D.E. Hoste - Soldier and Humble Prayer Warrior for Christ

In 1902, D.E. Host succeeded Hudson Taylor in overseeing the China Inland Mission. He served as the director for 30 years. Shortly after taking over leadership, the Boxer Rebellion took place. By the end of it, 58 members of the mission team had been brutally murdered, along with 21 of their children. How, as a new leader, facing such a massive test, did Host lead the mission at that crucial moment in mission's history? At the end of the rebellion, upon the Chinese government regaining stabilization, they sought to compensate the mission for their losses and casualties. But, for the sake of the gospel advancing, Host led the mission to do something most would be shocked by. He led them to not take the money the government offered. In this incredible act of other chief, when all these missionaries had been murdered, it led the government to put a public notice out that their citizens would read. In part, it declared the following, The mission, in rebuilding these churches with its own funds, aims in so doing to fulfill the command of the Savior of the world, that all men should love their neighbors as themselves, contrasting the way in which we have been treated by the missionaries with our treatment of them. From this time forward, I charge you all to bear in mind the example of Pastor Host, who is able to forbear and to forgive, is taught by Jesus to do. Through Host's leadership, the Chinese recognized that the missionaries not only taught about Christ, but sought to actually live as Christ lived. Bearing with the Chinese, that was what Host and the other missionaries were striving to do for the sake of the gospel. Host is the one who said, it will not avail much to preach to the Chinese of access to God through the blood of Jesus, if they find there is no access to the missionary himself and his home. Host strove to be hospitable towards the Chinese, to not be some far-off foreigner, and like those before him, he even dressed like the majority of the Chinese culture did, in order to have an open door for the gospel. So who was this man, D.E. Host, and how did the Lord mold him to this point in his life to lead the mission in this way? D.E. Host was a military officer at 18, and he was lost, but the Lord was gracious to save him upon hearing the evangelist D.L. Moody preach. And after that, the Lord did a work in his life, he had a burden to go to the mission field, and he went out as one of the Cambridge Seven who went to China. This group included the famous athlete of his day, C.T. Studd. Host was a man who was gripped with eternity, and he said, if this gospel is true, and I know it is, it is as it has changed my life, I want to make it known where Christ is not known. There are many people in other lands who have never heard it, and the Lord wants them to hear it, for he says so, and I want to give my life to this. As a believer, he lived as a devoted soldier of Christ. Here's just one example. While in China, the mail days were far and few between. They weren't getting some notification on a smartphone in their pocket, and mail arrived one day, and his first impulse was to sit down and read the letters, but he was arrested by the thought that if he'd still been in the army, he would not have allowed the personal to take first place, and he thought, why should I be more lax in serving as a missionary? So resolutely, he put away his letters until lunchtime, and he resumed his study. Host was self-disciplined. He was living as a soldier of Christ, striving to not be entangled by the affairs of this world. As you read his biography, his humility shines forth. Consider some examples of his humility. Number one, when Host first arrived in China, he was serving with Pastor Shi and Stanley Smith, another one of the Cambridge Seven. Smith put himself forward as the leader, and Host says he was ruffled in his spirit, and he thought, why should I serve under him? We're about the same age anyways, but later the Holy Spirit probed Host, and he was forced to admit that he didn't relish the thought of being under his friend, and he realized the difficulty was in his own heart, and it was impressed upon him that his unwillingness, if it persisted, would mean he'd have to part company with the Lord Jesus Christ, who dwells with the humble ones, those who willingly go down. He says, I therefore accepted my friend's suggestion, and we worked happily together. Notice what motivated Host to not grieve the Holy Spirit with his jealous desires. He did not want to part company with Christ, and he knew if he had pride, it would distance his relationship with the Lord. His communion would be grieved. Host said, when we are tempted to exalt self and resent being put down or overlooked, we need to be aware. Satan said, I will be like the Most High. Pride and ambition are essentially satanic characteristics. The second example of his humility that shone forth from his life is from the content of his letters. As you read his letters, you see a sincere joy as he recounts the spiritual triumphs of others, and this is in contrast to the jealous man who envies the triumphs of others. It's a beautiful thing to be able to read about what the Lord is doing for the lives of others, and rather than envy them, you rejoice what God is doing, and you don't have jealousy in your heart. The third example of his humility is how in his leadership he did not want to force people to go against their conscience in the decisions they made. Host said, what is the essential difference between spurious and true Christian leadership? When a man, in virtue of an official position in the church, demands the obedience of another, no matter what that person's reasons are and their conscience's convictions are, this is a spirit of tyranny. When on the other hand, by the exercise of tact and sympathy, by prayer, spiritual power, sound wisdom, one Christian worker is able to influence and enlighten another so that the latter, through the medium of his own reason now and conscience, is led to alter the course and adopt another, that is true spiritual leadership. What refreshing examples of humility. This life of sensitivity to the Lord will not be there if one's life is not full of secret prayer. And so secondly, I want to consider his prayer life. In the biography, Thompson records that Host had a knowledge of the personnel of the mission that was extraordinary. When there were 1,200 members and associates, he knew each one of them by name, where each one of them was working, and the difficulties of the work in which each was engaged. And he knew all of the names of the children of the missionaries. This was not just Thompson's glamorized perspective on Host. As I read other biographies of people who knew Host, they made similar comments. Dan Smith served with the China Inland Mission, and in his autobiography he records, Dan Smith goes on to say he would yet pray more. He prayed for many and many countries, for men of every race and for all classes of people. The whole world was on his heart, and this prayer session was no special thing. It was his daily exercise, and I was only in on it for part of it, albeit a four and a half hour part. What a lesson, what a way of teaching it. You can only imagine being there yourself. The well-known missionary to the Lisu, J.O. Frazier, was also serving with the China Inland Mission, and he required a medical operation, and that caused him to spend a significant amount of time at the headquarters. And his biographer, Geraldine Taylor, said that for Frazier, praying with Host was among the most cherished privileges of his life, to join in those intercessions and to learn through hours at a time spent on their knees what actual praying may mean in the life of one bearing great responsibility. So was prayer an easy task? D.E. Host, this man of prayer, acknowledged it was no easy task. Host said, it is far more difficult to continue steadfastly in intercession on behalf of those among whom we are called to minister than to engage in outward activities for their good, meaning it's easier to do the outward activities. And he says this, and yet if the powers of darkness which are blinding the minds of the men and hindering the work of God are not overcome through sacrificial prayer, little if anything is really accomplished. So D.E. Host, this man of God, was a man of prayer, who walked near to the Lord, which showed forth in his Christ-like humility that you see in his life. And oh how we need more men like this today, who are living for eternity, and doing so not with Martha-like anxious and troubled about many things type of attitude, but with an attitude of sacrificial prayer. This biography is one you can read in which you will see areas in a man's life to imitate as he imitated Christ. And anyone in a leadership type position, you'll find specific things to imitate in this man as he imitated Christ and lived a life as a soldier of Christ. If you're interested in getting the book, it can be acquired at Kingsley Press. We've also published two articles from D.E. Host that can be read on I'll Be Honest. The first is Jonathan's Robe, A Humble Response to Being Surpassed and Overshadowed, and the second is The Folly of Human Preference.