HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

XIV
"THOU HAST PREVAILED"
BETWEEN the writing of the first and last pages of
China's Spiritual Need and Claims the best part of a
year elapsed. At the request of the Rev. W. G. Lewis,
Hudson Taylor had, early in 1865, commenced a series
of articles for publication in The Baptist Magazine, but
Mr. Lewis, after printing the first of these, recognized
that what was being written deserved a wider public
than he could command. He therefore suggested that
the articles be enlarged to cover the whole of Inland
China, and that they be published separately. This
entailed further study and prayer, and the manuscript,
in its final form, was not completed before the
middle of October. Meanwhile, Hudson Taylor had
faced one of the most momentous crises of his life, the
decisive moment which gave birth to the China Inland
Mission.
This crisis was the inevitable result of the vision seen
through tears. As he meditated on the book, and paced
his room dictating its pages to his wife, he felt "God's
sigh in the heart of the world". As he mused the fire
burned. The sense of China's need grew and overwhelmed
him; and at the same time a consciousness of
God's willingness to do greater things possessed his soul.
He had come home from China prepared to ask for five
devoted workers, and God was giving 'these. But the inadequacy
of so small a number became more evident, as
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