# HUDSON TAYLOR S Home Life Home Histories Language: en Author: by Denny Kenaston Original issue: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, September/October 2000, Number 4 Source pages: 6–10 Read article: Original PDF: 2000\-09\-remnant\.pdf [The Heartbeat of The Remnant, September/October 2000]() ![Portrait of Hudson Taylor\.]() Hudson Taylor was the founder of the China Inland Mission\. Only eternity will reveal the influence that this one man had upon China’s millions of unreached peoples\. In Hudson Taylor’s day when missions was still a very new idea, it took a deep commitment to Christ, and a pioneering spirit to embark on this holy enterprise\. Only a man with a solid Christian foundation under him could accomplish such a venture of faith\. How beautiful to see that the all wise God, who is a missionary God, was laying just a foundation through the fervent love and dedication of the generations before him\. Oh the joy of looking back and seeing our loving heavenly Father working all things after the counsel of His own will and purposes long before Hudson was born\. Three generations of fiery Methodist families preceded him\. Truly, Great\-grandfather James Taylor laid a many generation foundation in his home\. On the day of young James Taylor’s wedding he found himself on his knees in the barn under deep conviction as God was pressing his heart with the verse “as for me and my house”, “as for me and my house”\. What an awesome verse to come to the Lord Jesus with on your wedding day\. So there he was late for his own wedding service but right on time with his appointment with the God of glory\. Much can be said of this man’s home but we wish to focus in on the godly influence of Hudson’s father and mother\. I have not found many examples of a godly home like this one in all my reading of Christian biographies\. James and Amelia Taylor came to the marriage altar with hearts and lives totally given up to God and His purposes from their youth\. Their parents on both sides had raised them up in the hot atmosphere of the spreading of early Methodism\. James was ordained to the ministry at the age of nineteen and given preaching responsibilities in the local circuit\. It was five years before James was able to establish himself in business and take Amelia to be his lovely bride\. It seems they had a proper courtship in the old fashioned way\. And married with the overwhelming blessing of parents, family and church\. Praise God\! As the days of their new life together unfolded before them Amelia was found with child\. They were so excited at the prospects of an addition to their happy home\. With these joyful thoughts on their minds James was led to consider the Old Testament principle of dedicating the firstborn to the Lord\. “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn\.” After sharing his thoughts with Amelia, they solemnly dropped to their knees and consecrated their firstborn to the Lord who gave him\. I’m sure they had no idea what this dedication would mean in the future for them as well as for the child that was yet in the womb\. It was into this holy consecrated atmosphere that James Hudson Taylor was born on May 21, 1832\. What an inspiring example this is to all of us who are longing to raise up godly children for the glory of God\. The mercy drops of heaven were falling upon him from the start as his parents thirsted for God and His will\. His earliest memories of childhood centered around the assembling of the saints week by week in the Chapel on Pinfold Hill\. As I peruse the historical account of Hudson Taylor’s home life there is a wealth of insights and examples that we can learn from\. I can by no means cover all of them in this article\. How thrilled I am to discover all this information recorded and passed on to us from previous generations of godly people\. God is no respecter of persons and the promises and principles of Gods Word work for all\. We shall try to cover some of them under four categories\. ## – His Godly Father – - His workshop was joined to the house and a large glass window gave him continual access to the main work and family room at all times\. From this position he took a very active role in the training and oversight of the children\. - He was a decided disciplinarian \(that is, he believed strongly in spanking the children when it was needed\)\. Young Hudson was a bit frail and sickly in his early years, which presented father and mother with the temptation of holding back the rod out of natural love for their weaker son\. However, obedience and self\-control must be part of the boy’s life\. He believed that an undisciplined life was of little use\. - His goals for his children were high\. To just make it, to have them be OK, to have children that turn out all right would not do\. - He was a man with a strong sense of duty\. What must be done was the thing that took the priority above his personal ease, pleasure, or enjoyment\. This was true whether it was his work, the ministry, or his home responsibilities\. - He filled the lives of his children with manifold character building exercises\. Lifelong habits must be secured for each child, for with these comes the power of self\-control\. “He that ruleth over his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city”\. - He conducted Family worship twice daily, after breakfast and after tea\. All members of the family were present\. Scripture was read and explained in a way that could be understood by the young ones with applications\. The Old and New Testaments were used, and the date was recorded in the family Bible at the end of each session\. More time was given to these activities on Sunday\. Sunday school was good for those who needed it, but no one else would have the privilege of teaching his children the things of God\. - From an early age he taught the children to pray and would search for opportunities to draw near to God in the middle of the day\. He would often take the children upstairs for a season of prayer for them\. They would kneel down together; he stretching out his arms around them would pour out his soul in prayer for them in tones that they never forgot\. It was his daily burdened prayers for China, that inspired Hudson at age five to say with much determination, “I’ll go to China\.” ## – His Godly Mother – - Amelia was from her youth known for her industrious nature\. At age 15 she was called upon to leave her formal education behind and help in the support of the family\. This proved to be God’s providential oversight as she was employed as a home\-school teacher of three students for several years\. What beautiful training for her own home school in the years to come\. - Thoughtfulness for others characterized her life from her youth, as well as sincerity \(a life without pretence\)\. These two made her beloved in the sight of many\. - Though she was attractive, talented, and intelligent, her selflessness caused her to shrink from the place of prominence; she rather desired others to be admired\. These qualities shined greatest in the home she kept for her busy husband and growing family\. Reverence and submission graced her marriage and blessed her children all through those developing years\. - Mother’s gentle discipline brought stability and happiness to the children\. She was reasonable and consistent in all her dealings with the direction and correction of the children, and what she said she meant\. - Because the finances were tight at times, the Taylor’s were not able to afford servants\. One maiden helped with household duties, which put much of the care of the family upon father and mother\. It doesn’t seem to me that this was done on purpose, but yet it was a great blessing to Hudson\. His parents were his close companions and he was ever under their watchful loving management\. Mother worked with him, taught him, cared for him, and was the sun and center of his life\. - She had a unique ability to incorporate several sub\-commands into one command so that when she said it’s time for dinner, this meant, wash your hands, put on a clean shirt, tidy your hair, and be in your place at the table before Papa sits down\. All this happened at only a mere suggestion without any repeated pleas\. - She was known for and kept a very orderly household\. A place for everything and everything in its place\. Young Hudson grew up in an atmosphere of holy order\. The toys must be put away before the next activity is begun\. The room must be neat and tidy as you leave it in the morning\. Mother’s example in these principles gave weight to her continual guidance in these things\. Only by her diligent spirit was she able to keep the house in such good order\. Her days and evenings were filled with labors of the domestic sort\. She was truly a Proverbs 31 wife and mother, and the young missionary soldier in training benefited greatly by all of her character\. - One historical note of interest that I discovered in my studies of her life and in early Methodism was that she wore a covering at all times from the time of her marriage\. How quickly we lose biblical principles in two generations\. May the Lord keep us alert in this our generation\. ## – Godly Memories – - The smile that lighted his Grandfather’s face on Sunday morning after church\. Hudson was greatly influenced by his grandfather John Taylor\. If he was a good boy during the service, being handed back after the service to grandpa who sat in the pew behind him was his reward\. There he received a blessing and many words of affirmation from an old man whom he loved dearly\. - Learning the Hebrew alphabet while he sat on his father’s knee\. This is quite a different activity than those of modern days\. - He recalled his first attempt at creative writing at the age of four\. It was a story of an old man who had lived out his days in selfishness and was not ready to die\. He only wrote one chapter, but we can see the seriousness of his little mind\. - The darkened condition of the heathen in distant lands was impressed upon his memory at the age of four or five\. “ When I become a man, I mean to become a missionary and go to China”\. Oh, such sacred words to flow from the mouth of a babe\. And God was watching and listening\. - The death of his brother was imprinted upon his memory and was used to keep a sober edge in his life\. - He loved nature and grew up with many memories of exploring all the many fascinating aspects of God’s creation\. His father provided a magazine of Natural History, which came month by month to the house\. This stimulated his desire for further learning\. - The calendar on the wall with red letters on it\. Here mother marked the days of special interest to the family\. An outing, a visit to friends, a walk in the park, etc\. Many were the marks on the calendar during the early years of his life\. - Long Saturday afternoon walks with his dear father\. These walks and talks greatly increased the companionship between father and son\. Dad Taylor would tell them many things of interest about the butterflies, the flowers, and the birds\. - Sunday was a special day far above all the rest\. In addition to the lively earnest experiences of church life, it was also the day that mother gave herself with no distractions to her precious family\. As the scripture teaches, the work was set aside, and relationships, both vertical and horizontal, were pursued\. Amelia knew how to make the day different and delightful\. The nicest toys, the picture books, her best dress, and a cozy fire in the drawing room where the piano was were all saved for Sunday\. Hymn\-singing around the piano with mother, deep talks from the Bible and Pilgrims Progress, and a basket of fruit all worked together to sanctify the Lord’s Day, and make it a day to look forward to each week\. Oh the wisdom that is hidden in the account of this precious childhood memory of a choice servant of God\. - Hudson had many sober memories of sitting in the evening time and listening to his father and other godly men discuss theology, the issues of the day, and missions\. Also, many were the times when Hudson would accompany his father on a preaching mission somewhere in his circuit\. At the end of the meeting an altar call was given and many would come to cry out in earnest for help from above\. Hudson would find himself there on his face with the others praying for a breakthrough, imagine the impressions on his developing life when victory came, and the saints began to sing\. ## – Godly Character – - On many a Sunday evening the Taylor children were allowed to conduct “a meeting”, in the little sitting room behind the shop\. Father’s chair was the pulpit and the boys took their turns at preaching with sobriety God’s holy Word\. Just simple play? Hardly, for play is in essence practice for future living\. - James Taylor was a man known by all in his community to be faithful and honest with unrighteous mammon\. This was passed on to the children in many ways\. A penny must be earned by honest labor and when eleven pennies were earned, father would give the twelfth to make a shilling\. Saving, giving, and careful spending were instilled in them at an early age\. Oh, the marvel of watching God train his servant who will some day handle large amounts of money as well as large deposits of the true riches of the kingdom\. - When the children were yet very young, mother came up with “the game of still”\. In this exercise the child must sit perfectly quiet for ten minutes or longer and the reward would be a penny\. I’m sure we all know that their mother had other motives and rewards in mind for her creative design of the game of still\. - Father instilled the importance of punctuality by teaching and example\. No one was allowed to be late for meals or any other engagement\. Mother called the children at seven every morning and without bells of warning they were expected to be at the table at eight\. Father would often say, “If you keep five people waiting one minute, do you not see that five minutes are lost”\. - As I studied over Hudson’s home\-life I could see clearly that eating habits were monitored and guided in each child’s life\. Simple foods were the norm, and special foods were enjoyed occasionally\. Sugar and jellies were allowed in moderation\. The overall goal was to secure for each child the power of self\-control\. - “See if you can do without it”, were words often heard at the table when some desert was on the table\. No one was forced to obey, but each was rewarded for saying, “No, thank\-you, I don’t care for any\.” - James Taylor, being a spiritual man, never ceased to encourage the children to maintain the life of the soul by prayer and Bible study\. He arranged for everyone in the house to have at least half an hour daily, alone with God\. Even the little ones were involved in this activity\. Before breakfast in the morning and again in the evening each child would go up to its room for reading and prayer\. --- This concludes the article for Home Histories for the September/October issue of *The Remnant*; however, I feel some reflective thoughts and applications are in order\. I have been deeply inspired and challenged in the preparations of this essay\. These gleanings were drawn from the first four chapters of the book *Hudson Taylor, The Growth of a Soul\.* The publisher is Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1989\. These fifty pages have a wealth of instruction and inspiration, which our space does not allow us to print\. I have spent many hours of meditation in these four chapters\. Truly, truly, Hudson Taylor grew up in a godly home with parents who raised him on purpose for God and His glory\. When we look at this history from the perspective of man’s responsibility, his parents followed the teachings of scripture on child training, and they received the fruit of their obedient labors; a godly seed that was mighty on the earth\. I have never read anything that so affirms the principles of the Godly Home as this does\. I don’t know how this example sets with you, but as for me, I am convinced again, that God is no respecter of persons\. Any father or mother who will set their heart, by God’s empowering grace, to train their children after this manner will also be rewarded with like precious fruit\. God help us to change our priorities, as we rear children for the service of our great King and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ\.