Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China who was born in England about 150 years ago. China is a very large country, but before Mr. Taylor went there, very few of the people there had heard the good news of Jesus’ coming. Those people who had heard lived by the sea. Hudson Taylor bravely went right into the middle of China and preached to thousands of people who had never seen a foreigner before. He began the China Inland Mission, which sent several hundred missionaries to China before Mr. Taylor died in 1905.

When Hudson was 19 years old, before he went to China, he was preparing for his life’s work by studying medicine and learning to live without any luxuries. One Sabbath night, he found that all he had left was one big coin, some gruel for supper, and a bowl of porridge for breakfast. After his evening service, a poor man asked him to come home with him and pray with his wife, who was dying. When he got there, Hudson found four or five starving children looking on with their sunken eyes while their poor, exhausted mother lay on a mat with a baby beside her, only one and a half days old.

Hudson thought of his coin; but it was all he had, and he figured he shouldn’t have to give it away! He tried to say something helpful to the family, and then to pray with them, but his conscience hammered away at him, urging him to give them more than nice words. The poor man finally cried out to Hudson: “You see what a terrible state we are in, sir. If you can help us, for God’s sake do!” And then Hudson remembered the words of his King Jesus, “Give to him that asks you.” So, he slowly pulled the coin from his pocket. and gave it to the poor man.

The next morning, as he was eating his last bit of oatmeal, his landlady surprised him by bringing in an unsigned letter containing a pair of gloves and a coin worth four times as much as the one he had given away! The poor mother’s life was saved, and God had taught Hudson a great lesson in preparation for all the times he would face trouble, danger, and lack of money in China.