On this day in 1850, missionary Robert Samuel Maclay landed in FuZhou, China. Along with his wife to be, Henrietta Caroline Sperry, Maclay moved to China to help reinforce the mission work that had been commenced by Reverends Moses White and Judson Collins. They joined a team that would consist of 12 different missionaries.
During their stay in China, the work was very slow and unfruitful at first. It took a toll on the missionary team that was there. After facing many trials and health problems, the Maclays were the only missionaries that remained in China. The others either died or returned to America. It was actually 10 years from the time that the first missionaries of their team landed before the Maclays saw their first convert.
Within nine years, Maclay had planted two different churches in China. Also, he had established a few schools and chapels. He learned the language enough to preach in the local vernacular. However, it wasn’t until the tenth year that a Chinese man named Ting An was converted to Christianity. Maclay baptized him in July of 1857, 10 years after the original work of the Maclay’s team had begun and after 7 years of the Maclay’s working in China.
Are we willing to do the work of the Lord despite apparent fruitlessness? Even when our work for God doesn’t yield the results that we prefer or other think we should see, will we continue to follow and work for Him? Maclay stayed with the work when others quit and it took a long time for him to see results. However, the results came after patience, hard work, and faith in God.
On this day in 1850, America’s first foreign missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson, died. He was at the age of 61 and had spent 38 years bringing the gospel to the unreached people of Burma.
All morning long, Judson had been growing slowly weaker. His friend Ranney and his native helper, Panaph, sat by his bed, watching in helpless sympathy as their dear friend and teacher grew worse and worse. As the afternoon arrived, Judson’s pain left him. He soon fell into a peaceful rest. He was holding Ranney’s hand, squeezing it from time to time. But each time he squeezed it, it grew weaker. At one time, he called out, in both English and Burmese, “Take care of the poor mistress.” These were his last words.
At 4:15 pm on Friday, April 12th, Adoniram Judson passed away. “His life was like falling asleep,” said Ranney. “A gentle pressure of the hand, growing more and more feeble as life waned, showed the peacefulness of the spirit about to take its homeward flight.”
The captain of the ship, not wanting to hold a dead body due to disease, ordered Judson buried right away. The ship’s carpenter had built a large wooden coffin. Judson was placed inside and the lid nailed shut. The entire crew assembled silently. The larboard port was opened. Without even a prayer, Judson’s coffin was released into the ocean. The location: latitude 13 degrees north, longitude 93 degrees east.
In the city of his birth, their is a small stone monument inscribed with this simple phrase: “Malden, his birthplace; the ocean, his sepulcher.”
*Post written and submitted by Edward de los Reyes
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