryside.
With another CES missionary Dr. Parker, he itinerated between Shanghai and Ningpo at towns like Songjiang, Jiaoshan and Jiaxin. The first convert Gui Hua was made at Ningpo. All this while as he battled with provision for himself and the newly arrived Dr. Parker as well as facing the challenges that came his way in terms of strategy and methods, he discovered the timeless biblical principle that 'if your need were greater, so would your supply as the God we trust is a limitless God.
Principles of itineration were worked out when he worked with Rev. William Burns, a British Presbyterian. Rev. William Burns was a man of prayer, with an iron frame and a strong will. Before his arrival in China he was responsible as channel of God's revival in Scotland in 1839. He had translated the Pilgrims Progress into Chinese when he arrived and written a number of popular hymns for the Chinese. During their work together along the Grand Canal and at Nanxun south of the Great Lake, Hudson Taylor was to learn three very fundamental principles from him. These were firstly, that God's purposes are worked out in trials that befall us. And that there are no accidents in God's purposes only incidents. Secondly that the work of evangelism is the greatest work for the Church and finally lay evangelists holds the key to Church planting and Church growth. These principles will soon be digested by Hudson Taylor and put into practise in the formation of the CIM.
In 1857 he resigned from the CES and got married to a young girl Maria Dyer whose parents had died in Penang. 1858 sees him as a young independent missionary whose reputation of treating opium addicts successfully was increasing. Their very first child was born in October 1857 but was premature and died. But then they were blessed with another child Grace who was to give them much joy until she died at the age of nine of meningitis and pneumonia. When Hudson Taylor left for England with Maria his wife in 1860 they left behind 21 members in the fledgling Church. All of them were organised in the classical Wesleyan bands with two overseers.
The formation of the Fellowship The formation of the new fellowship which will shortly be known as the China Inland Mission took place when Hudson Taylor was in England. During this time he went back to medical school in London and finished his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons. He was however not idle, during this period of intense work, he finished a Chinese hymnbook, wrote articles on China for a magazine, revised the Ningpo New Testament and fathered three sons. These were Herbert Hudson, Frederik Howard and Samuel. In the latter part of his furlough he completed what was to be the most important tract which will motivate many to consider China. This was 'China: Its spiritual needs and claims' which went through 7 editions.
In 1865 Hudson Taylor struggled with the Lord at Brighton. 'Should he go forward, or content himself with some less ambitious and costly form of Christian service. He had many long and earnest and prayerful conversations with Maria, William Berger, George Pearse and his friends at Tottenham, discussing possibilities and strategies for combining a trustful approach with sound businesslike procedures. For months so many thoughts and concerns were racing around in his mind that he rarely slept for two hours at a time, sometimes not at all. Was he willing to do what God was calling him to do? On the Sunday morning June 25 he heard the Presbyterian preacher J.M. Denniston preach and was moved by what he said. Then as he recalled, 'unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge,' he wandered into the sand at Brighton and there the Lord met Him and conquered his unbelief. There and then he asked for 24 fellow workers two for each of the eleven provinces and two for Mongolia. With this simple setting of the sand, the sea and perhaps his footprints in the sand trailing behind him, the CIM was born which will be borne by the Lord into deep service and sacrifice. The next day a bank account was open with 20 pounds registered to the China Inland Mission.
Six basic principle will under gird the Mission. These will serve as guidelines to missionaries selected on the basis of their spirituality and not on their academic ability alone. These missionaries will be intelligent, educated men and women (although not necessary, the way was open to those with little formal education) but all must have a burning heart to serve Him and Him alone. These missionaries will first be from a multitude of denominations. Up till this time, all mission agencies were denominationally based and were committed to planting Churches with distinct denominational persuasions. Hudson Taylor will plant an interdenominational mission agency.
Secondly there will be no guaranteed salary as each of them were urged to trust in the Lord for all his needs. Incomes will be shared and no debts will be incurred no matter how deep the need and how precarious the situation.
Thirdly there will be no appeals for funds. No public collections were allowed and names of donors were kept anonymous except for a numbered receipt with which donors were able to trace their giving.
Fourthly the administrative and executive centre will be within the sphere of activity. If China was to be the field, then the headquarters will be in China. In fact Shanghai was where the first administrative and executive centre were set up.
Fifthly the strategy of evangelisation, Church planting and training will be systematic and practical. There will be a systematic plan to establish footholds in strategic centres for the evangelisation of the whole empire.
Sixthly, they will blend into the local population by wearing Chinese dress with Churches built according to Chinese style of worship. The mission was very careful in bringing the gospel shorn of all the cultural trappings of western religious society.
With these principles in place Hudson Taylor set sail on May 26th on board the Lammermuir with 18 missionaries on board. Thus began a Faith mission to the Chinese that will last for more than a century until today.
As soon as they landed within the year tragedy struck Hudson Taylor's life. Grace his eldest daughter at the tender age of 9 dies with meningitis. Hudson Taylor's sorrow knew no bounds but as always, he took refuge in the Lord. In a letter to his mother this was what he wrote, 'our dear little Gracie. How I miss her sweet voice in the morning. As I take the walks I used to take with her tripping at my side, the thought comes anew like a throb of agony, 'Is it possible that I shall feel the pressure of that little hand, never hear that sweet prattle of those dear lips, never more to see the sparkle of those eyes? And yet she is not a loss. I would not have her back again...the Gardener came and plucked a rose.'
Within four years, Maria dies too. All in all, China claimed four of his children and his wife. What a tremendous price to pay, and yet Hudson Taylor felt it worth the cost when he saw the cost that the Lord paid for the souls of all creation. However, work goes on apace. The Church that Hudson Taylor started by now had grown to 67 with 4 outpost in the rural districts with 7 full time Chinese evangelist. By 1880, pioneering work began in the Western provinces. By this time the number of missionaries had grown to 96 missionaries with 100 Chinese colleagues scattered over 70 stations with practically every province possessing at least a station. Surveys of the interior were carried in an arduous fashion. For example John McCarthy walked from China (Wuhan) to Burma surveying the villages and districts as he went along. John Stevenson and Henry Soltau walked from Burma (Bahmo) to the Yangtze again surveying the people and their receptivity to the gospel. Every where they found a deep hungering and thirsting after the truth.
In 1885, seven graduates from the University of Cambridge made a commitment to serve in China under the auspices of the CIM. Among these were C.T. Studd the famous cricketeer who would go on in later years to found another equally important mission, the Sudan Inland Mission. In 1887 Hudson Taylor appealed for 100 workers with these ringing words, 'It is not great faith you need but faith in a great God. Depend upon it. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies. And indeed there was no great faith. Hudson Taylor was a diminutive man with no physical charisma to attract people. Yet in depending on a great God, God's will found its way into his hands with tremendous results. At every crisis, a fresh push forward was made to take on the new opportunities presented.
There were costs as well. In addition to his children and wife, a number of missionaries died at the hands of unruly mobs during the boxer revolution. William Fleming was the first martyr in Guizhou. At Xiaoyi, Emily Whitchurch and Edith Searell were killed while kneeling in prayer. Altogether in China over 58 CIM missionaries lost their lives. The total number of Chinese Protestants killed at the same time may have been approached two thousand.
And yet under such circumstances where there was tremendous pressure, Hudson Taylor had learnt that all important lesson of resting in Jesus and abiding in Him. In meditating on John 15 of the relationship between the vine and the branches he came to see that there was not as it were a means whereby the fat resident in the soil, in the root, the stem would be channeled to the vine. It was not the how to get this abundant fatness into the puny little branch that was the question. Rather the grace of faith was the chain which bound the soul to Christ and makes the Savior and sinner one. A channel has now formed by which Christ's fullness plentiously flows down. The barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem...One life reigns throughout the whole. An understanding of this sweet doctrine makes one to be in full identification with Christ and that now the vine is not the roots only but the vine is all...root stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers and fruit. And Jesus is in all that and more. He is in the sunshine, the air and showers. With this fresh understanding Hudson Taylor was able to rest in the fullness of Christ. Amidst the load and the anxiety, he was free. If only we would be able to come to this fresh understanding of what it means to abide in Christ!
Hudson Taylor died in Changsha at the age of 73 years old. As he had labored in the land he loved now he rested from his labors and was buried in the land he loved beside his loved ones who he so graciously sacrificed for China. Indeed we owe a great debt to this man. The history of this world will never be the same again. The repercussions of his life and the faith that he planted will surely ring down the centuries. Perhaps it might save us too in the years to come.
The Challenge of China Eighty nine years has since passed since Hudson Taylor died in China. The Chinese Church has indeed experienced amazing growth. From 100,000 in 1900 its membership rose 7 times as many to 700,000 in 1950. Strong Chinese leaders such as John Sung, Wang Ming Dao, David Yang, Watchman Nee and Andrew Gih has emerged. Now scarcely 49 years from 1950, the numbers have grown to 75,000,000 a 110 times jump in about the same period of from 1900. What has caused such a huge jump in the number of Chinese Christians? Andrew Johnstone in his book entitled Operation World has this to say, 'The growth of the Chinese Church has had no parallels in history. The 140 years of sacrificial seed sowing by thousands of missionaries has been a decisive factor in the huge jump in numbers. The CIM and the vision of this one man has indeed brought tremendous changes to the religious map of East Asia. Starting from that seed faith CIM now changed to OMF continues to follow Hudson Taylor's church planting and church growth principles not just in China but in East Asia as well. Who would have thought that this Barnsley lad would be the crux from which the history of the East would turn. Let us be challenged not just by his achievements but by his life as he sought in his simple way to follow his master and that the master must be taken at his word. Amen
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