HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

30 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
"I have grown older since then, but not wiser. I am more
and more convinced that if we were to take the directions of
our Master, and the assurance He gave to His first disciples,
more fully as our guide, we should find them just as suited to
our times as to those in which they were originally given."
And this childlike confidence and simplicity were
throughout the dominant characteristics of his life.
Medhurst's China was devoured, and St. Luke's
Gospel in Chinese was so carefully and diligently studied,
by the comparison of verses in which the same words
occurred, that, though he possessed no dictionary, he
mastered in a few weeks over five hundred Chinese
characters.
With this zeal in study he combined self-discipline
and self-denial as other means of preparation. His
feather-bed, so commonly used in Yorkshire, was dispensed
with; open-air exercise was made a duty, and
personal work among the sick and poor was eagerly
sought. Through Mr. Whitworth also he became acquainted
with two magazines, The Watchman and The
Gleaner, and through these he was brought into touch
with various agencies at work for God in the world, and
among these especially with the newly formed organization,
"The Chinese Association", afterwards known as
"The Chinese Evangelization Society".
This Association, undenominational in character,
aimed at employing Chinese evangelists throughout
China, and was closely associated with Dr. Gutzlaff, a
man of many gifts and apostolic fervour, but whose zeal
sometimes outran his discretion. But Gutzlaff's passion
for the evangelization of China produced an extraordinary
enthusiasm in Europe and England, some of
his journeys on the Continent being almost of a
triumphal character.