We have seen how from Chinkiang, China, an inspired and reinvigorated James Hudson Taylor wrote a powerful letter to his sister Amelia Broomhall in London. In this article you will read a letter he himself received that sparked the remarkable change in his spiritual life, his pursuit of holiness.
In 1867 Henry Law, a bishop in the Church of England published a book he wrote titled “Christ is All: The Gospel in the Pentateuch”. The book showed Jesus throughout the first five books of the Bible and how he is beautifully represented throughout Moses’ holy writings.
Seven years earlier, Hudson Taylor had returned to England sick with hepatitis from his first missionary ministry in China. He had gone to China at age 21 in 1854 and returned to England, now a married man with a daughter. He also came with a Chinese convert who would prove to be one of the most important people in Taylor’s ministry, Wang Laijun. While in London, Wang helped the translation of the New Testament into the Ningbo dialect.
One day during a depressing period, Taylor prayed fervently at a Brighton Beach, Sussex and asked the Lord for 24 missionaries who would evangelise the 11 unreached provinces of China and two more missionaries who would go to Mongolia. He then began the legendary China Inland Mission by faith without any financial backing whatsoever and deposited ten pounds which is £1266 in 2020 (US $1539) in the bank for the missionary organization. All of the missionaries were expected to live by faith and depend wholly on God for provision without asking for help from donors, and they did.
Taylor and his new team of recruits sailed back to China in 1866 (their boat almost capsizing twice in the 4 month journey). He then left Yangzhou (Hangchow) in 1868 after persecution where his house was burnt down and moved to Chinkiang. In August of 1869, Taylor read the book “Christ is All: The Gospel of the Pentateuch” by Henry Law, and left it in Hangchow. There, through Bishop Law’s book, God was illumining Taylor’s friend and coworker, John McCarthy, about the reality and implications of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In his excitement at the revelation he had received, he sent a letter to his friend and leader Hudson Taylor in Chinkiang.
This letter proved to be THE turning point in Hudson Taylor’s life. This new understanding of continually abiding in Christ endured for the rest of his life. A few weeks after Taylor’s illumination, Charles Henry Judd in Yangchow was expecting the return of his friend and leader, but was hardly prepared for the transformation which had taken place in the one he knew so well. Scarcely waiting for greetings, Mr. Taylor plunged into his story. In characteristic fashion — his hands behind his back — he walked up and down the room exclaiming, “Oh, Mr. Judd, God has made me a new man! God has made me a new man!”
Mr. Taylor read John McCarthy’s letter on Saturday, the 4th September 1869. He later said of the letter that “as I read, I saw it all. I looked to Jesus; and when I saw, oh how joy flowed!”
These are the words that were written in John McCarthy’s letter:
“I do wish I could have a talk with you now about the way of Holiness. At the time you were speaking to me about it, it was the subject of all others occupying my thoughts — not from anything I had read, not from what my brother had written even, so much as from a consciousness of failure; a constant falling short of that which I felt should be aimed at; an unrest; a perpetual striving to find some way by which I might continuously enjoy that communion, that fellowship at times so real, but more often so visionary, so far off! … Do you know, dear brother, I now think that this striving, effort, longing, hoping for better days to come, is not the true way to happiness, holiness or usefulness: better, no doubt far better, than being satisfied with our poor attainments, but not the best way after all. I have been struck with a passage from a book of yours left here, entitled Christ Is All. It says:
“The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete.
“This (grace of faith) is the chain which binds the soul to Christ, and makes the Saviour and the sinner one. … A channel is now formed by which Christ’s fulness plenteously flows down. The barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem. … One life reigns throughout the whole.
“Believer, you mourn your shortcomings; you find the hated monster, sin, still striving for the mastery. Evil is present when you would do good. Help is laid up for you in Christ. Seek clearer interest in Him. They who most deeply feel that they have died in Christ, and paid in Him sin’s penalties, ascend to highest heights of godly life. He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet, and causes many a fall.”
“This last sentence I think I now fully endorse. To let my loving Saviour work in me His will, my sanctification is what I would live for by His grace. Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the love of an almighty Saviour, in the conscious joy of a complete salvation, a salvation ‘from all sin’ (this is His Word); willing that His will should truly be supreme — this is not new, and yet ’tis new to me. I feel as though the first dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me. Now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy. May He lead us into the realisation of His unfathomable fulness.”
“August 21: How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is, and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity. It does not appear to me as anything new, only formerly misapprehended.”
The impact of this letter was immediate in James Hudson Taylor’s life. Henry Judd recorded, “He was a joyous man now , a bright happy Christian. He had been a toiling, burdened one before, with latterly not much rest of soul. It was resting in Jesus now, and letting Him do the work — which makes all the difference. Whenever he spoke in meetings after that, a new power seemed to flow from him, and in the practical things of life a new peace possessed him. Troubles did not worry him as before. He cast everything on God in a new way, and gave more time to prayer. Instead of working late at night, he began to go to bed earlier, rising at 5 AM to give time to Bible study and prayer (often two hours) before the work of the day began.”
It was THE EXCHANGED LIFE that had come to him — the life that is indeed “No longer I.” Six months earlier he had written, “I have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious Master.” There was no thought of imitation now! It was in blessed reality “Christ liveth in me.” And how great the difference! — instead of bondage, liberty; instead of failure, quiet victories within; instead of fear and weakness, a restful sense of sufficiency in Another. So great was the deliverance, that from that time onward Mr. Taylor could never do enough to help to make this precious secret plain to hungry hearts wherever he might be. And today, in May 2020, there are many in need of such brilliant light dawning in their lives.
“But are you always conscious of abiding in Christ?” Mr. Taylor was asked many years later. “While sleeping last night,” he replied, “did I cease to abide in your home because I was unconscious of the fact? We should never be conscious of NOT abiding in Christ.” I change, He changes not; The Christ can never die: His truth, not mine, the resting place; His love, not mine, the tie.
The thing that sticks with me is that phrase “The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete.” How did Henry Law come upon such a powerful revelation except that the Spirit of God moved his pen as his scribbled on his notebook? He goes on to add “He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is defective faith which clogs the feet, and causes many a fall.” I am astounded at such revelations flowing from a book written in 1867 and I’m both honoured and glad that the Holy Spirit has led me into these streams of Grace.
If you are not saved, that is, born-again please read this article here and accept Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Saviour and Lord. He loves you too much. Please make this decision today, it’ll save your life. God bless you 🙏🏿
Ben-David Ministries 