Text: “….except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal”. (John 12:24-25)
Last week we began telling you the story of one of the greatest of all missionary statesmen, Adoniram Judson. He grew up in a Christian home and was a uniquely gifted child. He could read fluently at 3 years of age. He began to study Latin, Greek and Hebrew and was fluent in all three by the time he left home for university at age 16. There he met another unusually gifted man named Jacob Ames. They became fierce scholastic competitors and great friends, but Jacob was an avowed atheist. After 4 years of philosophy and higher education, Adoniram’s Christian beliefs were in shambles as he fully embraced the enlightened revelations that man was at the top of everything and Christianity was simply a crutch for the weak minded and simple. He wanted more than anything in life to be like his friend Jacob who loved the party life of wine, women and song. He had great aspirations to become wealthy after university and make a great name for himself in the world.
Jacob and Adoniram parted company, and Adoniram went home where he informed his parents that he had become an atheist like his friend and that his goals in life were now clear. The pursuit of wealth and pleasure. His parents were broken hearted but nevertheless they prayed diligently for you Adoniram as he left for New York city, convinced that he would fulfil all his great dreams there.
After more than a year of partying, sexual overindulgence, and drunkenness, Adoniram began to realize he would never get rich if he didn’t change his ways, and he was sure he could not change his ways unless he left New York and the friends he had gotten to know there. He decided to head west and you will recall the amazing set up that God had in mind for him because he had parents at home who were praying.
After a long day of travel he found an Inn with only one bed left and it was in a room divided only by a curtain. The innkeeper warned him that the poor chap on the other side of the curtain was very ill and might be coughing, but Adoniram was so tired he took the room anyway. That night the man on the other side of the curtain not only coughed but he cried out in agony, pain and fear, awakening in Adoniram old thoughts about life and death and heaven and hell.
You will recall that in the morning all was silent on the other side of the curtain and the innkeeper told Adoniram that the poor man had died. When Adoniram took a peek at him it was his old friend Jacob Ames!
God used that to completely break Adoniram’s rebellious will and bring him to a place of repentance. He enrolled in Andover Theological Seminary and became an associate pastor to his own father for a time. Adoniram joined others in what came to be called the “Haystack Prayer Meetings,” and along with many others, God then called him clearly to the mission field of India and Adoniram said, “Here am I, send me.”
Shortly thereafter he met Anne Hasseltine and God told him he was to marry her. Do you remember the remarkable letter that Adoniram sat down and wrote to her father? I want to take the time to review it for you before we pick up the rest of the story today.
“I now 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 a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the danger of the oceans; to the total influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution and perhaps even violent death. Can you consent to all of this, for the sake of He who left His heavenly throne and died for her and for you; for the sake of all perishing, immortal souls, for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all of this in hope of soon meeting your daughter once again in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened and glittering with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from woe and despair?”
In Christ, Adoniram Judson.
Her father agreed and Anne decided it was in fact God calling her and we left off last week with them starting out on the four month, physically exhausting voyage to India for their honeymoon.
It was a long voyage for Adoniram and Anne, but the time passed fairly quickly as Adoniram emersed himself in the study of the scriptures. One thing that had bothered him a great deal was the doctrine of baptism. He knew that the great British missionary statesman, William Carey did not believe in infant baptism, but practiced believer’s baptism. Adoniram had been baptised as an infant and had been taught from his earliest days that infant baptism was a sign of the covenant just as circumcision had been in the old Testament. During his months at sea enroute to India, Adoniram searched the scriptures diligently wanting desperately to find the scriptural direction and president for baby baptism, but try as he might he could find no indication of it anywhere in the scriptures. He did however see over and over again, that baptism was an obedient step to be taken by the believer, a doctrine that Jesus himself both taught and exemplified. It was with genuine reluctance that Adoniram made the decision to embrace the truth revealed to him in scripture, rather than the doctrine passed on to him by tradition. I use the word reluctance, because Adoniram knew that for his ministry to have integrity he would have to inform the American Missionary Society and the churches that supported him, which included his own father’s church, of his change in doctrinal stance on the subject of baptism. His decision would cost him dearly, because declaring himself to be an Anabaptist would mean his support would be cut off, but denying what he had clearly seen in scripture, would be to ignore doctrinal truth and biblical accuracy. In the end, Adoniram chose biblical accuracy and doctrinal truth.
It was interesting that Samuel Newell and Luther Rice who had set sail separately also wrestled with this issue and also concluded that they must change their doctrinal stance based on what the scriptures taught. What an interesting start for these new American missionaries, the first to go from American shores in obedience to the Great Commission. Here they were arriving in India and because of their convictions on baptism, the support they had left with had been cut off. That however was not the greatest problem they faced! Remember, they had set sail in February of 1812, Americans – going to India, a British colony, but in 1812 war was declared between Britain and America, so when they arrived in India, not only was their no financial support, they were soundly rejected by the British rulers there and ordered to return to America. Through the intervention of William Carey, they were allowed to go to the Isle of France, present day Madagascar, to set up a mission station there. Madagascar is the worlds 5th largest island and is located in the Indian ocean approximately 240 miles off the south east coast of Africa. Samuel and Harriet Newell expecting their first child, set sail first and the Judson’s followed shortly thereafter. When the Judson’s reached Madagascar, only Samuel Newell met them. Harriet had given birth to their son at sea, and the wee baby had died within two days. Harriet was so weak and distressed over the loss of her baby, that she died within the first day of arriving in Madagascar. The first American missionary had died on foreign soil. The British had considerable influence in Madagascar and the Judson’s began to pray about where God would lead them that was not part of the British Empire. One country that came to mind was the despotic Kingdom of Burma. Burma was sandwiched between India and Thailand on the Indian Ocean coast. Although heavily populated, Burma had not been exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ at all.
Anne was pregnant with their first child as they boarded the ship for Burma. The journey up the west coast of Africa was rough and stormy, and the Judsons’ first child was stillborn while they were still at sea. Anne, herself almost died. Burma was a hot, swampy climate. Animals ran wild in the capital city of Rangoon. Clean water was hard to find and the people dumped their refuse in the street gutters. It was here, eking out a very meagre existence in this Godless country of may gods, that Adoniram began to work on a written language so translation work could begin. He listened to the chatter for endless hours and would point to objects and act out things to gain an understanding of the language.
After more than a year of language work, some good news finally reached the Judson’s. Their old friend Luther Rice who had returned to America when he lost support over the baptism doctrine had been working hard among the Anabaptist believers in America and had come up with missions support for the Judson’s. For the first time they finally had some support!!!
September 15, 1815 was a great day of joy for Adoniram and Anne as their new son, Roger William Judson entered the world. Their joy was short-lived however as young Roger developed a choking cough and fever. Within a few short months Roger became the forth American sacrifice of life and love on foreign soil. Anne would later write in her diary, “When I consider my young son and what we possessed, the wound opens in my heart and bleed afresh each time….yet I would still say, Thy will be done.”
In spite of the heart rending difficulties, Adoniram finished a translation of Matthew into Burmese, and a Burmese-English grammar book, and a Burmese dictionary. His dictionary became the countries standard dictionary for over 100 years to follow. Adoniram was not at all satisfied with his work though, feeling so much limitation in the language yet. He reported that at this point after two years, he could still not think fluently in Burmese, so he determined to sail to Chittagong in India where he had been told there were some Burmese had learned to speak English.
When Adoniram set sail for Chittagong he did not know that instead of reaching Chittagong where he could learn more about language, he was entering a year long journey in the school of hard knocks, where he would learn new lessons of trust in the Lord who could give him his language. Adoniram became sick shortly after departure and was confined to his bunk with excruciating headaches. The ship blew off course and was lost for months in the Indian Ocean. Finally due to the extended voyage the ship ran out of food and had to ration the water very carefully. Almost one year after setting sail the ship landed again at Rangoon where it had taken off from. They never had made it to Chittagong and Adoniram was a gaunt shadow of skin and bones when they arrived back in Rangoon. Undaunted, the young missionary had heard the Lord saying that he was simply to begin to preach and use what he already had of the language and that as he would step out with what he had, God would give him more. Immediately he began to preach. He set up a small school house on a road into Rangoon and preached faithfully there each day. Finally, seven years after they had set sail from America, six years after they had reached Burma, they had their first Burmese convert to Jesus Christ in May of 1819. Before long there was a powerful moving of God’s Spirit and many more began to turn to Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. They turned from their paganism and their foreign gods, such as Buddha. With all of these good things happening, what was the predictable out come of all this?______________
Right! Satan attacked with a vengeance. This country had been all his and he would not give it up without a fight. Seeing more and more converts, the viceroy of Rangoon declared the Christian faith illegal and said that anyone who converted to Christianity would be punished severely. Anne Judson was attacked physically by sickness that was so severe, they were told her only hope was to return to America.
Finally it was agreed that she would go back to America for a furlough to restore her health and Adonirom would continue with his work. He had made the decision not to run from the enemies attacks and God intervened on his behalf. The viceroy got sick and as a replacement worker for Anne, the new missionary society headed up by Luther Rice, had sent Dr. & Mrs. Jonathan Price. He was summoned to treat the viceroy who became better by the treatment, and as a result, he lifted his ban on Christianity.
They enemy was still very upset at the bible translation and conversions though and in 1824, Anne returned after a two year rest in America, just before the British attacked Rangoon. Immediately all white foreigners were rounded up and treated as spies. On June 8th, the officials came for Dr. Price and Adoniram and dragged them off to prison. They literally dragged them by the cord harness that was a form of torture that dislocated the shoulders as you were dragged along backwards. They were placed without hearing or trial in what was referred to as “Death Prison.” It was the filthiest place Adoniram had ever seen. Dead, maggot infested animals and rats already well decayed were thrown into the prison as their source of food. The floors were littered with human waste. The Burmese rulers were not satisfied with the horrors of confinement in such a place but regularly tortured the prisoners as well. On one occasion, Adoniram and Jonathan were tied by the ankles to a bar, which was then lifted high enough so that all that remained on the sewage soaked wet floor was the back of their heads forcing their necks to be bent. They were left this way for three days, and only lived because of God’s sustaining grace. While Adoniram was in prison, his third child Maria was born and after twenty-one months, in March of 1826 he was released and reunited with his growing family. The British had defeated the Burmese .
Typical of the British empire, shortly after their conquest of Burma, a large state banquet was held and many of the Burmese leaders who had been defeated and subjugated to British rule were invited. Adoniram and Anne along with Dr. Price and his wife were guests of honour at the head table. When the Burmese leaders saw them at the head table they literally began to quake with fear, knowing what they had done to these people who were now being honoured by the British. General Campbell, who presided over the affair asked the Judsons what ought to be done and they speaking in Burmese so that their captors could hear, extended love and forgiveness to those who has so sorely abused them.
In July of 1826 the Judson’s again began work in earnest with the Burmese. The new British government which at times had been so hostile to these Americans was now in need of translators and asked Adoniram to come to Ava and help them write their treaties with the King of Burma. In a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness to both parties, Adoniram offered his expertise as their servant and was again separated from Anne and the children for several months.
One day while Adoniram was working on the final draft of the required government work, one of their early Burmese converts came bearing a letter. His countenance told the story even before Adoniram opened the letter and read: “My dear sir: To one who has suffered so much with such an exemplary fortitude, there needs be but little preface to tell a tale of distress. Mrs. Judson is no more.” Adoniram hurried home to the scene of wailing friends and loved ones. He was rejoicing in the knowledge of eternal life and heaven but his heart had been horribly ripped and torn by the loss of his faithful wife. To pile misery on top of distress, two weeks later his wee daughter Maria took a fever and died, and her funeral was scarcely over when word reached Adoniram that his father had also died.
The sense of loss and sorrow was almost more than Adoniram could bear. He went into a circular argument in his head of self-condemnation for putting his family through such trial and guilt for their deaths, and then he would examine and re-examine his motives. Finally he concluded that part of his motive had been wrong. He had worked so hard and pushed ahead so unwaveringly, because he wanted to be a great missionary statesman like William Carey. He had been aware that he would go down in the history books as the first American missionary and he knew that pride had clouded his motives. As he reflected more and more on his own heart and motives, God allowed Adoniram to come to a breaking point. At the lowest part of his life, Adoniram dug a grave at the edge of a tiger infested jungle and sat at the edge of the cave for forty days of fasting, contemplating his own sinfulness and pride, along with the great issues of life and death. Like Jeremiah, the prophet, Adoniram had come to see:
Jer.17:9 “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it? Adoniram did not give up though because he knew according to Jer.17:10 “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins.” Adoniram then cried out to the Lord along with Jeremiah in verse 14 “Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed, Save me and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise.”
Like Jeremiah’s vision of the Potter’s wheel, Adoniram saw himself as totally broken and in need of reshaping by the master Potter. God met a contrite Adoniram in the midst of his brokenness and He did restore him. Crafting him anew on the potters wheel. Somehow he knew God was reshaping him and now his only motives were that God receive all the glory and nothing would ever come of his efforts if God did not bless him. But bless him – God DID!!!
Adoniram came out of his period of fasting and introspection a changed man. He began to work as before but now hundreds of Burmese began to respond to the truth of the gospel. Where once the missionaries had to coax people to take a tract and read it, now hundreds came each day seeking literature about Jesus Christ. At nights Adoniram would work tirelessly on the translation of the Old and New Testaments into the Burmese language. He wrote at one point in his journal that people began to come from as far away as three months journey on foot to get literature. From the border of China and Siam, and others from Kathay in the north or India in the east.
After eight years of being alone God gave Adoniram another partner. Another missionary had died leaving his wife Sarah and her children alone. On April 10th, 1834, Adonriam and Sarah were married and the next five years were described as some of the most fulfilling and happy years in his life. On October 4th, 1840 after 23 years of translation work the first Burmese bible came off the printing press. Adoniram at last began to ease back a little on his rigorous work schedule and he and Sarah would enjoy long walks , and time together enjoying the children and family life.
Adoniram’s reprieve from sorrow and trial was not completely over though. He began to suffer from a throat ailment that made it difficult for him to talk and just short of his 2nd birthday, his little son Henry died of dysentery and Sarah became so sick herself that returning to America was recommended as the only option. In the middle of the Atlantic, Sarah went to be with the Lord, and Adoniram along with the children buried Sarah on the Island of St. Helena. Though deeply grieved and sorrowing, a more mature, more cleansed Adoniram was able to comfort himself in the scriptures, without the same self-recriminations and self-denial that had come with the passing of his first wife.
Great surprises awaited Adoniram when he reached America after 33 years of missionary service. The struggling new England colonies he had left were now part of a bustling growing United States of America. He had left in relative obscurity and now returned to a hero’s welcome, and was shocked to find that everywhere he went people knew of him and had heard of his work in Burma. Even though his once powerful voice was now very course and broken, and he could no longer think easily in English, people demanded that he preach. Adoniram continued to grieve deeply over the loss of Sarah and he was concerned for the welfare of their children. After nearly a year in America, Adoniram met Emily Chubback, a brilliant young writer with a great career well under way in the field of journalism and writing. The more she interviewed Adoniram and the more they got to know each other, the more Adoniram felt he needed her. He was lonely and his children needed a mother, and the work of the Lord could be prospered so well by someone who could assist him with writing. Would she be willing to give up a brilliant career for the hardships of missionary life in the distant land of Burma? She said, “Yes!” and on June 2nd, 1946 she and 58 year old Adoniram Judson were married. After saying goodbye to family they knew they would likely never see again on earth they set sail for Burma.
By 1849 Adoniram had completed a new English/Burmese Dictionary, which again became the countries standard for more than a hundred years. In 1850 Adoniram made his final sacrifice for people of Burma. He had contracted a severe cold and over several months it continued to worsen. Adoniram asked Emily to write in his diary for him what turned out to be the final entry. He was too weak to write on his own. Her notes from his dictation read,
“…lying here upon my bed I can barely talk above a whisper, but I have such views of the loving condescension of Christ and the glories of heaven as I believe are seldom granted to mortal man. It is not because I shrink from death that I wish to live, neither is it because of the ties that bind me here, though some of them are very sweet, they could bear no comparison with the drawings I feel at times toward heaven. But a few years would not be missed from my eternity of bliss….I can well afford to spare them, both for your sake Emily and the sake of the poor Burmans. I am not tired of my work, nor am I tired of this world. Yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from his school. Perhaps I feel something like the young bride, when she contemplates resigning the pleasant associations of her childhood for a home yet dearer – - though only very little like her. One thing I know there is no doubt resting on my future!”
Do you remember our text?
Text: “….except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal”. (John 12:24-25)
Adoniram Judson’s was a life well lived. His legacy includes over 7,000 conversions, most on a personal basis. Over 63 Churches planted, 123 missionaries sent out that were his converts, and in excess of 2,700 pastors and missionaries trained in the Bible Schools or Missionary Societies he founded. The story of Adoniram Judson is the story of a man’s intense love for a nation that was hostile to the Gospel and of how that love was perfected through suffering.
Near the end of his life, Adoniram Judson made a visit to America and spoke at a number of large gatherings. He was asked after one occasion why he had preached a regular sermon when people had gathered from everywhere to hear the wonderful stories of his work on the other side of the world. He replied, “I wish to tell only the most wonderful, thrilling story that anyone could ever conceive.” His inquisitor responded, “But the story you told in your preaching is one they’ve all heard before. What they wanted was something new from you regarding your work on the other side of the globe.” Dr. Judson, then sighed and replied revealing the burden of his heart, “Then I am glad they have it to report, that a man coming from the other side of the world had no greater message to share with them than the wonderful story of Jesus and his great love, love shown in the giving of His life.”