Hudson Taylor-God Gave More than We Asked

By Mary Vee

Year: April 1883 

Hudson Taylor: age 51

From J. Hudson Taylor's Notes

Photo Courtesy

I arrived back in England a short time ago and was happy to see my wife Jennie again. She had returned to England quite a while before I did to take care of family problems. I missed her very much.

After settling in, I went over to our China Inland Mission office to see how things were going. The poor man I'd left in charge had grown exhausted. Piles of paperwork laid all over the office. Phone called to be made. It would take several people to get all the work done.

The Lord had given us this missionary work, now we needed more people to get the job done. Before I left China I had prayed with each missionary in every province, asking God to send more workers. We chose to ask for seventy new missionaries. The same number as what Jesus sent out.

From the looks of the office, we will need more workers here too. The office staff joined me in asking God for more people. 

While we worked on cleaning up the office in England, France and China went to war. The people of England listened to us ask for more workers, but they felt missionaries should not go to China, they could, after all get killed. 

But the strangest thing happened. Suddenly, many godly men and women signed up to become missionaries. They learned their training in a short time and requested to go to China right away. Even with the war going on! 

Another strange thing happened. The people of England became excited to hear about the missionaries and their adventures in China. They began to give money to support the work. In no time at all, the mission had paid all the debts. 

Men like Spurgeon, Moody, C.T. Studd, and George Mullerhad joined our efforts to encourage missionaries to go tell the people of China about the God who loves them.

I had come back to England exhausted and sick. This news, though, has been the best medicine God could have given me!

J. Hudson Taylor

Missionary to China--Inland China!

So Very Blessed by God

Research resources: J. Hudson Taylor, An Autobiography by J. Hudson Taylor; It is Not Death to Die, a new biography of Hudson Taylor by Jim Cromarty; Hudson Taylor Founder, China Inland Mission by Vance Christie; J. Hudson Taylor, A Man in Christ, by Roger Steer, and Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Dr.and Mrs. Howard Taylor