Judson, Adoniram, 1788-1850; Missionaries -- Burma -- Biography; Missionaries -- United States -- Biography
not be procured immediately, he would be much safer in the attic of a
shipbuilder, who had kindly offered this place of concealment.
Accordingly he removed to the attic, from which, after a few days, he
was released on parole.
“Mr. Judson passed about six weeks in Bayonne, boarding with an
American lady who had spent most of her life in France. He told his
landlady that he was a clergyman, and frequently held long religious
conversations with her; but he did not permit his character to be
known generally in the house, as he thought it would interfere with a
plan he had of learning as much as possible of the real state of
French society. He attended various places of amusement with his
fellow-boarders, pleading his ignorance of the language and customs of
the country as an excuse for acting the spectator merely; and in
general giving such evasive replies as enabled him to act his part
without attracting undue attention. It was not long, however, before
his companions became pretty well aware that indifference formed no
part of his real character. His shrewdness was at variance with his
implied ignorance of the world, and his simplicity sometimes wore a
solemn impressiveness, from the influence of which it was impossible
to escape. The last place of amusement he visited was a masked ball;
and here his strong feelings quite overcame his caution, and he burst
forth in his real character. He declared to his somewhat startled
companions that he did not believe the infernal regions could furnish
more complete specimens of depravity than he there beheld. He spoke in
English, and at first addressed himself to the two or three standing
near him, who understood the language; but his earnestness of manner
and warmth of expression soon drew around him a large circle, who
listened curiously and with apparent respect. He spoke scornfully of
the proud professions of the (so called) philosophy of the age, and
pointed to the fearful exhibitions of that moment as illustrative of
its effectiveness. He rapidly enumerated many of the evils which
infidelity had brought upon France and upon the world, and then showed
the only way of escape from those evils—the despised but truly
ennobling religion of Jesus Christ. Finally he sketched the character
of man as it might have been in its original purity and nobleness, and
then the wreck of soul and body to be ascribed to sin, and wound up
all by a personal appeal to such as had not become too debased to
think and feel. He had warmed as he proceeded with his subject, noting
with pain and surprise the great number of those who seemed to
understand the English language, and drawing from it an inference by
no means favorable to his travelled countrymen. Most of the maskers
evidently regarded the exhibition as a part of the evening’s
entertainment; but those who understood his remarks seemed confounded
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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