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It Is Not Death To Die
A new biography of Hudson
Taylor
Jim Cromarty, Christian Focus, 2001, 512pp.
Review by Rev. John Westendorp
Of four review books I recently
took with me to read on annual holidays this one was the most inspiring.
Today there is a large Christian community in China – much of it is
still an ‘underground church’. Jim Cromarty takes us back into a China
that had only had minimal contact with Christianity, largely in coastal
areas – the treaty ports. Inland China was untouched by the gospel at
the beginning of the 1800’s.
All of that changed when Hudson Taylor committed his life to taking the
good news of Jesus into every province of China. At his birth Taylor’s
parents had dedicated their newborn son to God, with the prayer that he
would be used of God to bring the gospel to the unconverted masses in
China. Although they never told Hudson of their prayer prior to his
committment to China, God brought it into effect in a more wonderful way
than his parents could ever have dreamed of.
By the end of that century the China Inland Mission, founded by Taylor,
had sent more than one thousand missionaries into China in response to
Hudson’s call for men and women to work in the provinces. It was these
missionaries as no others that opened up China to Christianity.
What is especially inspiring is that these were men and women who knew
all about costly discipleship. Hardship and persecution were their daily
lot. Yet as intinerant evangelists they preached forgiveness and eternal
life to all who would hear. Especially the notorious Boxer Rebellion, at
the end of the 1800’s, saw a wave of anti-foreign feeling sweeping China
that led to many Christian missionaries being martyred for their faith.
Yet there as elsewhere it proved true that the blood of the martyrs is
the seed of the church.
Jim Cromarty is a good story teller who has written a number of books
for children’s and family devotions. In this present work he has
excelled himself in telling an inspiring story that still needs to be
heard: a story of total dedication to God and to the message of the
gospel; a story of a passion for the Saviour and a heart for the lost.
Today’s internet generation may balk at the 500 pages but the type is
rather large and the story spell-binding. Jim assures me that Koorong
have about 100 copies, selling for about $25 each.
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