Power of Prayer

““prayer and pains with faith in Jesus Christ will do anything.””

http://ref.ly/o/hdsntlrrlyrs/116363 via the Logos Bible Android app.

One Step at a Time

“The future is a ravelled maze,” he wrote to his mother early in September, “but my path has always been made plain just one step at a time. I must wait on God and trust in Him, and all will be well. I think I do love Him more than ever, and long increasingly to serve Him as He directs. I have had some wonderful seasons of soul-refreshing lately, unworthy of them as I have been.”

And to his sister a few days later:

The love of God is indeed wonderful to contemplate. His long-suffering how unbounded! If ever there was one who deserved eternal banishment from His presence, it is I; and yet I have had such melting seasons in prayer, such manifestations of His love, and such strong faith and confidence in Him of late that I have been quite astonished at His abounding grace to one so lukewarm and unfaithful. His grace even exceeds our unworthiness. Can we say more than this? What a happy day it will be when, seeing Him as He is, we shall be made like Him—free from sin and perfect in purity!

Frederick Howard Taylor and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul (Littleton, CO; Mississauga, ON; Kent, TN: OMF Book, 1995), 321.

Sweetness in the Lord in the mists of much toil

Hudson Taylors early missionary experience in China

In addition to working hard at Chinese this summer he was diligently keeping up other studies, medicine and chemistry especially, that he might not lose the benefit of his hospital course. The classics he gave as much time to as possible, and he seems always to have had some useful book on hand dealing with history, biography, or natural science. The following is a typical entry in a journal-letter to his sister:

Before breakfast read Medicine, then Chinese nearly seven hours. After dinner, Greek and Latin exercises, each an hour. After poring over these things till one can scarcely see, it is a comfort to have a fine, clear, large-type Bible, such as Aunt Hardey gave me. It is quite a luxury. Well, all these studies are necessary. Some of them, the classical languages of Europe, ought to have been mastered long ago; so it is now or never with me. But the sweetest duties of the day are those that lead to Jesus—prayer, reading and meditation upon His precious Word.

Summer was now upon them—those hottest months of the year when one lives in a perpetual Turkish bath, and mosquitoes, prickly-heat, and sleeplessness have to be reckoned with, as well as a temperature that for weeks together scarcely falls below 80° F. at night. It is easy to write about it, but who that has not lived through such days and nights can imagine how much grace it takes to bear the discomfort and distress without irritability, and keep on steadily with work when all one’s courage seems needed just to endure.
All through this trying season, however, Hudson Taylor kept up his studies, never falling below his average of five hours at Chinese every day. Once or twice he went into the country with Mr. Burdon, risky as it was to attempt it.

“These are troublous times,” he wrote, “but we must do something.”

And their faith that the Lord would help them was rewarded by the welcome met with from the village people, who were only too glad to see them out again.

“I think I may say I have one friend now,” he added, telling of a happy evening with Mr. and Mrs. Burdon after one such excursion. “But I do not want to go over there too often, as I am only one of his circle and he has a wife for company. I feel the want of a companion very much. The day is spent with my teacher, but my evenings generally alone in writing or study.”

Frederick Howard Taylor and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul (Littleton, CO; Mississauga, ON; Kent, TN: OMF Book, 1995), 221–222.

The Most Important Question

This section from the Hudson Taylor two volume set records his thoughts and feelings as he landed in China for the first time.

Muffled in his heaviest wraps Hudson Taylor paced the deck, doing his best to keep warm and be patient. It was a strange Sunday, this last at sea. For days he had been packed and ready to leave the ship, and hindered by storm and cold from other occupations had given the more time to thought and prayer.

“What peculiar feelings,” he wrote, “arise at the prospect of soon landing in an unknown country, in the midst of strangers—a country now to be my home and sphere of labour. ‘Lo, I am with you alway.’ ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’ Sweet promises! I have nothing to fear, with Jesus on my side.
“Great changes probably have taken place since last we heard from China. And what news shall I receive from England? Where shall I go, and how shall I live at first? These and a thousand other questions engage the mind.… But the most important question of all is, ‘Am I now living as near to God as possible?’ Alas! I am not. My wayward heart, so easily occupied with the things of time and sense, needs continually leading back to the fold from whence it strays. Oh! that my ‘rejoicing’ may be ‘more abundant in Christ Jesus,’ and my ‘conversation’ ever ‘as becometh the Gospel of Christ.’ ”

As afternoon wore on, what were those boats in the distance—looming toward them through the mist? One beat its way up before long, eagerly watched from the Dumfries. Yes, there was no mistaking that picturesque sail and curiously painted hull, nor the faces of the men as they came into sight. There they were, twelve or fourteen of them, blue-garbed, dark-eyed, vociferating in an unknown tongue—the first Chinese Hudson Taylor had ever seen. And how his heart went out to them! Behind the strange, uncouth exterior he saw the treasure he had come so far to seek—the souls for which Christ died.

Frederick Howard Taylor and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul (Littleton, CO; Mississauga, ON; Kent, TN: OMF Book, 1995), 201–202.

Joy in the God of Salvation

“Trusting God does not deprive one of feeling or deaden our natural sensibilities, but it enables us to compare our trials with our mercies and to say, ‘Yet, notwithstanding, I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ It enables us to see … the Refiner watching the fire, and be thankful.
“ ‘Our fathers trusted in Thee … and Thou didst deliver them.’ In Thee, O God, put I my trust.”

Frederick Howard Taylor and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul (Littleton, CO; Mississauga, ON; Kent, TN: OMF Book, 1995), 124.

Praise for the past and future

         We will praise Him for all that is past,
         And trust Him for all that’s to come.

Frederick Howard Taylor and Geraldine Taylor, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul (Littleton, CO; Mississauga, ON; Kent, TN: OMF Book, 1995), 124.

How much should I give God?

“With them it was not a question of how little could be given, but how much. Did the Lord claim the best gift of His own giving?”

http://ref.ly/o/hdsntlrrlyrs/126188 via the Logos Bible Android app.

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