Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret
In the Introduction of Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Terry L. Miethe, Ph.D., Ph.D., gives an overview of Taylor’s China mission and also includes an excerpt of his background, education, various ventures, and the present need and charge of Christ’s call to the Great Commission and evangelism. Miethe also footnotes the four very important emphasis of Hudson Taylor’s missions effort, which I found to be most inspiring and useful in speaking of the priority of Taylor’s passionate pursuit of fulfilling God’s purpose for his life.
The book begins with Taylor’s account of his mother praying for the salvation of her son while many miles away. As Hudson looks for something of interest to read in the library of his father, he begins to read a booklet that he had picked up and was arrested by the words: “The finished work of Christ.” This starts a series of questions in Hudson’s mind. There was nothing left to do other than for this young boy to fall on his knees and accept Christ’s finished work and praise Him for His saving grace forever. That day Hudson surrendered to the Lord and committed his life to do His work. He, along with his sister, became committed to winning others to Jesus Christ.
Shortly thereafter he struggled with the temptation of putting God first over against yielding to the ways of the world. However, Taylor understood that the soul that is starved cannot rejoice in the Lord and that there could be no substitute for authentic spiritual blessing. He began to notion that if God would give him the inner strength to renounce the ways of the world, he would dedicate the rest of his life to doing the exact purpose for which God had called, commissioned, and created him for. It was then that he knew that he had been called to China. He became consumed with committing his time to evangelism and missions; along with committing to the study of China. Though he could not afford a dictionary or a lesson on China’s formidable language, he took the Gospel of Luke in Chinese and began to compare its English equivalent, he began to learn and identify more than six hundred characters. He was determined and resourceful in his effort to do God’s will.
From his time at Drainside, and leaving his aunt’s home on Charlotte street, as test came after test, he chose ‘the pathway of self-emptying and the cross’,[2] simply by virtue of the fact that he had been led by the Spirit of God. The book footnotes that during this time that he was hungry for love, alone, living a life of self-denial—this was not easy and left an opportunity for the Devil to find entrance in his life. It was at Drainside that he found love and longed for her presence. Even his love for her, and her unwillingness to join him in China, could not dissuade him from the mission God had given him to reach the people in China and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those people who had virtually no contact with Jesus Christ. This is a true testament of Taylor’s testimony of rejoicing in one’s pain and forging ahead to do the will of our Savior.
The book chronicles his letters to his dear mother regarding his passion for traveling to China and his love for following the Lord’s call for him there. He fathoms the thought of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with over twelve million souls. There were many hindrances in his new journey of faith. He began to question whether or not he had strong enough faith to embark upon the voyage that had been set before him. He knew that the task was great; all in all, he was willing to pay the price. He discovered that God met him at every crossroad and gave him sufficient strength and provision to move forward in continuing his ‘gospel work’ and enlarging his capacity for joy, thanksgiving and fruitful living. He recounts how even when he could not talk, he learned how to pray, intercede and cry out to God for himself and for those who were in need. He reports of how he had given his all to the poor; but he continued to rejoice in his own sacrifice. It is so astonishing to see how, in numerous ways, how the Lord provided in so many ways for Hudson during the early years of his learning how to ‘walk by faith’.
With a view to preparing himself for his life-work, he became an assistant to a physician at Hull, and subsequently studied medicine at the London Hospital. The great interest awakened in China through the Taiping rebellion, which was then erroneously supposed to be a mass movement toward Christianity, together with the glowing but exaggerated reports made by Carl Friedrich August Gutzlaff concerning China's accessibility, led to the founding of the China Evangelization Society, to the service of which Hudson Taylor offered himself and on Sept. 19, 1853, he sailed for China before the completion of his medical studies.
Chapters six through ten, it reports that the six years from 1854 to 1860 were spent in Shanghai, Swatow, and Ningpo, working sometimes in company with older missionaries of other societies and especially with William Chalmers Burns of the English Presbyterian Mission. It is during this period that he retired from the China Evangelization Society, which subsequently ceased to exist, and continued as an independent worker, trusting God to supply his need. His experiences of God's faithfulness in meeting his own personal needs and the needs of a hospital at Ningpo, of which he had taken charge, had much to do with the subsequent step of founding the China Inland Mission. While at Ningpo he married Miss Maria Dyer, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Dyer of the London Missionary Society. Two of their children also worked as missionaries in China.
According to the book, Taylor suffered poor health in his later years. It was poor health that caused him to return to England in 1860 where he spent the next five years. In company with the Rev. Frederick Foster Cough of the Church Missionary Society, he completed the revision of a version of the New Testament in the colloquial of Ningpo for the British and Foreign Bible Society, and also finished his medical course. The constant pressure and increasing strain inseparable from such a work frequently threatened a serious breakdown for him; but the report is that Taylor manifested remarkable recuperative powers. The book points out that in 1900 at the New York Conference that the first serious signs of failing health began to become even greater for him. He slowly resigned his great responsibilities, still seeking to assist the work as consulting director while living quietly in retirement in Switzerland. He married his second wife in 1871, and she died in the summer of 1904. They had two children. Early in 1905 Taylor determined, though extremely ill, to pay another visit to China. After visiting various centers he reached a place called Changsha, the capital of the previously anti-foreign province of Hunan, where he suddenly and peacefully passed from his labors.
After reading this powerful biography by his son and daughter-in-law, I am truly amazed and inspired by Taylor’s life and commitment to his purpose and Christ’s Great Commission. This is a very encouraging missionary history. It is also wonderful because Hudson does not try to bring "Western Culture" along with his presentation of Jesus. He is one of the first who lives as the Chinese lived and enter their culture.
The Ten Best Ideas that I have found for my life and ministry are as follows:
1. Nothing can possibly compare to God’s plan for your life. (Page 30)
2. That nothing should come before your relationship to the Lord and fulfilling His mission.
3. Where God guides, He provides. What God ordains, He sustains. (Pgs 91-103)
4. When God is the source of one’s strength, He will give one the power to forge ahead and never give up. (Page 166)
5. He seemed to be very humble; even denying what rightfully belonged to him—this has taught me the importance of self-surrender in complying to one’s call. (Pages 30-33)
6. He was a man of prayer—that even when he was unable to speak, he prayed. I must say that in my ministry, this biography has re-ignited my faith in the power of prayer.
7. The importance of standing firm in your convictions; and never allowing one’s flesh to deter one from fulfilling God’s purpose. (Page 28)
8. God can use one person to make a difference and impact the world. (Pages 238-240)
9. God’s timing is everything. Taylor had a desire to go to China long before he actually went. He had to wait until God opened that door. This has taught me to reality of waiting on the timing of God. God’s time is always the best time. My time is not always the best ideal. (Pages 16-48)
10. It is important to use what you have and to use what God gave you.
This biography Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret is truly an inspiring story; it has truly enriched my life and ministry.
No comments:
Post a Comment