Hudson made a slow recovery, and when his eyes had healed sufficiently, he began working with his father. He was glad to be up and about again. And he was glad that the pain was gone from his eyes. But now that he was better, he resented having to go to church again with the family. Mr. Taylor was used to being obeyed by his children, and he made sure Hudson joined them each Sunday. But Mrs. Taylor could see the frustration building in her son. She worried about him. And she prayed for him every day.
Two years passed, and while Hudson had settled into the routine of working with his father in the pharmacy, he couldn’t shake his feelings of frustration. All the while, Mrs. Taylor kept on praying for him.
Sometimes actions carried out by different people in different places at different times can meet together in one moment and completely change the course of a life. Such a moment happened to Hudson Taylor in June 1849, two years after leaving the bank.
The first action was taken by his sister Amelia, who was now fourteen. She looked up to her older brother and had been worried for some time about how he had drifted away from God. She decided to do something about it. In her diary she made a note that she would pray for Hudson three times a day until he found peace with God. And, true to her word, she prayed for him faithfully.
The second event happened a month later when Mrs. Taylor went to spend several weeks visiting her sister. While she was away she actually had some spare time, something she never seemed to have at home, attending to the needs of her busy household. So she decided to spend an afternoon praying for Hudson.
On that same afternoon, back at home, Hudson was feeling particularly bored. He knew, though, that if he didn’t look busy his little sister Louisa would pester him to play paper dolls with her, or worse, his father would find some chore for him to do. So Hudson decided to take a good book to his favorite hideaway. But he couldn’t seem to find anything that interested him on the bookshelf; he’d read all the good books until he knew passages from many of them by heart. It was then that he spotted a religious booklet he had not seen before. His father was always collecting them and giving them to his customers. Hudson smiled to himself as he took the book off the shelf. He had figured out how these booklets worked a long time ago. The first half was always an exciting story to get people’s interest, and then the second half was a Gospel message. Hudson had heard enough Gospel messages already in his lifetime, so he promised himself he would read only the first half.
With the book tucked firmly under his arm, and keeping an eye out in case Louisa discovered his hideaway, he hurried to the old warehouse at the back of their property and settled down to read.
Forty-five miles away at her sister’s house, Hudson’s mother was praying fervently for him. After several hours of praying she felt a peace come over her. Somewhere deep inside she knew God had answered her prayers. She didn’t know how it happened, but she was certain her son had become a Christian.
And amazingly, he had. Hudson had begun reading the story in the booklet, and it had interested him so much that he’d forgotten all about his promise to read only the first half of the book. Before he knew it, he had read the Gospel part as well. As he read, a phrase seemed to jump out at him. “The finished work of Christ,” the booklet said, and Hudson couldn’t seem to get that phrase out of his mind. He thought about it at great length. If it was a finished work, then there was nothing he could do but accept that finished work. And so, there in his hideaway in the old warehouse, Hudson Taylor invited Jesus Christ to come into his life.
Hudson left the warehouse a new person; the struggle that had raged on inside him for so long was finally settled. For the first time since starting work at the bank nearly three years earlier, he felt at peace inside.
He wanted his mother to be the first one to know, and since she was not yet back from visiting her sister, he said nothing to anyone else about what had happened.
A few days went by, and Amelia and Louisa watched Hudson with fascination. Something about him was different. Finally Amelia asked him what had happened, and Hudson confided in her that he had become a Christian. He explained that he had not told her sooner because he wanted their mother to be the first to know, and so he swore Amelia to secrecy.
It was two weeks before Mrs. Taylor returned from visiting her sister. Hudson could hardly wait to see her face and tell her the good news. Finally he heard her footsteps on the stairway. He flung open the door and wrapped his arms around his mother. When he had nearly squeezed the life from her, he let her go and announced that he had some wonderful news for her. Mrs. Taylor smiled broadly. “I already know what you have to tell me,” she said, nodding. “You have made your peace with God, and I have been rejoicing in that knowledge for two weeks.”
Hudson stepped back, stunned. Only one person in the world knew of his conversion, and that was Amelia. Had she written to their mother? “How did you know?” he asked. “Did Amelia break her promise? She said she wouldn’t tell anyone.”
Mrs. Taylor laughed. “No, I have not heard it from any earthly source. I was praying for you while I was away, and as I prayed, the Holy Spirit made it known to me that He had claimed you.” Hudson was both relieved that his sister hadn’t lied to him and shocked by how sure his mother had been of his conversion.
As they continued their conversation, Hudson learned that his mother had been praying at the exact moment he had come to understand the real meaning of being a Christian.
Several days later, Hudson picked up what he thought was his notebook to check for something he had written. Just as he opened it, he realized he’d picked up Amelia’s notebook by mistake. But before he could close it, a passage with his name in it caught his eye. The passage was her diary entry, and in it she promised to pray for him three times a day until he had become a Christian. It was dated exactly one month before he picked up the booklet and read it in his hideaway.
Hudson was amazed. God really did answer prayer. He found himself wondering what would happen next in this new world of faith he had entered.
Chapter 3
One Single Word
Now that Hudson was a believer, he couldn’t wait for Sundays at the Methodist chapel on Pinfold Hill. Bible reading was no longer boring. Every time the Bible was read now, words jumped out at him. And what had once been dull, dry sermons were filled with new meaning. And while he knew he was too young to lead the church Bible class, or any other church activity for that matter, he also knew that somewhere there was something he could do for God.
Finally one day, he and Amelia had an idea. They decided to skip the Sunday evening service, which they loved, and instead spend the time visiting homes in the poorest areas of Barnsley. As they went, they would hand out tracts, invite people to church, and tell them about God’s love and concern for them. Amelia and Hudson grew very close during this time as they planned and prayed together for their Sunday visits. They felt happy, and neither of them could see any reason why their visiting could not continue indefinitely. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, however, had other plans.
Amelia was now fourteen years old, and her parents had been looking for a good school for her to attend. After much searching they decided to send their daughter to the boarding school run by Aunt Hodson, Mrs. Taylor’s sister, at Barton-upon-Humber, forty-five miles away. Amelia would be able to come back and visit during vacations, and she would be in good hands with her aunt.
Meanwhile, Aunt Hodson had also been wondering what to do with her son John. He was finished with school and needed a job. So it was decided that in return for Amelia’s attending school in Barton-upon-Humber, John would come and live with the Taylor family and be an apprentice pharmacist to Mr. Taylor. It was to be a straight swap of children and would not cost either family a penny, except for the train fare home at vacation time.
It all seemed to work out perfectly, except for a few minor details. Hudson lost his best friend and prayer partner and in exchange got a constant companion who reminded him of the junior clerks at the bank. John never seemed to take anything seriously, especially Hudson’s need for privacy. Amelia and Louisa had always shared a bedroom, while Hudson had his own. Now things were different. Hudson’s personal belongings had been moved aside, and a second bed moved into the room. And if that weren’t enough, John talked endlessly about things that did not interest Hudson. He would even interrupt Hudson while he was praying or reading his Bible to tell him a joke. It was a very difficult time. And despite the presence of John in his bedroom, Hudson felt lonely. To him, John seemed an unfair exchange for Amelia.
Through it all, Hudson continued to pray and read his Bible. It was during this time that he heard God speak the one word that would be the focal point of every major decision he would make for the rest of his life. One single word—China.
One day Hudson was praying and telling God how his life seemed so unfocused and frustrating. He’d tried to do the right thing, but it was so difficult to live a godly life, especially with John breathing down his neck all the time. Finally, in desperation, Hudson told God that if He would break the power of sin in his life he would do anything God asked him to do, go anywhere God asked him to go, and speak to anyone God asked him to speak to. As Hudson prayed his prayer out loud, great peace came over him. Later he wrote about it: “Never shall I forget the feeling that came over me then. Words can never describe it. I felt I was in the presence of God….Something seemed to say ‘Your prayer is answered, your conditions are accepted.’ And from that time the conviction never left me that I was called to China.”
In the same way that his father’s magnifying glass focused sunlight into a narrow band of powerful light, so Hudson’s life began to focus on China.
Every decision and every activity became valuable only if it moved him towards his goal. This focus on China took several forms. First, he realized he would need all the academic training he could get. He had been taught at home most of his life because he wasn’t always strong enough to attend school, so he was used to setting his own course of study.
In a letter to Amelia he explained why he had begun getting up at 5 a.m. to study: “I must study if I mean to go to China. I am fully decided to go, and am making every preparation I can. I intend to rub up on [improve] my Latin, to learn Greek and the rudiments of Hebrew, and to get as much general information as possible.”
Second, he needed to toughen up his body. His mother had always fussed over him because he was so often sick. She made sure he sat where there was no draft, ate wholesome food, and was careful to wrap up warm on cold winter days when he went out to deliver medicines. But all of this fussing made Hudson wonder how he would ever survive in China, not to mention the dangerous sea voyage to get there. There was nothing else for it but to toughen up! He started with a strenuous exercise program outside in the cold. His mother found it difficult to look out the window and see him working so hard on frosty mornings. She worried that he would catch pneumonia.
Hudson also got rid of his feather bed and began sleeping on bare boards. He gave away many things that were not “essential” to his daily life. When I get to China, he told himself, my body must be ready.
Third, Hudson had to find some way to learn the Chinese language. Of course, he didn’t know anyone who had been to China, much less spoke Chinese, so there was no way he could learn how the language sounded. But he could learn what it looked like written down. It so happened that someone had given him a copy of the Gospel of Luke in Chinese. There was just one catch: there was no translation or dictionary to go with it. The chapter and verse numbers were in English as well as Chinese, however. Hudson managed to persuade John to help him, and together they set about unraveling the puzzle of the Chinese language.
