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ADONIRAM JUDSON'S LIFE AND LABOR
(1788-1850)
There are few in the history of the church who have suffered
so much for the cause of Christ as Adoniram Judson. Born August 9, 1788, in Malden, Massachusetts, into the home of a strict,
domineering Congregational minister, young Adoniram was brilliant, proper,
proud, cultured, and refined. At the
age of three he was taught by his mother to read during the absence of his
father for a week-long preaching mission and surprised him upon his return by
reading a whole chapter from the Bible.
Always far ahead of the other students, he had dreams of success from a
worldly standpoint. At age 14, he was
critically ill and took more than a year to convalesce. He was a voracious reader. It was about this time that he read "Embassy
to Ava" by a British sea captain named Symes.
It undoubtedly influenced Judson later regarding his mission to Burma.
By his 16th birthday in 1804, he was ready to enter
college. He was a very brilliant
student. His father sent him to Rhode Island College (Brown University) because Yale and Harvard were too
liberal. Brown was a Baptist
school. Judson learned from his father,
a graduate of Yale University, "Never compromise."
At Brown University, he was at the top of every class;
and when he graduated in 1807, he was the valedictorian, receiving the highest
academic commendations. In college he
was caught up in the French infidelity of the early 1800s and became openly
atheistic. He came under the influence
of an upperclassman, Jacob Eames, who was very brilliant, cultured, charming,
and an atheist.
After college he was not sure what to do. He went home to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and opened the Plymouth Independent Academy.
During that time he wrote two school books: "Elements of English Grammar" and "The Young
Lady's Arithmetic." His school closed after
one year. He set out to see New England and began a tour on horseback. He embarked on what he later confessed to be
"a wild, reckless life" and seemed headed for a life of disillusionment. In New York City he joined a band of strolling
players. He lived a very reckless,
vagabond life, finding lodging where he could and bilking the landlord whenever
he found opportunity-in other words, running up a score and then decamping
without paying the reckoning. He left
his troupe of players after only a few weeks and continued to roam.
One evening he stopped to spend the night in an inn. From the next room he heard the death cries
of one dying. The agony and distress
were spiritual more than physical. In
the morning he was shocked to learn that the one who died was his atheistic
friend and hero, Jacob Eames. This led him to a very serious reflection. His friend was lost-hell-bound. This all became very real and clear to the
young Adoniram. He promptly returned
home, where his parents were able to help him find faith in Jesus Christ on the
22nd of September, 1808. He was 21
years of age. Ephesians 3:17-19 became
his life verses. He knew the heights and
the depths but was yet to learn the breadth and length of the love of Christ.
He went to seminary to prepare-for what? His father wanted him to be a minister, but
God laid His hands on him for foreign service. Adoniram said, "Of how much real
happiness we cheat our souls by preferring a trifle to God."
He entered Andover Theological Seminary on October
12, 1808. It was there on December 2,
1808 (a day
he should never forget) that he made a solemn dedication of himself to
God. He simply asked himself, "How shall
I so order my future being as best to please God?" During his seminary days the Life of David Brainerd and the Works of William Carey greatly
influenced him, and he yielded to the call of God. He also read the lives of early German
missionaries to India:
Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, who translated the New Testament into the Tamil
language in 1715, and Christian Frederick
Swartz, who served for almost 50 years in the mid 1700s in South India.
In September 1809, when Judson was 21, there came to his hand
a sermon preached in the parish church in Bristol, England, by Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who had
for many years been a chaplain to the British East Indies Company. The sermon, entitled "The Star in the East,"
had for its text Matthew 2:2: "For we
have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." Judson stated, "I have always felt thankful
to God for bringing me into the state of excitement which is perhaps necessary
in the first instance to enable to break the strong attachments I felt to home
and country and to endure the thought of abandoning all my wanted pursuits and
animating prospects. That excitement
soon passed away, but it left a strong desire to prosecute my inquiries and
ascertain the path of duty."
For several days he could think of nothing but Buchanan's powerful
message. "It was during a solitary walk
in the woods behind the college while meditating and praying on the subject and
feeling half inclined to give it up, that the command of Christ to ‘go into all
the world and preach the Gospel to every creature' was presented to my mind
with such clearness and power that I came to a full decision and, though great
difficulties appeared in my way, resolved to obey the command at all events."
Adoniram was not the first to feel the call of God to foreign
service. One of his earliest missionary
associates was Samuel Nott, who likewise shared strong conviction that he was
to serve the Lord on the foreign field. On
a hot, humid Saturday afternoon in August, 1808, Adoniam and Samuel Nott, along
with several students from nearby Williams College, were led by Samuel Mills in a
prayer meeting. Joining them were James
Richards, Luther Rice, Samuel Newell, and Gordon Hall. A storm came up, and while lightening and
thunder cracked overhead, these students enthusiastically approved a proposal
to send the Gospel to the pagans of Asia and to the disciples of Mohammed. Mills said, "Come, let us make it a subject
of prayer under the haystack." They
formed a group known as The Brethren, who were committed to missions and met regularly
at night beneath the haystack near the college grounds. Having been petitioned by
the Congregational Church to send them as missionaries, the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions was founded on December
25, 1810. Judson, Newell, Nott and Hall were accepted
as their first missionaries.
Although most biographies and mission textbooks refer to the
Judsons as being the first American missionaries to go overseas, this is not
exactly the case. The first missionary
to leave the shores of America for foreign service was George
Leile, a former slave. As was often the
case, he was removed from his family very early in his life, but he always
entertained the news that his father was a very godly man. His owner, Deacon Sharp of the First Baptist
Church of Savannah, Georgia, recognized that his slave was called of God and
emancipated him, allowing him to be fully engaged in a Gospel ministry to the
"people of color." Leile was ordained on
May 20, 1775, and labored in and around Savannah with great success before leaving as
a missionary for Jamaica in 1779. Thus we see that Leile predated the service
of William Carey, the founder of modern Baptist missions, who went to India in 1793 and the Judsons, who left the
American shores in 1812.
Toward the end of 1811, plans were coming together for the
ordination and subsequent departure of the first missionaries under the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Adoniram's reckless life and unpaid debts
haunted him, so he retraced his steps, making
restitution and paying all those obligations.
On February 5, 1812 (a dull, warm Wednesday), Adoniram and Nancy (Her
given name was Ann Haseltine, although her family called her Nancy.) were united
in marriage by Parson Allen in the very room in Bedford, Massachusetts where
they had met two years earlier. A few
days earlier Adoniram's close friend Samuel Newell had married Harriett Atwood,
an 18-year-old close friend of Nancy.
The following day, February 6, at Tabernacle Church in Salem, five missionaries were ordained. At
the laying on of hands, Nancy slipped out of the family pew and
knelt beside the missionaries. Dr.
Spring gave the charge, "No enterprise comparable to this has been embraced by
the American church." Adoniram Judson, Samuel
Newell, Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice were publicly set aside to carry
to the poor heathen the Good News of pardon, peace, and eternal life.
The Judsons and Newells sailed from Salem on the brig "Caravan," which left
early on the morning of February 19, 18l2.
It was to be a one-way journey; they never intended to return. During
the long sea voyage, Judson searched the Scriptures concerning baptism. The result of this searching investigation
was the reluctantly formed conclusion that he was wrong and that the Baptists
were right-that faith should always precede baptism and that baptism is by immersion. He said, "We are confirmed Baptists, not
because we wish to be but because truth compelled us to be."
Upon arrival in Calcutta, India, on June 17,
1812, they
were met by Dr. William Carey. Mr. and
Mrs. Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice sailed together and arrived in India on August 8, 1812.
The East Indies Company would not permit them to stay in India. Adoniram and Nancy Judson were baptized
by Mr. Ward in the Lal Bazar Chapel, a Baptist church in Calcutta, on September
6, 1812. The picture painted concerning Burma was so bleak that they thought of
going to Java.
The Newells preceded the Judsons since there was room for
only two passengers on the first ship available out of Calcutta.
On the voyage to Ille de France, the ship that the Newells were on encountered
a very severe storm; and Harriet gave birth to their fistborn with her husband
Samuel as the only attendant. The baby
died after five days and was buried at sea.
They reached Ille de France, where Harriet's health rapidly declined,
and she died in Port Louis, Ille de France, on the
30th of November, 1812. She was the
first American to give her life for the cause of Christ in a non-Christian
world.
The Judsons followed on the next available ship, arriving in Port Louis on January
17, 1813. Nancy Judson was devastated to learn of the
death of her very close friend Harriet and her baby.
Newell subsequently sailed for Ceylon and Bombay and died a broken man a few years
later. Rice, who had also come to the
conclusion that the Baptist doctrines were scripturally right, had been
baptized in Calcutta and had accompanied the Judsons to
Ille de France.
Luther Rice returned to the United States from Ille de France because of ill
health and to raise interest among the Baptist churches and support for the missionaries.
On learning of the position that the Judsons and Rice had
taken, the Baptists in the United States founded a second foreign missionary
society named the "Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel in India and Other Foreign Parts." On May 7, 1813, the Judsons left Port Louis for Madras.
Again, due to the East Indies Company policy, they could not stay and left
for Rangoon on June 22. Nancy wrote, "I have been accustomed to
view this field of labor with dread and terror, but I now feel perfectly
willing to make it my home the rest of my life." Adoniram wrote, "Dissuaded by all our friends
at Madras, we commended ourselves to God."
During this voyage Nancy gave birth to her first child, which
was born dead and was buried at sea in the Bay of Bengal.
Nancy was left very weak. On
July13, 1813, they arrived at the entering of the Rangoon River, one of the Irrawaddy's many tributaries. Little did they know of the tribulations that
lay ahead, but they were assured of the Lord's presence, comforted by His
promises, and made strong in His love.
Burma would be the place where God would
use them. Rangoon was a dirty, bedraggled, overgrown,
village of 10,000 people at the most. It
was the unhappiest evening they had ever spent. At last they had arrived at the destination
Adoniram had aimed at for three years-the place he dreamed of, the goal of his
ambitions-and they had never regretted anything more in their lives. Felix Carey had made somewhat of a beachhead
in Rangoon, and the Judsons were able to move
in with him and his Burmese wife. They began
to study the language 12 hours a day. On
September 19, 1813, Adoniram and Ann (Adoniram usually called her by
this abbreviation of Nancy) partook together of the sacraments of the Lord's Supper. Thus was born the Baptist Church of Burma.
The prayer of the Judsons was, "God grant that we may live and die among the Burmans,
though we never should do anything else than smooth the way for others."
Judson's brilliant mind went to work learning the Burmese
language and translating the Bible.
Along the busy paths that led to the famous Shwe Dagon Pagoda Buddhist Temple, he built a zayat (an open-sided
building) where he stayed studying the language and welcoming any who would
stop and listen to him as he preached the Gospel of redeeming grace. Felix Carey wrote to his father William Carey,
"They are just cut out for this mission.
I thought so as soon as I first met them. In six months Mr. Judson had a splendid grasp
of the language and is the very colleague I wanted."
It was in this zayat that on May 9, 1819, Moung Nau openly professed his
allegiance to Jesus Christ, esteeming it a rare privilege to be the first
Christian convert among the Burmese people even though he had naught to expect
in this world but persecution and death. This was the first fruit of six years of
labor. There, on a Sunday afternoon
after Moung Nau's baptism, the Lord's Supper was for the first time
administered by Mr. Judson in two languages-English
and Burmese-an event that had been the desire of his heart for six long years.
A few months later two more were baptized.
On July 12, 1823, Adoniram Judson completed
translating the New Testament into Burmese. Ann, who had gone to the U.S. for health reasons, returned on December
5, 1823, full
of health after 27 months. On one
occasion Judson wrote to Rice, "If they ask again what prospect of ultimate
success there is, tell them ‘as much as there is an almighty and faithful God
Who will perform His promises and no more.'"
Over the years the local viceroys in Rangoon had made it extremely difficult for
the Judsons, and on several occasions it appeared as if they were going to be
forced to leave the country. Adoniram
purposed to go to the capital of Ava to petition the emperor himself for
permission to propagate Christianity. On
two occasions he made the long journey up the Irrawaddy River to Ava only to receive rejection of
his petitions, but some favorable contacts were made. He eventually determined to move his mission
to Ava. He arrived there in January of
1824, built a small house near the city, began his ministry, and continued his
translation work of the Old Testament.
Satan was not about to abdicate his dominion. On June
8, 1824,
Adoniram was suddenly arrested and taken to the infamous Let-may-yoon Prison.
He was imprisoned in a most vile place, made to go through great indignities, and
suffered much sickness, torture, hunger.
Had it not been for his faithful wife Ann, he most certainly would not
have survived. Day after day she brought
food to him and importuned the vile keeper of the prison to let her have a
small shelter constructed under which he could rest from the sun. Again and again the death threat hung over
him, but the love of Christ sustained him.
Apparently the reason for this imprisonment was due to an impending
conflict with Britain, and it was thought that Judson was
an emissary of the British crown. During
Judson's imprisonment, he was often heard to repeat the verse of Madame Guyon:
No place I see
but to fulfill,
In life and
death Thy lovely will.
No succor in
my woes I want,
Except that Thou
are pleased to grant.
Throughout this time Ann continually made intercession with
various palace authorities, hoping to get his release, but to no avail. On January 26, 1825, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie
Elizabeth Butterworth Judson. It was 20
days before Ann was able to recover from this delivery and bring the new babe
to the prison for Adoniram to see. He
beheld Ann standing in the doorway (for she was never permitted to enter the
prison), her little blue-eyed blossom wailing upon her bosom. The chained father crawled forth to the
meeting. He composed a beautiful poem at
that time. I'll read only a few of the
14 verses:
Sleep, darling infant, sleep,
Hushed on thy mother's breat'
Let no rude sound of clanking chains
Disturb thy balmy rest.
Sleep, darling infant, sleep;
Blest that thou canst not know
The pangs that rend thy parents'
hearts,
The keenness of their woe.
Sleep, darling infant, sleep;
May Heaven its blessings shed,
In rich profusion, soft and sweet,
On thine unconscious head!
Why ope thy little eyes?
What would my darling see?
Thy sorrowing mother's bending form?
Thy father's agony?
In order to preserve the precious manuscripts of the Burmese
New Testament, they were hidden in a pillow.
This was taken from him by the jailer; but by the clever work of Ann, it
was exchanged for a better pillow, thus preserving the valuable documents. Even these were left behind when on May
2, 1825, Judson
was very quickly removed from the death prison to the prison in Oung-pen-la,
some eight miles' distance. The pillow with
the manuscripts was thrown away when he was removed to the second prison, but a
servant of the Judsons found it and buried it by their house, preserving it
until he was finally released from imprisonment. Thus, by very unusual means, the precious
manuscripts of the New Testament translation were preserved.
The second prison was, if anything, more vile than the
first. For a while Adoniram was kept in
a cage that once housed a lion-not high enough to stand up in, not broad enough
to lie down in. Here he was kept for an
additional six months, during which time both Ann and Maria were very ill; and
yet Judson was kept alive by Ann's efforts in begging food to provide nutrition
for him. Finally, in November of 1825,
he was taken out of prison and, under guard, sent to the headquarters of the
Burmese army where he was able to serve as interpreter in the negotiation of
the peace treaty with the British. Upon
his return to Ava, he found Ann and the baby both desperately ill. Through his tender care, they were able to
improve and to eventually return to Rangoon.
Judson had two master goals (passions): 1) translate the
Bible into the Burmese language, and 2) live to see 100 converts. As mentioned
earlier, it was six long years of witness before the first Burmese soul came to
know Christ. By the time of Judson's death, there were 63 churches and 7,000
converts. Of the Karen peoples, there
were 800 churches and 150,000 believers.
Over the years, largely through the influence of Luther Rice
(who never returned to the field but was representing the mission in America), new missionaries arrived on the
field for various aspects of the ministry.
One of these couples was George and Sarah Boardman. They, along with others of the newer
missionaries, were targeting the tribal people, particularly the Karen, a predominately pagan, animistic tribes
people.
Another such missionary was Elisha L. Abbott, who has been
credited as the creator of the indigenous policy. He arrived in Burma sometime around 1837 and was a contemporary
of Adonirom Judson. The thing that particularly distinguishes Mr. Abbott was
his vision of self-support of these churches.
He was the instrument God used to raise up 50 churches and thousands of
believers. His motto was "American
support for Americans; Karen support for Karens." One missionary raised an extra $5,000 for the
Burma field, but Abbott would have nothing to do with these
funds. In fact, he twice returned half
of the gifts back to America, but the American Baptist Missionary
Union was never in agreement with this indigenous policy. Neither was the aging veteran, Adoniram Judson,
who felt it would give support to the "good works" philosophy of Buddhism. Looking back over the ministries causes us
to reflect on whether the rapid growth of the ministry among the indigenous
tribes people (which has continued right down to the present time) is related to
the indigenous principles founded by Mr. Abbott. Today there is virtually no church of a
Fundamental nature among the Burmese per se that is the outgrowth of Adoniram
Judson's ministry.
Adoniram left Ann and the infant Maria in a more healthful
location and was summoned back up to the British camp as an interpreter in the
ongoing negotiations with the Burmese. Ann
died at the age of 37 at Amhurst, a British settlement, on October
14, 1826. Adoniram did not learn of her death until a
month later. The infant Maria was cared for
by some fellow missionaries but also died about six months later at the age of
27 months and was buried beside her mother.
Judson's wife and all their children died in the first 14
years of his missionary career, and he became very despondent. He questioned: Did he carry death with him like a
contagion? In the beginning there had
been Harriet Newell and her baby; followed by Samuel Newell, who died a few
years later in Bombay; then Judson's own son Roger; his wife Ann; and now
his daughter Maria. He hoped-he
believed-he carried the gift of life eternal into the next world, but wondered why
he carried the gift of death in this?
Most importantly, since these dead were happy, he wondered why he grieved. He later began to suspect that his real
motive in becoming a missionary had not been genuine humility and self
abnegation but ambition to be the first American foreign missionary-the first
missionary to Burma, the first translator of the Bible
into the Burmese, the first in his own eyes and the eyes of men. He had a lust to excel.
Toward the end of October, 1828, he built a little hut in the
jungle some distance from the mission house and dubbed it the Hermitage. It was in a dangerous, tiger-infested
area. He moved into the hut October
24, 1828,
the second anniversary of Nancy's death. He wrote, "It proves a stormy evening, and
the desolation around me accords with the desolate state of my own mind, where
grief for the dear departed combines with sorrow for present sin; and my tears
flow at the same time over the forsaken grave of my dear love and over the
loathsome sepulcher of my own heart." He
dug a grave near the Hermitage, and for days sat beside it deliberately
considering the stages of decay of a human body in all of its gruesome details,
hoping that he might thus arise above fleshly considerations and, through
solitary reflections, bring himself close to the same imitation of divinity.
During this period of depression and melancholy, self-denial
and seclusion, Judson, with his Bible under his arm, went over the hills behind
the Hermitage even deeper into the tiger-infested jungle behind the Hermitage until
he found a place that suited him near a long-abandoned pagoda. Here he began spending his days reading,
reflecting, praying. Each evening he
returned to the Hermitage. Adoniram spent
forty days in this solitary meditation by the old pagoda. His entire diet consisted of nothing but a
little rice. This time probably marked
the extreme in his search for some sign that God had forgiven him.
What seemed to bring him out of his three years of deep
depression was news that his younger brother Elnathan had professed salvation
before his death. This had been a heavy
burden on Adoniram, and he rejoiced in the knowledge that his brother had
finally come to peace with God.
He threw himself wholly into the completion of the Old
Testament translation of the Bible into the Burmese language. In 1833 he wrote to the secretary of the
Baptist Board, referring to short-term missionary service and some
missionaries, "They come out for a few years with the view of acquiring a stock
of credit on which they may vegetate the rest of their days in the congenial
climate of their native land. The motto
of every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or school master, ought to be devoted
for life." On another occasion he
wrote, "It is a mistake to suppose that a dull and second-rate man is good
enough for the heathen. The worst off
needs the very best we have. God gave
His best, even His only begotten Son, in order to redeem a lost world. Christianity will advance over the earth with
long, swift strides when the churches are ready to send their best men and the
best men are ready to go."
In April of 1834, almost eight years after the death of Ann,
he married Sarah Boardman whose husband had passed away some three years
earlier. Unlike most missionary widows
who, on the death of their spouse, return to their homeland, Sarah had remained
in Burma and had very faithfully carried on
in the ministry. She became a very
loving and supportive wife to Adoniram and bore him a number of children. On September 26, 1835, he completed the Old Testament
translation and one month later baptized the 100th member of the
Burmese church. Thus his goals of
translating the complete Bible into the Burmese language and seeing a church of
100 Burmese Christians had been accomplished.
Due to Sarah's declining health, Adoniram Judson decided to
take her to America.
She died en route at St. Helena and was buried there. Adoniram continued on to the States-his
first furlough in 33 years. He was
welcomed back as a hero and was in great demand in the churches of America.
During this time in the States he met, fell in love with, and married a
young journalist by the name of Emily Chubbuck.
Many of his peers and admirers criticized him severely for marrying one about
whom he knew so little and who was almost half his age, but he did not heed
their advice or respond to their criticism.
They were married in June of 1846, and they left for Burman the
following month.
He was sure he would never see his native land again; and although
he felt sadness, he had no regrets. He
still felt like the Adoniram Judson of 1812.
He was still capable of work and love, and he still looked forward to
the future with confidence and even joy.
On the field and at home his one theme was "the love of Christ." In the spring of 1850, he took seriously
ill. It was felt that a long sea voyage
might restore his health. He, along with
fellow missionary Thomas Ranney, set sail on April 3, 1850.
Eight days later he died at sea; and as was his request, he was buried
in a watery grave in the Bay of Bengal. He died with the
following words on his lips:
The Love of
Christ
Boundless in
its breadth,
Infinite in
its length,
Fathomless in
its depths,
And
measureless in its height.
In these
deserts let me labor.
On these mountains
let me tell,
How he died, the blessed Savior,
To redeem a world from hell.
Today, at the entrance to the Judson Chapel in the First
Baptist Church of Malden, Massachusetts, is a marble slab with the following
inscription:
IN MEMORIAM
Rev. Adoniram Judson
Born Aug. 9, 1788
Died April 12, 1850
Malden, his birthplace.
The ocean, his sepulchre.
Converted Burmans, and
The Burman Bible
His monument.
His record is on high.
JAD 6/27/07
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