Hudson Taylor had given himself to the Lord, and there came to him a strong conviction that God would send him to China. He had read about George Müller at an early age, and how God answered all his prayers for support for his orphans, so he also started to pray that God would give him the confidence to trust Him completely. He knew that if God would send jim to China, he must first begin to live by faith in England. At that time he was working as a doctor’s dispenser, and he prayer that the doctor whom he was working for would pay him justly. The doctor was a good, but very bad a paying salaries.
So he learned to move men through prayer, a thought that afterward became a blessing to him during his China work. He stood on that thought, and he would always pray for the awakening of Christians to support his work, and in finding missionaries to work with him in China. George Müller was one of those who supported the work of Taylor. In a letter that he wrote to him. he said:
“I send by this mail and with this letter a cheque to all the dear brethren and sisters connected with the CIM (China Inland Mission), as a token of loving interest in their service, to whom I have not sent anything before; in order that I may thus manifest interest in the service of all and some love in the Lord to all.”
“It will give me pleasure to hear from time to time from all of you though I may be able to write but little. I also send to those of you who have not yet had it, a copy of my last Report the reading therefore may be a little encouragement to you, and I will also send 12 copies more of my Narrative, one for each of those of you, who have not yet had a copy.”
“For the first 3 years that I preached, I saw scarcely any fruit resulting from my labors, but when 4 years, 3 months since it pleased God to bring me into such a state, that I was willing to be content to be only the instrument provided any good was done, and was willing to give to God all the glory if any good was accomplished, it pleased Him to allow me at once to see fruit, yea much fruit resulting from my labors.”
He also prayed that God would give twenty-four missionaries, two for each of the eleven provinces and two for Mongolia, each of which have millions of souls, but no missionary. God did it. But there was no society to send them out. The mission society, China Inland Mission, that he started has grown, and other mission societies look to this one as a model. And it happened through Faith and Prayer.
Image used by permission of the George Müller Charitable Trust
Hudson Taylor said at the end of the movie,
“I don’t strive for faith; I rest in your faithfulness.” During this
movie he has so many struggles, even fighting criticism from other missionaries, but because he learned to rest in God he
was able to reach deep into China.
Even after his child, and then later his wife, passed away,
he remained faithful to God. That’s something we can learn: that we don’t need
to gain more faith, but rest in God.
George Müller lost his son and later his wife and daughter. But he too remained faithful to God, and God blessed him with a younger wife who would go on to accompany him in his mission trips overseas in his later years… travel that his first wife would not have been able to endure.