HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

226 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
in China. Thirty more suffered violent deaths in July,
twelve more in August, two more during September,
and another two during October. And these figures do
not include twenty-one missionaries' children, which
brought the number of violent deaths, within the ranks
of the China Inland Mission alone, to the terrible total
of seventy-nine. And beyond this were the sad losses of
other Societies, and the unnumbered martyrs of the
Chinese Church. For Hudson Taylor, the Father of his
missionary family-for such he was-to be laid aside at
such an hour was discipline indeed. He had always been
in the vanguard of every movement, in the forefront of
every battle, at hand in every hour of danger, and now
-to be incapacitated, to be laid aside, and to be unable,
in person, even to soothe and sympathize with his fellowsoldiers
and fellow-sufferers, was the sorest trial that
God's hand had permitted.
Never was his "soul more bent to serve" his Maker,
to adopt some stately words of Milton, written in his
blindness. Milton wrote, and Hudson Taylor believed,
that:
_
Who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state
Is Kingly; thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."
How gladly would he have sped o'er land and ocean
without rest! But to "stand and wait" was what God
asked of him; and it was, perhaps, a greater service to
the work he loved than he was able at that juncture to
realize. Though active responsibility had to be somewhat
suddenly transferred to another, he was still
spared for consultation, he was still alive to inspire con-