HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

VIII
PERPLEXED, BUT NOT IN DESPAIR
HUDSON TAYLOR had reached his desired destination,
but it was no haven of rest. Difficulties he had expected,
but the reality was beyond all expectation. Active
opposition frequently stimulates courage, but to find
oneself an embarrassment to others can hardly fail to
dishearten.
For the first six months he was obliged to remain as
Dr. Lockhart's paying guest, and though the Doctor
was kindness itself, his position was unenviable. He was
an unknown youth, and his Society laid itself open to
serious criticism. He was allowed an income of only £80
a year. He could not rent a house in the Settlement under
£r20 per annum! His Society would not grant him discretionary
powers, and though they gave him a letter of
credit in case of emergencies, before he had been six
months in the land they passed a resolution saying that
bills exceeding £40 per quarter would not be honoured.
It was painful to find that the Society under which
he laboured was becoming an object of ridicule in
Shanghai, and that even the sympathetic friend who
cashed his bills spoke scathingly of it. Unjust criticism
he never feared, but this he knew was too well deserved,
and so it hurt.
Mail after mail arrived from home with no adequate
response to his representations, and to his shame and
perplexity he heard from outside sources that new
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