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In 1803, in a house overlooking Plymouth harbor, a 14-year-old boy lay dangerously ill. Before this time, he'd never given much time to serious thought about the course his life would take. But during his year-long convalescence, he began to reflect on the possibility of future fame. Would he be a statesman, an orator, or a poet? An eminent minister of a large, wealthy church? Where did true greatness lie? He was shocked out of his reverie—and very nearly out of his bed—by a mysterious voice that uttered the words "Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be the glory."

Adoniram Judson would remember that startling revelation for the rest of his life. With his strong academic training, keen intellect, and linguistic abilities, he might well have become a prominent theologian, scholar, or politician in 19th-century America. But his profound desire to do the will of God led him down a very different path.

Born on August 9, 1788, in Malden, Massachusetts, Judson was a precocious youth. He learned to read at the age of 3, did especially well in reading and mathematics in the schools he attended, and even mastered Latin and Greek. His father, Adoniram Judson, Sr., whose theological strictness had led to a series of unsuccessful pastorates before he finally ended up at a conservative congregation in Plymouth, believed that his promising son would be safer at a nominally Baptist school than at liberal Harvard. So he sent young Adoniram to Rhode Island College (newly renamed Brown University) in 1804. The plan backfired: Adoniram graduated as class valedictorian three years later, but during his college years he had become a deist who no longer believed in the existence of a personal God or a Savior. After college Adoniram briefly ran a school in Plymouth, composed an English grammar and mathematics text, and went off to New York City where he eventually joined a troupe of itinerant actors. "I was then a wretched infidel," he later said of these years.

A turning point came one night while Judson was staying at an inn. In the adjoining room Adoniram could hear the groans of a man in the last throes of life. The next morning, Judson discovered that the man had died, and that it was none other than the college friend who had led him to reject his youthful faith. The prospect of what awaited this unrepentant friend after death shook Adoniram so much that he returned to his parents' home in Plymouth.

The 20-year-old Judson, full of enthusiasm for life and a passion for excellence, decided to enroll in the newly-founded divinity school at Andover, north of Boston—but as a special student, not as a candidate for the ministry, because he had not yet made a profession of faith. He arrived at Andover Seminary in October 1808 and at once was engrossed in his studies. But he also reflected on his spiritual condition during long walks in the dense woods near the campus. Then, on December 8, 1808, he wrote in his journal: "This day I made a solemn dedication of my life to God." At last he had found the Christ whom he had evaded for so long. Five months later, he formally confessed his faith and joined his father's Congregational church in Plymouth.

Judson now set aside his earlier ambitions for literary and political fame and considered to what kind of service God might be calling him. In September 1809, he came across a copy of a sermon entitled "The Star in the East." The author was a former Anglican chaplain for the British East India Company and advocated opening the company's territories to missionaries. This account of the progress of the Christian message in the vast Indian sub-continent kindled Judson's imagination, and a book about Burma further piqued his interest. The following February, he firmly resolved to go as a missionary. "For some days," he recalled later, "I was unable to attend to the studies of my class, and spent my time in wondering at my past stupidity, depicting the most romantic scenes of missionary life, and roving about the college rooms declaiming on the subject of missions."

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