1. Early Life, Conversion, and Missionary Calling
Adoniram Judson
and the Missionary Call
Adoniram Judson,[1] the first foreign missionary from the United States of America, was born in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1788. His father was a congregational minister. Judson became famous as the senior Baptist missionary of Burma, pioneer to the Burmese people and translator of the whole Bible into Burmese. Fame accrued to him through the severity of his sufferings and his devotion exemplified in their midst. The only time he returned to America was toward the end of his life, when he was constrained to do so by the illness of his wife. That was in 1845. He returned to Burma in 1846, and died there in 1850.
This booklet sketches his early life up to the time of his settlement in Burma. It then follows his life, concentrating on four areas of conflict which tested his devotion to the full.
1. Early Life, Conversion, and Missionary Calling
From his early years Adoniram revealed the gift of a brilliant mind. Encouraged by his father, he excelled in everything he did. At 16 he attended Rhode Island Christian College. There he fell in with free thinkers and atheists. He was influenced by the powerful personality of a fellow student, Jacob Eames. Eames derided faith; a poured scorn on the Gospel message. Did not the new rationalism show all that to be out of date? Adoniram imbibed this unbelief. He graduated with a BA degree in September 1807. On his return home he opened a private school in the town of Plymouth. At about that time he wrote and had published two high quality text books, one on English grammar and the other on arithmetic, a remarkable achievement for one so young.
It was at this time, at age 20, that he dogmatically denied and rejected the Gospel. This broke the hearts of his parents. His father rebuked him and remonstrated with him; a mother wept. Like the prodigal son, he left home in quest of an exciting life he wanted to escape parental restraints.
The Lord, however, heard the prayers of his distressed parents and moved quickly and powerfully. Soon after leaving home, Adoniram arrived one evening at an inn. It was late. Only one room was available. The innkeeper warned him that this room was adjacent to one where a critically ill young man lay. Disturbance during the night was highly likely. And so it turned out; through the night Adoniram could hear groans and comings and goings. He wondered—What is the state of the sufferer’s soul? What kind of eternity awaits that groaning man? Adoniram was unsettled. He simply could not control his thoughts about death and eternity.
In the morning he asked the landlord about his fellow lodger:
“He is dead!”
“Dead!?”
“Yes, he is gone, poor fellow! The doctor said he would probably not survive the night.”
“Do you know his name?”
“Oh yes. He was a young man from Providence College—a very fine fellow; his name was Jacob Eames.”
This was like a thunderclap. Judson was shattered. His admired mentor was dead! Adoniram struggled to pull himself together. The awesomeness of death and eternity devastated all his philosophical arguments. His mind was in turmoil. He was filled with dread. Lost! Lost! Adoniram knew the Bible to be true. His friend was eternally lost! The Holy Spirit was laying hold on Adoniram. Immediately, he abandoned his worldly journey and turned back home.[2]
At this stage he received and accepted an offer to enter Andover Theological Seminary. Since he did not make a profession of faith, he had to be registered as a special student. The advantage of instruction by godly and gifted men was great. Gradually he came to assurance of personal salvation. At this stage he read Boston’s Fourfold State of Human Nature.[3] On December 2, 1808, he made a solemn dedication of himself to God. He joined the Third Congregational church in Plymouth, of which his father was the pastor. While at Andover, he became anxious about his physical weakness, evident in a tendency to consumption (tuberculosis). To combat this, he engaged in regular breathing exercises, vigorous walking, and daily sponging his body in cold water.
By February 1810, Adoniram had resolved to become a missionary. A missionary society had been formed in the seminary by Samuel J. Mills, who inspired men who later became household names: James Richards, Luther Rice, and Gordon Hall. It is likely that this society was born out of a prayer meeting that had taken place when a small group, caught in a thunderstorm, had taken refuge under a haystack. They turned the time into a prayer meeting.[4]
At this time there were no American missionaries abroad. Some had gone to the North American tribes on the frontier, but none had ventured over to Africa or Asia. Adoniram was deeply stirred by a printed sermon by Dr. Claudius Buchanan, a Church of England minister, who took as his text, “We have seen his star in the east”. He described how, as long ago as 1715, Ziegenbalg had fashioned the New Testament into Tamil, and how a German missionary, Schwartz, had spent fifty years teaching the Gospel in India.[5] Adoniram read avidly all he could lay his hands on concerning India, China, and what was then known as “The Golden Kingdom,” or Burma. He was amazed at the complacency and seeming lack of concern of so many Christians in America. In a magazine article he wrote:
How do Christians discharge the trust committed to them? They let three-fourths of the world sleep the sleep of death, ignorant of the simple truth that a Saviour died for them. Content if they can be useful in the little circle of their acquaintances, they quietly sit and see whole nations perish for lack of knowledge.[6]
The Holy Spirit was powerfully at work. In the Northeast of the United States this was a time of revival. Gardiner Spring, describing this period, wrote:
“From the time I entered college, in 1800 down to the year 1825, there was an uninterrupted series of these celestial visitations, spreading over different parts of the land. During the whole of these twenty-five years, there was not a month in which we could not point to some village, some city, some seminary of learning, and say: ‘Behold what hath God wrought.’”[7]
Adoniram’s father was always ambitious about his gifted son. One of his friends was Dr. Edward Griffin, minister of the largest church in Boston, and one of the most eminent preachers and leaders of that time. Griffin had noted the young man’s ability, and proposed to Judson Senior that Adoniram should become his colleague in the ministry. This underlines Adoniram’s exceptional qualities. It was an outstanding opportunity. Adoniram’s parents were delighted, but Adoniram strongly rejected the proposal. It contradicted his missionary call and was repugnant to him.[8]
Adoniram’s single-minded commitment to take the Gospel to the unreached was matched by an identical commitment in a small group of his seminary friends. Tirelessly they lobbied the Congregationalists to establish an agency for overseas mission. On June 28, 1810, four students appeared before the General Association of Congregational Ministers in Bradford, stating that they felt compelled to offer themselves for a lifetime commitment to take the Gospel overseas to the heathen. This resulted in the appointment of a Board of Commissioners responsible to promote missionary endeavor.
However, matters were not straightforward. The financial means were not available. The Board looked to the experienced London Missionary Society (LMS) for help. Adoniram was appointed to sail to London and there present the case to the LMS. The English ship was captured by the French and there ensued, in microcosm, what was to take place over a longer period of Adoniram’s life in Burma. I refer here, in particular, to the experience of sudden arrest and imprisonment. The French sailors incarcerated him in the ship in the most appalling conditions. He was rescued from the hold and brought among the crew, when one of the officers saw him reading his Hebrew Bible and was able to communicate with him through their common knowledge of Latin. He was imprisoned in France. On his way to prison he shouted as loud as he was able. French bystanders thought him crazy. However, an American was passing by. He was both intelligent and compassionate and devised a way to smuggle Adoniram out of prison and set him on his way to London. This escapade was surely designed in God’s plan to equip him for much more severe trials to come.
The LMS were sympathetic towards Judson and the American vision but deemed it impractical to conduct a joint venture. The Congregational Board in America had to reckon either on full support of the young missionaries or surrendering them to the sole responsibility of LMS. The American board chose the patriotic course and decided to fund the mission.
The meeting of the General Association on June 28, 1810, had taken place in the home of a deacon, Mr. Hassletine. His daughter, Ann, age 21, was at home. A month later Adoniram formally wrote to Ann asking if they could commence a courtship. She replied that her father’s permission would be needed. Ann wrote in her diary that she would indeed be willing to spend the rest of her life taking the Gospel to the lost. Adoniram promptly wrote what must have seemed the most extraordinary letter to Mr. Hassletine:[9]
I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next Spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?[10]
Friends who heard of this regarded it as insane. One said if Ann were his daughter he would tie her to her bedpost rather than let her embark on such a harebrained scheme! However, Ann’s parents were cautious, and left it for her to decide. She resolved to give herself to Christ and to Adoniram, and leave all she knew for the unknown. To quote again from her journal:
Jesus is faithful; His promises are precious. Were it not for these considerations, I should, with my present prospects, sink down in despair, especially as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America to spend her life among the heathen; nor do I yet know that I shall have a single female companion. But God is my witness, that I have not dared to decline the offer that has been made me, though so many are ready to call it a “wild, romantic undertaking.”[11]
In February 1812, Adoniram and Ann were married, and that same month they sailed for India, together with Samuel and Harriet Newell. Harriet was only 16 and frail. The dangers of sea travel were such that the other missionary candidates were sent in another ship.
These young pioneers were risking everything for the Gospel of Christ. They did not go on a return ticket. They went fully expecting never to see America again. There was certainly no possibility of any visit from relatives or friends; the voyage was far too long, perilous, and expensive for that. Sea communications were much the same as in New Testament times. This was before the days of the steam ship, long before the days of telephone and fax communications. Letters took months, and might well never arrive. There was no American Embassy in Asia from which they could claim protection. The British East India Company dominated in the East. For selfish reasons of trade, this powerful company was totally opposed to missionaries and was determined at all costs to keep them out. That was one obstacle. Another was the monolithic character of unevangelized nations. The Chinese authorities decreed death to converts to Christ. The Emperor of Burma threatened torture and death to any Burmese who forsook the religion of Buddha.[12] Felix Carey had written to Serampore describing how the houses of Rangoon were miserably built, the streets were filthy with vermin, the rents wickedly oppressive, the taxes absurdly high, and the punishments barbarous, all of which only proved the country’s urgent need of the Gospel. Felix had saved a man who was being crucified. He pleaded and gained the man’s reprieve, saved him from final collapse, and nursed him for a fortnight back to strength.[13] There was no assurance that there would be a place in which they could safely minister. The parting for these young people and for their families was a painful heart-rending experience.
Devoted for life, Adoniram had set his hand to the plough. He would never look back. As we continue to trace out his life, we will look at four major obstacles which could have deterred him from his course.