HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

168 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
'Try' is a word constantly in the mouth of unbelievers .
. . . The word of the Lord in reference to His command is not
'Do your best', but 'Do it'. We are therefore making arrangements,"
etc., etc.
What he did not tell the public then, but what may
now be told, is that he and Mrs. Taylor had themselves
contributed a sum of several thousand pounds towards
this forward movement, the greater part of this being
from a private legacy left to Mrs. Taylor. They did more
than appeal, and more than pray, they sold their all to
buy the field. Prayer with them was no shifting of a
burden on to God, but a partnership, a working together
with God. And the men were given, and while
Mrs. Taylor remained at home, Hudson Taylor went out
to China with a party of ladies, though the two countries
were on the verge of war. Diplomacy had failed so far,
"but" wrote Hudson Taylor, "prayer has not failed".
And when he and his party landed in Shanghai they
learned that the Chefoo Convention had been signed
while they were on the sea, and that inland China was
thrown open as never before! 1
But before we pass on, we must dwell for a moment
upon this consecration of personal wealth, for it casts
not a little light upon the character of the man and his
wife. Speaking some years later in the Mildmay Conference
Hall he gave the following testimony:
"There was a period in my work when, from bequests
and other circumstances, it was left open to myself and to
my dear wife, either to live upon the funds which were left
us ... or to dedicate those funds to His service in other ways.
We laid the matter before God. We felt we could not en-
1
The Treaty of Tientsin, signed in 1858 and ratified in 1860, had
theoretically opened China, but this was in part a dead letter until
the Chefoo Convention followed.