J. HUDSON
TAYLOR, of the China Inland Mission,
was saved
when a lad, through reading a Gospel
tract
which he found in his father's library. He had been
frequently troubled about his soul, and had again and
again "tried" to become a Christian, but had
failed so
often that he concluded there was no use in him "trying."
His conversion
occurred in this way. On the afternoon
of a holiday, whilst looking over some booklets and tracts
in his father's library, he came across one which appeared
more attractive than the others. He glanced at it, and
then sat down to read the story, resolving to omit the
application. When he took up the tract, as he himself
testified, he was in an utterly unconcerned state, and had
made up his mind to lay it down whenever it began to be
"prosy."
At the time when he was perusing the little Gospel
message, his mother was on her knees in her bedroom,
seventy miles distant, pleading with
God for the con-
version of her only boy. Whilst on a visit to some friends,
at the time alluded to, she became so burdened and exer-
cised about Hudson's spiritual and eternal welfare that
she turned the key in her bedroom door, and on bended
knees, resolved that she would not leave the room until
the Lord had saved him.
Hour after hour she continued in fervent, importunate,
believing prayer. Suddenly she felt she could no longer
pray for his conversion. Thoroughly persuaded that God
had answered her petitions and given her the desire of her
heart, she poured out her soul in thanksgiving and praise
to God for the salvation of her
boy.
Strange as it may appear to some, at that very time the
lad had come to an expression in the tract, which he could
not at first understand. It is one which is often em-
ployed by preachers of the Gospel, and is full of deep
meaning and significance--"The finished work of Christ."
"Why did the author say 'the
finished work' instead
of the propitiatory work?" was the question that came
before him. "What was finished?" he asked
himself; "a
full and perfect atonement and
satisfaction for sin was
made, and the debt was paid," he mentally replied.
"Then," thought he, "if the work
of atonement is finished,
if the mighty debt of sin is paid, what is there left for me
to do?" In a moment God's wondrous salvation was
apprehended. He perceived that on account of what the
Lord Jesus had done and suffered, Divine justice was
satisfied, and by believing on Him
who bore the wrath and
curse due to sin, he was saved and had eternal life.
On his mother's return, he hastened to tell her the story
of his conversion, and having done so, he was more than
surprised when he heard her narrative.
His labours for China, in founding and guiding the
C.I.M., with 1000 mies. in the field, are so well
known that they need not be rehearsed, and all based on
the "New
Birth."