Hudson Taylor - Loss of Maria

Loss of Maria

In 1868 another child, Charles, was born into the Taylor family, and in 1870, Taylor and his wife made the difficult decision to send their older three surviving children (Bertie, Freddie, and Maria—Samuel died earlier that year) home to England with Miss Emily Blatchley. In July, Noel was born, though he died of malnutrition and deprivation two weeks later due to Maria's inability to nurse him. Maria herself died several days later, with the official cause of death being cholera. Her death shook Taylor deeply, and in 1871, his own health began deteriorating further, leading to his return to England later that year to recuperate and take care of business items.

Back in England, Taylor was married to Jane Elizabeth Faulding who had been a fellow missionary since 1866. Hudson and "Jennie" returned to China in late 1872 aboard the MM Tigre. They were in Nanjing when Jennie gave birth to stillborn twins—a boy and a girl in 1873. Two years later, the Taylors were forced to return once again to England because of the death of the mission secretary and their children's caretaker, Emily Blatchley.

During the winter of 1874 and 1875 Taylor was practically paralyzed from a fall he had taken on a river boat while in China. In this state of crippling physical hindrance, Taylor confidently published an appeal for 18 new workers to join the work. When he did recover his strength, Jennie remained with the children, (including a new son and daughter, Ernest and Amy, as well as the orphaned daughter of fellow missionary George Duncan) and in 1876 Hudson Taylor returned to China and the 18 requested missionaries followed him. Meanwhile, in England, the work of General Secretary of the China Inland Mission was done by Benjamin Broomhall, who had married Hudson's sister, Amelia.

It was at this time that Hudson's evangelical work in England profoundly affected various members of the famous cricketing Studd family, resulting in three of the brothers converting and becoming deeply religious themselves; one of them, cricketer Charles Studd, became a missionary to China along with fellow Cambridge University converts, known as the Cambridge Seven.

From 1876–1877 Taylor traveled throughout inland China, opening missions stations. This was made possible by the 13 September 1876 signing of the Chefoo Convention, a settlement between Britain and China that made it possible for missionary work to take place legally in inland China. In 1878, Jennie returned to China and began working to promote female missionary service there. By 1881 there were 100 missionaries in the CIM.

Taylor returned to England in 1883 to recruit more missionaries speaking of China's needs, and returned to China, working now with a total of 225 missionaries and 59 churches. In 1887 their numbers increased by another 102 with The Hundred missionaries, and in 1888, Taylor brought 14 missionaries from the United States. In the US he travelled and spoke at many places, including the Niagara Bible Conference where he befriended Cyrus Scofield and later Taylor filled the pulpit of Dwight Lyman Moody as a guest in Chicago. Moody and Scofield thereafter actively supported the work of the China Inland Mission of North America.

In 1897 Hudson and Maria's only surviving daughter, Maria died in Wenzhou, leaving four little children and her missionary husband, John Joseph Coulthard . She had been instrumental in leading many Chinese women to Christianity during her short life.