Book Review: Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor

Book Review: Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor

Recommended Magazine Recommended Book Recommended DVD

“Sing to the LORD, bless His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. “

-Psalm 96:2

Hudson Taylor Quotes:

“God wants you to have something far better than riches and gold,

and that is helpless dependence upon Him.” __________

“All our difficulties are only platforms to reveal His grace, power and love. __________

“To every toiling, heavy-laden sinner, Jesus says, ‘Come to me and rest.’

But there are many toiling, heavy-laden believers, too.

For them this same invitation is meant.

Note well the words of Jesus, if you are heavy-laden with your service, and do not mistake it. It is not, ‘Go, labor on,’ as perhaps you imagine.

On the contrary, it is ‘Stop, turn back:’ ‘Come to me and rest.’

Never, never did Christ send a heavy laden one to work;

never, never did He send a hungry one, a weary one, a sick or sorrowing one, away on any service. For such the Bible only says, ‘Come, come, come.'” __________

“Do not work so hard for Christ that you have no strength to pray, for prayer requires strength.”
__________

“Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards.

Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.”
__________

“You must go forward on your knees.” __________

“Whatever is your best time in the day, give that to communion with God.” __________

“I used to ask God to help me.

Then I asked if I might help Him.

I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.” __________

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No, it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it.

Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” __________

“I am no longer anxious about anything,

as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine.

It makes no matter where He places me, or how.

That is rather for Him to consider than for me;

for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace,

and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.” __________

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God:

First, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” __________

“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.” __________

Authors of Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor, son and daughter-in-law of J. Hudson Taylor, also served as missionaries to China.

Together, Dr. & Mrs. Taylor authored several books.

From the Back Cover:

A spiritual biography of the “father of modern missions,” Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret poses one question:

What empowered Hudson Taylor’s ministry in China?

The answer is unfolded in these pages. Written by Taylor’s son and daughter-in-law, it shows us a man with fierce faith who believed that God truly would fulfill all He promises in Scripture.

For Christians longing for the inward joy and power that Hudson Taylor had, they can find the secret to it here. The secret, it turns out, is available to any who call on Christ’s name.

“An easy, non-self-denying life will never be one of power,” Taylor said.

“Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. There are not two Christ’s — an easygoing one for easygoing Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers.

There is only one Christ. Are you willing to abide in him, and thus to bear much fruit?”

From the Introduction:

Hudson Taylor’s Founding of the China Inland Mission

James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, is often referred to as “the father of modern missions.”

Down through the years hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, have been touched by this dedicated Christian’s life.

When he arrived in Shanghai in 1854 there were only a few missionaries on the coast of China. During 1854 -1855 he carried out ten evangelistic journeys.

At his death in 1905 at Changsha (Capitol of the last province opened to the Gospel), there were 205 stations with 849 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians in the China Inland Mission.

Taylor spent 1860-1865 translating the New Testament into the Ningpo dialect, and wrote a book on China.

Some of Hudson Taylor’s Trials and Suffering:

Famine and disease often swept through China. Hudson was sick for much his life. He lost his wife, Maria, and their third child to cholera.

Taylor fell and was paralyzed from a spinal injury during the winter of 1874-1875. This was his lowest ebb as he lay paralyzed in England.

He experienced great trials and doubts during his life. Yet in spite of all this trouble, he never gave up.

Hudson adopted Chinese dress, an important cultural gesture which we could learn from today. From 1876-1878 he conducted widespread evangelistic journeys throughout China.

Because of Hudson Taylor’s inspiration, and his work with the China Inland Mission as a model, great numbers of other faith missions also came into existence throughout the world.

Dr. Ralph Winter has said, “Taylor became the Founder of a new era in missions.” Thus Taylor is credited with being the Founder of what is often called the Faith Missions movement.

Following the example of George Müller, Hudson Taylor practiced only prayer and faith in raising millions of dollars to fund what would become the largest Missionary work in the world.

He lived depending on God alone for supplies, and required the missionaries working with him to do the same.

Excerpts from Chapter 4, "Further Steps of Faith":

“I never made a sacrifice,” said Hudson Taylor in later years, looking back over a life in which that element was certainly not lacking.

But what he said was true, for the compensations were so real and lasting that he came to see that giving up is inevitably receiving, when one is dealing heart to heart with God.

“Unspeakable joy all day long and every day was my happy experience. God, even my God, was a living bright reality, and all I had to do was joyful service.”

“I feel I need your prayers…Oh mother, I cannot tell you, I cannot describe how I long to be a missionary; to carry the Glad Tidings to poor, perishing sinners; to spend and be spent for Him who died for me!

…Think, mother, of twelve millions — a number so great that it is impossible to realize it — yes, twelve million souls in China, every year, passing without God and without hope into eternity…

Oh let us look with compassion on this multitude! God has been compassionate with us; let us be like Him…”

Excerpts from Chapter 8: "Joy of Harvest"

An ex-Buddhist leader, a Cotton Merchant, Mr. Ni, though long resident in Ningpo, had never come in contact with the Gospel.

A young foreigner in Chinese dress was preaching from his Sacred Classics.

He was at home in the Ningpo dialect, and Mr. Ni could understand every word of the passage that he read.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Saved, not condemned; a way to find everlasting life; a God who loved the world — what did it all mean?

To say that Ni was interested scarcely begins to express what went on in his mind.

“I have long sought the Truth, but without finding it. I have traveled far and near, but have never searched it out. In Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, I have found no rest.

But I do find rest in what we have heard tonight. Henceforth, I am a believer in Jesus.”

Excerpts from Chapter 17: "Wider Overflow"

The Boxer madness of 1900 swept the country, and the Inland Mission was more exposed to its fury than any other.

Mr. Taylor had just reached England after a serious breakdown in health…

And there it was the blow fell, and telegram after telegram telling of riots, massacres, and the hunting down of refugees in station after station of the Mission. — until the heart that so long had upheld these beloved fellow-workers before the Lord could endure no more and almost ceased to beat.

“I cannot read the Bible,” he said when things were at their worst. “I cannot even pray. I can scarcely even think — but I can lay here like a small child in his arms, and trust.”

The Missionaries died for their faith like Adam Doward, who after more than eight years of toil and suffering — homeless, persecuted, escaping from a riot to die alone at last — had rejoiced to give his life in hope of the results we see today.

The Boxer crisis passed and the calm words of a white-haired pastor, martyred in Shansi, came true:

“Kingdoms may perish,’ he said, almost with his last breath, ” but the Church of Christ can never be destroyed.”

____________________

And Mr. Taylor lived to see the new day of opportunity opening in China; lived to return to the land of his love and his prayers. But he returned alone.

The beloved companion of many years, who had so brightened the closing days of their pilgrimage together, rests above Vevey, by the Lake of Geneva, in Switzerland, where they made their last temporary home.

With his son and daughter-in-law — the present writers — he turned his face once more toward China, and at seventy-three years of age, he made one of the most remarkable itinerations of his lifetime.

How the Christians loved and revered him as he passed from station to station, everywhere welcomed as “China’s Benefactor,” the one through whom the Gospel had reached those inland provinces.

…it was that evening the call for Hudson Taylor came. No, it was hardly death — just the glad, swift entry upon life eternal.

“My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!”

And the very room seemed filled with unutterable peace.

Christian History Magazine: “How the Church in China Survived and Thrived in the 20th Century”

Dr. Howard Taylor, On Deciding to Become a Missionary:

“It was suggested by some of my fellow students that I was taking a rash step, that I was perhaps making a mistake in going and burying myself, as they said, amongst the heathen of China.

I did not think so; I did not believe that any one who undertook to go forth and serve the Lord Jesus Christ would be found in the long run to be making a mistake, and I am thankful to be able to say now that it is better than I hoped.”

Faith Missions:

The beginning of “faith missions” (the sending of missionaries with no promises of temporal support, but instead a reliance “through prayer to move Men by God”) has had a wide impact among evangelical churches to this day.

After his death, China Inland Mission gained the notable distinction of being the largest Protestant mission agency in the world.

The biographies of Hudson Taylor inspired generations of Christians to follow his example of service and sacrifice.

Notable examples are: missionary to India Amy Carmichael, Olympic Gold Medalist Eric Liddell, twentieth-century missionary and martyr Jim Elliot, Founder of Bible Study Fellowship Audrey Wetherell Johnson, as well as international evangelists Billy Graham and Luis Palau.

-Wikipedia: Hudson Taylor

__________

“St. Patrick, St. Francis, E.M. Bounds, George Müller, Hudson Taylor, Francis & Edith Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, and Billy Graham all were major influences for the Founding of this Ministry, and remain so to this day.”

-S.G. Preston

1 cORiNtHiANS cHAptER 13: tHE LOVE CHAptER

“If I speak in the languages of men or of angels, and have not love, I have become like a clanging gong, or a tinkling cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge;

and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And if I give all I have to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, and have not love; it profits me nothing.

Love is patent and kind, love is not boastful or proud;

is not irritable or resentful, is not selfish, is not easily provoked; thinks no evil.

It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. Prophecies shall pass away, the gift of tongues shall cease; the gift of knowledge shall vanish away.

For now we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect arrives, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see as in a darkened mirror, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I also am known.

And now remains faith, hope, and love: these three…but the greatest of these is love.”

-1 Corinthians Chapter 13

This Website: PrayerFoundation Evangelical Lay Monks ™ Built by: S.G. Preston Ministries ™