Tears welled slowly up in his eyes as he looked at the strangely radiant expression of open-faced boy before him. He said in a voice deepened by emotion:
“I’d give all the world for a faith like yours.”
“You can have it, you know, sir,” answered Hudson quietly. “It’s free to all—without money and without price.”
God’s Adventurer by Phyllis Thompson is a very condensed biography of Hudson Taylor, following his life from his call to missions to his death. Centering on stories from his life about how God answers prayer, this book will be a boost of faith to any Christian.
Table of Contents
“Go for me to China.”
At the age of eighteen, Hudson Taylor, while praying in his country home in England, was called by God to go to China. He began immediate preparations for life on the field, starting with living alone in a cheap house next to a sewer. He purposed never to ask for any money or help from anyone, but to only pray and ask God to move people.
This strategy paid off time and time again, and while it never made him rich, it always kept him fed. He could never say that God didn’t care for His servant. Money would come in from the most unexpected of places to cover exactly what he needed.
Moving from the drain-side home to an apartment in London, his faith was tested continually. And every time he trusted, he was rewarded. An accident nearly costing him his life strengthened his conviction that God had called him for a purpose in China.
The Pig-Tailed Missionary
Taylor, finally arriving in China, found himself in the middle of a massive country with no friends and no knowledge of the language. He did find refuge during the beginning of his ministry in the London Missionary Society compound but soon moved out to me among the Chinese people.
And to further fit in with the natives, Hudson Taylor donned robes and a pigtail, the standard outfit of the time. Many Europeans questioned this choice, but Taylor answered with the great increase in acceptance he found.
One account in the book that challenged me was when a renowned wise man of the area Taylor served in got saved. He asked the missionary how long they had the Gospel in his home country of England. With some hesitation, Taylor answered they had had it for several hundred years.
“My father sought the truth for more than twenty years,” he said slowly. “And he died without finding it. Oh, why did you people not come sooner?”
The China Inland Mission
After serving in China for some years, Taylor was burdened to go to all the inland provinces that had never heard the name of Jesus preached. Standing on the beach in Brighton one day, Hudson opened his Bible and wrote, “Prayed for twenty-four willing skillful laborers at Brighton, June 25, 1865.” And less than one year later, he and the twenty-four willing, skillful laborers set sail for China, bringing the Gospel to the darkest of places.
Taylor’s mission, now known as OMF International serving in east Asia, still exists today. It’s a monument to what prayer and faith can do when wielded by a Godly man.
Overall
God’s Adventurer is a very short but very powerful book. Hudson Taylor’s life was one of faith, prayer, and complete loyalty to God. And yet, though God’s work through him looks beyond what an average Christian could accomplish, the only thing stopping any of us from being used in such a way is our own lack of faith and prayer.
There are no content warnings worth mentioning for this book. At such a short length it might be enjoyed by Christians of any age who wish to be challenged by the life of this great man.
And as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll write you in the next one!
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