An Excerpt from The Ultimate Conquest
“ am now in the act of arranging for the eventual opening up of the whole of this province to the Gospel as the Lord gives us men, open doors, and means. Pray for these three things.
—Hudson Taylor [1]
As the name of the organization itself demonstrates, the China Inland Mission was driven by a principle burden for the penetration of the “unopened” provinces west of the coast (where most mission agencies had massed) and a resolute commitment to prioritize the furthest frontiers of unengaged people groups. Taylor’s recruitment call to join the CIM was not vague. He called people specifically to China, and even more pointedly, to specific provinces of China. This aggressive specificity enabled Taylor and the CIM to stay focused over the course of decades and effectively lay the foundations of the Chinese church.
THE FIRES THAT FORGED THE FRONTIERSMEN
Taylor first landed in China in 1854 at the age of 21 as a missionary with the Chinese Evangelization Society (from which he resigned in 1857). At the end of a six year stint in China, Taylor returned to England. This was the first of eleven distinct periods of time spent in country. Five years later, after that fateful morning in Brighton, the CIM was born. The following year, he and the first wave of CIM workers arrived in Shanghai. During this second stint (which lasted five years), Taylor successfully established the foundation for the mission and saw considerable fruit in the early days of the ministry. He also experienced excruciating loss.
In this five-year period he buried three children (Grace, Samuel, and Noel) and the love of his life, his beloved wife, Maria Jane. In the wake of this trauma, Taylor took a furlough in England. A little over a year later, and after remarrying Jane (Jennie) Elizabeth Faulding, he was back in China for his third stint (which would last just shy of two years). It was during this third period in China that his focus for the interior became all the more resolute. On January 26, of 1874, he wrote:
I am now in the act of arranging for the eventual opening up of the whole of this province to the Gospel as the Lord gives us men, open doors, and means. Pray for these three things. This province (Zhejiang) contains thirty millions of souls. It is divided into circuits (four): we have workers in each. Prefectures (eleven): we have agents in 6. We alone in 3, with others in 3. (One of these we opened, others came later.) 1 is opened, not by us. 4 are still unopened. County towns (seventy-eight), 4 Prefectures have each 2 (xian) cities in their walls. So there are—74 walled cities, 11 of them (prefectures), making 63 (county towns). We opened 10 of these. Others opened 5 of these. 48 (xian) county cities remain unopened... In this province they average nearly 400,000 people in the whole (xian or county)... Others began to work this province in 1842; we in 1857; the CIM in 1866. It shows that there was work for us to do; that we have done some, but there is much (more to be done).[2]
During this period of time, Taylor grew increasingly specific in identifying where and how they would open up interior regions to the Gospel. That same day he wrote that if four solid workers were to be mobilized, in “a year or two more, I trust there will be no...county left in this province in which we have not preached Christ.” The following day Taylor wrote the following on a blank page in his Bible that his wife, Jennie gave him for his birthday that year.
January 27, 1874. Asked God for 50 or 100 additional native evangelists and as many foreign superintendents [Gutzlaff’s word for the more mature Christian missionary] as may be needed to open up the 4 fu [prefectures] and 48 hien [xian, counties] still unoccupied in Cheh- kiang [Zhejiang]. Also for the men to break into the 9 unoccupied provinces...[3]
This entry demonstrates the fact that despite the incredible growth of the CIM’s work in China, the heart of the interior had not yet been touched. This grieved Taylor. His grief would soon be compounded by a significant trip to the center of China.
It was now June, 1874. It was exactly one year away from the ten year anniversary of the CIM. Still—nine years in—without presence or fruit in the interior, its visionary founder was for the first time able to visualize and actualize the mobilization of laborers into the barren fields they had long dreamed of. Deep in China, he was staring into the frontier with passion and purpose. Howard Taylor recalls:
It was a memorable day for Hudson Taylor when he set out with his like-minded companion to follow the mighty Yangtze, if not to its upper waters, at any rate to its confluence with the tributary Han, where the metropolis of mid-China formed the farthest outpost of Protestant missions. Six hundred miles from the coast, this great centre of culture and commerce lay far beyond any inland station he had yet visited; but northward, westward, southward of it stretched the nine unopened provinces, from the tropical jungles of Burma to the barren steppes of Mongolia and the snowy ramparts of Tibet. Vast was that waiting world, and vast the longings with which Hudson Taylor turned his face—as he had long turned his heart—toward its silent appeal.
“My soul yearns, oh! how intensely,” he wrote at this time, “for the evangelization of the hundred and eighty millions of these unoccupied provinces. Oh, that I had a hundred lives to give or spend for their good!”[4]
It was then, with the prospect of significant progress before him that Taylor was forced to reckon with a nagging reality he had been avoid- ing: the mounting problems in England. The CIM infrastructure and the bank account could not support what needed to be done. On top of that, a key administrator and central figure in the CIM family was not long for this world. Taylor knew that the death of Emily Blatchely[5] would immediately impact the mission leaving a gaping hole in the mechanics of the CIM. If Taylor didn’t personally intervene soon, not only would they not be able to press forward, the larger mission itself may unravel.
I feel like one almost torn asunder by the claims at home and here. No mission aims at the definite evangelization of China— or even a single province. All are helping towards it...in their own way...A few...are approximating to the work I hope to see effected, and we are influencing more largely every year older missions to step out and onwards. My plans are now so developing that were I able to remain in China, and had I a few more men of the right stamp, in two or three years we might have (DV) missions founded in every province otherwise unoccupied—nine—in each prefecture of (Anhui); and in each (county of Zhejiang), if funds were adequate. To see the bare possibility of this, and to have to defer it by coming home, is a great trial to me; on the other hand to return may be needful in order to effect it.[6]
On his way back toward the coast, something happened that would change Taylor’s life, the course of the mission, and the history of China. Returning from the interior expedition on a coast-bound steamer on the Yangtze, Taylor slipped and fell injuring his spine. By the time he arrived in England in October, his injuries (which he had hoped would soon heal) were crippling his body. Within months of scouting the frontier, he was now bedridden and unable to move.
Not surprisingly, Taylor thanked God for His providence, and made use of the time spent on his back. Having a map of China hung from his bedposts he split his time between intercession for China, teach- ing Chinese to potential missionary candidates, and dictating letters and articles to a rotation of volunteers who would scribe for him. Though he was attempting to push through the suffocating discouragement through these death spasms of productivity, it was clear to everyone that the CIM was in its lowest point since the inception of the mission. In mid-December, believing he may soon die, he penned an updated will. As the ink dried, Taylor received news that the most central national Chinese leader in the CIM had died. The news was declared to be a “death blow”[7] to the organization. Of the two most valuable men to the work, one was with Jesus, and other was preparing to soon meet Him.
It was through these bedside writings that Taylor was able to in some sense vent his now overwhelming sorrow for the CIM’s loss of Emily and the very real possibility that he may never return to China. At the dawn of 1875, Taylor dictated an article, Appeal for Prayer, in which he attempted to draw international attention to the nine still unopened provinces in the interior of China that were seared on his soul. After describing the provinces and the millions that inhabited them, his appeal was simple and straight to the point:
Our present, pressing need is of more missionaries to lead the way. Will each of you Christian readers at once raise his heart to God, and spend one minute in earnest prayer that God will raise up, this year, eighteen suitable men to devote themselves to this work?
Charles Spurgeon’s periodical, Sword and Trowel, and other publications picked it up and took it to print. This fiery pragmatic call written from the bedside of the broken, crippled man spread like a wild fire. Jennie said Hudson “feels that God has done far more by him while he has been laid low than would have been done, could he have been going round the country as he hoped.”[8] So much interest had been generated and so many inquiries sent that Taylor drafted a generic message that would be sent to all. It read:
If you want hard work, and little appreciation of it; value God’s approbation more than you fear man’s disapprobation; are prepared, if need be, to seal your testimony with your blood; and perhaps oftentimes to take joyfully the spoiling of your goods... you may count on a harvest of souls here, and a crown of glory that fadeth not away, and the Master’s ‘well done’. You would find in connection with the China Inland Mission that it is no question of ‘making the best of both worlds’— the men, the only men who will be happy with us are those who have this world under their feet; and I do venture to say that such men will find such a happiness that they never dreamed of nor thought possible down here. To those who count all things but dross... for the ‘excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord’, He does manifest Himself in such sort that they are not inclined to rue their bargain. If after prayerfully considering the matter, you still feel drawn to engage in such work, I shall be only too glad to hear from you again.[9]
The culmination of this sorrowful, painful, and discouraging season was the provision of the long prayed for pioneers, the improvement of Taylor’s health, and his joining the eighteen workers on the field for what would be his fourth of eleven stints in country. In 1887, 102 more would follow them. By 1891, 434 laborers were on the field pushing into the interior. Over the next eight years the mission had nearly doubled. In 1899, at the dawn of a new century, no less than 811 CIM missionaries were tilling Chinese soil for the sake of the Name.
APOSTOLIC PATTERN AND FRUIT
While some have been critical of Taylor’s systematic pragmatism in mapping out China and mobilizing whoever shared his vision, a face-value reading of the apostolic pattern set out for us in the New Testament would lead us to the conclusion that Taylor was simply imitating things he saw in Jesus’ life and ministry.
And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him, and they found Him and said to Him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And He said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.[10]
Jesus’ commitment to “the next towns” and “throughout all the Galilee” means that He approached territory systematically. He was not methodical because He was carnal and driven by results but because He was spiritual and driven by compassion. Not surprisingly, we also see this in the life and ministry of Paul.
...by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the Gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of Him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”[11]
Paul wrote this letter from Corinth having fulfilled his ministry from Jerusalem all the way to the modern day Balkan states. These words are all the more powerful when we realize that they were penned to the church in Rome in context to Paul informing them of his intentions to visit them on his way from Jerusalem to Spain. For the apostles, the proverbial “interior” of their generation was the furthest edges of the Roman Empire. The lesson we must learn from this is that a pragmatic and systematic approach to disciple making is a deeply spiritual undertaking.
Though the expression of the pursuit of the “interior” has and must differ from generation to generation, the foundational principle of our need to prioritize the places and people who are least likely to hear His Name does not. Passion for this principle is holy to the Lord. We see it in Taylor. We see it in Paul. We see it in Jesus.
Will He see it in us?
Dalton Thomas is the Founder and President of Frontier Alliance International, and co-founder of Maranatha, a global fellowship of churches and ministries. He is the Director of films and film series such as Sheep Among Wolves, Covenant and Controversy, The Frontier, and Better Friends Than Mountains. Dalton and his wife Anna live in the Golan Heights of Israel with their five sons.
[1] A.J. Broomhall, The Shaping of Modern China: Hudson Taylor’s Legacy (Kindle Location 36213). Piquant. Kindle Edition.
[2] ibid., 36213–36221
[3] ibid., 36238–36240
[4] Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: The Growth of the Work of God. London: E.C.4., 1919.
[5] The following excerpt from an article written about her by the CIM demonstrates how significant her influence was on the mission:
“Emily Blatchley, though unknown to the world, was a true heroine, and an instance of this noble, Christ-like self-sacrifice for the good of others. Her memory is fragrant, for her life was consecrated to Christ and the salvation of the heathen. For his sake she took care of a little flock, the children of the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission. She tended them in health and in sickness, at home and abroad, for years; and as long as health permitted was their only teacher. This she did to help forward the evangelization of China, by—setting Mr. and Mrs. Taylor as free as possible for directly missionary work. Not content with caring for Mr. Taylor’s children, she became a Secretary of the Mission. She wrote in its interest thousands of letters; she kept its accounts; she edited its Occasional Papers; she helped to bear its burdens; she worked long hours, and often far into the night. She not only toiled with head and hand, but with her heart too, for she prayed for the Mission. She daily remembered its missionaries by name at the Throne of Grace, and pleaded continually its cause with God. She suffered too. She `endured hardness’ when in China and on long journeys, putting up with much discomfort. She ministered to her fellow-missionaries, and nursed them when they were sick. She bore the trial of her faith and that of love as well, for in the cause of missions she sacrificed her heart’s affections. And all this she did in a quiet, unpretending way, and with a calm perseverance which continued to the end of life. None could have given more to the work of God among the heathen than she did, for she gave all she had-herself.’ Blessed be God for the grace bestowed upon her, and for the everlasting rest into which she has entered: for the grace which caused her to toil for Jesus, and then to sleep in Him....
Friends of the China Inland Mission, a precious helper has just been removed from our midst; let us close our ranks and seek to fill the gap. That Mission now needs our help more than ever; let us prove ourselves worthy of the occasion. Let us help the work afresh; and let us Persevere in helping it. Here, around this newly opened grave, let our interest in this work revive; and help Thou, O Lord! Is not Thy Name inscribed upon its banner? Is not its song Ebenezer, and its hope Jehovah Jireh? Bless, then, this Mission, and let the little one become a thousand for Thy glory’s sake.”
[6] Broomhall.
[7] ibid.
[8] Ibid, 36612–36613.
[9] Ibid. 36660–36667
[10] Mark 1:36–39
[11] Romans 15:19–21