Chapter 6: “O, The Love of Christ”: Christocentric Spirituality

6

“O, The Love of Christ”: Christocentric Spirituality

In his dying days after spending hours in meditation and prayer, Adoniram Judson would rejoice with tears of joy in the overwhelming love of Christ. He was Christocentric to the end.643 One biographer maintained that the Christ-enamored theme of Ephesians 3:18–19 dominated Judson’s spirituality from his conversion through the rest of his life:

To comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge—this became, at the dawn of his manhood, his one supreme and passionate aspiration. It is the climax of all that has gone before; it is the key of all that follows.644

From his early days at Andover until his final days in Burma, Judson sought to know Christ and to please him as his all-consuming holy ambition. Judson’s spirituality was one of submissive self-denial in the service of the sovereign Christ, whose Scriptural example of benevolence Judson was motivated to imitate, whose final command he was passionate to obey, whose love he was earnest to enjoy through religion, and whose glory he was importunate to seek through prayer. This chapter will establish that the unifying feature of Judson’s spirituality was an affectionate ardor to please the Lord Christ. The love of Christ and a supreme, self-denying devotion to the will of Christ were Judson’s controlling themes.645

In seeking to please Christ, Judson sought to imitate the example of Christ by going and doing good, with benevolent self-sacrifice. Judson sought above all to please Christ by obeying that final command that he deemed so dear to Christ’s heart—the command to preach the gospel to every creature.646 He derived evangelical assurance from the fact that he was seeking to heed Christ’s commission, and he awaited that Day of Judgment when the proof of his true religion would be manifest. If Judson were not to keep Christ’s command to proclaim the gospel, he feared for the legitimacy of his salvation. Nevertheless, his spirituality was not one of cold duty; rather, his duty to follow and please Christ as a missionary emerged out of the roots of his true religion and enjoyment of God in Christ. Judson employed his spirituality with great concern for demonstrating true religion. Prayer, like breathing, gave life to his heart religion. He urged others to be concerned for the same, including his family and children. Judson carried a great burden for his children and, through fervent prayer, letters, and even poetry, he sought to arouse in them a desire for religion. He upheld the value of importunate praying, because he believed that God would bless such dependency. He yearned for that day when the glory and love of Christ, which he knew in part, would fill the world through the proclamation of the gospel. Thus, Judson went forward, the love of Christ sustaining him, with a supreme desire to please his Savior.

Pleasing Christ

In order to honor Christ, Judson sought to obey the final and dearest command of Christ. Judson’s affection for Christ impelled his abandonment of the world’s pleasures for the sake of imitating Christ and proclaiming the good news of Christ’s dying love to the unreached. Following his Exemplar, Judson practiced disinterested benevolence, and he sought to bring as many as possible into Christ’s loving and happy kingdom.

During his furlough in America, Judson often preached to rouse his hearers to love and please Christ through a life of self-denial. One pastor, D. W. Faunce (1829–1911),647 was a young man in Plymouth, in 1846, when he heard Judson preach. Later in life, Faunce reminisced about the piety manifested in Judson’s great Christ-enamored preaching. Initially unimpressed with Judson’s haggard appearance and weak voice, his opinion changed as Judson unfolded the biblical text: “These are they that follow the Lamb [Rev 14:4].” Faunce recalled that Judson repeatedly declared “pleasing Jesus” as his highest aim. He said that Judson’s “great tenderness” arrested his attention, and Faunce went on to say, “Was this venerated man influenced in all he had done by the simple thought of ‘pleasing Jesus’? Well, then, might not I, boy as I was, strive to please Jesus also?” He said that throughout his life, his memories of Judson’s love for pleasing Christ often inspired him to do the same.648

Christ’s Benevolent Example

Judson believed that Christ’s example of benevolent self-sacrifice was an essential feature of evangelical spirituality. This demanding path of love, in imitation of Christ, was one of doing good. For his missionary spirituality, he could not justify practicing self-denial isolated from the world and the lost. The devotional practices of Judson’s ascetic spirituality corresponded directly to the affection and ardor of his Christocentric spirituality.

Christ’s self-denying service to the Father inspired Judson to follow Christ in the same way. His widow, Emily C. Judson, recorded a conversation she had with him about people in America elevating him to the status of the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John. Judson did not desire such flattery, and he retorted, “I want to be like Christ . . . [the] only one perfectly safe Exemplar—only One who, tempted like as [sic] we are in every point, is still without sin. I want to follow him only . . . O, to be more like Christ!”649

Judson spoke at a gathering in March 1846, in Philadelphia at the First Baptist Church of Abram Dunn Gillette, the manager of the American Baptist publication society. Judson’s address called the people to meditate on Christ’s agony and thus to follow Christ’s call even into suffering. Judson urged them to “look unto Jesus” on the cross and listen to the three prayers Christ prayed in his agony. In a long explanation of these three prayers, Judson showed that Christ’s first prayer was for forgiveness for his persecutors, which includes everyone; Christ’s second prayer came from feeling forsaken by the Father; at this point in the sermon, Judson interjected: “Where would we all be, if Jesus had yielded then? But he did not yield; he suffered on for three more awful hours.” Judson’s exclamation here illustrated how vivid Christ’s disinterested benevolence was to him. And, then he said that Christ’s third prayer was to offer up his spirit. After painting a picture of Christ’s example of ultimate disinterested benevolence, Judson made an application for self-denial: “It was for us that this agony was endured; let us remember this, and though we cannot repay his love, let us give our hearts to him—let us devote our lives to his service.” He concluded by urging them to live in such a way that when death comes, they could fearlessly pray as Christ did: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit [Luke 23:46].”650

In May 1836, Judson preached for the ordination of the missionary printer, S. M. Osgood. This lengthy sermon is a definitive presentation of the inherent relationship in Judson’s spirituality between the example of Christ and the Christian minister’s mandatory self-denial in imitation of Christ. Preaching from John 10:1–18 about Christ as the Good Shepherd, Judson began by saying that though Christ is the “Exemplar” of all his people, he is especially the “Exemplar” of his “subordinate shepherds.” He urged Osgood to “look continually to the chief Shepherd” for emulation. First, Judson said, the minister ought to imitate Christ’s wholesale denial of worldly desires. Christ gave up his life for the good of his flock, and in the language of disinterested benevolence, Judson said the minister ought to imitate Christ by surrendering all worldly ambitions, pleasures, and gains “that he may, by all means, save some.” Second, Judson went on to say, the minister ought to imitate Christ by showing affection and brotherly love to the flock. And third, the chief duty of a minister in imitation of Christ is to indiscriminately call out Christ’s elect. Judson explained that once they come in through the universal preaching of the gospel, the minister ought to make disciples through teaching them to observe Christ’s commands, of which the minister should strive to be the greatest example of obedience. Though the minister’s chief duty should be doing good, Judson went on to elaborate on the dominant motivation of such duty: Christ’s “supreme regard to his Father’s will” and “the love of God” were the controlling themes of Christ’s life. Judson tied Christ’s example of supreme love to the Father and a supreme desire to please the Father to the responsibility of the minister to esteem the will of God above all other good things. He said no good works of self-denial or charity “are truly estimable, but just so far as they spring from regard to the will of God.” He went on to explain that “all true virtue has its root in the love of God. Every holy affection looks beyond self . . . and finds its resting place in God alone.” Then Judson eloquently described God’s God-centeredness and righteous love for himself above everything else. In light of God’s supreme happiness in God, Judson said it was fitting that Christ would “have supreme regard to the will of the Father,” greater than his regard for perishing souls. Judson maintained, therefore, that every minister must submit to the will of God, and all evangelical love for souls must be subordinate to an all-consuming love for God in Christ. In light of Christ’s example of supreme submission to the infinitely wise and loving will of the Father, the most God-centered Being in the universe, Judson issued a decisive verdict for his spirituality of self-denial:

On this ground we rest the doctrine of self-denial, renunciation of self-interest, abandonment of self. Still further, even our compassion for souls and our zeal for their salvation must be kept in subordination to the supreme will of God.651

Furthermore, this spirituality of self-denying submission to the will of God in Christ was not only Judson’s conviction for the Christian minister; it was also his conviction for the truly renewed man. In his first tract, A View of the Christian Religion, Judson said that by looking to Christ for his expiation of guilt and imputation of righteousness, the true Christian, “therefore, through supreme love to Jesus Christ, and a desire to do his will, endeavors to avoid evil deeds, and to perform good deeds only, according to the divine commands.” In the third part of his tract, Judson outlined all the commands of Christ, of which the first four are: repent, believe in Christ, love God supremely, and love people as oneself.652

In December 1845, Judson preached at an assembly in Philadelphia about the cost of following Christ to the mission field. At the beginning he quoted, “Be ye imitators of me, as I am of Christ [1 Cor 11:1],” which he asserted “is a divine command.” Judson went on to propose: “There is one Being in the universe who unites in himself all the excellences of human and divine nature—that being is Jesus Christ.” In order “to become like Jesus Christ,” Judson said that Christians must seek to imitate Christ, not only in “character,” but also in his “whole course and conduct of life.” Judson went on to say that becoming like Christ “ought to be our whole aim.” Asking how it is that Christians become like Christ, he answered that Christ “went about doing good [Acts 10:38].” Therefore, in order to imitate Christ, Christians ought to “not merely stay and do good, but go and do good.” Because Christ “led the life of a missionary,” Judson suggested that Christians should “endeavor, as far as possible, to lead the life of missionaries.” Toward the end of his message, Judson said that he regarded the missionary vocation as “a most glorious occupation.” Nevertheless, he said he did not wish to coerce people to become missionaries without a heavenly calling, so he also explained that Christ is no longer a missionary; rather, he sustains missionaries by “his prayers . . . his influence . . . and his property.” Then, Judson said that all Christians ought to “go about doing good,” by committing their prayers, influence, and property for missions “in order, therefore, to be like Christ.”653

Forty-six days later, on February 8, 1846 in Richmond, Virginia,654 he again referred in identical terms to Christ as the “one Being in the universe that unites in himself all the perfections of Deity with all the purest and tenderest of human nature.” Yet, in this address he did not argue for “doing good” as the necessary self-denying conduct of imitating Christ. Instead, he contended that the missionary’s motive for such self-sacrifice should be a passion to please Christ.655 This statement of motivation did not rule out what he said forty-six days earlier; it simply revealed how Judson’s Christ-centered spirituality motivated his self-denying activity.

Judson also had much to say throughout his life about the spiritual necessity of imitating Christ by doing good. In A Digest of Scripture, Judson delineated the biblical duties that the Christian owed to men. One of the basic duties owed to mankind was “do good to all.”656 Additionally, in the third section, “Doing Good,” of The Threefold Cord,657 he said,

Doing good imparts beauty and utility to the rest. It is written of the Lord Jesus that he went about doing good.658 Art thou his disciple? Imitate his example, and go about doing good. Do good. Let this be thy motto.659

Christ’s Great Commission

Judson was eminently devoted to the final command of Christ to preach the gospel to every creature. This was Christ’s final, dearest word to his followers, and Judson spent his life heeding it at all costs in order to please Christ. Indeed, to the degree that he obeyed that command, to the same degree was he assured of his genuine love to Christ and the authenticity of his spirituality. He feared neglecting Christ’s final command through negligence and indifference due to the distractions of the world and the weight of his sin; Judson believed such disregard would certainly threaten his prospects in eternity. As the pastor of Madison Avenue Baptist Church, William Hague, well said, “The Great Commission gained the homage of his conscience.”660

In 1819, as has been noted, Judson first took up the practice of writing rules of life to follow daily for his improvement in holiness and religion.661 Among his rules, he consistently focused on not doing anything that would displease his Lord; and he equally sought to do everything in order to please Christ.662 In 1842, he shortened his rules and summarized them under one final all-consuming resolution: “Resolved to make the desire to please Christ the grand motive of all my actions.”663

From the very beginning of his missionary venture, Judson sought to know and keep the Scriptures. After his change of sentiments from Congregationalist to Baptist, in his sermon, Christian Baptism (1813), Judson concluded with an appeal to consider the truth of Christ’s Word; his plea for obedience to the Scripture revealed his utmost desire to please Christ:

If you love Christ, you cannot consider this question [of the biblical mode of baptism] unimportant. You will be desirous of discovering the will of him whom you love, and of testifying your love, by joyfully obeying. “If ye love me,” said Jesus, “keep my commandments [John 14:15].” “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you [John 15:14].”664

Toward the end of his life, Judson’s passion to please Christ by obeying the Bible remained just as prominent in his heart. Moreover, he believed that obedience to Christ’s commands, and especially Christ’s ultimate and final command, was preeminently pleasing to Christ. Before the Boardman Missionary Society at Waterville College, in 1846, he spoke about pleasing Christ, as the foundation of mission work:

If any of you enter the Gospel ministry in this or other lands, let not your object be so much to “do your duty,” or even to “save souls,” though these should have a place in your motives, as to please the Lord Jesus. Let this be your ruling motive in all that you do. Now, do you ask, how you shall please Him? How, indeed, shall we know what will please Him but by His commands? Obey these commands and you will not fail to please Him. And there is that “last command,” given just before He ascended to the Father, “Go ye into all the World, and preach the Gospel to every creature [Mark 16:15].” It is not yet obeyed as it should be. Fulfill that, and you will please the Saviour.665

His ideas expressed in this portion of his address do not nullify his consecration to the duty of missionary activism; rather, his words here put in perspective and prioritize how his dominant motive to please Christ impelled and sustained his devotion to duty and his desire to convert the lost. Commenting on this particular address, William R. Hutchison aptly observed,

[Disinterested benevolence] was grounded not upon terror but upon divine and human compassion. Adoniram Judson . . . preached duty and obedience in voluntaristic and very personal terms . . . Judson thought that simple admonitions to do one’s duty, or to obey the Great Commission, were usually cold and inappropriate. The idea, instead, is that in exercising benevolence one is responding to the benevolence of God. And obedience to Jesus’ explicit commands should be motivated not by terror or even by the stern requirements of conscience but by the opportunity, as Judson put it, of “pleasing Christ.”666

Akin to his discourse at Waterville College in 1846, Judson also addressed the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Richmond in 1846 and explained the different levels of motives for the missionary. He said that “evangelical motives” should compel missionary labor, and love for fame is “worse than useless.” He went on to say that even engaging in missions primarily to realize assurance of salvation, though desirable, is insufficient; the salvation of the heathen, which should be a great concern, must not be the controlling motive. He then asked the question that would divulge the secret to his life of self-denial in Christ’s service: “What, then, is the prominent, all-constraining impulse that should urge us to make sacrifices in this cause?”667 Judson went on to set up his answer by describing the excellency of the union of Christ’s divinity and humanity and that this God-Man has “at great expense” established his kingdom and “has set his heart on the enlargement of that kingdom.” Therefore, in view of such a King and the prospects of such a kingdom, he answered his own question: “A supreme desire to please him is the grand motive that should animate Christians in their missionary efforts.”668

This affectionate desire to please Christ indeed had been his consuming motive ever since his days at Andover Theological Seminary. About his solemn dedication to Christ’s service during a walk in the woods behind Andover in December 1808, Judson said, “All at once that ‘last command’ seemed to come to my heart directly from heaven. I could doubt no longer, but determined on the spot to obey it at all hazards, for the sake of pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ.”669 Indeed, he said he devoted his life to missions for the sake of Christ.670 Moreover, as Judson said to his fiancée and later his first wife, Ann, in order to “avoid every thing displeasing to God,” he would consequently ask himself regularly, “Is it pleasing to God?”671 This question is remarkably similar to the question with which he concluded his address in 1846 at the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention: “In every concern of life we should often look up to that lovely Being and inquire, ‘Does this please him?’”672 One biographer aptly observed his lifelong piety: “Through all these years to please Christ was his unfaltering purpose.”673

After being in Burma for eighteen years, Judson grew weary of the mounting pressure to translate, publish, and distribute gospel literature. In March 1831, after a long week of handing out ten thousand tracts at the Shway Dagon festival, Judson had run out of tracts and still had to turn away thousands of inquirers for lack of literature resources. In his journal, he attributed the lack of supplies and materials to those churches in America that had wavered and waned in their support of the mission. He said that their unresponsiveness to Christ’s Great Commission resulted in insufficient missionary personnel that he so badly needed. Judson said that such lack of support from the churches revealed that they considered the Great Commission as optional or inconsequential. This neglect of supporting the global proclamation of the gospel, he asserted, would certainly be the source of “irremediable, everlasting despair” on the day of judgment. In revealing what would be the cause of one’s great remorse, Judson went on to say,

Surely, if any sin will lie with crushing weight on the trembling, shrinking soul, when grim death draws near, if any sin will clothe the face of the final Judge with an angry frown, . . . it is the sin of turning a deaf ear to the plaintive cry of ten millions of immortal beings, who by their darkness and misery cry day and night, Come to our rescue, ye bright sons and daughters of America, come and save us, for we are sinking into hell!674

In a letter on the same day, March 4, 1831, Judson further rebuked those unfeeling Christians in America, “as hard and immovable as rocks; just as cold and repulsive as the mountains of ice in the Polar seas.” Judson was optimistic that the mass distribution of gospel literature directly corresponded to the imminent “great renovation of Burma.” Yet, the revival of religion’s main barriers, he charged, were “those rocks and those icy mountains.”675

Fifteen years later, Judson addressed some would-be missionaries, and he explained that Christ’s final command, to preach the gospel to all creatures, was what stirred him to be a missionary. He urged them to obey that command at all costs if that were what Christ had truly impressed upon them. Judson warned them of being indifferent to Christ’s final command, even though they might do other good activities; he said, “If the Lord wants you for missionaries, He will set that command home to your hearts. If He does so, you neglect it at your peril.”676

Judson argued that the Great Commission is equally binding on every true believer who claims love for Christ. Though maintaining that not all can or should leave their homeland to the mission field, he believed that God has called all Christians to obey the Scripture in spreading the gospel so that the nations would submit to Christ. At a united missionary gathering held by the Baptist churches in Boston in July 1846, Judson attended the final service before returning to Burma. In his remarks, he spoke plainly. He said that the highest aim of Christ’s heart was the Great Commission, which the Church could only accomplish through indiscriminately preaching the gospel to the whole world. Then he asked,

Do you, a professor of religion, love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity? Have you set your heart on that object which is dearest to his heart? Are you endeavoring to obey his great parting command?677

Responding to supposed objections that the command was not binding for all Christians because it is impossible for all Christians to obey, he countered that all are obliged to obey it. He explained that “no profession ought to be regarded as sincere, no love to the Saviour genuine, unless it be attended with a sincere endeavor to obey [Christ’s final command].” He went on to say that all Christians can and must invest in prayer, financial support, sending, or going to the mission field; all can be equally engaged in the Great Commission regardless of actual roles and vocations.678 To those who never had never seriously kept the Great Commission in some way, he queried,

How can you hope that your love to the Saviour is anything more than an empty profession? . . . What, love the Saviour, who bled and died for this cause, and yet spend your whole existence on earth in toiling for your personal sustenance, and gratification, and vainglory! O, that dread tribunal to which we are hastening! Souls stripped of all disguise there! The final Judge, a consuming fire!679

In sum, Judson affectionately longed to please Christ more than any other duty. His spirituality was oriented around his consuming devotion to obey Christ’s command, in order that he might please Christ and enjoy eternity in Christ’s happy presence. Obedience to the Great Commission was not an option for any Christian, and especially for those Christians whom God had called specifically to go as missionaries. He argued that it is virtually unthinkable that any believer would go to heaven without manifesting the fruit of caring about and laboring for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. For Judson, the ultimate test of true religion and devotion to Christ was glad obedience to Christ’s final command. To not obey the Great Commission was to prove indifference to Christ and to scoff at the dreadful eschatological Judgment. Judson, among such a number, counted it a high honor and a high duty to lovingly deny himself and go, doing good, in imitation of Christ. Emily said that he often stated, “If we only please Christ, no matter for the rest!”680

Loving Christ

Judson loved to enjoy true religion by drawing near to Christ through prayer. He was active in prayer throughout his life and even throughout each day. He saw the regular practice of prayer as a sign of true religion, and indeed, without effort in prayer, there would be no enjoyment of communion with Christ. Judson esteemed the practice of persevering prayer because he believed that God would bless it in bringing about revival of religion and the advance of Christ’s kingdom. Judson importunately prayed for the salvation of the heathen, and in addition, he felt a great burden for the conversion and religious enjoyment of his family, especially his children, for whom he prayed unceasingly. He sometimes expressed his prayers to Christ, whether in affliction or in exultation, through the medium of poetry. He also often communicated prayers for his children through poems that they could easily remember because he believed that memorization and repetition of simple poetry and prayers were useful for maintaining religion.

True Religion and Prayer

Judson’s spirituality was not merely dry duty.681 He, indeed, delighted in drawing near to Christ and communing with him. After hearing Judson preach about pleasing Christ, before the Boardman Missionary Society at Waterville College in 1846, Wayland recalled that Judson’s prayer after the address was most memorable: “[He] offered a prayer which I can only describe by saying, it was one of Judson’s prayers.”682

For Judson, one major proof of a yielded heart and true religion was the practice of private prayer.683 In a journal entry in May 1828, he described a Buddhist man, Moung Bo, who was making headway in his pursuit of truth; Moung Bo had rejected Buddhism and had already tried Unitarianism and Deism. Judson said that Moung Bo demonstrated “a disposition to yield,” and Moung Bo assured Judson that he was praying in secret, which Judson saw as a necessary sign of a humble heart.684

Judson viewed the early part of the conversion process as requiring prayer to God for a new heart. In order to begin to hope for assurance of true religion, the Christian must pray fervently to God for enlightening and awakening of religion. He demonstrated this in a letter to his stepson, George Dana Boardman . In December 1840, Judson implored George Dana to not “neglect the duty of secret prayer,” and Judson urged him to “pray earnestly that you may have a new heart, and become a child of God, and that you may have satisfactory evidence that such is your happy state.”685 Similarly, in a letter in March 1845, to his daughter, Abby Ann, he instructed her to seek Christ:

Think of the dear Saviour every day, and frequently lift up your heart in fervent prayer to God, that he will give you converting, sanctifying grace,686 and make you his own child . . . In your daily deportment and intercourse with others, remember these two lines: — “Sweet in temper, face, and word, To please an ever-present Lord.”687

Communion with Christ

For Judson, prayer and the practice of true religion were not merely a means of gaining a sense of assurance and placating fears of eschatological Judgment; rather, drawing near to Christ found its telos in knowing and enjoying him. Judson did not believe that enjoyment of religion came easily or half-heartedly. He held that it required earnest effort, but that it would reap indescribable joy in the knowledge of Christ. Delighting in the glory of Christ required a passionate pursuit of holiness.

Even before leaving for the mission field, Judson testified to the joy of communion with God in Christ. In a letter to his parents in July 1810, Judson demonstrated his concern for his fiancée, Ann, being “all alone at Plymouth.” Yet, he said, “There is a Friend, whose friendship, if she would secure it, would never leave her alone.” And he went on to exult in “the pleasure which a lively Christian must enjoy in communion with God.” Even if alone in the remotest part of the world, he said the Christian’s “infinite Friend is always at hand.” Judson went on to say that though sickness and death come, the Christian should not fear since “his best Friend does all things well . . . For death is only a withdrawing of the veil which conceals his dearest Friend.”688

Judson not only sought to enjoy communion with Christ in the hard, lonely times, but he also sought to translate life’s greatest pleasures into occasions of enjoying communion with Christ. For instance, in a letter to his second wife, Sarah, in March 1839, he rejoiced that, in light of the joys of “wedded love on earth,” he could not imagine how unparalleled their joy would be in the heavenly presence of the Bridegroom. He said that he viewed marital chastity and consecration in this life as “a type and shadow” of the “joys of heaven” and the “high and transporting intercommunion of souls . . . to all eternity . . . between one another, and between the ‘Bridegroom’ and ‘Bride.’”689

In a sermon on Colossians 1:27, entitled, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Judson said that Christ indwells the hearts of his people by faith in him, by love to him, and by his love conveyed to them. He said that the evidence of Christ’s “character stamped on our souls” is love for God and love for people. This indwelling Christ loves his people “to the end,” and Christ will fill up his indwelling in their future glorification. The inferences of such truths, Judson maintained, are that “the indwelling of Christ is the greatest of all blessings.” Therefore, he said, it is the “first thing . . . to which we ought to attend.” If communion with the indwelling Christ is experienced to some degree, he urged, “How careful we ought to be to improve the blessing! It is necessary to peace of mind, usefulness, future eminence.”690

In a similar vein, Judson preached another sermon on Hebrews 12:14, about pursuing holiness to see the Lord. He articulated that seeing the Lord is “the greatest good,” which “comprises all other good.” He said, “To see is to enjoy.” Judson argued that “the nature of holiness” is comprised of both “purity” and “consecration” to Christ. Faith must show itself in holiness. He said that holiness is required for seeing God, and this holiness “is the object of the plan of redemption.”691 Likewise, in a letter to his sister, Abigail Judson, in December of 1829, only two weeks after his dark season of melancholy began to lift,692 Judson implored,

Let me urge you frequently to reexamine the foundation of your hope. O, it is a solemn thing to die—an awful thing to go into eternity, and discover that we have been deceiving ourselves! Let us depend upon it that nothing but real faith in Christ, proved to be genuine by a holy life, can support us at last. That faith which consists merely in a correct belief of the doctrines of grace, and prompts to no self-denial,—that faith which allows us to spend all our days in serving self, content with merely refraining from outward sins, and attending to the ordinary duties of religion,—is no faith at all. O, let me beg of you to look well into this matter! And let me beg my dear mother, in her old age, and in view of the near approach of death and eternity, to examine again and again whether her faith is of the right kind. Is it that faith which gives her more enjoyment in Jesus, from day to day, than she finds in any thing else?693

Judson believed that the enjoyment of communion with Christ required earnestness and discipline. In a letter to Ann in December 1810, Judson expressed exhaustion from a seasonal cold and from preaching that day. He contended in the letter that the primary reason that Christians do not actually find joy in communion with God in Christ is because they “do not try to enjoy it.” He criticized those lazy Christians who are not “resolved” to grow spiritually.694 He then said that in spite of his sickness and weariness, he devoted himself that morning to refrain from anything “displeasing to God,” and he found it useful to force himself to enjoy religion even when his body was worn out. To remind himself to faithfully keep his spiritual resolution, he wrote notes to himself where he would see them routinely. The notes asked if what he was doing pleased God. Such reminders, he said, would be useless, “unless I resolve, in divine strength, instantly to obey the decision of conscience.”695 He wrote to Ann again the next day and described his sweet “enjoyment of God.” He went on to say that God would gladly give Christians joy in communion with him, if only they would not grieve the Holy Spirit by “little sins” and neglecting to employ the means of enjoying religion. He said that “the secret of living a holy life is to avoid everything which will displease God and grieve the Spirit, and to be strictly attentive to the means of grace.” God will draw near to those who “tremble at his Word” and “wait upon him.” Judson went on to say that the great hindrance to happiness in God was, “preferring a trifle to God” and putting off religion for a more convenient time.696

Judson’s pursuit of knowing Christ stimulated his activism. In a letter in October 1830, to encourage Stella Bennett, Judson sought to remind her that life is fleeting and that Christians must improve upon the time God has allotted them. Then, explaining how communion with God in Christ should incite active obedience in service to Christ, he said,

The first duty of every lover of Christ is to enter constantly within the veil, offering himself a sacrifice to God, to obtain some sensible communion with the great Invisible; and his second, to come forth with a shining face, as Moses, and be ready to speak and do whatever God, by his word, providence, and indwelling Spirit, shall appoint.

Judson went on to say that to reverse these two duties and labor “without an habitual sense of holy unction and divine communion” might receive God’s merciful blessing, but it would nevertheless “wear out” the missionary and produce “irreparable loss” in eternity.697

Judson’s daily effort to pursue Christ and enjoy his presence was clearly manifest in his aforementioned rules of life, in which he promoted routine and frequent meditation and prayers every day for much of his Christian life. From 1819 to 1843, Judson practiced daily rule keeping for the sake of spiritual discipline. Judson would often write out spontaneous thoughts that would encourage him to pray. Such topics might include a thought from a devotional book, a Scripture passage, or one of his own resolutions.698 Both of his eminent biographers, Francis Wayland and Edward Judson, compiled Judson’s penciled fragments of “Topics to Encourage Prayer.” Some topics that Judson jotted down to remind him to pray were: “wrestling Jacob . . . friend at midnight . . . the unjust judge . . . whatever others do, let my life be a life of prayer699 . . . self-denial . . . keep the cross of Christ in view.”700 He practiced prayer and meditation in the middle of the night, in the morning, and in the evening. As previously noted, he indicated in his tract, The Threefold Cord, that he sought to pray seven times interspersed throughout each day, which would amount to two to three hours of daily prayer.701 In all his journals and letters since writing this tract in 1829, there are no indications of how many months or years he sustained these seven times of daily prayer. However, there are numerous accounts of his resolve to pray two or three times each day. For instance, in 1840 he wrote a letter to his stepson, George Dana, and encouraged him to rise early every day before the sunrise to take a brisk walk and pray in secret. Judson also instructed him not to neglect praying in secret five to ten minutes every morning and evening along with spending early morning walks in prayer, which he said had been his practice for thirty-five years. Judson went on to say that such disciplined routines of physical and spiritual exercises were his two “pieces of advice” that would lead George Dana to “be virtuous and happy.”702

By briefly analyzing the ascetic training at Andover, his penchant for routine practices of prayer is understandable. Judson’s early years of spiritual formation found their rhythm in the scheduled practices at Andover, which required what one writer called “an ascetic tendency.”703 The faculty and the students would rise early for prayer, and then after morning studies and lunch, they would have another hour of prayer. Then after more studies, they would practice scheduled prayer in the evenings as well. One student in the early years described this threefold routine as “rules adopted by the majority” and “the order of the day.”704

Despite melancholic periods, Judson still sought to draw near to Christ and enjoy his presence. During his most depressed season, on the third anniversary of Ann’s death (October 24, 1829), he queried Ann’s sisters, Mary Hasseltine and Abigail Hasseltine, and asked them if they discovered how to commune with God because he could not find enjoyment in God.705 This season of despondency lasted for over two years. And yet, before the depression departed, Judson wrote a long letter, in January 1829, to Archibald Campbell (1769–1846), the conquering hero of the first Burman war with England, who was about to depart for England. This letter reveals much about the tenor of Judson’s religion even in his darkest days. Judson promoted true religion and implored Campbell to yield his life to God. Judson said that true religion does not consist in the mere avoidance of wickedness; rather, true religion consists in the enjoyment of God. He went on to say that our fear of God is placated by “vague and indefinite ideas of the mercy of God” and by a false hope that everything will be well in the end. Consciences are dulled by the “fatal machinations of the god of this world,” and “the intoxicating draught of pleasure . . . [and] the height of human ambition.” He said soon the delusion of this world would dissipate, and unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. As an “ambassador of Christianity,” Judson beseeched Campbell to give his heart “to the Friend and Lover of man, who hung and died on the cross to redeem us from eternal woe.” There, in Christ’s love alone would Campbell find unimaginable “peace and sweetness . . . transcendent beauty . . . [and] true happiness.” Judson closed by saying that he prayed regularly for Campbell’s conversion.706 Judson penned all of these devotional sentiments to Campbell in spite of his melancholy. And a year later, writing a letter in 1830 to Stella Bennett after the darkness had lifted, Judson still rejoiced in the “sweet peace in Jesus, which the world can neither give nor take away. O, the freeness, the richness of divine grace, through the blood of the cross!”707

As Judson suggested to Ann in 1810, in the aforementioned letters, enjoyment of religion would only come through strictly appropriating the means of grace, making the effort to draw near to God, seeking to never displease him, waiting upon him, and trembling at his Word. All of these spiritual exercises remained his priority at the end of his life. Forty years later, in her reminiscences of him, Emily characterized Judson’s spirituality with his unique ability to interpret everything, “whether trivial or important,” including common incidences, books, and casual conversations, with “a peculiarly spiritual train of thought.” Emily said that “Christ was all his theme.” She recalled that he exuded an otherworldly piety in his preaching. Judson’s practice was to prepare his sermons audibly, and in his preparations, he would be “so much affected as to weep.” Overcome with the weightiness of his sermon topic and the presence of Christ, he would sometimes choose another. Emily said she would often listen to him prepare extemporaneously for his sermons. She went on to say that “the fervid, burning eloquence, the deep pathos, the touching tenderness, the elevation of thought, and intense beauty of expression,” of his “private teachings” were beyond anything she had ever experienced. Indeed, she said, at times his burning piety “surprised even himself.”708

In Judson’s final months, Emily described his enjoyment of Christ as increasing with his anticipation of meeting Christ face-to-face. Though his health declined, Judson gave himself increasingly to prayer and communion with Christ. He continually meditated on Christ’s redemptive indicative, “As I have loved you [John 13:34].” Emily recalled that “he would murmur, as though unconsciously, ‘As I have loved you,’—‘as I have loved you,’—then burst out with the exclamation, ‘O, the love of Christ! the love of Christ!’” Emily said that he referred to himself regularly as a “great sinner, who had been overwhelmed with benefits.” The “unfathomable love” of Christ captivated him increasingly in his final months. She said tears would run down his face as he would exult aloud in the love of Christ, of which he said he had all of eternity to evermore enjoy.709

Importunate Praying

For Judson, the employment of self-denial was a means to being happy in Christ as the final aim of the progress of holiness. His son, Edward, described him as “possessed with a consuming zeal to be made holy . . . He was a man of prayer.” Edward described his father’s piety as “intense,” and though it led him into “extremes of self-denial,” Edward said his piety was indeed “a great religious nature, wrestling for Christ-likeness.” Edward went on to say he habitually walked “rapidly in the open air” and prayed and meditated. Judson would regularly pace back and forth in his room, and when his children heard his hard pacing, they knew “Papa is praying.”710 From his early days at Andover, Judson made it his habit of walking in the open air and praying and meditating on Scripture, which is what he was doing in the woods behind Andover when he was meditating on Mark 16:15 and sensed his call to missions.711

Judson often prayed with passion and persistence, especially for the salvation of sinners. Emily recorded that his prayers

were marked by an earnest, grateful enthusiasm, and in speaking of missionary operations in general, his tone was one of elevated triumph, almost of exultation; for he . . . felt an unshaken confidence in their final success.712

Judson also combined prayer with Scripture as he passionately interceded for those in his care. For instance, in a letter in May 1833 to Stella Bennett, whose husband and two daughters had returned to America, Judson described his recent intercession for her and her daughters. He said he had a “remarkable instance of divine guidance” where it was as if Christ himself were “pointing out the particular passage, and shedding a flood of light on the sacred page.” Judson said he prayed for her daughters, and he said, “It was the only time that I had ever been enabled to pray for them, and I had a momentary feeling that they would receive some saving impression before they reached home.” He recorded his intense prayer for them in this instance because at other times he said he felt as though he were merely a “prayerless, heartless creature.”713

Judson believed that revival of true religion was God’s appointed means of ushering in Christ’s glory, and he believed that it was effected through persevering prayer. In a letter to William Crane (1790–1866)714 about Crane’s attempt to “revive the state of true religion” in Baltimore, Judson praised his “faithful and persevering labors to counteract the overwhelming tide of immorality and false religion.” Judson prayed that Crane would see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and an ingathering of lost souls. Judson said, “‘Nothing is impossible to industry,’ said one of the seven sages of Greece. Let us change the word industry for persevering prayer, and the motto will be more Christian and worthy of universal adoption.” Judson went on to argue that Christians are weaker in prayer than any other grace. Seeking to arouse expectancy for receiving the blessing of God through persistent prayer, he said,

God loves importunate prayer so much that he will not give us much blessing without it; and the reason he loves such prayer is, that he loves us, and knows it is necessary for our receiving the richest blessings which he is waiting and longing to bestow.715

Judson believed that God would guide him as a weak child looks to his father to supply his every need and show him the way he should go.716 He also believed that persevering prayer would not only effect a revival, but that it would also be the means through which missionaries could ascertain wise methods for disseminating the Gospel and evangelization. He said in a letter to Ira Chase (1793–1864), a professor at Andover Theological Seminary, in April 1822, that he did not know then how exactly the Spirit of Christ would lead him to introduce Christianity to Burma, but, he said, “We hope that such a discovery will in due time be granted to humble trust and fervent prayer.”717

True Religion and Family

Judson may have been busy in his translation efforts, but he, nevertheless, spent time worshiping with his family, seeking the spiritual improvement of his family as he did for himself.718 From the perspective of the aforementioned unbelieving Anglo-Indian merchant, Henry Gouger, who suffered with Judson in prison, Judson’s home exuded the warmth of evangelical piety. Gouger said that during their family worship times, he was astonished at

the reverence of demeanour, the propriety of language, and above all the knowledge of the New Testament and its saving doctrines, which some of them manifested in their extempore prayer. No one who heard could doubt their sincerity.719

Despite his sacrifice on behalf of the Burmans, Judson’s heart yearned for the salvation of his family, especially his children.720 After his death, Emily wrote to his sister, Abigail, and in the letter, Emily described Judson’s dying days as growing in his enjoyment of communion with Christ. From these times of “private devotions,” he was motivated to intercede increasingly for “special subjects of prayer,” of which he was predominantly burdened for “the conversion of his posterity.” She said that he always devoted himself to praying for his children, but he was devoted to praying also for their children and the ensuing generations, “so that he should ultimately meet a long, unbroken line of descendants before the throne of God, where all might join together in ascribing everlasting praises to their Redeemer.”721 His desire for them was that they too would enter his legacy and become ministers of the Gospel.722 In March 1839, Judson wrote to young George Dana, and said that he and George Dana’s mother, Sarah B. Judson, prayed for him every day in their family devotions. In the letter, Judson outlined for him the reality of the depraved heart, being “full of self-love, and wholly under the influence of self-will.” Judson charged him to “depend on the Word of God,” trusting in Christ. Judson said that the signs of a new heart are repentance and faith, without which George Dana would never go to heaven and see his parents again.723

Likewise, illustrating his deep concern for his children’s religion, in May 1848, Judson wrote a letter to his sons, Elnathan and Adoniram Brown, who were studying in Worcester, and he called them to a relentless love for Christ. He said that he rejoiced to hear that his son, Elnathan, was beginning “to entertain a hope in Christ.” He said that he believed that Abby Ann and they would “become true Christians, and meet [him] in heaven.” The reason he gave for his confidence of their conversions was that he was persevering in prayer for them. He believed his persistence was evidence of the strength of his faith. With the evangelical urgency of a missionary father, he implored them to seek Christ:

O, heaven is all. Life, life, eternal life! Without this, without an interest in the Lord of life, you are lost, lost forever . . . Give your heart at once to the Saviour. Don’t go to sleep without doing it. Try, try for your life. Don’t mind what anybody may say to the contrary, nor how much foolish boys may laugh at you. Love the dear Saviour, who has loved you unto death. Dear sons, so soon as you have a good hope in Christ that your sins are pardoned, and that Christ loves you, urge your pastor and the church to baptize and receive you into communion. They will hold back, thinking you are too young, and must give more evidence. But don’t be discouraged. Push on. Determine to do it. Determine to stand by Christ, come what will. That is the way to get to heaven.724

Around that same time, Judson wrote to his sons again and told them, “I pray for you every time I pray for myself.” He said that he had heard of revivals in different parts of the country, and he encouraged them to not only seek to experience one but to even begin one in Worcester. He then urged them to “cherish this desire in your hearts, and pray in faith that the blessing may come.” He went on to instruct them how to discern if the work of renewal in their souls was beginning. He said they would feel contrition for sins, fear of God’s wrath, love for Christ, and a devotion to him.725 In his farewell letter to his sons, in July of 1846, before setting sail for Burma, Judson wrote a short note, which he concluded, exhorting them: “Pray every morning and evening.”726

Poetry and Piety

In his letters and journals, Judson articulated both the heights of optimism and the depths of despondency, and occasionally he conveyed his piety through poetry.727 Judson found it difficult sometimes to express the degree of his intensity in straightforward prose. Truncated ministry reports at times turned into exclamations of either celebration or lamentation. The spiritual state of the Burmans often triggered his poetic expressions. He was not an unemotional, placid translator who only operated in the socially aloof mechanics of contextual and linguistic theory; rather, his conversionist piety expressed both joy over the conversion and baptism of even one Burman and sadness over the multitudes without a gospel witness. Moreover, he often composed his poems as prayers or praise directed to God. One way to identify his heightened level of emotion in his journals and letters is to note those circumstances that prompted him to compose or to quote poetry.

For example, after witnessing an old Karen chief “make a proper surrender of himself to Christ” and then receive baptism right before his death, Judson wrote of his joy in the salvation of souls. Judson was so relieved that God had mercifully delivered the man from the flames of hell. He exuberantly reflected on the man’s dying words, “The best of all is, God is with us,” and Judson composed a short poem to express his praise of God:

In these deserts let me labor,

On these mountains let me tell

How he died—the blessed Saviour,

To redeem a world from hell.728

This poem shows both how Judson viewed the purpose of Christ’s death and Judson’s reasonable response. Having reflected on the dying chief’s joy in God’s gracious, steadfast presence procured by Christ, Judson rejoiced that Christ died to deliver sinners from hell. And he started the poem by indicating what he believed to be his duty in light of such good news: to labor in remote lands to tell sinners of the gospel.

Furthermore, his more painful emotions often times elicited longer, more solemn poetry. A good example of this is his famous hymn that he likely wrote in 1829 during his dark season of despondency: “Come, Holy Spirit, Dove Divine.” It is helpful to understand the historical and spiritual contexts in which Judson wrote this hymn. The last three stanzas say,

We love Your name, we love Your laws,

And joyfully embrace Your cause;

We love Your cross, the shame, the pain,

O Lamb of God for sinners slain.

We sink beneath the water’s face,

And thank You for Your saving grace;

We die to sin and seek a grave

With You, beneath the yielding wave.

And as we rise with You to live,

O let the Holy Spirit give

The sealing unction from above,

The joy of life, the fire of love.729

This hymn seems to indicate a few things about how Judson viewed the struggles of the Christian life. Part of loving Christ, in Judson’s mind, entailed esteeming Christ’s cause, which Judson regularly considered to be the Great Commission. Devotion to glorifying the name of Christ involved enduring pain and dying to sin. And it also indicates how Judson upheld the role of believer’s baptism in marking the Christian as one set apart, united with Christ. In the final analysis, this hymn demonstrates his strong Christocentrism, with each stanza either addressing Christ or pleading with the Holy Spirit to stimulate more love to Christ in the Christian’s heart.

Having beheld much fruit among the Karen people, Judson wrote a letter to the American Baptist Board in June 1832, which the others at his mission station signed. He earnestly implored them to send more missionaries. For much of the second half of this very long letter, Judson prayed and appealed for God’s mercy upon both small villages and large cities alike throughout the Southeast Asia region. By the end of his prayer, the impression he gave is one of great urgency because of the hopelessness of so many unreached peoples. He concluded the letter pleading with God to pour out the Holy Spirit to help the missionaries “in the solemn and laborious work of translating and printing thine holy, inspired Word in the languages of these heathen. O, keep our faith from failing, our spirits from sinking.”730 But Judson did not sign off there; he wrote a poem to accentuate his aforementioned appeal. These famous extracts disclose his intense activistic spirituality:

A cry—a cry—is in the air!

It comes from Asia’s peopled plain;

A voice of grief, of love, and prayer—

O Christian, shall it come in vain?

To see, to hear, to think, to know,

All this—for deathless souls are there!

And yet have none for us to go—

This, this is more than we can bear!

O Christians! in the land we love,

And only left these souls to save—

Have ye no feeling hearts to move,

When pity pleads across the wave?731

In the context of his entire letter, these stanzas are short poetic expressions of how he viewed the weighty responsibility of the church to rescue perishing sinners from hell. Yet, he was skeptical that the American churches were burdened enough to send necessary support and laborers to reach the nations. Throughout this letter and poem, he contrasted the dire need of those languishing in spiritual barrenness against the comfortable churches of his native country that were hoarding plenteous resources that they could have used to influence the nations for Christ. This poem, in its longer form, illustrates how the heathen’s prospect of eternal suffering energized his Christ-centered activistic piety. This poem also reveals Judson’s strong conversionistic spirituality.

In January 1825, Ann gave birth to Maria. During this time, Judson was in prison, and though he was innocent and though Ann pleaded relentlessly for his release, the jailers would not let him out. During his long imprisonment, to convey his piety and hope in spite of his agony, he composed a prayerful poem for his newborn daughter, which was entitled, “Lines addressed to an infant daughter, twenty days old in the condemned prison of Ava.” The following lines are a few short extracts from the end of his very long lullaby, which he composed in March of 1825:

There is a God on high,

The glorious King of kings,

‘Tis He, to whom thy mother prays.

Whose love she sits and sings.

That glorious God, so kind,

Has sent his Son to save

Our ruined race from sin and death,

And raise them from the grave.

And to that covenant God,

My darling I commend;

Be thou the helpless orphan’s guide,

Her father and her friend.732

These few extracts reveal Judson’s reflections on the tenderness of God. He extolled God as exalted and glorious, but who, nevertheless, is loving and kind. He saw God’s kindness as supremely demonstrated in sending Christ to redeem sinners, and if God loved thus, certainly God would never forsake those whom Christ died to save. This poem shows that even in Judson’s absence, he trusted that his covenant-keeping God would aid little Maria as her enduring father and friend.733

In 1826, Ann died and Judson was left to mourn and persevere in his missionary labor. In a letter that December, to Ann’s mother, Judson described his resolve to exercise religion and find fresh communion through “the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings life and immortality to light.” He rejoiced in the “blessed assurance” that Ann was “rejoicing in the heavenly paradise,” and he expressed his joy in quoting a hymn:

Where glories shine, and pleasures roll

That charm, delight, transport the soul,

And every panting wish shall be

Possessed of boundless bliss in Thee.734

His quotation of this hymn underscores how his meditation on heavenly happiness sustained him. This poetic extract is illustrative of how often he composed poetry or quoted hymns that turned his meditations heavenward. Throughout his letters and journals, due to his Christ-centered orientation, there is a recurring pattern of eternity-minded poetry.

Judson also created poems and rhymes to encourage simple religion in his children. He wrote poetry for his children to help them pray to Jesus in a memorable way. For instance, he composed two separate stanzas, called, “Prayer to Jesus”:

Dear Jesus, hear me when I pray,

And take this naughty heart away;

Teach me to love thee, gracious Lord,

And learn to read thy holy word.

Come, dearest Saviour, take my heart,

And let me ne’er from thee depart;

From every evil set me free,

And all the glory be to thee.735

One other example of a simple prayer poem that he wrote for his children, called, “A Morning Prayer,” says,

My waking thoughts I raise to thee,

Who through the night hast guarded me;

Keep me this day from every ill,

And help me, Lord, to do thy will.736

His son, Adoniram B. Judson, also recalled a short rhyme that Judson wrote to remind his children to take delight in knowing God. Judson would quote this to his children for their comfort and guidance: “Be the living God my friend, then my joys shall never end.”737 Common in the poetry that he taught his children were themes such as Christ’s nearness, kindness, everlasting love, secure protection, and the need to seek Christ more through prayer and the Scriptures. By briefly surveying the poetry that he wrote for his children, it seems that Judson wished to impress upon their hearts and minds that Jesus was near and ready to help them. By analyzing other portions of his poetry throughout his journals and letters, the general themes of his frequent meditation come into view, which the above thematic samples all exemplify.

In sum, Judson sometimes found satisfying expression of his prayers through poetry. During times of great despair or great thanksgiving, he would often use poetry in his written prayers. Overall, his poetry included general themes such as Christ’s redeeming power and unending love, God’s great kindness and sustaining grace, the desperate plight of the perishing and the urgent need for gospel proclamation, and the pain of death and the happy hope of eternal bliss in Christ’s presence. Often he penned his prayerful poems for his family to meditate on and even to use for their own prayer times. Judson believed that prayer was essential for enjoying communion with Christ, and he saw poetry as subservient to that great end.

Conclusion

All of his Christian life, Adoniram Judson eagerly sought to know Christ and love him more. This was his controlling ambition. He desired to imitate and please his Master through benevolent self-denial in submission to the will of God. Judson aimed to obey Christ’s final command through gospel proclamation and persevering prayer. His evangelical assurance grounded itself in the reality of his obedience to Christ’s command. The great judgment, and the prospects of eternal misery and eternal happiness, compelled him to keep onward, no matter the cost, to please Christ.

Though evangelical activism permeated his Christocentric spirituality, Judson also treasured the joy of drawing near to Christ through meditation and prayer. Practicing true religion was not supplemental to his missionary spirituality; it was essential. Because he valued the enjoyment of true religion so much, he prayed for and called others to seek the pleasure of religion as well. His children’s piety was of special concern for him. Judson prayed daily for their salvation and that they would heed Christ’s command. He sometimes found release in moments of strong emotion through poetry, whether that emotion be joy or despondency. Because of the glory of Christ’s indescribable love, Judson longed for that day when Christ’s glory would fill the earth and usher in perfect peace and love. To that end, he prayed perseveringly. Thus, Judson followed his Savior to Burma, the love of Christ satisfying him, with a supreme desire to please him. Awaiting his happy reward, on his death bed, he declared, “O, the love of Christ! the love of Christ! . . . We cannot understand it now—but what a beautiful study for eternity!”738

643. See Emily Chubbuck Judson, “Closing Scenes in Dr. Judson’s Life,” 36.

644. Boreham, A Temple of Topaz, 134.

645. The Southern Baptist preacher, Basil Manly, Jr. (1825–1892), preached a sermon called, “The Christian Motive,” from 2 Corinthians 5:14. At the outset, he referenced Judson’s “missionary spirit” and “emphatic Christianity” to illustrate “the great principle that the love of Christ is alone the motive which prompts to true Christian obedience, constitutes the theme of the preacher.” Manly Jr., “The Christian Motive,” 169–72.

646. See Mark 16:15.

647. Daniel Worcester Faunce was the pastor of Baptist Churches in Washington D. C. and in Worcester. He studied at Amherst College and Newton Theological Institute. He served as a member of the Board of Managers of the American Baptist Missionary Union. One of his well-known works was Faunce, A Young Man’s Difficulties with His Bible. He was also the father of W. H. P. Faunce (1859–1930), president of Brown University.

648. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 460–61. One biographer commented on Judson’s influence on Faunce to please Christ; see Warburton, Eastward, 195.

649. Wayland, Memoir, 2:369; emphasis in original.

650. Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 385–87. In 1845, Judson addressed the students at Madison University in Hamilton, New York, about the struggles of missionary labor. At the conclusion of his address, he implored them to “look to Jesus,” which would be their source of “the greatest consolation and delight.” He directed them to look to the manifestations of Christ’s love on the cross and of Christ’s happiness in heaven. By looking to Christ, they would find strength in affliction, comfort in trial, security in death, and salvation at the Judgment. Then he closed his appeal, grounding his call to their benevolent self-denial in the love of Christ for them. Judson asserted, “Jesus loves you, how can you avoid loving him with all your heart, and mind, and strength? You cannot then hesitate to be and to do all that he requires at any and every conceivable cost.” Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 474. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 373–74. After this address at Madison University, Josiah Hatt (1821–1857), a student at the time but later the pastor of the Baptist Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, said, “It is useless to attempt a description of the electric effect of these compendious sentences. Dr. Maginnis [that is, John Sharp Maginnis (1805–1852), the Professor of Biblical Theology] was himself deeply moved . . . Dr. Conant [that is, T. J. Conant (1802–1891), the Professor of Hebrew] followed with the concluding prayer, and, notwithstanding the concise and classical style which marks all his performances, it was so full of heavenly unction that it was evident that he had drunk deeply into the spirit of the occasion. As for Dr. Eaton [that is, George W. Eaton (1804–1872), the President of Madison University], his emotional soul literally rocked with intensity.” Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 372–73; emphasis in original. Also, Judson illustrated his convictions from this address nineteen years earlier after his release from his tortuous prison sentence in Ava. Judson wrote a letter, which remained unpublished, to Francis Wayland, then the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston. In the letter, Judson said, “When I look back upon those scenes of horror, through which we passed, I can hardly realize that I am now free and happy. Our lives were spared and our deliverance finally effected in answer, I believe, to the prayers of our dear friends at home. I desire to devote the remainder of my days to His service, who in wrath remembered mercy.” Adoniram Judson to Rev Francis Wayland, letter, May 13, 1826, Box No. AJ 6, Folder 2 and Microfilm Roll 2, Judson Letters, ABHS.

651. Wayland, Memoir, 2:486–94. In Judson’s self-denying imitation of Christ, the church historian John Woolman Brush (1899–1990) well said, “Judson was indeed a Gethsemane soul.” Brush, “The Magnetism of Adoniram Judson,” 3.

652. Adoniram Judson, A View of the Christian Religion, 1–3; Adoniram Judson, “A View of the Christian Religion,” in Septenary, 13–21. For an easily accessible version, see also McElroy, Adoniram Judson’s Soul Winning Secrets Revealed, 27–29. See also Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 568–72.

653. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 469–70; Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 374–76. In January 1846, while traveling through Washington after giving this address in Philadelphia in December 1845 and before his address in Richmond in February 1846, Judson concluded a letter to Emily Chubbuck, thus: “Christ went about doing good—May it be our glory to imitate his example!” According to Rosalie Hall Hunt, this letter from Judson to Emily on January 26, 1846 is “in possession of a Judson descendant.” See Hunt, Bless God and Take Courage, 211, 370.

654. Judson was speaking at the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

655. Middledicth, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 384–85.

656. See Adoniram Judson, A Digest of Scripture, 79–107.

657. Adoniram Judson, The Threefold Cord.

658. See Acts 10:38.

659. Adoniram Judson, The Threefold Cord, 5; see also Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 575; Wayland, Memoir, 2:464; emphasis in original. In the original tract, the italicized words were capitalized for added emphasis. For examples of Judson’s self-described devotion to doing good according to each person specific path for the glory of Christ, see his lecture in 1845 at Brown University in Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 362–64; and Wayland, Memoir, 2:227–28. Also for a similar example, see his letter to the Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Board, Lucius Bolles, in March 1826. In that letter Judson illustrated his belief that, though there may be good alternative paths of doing good, there is one path of duty on which Christians would be most fruitful. He went on to outline what he believed was his specific path of glorifying Christ through preaching the gospel. See Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 215; and see Wayland, Memoir, 2:421.

660. Hague, The Life and Character of Adoniram Judson, 7.

661. To read all his Rules of Life, see Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 315–16; Wayland, Memoir, 1:322–23; Wayland, Memoir, 2:61, 103, 190.

662. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 315. See also Wayland, Memoir, 1:322.

663. Wayland, Memoir, 2:190.

664. Adoniram Judson, Christian Baptism, 93; emphasis in original.

665. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 473–74. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:234–35; emphasis in original.

666. Hutchison, Errand to the World, 49; quoting from Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 473.

667. In the foreword of To the Golden Shore, Courtney Anderson asked a similar but truncated version of Judson’s question here; see Anderson, To the Golden Shore, ix.

668. Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 384–85. As previously mentioned, forty-six days earlier on December 24, 1845, Judson preached at an assembly in Philadelphia about the cost of following Christ to the mission field. He made the identical assertion about the excellence of Christ’s union of divine and human natures. Yet, Judson argued, in view of the beauty of Christ, the Christian’s necessary duty is to imitate him and “go and do good.” Therefore, comparing these two similar sermons, Judson demonstrated that in light of the magnificence of Christ, his duty was to deny himself and imitate Christ by going as a missionary and doing good through gospel proclamation; and, his motivation for such Christ-imitating activism was an all-consuming desire to please his Master. See Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 469–70. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 374–76.

669. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 474. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:235. For similar statements in various letters regarding when Christ’s Spirit called Judson to missions through his prayers and meditation on Mark 16:15, see Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 22; Wayland, Memoir, 1:51–52; and also, see Conant, The Earnest Man, 42–44.

670. See his letter on December 18, 1837, to Stephen Chapin, in Conant, Earnest Man, 49–50. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 25–26; and Wayland, Memoir, 1:51–53.

671. This was from a letter on December 30, 1810 to Ann. See Wayland, Memoir, 1:32.

672. Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 384–85.

673. Warburton, Eastward, 119. Compare the sermon by Leonard Woods at Judson’s ordination in 1812 to Judson’s motives for showing benevolence to the lost, for obeying the Great Commission (see Mark 16:15), and for Christ to be ultimately glorified. There are many similarities. See Woods, A Sermon Delivered at the Tabernacle in Salem, 11–29.

674. Adoniram Judson, journal, February 28, 1831 to March 4, 1831, Box No. AJ 4, Folder 2 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS. In order to emphasize his ardor in his letters, Judson often underscored salient points. For instance, in this letter, he wrote in the original, “[C]ome to our rescue, ye bright sons and daughters of America [which he underlined one time for emphasis]; come and save us, for we are sinking into hell [which he underlined twice for extra emphasis].” The Baptist Missionary Magazine transcribed and published it with italics and capitals. Often when Judson underlined something in his hand-written letters, the transcription italicized it. And when he double-underlined something, the transcription capitalized it. See Adoniram Judson, “Extracts from Mr. Judson’s Journal, to Rev. Dr. Bolles, Rangoon, Feb. 28, 1831 [to March 4, 1831],” 374; and see Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 273–74; Wayland, Memoir, 1:525–26. Emphasis in original.

675. Adoniram Judson, “Mr. Judson’s Letter to Rev. Mr. Grow,” 32. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 273–74. This was a letter of thanks to James Grow in Thompson, Connecticut who donated fifty dollars for publication materials. See Bayles, History of Windham County, 677. In that letter Judson lamented the overwhelming needs and the meager supply of missionaries and materials. Also, on this same day, Judson wrote a letter of sympathy and encouragement to Sarah Boardman, whose husband, George Boardman, had just died on February 11, 1831. When writing these letters, Judson was grieving the loss of Boardman, his coworker. See Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 374–75.

676. Wayland, Memoir, 2:235; Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 474; emphasis in original. He was speaking here to the Boardman Missionary Society at Waterville College, in 1846. Related to unashamed dedication to heeding the Great Commission, in some sketches and anecdotes of her marriage to Judson, Emily, his widow, recorded his single-minded devotion to preaching Christ as a missionary and his refusal to entertain people with stories of his labors. See Wayland, Memoir, 2:368–70; and Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 459–60. One of Judson’s colleagues described him as uncommonly disinclined to talking of himself and his notable experiences, but he was happy to talk about Christ. See Stevens, A Half-Century in Burma, 12–17.

677. Wayland, Memoir, 2:519.

678. In connection with Judson’s contention that all Christians should endeavor to obey Christ’s Great Commission, his third wife, Emily, recorded Judson saying that though most Christians could not go, they could pray and send others. He said there are many unknown Christians in America who pray for the advance of the gospel and so participate truly in the Great Commission. He said, “There is many a martyr spirit at the kitchen fire, over the wash tub, and in the plough field.” Yet, he admitted that many others do not even heed the Great Commission through the simple act of prayer, and they thus prove that they regard Christ’s final command “with slumberous indifference.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:372.

679. Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 398–400. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:519–21. Addressing the ninth annual meeting of the American and Foreign Bible Society in New York, held two months earlier, in May of 1846, Judson issued a series of woes to those who withhold the treasure of God’s translated and preached Word from their neighbors, and presumably he meant the nations in particular. He said it was difficult to imagine anyone experiencing genuine assurance of heaven without spending oneself for the translation and proclamation of the Bible. In light of the explosion of missionary societies and missions mobilization, Judson asked stridently, “Can any believer in the Christian religion hope to lie down in the grave, and pass quietly to paradise, without having made some effort to diffuse the light of the Bible throughout the world?” Judson went on to warn professing Christians against entertaining false assurance of their conversion if they did nothing to help reach those “who have never . . . tasted so much as one drop of the water of that well from which [they were] drawing and drinking every day.” Judson went on to say that such Christians should ask themselves what they have done in light of the financial investment, the years of toil, and the actual lives sacrificed in order to translate, print, publish, and disseminate the Bible. He said if such people were honest with their consciences they would flee to God and plead for mercy for their indifference to sharing the Word of God with the perishing millions. Such repentance would cause them to enthusiastically, resolutely, and devoutly embrace the work, and such effort would “secure the approving smile of the Saviour” and thus evidence fruit in keeping with repentance. Adoniram Judson to the American and Foreign Bible Society, address, May 15, 1846, Papers, 1811–1888, Trask Library Special Collections, Newton Centre, Massachusetts; see also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 388–91; and Wayland, Memoir, 2:235–38. Moreover, Judson wrote a letter to the American Baptist Board eight years earlier on December 21, 1838, which sounds strikingly similar to the manuscript of his address at the American and Foreign Bible Society, held May 15, 1846, in New York. See Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 318–19. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:126–27. With similar forwardness, in a letter fourteen years earlier on November 21, 1832, Judson pleaded with the “numerous and flourishing” Baptist churches of the United States, “sitting every man under his vine and under his fig tree, laden with the richest fruit,” to send their young men as servants of the cross to assist in his tireless labor for the conversion of souls. Adoniram Judson to Baptist Churches in America, letter, November 21, 1832, Box No. AJ 2, Folder 2 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS; Adoniram Judson, “Letter of Rev. Mr. Judson, to the Baptist Churches in the United States of America, Maulmein, Nov. 21, 1832,” 245–46. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 303; and Wayland, Memoir, 2:56–57. Likewise, Judson wrote a similar letter in 1817, fifteen years before the aforementioned letter in 1832 and thirty-one years before his address in 1846 to the American and Foreign Bible Society in New York. In the letter from 1817 he said, “O that all the members of the Baptist convention could live in Rangoon one month! Will the Christian world ever awake? Will means ever be used adequate to the necessities of the heathen world? O Lord, send help.” Adoniram Judson to Rev Thomas Baldwin, letter, February 10, 1817, Box No. AJ 1, Folder 1 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS. See also Wayland, Memoir, 1:186–87. Moreover, in 1847, in relation to the decrease of funds, Judson said, “The Baptist churches in America are behind the age in missionary spirit . . . The Baptist missions will probably pass into the hands of other denominations, or be temporarily suspended; and those who have occupied the van will fall back into the rear.” Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 512–13.

680. Wayland, Memoir, 2:372.

681. See ibid., 2:381–82.

682. Ibid., 2:235; emphasis in original. One well-researched biographer said, “His piety was formed in no common model. It sprung intimate nearness and constant fellowship with the Son of God. More than most men, he was a man of prayer. In this respect he lived by rule.” Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 437. For a well-written summary of Judson’s prayer life, see Warburton, Eastward, 119–20.

683. For example, in a report to the Corresponding Secretary, Solomon Peck, on March 28, 1847, Judson identified the growing number of Christian converts throughout Burma as those who were, “penitent, believing, praying souls.” Adoniram Judson to Solomon Peck, report, March 28, 1847, Box No. AJ 3, Folder 4 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:284–88.

684. Adoniram Judson, journal, January 25 to May 31, 1828, Box No. AJ 4, Folder 3 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS. See also Adoniram Judson, “Dr. Judson’s Journal, Jan. 25, 1828 [to May 31, 1828],” 73–74. For another example of how Judson associated secret prayer with God drawing a sinner, see Adoniram Judson, “Mr. Judson’s Letter, to the American Missionaries in Rangoon and Maulmein,” 55–58. Additionally, in a similar vein to this account of Judson’s scrutiny of the piety of Moung Bo, nine years earlier Judson had started the first Burman prayer meeting in November of 1819 with the first three Burmese converts. He was delighted to find out four days later that they had continued to meet regularly in the zayat for prayer meetings “of their own accord.” Their personal initiation to pray together gave him hope that their spirituality was real. See Wayland, Memoir, 1:240. Furthermore, the following year, after many evangelistic conversations with another Burman man, Moung Shwa-gnong, Judson still held reservations regarding the authenticity of his conversion. However, in July 1820, he said that he finally felt sure that Moung Shwa-gnong was the “subject of the special operations of the Holy Spirit,” and that he was “indeed a true disciple.” Judson concluded this because of Moung Shwa-gnong’s “account of his mental trials, his struggles with sin, his strivings to be holy, his penitence, his faith, his exercises in secret prayer.” Wayland, Memoir, 1:280. In a letter on May 21, 1848 to Solomon Peck, twenty-eight years later, Judson was encouraged that the Burmans were still going to the “throne of grace” in prayer.” Adoniram Judson to Solomon Peck, report, May 21, 1848, Box No. AJ 4, Folder 2 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:306–7.

685. Wayland, Memoir, 2:159; emphasis in original. Likewise, when counseling a Burman man, Moung Thah-lah, who was showing signs of being drawn to Christ, Judson said, “I stated to him, as usual, that he must think much on the love of Christ, and pray to God for an enlightened and loving heart, and then gave him a form of prayer suited to his case.” Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 128.

686. One anonymous missionary recorded that Judson used “the word grace very frequently, and in a way somewhat peculiar to himself . . . ‘I think he has grace,’ ‘I fear he is without grace,’ were very common expressions with him.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:332; emphasis in original.

687. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 444. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:193–94. Abby Ann remembered this concluding rhyme. Having mourned the death of so many loved ones in her young life, Abby Ann sought to hold on to those bygone relations and to even communicate with the dead. Consequently, she became a spiritualist in 1887. In a book that she wrote about mediumship, she cited this rhyme from her father in the context of explaining how to “take the initial step in soul-culture.” Abby Ann Judson, The Bridge Between Two Worlds, 63. In her concluding chapter of that book, she claimed to have had an encounter with her father through a medium, in which he supposedly said that he should not have sacrificed his life for the world and that people “are saved by doing, not by believing.” Abby Ann Judson, “Communication from My Father, Adoniram Judson,” 206. Also, to see more supposed communications with her father, mother, and even Jonathan Edwards, see Abby Ann Judson, “Personal Communications,” 260–63. To read the letter that she wrote for the Judson Centennial Services in 1888, see Abby Ann Judson, “To the First Baptist Church, Malden, Mass.,” 50.

688. Wayland, Memoir, 1:57–58. For more examples of Judson’s effort to enjoy Christ in the midst of grief, see his letter on December 4, 1827 to Ann’s sisters, in Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 231–32, and see his letter on September 2, 1845 to the Burmese mission, in Wayland, Memoir, 2:203–4.

689. Wayland, Memoir, 2:139–40.

690. Ibid., 2:498.

691. Ibid., 2:499.

692. The death of Judson’s brother Elnathan Judson, in 1829, marked the turning point for Judson. Elnathan had trusted in Christ on his deathbed, and when Judson heard this news, he said in a letter, “When I read this account, I went into my little room, and could only shed tears of joy.” Anderson, To the Golden Shore, 391.

693. Wayland, Memoir, 1:480; emphasis in original.

694. In contrast to his frustration with lethargic Christians, Judson had previously highlighted examples of “deep and ardent piety” expressed in passion for “the kingdom of Christ,” and prayer for “revival of religion,” which he admired in his late friend and seminary roommate, Lewis Le Count Congar (1787–1810) of Newark, New Jersey. Judson witnessed Congar die slowly from a typhus fever, and after his death on January 6, 1810, Judson wrote a short narrative of his dying days; see Adoniram Judson, “Narrative [of Lewis Le Count Congar],” 155–59. See also Richards, A Discourse, Delivered 14th January, 1810, at Newark.

695. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 13–14.

696. Wayland, Memoir, 1:33. He demonstrated this effort to practice the means of enjoying religion throughout his life. For example, in 1821 during Ann’s voyage back to America for health concerns, Judson wrote to Daniel Sharp in September 1821. He said that though there was “not a single person” who could cheer him, yet he roused himself to seek his joy in Christ, “committing this forlorn hope into the hands of the Great Captain of our salvation.” Judson took heart, knowing that Christ “is able to keep those who are persecuted from being forsaken, and those who are cast down from being destroyed.” Adoniram Judson, “Letter from Mr. Judson to Mr. Sharp, Dated Rangoon, September 17, 1821,” 344–45. For another example, see Adoniram Judson to the Rev. Thomas Baldwin, letter, February 19, 1824, Box No. AJ 1, Folder 2 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS; for a short extract, see Adoniram Judson, “Letter from Dr. Judson to Rev. Dr. Baldwin, Dated Ava, Feb. 19, 1824,” 22–23.

697. Wayland, Memoir, 1:507–8. See Ranney, A Sketch of the Lives and Missionary Work.

698. See Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 315–16; Wayland, Memoir, 1:322–23; Wayland, Memoir, 2:61, 103, 190.

699. These and some others were the “Topics to Encourage Prayer” that Edward Judson compiled. See Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 314.

700. Wayland also compiled a list of “Topics to Encourage Prayer,” in which he included those that Edward Judson compiled and seven additional points that Wayland found. See Wayland, Memoir, 1:533.

701. Adoniram Judson, The Threefold Cord, 1–2.

702. Wayland, Memoir, 2:158–60.

703. Bendroth, A School of the Church, 21.

704. Rowe, History of Andover, 36–37.

705. See Wayland, Memoir, 1:473.

706. The whole letter is quoted in “Adoniram Judson,” The Friend, 69–70. See also Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 311–14

707. Wayland, Memoir, 1:512–13.

708. Ibid., 2:336–37. For more about Judson’s prayerful and meditative practice for sermon preparation, see Emily’s description in ibid., 2:390–91.

709. Emily Chubbuck Judson, “Closing Scenes in Dr. Judson’s Life,” 36. Similarly, in Judson’s concluding appeal to the Society for Missionary Inquiry at Brown University in 1845, he said, “When our work is done on earth, may we all be raised to heaven, where we shall know more of his love to us, and love him more.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:228. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 364. Judson wrote in his journal in 1834 that he expected that he would know Christ more in this life and that such enjoyment would increase throughout eternity, “consummated in the bright world of love.” Adoniram Judson, journal, March 12, 1834 to April 10, 1834, Journal, Box No. AJ 4, Folder 4 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:83.

710. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 311. Judson would also prepare for preaching by walking, meditating on Scripture, and praying fervently aloud; see Emily’s account in Wayland, Memoir, 2:389–90.

711. See Conant, The Earnest Man, 43. See also Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 22; and see Wayland, Memoir, 1:52. Before their marriage in 1812, Judson wrote to Ann in January 1811, and pondered the unknown hazards they would likely face as missionaries. In view of potential suffering and even death, Judson urged her to “pray with earnestness,” and then he exclaimed, “O for an overcoming faith.” Wayland, Memoir, 1:35. Ann recalled later that he would “spend whole days in fasting and prayer, taking no nourishment but a little fruit in the morning.” Wayland, Memoir, 1:31.

712. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 532. In May 1852, two years after Judson’s death, his fellow missionary, the L. Ingalls wrote to Francis Wayland, and described Judson’s passionate praying: “The Burmans lay near his heart; he was accustomed to spend a portion of each day in secret prayer for them. I had the privilege of enjoying some of these seasons, and shall never forget those hallowed hours. He not only prayed, but labored.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:355. Wayland observed that because of Judson’s “unshaken confidence in God,” Judson continually asked “until he received in his own consciousness an assurance that his requests would be granted.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:381. Wayland also said that Judson was “always relying with earnest prayer on the power of the Holy Spirit to make the truth effectual for the regeneration of men.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:388. Ann recorded an evangelistic conversation Judson had with her language teacher on September 30, 1815, in which Judson said he prayed every day for the teacher’s salvation. See Wayland, Memoir, 1:173. For another illustration of Judson praying for the salvation of an individual, see Judson’s journal entry on April 29, 1819 in Wayland, Memoir, 1:216, and also see his journal entry on June 23, 1819 in Wayland, Memoir, 1:223–24. Judson combined fervent praying with his evangelical activity. While on the ship, Ramsay, during his voyage to Port Louis and Maulmain in 1841, Judson “made it a matter of prayer to God that he might be instrumental in turning some of them [that is, the sailors] from the error of their ways; and, before going on board, expressed a conviction that God had heard him.” Judson “earnestly prayed,” and through much “private instruction,” three sailors were converted. When they arrived at Maulmain, Judson baptized the captain (who doubted his infant baptism), the three other sailors, and a Burmese woman. This account was taken from a pamphlet entitled, “A Brief Narrative of the last Voyage of the Ship Ramsay, of Greenock; illustrative [sic] of the Beneficial Effects of Total Abstinence, and the Success of the Gospel in the Conversion of a Number of the Crew, the Formation of a Church on Board, &c., &c.,” compiled by John Simpson, published in Greenock; quoted in Wayland, Memoir, 2:182–84. In a letter in December 1841, to his mother, Abigail Brown Judson, and sister, Abigail Judson, Judson recorded the event and joyfully spoke of the “pleasure” he felt in seeing the sailors converted and baptized. Wayland, Memoir, 2:187.

713. Wayland, Memoir, 2:68; emphasis in original.

714. Crane moved from Richmond to Baltimore and helped establish the Maryland Baptist Union Association. A churchman and a proponent of Sunday School and Bible study, Crane also strongly opposed slavery; he helped establish the first African American Baptist church in Maryland on February 20, 1836. For a short introductory biography, see Moore, William Crane, Layman Extraordinary.

715. Wayland, Memoir, 2:151; emphasis in original. In Judson’s, A Digest of Scripture, he outlined the basic biblical teaching on prayer. He concluded the chapter on the essential doctrines of prayer with a section called, “It Must be Earnest and Persevering.” Adoniram Judson, A Digest of Scripture, 124–30.

716. Emily recorded that Judson would often say things like, “‘If God has designed a work for us to do, he will arrange all the little particulars, and we have only to trust in him;’ ‘If it be the will of God, never fear for the consequences,’ &c.” And she said that “the way he learned the will of God, was prayerfully to look for manifestations of it; not in any wonderful way, but as an affectionate child almost intuitively seems to know what will please a parent.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:372.

717. Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 169. Wayland observed that the more he faced discouragements and setbacks, “the more earnestly he fasted and prayed for the coming of the Holy Spirit.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:387.

718. Wayland, Memoir, 2:394–96.

719. Gouger, A Personal Narrative, 177.

720. With evangelical fervency in prayer, similar to his importunate praying for the heathen and for his own children, Judson also prayed perseveringly for the conversion of his brother, Elnathan, who had trusted in Christ about ten minutes before his death. See Wayland, Memoir, 1:474–75. For another example of Judson’s prayers for his family, see a letter on December 13, 1827 to his mother and sister following his father’s death; in it Judson prayed for them to enjoy the “divine presence” in spite of “the repeated strokes of our heavenly Father’s hand” in their anticipation of “the high enjoyment of everlasting life.” Ibid., 1:443–44.

721. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 530–36. In July 1846, Judson left his daughter, Abby Ann, in Bradford at the old homestead of the Hasseltine family. Judson said that he prayed passionately that she and her siblings would submit to Christ and thus meet him again in heaven in the presence of Christ. See Adoniram Judson, “Adoniram Judson’s Letter to His Daughter Abby Ann,” 14. See also Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 522. In a final letter to Abby Ann, in October 1849, Judson said that he was sad that she had not yet given her “heart to the Saviour.” He warned her: “Believe me, that every year; every month, you live without grace, will occasion you a loss that will be irreparable through all eternity.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:322. Emily also recorded that “he always prayed most fervently, both in [sic] his own behalf and that of his children, for a long life of labor and self-denial.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:366–68.

722. For some examples, see some letters Judson wrote to George Dana on August 23, 1836, in Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 419–20; on January 26, 1846, in Wayland, Memoir, 2:241–42; and on December 24, 1840, in Wayland, Memoir, 2:158–60.

723. Wayland, Memoir, 2:135–36. Nearly two years later, Judson wrote again to George Dana on December 24, 1840, and said that he and Sarah earnestly prayed every morning during family devotions for the salvation of all their children. Then Judson instructed him to “never neglect the duty of secret prayer. Never let a morning or evening pass without going into some room or place by yourself, kneeling down and spending five or ten minutes at least in praying to God, in the name of Jesus Christ.” Judson urged him to “pray earnestly” for a renewed heart and prove with “satisfactory evidence” the validity of his conversion. Ibid., 2:158–60. George Dana subsequently professed faith in Christ in 1843. See Judson’s letter to George Dana on April 7, 1843, in Ibid., 2:190.

724. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 523. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:307–8. At the time of writing Judson’s memoir, Wayland said, “[Judson] ever prayed for the early conversion of his children; and it is worthy of remark that, since his death, three of them have, as we hope, become heirs of eternal life.” Wayland, Memoir, 2:381.

725. Wayland, Memoir, 2:241. See also another letter in 1846 to Adoniram Brown and Elnathan expressing Judson’s desire for their conversion, in ibid., 2:242.

726. Ibid., 2:259.

727. After studying the whole Judson corpus, Wayland said that Judson’s poetry manifested “a talent for versification, sometimes called into action by the humorous, and at other times by the devout or the pathetic.” Ibid., 2:375. One account recorded Judson’s poetic skills even in Burmese: “Dr. Judson composed that first hymn more nearly in accordance with the complicated style of Burmese poetry than any other now in our collections.” Stevens, A Half-Century in Burma, 12. Commenting on the dominance of poetry and literary elegance in Judson’s letters, Kendrick said, “Dr. Judson was unquestionably one of the finest epistolary writers in our language—chaste, simple, elegant, every word selected with felicitous yet unconscious precision, and passing spontaneously from delicate playfulness into those regions of sacred thought in which he habitually dwelt.” Kendrick, The Life and Letters of Mrs. Emily C. Judson, 154. See also Rosalie Hall Hunt’s comments in Hunt, Bless God and Take Courage, 210–11.

728. Adoniram Judson, journal, February 29, 1832 to June 25, 1832, Box No. AJ 4, Folder 8 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS; Adoniram Judson, “Mr. Judson’s Journal, Feb. 29th, 1832 [to May 16, 1832],” 41–45. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:44–45; and Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 294.

729. Adoniram Judson, “Come, Holy Spirit, Dove Divine,” 586. Judson is also wrote the following hymns: “Our Father God, Who Art in Heaven” and “Our Saviour Bowed Beneath the Wave.” See Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 609.

730. Dowling, The Judson Offering, 175–81.

731. Ibid., 181–82.

732. Ibid., 89–91. See also Wayland, Memoir, 1:380–83. The poem’s last five stanzas are in Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 193.

733. After writing this poem, Judson composed a versification of the Lord’s Prayer for the purpose of meditation and prayer to sustain his mind through the unremitting agonies of prison. See Adoniram Judson, “The Lord’s Prayer,” poem, March 1, 1825, Box No. AJ 4, Folder 3 and Microfilm Roll 1, Judson Letters, ABHS; Adoniram Judson, “The Lord’s Prayer Versified in the Shortest Compass,” poem, March 1, 1825, Box No. AJ 1, Folder 1 and Microfilm Roll 1, ABHS. See also Wayland, Memoir, 1:384–85.

734. Middleditch, Burmah’s Great Missionary, 222. See also Wayland, Memoir, 1:420–21. From a hymn by Isaac Watts; see Watts and Rippon, The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts, 215.

735. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 427. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:136.

736. Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 427. See also Wayland, Memoir, 2:137; for more short poems of prayers that he composed for his children to use, see Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 427; and Wayland, Memoir, 2:136–37. He even found the prayerful poetry of others to be helpful in his meditation and praying. For instance, see his journal entry on March 20, 1839 in Wayland, Memoir, 2:141. For a number of poems that Judson wrote for his stepson, George Dana, see Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson, 419–20; and see Wayland, Memoir, 2:111.

737. Adoniram Brown Judson, How Judson Became a Baptist Missionary, 3.

738. Emily Chubbuck Judson, “Closing Scenes in Dr. Judson’s Life,” 36.

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