HUDSON TAYLOR

HUDSON TAYLOR

Englishman with a Pigtail

James Hudson Taylor was born in 1832 in Yorkshire, England. While preparing to be a medical missionary in college, he also studied the Mandarin Chinese language. On September 19, 1853, he set sail for China on the clipper ship Dumfries, sponsored by the Chinese Evangelization Society.

Unlike many other Englishmen, Taylor respected Chinese customs except when they went against biblical teaching. To demonstrate his respect, he wore Chinese clothes and even grew his hair into a long pigtail. Other missionaries disapproved. But one English woman who admired Hudson’s courage in dressing like the Chinese was Maria Dyer. She and Hudson Taylor were happily married on January 20, 1858.

Hudson Taylor was unusual in another way. He thought that Christians should not get into debt. He also believed Christian workers should pray to God about their needs rather than asking outright for money.

Because of these differences, Taylor resigned from the Chinese Evangelization Society and continued mission work on his own. God not only provided all his physical needs, but his ministry among the Chinese people resulted in many converts.

However, in 1860, while director of the London Mission Hospital in Ningpo, China, Taylor became so ill that he and Maria had to return to England. Here he translated the New Testament into the Ningpo Chinese dialect. He also founded the China Inland Mission and recruited new missionaries to go inland instead of just to the coastal cities. He and his team returned to China in 1866.

Under Hudson Taylor’s leadership the mission flourished and spread throughout the whole interior of China. When he retired in 1901, eight hundred missionaries served with the China Inland Mission. Also, for the first time, these missionaries represented several denominations cooperating in the spread of the Gospel.

Hudson Taylor died in Changsha in 1905.