A Charge to New Missionaries

Adoniram Judson, along with four other men, was ordained on February 6, 1812. At their ordination, Samuel Spring, pastor of the North Congregational Church in Newburyport, delivered the charge to these new missionaries to Asia. He encouraged them towards faithful obedience, even in the face of trials that would undoubtedly come. His encouragements and advice are still relevant for anyone today who might go on the missions field. Text has been lightly updated. 

Dearly beloved brethren,

While we recollect this memorable direction of Christ to His chosen Missionaries, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature": while we also survey the perishing state of five hundred millions of souls in Asia, who are destitute of the appointed means of salvation, we are alarmed at the neglect with which they have long been treated.

Readiness to Go

For we hear our merciful God emphatically say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us,” to enlighten and rejoice them with the glad tidings of salvation? But blessed be His glorious name, who has the hearts of all men in His hand, and directs their destinations. You, my brethren, in the view of these Divine interrogations, have promptly answered, “Here we are, Lord, send us; we are willing to accept the important mission. We will, by the aid of thy gracious providence, take the parting hand of our parents, brothers and sisters, and other dear friends; we will bid farewell to our native land, and cross the wide ocean to Asia, for the sake of preaching Christ to thousands and millions of our fellow mortals, who never heard of the Savior. While we are willing to ascend to heaven from that distant clime, we hope, by the grace of God, to be happily successful in pointing the way to some, if not to many of the Pagans, who will, without seasonable instruction, perish for ever. For how shall they hear without a preacher?”

This, if you know your own hearts, is your object; and we charitably hope you are not deceived, though “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).

With your readiness to embrace a foreign embassy to the heathen, the Board of Commissioners, and many devout Christians are deeply, and it is hoped, thankfully impressed: and to qualify you for the regular execution of it, the Council appointed by the Prudential Committee have invested you with the office of Christ’s ministers, by prayer and the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery.

Consecrate Your Souls

Being then the ordained ministers of Christ, it is expected, agreeably to the established order of the Christian church on these solemn occasions, that you now receive the word of exhortation, or the usual charge, which I am appointed to administer in the name and behalf of the Council.

Dear brethren, whether you are duly qualified for the mission, does not, you are sensible, depend either on your opinion, or on ours; but on Christ’s who searches the hearts and tries the reins of the children of men, and will soon reveal the real character of everyone before the assembled universe.

At this interesting moment, then, you will, if Christians, renewedly consecrate your souls and bodies, and all that you possess, to the Lord, and solemnly engage to be faithful ministers of the New Testament, among the Heathen nations and tribes especially, wherever He shall cast your lot and direct your exertions. While then enlisting under the banner of the Cross in this public manner, to preach the Gospel to the perishing world, you cannot but remember that you will displease and dishonor Christ, that you will injure your own souls and the souls of the heathen, unless you sacrifice pride, ambition, personal honor and emolument, and every private consideration, to the glory of God in the salvation of souls. For if human distinction, or self gratification, in any form whatever, be adverse to Christianity, it is directly, yes, it is totally, hostile to the character and office of Christian missionaries.

To obey Christ, and imitate His apostles, those faithful and successful missionaries, who in the course of a few years confounded the adversary and his bold adherents, by spreading the light of the Gospel over the extensive regions of the East, you must be the subjects of deep humility and much self-denial. One man cannot serve two masters. He cannot serve God and mammon. He cannot seek his own glory and the glory of Christ. You must practise self-denial among the heathen in a conspicuous manner, before you can inculcate it with advantage and success. They, by your pious conduct, must be convinced that your religion, that your God, is preferable to theirs, before they will forsake idolatry and embrace the Gospel of Christ. It will be fruitless to tell them about invisible things, about Heaven and Hell, eternal happiness and eternal misery, if they do not see in your Christian conduct what they ought to imitate. You will spend your breath and time in vain, except you let them see the real expression of godliness in your uniform example.

Exercise Wisdom

The eyes of the Heathen, you will note, rather than their ears, are the avenues by which you can readily have access to their hearts. You must let them see Christ in His missionaries, before they will attentively and patiently hear you display His moral excellency. If you show them how Christ and his Apostles lived, by living like them in a meek, humble, and heavenly manner, you may then preach His doctrines. This, then, we emphatically charge you, never, never preach the theory of the Gospel, till you have presented the practice of the Gospel in your own godly example. To you, who are Christ’s ambassadors, the poor ignorant creatures will look for the character of the crucified and exalted Redeemer. If they see Him not in you, they will despise you and turn away from your instructions to the practice of idolatry. And woe unto you if you be found deficient in this respect.

But, my brethren, we hope better things of you, and things which accompany salvation, though we thus speak. You will then be exemplary, you will magnify your office, and let no man, no heathen, despise your youth.

In adapting your instructions to the heathen, you will exercise much wisdom and discretion. We make this remark because many missionaries have proved unsuccessful among the heathen, by crowding them with strong meat even before they were prepared for milk. The pagan empire is an empire of ignorance, delusion, and superstition. They know less than nothing relative to the glorious provisions of the Gospel. When you, therefore, begin to instruct them, it will be necessary to give them the most simple and easy lessons in the rudiments of Christianity. When you also attempt to feed them with the bread of life, it must be discreetly served in morsels only. For you will find even the hopeful converts but mere babes, who can digest nothing but milk, which must also be given in small quantities. You will be instant in season, out of season, both in public and from house to house, or from cottage to cottage, in opening to them, according to their apprehension, the being and perfections of God, the divinity of scripture, the contents of His law, the apostasy of man, the necessity and nature of the atonement, the method and the condition of salvation pointed out by Christ in the Gospel.

Establish Churches

If God shall succeed and bless your labors of love among the heathen, in multiplying hopeful converts, you will establish churches, break to them the bread of life, and apply the seal of the covenant to the children and domestics of believers, agreeably to the practice of Abraham the father of the faithful, and the subsequent friends of truth, who tread in his steps. In forming churches, you will cautiously admit those, and those only, who exhibit credible evidence that they are the subjects of God’s special grace in regeneration. For, if like the degraded priests in the anterior dispensation, you omit making a proper difference between the holy and unholy, between Christians and sinners, you will depreciate the dignity and influence of the Church, and offend Christ, who provides sacramental symbols for his own children, and not for his enemies. We give you this early exhortation, lest, like some elated pompous missionaries, you be tempted to exhibit a more flattering account of converts among the heathen than will bear the test, when God shall make a separation in the final decision between the righteous and the wicked.

Let us, my friends and brethren, act before Christ the searcher of hearts in reference to this object on the principle of integrity. When you transmit to us the state and success of your mission, tell us the simple truth, and nothing but the truth, and then you will honor God, and we shall repose entire confidence in your narratives.

We need not remind you that the object and the consequences of your mission are inestimably important, both to you, the church, and a multitude of souls. No enterprise comparable to this, has been embraced by the American church. All others retire before it like the stars before the rising sun. The success of the mission, we know depends upon the general aid of Divine Providence and God’s special grace. If this is the appointed time for Christ to have the heathen of Asia for His inheritance, or only to prepare the way for His glory in that extensive region of pagan darkness and ignorance, the mission will probably be crowned with success.

But you know, my friends, from your intimate acquaintance with the history of missionary exertions, that much depends upon the wisdom and fidelity of the missionaries. Though the conversion of heathens is the special work of God, yet we must remember that He expects the concurrence of faithful and able ministers of the Gospel. God does not operate alone: and as no miracles are expected, the poor ignorant heathen will be lost, unless seasonably instructed with line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, by faithful and discreet missionaries. How vast, then, your obligations to help the Lord with all your might? The object you have embraced is unspeakably great. You feel the pressure of it when you lie down and when you rise up, but the motives to encourage and support your trembling hearts are answerably great. God has already begun His glorious work in the East. The morning star has appeared, and indicates the near approach of the rising sun. God will, His praying children believe, succeed and prosper the mission. You will go under the guidance of Christ, the Almighty Savior, and will be supported by His right hand. God will not forsake you, unless you forsake Him.

Count the Cost

But here pause a moment, and count the cost of your enterprise. Are you to expect unremitting prosperity? Are you to expect no hardships, no perils, no discouragements, no disappointments, and no adversity? Alas! you know better. You are to expect much adversity, much opposition, many dark days, when your hearts will swell with grief. You have doubtless made your calculations to meet with many adverse seasons of very different descriptions. The days of sorrow you must experience. These are the lot of useful men. The endearing connections you have formed as a band of missionary brothers; and the connubial connections you have uprightly made, must soon be dissolved. You expect to meet the bitter cup of sorrow, as well as the cheerful cup of joy and consolation, for God has so decreed. But will you faint in the day of adversity? Will you, after solemnly putting your hand to the plough, look back? Will you also go away?

Let the Lord be Your Portion

No, no, my brothers: You will rather say with the faithful disciples, Lord, to whom shall we go, but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We also say, no: look not back but forward with vigorous faith. Trust in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. In the hours of affliction remember Christ and His afflicted Apostles, while executing your arduous mission. Remember the martyrs enrolled on the Divine page. Remember particularly those blessed men arrayed in white robes, and let the recording angel attach your names to the register. For these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb—and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

In a word; let the Lord be your portion, and Christ your leader and confidence; let grace be your speech, and humility your dress; let secret and social prayer be your breath; the glory of God in the salvation of souls your object, and heaven your final rest. Go, then, with the tender companions of your bosoms, like pilgrims and strangers, and lay your bodies by the side of Ziegenbalg and Swartz, that you may meet them and Eliot and Brainerd, and all other faithful missionaries, in the realms of light, and so be ever with the Lord. We, in the meantime, will pray, that the salvation of souls may be your joy, and crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord. Amen.