James Hudson Taylor

The person that we're going to talk about today is a man who probably you've all heard of - he is particularly famous, I would say, in these [Chinese] circles, and his name is Hudson Taylor.

Does anyone know of him? I'm going to focus, not on his later life when he became very famous, but on his early life, because when I was reading about him, his early life impacted me more than his later life. So, I'm going to tell you the first part of his life when he was quite young.

So we need to travel back to England, and to the 1800's. This is a time before the telephone had been invented - in fact, most of his life was lived before telephones were invented. This was the era when people travelled on the high seas and when many countries had not yet been explored. So we've got to keep that in mind when we think of his story.

Now, Hudson Taylor was born on the 21st of May 1832, and he was born into a very, very godly family. His father was a Methodist preacher. He wasn't a clergyman or anything like that. He simply travelled around and preached in different churches. And both his parents were very, very devout people. They were really strong Christians who loved the Lord and they saw the Bible as a very practical guidebook for life. Hudson Taylor was born into this family. Now, Hudson's father, James, was a chemist by trade. He had a shop in the High street of a town in Yorkshire, which is at the top of England. They weren't a very wealthy family, but they certainly had the means to survive, and Hudson grew up in a very comfortable home. Actually, just before he was born, Hudson Taylor's father, who as I said, saw the Bible as a practical guidebook, read a verse that says, "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn". And when Hudson's father read that, and they knew that they were expecting a child anytime soon, he saw that as not something that was an Old Testament law or something that was cultural to the Hebrews, but something that God had told him to do. So, when he read that verse, he and his wife knelt down and together, they prayed, and they gave the Lord their firstborn child. At that time they didn't know if it was a son or daughter, but they really believed that their firstborn child was to be the Lord's, and to be for the Lord's work.

Now, when Hudson Taylor was born, he grew up in this very ordered Christian home. It was very disciplined and his father often had people coming into the house, often missionaries or other preachers. And so Hudson Taylor grew up in a in a home where he was able to hear stories about different missionaries who travelled into far off lands.

Now, to give you an idea of the level of discipline in the home, and this was the 1800s, when children was seen and not to be heard, there's a little account when Hudson Taylor was about five years old. He was told that he was not to speak at the dinner table when they had guests. So, when they had guests, he was to sit in silence and to listen to the conversation. He was not ever to interrupt or to ask for anything or call out or anything like that. So five year old Hudson Taylor was seated at the table one day, and they had guests for dinner, and his mum was rushing around and serving the dinner to all these guests and she actually forgot her own son. So he sat with an empty dinner plate, and everyone else was talking and they were discussing, and so on. And he sat there, looking at his dinner plate, trying to work out how he would be able to get his mother's attention without being heard, and if he couldn't ask for anything, what he was going to do? So halfway through the meal, when he was getting very, very hungry, he decided that there was one thing he could ask for, and it was the salt. So a little voice piped up and said, "Excuse me, could you please pass the salt?" And the gentleman on his left said "Certainly" and passed the salt and said, "Boy, what do you need the salt for? You haven't got any food on your plate?" And he said, "I'm just getting ready. I know my mama will remember me by and by". So that is one little account of the level of discipline in this home where Hudson Taylor grew up.

Now he did have a younger sister, by the name of Amelia, who was four years younger than him. Hudson Taylor's family were very strong believers, as I said, and every day they would have family worship and their father was very strict on ensuring that the children really heard the Bible spoken. He would read a passage and explain it to them, starting from Genesis and finishing with Revelation - they would go through the whole Bible - and he would pray with them. But he also really emphasized the importance of private time as well. So he insisted that all his family have a time and a place to be alone with the Lord. And this is the way Hudson Taylor grew up, and these are the habits he formed from a very young age.

Now, a little later on - oh, one more thing I need to mention, during this period of time. We need to remember that they were living in the age of exploration and many countries like Australia had only just been settled. Now, Hudson, Taylor had a little pamphlet at home - a little pamphlet on China. And at this time, in the 1830s, China was very much an undiscovered place. Very few Europeans had even ventured inland. The only Europeans who had gone there were pretty much there for trade and pretty much went only to the ports - Shanghai and Hong Kong. That was the only contact people had with China. But Hudson Taylor, as a little boy, had this little pamphlet about China. And he, as a little kid, used to read it, and he was very fascinated with this far off eastern land, with its traditions and its people. He actually memorized the pamphlet from cover to cover. So he grew up hearing about missionaries, he had an interest in China, stirred by this little pamphlet, and he lived in a very godly home.

Now, we'll fast forward a little bit to when he was a teenager, about 17 years old. If you looked on the outside, you would have seen a boy who was disciplined, he had very good habits, he was in a godly home and, on the outside, you would think that he was a very strong Christian, but actually, inwardly he was not. He was full of rebellion and unbelief, and he was getting tired of keeping the facade of this Christian life going. He was becoming very tired of the ritual of reading the Bible and praying and all those things, because although he knew the Bible from cover to cover, it didn't live for Him, it was pretty much dead. He was really getting tired of this. Now, when he was 17, he also got a job in a bank has a clerk. Suddenly he was exposed to a whole new group of people. He was working with younger people who were very sceptical about religion - they used to laugh at religion and say it's for the old fashioned people and so on. And they used to laugh at the idea of having to spend all this time going to church and attending things. And he wished that he could be like them - they spent all their time hunting - that was the latest thing, hunting. And they would go around and go to visit different pubs around the town. And they would travel together and do things, and he would go home and attend meetings. He was becoming very sick of this. And he was desperate to become like these friends and have that freedom.

And perhaps, thankfully, it wasn't for him. At the bank, because he worked long hours, and because this was the time before light bulbs and electricity, he had to work with gas lamps and kerosene. So when he was working late and in the dark, the gas and the kerosene actually caused an irritation in his eyes so bad that he had to leave the bank. And so, after this period of getting to know these people and being very much influenced by them, he suddenly became quite ill and had to leave the bank. He realized he couldn't really do that work, and so he left and he was pretty miserable. He had had a taste of the freedom, though, of the world, and he really wanted it. But he had to keep up the facade of Christianity.

Now his father decided to apprentice him as a chemist, like a pharmacist, in his shop. And so we worked with his father in the shop, and it wasn't good because there was a lot of friction between the son, Hudson, and his father, because Hudson Taylor was very dissatisfied inwardly. He was not a happy boy at all, and his father was a very stern and strict man and he didn't understand what Hudson Taylor was going through at this point, and so there were a lot of problems between them.

Now, his mother understood him a whole lot better, and she could see that the issue with him was that he needed to know the Lord personally. He hadn't known the Lord personally. Perhaps at a young age he had prayed a prayer, but deep down he hadn't known the Lord personally. And so she determined to pray for him every day. Now Emilia, his younger sister, who was only 13 at the time, was probably the closest to Hudson Taylor during this period. He used to confide in her and tell her his frustrations and his anger and his misery. And she understood, even as a young girl, she understood that the issue with him was that he wasn't converted, he wasn't saved. That was the issue. And so she wrote in her journal, that she would pray for Hudson Taylor, her big brother, three times a day until he was converted.

Now a little later, Hudson Taylor had a day off work and he was at home alone. His mother was staying with friends a good 80 miles away in another town, and Amelia was out. So Hudson Taylor was at home all by himself, and he was bored. So he went to the library, his father's bookshelf, and he was looking to try to find a book that he hadn't read. He saw a little basket of gospel tracks, like pamphlets. And he rolled his eyes, and he said out loud, "Salvation's not for me". But he thought that often these gospel tracks have an interesting little illustration or an anecdote or a story right at the beginning. So he thought, "I'm just going to read that beginning part of the gospel tract, and then just put it aside. I'm not going to read the gospel" - he knew it anyway, it was too familiar. So he thought he would just read the anecdotes and pass the time that way. So he picked up one and he was looking at it. And he read the words, "the finished work of Christ". And he thought to himself, "What is that finished work? What is that finished work?" And immediately, he answered himself, because he really did understand the Scripture, having been immersed in it from a young age. And he immediately answered and said, "The atonement. My debt has been paid by the death of Christ on the cross". But then suddenly, it was if he heard those words for the first time.

Now, meanwhile, 80 miles away, in a friend's place, his mother was seated at a dinner table. And suddenly she felt a great urge to get up, and she felt like she needed to pray. And so she excused herself from the dinner table, and she walked to her room, closed the door and dropped to her knees and had a great urge to pray for her son, and she prayed for hours. And then she felt the Lord tell her that he had been converted. And so she thanked the Lord.

Meanwhile, Hudson Taylor was back looking at the pamphlet thinking about that finished work of Christ. And then he thought to himself, "If the debt has been paid, and if my sin has been completely dealt with on the cross, what is the left for me to do?" And suddenly it dawned on him that it was "the finished work of Christ". It's finished, it's complete, and there was nothing more for him to do. And Hudson Taylor later wrote that it was like light flashed into his soul. Suddenly, he had understood the word that he had known and read for years and years and years, but it was so lifeless to him. Suddenly this idea of Christ's death and resurrection became real. And he fell to his knees. He asked the Lord for forgiveness, for his rebellion, his unbelief, and his pride. And he asked the Lord to come into his life.

Now, a little while later, Amelia came back, and it took Hudson Taylor a few days to tell her what had happened and that he had truly, truly been converted. And a little while after that, in fact, two weeks later, his mom came back home. And Hudson Taylor was very keen to tell her the good news. And so he met her as she was coming towards the house and said, "Mom, I have some good news for you". And she said, "Yes, I know, I know, my boy". And he thought, "What? Did Amelia break her promise and write you a letter or tell you?" And she said, "No, no, no, no, my boy, God told me". And Hudson Taylor couldn't believe it, but his mom already knew what had happened.

Now the next day he was going to jot some notes down in a journal. And he picked up his journal and flipped it over and realized it wasn't his journal after all, it was Emilia's journal. And he looked, and there was a little entry dated a month previously. And he saw that it was written, "I will promise I'm going to pray for my big brother, three times a day until he's converted". And Hudson Taylor read that from his younger sister, and he had a very strong sense that the Lord had called him and that the Lord was going to do something in his life. He felt very much that the Lord had chosen him.

Now he was so full of joy in these few months after he was converted. He really wanted to evangelize, he really understood the idea of a new life, because for him all those habits that he had formed as a young boy - reading the Bible, praying - the Bible was so familiar to him. He knew it because he had read the Scripture from cover to cover since he was four years old and his father had explained it to him. So he was very familiar with the Scripture. He was very familiar with prayer. But suddenly, these routine things had meaning for him, and he found it very easy to sit and read and understand things, and he really wanted to share this with many other people. And so he and Amelia would spend their Sunday evening, for Sunday was the only day off at that time, going around to the poorer parts of town with food hampers and gospel tracts, and he would talk to people all the time. And he was very, very eager.

Now he was still 17 years old at this point. However, in a little while, there were some changes. One change was that Amelia was enrolled into a girls' school, and she had to move to her aunt's place which was in another town. And then Hudson and Amelia's cousin was going to come and live with them. Now the cousin, John, was going to live in Hudson Taylor's room, and so, suddenly, he didn't have as much privacy as he was with his cousin. Now, it was good fun - he really enjoyed it. But he found that he had less time, and he had less privacy. And there started to be a little more friction at work as well - he did work very long hours. Soon he found himself becoming irritated and dissatisfied. All that joy that he had in the few months after he was converted was just fading away and became a memory more than anything. He felt quite angry with himself and he realized that what Paul wrote in Romans was describing him - "the things I want to do, that's what I don't do, and the things I don't want to do, that's what I keep on doing". He was very frustrated with himself and frustrated at his own lack in living out this new life that he knew that God had given him. He felt like he was sliding backwards.

And so, one day, he was so angry with himself and frustrated, that he fell on his knees and he prayed. And he said to the Lord, "What is wrong with me? Why is it that I can't live out this new life that you've given me?" And he prayed, and he said to the Lord, "I want you to take all of me, I want you to have my life, my everything." He felt like he wanted to offer himself on an altar for the Lord, and he prayed this very fervently. He said, "Lord, I know you've called me, so use me for your work." He offered everything to the Lord. When he was praying this, he wrote later, it was almost like he wished he could take it back, because he felt like he'd made a covenant with God in offering himself. It was so serious to him, that he was almost scared at what he had done. He strongly felt when he was praying that the Lord said, "I accept your offering". And as he got up from his knees, it was like he heard a voice, and the voice said to him very clearly, "Then go for Me to China."

Now we've got to remember that China was a very unknown place at this point. So it's like someone saying, "Then go for me to the moon", because people didn't know anything about China, you couldn't even find a book about China, you couldn't easily learn the language of China. But the 17 year old was being sent to China, and he knew that the Lord was sending him, but he had no idea how we would ever get there. He had no idea what steps he needed to take in order to get there. It would be an eight month journey on a ship. He didn't know anything about the culture, the language, nothing, and in fact, very few people did at that time. But Hudson Taylor was not deterred by this and he felt very, very strongly from that point on, that the Lord had called him to be a missionary in China. And he felt very keenly the need of the Chinese people. He used to say hundreds of millions of people in China have never even heard of the Bible, or even this man called Jesus, and there are millions of people seated in the pews in these English churches and they're not doing anything about it. He really keenly felt the need and from that point on, he knew that his life's purpose was to go to China.

Now, he was very young at this time, and so he understood only a few things. One is that if he was going to go to China as a missionary, it would be hard, it would be very difficult. So the first thing he did was he gave away his feather mattress and he slept on bare boards because he wanted to get himself used to a hard life. And he had a comfortable home, so he wanted to try and make do. So that was the first thing he did.

The second thing is, because, as I said, they had many people coming through the house, many missionaries, coming in and out, he used to talk to people all the time. And he met a man who'd actually been a missionary to China - he hadn't gone into China but had gone to Shanghai - and he had a copy of the Gospel of Luke in Chinese characters. When Hudson Taylor, this young boy said, "I know that the Lord has called me to China" this old missionary said, "Well, you can have this Gospel of Luke". And so Hudson Taylor had the Gospel of Luke with the Chinese characters. And so he determined that he would use this to learn Chinese writing. So what he did was he would open the Gospel of Luke and open his Bible and he'd find a verse in English, then find another verse in English which had similar wording or some word that was the same. And then he would look those corresponding verses up in the Chinese and look for the common characters and note them down in a book. And in this meticulous way, through elimination and matching, he learned 500 Chinese characters.

And so this was a young teenage boy, who really had no idea how on earth the Lord would get him into China, but he was very clear that he needed to do some things to be able to be prepared for this mission.

Now, at the time, because he had a very clear calling, his parents, both his father and his mother, were very supportive, because they knew that their firstborn son had been offered to the Lord. They were not surprised, and his mother had kept a little journal. And she said, "Faithful is God who's called my son and He will do it". So she also really believed that somehow her son would, in fact, be a missionary in China. And so they helped through their networks and they tried to get in touch with different missionary societies just so he could learn more about what it would take to become a missionary.

There was one book written about China by a missionary, and he managed to borrow it from a library and read it. All these opportunities he treated as gold, because it was so very rare to actually find someone who had visited China. But one of the mission societies that he made contact with said, "Oh, yes, you're a young boy, you're 18 years old, but what you could do and what will be very useful because China is a very closed country to missionaries - they don't like Europeans or the white people at all - so what you need to do is maybe equip yourself with another skill, perhaps medicine, something like that, because, if you have that extra skill, you're more likely to be allowed in because you can offer practical help". So Hudson Taylor took this on board immediately, and he decided that he wanted to study medicine in order to be useful on the mission field and be able to give practical help as well.

Now, in these days - it is the 1800s we're talking about - the way you studied medicine was, firstly, you didn't - you were apprenticed to a doctor, and you did all the odd jobs for the doctor and you watched what the doctor was doing. Then the next step would be to go to college. And then, when you're at college, you also work in a hospital. So you had to study and work at the same time. That was the process. And then there was another college you had to go to, so it was a lengthy process. So Hudson Taylor determined to find himself an apprenticeship, and to start this process of becoming a doctor so that he would be useful on the mission field.

At the same time, Amelia came home for the holidays, and she brought with her one of her friends, a music teacher, by the name of Miss V - we don't actually know her full name, it's just Miss V - and this was a very interesting development because she was a very beautiful girl and she sang so sweetly, and in very little time she won Hudson's heart. Hudson Taylor realized that he was very much attracted to this lady, Miss V, but he also realized and recognized that this was a distraction.

Now, on the outside, she was lovely lady, and she was a Christian. There was everything, and Amelia was so happy, because she said "Oh, yay, my friend and my brother!" She was very, very happy about it. But Hudson Taylor realized that his life as a missionary would be very hard and he wouldn't have any means to support a wife, particularly at this point, and he determined not to let his affections be known. But unfortunately, Miss V. was also very much attracted to Hudson. And so it was becoming a very big distraction.

Now, around the same time, Hudson Taylor did actually get an apprenticeship with a doctor, in a doctor's surgery in Hull, which is in the middle of England - one Dr. Hardy said that he would take Hudson Taylor on, and he would be an apprentice. Hudson Taylor's heart skipped a beat because Hull was just near where Amelia was going to school and where Miss V. was living and working. And so he was thinking, "I'm actually closer to her than ever before. I'm not just going to see her once a year when they break but I could run into her on any day". And he was very, very happy about this. But at the same time, he did recognize that this was a distraction. Now to add to that, although Miss V would love to listen to Hudson Taylor and knew of his passion for the Chinese people, she started making comments like, "Must you go to China? It's so far away", and things like that. And he knew in his heart of hearts that she did not share his calling and she did not treat it seriously, and she hoped that it was perhaps just a passing phase. Hudson Taylor recognized this, and realized that this relationship was not to be - it was something he had to lay down in order to continue with the Lord's call.

Now, he lived with his aunt in Hull and he worked very, very long hours - in those days, there was no such thing as an 8 hour day, it was a 12 hour day - and he worked 12 hours with the doctor, but he also had to study at the same time and start to learn different things about medicine. So it was very, very full life. He lived with his aunt and his aunt's family who were Christians as well. They were busy in the church, they had all sorts of meetings, he was busy as an apprentice, but he lived comfortably, everything was done for him - meals were on the table, etc, but it was a very busy household and he became very busy and he had very little time to think or do anything, and he certainly had very little time alone because he was often sharing a room.

After a little while he felt the Lord say to him, "You need to move". It was very convenient living with his aunt - it was not far to go to work, and everything was there for him. But the Lord put it on his heart that he needed to live away and it didn't make sense - living with family is better, isn't it? But the Lord kept saying to him, "You need to move".

Now Hudson Taylor did get a wage. He did earn some money as an apprentice - not much, mind you, but he did earn some money. And so he thought to himself, "Well, I need to find somewhere to live that's not going to be expensive, so that I can actually save as much of my wage as possible to support myself, because down the track, I'm going to have to pay my way to China. I'm not going to rely on people to support me all the time." Also, he wanted to be generous, he wanted to be able to give to people, because he didn't only have a heart for the Chinese, he also had a heart for everyone around him. And so he decided to look in the poorest part of town, and he found a room for rent in a place called Drainside.

Now Drainside was like a slum on the outskirts of the town. So you had the town here and then there was a wasteland. And if you crossed the wasteland on the other side, there was a row of terraced houses, all identical with grey stone brick and identical buildings. And this row of terraced houses was called Drainside. It was called Drainside because in the middle was a shallow canal, and in the shallow canal people threw all their sewerage and their food scraps and their waste. It just festered there and turned into sludge, and every so often, when the tide was high, it would wash all this stuff away. But in the meantime the place really stank. It was a really, really horrible place, and it was certainly for the very poor. But he found a room here. He rented a room from a lady who was the wife of a sailor, and she was desperate for lodger because sailors were notorious for not sending their half salary home - they would sometimes use it all and spend it and never quite have enough to send home. So she didn't have a very solid income and she was so happy to find someone to lodge in her downstairs room.

The room was tiny. It had a small fireplace, a bed, a small table, and a basin - and that's pretty much it - and that's where Hudson Taylor lived. They shared the kitchen where they could put a pot over a fire. He found this very dreary, cold room in the slums and he felt that this was where the Lord wanted him to be.

Now, he soon realized why. He suddenly had a lot more time to himself. And it was as if the Lord was training him to be alone, to have that lonely time, and to use that time to pray and to seek the presence of the Lord. He was nowhere near as busy because after the long hours of work, he would have a long walk home on his own, across the wasteland, and then he would have his solitary room where he would live and where there was no one to interrupt him.

Now, he did find it very dreary after the busy family life when living with his aunt or living at home in comfort. He found his very, very dreary, but he understood that it was so necessary. Now in order to save his wages as much as possible, he decided to do away with meat, butter, dairy, milk, cheese, all of those things which are not really luxuries, but they were seen by him as luxuries. He decided the cheapest way to live was on oats and rough barley. And so he would have boiled oats and barley - that was his meal - and he would have that day after day. It was hardly a proper meal. He was living in this dreary place, but he also realized that there in Drainside was a mission field. All around him, were people who needed help. It was such a poor area, and people were struggling all the time. He spent his time either in his room or out with all the people who lived in that part of town.

Now he also felt that the Lord wanted to teach him and prepare him in different ways, and one thing that he wanted to learn was to depend on the Lord entirely. Now the doctor that he worked for, Dr. Hardy, was a very forgetful man and he had a very, very busy practice. Hudson Taylor was in the habit, a few days before his salary was due, of tapping the doctor on the shoulder and saying "Tomorrow, I need to be paid". The doctor was fine with that because he actually said, "Oh, you'll have to remind me - I'll forget otherwise. So yes, that's fine. You remind me and I'll pay you". But Hudson Taylor felt that the Lord was telling him not to remind the doctor anymore but just trust Him. And so he decided, "OK. That's what I'll do" and he determined never to ask the doctor for his wage. And so of course, the day that his wage was due came, and the doctor forgot, and Hudson Taylor thought, "Oh, yes, typical. But anyway, there's always tomorrow."

But the days passed, the weeks passed, and the doctor just completely forgot. And Hudson Taylor was starting to get quite worried because he needed to pay rent and he had to buy his food, and although he was living so frugally, his money didn't stretch that far. And so, after a while, one day, he was home and he was looking at his money and he realized he had one coin left - it was a half crown - which, the equivalent in our money was perhaps a $5 note. So it was not going to get him very much, but that's all he had. And he realized he just had this left, and not only that, but he had no food left as well. So he had the porridge that he cooked that night, and he realized that the leftovers were going to be his breakfast, and that was it. He was looking at this one coin and said, "Lord, maybe I should tap the doctor on the shoulder". But he felt the Lord said, "No, you need to depend on Me and trust Me."

Now that evening, there was a knock at the door, and Hudson Taylor went to the door and it was an Irishman who lived in the neighbourhood. Hudson Taylor was known, of course, and this Irishman came and said, "Please, can you come? My wife is really sick. I want you to pray for her. I don't think she'll last to the morning". And Hudson Taylor said, "Of course," but then said, "You're Irish. Why didn't you call the priest? (because all the Irish were Catholic). And he said, "All the priests charge too much money and I can't afford it". So Hudson Taylor went with this Irishman, and they went into the house - this family was renting a room upstairs in the similar sort of building that Hudson Taylor lived. And so Hudson Taylor climbed the stairs and he looked into the dim room. It was squalid, and in the corner were some children who looked so malnourished - he could see straight away that this family was starving. On the straw in the corner, the wife was lying, and she'd given birth to a child a week earlier. She was so weak, because she was starving as well, that she was going to die. And the newborn baby was tiny, and wasn't even crying, it was just moaning, it didn't have the energy to cry. And Hudson Taylor looked, and he could see that this family really needed help. And he so he got onto his knees and he prayed for them, and he implored them to hear the gospel and to receive the Lord. But as he was doing this, the Holy Spirit was poking him and saying, "You've got the means to practically support this family". And this Irishman said, "Please, thank you, but is there anything you can give us? We are starving, we have nothing, I have nothing to feed my children. Is there anything, please?". And Hudson Taylor wished that his coin was in smaller denominations, because he wished he would give them half and save half for himself. But he said, "I'll pray for you again". But all his words were falling flat. And he felt like the Lord was saying, "You hypocrite. How dare you? How dare you preach the gospel and say that these people should have eternal joy, all these words, when you have the means to practically support them, and you're not doing it, you're withholding it". And so, as Hudson Taylor was talking to these people, he really felt the Lord was saying, "Give them that coin."

And so finally he reached into his pocket and he pulled out his half crown. And he said, "You might think I'm a rich man, but this is my last coin, and the Lord has told me that I need to give it to you". And so, of course, this man was so happy. I mean, in those days with the half-crown he would be able to buy medicine and some food. And so he was so grateful and Hudson Taylor left with completely empty pockets. But he was joyful because he knew he'd done the right thing. Now he found out later that the woman survived, and the man was able to buy food and cook food and children lived, and the newborn survived as well. So he knew that he'd done the right thing. But when he got home, he thought to himself, "Well, Lord, all over to You now. I literally have nothing."

And so, the next morning as he was finishing the leftover porridge, he thought to himself, "That's it. I've got nothing now, I don't have any means to buy, not even a little bag of oats - nothing - I can't even do that". And he had no means of getting any income - I think the next day was perhaps Monday, and he knew he wouldn't be paid on that day. So he thought, "Well, Lord, what am I going to do now?” And soon enough, there was a thud, and he looked, and the post had arrived. And so he went to look, and there was a pile of letters and some were for the sailor's wife, but he saw that there was one for him. And he thought that was unusual. He didn't often get posts, and if he did, it was from his family, and they only wrote on certain days, and he knew they wouldn't have written him a letter on Sunday. Then he looked and there was no return address. So we opened it, and inside was a piece of paper, and when he unfolded the piece of paper it was completely blank, but inside was a half sovereign - our equivalent would be a $20 note, - four times what he'd given away. And he looked, and he knew that it was from God Himself, and he had the money now to buy food for the whole week. And so he thought, "Well, I'm learning here". But he still didn't tell the doctor and the doctor forgot, and continued to forget.

And the days went past, and the weeks went past, and soon it was coming up to the time when Hudson Taylor would have to pay his rent, and he had nothing now again. He thought to himself, "Lord, here I am again, and this time, not only do I not have food, but I'm not able to pay the sailor's wife and she needs it. I can go hungry, but she can't go hungry. She has children to feed as well. What are You going to do, Lord?"

And so when he was at work that day, he was seated there and he was boiling some powders and mixing some stuff for the doctor and as he was doing this the doctor wandered in and sat down at his desk, and he was flipping through his accounts and said, "Ah, Taylor, I don't think I've paid you for a while, that so?" And Hudson Taylor could not contain his excitement. He was so excited that he had to try to control his voice and said, "Oh, no, you haven't paid me for a while." And he was so thankful. He thanked the Lord, and he said, "Oh, thank You Lord. It's just at the last minute. I knew if I had faith enough that you would come through". And then the doctor said, "Ah, I wish you told me earlier, I've just put all the money in the bank. You will have to wait till next week."

Taylor was horrified, and he actually burst into tears, but, just at that moment, the test tubes bubbled over and he had to rush over, so the doctor didn't see, and he was grateful for that. But he cried. He was so devastated. He thought, "Lord, why? I can't wait another week". So he was there, and he was doing his work, and he thought it through and through, "No, just trust the Lord". Anyway, he was packing up his things - it was about 10 o'clock at night, which is when he finished work - and he was cleaning up and packing up things, and there was a crunch of footsteps outside, and the doctor came back in and he flopped down and he said, "Ah, you won't believe it Taylor. A very odd thing just happened. One my richest clients has just come knocking on the door, it's 10 o'clock, and said that he felt that he really needed to settle his account immediately. At 10 o'clock! Very strange! Never happened before!" And so Hudson Turner didn't think anything of it, he was still feeling quite deflated and he just said, "Oh yes". And then the doctor was marking it into his accounts and said, "Oh, well Taylor you might as well have this money, and I'll pay you the balance next week". And Hudson Taylor was so shocked - he wasn't expecting that. And so, with his pocket full of coins again - his wages - he walked home, and he said to the Lord, "Lord, I might yet go to China!"

Now, after this time, Dr. Hardy was very much impressed with Hudson Taylor, and he offered Hudson Taylor the next level of support, supporting him at college so he could do the next step to become a doctor. But Hudson Taylor didn't have peace about this, and he really did feel that the Lord was telling him to go to London. Now London was where everything was, including all the mission societies - they were all based there and the ships left from London. So it was as if the Lord was saying, "The next step is coming." And so Hudson Taylor declined that very generous offer by the doctor and he decided to move to London.

Now there in London, the Mission Society that he had had contact with previously had said to him, "We will support you in your studies if you want to become a doctor, because we know that that's very useful for a missionary, so we're going to support you." So he wrote to them and said, "I'm coming to London, and I'm wondering if you'll still support me to do the next step - to go to college and work as an intern in the hospital." They were very happy for that, and they were keen that he was actually keen to become a missionary, and so they supported him. He had a flat with his cousin - he again rented a little room and he worked in a hospital and he also studied in that same hospital. So he was doing a bit of study and working.

Now he'd been to London once before. He had visited there with his sister because there was a German missionary who had come from China and this German missionary had actually ventured a little bit inland, just a little bit, and had probably seen more of China than many others. He was speaking at some different churches in London and so Hudson Taylor had travelled down just to hear him speak. At the end, he met different people and he went to this German missionary, an older man, and he said to him, "Oh, sir, I too am going. I have been called to go to China". You have to remember this is 18 year old Hudson Taylor talking. He was a skinny little boy because of his diet, and he had blond hair and blue eyes. And this German missionary took one look at him and laughed uproariously and said, "You called to be a missionary to China? My goodness, they call me the Red Devil. What are they going to call you? Look at your blond hair, blue eyes! They will not listen to a word you say!" And he walked off laughing. But Hudson Taylor was not deterred by this, and he said to the German missionary, "No, sir, God has called me to become a missionary to China, and I can assure you that He knows the colour of my hair and eyes". That was the first time he went to London.

Now, here he was in London again, and again his schedule was punishing. It was very difficult to study and work at the same time. They were required to be at the hospital for many hours - 12 hours - plus the study. And again, he was trying to save as much of his meagre income as possible to support himself, and not only that, but to be able to give generously to others around him. And so he discovered that the cheapest way to live was to eat "poor man's loaf", which was brown bread, coarse brown bread, water and a couple of apples. That was the cheapest, it almost cost him nothing, like a penny a loaf. But of course, this was not an adequate diet for someone who was on his feet all day in the hospital plus studying late at night, plus he had a two hour round trip, walking to the hospital every day, rain, hail or shine, because he didn't want to spend any of his money on a bus which was quite expensive in those days. So he was living on this bread, water, and a couple of apples when he could get them. It was such a frugal diet that he had to ask the baker to cut the loaf in half, because had he just had the whole loaf, he would have eaten it all in one go - he was always famished and hungry. But he saw this as his training, and he also was so focused on making sure that he would have the money to give when he needed to, and also to support himself, because he could "smell" that China was very close. And so in this way he lived.

Now, one day, when he was back in his flat, he was doing some sewing and he pricked his finger. He thought nothing of it, of course, and he continued on. And the next day when he was at the hospital, they were going to do an autopsy, an autopsy on a man who died from a terrible fever that was very contagious. The professor said to them, "Make sure you're careful here. If you even scratch yourself with one of these scalpels you will definitely get this fever. So you must be careful." So of course, Hudson Taylor and his other friends and colleagues were very, very careful as they did this autopsy. Now, after a little while, just that afternoon, Hudson Taylor had a very sharp pain all the way through his arm, and not only that, but he started to sweat profusely, and he was shaking to the point where he could hardly stand up. His friends were a bit concerned and the professor came and Hudson explained his symptoms, and the professor said, "Boy, get yourself a cab and get your affairs in order - you're a dead man". And Hudson Taylor smiled weakly and said, "No, sir, if I'm not mistaken, the Lord has some work for me to do".

But he was very, very sick. He contracted that fever through the little prick in his finger that he forgotten all about. He didn't have the money for the trip home, and the reason he didn't have the money was another incident that occurred. You see, what had happened was his. The sailor's wife was getting the income from her husband, but the shipping office where the salaries came in was in London. And so Hudson Taylor, to serve her and to help her, decided that he would go regularly to the shipping office, and on the day that the salary was put into the shipping office, he would withdraw the half that was meant to go to her and send it on to her directly, because that way she would be assured of getting a regular income, where her husband was not so good at doing that. So he had decided to do this, but because he'd been studying late at one particular day, he missed the day when he could go in and the shipping office had already closed. So he sent his own money to the lady so she would get the same amount that particular week, and he thought that he would just go to the shipping office the next day, and he was sure the money would be there, and then he would be able to get the money back. But the next day, when he went to the clerk at the office and he explained, the clerk said, "Oh, that man, that sailor, well he's gone off, he has run off to the gold diggings, and he's taken all the money". And so Hudson Taylor, again, was very, very short of money. So for that reason, he couldn't even afford the cab home from the hospital.

And so he staggered home, constantly resting, and he was shaking and very, very, very sick. And for the last half journey - remember, this is a two hour round trip that he had to walk - he had to take a bus because he could hardly walk. So he spent a little bit of his money on the bus, and he got home. And when he got home, he lanced his finger, as they did in those days to let out the poisoned blood, but before he knew it, he was unconscious, and he collapsed onto the floor.

Now his cousin found him and must have called the uncle and when Hudson Taylor came to, he found himself in bed, and there was a doctor, and the doctor was saying, "If he's a strong lad, and if he's been having a good diet, then he'll pull through, he'll be alright, but perhaps not as well - it's really touch and go." Hudson Taylor was hearing this conversation, and he thought to himself, "Well, Lord, if You want me for Your work, You have to do a miracle here". Because, of course, his diet has been very poor. So weeks passed, and he was really, really sick. But he did pull through. And by the end of these few weeks he was a shadow of a man. He was so weak, and the doctor saw him again and said to him, "You need to get back to Yorkshire where your family are, you need to recover properly. Otherwise, you'll never be able to do all the normal things that you want to do. So you've got to get back there". Hudson Taylor just smiled and was thinking that he didn't have enough money to do that, he didn't have enough money to get the train ticket all the way to the north of England. And he thought to himself, "What am I going to do?" He really was weak. He thought the Lord was saying to him, "Go back to the shipping office". And he thought, "How am I going to get there? I don't even have the money for the bus ride" - he had used it on his last bus ride. And so he thought, "Well, if You want me to go there, Lord, I'll walk".

And so a pale skeleton exited the flat and staggered, and every few minutes, he had to lean to rest, and then keep going. So it took him ages to walk the four kilometres to the shipping office. And even when he got there, he sat on the steps because he couldn't even imagine climbing the steps up to the reception. He had to sit and get his energy back, and then he would climb the steps. And he thought to himself, "Lord, this must look very funny. Here I am. And You want me to go to China, and I can't even climb the steps to this shipping office." But he did it. He climbed up. And he saw the clerk who knew him, but who was absolutely horrified at his appearance, and Hudson Taylor said, "I've come because, well, I'm just inquiring about the man that ran up for the gold digging."

"Oh, yes", said the clerk, "We have him. Oh, yes, we had the wrong man. It was somebody by a similar name. The money's been here waiting. I'm sure his family will need it by now". And Hudson Taylor just smiled and the man gave him money and he looked at the amount and it was certainly just enough for the train ticket and not only that, but a bus ride all the way home, and so he really felt the Lord's provision. But that clerk was so horrified at Hudson Taylor's appearance and his weak movements that he said, "Sir, how about you come in and share my hot lunch". And so Hudson Taylor sat in the lunchroom with this clerk, and they shared the lunch which he felt was given to him by God. And during that lunchtime conversation, he told this clerk everything and his whole story because he was bursting with joy and he wanted them to know that God is faithful. And this clerk was very much impacted by Hudson Taylor and that little conversation.

Now he caught the bus all the way home and the next day the doctor came and he said to the doctor that he'd been to the shipping office, and he again was overjoyed and needed to share with the doctor all the things that had happened and how the Lord had provided everything. And the doctor sat there and listened, and shook his head and said, "How on earth did you walk four kilometres to the shipping office? You are not meant to leave this flat or walk anywhere!". And the doctor shook his head and said, "Boy, I would give the world to have faith such as yours". And so again, that doctor was also very much impacted by Hudson Taylor.

Now, a little while after this, Hudson Taylor finished his next stage to become a doctor, and he felt the Lord was telling him that things were going to happen very quickly. But you see, the mission society actually offered him the next stage and said, "We'll support you in the next step, so you can go to the next college, the College of Surgeons and attend there." But that would be a few years commitment, and Hudson Taylor did not have peace about this, and he thought to himself that maybe the Lord didn't want him to go ahead and get the final qualification. It seemed silly, but he did feel that he had the knowledge, he knew medicine, he just didn't have that final qualification, and he didn't feel that the Lord wanted him to commit to the next stage. And so he declined, and he said to them, "I don't feel it's right for me to commit to the next few years. I will stop here". And so he never actually got his full qualification, but he did know medicine. And then it turned out that this was actually very timely.

He didn't know that at the time, but there were things happening in China around this time - we're talking about the 1850's. What was happening was the Taiping Rebellion and so there were some stirrings in China. There was a leader who had heard the gospel, or had a gospel tract from a missionary, but who unfortunately had mixed the gospel with Confucianism and he came up with a new cult. He had many followers and leaders, and they were spreading this through China. But because of this, and because of the unrest that was created, there was suddenly more of an opening in China, and suddenly they were allowing missionaries to go through like never before.

And so the news came - of course, news travelled very slowly in those days - the news came back to England that said, "We need more missionaries", because suddenly more people were being allowed to travel to different provinces in China that they'd never been allowed to before, and there was an urgent call for missionaries. But of course, to go to China was something that many people balked at - the idea of traveling that far to this unknown and strange land. So the Mission Society, when they got Hudson Taylor's letter and he explained that he did not want to continue because he felt that he couldn't commit, wrote back to him straightaway and said, "Well, we are actually in urgent need for missionaries to go now". And Hudson Taylor realized that that was why the Lord had told him not to make that commitment. And so they said, "If you're willing, we need you".

So, of course, Hudson Taylor wrote another letter back and said, "Yes, would you please accept my application". That was in July. And so there was a meeting, and they discussed this and looked at his application. At this point, he was 21 years old. And they agreed to send him to China as a missionary. And so they wrote a letter back on the ninth of September, and said, "We accept your application, and you need to be ready to set sail to Shanghai in 10 days". And so when he got that letter, he packed his things, and he was ready - he'd been ready for a while.

And so on the 19th of September 1853, Hudson Taylor was on his knees, with his mother beside him. They were in the cabin in which he would spend the next eight months and they were praying like they had never prayed before, and his mother was holding back a flood of tears, and she prayed for him, and he prayed, and finally the horn sounded, and it was time for her to leave the ship. She knew that, leaving that ship, she might never see him again. And she left, and she stood there. He was the only passenger on that ship - the rest were crew because it was a cargo ship. And she stood there and watched. And he ran into the cabin, and he wrote on the front page of his little pocket book, "The love of Christ that passes knowledge, James Hudson Taylor", and he threw it to her from the deck. And she got that and she kept that really close to her.

And so, Hudson Taylor set sail that day, on an eight month journey towards Shanghai, and in some ways, he had finally embarked on his life's journey, but in other ways, that life's journey had already begun.