HUDSON TAYLOR: MISSIONARY AMONG CHINA’S MILLIONS, by James J. Ellis. Glasgow: Pickering and Inglis, 229 Bothwell Street. Illustrated; Paper Boards, 1s net.
This is one of a series of short biographies—Memoirs of Mighty Men. It tells the story of this noted missionary. The zeal of a consecrated life shines out in the vividly told story. No difficulties were too great to daunt the heart of Dr Taylor in facing the task that lay so near to his heart. His association with the saintly William C. Burns is a link with glorious days in Scotland. Mr Ellis has told the remarkable story of the Founder of the China Inland Mission with skill. Here and there he has a way of expressing himself with which we do not agree, for instance, in reference to a Chinaman’s conversion, he writes: “and brought the washerman into full salvation.” Again, in referring to Hudson Taylor, the sentence, “which made him free from sin,” may mean a great deal more than the author probably meant. Hudson Taylor’s name is high on the missionary roll of the Christian Church, though he himself would have placed it at the foot. When one reads of the loss of wife, children, and goods; the trials endured at the hands of infuriated mobs; the weakness and sickness of body that often laid him low, his work in China can only be explained by the fact that God was with him.