This true story recounts one of the key moments in modern missions history, when God seized the hearts of 7 Cambridge students, all very different from each other, and compelled them to give up their all to join Hudson Taylor in bringing the Gospel to the lost of China.
The book focuses on how God beautifully worked and weaved these men’s lives together in a way that not only brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to hundreds in China, but also awakened thousands of Western Christians to embrace the long neglected command of their Lord to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Although at times difficult to follow due to the stilted writing style and many names to keep track of, this book was a thrilling and encouraging read. It was thrilling because the hand of God is so clearly seen as He responded to the prayers of His children, from a missionary professor in China to an old widow in a poor English cottage and countless others, so that at the right time and the right place the right men would respond to His call. It was encouraging because the author was not shy about conveying not only these men’s victories but also their failures. In particular, Stanley Smith, the foundational member of the Cambridge Seven, was a man of great ebb and flow in his spiritual growth.
As my wife and I move towards pursuing missions in Indonesia, the story of the Cambridge Seven will be a clear reminder of the power and necessity of prayer and the truth that, “God does not deal with you until you are wholly given up to Him, and then He will tell you what He would have you do.”
“…the very content of the word ‘sacrifice’ seemed reversed: and each man wondered whether he could afford the cost, not of utter devotion and worldly loss but of compromise and the loss of spiritual power and joy. Nothing less than the experience of these two men was worth having.”
- the reflection of an undergraduate who had heard Stanley Smith and C.T. Studd speak of their surrender to God’s call
About