HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

44 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
had been stopped. Hudson Taylor knew it was useless to
ask the woman in Hull to refund what he had advanced,
and, somewhat philosophically, recognized that, at the
most, it meant that the day when he would have been
cast upon God for fresh supplies was only being forestalled.
But this was not all, for soon after this he poisoned
his finger when dissecting the body of a person who had
died from a malignant fever. Sudden and severe sickness
ensued, and the demonstrator, a skilful surgeon at the
hospital, urged him to drive home in a hansom at full
speed, for, said he, "you are a dead man".
But to take a hansom was not possible without the
means to pay; yet even then the thought which most
distressed him was, "Is China an empty dream after all?"
But an assurance that he would live, and not die before
his work was done, took possession of him, and though
exceedingly ill he set out to walk the four miles home.
But his strength failed him, and only after much suffering
did he succeed in reaching his room by the aid of a
bus.
The weeks which followed were full of pain, and for a
time his life literally hung in the balance. At length,
however, after a prolonged period of acute prostration,
he was able to leave his room. Now he was urged by the
doctor to go home, into the country, for much-needed
refreshment. But he had no money for his fare, and he
had withheld even the news of his illness from his
parents. What then was he to do?
At this juncture it was deeply impressed upon him
that he should call again at the Shipping Offices and
make fresh inquiries. This seemed a hopeless undertaking.
The office was two miles away; he had no money
even for a bus, and he was so weak he had even to seek