Who Was George Ames?
Humor
Windows for Sermons
Stories And Humor For Inspired Preaching
Object:
A true pioneer of world missions was Adoniram Judson. His life story had an amazing incident worth telling.
A brilliant student, when Adoniram was twelve years old he was capable of teaching the Bible in its original languages. He was such a gifted student in college he began to think of himself more highly than he should. He became quite an agnostic.
Judson drew other students to him. Among those who became atheists was one named George Ames who became quite a spokesman for that point of view.
Some years passed. Travel was hard in those days, and after an exhausting day Judson wearily inquired at a hotel for a room. All the rooms were taken except one next to the room in which a dying man was raving in his delirium.
Judson took the room, but at first slept very little as he kept hearing the vile language of the dying man. Later he did go to sleep. The next morning when preparing to leave the hotel he told the attendant of his experience. The man in the next room had died during the night. When Adoniram Judson asked the man's name the attendant said, "George Ames." The name stirred the soul of Judson, because Ames had been one of those students who had learned all about atheism some years before!
As Judson traveled that morning, the impact of what he had heard that night so affected him that he knelt by the dusty road and prayed to God the prayer of repentance.
God not only heard his prayer, but sent Adoniram Judson as a missionary to Asia. His mission in Burma was so difficult he labored seven years before he had one convert. Tested in those years by the loss of his wife, and by being sent to prison for teaching what was a new way of life for the Burmese, life was hard for Judson. But he never forgot George Ames and what it means to be lost.
A brilliant student, when Adoniram was twelve years old he was capable of teaching the Bible in its original languages. He was such a gifted student in college he began to think of himself more highly than he should. He became quite an agnostic.
Judson drew other students to him. Among those who became atheists was one named George Ames who became quite a spokesman for that point of view.
Some years passed. Travel was hard in those days, and after an exhausting day Judson wearily inquired at a hotel for a room. All the rooms were taken except one next to the room in which a dying man was raving in his delirium.
Judson took the room, but at first slept very little as he kept hearing the vile language of the dying man. Later he did go to sleep. The next morning when preparing to leave the hotel he told the attendant of his experience. The man in the next room had died during the night. When Adoniram Judson asked the man's name the attendant said, "George Ames." The name stirred the soul of Judson, because Ames had been one of those students who had learned all about atheism some years before!
As Judson traveled that morning, the impact of what he had heard that night so affected him that he knelt by the dusty road and prayed to God the prayer of repentance.
God not only heard his prayer, but sent Adoniram Judson as a missionary to Asia. His mission in Burma was so difficult he labored seven years before he had one convert. Tested in those years by the loss of his wife, and by being sent to prison for teaching what was a new way of life for the Burmese, life was hard for Judson. But he never forgot George Ames and what it means to be lost.
