HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

76 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
which, while flying the British flag, but without authorization,
was engaged in smuggling opium. After fruitless
negotiations Canton was bombarded by the British in
October, 1856, and peace was not ratified until r86o. It
is a humiliating chapter in the history of Anglo-Chinese
relations, and would never have been written but for
haste and a haughty spirit. And William Burns was to be
seized as a prisoner and sent under escort to Canton,
some thirty-one days' journey away, but happily before
the passions of the people had been inflamed against the
British by the war.
But all this was unknown when Hudson Taylor and
William Burns bid one another farewell in July, hoping
for a speedy reunion. But though they never met again
on earth, these seven months of friendship and fellowship
had done their work, and Hudson Taylor subsequently
wrote:
"Those happy months were an unspeakable joy and comfort
to me. His love for the Word was delightful, and his holy
reverential life and constant communings with God made
fellowship with him satisfying to the deep cravings of my
heart. His accounts of revival work and of persecutions in
Canada, Dublin, and Southern China were most instructive
as well as interesting; for with true spiritual insight he often
pointed out God's purpose in trial in a way that made all life
assume quite a new aspect and value. His views especially
about evangelism as the great work of the Church, and the
order of lay-evangelists as a lost order that Scripture required
to be restored, were seed thoughts which were to
prove fruitful in the subsequent organization of the China
Inland Mission."
But Hudson Taylor was only separated from William
Burns to find that God had another rich gift in store, the·
gift of the love of a woman whose price was far above
rubies, and who was to do him "good and not evil, all