Adoniram Judson
I was seized on the 8th of June, 1824, in consequence of the war with Bengal and, in company with Dr. Price, three Englishmen, one American, and one Greek, was thrown into the death prison at Ava, where we lay eleven months - nine months in three pairs and two months in five pairs of fetters.
It is my growing conviction that the Baptist churches in America are behind the age in missionary spirit. They now and then make a spasmodic effort to throw off a nightmare debt of some years' accumulation, and then sink back into unconscious repose.
I suppose they think me an old man and imagine it is nothing for one like me to resign a life so full of trials. But I am not old - at least in that sense; you know I am not. Oh, no man ever left the world with more inviting prospects, with brighter hopes, or warmer feelings - warmer feelings.
Any known attempt at proselyting would be instantly amenable at a criminal tribunal and would probably be punished by the death of the proselyte and the banishment of the missionary. All efforts must be conducted in private and are therefore very limited.
The places chosen for the administration of the ordinance, and the circumstances attending those instances, in which the act of baptizing is particularly described in the New Testament, plainly indicate immersion.
Christ commands those who believe to be baptized. Pedobaptists adopt a system which tends to preclude the baptism of believers. They baptize the involuntary infant and deprive him of the privilege of ever professing his faith in the appointed way. If this system were universally adopted, it would banish believers' baptism out of the world.
We should naturally expect that the baptism of infants, if enjoined at all, would have been enjoined in the law which instituted the ordinance of Christian baptism. But this law is silent on the subject of infants.
You will readily believe me when I say that on leaving my country, I little imagined that I should ever become a Baptist. I had not indeed candidly examined the subject of baptism, but I had strong prejudices against the sect, that is everywhere spoken against.
There is no success without sacrifice. If you succeed without sacrifice it is because someone has suffered before you. If you sacrifice without success it is because someone will succeed after.Collection: Inspirational
If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.Collection: Suffering
I will not leave Burma until the cross is planted here forever.Collection: Forever
The motto for every missionary, whether preacher, printer, or schoolmaster, ought to be 'Devoted for Life.'Collection: Religion
The future is a bright as the promises of God.Collection: Promise
It is true that we may desire much more. But let us use what we have, and God will give us more.Collection: Giving
I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with gladness.Collection: Home
Let me beg you, not to rest contented with the commonplace religion that is now so prevalent.Collection: Let Me
Our prayers run along one road and God's answers by another, and by and by they meet.Collection: Running
God loves importunate prayer so much that He will not give us much blessing without it.Collection: Prayer
A true disciple inquires not whether a fact is agreeable to his own reason.His pride has yielded to the divine testimony.Collection: Pride
I feel it is my duty to plod on, while daylight shall last.Collection: Missionary
God answers all true prayer, either in kind or in kindness.Collection: Kindness
I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time; no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the least I would have devised, it came.Collection: Prayer
We prefer one room in Rangoon to six in Boston. We feel that we are highly blessed.Collection: Blessed
After many painful trials, which none can know, but those who are taught to relinquish a system in which they had been educated, I settled down in the full persuasion, that the immersion of a professing believer in Christ is the only Christian baptism.Collection: Christian
If God gave light and wisdom, the religion of Jesus was soon learned; but without God, a man might study all his life long, and make no proficiency.Collection: Christian
Thanks be to God, not--only for 'rivers of endless joys above, but for 'rills of comfort here below.'Collection: Rivers
Nothing is impossible,' said one of the seven sages of Greece, 'to industry.' Let us change the word, 'industry,' to 'persevering prayer,' and the motto will be more Christian and more worthy of universal adoption.Collection: Christian
Permit us to labor on in obscurity, and at the end of twenty years you may hear from us again.Collection: Years
No mind, no wisdom--tempora ry mind, temporary wisdom--eternal mind, eternal wisdom.Collection: Mind