He Exchanged His Life for CHRIST's
(Copied from old booklet Crisis Experiences in the Lives of Noted Christians published by Moody Press)

Hudson Taylor had been a toiling, burdened missionary to China, until he possessed "the life that is CHRIST."
From then on, he was joyous, his ministry was powerful.

"He was a joyous man NOW, a bright happy, CHRISTIAN. He had been a toiling, burdened one before, with
latterly not much rest of soul. It was resting in JESUS now, and letting HIM do all the work--which makes all the
difference."

Thus spoke a fellow missionary of Hudson Taylor.
The pioneer missionary in the interior of China, wh had come to full realization of the Savior as the
ever-present, indwelling ONE, testified: "My soul is so happy in the LORD! And as I think of the blessing HE
gave me on that happy day...I know not how sufficiently to thank and praise HIM. Truly JESUS is the great
need of our souls. And HE is the great gift of our FATHER's love--WHO gave HIM "for" us , and makes us one
"with" HIM in resurrection life and power."

The deep dealing of GOD with HIS children varies in detail, but the general pattern in each individual case
seems to be very much alike.
Into each life there arises an awareness of failure, a falling short of all that one should be in the LORD.
Then there is a definite meeting with the risen SAVIOR in utter surrender of heart, which is indeed death of
self.
There follows an appropriation by faith of HIS resurrection life through the abiding presence of the HOLY
SPIRIT.
As a result there is realized an overflow of life likened by the LORD JESUS as "rivers of water" (1 John
7:37-39).

As a lad Hudson Taylor had come to know the LORD JESUS as his personal SAVIOR. In his youth he had
been called to the mission field of China. For 15 years he had served earnestly and effectively in that land
before he came into experiential possession of "the exchanged life". At the age of 37 he opened his heart to
his mother in a long letter which expressed his innermost hunger and thirst:

"My own position becomes continually more and more responsible, and my need greater of special grace
to fill it;
but I have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious
MASTER.
I cannot tell you how I am buffeted sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I had.
Yet I do know that I love GOD and lovc HIS work, and desire to serve HIM only and in all things. And I value
above
all things that precious SAVIOR in WHOM alone I can be accepted. Often I am tempted to think that one so
full of sin
cannot be a child of GOD at all; but I try to throw it back, and rejoice all the more in the preciousness of
JESUS, and in
the riches of that grace that has made us "accepted in the Beloved." Beloved HE is of GOD; beloved HE
ought to be of us. But oh, how far short I fall here again! May GOD help me to love HIM more and serve
HIM better. Do pray for me. Pray that the LORD will keep me from sin, will sanctify me wholly, will use me
more largely in HIS service."

The human heart has no desires which GOD cannot and does not satisfy.
The CHRISTian's greatest difficulty is to take literally the promises of the SAVIOR.

Said the LORD JESUS: "If any man thirst, let him come unto ME and drink."

We are told to come to HIM; not to some friend, not to some experience, not to some feeling or frame of mind.
We are not even to come just to the Word of GOD (Bible); rather we are to go through that Word to the Person
of the LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF.

The way to heart satisfaction and rest of spirit for Hudson Taylor was learned from a fellow missionary, John
McCarthy. In a letter to Taylor he wrote:

"To let my loving SAVIOR work in me HIS will, my satisfaction is what I would die for by HIS grace.
Abiding, not striving nor struggling: looking unto HIM; trusting HIM for present power; trusting HIM
to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the love of an almighty SAVIOR, in the conscious joy of a
complete salvation, a salvation "from all sin" (this is HIS Word); willing that HIS will should truly be
supreme--this is not new, and yet 'tis new to me.
I feel as though the first dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust.
I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only, but of that which
fully
satisfied. CHRIST literally all seems to me the only ground for unchanging joy. May HE lead us into the
realization
of HIS unfathomable fullness (Jn 1:16, Col 2:9-10).

The LORD used this letter literally to lead Taylor "into the realization of HIS unfathomable fullness". It was read
in the little mission station at Chin-Kiang on Saturday, Sept 4, 1869. Taylor was always reticent about telling
details of this transforming experience; but he did say,

"As I read, I saw it all.
I looked to JESUS; and when I saw, oh how joy flowed!"
His fellow missionaries said of him, "Mr Taylor went out, a new man in a new world, to tell what the LORD
had done for his soul." As Taylor wrote to his sister in England, he recalled:

"As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all
gone. The last month or more has been perhaps, the happiest of my life; and I long to tell you a little of what
the LORD has done for my soul. I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for
there is nothing new or strange or wonderful--and yet, all is new! In a work, "Whereas once I was blind, now I
see...."
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the
scales from my eyes, and the SPIRIT of GOD revealed the truth of our oneness with JESUS as I had never
known it before. MeCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light
before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): 'But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but
by resting on the Faithful ONE.'
As I read I saw it all! 'If we believe not, HE abideth faithful.' I looked to JESUS and saw (and when I saw, oh,
how joy flowed!') that HE had said, ' I will never leave you.' "Ah there is rest!" I thought. "I have striven in vain
to find rest in HIM; I'll strive no more.  For has HE not promised to abide with me--never to leave me, never
to fail me?
And , dearie, HE never will!

But this was not all HE showed me, not even one half. As I thought of the vine and the branches, what light
the Blessed SPIRIT poured into my soul ! How great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap,
the fullness out of HIM. I saw not only that JESUS would never leave me, but that I was a member of HIS
body, of HIS flesh, and of HIS bones. The vine, now I see is not the root merely, but all--root, stem,
branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and JESUS is not only that: HE is soil and sunshine, air and showers,
and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this
TRUTH (Jn 14:6)! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know
and enjoy the riches freely given us in CHRIST.....

The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full
identification with CHRIST brings.

I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for HE, I know, is able to carry out HIS will, and HIS
will is mine. It makes no matter where HE places me, or how. That is rather for HIM to consider than for me;
for in the easiest positions HE must give me HIS grace, and in the most difficult HIS grace is sufficient."

GOD's grace is indeed sufficient; and the heart that comes to know personally and intimately the risen LORD
JESUS by the outflow of HIS SPIRIT will experience the reality of "rivers of living water." With Isaiah he will
know that "YOU will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed (focused) on YOU, because he trusts in
YOU." (26:3).

Many years after Hudson Taylor's meeting with the LORD JESUS in "the little crowded house in Chin-kiang,"
an Anglican clergyman, the Rev. H.B. Macartney of Melbourne, Austrilia, added this testimony to that of many
others regarding the missionary's possession of the life that is CHRIST.

"He (H.T.) was an object lesson in quietness. He drew from the bank of Heaven every farthing of his daily
income--

'MY peace I give unto you.'  Whatever did not agitate the SAVIOR, or ruffle HIS spirit, was not to agitate
him. The serenity of the LORD JESUS concerning any matter and at its most critical moment, this was his
ideal and practical possession. He knew nothing of rush or hurry, of quivering nerves or vexation of spirit.
He knew there was a peace that passes all understanding, and that he could not do without it.
Now I was altogether different. Mine is a perculiarly nervous disposition, and with a busy life. I found myself
in a tremor all day long. I did not enjoy the LORD as I knew I ought. Nervous agitation possessed me as
long as there was anything to be done. The greatest loss of my life was the loss of the light of the LORD's
presence and fellowship during writing hours. The daily mail robbed me of HIS delightful fellowship.
'I am in the study, and you are in the big spare room,' I said to Mr. Taylor at length. 'You are occupied with
millions, I with tens. Your letters are pressingly important, mine of comparatively little importance. Yet I am
worried and distressed, while you are always calm. Do tell me what makes the difference.'

'My dear Macartney,' he replied, 'the peace you speak of is in my case, more than a delightful privilege, it
is a necessity. ' He said it most emphatically, ' I could not possibly get through the work I have to do without
the peace of GOD 'which passeth all understanding' keeping my heart and my mind.'
'Keswick teaching,' as it is called, was not new to me at that time. I had received those glorious truths and
was preaching them to others. But here was the real thing--an embodiment of 'Keswick teaching' such as I
had never hoped to see. This impressed me profoundly: - here is a man almost 60 years of age, bearing
tremendous burdens, yet absolutely calm and unruffled. Oh, the pile of letters! any one of which might
contain news of death, of shortness of funds, of riots, or serious trouble. Yet, all were opened, read and
answered with the same tranquility -- CHRIST his reason for peace, his power for calm. Dwelling in CHRIST
partook of HIS very being and resources, in the midst of and concerning the very matters in question. And
he did this by an act of faith as simple as it was continuous.
Yet he was delightfully free and natural. I can find no words to describe it save the Scriptural expression "in
GOD".
He was "in GOD" all the time, and GOD "in him". It was that true "abiding" in John 15."

With good reason could the clergyman add the exhortation to all: 'Are you in a hurry, flurried, or distressed?
Look up! See the MAN of GLORY! Let the face of JESUS shine upon you --  the face of the LORD JESUS
CHRIST. Is HE worried, troubled, or distressed? There is no wrinkle on HIS brow, no least shade of anxiety.
Yet the affairs are HIS as much as yours."

It is the abiding life that is fruitful, just as it is the soul drinking deeply of the water of life that realizes "shall
never thirst." The life that is CHRIST is abiding and abounding, it is satisfying and overflowing. Hudson
Taylor could not find words more adequate to express the truth of the Scriptures as he had proved by
experience than in the little booklet by Harriet Beecher Stowe, How to Live on CHRIST, a copy of which he
sent to every member of the Mission. In part she stated:

"How does the branch bear fruit? Not by incessant effort for sunshine ond air; not by vain struggles for
those vivifying influences which give beauty to the blossom, and verdure to the leaf: it simply abides in the
vine,  in silent and undisturbed union, and blossoms and fruit appears as a spontaneous growth.

How then, shall a CHRISTian bear fruit? By efforts and struggles to obtain that which is freely given; by
meditations on watchfulness, on preyer, on action, on temptation, and on dangers? NO: There must be a
full concentration of the thoughts and affections on CHRIST; a complete surrender of the whole being to
HIM; a constant looking to HIM for grace. (G.OD"s R.esources A.t C.hrist's E.xpense).
Christians in whom these dispositions are once firmly fixed go on calmly as the infant borne in the arms of
its mother.
CHRIST reminds them of every duty in its time and place, reproves them for every error, counsels them in
every difficulty, excites them to every needful activity.
In spiritual as in temporal matters they take no thought for the morrow; for they know CHRIST will be as
accessible tomorrow as today, and that time imposes no barrier on HIS love. Their hope and trust rest
solely on what HE is willing and able to do for them; on nothing that they suppose themselves able and
willing to do for HIM.
Their talisman for every temptation and sorrow is their oft-repeated child-like surrender of their whole being
to HIM.

Such is the "exchanged life," the abiding, fruitful life; the "life that is CHRIST" which should be the
possession of every believer.

Galatians 2:20 should be, and can be, a glorious reality:

"I am crucified with CHRIST: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but CHRIST liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the SON of GOD,
WHO loved me and gave HIMSELF for me."







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