HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

XXI
THE INCREASE OF GOD
IN the last chapter we saw something of the ceaseless
energy with which Hudson Taylor sought to advance
the work of God in China. To that end he laboured day
and night, striving according to God's working, which
wrought in him mightily. In this chapter we shall see
how, somewhat reluctantly at first, he was drawn into a
wider ministry than he had anticipated. His prayers
were being answered, but in ways he little dreamed of.
New and altogether unexpected opportunities were to
open out before him in the presence of which he hesitated
and even trembled.
From the first, the work he had inaugurated had been
on an interdenominational basis, now it was to become
international. Such a development inevitably introduced
new and complex problems from which he shrank.
But "holding fast the Head", as he had done, his influence
and ministry were to know an increase which was
nothing less than "the increase of God". And so soon as
he recognized the hand of God in such increase all fears
and hesitations vanished.
He believed in Blessed Prosperity. It was the title of
one of his helpful Bible studies.
"There is", he wrote, "a true prosperiiy which comes
from God and leads towards Him .... Thj.s divine prosperity
is God's purpose for every believer, in all that he undertakes;
in things temporal, and in things spiritual, in all the relations
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