How could Hudson Taylor have imagined, for example, that the robbery that left him in such distress upon this journey was to result in the deliverance of the entire mission he was yet to found, during a period of financial danger? How could he suppose that the upset of all his plans and the severance of a partnership in service more precious than any he had ever known was to prove the crowning blessing of his life on the human side, bringing him into association and at last union with the one of all others most suited both to him and his work?
But so it is God leads. His hand is on the helm. We are being guided even when we feel it least. The closed door is as much His providence as the open, and equally for our good and the accomplishment of His own great ends. And one learns at last that it is not what we set ourselves to do that really tells in blessing so much as what He is doing through us when we least expect it.
- Dr. and Mrs Howard Taylor
Quote from their book:
The Growth of a Soul: Hudson Taylor in the Early Years
