Older, but not wiser
At age 17, Hudson Taylor joined the Family; at age 18, he was called to China. This is a brief excerpt from his diary, an account of an incident soon after his call which demonstrates his faith and confidence in his Father. Thought we would all be encouraged.
“It seemed to me highly probable that the work to which I was thus called might cost my life…. I learned that a minister in my native town possessed a copy of Medhurst’s China, and calling upon him ventured to ask a loan of the book.
“This he kindly granted, inquiring why I wished to read it. I told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land.
“‘And how do you propose to go there?’ he inquired.
“I answered that I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probably that I should need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Judea, go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who had sent me to supply all my need.
“Kindly placing his hand on my shoulder, the minister replied, ‘Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will become wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.’
“I have grown older since then [when this incident occurred], but not wiser. I am more and more convinced that if we were to take the directions of our master and the assurance he gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally written."
“It seemed to me highly probable that the work to which I was thus called might cost my life…. I learned that a minister in my native town possessed a copy of Medhurst’s China, and calling upon him ventured to ask a loan of the book.
“This he kindly granted, inquiring why I wished to read it. I told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land.
“‘And how do you propose to go there?’ he inquired.
“I answered that I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probably that I should need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Judea, go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who had sent me to supply all my need.
“Kindly placing his hand on my shoulder, the minister replied, ‘Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will become wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.’
“I have grown older since then [when this incident occurred], but not wiser. I am more and more convinced that if we were to take the directions of our master and the assurance he gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally written."
Hudson Taylor: Growth of a Soul, p. 85
Can you see someone kindly saying to us today, “Ah, my boy, such an idea would do very well in the days of a Hudson Taylor, but not now”? May we never grow too old and wise to have the childlike faith that He desires of us.
