Missionaries and their stories are familiar to me. My mother often would give my siblings and me missionary stories in book form as gifts during our childhood. I had my favorites, of course, I liked the ones with action and some of the missionaries were more adventurous than others. Most lived sacrificial lives. The story of Hudson Taylor was a familiar one to me. He was a well-known missionary to the Chinese people and was the founder of the China Inland Mission. He spoke the Chinese language, Mandarin, and several of the dialects. His life’s work was to share Christ with the people who lived in China. His dedication and resourcefulness to this cause was novel even for those days. Hudson Taylor has remained one of the great missionaries of all time in the Protestant tradition.
A few years back, I came across an old copy of the book I am featuring, The Man Who Believed God: The Story of Hudson Taylor. It was like reading the story anew now that much life has passed since I first read his story. This compelling story is about a Christian man who devotes his life to loving, helping, and evangelizing the people in his adopted country. He truly is captive to his devotion to God and to the people he seeks to enlighten with gospel of Christ. But it is not easy by any means. The journey of faith that he embarks on will eventually cost him dearly in the loss of family members through illness and death and in other areas of hardship. But he is faithful to the end. I was particularly fascinated by the account of his remarkable conversion when he was a teenager. He had no intention to follow his parents in Christian faith. He was happy about his unbelief. His mother devotes herself to prayer on his behalf. Then one day the written word in a Christian pamphlet causes him to reconsider the issue. He converts. This young man doesn’t just recite the prayer, he is all in. His conversion completely changes the trajectory of his life.
This book is an excellent read about a life well-lived and a spiritual journey of great depth. I recommend it, not so much for the writing style, but because it gives insight into that day and time and the how far it will take you when one is willing to embrace whatever happens for the sake of Christ and His love.
