One stormy night, Hudson Taylor was scheduled to speak in Birmingham, England, at the Severn Street schoolroom. His hostess attempted to dissuade him from going in the torrential downpour by telling him that everyone would assume it was canceled. “But was it not announced for tonight,” Hudson Taylor asked. He then said, “I must go, even if there is no one but the doorkeeper.”
The meeting was attended by less than a dozen people, but there was an unusual outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s power, and half of those present either became missionaries or gave their children as missionaries while the other half became regular supporters of Mr. Hudson’s mission.