HTSS: Chapter 6a

November 14, 2008 – 3:01 pm

Chapter 6a: Friendship and Something More

Summary

One would think that, with the intense study of the language, the civil war, and the difficult adjustment to life in China that Hudson Taylor faced, he would have little time for extensive evangelistic endeavors outside his neighborhood…but he did. “Nothing in the records of his first two years in China is more surprising than the way in which Hudson Taylor devoted himself to pioneer evangelism;” so begins chapter 6. Ten evangelistic trips are evidence of God’s gracious enablement and his indomitable zeal to reach the Chinese with the gospel. Chinese junks was the preferred mode of transportation on his journeys, as they provided relatively safe passage and proved to be superior than local inns for housing. Dr. Taylor summarizes that “inconveniences were many, but people were made accessible in city after city, town after town, and villages never out of sight as one passed slowly along.”

Hudson desired to do ministry well, laboring to perfect his Mandarin, as well as local dialects. He and Dr. Parker also gave out New Testaments and Scripture portions “with the utmost care, only to those who could read, and as the majority were illiterate it meant covering a great deal of ground and explaining the message of the books to constantly changing crowds.” “They distributed over eighteen hundred New Testaments and Scripture portions and over two thousand explanatory books and tracts,” in this systematic, orderly fashion. God used these journeys into the interior via waterways to further deepen Hudson’s love for God and passion to evangelize where there was no gospel witness.  This story illustrates the impression these trips made on him:

Long years after, on another journey, the last he ever took up the great Yangtze River, pacing the deck of the steamer in company with the writers he paused again and again, looking with misty eyes toward the hills on the southern shore. It was somewhere near Green Grass Island that he said at length: “I wish I could tell you about it. It was over there, but I cannot remember just the spot.”

Seeing him moved by some recollection we waited to hear more. But fifty years had passed since that day, the remembrance of which brought so deep a joy and awe. He could not put it into words. He tried but could not tell us what had been between his soul and God. But there, over there on those more distant heights it had come to him - some revelation of his future work, some call to utmost surrender for the life to which the Lord was leading - and its influence remained.

Judson continued his evangelistic boating trips for some time. While traveling on one of his extended trips with some veteran missionaries, he noticed a huge smoke cloud, and they all quickly realized that Shanghai was in flames! The immediate question running through their heads was “what about our families and friends at the Settlement?” As they approached the city, flocks of rebel troops poured past them, seeking protection. Many of these men were beheaded right in front of them by government soldiers. The devastation in Shanghai was awful. But the Settlement had not been touched. “Satiated with slaughter, the Imperialists were too exultant over their conquest to pay much attention to foreigners,” for which all the missionaries were grateful. Hudson later wrote of this event, stating that:

Shanghai is now in peace, but it is like the peace of death. Two thousand people at the very least have perished, and the tortures some of the victims have undergone cannot have been exceeded by the worst barbarities of the Inquisition. The city is little more than a mass of ruins, and many of the wretched objects who survive are piteous to behold.

How deep was the grief and sorrow that Hudson felt for this city and these people!

With the raid completed, the missionaries experienced relative tranquility and resumed their ministry among the people, while awaiting instructions from their Committee as to further ministry endeavors. The events that occurred in the next few weeks altered the course of Hudson Taylor’s ministry profoundly.

The home that Taylor and the Parkers had occupied was no longer available for them to rent, and they still did not have clear directions from their Committee as to future plans. The Parkers took advantage of an opportunity to establish a medical work in a different city, and shortly moved away. Hudson “was much perplexed, but gradually out of these very difficulties emerged a new line of thought.” He decided that if he could not build or rent a home in the interior “why not take to boats as many Chinese do and live on the water?” This seemed to tie in well with his plan to adopt traditional Chinese dress, so as not to draw unnecessary attention to himself as he ministered the gospel. This decision to adopt the dress of the locals was “not as simple as it seemed.” It involved more than just the “loose unaccustomed garments” (the Chinese gown); it also entailed “shaving the front part of the head and letting the hair grow long for the regulation queue.” He realized that this would cause a great stir among the missionaries living in the coastal cities, and “for a time there was a struggle.” But ultimately, “he was increasingly convinced of the wisdom of the step from a higher point of view.”

His motivation for the change of attire and outlook was simple: “It was access to the people that he desired.” On a recent journey, covering fifty-eight towns, fifty-one had never been evangelized. Dr. Taylor attributes “the weariness and strain of the journey”, however, “to the fact that he was wearing European clothing, the most outlandish costume to those who had never seen it before! Attention was continually distracted from his message by his appearance, which to his hearers was as undignified as it was comical.” In conclusion, he reasoned that “surely it mattered more to be suitably attired from the Chinese point of view - when it was the Chinese he wanted to win - rather than sacrifice their approval for that of the small foreign community in the Ports.” After getting his new hairdo and donning “the gown and satin shoes of the ‘Teacher,’ or man of the scholarly class” opportunities “opened up…in a new way.”

The events of the next few weeks could be summarized as joy born out of sorrow. After a fruitful reception in Tsungming - a large island with the population of more than one million - and six weeks of wonderful gospel ministry, God chose to close the door. A few doctors in the area became jealous of Hudson’s booming “business” (”though the young missionary accepted no payment for his medical work”) and pulled some strings with the government to have him removed. Hudson was heartbroken.
Who would carry on his work of discipleship with his growing “group of earnest inquirers?” Hudson penned the following to his parents:

Pray for me, pray for me. I need more grace, and live far below my privileges. Oh, to feel more as . . . the Lord Jesus did when He said, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” I do not want to be as a hireling who flees when the wolf is near, nor would I lightly run into danger when much may be accomplished in safety. I want to know the Lord’s will and to have grace to do it, even if it results in expatriation. “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? . . . Father, glorify thy name.” Pray for me, that I may be a follower of Christ not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

Unknown to Taylor, God was preparing to merge his path with a man of similar love for God and passion for evangelizing the Chinese. By closing this door of ministry, he opened another that led him to “another, stronger, deeper [heart] than his own and more experienced in the things of God, that was facing the same problem. This man also was burdened for the perishing millions of inland China. Both Hudson and William Burns were making their way to Shanghai: Hudson had been expelled from his island of ministry and William failed to reach Nanking on an evangelistic trip and was making his way back to the coast. In spite of their age differences, their hearts were knit together with their love for God and common goal of reaching the inland.

Editorial

In a time period that pushes relevance and contextualization (often too far), it is interesting to observe Hudson’s methods of ministry. He “swam upstream” compared to the ministry model of the day. While the majority contented themselves with ministry in the swelling port cities, where the majority of the missions and compounds were, he continually cast his eyes upon the isolated areas. He acknowledged the need of ministry in the cities (his early years were spent in city ministry and he used the cities as springboards for his itinerant ministry in the early years); but he realized that someone needed to go to the “impossible places,” the uncomfortable regions with the gospel.

It is helpful for us to evaluate our ministries and discern whether or not we exalt ministry models higher than we ought to. If our models replace our dogma we are in grave danger of perverting truth in pursuit of pragmatic ends.

Chapter 6b will reveal the dynamic components of Hudson and William’s relationship, as they teamed up to reach the inland for Christ.

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106 years ago this November, J. Hudson Taylor resigned as Director of the China Inland Mission. He left behind a legacy to all believers, particularly those involved in missions works in mainland China. Missions Mandate will highlight Taylor’s life and ministry during the month of November.

Each work day of the month of November I will post a summary of one chapter of Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor’s classic book Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret. Dr. Howard Taylor was the second son of J. Hudson Taylor, and followed in his father’s footsteps as a pioneer missionary, speaker and author.