A Love Story Cut Short

A Love Story Cut Short

Her marriage was very happy but short lived.

MARIA DYER was born in 1837 in China, the youngest of three children of Anglican missionaries. Both parents died by the time she was ten, and the children were raised by an uncle in England. But China was home, and so when Maria turned eighteen, she and her older sister went to Ningpo, China, to teach in a girls school directed by Mary Ann Aldersey.

In Ningpo, Maria met and married Hudson Taylor, much against the wishes of Miss Aldersey. Maria was better educated than her husband and was just the companion and helper that he needed. She polished his rough edges and helped him focus his enthusiasm. Their marriage was a true partnership. Having spoken Chinese from childhood, she immediately started a primary school. When Hudson founded the China Inland Mission, Maria was the ideal person to train the women missionaries in the language and customs of China.

In January 1870 the Taylors began making preparations to send their four oldest children to England for their education. A close friend of the family agreed to return to England with the children and to care for them there. Fear of parting was too traumatic for five-year-old Sammy, who died in February. A month later Hudson and Maria tearfully bid farewell to their children.

Maria suffered from tuberculosis and was now pregnant with their eighth child, due in July. Hudson, who had medical training, knew his wife would not survive to old age.

A missionary couple came to visit the Taylors. To accommodate the new arrivals, a curtain was hung in the Taylors’ bedroom so that Maria could share the room with another woman missionary yet both could have privacy.

During the night of July 5, Maria came down with a severe case of cholera, and the curtain prevented her roommate from seeing how sick she was. When Hudson saw her the next morning, he was shocked at how she had deteriorated overnight.

On July 7 Hudson went out to buy some brandy that he thought might help her. When he returned, he was stunned to learn that in his short absence a son, Noel, had been born. Later that evening Maria began to hemorrhage internally. Hudson felt that if he had not been there at that moment or had not had the brandy, he would have lost her.

They bottle-fed the baby for a week, then his throat developed thrush, and his little body grew weaker and weaker. They searched for a wet nurse, but none was found until July 20. By then it was too late. Little Noel died that afternoon. Maria felt well enough to pick the hymns for his funeral.

On the morning of July 23, 1870, Hudson could see that Maria was dying. He said to her, “You are going home. You will soon be with Jesus.”

“I am so sorry,” she replied.

“You are not sorry to be with Jesus?”

“Oh no!” she exclaimed, looking right into Hudson’s eyes. “That is not it. You know, Darling, that for ten years past there has not been a cloud between me and my Savior. I cannot be sorry to go to him. But it does grieve me to leave you alone at such a time. Yet . . . he will be with you and meet all your needs.”

She kissed him many times in tender parting. Just before she died, Hudson knelt beside her and prayed, committing her to the Lord and thanking God for the twelve and a half years of happiness they had shared. He thanked God for taking her to his presence and solemnly rededicated his life to his service.

Maria was just thirty-three.

Reflection

How do you feel when you hear of a person dying at a young age? Are you ever tempted to blame God or ask, why? Maria Taylor died at about the same age as Jesus. If we belong to him as Maria Taylor did, we can share her assurance that God doesn’t make mistakes.

Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, “Why have you made me like this?”

Romans 9:20