HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

LIKE AS A FATHER 139
morning, dinner at midday, and something before they go to
bed at night. Indeed I could not forget it. And I find it impossible
to suppose that our Heavenly Father is less tender
or mindful than I."
This was the literal and practical way in which he
took heart from Christ's words': "If ye then being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give
good things to them that ask Him?" This truth he loved
to dwell upon, especially when responsibilities were
great.
"I do not believe", he wrote, "that our Heavenly Father
will ever forget His children. I am a very poor father, but it
is not my habit to forget my children. God is a very, very
good Father. It is not His habit to forget His children."
It seems all so simple, but it was truth which plumbed
the depths of reality. It reveals the heart of the child, it
is true, but that appeals to and calls forth all the resources
of the Father.
A glimpse into his own fatherly heart may be obtained
by the recital of a little incident which he has
recorded in detail in one of his books now out of print.
His little daughter Maria, when only five years of age,
brought him on his birthday a self-made present, in preference
to a bought one. What the little gift was intended
to be he was at a loss to know, for it consisted of
a small piece of wood, in which a peg had been inserted
with half a cockle-shell hung on the top. That he might
not grieve the child by any failure to recognize the gift,
he took her on his knee and engaged her in conversation.
And it proved to be intended for a ship to take him back
to China!
It was a small thing, and might easily have been for-