HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

6
THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
home, and in every contact, which frequently makes a
deeper mark than definite tuition. "Environment", said
Dr. Bamardo, after long and wide experience, "is more
powerful than heredity". And environment is a comprehensive
term including things spiritual, intellectual
and physical, as well as the general habits of life and
character.
There is no question as to the spiritual influences
which impressed and moulded the mind and heart of
young Hudson Taylor. Before his birth his father had
been deeply impressed with God's claim upon the firstborn
of Israel, and he and his wife had, with God's Word
in their hands, solemnly dedicated and set apart for God
the child they hoped shortly to receive from the Giver
of all life. And after his birth the new young life was
surrounded by every influence and definite instruction
that could impress him with the sense of God, and with
the importance of godly living.
James Taylor was a man possessed of a strong,
personal faith in God as the Living God, and in His
unchanging faithfulness. To him nothing was more important
than that his children should be imbued with
the same convictions. To this end he took them with
him into his closet, when he shut to the door that he
might pray to his Father in secret, and in this way not
only were habits of prayer taught, but a sense of the
reality and presence of God was communicated to his
children. Bible study was also encouraged, nay, even required,
and a simple but implicit faith in the trustworthiness
of God's Word was inculcated. Not only was
family prayer made a sacred institution, but a definite
time was set apart in each day's programme for the
young people's private devotions.
All this early training in childlike faith in God, and