Timeless Christians

Judson, Adoniram

Adoniram Judson was the son of a stern Calvinist minister who believed strongly that God chose some people for damnation and others for salvation—even the youngest children. When Judson's baby sister died, his father, with tears in his eyes, stuck to his theory, insisting the girl might be in hell for all eternity although two young to understand either sin or salvation. Judson said he could not believe in such a God.

At Providence College (Brown University) he associated with a brilliant young Deist named Eames, a man who scoffed at Christian faith. Under his influence, Judson abandoned the residue of his childhood faith—a faith which had never become personal to him. That is how matters stood when he graduated. One night, traveling for adventure, he sought shelter in an inn. The landlord said the only room he had was next to a dying man. Judson took it.

All night long he lay awake listening to the man's groans of misery and despair, while the footsteps of caretakers came and went. Although not a believer, Judson could not help but wonder if the man was prepared for eternity. Before morning the groans ceased. The stranger was dead.

Before he left the inn, Judson learned the man's name. It was none other than Eames, the same who had turned him from faith. He realized Eames was eternally damned. It dawned on him that if he died that day, his destiny would be the same. Sobered, he abandoned his travels and entered Andover Theological Seminary, where shortly afterward, in his twentieth year, he sought and received Christ's pardon. He had envisioned an ambitious career. Now he felt the Lord was asking him to abandon his personal ambitions. He did so.

At Andover, he associated with young men as ardent for Christ as Eames had been opposed. Together they brought into existence America's first foreign mission. A few days before Judson sailed to spread the Gospel in Asia, he married sparkling Anne Haseltine, who will receive a biography of her own.

Their destination was India. Forbidden to remain there, they settled in Burma. Anne's descriptive letters made her husband and herself household names throughout the United States.

Judson translated the Bible into Burmese and won the first Burmese Christians. During a war between Britain and Burma, he was held for seventeen months, and starved and tortured. Anne ruined her health in the attempt to preserve his life. Not long after his release, she died.

Until his own death in 1850, Judson labored on in Burma. He had wanted to become famous on the American national stage. Had he pursued those ambitions, it is likely he would by now have been forgotten among the many forgotten civil leaders of that age. By giving up his dreams for the sake of Christ, he gained fame as the foremost missionary of the new American mission enterprise.

by Dan Graves