CHRIST the ABIDING ONE: “Abide in Me, and I in you” (Jn 15:4). James Hudson Taylor was born May 21, 1832, the only son of a druggist in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England. A frail child, his education was sporadic, mostly taken at home. In 1849, he picked up a tract on holiday and was struck with the Savior’s words, “It is finished.” Resting where God rests, he was saved, and soon after set his heart on taking the gospel to China. The rest, as they say, is history. But in the early days, as part of the frontline troops for God in China, Taylor almost despaired for his life. It was not until a fellow missionary shared with him what was later to be called his “spiritual secret” that Hudson Taylor’s ministry began to flourish. What was that secret? He writes: “Abiding…not striving or struggling…As I read, I saw it all. ‘If we believe not, He abideth faithful.’ And I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, ‘I will never leave you.’”