James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China who founded the China Inland Mission. Taylor’s parents were sincere Christians that prayed that he would one day be a missionary to China. Taylor came to faith as a teenager and soon after began to prepare for his work as a missionary to China. His preparation included studying basic medicine, learning Mandarin, and Bible study and prayer.
Taylor in his early twenties sailed to China and for the next 51 years spent his time traveling throughout China and back and forth to the British Isles and America promoting and speaking on the need to send missionaries to China. In addition, Taylor and the society he founded were responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to China as well as establishing 125 schools. In China his work primarily consisted in providing medical treatment, evangelizing, and recruiting more missionaries.
Only time and eternity will tell us of how many Chinese came to Christ due to the tireless efforts of this one man. Below are some of his inspiring quotations that show us the heart of this amazing missionary.1
“God is not looking for men of great faith, He is looking for common men to trust His great faithfulness.”
“When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.”
“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.”
“The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will.”
“Carrying the cross does mean following in Jesus’ footsteps. And in His footsteps are rejection, broken heartedness, persecution and death. There are not two Christs – an easy going one for easy going Christians, and a suffering one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are we willing to follow His lead?”
“Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them.”
“All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of His grace, power and love.”
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
“I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him to do His work through me.”
“Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.”
“Learn to move man, through God, by prayer alone.”
“A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in little things is a great thing.”
“Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.”
“Satan may build a hedge about us and fence us in and hinder our movements, but he cannot roof us in and prevent our looking up.”
“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
“God wants you to have something far better than riches and gold, and that is helpless dependence upon Him.”
“It is not lost time to wait upon God!”
“The less I spent on myself and the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.”
“Truly Jesus is the great need of our souls.”
“Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to him of many.”
“An easy, non-self-denying life will never be one of power.”
1 All of these quotes are from the website below:
TOP 25 QUOTES BY HUDSON TAYLOR (of 97) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)