A Study Guide to his Autobiography and Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor

Introduction to the Teacher:

This study guide is the first in the series Christian Heroes in History. It is our prayer that by studying the lives of great men and women of God you will be drawn to love, serve, and depend upon the same Mighty Savior who motivated them and gave them grace to serve Him so faithfully. These study guides have been written for homeschooling families, but may be used in Christian schools or other learning environments where an interdisciplinary approach is desired. We have found that our own children (as we ourselves) have benefited from studying history, geography, and world cultures as they relate to the lives of heroes and heroines of faith. When you get to know these people you feel a need to understand their times and their fields of service. When you become caught up in their adventures and sacrifices, you soon begin to see them as friends, and you look forward to meeting them someday in glory! These were real people, "subject to like passions as we are," yet they changed the world and greatly advanced Christ's kingdom. Our friends greatly influence our walk with the Lord. With what better friends could we become acquainted than those who so faithfully served our Savior?

Although history and geography are highlighted, these guides will also incorporate other subjects, such as English, drawing, Bible, and research skills. They are not intended to be an exhaustive study of any of these subjects, but will supplement learning in these areas. Spelling and vocabulary are taught from the words of the biographies/autobiographies. We have also incorporated a system of learning spelling and vocabulary words that we have developed after more than a decade of homeschooling nine of our ten children.

We have tried to provide enough activities to spur your imagination. Feel free to branch out and study other related topics. Following your interests or the interests of your students will go a long way toward making learning activities memorable. If we can succeed in making this a delightful experience we will develop motivation for our students to become lifetime learners. The teacher's attitude is also important. The Scripture tells us that "The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning." (Proverbs 16:21) We must pray for that sweetness to permeate our dealings with our students.

Daily plans are given for nine weeks. The time period covered in this study is roughly from 1830 to 1905. If you are following a four-year cycle through history, this study could be used either at the end of the third year or the beginning of the fourth year (modern history: 1850-present). Other Christian heroes to study at this time would include George Mueller, whose life began twenty-seven years before Taylor's, and ended seven years before Taylor died; Charles Spurgeon and Dwight L. Moody, whose life spans fall entirely within Taylor's; and Fanny Crosby, whose life span extends both before and after Taylor's. This would also be the best time to study the life of Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War, which took place during this time period.

In planning your teaching schedule, you could include this study in your English course as vocabulary, spelling, reading, and writing. You could then document the reading as part of your study of history, and allow time to study secular history at a different hour, all the while tying it in with the time lines completed in this unit study. In an earlier study of the life of Adoniram Judson done in this fashion, we were constantly alluding to happenings in the rest of the world, while in our secular history study (which we timed to correspond with the events in Judson's life), our students constantly heard, "This happened when Adoniram was doing thus and so..." It is an excellent discipline to keep tying together the strands from each of these studies, braiding them into one multi-colored chronology that will stick in the minds of your students.

Hudson Taylor's autobiography (Hudson Taylor, published by Bethany House) is a Christian classic. It provides a window into his life from his conversion to his formation of the China Inland Mission in 1865. Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor is a condensation by Whitaker House of the two volume set, The Growth of a Soul and The Growth of a Work of God, and tells the story of his entire life. The earliest incident recorded is Taylor's father's prayer around 1830 that if God would give him a son, that his son would be called to serve in China. We have provided a timeline with some main events of American and world history for each year of Hudson's life, and the students will mark on it any incidents for which Taylor gives dates. At first we will identify both the dates and the incidents for the student, but later he will be responsible for finding the date in his reading. As you study other Christian heroes or events from church or secular history, the students should add them to the time line as well, in order to tie together events of the same time period. Students will also make a map of England and a map of China, and mark on each the places mentioned in these books. Each day they should read or listen with the maps in hand, noting the locations mentioned in the texts. We have provided one map of China from Hudson Taylor's day, and there is another in the front of the autobiography.

Two different approaches will be used in studying these texts. With the autobiography the students will do the reading themselves, and then write out the answers to comprehension questions. With the biography, however, the teacher will read aloud while the students listen and take brief notes, and then in a single-subject wirebound notebook the students will write a short summary of each chapter. Succeeding chapter summaries will be added to this notebook as the biography is read. These summaries will be helpful at the end of the unit when the students write a book report on the biography. The chapters of each text have been interwoven so that the chronology is preserved; students first learn about a time period from Taylor himself, and then learn more detail from the biographical account by his children.

If at all possible, we suggest that the last day of the unit be reserved for viewing the video on the life of Hudson Taylor, available from Ken Anderson Films, P.O. Box 618, Winona Lake, Indiana 46590.

Vocabulary and spelling words are taken directly from the autobiography. Each day there will be a dictation of the sentences in which the words appear. This provides a model for the proper use of the word. After guessing at the meaning of each word from the context thus provided, the students will look it up in a dictionary, choose the proper meaning, and print the proper spelling in large lower-case letters on the line marked "Visual Memory," writing over with red pen or marker any letter or part that was misspelled. They will study the word to get a clear mental image of how it looks, and spell it forwards and backwards from the picture in their mind. Without looking back at their paper they will write the word on a scrap piece of paper, and then check to see if they have spelled it correctly. This process is repeated three times, or until the student has mastered the spelling.

We hope you will enjoy getting to know this servant of God who was the means of bringing the gospel to the vast empire of China. By becoming familiar with his biography and autobiography as well as his vocabulary, the student will gain a window into his times; and by connecting the happenings in his life with those of the rest of the world he will have a better understanding of history as it relates to his story.