HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

220 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
having a faithful and competent partner by one's side; but
for nearly twenty years of my married life, my wife has had
to be in one part of the world while I have been in another."
How changeful his lot was may be gauged from the
fact that of the nearly fifty-two years from his first
sailing to China in r853 to his death in r905, almost
exactly twenty-seven years were lived in China, while
the remaining twenty-five years were spent in other
lands, or on the sea. As he travelled to China, from
England alone, no less than eleven times, his early
journeys being by sailing ship, he had a fairly full opportunity
of knowing something of God's mighty wonders
in the deep. Of his thirty-five years of active leadership
of the China Inland Mission, from its inception in r865
up to his breakdown in rgoo, a little over twenty of
these years were spent in China itself, and the remaining
fifteen years in one or other of the home countries,
organizing and developing the work, or travelling to and
fro. These facts show what a roving life he led, and how
little he can have known of the joys and comforts of a
home.
A reference to the movements of Hudson Taylor
during the last year or more of his time in China, as
shown in the chronological summary, affords a rough
indication of the way in which he had to husband his
strength in order to continue his ministry. Increasingly
he had to withdraw to one or other of the Mission's
health resorts, to Chefoo, or Kuling, or Mokanshan, that
he might battle through.
His last long journey in China, during the days of his
active service, was taken in company with the Rev. and
Mrs. Charles Inwood, that he might be present at the
important missionary conference at Chungking, when
far-reaching decisions as to mission comity were made.