Quote of the Day

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

Quote of the Day

In times of financial straitness Mr. Taylor more than once took occasion to remind his fellow-workers of this principle.  "The position of faith is incompatible with borrowing or going into debt, or forcing our way forward when the Lord closes the door before us," he wrote in November 1898.  "If we propose a certain extension for which the Lord sees the time has not come, or which is not in accordance with His will, how can He more clearly guide us than by withholding the means?  It would be a serious mistake, therefore, to refuse to listen to the Lord's 'No,' and by borrowing or going into debt do the thing to which He had objected by withholding the needed funds or facilities.  All the works we are engaged in is His rather than ours; and if the Master can afford to wait, surely the servant can also."

 

 

Hudson Taylor

Quote of the Day

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 be appear. "  As to the correctness of this modified translation, Mr. Taylor noted:  "For the rendering 'God's faithfulness,' see Rom. Iii. 3, where 'the faith of God' evidently means His faithfulness.  The verb translated 'hold', is thus rendered in Matt. Xxi. 26, 'all hold John as a prophet.' In the corresponding passage in Mark xi. 32, it is rendered 'count'; and in that in Luke xx. 6, a different Greek verb is used, which well illustrates the meaning, 'They be persuaded that John was a prophet.'  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."  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, holing wilderness.  Joshua knew Israel well, and was ignorant neither of the fortifications of the Canaanites nor of their martial prowess, but he held God's faithfulness and led Israel across the Jordan….The Apostles held God's faithfulness, and were not daunted by the hatred of the Jews or the hostility of the heathen….  "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, waked valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the nations?'  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 and extreme view, a literal 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.

 

Hudson Taylor

Quote of the Day

Excerpt from a letter written bv Hudson Taylor, in China at the time, to a friend in England.  Taylor's wife and new-born son Noel had just died(their oldest son, Samuel, died earlier that year). There second youngest child was staying with friends eleswhere in China and the other children had been sent to England not long before this event:
 

It is Sunday evening.  I am writing from Mr. White's bungalow.  The cool air, the mellow, autumnal beauty of the scene, the magnificent Yangtze - with Silver Island, beautifully wooded, reposing, as it were, on its bosom - combine to make one feel as if it were a vision of dreamland rather than actual reality.  And my feelings accord.  But a few months ago my home was full, now so silent and lonely - Samuel, Noel, my precious wife, with Jesus; the elder children far, far away, and even little T'ien-pao in Yang-chow.  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 sod?  Ah, it is indeed true!  But not more so, than that there is a home-coming  awaiting me which no parting shall break into, no tears mar….Love gave the blow that for a little while makes the desert more dreary, but heaven more home-like.  "I go to prepare a place for you":  and is not our part of the preparation the peopling it with those we love? 

And the same loving Hand that makes Heaven more home-like is the while loosening the ties that binding us to this world, thus helping our earth-cleaving spirits to sit looser, awaiting our own summons, whether personally to be "present with the Lord," or at "the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior"  "Even so, come, Lord Jesus," come quickly!

Quote of the Day

One thing that concerned Mr. Taylor more at this time than shortness of supplies was the fear lest, in their desire to help, friends at home should be tempted to make appeals in meetings, or even more personally, for funds. To one and another he wrote very earnestly on the subject, begging that this might not be done. The trial through which they were passing was no reason, to his mind, for changing the basis on which they had been led to found the Mission.......(excerpt from one of his letters:

"I am truly sorry that you should be distressed at not having funds to send me. May I not say, ' Be careful for nothing.' We should use all care to economize what God does send us ; but when that is done bear no care about real or apparent lack. After living on God's faithfulness for many years, I can testify that times of want have ever been times of special blessing, or have led to them. I do beg that never any appeal for funds be put forward, save to God in prayer. When our work becomes a begging work, it dies. God is faithful, must be so. 'The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want.' He has said : 'Take no thought (anxiety) for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. But seek first (to promote) the kingdom of God, and (to fulfill) His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.'

' Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.' It is doubting, beloved Brother, not trusting that is tempting the Lord."

 

Hudson Taylor