A Supreme Desire to Please Him

The Spirituality of Adoniram Judson

Burns

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781498280266
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Adoniram Judson was not only a historic figurehead in the first wave of foreign missionaries from the United States and a hero in his own day, but his story still wins the admiration of Christians even today. Though numerous biographies have been written to retell his life story in every ensuing generation, until now no single volume has sought to comprehensively synthesize and analyze the features of his theology and spiritual life. His vision of spirituality and religion certainly contained degrees of classic evangelical piety, yet his spirituality was fundamentally rooted in and ruled by a mixture of asceticism and New Divinity theology. Judson's renowned fortitude emerged out of a peculiar missionary spirituality that was bibliocentric, ascetic, heavenly minded, and Christocentric. The center of Adoniram Judson's spirituality was a heavenly minded, self-denying submission to the sovereign will of God, motivated by an affectionate desire to please Christ through obedience to his final command revealed in the Scriptures. Unveiling the heart of his missionary spirituality, Judson himself asked, "What, then, is the prominent, all-constraining impulse that should urge us to make sacrifices in this cause?" And he answered thus: "A supreme desire to please him is the grand motive that should animate Christians in their missionary efforts."

1

Introduction

“It seems to be a divine law that those who bestow roses must feel thorns.”1 These were the words of Edward Judson (1844–1914), describing the thorny sufferings and fragrant legacy of his father, the first American Baptist missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson Jr. (1788–1850).2 Judson’s life and labor were a paragon of relentless obedience to the missionary call and of humble submission to the sovereignty of God.3 The diamond of his piety glistens upon the dark cloth of God’s inscrutable providences.

In an era of great American folk heroes such as Daniel Boone (1734–1820) and Davy Crockett (1786–1836), and legendary ventures such as the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), many hailed Judson as an exemplar even before his death.4 Not long after his death he was endowed with the honor of “the Christian hero of the nineteenth century.”5 Today, and unquestionably in his own day, Judson has been venerated as an icon of missionary fortitude—indeed “a sort of Christian Paladin.”6 According to one early biographer, Judson’s religious biography, made available to the evangelical multitudes through the printing press, “has done more efficient service in quickening spiritual life and promoting Christian usefulness. No man has fulfilled his course in latter times with whose life it could be more profitable for the churches of Christ to have a familiar knowledge,”7 than that of Judson. Admirers thrust him into “celebrity status.”8 Judson was “among the most courageous of the religious adventurers of the nineteenth century.”9 His contemporaries considered him to be among men who,

do not represent the spirit of their age, or the opinions of a people; they are prophets of the future; they represent ideas which, struggling for mastery, become the property of succeeding times. They identify their fortunes with the success of a principle; they enshrine in their hearts some great truth, unwelcome to their generation, and feel themselves impelled to go forth as its heralds, to conquer as its champions, or die as its martyrs. Among the men of this higher order, as far as the elements of character are concerned, Adoniram Judson holds a distinguished place.10

Judson’s “seraphic zeal”11 inspired those of his own generation and those to follow. One hundred years after his birth, many biographies, indeed hagiographies, had “made the name of ‘Judson’ a household word throughout the length and breadth of Christendom.”12

Though eminent in his home country, Judson was also renowned in and around Burma as “Jesus Christ’s man” who published writings, telling of the eternal God:

Others come from the frontiers of Kathay, a hundred miles north of Ava—“Sir, we have seen a writing that tells about an eternal God. Are you the man that gives away such writings? If so, pray give us one, for we want to know the truth before we die.” Others come from the interior of the country, where the name of Jesus Christ is a little known—“Are you Jesus Christ’s man? Give us a writing that tells about Jesus Christ.”13

Judson’s reputation in Burma as a disciple of Christ accordingly spread to the United States where his supporters likewise recognized him as such a man. He arrived back in the United States in the fall of 1845, and while he was attending a special meeting of the Triennial Convention in New York, “The mover of the resolutions . . . presented [Judson] to Dr. [Francis] Wayland with the expressive and well-understood words: ‘I present to you Jesus Christ’s man.’”14 This apropos title exemplifies the Christ-centered spirituality of Adoniram Judson.

Status Quaestionis

Although the story of Adoniram Judson has become legendary, there has never been a systematic synthesis and study of his spirituality. The attraction of Judson’s life is evident in the dramatic ways in which his biographers highlight the tragedy, romance, and triumph of his story; undoubtedly, the numerous times his biography has been rewritten using the same sources and sketching the same events reveals the allure of his life’s story.15 Yet, no work has comprehensively synthesized those aspects of his piety that grounded and sustained him amid his illustrious labors and sufferings. Judson’s story is peculiar in the history of evangelical missions and in the history of the life and thought of the American church. Yet, Judson’s influence upon missions and the American church has not been merely missiological; his influence, as his biographers have attested, has been evangelical and motivational. Because of the significant effect of his piety upon evangelical spirituality and missions, the contours of his piety deserve examination. The missionary spirituality that courses through the sundry accounts of Judson’s life has been effective “not only in drawing men into service, but rather more, perhaps, in sustaining men in service . . . By his heroic persistence in well-doing under almost unsuperable difficulties and unbearable hardships have they learned to endure and persevere.”16 More than the incredible tragedy and adventure of his account, truly his enduring piety has made his story seem so other-worldly, inimitable, and worthy of retelling.

The nineteenth century witnessed the publication of biographies, which had accessed volumes of primary source material. Of these, the biography that stands at the headwaters is the two-volume work by the president of Brown University and Baptist pastor, Francis Wayland (1796–1865).17 Wayland had access to all of Judson’s remaining letters and journals in the possession of the American Baptist Missionary Union and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.18 Also, Judson’s widow, Emily C. Judson (1817–1854), furnished Wayland with family letters and reminiscences that he considered of significant interest. Wayland’s biography is noteworthy because he personally knew Judson, he was an educator, he had access to all of Judson’s known correspondence and journals, and he had Emily’s enthusiastic assistance. Wayland wrote to promote the cause of missions to which Judson was peculiarly devoted.19

Published within a year of Wayland’s biography, Robert T. Middleditch’s (1825–1...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: The Life and Context of Adoniram Judson
• Chapter 3: “Yield to the Word of God”: Bibliocentric Spirituality
• Chapter 4: “Thy Will Be Ever Done”: Ascetic Spirituality
• Chapter 5: “We Reap on Zion’s Hill”: Heavenly-Minded Spirituality
• Chapter 6: “O, The Love of Christ”: Christocentric Spirituality
• Chapter 7: Conclusion
• Bibliography