若我蒙召帶領 (If I am to lead)

In 1885, seven young Englishmen left behind comfort, honour, and promising futures, and sailed for China.

They were no ordinary young men. Some were gifted athletes. Others had academic or military training. Their decision astonished England. Newspapers wrote about them, and churches were filled with people eager to hear them speak. History remembers them as the Cambridge Seven.

Yet the most important part of their story was not simply that they left home. It was that they remained in China for many years.

After the farewell meetings came language study, inland journeys, sickness, political unrest, and the strain of life in a foreign land. They spread across China and served quietly.

Some became evangelists. Others carried heavy responsibilities as the mission grew. Long after the first excitement had passed, they continued to serve through uncertainty and change. Each gave the strength of his life.

One by one, they passed from the scene.

Hoste served as General Director of the China Inland Mission from 1902 to 1935. Early in his leadership, he faced the Boxer crisis, during which fifty-eight CIM missionaries and twenty-one children were killed. In that time of sorrow, Hoste refused compensation from the Qing government, believing it better to suffer loss than to place any obstacle in the way of the gospel.

After his retirement, he remained in Shanghai. He was interned by the Japanese from 1944 to 1945 and later returned to England, where he died in 1946.

Hoste was the last survivor of the Cambridge Seven. When he died, a chapter came to a close.

In these pages, we hear Hoste’s words on the kind of person needed for Christian leadership. These reflections did not come from theory alone, but from tested experience.

They still speak today.

For those who would lead, one question remains:

What kind of person must you be?

Let the book speak.

Publisher’s Blog: A complete list of books uploaded to Zenodo by ཉི་མ་མེ་ཏོག་³ is available at https://me-tog.blogspot.com/.