HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

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THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
my heart and mind that there was no rest by day, and little
sleep by night, till health broke down."
The words so often quoted in his little book rang continually
in his ears: "If thou forbear to deliver them that
are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to
perish; . . . doth not He that pondereth the heart consider
it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He
know it?" And Jeremiah's experience was repeated,
when he wrote: "If I say, I will not make mention of
Him, nor speak any more in His Name, then there is in
my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I am weary of forbearing, and I cannot contain."
Hudson Taylor was face to face with One who was
stronger than he.
"For two or three months", he wrote, "the conflict was
intense. I scarcely slept night or day more than an hour at
a time, and feared I should lose my reason. Yet I did not
give in. To no one could I speak freely, not even to my dear
wife. She doubtless saw that something was going on, but I
felt I must refrain as long as possible from laying upon her a
burden so crushing-these souls, and what eternity must
mean for every one of them, and what the Gospel might do,
would do, for all who believed, if we would take it to
them."
It was impossible a conflict so intense should last
indefinitely. The day of the Lord was near in the Valley
of Decision. His honoured friend, Mr. George Pearse,
concerned at his state of health, but not divining the
cause, invited Hudson Taylor to spend a few days with
him at Brighton, and to this invitation he responded.
And it was there upon the sands of the seashore-the
sands which recall the promises and blessings of God fo
Abraham of old-that another man, being tried, offered
up himself. The story must be told in his own words: