THE SOURCE OF POWER IN MISSIONS.
By J. Hudson Taylor
[Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, founder and director of the China Inland Mission, in The Gospel in All Lands.] GOD Himself is the great source of power. It is His possession. He manifests it according to His sovereign will, according to His declared will. Truly our opponents and hindrances are many and mighty; but our God, the living God, alone is mighty. It is with Him we have to do; on Him alone we have to wait; from Him alone cometh our salvation and our sufficiency. God tells us through His prophet that the men that know their God shall be strong, and they that understand the people among men shall instruct men. If it be true that knowledge is power, this is supremely true in the case of the knowledge of God. God’s commands are always absolute. If we believe the commandment to be from God, our only rule is to obey. Further, God’s power is available power. We are a supernatural people, born again by a supernatural birth. We wage a supernatural fight, and we are taught by a supernatural Teacher. In our supernatural fight we are led by a supernatural Captain in right paths to assured victory. Not many days after the risen Saviour ascended on high, the Holy Ghost came upon the disciples and13followers, and they were all filled; and He remains with them still; and He is to-day as truly available and as mighty a power as He was on the day of Pentecost. In November, 1886, we spent eight days in waiting upon God. We spent days of fasting, alternated with prayer, and we were led to pray to God to send one hundred missionaries. We were led to pray for one hundred missionaries to be sent out by our English board from January to November. We were led to ask God to give £10,000 in addition to the income of previous years, and we asked for it to be given in such a manner—in such large sums—that the force of our staff might not be occupied in keeping accounts. God answered our prayers wonderfully. He sent us offers for more than six hundred missionaries, and at the end of the year over one hundred had gone. You ask, What about the income? God did not give us exactly the £10,000 we asked for, but He gave us £11,000; and the £11,000 came in eleven contributions. The living God is an available power. We can call on Him in the name of Christ with assurance that if we call on Him in the spirit of prayer, these prayers will be answered. How important is faith! and what is this so-essential faith? Is it not simply a recognition of God’s faithfulness? We are living in days of wonderful success. But we may see far more wonderful things in days to come. Only prayer can overcome the appalling doctrines of heathendom. One great power is the Gospel itself. It is my privilege to know hundreds of native Christians, who accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour the first time they ever heard of Him. The Chinese are dying a million a month without God. Those only who have seen know the darkness of a heathen death-bed. With what despair do they look forward to the judgment, which they know is coming. They know they are sinners, and, as their proverb puts it, “Evil doing brings the evil ‘reward.’” They know nothing of God’s atonement, nothing of the forgiveness which He has provided.