HTSS: Chapter 7a

November 26, 2008 – 12:31 pm

Chapter 7a: “God’s Way - ‘Perfect’”

I apologize for my hiatus from covering HTSS last week. We will now resume our review of the book.

We left off ["HTSS: Chapter 6b"] with Hudson’s departure from William Burns to the city of Ningpo [now called Ningbo]. Hudson had just learned that Burns had been arrested and taken from Swatow to Canton. This caused Hudson much grief as they were planning for such fruitful ministry in that region.

Hudson Taylor soon realized that his departure from Swatow and Burns’ arrest were perfectly timed according to the Lord’s plan. In a letter to his sister he said

I would just refer to the goodness of God in removing Mr. Burns from Swatow in time. For if one many judge the feelings of the Cantonese in Swatow by what one sees here at present, it would go hard with any one at their mercy.

He rejoiced because the British had begun a bombardment of Canton (”the commencement of the war which did not finally terminate until four years later”) and, had Burns still been in Swatow (which was in a southern province), he would have been in grave danger. Apparently the southerners were recognized as “hotheads” and would have taken action against Europeans, especially Brits. Dr. Taylor summarizes his father’s experiences as “one of not a few hard lessons through which Hudson Taylor was learning to think of God as The One Great Circumstance of Life, and of all lesser external circumstances as necessarily the kindest, wisest, best, because either ordered or permitted by Him.”

This was not the only blessing granted to Hudson while in Ningpo. He soon met “the life that was so perfectly to complete his own.” A wonderful reason to be deported to Ningpo, indeed! Miss Aldersey was a young “lady who with two young helpers was carrying on a remarkably successful school for girls, the first ever opened in China.” The only other foreigners besides Hudson and Dr. Parker [see "HTSS: Chapter 5b"] were the Joneses (a missionary couple of the Chinese Evangelization Society), Miss Aldersey, and two young sisters who served as her assistants at the school.

These sisters were two of Samuel and Maria Dyer’s five children: Burella and Maria.¹ Their father died when the girls were just eight and six years old, and their mother died four years later. They sailed to China as teenagers to aid “Miss Aldersey at the school for Chinese girls in Ningbo, Zhejiang.”²

The younger Maria often helped Mrs. Jones with care of her children and home. Her proficiency in Chinese (due to living amongst native Chinese in Malaysia) aided her communication of the gospel as they visited people in the surrounding neighborhoods. Though not yet twenty, and busy with tasks at the school “this bright, gifted girl was a real soul-winner. With her, missionary work was not teaching merely, it was definitely leading people to Christ.” And this caught Hudson Taylor’s eye. It was inevitable that he would interact with Maria in the Jones’ home; he “could not but be attracted” to her. Maria “proved so like-minded in all important ways that unconsciously almost to himself she began to fill a place in his heart never filled before.” But the Lord had much preparation ahead before this affection would blossom into loving matrimony.

A plot to “massacre all foreigners” near Ningpo was unveiled, so Hudson was assigned to escort families with children to the coast. (He was picked because of his proficiency in the Shanghai dialect.) He obliged, even though it was difficult to think of leaving the one who had stolen so much of his attention of late.

Hudson wrestled through the ramifications of marriage in light of his condition and ministry prospects. One aspect that weighed heavily upon him was “how little he had to offer the one he loved.” His Society had developed a poor reputation due to its unwise financial practice; this “had of late become increasingly embarrassing.” The Chinese Evangelization Society “was in debt and…his salary was paid from borrowed money.” The fact that they consistently borrowed money in order to pay bills troubled Hudson, as he later wrote in a letter: “to borrow money implied to my mind a contradiction of Scripture - a confession that God had withheld some good thing, and a determination to get ourselves what He had not given.” As a result of this conflict of philosophy Hudson resigned from the Society.

Hudson wrote that

“the step we [Mr. Jones resigned as well] had taken was not a little trying to faith….But God blessed and prospered me…I could look right up into my Father’s face with a satisfied heart, ready by His grace to doe the next thing as He might teach me….I would not even then have missed the trial. He became so near, so real, so intimate!”

Any shortage of funds Hudson experienced after withdrawing from the Society was due, not to a lack of personal supply, but to the enormous number of ministry opportunities that were available, particularly due to the increased number of “famine refugees who had crowded to Shanghai from districts devastated by the Taiping Rebellion.” Hudson was extremely busy ministering to the displaced as well as “preaching daily in the City Temple” and “taking charge of one of the chapels of the London Mission,” but his affection for young Maria did not diminish whatsoever, “for a great God-given love had come to him, and there was no disguising its implications.”

Meanwhile, in Ningpo, God continued to deepen Maria’s affection for Hudson, though her obstacles to marriage seemed much more insurmountable than his. The disheartening opposition to their union was from one of her dearest friends and closest advisors.

Maria had always longed “for a real heart-friend.” Both her father and mother died when she was young. She was converted on her way to aid Miss Aldersey with the school for the Chinese. It was a difficult ministry role because she was still a teenager who rarely contacted like-minded peers and her sister was soon engaged to be married. Then the young, gifted missionary came to Ningpo! Dr. Taylor describes his mother, Maria’s perspective on her soon-to-be husband:

And then, he had come-the young missionary who impressed her as having longings like her own after holiness, usefulness, nearness to God. He was different from others-not more gifted or attractive, though he was bright and pleasing and full of quiet fun, but with a something about him that made her feel rested and understood. He seemed to live in such a real world and to have such a real, great God. Though she saw but little of him it was a comfort to know that he was near, and she was startled to find how much she missed him when after only seven weeks he left to return to Swatow.

Then there contact was cut off as Hudson aided the missionary families to Shanghai. Upon his return to Ningpo, Maria realized the depth of her affection for him, as joy filled her soul upon seeing him again.

While he was still in Shanghai, Maria hid her deep interest for Hudson in her heart. “There was no one else to whom she cared to speak about him,” because so few understood his “strange” philosophy and methods. Though “they disliked his wearing Chinese dress, and did not approve of his making himself so entirely one with the people…how she loved it! Or what it represented, rather, of his spirit.” Although she did not display her sentiments to him, she prayed often concerning their relationship.

Then a letter came! Hudson asked for her hand in marriage. Her response: “sudden as was the joy, the great and wonderful joy, it was no surprise, only a quiet outshining of what had long shone within.” She soon told her sister, “who was most sympathetic.” However, the response of Miss Aldersey, from whom she hoped to receive approval, was devastating. “Mr. Taylor! that young, poor, unconnected Nobody. How dare he presume to think of such a thing? Of course the proposal must be refused at once, and that finally.”

¹ “Samuel Dyer.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Nov 2008, 08:55 UTC. 26 Nov 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Samuel_Dyer&oldid=253973213>.  Samuel “was a British Protestant missionary to China…who worked among the Chinese in Malaysia…. He was known as a typographer for creating a steel typeface of Chinese characters for printing to replace traditional wood blocks.” He was a colleague of Robert Morrison; he studied Chinese under him during one of Morrison’s furloughs. 

² Ibid.

In chapter 7b we will learn the lessons God taught Hudson and Maria about trusting Him amidst troubling circumstances as they further understand that “God’s Way - Perfect.”

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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.