Hudson Taylor was travelling by native junk from Shanghai to Ningpo. Among his fellow-passengers, one Chinese, who had spent some years in England and went by the name of Peter, was much upon his heart, for, though not unacquainted with the Gospel, he knew nothing of its saving power.  Simply he told the story of this man’s friendliness and of his own efforts to win him to Christ.  Nearing the city of Sung-kiang, they were preparing to go ashore together to -preach and distribute tracts, when Mr. Taylor in his cabin was startled by a sudden splash and cry that told of a man overboard. Springing at once on deck he looked round and missed Peter.

Yes, “exclaimed the boatmen unconcernedly, it was over there he went down!”

To drop the sail and jump into the water was the work of a moment; but the tide was running out, and the low, shrubless shore afforded little landmark. Searching everywhere in an agony of suspense, Mr. Taylor caught sight of some fishermen with a drag-net-just the thing needed.

“Come,” he cried as hope revived, “come and drag over this spot. A man is drowning!”

“Veh bin,” was the amazing reply: “It is not convenient.”

“Don’t talk of convenience! Quickly come, or it will be too late.”

“We are busy fishing.”

“Never mind your fishing! Come-only come at once! I will pay you well.”

“How much will you give us? “

“Five dollars! only don’t stand talking. Save life without delay!”

“Too little!” they shouted across the water. “We will not come for less than thirty dollars.”

“But I have not so much with me I will give you all I’ve got.”

“And how much may that be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. About fourteen dollars.”

Upon this they came, and the first time they passed the net through the water brought up the missing man. But all Mr. Taylor’s efforts to restore respiration were in vain. It was only too plain that life had fled, sacrificed to the callous indifference of those who might easily have saved it.  {It was on Friday, October 10, 1856, that this incident took place, when young Hudson Taylor was returning to Ningpo with Mr. J. Jones, whose colleague he became a little later.}

When Mr. Taylor would give this account in his native Scotland, A burning sense of indignation would sweep over the audience. Could it be that anywhere on earth people were to be found so utterly callous and selfish! But as his earnest voice went on, conviction struck home all the more deeply an unexpectedly.

“Is the body, then, of so much more value than the soul?  We condemn those heathen fishermen.  We say they were guilty of the man’s death-because they could easily have saved him and did not do it.  But what of the millions whom we leave to perish, and that eternally? What of the plain command, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, ‘and the searching question inspired by God Himself: ‘If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain ; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it ? and He that keepeth thy soul doth not He know it? And shall He not render to every man according to his works? (Prov. 24:12)’”

Taken From: Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission