Hudson taylor, god’s venturer

One night, having slept for a few hours, he was awakened with a start by the sound of a crackling and a roaring, and by a strange light reflected in his room. It was a fire! Among those wooden houses, one joining another in the narrow street, a fire spread rapidly, as he knew, and in less time than it takes to tell, Hudson was out of his bed and bundling into this clothes. There was a wind blowing, to make matters worse, and the dull red glow reflected in his room seemed to be growing brighter. He decided to climb up on the roof to see just where the fire was, and to his horror he saw it was apparently only a few houses away. In addition, he heard the all-too-familiar sound of shooting, and even as he looked around from his vantage point on the tiles, bullets splattered on the buildings around him. He crouched lower, his eyes still fixed on the fire. He could see the spirals of smoke and flames spurting over the curved roofs, and hear the sound of excited talking and shouting in the street. What was actually happening he could not see, but he prayed silently and urgently that his heaven Father would protect him.

Even as he was praying, drops of rain began to fall, and the wind dropped. Then a cannon ball struck the roof of the house opposite, and fragments of the tiles flew past him. It dawned on him that his present position was neither safe nor comfortable! He climbed back into his room once more, thankful that the rain was falling more steadily, and the wind had dropped. The fire gradually subsided, and at five o’clock in the morning, realizing that the immediate danger was past, Hudson crept back into bed, to sleep for an hour or two before commencing the work of the day! Shooting and fighting in the locality were almost a nightly occurrence now, however, and there was nothing to do but to procure a home for the Parkers and their three children in the International Settlement. After many a fruitless search in the overcrowded area, he was eventually able to rent three rooms on the first floor of one of the houses in the London Missionary Society Compound. He was only just in time. Two days later the Parkers arrived, and Hudson, aged twenty-to, after barely eight months’ experience in China, found himself responsible for a family!