HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

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THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
absent from his mind. But the spontaneity of the giving,
and of the consecration, at Niagara brought in a new
element which was too manifestly the work of God to be
denied. But it was totally unexpected.
"I had not the most remote idea of our visit to America
affecting the China Inland Mission thus", he subsequently
wrote. "It was a great surprise, and it led to much prayer
that one might know the Lord's purpose in this dealing ....
I was very much concerned-I might almost use the word
'frightened'." And on another occasion he added: "I never
felt more timid about anything in my life".
As it is not the purpose of this book to retell the
story of the Mission, as already indicated, we must not
follow the interesting developments of the work in
North America, save as they directly affect Hudson
Taylor. In one word it may be recorded that when Hudson
Taylor sailed from Vancouver for China in October,
1888, he was accompanied by a band of fourteen North
American workers, eight women.and six men, the first
of many contingents to join the ranks of the Mission
from the United States and Canada.
And this enlargement to the work brought a new
enlargement into the life of Hudson Taylor.
"I was quite melted", he wrote, "by the kindness of
beloved friends to me .... One felt what a wealth of love
and grace there is in the great Church-greater, perhaps,
than one had ever conceived before-that after all, all the
wide world over, no matter whether in Africa, in India, in
China, or in America, in Canada, in Scotland, or in England,
all the Lord's children are children of one Father, all bound
to one great central heart, and that they are indeed all one
in Christ Jesus. It is glorious to realize the Church is one. It
is not uniformity that we want, but really manifested heart
unity."