The change in Mr. Judson’s views on the subject of Baptism led almost immediately to the formation of a Baptist Missionary Society, now known as the American Baptist Missionary Union. In the year 1880, there passed through the treasury of this Board nearly three hundred thousand dollars, given by the Baptists of the United States for the evangelization of the heathen. This society is at work in Burmah, Siam, India, China, Japan, and also in the countries of Europe, and it reports nine hundred and eight native churches, eighty-five thousand three hundred and eight church members, and twelve hundred and fourteen missionaries and native preachers.
A few years after Mr. Judson’s departure from this country, and the organization of these two societies, the Episcopalians and also the Methodists of America organized themselves for the work of foreign missions. For many years the Presbyterians joined hands with the Congregationalists, and poured their contributions into the treasury of the American Board. But in 1836 they organized a society of their own, now known as the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. Its fields of operation are Syria, Persia, Japan, China, Siam, India, Africa, South America, Mexico, and the Indian tribes, with an annual expenditure of nearly six hundred thousand dollars. It supports ten hundred and ninety-nine missionaries and lay missionaries, and reports fourteen thousand five hundred and eighty-eight communicants, with eighteen thousand two hundred and sixty scholars in the native schools.
All these vigorous Christian societies sustained by the missionary conviction of the churches in America, with their vast army of missionaries and native communicants now pressing against the systems of heathenism at a thousand points, when they come to tell the story of their origin, do not fail to make mention of the name of Adoniram Judson. His life formed a part of the fountain-head from which flow these beneficent streams which fringe with verdure the wastes of paganism.
Not only in this country has Mr. Judson’s career of heroic action and suffering stimulated Christian activity among all denominations, but his influence has been an inspiration everywhere. Just as a steamer in its course along a river generates a wave which will lash the shore long after the disturbing force has passed, so the words and behavior of a good man will sometimes set in motion streams of influence in the most unlooked-for places. How many by his life and his labor have been spurred to missionary endeavor we know not now, but shall know hereafter. But an interesting instance of the wide-reaching character of this influence has been preserved by Dr. Wayland. Mr. Judson had been deeply interested in establishing a mission among the Jews of Palestine, but to his great disappointment the enterprise proved a failure.
“It, however, pleased an all-wise Providence to render His servant useful to the children of Abraham in a manner which he little expected. Two or three days before he embarked on his last voyage, not a fortnight before his death, Mrs. Judson read to him the following paragraph from the _Watchman and Reflector_:
“‘There[72] we first learned the interesting fact, which was mentioned by Mr. Schauffler, that a tract had been published in Germany, giving some account of Dr. Judson’s labors at Ava; that it had fallen into the hands of some Jews, and had been the means of their conversion; that it had reached Trebizond, where a Jew had translated it for the Jews of that place; that it had awakened a deep interest among them; that a candid spirit of inquiry had been manifested; and that a request had been made for a missionary to be sent to them from Constantinople. Such a fact is full of meaning, a comment on the word of inspiration: “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that.”’”
Mrs. Judson, in her relation of these facts, continues:
“His eyes were filled with tears when I had done reading, but still he at first spoke playfully, and in a way that a little disappointed me. Then a look of almost unearthly solemnity came over him, and, clinging fast to my hand, as though to assure himself of being really in the world, he said, ‘Love, this frightens me. I do not know what to make of it.’ ‘What?’ ‘Why, what you have just been reading. I never was deeply interested in any object, I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything, but it came; at some time—no matter at how distant a day—somehow, in some shape—probably the last I should have devised—it came. And yet I have always had so little faith! May God forgive me, and, while He condescends to use me as His instrument, wipe the sin of unbelief from my heart.’
“‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’”