Hudson
Taylor and
Christ Is All
In August 1869, J. Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission read
the book Christ is
All: The Gospel of the Pentateuch by
Henry Law, published in 1867 in
In the old home at Hang-chow Mr. [John] McCarthy was sitting
writing. The glory of a great sunrise was upon him -- the light
whose inward dawning makes all things new. To tell his beloved
friend and leader about it was his longing, for he knew from his own
experience something of the exercise of mind through which Mr.
Taylor was passing. But where to begin, how to put it into words he
knew not, and the day was full of pressing duties. He wrote:
"I do wish I could have a talk with you now about the way of
Holiness. At the time you were speaking to me about it, it was the
subject of all others occupying my thoughts -- not from anything I
had read, not from what my brother had written even, so much as from
a consciousness of failure; a constant falling short of that which I
felt should be aimed at; an unrest; a perpetual striving to find
some way by which I might continuously enjoy that communion, that
fellowship at times so real, but more often so visionary, so far
off! ... Do you know, dear brother, I now think that this striving,
effort, longing, hoping for better days to come, is not the true way
to happiness, holiness or usefulness: better, no doubt far better,
than being satisfied with our poor attainments, but not the best way
after all. I have been struck with a passage from a book of yours
left here, entitled Christ
is All. [See footnote]. It says:
"The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished
is holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted
upon as never absentwould be holiness complete.
"This (grace of faith) is the chain which binds the soul to Christ,
and makes the Saviour and the sinner one. ... A channel is now
formed by which Christ's fulness plenteously flows down. The barren
branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem. ... One life reigns
throughout the whole.
"Believer, you mourn your shortcomings; you find the hated monster,
sin, still striving for the mastery. Evil is present when you would
do good. Help is laid up for you in Christ. Seek clearer interest in
Him. They who most deeply
feel that they have died in Christ, and paid in Him sin's penalties,
ascend to highest heights of godly life. He is most holy who has
most of Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It
is defective faith which clogs the feet, and causes many a fall."
"This last sentence I think I now fully endorse. To let my loving
Saviour work in me His will, my sanctification is what I would live
for by His grace. Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off
unto Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all
inward corruption; resting in the love of an almighty Saviour, in
the conscious joy of a complete salvation,
a salvation 'from all sin' (this is His Word); willing that His will
should truly be supreme -- this is not new, and yet 'tis new
to me. I feel as
though the first dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail
it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge
only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only, but of
that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me now the
power, the only power for
service; the only ground for unchanging joy. May He lead us into the
realisation of His unfathomable fulness."
"August 21: How then to have our faith increased? Only by
thinking of all that Jesus is, and all He is for us: His life, His
death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the
subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith, or
to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems
all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for
eternity. It does not appear to me as anything new, only formerly
misapprehended."
Life was, if anything, specially full and busy for Mr. Taylor at
this time. He had returned from his journey round the older stations
to an endless succession of duties that kept him on the move between
Yang-chow and Chin-kiang. Both were in a sense the headquarters of
the Mission, and the growing church in the former and the demands of
the printing-press in the latter filled every moment that could be
spared from account keeping, correspondence, and directorial
matters. There had recently been baptisms in Yang-chow, and Mr. Judd
was glad of all the help Mr. Taylor could give in caring for the
young converts. The heat of summer had told upon all the party, and
Mr. Taylor himself had been laid aside by severe illness in the
middle of August. Now, early in September, he was recovering, and
trying to overtake the work that had accumulated. The Cordons had
come over from Soo-chow to consult him about their movements; the
Yet, oh, how deep the heart-hunger, in and through all else!
That did not diminish. It seemed to increase, rather, with all the
need there was to minister to others. Leaving a full house in
Chin-kiang, Mr. Taylor had run up to Yang-chow to see his patient,
and was returning now alone by a little boat chosen less for comfort
than for speed. It was early in the morning, and he was eager to be
in Chin-kiang, where Mrs. Taylor was, in time for breakfast, so as
not to lose a moment of the day for work. Coming down the
Reaching the little crowded house at Chin-kiang, Mr. Taylor made
his way as soon as possible to his room to attend to correspondence.
There, amid a pile of letters, was one from Mr. McCarthy. We do not
know if he was alone as he read it: we do not know just how the
miracle was wrought. But -- "as I read, I saw it all. I looked to
Jesus; and when I saw, oh how joy flowed!"
It was Saturday the 4th of September [1869]; the house was full,
and others were coming; somehow they must be put up and kept over
Sunday, for this great joy could not but be shared. As soon as he
could break away from his glad thanksgivings, Mr. Taylor went out, a
new man in a new world, to tell what the Lord had done for his soul.
He took the letters, Mr. McCarthy's and one from Miss Faulding in
the same strain, and, gathering the household together in the
sitting-room upstairs, told out what his whole life was telling from
that time onward to the glorious end. Other hearts were moved and
blessed; the streams began to flow. From that little crowded home in
Chin-kiang city they flowed on and out, and are flowing still --
"rivers of living water." For "whosoever drinketh of the water that
I shall give him," Jesus said, "shall never thirst; but the water
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life."
And he did more than tell. Pressed though he was with business
matters, his correspondence took on a new tone. Here is one of the
first letters written with that tide of joy and life more abundant
sweeping through his soul. Books and medicines were needed from
Yang-chow, and in sending for them Mr. Taylor gave directions so
detailed that all needless trouble would be spared. The pencilled
lines on half a sheet of notepaper show that he was very busy -- but
how at leisure in spirit!
Chin-Kiang,
My dear Sister -- We had a very happy day here yesterday. I was
so happy! A letter from Mr. McCarthy on this subject has been
blessed to several of us. He and Miss Faulding also seem so happy!
He says: "I feel as though the first glimmer of the dawn of a
glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with
trust."
The part specially helpful to me is: "How then to have our faith
increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is,and
all He is for us: His
life, His death, His work, He Himself as revealed to us in the Word,
to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a
striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a
looking off to the Faithful One seems all we
need."
Here, I feel, is the secret: not asking how I am to get sap out of
the vine into myself,
but remembering that Jesus is the
Vine -- the root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all
indeed. Aye, and far more too! He is the soil and sunshine, air and
rain -- more than we can ask, think, or desire. Let us not then want
to get anything out of Him, but rejoice in being ourselves
in Him -- one with
Him, and, consequently, with all His
fulness. Not seeking for faith to bring holiness, but rejoicing in
the factof perfect
holiness in Christ, let us realise that -- inseparably one with Him
-- this holiness is ours, and accepting the fact, find it so indeed.
But I must stop.
Returning to Yang-chow to see his patient, Mr. Taylor became the
bearer of his own glad tidings.
"When I went to welcome him," recalled Mr. Judd, "he was so full
of joy that he scarcely knew how to speak to me. He did not even
say, 'How do you do?' but walking up and down the room with his
hands behind him, exclaimed "'Oh, Mr. Judd, God has made me a new
man! God has made me a new man!'"
That
"I have not got to make myself
a branch," he could never forget Mr. Taylor saying. "The Lord Jesus
tells me Iam a
branch. I am part of
Him, and have just to
believe it and act upon it. If I go to the bank in
Simple as it was, the new point of view changed everything.
"He was a joyous man now," added Mr. Judd, "a bright, happy
Christian. He had been a toiling, burdened one before, with latterly
not much rest of soul. It was resting in Jesus now, and letting Him
do the work -- which makes all the difference! Whenever he spoke in
meetings, after that, a new power seemed to flow from him, and in
the practical things of life a new peace possessed him. Troubles did
not worry him as before. He cast everything on God in a new way, and
gave more time to prayer. Instead of working late at night, he began
to go to bed earlier, rising at five in the morning to give two
hours before the work of the day began to Bible study and prayer.
Thus his own soul was fed, and from him flowed the living water to
others."
Six weeks after these experiences, when Mr. Taylor was rejoicing
in the abiding fulness of this new life, a letter reached him from
So many thanks for your long, dear letter... I do not think you have
written me such a letter since we have been in
Perhaps I shall make myself more clear if I go back a little.
Well, dearie, my mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight
months past, feeling the need personally, and for our
Then came the question, "Is there no rescue?
Must it be thus to the end -- constant conflict and, instead of
victory, too often defeat?" How, too, could I preach with sincerity
that to those who receive Jesus, "to them gave He power to become
the sons of God " (i.e. God-like)
when it was not so in my own experience? Instead of growing
stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power
against sin; and no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting
very low. I hated myself; I hated my sin; and yet I gained no
strength against it. I felt I was a
child of God: His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all,
"Abba, Father": but to rise to my privileges as a child, I was
utterly powerless. I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was
to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. I
felt that there was nothing I so much desired in this world, nothing
I so much needed. But so far from in any measure attaining it, the
more I pursued and strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp;
till hope itself almost died out, and I began to think that, perhaps
to make heaven the sweeter, God would not give it down here. I do
not think I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I
was powerless. I told the Lord so, and asked Him to give me help and
strength; and sometimes I almost believed He would keep and uphold
me. But on looking back in the evening, alas! there was but sin and
failure to confess and mourn before God.
I would not give you the impression that this was the daily
experience of all those long, weary months. It was a too frequent
state of soul; that toward which I was tending, and which almost
ended in despair. And yet never did Christ seem more precious-a
Saviour who could andwould save
such a sinner! ... And sometimes there were seasons not only of
peace but of joy in the Lord. But they were transitory, and at best
there was a sad lack of power. Oh, how good the Lord was in bringing
this conflict to an end!
All the time I felt assured that there was in Christ
all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out.He
was rich, truly, but I was poor; He strong, but I weak. I knew full
well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness; but how
to get it into my puny little branch was the question. As gradually
the light was dawning on me, I saw that faith was the only
pre-requisite, was the hand to lay hold on His fulness and make it
my own. But I had not
this faith. I strove
for it, but it would not come; tried to exercise it, but in vain.
Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus,
the fulness of our precious Saviour -- my helplessness and guilt
seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared
with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or
would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief
was, I felt, thedamning
sin of the world -- yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it
came not. What was I to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in
a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my
eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as
I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised
by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote
(I quote from memory):
"But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith,
but by resting on the Faithful One."
As I read I saw it all! "If we believe not, He
abideth faithful." I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh,
how joy flowed!) that He had said, "I will
never leave you."
"Ah, there is rest!"
I thought. "I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no
more. For has He not
promised to abide with me-never to leave me, never to fail me?" And,
dearie, He never will!
But this was not all He showed me, nor one half. As I
thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit
poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in having
wished to get the sap, the fulness out of
Him. I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was
a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. The vine now I
see, is not the root merely, but all-root, stem, branches, twigs,
leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and
sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have
ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this
truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be
enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us
in Christ.
Oh, my dear sister, it is a wonderful thing to be really one
with a risen and exalted Saviour; to be a member of Christ! Think
what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand
be rich and the left poor? or your head be well fed while your body
starves? Again, think of its bearing on prayer. Could a bank clerk
say to a customer, "It was only your hand wrote that cheque, not
you," or, "I cannot pay this sum to your hand, but only to
yourself"? No more can your prayers, or mine, be discredited if offered
in the Name of Jesus (i
e. not in our own
name, or for the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are
His, His members) so long as we keep within the extent of Christ's
credit -- a tolerably wide limit! If we ask anything unscriptural or
not in accordance with the will of God, Christ Himself could not do
that; but, "If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us,
and ... we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him."
The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being
sweeter than another, is the rest which
full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about
anything, as I realise this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His
will,and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places
me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in
the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most
difficult His grace is sufficient. It little matters to my servant
whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most
expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money, and
brings me his purchases. So, if God place me in great perplexity,
must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty,
much grace ; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much
strength? No fear that His resources will be unequal to the
emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is
mine, and is with me and dwells in me. All this springs from the
believer's oneness with Christ. And since Christ has thus dwelt in
my heart by faith, how happy I have been! I wish I could tell you,
instead of writing about it.
I am no better
than before (may I not say, in a sense, I do not wish to be, nor am
I striving to be); but I am dead and buried with Christ -- aye, and
risen too and ascended; and now Christ lives in me, and "the life
that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." I now believe I
am dead to sin. God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so.
He knows best. All my past experience may have shown that it was not
so; but I dare not say it is not now, when He says it is. I feel and
know that old things have passed away. I am as capable of sinning as
ever, but Christ is realised as present as never before. He cannot
sin; and He can keep me from sinning. I cannot say (I am sorry to
have to confess it) that since I have seen this light I have not
sinned; but I do feel there was no need to have done so. And further
-- walking more in the light, my conscience has been more tender;
sin has been instantly seen, confessed, pardoned; and peace and joy
(with humility) instantly restored: with one exception, when for
several hours peace and joy did not return -- from want, as I had to
learn, of full confession, and from some attempt to justify self.
Faith, I now see, is "the substance of
things hoped for," and not mere shadow. It is not less than
sight, butmore. Sight
only shows the outward forms of things; faith gives the substance.
You can rest on
substance, feed on
substance. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith (i.e. His
Word of Promise credited) is power indeed,
is life indeed.
And Christ and sin will not dwell together; nor can we have His
presence with love of the world, or carefulness about "many things."
And now I must close. I have not said half I would, noras I
would had I more time. May God give you to lay hold on these blessed
truths. Do not let us continue to say, ineffect, "Who
shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above."
In other words, do not let us consider Him as afar off, when God has
made us one with Him, members
of His very body. Nor should we look upon this experience, these
truths, as for the few. They are the birthright of every child of
God, and no one can dispense with them without dishonour to our
Lord. The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is
Christ.
[Editor's note: This quotation is NOT from Stephen Tyng'sChrist
is All (1849)
but is loosely quoted from Henry Law'sChrist
is All: The Gospel of the Pentatuch (1867).
Dan Augsburger in an email to Peter Wade wrote:
'One can search all of Stephen Tyng's book electronically (which
I have) and will find no reference to "holiness begun" and only one
reference to the word "chain." While all of the above are found in
Henry Law's book Christ
is All: The Gospel of the Pentateuch ,
[Leviticus] page 55 (published 1867).
Here is Law's quote:
"The grace of faith springs up: This is the chain, which binds the
soul to Christ, and makes the Saviour and the sinner one. A channel
is now formed by which Christ's fullness plenteously flows down. The
barren branch becomes a portion of the fruitful stem. Christ's vital
juices permeate the whole. The limbs receive close union with the
head, and one life reigns throughout the total frame.
Reader, would you be holy? The way is only one. All
other roads lead down to deeper mire. Christ must come in. All is
dark death, except where Jesus lives. All is pure life and
loveliness, where Jesus reigns. Draw near and nearer to the
Gospel-page. There gaze on Christ, till the soul's features melt
into His likeness. the Gospel heard, and read, and loved, are the
bright wings on which the Spirit flies. The Spirit's presence brings
the Saviour near. The
Saviour welcomed, is all Holiness begun. The Saviour cherished, is
all Holiness advancing. The Saviour never absent, is Holiness
complete. Holiness
complete, is heaven's full blaze.
Believer, this subject has a warning voice. You mourn
short-comings. You find the hated monster sin still striving for the
rule. Evil is present, when you would do good. Help is laid up for
you in Christ. Seek clearer interest in Him. Faith sows the seeds.
Assurance brings in golden sheaves. They, who most deeply feel, that
they have died in Christ and paid in Him sin's penalties, ascend to
highest heights of godly life. He is most holy, who has most of
Christ within, and joys most fully in the finished work. It is
defective faith, which clogs the feet, and causes many a fall."]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This page Copyright © 2003 Peter Wade. The Bible text in this
publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King
James Version. This article
previously appeared on Positive Word Ministries website:
http://www.peterwade.com/.