China Inland Mission

It is inevitable that there are those who will read and reject as mystical and unpractical that which is so directly connected with the intimacies of fellowship with the unseen Lord.

I would, however, venture to remind such that the writer of these pages founded the China Inland Mission.

He translated his vision of the beloved into lifelong strenuous service, and so kept it undimmed through all the years of a life which has had hardly a parallel in these our days.

This is really the commendation of the following short chapters.

Why the resurgence? I have some thoughts on that, and we'll talk about the scriptural roots of this hymn and a story about how the Lord has used it, and just a little preview there.

This hymn dramatically intersects the life of Hudson Taylor, that great missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission.

So let's get started.

First, the facts.

He was trained in medicine, but had the heart of a missionary and also had been trained as a preacher.

And his aim was the mission field.

And after spending a number of years in China, but realizing there were many millions more far deeper inland who were totally unreached with the gospel, Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission, which, by the way, is the modern day OMF, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, which is still active and productive in Great Commission work reaching the unreached.

But back in 1865, just as Hudson Taylor was beginning that great work, it was very, very hard, harrowing at times.

And, you know, I love testimonies.

You know, Hudson Taylor, who founded China Inland Mission, had such financial struggles.

He was coming back into England one time, and as he's going through customs, they said, do you have anything to declare? And it was pretty famous.

He said, 28 cents and all the promises of God.

The work grew rapidly until one after another regular refuges had to be opened, which gradually developed into centers of missionary activity, numbers of men and women being led to Christ.

The young inquirers and converts needed much patient teaching, and the next step was to gather as many as possible into a simple Bible school under his own roof, in which he sought to give them christian instruction and to train the most promising as permanent helpers in the rapidly growing work years have come and gone testing and strengthening this movement which has proved to be of god until now as we are nearing his home pastor shee is the centre of a large and extended organization for the support and direction of which he alone is responsible Although a regularly ordained pastor in the China Inland Mission, he receives no salary or remuneration from us, and the mission as such has nothing to do with his opium refuge work.

Entirely independent and run on native lines, the refuges have increased to no less than 40 in number and now extend from this to four adjacent provinces.

Pastor Shi manufactures at his own home all the medicines used in the refuges and personally superintends their operations.

Take away your opium and your Jesus is the cry of many an embittered heart.

Footnote.

one of the ladies of the china inland mission was visiting in the great city of hsiao sing one summer day in eighteen eighty six she entered a large handsome house and found three women sitting in a courtyard one of them an old lady in her ninetieth year they listened attentively to the gospel for some time until the old lady smoking her pipe caught the name of jesus what is that she cried standing up and coming towards the missionary do not dare to mention that name again i hate jesus i will not hear another word you foreigners come with opium in one hand and jesus in the other taking a book from the lady's hand she looked down at the page and read a few characters until her eye caught the name she immediately shut up the book and handed it to the missionary saying in the most contemptuous tones take it away take it away we do not want your opium or your jesus the first mission station in the province of honan was closed by a riot in which an infuriated mob led on by the scholars of the city drove out the missionary crying after him you burned our palace you killed our emperor you poisoned our people and now you come to teach us virtue The scholar Xi, in his distant village, hundreds of miles from the coast, was no exception to his class in this hatred of the foreigner.

He had never seen an Englishman, but he knew well who had brought opium to China, who had bombarded Canton, who had burned the palace of the Emperor, drained his country of millions of money as indemnity for two unjustifiable wars, and bound the hands of the nation while slowly driving them to suicide.

That is, everyone who is traveling.

We went over to the China Inland Mission and consulted Mr. Stevenson on our plans for China.

The plan worked out in Mr. Stevenson's study filled the time to be given to China in the most interesting way possible.

And when the travelers left by river steamer for Hankow, they were anticipating visits to Peking and not a few other places.

Strange to say, it was only a week later that William was writing from Chicago, telling of the grief of their homecoming.

Footnote, a letter to Dr. Henry W.

Frost of the China Inland Mission.

End footnote.

That is, everyone who is traveling.

We went over to the China Inland Mission and consulted Mr. Stevenson on our plans for China.

The plan worked out in Mr. Stevenson's study filled the time to be given to China in the most interesting way possible.

And when the travelers left by river steamer for Hankow, they were anticipating visits to Peking and not a few other places.

Strange to say, it was only a week later that William was writing from Chicago, telling of the grief of their homecoming.

Footnote, a letter to Dr. Henry W.

Frost of the China Inland Mission.

End footnote.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. recording by larry wilson a retrospect by j hudson taylor the power of prayer the following account is of some of the experiences which eventually led to the formation of the china inland mission and to its taking the form in which it has been developed first appeared in the pages of china's millions many of those who read it there asked that it might appear in separate form miss guinness incorporated it in the story of the china inland mission a record which contained the account of god's goodness to the beginnings of eighteen ninety four but friends still asking for it in pamphlet form for wider distribution this edition is brought out Much of the material was taken from notes of addresses given in China during a conference of our missionaries.

This will account for the direct and narrative form of the papers, which it has not been thought necessary to change.

It is always helpful to us to fix our attention on the Godward aspect of Christian work, to realize that the work of God does not mean so much man's work for God as God's own work through man.

His account of revival work and of persecutions in Canada and Dublin and in southern China were most instructive, as well as interesting.

For with true spiritual insight, he often pointed out God's purposes in trial in a way that made all life assume quite a new aspect and value.

His views especially about evangelism as the great work of the Church, and the order of lay evangelists as a lost order that Scripture required to be restored, were seed thoughts which were to prove fruitful in the subsequent organization of the China Inland Mission.

Externally, however, our path was not always a smooth one, but when permitted to stay for any length of time in town or city, the opportunity was well utilized.

She was a London housemaid with very little formal education at all.

And when she applied, she was rejected by China Inland Mission because they didn't think she'd have the capability to learn Chinese.

Yet she trusted God and obeyed his call.

She travelled to China on her own, shared the gospel faithfully, cared for orphaned children, and during wartime led more than 100 children across a mountain track to safety.

Borden, by the time he was in his early 20s, was serving on the national board of the National Bible Society.

He was serving on the mission board of the China Inland Mission at the time.

He was in all these places that normally at 22, 23, 24, you do not do those things, but he was so mature for his age.

He was a millionaire.