HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

I02
THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
It occurs in his title: An Enquiry into the Obligations of
Christians. And Hudson Taylor's key-thought was need
and claims, with the terrible reminder "I/thou forbear".
If, as Milton says, "A good book is the precious lifeblood
of a master spirit", that was eminently true in
this case. The facts and statistics throb with life and
pulsate with deep feeling. The book was a cri de cmur.
China's Spiritual Need and Claims is a small book of
about one hundred and twenty pages, and opens with
the words:
"If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto
death, and those that are ready to be slain;
"If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that
pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy
soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every
man according to his works?"
This verse is repeated like a refrain time and again
throughout the little volume, for the facts are arrayed
so as to convict the reader of his and her responsibility.
What the writer asked for was, "not vain words of
empty sympathy, but effectual, fervent prayer, and
strenuous self-denying effort"
After a brief introduction referring to the momentous
consequences of our every thought and every act,
he asks the reader to reflect on the great antiquity, the
vast extent, the teeming population of China, its spiritual
destitution, and its overwhelming need. When these
themes have been considered with impressive detail,
there follows a brief survey of what has been done for
China's good, and then the reader is asked to contemplate
the work that still remains.
First the seven maritime provinces (including Hupeh
on the Y angtse) in which Protestant missionaries were
labouring, are studied, and it is shown that, if each