And in matters more perplexing than finance, help was given that cleared the way for Mr. Taylor's return to China. The Council was strengthened by the addition of Mr. William Sharp-now its senior member; and Mr. McCarthy, who was finding important openings for deputation work, undertook the sub-editing of China's Millions. More important still was the acceptance of the post of Home Director by Mr. Theodore Howard-Chairman of the Council and a lifelong friend of the Mission. The appointment of Mr. B. Broomhall as General Secretary recognised the invaluable service he had rendered at Pyrland Road for the last three years; while Mrs. Broomhall continued to care for the outgoing and returning missionaries and the seventeen children.

There were still circumstances that called for prayer, and no lack of difficulties to be met both in England and in China.

"I do not expect an easy time of it," Mr. Taylor wrote home to Mr. Broomhall from Hongkong, "and but for the precious truth, My strength is made perfect in weakness,' I should be almost afraid to arrive in my present weak state. I am very glad that our fast-day, May 26th, is near, and shall look for a large outpouring of spiritual blessing in connection with it. God is with us; let us only walk humbly with Him and all will be brought round. You will pray for me, will you not? The allimportant thing is to improve the character of the work, and to deepen the piety, devotion, and success of the workers; to remove stones of stumbling, if possible; to oil the wheels where they stick; to amend whatever is defective and supplement as far as may be what is lacking; no easy matter where suitable men are wanting, or only in course of formation. That I may be used of God, at least, in some measure, to bring these things about is my hope; but I shall need your prayers; for God's wisdom, God's grace, God's strength alone can suffice: but they will suffice."

CHAPTER XXII

HE GOETH BEFORE THEM

1879-1880. AET. 47-48.

MRS. HUDSON TAYLOR had come to Shanghai. All the way from Shan-si she had travelled upon an uncertainty-yet sure in her own mind that she was being led of God. Was her husband on his way to China? Was he ill and needing her urgently, as she had seen in that curiously vivid dream ? And how could she help him best?

A thousand miles away from the port at which he would land, she had felt painfully out of reach; and though he had suggested joining her there, to see something of the northern provinces, she knew how unlikely it was that he would be able to escape from claims nearer the coast. The work she had undertaken for the famine orphans was well established, and her companions were now able to carry it on. Two of the missionaries at the capital (Tai-yuan-fu) had been joined by their wives, so that there was no longer the same need for her presence. And that dream, fitting in with other elements of guidance, had decided her to cross the mountains and return to Shanghai, that she might be at hand in case of need.

It led also to definite and earnest prayer for Mr. Taylor, which was sorely needed. For he was on his way out, as we have seen, and in the Indian Ocean had become so seriously ill that a Singapore doctor doubted whether he could reach Hongkong alive. He decided to go on, however; and the news that reached him in the latter port of Mrs. Taylor's being actually in Shanghai, when he had

thought her far away and inaccessible, was so cheering that it helped him over the rest of the voyage. Her letters too were encouraging.

1 "

"I have been spreading before the Lord," she had written soon after reaching Shanghai,1 some of the numerous difficulties that await you, and thinking of them with something of rejoicing. What a platform there will be for our God to work and triumph on; and how clearly we shall see His hand! May He keep you without care, and bring you up like Jehoshaphat, your mouth filled with songs of praise in prospect of certain victories. . . . Oh, the resources of the grace you have to draw upon! 'According to His riches in glory,' . . . 'According to your need.' Surely, to need much grace and therefore to have much given is not a thing to be troubled about, is it?

"Don't you think that if we set ourselves not to allow any pressure to rob us of communion with the Lord, we may live lives of hourly triumph, the echo of which will come back to us from every part of the Mission? I have been feeling these last months that of all our work the most important is that unseen -upon the mount of intercession. Our faith must gain the victory for the fellow-workers God has given us. They fight the seen, and we must fight the unseen battle: and dare we claim less than constant victory when it is for Him, and we come in His Name?"

Met by Mr. Weir with his private launch, Mr. Taylor was carried without fatigue to the very door of the Missionhouse, then on the Soo-chow Creek, where he found quite a party awaiting him. Each one had special needs or problems to be dealt with; and Mr. and Mrs. Dalziel, in charge of the home and business department, were keeping open house for seamen, among whom an encouraging work was going on. This thoroughly suited the earnest band Mr. Taylor had brought with him, several of whom decided to give their first night in China to prayer and praise. They gathered in a room next to Mr. Taylor's, and had a memorable time, full of liberty and blessing, never realising that to the invalid on the other side of the partition it meant hours of wakefulness and pain. Nothing would have induced Mr. Taylor to stop them, however; he rejoiced far too much in their

1 A letter dated March 18, 1879.

fervent spirit, but it proved scarcely the best preparation, in his own case, for the busy days that followed.

At first, in the joy of reunion, he was full of plans for visiting the stations and helping the new missionaries who had been sent out (thirty-four in number) during his recent visit to England. But the strain of all that had to be attended to was more than he could bear, and within a fortnight he was so ill that again life itself was hanging in the balance. The physician consulted had little hope, unless he could at once be removed to a more bracing climate. Summer was coming on, and it was useless to attempt to remain anywhere in the Yangtze valley. The northern port of Chefoo, with its freedom and freshness, he recommended as the best available refuge: but how to get there was the difficulty.

It was an anxious journey, from the Monday evening when they went on board, through the long hours of Tuesday -moving slowly in a damp sea-mist, while the fog-horn droned its melancholy sound-and especially that second night when Mrs. Taylor was almost at her wits' end. All the milk she had brought for the invalid had curdled, in spite of being boiled and put in the ice-chest, and some things he might have fancied she reproached herself for having failed to bring. He was so low that he could hardly take anything, and she feared he would be too weak to be moved from the steamer when Chefoo was reached. Weary though she was she dared not sleep, for Mr. Taylor could do nothing for himself, and from time to time was very faint.

"In my distress I cried to God to help me," she wrote to Miss Desgraz at Chin-kiang. "I asked Him either to enable Mr. Taylor to take the food we had, or to show me what I could get for him, or to make him better without anything-as He had said, 'Man doth not live by bread alone.' I pleaded too that the fog might clear away, and that God who loved His own child would undertake for him, as the responsibility was too great for me to bear. I thought of God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,' and 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.' 'He doeth all things well' came to my mind with comfort, and 'All the way my Saviour leads me.' Then I

Y

turned to Mr. Taylor and was able to prevail upon him to take a little food. In the night he had a cupful of arrowroot, and next day was decidedly better. . . . That afternoon I went on deck, and fell in with an officer with whom I was able to have some earnest talk about spiritual things. I began about the improvement in the weather, and he said: 'Yes, it was remarkable ! About 9.30 the fog cleared right away, and we had a splendid, moonlight night.'

"It was between 9 and 9.30 that I had been praying about it, before going to rest."

Next morning she could not but feel a little anxious as they neared Chefoo. The vessel was only staying an hour, to discharge passengers and cargo, and there had been no time to make arrangements as to where to take the patient on landing. Eagerly she looked out for the Customs House officer, a kindly Christian man whose acquaintance she had made on her recent journey from Shan-si; but when his boat came alongside Mr. Ballard was not on board. The illness that kept him at home deprived her of a helping hand when one was most needed; and for the moment it seemed desolate to transfer their belongings to a native sampan and take Mr. Taylor ashore, ill as he was, with no idea where to go. Had it not been for the fog, however, their vessel would have come in some hours earlier, and they would have had to land in the middle of a cold night. So the morning sunshine was a token of the loving care of One Who had gone before them, and to Whom their every need was known.

Lying there in the little boat while his companions went in search of quarters,1 how far was Mr. Taylor from imagining all that his illness and forlorn arrival were to mean of help and comfort for his fellow-labourers! He had come to China full of hope for extension, especially in the field of Women's Work. The success that had attended Mrs. Taylor's efforts proved that the interior was no less accessible to women missionaries than to men; and having sent his own wife first, he felt the more free to encourage others in

1 Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were accompanied on this journey by Mr. J. J. Coulthard, one of the party just arrived from England who was much with them this summer, acting as Mr. Taylor's secretary; and who afterwards became his son-in-law.