James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905), a British Baptist Christian missionary, dedicated 54 years to China and founded the China Inland Mission (CIM), now OMF International. His society sent over 800 missionaries, establishing 125 schools and over 300 workstations in all 18 provinces, resulting in 20,000 Christian conversions. Taylor, known for his deep admiration of Chinese culture, adopted native clothing, a rarity among missionaries of his time. Leading a non-denominational CIM, he welcomed members from all Protestant groups, including working-class individuals and single women. Taylor’s campaign against the opium trade elevated him as one of the most influential Europeans in 19th-century China. Fluent in various Chinese dialects, he played a pivotal role in translating the New Testament into the Wu dialect. Historian Ruth Tucker lauds Taylor’s visionary evangelism, highlighting his unparalleled impact on geographical evangelization in the 19th century.
Hudson Taylor Quotes
1. “When we work, we work. When we pray, God works.”
— James Hudson Taylor
2. “Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.”
— James Hudson Taylor
3. “The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.”
— James Hudson Taylor
4. “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
— James Hudson Taylor
5. “Learn to move man, through God, by prayer alone.”
— James Hudson Taylor
6. “God is not looking for men of great faith, He is looking for common men to trust His great faithfulness.”
— James Hudson Taylor
7. “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.”
— James Hudson Taylor
8. “You do not need a great faith, but faith in a great God.”
— James Hudson Taylor
9. “A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in little things is a great thing.”
— James Hudson Taylor
10. “When the heart submits, then Jesus reigns. When Jesus reigns, there is rest.”
— James Hudson Taylor
11. “Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterward. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.”
— James Hudson Taylor
12. “I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize that He is able to carry out His will for me. It does not matter where He places me, or how. That is for Him to consider, not me, for in the easiest positions He will give me grace, and in the most difficult ones His grace is sufficient.”
— James Hudson Taylor
13. “The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will.”
— James Hudson Taylor
14. “Dream a dream so big that unless God intervenes it will fail.”
— James Hudson Taylor
15. “If I had 1,000 lives, I’d give them all for China.”
— James Hudson Taylor
16. “I often think that God must have been looking for someone small enough and weak enough for Him to use, and that He found me.”
— James Hudson Taylor
17. “It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies – whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart.”
— James Hudson Taylor
18. “God isn’t looking for people of great faith but for individuals ready to follow Him.”
— James Hudson Taylor
19. “Unless there is the element of extreme risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith.”
— James Hudson Taylor
20. “When I cannot read, when I cannot think, when I cannot even pray, I can trust.”
— James Hudson Taylor
21. “Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds, and He can just as easily supply them ahead of time as afterwards, and He much prefers doing so.”
— James Hudson Taylor
22. “God’s work is not a man working for God; it is God’s own work, though often wrought through man’s hands.”
— James Hudson Taylor
23. “I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him to do His work through me.”
— James Hudson Taylor
24. “If we are faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life.”
— James Hudson Taylor
25. “It is not lost time to wait upon God!”
— James Hudson Taylor
26. “There are three great truths, 1st, That there is a God; 2nd, That He has spoken to us in the Bible; 3rd, That He means what He says.”
— James Hudson Taylor
27. “Believing prayer will lead to whole-hearted action.”
— James Hudson Taylor
28. “Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on His power and presence with them.”
— James Hudson Taylor
29. “All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of His grace, power, and love.”
— James Hudson Taylor
30. “Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. There are not two Christs – an easygoing one for easygoing Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are you willing to abide in Him, and thus to bear much fruit?”
— James Hudson Taylor
31. “God means just what He says and He will do all that He has promised.”
— James Hudson Taylor
32. “The less I spent on myself and the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.”
— James Hudson Taylor
33. “There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience 2. Patience 3. Patience.”
— James Hudson Taylor
34. “Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.”
— James Hudson Taylor
35. “If I had a thousand pounds China should have it- if I had a thousand lives, China should have them. No! Not China, but Christ. Can we do too much for Him? Can we do enough for such a precious Saviour?”
— James Hudson Taylor
36. “Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; Heaven so real that we must have men there.”
— James Hudson Taylor
37. “While unbelief sees the difficulties, faith sees God between itself and them.”
— James Hudson Taylor
38. “Jesus is our strength, and what we cannot do or bear, He can both do and bear in us.”
— James Hudson Taylor
39. “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
— James Hudson Taylor
40. “Satan may build a hedge about us and fence us in and hinder our movements, but he cannot roof us in and prevent our looking up.”
— James Hudson Taylor
41. “Let us give up our work, our thoughts, our plans, ourselves, our lives, our loved ones, our influence, our all, right into His hand, and then, when we have given all over to Him, there will be nothing left for us to trouble about, or to make trouble about.”
— James Hudson Taylor
42. “Let us see that we keep God before our eyes; that we walk in His ways and seek to please and glorify Him in everything, great and small. Depend upon it, God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supplies.”
— James Hudson Taylor
43. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and might things which thou knowest not.”
— James Hudson Taylor
44. “I am so weak that I can hardly write, I cannot read my Bible, I cannot even pray, I can only lie still in God’s arms like a little child, and trust.”
— James Hudson Taylor
45. “I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.”
— James Hudson Taylor
