Adoniram Judson: Pioneering Missionary to Burma
With his hair clipped to the scalp, his legs bound to a raised rod, and only his head and shoulders resting on the ground, Adoniram Judson found himself deathly ill in a Burmese prison. The year was 1824, and Judson was on the verge of losing his life at the hands of those he had gone to preach the Gospel. It had been a long, hard decade for Judson. He had labored for six grueling years among the Burmese people before seeing his first convert. He and his wife Ann had also suffered the loss of two children. This was the life of America’s first Baptist missionary to foreign lands, but it’s not a life that many would have sought.
July 13, 2013 will mark the 200-year anniversary since Judson landed on Burma’s shores on July 13, 1813. His life and legacy are both inspiring to believers and horrifying to critics. Through brilliant and ambitious, Judson was a man who understood himself as nothing more than a servant of Christ to those for whom He died.
In this article, I hope to honor this pioneering missionary by briefly highlighting his conversion, missions commitment, marriage, and voyage to Burma’s shores.
Early Life and Conversion
Adoniram Judson wasn’t always a dedicated servant of the Lord. For a time, he was quite the opposite. Judson was born into a Congregationalist pastor’s home in Malden, Massachusetts in 1788. He was a bright young man driven by his desire for learning. Judson’s mother taught him to read at the age of three, even having him read a portion of Scripture to his father as a gift.
At the age of sixteen Judson’s father enrolled him at the Rhode Island College at Providence (now Brown University), because Yale was too far away, and Harvard was far too liberal (theologically). Ironically, it was at Brown that Judson became good friends with a self-professed Deist, Jacob Eames. It wasn’t long before Judson embraced Eames’s beliefs, abandoning his father’s.
Judson’s pursuit of educational excellence led to his being named valedictorian in 1807. Having come home from college, he revealed to his family that he no longer believed the Bible to be uniquely inspired, nor did he believe Jesus to be the Son of God. Judson’s father attempted to argue with his son, while his mother cried out in prayer. Their arguments and prayers were unsuccessful—at least for a time.
After this, Judson set off for New York on a horse that was part of his inheritance to become a playwright. These aspirations didn’t last long, and he was soon riding away from New York. One evening, as Judson was passing through a small village, he decided to stable his horse and stay at the village inn. The innkeeper explained to Judson that the only available bed was in a room where a young man lay at death’s door. Judson reluctantly accepted the offer.
Judson could hear the man groaning as caretakers’ footsteps frequently crossed the creaking floor. Judson was disturbed and even terrified—not by the man’s potential death, but about whether he was ready for his own death. He wondered what his good friend Jacob Eames would think of these silly fears. He imagined Eames’s laughter at his brief worries, and felt ashamed [1].
When Judson woke the next morning with the sun shining brightly in his room, he couldn’t believe he’d had such thoughts. On the way out of the inn, Judson asked the host if the man was better. The man replied, “He is dead.” Startled, Judson asked, “Do you know who he was?” The man replied: “Oh yes. Young man from the college in Providence. Name was Eames, Jacob Eames.” Judson was floored. We might suspect that such an experience would have caused Judson to immediately repent and believe, but it didn’t. His conversion would be subtler than that.
Judson headed home and was soon enrolled as a special student at Andover Seminary, since he was not yet converted. At Andover, Judson came under Professor Leonard Woods’s influence. Judson found Woods to be his match in debate, and enjoyed his simple life and walks through surrounding meadows. In November of 1808, his doubts slowly began to fade away. And on December 2, Judson dedicated himself to the Lord.
Commitment and Commissioning
While at Andover, Judson reflected upon the possibility of devoting his life to Christian missions [2]. As part of the Andover curriculum, he likely read Jonathan Edwards’s Diary and Journal of David Brainerd [3]. Judson certainly knew of William Carey (famous missionary to India). One historian concludes: “Judson’s reading of Brainer and awareness of Carey prepared him to respond to a sermon he read in September 1809 on Matt. 2:2” [4]. Claudius Buchanan, a chaplain in the East India Company, had preached the sermon, emphasizing the necessity of the Gospel being translated into various languages. This notion “resonated with Judson” [5].
In February of 1810, Judson committed himself to missions while out walking alone. Judson resolved: “The command of Christ, ‘Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,’ was presented to my mind with such clearness and power, that I came to a full decision, and though great difficulties appeared in my way, resolved to obey the command at all events” [6].
Judson soon united with a group of young men (“the Brethren”), who had dedicated themselves to pursuing missionary endeavors. These men became Judson’s closest friends and some of his fellow missionaries. Through a series of conflicts and unique circumstances, the General Association of Congregationalist churches formed the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), and later approved and funded Judson.
Marriage to Ann Hasseltine
While meeting with the mission board in Bradford, Massachusetts, Judson had lunch at Deacon John Hasseltine’s home. While there, Judson noticed the beautiful Ann Hasseltine, the youngest of John’s four daughters. When introduced to Ann, Judson was dumbstruck, and she was unimpressed by the young missionary she’d heard so much about.
One month later, Judson wrote Ann a letter announcing his intentions as a suitor. Ann didn’t promptly respond to the letter, but eventually explained her desire for her parents’ consent before considering him. Ann wondered if she was cut out to be a missionary’s wife. Judson promptly wrote her father a shocking letter. In the letter he asked John if he’d be willing to part forever with his daughter next spring and consent to her likely subjection to hardship, suffering, and possibly a violent death. Surprisingly, John left the decision up to Ann. It took her some time to decide—and understandably so, since “no woman from America had ever gone overseas as a missionary” [7]. But by mid-October, it was well-known that Ann was going to marry Adoniram Judson.
The Voyage to Burma
On February 19, he and Ann set sail from Salem for the East with no plans of ever returning. As Professor Woods told the congregation at Judson’s ordination, “Consider yourselves looking upon them for the last time, before you shall meet them at the tribunal of Christ” [8]. And so they went.
Their journey was long and difficult. Along the way Judson studied Scripture and books on baptism. Having been raised, commissioned, and funded by Congregationalists, Judson arrived in Burma having embraced a Baptist understanding of baptism. On September 26, 1812, he and Ann were baptized by immersion in a chapel in Calcutta. They were no longer Congregationalists.
No longer could Judson either baptize the infants of future adult converts, or serve the denomination that had sent them. This was no whimsical decision. Ann wrote to a friend, “We are confirmed Baptists, not because we wished to be, but because truth compelled us to be” [9].
In addition to receiving theological clarity on their journey, the Judsons also encountered significant trials. With no midwife to assist, Judson helped Ann give birth to their baby on a boat in the Bay of Bengal. Stillborn, they were forced to bury the little one at sea.
Conclusion
It wasn’t long after their tragic loss that their ship entered the Rangoon River where Judson got his first glimpses of the Burmese people. He laid eyes on one of the world’s wonders: the massive, golden Shwedagon Pagoda. The land was swampy, and Judson could tell the place was “dark” and “cheerless.” The Judsons had just lost a baby, and Burma’s darkness was almost more than they could handle. But this was their calling, and nothing could change that.
Adoniram Judson set foot on Burmese soil on July 13, 1813. He would serve the Burmese people for over thirty-five years amid great danger and horrific loss. His legacy is a remarkable one. Judson is responsible for creating a Burmese dictionary and Bible translation that is still in use today. He was a unique combination of zeal, determination, and scholarship. We remember Adoniram Judson’s worth today as being one of God’s choicest servants to those who had not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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[1] Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1987), 45.
[2] Francis Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D. (Boston, MA: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, 1853), 1:29.
[3] Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Mission for Life (New York: Free Press, 1980), 25; quoted in Jason G. Duesing, “Ambition Overthrown,” in Adoniram Judson: A Bicentennial Appreciation of the Pioneer American Missionary, ed. Jason G. Duesing (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Academic, 2012), 66.
[4] Duesing, “Ambition Overthrown,” 66.
[5] Ibid., 67.
[6] “Adoniram Judson to Stephen Chapin, 18 December 1837”; quoted in Wayland, Memoir, 1:51-52; quoted in Duesing, “Ambition Overthrown,” 68.
[7] Candi Finch, “So That the World May Know: The Legacy of Adoniram Judson’s Wives,” in Adoniram Judson: A Bicentennial Appreciation of the Pioneer American Missionary (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Academic, 2012), 105.
[8] Woods, A Sermon Delivered, 28-29; quoted in Duesing, “Ambition Overthrown,” 75.
[9] Ann Judson to a friend, 7 September 1812; quoted in Wayland, Memoir, 1:106.
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Further Reading
Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson
Jason G. Duesing, ed., Adoniram Judson: A Bicentennial Appreciation of the Pioneer American Missionary
Arabella W. Stuart, Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons
Francis Wayland, A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Adoniram Judson
July 8, 2013
A great story of a man who was converted and was willing to put Christ first in his life. Very interesting!!
August 14, 2013
Jesse, this essay awakens the heart,mind,and soul to the cause of Christ, as seen through Adoniram Judson. Through Judson’s life and ministry I see the continuing work of the Holy Spirit. More can certainly be said about this great servant of Christ, but your essay is a wonderful overview that should prompt more Christians into missional living.