Our age is an age of moderate virtue and of moderate vice, When men will not lay down the cross because they will never assume it.

Yet, nothing is impossible, nothing, to men of faith and conviction.

T. S. Eliot CHORUSES FROM THE ROCK

Hudson Taylor was used of God to open up China to the gospel in the mid 1800's. As the demand for workers grew, in the year 1887 he felt lead to pray with others for the addition of 100 worker. Of course, adding that many workers would be a tremendous challenge financially.

In THE GROWTH OF A WORK OF GOD, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor tell of the wonder of that request.

The story of the Hundred has often been told-it belongs to no one mission or land. We know how, with growing courage, Mr. Taylor and those associated with him were led to pray for ten thousand pounds of additional income, as necessary to meet the increased expenses ; and that it might be given in large gifts, so that the home staff should not be overwhelmed with correspondence.

We know that no fewer than six hundred men and women offered themselves to the Mission that year for service in China ; that one hundred and two, to be exact, were sent out ; and that not ten but eleven thousand pounds of extra income was received, no appeal having been made for financial help.

And we know, most wonderful perhaps of all, how definite prayer was answered as to the very form in which the money came ; the whole being received in just eleven gifts, involving little or no extra work to the office staff of the Mission. But such a story bears retelling, especially from Mr. Taylor's letters, to the glory not of man or methods, but of God.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

Edward Burne-Jones was an English artist of the late 19th Century, and bemoaned the little impact his life had made. With joy he had strived for beauty and good work in it, and had hoped to influence his fellow-creatures in both these directions, but he had come to realize how small, if not absolutely nothing his influence had been.

His biographer sat and tried to console him. Burne-Jones would not hear of it. He understood that the people who professed the greatest admiration for his work were also people who held views of life that he saw as an abomination. His conclusion? "Such bitter draughts of  seeming failure are poured out in all ages for those to whom the work is appointed of carrying on the lasting traditions of the world." (GOLD CORD page 36)

Amy Charmichael found herself in India, with a calling to rescue children who had been dedicated to the temple for worship purposes - and unmentionable evil.

"With the coming of each new child we learned a little more of the private ways of this dreadful underworld of India..."  She drew strength from the prayer of F. H. Meyers who asked that God "teach me yet anew with what a fierce and patient purity I must confront the horror of the world."

Charmichael knew on Whom she must rely. "We can only touch evil by virtue of the cleansing blood. Nothing but the white fires of God's holiness suffice for such contact. Move out from the full stream of Calvary and you know yourself not only defenceless, but stained."

Still, "bitter draughts of seeming failure" flooded her at times. "And unlike the artist," she says, "we had no canvases crowded with beauty to offer to anyone - Not as though I had already attained was written in large letters over everything we touched. It is written there still. And yet something in the words of Burne-Jones made them unforgettable. They struck down to reality."

"Perhaps in a sense not in the least understood then, they forecast what we were to find in the days when people would be kind to us and interested, and pleased, and yet not really in sympathy and not truly understanding. To count on such for so-operation was to be disappointed."

"It was well to be forewarned. For the work wsa to develop upon lines that would not find general acceptance, and we had to learn the unchangeable truth: Our Master has never promised us success. He demands obedience. He expects faithfulness. Results are His concern, not ours. And our reputation is a matter of no consequence at all."

What though I stand with the winner,
Or perish with those that fall?
Only the cowards are sinners,
Fighting the fight is all.
Strong is my foe, who advances,
Snapped in my blade, O Lord;
See their proud banners and lances -
But spare me the stub of a sword.
Amy Charmichael