HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

THE WORD OF GOD 201
He then proceeded to give a vivid picture of what it
cost his mother to say good-bye to him when he first set
sail for China. And what a power he had to bare his
heart, and speak of the most intimate things of the
spirit!
"I shall never forget the cry of anguish that was wrung
from that Mother's heart as she felt that I was gone. It went
to tny heart like a knife. I never knew so fully as then what ,
'God so loved the world' meant; and I am quite sure that my
precious Mother learned more of the love of God for the
world in that hour than in all her life before.
"Oh, friends! when we are brought into the position of
having practical fellowship with God in trial, and sorrow,
and suffering, we learn a lesson that is not to be learnt amid ,
the ease and comfort of ordinary life. This is why God so
often brings us through trying experiences."
He then, as a further illustration, told a little of what
his first-born child Gracie had been to him, and how she
had been taken from them, and then added:
"As I stood over her grave, I thanked God that it was in
His service, and for China, that He called me to part with
my loved child. I knew then, still more fully than before,
what 'God so loved the world' meant.
"That is how some of us have been led on in the knowledge
of God. He has given us to have sympathy with Himself, in
His not withholding His only begotten Son, and in that Son
giving Himself in order that the world might be saved ....
"It will not suffice to sing,
'Waft, waft, ye winds, the story.'
"Nol mothers must give up beloved sons; fathers must
give up precious daughters; brothers and sisters. must cheerfully
yield one another to the Lord's service in China, and
Africa, and India .... It is in the path ofobedience and selfdenying
service that God reveals Himself most intimately to
His children. Would that I could give you an idea of the way
in which God has revealed Himself to me in China, and to