Heritage Column for May 11, 2006
By Fred Anderson
At Christmastide last year, we visited in the home of Alma Hunt in Roanoke. She placed a new book in my hand and enthusiastically said, “I want you to read this book!”
It was a formidable paperback of some 400 pages which carried the title Bless God and Take Courage and was the story of those pioneer missionaries, Adoniram Judson and his three wives: Ann, Sarah and Emily. When I put it aside to take home with me, Miss Alma exclaimed, “Oh, no, I cannot give you that book. I am not through reading it myself!”
A few weeks later my wife telephoned me at work to say that a package had arrived. She said that it was from “Miz Hunt” but not our Miss Hunt. When I got home, I discovered that the package contained a copy of the Judson biography, which had been sent to me from the author, Rosalie Hall Hunt of Alabama as a gift from our Miss Hunt. About 5:30 in the afternoon, I sat down to glance over the book and the next thing I knew it was 8:30. I had missed the call to supper. I couldn't help it. Bless God and Take Courage was a real page-turner. It was well-written and held the reader's attention.
Unlike most conventional biographies, Bless God and Take Courage contained not only the story from long ago but also a treatment on the legacy of the Judsons. In her six years of research, the author visited New England sites associated with the Judsons, met the missionary's great-grandson and traveled to Burma/Myanmar, where the Judsons served, and found descendants of their first converts as well as evidences of the good work which the missionaries had done.
When our Miss Hunt told me about this wonderful new biography of the Judsons, I privately wondered why on earth there should be another biography of Adoniram Judson. There are probably more ancient tomes on Judson on the shelves of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society's library than on any other single figure in Baptist history. Some years ago I was forced to blow the dust off of these books and read every scrap I could on Adoniram.
Charles Deweese, now the executive director of the Baptist History & Heritage Society, was a member of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Nashville; and knowing that this historian frequently portrays historical characters, he asked me to develop a monologue on Judson and to present it at his church. I told my colleague, the late Rees Watkins, that I prefer characters with some humor. She said, “Aw, there's plenty of humor.” I got down those dusty books and soon discovered that there was not one shred of humor in the Judson story. It was a heroic story, alright, but it was a story of sacrifice and suffering, of sickness and death.
But the engagement was set and I had to prepare a script. I memorized the material and headed for Nashville. When I arrived, Charles Deweese met me and said, “Oh, by the way, a professional actor who portrays Judson came to the church a few days ago and portrayed the man; but we want to hear you anyway.” I wanted to get back on the next plane. It was a maddening experience.
Now, if only the biography of Judson by Rosalie Hall Hunt had been available back then, I could have given some fresh insights to the story. The author even alludes to the humorous nature of the missionary.
On next Tuesday evening, May 16 at 7:15 p.m., Rosalie Hall Hunt will be in Richmond to tell some of the thrilling stories of missions delivery during the era of the Judsons. She will speak at the annual meeting of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, which will be held at Huguenot Road Baptist Church.
If my dear readers could only attend one missions meeting this year, I would urge that it be this meeting. The entire evening has been labeled “It's All About Missions!” The program will include the biographer's account of the missions saga of the past; and it also will include observations on the possible future of missions delivery in the 21st century as imagined by Bill Tinsley, the leader of WorldconneX, a missions network based in Texas. He will picture some of the challenges to missions, given the changing demographics, current trends and world conditions. Anyone passionate about missions will be captivated as missions past and missions future come together in one great evening.
Usually this column highlights Virginia Baptists. No one figure outside of Virginia influenced the hearts and minds of Virginia Baptists like Adoniram Judson. His friend, Luther Rice, visited in the homes of Virginia Baptists in the early 1800s and ignited fires for missions support for the Judsons and the long train of other missionaries which would follow. Every Virginia Baptist family that subscribed to the Religious Herald in the first 20 years of the publication read missions accounts on the Judsons.
In 1846, the great man himself walked the streets of Richmond when he was a guest of the First Baptist Church and addressed the new Southern Baptist Convention, which the previous year had broken with the Triennial Convention over slavery. A Northerner, he wanted to kindle the interest in missions among Southern Baptists. He need not have wondered about his place among them. Already the Baptists of the South viewed Judson as their father of world missions. On Tuesday night, we can learn more about our fore-father.
Fred Anderson may be contacted at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.