HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

IN JOURNEYINGS OFT
portant. After some time had been spent evangelizing
these islands and in visting Langshan, or Wealthy
Mountain, a resort famous for pilgrim devotees, they
determined to visit the influential city of Tungchow.
The day was dull and wet, and they had an inward
persuasion that serious opposition awaited their assault
upon this stronghold of the adversary. Further, their
Chinese teachers sought to dissuade them, and a friendly
stranger on the road warned them against the Tungchow
Militia. Their servants, too, were frightened, and requested
and received permission to go back. But the
hearts of these two workers were fixed, and their faces
set like flints; whether it meant bonds, imprisonment,
or death, they were determined that that city should no
longer be left without the offer of salvation.
"Never was I so happy in speaking of the love of God
and of the atonement of Jesus Christ", wrote Hudson
Taylor concerning his efforts by the way. But as he and
his friend approached the western suburbs of the city,
the prayer of the early Christians came aptly into
Hudson Taylor's mind. "And now, Lord, behold their
threatenings, and grant unto Thy servants that with all
boldness they may speak Thy Word."
No prayer could have been more timely, for before
the city gate was reached a tall and powerful man, made
ten times fiercer by partial intoxication, seized Mr.
Burdon by the shoulders, while a dozen more brutal men
surrounded them both and violently hustled them forward.
Soon the intoxicated giant became Hudson
Taylor's principal tormentor, seizing him by the hair,
almost choking him, and so roughly handling him that
he all but fainted. Yet despite this violence they still
sought to distribute their Christian literature, not know-
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