Hudson Taylor-What is A Real Christian?

By Mary Vee

Year: 1885 

Hudson Taylor: age 53

From J. Hudson Taylor's Notes
Cambridge Seven Part 5

Photo Courtesy

I had so much fun the day the Cambridge Seven landed here in Shanghai. As usual when in China, I put on the typical clothes that any Chinaman would wear, and had my head shaved with only a long braid hanging down my back.

I didn't have the same skin color or slanted eyes, but otherwise, I could be mistaken for a true Chinaman. 

I went to the shipyard, and spoke only Chinese to the men. Then kept a straight face when the new missionaries looked at me strangely. They didn't recognize me!

I laughed then said in perfect English, "Welcome Cambridge Seven!" I showed them to the place where they would sleep until they had their assignments. The poor men also had to find their land legs. (When a person sails on a ship their legs get used to moving up and down with the water. After they step out on land their mind still thinks they are on water so their body moves up and down and side to side like it did on the boat. It takes a day or so for this to stop. This is called finding your land legs).

We had a big welcoming party for the seven new missionaries to help them meet local Chinese Christians and other missionaries. The newspapers wrote big articles about the new visitors.

Men and women in Shanghai loved these men already! They were invited to speak at meetings in which large numbers of people came. 

One night, the port chaplain came to the meeting. The young missionaries told the audience about the gospel of God. How He sent His son to die for all the bad things people have done. How God loves everyone. How we cannot go to heaven by doing good deeds. As long as we have done anything bad, which we all have, we couldn't go to heaven. Only Jesus, God's perfect Son, could pay for our sins. Only by believing that Jesus loves us and died to pay the punishment for all the bad things we did could we got o heaven. The chaplain listened.

When the young missionaries finished speaking, the chaplain cried. The missionaries asked, "If you died in the night, would you go to heaven?" In his heart, he knew the answer to be no. He had worked so hard to do all the right things, to learn all the right things to say, but had never believed in Jesus as the one who saved him.

He finally understood what it meant to be a real Christian. One who believed in Jesus. News of the chaplain's decision to believe in Jesus traveled fast all over Shanghai. Men and women who once thought they were Christians began to ask questions. Were they really Christians? The seven new missionaries and other missionaries, help to answer questions.

What a great time we had helping people to understand what God wants. All we need to do is believe Jesus, God's Son, died to pay for our sins. Believing in Jesus is the only way to heaven.

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