HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

14 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
Walker, a Wesleyan minister. But though William
Shepherd lived long enough to become a companion and
play-fellow to his elder brother Hudson, he died quite
young, while his younger brother Theodore died earlier
still. It was thus but natural that a close and strong
attachment should spring up between Hudson and his
sister Amelia, three and a half years his junior, which
bond became altogether unique and lovely, a bond
which bound them almost as lovers all through their long
and arduous careers.
In their parents, little Hudson and his two sisters
found those who were worthy complements to one
another. What the father seemed to lack the mother
supplied, and vice versa. The father was a powerful man,
at times almost too forceful for the full happiness of
those he loved. His sense of duty was so strong, and his
standard for life so high, that he was in danger of forgetting
the limitations and frailties of human nature,
especially youthful human nature. One has only to look
at the portrait of his fine, strong face to see something
of his strength of character and of those intellectual
gifts which his brow and piercing eyes betoken. His gifts
of speech, combined with his intense convictions and
almost mesmeric influence, made him a powerful advocate.
And he could hold the little company of two or
three as spellbound as the larger audience. Sometimes
he did use his powers of mesmerism. He hypnotised the
sick to bring them sleep, and once he mesmerised a
neighbour's dog which had become a public nuisance, so
that it ceased henceforth its annoying bark! But though
he had qualities which made men stand in awe of him,
and though he was a stem disciplinarian, men learned
to honour and to trust him. If he was strict with others,
he was no less strict with himself. His deep sense of