A Lesson from Mr. Judson.
By George I. Butler
WHILE reading the life of Adoniram Judson, the celebrated Baptist missionary to Burmah, lately, I was instructed and reproved by the course pursued by this eminent man of God. There are many things in his life that are worthy of imitation. At about the age of twenty-four years, Mr. Judson consecrated himself to the service of missionary labor, with his devoted companion, under the auspices of the Congregationalists, taking passage to the East Indies. Missionary labor was then in its infancy. There were few friends to encourage them to thus venture their lives, and their all. They went from pure motives, to bring the light of the gospel to heathen minds sunk in degradation and depravity, with no prospect of wealth, ease, or honor, before them; but rather, want, insult and persecution. Thus taking their lives in their hands, they voluntarily sailed away to distant lands, with no understanding of the language of the people they were to labor for, to be welcomed by no loving hearts upon their arrival, to be furnished with no pleasant home and society; but to be met with suspicion, indifference, and months of prison life. As I said, Mr. Judson went out under the auspices of the Congregationalists. On his voyage, while investigating the subject of baptism, he became satisfied that immersion was the only true mode of administering that ordinance. Here was a trying position for him. As he was being sent out and supported by sprinklers, and had no connection or acquaintance with the Baptists, and then the American Baptists had no provision for missionary laborers, it seemed like destroying the last hope of support to dissolve his connection with the society that sent him out. But, trusting in God, Judson nobly stood the test, and thus left himself in a far-distant heathen land with little hope of support, to do the work to which he had devoted himself for the sake of being true to his convictions. The first step was to learn the Burman language, This was far more difficult than learning any of the European languages, as they are somewhat related to ours in origin. His teacher knew nothing of English. The teacher would point to different objects, and pronounce their names in Burman. Mr. Judson would pronounce after him. In this way he slowly learned the vocabulary. The characters used in writing, the form of the words, the mode of expression, everything, was different from our language. Instead of clear characters on paper, with their proper division into sentences by pauses, points, and capitals, he had obscure scratches on dried palm leaves strung together and called a book; written without pauses in one continuous line, seeming to the eye but one long word, with no dictionary or interpreter to explain a single word. It was four years from the time that Judson left America before he had a single book or tract in the Burman language to distribute, or before he was sufficiently acquainted with the language to write one; and about five years, before a single inquirer desired really to know anything about the new religion. What anxious years these must have been to the poor missionaries. Three of them passed before Mr. J. knew that he should receive support from the Baptist denomination. They also had sickness to contend with, and annoyances and persecutions from the heathen around them; But Mr. Judson never faltered. He had an abiding confidence that he was in the pathway of duty, and that was enough. It was over seven years from the time they left home till the first Burman was converted to the gospel. It was an occasion of great rejoicing. After eleven years had passed, Mr. Judson had a complete translation of the New Testament to distribute. After thirteen years of arduous labor, they had made some eighteen converts, and Mr. Judson was then cast into prison, upon war’s breaking out with Great Britain and Burmah. His sufferings were terrible; his treatment most cruel. To add to his afflictions, his faithful wife, the sharer of all his labors and trials, was prostrated with fever and overlabor, and for months was helpless. Her infant, three months old, was nearly famishing from lack of food. Still their trust was in God. They doubted not their mission. At the close of the war, and upon their release, the mission had, as it were, all to be recommenced. They entered again upon their work with spirit. This was perhaps the most discouraging period of the work. From this point a more encouraging state of things was seen, and the work began to prosper. Man’s extremity is ever God’s opportunity. The baptism of suffering and trial through which they had passed, had even prepared them for the work, and the mission greatly prospered in usefulness. Mr. Judson had still more trials to contend with. His faithful companion he laid beneath the “Hopia tree;” but he still went forward with the additional care of his motherless children upon him. But it is not my design in writing this, to give a sketch of Mr. Judson’s life. I would advise all who can, to read his biography. There is a lesson in all this that is important. Some will think, perhaps, that all these sacrifices and sufferings were thrown away, and that he might have stayed in his own native land, and that the mission proved a failure. But the Burman mission in after years became a mighty one. Mr. Judson lived to see fourteen hundred Burmans baptized in one year, and thousands upon thousands of heathen became hopefully converted to God. Surely this was not a failure. It is a certainty that his faithful labors, through toil, privation and suffering, when the cause was in its infancy, were the main reason of its final success. This is ever so. The beginning of every great enterprise has great difficulties to contend with, and greatly blessed is that cause that has such sacrificing men as Adoniram Judson to commence it. But perhaps some will inquire, Did not Judson get terribly sick of the work he had undertaken? such sufferings to pass through, such trials to meet? Just otherwise. Here is a mistake that many make because they do not look beneath the surface of things. As a general rule, in a work voluntarily undertaken, the more we sacrifice for it, the greater interest we171have in it. When our strength, our means, our ability, is cast into any work, our interest becomes absorbed in it, for we feel that it is a part of us. It becomes as dear to us as life itself. So it was with Judson. That which had been his life-work was very precious to him. When finally he was forced to come back to this country on account of the sickness of his second wife, after a continued absence of thirty-three years, his reception in the United States was most flattering. His return caused a thrill of joy among Christians of all denominations. His progress was a continued ovation. His friends would have rejoiced to have him spend the remainder of his life in their society. But no; that work for which he had made such sacrifices, was most dear of all, and he returned to Burmah to give his declining strength to the work of converting the ignorant heathen. The reason why many have so little interest in the cause of God, is not because they have given so much, but so little, to it. A person who has thrown all his energies into worldly projects, finds it very difficult to let go of the world. The more we give and sacrifice for the cause of God, the more we shall love it. I said at the commencement of this article, that I had been instructed and reproved while reading his life. I have been. What a difference between the difficulties before him and those before us in our labors. He had a difficult language to acquire. His hearers never heard of the Bible. He had none to put into their hands, and not a single tract to distribute. We speak to those who are familiar with the language of Scripture. The Bible is scattered like the leaves of autumn. Most of the people acknowledge its authority; and we have a bountiful supply of tracts on all subjects of present truth for distribution. Those he addressed were sunk in ignorance and heathenism, and debased by nameless vices. Persecution stared him in the face at every turn. We labor in the most enlightened nation of christendom, and mostly shielded from persecution or the slightest abridgment of our liberty. He labored for seven long, weary, painful years, to see one poor heathen converted to God. If we labor six weeks, and do not see a score brought into the truth, many of us, I fear, think we are not doing much. Wherever we go, we find some loving hearts, who, if they do not fully embrace the truth, treat us with respect and friendship. What a clear truth we have! What noble hearts we find here and there, like jewels scattered in the rubbish! How we ought to rejoice at the privilege of finding them, and making their hearts glad and joyful! And when we think of the coming of Christ so near, and of the “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and that some will hear this spoken, and that it is possible that we may, and certain that we shall if we do well, how earnest we ought to be, and how grateful that God has given us a place in such a noble work. Oh! for more of Judson’s faithfulness, zeal, and earnestness. May our motto ever be, Courage in the Lord, and confidence in the termination of his work.