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Although we have previously highlighted the letter of 10 year-old A.A. Hodge and his younger sister Mary Elizabeth to the “heathen” of India, both went on to live full lives on earth to the glory of God. Today we highlight a young lady who lived her full life on earth to the ripe age of twelve years old.
Judith Grant Perkins was the daughter of Justin and Charlotte Perkins, missionaries to Persia, the fourth of seven children in the family. Her biography was primarily authored by Joseph Gallup Cochran: The Persian Flower: A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins of Oroomiah, Persia (1853). Judith was born on August 8, 1840 at Urmia, Persia (now Iran).
She visited America once as a child. The story of that journey is found in Justin Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia, Among the Nestorian Christians (1843). But otherwise, she lived in Persia the rest of her life.
Judith was a precocious girl, who learned to read and write very well (her biography includes a number of letters that she wrote, and Log College Press has one letter in her own hand — written at the age of eight — which shows her excellent penmanship). She was interested in music, an avid reader (one of the last books she read — out loud to her mother — was Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and she assisted her father in his translation labors. She had a heart for advancing the gospel in other parts of the world, even thinking of one day laboring in China as a missionary.
Judith's interest in the cause of missions, was of early growth. When quite a small child, she often spoke of becoming a missionary, and was then particularly interested in China, as a prospective field of labor. And to the last, she always seemed to assume, that she should be a missionary somewhere, if her life were spared. Reading the memoirs of female missionaries, as the memoir of Harriet Newell, and that of Mrs. Dwight and Mrs. Grant, and of Mrs. Van Lennep, and others, served to quicken that desire, and strengthen that impression; and her circumstances on missionary ground, naturally kept the subject fresh before her mind. She said to some of the older Nestorian girls of the seminary, the last time she ever saw them, and only four days before her death, "I hope, after I return from Erzroom, to study very hard, and afterward go to America, and attend school awhile there, and then return and be a missionary here; or, I would prefer to go and labor where there are no missionaries."
In an important sense, Judith had long been a missionary helper. She ever manifested a very deep interest in all the departments of the good work among the Nestorians, and sought to aid in its progress in every way in her power. She had sat patiently many an hour, and assisted her father in adjusting the verses of the translation of the Bible according to the English version; reading the latter verse by verse; and she seldom seemed happier than when aiding him in that great work, which she longed to see accomplished. During the last year of her life, she assisted her mother in teaching a few Nestorian females connected with the Sabbath school, and .eagerly engaged in the loved employment.
It was while traveling with her family that she was stricken with illness. While lingering like the fragile flower she was, her father later recounted a conversation with Judith that reveals her inner spirit.
Once when I asked her, 'Dear Judith, is Jesus precious to you?' ‘O yes,' she replied; 'I have just had a view of Him; O how lovely!' What a balm was that reply to our writhing hearts! At another time, I inquired, 'Dear Judith, have you a desire to get well?' She replied, 'O, yes, papa, if it be God's will.' 'Why, dear Judith?' I inquired. '‘That I may do good,' she answered. ‘And if it is His will to take you now to Himself, are you not satisfied?' I inquired. 'O yes, papa; His will be done,' was her reply.
Towards the end, her father records a prayer that she uttered:
About this time, her papa and mamma kneeled over her and prayed in succession. She remained silent a few moments after we closed; and then, without any suggestion from us, uttered the following short prayer, slowly and distinctly, and evidently from the depths of her soul — 'O Lord, accept me; if it be thy will, make me well again; if not, oh let me not murmur.' We responded an audible amen.
She died of cholera on September 4, 1852 at the age of twelve, and was buried at the American Mission Graveyard outside of Urmia, where it is reported of the 60 or so individuals interred there, around 40 are children.
Her witness to the grace of Jesus Christ, who worked in her and through her, touched the lives of those who knew her, and many others who have read her life story over the years. We remember her as a flower who grew in Persia, and was transplanted to a more a beautiful garden above.
