keene adoniram judson biography final

8/3/2019 Keene Adoniram Judson Biography Final

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Liberty Theological Seminary

Adoniram Judson: A Brief Biography of a Suffering Servant

A Paper

Submitted to Dr. Russell Woodbridge

In Partial FulfillmentOf the Requirements for the Course

History of the BaptistsCHHI 694

ByJonathan Keene

13 March 2011


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Adoniram Judson is a man whose name has gone down in history due to his dedication to

the Lord Jesus Christ and to the propagation of the Gospel in foreign lands. Not only was he

instrumental in the development of the first American missionary sending agency but he also set

the example for modern day cross cultural missionary work. Adoniram Judson has earned the

place in American Church History as being one of the first American missionaries, but his place

in history was one of his least concerns. Adoniram Judson through his mission work, sacrificial

life, and suffering servitude for Christ has not only earned a place in American Church History

but has left a life worthy of study for the modern student of missions and pastoral care.

Throughout his life, Adoniram Judson had been plagued with misery. It was these storms

of suffering that shaped Adoniram into the man God needed for a harsh and unforgiving

missions field. This short biography will focus on Adonirams life and some of his achievements

and will show how through insurmountable pain Adoniram would go on to become one of the

most beloved of missionary workers. The focus of this paper will be more on Adonirams

endurance in the face of impossible odds than it will on his contributions to the missionary

endeavor as a whole, but the two are intertwined and one has become the product of the other.

As the paper focuses on the life changing events and achievements of Adoniram Judsons life it

will reveal a person that was being molded by the King of the Universe for his glory. Through

this view it is anticipated that the reader will better understand the tenacity of Adoniram Judson

and the zeal he had for the Gospel of Christ and the missionization of foreign peoples.

Early Life

Adonirams early life was fairly free from trouble, that is unless you consider his

cloistered family life. He was born on August 9, 1788, the son of a Congregational minister by

the name of Adoniram Judson Sr., and although Mr. Judson was not a violent man, he was


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incredibly stern. Young Adoniram had a healthy fear of his father, and it has been said that he

sometimes subconsciously confused his father with God.

The person Adoniram feared above all others was his father. It was not

only that he was a minister. It was not even that he was Adonirams father in a

day when fathers ruled their children with an iron hand. It was the sheer

awesomeness of the man himself. He was nearly incapable of humor. He was

stern, austere; and as God did not overlook the sparrows fall, so Mr. Judson did

not overlook trifles. In fact, deep in Adonirams mind God and his father could

hardly help taking on identity.

1

Adoniram Judson Sr., like so many fathers, prayed that his son would succeed in life

where he himself felt he had fallen short. He desired his son to grow into a great man destined

for fame. Mr. Judson would not be disappointed by his sons performance at school. He was

proficient in mathematics, and later he became proficient with language. By the time he was ten

he had mastered English, Latin, and Greek. He was so studious that his classmates called him

Virgil or Old Virgil Dug Up. As he grew, he consistently excelled scholastically and was a

source of joy to his parents.

His parents loved him the best way they knew how. They taught him from the Bible.

Family devotions were held daily and the stories of the Bible were a source of intrigue for young

Adoniram Judson. The impressions these times placed in Adonirams mind undoubtedly stayed

with him all his life.

Adoniram Sr.s ambitions were made evident to Adoniram Jr., and as the years

progressed the son desired to fulfill his earthly fathers wishes to become a great man. It wasnt

until Adoniram Jr. was deathly ill and convalescent for a year did he consider what it meant to be

1Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore, The Life of Adoniram Judson (Judson Press, 1987), 19.


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a great man. He imagined himself a famous preacher, wowing affluent people with

unimaginably wonderful sermons in which the entire congregation waited with baited breath for

his every word. It was during these musings that he realized that worldly fame and eternal

inheritance do not go hand in hand. The realization stunned him. His desire for fame would not

be found in religious service. His fathers desire that he become a great man could not be

realized unless he forgo his religious views. There was terrible contradiction here. For a

moment, in a flash of inner anguish, he saw that he did not really want to be a Christian at all, for

being a Christian stood in the way of his being a great man.2

He had no choice but to suppress

this realization and go on living as he had always done.

Deism and Conversion

It wasnt until Adoniram had gone off to college to pursue greatness that he felt

comfortable exploring a life without God at its center. He had been gifted with a keen intellect

but at college he also proved to be quite sociable. He excelled in scholastics and friendships. One

of his friends, Jacob Eames, would become instrumental in his decision to abandon any Christian

leanings and accept Deism as his personal belief system. Later Mr. Eames would be

instrumental again in the life of Adoniram Judson.

Upon graduation from Rhode Island Collage on September 2, 1807, Adoniram Judson

returned home. Through a series of events that spanned over a year Adoniram finally let his

beliefs be known to his parents. After much pleading and supplications from his mother and

arguments with his father, Adoniram decided to leave and go find his place in the world. It was

during this time that the first truly tragic life changing event would come to Adoniram Judson.

After having traveled to New York and getting on with a company of actors as a

playwright he found the shabby condition of his vagabond lifestyle lacking the greatness he had



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dreamed of only a few years before with his friend Jacob Eames. Disgusted, heartsick, he left

without notice one night3 He was heading for his uncles house. After a brief visit he set out

again. Along the way he stopped at an inn. In the night a person in another room was ill and was

making enough noise for Adoniram to hear his coughing. Upon waking the next morning

Adoniram asked the Innkeeper how that person was doing. The Innkeeper said the young man

had died in the night. Adoniram asked if he knew the fellow. The Innkeeper said, Oh yes.

Young man from the college at Providence. Name was Eames, Jacob Eames.4

Taken aback, Adoniram began to question his beliefs. The coincidences of the night

before were too great. After some pondering he decided to return home and explore the

implications of that fateful night. The questions of his Deistic beliefs when set against his

personal experience at the Inn and his knowledge of the God of the Scriptures from his

upbringing swarmed in his head. While under his parents roof he received little room for

personal reflection. He did however receive and offer from a private academy in Boston to

become an assistant teacher. He took the offer and moved to Boston. All the while, the

ideological conflict was raging in his mind. In Boston he read a book entitled The Fourfold

State, by Thomas Boston. It was this simple book that pushed him into seminary. He entered

Andover Theological Seminary with the understanding that he was there not to become a

minister but to challenge his unanswered questions about God and Deism. Through the course of

his time there, his doubts about God melted away. He underwent no sudden conversion, felt no

blinding flash of insight. But he was able to note that he began to entertain a hope of having

received the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit.


4Ibid, 44.


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On the second day of December, a day he never forgot, he made a solemn dedication of

himself to God.5

Call to Missions and Baptist Conversion

In September, 1809, young Judson, at the age of twenty-one, began to ponder seriously

the subject of foreign missions.6

Adoniram came across a sermon by Dr. Claudius Buchanan

entitled, The Star in the East. This sermon was instrumental because it was the impetus that

sealed the idea of foreign mission in the mind of Adoniram. Six months from the time of his

reading this sermon, he made the final resolve to become a missionary to the heathen.7

While attending Andover Theological Seminary Adoniram Judson made friends with

Samuel J. Mills, Jr., James Richards, Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice. These four men, when at

Williams College formed a missionary society and met regularly at night by a haystack to offer

up prayers for foreign missions. The combined influence of Adonirams personal conviction for

foreign missions and the influence of his new friends in addition to prayer and meditation led

him to fully commit himself to the purpose of missions.

The main obstacle he ran into was the fact there were no foreign missionary societies to

which he and his friends could appeal for help. The Massachusetts Missionary Society didnt

have a foreign missions branch. Upon the advice of Professor Stuart from Andover, the men

submitted their foreign missions idea to the General Association of Congregational Churches in

the state of Massachusetts, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was

formed. It became the mother of all American foreign mission societies.


6Edward Judson,Adoniram Judson: A Biography. In Worldwide Missions, Missionary Biographies,

http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson.pdf (accessed February 28, 2011).7

Ibid.


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All of his Adonirams thoughts were on missions and foreign lands. He spent most of his

spare time reading anything he could get his hands on about other countries, especially those of

the East. While at Andover he came across Michael Symes book,An Account on an Embassy to

the Kingdom of Ava. Through this book Judson learned of Burma. He discovered that in Burma

the people were largely unmissionized even by the Catholic Church. He also found that the

people of Burma were well educated with a history of literacy and a complex and well developed

society. Additionally the Burmese Government placed no stringent rules or regulations on

religious sects. It was the influence of this book that led Adoniram Judson to realize that he

desired to be a missionary to Burma over all other places.

Adoniram Judson married Ann Hasseltine on February the 5th

of 1812 in Bradford. On

February 6th he was ordained a Congregational Minister in Salem. On February 7 th he said

goodbye to his family and friends. On February 19 th Adoniram Judson boarded the Caravan

which was bound for Calcutta. Accompanying him was his new wife Ann as well as Samuel and

Harriet Newell.

While taking the long voyage from America to India, Mr. Judson changed his

denominational latitude and longitude as well.8 He decided to become a Baptist. His reasoning

was simple. He saw the need for a believers baptism in his preaching to the heathen, and

whatever Christian organization he founded in the foreign land would need to include believers

baptism as part of its doctrine. He struggled with this choice. It meant that he would have to

separate himself from the traditions he had learned in his Congregational upbringing. His father,

the Reverend Adoniram Judson Sr. most surely would not approve. It was only after a great

struggle that he yielded; for he had to break with all the traditions and associations of his


http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson.pdf (accessed February 28, 2011).


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ancestry and childhood.9

Not only would this decision cause him to break with his past, but it

would also cause him to break his future. To change from Congregational to Baptist meant he

would lose all his Congregational funding. He knew that he and she might find themselves

without bread in a strange, heathen land.10 His fears were somewhat unfounded. When the

Caravan arrived in Calcutta on June 17th

they were warmly greeted by Dr. Carey and were

invited to visit a settlement of English Baptists upriver in Serampore. Later that year on

September 6th Mr. and Mrs. Judson were baptized in Calcutta.

The life of a missionary was not easy as the Judsons were to find out. The East India

Company had jurisdiction over the area of Calcutta and Serampore and forced the Judsons, the

Newells, and Mr. Rice to leave. They were ordered to England, but were allowed instead to go to

The Isle of France in the Indian Ocean. There the band of missionaries suffered their first loss.

Mrs. Newell died and was buried. She was the first American missionary martyr to foreign

mission. Mr. Newell left for Ceylon and Mr. Rice went back to America to preach a missionary

crusade. The Judsons were left alone on the Island without ever having reached their destination.

By July 13th 1813 they were able to make their way to Rangoon and took possession of

the English Baptist mission house. The son of Dr. Carey had occupied it previously, but shortly

after their arrival he resigned the mission to them to take a job with the Burmese Government.

After a year and a half of travel and travail they had finally made it.



Ibid.


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Life in Rangoon

Adoniram and Ann settled first in Rangoon, where they lived from 1813-1823.11

It was

during this time Adoniram and Ann Judson had their first child. Little Roger William Judson was

born to them. Anns health was not good and it was decided that she should sail to Madras to

recuperate. She did, but shortly after her return on September 11th

1815, poor little Roger died at

the age of seven months and twenty three days. After this tragedy, Mr. Judson became sick. He

used his time of sickness and solitude to continue his studies.

The greatest barrier to their effectiveness as missionaries was language. The people of

Burma proved themselves to be sociable, friendly, and curious. The Judsons were surprised to

find that Rangoon lacked any touches from European culture. Even in Calcutta European

influences could be seen in architecture, society, and economy. Rangoon however, was wholly

foreign in the truest sense of the word. Its people dressed colorfully, their children ran naked in

the streets smoking cigars, and the bazaars were a cultural storehouse of curiosities. But

communication was impossible with words. The Judsons had learned a modicum of French

while on the Isle of France, but that language was only good for talking to the French merchants.

Anns grasp of French was rudimentary at best and so she did not communicate with the few

French women in town either. This lack of communication with the Burmese people led the

Judsons to put learning the Burmese language at the top of their list of things to do. Judson

planned to conduct evangelistic and church planting ministries but soon realized the enormity of

the language and cultural differences. This led him to make the first priority of his work

11William H. Brackney, "The Legacy of Adoniram Judson."International Bulletin of Missionary Research 22, no.

3: 122-127, (1998). InATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost,

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-

8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3(accessed February 9, 2011).
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3


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translation of Scripture and suitable tracts for evangelistic purposes.12

The task of translation

had to be done from scratch. In all of Burmese and English society there existed no dictionary of

the Burmese language. In 1826 he published the first edition of his Burmese dictionary,

followed in 1840 by a translation of the entire Bible, which he considered his major literary

accomplishmentsAt the end of his life he was near completion on a Burmese-English

dictionary13

With the mission of translation underway, Adoniram started creating simple gospel tracts

to be used to evangelize the people of Rangoon. As he learned the language well enough to

begin speaking with the people he discovered that Buddhism had a deep and ancient tradition in

the area. Having been introduced 2000 years before it was well established in the region. As he

discovered the Burmese language lacked the vernacular necessary to express the theological

abstracts of the New Testament, Adoniram found he needed to turn to the ancient Buddhist text

written in Pali. With the help of his teacher, U Aung Min, he began to express Christian beliefs

in the Pali-Burmese religious language of the people. He met with polite opposition.

But their efforts at conversation were unsuccessful. The people had a religion

already. Before they could accept a new one they had to reject the old one. When

Adoniram told the men about Jesus atonement for their sins they replied politely

that their minds were stiff. When Nancy spoke to the women, they said, Your

religion is good for you, ours for us. You will be rewarded for your good deeds in

your way-we in ours.14

12William H. Brackney, "The Legacy of Adoniram Judson."International Bulletin of Missionary Research 22, no.

3: 122-127, (1998). InATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost,

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-

8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3(accessed February 9, 2011).13

Ibid14

Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore, The Life of Adoniram Judson (Judson Press, 1987), 183.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3


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For six long years their missionary efforts seemed to be in vein. But the seeds were planted and

their germination would soon be complete and the first convert won.

Under the shadow of the grand pagoda, and in a crowded thorough-fare, he built a

humblezayat, or hall of public resortthere he sat all day to receive those whom interest or

curiosity induced to listen to his message.15

It was in this place that Maung Nau was converted

to Christianity and baptized six years after the Judsons began living in Burma. Shortly following

Maung Nau two more people accepted the Lord and made a profession of faith.

Persecution followed and fear among the Buddhist priest arose over people turning from

the faith of the country. Additionally, political events meant a change of viceroy in Rangoon and

emperor in Ava, the Burmese capitol. The logical thing to do was to try to make friends of the

new emperor. Adoniram and his three converts went to Ava and met Ahasuerus Emperor of

Burma and presented him with gifts. He rejected their gifts and sent them away. The Judsons

agreed it was time to leave Burma, because they would get no government protection from their

persecutors. The little flock of curious did not want them to go at least until they had ten

converts. After five months they had ten converts and the Judsons left for Calcutta to seek

medical aid for Mrs. Judsons poor health. The Judsons returned six months later and found that

persecution against the little flock had lessoned and the office of viceroy of Rangoon had been

given to one of their friends.

The Judsons decided to stay in Rangoon and were rewarded with more and more

disciples. They founded schools and their influence grew. Ann was still not very healthy, she was

suffering from liver complications of some sort. Adoniram and Ann agreed that for her to get

15Pekenham W. Walsh,Adoniram Judson: Burmah, 1813-1850, (2011). In Worldwide Missions, Missionary

Biographies,http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.html(accessed February 28, 2011).
http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.html


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better she would have to travel to America and convalesce there. They were separated for two

years and while she was gone Adoniram and Dr. Price, a medical missionary joined forces.

Dr.Prices reputation won the ear of the Emperor and he was invited to come before the

Emperor in Ava. Adoniram joined Dr. Price on his journey to Ava and actually held audience

with the Emperor again. Through the course of questions the Emperor found that Adoniram was

a religious teacher and had won converts among the Burmese. Adoniram had the opportunity to

share the Gospel with the Emperor. He found favor in the eyes of the Emperor and was invited to

come live in Ava.

In December of 1823 Mrs. Judson returned from America with missionary helpers.

Within a week of her return the Judsons were moving to Ava.

Life in Ava

Life could not have been more pleasant. The Judsons were living on a piece of property

the Emperor himself had assigned them. Mrs. Judson was involved in her school, Mr. Judson in

preaching the Gospel. It was a missionarys dream come true. The dream suddenly turned into a

nightmare one afternoon. Burmese intelligence reported that there were hostilities with the

British and the city of Rangoon had been captured. The few Englishmen in Ava were

immediately imprisoned, and orders were issued for the arrest of the foreign teachers.16

Adoniram Judson was arrested and thrown into prison shackled with iron fetters. He remained in

prison for two long terrible years. His poor wife brought him food and found ways to send

messages to him. She gave birth to their baby while he was imprisoned. She was his champion

on the outside trying to gain his release. Mr. Judson suffered horribly, but his spirit was never

broken. Ann had buried the manuscripts for Adonirams translations of the Burmese Bible under




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their house. In order to save them from decay and rain she sewed them into a pillow and brought

it to Adoniram in prison. The pillow was so ugly and lumpy that the harshest criminal didnt

want to steel it. In this way his life work was preserved.

When the English began to advance on Ava, Adoniram Judson was called to be a

translator between the British and the Burmese Governments. He did such an admirable job as

translator and mediator that the Brits demanded he be set free. His freedom was granted and he

and his wife returned with the British to Rangoon to the old Mission House. Most of his

converts were scattered, and there was no security for life under Burmese rule; so it was

determined to carry the oldzayatinto the territory recently ceded to the British, and to set up a

new mission in Amherst, and subsequently at Moulmein.17

Life in Amherst

It seemed as though the Judsons had just arrived in Amherst when the British came to

Mr. Judson in need of his linguistic expertise. The missionaries had been joined by four of the

faithful converts of Rangoon, and also Mr. and Mrs. Wade, and Mr. and Mrs. Boardman. The

Wades and the Boardmans were missionaries as well who had made their homes in the middle of

the jungle. Now with combined forces and the tolerance of a British territory they were able to

begin their efforts in earnest. But the British had other need of Adoniram Judson and he was

reluctantly volunteered to help broker a commercial treaty with the Emperor of Burma in Ava.

Once again he returned to the city in which he was imprisoned. He was compelled to go and

promised, as an English ambassador every effort would be made to secure the insertion of a




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clause in the treaty granting religious liberty to the Burmans18

Unfortunately, no such clause

was ever entered into the commercial treaty.

In his absence Mrs. Ann Judson continued her work diligently. She built a bamboo house

and two schoolhouses. She also led worship services on Sunday for the few local Burmese

converts every week. She was suddenly stricken with a fever that she would not recover from

and on October 24th

, 1826 at the age of thirty seven she passed away.

She died apart from him whom she had given her heart in her girlhood, whose

footsteps she had faithfully followed for fourteen years, over land and sea,

through trackless jungles and strange crowded cities, sharing his studies and his

privations, illumining his hours of gloom with her beaming presence, and with a

heroism and fidelity unparalleled in the annals of missions, soothing the suffering

of his imprisonment.19

Mr. Adoniram Judson returned home to the sound of the mourners and visited his

beloved wifes grave under the hopia (hope) tree. In a very unfortunate turn of events he

would bury his only surviving child next to Ann shortly thereafter. Little Maria was the

solace of his studies. But she too was taken from him. On April 24, 1827, he writes,

my little daughter Maria breathed her last, aged two years and three months, and her

emancipated spirit fled, I trust, to the arms of her fond mother.20

Adoniram was never the same man after that. He was still studious and devoted to

the Lord but the joy had fled from his spirit.



Ibid.20

Ibid.


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The City of Moulmein was swelling and began to engulf the city of Amherst. The

Boardmans moved into Moulmein to start a mission there and Adoniram followed soon

thereafter, but not before receiving news that his father had died in November, 26, 1826.

Within a span of only about 6 months the three people in this life that had meant the most

to him were gone. The hurt he felt when he abandoned the hopia-tree must have been

torturous, but Adonirams hope was not in the Earth but in Heaven.

Life in Moulmein

Adoniram Judsons life in Moulmein started out in sorrow. His letter written during that

time carried a deep underlying sadness. He no doubt wondered what it was all for. But his faith

in the Lord did not waver. His conversion through thoughtful study and careful realizations of his

youth and the faith that it developed was the strength that carried him. He continued his work of

translating, but he began to destroy all the correspondence hed received over the years. He

began to feel that fame was, even for good Christian works, a thing of vanity and wanted to not

be remembered in that light. His sentiments were to do his work and then to be forgotten. A

three year depression had taken a hold of his heart and mind. He took work as an interpreter at

times and gave all his earning to the mission. He also donated all his belonging to the mission as

well.

Self-denial. Seclusion. No matter how far he carried it, self-denial failed to bring him

the spiritual peace he sought; perhaps deeper seclusion might help.21

Adoniram put his

missionary duties on hold and spent forty days in the tiger infested jungle. Some have called it

his elephant trip referencing the trip an elephant makes into the jungle to die. During his forty

days he meditated and prayed and sought the face of the Lord. After his time in the jungle he felt

the end of his depression near. He received word from home that his younger brother Elnathan



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had died, but his soul had been won to Christ on his deathbed. This was the impetus that he

needed to push him out of his misery. The precious soul of his dearly loved little brother was

safe now for all eternity in the arms of a loving God! It was sad news to hear of his brother, but

joyous to hear of his destination for all eternity. Death had brought him to this lowly state and

amazingly freedom from death had brought him out.

He once again dove into his missionary endeavors with renewed and joyous vigor. He

had not forgotten about his Christian brothers in Rangoon. The faithful Ko Thah-a appeared in

Moulmein after having been secretly preaching to the heathen in the interior of the country. He

had won some converts and wanted to go back to Rangoon and baptize them. Adoniram Judson

ordained him the first Burmese pastor and sent him to Rangoon to continue his work. By 1892

the Rangoon mission had grown to eighty-six churches and four thousand five hundred and

sixty-nine members. He also remembered Amherst and ordained Maung Ing one of the earliest

converts and sent him to pastor Amherst. This pastorate did not flourish as well as Rangoon s;

apparently poor Maung Ing was a miserable pastor.

Adoniram Judson was given the opportunity to return to America for a visit. He agreed to

go, but while in Rangoon waiting for his ship for America, he received news that Mr. Boardman

had died while on a missionary trip into the deep jungle. The Boardmans had left to start another

mission in Tavoy previously, and they had already lost their daughter Sarah. Mrs. Boardman was

left with her infant son George. Adoniram wrote her a note of meaningful consolation having

suffered the same bitter cup. On April 10, 1834 Adoniram Judson married Sarah Boardman.

For eight years Mr. Judson had been alone. He found Sarah to be a kindred spirit who had spent

her widowhood among the Tavoy and Karen people. She had continued the work Mr. Boardman

had started even against her familys pleas to return to America. Shortly after their marriage ,


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they were want to send little George Boardman to live with relatives in America for fear that

American children were not meant to be raised in the East. It was also about this time that

Adoniram finally finished his first draft of the Burmese Bible. Sarah Boardman and Adoniram

Judson had seven children during their marriage when she died of complications from childbirth

in 1845.

After the birth of her last child Sarahs health was very poor. She was told to travel to

America and seek medical attention there. Adoniram agreed to go with her as far as

Mauritius, but upon arriving there her health was even worse, so he continued on with her

to St. Helena. There she died, and Adoniram decided to go ahead and sail on to America for

a visit. In a parting farewell poem Sarah wrote:

"We part on this green islet, love;

Thou for the Eastern main,

I for the setting sun, love;

Oh! when to meet again?

"Then gird thine armour on, love,

Nor faint thou by the way,

Till Boodh shall fall, and Burmah's sons

Shall own Messiah's sway."22

Adoniram found this note only after she had died.

Once he arrived in America he was greeted with great fanfare and was given an honorary

doctorate from Brown University his alma mater. He remained for nine months in the United

States and wanted to find a suitable biographer to write the memoirs of his late wife. He was




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referred to a woman of some literary fame by the name of Emily Chubbuck. She was vivacious

as well as talented, and many wondered when they heard that she was to be Dr. Judsons wife:

but she made a noble partner for the missionary, and a loving mother to his children.23

The couple returned to Moulmein and the last three years of Dr. Judsons life were spent

mostly in administrating the missionary work that was now done by many converts and

missionaries. He contracted a throat infection that prevented him from much speech, but he

cherished his workers and the job they were doing. His ailment of speech did not hinder his

translation work and he was pleased to finish the first section of his Burmese dictionary. His

condition got worse and a fever set in, and Adoniram Judson would set sail for the last time to

the Isle of France. But it was recorded that he died within a week of having left the Burmese

shore. He was buried at sea on April 12th, 1850. His wife Emily wrote, He could not have a

more fitting monument than the blue waves which visit every coast; for his warm sympathies

went forth to the ends of the earth, and included the whole family of man.24

Dr. Adoniram Judsons life did become famous for his own sake; in fact he tried his best

to erase himself from notoriety and fame. His claim to the fame he received is due to the fact that

he laid everything down, money, family, comfort, for the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus

Christ in Burma. His life was plagued with sorrow and loss, but his rewards in heaven must be

more than his mansion can hold. God graced Adoniram Judson with a keen intellect, and sharp

grasp of rational thinking, and an inherent drive to persevere and continue on at all costs. Like

Paul of Tarsus he suffered, and like Paul, he ran the race to victory.

The missionary principles that he established have become standard practice among

American missionaries ever since. He showed that by learning about a culture and meeting that


Biographies,http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.html(accessed February 28, 2011).24

Ibid.


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culture on its own terms was the best way to make long term converts. By respecting the

practices of the people, a missionary would not offend any possible converts.

He was instrumental in the foundation of the first foreign missionary sending agency in

America. He was also responsible for translating the Burmese language into English as well as

translating the whole Bible into Burmese.

In 1852 E. H. Gray wrote a book entitled Christian Hero of the Nineteenth Century. It

is a biography of the life of Adoniram Judson. In his closing remarks he writes,

When we place all the noble acts and great events of his life in juxtaposition and

trace out his remarkable history, commencing with the infidel young man at

Brown, then becoming a Christian and consecrating himself to the work of

Missions at Andoverforsaking home, kindred, and friends for the love he bore

to soulsmastering languages without vocabulariessuffering imprisonment

devoting youth, manhood, and vigorous old age to the conversion of the world;

and finally dying with the harness onI appeal to the you; I appeal to the world,

if to him does not properly, if not exclusively belong the tile of The Christian

Hero of the Nineteenth Century?25

Though he had personally given up his aspiration of earthly greatness, Dr. Adoniram

Judson left the legacy of a Christian Hero, a legacy which changed the world in ways that

he could never have imagined.

25Edgar Harkness Gray, The Christian hero of the nineteenth century: With an introductory essay, by S. F. Smith(Cambridge: E. Robbins & J. Ford. 1852), p. 81-84. In Google Books,

http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader(accessed March

8, 2011).
http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=reader


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Works Consulted

Anderson, Courtney. To the Golden Shore, the Life of Adoniram Judson Valley Forge:

Judson Press, 1987.

Brackney, William H. 1998. "The Legacy of Adoniram Judson."International Bulletin of

Missionary Research 22, no. 3: 122-127.ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials,EBSCOhost

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b

2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3 (accessed February 9,2011).

Dingrin, La Seng. 2009. "The conflicting legacy of Adoniram Judson: appropriating and

polemicizing against Burmese Buddhism."Missiology 37, no. 4: 485-497.ATLA Religion

Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3 (accessed February 9, 2011).

Google Books.

http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&out

put=reader(accessed March 8, 2011).

Hardesty, Nancy. 1983. "Mission for Life: The Story of Adoniram Judson."International

Bulletin of Missionary Research 7, no. 1: 35-318.ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials,EBSCOhost


2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3 (accessed February 9,

2011).

Robert, Dana L. 1987. "The legacy of Adoniram Judson Gordon."International Bulletin of

Missionary Research 11, no. 4: 176-181.ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials,EBSCOhost


2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3 (accessed February 9,2011).

Worldwide Missionary Biographies.http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.html

(accessed February 28, 2011).
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson12.htmlhttp://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=VBTMu4tpcIAC&printsec=frontcover&output=readerhttp://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?hid=21&sid=b2fbf6a6-80b4-4eb6-8349-58d089375887%40sessionmgr15&vid=3

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