HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

ALWAYS ADVANCING
bed, he proved the power of prayer, and the efficacy of
faith in obtaining promises.
It was under these conditions that Hudson Taylor
launched his appeal for eighteen men to enter the nine
still unoccupied provinces. But it may be well, before
we proceed further, to quote a few lines from one of his
articles, which gives the key to his aggressive spirit. In
a study of Numbers vii., under the title Princely Service,
he calls special attention to the princes' gift of "six
covered wagons, and twelve oxen", for the service of
the Tabernacle, and makes this comment:
"It is interesting to note that the first offerings recorded
were for the purpose of assisting in the moving of the tabernacle;
it was not God's purpose that it should be stationary."
And then he adds this significant observation:
"Nor is God's work ever intended to be stationary, but
always advancing."
Always advancing was certainly one of the watch-·
words of Hudson Taylor's life. "Our greatest desire and
aim", he wrote in China's Spiritual Need and Claims, in
1865, "are to plant the standard of the Cross in the
eleven unevangelized provinces of China Proper, and in
Chinese Tartary." And now that a substantial beginning
had been made, and a base established, the next step
came, and that was this appeal for eighteen men. In
every way the time seemed inopportune. Hudson Taylor
was an invalid, and within a few weeks of the appeal
being issued a young Consular officer, Margary, was
murdered, and war between Great Britain and China
became imminent. But Hudson Taylor wrote:
"We believe that the time has come for doing more fully
what He has commanded us; and by His grace we intend to do
it. Not to try; for we see no Scriptural authority for trying.