HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

172 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
ing out into the deep, for before the close of that year he
had cabled home:
"Banded prayer next year hundred new workers, send
soon as possible."
One hundred new workers in one year! Writing of
that period of Mission history, Dr. Eugene Stock said:
"Does the whole history of Missions afford quite a parallel
to this?" Such rapid expansion in a small mission
made great demands on all. No fewer than six hundred
candidates had to be carefully examined, accommodation
had to be enlarged, and funds had of necessity to be
increased. But there was at times a touch of humour in
Hudson Taylor's references to the serious matter of
finance. "There is no fear", he said, "that we shall all
have to become vegetarians! for the cattle on a thousand
hills, and all the fowls of the mountains are His; and
were all the currency of the world insufficient, He has
abundance of unmined gold and silver."
· How sure he was of God, and that this policy of
"always advancing" was His will, is strikingly illustrated
by his remarks at the Annual Meetings of the
Mission held in London on May 26, 1887, when less than
five months of the year, which was to see the hundred
sail, had passed.
"We have the sure word, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in My
N arne, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the
Son.' Resting on this promise, it would not have added to
our confidence one whit, if when we began to pray in
November, my brother-in-law, Mr. Broomhall, had sent me
out a printed list of one hundred accepted candidates. We
had been spending some days in fasting and prayer for guidance
before the thought was first suggested to our mind. We
began the matter aright;-with God-and we are quite sure
we shall end aright."