Adoniram Judson
America's First Baptist Foreign MissionaryHe grew up in a Congregationalist church. He went to college at Brown University, and there he became an atheist. The person that taught him these beliefs was known as E____. After graduating as his class valedictorian, Judson went across the country exploring, and trying to enjoy life because he felt like only by seeing things could a man gain knowledge.
He came into an inn one night and asked for a room. The innkeeper told him that he only had one room left, but that room was next to a room in which a rather young man was dying. This might deter quite a few people from taking the room, but Judson thought, "What is death? It is just a part of life." During the night he heard the screams of pain from that young man, and soon he found himself wondering thoughts that he would normally have deemed as extraneous. He thought, "Does this man know what will come of him when he dies? Does he know Jesus as his savior?" In the morning after a horrible night of sleep Judson inquired the innkeeper about the young man. The innkeeper said, "I thought you might have known, he died early this morning." Adoniram asked the name of the young man, and it was none other than his friend E____ that had known all of the answers for any question, but had never been asked about death. Judson was soon saved by the grace of God, and he decided that he wanted to be a missionary.
He looked for support from the congregationalists, but they were lax about giving any monetary support. Judson wanted to go to Burma, India to preach the gospel. He wanted to share the gift that had been given him by Jesus Christ. He would not give up. He asked support from Congregationalists in England, and they said that they would give him support. The response of the American Congregationalists was, "Anything the Brits can do, we can do!" Now Adoniram had all the support he needed!
The journey to Burma was very long, and the only thing for him to do was study, and the more he studied the more he found that he should be Baptist. He soon found that the true church was the Baptist church, and before he reached the shores of Burma he became a Baptist. Judson went on to translate the Bible into Burmese, the most difficult language to learn save Chinese, and he also wrote a dictionary in Burmese. To this day Judson's translation of the Bible into Burmese is the most widely used version. This can only be evidenced through his commitment to his work. Judson translated directly from the Greek and Hebrew texts, and he committed all of his time to spreading the gospel to the Burmese. His life is truly inspiring and I hope you will consider adding him to the list of biographies listed on your webpage.
[From Faith Cox Bailey, editor, Adoniram Judson: America's First Foreign Missionary, 1955. Document provided by Joshua Ross. — jrd]
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