Book · 12 chapters · 42 min read
A Retrospect (For Teens)
Hudson Taylor · 1832–1905
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It Is Finished
Other editions
About this book
Hudson Taylor was a real teenager who doubted, feared, and worried about money — then staked his whole life on a God he decided to actually test. This teen edition retells the true story behind the China Inland Mission: the last coin given away, the deadly needle-prick, the storm off the rocks, a night robbed on temple steps, and one prayer written in a Bible’s margin.
Before Hudson Taylor believed anything, he doubted almost everything. He had grown up in a Christian home, watched his parents pray, and heard the Bible read — and it had left him cold. He had tried, more than once, to make himself into a Christian by sheer effort, failed every time, and quietly concluded that salvation simply was not for someone like
Contents
- 1 It Is Finished 3 min
- 2 The Locked Room 3 min
- 3 The Last Half-Crown 4 min
- 4 The Salary Nobody Mentioned 3 min
- 5 “You Are a Dead Man” 3 min
- 6 Within a Stone’s Throw 3 min
- 7 Pray for a Wind 4 min
- 8 Becoming One of Them 3 min
- 9 The Temple Steps 3 min
- 10 The Man Who Robbed Him 4 min
- 11 One Cash Left 4 min
- 12 Written in the Margin 4 min
Questions and Answers
Who was Hudson Taylor?
He was a young Englishman who, in the 1850s, gave up an ordinary career to carry the good news of Jesus into inland China, trusting God to supply everything he needed. He later founded the China Inland Mission.
What does “the finished work of Christ” mean?
It means Jesus’ death paid for sin completely, so there is nothing left for you to earn or add. Taylor was converted the moment he understood he only had to receive it, not achieve it.
Why did Taylor keep letting himself run out of money on purpose?
Before sailing to a country where he would have no one to ask but God, he wanted to find out whether his faith could actually move things through prayer alone. He practised trusting God for small needs so he could trust him for large ones.
What happened the night he gave away his last half-crown?
He handed his only coin to a starving family, keeping nothing back for himself. The next morning an unsigned envelope arrived containing ten shillings — four times what he had given away.
Was Taylor ever actually afraid?
Yes — of drowning in a storm off the Welsh rocks, of dying from an infected finger, and of being robbed alone on temple steps at night. He was honest that his own faith often failed, and that God stayed faithful anyway.
What was the prayer he wrote in the margin of his Bible?
On a beach at Brighton in 1865 he asked God for twenty-four fellow workers for inland China and wrote the request in the margin of the Bible he had with him. That prayer became the beginning of the China Inland Mission.
Why did he dress in Chinese clothing?
He wanted people to hear the message instead of being distracted by a foreigner, so he gave up his own comfort and pride and dressed like those he served. His friend William Burns was so struck by the difference it made that he did the same.
What can a teenager today take from Taylor’s story?
That God can be tested and trusted with real, specific needs — money, fear, direction — and that obeying him usually costs something before it proves worth it. Taylor began as a doubting teenager, not a finished saint.
