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ADONIRAM JUDSON.

ADONIRAM JUDSON, junior, was born at Malden, Massachusetts, August 9, 1788. Of his childhood and youth little information has been communicated to the public. It would be interesting, if possible, to trace the development of powers so capacious and a character so striking as his long and eventful career displayed. He was graduated at Brown University in 1807, with the highest honour. He is remembered by college contemporaries as a young man of a spare but commanding figure, erect and firm, giving evidence of a sound physical constitution, and a mind of more than common vigour and self-reliance. His habitual demeanour was grave and circumspect until near the close of his collegiate course. His ambition having been gratified by the position he had gained, the constraint of his manners was then somewhat relaxed, and he showed a more genial and playful humour. He acquitted himself on the commencementday in a manner that attracted much attention and praise, heightened by his youthful appearance.

The son of a Congregational clergyman, he had the advantages of religious culture that such a relation naturally confers, but entered upon manhood, not only without evidence of personal piety, but with skeptical views of the authority of Christianity. Soon after graduating, he began a tour through the United States. While travelling, he became impressed with the conviction that to cherish doubts of the truth of Christianity without making an effort to resolve them, was unreasonable. The importance and solemnity of the issue were discerned in such a light that it was impossible to continue his journey. He returned to Plymouth, then the residence of his father, and commenced the serious examination of the Christian evidences. He was convinced of their validity, but did not at first have very distinct views of the nature of religion as a practical system. In this state of mind, being on a visit to Boston, he happened to take from the shelf of a private library a work formerly much esteemed by serious readers,*"Human Nature in its Fourfold * In this country many Scottish Christians, it is believed, still highly prize it.

State;" by Thomas Boston, minister of Ettrick, in Scotland. From this he gained new views of the Christian scheme and of his own relations to it. His mind was profoundly agitated, and all his plans were merged in anxiety to find peace for a disquieted conscience.

About this time the Theological Seminary at Andover was established, and Mr. Judson applied for admission, in order to gain the advantages it afforded for religious study and instruction. The rules of the seminary required evidence of evangelical piety before admission, but the officers, with some hesitation, received him as a member. In no long time his inquiries were satisfied; he clearly saw and heartily submitted to the truth, receiving a full measure of its divine consolations. He then turned his attention to the appropriate studies preparatory to the Christian ministry. But his purposes were not to find their limit here. In the summer or autumn of 1809, he met with Buchanan's "Star in the East," the reading of which suggested to his mind the importance of the missionary work, and awakened a desire to engage in it. His feelings were communicated to several persons, who all discouraged him. At length he gained the assent of Samuel Nott, jr., to his views,* and subsequently found in the minds of several other young men associated with him in the seminary, Messrs. Mills, Richards, Rice and Newell, a deep sympathy in his aspirations, the fruit of meditation and mutual counsel in past years and distant scenes.†

The state of public sentiment was not such as to furnish encouragement that any immediate steps would be taken to secure the accomplishment of their wishes, and a submission to this delay was apparently yielded by his associates, with which Mr. Judson was dissatisfied. Seeing no avenue to the missionary field open on this side the Atlantic, he conceived the design of offering himself for the patronage of the London Missionary Society. This he suggested to Rev. Dr. Griffin, then a professor in the seminary, who undertook to write on his behalf to London. Some time after, as they casually met, Dr. Griffin apologized for having failed to write according to his promise, but expressed his intention to do so immediately. "I

* Memoir of L. Rice, p. 86.

As the formation of the American Board has been described with considerable minuteness in connection with the life of GORDON HALL, the present sketch has no further design in this respect than to exhibit the character and extent of Mr. Judson's personal agency in the matter. The reader will excuse the repetition of some facts and dates which are necessary to clearness of statement.

thank you, sir," Mr. Judson replied with characteristic promptness, "I have written for myself."* A letter to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, disclosing his views and requesting information, received a favourable reply, inviting him to visit England, and obtain in person the information he sought.

The project was arrested by more favourable indications at home. Having learned from those of his associates who had mutually pledged themselves to the missionary work while at Williams College, something of the character and views of Gordon Hall, then at Woodbury, Conn., he addressed a letter to him, which hastened Mr. Hall's arrival at Andover.t Mr. Hall's inclinations concurred with his own. Renewed consultation led to a decisive resolve, and the meeting of the General Association of Massachusetts, at Bradford, in June, 1810, was fixed upon as a favourable occasion for broaching their designs to the public. Mr. Judson drew up a paper, setting forth their wishes, and asking the advice of the Association with respect to the propriety of cherishing, and the proper means of effecting them. To this paper were first subscribed the names of Messrs. Judson, Nott, Newell, Hall, Richards and Rice, but the two latter withdrew their names, lest so large a number should produce embarrassment The result was the organization of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

It was Mr. Judson's expectation that he and his associates would immediately receive an appointment as missionaries, but the Board was without the needful funds to send them forth, and contented itself with approving their purpose, and recommending them to adhere to it. Mr. Judson thought that this course savoured of timidity, and was auspicious of no very speedy action. He recurred to his invitation from England, and suggested the possibility of gaining the coöperation of the London Missionary Society. At his request he was authorized to visit London, and ascertain the practicability of a joint management of missions by the two societies. He sailed for England in January, 1811, and three weeks after was captured by a French privateer, on board of which he was detained several weeks, and was then confined in a prison at Bayonne. By the interposition of an American gentleman he was released on his

* For this, and one or two other facts in relation to Dr. Judson's early life, the writer is indebted to a correspondent who knew him when in college.

† Memoir of L. Rice, p. 87.

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