February 1812 was a month filled with dramatic changes for a young missionary named Adoniram Judson. On the fifth day of the month, he was married to Ann Hasseltine. A day later, the groom was ordained as a minister of the Gospel in the Congregational Church in Salem, Massachusetts. Then, just two weeks later, on February 19, Adoniram and his bride Ann boarded a ship. They were bound for a land unknown to them that lay on the other side of the world.

Adoniram Judson was born on August 9, 1788. His father, a Congregational pastor, served for a time at the Pilgrim’s historic church in Plymouth, Massachusetts. During Adoniram’s days as a college student, his faith was shaken by a close friendship with Jacob Eames, a deist who openly mocked orthodox Christianity.

Influenced by this dangerous friendship, Adoniram Judson abandoned the faith of his fathers and embraced the enlightenment thinking of the French rationalists. However, his skeptical views were shattered by a memorable event.

Judson was traveling one day following his graduation from college. While asleep one night at a roadside inn, Judson heard wild thrashing and violent cursing from a dying man in the next room.

Judson’s sleep was troubled as he thought about the awful agonies of the dying man, who screamed his way into a vast and unknown eternity. The next morning, Judson inquired of the innkeeper about the dying man: who was he and whether or not he had died. The innkeeper informed Judson that the man had indeed died in agony during the night, and that the name of the dead man was Jacob Eames!

The dying cries and agonies of his deist friend shook Judson’s soul to its very foundations. He returned humbly to the God of his father and sought forgiveness for his wanderings. He repented of his sins and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior.

With the zeal of his newfound faith, Judson devoted himself to the Gospel ministry. Adoniram Judson soon joined with other like-minded students at Andover Theological Seminary to pray for the cause of global missions. He decided to put action to his prayers and presented himself as a candidate to take the Gospel of Christ to the unreached lands of the Far East. He found a young lady named Ann Hasseltine who was also willing to go to what was—as yet to them—an unknown land.

On their voyage in 1812 as a newly married groom and bride, more consequential changes were in store for the Judsons. First, war broke out between the United States and Great Britain. This war would come to be known to history as the War of 1812. The war disrupted communication between the missionaries and their home churches. The Royal Navy of Great Britain was now hostile to the United States, and the war made it very difficult to travel in waters controlled by British naval power.Thus, travel for the American missionaries to their formerly unknown destination, which they now knew was India, would be difficult and uncertain.

The second major change that took place during the voyage was more personal and doctrinal in nature. Adoniram Judson undertook a careful study of what the Bible had to say about baptism. During the course of his long voyage at sea, Adoniram became convinced that infant baptism, practiced by the Congregational Church in which he was ordained, was unscriptural. He became a credo-Baptist by conviction. This change in his convictions meant that Judson’s sending churches in Massachusetts would not be willing to support him financially, threatening his entire future.

The Judsons and their missionary associates arrived in Calcutta, India, on June 17, after four months at sea. In India, Judson, acting upon his doctrinal conviction, and his wife were baptized by immersion. The couple then wrote a letter to their supporting churches, explaining how their views on baptism had changed. A few Baptist churches would eventually take on the support of the Judsons, but it would be many months. before the couple would learn that money and help were coming their way.

In the midst of all these changes, the American missionaries were ordered by the British East India Company to leave India. The British were now waging war on land and sea against the United States, and Americans were no longer welcome in India. Heartbroken, the Judsons were driven from India.

The Judsons soon found a new mission field in nearby Burma. On the way to Burma, however, another heartbreaking event occurred. The couple suffered the miscarriage of their first child. Deprived of financial support, driven from India, and now bereaved of their expected child, they landed in a strange land and immediately immersed themselves in an unknown language.

Two hundred years ago, Burma was a land locked in darkness. Buddhism held a firm stranglehold on the entire country. But Judson was undeterred by the difficulties ahead. Although he had faced many changes in the previous two years, Judson knew that he served an unchanging God, a God Who is steadfast forever, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Judson set about to study the difficult Burmese language. He spent twelve hours each day studying Burmese. He and his wife, Ann, whom Judson called “Nancy,” worked and ministered for six long and difficult years before seeing their first convert!

During this time, the Judsons welcomed a baby boy whom they named Roger William Judson. But their son lived only eight months. Once again, the grieving parents put their faith in the promises of a steadfast God and continued on with their life’s work.

For almost four decades, Judson stayed and labored in Burma. During the course of those forty years, he faced many hardships and heart-wrenching sorrows. Throughout the course of the Anglo-Burmese War that raged for two years, he was tortured and imprisoned upon suspicion of being a spy for the British.

His long imprisonment stretched for twenty months. His dear wife faithfully did all that she could to secure his release and alleviate his sorrows. Her loving labors on his behalf eventually led to her own death. Although Judson was eventually released, his beloved wife died after a battle with smallpox. Judson suffered another severe blow when their only living child, two-year-old dear little Maria, died six months after her mother’s passing.

Alone without help meet or family, Judson labored on for the salvation of the Burmese. After twelve years of work among the people, only eighteen converts reflected his efforts. Yet, Judson knew that the work of God cannot be counted with numbers or evaluated by other human marks of outward success. It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. By God’s grace, Adoniram Judson purposed to be faithful to the task God had given him.

Adoniram remarried in April 1834. His new wife was Sarah Boardman, the widow of his friend and associate George Boardman. The widower and widow united their efforts to reach the people of Burma that God had called them to love. The Lord blessed them with eight children over the course of the next decade, filling a void in the Judson home and providing a link to the future.

Sarah died in 1844 at Saint Helena, while the Judsons were on a voyage back to the United States—the only voyage home that Judson ever made. He was once again a widower. While in the United States, he married again. This time his bride was Emily Chubbuck. Judson and his new wife spent their time traveling around to various churches, pleading for the cause of foreign missions.

Judson and his bride, Emily, returned to Burma in 1846. He died four years later while ill and aboard a ship in the Bay of Bengal. Judson was buried at sea. A memorial stone stands today on Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where several members of the Judson family are buried.

However, the true memorial to Adoniram Judson is the lasting fruit of his work. By the time of his death, he had translated the entire Bible into Burmese—a translation that is still in use today! At Judson’s death, there were 100 Burmese churches composed of thousands of Burmese Christians under the care of national pastors. Through many changing circumstances, an unchanging God had shown Himself as always faithful.

Sources and Further Reference:

Anderson, Courtney. To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson. King of Prussia, PA: Judson Press, 1988.

Judson, Edward. The Life of Adoniram Judson. Oak Brook, IL: IBLP Publications, 1996.