The Faithfulness of God (1874-1877)
It was a memorable day for Hudson Taylor when he set out with Judd tc follow the mighty Yangtze to Hankow, the metropolis of mid-China and the farthest outpost of Protestant missions. Northward, westward, southward of it stretched the nine unopened provinces, from the tropical jungles of Burma to the barren steppes of Mongolia and the snowy ramparts of Tibet.
‘My soul yearns, oh! how intensely,’ he wrote at this time (June 1874), ‘for the evangelisation of the 180 millions of these unoccupied provinces. Oh, that I had a hundred lives to give or spend for their good!’
Not until he had seen Judd in possession of suitable _ quarters at Wuchang across the river from Hankow where the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Mission were already at work did he return to England. Here the need for him was great indeed. Strange and sorrowful was the homecoming in October, to find Emily Blatchley’s place empty, the children scattered, the Saturday prayer meeting discontinued, and the work almost at a standstill. But, even then, the lowest ebb had not been reached. When on his way up the Yangtze a fall had severely shaken Taylor. Extreme pain in the back disabled him for several days, and even when the.ankle was well he still needed the help of crutches. Concussion of the spine often develops slowly; and it was not until he had been at home a week or two that the rush of London life with constant travelling by train and omnibus, began to tell. Then came gradual paralysis of the lower limbs, and the doctor’s verdict that consigned him to absolute rest in bed.
The outlook did not brighten as the year drew to a close. Taylor was less and less able to move and at last could only turn from side to side with the help of a rope firmly fixed above him. At first he had managed to write a little, but now could not even hold a pen. Yet with the dawn of 1875 a little paper found its way into the Christian press entitled:
‘APPEAL FOR PRAYER
On behalf of more than a hundred and fifty millions of Chinese.’
It briefly stated the facts with regard to the nine unopened provinces; that friends of the C.I.M. had long been praying for men to go as pioneer evangelists to these regions; that recently £4,000 had been given for the purpose; and that among the converts in the older stations of the Mission were some from the far interior, who were earnestly desiring to carry the Gospel to the districts from which they had come.
‘Our present, pressing need,’ it continued, ‘is of more missionaries to lead the way. Will each of your Christian readers at once raise his heart to God, and spend one minute in earnest prayer that God will raise up, this year, eighteen suitable men to devote themselves to this work?’
It did not say that the leader of the Mission was to all appearances a hopeless invalid. It did not refer to the fact that the £4,000 recently given had come from his wife and himself, part of their capital, the whole of which they had consecrated to the work of God. It did not mention that for two and a half years they and others had been praying daily for the eighteen evangelists, praying in faith. But those who read the appeal felt the influence of these things and much besides, and were moved as men are not moved by sayings and doings that have not their roots deep in God.
Before long Taylor’s correspondence was _ largely increased, as was also his joy in dealing with it—or in seeing, rather, how the Lord dealt with it and with all else that concerned him.
“The Mission had no paid helpers,’ he wrote of this time, ‘but God led volunteers, without pre-arrangement, to come in from day to day to write from dictation, and thus letters were answered. One of the happiest periods of my life was that period of forced inactivity, when one could do nothing but “rejoice in the Lord” and “wait patiently for him”, and see Him meeting all one’s need. Never were my letters, before or since, kept so regularly and promptly answered.
‘And the eighteen men asked of God began to come. There was first some correspondence; then they came to see me in my room. Soon I had a class studying Chinese at my bedside. In due time the Lord sent them forth, and then dear friends began to pray for my restoration. The Lord blessed the means used and I was raised up. One reason for my being laid aside was gone. Had I been well and able to move about, some might have thought that my urgent appeals rather than God’s working had sent the eighteen men to China. But utterly laid aside, able only to dictate a request for prayer, the answer to our prayers was the more apparent.’
When he was so far recovered that the physicians wished him to sit up for an hour or two daily, he could scarcely find time to do so. Every moment was taken up with interviews, with correspondence through his willing helpers, and with care for the work in China. The weekly prayer meeting was now held in his room, and the Council gathered from time to time at his bedside.
By this time a marked change had come over the spirit of the scene at Pyrland Road. Instead of a deserted house, many were coming and going. The first party of the Eighteen had already sailed, and candidates overflowed all the accommodation available for their reception. Another house, indeed, had to be taken for this purpose, for in answer to the ‘Appeal for Prayer’ published in January, no fewer than sixty offers of service were received during the year. How important Taylor felt it that no hasty decisions should be made may be judged from the following letter used in his correspondence with candidates at this period. If their response to this faithful statement of the case warranted the hope that they would work happily in the Mission, they were invited to spend a longer or shorter time at Pyrland Road for personal acquaintance.
While thankful for any educational advantages that candidates may have enjoyed, we attach far greater importance to spiritual qualifications. We desire men who believe that there is a God and that He is both intelligent and faithful, and who therefore trust Him; who believe that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and are therefore men of prayer. We desire men who believe the Bible to be the Word of God, and who, accepting the declaration “All power is given unto me’, are prepared, therefore, to go to the remotest parts of the interior of China, expecting to find His arm a sufficient strength and stay. We desire men who believe in eternity and live for it.
The Mission is supported by donations, not subscriptions. We have, therefore, no guaranteed income, and can only minister to our missionaries as we ourselves are ministered to by God. We do not send men to China as our agents. But men who believe that God has called them to the work, who go there to labour for God, and can therefore trust Him whose they are and whom they serve to supply their temporal needs, we gladly co-operate with—providing, if needful, outfit and passage money, and such a measure of support as circumstances call for and we are enabled to supply. Our faith is sometimes tried, but God always proves Himself faithful, and at the right time and in the right way supplies all our need.
One-third of the human family is in China, needing the Gospel. Twelve millions there are passing beyond the reach of that Gospel every year. If you want hard work and little appreciation; if you value God’s approval more than you fear man’s disapprobation; if you are prepared to take joyfully the spoiling of your goods, and seal your testimony, if need be, with your blood; if you can pity and love the Chinese, you may count - ona harvest of souls now and a crown of glory hereafter ‘that fadeth not away,’ and on the Master’s “Well done.’
You would find that, in connection with the China Inland Mission, it is no question of ‘making the most. of both worlds.’ The men, the only,:men who will be happy with us, are those who have this world under their feet: and I do venture to say that such men will find a happiness they never dreamed of or thought possible down here. For to those who count ‘all things’ but dross and dung for ‘the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; He does manifest Himself in such sort that they are not inclined to rue their bargain. If, after prayerfully considering the matter, you still feel drawn to engage in such work, I shall be only too glad to hear from you again.
Young men and women who came to Pyrland Road on probation, encouraged rather than daunted by the spirit of the above letter, soon found occasion to rejoice in God as the Hearer and Answerer of prayer. Such, for example, was the experience in May when Taylor, casting up the amounts received from the 4th to the 24th of the month, found that they came to a little over £68.
‘This is nearly £235 Jess than our average expenditure in China for three weeks,’ he added. ‘Let us bring the matter to the Lord in prayer.’
That very evening the postman Eroggit a letter which was found to contain a cheque to be entered ‘From the sale of plate,’ and the sum thus realised and sent to the Mission was £235 7s. 9d. Little wonder that prayer was turned to praise at the next noon hour.
Quite as remarkable was another experience that soon followed. It was early in June, and Taylor was returning from a memorable convention on Scriptural holiness. Waiting for his train at the station, he was accosted by a Russian nobleman who had been attending the meetings, and who on learning that Taylor was going to London suggested that they should find seats together.
‘But I am travelling third class,’ said the missionary. ‘My ticket admits of my doing the same,’ was the courteous reply. Presently Count Bobrinsky took out his pocketbook with the words:
‘Allow me to give you a trifle towards your work in China.’ ¢
Glancing at the bank-note as he received it, Taylor felt there must be some mistake—it was for no less than £50.
‘Did you not mean to give me £5?’ he said at once. ‘Please let me return this note: it is for fifty.’
‘I cannot take it back,’ replied the other, no less surprised. ‘It was £5 I meant to give, but God must have intended you to have fifty; I cannot take it back.’
Impressed with the incident, Taylor reached Pyrland Road to find a prayer meeting going on. A remittance was about to be sent to China, and the money in hand was short by £49 11s. of the sum it was felt would be required. This deficiency was not accepted as inevitable. On the contrary, it called together those who knew of it for special prayer. £49 11s. was being asked for in simple faith, and there upon the office table Taylor laid his precious bank-note for £50. Could it have come more directly from the Heavenly Father’s hand? ‘Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.’
New wine must have new bottles. Taylor saw that all the life and blessing that had come with the appeal for the Eighteenneededmoreadequaterepresentation. Theproduc- _ tion of an illustrated monthly was a great undertaking, for those were not the days of illustrated papers such as we have now, and Chinas Millions when it appeared was quite an innovation. Its up-to-date pictures and reports of pioneer journeys, conversions, progress in the older churches, and above all the devotional articles from Hudson Taylor himself, came to be looked for by friends old and new. It was through its pages that he shared a new conception of the scope and meaning of faith that had come to him in 1870; the year of bereavement. It was just in his usual reading, as he often related, that he was struck with the words, ‘éxete Ttiottv Oeov.’ How strangely new they seemed! ‘Have (or hold) the faithfulness of God:’ surely it was a passage he had never seen before? Turning to the corresponding words in English he read (Mark 11. 22): ‘Have faith in God.’ Ah, that was familiar enough; and something within him whispered, ‘the old difficulty!’ How gladly would he have an increase in faith in God, if only he knew how! But this seemed entirely different. It laid the emphasis on another side of the matter in a way he found surprisingly helpful. It was not ‘have’ in your own heart and mind, however you can get it, ‘faith in God,’ but simply ‘hold fast, count upon His faithfulness’.
‘Let us see that in theory we hold that God is faithful; that in daily life we count upon it; and that at all times and under all circumstances we are fully persuaded of this blessed truth.’
And now, just five years later, the subject was filling his mind. China seemed as inaccessible as ever, despite the Treaty of Tientsin, ratified in 1860. Passports, besides being practically unobtainable, meant little or nothing of protection, and the European who would venture far from the beaten track had to take his life in his hand. After nearly seventy years of Protestant work in China, only thirty-nine centres were occupied by representatives of all societies. But the appeal for the eighteen pioneers had gone out, and the men were being given. In the fourth issue of China’s Millions, which dwelt upon the definite plan before the Mission for evangelising all the inland provinces, he wrote:
‘THE FAITHFULNESS
OF GOD 393
Want of trust is at the root of almost all our sins and all our weaknesses; and how shall we escape it but by looking to Him and observing His faithfulness? The man, who holds God’s faithfulness will not be foolhardy or reckless, but he will be ready for every emergency. The man who holds God’s faithfulness will dare to obey Him, however impolitic it may appear. Abraham held God’s faithfulness and offered up Isaac, ‘accounting that God was able to raise him... from the dead.’ Moses held God’s faithfulness and led the millions of Israel into the waste, howling wilderness. ‘And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell’ of those who, holding God’s faithfulness, had faith, and by it ‘subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises... out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens’.
Satan, too, has his creed: Doubt God’s faithfulness. ‘Hath God said? Are you not mistaken as to His commands? He could not really mean just that. You take an extreme view, give too literal a meaning to the words.’ How constantly, and alas, how successfully are such arguments used to prevent whole-hearted trust in God, whole-hearted consecration to God! How many estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt! All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.
For ten years this had been, in the main, the attitude of the - Mission, when in the spring of 1876 the first anniversary services were held to report progress. Taylor was by this time well enough to move about with the help of a strong walking-stick, and it was with joy that he pointed out on the large map twenty-eight stations in five provinces in which churches had been gathered—600 converts having been baptised from the beginning. Of these, more than seventy were devoting their lives to making known the Gospel, and in them lay the chief hope of the future, specially in regard to the evangelisation of the unreached interior. Sixty-eight missionaries had been sent to China, of whom fifty-two were still connected with the Mission. Means for their support had never failed—though that also which is ‘more precious than... gold’ had not been lacking, ‘the trial of your faith’. Without a collection or an ~ appeal of any kind for funds, £52,000 had been received, and the Mission was not and never had been in debt.
How much of prayer and practical self-denial lay behind these facts the Report did not reveal, but the candidates at Pyrland Road could have supplied some details not lacking in interest. Preparing, themselves, to face danger and sacrifice in the work to which the Lord was calling them, it meant everything to have the encouragement of their leader’s example.
Of his first visit to Pyrland Road, while Taylor was still an invalid, one wrote:
He led me to his study, which was also the ‘office’ of the Mission. It was the back room on the ground floor, largely occupied with packing-cases. Near the window, which looked out on the dreary back gardens, was a writing-table littered with papers. In front of the fireplace where a fender is usually found was a low, narrow, iron bedstead, neatly covered with a rug. Taylor lay down on his iron bedstead and eagerly plunged into a conversation which was, for me, one of life’s golden hours. Every idea I had hitherto cherished of a “great man’ was completely shattered: the high, imposing airs, and all the trappings were conspicuously absent; but Christ’s ideal of greatness was then and there so securely set in my heart, that it has remained through all the years. I strongly suspect that, by his unconscious influence, Mr. Hudson Taylor did more than any other’man of his day to compel Christian - people to revise their ideas of greatness. - He never used his position as Director of the Mission to purchase for himself the least advantage or ease. However hard his lot might be in China, every missionary knew that Hudson Taylor had suffered in the same way, and was ready to do so again. No man could suspect, at any time, that while he himself was bearing the cross, his leader, under more favourable circumstances, was shirking it.
And now he was going back to China to speed the pioneers, as he fully hoped and expected, on their far inland journeys. A gracious answer to the prayers of many years had made this possible, in the coming of his sister Amelia and her husband, Benjamin Broomhall, into the home department of the work.
How real was the faith involved in joining the Mission, when at length the way opened, may be judged from the fact that they had by that time a family of ten growing boys and girls. But this was perhaps one of their chief qualifications. Number 2 Pyrland Road soon radiated an atmosphere that made it for many a long year the best loved centre of the Mission.
_ Early in September, 1876, Taylor set out again for China, notwithstanding the war-cloud that hung heavily over the eastern horizon. Negotiations that had dragged on for months, subsequent to the murder of a British official in China, had come at last to a stalemate. Nothing would induce the Chinese Government to give satisfaction of any sort for the murder of Mr. Margary; and the British Ambassador, having exhausted diplomatic resources, was on the point of retiring to the coast to put the matter into the hands of the Admiral. It seemed impossible that war could be averted, and there were many among the friends of the Mission who strongly advised against Taylor’s going out. x
‘You will all have to return,’ they said. “And as to sending off pioneers to the more distant provinces, it is simply out of the question.’
It was indeed a critical juncture. But in the third-class cabin of the French Mail, as in the prayer meetings at Pyrland Road, fervent supplication was going up to God that He would overrule the crisis for the furtherance of His own great ends. With Him it is never too late. At the last moment, utterly improbable as it seemed, a change came over the Peking Foreign Office. More alive to the situation than his fellows, the Viceroy Li Hung-chang hurried to the coast, overtaking the British Ambassador just in time to reopen negotiations; and there, at Chefoo, was signed the memorable Convention which threw open the door of access at last to the remotest parts of China. Foreigners were at liberty to travel in any part of the Emperor’s dominions and did so under his protection. Imperial proclamations were to be posted in every city, giving publicity to these arrangements; and for a period of two years British officials might be sent inland, specially to see that this clause was carried out. This was the news that awaited Taylor on his arrival in Shanghai, the agreement having been signed within a week of his leaving England; and already three parties of the Eighteen had set out and were well on their way to the interior.
‘Just as our brethren were ready,’ he wrote, ‘not too soon and not too late the long-closed door opened to them of its own accord.’
As a matter of fact, representatives of the C.I.M. were the first, and for years almost the only, foreigners to avail themselves of this great opportunity. Far and wide they travelled, crossing and re-crossing all the provinces of the interior, and penetrating even into eastern Tibet. 30,000 miles were thus traversed in the next eighteen months, Scriptures and tracts being everywhere sold or distributed, and friendly relations almost uninterruptedly maintained.
Permanent localised work was the object kept in view. To this end itineration had to be patiently pursued; and even when enquirers were gathered and a district seemed full of promise, it was often long before it was possible to settle.
But there were times, too, when disturbing news reached the Mission centre in Chinkiang. On one occasion, George Nicoll, himself recently driven out of I-chang, was in the room with Taylor when a budget of letters containing news of serious rioting in two different stations was brought in. Standing at his desk to read them, Taylor mentioned what was happening and that immediate help was necessary. Feeling that he might wish to be alone, the younger man was about to withdraw when, to his surprise, someone began to whistle. It was the soft refrain of Hudson Taylor’s best-loved hymn:
Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art...
Turning back, Nicoll could not help exclaiming, ‘How can you whistle, when our friends are in such danger!’
“Would you have me anxious and troubled?’ was the long-remembered answer. “That would not help them, and would certainly incapacitate me for my work. I have just to roll the burden on the Lord.’
Day and night that was his secret, ‘just to roll the burden on the Lord.* Frequently those who were wakeful in the little house at Chinkiang might hear, at two or three o’clock in the morning, the soft refrain of that favourite hymn. Taylor had learned that, for him, only one life was possible—that of resting and rejoicing in the Lord under all circumstances, while He dealt with the difficulties inward and outward, great and small.
Second only to his longing for the evangelisation of the inland provinces was the desire that possessed him at this time for unity and blessing in the Conference of missionaries, convened for May, 1877, to be held in Shanghai. There were still some months before the Conference, and this interval Taylor was seeking to make the most of.
‘There is one very important matter to pray about,’ he wrote to Jennie in February—‘the forthcoming conference. It will be a power:.shall it be for good or evil? This rests much with us, through the use of believing prayer. Unless there is a great outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, very much harm may result: very much has already resulted from preliminary discussions. Nor are we likely to pass without attack if some have their way. But our God is an almighty Saviour, and my hope is in Him. If His Spirit be poured out, evil will be kept in check; and if we ask for it, will it not indeed be so? Let us pray, then, much for this—pray daily for this, that division and discord may not prevail instead of unity and love.’
But Taylor not only prayed; he did all that in him lay to promote the unity he felt to be of such importance, and to remove misunderstandings. It was hardly to be wondered at, as he was the first to recognise, that the C.I.M. should have come in for a large share of criticism. Its aims and methods never had been popular, and its new departure in the direction of widespread evangelisation was of the nature of an experiment. Because the pioneers were young, at the beginning only of their missionary life, it was argued that it could not be right to use them in work so difficult and important. Undoubtedly they were ignorant and inexperienced as compared with older missionaries, especially with the able men to be found in the foremost ranks of other societies. No one would have been more thankful than Taylor to have seen such workers take the field. But they were all needed, more than needed in their actual posts. There was no suggestion that some or any of them should be set free, though China was accessible at last, from end to end, to preachers of the Gospel. Was, then, no one to go because they could not send the best? Taylor had good reason to believe that these young workers had been given in answer to prayer, and that the hand of God was in the coincidence of their being ready on the spot, when the Gates of the West were thrown open. If only their critics, and they were many, could come nearer—could meet and know the men in question, and hear from their own lips of the wonderful opportunities God was giving—objections, he had no doubt, would give place to _ sympathy. But how was this to be brought to pass?
A leader less humble, perhaps, less truly taught of God, might have brushed aside unfriendly criticism, absorbing himself in what he felt to be his own work. But years of self-effacing discipline had not been in vain. Keenly as Taylor felt the attitude of opposition; he knew that those whose views differed most widely from his own might have just as sincere a desire for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. He had grasped, moreover, something of the real, indissoluble oneness of the body of Christ: that it is not that the eye should not say to the hand, ‘I have no need of thee’—it cannot. On the contrary, whatever it may say or feel, of the body it is and must remain. The bearing of this principle upon the position of the C.I.M. he saw with increasing clearness. As a hand, this pioneering effort might reach out a certain distance beyond the rest of the body; but if it would go further, the body must go too: there could be no other way. Where is there room for independence in a living organism, every part of which is bound up with the whole? A large part, and not the easiest part of his work as he was learning, must consist in the humble, patient endeavour to carry his brethren with him in any new departure to which he was constrained of God.
These thoughts in mind, Taylor went on from Chinkiang, as soon as he was able, to the new centre of the Mission at Wuchang. Judd had just set out with one of the pioneers for the far-off capital of Kweichow, and his place had to be filled. There were problems also to consider as to how to keep in touch with distant workers, so as to reach them regularly with supplies. For several weeks Taylor had the benefit of experienced help, while McCarthy was preparing to walk right across China to Burma, accompanied by the faithful soldier evangelist, Yang Ts’tienling. Difficult as it was to spare him, Taylor rejoiced in the project almost as much as if he were going himself, and many were the hours of consultation and prayer they had over the whole forward movement.
Remembering their own spiritual difficulties, they felt the importance of providing help for younger workers whose strenuous life exposed them to so much of trial and temptation. The thought of calling together as many of the pioneers as possible for a week of conference had long been in Taylor’s mind, and in sending off recent parties he had arranged that they should return for books and money at a given time. And now as he considered the matter with McCarthy, they saw in such a reunion the possibility of just the rapprochement needed with workers of other societies. The missionary community in Hankow, across the river, was considerable, and: if united meetings could be arranged, much might be done to promote mutual understanding, and prepare the way for the larger Conference in Shanghai.
The response this suggestion met with from the London and Wesleyan Missions was so encouraging that Taylor could not but feel that, already, prayer was being answered; and he determined to seek opportunities for closer intercourse, especially with those whom he knew to be critical towards the C.I.M.
For this reason he was glad rather than otherwise to find himself delayed in Hankow one evening until it was too late to recross the river. Before he could reach the other side the city gates would be shut, and without bedding, etc., he could not very well go to an inn. It was necessary, _ therefore, to seek hospitality; and this Taylor did by calling upon a missionary with whom he was but slightly acquainted, and who took a very unfavourable view both of himself and the C.I.M. Quite simply he explained the circumstances, asking whether it would be convenient to put him up for the night. Christian courtesy admitted but one reply, and the sense of having done a kindness opened the way for friendly intercourse. Taylor being as good a listener as he was a talker, his host found himself drawn into conversation even upon spiritual things. A cordial friendship resulted; the missionary in question taking an early opportunity of letting it be known that he had had ‘no idea Mr. Taylor was so good a man’.
Down the Yangtze more or less the same experience was repeated, as Taylor visited the river stations, and where missionaries of other societies were to be found, he took time to see something of their work.
‘There are such openings in China as there never have been and as are not likely to recur,’ he wrote. ‘Just while the effect of the Imperial proclamations lasts (and this will largely be over in a very few months) we can do in weeks what would have taken months or years before. I see God’s hand in bringing me here just now, on this and many other grounds.’
Meanwhile the long-closed gates were opening indeed. In the north and far north-west, the pioneers held on their way; McCarthy was already nearing the western province of Szechwan, larger than the whole of France and far more populous; Judd and Broumton had been prospered in renting premises in the capital of Kweichow, the first permanent Mission centre in any of the nine unoccupied provinces, while from Bhamo, in Burma, Stevenson and Soltau had made extended journeys into the Kachin hills, from which two or three hours’ descent would have brought them into Chinese territory.
With high expectation Taylor returned to Wuchang to meet the pioneers as they gathered for their little conference. From the far inland provinces they came, as well as from the river stations—seventeen C.I.M. workers in all, to be joined by 4 dozen or more of the Hankow missionaries. As always in times of special need, a day was set apart for prayer and fasting. They were one in the longing for an outpouring of Divine blessing that should sweep away all coldness and deadness in their own hearts, all criticism and misunderstanding; an enduement with ‘power from on high’ for the great work to be done.
Wonderful in the days that followed was the answer to these prayers. The story the young evangelists had to tell, simple though it was, called forth deepest sympathy. The hopefulness of these inexperienced workers, their enthusiasm and genuine confidence in God as able and willing to do the impossible, were contagious as well as cheering.
Three weeks later came the Shanghai General Conference, and Taylor turned to the difficult task awaiting him at the coast. The paper he kad to read was upon ‘Itineration Far and Near, as an Evangelising Agency,’ and as The Celestial Empire recorded, it ‘secured the deepest interest of his audience.’ Dr. Griffith John’s opening address with its searching, powerful appeal for a life in the Holy Spirit struck the right note for a conference which culminated in a call ‘to the Mission boards, colleges and churches of the world’ for men and women to meet the great opportunity of the day: ‘The most important step China missions have yet taken,’ Taylor wrote. The parting, after two weeks of fellowship, had no discordant note. Even the Chinese dress of C.I.M. missionaries had ceased to offend, and the forward movement they represented had passed into the confidence and prayerful sympathy of most if not all present.
The forty weeks of his expected absence from England were nearing an end, but not so the work to be done in China. None of the older centres of the Mission had yet been visited. After the conference he set out, therefore, ona thorough visitation of the Chekiang stations, accompanied most of the way by a travelling companion whose presence proved especially welcome among the women.
Miss Elizabeth Wilson, whom he was escorting to Wenchow, had by this time been more than a year in China.
Though scarcely beyond middle age and full of energy, —her silvery hair brought her the advantage of being considered ‘old’ among a people with whom such an appellation was an honour, and her coming to China at all was rather a wonder to other foreigners. But Taylor knew the whole story. He had met her long before, as a girl on a visit to London, and had learned of her earnest desire to give her life to missionary work. But at that time she was needed in her Westmorland home, and when her parents became invalids the cherished hope had to be hidden in her heart.
“Years went on,’ as Taylor said in speaking of her, ‘and this loving daughter never let her parents suspect that she was making any sacrifice on the one hand, yet never recalled the gift she had given to the Lord for missionary service on the other.
“Ten, twenty, thirty years passed away ere the Lord set her free; but the vow of twenty was as fresh in her heart at fifty as when first it had been offered. Within three weeks of the death of her surviving parent, she wrote to our headquarters in London of her desire to spend the remainder of her days in missionary work in China.’
Very illuminating it was to him now to see the welcome with which the Christian women received this unexpected visitor. With their Romanised New Testaments wrapped in coloured handkerchiefs (the precious book it had cost years of labour to provide) they walked miles on tiny feet to meet the travellers, and begged in place after place that the ‘Elder Sister’ might stay among them, that they as well as the men might have someone to teach them the things of God.
Much though there was to encourage in connection with this five-month journey, there were also little churches that greatly needed quickening. As they travelled on, a plan was revolving in his mind for helping them, which he saw fulfilled before leaving for home. A conference was convened in Ningpo for Chinese leaders, similar to the united meetings for missionaries in Shanghai, and the attendance exceeded even his expectations. Three English and three American societies were represented, the delegates coming from all parts of the provinces, and the meetings were entirely in Chinese. When he was in the midst of preparations for the return to England—taking with him a difficult party to care for: one sick mother, one newly widowed, and several ailing children—he left everything to come himself and take part in the Conference, as if it were the only concern upon his mind.
It was one of the most interesting conferences I have ever attended, and we were both surprised and delighted at the ability displayed by our Chinese brethren. When it is remembered that all these men were themselves, but a few years ago, in heathen darkness, we cannot but feel encouraged, and look for yet greater things in the future.