This is a brief biographical sketch which I was assigned to write for last semester’s Life of Paul class. It is basically an overview of what I learned about three men of God, used greatly of God: the apostle Paul, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone. I enjoyed every moment of the class. I praise the Lord for the ready and willing vessel the professor was. God used him to work in me. The recurring theme of the class was Paul’s total commitment to God’s will. He daily lived out his initial request--“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” God’s will was everything to Paul! Oh, may it be everything to this handmaid of the Lord.
I am now full swing into my next semester of Bible “homecollege.” What a blessed opportunity and provision this is! Presently, I am taking only two classes, Fear of the Lord and Old Testament Survey, as I need to be finished by mid-April; my family and I will be going on furlough early this summer. I am expectant to learn rich new truths from God’s Holy Word as I continue my endless growing process in Christ Jesus my Lord!
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Paul is referred to as the apostle to the Gentiles while Hudson Taylor is called the most widely used missionary in China’s history. The efforts of David Livingstone opened up Africa, a country which was once dark and secluded from the Gospel and its bearers. These three men were used tremendously by God to reach the world for Christ.
God was ready with an answer before Paul asked Him, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6) Paul was chosen specifically by God for a specific work. The only thing which stood between the fulfillment of God’s plan was Paul’s own will. Because Paul faithfully bowed to God’s will, he was instrumental in reaching countless nations for Christ.
Shortly into his second missionary journey, Paul desired to preach the Gospel in Asia; however, the Lord had greater plans for him. When Paul received a vision in the night of a man pleading for him to go to Macedonia and help them, he was willing to lay aside his own intentions and obey God. With the conversions of Lydia, a girl once demon-possessed, and a hardened Philippian jailer, a light began to grow steadily in a country which once laid in agelong darkness. Paul’s measure of surrender ultimately determined the fate of Europe, America, and every nation that has been reached for Christ by American missionaries.
Hudson Taylor served the Lord tirelessly for fifty-one years. Historian Ruth Tucker commented that “No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematised plan of evangelising a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.” Containing a quarter of the human race, China was a land greatly neglected. Beyond five designated Treaty Ports, no missionary work was being attempted; furthermore, much of the country was inaccessible to foreigners. China promised a bountiful harvest for the Lord; all He needed was willing laborers. At the right time, God sent forth Hudson Taylor into His fields which were “white unto harvest.”
Shortly after Taylor was saved at the age of seventeen, he felt the God’s call on his life to be a missionary to China. From the very start, he was wholeheartedly set for a pioneer missionary work in the interior. After a time of medical training, Hudson, now twenty-one years of age, departed for China in September 1853 and arrived in Shanghai in March 1854. Within his first few years in the country, he traveled to fifty-eight villages on the Yangtze River. Only seven of these villages had seen a missionary before.
Years later, the work in China was prosperous. The China Inland Mission was thriving and new missionaries were answering the Lord’s call to China each year. In 1868, the Taylors settled in Yangchow. Soon after the ministry began, handbills were distributed throughout the community which spoke falsely of threats made by the missionaries. The fabrications were a result of local priests’ hostility and fear. August 22 became the most traumatic day in the mission’s history. The compound was suddenly attacked by the people of Yangchow who were driven by fear and ignorance. While Taylor and a friend ran for help, the compound was looted and burned. Because many people were seriously injured and the buildings were destroyed, the battered missionaries went to Chinkiang to recover. However, only a few months later, they returned to Yangchow to resume the work. The villagers were amazed by the missionaries’ perseverance and compassion. The following year was a time of bountiful reaping of lost souls.
In 1900, near the end of his life, Taylor heard the distressing news of the Boxer Rebellion in China. Hundreds of missionaries and native Christians were murdered. As the telegrams which told of the riots and the massacre came, he gasped, “I cannot read, I cannot pray, I can scarcely think… but I can trust.” Though this event was devastating, God used it for good, "according to His purpose," as a renewing work was inspired in the hearts of laborers involved in the China Inland Mission. At the end of Taylor’s life, twenty mission stations had been established and over 800 missionaries were serving in China. Because Hudson Taylor was faithful in the Lord’s will, the entire country of China became open and fruitful to the Gospel.
David Livingstone was committed to spreading the Gospel across the entire continent of Africa. Some who knew Livingstone believed that he should have settled in one place to build a prosperous ministry. However, he recognized the true goal of missionary work. He paved the way for every missionary that ever has or ever will serve the Lord in Africa.
Livingstone’s pioneer work in the jungles of Africa caused him to experience great hardships. While seeking a route to the sea from the interior, a journey which took seven months, he succumbed to thirty-one attacks of fever, suffered hunger, met with delays, and endured the hostilities of natives. He bore physical trials that succeeding missionaries would never have to experience.
While journeying across Africa, Livingstone preached to the natives of the villages he passed. As a result, he discovered many locations for future mission works to be begun. In less than four years, Livingstone had crossed the entire continent. This great accomplishment, met by no other European, was solely for the cause of Christ. Even in the acclaim and excitement of his explorative discoveries, Livingstone never lost his zeal for souls. His historic discoveries of geographical wonders were secondary in importance; his greatest vision was always to open the way for the Gospel in Africa.
Livingstone once wrote to his father, “I am a missionary, heart and soul. God had an only Son, and he was a missionary and a physician. A poor, poor imitation of Him I am, or wish to be. In this service I hope to live; in it I wish to die.” At four in the morning of May 1, 1873, God took David Livingstone’s soul to heaven as he was kneeling at his bedside in prayer. He had gone on to receive his eternal reward for his faithful service to the Lord.
The world owes a great debt of gratitude to Paul, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone. Their surrender to the Master’s will made them useable vessels from which He could pour out His Spirit and power. Their obedience, perseverance, and vision to send the blessed Gospel light has changed the world forever. The ministries they began are still living in the labors of their predecessors and will continue until the Lord’s return.
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I pray these facts inspire you to learn more about the missionaries who lived them! For a better grasp of the surrender and service of these three servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, I heartily recommend these books: The Life of Paul: A Servant of Jesus Christ by F. B. Meyer, Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, and David Livingstone: First to Cross Africa with the Gospel by Mrs. J. H. Worchester.
Information concerning painting:
- The Handmaid of the Lord: "Beneath the Apple Tree" by Daniel Ridgway Knight [original]
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