p. 11 | Delivered From Cannibals by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 4, 1910

Delivered From Cannibals

By W. A. S.

THE early days of the China Inland Mission represented a work built up and carried forward without a recognized constituency; and many a victory of simple faith in asking and receiving is recorded in their early mission story. The founder was the late J. Hudson Taylor.

On his first voyage out to China, as a youth, Hudson Taylor had an experience in the power of prayer for specific deliverance. It was in 1853, when the China seas were infested by pirates, and the islands of the Malay Archipelago inhabited by cannibal savages. The story is told in “These Forty Years,” by F. Howard Taylor, as follows:—

By the way, the ship was becalmed on one occasion in the tropics, and an unfavorable current began to carry it rapidly toward an unfriendly shore. There was not enough wind to move the listless sails, and as the long, hot afternoon wore away, they drew nearer and nearer to what they found by the chart to be a cannibal island. The natives, seeing the straits the ship was in, lighted their fires, and began to dance around on the beach in eager prospect of the feast they expected so soon. On that boat there were but four Christians—the captain, the carpenter, the colored steward, and Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor suggested that each of them should go to his cabin, and wait on God for a wind to carry them away from the impending and horrible fate. After a short time of prayer, Mr. Taylor felt that the petition was granted, and coming up on deck, said to the first officer, who was then in charge: “Won’t you let loose your mainsail? A breeze is coming.” With an oath the man replied: “I would rather see a breeze than merely hear of one.”

“And don’t you see, away up in the topsail, a breeze is coming?”

“O, it’s nothing but a cat’spaw,” the mate replied, as his eye followed Mr. Taylor’s upward.

“Cat’spaw or not, we might as well take advantage of what there is.”

And as the breeze continued to freshen, the officer very gladly let out his clewed-up sails, and in a short time they were sailing away from the disappointed cannibals at a good many knots an hour.

This was another modern illustration of the fact that God “delivereth and rescueeth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.” W. A. S.