Judson, Adoniram, 1788-1850; Missionaries -- Burma -- Biography; Missionaries -- United States -- Biography
But in the midst of these sacred toils she was smitten with fever. Her
constitution, undermined by the hardships and sufferings which she had
endured, could not sustain the shock, and on October 24, 1826, in the
37th year of her age, she breathed her last. The hands so full of holy
endeavors were destined to be suddenly folded for rest. She died apart
from him to whom she had given her heart in her girlhood, whose
footsteps she had faithfully followed for fourteen years, over land and
sea, through trackless jungles and strange crowded cities, sharing his
studies and his privations, illumining his hours of gloom with her
beaming presence, and with a heroism and fidelity unparalleled in the
annals of missions, soothing the sufferings of his imprisonment. He whom
she had thus loved, and who, from his experience of Indian fever, might
have been able to avert the fatal stroke, was far away in Ava. No
missionary was with her when she died, to speak words of Christian
consolation. The Burman converts like children gathered helplessly and
broken-heartedly about their _white mamma_. The hands of strangers
smoothed her dying pillow, and their ears received her last faint
wandering utterances. Under such auspices as these her white-winged
spirit took its flight to the brighter scenes of the new Jerusalem.
In a letter to the Corresponding Secretary, Rev. Dr. Bolles, Mr. Judson
wrote:
“So far, therefore, as I had a view to the attainment of religious
toleration in accompanying the embassy, I have entirely failed. I feel
the disappointment more deeply on account of the many tedious delays
which have already occurred, and which we anticipate during our
return; so that, instead of four or five months, I shall be absent
from home seven or eight.
“But, above all, the news of the death of my beloved wife has not only
thrown a gloom over all my future prospects, but has forever
embittered my recollections of the present journey, in consequence of
which I have been absent from her dying bed, and prevented from
affording the spiritual comfort which her lonely circumstances
peculiarly required, and of contributing to avert the fatal
catastrophe which has deprived me of one of the first of women, the
best of wives.
“I commend myself and motherless child to your sympathy and prayers.”
But when writing to the mother of his beloved wife, he describes still
more fully the sorrowful experience through which he passed:
_To Mrs. Hasseltine, of Bradford, Mass._
“AVA, _December_ 7, 1826.
“DEAR MOTHER HASSELTINE: This letter, though intended for the whole
family, I address particularly to you; for it is a mother’s heart that
will be most deeply interested in its melancholy details. I propose to
give you, at different times, some account of my great, irreparable
loss, of which you will have heard before receiving this letter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account