Pearl of Great Price

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” Matthew 13:45-46

Have we found the pearl of great price? What are we willing to give up for it? 

Adoniram Judson, Jr. was a son of a minister, but upon developing a friendship with Jacob Eames, a devout skeptic and deist in university, he abandoned his faith and his parents’ religious instruction. Judson graduated as valedictorian from the College of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations (now Brown University) and everyone was eagerly watching what this bright young man would become. 

One day when he was traveling from afar to go back home, he arrived at an inn, and asked for a room. The man at the desk said there was no room available. As Judson was extremely tired after a long day on horseback, he asked that he might stay in the front parlor. The clerk then said there was one room, but the man in the next room was very very ill, and would shout and scream. Judson said he was willing to stay in the room next to the sick man as he was so very tired, he would probably sleep through it all. But it was not to be, the man next door was in such pain that his screams carried through the walls and kept Judson awake till the man suddenly quieted down. The next morning Judson inquired about the man, and if he was relieved of his pains. The clerk told him that the man had died, and that this man’s name was Jacob Eames. 

The shock of learning that the dying man was his old schoolmate who convinced Judson against his Christian convictions, was enough to bring him back to Christ. He eventually decided to be a missionary. He and his wife Ann went to Burma. By 1823, ten years after his arrival, he made 18 Burmese converts and had translated the entire New Testament to Burmese. He was able to translate the entire Bible to Burmese by 1834 and it was printed and published the next year. 

He died on April 12,1850, at the age of 61, after 37 years of back breaking missionary work, including 20 months imprisonment, and evangelizing in tiger-infested jungles. Adoniram Judson, Jr. found the pearl of great price, but he did not want to keep it for himself. He desperately wanted for others to find this treasure for themselves as well.