Ann Judson, part 2: “One of the Happiest Creatures on Earth”

(4 minutes)

Ann Hasseltine’s early years: always on the move

By the time Ann was born in 1789, her family had been in America for over 150 years. Their home was in Bradford, Massachusetts, which is just south of the Merrimack River, in the eastern part of the state that pokes itself into southern New Hampshire. If you drove down Greenleaf Street today, you’ll still see their large white house, but it has been changed into apartments and appears worn and neglected, like so many old homes.

Ann was the youngest of several sisters and a brother, and from the time she was small, was always on the move. She was intelligent and happy, and loved parties and entertaining. Her first biography says that she had a restless spirit which few things other than books could tame. She loved to learn.

Ann’s church: true godliness was lacking

The Hasseltines were members of the Congregational Church, where generations of the family had been baptized and buried. Ann’s father was a deacon, and she grew up under the preaching of Jonathan Allen, but people complained that his life “was not as solemn as his sermons.” Ann’s family had a dance room on their second floor, and Pastor Allen was a frequent guest.

If her pastor had spent more time studying and less time dancing, Ann might have grown up with a better understanding of the Bible. With such a superficial spiritual environment, it's little wonder that she grew up with a sense of godliness but without its power.

Sometime after she was saved, she looked back on her childhood and remembered that her mother had taught her to obey, and to never steal or lie – this was how she could escape God's judgment. Hell frightened her, so these instructions turned her into a little Pharisee, good on the outside but sinful on the inside. She tried her best to do good and say her prayers twice a day.

To Bradford Academy, where parties drown her prayers

Ann was able to keep up these works of self-righteousness until the age of 12 or so, when she began attending Bradford Academy, a popular school within sight of her home. She was a good student, and her teachers were sure that she would go far. But there was more than homework to fill her time at school. If she had enjoyed social life as a child, this new environment gave her the chance to become queen of the ball.

There was no end to Ann’s time-wasting, and when she wasn’t too exhausted to say her prayers, she found she couldn’t concentrate on God after a night on the dance floor. This made her feel guilty for a while, not because she was indulging her desires, but because she was failing to pray. But it wasn’t long before these thoughts didn’t bother her anymore. Instead, she found excuses, reasoning that if that she were old enough for social life, she was too old to say her prayers.

Several years later, she wrote, “for two or three years, I scarcely felt an anxious thought about the salvation of my soul, although I was rapidly heading towards eternal ruin. [I] was carefree in the extreme; my situation in life gave me as many chances to indulge it that I could wish; I was surrounded with friends who were as wild and fickle as myself, and often thought myself one of the happiest creatures on earth."

God is merciful. Ann lives long enough to encounter the true gospel

If she had gotten sick and died (it wasn’t uncommon back then), or if she had been allowed to keep going down this path, she would have reached a point of no return. But God was kind; although she was happy in her sin, He was about to send trouble to her soul. He would not leave her alone until she had found her true happiness in Him.