J. Hudson Taylor

“ That the true Christian life always begins where His life ended, at the Cross; and that the true development of Christian life is to the cradle, until we can rest like babes in the omnipotent arms of infinite Wisdom and Love. The more we rest on this fact, - that we do not know the way we are going, but that we have a Guide who does know; that we do not know how to accomplish our service, but that He never leaves us to devise our own service; - to the more restful does our life become. ”

“ He is able to bless, able to make all grace abound, to so wonderfully abound towards us, that we always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: He is able to keep, to keep us from falling, to keep us from all evil. And not only is He able, but He has already "blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ," and He wants us, His children, to know and to enjoy the love that is the source of all blessing: the love that can never by finite words express its fullness: the love that eternal ages will never exhaust! ”

“ Of course it was not the want of the money that distressed me—that could have been had at any time for the asking—but the question uppermost in my minds was this: "Can I go to China? Or will my want of faith and power with God prove to be so serious an obstacle as to preclude my entering upon this much prized service?"
As the week drew to a close I felt exceedingly embarrassed. There was not only myself to consider; on Saturday night a payment would be due to my Christian landlady which I knew she could not well dispense with. Ought I not, for her sake, to speak about the matter of the salary? ”

“ Entering by stealth, living in concealment, pursuing their labours under the greatest disadvantages, ever and anon meeting with imprisonment, sufferings, torture, and death itself, they have presented a remarkable instance of fidelity to their calling. Shall we who have the full light of the pure gospel be so much behind these men in our zeal and patience and perseverance for the spread of that gospel? Shall we prove less obedient to the command of our Superior, the Lord Jesus, and neglect His behest, "Go ye, into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature?" ”

“ Do we not often give to a poor Christ rather than to a rich one? Are we not sometimes unwilling to give until we know His work to be in straits, and sometimes its very existence imperilled? Are not our hearts oft times more moved by the recital of human needs than by Christ’s claim for the prosecution of the one work for which He has left His Church on earth? A famine in India, a flood in China, is more potent to bring temporal relief than the continual famine of the bread of life and of the increasing floods of heathen ungodliness. ”

“ On one occasion I was preaching the glad tidings of salvation through the finished work of Christ, when a middle-aged man stood up, and testified before his assembled countrymen to his faith in the power of the Gospel.
“I have long sought for the Truth,” said he earnestly, “as my fathers did before me; but I have never found it. I have traveled far and near, but without obtaining it. I have found no rest in Confucianism, Buddhism, or Taoism; but I do find rest in what I have heard here tonight. Henceforth I am a believer in Jesus.” ”

“ As it were the company of two armies. 7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. 7:2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies. 7:3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins. 7:4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. ”

“ The shining of the face of Jehovah, the Son, dispels the darkness and the gloom, manifests the presence of the Friend in need, and shows us the Redeemer, who not only delivers, but becomes the Bridegroom of the soul.
"Make His face shine upon thee." The face is perhaps the most wonderful part of the wonderful human body. Of all the faces that God has made no two are exactly alike, even when quiescent; and though we do occasionally meet with those that bear a very close resemblance, intimate friends, who know the play of the countenance, never mistake. ”

“ Plain text - the daughters of Jerusalem are speaking. 8:5 "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee. 8:6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. ”

“ It is surely high time that this ancient and most interesting empire had the gospel fully proclaimed in its purity and soul-saving power. Long enough has it been held in the thralldom of sin and Satan. No other nation has been left for so many centuries to suffer in darkness, and to prove how utterly unable man is to raise himself without Divine revelation, and the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost. This empire, in its antiquity, stands the sole remaining relic of the hoary ages of the past, and of patriarchal times. ”

“ We were like sheep, blindly, willfully following an unwise leader. Not only following ourselves, we in our turn have led others astray. This is true of all of us: “All we like sheep have gone astray;” all equally foolish, “we have turned every one to his own way.” Our first though has been, “I like this,” or “I don’t like that”’ never thinking what the Lord would prefer, we have just followed our own inclinations. So terribly astray were we that nothing less than the life-blood of our good Shepherd could atone for our sin, and save us from its power and its penalty. ”

“ It is beautiful to see the fond love of a young mother as she passes her fingers through the silken locks of her darling child, her treasure and her delight; but she never counts those hairs. He only, who is the source of mother-love, does that! And shall not we, who are not our own, but bought with a price, gladly render to Him all we are and have, every member of our body, every fiber of our being, every faculty of our mind, all our will-power, and all our love? ”

“ If, however, we can conscientiously say that duty—not inclination, not pleasure, not business—detains us here, are we labouring in prayer for these helpless ones as we might do? Are we using our influence and means as largely as they might be to help forward their salvation? In short, are we seeking first, for ourselves and for them, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, leaving to God to add other blessings? ”

“ How many of the parents who refuse to let son or daughter into the mission-field would refuse the Queen of England were she to confer the honor of a mission on their beloved children? Do we recognize the majesty of the King of Glory, and the immortal honor that appertains to His service? To those who do, the glad exclamations of the Queen of Sheba afford well-suited expressions: Happy are Thy subjects, happy are Thy servants which stand continually before Thee and hear Thy wisdom. ”

“ In this way I had more than two-thirds of my income available for other purposes; and my experience was that the less I spent on myself and the more I gave away, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become. Unspeakable joy all the day long, and every day, was my happy experience. God, even my God, was a living, bright reality; and all I had to do was joyful service.
It was to me a very grave matter, however, to contemplate going out to China, far away from all human aid, there to depend upon the living God alone for protection, supplies, and help of every kind. ”

“ But it is helpful to remember that the glorious orb itself contains infinitely more light than all the dewdrops ever did or ever will reflect. And so of our heavenly Father: Himself the great Source of all that is noble and true, of all that ever has been loving and trustworthy, each beautiful trait of each beautiful character is but the dim reflection of some ray of His own great perfection. And the sum total of all human goodness, and tenderness, and love is but as the dewdrops to the sun. ”

“ Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 2:14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether. ”

“ The rough plough of war, famine, and pestilence, was breaking up the soil and opening it; and many a homestead, many a nest did it tear to pieces in its onward progress. Houses were burnt down, crops were pillaged, property was destroyed. Too often was the husband left a widower, or the wife a widow; parents were left childless, children were bereft of their parents. And now shall we be idle, and allow our opportunity to be lost? Missionaries tell us of such willingness to hear the gospel as never was found before. ”

“ The natural sun is inconceivably great, we cannot grasp its magnitude; it is inconceivably glorious, we cann bear to gaze on one ray of its untempered light. The source to us of all heat, we have to shield ourselves form its tropical power, though millions of miles from its surface: the sustainer of the essential conditions of physical life, and the great ruler and center of the solar system – how great and glorious is the natural sun! ”

“ We all know how the mother-love delights to lavish itself on the objects of its care. With a patience that never tires, and an endurance almost inexhaustible, and a care all but unlimited, how often has the mother sacrificed her very life for the welfare of her babe. But strong as is a mother’s love, it may fail; God’s love never. "Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."
It was one of the objects of our Saviour’s mission to reveal to us that, in Christ Jesus, God is also our Father. ”

“ Two days and a half would permit all the attendants on Christian worship in China to pass by, while seventeen years would be required by the heathen. Mournful and impressive fact—such is the proportion of those who are journeying heavenward to those whose dark and Christless lives, if not speedily enlightened, must end in dark and Christless deaths, and—after death the judgment! Two hundred and fifty millions! an army whose numbers no finite mind can fully grasp. ”

“ How is it that believers so often fail to enjoy this promised blessing? Is it not that we fail to be anxious for nothing, and to bring everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving before GOD? We may bring nine difficulties out of ten to Him, and try to manage the tenth ourselves, and that one little difficulty, like a small leak that runs the vessel dry, is fatal to the whole, like a small breach in a city wall, it gives entrance to the power of the foe. ”

“ How well we know in actual life what the light of the countenance means! How the mother’s smile brings light and gladness into the heart of the child! How the welcoming look of a friend is at once understood! In Daniel 9: 16, 17, the prophet prays, "O Lord...I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city, Jerusalem;...and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate." ”