“Particularly I would exhort brother Bennett to remember, among other things, the example of the Abbé de Paris, who, after having tried various modes of self-denial, in order to subdue his spirit, and gain the victory over the world, at length selected a crazy man to be the inmate of his miserable hovel. Now, though I am doubtful about self-inflicted austerities, I am quite sure that evangelical self-denial eminently consists in bearing patiently and gratefully all the inconveniences and pain which God in His providence, brings upon us, without making the least attempt to remove them, unless destructive of life or health, or, in one word, capacity for usefulness.”
The same pietistic vein may be found in the following resolutions, bearing date May 14, 1829:
“1. Observe the seven seasons of secret prayer every day.
“2. ‘Set a watch before my mouth, and keep the door of my lips.’
“3. See the hand of God in all events, and thereby become reconciled to His dispensations.
“4. Embrace every opportunity of exercising kind feelings, and doing good to others, especially to the household of faith.
“5. Consult the internal monitor on every occasion, and instantly comply with his dictates.
“6. Believe in the doctrine of perfect sanctification attainable in this life.”
It is also true that during this period of his life Mr. Judson withdrew himself from general society. When not directly engaged in missionary work, he spent many of his waking hours alone in a bamboo hermitage, built in the jungle far from humankind among the haunts of tigers. Here in his endeavor to crucify his passionate love of life he had a grave dug, and “would sit by the verge of it and look into it, imagining how each feature and limb would appear, days, months, and years after he had lain there.”
But concerning all these traces of a morbid inclination toward the monastic quietism of the Romish Church, there can be no more just and discriminating judgment than that expressed after his death by the tender and faithful companion of his latest years: