BIOGRAPHIES

They called him a British spy!!

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It was over two hundred years ago – on August 9, 1788 – AdoniramJudson was born.

His devotion to Christ, in spite of incredible suffering and hardship, places him in the forefront of thegreatest missionaries this world has ever known. And yet there are thousands of Christians whohave never heard of him but who would dowell to be challenged by the inspiration of his life.

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As ayoung lad Adoniram dreamed of being theminister of a Congregational Church just like his father. They lived in Malden, Massachusetts, andchurch attendance was a regular habit, along with sister Abigail and youngerbrother Elnathan. By the age of 12 he had mastered Greek, and when he entereduniversity at the age of 16 his zeal for knowledge knew nobounds.

But there he found a friend named Jacob Eames, a fellow studentwho scoffed at spiritual things, ridiculed the Scriptures and undermined thefaith of this minister’s son. By the time he graduated, Judson’s sights were seton the stage rather than the pulpit. Heeven joined a theatrical company, much to the consternation of his godlyparents.

And then God moved in a mysterious way. Judson stopped one night, in a village inn. In the room next door, he was told, a personwas dying. There were noises throughoutthe long evening hours.

As he was about to mount his horse next morning to ride on to NewYork, Judson casually asked the innkeeper: “What happened to the fellow in the room next to mine?”

“He died. Real shame itwas. Just a youngfellow.”

“ ‘ Young,’ did you say?” Judsonreplied.

“That’s right. About yourage. Just graduated from BrownUniversity.”

“Brown University! That’swhere I attended. What was hisname?”

“Jacob Eames ...”

The death of his collegefriend had a startling effect. Judsonturned his horse around and headed for home. There he announced to his amazed parents that he was going to AndoverCollege to train for the Congregational ministry. Three months later thistheological student yielded to Christ, on December 2, 1808, and recorded in his journal that he had made ‘asolemn dedication of himself to God.’ Six months later he became a member of his father’schurch.

TheHay-stack Prayer Meeting.

During those college years two events took place that weredestined to alter the course of his life. He read a book, “The Star in the East”, which told of the need for the gospel in far-offIndia. William Carey and his friends hadrecently arrived from England to do a good work among the people, but as yet nomissionary had ever left the shores of America. So Judson and some friends begana prayer meeting ‘beneath a haystack near the college grounds.’ The ‘Haystack Monument’ now stands at thesite where six young men prayed fervently that God would raise up missionariesto take the gospel to those in darkness.

GraduationDay came, and with it a host of opportunities – an invitation to lecture atBrown University, his old school; thepossibility of pastoring the most prestigious

Congregational church in Boston; and then there was the pressing question of marriage to Ann Hasseltine,the deacon’s lovely daughter.

But India? The burden of the lost lay heavily uponhim. He had prayed much for God to raiseup those who would go and now, like Nehemiah of old, it seemed as if he mustanswer his own prayer. Yes, Nancy (as hecalled Ann) was willing to face the rugged hardship of pioneer missionary work,but how would her father react?

Deacon Hasseltine must have blinked at Adoniram’s letterrequesting permission to marry his daughter :“Sir, can you consent to part with yourdaughter early next spring to see her no more in this world? Can you consent toher departure to a heathen land and her subjection to hardship and sufferings ofa missionary life, to degradation,insult, persecution and perhaps a violentdeath?”

WhenDeacon Hasseltine gave his blessing to the young couple, little did he realisethat Judson’s words were prophetic. They married onFebruary 5, 1812; he was 24 and she was 21. A fortnight later the‘Caravan’sailed from Salem’s wharf withthese two young missionaries aboard. They knew as they waved ‘goodbye’ tofriends and loved ones that the hope of ever seeing them again in thisworld was practically non-existent. Theyhad no return ticket and any expectation of a visit from these dear folk on thewharf could be forgotten. The voyage“was far too long, perilous, and expensive for that.” Likewise communication was uncertain; therewere no telephones, let alone fax machines, and even the mail sent by sea wouldtake months, if it arrived at all.

TheProblem of Baptism.

Realizing that he would bemeeting William Carey, a Baptist, in India, Judson occupied himself during thefour-month voyage by studying the subject of baptism in his Greek New Testament.As a result, he left America a Congregationalist ( being supported by theCongregational Mission Board), and arrived in India a Baptist! He informed theCongregationalists of his doctrinal and denominational move (which was theethical thing to do) and soon found himself devoid of any homelandsupport.

OnSeptember 6, 1812, the Judsons were both baptised (after the Baptist mode) inCalcutta, but trouble loomed as the East India Company decided they did not wantthese unsupported missionaries upsetting the natives. For that matter thispowerful merchandising company had no sympathy towardanymissionary work. The Judsons even found their names in the newspapers – bookedon the next boat leaving for England! Adoniram determined that he wasnotgoing to England. He had left America tobe a missionary and be a missionary he would. If not in India, then somewhereelse.

A rickety old tub, the‘Georgiana’,lay in the harbour about to leave for Rangoon, Burma. “We mustventure there,” Adoniram wrote, “or be sent to Europe. Thus situated, though dissuaded by all our friends, we commended ourselves toGod and embarked on the 22^ndof June (1813). It was a crazy old vessel,” he continued,“the captain was the only one who could speak our language. Mrs Judson was taken dangerously ill.”

Burma

AtRangoon Ann was carried ashore on July 13, 1813, too ill to walk. During that storm-tossed three weeks she hadlost her baby prematurely and almost lost her own life. Nor had any white woman even been to Burma previously, and only a very few white men. As fournative sailors bore her to the house inwhich they would live, Adoniram was thankful for the rain; it enabled him toshelter her eyes from the execution ground they must pass by.

William Carey’s son, Felix, had also ventured to Burma as amissionary some four years previously, but he had married a native woman,entered the service to King Bodawpaya and given up his missionary work. Adoniramand Ann settled in to Felix Carey’s ‘house’ where pigs and chickens messed inthe filth under the stilt-built dwelling. Lizards darted through the cracks inthe floorboards. And bats nestled in the rafters. Half naked men and women squatted onverandas. The heat was oppressive.

It was a far cry from the most prestigious pulpit inBoston.

Language Study

They would labour “15hours a day for six years before they would win the first convert.” but theBurmese language must first be conquered. Felix Carey was away and his wife did not speak English, but the Judsons paid a Burmese to teach them . They pointed at objects and repeated theforeign words as he spoke the Burmese equivalent.

A year later Ann’s health was again critical. She took a three-month sea voyage whileAdoniram persevered with the languagestudy. A son was born, Roger, who died eight monthslater.

“Godis the same,”wroteJudson,“when He afflicts, as when He ismerciful: just as worthy of our entiretrust and confidence now as when He entrusted us with the precious littlegift. Our little Roger is not lost; the little bud which began to open into abeautiful flower is now rapidly expanding in a more propitious clime, and rearedby a more unerring hand.”

ByJuly, 1816, Adoniram had completed a Burmese English grammar. He wrote a tractfollowedby a translation of Matthew’sGospel. TheAmerican Baptists had rallied to support the Judsons by this time. More than that, they recruited a printer, MrGeorge Hough, who arrived in Burma with a printing press. Judson’s tract was soon being distributed inthe market place.

A Royal Audience !

More translation workfollowed. More missionaries arrived fromAmerica. With the threat of war betweenBritain and Burma, not to mention a cholera outbreak, the Houghs , however,returned to their homeland.

Maung Nau, the first Burmese convert, responded to the gospel andwas baptised on June 27, 1819. Thenanother, and another, and at last the church began to grow. But opposition grew also. Hostile Buddhists threatened the missionariesand the converts.

Judson decided to visit the Golden One, the King of Burma, and getpermission to preach and translate the Scriptures. If they received such royal support then thedays of opposition would surely pass. With a younger missionary at his side,Judson journeyed to Ava, the Burmese capital, and there confronted the king. The petition they drew up was read, a six-volume English Bible bound ingold leaf was presented to him, and so was one of Judson’s Burmese printedtracts.

Judsonrecorded the following:“Ourhearts now rose to God for a display of His grace. ‘O have mercy on Burma! Have mercy on her king!’ But alas! The time was not yet come. Heread the tract long enough to read the first two sentences which assert thatthere is one eternal God ... and that beside Him there is no god; and then with an air of indifference, perhapsdisdain, he dashed it down to the ground.”

Hearts sank. The journeyhad been a failure. Opposition to thepreaching of the gospel in Burma would surelycontinue.

TheMedical Missionary

Back at the mission station the faithful few persevered and thetenth convert was baptised. Dr JonathanPrice and his wife arrived to assist in the work, Mrs Price dying but five months later. Thedoctor’s skill, however, in removing cataracts (“he had a passion for cuttingand slicing,” says one biographer) came to the attention of theking.

“Is it true this white missionary can cause the blind to see?” heasked.

Judson and Price visited the Royal palace. Not only was the King’s receptionfavourable this time, but permission was granted to preach, and even open a newmission station in Ava !

Ann’s health continued to wane. This time it was decided that she needed to return to America. They had been in Burma eight years and Adoniram too felt thestrain. But he could not bring himselfto take a furlough.

“Lifeis short!”hewrote in his journal,“Millions of Burmans are perishing. I amalmost the only person on earth who has attained their language to communicatesalvation.”Thusit was he persevered with his translation work, and before Ann returned some 10months later he had completed the entire New Testament and started on theOld!

War!!

But then came disaster!

TheBritish general, Archibald Campbell, was advancing on Rangoon with 5000soldiers.Judsonwas accused of being an English spybecause he wore a hat. Protests that he was American and not Englishwent unheeded.Hewas roughly taken to the Death House at Ava and crammed in a small room withmore than 100 other prisoners. Thetemperature soared. Fetters were clampedupon his legs and he wondered what had become of Ann and his converts, and theprecious manuscript, the only copy of the Burmese New Testament inexistence.

The days dragged on, with nights spent hanging upside down as abamboo pole hoisted the prisoners into this cruel position. Eventually Annarrived at the prison door and bribed the guard that her husband might have thepillow she brought him. What the guarddid not know was that the pillow was stuffed with the pages of Judson’s BurmeseNew Testament!

It was two years later that the war ended and Judson was able to return to the mission compound. Again his beloved wife was ill. On the table beside her sick bed lay thepillow. When Judson had suddenly beenmoved from the ‘Death House’ to another prison , that pillow had been left behind. But here it was, rescued by a faithfulconvert. His manuscript was stillintact.

So in 1826 he started all over again. He did not return toAmerica.

“Ifa ship were lying in the river,”hewrote,“ready to convey me to any part ofthe world I should choose, and that, too, with the entire approbation of all myChristian friends, I would prefer dying to embarking! This is an immense field, and now thrownwholly on our hands. If we desert it,the blood of the Burmese will be required of us.”

For 13years they had laboured in Burma. Theravages of war had all but destroyed their health and ministry. Four converts remained.In July, 1826, theydecided to move from Rangoon to Amherst, another Burmese town, and start afresh,but in the following weeks Ann’s healthdeteriorated. On October 24, 1826, at the age of 36, God called her to Himself. Six months later baby Maria died, aged two years and threemonths.

AChurch Grows

Adoniram still refused totake a furlough. He threw himself backinto translation work, tract writing and preaching. And once more the Christian church began togrow in this unlikeliest of soils. Newsarrived from Rangoon that one of the converts left behind when they moved toAmherst had been preaching and seeing results. A church was born, and Judsonordained

Tha-e as the pastor.

On April 10, 1834, Judson remarried. His bride was Sarah Boardman,widow of a fellow missionary who had been sent from America and died soon after.During the next 10 years, whilst caringfor the eight children who were born to them, she translated “Pilgrim’sProgress” into the Burmese language.

October 4, 1840 dawned andJudson laid down his pen. His translation of the whole Burmese Bible was ready for the printer. Faith Coxe Bailey, in herbiography of this remarkable man of God , printed by Moody Press, says of thisBible: “From his fussiness andfrustrating precision, he created a book with its words so right in everyshading of meaning that it still stands today as the best Burmese Bible inexistence.”

Furlough.

In 1845 Sarah took ill and a return to America seemedlogical. Judson was tempted to go also,but the needs of the Burmese church lay upon his heart. But her condition worsened and Adoniramdecided that he must go with her. The‘Sophia Walker’called in at St Helenaon the way, and there Sarah died on September 1, 1845. She was 42 years of age.

Adoniram received a hero’swelcome among the churches of America. It was his first furlough in 33 years! He spoke in a whisper and stumbled over the English language. An interpreter was provided for the publicmeetings. Henry Clay Trumbull, editor of the Sunday School Times, recalls seeingthe famous missionary at Stonington Dock, Philadelphia. Trumbull was a 14 year-old lad at the timeand he ran to tell his pastor that Judson was in town, waiting for the boat tosail.

“Istood during this interview (between Judson and the pastor) at a little distancefrom the two and watched the face of the good and great man as he talked withhis fellow-disciple of his Master. Allthe while his face glowed with the light of his theme. The sight of that countenance was aninspiration and a blessing to me. I havenever forgotten it.

“In his face were the signs of the many battles through which hehad passed, and of the spirit in which he had been a victor through all; and under all and in all there was aspiritual uplook showing that he had endured as seeing Him who isinvisible.”

Meeting Emily

Before his furlough was over Judson met Emily Chubbuck – “a pertyoung woman with wide-set eyes and a quick smile.” Six months later (June 2,1846) they wed, Judson was 58, Emily was 28, and were soon heading back toBurma.

Herletters home are remarkable to read–“Weare blessed with our full share of cockroaches, beetles, lizards, rats, ants,mosquitoes and bed bugs. With the lastthe woodwork is alive, and ants troop over the house in great droves.”

By December, 1847, Emily Jnr. was born. The church in Burma at this time had 1500members. Adoniram was hard at work onhis Burmese-English dictionary. B.R.Pearn. Professor of History in the University of Rangoon, in his biography ofthis remarkable man of God writes , “It is still today the standardBurmese-English dictionary. Judson by such labours has gained an internationalreputation as a scholar.”

Homecall

But the end was approaching.

In September, 1849, his health necessitated a sea voyage, and onFriday, April 12, 1850, Adoniram Judson entered into the presence of hisLord. He was buried at sea. When he died there were 7000 Christians inBurma – and 163 missionaries. Surely heheard the “Well done, good and faithful servant, ” from the Master’slips.

Emily,expecting her second child at the time, penned a letter to Judson’s sister,Abigail, concerning those last days.“Ashe lay helpless on his couch, and watched the swelling of his feet, and otheralarming symptoms, he became very anxious to commence his voyage.Istill hoped he might recover: the doctor said the chances of life and deathwere, in his opinion, equally balanced. He (Adoniram) talked but little more,however, than was necessary to indicate his wants, his bodily suffering beingtoo great to allow of conversation; butseveral times he looked up to me with a bright smile and exclaimed asheretofore, ‘O, the love of Christ! Thelove of Christ!’”.

Andthat, surely, was the secret of his faithfulness to the very end of his earthlypilgrimage.

“Constrained... by the love of Christ” (IICorinthians 5:14).

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Sources

Over twenty biographies of Adoniram Judson take pride ofplace in my library.

Amongthem is the two-volume “Memoirof the Life and Labours of the ReverendAdoniramJudson. D.D.” by Francis Wayland. The author was President of BrownUniversity.

. Published by James Nisbett&Co. Hardcover. 858pp. 1853.

“AdoniramJudson”by his son, Edward Judson is another very rare volume. American Baptist Publication Society. Hard cover. 188pp. 1894.

“Tothe Golden Shore” by Courtney Anderson is the most readable andcomprehensive biography I have read. Published by Zondervan. Paperback. 530pp. 1972.

“Splendourof God” by Honore Willsie Morrow is written like anovel. Excellent...except it only takes the reader as far as the death of Sarah. Published by Grosset&Dunlap; Hard cover; 376pp. 1929.

“Judsonof Burma” by Prof. B.R.Pearn ....an historian looks atJudson’s life and labours...from, it appears, a non-Christian point of view. Andcannot speak too highly of him !

Edinburgh House Press. Paperback. 96pp. 1962.

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