Missionary Bio's - John Hardy Neesima (Part 3)

Part 3

 

    In October, after an absence of ten years, Neesima left New York for his native land. The changes that had taken place there seemed to him almost incredible. He found a national line of steamers, lighthouses at all important coast points, a general telegraphic system, a postal service, an organized navy, and a railway between Yokohama and the capital. In the treaty ports small Protestant churches had been established ; but in visiting his parents at Annoka, directly after his arrival in Japan, Neesima was the first to carry the gospel to the interior, and here he founded one of the most genuinely Christian communities in Japan.

     Neesima arrived at Osaka, the home of the American Board Mission, Jan. 22, and here he planned to establish a Christian school with a broad collegiate course ; but meeting with opposition, he gave up the project, and turned his steps towards Kyoto. Here he met with many and varied difficulties, but by persistent effort opened, Nov. 25, 1875, the Doshisha, with eight pupils. The winter of 1875 was one of hardship and discouragement; but assisted by the Rev. J. D. Davis, D.D., he maintained the school, which constantly increased in numbers.

      On Jan. 2, 1876, Neesima was married to the sister of the counsellor to the Kyoto Fu. She had been a teacher in the government school for girls, but her engagement to a Christian caused her discharge. After her marriage she entered fully into her husband's life-work ; and in their house, provided by Mr. J. M. Sears of Boston, services were constantly held, and Christian teaching promulgated.

    From 1876 to 1884 Mr. Neesima's life was filled with trials, and obstacles of every kind threatened the very existence of the Doshisha. The fact that the school, while nominally a Japanese company, was in reality supported from foreign means, caused an attack which compelled Mr. Neesima to write to the Prudential Committee for a permanent endowment ; and in November, 1879, he received the joyful tidings that the year's appropriation of eight thousand dollars would soon be placed under his direction for the educational work in Kyoto. The keynote of true teaching was struck by Mr. Neesima's effort to disseminate Christianity through an educated ministry. In 1880 he writes: "Try to send out choice men, Christians must not be charged with being ignoramuses, or we shall be ridiculed for our lack of learning as well as for our faith. We need the broadest culture and Christian spirit to counteract the downward tendency of our educated youth."

     Through all his work Mr. Neesima entertained the hope born at Andover of a Christian university at Japan, and determined to raise endowments for history, philosophy, political economy, law, and

medicine. His personal activity in this direction was incessant ; but, his health failing, he accepted in 1884 an invitation for rest and change from the Board, and visited Europe and America. During this trip he everywhere inspected schools and colleges, and noted in detail methods and results, and made plans of buildings and apparatus.

    He arrived in Boston, Sept. 27, 1884; but even there he was not freed from care and responsibilities. The outlook in Japan was broadening, and the demand great to place the Doshisha upon a university basis ; and he was looked upon as the medium between Japan and the source of its supply.

     In December it became necessary for him to go to Clifton Springs, N.Y., for rest at the Sanitarium. He left there in March, 1885, somewhat better in health, and cheered by the news that fifty thousand dollars had been appropriated for the Japan mission. He arrived at Yokohama Dec. 12, 1885, "and found five hundred friends, students, teachers, relatives, and prominent citizens," assembled there to meet him. The day after this the tenth anniversary of the Doshisha was celebrated, and the corner-stone of two new buildings laid. The school was in a flourishing condition ; and the Japanese boy of long ago was now, by acclamation of its faculty, president of the college.

   Two years later Amherst College conferred upon Neesima the degree of doctor of laws. May 17, 1887, an income of not less than twenty-five hundred dollars per annum was assured to the Doshisha by the American Board. In April, 1888, a meeting was held in the great Buddhist temple of Chionin in Kyoto, to consider the question of a university endowment. In July a dinner was given to Mr. Neesima by the late minister of foreign affairs, that he might present this question to distinguished Japanese guests. At this dinner Mr. Neesima fainted, worn out by his efforts. The result of the meeting was a pledge of thirty thousand dollars to the university. In the summer of 1888 he was told by his physicians that he had not long to live, and by their advice was taken to a mountain resort (Ikao) ; here he was cheered by the gift to the Doshisha of a hundred thousand dollars from Mr. J. N. Harris of New London, Conn. Writing to Mr. Harris, Mr. Neesima says, " A donation like this is unknown and unprecedented in our country."

    During the summer months of 1889 Neesima's health seemed to improve ; and after seeing the foundation for the new science building laid, he went to Tokyo to work for the endowment fund ; but rest was again advised by his physicians, and he went to Oiso ; and here, Jan. 23, 1890, he died. On the news of Mr. Neesima's dangerous illness, the students of Doshisha were with difficulty restrained from proceeding in a body to his bedside. On Jan. 24 the body was taken to Kyoto, where the funeral services took place, Jan. 27, in presence of the school, graduates from all parts of the empire, city authorities, and representatives of foreign missions. In the procession (a mile and a half in length) was seen a delegation of priests bearing the inscription, " From the Buddhists of Osaka." Truly no private citizen ever died in Japan whose loss was so widely and so deeply felt as that of Mr. Neesima.

    On the plain below Kyoto stands his outward monument, the Doshisha, from whose walls have come the most powerful factors in the civilization of new Japan ; but in the lives of the men about him is written the endurance of his influence, the divinity of his soul.

Missionary Bio's - John Hardy Neesima (Part 2)

Part 2

 

At this time no missionaries were allowed in Japan. So Neesima, recognizing God as the only father to whom he owed life fealty, determined to break the environments of his youth, and to leave temporarily his home and country. With some difficulty he obtained first his prince's, then his parents', sanction to leave Yedo, ostensibly to go to Hakodate, and in the spring of 1864 went thither. Neesima, always thinking of his country and its conditions, watched closely the people of Hakodate, and, painfully cognizant of their corrupt existence, determined that Japan needed moral reformation more than mere material progress. His desire to visit a foreign land he confided to a Japanese clerk employed by an English merchant. This friend at midnight and with great difficulty conveyed Neesima in a row-boat alongside an American vessel, whose kind-hearted captain had consented to take the Japanese boy as far as China. At Shanghai, Neesima was transferred to the American ship Wild Rover, whose captain employed Neesima to wait upon the table ; and not liking "Shimeta," called " his boy" Joe, and was uniformly kind to him. After a four months' voyage the ship reached Boston Harbor ; and through the kind interest of Captain Taylor, Neesima was introduced to the owner of the Wild Rover, Mr. Alpheus Hardy, one of Boston's noblest philanthropists. He became at once interested in the boy, and, with Mrs. Hardy, assumed the responsibility of his education.

    In September,1865, he entered the English department of Phillips Academy, Andover. Here he

remained until 1867, when his benefactors sent him to Amherst. His letters during his student life tell of frequent illnesses, which at times interfered with his work, of his tramps through different States during vacation, of letters from his Japanese parents, of his anxiety about his home affairs during the rise of the princes against the shogun in 1868-1869, of his growing spirituality, and of his heartfelt gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Hardy. In a letter dated March 21, 1871, Neesima writes that he met in Boston, Mori, the Japanese minister sent to Washington by the mikado. Mr. Mori offered to reimburse Mr. Hardy for Neesima's educational expenses, and thereby make Neesima subject to Japanese government. Mr. Hardy at once declined the proposition. On Sept. 17, 1871, Neesima wrote to Mrs. Hardy that he had received a passport from the Japanese government, and that from the same source his father had received a paper saying : "It is permitted by the government to Neesima Shimeta to remain and study in the United States of America.”

   In 1872 an embassy representing the imperial government of the Mikado visited America and Europe on visits of inquiry into Western civilization ; and Minister Mori summoned Mr. Neesima to Washington to meet the embassy, and to assist Mr. Tanaka, the commissioner of education. In this way Mr. Neesima became acquainted with the most progressive men of new Japan, whose friendship in later years was of great value to him. Fearing, however, that his plan to return to Japan as a free advocate of Christianity might be endangered, he carefully stipulated that Mr. Mori should state to the embassy that any service desired of him would be undertaken only under a contract that freed him from all obligation to the Japanese government. Under these circumstances he was engaged, and soon proved so valuable an assistant, that Mr. Tanaka insisted upon his accompanying the embassy to Europe. There he gave all his time to the study of the best methods of learning in schools and institutions of all grades ; and on the basis of his reports was built to-day's educational system in Japan-. From this European trip with the embassy Mr. Neesima returned to Andover in September, 1873.

     In March, 1874, Mr. Neesima formally offered himself to the American Board, and July 2 was appointed corresponding member to the Japanese mission. He was graduated as a special student from Andover Theological Seminary, and ordained in Boston, September 24. The Board held its sixty-fifth annual meeting at Rutland, Vt., that autumn, and Mr. Neesima spoke on the establishment of a Christian college in Japan. By his soul-felt enthusiasm the young Japanese carried his audience with him ; $5 ,000 was at once subscribed, and Neesima's dream became a reality.

Missionary Bio's - JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA (Part 1)

JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA   -    BORN, JAN. 14, 1843; DIED, JAN. 23, 1890,

(Taken From - Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know  By JULIA H. JOHNSTON)

PART 1

JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA.

' PERHAPS no single private life can better portray genuine Japanese characteristics than that of Joseph Hardy Neesima. In 1843, ten years before Commodore Perry entered the Bay of Yedo, he was born. His father served a prince whose palace was in the city of Yedo. The feudal system being in existence, boys were preferred to girls in the families of the samurai, as male heirs alone could perpetuate their rank and allowance. Four girls having preceded Neesima, his grandfather hearing of a male born into the family cried "Shimeta!" an exclamation of joy at the realization of some long cherished hope ; and the boy was called Shimeta, the name being written after Neesima, as is usual in Japan, Neesima's parents were Shintoists, and in his fifth year Neesima was taken to the temple of the god supposed to be his life guardian to offer thanks for his protection. The occasion was a joyous one, and Neesima was as gayly dressed as the heirs of the nobility at an English christening. Neesima's father was a teacher of penmanship, and many pilgrimages were made to the temple of Japanese hieroglyphics. Several gods were kept in the home, to which the family made offerings. Neesima worshipped these gods until he was fifteen years of age, and then, seeing they did not partake of the food provided for them, refused to do so.

    At an early age he developed studious habits, but was very shy, and having some slight impediment in his speech, was sent to a school of etiquette, where he acquired graceful manners and polite conversational style. He was selected by the prince to attend a military school which had been established under the auspices of the Shogun, but later he gave up these exercises and devoted himself to the study of the Chinese classics. Again he was fortunate in being one of three selected to take lessons in Dutch from a native teacher called by the prince to the court to teach his subjects. Afterwards the prince promoted Neesima to the position of assistant teacher in a Chinese school. Soon after this, Neesima's prince and patron died, and was succeeded by his brother, a man of inferior education. Neesima, now fifteen years of age, was obliged to commence service to the prince, his business being to sit in a little office connected with the front end of the castle and watch the hall, and, with other youths, to bow profoundly as the prince went out or came in, and to pass the rest of the time in gossip and tea-drinking. This life was intolerable to him, and he often planned to escape it by running away from home; but love of family, a strong Japanese characteristic, kept him under his father's roof until he was seventeen years of age, when the war cloud caused by the imperial party rising against the Shogun threw the country into fearful commotion, and Neesima was chosen as a life-guard to his prince. While thus engaged he pursued his studies under great difficulties, but always with untiring persistency; and he was allowed time to go to the Shogun's naval school for lessons in mathematics. Here one day he caught sight of a Dutch warship lying at anchor in Yedo Bay. "This dignified sea queen," compared with the "clumsy disproportioned Japanese junks," proved an " object lesson" to Neesima ; and there was born within him the great desire for the improvement of himself and his country. The winter of the same year he had an opportunity to go by steamer to Tamashima. This was his first liberation from his prince's “square enclosure," and his first experience with different and individual ideas; his horizon widened, and he was filled with new desires for freedom.

    Returning to Yedo, and sympathizing fully with the "imperial party" yet bound by the moral code of Confucius to " the services of love and reverence to parents," Neesima became distrait and restless, and his life might have been entirely perverted had not destiny intervened. In being asked of the formative influences of his life, Neesima, looking back to this time, might well exclaim with Charles Kingsley, "I had a friend." This " friend" had a small library, and among the books proffered for his use Neesima found a Japanese translation of Robinson Crusoe, and among several Chinese books an historical geography of the United States by the Rev. Dr. Bridgman of the North China Mission, a brief History of the World, written by an English missionary in China, Dr. Williams's little magazines, and a few books teaching the Christian religion, and published at Hong- Kong or Shanghai. Speaking of these books, Mr. Neesima in later life said, "I read them with close attention. I was partly a sceptic, and partly struck with reverential awe. I became acquainted with the name of the Creator through those Dutch books I had studied before ; but it never came home so dear to my heart as when I read the simple story of God's creation of the universe on those pages of a brief Chinese Bible History. I found out that the world we live upon was created by his unseen hand, and not by mere chance. I discovered in the same history that his other name was the ' Heavenly Father,' which created in me more reverence towards him, because I thought he was more to me than a mere Creator of the world. All these books helped me to behold a Being, somewhat dimly yet, in my mental eye, who was so blindly concealed from me during the first two decades of my life."

Missionary Bio's - Davd Brianerd

David Brainerd

Missionary to the Indians at Twenty-four (1742-1747)

(Taken From - Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know By JULIA H. JOHNSTON

    DO you know how it is possible to live a very long life in a very few years? Perhaps you have heard the secret told in these words: "He liveth long, who liveth well."

   The young missionary to the Indians of long ago proved this to be true by his short, heroic, useful life.   In 1718 the little village of Haddam, Connecticut, was indeed a small one, but there, in April of that year, a baby was born who grew up into the man and the missionary that all who know anything of missions to-day, love to think about.

   When David Brainerd was only nine, his father died, and five years later the death of his mother left him a lonely orphan. For a while he became a farmer's boy, and earned his living by his work out-of-doors. Then he went to live with a good minister, who gave him a chance to study, for the boy was very anxious to go to college. To Yale he went, while still quite young, and remained three years. There were no theological seminaries then, as now, to prepare young men to be ministers, but they studied with older ministers, and were made ready to preach in this way. Young Brainerd studied with different ministers, until the year 1742. Although he was then but twenty-four, he was considered ready to preach, and was sent out upon his chosen life-work as a missionary to the Indians.

   At first, the intention was to send him to the tribes in Kew Jersey and Pennsylvania, but, because of some trouble among them there, the young missionary was sent instead to the Stockbridge Indians in Massachusetts.

  Oh, but he had a hard time in the very beginning. You know, perhaps, that Solomon, the wise man, says that it is " good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth." It was certainly given to this young man to do this. No comfortable home was open to him, and he lived with a poor Scotchman, whose wife could hardly speak a word of English. Nothing better than a heap of straw laid upon some boards was provided for lodging, and as for food—what do you think he had? We know exactly, for the missionary kept a journal, and in it he wrote—" My diet is hasty pudding (mush), boiled corn, bread baked in the ashes, and sometimes a little meat and butter." He adds, "I live in a log house without any floor. My work is exceedingly hard and difficult. I travel on foot a mile and a half the worst of ways, almost daily, and back again, for I live so far from my Indians." He writes that the presence of God is what he wants, and he longs to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus." The Indians, from the first, seemed to be generally kind, and ready to listen, but, in the beginning, the work was slow.

  The young missionary's heart was troubled for his poor red men, because the Dutch claimed their lands, and threatened to drive them off. They seemed to hate him because he tried to teach the Indians the way of life. At this time there was but a single person near with whom he could talk English. This person was a young Indian with eighteen letters in his last name, which was far enough from being "English." You may do your best at pronouncing it. It was " Wauwaumpequennaunt." Fortunately his first name was John!

   The exposure and hardships of these days brought on illness from which the missionary suffered all through his brief life. He tells in his journal of spending a day in labour to get something for his horse to eat, after getting a horse, but it seems as if he had little use of it, for he was often without bread for days together, because unable to find his horse in the woods to go after it. He was so weak that he needed something besides boiled corn, but had to go or send, ten or fifteen miles, to get bread of any kind. If he got any considerable quantity at a time, it was often sour and moldy before he could eat it all.

   He did not write complainingly of all this, but he did make a joyful entry one day, giving thanks to God for His great goodness, after he had been allowed to bestow in charitable uses, to supply great needs of others, a sum of over one hundred pounds New England money, in the course of fifteen months. It was truly, to him, "More blessed to give than to receive." He was thankful, he said, to be a steward to distribute what really belonged to God.

  After two years' labour among the Stockbridge Indians, Mr. Brainerd went to New Jersey, his red brothers parting from him sorrowfully. The commissioners unexpectedly sent him to the Delaware Forks Indians. This meant that he must return to settle up affairs in Massachusetts and go back again to the new field. The long rides must be taken on horseback, the nights spent in the woods, wrapped in a greatcoat, and lying upon the ground. The missionary had flattering offers of pulpits in large churches where he would have had the comforts of life, but he steadfastly refused to leave his beloved Indians.

   In the midst of difficulties and hardships he gladly toiled on. Travelling about as he did, he was often in peril of his life along the dangerous ways. On one trip to visit the Susquehanna Indians, the missionary's horse hung a leg over the rocks of the rough way, and fell under him. It was a narrow escape from death, but he was not hurt, though the poor horse's leg was broken, and, being thirty miles from any house, he had to kill the suffering animal and go the rest of the way on foot.

  The last place of heroic service was in New Jersey, at a place called Crossweeksung. Here the missionary was gladly received, and spent two busy and fruitful years, preaching to the red men, visiting them in their wigwams, comforting and helping them in every way, being their beloved friend and counsellor at all times. At last he became so weak that he could not go on. A church and school being established, the way was made easier for another. Hoping to gain strength to return to his red brothers, David Brainerd went to New England for rest, and was received gladly into the home of Kev. Jonathan Edwards. Here he failed very rapidly, but his brave spirit was so full of joy that his face shone as with the light of heaven. He said, "My work is done." He died, October 9, 1747, at the age of twenty-nine. He opened the way for others to serve his Indians, and his life has helped many, and has sent others into the field through all these years since the young hero was called and crowned. The story of his life influenced William Carey, Samuel Marsden and Henry Martyn to become missionaries. Through these, David Brainerd spoke to India, to New Zealand and to Persia.  

Missionary Bio's - David Livingstone

David Livingstone,  Over Thirty Years Missionary in Africa {1840-1874)

(Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know By JULIA H. JOHNSTON)

PEOPLE who know but one or two missionary names know this one. Anybody might well be ashamed not to know the name, and something about the work, of David Livingstone. He was a doctor, an explorer and discoverer, a philanthropist who did much for humanity, and, most of all, he was a missionary hero, who gave his life for Africa. What a splendid story is his.

    The little David was born of sturdy, earnest Christian parents in the town of Blantyre, Scotland. His father, Neil Livingstone, was a travelling tea merchant in a small way, and his mother was a thrifty housewife. Before he was ten, the boy received a prize for reciting the whole of the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm, "with only five hitches," we are told. He began early to be an explorer, and went all over his native place. He loved to collect flowers and shells. He climbed one day to the highest point in the ruins of Bothwell Castle ever reached by any boy, and carved his name there.

     When only ten, he went to work in the cotton mills, and bought a study-book out of his first week's wages. A schoolmaster was provided for evening lessons by the mill-owners. When David could have the master's help, he took it, and when he couldn't, he worked on alone. In this way he mastered his Latin. He was not brighter than other boys, but more determined to learn than many. He used to put a book on the spinning jenny, and catch sentences now and then, as he passed the place in his work. In this way he learned to put his mind on his book no matter what clatter went on around him. When nineteen, he was promoted in the factory. At twenty the young man became an earnest Christian.

    It was about this time that Dr. Carey, sometimes called " The Consecrated Cobbler," stirred up the churches on the subject of missions. A good deacon formed a missionary society in Blantyre, and there were missionary talks, and the giving out of missionary books. David Livingstone became so deeply interested that, in the first place, he decided to give to missions all he could earn and save. The reading of the "Life of Henry Martyn” stirred his blood, and then came the appeals of a missionary from China, which thrilled the youth still more. At last he said, "It is my desire to show my attachment to the Cause of Him who died for me by devoting my life to His service." From this time he never wavered in his plan to become a missionary. He got a good preparation, through seven years of study, and became not only a regular minister, but a doctor as well.

   The young man wanted to go to China, but the Opium War there prevented. Then Robert Moffat came home and Livingstone heard him plead for Africa and say that he had "sometimes seen in the morning sun the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had ever been," and this set tied the question for him. He would go to Africa.

   His parents consented gladly, but you know that the parting was hard. Look at this picture. It is the evening of November 16, 1840. Livingstone goes home to say good-bye before he leaves his native land for the Dark Continent. He suggests that they sit up all night, and we can see the three talking earnestly together. The father is a man with a missionary's heart in him. At five in the morning they have breakfast, and kneel for family prayers, after David has read Psalms cxxi. And cxxxv. Now the father and son start to walk to Glasgow. Before entering the city, the two say, "Good-bye," and part, never to meet again.

    Arrived in Africa, Mr. Livingstone finds some easy work offered at a station, but pushes on seven hundred miles towards Dr. Moffat's station where heathenism is like darkest night. Here the people think him a wizard, able to raise the dead. An old chief says, " I wish you would give me medicine to change my heart. It is proud and angry always.” Livingstone shows the way to Jesus. He is the first missionary who ever came into this region. How busy he is as doctor, minister, and reformer. He studies the plants, birds, and beasts. He finds forty-three different kinds of fruit, and thirty-two eatable roots, in one district. He sends specimens to a London college.

   This man keeps on exploring, telling of Jesus wherever he goes. When he writes home, his letters are covered with maps of the country. He is learning more about Africa than any one has known before. He studies the African fever, and the deadly tsetse fly, that brings disease. During this time he has the adventure with the lion, often mentioned, the fierce creature rushing on him, biting him and breaking his arm and crushing his shoulder. It cripples him for life, but he says little about it. In putting up a new mission building, he breaks the bone in the same place, but hardly mentions it. Years later, a company of royal surgeons identify the body brought home as that if Livingstone by the scar and the fracture.

   For four years this missionary hero toils alone in the beginning of his life in Africa. Then he is happily married to Miss Mary Moffat, daughter of Dr. Moffat who told of the " smoke from the thousand villages, where Jesus was unknown." Now they work earnestly together, in the station called Mabotsa, where the chief Sechele is the first convert. Before he fully learns the " Jesus Way," the chief says to the missionary, " You cannot make these people believe by talking. I can make them do nothing but by thrashing them. If you like, I will call them all together, with my head man, and with our whips of rhinoceros hide we will soon make them all believe." But the missionary teaches him the true way. He goes on exploring new fields, teaching, healing, and helping all the way.” He discovers Lake N'gami. He goes into the interior forcing his way through flooded lands, through sharp reeds, with hands raw and bleeding, and with face cut and bloody. He sets himself against the slave-trade, " The open sore of Africa," as he calls it, battling heroically against it and enlisting others in the struggle. His wife and four children must go home, but the man stays, to work on alone. Finally he disappears for three years. He is found in a wonderful way by Henry Stanley, whom he leads to Christ, but he will not return with him to England. He toils on and toils on, weary and worn.

    One morning in 1874, his African servants find him on his knees in his hut beside his bed. The candle is burning still, but the brave, unselfish life has gone out. They bury their master's heart under a tree, and carry his body on their shoulders a thousand miles to the coast—a nine months' march, then send it home to England. There it sleeps to-day in Westminster Abbey, but the hero and his work live unforgotten and ever-to-be-remembered while the world endures.

Missionary Bio's - John G. Paton (Part 2)

The first convert on Aniwa was the chief Mamokei. He often came to drink tea with the missionary family, and afterward brought with him chief Naswai and his wife ; and all three were soon converted. Mamokei brought his little daughter to be educated in the mission. Many orphan children were also put under their care, and often these little children warned them of plots against their lives.

    In the early part of the work on Aniwa, an incident happened which was amusing as well as romantic. A young Aniwan was in love with a young widow, living in an island village. Unfortunately, there were thirty other young men who also were suitors ; and as the one who married her would probably be killed by the others, none dared to venture, After consulting with Paton, the young man went to her village at night and stole away with her. The others were furious, but were pacified by Paton, who made them believe she was not worth troubling themselves over. After three weeks had passed, the young man came out of hiding, and asked permission to bring her to the mission-house, which was granted. The next day she appeared in time for services. As the distinguishing feature of a Christian on Aniwa is that he wears more clothing than the heathen native, and as this young lady wished to show very plainly in what direction her sympathies extended, she appeared on the scene clad in a variety and abundance of clothing which it would be hard to equal. It was mostly European, at least. Over her native grass skirt she wore a man's drab-colored great-coat, sweeping over her heels. Over this was a vest, and on her head was a pair of trousers, one leg trailing over each shoulder. On one shoulder, also, was a red shirt, on the other a striped one; and, last of all, a red shirt was twisted around her head as a turban.

     Many stories might be told illustrating the results of the early efforts of the missionary, but we pass on to that of the sinking of the well. As has already been said, there is little rain on Aniwa. The juice of the cocoanut is largely used by the natives in place of drinking-water. Paton resolved to sink a well, much to the astonishment of the natives, who, when he explained his plan to them, thought him crazy.

   He began to dig ; and the friendly old chief kept men near him all the time, for fear he would take his own life, for they thought surely he must have gone mad. He managed to get some of the natives to help him, paying them in fish-hooks ; but when the depth of twelve feet was reached the sides of the excavation caved in, and after that no native would enter it. Paton then constructed a derrick ; and they finally consented to help pull up the loaded pails, while he dug. Day after day he toiled, till the hole was thirty feet deep. Still no water was found. That day he said to the old chief, "I think Jehovah God will give us water to-morrow from that hole." But the chief said they expected to see him fall through into the sea. Next morning he sunk a small hole in the bottom of the well, and from this hole there spurted a stream of water. Filling the jug with the water, he passed it round to the natives, telling them to examine and taste it. They were so awe-stricken that not one dared look over the edge into the well. At last they formed a line, holding each other by the hand, and first one looked over, then the next, etc., till all had seen the water in the well. When they were told that they all could use the water from that well, the old chief exclaimed, "Missi, what can we do to help you now ?" He directed them to bring coral rock to line the well with, which they did with a will. That was the beginning of a new era on Aniwa. The following Sunday the chief preached a sermon on the well. In the days that followed multitudes of natives brought their idols to the mission, where they were destroyed Henceforth Christianity gained a permanent foothold on the island.

     In 1869 the first communion was held, twelve out of twenty applicants being admitted to the church. In speaking of his emotions during the first communion, Paton says, "I shall never taste a deeper bliss until I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself."

     In 1884 he returned to Scotland, his main object being to secure, 6,000 for a mission-ship. He addressed many assemblages of different kinds, and succeeded in getting not only the 6,000 required, but 3,000 beside. He returned to Aniwa in 1886, and continued his work.

    Recently he again visited England, and also the United States. He is now back on Aniwa Aniwa, no longer a savage island, but by the grace of God a Christian land. There he expects to remain till summoned to his reward before the heavenly throne.

     In this sketch an attempt has been made to give only a brief account of the work of this great missionary. No adequate idea can be given of his untiring zeal, his forgetfulness of self, and his simple faith in God. It is probable that no one has ever visited America in the interest of foreign missions who has made so deep an impression of the triumphs of the gospel among vicious and degraded peoples as has the eminent missionary hero, John G. Paton.

Missionary Bio's - John G. Paton (Part 1)

JOHN G. PATON, Missionary to the New Hebrides.  BORN MAY 24, 1824.

(Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know By JULIA H. JOHNSTON)

JOHN GIBSON PATON was born May 24,1824, near Dumfries, in the south of Scotland. His father was a stocking-maker; and although his family was little blessed in this world's goods, it was devoutly religious.

When young John had reached his fifth year, the family moved to a new home in the ancient village of Torthorwald.

     Their new home was of the usual thatched cottage, plainly but substantially built. It was one- story, and was divided into three rooms. One end room served as the living-room of the family, the other as a shop, and the middle one was the family sanctuary. To the sanctuary the father retired after each meal to offer up prayer in behalf of his family. Paton himself says : " We occasionally heard the pathetic echoes of a trembling voice, pleading as if for life ; and we learned to slip out and in past that door on tiptoe, not to disturb that holy colloquy." Is it strange that from this family there should come three ministers of the gospel ?

      In early boyhood John was sent to the parish school, presided over by a man named Smith, who, although of high scholarship, was often unreasonable when in a rage. At one time his temper got the

best of him, and he unjustly punished Paton, who ran home. Returning at his mother's entreaty, he was again abused, and left the school never to return. He now began to learn his father's trade, making an effort at the same time to keep up his studies. The work was hard, and he toiled from six in the morning until ten at night. At this time he learned much in a mechanical line which was of use to him later in the missionary field. He saved enough money from his wages to enable him to attend Dumfries Academy for six weeks. As a result of his earnest endeavor to keep up his studies since leaving the parish school, he was able now as a young man to obtain a position as district visitor and tract distributer of the West Campbell Street Reformed Presbyterian Church in Glasgow, with the privilege of attending the Free Church Normal Seminary. There were two applicants for the position ; and as the trustees could not decide between them, they offered to let them work together and divide the salary, which was ^50 a year. Paton's health failed him, and he returned home. After recovering fully he returned to Glasgow, where he had a hard struggle with poverty. At one time, having no money, he secured a place as teacher of the Mary Hill Free School. This school had a bad reputation, many teachers having been forced to leave it because of trouble with the scholars. Paton managed by force of kindness to make friends of all

the pupils ; and when he finally left, the school was in a more prosperous condition than it had ever been before. After leaving the school, he took a position as a worker in the Glasgow city mission.

In this work he was remarkably successful. For ten years he was engaged in these labors, keeping up the study of theology all the time. Then, hearing that a helper was wanted to join the Rev. John Inglis in the New Hebrides, he offered himself and was accepted. This step was distasteful to many, who insisted that there were heathen enough at home ; but, as Paton says, those who spoke thus invariably neglected the home heathen themselves. On the 1 6th of April, 1858, Mr. and Mrs. Paton set sail from Scotland in the Clutha for New Hebrides.

     They stopped a few days at Melbourne, and from there sailed for Aneityum, the most southern of the New Hebrides. In twelve days they arrived off Aneityum ; but the captain, a profane and hard-hearted

man, refused to land them, and the landing was made with great difficulty, with the help of Dr. Geddie, in mission boats. They decided to settle on the eastern shore of Tanna, a small island a few miles north of Aneityum, which was inhabited by ferocious savages. Mr. and Mrs. Mathieson, co-laborers with them, settled on the northwestern shore of the same island.

     The natives on Tanna were sunk to the lowest depths of heathenism, going about with no covering save an apron and paint having no ideas of right or wrong, worshipping and fearing numerous gods, living in a continual dread of evil spirits, constantly fighting among themselves, and always eating the bodies of the slain such were the creatures whom Paton and his wife hoped to bring to a knowledge of the gospel.

     They landed on Tanna the 5th of November, 1858. On the 1 5th of February, 1859, a child was born to them. Mrs. Paton's health from this time on was very feeble, and on March 3rd she died of a sudden attack of pneumonia. Unaided and alone, the bereaved husband buried his beloved wife. Over her body he placed a mound of stones, making it as attractive as he could, and then with a heavy heart turned to his work. Soon after the child, a boy, followed the mother. These two sorrows came as a terrible blow to Paton, and for some time he was prostrated. He rallied, however, and began to work hard and steadily to enlighten those poor savages, who upon every occasion robbed and abused him.

      Mr. Paton, writing of this period, says: " On beholding these natives in their paint and nakedness and misery, my heart was as full of horror as of pity. Had I given up my much-beloved work and my dear

people in Glasgow, with so many delightful associates, to consecrate my life to these degraded creatures? Was it possible to teach them right and wrong, to Christianize or even to civilize them ? But that was only a passing feeling. I soon got as deeply interested in them, and all that tended to advance them, and to lead them to the knowledge of Jesus, as ever I had been in my work in Glasgow."

     The greatest opposition to his work was occasioned by the godless traders on the island, who caused more trouble than did the natives themselves. These traders did not relish the idea of the natives being

taught the gospel, for they feared to lose their influence over them. They incited the different tribes to fight with each other, and then sold arms to the contestants. They stirred up bad feeling against the

missionaries, and urged the natives to either kill or drive them away.

       From the time he landed until he left Tanna, Paton was in continual danger of losing his life. Again and again armed bands came to his house at night to kill him. He himself said that he knew of fifty times when his life was in imminent danger, and his escape was due solely to the grace of God. Only once did he resort to force, or rather the appearance of force. A cannibal entered his house, and would have killed him, had he not raised an empty pistol, at sight of which the cowardly fellow fled.

      The feeling toward him became so hostile that he was obliged at last to leave his house, and take refuge in the village of a friendly chief named Nowar. Here he prepared to leave that part of the island, and sail around to Mr. Mathieson's station. He secured a canoe, but when he went to launch it he found there were no paddles. After he had managed to get these, the chief Arkurat refused to let him go. Having prevailed upon the vacillating savage to consent, he finally sailed away with his three native helpers and a boy. The wind and waves, however, forced them to put back, and after five hours of hard rowing they returned to the spot they had left. The only way left now was to walk overland. He got a friendly native to show him the path, and after escaping death most miraculously on the way, arrived at

Mr. Mathieson's. Here they were still persecuted. At one time the mission buildings were fired, but a tornado which suddenly came up extinguished the flames. On the day following, the ship which had been sent to rescue them arrived and they embarked. Thus Paton had to abandon his work on Tanna, after toiling there over three years.

     For a time he sought needed rest and change in Australia, where he presented the cause of missions to the churches. On many occasions he came into contact with the aborigines of that continent, and on every occasion his love for missionary work was exhibited. At one time, when a crowd of savages crazed with rum were fighting among themselves, he went among them, and by his quiet and persistent coaxing, managed to get them all to lie down and sleep off the effects of the spirits.

      From Australia, Paton went to Scotland. He travelled all over the country, speaking in behalf of the mission. While in Scotland he married Margaret Whitecross, a woman well fitted to be the wife and

helper of such a man. Leaving Scotland in the latter part of 1864, they arrived in the New Hebrides in the early part of1865.

    In 1866 they settled on Aniwa, an island near Tanna. The old Tannese chief, Nowar, who had always been friendly to Paton, was very anxious to have him settle on Tanna. Seeing that this was impossible, Nowar took from his arm the white shells, insignia of chieftainship, and binding them to the arm of a

visiting Aniwan chief, said: "By these you promise to protect my missionary and his wife and child on Aniwa. Let no evil befall them, or by this pledge I and my people will avenge it." This act of the old chief did much to insure the future safety of Paton and his family.

     Aniwa is a small island, only nine miles long by three and one-half wide. There is a scarcity of rain, but the heavy dews and moist atmosphere keep the land covered with verdure. The natives were like those on Tanna, although they spoke a different language.

     They were well received by the natives, who escorted them to their temporary abode, and watched them at their meals. The first duty was to build a house. An elevated site was purchased, where it was

afterward learned all the bones and refuse of the Aniwan cannibal feast, for years, had been buried. The natives probably thought that, when they disturbed these, the missionary and his helpers would drop

dead. In building the house, an incident occurred which afterward proved of great benefit to Paton. One day, having need of some nails and tools, he picked up a chip and wrote a few words on it. Handing it to an old chief, he told him to take it to Mrs. Paton. When the chief saw her look at the chip and then get the things needed, he was filled with amazement. From that time on he took great interest in the work of the mission, and when the Bible was being translated into the Aniwa language he rendered invaluable aid.

     Another chief, with his two sons, visited the mission-house and was much interested; but when they were returning home, one of his sons became very ill. Of course he thought the missionary was to blame, and threatened to kill the latter ; but when, by the use of proper medicine, Paton brought the boy back to health again, the chief went to the opposite extreme, and was ever afterward a most devoted helper.

Missionary Bio - John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians (1645-1690)

JOHN ELIOT, Apostle to the Indians (1645-1690)

(Fifty Missionary Heroes Every Boy and Girl Should Know By JULIA H. JOHNSTON)

   COME, let us take a thought-journey back over two hundred and fifty years. Can you do it? Of course you can. You can think back thousands of years to the Flood, or to the Garden of Eden, for that matter. You can think back much farther than you can remember.

   Let us imagine that we are about eighteen miles southwest of Boston, on the Charles River, in the town with the Indian name, Natick. There seems to be something interesting going on in this little place, with woods around it. Look at the people coming together. Why—they are red men. Yes, they are Indians. Let us not be afraid of them. They are red, but they do not look fierce and wild. Now, see! A horseman is coming near. What a good face he has. He has come from Roxbury, we hear, where he has long been the pastor of a church. How kindly he greets the Indians. And now we hear what is to be done to-day. These Indians are to be formed into a church of their own. It is the minister, Rev. John Eliot, of Roxbury, who has gathered the red men together. Every two weeks he comes to preach to them. In ten years we find that there are fifty of these " Praying Indians," as they are called.

   Surely we wish to know something about the good man who has done so much for these children of the forest, who were in our land when the Pilgrims came.

    John Eliot was born in England in 1604. The father died before the son was very far along in his education, and he left eight pounds a year to be used, for eight years, in keeping his boy at Cambridge University. After finishing at Cambridge, John Eliot taught school. He became a minister of the Church of England when he was twenty seven years old, and soon after that came to America with three brothers and three sisters. Miss Hannah Mumford, to whom he was engaged, came the next year, and they were married—the first marriage to be put down in the records of Roxbury, Massachusetts. For sixty years this good minister was settled over Roxbury church.

   But his heart yearned over the Indians. He believed that they had souls to be saved, and he felt that he must tell them of the Saviour. It was not easy to win them at first, but the minister was so kind and friendly that by and by the red men became devoted to him. Across the country he went, once a fortnight, as you know, riding on horseback to preach to his Indians. One after another he formed more settlements of Praying Indians. He taught them other things besides the Bible. He showed them how to raise crops, to build bridges, to make houses and homes, and how to clothe themselves properly. He made them comfortable, and by getting help from others, he made it possible for them to work, and to live as did their civilized brothers.

   The red men had a government of their own among themselves, and it was wonderful how well they got on. Mr. Eliot was forty-one when he began to preach to them. In fourteen years there were thirty-six hundred Praying Indians. The government set apart six thousand acres of land for them. After preaching a while, and explaining the Word of God, Mr. Eliot thought that these people ought to have the Bible in their own language. A very queer language it was, and hard to learn, but the good minister was not discouraged by that. He had the help of an Indian, taken captive in the Pequot War, in the work of translation. It was finished and printed in 1663, and was the very first Bible ever printed in America. Later, a revised version was printed at an expense of nine hundred pounds. Mr. Eliot gave towards this from his own small salary, the rest of the money coming from England. There are very few copies of this Indian Bible to be found now. One sold for five hundred and fifty pounds a while ago in England. Some words had to be supplied ; the Indians had no word for " salt,” nor for Amen."

    Three years after the first printing of the Bible the busy missionary printed the grammar for the Indians. At the end of it he wrote this sentence which has become historic everywhere : " Prayer and pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything." Do you not wish to stop right here, and say that over, until you know it by heart ? Please do. It will help you.

  There are only fourteen or fifteen copies of the first edition of this grammar now to be found.

     Mr. Eliot had a salary of only sixty pounds for his work in Roxbury and fifty for his Indian work, but he was one of the most generous men that ever lived. One time the treasurer, on giving him the money then due, tied it up in a handkerchief to keep him from giving away any of it. Visiting a poor family on the way home, and wishing to help them, the minister found the knots too hard to untie, and gave the  handkerchief  to the mother, saying, " God must have meant it all for you." He died in 1690, at the age of eighty-six, but is still unforgotten

Missionary Bio's - The Three Mrs. Judsons - Miss Emily Chubbuck

Miss Emily Chubbuck

    There is a volume of attractive little sketches which some people used to read before any of you

younger readers were born, which bears the name of "Fannie Forester" as the writer. Her real name was Emily Chubbuck. But when she wrote “Alderbrook," and another book of lighter sketches called " Trippings," she used a nom de plume. This young lady was born in Eaton, N. Y., but taught school in Utica in that state, besides writing sketches, poems, and Sundav-school books, so that she was a busy person, as you can see. And a lovely young person she was, too, by all accounts.

    When Dr. Judson was at home the last time in America, after his long absence upon the mission

field, he travelled about a good deal, and on one of his journeys he read the book called “Trippings,"

which some one had given him to beguile the way. He thought it a very bright book, and asked his

friend about the writer. He said that one who could write as well as that could write better, and

he would like to see some of her work on greater themes. His friend told him that he would have

the pleasure of meeting " Fannie Forester " before long, as she was a guest in his home at present.

When Dr. Judson first saw the attractive and gifted writer, she was undergoing the interesting operation of vaccination. After this was over, he led her to a sofa, saying that he wished to talk with her.

     Miss Chubbuck said that she would be delighted to have him do so, and then he spoke about using her talents upon the most worthy subjects. She told him that she had been obliged to write because she was poor and must make a living, and the light and trifling subjects seemed to be most popular.

Dr. Judson was full of sympathy for her. He had it in his mind to find someone to write the story of Mrs. Sarah Boardman Judson's life, and offered the opportunity to Miss Chubbuck. After some time the intercourse thus brought about resulted in marriage, and the cultured and dauntless spirit, schooled in poverty, went back with the missionary, to prove a great help to him in finishing his wonderful work. She soon acquired a good knowledge of the language and prepared Scripture questions for use in the schools.

    When her little Emily Frances came, the poet mother wrote the sweet verses so many have read, called "My Bird." After Dr. Judson's death and burial at sea, on his way home to regain his health, Mrs. Judson came home, much broken herself, to care for his parents and her children. She died at Hamilton K Y., in 1854.

Missionary Bio's - THE THREE MRS. JUDSONS - Mrs. Sarah Hall Boardman

    Mrs. Sarah Hall Boardman

Keen forcements were not lacking through all the years of Dr. Judson's service. There came out to Calcutta to join the Burman Mission, as soon as might be. Rev. George Dana Boardman, and his wife, who was pronounced by some English friends in Calcutta to be "the most finished and faultless specimen of an American woman that they had ever known." In 1827 these friends reached Burma. Mr. Boardman died after a few years of very fruitful ministry, and for three years his wife stayed on, making long journeys through drenching rains, "through wuld mountain passes, over swollen streams, deceitful marshes, craggy rocks, tangled shrubs and jungles." 
   In 1834: she was married to Dr. Judson. She had a very fine knowledge of the Burmese tongue, and could speak and write fluently. She had great power in conversation, and translated also very accurately. She held meetings with the women for prayer and Bible study. After his eight years of loneliness, Dr. Judson found the home ties sweet, and the help he received in his work very great. Mrs. Judson translated part of " Pilgrim's Progress," several tracts, twenty hymns for the Burmese hymn-book, and four volumes of a Scripture Catechism, besides writing cards with short hymns. She learned the language of the Peguans, another tribe, so that she might help them by translating, which she did by superintending the translation of the New Testament and tracts into their strange tongue. Little children came to bless the home, and joy and love reigned there.

      But after her twenty years upon the field, Mrs. Judson's health failed. Her husband started hometo America with her, but, when reaching the Isle of France, she became so much better that she urged Dr. Judson to return to the work that needed him so much. He expected to do this, but there came a sudden change for the worse. As the vessel neared St. Helena, Mrs. Judson died, and the worn body was laid away in mission ground upon the island, where a stone afterwards marked the spot.

Missionary Bio's - THE THREE MRS. JUDSONS - Miss Ann Hasseltine

THE THREE MRS. JUDSONS - Helpmeets to the Missionary in Burma

Miss Ann Hasseltine

     There was a pleasant stir in the little village of Bradford, Mass., one day, in the year 1810. It was the occasion of a meeting of the Missionary Society, or General Association of Massachusetts, and the delegates were entertained with great hospitality- A number of these worthies, older and younger, were gathered at the table of a Mr. Hasseltine for dinner, and among them young Mr. Adoniram Judson, who had just signified his great desire to go as a missionary. Pretty Ann Hasseltine waited on the table. A gifted and sprightly girl she was, as well as beautiful and good. She looked with curious interest upon the young man whose bold missionary projects had made a stir in the meeting, but to her mind, he was

wholly absorbed in his plate. How could she guess that he was that very moment engaged in composing a graceful bit of verse in her praise ? Yet so it was, and he must have found courage to tell her this, and other things, by and by, for she afterwards went to Burma as the wife of the bold missionary. At that time it was India that was the chosen field.

      Ann Hasseltine was born in Bradford, Mass., in 1789. She was a restless, merry, vivacious girl, richly gifted. At sixteen she entered the service of her Saviour with all her heart, and her brightness and beauty became His. She taught school for some time after leaving Bradford Academy, which gave her added fitness for the life of a missionary, which she entered, in 1812, on her marriage

to Mr. Judson, afterwards Dr. Judson. She was one of the very first lady-missionaries. The first from America was Mrs. Kaske, going with her husband in 1746 to South America. The two missionaries had a serious time reaching their field. The East India Company decided that missionaries were not desirable, and ordered them back to America, but finally allowed them to go to the Isle of France. They then planned to go to Madras, but the East India Company had jurisdiction there, and finally, the only way that opened was to Rangoon, Burma, a place always held in great dread. But they embarked for Rangoon in a crazy old vessel, and were tossed about so violently that Mrs. Judson was dangerously Ill

She recovered after landing. Everything was forlorn and gloomy enough, but they took courage and set about their work.

   Mrs. Judson learned the language very quickly, and used it to advantage. Four years after setting out upon the voyage to Burma, little Roger Williams, who had for eight months been the joy of the missionary home, was taken from them.

    Twice Mrs. Judson had to return to America, once for two whole years, to recover her broken health. She was a great help in the mission field, having a school for girls, and busying herself in many ways.

    In a time of war with England, Americans were not always distinguished from Englishmen, and Dr. Judson, then at Ava, was thrown into prison. It was a wretched building of boards, with no ventilation but through the cracks, and had never been cleaned since it was built It was to this dreadful place that Mrs. Judson brought the tiny baby Maria for her father's first sight of her. Through all the imprisonment, the loving and courageous wife visited her husband in the midst of all sorts of dangers, as she was the only white woman in Ava. She brought him clean linen as she could, and food, day by day.

     One day, having a little more time than usual, she thought she would surprise Dr. Judson by making him a mince pie, as he used to be fond of the dainty at home. She contrived to make it out of buffalo meat and plantains, sending it to him by the one faithful servant. But alas! The poor prisoner was moved to tears at the sight of it and at the thought of his wife's devotion, and could not eat the pie. A fellow-prisoner ate it instead

       After a few months, a lion who had been presented to the king was placed in a cage near, and made night and day hideous with his roarings till he died. His cage was so much better than the prison that Mrs. Judson by dint of much begging at last got permission to move her husband into it. The months wore on, and Dr. Judson was secretly removed to another place to a death-prison. When Mrs. Judson heard it, she set forth, with little Maria in her arms, and partly by boat, partly in a jolting cart, reached the wretched prison. " Why did you come ? " her husband cried. " I hoped you would not, for you cannot live here." The keepers, cruel as they were, yielded at last, and gave her a little room near, which was half full of grain, and there she spent the next six months.

     By and by Dr. Judson was sent as an interpreter on a trip, and at last, after many delays and dangers, was released. Coming back to Ava, he hurried to find his wife. He was startled to see a fat half-dressed Burman woman holding a baby too dirty to be recognized as his own child. On the bed lay his wife, worn and pale, her glossy hair gone, her fine head covered with a cotton cap. But she recovered, and the family left the scene of so much misery.

   The Judsons began mission work in a new station, and Mrs. Judson was planning a girls' school, and many activities, when Dr, Judson was summoned to Ava on very important business. She urged him to go. While he was absent, she was stricken with fever. With no missionary friend at hand, only the weeping Burmans bewailing "the White Mamma," she passed away. Her husband received the tidings, and hastened home to find the grave under a hopia (hope) tree, surrounded by a rude railing. Little Maria lingered six months, then she was laid beside her mother.

Missionary Bio's - Adoniram Judson Part 3

Part 3

    This imprisonment lasted for eleven months in the "death-prison" at Ava, and afterwards for six months in the country prison of Oung-peu-la. Mrs. Judson was not arrested, though her house was

searched and all valuable property confiscated. She made almost daily visits to the prison, though often refused admittance, and also to the palace, maintaining the respect and friendship of some of the court, and was able to carry her husband food and clothing, and after some months to build him a little bamboo shed in the prison yard, where he could sometimes be by himself, and where at times she was allowed to be with him. In January, 1825, a little daughter was born to her; and a few months later she went through an epidemic of small-pox.

   The horrors of Judson's imprisonment can only be imagined ; crowded into narrow quarters with over a hundred common criminals, loaded with fetters, at first three pairs of fetters, afterwards five pairs, with no conveniences for cleanliness or even decency. After eleven months the captives were suddenly removed from the city prison, and with agonizingly painful marching taken to the country prison of Oungpeula. There, after days of weariness and pain, at night, for security, a bamboo pole was passed between the fettered ankles of a string of prisoners, and then hoisted by ropes till their shoulders only rested on the floor. Daily and nightly torture, racking fever, half starvation, and daily anticipation of death, marked these terrible months.

    But the success of the British arms at length compelled the king to send Judson and Dr. Price as interpreting envoys to negotiate peace ; and the British commander made his first absolute demand the release of the missionaries, and the Judsons returned to Rangoon. During his imprisonment his unfinished manuscript translation of the Bible was hid by his wife in a cotton pillow on which he slept. This was thrown aside as worthless when his prison was changed, but was found and saved by a native convert.

     The Rangoon church being scattered, a new mission was begun at Amherst on British territory, but later removed to Maulmain, a more important centre. This greatly prospered, though they had no more their youthful strength ; and during Judson's absence at Ava, attempting to secure religious toleration, his wife died of a fever, and he returned soon to lay their little child by her side.

    With broken heart and health he became almost wildly ascetic ; living much alone, fasting and praying whole days in the woods. He relinquished part of his slender missionary pay, and made over to the Board about six thousand dollars, including presents and fees from the British government for treaty- negotiation service, and some private means brought origi nally from home. In 1830 he again attempted to penetrate Burmah, living six months at Prome, half-way between Rangoon and Ava, but was driven back by Burman intrigues. He then began a work among the wild Karens of the jungle, and with great success.

    In 1834 he married Mrs. Sarah Boardman, widow of a fellow missionary. Hecompleted his Bible, pronounced by Dr.Wayland the best translation in India, and by Orientalists " a perfect literary work."

In 1845 his health and his wife's was so broken that they sailed for Mauritius, and from there for America ; but she died Sept. i, while in port at St. Helena. Judson, with three children, reached Boston on Oct. 15.

     He was in America till July, 1846, and, before re-embarking for India, was married to Miss Emily Chubbuck, who was known as a writer under the name of Fanny Forester.

     His last years, 1846-1850, were spent in another earnest but unsuccessful attempt to break through Burman bigotry, in the continuation of his Burman dictionary and other literary work, and in the forwarding of the general missionary enterprise.

     Towards the end of 1849 his health declined alarmingly. His sixty years had contained more wear and strain than come to many a long life. The " keen sword had worn out the scabbard." In the spring of 1850 it was hoped that a sea voyage might help him ; and he was carried on shipboard April 8, but died April 12, and was buried at sea.

     The late Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., in writing of the illustrious missionary whose name he bears, says : "Park Street Church in Boston, whose call the Spirit constrained Judson to decline seventy-five years ago, is still a large body, numbering perhaps a thousand members ; but the church in Burmah, which that same Spirit led Judson to found, numbers to-day thirty thousand communicants, with a great company beside who have fallen asleep."

Missionary Bio's - Adoniram Judson Part 2

Part 2

Burmah was then an independent empire, with a population of about eight millions ; the government an absolute despotism, arbitrary and most cruel ; the religion Buddhism. Rangoon, near the mouth of the Irrawaddy, is the natural depot of much of Central Asia, and was a strategic centre for Christian missions.

     It was then a dirty town of about ten thousand inhabitants, intersected by muddy inlets, which filled at high tide. Here Judson began his permanent work.

    Two languages were to learn the common Burmese, and the sacred Pali. The younger Carey had not preached, but had partly made a grammar and dictionary; and Judson at once began his translation of the Bible, which he finished in 1834. In 1815 Mrs. Judson had to go to Madras for medical advice. That year their first child was born, a little boy who died greatly praised for comprehensive and concise accuracy. Partially recovering, he imported a printing-press from Serampore and a printer from America, and published his " View of the Christian Religion," the first of a series of tracts that had a strong influence with that thoughtful and reading people. Mrs. Judson also published a catechism. These publications were followed by the appearance of Inquirers, the first one coming March 7, 1817, and marking an epoch in the work.

     With a deepened sense of the need of evangelistic work, Judson now went to Chittagong to find some native Christian who could preach and teach in Burmese. He was unexpectedly detained there seven months, during which his wife, with some missionary helpers who had joined them, maintained the work under vexatious persecutions, displaying great endurance and wonderful skill and diplomacy with the native authorities ; and later going through the trials of an epidemic of cholera. On in infancy. In 1816 Judson seemed breaking down, and hurriedly collected the notes he had made for a Burman grammar. It was published twenty years later, and his return Judson built an open sayat, a shed of bamboo, for public evangelization, with a room for assemblies of worship, and another, opening on the garden, for women's classes. The zayat was on a main public thoroughfare, under the shadow of the chief pagoda. Here he conversed with men of different classes, some of profound Oriental learning, and saw how the skepticism of European philosophy has been anticipated in the subtler scepticisms of India, which have undermined Oriental faith, and made preparation for a faith more rational.

     The first regular service was held in the zayat April 4, 1819, Judson having been in Rangoon nearly six years, and then first venturing to preach in the native tongue. The 27th of the following June he baptized his first Burman convert, Moung Nau.

    In November there were rumors of persecutions, and public services were suspended for several Sundays, and two new converts were baptized privately ; and greater interest bringing new threats from the authorities, Judson went to Ava, the capital, to lay the matter before the king. The journey

and return consumed over two months, and seemed rather to produce more explicit threats ; and Judson resolved to remove to Chittagong, under British rule.

     But now the little circle of converts awoke to independent life and courage. They could not bear to be scattered, but begged that, if the missionaries must go, it would not be till their membership was increased to ten, and they organized under some leader to hold them together and help their Christian life. Departure was therefore postponed ; and ten months later the tenth convert and first woman was received into the church. This was on the eve of Judson's sailing to Calcutta with his wife because of her ill heath; and through this absence the little church stood steadfast even under persecution.

   Then the persecution ceased. A girls' school was opened ; and the work took so interesting a form that, though Mrs. Judson's health compelled her to go to America, her husband remained at Rangoon. He was now joined by Dr. Price, a medical missionary, whose remarkable success,

especially in operations for cataract, led to his being summoned to Ava, to the king ; and here Judson thought it best to accompany him.

     This movement brought the whole missionary work at once under favorable notice of the court. There was no more talk of persecution, but apparently the largest opening for greatly enlarged work. Judson came into the presence of the king, and received the royal invitation to transfer his work from Rangoon to the capital ; and after Mrs. Judson's return from America with improved health, and with re-enforcements for Rangoon, they removed to Ava, arriving there in January, 1824.

    The court favor at Ava, however, was clouded over by a change of ministers, almost before their actual arrival. Many postponements and hindrances impeded their work, in spite of the favor held by Dr. Price's medical reputation ; and in a few months the outbreak of war between Burmah and England threw the mission into confusion and dismay. There was a general suspicion of all persons of English speech; and ere long Judson, Dr. Price, and five others were arrested and thrown into prison.

Missionary Bio's - Adoniram Judson Part 1

This biography of Adoniram Judson is taken from the book "Great Missionaries of the Church" By Rev. Charles C. Creegan and Mrs. Josephine A. B. Goodnow. The book is copyright 1895

ADONIRAM JUDSON

Missionary to Burmah

BORN AUG. g, 1788 ; DIED APRIL 12, 1850

    As Carey was the father of modern missions, Judson was the father of American missions. The thought was no doubt in many minds, and in that circle of young men from which sprung the American Board, each no doubt owed much to the others ; but partly from his own strong gifts of body, mind, and downright moral consistency, Judson was the first to carry out in actual missionary life what to others was a plan, a hope, a prayer.

     Born Aug. 9, 1788, eldest son of the Congregational minister at Maiden, Mass., he could read when three years old, was acute with figures when ten, and, proud and ambitious, entered Brown University, where at nineteen he graduated first in his class. His college course won only praise ; but his brightness brought him under the influence of a sceptical college friend, and he came home to declare himself to his father, with characteristic downrightness, an infidel. His father was then minister at Plymouth; and there the son taught school for a year, at this time publishing a school grammar and an arithmetic.

      He had some thoughts of dramatic writing, and made a tour of travel as far as New York, for a time travelling with a theatrical company. Returning to Sheffield, Mass., where his uncle was minister, he arranged for a farther journey westward ; but was much impressed by a young minister who preached there by exchange ; and next day, setting out, took lodging at a country inn, where a young man lay very ill in the adjoining room. Judson was restless, thinking of this man, sick and away from home ; and next morning learned with deep feeling that he had died ; and, hearing his name, was overwhelmed to find that it was his sceptical college friend. His scheme of travel seemed now impossible ; his infidel theories melted away ; and he turned his horse's head toward Plymouth, and next month entered an advanced class at Andover Theological Seminary. He joined his father's church in Plymouth the next May.

           In the seminary he read Buchanan's " Star in the East," and Syme's" Empire of Ava," and became associated with Samuel Nott, and Samuel J. Mills, Gordon Hall, and others of the Williams College "Haystack " company ; and though offered a tutorship at Brown University, and an associate pastorate with Dr. Griffin in Boston, he devoted himself to foreign missionary work.

     He had already written to the London Missionary Society ; and, after consultation with the teachers and ministers near Andover, he joined his fellow-students in a letter to the Massachusetts General Association of Congregational Churches, which met at Bradford, June 29, 1810, asking advice and help towards missionary service.

    This letter was signed by Judson, Nott, Mills, and Samuel Newell. There had been in existence since 1799 the Massachusetts Missionary Society, organized to carry the gospel to the Indians, and to cultivate the missionary spirit ; but the General Association now organized the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and commended theyoung men to its direction. Judson was first sent to London to ask the co-operation of the London Society. His ship was captured by a French privateer, and he was imprisoned on ship and in France ; but escaped to London, where he was cordially received ; but later it was thought best to send him abroad without English assistance. He was married Feb. 5, 1812, to Miss Ann Hasseltine, daughter of the minister at Bradford ; Feb. 6 he was ordained, and on Feb. 19 he sailed with his bride from Salem for Calcutta. On the long voyage he became convinced that the Baptist doctrine was in agreement with the Scripture ; and after reaching Calcutta he applied to the English Baptist missionaries at Serampore, and, with his wife, was immersed, and resigned his connection with the American Board. The East India Company presently ordered him and his fellow American missionaries to return home, subsequently allowing them to go to Mauritius. There Mrs. Newell died ; and Mr. Rice, who had also become a Baptist, went to America to urge the organizing of a Baptist Missionary Society. Judson and his wife, after four months in Mauritius, largely spent in mission-work with English soldiers, sailed for Madras, hoping to establish a mission at Pulo-Penang, in the Strait of Malacca. But the only ship sailing in that direction took them to Rangoon in Burmah, beyond the protection of the British flag, where they arrived July 13, 1813. There a son of Dr. Carey had occupied the English Baptist mission-house ; but he was absent, and soon afterwards resigned the mission in their favor.