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 A PAPER READ AT THE 
 
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 IJUM.Y:-' 
 
 Seventy-fourth Anniversary of the tfnion, 
 
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 Washington, D. C., MAi: ii, 1888. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. J. N. MURDOCK, D. D., 
 
 Corresponding Secretary. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION. 
 

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Our Missionary Pioneer. 
 
 The ninth day of August next will be the 
 centennial of the birth of Adoniram Judson, the 
 first missionary of American Baptists to the 
 heathen. The thirteenth day of July next will 
 be the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding 
 of the Burman Mission by the same Adoniram 
 Judson, just as he was approaching his twenty- 
 fifth birthday. The date of his entrance into 
 this breathing life, thus linked with the date of 
 his entrance on his great life work, can scarcely 
 fail to suggest thoughts appropriate to this 
 annual gathering in which we have met to take 
 a survey of our missions, and to consult in ref¬ 
 erence to the means and the methods by which 
 their transcendent interests may be advanced. 
 
 The life of Adoniram Judson opened on one 
 of the most important periods of human his¬ 
 tory. The battle of freedom in the New World 
 had been fought to a successful issue. The 
 jealousies and strifes of rival States, which had 
 been held in check, but not composed, by the 
 necessities of the common defence, had just 
 
4 
 
 been put under new bonds by the ratification 
 of the Constitution, and the country was thus 
 entering on a career of prosperity hitherto un¬ 
 precedented in the progress of mankind. The 
 people exulted in their new-found rights, while 
 multitudes were entering into the spiritual 
 blessings which resulted from wide-spread and 
 successive religious awakenings, one of which, 
 that of 1780-85, had scarcely ceased its gra¬ 
 cious visitations when this babe was born. 
 He came into the world when New England 
 was glowing with the fervors of love to Christ 
 and swayed by the impulses of a zeal for the 
 advancement of His kingdom in the earth. 
 In fact, it was a period of awakening both in the 
 New World and in the Old. Carey during this 
 very year had printed his u Enquiry into the 
 Obligations of Christians to use Means for the 
 Conversion of the Heathen,” which was followed, 
 four years afterwards, by the organization of 
 “ The Baptist Society for Propagating the Gos¬ 
 pel among the Heathen.” Similar views had 
 begun to prevail in various parts of this coun¬ 
 try, and no sooner was it known that Thomas 
 and Carey had gone to India to preach to the 
 heathen, than missionary societies began to be 
 formed in New England and the Middle 
 States to help them in their blessed work. On 
 this wave of preparation young Judson was un- 
 
5 
 
 consciously borne from his very infancy, through 
 all the stages of his education. Even his 
 pride and ambition and scepticism contributed 
 to prepare him for his future work by the very 
 sharpness of the recoil which he experienced 
 when the true light burst upon him. 
 
 And how miraculously that light began to 
 dawn on his soul ! Mark the striking provi¬ 
 dence which startled him from his unbelief 
 and led him to renounce his worldliness and 
 trample on his pride. Disturbed at night in a 
 village inn by the groans and moans of a sick 
 man in an adjoining room, he found in the 
 morning that the sufferer was his bosom friend, 
 who had fostered, if not inspired, his own 
 scepticism, and that he had died during the 
 night. He was filled with consternation, and 
 turned with loathing from his false refuge. 
 He ceased to doubt the existence of God and 
 the reality of the Christian religion ; but the 
 light of clear faith had not yet risen in his soul. 
 
 But he was a seeker, and seekers after God 
 are sure to come to the place of vision. He 
 was led by mysterious impulses to go to An¬ 
 dover, not as a ministerial student, not even as 
 a professed Christian. But soon after he took 
 up his residence in what was then known as 
 “ Divinity College,” il he was enabled to sur¬ 
 render his whole soul to Christ as his atoning 
 
6 
 
 Saviour.” Five months after his conversion he 
 made a public confession of Christ, and be¬ 
 came a member of the Congregationalist Church 
 in Plymouth, of which his father was pastor. 
 This was in May, 1809. In September follow¬ 
 ing, he fell in with Buchanan’s “ Star in the 
 East,” which awakened the first thoughts of 
 becoming a missionary to the heathen. Another 
 providential circumstance, which led to his great 
 decision, was the arrival at the Divinity College 
 about this time of several of the young men 
 from Williams College, who had been confer¬ 
 ring together and praying with reference to 
 missionary work, and had even formed an asso¬ 
 ciation looking to that end. The result of his 
 study and prayer and conference with such men 
 as Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Luther 
 Rice, and Samuel Nott was that in February, 
 1810, he was fixed in his purpose to become a 
 missionary, and Burma was the field on which 
 his thoughts were centred. 
 
 It has been said of Luther, that he was not 
 the storm that produced the Reformation, but 
 only the wave that was carried highest by it. 
 In the same way, these young men were not 
 the originators of the missionary movement 
 in this country; they were only the agents 
 who first seized and shaped the spirit which 
 more or less pervaded the Christian im- 
 
7 
 
 pulses of the time; the outcome, in another 
 and complemental form, of the movement 
 which had already resulted in the formation of 
 so many missionary societies. The time was 
 ripe, and the men appeared; the supply meet¬ 
 ing the demand. The idea had become widely 
 diffused and pervasive, the next step was an 
 organization which might make it effective and 
 bring about the desired results. In this respect 
 Mr. Judson undoubtedly became a leader. He 
 wrote the petition to the Massachusetts Asso¬ 
 ciation for the formation of a missionary society. 
 He was prominent in all the preliminaries which 
 led to the organization of the American Board. 
 When it was resolved to establish some kind of 
 alliance with the London Missionary Society, 
 he was chosen as the agent to make inquiries 
 and conduct the negotiations for the purpose. 
 His visit to England, his capture by the French, 
 his release and arrival in England, his inter¬ 
 views with the authorities of the London Mis¬ 
 sionary Society, his eager determination to pro¬ 
 vide against the failure of his crowning object,— 
 the personal establishment of a mission among 
 the heathen,—all fall into the line of that provi¬ 
 dential leading which was so marked a feature 
 of his whole life. 
 
 I need not dwell on the formation of the 
 American Board, with all the difficulties and 
 
8 
 
 delays attending it, on the appointment of 
 himself and several of his associates as mis¬ 
 sionaries to labor under its auspices, on the 
 sailing of the u Caravan ” from Salem with Mr. 
 and Mrs. Judson and Mr. and Mrs. Newell, or of 
 the “ Harmony ” from Philadelphia with Messrs. 
 Nott, Hall, and Rice. Enough that they were 
 at last on their way to India, and that they 
 would soon be confronted by the realities of 
 missionary life among a heathen people. But 
 for Mr. Judson that way was not yet plain, and 
 the goal to which it led was not certain. New 
 questions arose during the voyage, which the 
 engrossing duties of organization, and the 
 weary details of preparation, had allowed no 
 time to consider. He looked forward to the 
 gathering of converts from the heathen ; what 
 was he to do with the children of these believ¬ 
 ers ? What was to be their relation to the 
 church, and what about their baptism ? More¬ 
 over, he expected to remain for a time with 
 the Baptist missionaries at Serampore ; what 
 should he answer them if called to give a reason 
 for his belief and practice in reference to the 
 baptism of infants ? The result of his careful, 
 anxious, and even most embarrassing investi¬ 
 gation was the clear and firm persuasion of his 
 mind that there is no authority for the practice 
 in the New Testament, and no excuse for it in 
 
9 
 
 the normal development of Christian institu¬ 
 tions. To him it became clear that baptism 
 was valid only when it was accepted as an in¬ 
 telligent confession of faith in Christ. It soon 
 became equally clear that the form of the rite 
 was as positively set forth as was its prelimi¬ 
 nary condition. In short, the only valid baptism 
 was the immersion of a believer in the name 
 of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as a vol¬ 
 untary acceptance of Christ’s authority and 
 rule. 
 
 With the deepest solemnity, but without 
 the least hesitation, he imparted his conclu¬ 
 sions to his wife, expecting to encounter griet 
 and perplexity, if not protest and remonstrance ; 
 and he was not disappointed. But after their 
 arrival at Calcutta, Mrs. Judson began an inde¬ 
 pendent examination of the subject; the result of 
 which was, as she expresses it, that she became a 
 confirmed Baptist, not because she wished to 
 be, but because truth compelled her to be. 
 Here we find another and most remarkable in¬ 
 stance of the providential leading which was 
 gradually opening their unknown way. They 
 joined hands again, and went cheerfully forward, 
 guided by the word of their unseen but ever¬ 
 present Leader. And the full significance of 
 this providence was more apparent when they 
 learned that Luther Rice, during his voyage 
 
IO 
 
 in the “Harmony,” had made the same in¬ 
 vestigation and reached the same conclusion. 
 
 In proportion to the clearness of conviction 
 on this head, came the sense of an imperative 
 duty hitherto neglected. But to perform it they 
 must forsake their parents, their church, the 
 society which had sent them forth, and their 
 companions in the new missionary enterprise. 
 They must forfeit the good opinion of all whom 
 they knew and held dear, bringing grief to some 
 and provoking anger in others; they must even 
 imperil their opportunity of doing the work to 
 which they had consecrated their lives, by for¬ 
 feiting the only means of supporting it, and 
 encounter loneliness and want in a land of dark¬ 
 ness and sin, taking God for their only com¬ 
 forter and support. But, like Abraham, they 
 went out, not knowing whither they went, with 
 the authority of Christ as their warrant, and His 
 promise for the success of the venture. A few 
 weeks after their arrival in Calcutta they were 
 baptized in the Baptist chapel in that city. Mr. 
 Rice arrived later, and followed their example. 
 Partly on account of his health, and partly in 
 the hope of awakening an interest for missions 
 among the Baptists in this country, he decided 
 to return home, while Mr. and Mrs. Judson 
 * remained to encounter the vicissitudes and hard¬ 
 ships resulting from the oppressive acts of the 
 
British East India Company, whose policy was 
 stout against the establishment of Christian 
 missions within their jurisdiction. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Judson were obliged to escape 
 to Port Louis, in the Isle of France. Mr. 
 Newell and his wife had preceded them, but be¬ 
 fore their arrival Mrs. Newell had died. After 
 a brief sojourn at this place, they availed them¬ 
 selves of an opportunity to sail to Madras, 
 where they hoped they might be permitted to 
 remain and begin their labors. But the eyes of 
 the East India Company were still upon them, 
 and they were soon obliged to flee again from 
 those who sought to send them on one of the 
 Company’s ships to London. They took refuge 
 on board a Portuguese vessel lying in the road¬ 
 stead, and on the 13th of July, 1813, they landed 
 in Rangoon, the chief seaport of Burma, the 
 land on which his eye was first fixed as the 
 theatre of his future labors, but which had 
 been reluctantly given up as preoccupied or 
 inaccessible. Considering all the preceding 
 circumstances, his early committal in feeling to 
 Burma, his separation from his brethren, the 
 strange vicissitudes of his brief sojourn in India, 
 and the manner of his entering the land at last, 
 the incident must have seemed to him as the 
 fulfilment of a divine purpose. 
 
 And so Mr. Judson comes at last to his work ; 
 
12 
 
 a work for which all that he has done 
 hitherto is only incidental and preparatory. 
 Here he stands on the thirteenth day of July, 
 1813, a man reared amidst the activities and 
 • nascent possibilities of the new civilization of 
 the Western world, adorned with the culture of 
 its best schools, and glowing with the fervors 
 kindled by forty years of successive revivals ; 
 a man whose history up to this hour has been 
 stamped by a manifest providential direction, 
 his presence here being the crowning proof of 
 this supreme fact ; a man animated and sur¬ 
 charged in every fibre of his being by a high 
 purpose ; a man whose very presence in any 
 human enterprise would be compelling, and at 
 whose beck, movement must begin; a man so 
 consecrated in every thought and aim, that no 
 plea of self, however specious, can cause him to 
 swerve from the line of duty, or to enter upon 
 any doubtful way ; a man of courage so fine, 
 that he stands unmoved in the presence of most 
 appalling dangers, and bears the fiercest tor¬ 
 ture — a torture which is nothing less than pro¬ 
 longed living martyrdom— without seeming to 
 be conscious that his heroism is heroic ; a man 
 withal, of a faith so high and clear that he en¬ 
 dures as seeing Him who is invisible, upon 
 whom the very powers of the world to come 
 have descended, to whom darkness is as the 
 
*3 
 
 light, whom no obstacle can hinder, no delay- 
 can discourage, no denial can offend, no temp¬ 
 tation can shake, and no defeat can destroy. 
 
 And what of the country and the people 
 amongst whom and for whom he was henceforth 
 to labor ? The government was one of the 
 worst forms of Oriental despotism ; the religion 
 was Buddhism, a system without a God, and 
 whose supreme hope for the future is an eternal 
 suspension of consciousness and utter insensi¬ 
 bility to pleasure or pain. The people were at 
 the mercy of their tyrants, and from the highest 
 to the lowest were marked by injustice, violence, 
 and lust. Though oppressed and the victims 
 of the strong, the masses excited little pity, 
 being proud, intolerant, treacherous, brutal, 
 and bloodthirsty. They were all gone out of 
 the way ; there was none that did good, no, 
 not one. Their tender mercies were cruel; 
 and so they had no hope, and were literally with¬ 
 out God in the world. Little, we might as well 
 say nothing, had been done for their enlighten¬ 
 ment, till the young missionary came. The 
 English Baptists had started a mission there in 
 1807, under Mr. Chater and Mr. Mardon. The 
 latter soon left the station, and Mr. Chater was 
 joined by Mr. Felix Carey, eldest son of Dr. 
 Wm. Carey, who made some progress in the 
 language, prepared a brief grammar, and re- 
 
vised Mr. Chater’s translation of Matthew, 
 neither of which proved of any practical value. 
 After a residence of four years in Burma, Mr. 
 Chater left the country. Mr. Carey soon 
 afterwards went to Ava, the Burman capital, 
 and entered the service of the king. The Lon¬ 
 don Missionary Society also sent two missiona¬ 
 ries to Burma, but their stay was very short; 
 so that the field was vacant when Mr. Judson 
 entered it. When we consider these failures of 
 English societies to occupy this important coun¬ 
 try, together with the early impressions of the 
 young missionary that it was his destined field 
 of labor, and the remarkable manner in which 
 he was thrust upon it at last, how can we escape 
 the conclusion that he was the selected instru¬ 
 ment of Providence to open the empire to the 
 knowledge of Christ ? 
 
 It is clear that Mr. Judson interpreted the 
 succession of events which led him to Rangoon 
 in this sense. To this end the field had been 
 kept open ; for this purpose he had been sepa¬ 
 rated from his brethren and baffled in all the 
 plans he had subsequently formed. He was 
 therefore in Burma to stay. And what a task 
 was before him ! What he had undertaken was 
 the overthrow of a system of religion which had 
 prevailed in the country for more than two 
 thousand years; which was rooted in the tra- 
 
i5 
 
 ditions of more than seventy-five generations ; 
 which was inwoven with the texture of a literature 
 universally regarded with pride and veneration, 
 and which is remarkable at once for the justness 
 of its moral teachings and its utter incapacity to 
 produce moral lives. To this great work Mr. 
 Judson addressed himself with a resolute pur¬ 
 pose and an unfaltering faith. 
 
 His first work was to learn the language. He 
 was a linguist both by faculty and training. His 
 first work, after he left college, was to prepare 
 an English grammar, which was highly com¬ 
 mended at the time of its publication. He soon 
 made himself familiar with the structure and 
 idiomatic forms of the language, and before 
 many months had passed, he was able to con¬ 
 verse with the people. He began to tell them 
 of the eternal and unchanging God, the maker 
 of heaven and earth, the Creator and sustainer 
 of all men on all the face of the earth. The sad 
 plaint of the people was, “ Gaudama is dead; 
 he can do nothing for us ”; and he told them of 
 Him who came forth from God, clad in human 
 flesh, to save men from sin, to lighten their 
 burdens and bring them to the abodes of bliss. 
 
 Then he resorted to the press, for they were 
 a reading people. He began to write tracts, 
 describing the way of salvation, the evil and 
 misery of sin, and the blessedness of all who 
 
i6 
 
 accept Christ as their Saviour. And so month 
 after month, and year after year, he moved 
 among the people, teaching them the way of life, 
 and persuading them to come to Christ and live. 
 He also began early to translate portions of the 
 New Testament, for which he continued to 
 qualify himself by the study of the extensive 
 literature of Burma. He spoke the language 
 with the facility of a native, and wrote it with 
 the elegance of a scholar. He studied botany, 
 natural history, mineralogy, and other related 
 branches of natural science, that he might rep¬ 
 resent more clearly to Burman readers the 
 numerous references to these things in the 
 Bible. Probably no missionary of modern times 
 was more thoroughly equipped for the vastly 
 important work of Bible translation. Never was 
 man more painstaking and reverent in dealing 
 with God’s word, or more careful to give the 
 people its exact meaning. He declared that it 
 had been his aim “ to make every sentence a 
 faithful representation of the original.’’ For 
 this purpose he was constantly occupied with 
 corrections of the parts he had printed. He 
 stated that he spent more time and expended 
 more strength on these revisions than on the 
 original translation. The new edition of the 
 Burman Scriptures, now passing through the 
 press at Rangoon, is receiving numerous emen- 
 
i7 
 
 dations by his own hand, never before incor¬ 
 porated in an edition of his Bible for public use. 
 The old legal fiction of the dead hand holding 
 inalienable and unchanged the tenure of landed 
 estates, seems to be exemplified, though in 
 another sense, in what is now taking place at 
 the Mission Press in Rangoon ; the dead hand 
 still guarding the press for the maintenance of 
 the changeless verities of God’s word, as if 
 Judson had come forth from his ocean grave to 
 put the last finishing touches on the book which 
 is the word of God that abideth forever. 
 
 Dr. Judson, during all the long years which 
 he gave to his Burman Bible, looked forward to 
 the time when he should enjoy the privilege of 
 preaching the Word to the people. When the 
 Board and the missionaries urged him to com¬ 
 plete his literary work for Burma by the prepa¬ 
 ration of a dictionary of the language, he hesi¬ 
 tated to undertake it, because it would keep 
 him from the proclamation of the glad tidings 
 to men, for which he had so long waited and 
 pined. In vain was the great importance of the 
 work to the missions and to the people urged 
 upon him. In vain was he told that his mas¬ 
 tery of the language, his familiarity with its lit¬ 
 erature, and his genius for tracing the endless 
 tonal modifications of its root forms, imposed it 
 on him as a sacred duty to undertake the diffi- 
 
i8 
 
 cult work, and it was not until speech failed 
 that he showed any alacrity in undertaking a 
 service which, next to the translation of the 
 Bible, was at once the most important and the 
 most difficult ever imposed on a missionary. 
 Accepting his affliction as a clear intimation of 
 the will of God, he began the work, and in spite 
 of weakness and pain, prepared it for the press, 
 thus fixing the form of the language which will 
 for all time be the vehicle for the transmission 
 of the Word of God to the coming generations 
 of a populous empire. 
 
 Dr. Judson never intermitted his personal 
 efforts to teach and preach among the people, 
 even when most engrossed in his literary work. 
 When he could speak only in whispers, he still 
 continued to preach to the Burman church. 
 He never omitted an opportunity to commend 
 the Gospel to all who came within his reach. 
 His earnestness in winning men to Christ 
 never abated. During the long years of patient 
 labor and weary waiting, before he baptized his 
 first convert, he groaned in agony of spirit for 
 the salvation of the people. But though the 
 harvest did not appear, he never doubted that 
 God had ordained him for Burma, nor that a 
 multitude of redeemed people would be gathered 
 in that land. When asked what was the pros¬ 
 pect of the conversion of Burma, he replied that 
 
J 9 
 
 the result was “just as sure as the promise of 
 God.” During the first six years of apparently 
 fruitless labor, his response to an anxious, if not 
 impatient, inquiry whether he saw any signs of 
 promise was, “ Wait twenty years, and then 
 look this way again.” Ere the twenty years 
 were past, the Bible was translated, and more 
 than two thousand converts were gathered. 
 His faith was as strong in those days of sowing 
 as in the days of reaping, which came at last. 
 He saw the harvest in the promise, and his soul 
 exulted in the glory that was sure to follow. 
 He saw in prospect the increasing hosts of the 
 redeemed, and heard the songs of triumph from 
 afar. His invincible faith sustained him in 
 spite of delays, disappointments, and seeming 
 defeats. Nay, he affirmed his belief that God 
 would bring light to Burma by him, even 
 though, as he thought probable, during his im¬ 
 prisonment at Oung-pen-la, he should be cut off 
 by an early death. He shared Paul’s confidence 
 that God would be magnified by his death as 
 well as by his life. He knew that the word, the 
 immortal seed, would remain, though both 
 sowers and reapers were removed. Nay, he 
 felt that his work would go on long after his 
 decease. And to-day we are verifying the grand 
 truth proclaimed by the marching song of our 
 armies during the late war, that though dead, his 
 
20 
 
 soul is marching on. It has broken over the 
 wall into Assam, India, China, Japan, Africa, 
 and Europe. His work is augmenting, and will 
 increase as the years go by. He gave the first 
 impulse, and the progress of the Gospel in all 
 these lands is in the line of his life, and it will 
 still increase till the nations shall be redeemed, 
 and the song of the ransomed earth shall 
 mingle with the strains of the heavenly hosts, 
 “ Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
 and honor, and glory, and blessing.” 
 
 Dr. Judson could scarcely have failed to be 
 a conspicuous figure in human history, what¬ 
 ever might have been the sphere of his action. 
 “ If he had remained in this country, what a 
 man he must have become ! ” was the remark 
 of a somewhat noted civilian who had just 
 finished reading the memoir of his life by Dr. 
 Wayland. He was endowed with great quali¬ 
 ties, and was born to be a leader of men. 
 He thought at one time of devoting himself 
 to the profession of teaching. Had he done 
 so, he would doubtless have risen to the first 
 rank of educators, and have been named with 
 Arnold, Wayland, and Nott. There was once 
 some thought of engaging him as a pastor of 
 a city church. In such a post his learning, 
 his industry, his earnest piety, and his ability 
 
as a writer, would have won him no mean 
 measure of success. Had he chosen the law, 
 he would have doubtless achieved distinction 
 at the bar or on the bench. Had he entered 
 political life he would have added to the num¬ 
 ber of our statesmen, and been honored for 
 his incorruptible integrity. Had he sought for 
 openings in business in his earlier days, there 
 is no reason why his active, enterprising 
 spirit, his sound judgment, and his high sense 
 of honor might not have raised him to the 
 pinnacle of wealth. 
 
 But his spirit was too great, his interest in 
 this Gospel of grace was too deep, his con¬ 
 secration to Christ was too complete, his esti¬ 
 mate of the material and the spiritual as factors 
 of human well-being was too just, to allow 
 him to engage in any of these pursuits. 
 Christ was his pattern, and nothing less than 
 the gift of himself, the utter devotion of all 
 his powers to the glory of his Master and the 
 salvation of men, could satisfy the aspirations 
 of his soul. Nor did he judge unwisely even 
 on a human view of the result. A greater than 
 he has said, “He that seeketh his life shall 
 lose it, but he that loseth his life for my sake, 
 shall find it.” In no other course could he 
 have gained s high a place on the roll of 
 human honor. What name in the record of 
 
22 
 
 illustrious Americans shines with a brighter lus¬ 
 tre than Adoniram Judson’s, whose fame is as 
 universal as the sea and as enduring as the 
 heavens ? 
 
 We have dwelt upon Dr. Judson’s personality 
 and work, not on his trials and sufferings. But 
 if we were to treat of these as he estimated 
 them, we need not necessarily speak of his sick¬ 
 nesses, his bereavements, or even the horrors 
 of Oung-pen-la. The terrible rigors of that im¬ 
 prisonment, the cramped posture of the racked 
 limbs, the manacles, the scourgings, the pesti¬ 
 lent and hot air of the prison, and the unutter¬ 
 able bitterness of those dreary months, did not 
 comprise the deepest pangs he endured in the 
 accomplishment of his mission. He seldom 
 talked of these things, but on one occasion, 
 when they were referred to, he replied, “ How 
 willingly would I endure all that again if it could 
 be the means of rousing our people to the per¬ 
 formance of their duty towards the heathen 
 world.” He had given himself that the heathen 
 might hear of Christ; he was ready to burn on 
 the altar of this service, and his very soul was 
 pierced by the indifference of Christians to the 
 woes of the perishing. He entered, as all true 
 missionaries must, into the experience of Paul, 
 when he said, “ I could wish myself accursed 
 from Christ for my brethren.” And who can 
 
23 
 
 solve the mystery of a man redeemed by Christ, ' 
 and a partaker of His saving grace, who is yet 
 indifferent whether or not Christ, the only life, 
 the only hope of men, is preached to the heathen ? 
 Talk of the mysteries of the faith as you will, 
 but they are all as plain as the alphabet, com¬ 
 pared with the incongruity of a really Christian 
 life without a sense of this supreme duty. It is 
 not heathen persecutors nor infidel scoffers that 
 are doing most against missions to-day. In¬ 
 different Christians, who seldom pray and never 
 give for missions, are the heaviest incubus on 
 the work which carries the only hope of the 
 race and the highest glory of Christ. We need 
 to-day a renewal of the spirit of Judson. And 
 may we not hope that this centennial year will 
 witness a revival of the interest which the fathers 
 felt in his work ? His name ought to be heard 
 in all our pulpits, his deeds should be rehearsed 
 by platform and press throughout the land, till 
 our people appreciate how great a gift God be¬ 
 stowed upon us in the life and work and example 
 of this man. 
 
 But we shall not fully meet our indebtedness 
 on this account by resolutions, encomiums, and 
 laudatory songs. The only way toshowour sense 
 of what he was and what he did, is to take care 
 of his work. We must hold Burma, which he 
 brought to us — himself and Burma, as a gift 
 
24 
 
 from God. The rich out of their abundance, 
 and the poor with their mites, must provide fox 
 the new era of Burma. The young men must 
 rush to the field to guard Judson’s work from 
 the meddlesome hands of intrusive sectaries. 
 The whole people, to whose fathers God gave 
 the land, must rise with one impulse to main¬ 
 tain the vantage we have gained. It is our duty 
 to hold what the Lord so clearly gave us. We 
 are able ; and if we fail, it will be because the 
 Lord is no longer in the midst of our hosts. 
 
 Measures should be taken here to raise this 
 year, by special offerings, $100,000 as a Judson 
 Centennial Fund for the enlargement of the 
 missions in Burma, Assam, India, China, Japan, 
 Africa, and Europe. Let the noble memorial 
 projected in New York go up as a monument to 
 father and son. Let the humble structure con¬ 
 templated near the site of Oung-pen-la be reared. 
 But all this need not stand in the way of pro¬ 
 viding for a spiritual structure, with richer 
 adorning and more enduring quality. And 
 let the men who have entered into his labors, 
 and the great denomination which has reaped 
 the results of his sacrifices, sufferings, and toils, 
 address themselves anew to the accomplishment 
 of the work which he so nobly began.