Amid all these outward perils and alarms, the workers were passing through the deepest l waters of affliction. Early in the year it became evident that all of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor's children, with the exception of the youngest, could not face another summer, and arrangements were made for their early return to England with Miss Blatchley, as Mrs. Taylor could not be persuaded to leave her husband. On February 4, however, ere their departure, one of the children, little Samuel, suddenly sickened and died, and the following month, on March 23, the stricken parents parted with the other three, never again to meet as a united family...

On the night of July 5, Mrs. Taylor herself was seized with cholera, on the 7th, she gave birth to a son, whom she named Noel. On the 20th, this precious little one breathed his last, and three days later Mrs. Taylor also slept in Jesus. Mr. Taylor, who had been greatly blessed in soul some months before, was wonderfully upheld in this time of deep affliction. Concerning this time of sorrow he wrote:

I scarcely knew whether she or I was the more blessed, so real, so constant, so satisfying was His presence, so deep my delight in the consciousness that His Will was being done, and that that Will, which was utterly crushing me, was good, was wise, was best.