HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

24
THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
evil", to tum the other cheek, to seek first God's kingdom,
and trust for the rest. Difficulties did not daunt
him, but only made him the more resolute.
"Every difficulty overcome by faith", he said, "is 'bread'
-strength and nourishment-to the child of God. Such the
Anakims might have proved to Israel, but Israel failed, and
we too often fail from want of faith."
In this way he made his antagonist his helper. The
spirit in which he went forth, and the spirit in which he
builded, is perhaps best illustrated by some extracts
from a paper he wrote not long afterwards as a guide to
would-be candidates. It shows how deeply he had meditated
on the mind of Christ, and how he sought to win
by faith, by love, by patience, and by meekness.
"Had our Lord appeared on earth as an angel of light, He
would doubtless have inspired far more awe and reverence,
and would have collected together even larger multitudes to
attend His ministry. But to save man He became man, not
merely like man, but very man .... In language, in costume,
in everything up.sinful, He made Himself one with those He
sought to benefit.
"Had He been born a noble Roman, rather than a Jew,
He would, perhaps, if less loved, have commanded more of a
certain kind of respect; and He would assuredly thereby have
been spared much indignity to which He was subjected.
This, however, was not His aim; He emptied Himself. Surely
no follower of the meek and lowly Jesus will be likely to conclude
that it is 'beneath the dignity of a Christian missionary'
to seek identification with this poor people, in the hope that
he may see them washed, sanctified, and justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God! ...
"I am not peculiar in holding the opinion that the foreign
dress and carriage of missionaries-to a certain extent .
affected by some of their converts and pupils-the foreign
appearance of the chapels, and, indeed, the foreign air given
to everything connected with religion, have very largely