HUDSON TAYLOR @ 19 SEPTEMBER 1853

On 19 September, 1853 the Baptist pioneer missionary J. Hudson Taylor [21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905] set sail from England to China, at a young age of 21. Taylor, though comes from a Christian family, yet he doubted Christ, and his claims, as a teen. However, in 1846, when he was just 16, his views changed, and he made a clear commitment to Christ, as His LORD and Saviour.

Hudson Taylor started to show a keen interest in China, and in December of 1849, he firmly committed himself to going to China, as a missionary. To prepare himself for the mission work in China, he immediately began to study Mandarin, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, languages.

In May 1850, Taylor started to study medicine, in preparation for his mission work. In 1851, he joined as a medical assistant, to Robert Hardey. He chose the path of living by faith for all his needs, and to serve the poor and the needy, in the footsteps of his Redeemer. In 1852, Hudson Taylor was baptised by Andrew John Jukes of the Plymouth Brethren.

To understand Taylor, and his passion for the mission work, we have to know who he is in private…how he thinks…and what he thinks. Here under a few of Taylor’s quotes, which gives a bird’s eye view of his inner self, and its workings.
– “The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.”
– “God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him.”
– “Not by discussions nor by argument, but by lifting up Christ shall we draw men unto Him.”
– “Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.”
– “When I cannot read, when I cannot think, when I cannot even pray, I can trust.”
– “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.
– “Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.”
– “I am more than ever convinced that if we were to take the directions of our Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given.”
– “I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.”

Small wonder then that, a life so lived, will blossom for sure, for the glory of God, and for the blessing of His people. Hudson Taylor’s life was indeed a blessing. Taylor spent a total of 54 years in China. He gave the prime of his life to the LORD His God, and worked in His vineyard, in China.

China Inland Mission, which he found in 1865, after eight years of mission work in China, is responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to China; who in turn started 125 schools, and established more than 300 mission stations, with more than 500 indigenous helpers, in 18 Provinces. The gospel was preached far and wide, and scores have come to know the LORD.

Very few lives have had an impact on the history of Christianity, as did the life of James Hudson Taylor. Christian historian, Ruth Tucker has these words as a summary of his life…
– “No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.”

How is our life being lived? Is our live being used by God, for His glory? Is our life a blessing to people around us? Is our life an instrument of blessing in the hands of God? Are we living out the “Great Commission” in obedience to the call of our LORD and Saviour? It is time we take a stock of our lives. Hudson Taylor was given a life, by God, and he lived it worthily for His LORD. What about us? Even so, the LORD help us.