Posted: 02/11/2016 at 6:55am
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Chinese
pilgrims flock to UK town
Yorkshire-born
Hudson Taylor was a spiritual father to millions
By Charles
Gardner, Special to ASSIST News Service
BARNSLEY,
UK (ANS – Feb. 10, 2016) -- Coach (bus) tours are now being conducted
around a UK town, not far from where I live, to enable Chinese pilgrims to pay
tribute to one of their greatest heroes.
James
Hudson Taylor, who was also a true friend of Israel, was born in Barnsley,
Yorkshire, in 1832 and later followed the call of God to China, where he
established hundreds of churches and nearly 200 schools. As founder of the China
Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship), he became spiritual father
to millions of Chinese Christians.
As part of their
weekly Songs of Praise programme, BBC Television focused on the visit
to Barnsley of a coach-load of British-based Chinese tourists. Interviewed about
what Taylor meant to them and filmed publicly praying and thanking God for his
ministry, they sang Amazing Grace in their native tongue as they honoured his
memory.
“I
cannot believe God has used this little place (population 225,000) to do an
amazing work among the Chinese,” one of the tourists told the BBC.
Historian
Ruth Tucker wrote: “No other missionary in the 19 centuries since the Apostle
Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of
evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.”
So
what was the secret of his success? Firm resolve to follow a clear calling was
no doubt a key – he was so determined to identify with the Chinese that he
adopted their dress and even wore a pigtail. But despite his primary calling to
China, he clearly also saw the priority Scripture set on Jewish evangelism; that
even for the Apostle Paul, who was called primarily to the Gentiles, the gospel
was “to the Jew first” (Romans 1.16).
He
was so convinced of this truth that, in his latter years, he would write out a
cheque in support of a Jewish mission on the first day of each year.
This
habit began on New Year’s Day 1897 when, at home in Britain, he went round to
the house of one John Wilkinson, founder of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews1,
with what Taylor’s wife Jennie2 described as “a brotherly note enclosing a
gift”. A cheque was accompanied by a note saying “To the Jew first”.
Mrs.
Taylor continued: “Mr Wilkinson’s warm heart was touched, and he immediately
wrote a brotherly reply, enclosing his own cheque for the same amount, with the
words: ‘And also to the Gentile’.
“This helpful
interchange of sympathy was kept up ever after3,” she wrote, “the only change
being that each doubled the amount of their contribution.
“Work
among God’s ancient people occupied a special place in the prayerful sympathy of
both Mr. and Mrs. Taylor,” she explained.4
St
Paul wrote: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for
the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the
Gentile.” (Romans 1.16)
This
statement reflects something of God’s heart for the Jewish people, first
expressed in Genesis 12.3 as: “I will bless those who bless you…”
Taylor’s
attitude and understanding of the place on God’s heart for the Jews will surely
have contributed in no small measure to the incredible success of his mission –
there are at least as many Christians in China today as there are people in the
UK! And that’s despite severe persecution. Now Chinese
Christians are working on a plan to take the gospel all the way back to
Jerusalem, where it all started!
The
most encouraging aspect of watching those Chinese believers paying tribute to
Hudson Taylor was that they represented the undeniable evidence that what you
sow, you will surely reap. As St. Paul urged the Galatians: “Let us not become
weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap a harvest if we do not give
up.” (Gal 6.9)
1The
mission is now known as Messianic Testimony following a 1977 merger with the
Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel.
2Jennie
was Taylor’s second wife. His first wife, Maria, died in 1870 of cholera, just
days after losing her sixth child, Noel, in infancy.
3Taylor
died in 1905.
4I
am indebted to Saltshakers.com,
the website of author Steve Maltz, for this insight into Taylor’s love for the
Jews.
Photo
captions: 1) Illustration of Hudson Taylor in China. 2) A younger Hudson Taylor.
3) Signs in English and Chinese marking the birthplace of Hudson Taylor. 4)
Chinese pilgrims visiting Barnsley. 5) Charles and Linda Gardner.
About the writer:
Charles Gardner is a veteran Cape Town-born British journalist working on plans
to launch a new UK national newspaper reporting and interpreting the news from a
biblical perspective. With his South African forebears having had close links
with the legendary devotional writer Andrew Murray, Charles is similarly
determined to make an impact for Christ with his pen and has worked in the
newspaper industry for more than 41 years. Part-Jewish, he is married to Linda,
who takes the Christian message around many schools in the Yorkshire town of
Doncaster. Charles has four children and eight grandchildren. Charles can be
reached by phone on +44 (0) 1302 832987, or by e-mail at chazgardner@btinternet.com . He is
the author of Peace in Jerusalem, available from http://olivepresspublisher.com
.
**
You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST
News Service (www.assistnews.net).
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