This is Lloyd-Jones's foreword to a revised edition of Mrs Taylor's Pastor Hsi Confucian Scholar and Christian that appeared in 1949.
Foreword
I count it a real privilege to asked to write a Foreword to this great book, and to have my name associated with it. It affords me an opportunity of expressing my profound admiration for everything that I have ever read by its distinguished author. Likewise I can thus express my sense of gratitude to the China Inland Mission for deciding to issue this Life of Pastor Hsi, which had formerly been in two volumes, in one beautiful and compact volume.
A Foreword is really unnecessary, and any attempt to underline or to call special attention to the salient features of the book is quite otiose, as all this is done by the book itself. Certainly no one who has ever read a book by Mrs. Howard Taylor will need any kind of "appetiser".
To attempt to praise this book would be almost an impertinence, but I may be permitted to say that I regard it as a classic and one of the really great Christian biographies. The ultimate way of judging the true value of a book is to discover its effect upon our personality as a whole. Many books entertain and divert, others provide intellectual stimulation or appeal to our artistic sense, but the truly great book affects us more vitally, and we feel that we shall never quite be the same again as the result of reading it. Such is the effect produced by this Lite of Pastor Hsi. To read it is to be searched and humbled - indeed at times to be utterly humiliated; but at the same time it is stimulating, and exhilarating and a real tonic to one`s faith. In all this of course it approximates to the Bible itself.
This one word which describes the whole atmosphere and character of the book is the word apostolic. One feels this about the character of Pastor Hsi himself. and as one reads about his labours and the results to which they led in the formation of little churches, one is constantly reminded of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Whatever view one may hold on apostolic succession, no-one can deny that in this account of Pastor Hsi, and the churches in his district of China, we are reading of something that is a direct continuation of what happened in the early days of the Christian church. I have often felt that the history recorded in the Acts is but an extended commentary on Paul's inspired statement that the gospel "is the power of God unto salvation". I felt exactly the same as I read this book. It thrills with power and the only explanation of the extraordinary things which it records is what the New Testament tells us about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. it is indeed nothing but a record of what He did to and with Pastor Hsi, what He taught him and enabled him to do.
As for the man himself, he was by any standard a great man. His personality fascinates and attracts, indeed there was in him that quality of lovableness which is always a characteristic of true greatness. As a natural man he was gifted with unusual intellectual power and an enquiring mind. Moreover, he was cultured and well educated and deeply versed in the learning of his won country. He was a strong character and a born leader with perhaps a tendency, not unusual in such men, to be masterful and imperious and utterly impatient of incompetence. Likewise, he had great courage and determination and an assurance born of the realisation of his own qualities.
A Foreword is really unnecessary, and any attempt to underline or to call special attention to the salient features of the book is quite otiose, as all this is done by the book itself. Certainly no one who has ever read a book by Mrs. Howard Taylor will need any kind of "appetiser".
To attempt to praise this book would be almost an impertinence, but I may be permitted to say that I regard it as a classic and one of the really great Christian biographies. The ultimate way of judging the true value of a book is to discover its effect upon our personality as a whole. Many books entertain and divert, others provide intellectual stimulation or appeal to our artistic sense, but the truly great book affects us more vitally, and we feel that we shall never quite be the same again as the result of reading it. Such is the effect produced by this Lite of Pastor Hsi. To read it is to be searched and humbled - indeed at times to be utterly humiliated; but at the same time it is stimulating, and exhilarating and a real tonic to one`s faith. In all this of course it approximates to the Bible itself.
This one word which describes the whole atmosphere and character of the book is the word apostolic. One feels this about the character of Pastor Hsi himself. and as one reads about his labours and the results to which they led in the formation of little churches, one is constantly reminded of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Whatever view one may hold on apostolic succession, no-one can deny that in this account of Pastor Hsi, and the churches in his district of China, we are reading of something that is a direct continuation of what happened in the early days of the Christian church. I have often felt that the history recorded in the Acts is but an extended commentary on Paul's inspired statement that the gospel "is the power of God unto salvation". I felt exactly the same as I read this book. It thrills with power and the only explanation of the extraordinary things which it records is what the New Testament tells us about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. it is indeed nothing but a record of what He did to and with Pastor Hsi, what He taught him and enabled him to do.
As for the man himself, he was by any standard a great man. His personality fascinates and attracts, indeed there was in him that quality of lovableness which is always a characteristic of true greatness. As a natural man he was gifted with unusual intellectual power and an enquiring mind. Moreover, he was cultured and well educated and deeply versed in the learning of his won country. He was a strong character and a born leader with perhaps a tendency, not unusual in such men, to be masterful and imperious and utterly impatient of incompetence. Likewise, he had great courage and determination and an assurance born of the realisation of his own qualities.
When we look at him, however, after his conversion as as he developed in the Christian life, we see a change which as I have already said can only be explained by the miraculous power of God’s regenerating grace. The outstanding characteristic was his spirituality. He was truly a man of God in the real sense of the word. His simple, childlike faith which yet was strong and unshakable was astonishing. He took the New Testament as was and put it into practice without any hesitations or reservations he disciplined himself and his life in a most rigorous manner. The result was that everywhere we are impressed by his humility and his extraordinary balance and sanity. Indeed his humility and his self-control and discipline at certain times move one to tears, especially when one remembers what he was by nature.
What is the great lesson taught by this biography? There are many, but if I were pressed to single out one which is pre-eminent, it would be that we are shown here that the Christian is most accurately described as the fight of faith. Pastor Hsi had no difficulty in understanding what Paul means when he says that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph vi 12). He not only believed in the Holy Spirit but also in the reality of evil spirits, and he fought them not by trying to cultivate the passivity of the mystics and the quietists but by "putting on the whole armour of God" and using it with all his might.
Much light is cast in this book on several subjects which are of great interest and importance and which have often led to contoversy. For instance, Pastor Hsi was a great believer in the value of fasting when he gave himself to a season of prayer. Prayer and fasting seemed to him to go together. Is it possible that the real explanation as to why so many of us do not take the question of fasting seriously is that we have never taken prayer as seriously Pator Hsi did?
Again on the vexed question of faith healing there is a great deal to be learnt from this book. Pastor Hsi believed in it and practised it, and there are some remarkable cures reported. But his attitude to this was essentially different from that of many in this country and the U.S.A. which make much of this subject. There was in him a complete absence of the spectacular and the flamboyant, and he was particularly careful not to make loose statements and exaggerated claims; indeed it is here that his his sanity and balance stand out most clearly. He believed in using drugs and other means, and he organised a great system of refuges for the opium addicts. He was acutely aware of the dangers connected with the whole subject and always proceeded in a most cautious manner. It is particularly interesting to note hoe he became increasingly cautious as the years passed. the effect of all this is that one does not have the usual feeling that most of the purported results can be explained in terms of psychology. One feels rather that they are true, unmistakable cases of faith healing which can be explained in no other way.
It is exactly the same with the question of demon possession. Here again valuable evidence is provided which establishes the reality of this condition as a clinical entity and which shows that there is but one effective treatment.
There are also other matters of absorbing interest, but Pastor Hsi's ultimate rest was not in the cultivation of his own holiness, not in faith healing or the exorcising of devils or in any of the other phenomena of the Christian life: it was in his Lord who had died for him and had revealed Himself to him in his love and mercy and grace. He desired to know him better and to serve Him more truly.
We thank God for the memory of Pastor Hsi. We thank God for Mrs. Howard Taylor, who has recorded the facts of the Pastor's life so beautifully and faithfully. Our prayer is that God may so use this book to all who read It that we all may be likewise filled with Pastor Hsi's love for our blessed Lord, and may become so conformed to Him that He may be able to use us in the work of his kingdom even as he used the great Chinese scholar.
What is the great lesson taught by this biography? There are many, but if I were pressed to single out one which is pre-eminent, it would be that we are shown here that the Christian is most accurately described as the fight of faith. Pastor Hsi had no difficulty in understanding what Paul means when he says that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph vi 12). He not only believed in the Holy Spirit but also in the reality of evil spirits, and he fought them not by trying to cultivate the passivity of the mystics and the quietists but by "putting on the whole armour of God" and using it with all his might.
Much light is cast in this book on several subjects which are of great interest and importance and which have often led to contoversy. For instance, Pastor Hsi was a great believer in the value of fasting when he gave himself to a season of prayer. Prayer and fasting seemed to him to go together. Is it possible that the real explanation as to why so many of us do not take the question of fasting seriously is that we have never taken prayer as seriously Pator Hsi did?
Again on the vexed question of faith healing there is a great deal to be learnt from this book. Pastor Hsi believed in it and practised it, and there are some remarkable cures reported. But his attitude to this was essentially different from that of many in this country and the U.S.A. which make much of this subject. There was in him a complete absence of the spectacular and the flamboyant, and he was particularly careful not to make loose statements and exaggerated claims; indeed it is here that his his sanity and balance stand out most clearly. He believed in using drugs and other means, and he organised a great system of refuges for the opium addicts. He was acutely aware of the dangers connected with the whole subject and always proceeded in a most cautious manner. It is particularly interesting to note hoe he became increasingly cautious as the years passed. the effect of all this is that one does not have the usual feeling that most of the purported results can be explained in terms of psychology. One feels rather that they are true, unmistakable cases of faith healing which can be explained in no other way.
It is exactly the same with the question of demon possession. Here again valuable evidence is provided which establishes the reality of this condition as a clinical entity and which shows that there is but one effective treatment.
There are also other matters of absorbing interest, but Pastor Hsi's ultimate rest was not in the cultivation of his own holiness, not in faith healing or the exorcising of devils or in any of the other phenomena of the Christian life: it was in his Lord who had died for him and had revealed Himself to him in his love and mercy and grace. He desired to know him better and to serve Him more truly.
We thank God for the memory of Pastor Hsi. We thank God for Mrs. Howard Taylor, who has recorded the facts of the Pastor's life so beautifully and faithfully. Our prayer is that God may so use this book to all who read It that we all may be likewise filled with Pastor Hsi's love for our blessed Lord, and may become so conformed to Him that He may be able to use us in the work of his kingdom even as he used the great Chinese scholar.
D M Lloyd-Jones
Westminster Chapel,
London
1 comment:
I read Pastor Hsi by Mrs Howard Taylor in the late 70s and was challenged by his life. Also blessed by missionary martyrs to China, John & Betty Stam to live more wholehearted Christian lives.Thanks for foreword by Dr MLJ. kimsherwood
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