PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The life of Adoniram Judson
Judson, Edward, 1844-1914 · 223,971 words · 329 reading sections
Part 181
Again he writes to the same bereaved lady: “What a miserable world is this! No sooner does the heart’s pulse begin to take a little hold, than snap it goes. How many times more shall I have to sing that melancholy ditty— “‘Had we never loved so kindly, Had we never loved so blindly, Never met, or never parted, We had…
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The mission-house had been erected by the Boardmans at the expense of the mission, upon ground given by Sir Archibald Campbell. It was situated about a mile south of the English barracks, on a gentle westerly and southerly declivity, so that it commanded a view of the river and the sea. It contained three rooms fifteen…
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“The infant stirred, and the mother opened her eyes. Why was she in darkness? and what objects were those scattered so strangely about her apartment, just distinguishable from the gray shadows? The lamp was soon relighted, and startling was the scene which it revealed. There lay, in odd confusion, trunks, boxes, and ch…
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Although the English rule prevented the application of the Burman iron mall, yet the young converts did not escape persecution. “Ko Myat-kyau is,” Mr. Judson writes, “a brother of the first native chief in the place, nearly fifty years of age, of most respectable rank in society, more so than any other that has been b…
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“Two other girls, younger than those that have been baptized, appear to have obtained light and hope in Christ. ‘Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise.’ One of them, Mee Youk, about eight years old, gives as clear, satisfactory evidence of real conversion as any of the older girls. The othe…
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“Her little body was wasted to a skeleton, and covered from head to foot with the marks of a large rattan, and blows from some sharp-edged thing which left a deep scar. Her master in a rage one day caught her by the arm, and gave it such a twist as to break the bone, from which her sufferings were dreadful. Besides, sh…
280 wordsSECTION 187MEE SHWAY-EE.[39]
“In the tropic land of Burmah, Where the sun grows never old; And the regal-browed Palmyra Crowns her head with clouds of gold; On a strange, wild promontory, Close beside the rushing sea, Listening ever to the billows, Dwelt poor little Mee Shway-ee. “But along the sandy sea-shore. Or amid the foliage green, Stringin…
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“At the close of the war,” according to Mr. Judson’s narrative, “he spent a few months at a large village in the neighborhood of Shwa-doung, and there, devoting himself to the preaching of the word, he produced a very considerable excitement. Several professed to believe in the Christian religion; and three of the most…
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One feels his heart drawn out toward the poor fisherman, Moung Ing, one of the very earliest Burman converts, Mrs. Judson’s only dependence at Ava and Oung-pen-la—the first bearer of the Gospel to the Tavoyans, and yet a man whose mission in this world, in spite of zeal, fidelity, and untiring industry, seemed to be ev…
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On the 15th of December, 1829, Mr. Judson received news of the death at Washington of his brother Elnathan, with whom he had prayed so many years before by the roadside on his way from Plymouth to Boston.[41] The letter that brought him these sad tidings assured him also that the wayside prayer had been answered. He wr…
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Besides, the time had now come to make a new attempt to enter Burmah proper. Accordingly on February 21, 1830, Mr. and Mrs. Wade removed to Rangoon, Mr. Judson’s old field, where the newly-ordained Moung Thah-a and Moung Ing were laboring. The pain of parting was alleviated by the hope which Mr. Judson cherished of joi…
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This brave effort, however, to plant Christianity at Prome, in the very interior of the Burman empire, the half-way place between Rangoon and Ava, proved a complete failure. Mr. Judson preached the Gospel and distributed tracts all the way up the river, and for three months he and his disciples labored faithfully in Pr…
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“_July 3._ Pastor Ing returned from a visit to Men-yoo-ah. He says that the same suspicion is spreading all over the country. Even the women mentioned in my last were afraid to have any communication with him. By forcing his way, he managed to sleep two nights at the house of the Toung-dwen teacher, and had some conver…
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“_July 12._ A Burman day of worship. In the morning, received private information that the deputy governor, as I conjectured, did actually report me to Ava. If any order be given immediately, whether favorable or unfavorable, it may be expected in the course of a fortnight. Felt rather dejected, but endeavored to put m…
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“Afloat on my own little boat, manned by none other than my three disciples, I take leave of Prome and her towering god Shway Lan-dau, at whose base I have been laboring, with not the kindest intentions, for the last three months and a half. Too firmly founded art thou, old pile, to be overthrown just at present; but t…
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“_September 25._ Came in sight of my old acquaintance, Shway Da-gong; landed once more in Rangoon; found letters from Maulmain, saying that brother Boardman is considerably better, for which I desire to thank God; repaired to the house lately occupied by brother Wade. Since his departure, I find that some efforts have …
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“DEAR BRETHREN: I wrote you lately by Ko Ing, since which I have received yours by Moung En. We continue to distribute about forty tracts a day, and should gladly double the number if we could depend on a supply from Maulmain. By tracts I mean not the single sheets or handbills,[42] containing merely a scrap of Scriptu…
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“DEAR BROTHER BENNETT: I wrote lately by Moung San-lone, saying that the great festival falls on the 25th instant, and begging that, until that time, no tracts might be circulated in your quarter, but that everything that could be got ready should be sent hither. If you listen to that petition, well; if not, to repeat …
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“The great annual festival is just past, during which multitudes come from the remotest parts of the country to worship at the great Shway Da-gong pagoda in this place, where it is believed that several real hairs of Gaudama are enshrined. During the festival I have given away nearly ten thousand tracts, giving to none…
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It was about this time that the Mission Board in this country sent him an earnest and affectionate invitation to revisit his native land. He was about forty-two years old, and had been absent from America eighteen years. His health was shattered. His family he had laid in the grave. He said several years later that he …
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“One of the brightest luminaries of Burmah is extinguished; dear brother Boardman has gone to his eternal rest. I have heard no particulars, except that he died on returning from his last expedition to the Karen villages, within one day’s march of Tavoy. He fell gloriously at the head of his troops, in the arms of vict…
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“On Wednesday evening thirty-four persons were baptized. Mr. Boardman was carried to the water-side, though so weak that he could hardly breathe without the continual use of the fan and the smelling-bottle. The joyful sight was almost too much for his feeble frame. When we reached the chapel, he said he would like to s…
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“At evening worship, Mr. Boardman requested Mr. Mason to read the thirty-fourth Psalm. He seemed almost spent, and said, ‘This poor perishing dust will soon be laid in the grave; but God can employ other lumps of clay to perform His will as easily as He has this poor unworthy one.’ I told him I should like to sit up an…
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“Never, my dear parents, did one of our poor fallen race have less to contend with in the last enemy. Little George was brought to see his dying father, but he was too young to know there was cause for grief. When Sarah died, her father said to George, ‘Poor little boy, you will not know to-morrow what you have lost to…
119 wordsSECTION 205DEATH OF BOARDMAN.[45]
“Pale with sickness, weak and worn, Is the Christian hero borne Over hill, and brook, and fen, By his band of swart, wild men, Dainty odors floating back From their blossom-crushing track. “Through the jungle, vast and dim, Swells out Nature’s matin hymn: Bulbuls ’mid the berries red, Showers of mellow music shed; Thr…
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“As to little Georgie, who has now no earthly father to care for him, you can not, of course, part with him at present. But if you should wish to send him home, I pledge myself to use what little influence I have in procuring for him all those advantages of education which your fondest wishes can desire. Or if you shou…
236 wordsSECTION 207LIFE IN MAULMAIN (CONTINUED). 1831-1845.
It now became Mr. Judson’s duty to return to Maulmain. He had been absent thirteen months. The first part of that time had been spent in the futile effort to establish a mission at Prome, and the last part he had labored alone with native converts at Rangoon, distributing tracts, preaching the Gospel and translating th…
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“The Karens are the simplest children of nature I have ever seen. They have been compared to the aborigines of America, but they are as much inferior, both in mental and physical strength, as a puny effeminate Hindoo is inferior to a sturdy Russian, or a British grenadier. Of all people in the world, the Karens, I beli…
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“_September 9, 1828._ The Karens left us for their native forest. It was a source of regret to us all, that Ko-thah-byoo was not present to facilitate our intercourse by interpreting for us. Just before leaving, the old sorcerer put on his jogar’s dress, given him, he said, nearly twenty years ago, and assumed some sel…
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On these jungle trips he was always accompanied by a band of associates. He would take with him eight or ten disciples and dispatch them right and left up the tributaries of the Salwen. Two by two they would penetrate the wilderness, and meeting their teacher a few days later, would report to him the results of their l…
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“_January 11._ Continued to work our way up the river, frequently impeded by the trees which had fallen across the water, and through which we were obliged to cut a passage for the boat. At night, came to a small cluster of houses, where we found an elderly woman, who with her daughter formerly applied for baptism, but…
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“Took an affectionate leave of the people, and prosecuted our journey toward the Salwen. Came to Zat-kyee’s small village, where one man and his wife embraced the truth at first hearing; and the man said, that as there was no suitable place for baptizing at that village, he would follow on, until he could say, ‘See, he…
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“_January 30._ In the morning, held a church meeting by the river-side, and received the last two applicants. The chief of the village, Yet-dau’s father, and several other persons, are very favorably impressed. Not a word of opposition to be heard. Took an affectionate leave of this little church, now consisting of six…
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“_February 2._ Went round the northern extremity of Kanlong, and up the eastern channel, to Poo-ah’s village, where we found the two disciples whom we sent away on the 21st ultimo. They have met with a few hopeful inquirers. Some who live near are expected here to-morrow. In the meantime, went down the river a few mile…
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“_March 1._ Touched at the village above Nengyan, and found that the inhabitants have come to the same conclusion, ‘till the next rainy season.’ Passed by all the Taling towns, and touched at the village below Rajah’s, where we found that the people still adhere to the new Karen prophet, Aree-maday. Moung Zuthee unfort…
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“_March 11. Lord’s day._ Again took the main river, and soon fell in with a boat, containing several of the listeners of yesterday, among whom was one man who declared his resolution to enter the new religion. We had scarcely parted with this boat when we met another, full of men, coming down the stream; and, on hailin…
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“_March 27._ Ran down the river without touching at any place by the way. At night reached Maulmain, after an absence of nearly a month, during which I have baptized nineteen, making eighty Karen Christians in connection with the Maulmain station, of whom one is dead and two are suspended from communion. Am glad, yet s…
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“We are in distress. We see thousands perishing around us. We see mission stations opening on every side, the fields growing whiter every day, and no laborers to reap the harvest. If each one of us could divide himself into three parts, happy would he be, not only to take leave of his native land and beloved connection…
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“O God of mercy, have mercy on Ava, and Chageing, and A-ma-ra-poo-ra. Have mercy on Pugan and Prome (poor Prome!), on Toung-oo, on the port of Bassein, and on all the towns between Ava and Rangoon. Have mercy on old Pegu and the surrounding district. Have mercy on the four provinces of Arracan. Have mercy on the inhabi…
459 wordsSECTION 220“C. BENNETT, “OLIVER T. CUTTER, “JOHN TAYLOR JONES, “A. JUDSON, “J. WADE.”
A letter from one of the new-comers[47] to her parents gives us an interesting glimpse of our missionary’s personal habits: “Our intercourse with Mr. Judson is of a very pleasing nature, and we feel happy to be permitted in the least degree to take off the edge of his loneliness. It is affecting to hear his petitions …
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“A single anecdote is related by Captain F——, a British officer, stationed at Tavoy; and he used to dwell with much unction on the lovely apparition which once greeted him among those wild, dreary mountains. He had left Tavoy, accompanied by a few followers, I think on a hunting expedition, and had strolled far into th…
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“I shall never forget the parting scene of brother Comstock and his wife with their children, when we sailed from the shores of Arracan. They had made up their minds to entrust us with their two children, on account of the difficulty of educating them in a heathen land. We were together one day, at their house, when wo…
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But the translation of the Bible was essentially necessary to the permanent establishment of Christianity in Burmah, and no other living man was qualified for the work. And so, in the brief intervals of preaching, and teaching, and imprisonment, and jungle travel, secluding himself in the garret at Rangoon, and afterwa…
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“I ought to have written you long ago; but necessity has no law. I have lately entered upon a plan by which I hope to finish the translation of the Old Testament in two years. I find by experience that I can dispose of twenty-five or thirty verses per day, by giving all my time to the work. One-third of the whole is al…
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“There is one thing that annoys me a good deal—the New Bible Versionists claim Dr. J., and I know (though I do not feel brave enough to oppose my bare assertion to the ‘weight of testimony’ they would hurl at my head) that nobody could disapprove of a new English version of the Scriptures more heartily and entirely tha…
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“The Bible cause in this country is now at a very low ebb. I once indulged the hope that I should live to see a complete copy of the whole Bible (bound in one volume, so as not to be liable to be scattered) deposited in every town and village throughout Burmah and Arracan. It is true that many thousand copies would be …
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“With all this, he has told me that he felt, when making his translation, an almost overpowering sense of the awfulness of his work, and an ever-present conviction that every word was as from the lips of God.” In regard to the merits of his Burman Bible, Mr. Judson’s estimate was very modest. He writes: “The _beau id…
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“But after he had satisfied himself as to the meaning of the original, a most difficult labor yet remained to be accomplished. It must be now transferred into a language peculiar and strongly idiomatic, and, moreover, a language destitute of terms in which to express the elementary and peculiar ideas of the New Testame…
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“Mr. Judson preaches _every_ Lord’s day to a crowded assembly, and _every evening_ to a congregation averaging thirty. We find our old chapel too small, and are about having a new one erected. The native assistants go about the town every day preaching the Gospel, and Mr. Judson holds a meeting with them every morning …
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“Since I have attained, in some measure, the great objects for which I came out to the East, and do not find it necessary to be so exclusively and severely engrossed in missionary labors as I have been for a long course of years, my thoughts and affections revert more frequently, of late, to the dear home where I was b…
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When his son, Adoniram Brown Judson,[54] born April 7, 1837, was almost a year old, Mr. Judson wrote to his own mother and sister a letter in which, with playful tenderness, he alludes to both his children: “MAULMAIN, _March_ 16, 1838. “I remember you in my prayers every day, and hope that you do not forget me, my wi…
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“My last informed you that I was on a passage to Calcutta for my health, by the direction of a physician and the recommendation of the brethren at the station. I derived great benefit from the voyage; and my health continued generally to improve during my stay in Calcutta of three weeks, and on the return voyage, until…
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“Then the children came around me, asking to go to the wharf, and the women _looked_ their wishes; and though I said ‘no’ to the little ones, I could not deny the others. After they were gone, I took all three of our darlings into your own little room, told them why you had gone away, and asked Abby Ann and Adoniram if…
577 wordsSECTION 234VERSES WRITTEN BY MR. JUDSON FOR HIS CHILDREN DURING THIS VOYAGE.
_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.” _Another._ “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.” _For Abby An…
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“I have during the past year suffered deep anxiety and gloomy foreboding on account of my dear husband’s health. But God has been merciful beyond our fears, and so far restored him that he was able to preach last Lord’s day, the first time for about ten months. His discourse was short, and he spoke low. I felt exceedin…
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“I have been in great distress for several months, and think I have not written a letter to America, except one to my mother and sister, since the beginning of the year. Early in March, Mrs. Judson fell into a decline, and became quite confined to her bed. Three of the children had been, for some months, ill; and the t…
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“I wrote you on the 24th ultimo. Perhaps this letter will go by the same conveyance. Wife went down to Calcutta, for a few days, to do a little business, leaving the two younger children with me. On the 27th dear little Henry’s disorder took an unfavorable turn. He had derived less benefit from the voyage and change th…
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“P. S.—I enclose a small lock of poor dear Henry’s hair. We are very sad whenever we think of that bright, sweet boy. It was the will of God that he should be taken from us; so we must be resigned, and I hope that he is now waiting to welcome us to the Paradise where, we trust, he has safely arrived. Two vessels have j…
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“After remaining about four weeks in Bombay, the _Ramsay_ sailed for Maulmain, in Burmah, and from thence to Calcutta. During these passages some favorable impressions seemed to have been produced in the minds of the crew; and on their arrival at Calcutta they conducted themselves with greater propriety than at any of …
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“At Maulmain there are two Baptist churches—one for the natives, which is supplied by Dr. Judson; the other for Europeans, etc., which is supplied by assistant missionaries. Both churches were in a flourishing condition. The missionary work was being zealously prosecuted, and many of the heathen were renouncing their i…
672 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.