The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor, by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor, was the first of the two book reviews that I had to do in my LTS Year at Capernwray. Because it was done at the beginning of the year, I can’t help but think of how it really influenced that year, even though I did not notice it at the time. Hudson Taylor’s story is one of such sufficiency in Christ, just as was my struggle at the time. And I guess it was good to see that someone else has gone through what I was going through.
I love this one part of the book so much, that even though I talked about it in the essay, I would still like to repeat it. It is the part when Hudson Taylor, while separated from his family, was writing his children, preaching Christ to them… “You do not know how often Papa thinks of his darlings and how often he looks at your photographs until tears fill his eyes. Sometimes he almost fears lest he should feel discontented when he thinks of how far away you are from him; but, then, dear Jesus, who never leaves him, says: ‘Do not be afraid. I will keep your heart satisfied…’ I wish you, my precious children, knew what it was to give your hearts to Jesus to keep everyday. I used to try to keep my own heart right, but it would be always going wrong; and so at last I had to give up trying myself, and accept Jesus’ offer to keep it for me… Once I used to try to think very much and very often about Jesus, but I often forgot Him; now I trust Jesus to keep my heart remembering Him, and He does so.”
Sometimes for me, I feel like things really need to be brought down to that level. To know in just the simplest of ways that God is the one who who satisfies me. How wonderful it is to have a friend like Jesus, who “keep’s my heart satisfied.” Praise the Lord.
The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor
Chris Evangelista
October 8, 2004
The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor is in his complete and utter dependence on Jesus Christ. More than this, though, He also learned how to be satisfied in the situations of his life: drawing the satisfaction from the only One who can give it. Where he is was right, but the means by which he was practicing faith caused much hardship. God was faithful: this was evident when he was preparing to leave for China. But it wasn’t until later on in life did Hudson Taylor realize the source of even the faith that he longed for: “As gradually the light was dawning on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite, was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it my own. But I had not this faith. I strove for it, but it would not come; tried to exercise it, but in vain” (Page 260-261).
Hudson Taylor knew that it was by faith that Christ would do through him. But even faith became an obstacle for him. It was an enemy too strong to be overcome. He saw “more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus.” But in this, his helplessness only increased. He “prayed for faith, but it came not” (261). The source of the faith he wanted was yet to be revealed to him: “‘But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.’ As I read I saw it all! ‘If we believe not… he abideth faithful’ (2 Tim 2:13). I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh how joy flowed!). ‘Ah, there is rest!’ I thought. ‘I have striven in vain to rest in Him, I’ll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me – never to leave me, never to fail me?’ And dearie, He never will!” (261). He has realized rest in Christ! He has now found the One who will “work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
This revelation immediately began to transform Hudson Taylor’s life. It also came just in time as soon after, he would find a crisis in his life that would otherwise have been ahrd to bear. He would loose another child and later, he would loose his wife as well. But God would sustain – and satisfy him. He wrote, nnot long after, “my thursty days are all past” (273). This was because Christ would remain faithful: “If ever the reality of the power of Christ to meet the heart’s deepest need was put to the test of experience, it was in this life, swept clean of all that had been its earthly comfort – wife, children, home, health to a large extent – and left amid the responsibility of such a mission and such a crisis, far away in China” (273). Hudson Taylor believed in the comfort Christ could bring. He then was able to feel it. Even in such a sorrowful time, he was able to write: “My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude and praise. My eyes flow with tears of mingled joy and sorrow… My tears are more tears of joy that sorrow. But most of all, I joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (274). Who else could say such things in such circumstances, but a man filled with the fullness – the satisfaction of Jesus Christ.
Hudson Taylor again shows this rest, and even preaches it to his children, at a time when he felt lonely. In longing to be with his children, he continues to point them back to Christ: “I wish you, my precious children, knew what it was to give your hearts to Jesus to keep everyday. I used to try to keep my own heart right, but it would be always going wrong; and so at last I had to give up trying myself, and accept Jesus’ offer to keep it for me… Once I used to try to think very much and very often about Jesus, but I often forgot Him; now I trust Jesus to keep my heart remembering Him, and He does so” (279). In simple words, Hudson Taylor expressed what, in heartache and in senseless striving, God had revealed to him. In this difficult time, Christ remained the same: “No language can express what He has been and is to me. Never does He leave me, constantly does He cheer me with His love” (281).
Finally, we see this rest as Hudson Taylor was himself suffering physically, from a concussion of the spine caused by a bad fall. “Then came the gradual paralysis of the lower limbs, and the doctor’s verdict that consigned him to absolute rest in bed” (312). How true is that statement? The doctor probably did not know that Hudson Taylor was already doing much “resting.” But this seemed to limit him as “a little bed with four post was his prison” (313). Though even confined, Jesus Christ would remain faithful, not only to Hudson Taylor, but to CIM, “And round about him day and night was the presence to which he had fullest access in the name of Jesus” (313).
Hudson Taylor became available to the Lord, and allowed Him to work through him. This was the anthem of his life. Even at his lowest moments, he was satisfied because Jesus was his satisfaction. Not his own strength. He realized the true meaning of rest: “One of the happiest periods of my life was that period of forced inactivity, when one could do nothing but ‘rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him’ (Psalm 37:7) AND SEE Him meeting all one’s need” (315). Hudson Taylor realized that true rest meant stopping his own activity to allow God to begin His. “Cease striving and know that I am God” (Psalm 46;10). And the result of this is that He will “do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Why? So that “to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generation forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:21). Amen.