"Why didn't you come sooner?"

One of my missionary heroes is Hudson Taylor the missionary pioneer to China. I love reading of how he trusted God to do great things in his life and among the millions of Chinese that had never heard the Gospel.

One story that stands out from Taylor's life is the conversion of Mr. Ni a former Buddhist leader. Ni came to one of Taylor's meetings in the city of Ningpo and heard the Gospel for the first time and was amazingly converted to Christianity. Mr. Ni then became a fervent student of God's Word and a valued assistant to the Gospel work that was going on in the area.

One day while Hudson Taylor and Ni were talking Ni asked, "How long have you had the Gospel in your country?" Taylor reluctantly replied, "Some hundreds of years." Shocked at this new revelation, Ni exclaimed, "What! Hundreds of years! My father looked for the truth and died without finding it. Why didn't you come sooner?"

Those words were unforgettable to Hudson Taylor and they deepened his resolve to seek to bring the Good News of the Gospel to the millions of Chinese who had never heard. The Apostle Paul had that same resolve and spoke of the Gospel as a "stewardship" for  those that had it. A wise steward of the Gospel not only clings to it as his treasure, but he is also zealous to give it away to those without it.

The great theologian Carl Henry said, "The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time." And for most in our world today the time is very short. May we never hear the words, "Why didn't you come sooner?"