Grace Dyer Taylor

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Grace Dyer Taylor Gracie Taylor in 1866 age 6 Born July 31, 1859 Ningbo, Zhejiang, China Died August 23, 1867 near Hangzhou, China

Grace Dyer Taylor (July 31, 1859 – August 23, 1867) was the eldest surviving daughter of James Hudson Taylor and Maria Jane Dyer, Christian missionaries to China. The event of her death of meningitis at the age of eight near Hangzhou has been cited by mission historians such as Ruth Tucker, Roger Steer, and John Pollock among others as being a turning point in the history of the China Inland Mission.^[1]

[edit] A short life

Maria & Hudson Taylor in 1865.

Grace was born in Ningbo during the Second Opium War. Her parents later took her on a furlough to England with them and while there, her father founded the China Inland Mission in 1865. In 1866 she was one of the four Taylor children to journey with the "Lammermuir Party", returning to China in 1866. On board the tea clipper Lammermuir she shared a cabin with Emily Blatchley, who was in charge of teaching the Taylor children. Jennie Faulding was one of the first to take note of Grace's apparent conversion to Christianity while they sailed across the Indian Ocean.

In China during 1867 the young missionary agency was troubled by internal divisions that nearly frustrated the widest evangelistic endeavor since the time of Paul the Apostle. Grace's father's policy that all should wear the native Chinese clothing - missionaries and children alike, was controversial among the Protestant British in China. During the critical first year of the China Inland Mission in Hangzhou, Grace suffered from a fever and died. Her death shook the Taylor family severely, but it also aroused sympathy for and brought a realization among the missionaries and the Chinese that no cost was too great to the Taylors in bringing the Gospel to China. Internal differences among the missionaries were shortly resolved and the work continued in scope.

Tucker writes:

The price was high, but the mission was saved. During the heat of the summer of 1867, a year and a half after the missionaries had arrived in China, eight-year-old Gracie Taylor...became ill. For days Taylor sat beside her, giving her the best medical attention he was capable of giving, but her situation did not improve. The climate had taken its toll on others; and during his vigil with Gracie, he was called away to treat Jane McLean, one of the missionaries who had strongly opposed him, Her illness was not as serious as supposed, and she soon recovered; but Taylor's delay in returning home to Gracie proved critical. He diagnosed water on the brain, but he was too late to be of any help. Her death was... heartrending...but it saved the CIM. The grievances were forgotten, and the outpouring of sympathy brought the missionaries back together...

^[2]

Grace's younger siblings that survived went on to become missionaries in China: Herbert Hudson Taylor, Frederick Howard Taylor, and Maria Hudson (Taylor) Coulthard.

In a letter dated Thursday, August 29, 1867, Hudson Taylor wrote to William Thomas Berger in England:

Beloved Brother-The Lord has taken our sweet little Gracie to bloom in the purer atmosphere of His own presence. Our hearts bleed; but ‘Above the rest this note shall swell - Our Jesus has done all things well.' The Gardener came and plucked a rose.

[edit] Chronology

Part of a series on Protestant missions to China

Robert Morrison

Background Christianity Protestantism Chinese history Missions timeline Christianity in China Nestorian China missions Catholic China missions Jesuit China missions Protestant China missions

People Karl Gützlaff W. H. Medhurst J. Hudson Taylor Lottie Moon Timothy Richard Jonathan Goforth Cambridge Seven Gladys Aylward (more missionaries)

Missionary agencies China Inland Mission London Missionary Society American Board Church Missionary Society US Presbyterian Mission Baptist Missionary Society

Works Scripture in Chinese Chinese Colleges Chinese Hospitals Chinese Hymnody

Pivotal events Taiping Rebellion Opium Wars Boxer Rebellion Chinese Civil War Sino-Japanese Wars

Chinese Protestants Hong Xiuquan Liang Fa Wang Laijun Xi Shengmo John Sung Ming-Dao Wang This box: view • talk • edit

1859-1860

• born 31 July 1859 in Bridge Street, Ningbo (Ningpo), Zhejiang, China
• sailed to England (via Cape of Good Hope) with her parents aboard the Jubilee (clipper) Wednesday, 18 July 1860 – sailed July 19
• the Jubilee arrived Monday, 20 November 1860 anchor off Gravesend, England: 4 months & 3 days (126 days aboard)

1861-1865

• moved with parents Tuesday, 9 April 1861 in #1 Beaumont Street, London
• moved with parents Wednesday, 6 October 1864 in #30 Coborn Street, London

1866-67

• Sailed to China (via Cape of Good Hope) aboard the Lammermuir (clipper) (part of the "Lammermuir Party", with her parents Saturday, 26 May 1866
• Aug 13th 1866: evident to Maria & Hudson that Grace is converted to Christ
• September 1866: sailing through 2 typhoons in the East China Sea & Pacific Ocean
• The Lammermuir arrived 29 September 1866 in Wusong, China
• Oct 27 1866 departure from Shanghai along the Grand Canal of China
• Nov 22 1866 Arrival in Hangzhou
• Died of meningitis at Pengshan Temple 8:50pm Friday, 23 August 1867: 8 years & 24 days old

[edit] References

• Tucker, Ruth (1983). From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya A Biographical History of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. 

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further Reading

• Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission

[edit] External links

• Christian Biography Resources
• Overseas Missionary Fellowship
• Hudson Taylor in Early Years-The Growth of a Soul - Volume 1 by Dr. and Mrs Howard Taylor
• http://www.missionaryetexts.org/
• http://www.genealogy.com/users/y/o/r/Brian-York-Burnsville/?Welcome=1091209026

The oldest station of the China Inland Mission was the Bridge Street church in Ningbo where Grace was born

At the back of the premises in Ningbo there was a rope tied to a window for escape in case of a riot