HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

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THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
title he more loved to use for God than "Father". And
there was no attitude he more rejoiced to adopt than
that of a trustful child. No one can understand Hudson
Taylor, as he really was, without recognizing that all
life's family relationships spoke to him of those eternal
realities of which they are the types. From the shadows
of the Heavenlies he sought to grasp the "very image".
Of all his devotional writings none has had so wide a
circulation as his little commentary on the Song of Songs,
published under the title of Union and Communion.
Here we find Hudson Taylor as one of the true Mystics
of the Church, as the very title of the book suggests. And
there can be no doubt but that this little book, in which
he reveals his heart possibly more than in any other of his
writings, owed not a little to the joy and satisfaction he
had found in his own wedded love. And as children came
and awakened the dormant wealth of his parental affection,
this also in its tum became to him a fresh revelation
of the heart of the Eternal.
His first-born child was little Gracie, born as we have
seen in China on July 3r, r859. Three sons, Herbert
Hudson, Frederick Howard, and Samuel Dyer, were
born during his five and a half years in England, while
another daughter, Maria Hudson, was given them in
February, r867, shortly after their arrival in Hangchow
To launch forth into the heart of China with such parental
responsibilities was not lightly undertaken. Hudson
Taylor was not blind to the stem realities of life, but
every exercise of his heart in these matters only
confirmed his confidence in the love and care of his
Heavenly Father.
"I am taking my children with me," he wrote shortly
before leaving England, "and I notice that it is not difficult
for me to remember that the little ones need breakfast in the