HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

206 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
could he tell with more profound impression than that
of the drowning of a Chinese fellow-passenger, called
Peter, which took place before his eyes in 1856. Space
will not permit the full account, as given in China's
Spiritual Need and Claims, to be reprinted; only a summary
from one of his articles, entitled Individual Responsibility,
is possible, with its pointed application:
"A Chinaman fell into the river. Numbers of Chinese saw
it from the shore; but it was not their business; they did not
attempt the rescue, though they might have effected it.
Others were in boats not far off, and might have rendered
help; but they were all right; as to the drowning man, that
was his look out. So it proved: he was drowned; but who was
responsible for his death? He who created the law of gravitation?
or those who left him to perish? Members of Christian
Churches, we have rejoiced that we were all right; as for the
people of Chinese Tibet, we have left them to their fate. They
have perished while we were rejoicing: but is this the spirit
of Christ? 'He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse
him.'"
But a large measure of his power of appeal lay, not
in the facts alone, but in his own impressive personality.
He had a way, not given to every man, of baring his own
heart. He could speak with freedom of the most intimate
experiences, of his trials and sorrows, his bereavements
and anxieties, his times of want and times of
deliverance, of his spiritual failures and spiritual triumphs
in Christ. He took his hearers by the heart, he
admitted his readers into his most sacred confidences,
and men were drawn to him, and knit to him, in the
deepest things. This is apparent on almost every page of
A Retrospect, and on many a page of China's Millions
when he was editor. There are few, for instance, who
could speak helpfully in the following intimate manner
on the words, "He will rest in His love".