HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

230 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
Shanghai was reached on April 17, 1905, and what a
welcome he received, and how different from his first
arrival there fifty-one years before! And what a contrast
the following nearly seven weeks in China were to be,
compared with his reception in 1854! Then he had been
a stranger among strangers, and had been looked upon
as an obscure missionary adventurer who was violating
all recognized precedents. Now, he was an honoured
veteran, whose faith in God, and whose wisdom in administration,
commanded men's esteem. He had awakened
a new enthusiasm in the whole missionary cause
both at home and abroad, he had inspired men to attempt
great things by the force of his own creative convictions,
and had helped to raise the level of faith in
God in the lives and expenence of multitudes.
The weeks that followed were little short of a triumphal
procession; both foreigners and Chinese alike rejoicing
to do him reverence. Easter was spent at
Yangchow, that scene of the riot thirty-seven years
before. And God's acre at Chinkiang, where his first
wife and four beloved children lay buried-and where
he himself was laid to rest a few weeks hence-was
visited. Three and a half weeks were spent in Honan,
where the Chinese Christians vied with one another in
showing their love, and here banners were presented to
him inscribed with such tributes as: Inland China's Benefactor,
or, 0 Man greatly beloved, the latter one being presented
on Sunday, 21st May, his seventy-third birthday.
Hankowwas reached on the thirty-ninth anniversary
of the sailing of the Lammermuir, and from thence the
party set sail, by river steamer, for Changsha, the capital
of Hunan. For how many years had he prayed for this
province, the last citadel of all that was anti-foreign and
anti-Christian! And now he was to see it, and to see the