HUDSON TAYLOR The man who believed God by Marshall Broomhall

86 THE MAN WHO BELIEVED GOD
before, unexpectedly arrived, bringing him just what he
needed. Such timely supplies could not fail to possess a
value far beyond their worth. Their arrival was, he
wrote, "as appropriate as it was remarkable, and
brought a sweet sense of the Father's own providing".
That he was happy to walk thus by faith and not by
sight, is evident from his journal:
"I would not, if I could," he wrote, "be otherwise than as
I am-entirely dependent upon the Lord, and used as a
channel to help others."
These words he wrote in November, 1857, on the eve
of hearing from Mr. Tam. How he was situated when he
penned those words must now be told.
He was daily providing free breakfasts for a number
of destitute people, varying from forty to eighty in
number. On Saturday, November 4, after having paid
all expenses, and having provided for the Sunday, he
had not a dollar left. How the needs of Monday would
be met he did not know, yet the poor were not warned not
to come. The two scrolls over the mantelpiece banished
all doubt and fear. And his confidence was not misplaced,
for on that very day, a week sooner than had been anticipated,
his colleague, Mr. Jones, received a bill for $214.
"Oh, it is sweet", he wrote, "to live thus dependent upon
the Lord who never fails."
"How easy it is with money in the pocket and food in the
cupboard", he wrote, on another occasion, "to think that one
has faith. We need a faith that rests on a great God, and
which expects Him to keep His own word, and to do just
what He has promised."
·· On Monday the hungry poor came as before, and it
was with eyes filled with gratitude to the God who haci
met his own need that he supplied the want of the widow
and the orphan.