Midnight. Drainside St. 5, in the slums of Hull (a city in Ireland). This is where Hudson Taylor lives, and the stench is unbearable. His small room is in an old house right by the canal that flows through Hull. The locals dump all their trash and waste into this canal.
Suddenly, someone bangs on his door. “Please, come quickly! My wife is dying. Pray with us for my wife.”
Hudson Taylor grabs his coat and hat. Then he sets off with the stranger. The alleys become narrower and darker. Sinister figures cross their path. Hudson Taylor glances sideways at the stranger, scrutinizing him. “Is what he told me true?” he wonders, clutching his only, truly last coin in his pocket. “Why didn’t you go to a priest?” he asks the man. “He wanted money. We have none. We haven’t eaten for days. And we can’t afford a doctor,” his companion replies.
“If only I had two coins, I could give one away,” Hudson thinks desperately, “but if I give away my only coin, all my money, then I’ll have to go hungry tomorrow myself. No one can ask that of me.” – “God, what should I do? God, you are a hearer of prayer. Please help me,” he prays in his heart. They soon reach their destination.
Hudson Taylor wasn’t expecting this: a nearly unfurnished room, windows without curtains, empty boxes in one corner, and in the other, a thin, pale woman lies on a straw mattress with a newborn baby beside her. On the floor stands a small candle, providing some light. In a niche, older children sit, staring at the visitor with large, hungry eyes.
Hudson thinks again of his coin, turning it over and over in his pocket. “If only I had two coins… enough!” he admonishes himself. “My task is to preach the gospel to these people.” Then he begins slowly: “You don’t need to despair. We have a God in heaven who loves us and cares for us if we believe in Him and trust Him…”
He can barely get these last words out. “You talk of trusting God and yet cling all your trust to a coin,” it strikes him. Then he remembers a word from the Lord Jesus: “Give to the one who asks you.” – Give! Slowly, Hudson Taylor pulls his hand from his pocket and hands the family the coin, his entire possession. Then he is inwardly free to tell the dying, desolate woman the best message of all: “Jesus loves you. That’s why He died on the cross. Believe in Him and confess your sins to Him. Then He will forgive you all your guilt. You are eternally safe with Him.”
Hours later, Hudson Taylor returns home. Now he possesses nothing: no money and only enough food for one meal. In his Bible, he reads: “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done.” (Proverbs 19:17.) Now Hudson Taylor understands: the money he gave to that poor family yesterday, he actually lent to God. It will be repaid to him somehow.
The next morning, he sits at the table and eats his last bowl of porridge. What Hudson will eat tomorrow – he doesn’t know. Then the landlady knocks on his apartment door. “This package was just delivered by the postman for you.”
“Who would send me a package?” he wonders. When Hudson opens it, he finds a pair of gloves wrapped in tissue paper. “Strange,” he murmurs, carefully examining this interesting gift. Suddenly, something falls to the floor. Hudson picks it up – a gold coin! There is no letter, and the sender is missing. Hudson Taylor will never know who gifted him this money. But he learns something much greater: the principle of God’s “bank.” He lent God a silver coin – God gave him a gold coin in return.
As a missionary in China, Hudson Taylor needed medical training. He receives it in London. He has been able to save only a little money. So his daily sustenance is meager: black bread, apples, and plain water.
The desperately needed notebook, the medical student crafts himself from sheets of paper, cutting and sewing them together. Once, the needle pricks his right hand while sewing.
The next day, Hudson participates in the dissection (medical examination of a deceased person) of a man who died of a dangerous fever. Everyone works with the utmost caution. Yet, a few hours later, he feels deathly ill. His right arm is swollen, and he can no longer move it due to the pain. Could he have been infected? But how?
Hudson immediately seeks out the surgeon at the dissection station. The diagnosis is horrifying: infected! He contracted this deadly fever through that tiny wound from sewing on his right hand’s finger. “Go home quickly to put your affairs in order. You don’t have long to live. Hurry!” is the doctor’s only advice.
“I will recover,” Hudson replies to the doctor, “God has given me a mission in China, and I must fulfill it first. And with God, I’ve already put everything in order, my whole life.” When he arrives home, he collapses unconscious to the floor.
Half-dead, Hudson Taylor is found in his room. His uncle, who lives nearby, takes care of him and calls his family doctor. But the diagnosis is again devastating: a disease that leads to death. Only a miracle can help here.
For days, Hudson lies feverish in his sickbed. Then the miracle happens. The fever subsides, and a few weeks later, he can even get up for a few hours. At this time, he learns that two other medical students also got infected, but they died. “Why did I survive?” Hudson wonders. Once again, it becomes clear to him: “In China, a great mission awaits me.”
When the doctor sees Hudson Taylor’s cheerful face, he says, deeply moved: “I would give anything in the world to have faith like yours. Such trust in a God you can neither see nor hear, I’ve never experienced.”
“You can have this faith. Everyone can believe in God. Everyone – without exception,” Hudson replies calmly. “But you must take an important step: recognize that you are a sinful person and have committed sins in your life. You must confess these sins to God. Then God will forgive you. And this God will become your Father. Then you will learn to trust Him.”
- Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you will glorify me. Psalm 50:15
- Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Matthew 5:42
- Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Psalm 23:4
- He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. John 9:38
- Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done. (Proverbs 19:17.)