Missionary Perseverance

If you have not read the first two installments on Adoniram Judson, please do so before reading this post!  You can read part 1 here.  You can read part 2 here. 

Originally intending to work in India, the Judson’s were turned away by the East India trading company.  Their boat sailed, (providentially) onto the shores of Burma (now Myanmar) at a port called Rangoon.  

He wrote:  The prospect of Rangoon, as we approached, was quite disheartening.  I went on shore, just a night, to take a view of the place, and the mission house; but so dark, and cheerless, and unpromising did all things appear that the evening of that day, after my return to the ship, we have marked as the most gloomy and distressing that we ever passed.  Instead of rejoicing, as we ought to have done, in having found a heathen land from which we were not immediately driven away, such were our weaknesses that we felt we had no portion left here below, and found consolation only in looking beyond our pilgrimage, which we tried to flatter ourselves would be short, to that peaceful region where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.  But, if ever we commended ourselves sincerely, and without reserve, to the disposal of our heavenly Father, it was on this evening.  

Judson believed God providentially placed them in Burma and not all the representations of his friends could induce him to turn from his work to relieve the spiritual wants of Englishmen, or preach before an English congregation.  It was this determined perseverance that made Judson the missionary he was.  His work in Burma was like a Christian marriage.  Divorce was not an option.

Though the soil was hard, the work was difficult, and the costs were more than anyone should have to bear (he lost his infant son, his wife, and his 2 year old little girl in Burma) he pressed on.  Here are some of his quotes:

“God grant that we may live and die among the Burmans, though we should never do any thing more than smooth they way for others.”

“I know not that I shall live to see a single convert; but, not withstanding, I feel that I would not leave my present situation to be made a king.”

“Is it a suitable time to leave a people when the Holy Spirit is operating on their minds, and creating in them ardent desires to know the way which leads to eternal life?  True, the number of our inquirers is small; but if there is only one, his soul is worth more than the wealth of the world, nor should it perish for want of Christian instruction.”

At 27 years old, Adoniram wrote, “Missionaries must not calculate on the least comfort, but what they find in one another and their work.  However, if a ship was lying in the river, ready to convey me to any part of the world I should choose, and that, too, with the entire approbation of all my Christian friends, I would prefer dying to embarking.  This is an immense field, and, since the Serampore missionaries have left it, it is wholly thrown on the hands of the American Baptists.  If we desert it, the blood of the Burmans will be required of us.”

It was a longing to see God worshipped and glorified that kept Judson in Burma.  However, this longing for God’s glory was not without a definite passion and love for the people.  He wrote, “When we feel a disposition to sigh for the enjoyments of our native country, we turn our eyes on the miserable objects around.”  May we all turn our eyes to the miserable objects around us, wherever we are, and with love for men and love for God’s glory commit ourselves to work while it is day, for the night is rapidly coming when no man may work.