HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

94 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
Bridge Street never stood in greater need of quiet and
tranquillity. Yet the only precautions which could be
taken, without actually leaving the premises, were a
boat ready at the back door, and a rope in the bedroom
window.
Amid such conditions, on Sunday, July 3r, with the
thermometer at ro4° F. in the shade, their first-born
child, a little girl, whom they named Grace, was welcomed
to that storm-bound home. And the brave
mother, with a heart stayed on God, and kept in perfect
peace, made a good recovery. What lessons the very
helplessness of that little babe must have taught them!
"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they
may forget, yet will I not forget thee." That mother in
Ningpo could sing:
"My child is lying on my knees;
The signs of heaven she reads;
My face is all the heaven she sees,
Is all the heaven she needs.
"Loi Lord I sit in Thy wide space,
My child upon my knee,
She looketh up unto my face,
And I look up to Thee."
But the angel of death was to visit that little company
of brave souls in Ningpo, for before little Grace was
a month old Dr. Parker was suddenly bereaved by the
death of his wife and left with four motherless children.
It was a shattering blow to him, and Dr. Parker felt
compelled for the sake of his children, one of whom was
seriously ill, as well as for his own health, to leave the
work and return to Scotland.
It was a time of crisis for all, for Dr. Parker was the
only medical man in Ningpo. Was the hospital with its