Best Missionary Biographies: 15 Classic Lives to Read Free
If you read one missionary biography, make it John G. Paton's own story of the New Hebrides. It reads like an adventure novel, and every word of it happened. If you want something shorter, read Hudson Taylor's A Retrospect, about three hours, on how he learned to trust God for everything before he ever reached China. If you want the book that sent more people to the mission field than almost any other, read The Life of David Brainerd.
Missionary biographies were the most loved Christian books of the 1800s, and for good reason. They show ordinary men and women taking Christ's commission at His word. They left home, learned hard languages, buried wives and children, sat in prison and waited years for a single convert. Most of them wrote honestly about fear, loneliness and failure. And again and again, God answered prayer, provided money no one had asked for, and changed whole villages and islands. Read them and you'll pray differently.
Here are fifteen of the best in TheWay Library, all free to read. They're grouped so you can start easy and go deeper.
Start here
1. John G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides
Paton's autobiography, edited by his brother James, in three volumes. Volume 1 tells of his godly cottage home in Scotland, where his father's prayers shaped him for life, ten years with the Glasgow City Mission, and his first years on Tanna, among cannibals, where his young wife and baby died and he lived under constant threat of death. Volume 2 moves to the island of Aniwa, where the whole island turned to Christ, famously after he dug a well. Volume 3 covers his later travels and the mission ship.
But I must here record the story of the Sinking of the Well, which broke the back of Heathenism on Aniwa.
John G. Paton, Volume 2, chapter 66
For younger readers, Paton's brother also made The Story of John G. Paton, a young folks' edition in ninety-one short chapters. It is a fine family read-aloud.
2. A Retrospect, by J. Hudson Taylor
Hudson Taylor's own account of his conversion, his call to China, the years he spent in England learning to trust God alone for money, his early travels in China, and how the China Inland Mission grew out of prayer.
How important, therefore, to learn before leaving England to move man, through God, by prayer alone.
A Retrospect, chapter 3
For his life story, see Who Was Hudson Taylor? and Hudson Taylor on faith and money. Read A Retrospect.
3. Mimosa: Who Was Charmed, by Amy Carmichael
A short, true story of a Hindu girl in South India who visited Carmichael's mission once as a child, heard of a loving God, and then held on to Him for over twenty years in her village with almost no Christian teaching. It is about three hours long and hard to forget. Read Mimosa.
4. How I Know God Answers Prayer, by Rosalind Goforth
The testimony of a missionary wife in North China, gathering definite answers to prayer from forty years, small and great, including her family's escape from the Boxer uprising in 1900. A good book for anyone who doubts that God answers specific prayers. Read How I Know God Answers Prayer.
The great lives
5. The Life of David Brainerd, Chiefly Extracted from His Diary
Brainerd was a young missionary to the Native Americans who died at twenty-nine. Jonathan Edwards edited his diary, and it has been read by missionaries ever since. It follows his conversion, his expulsion from Yale, his lonely labors in the wilderness, and the awakening among the Indians at Crossweeksung. His diary is mostly prayer.
O, my soul tasted the sweetness of heaven; and was drawn out in prayer for the world, that it might come home to Christ!
The Life of David Brainerd, Chapter III
See Who Was David Brainerd? and our summary of the book. Read The Life of David Brainerd.
6. Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul, by Howard and Mrs. Howard Taylor
The first volume of the authorized life, written by Taylor's son and daughter-in-law. It is long and rich, with his family, his conversion, his preparation by faith, his friendship with William Burns and his early years in China. Read A Retrospect first, then this. See our chapter guide. Read Hudson Taylor in Early Years.
7. The Life of Adoniram Judson, by Edward Judson
A son's biography of his father, the American missionary to Burma, drawn heavily from letters and journals. It follows Judson through years of waiting for the first Burman convert, imprisonment during the war with Britain, the deaths of loved ones, and the long work of translating the whole Bible into Burmese.
Prompt and straightforward obedience to Christ was the keynote of his life.
The Life of Adoniram Judson, chapter 3
Read The Life of Adoniram Judson.
8. Journal and Letters of Henry Martyn
Martyn was a brilliant Cambridge scholar who gave it up to serve as a chaplain in India, translated the New Testament, and died young on his way home from Persia. His private journal is a record of prayer and searching self-examination, and of his painful parting from England and from the woman he loved.
Alas, I do not live like a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, bidding farewell to this world; yet God helping me, I will be a holy man.
Journal and Letters of Henry Martyn, chapter 6
Read Henry Martyn's Journal and Letters.
9. The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat, by John S. Moffat
A son's life of his parents, pioneer missionaries in southern Africa. It follows Robert from his Scottish boyhood to the Kuruman mission among the Bechuana, years with no fruit and then a breakthrough, his visits to the Matebele chief, and his Bible translation. Mary's letters give the book its warmth. Read The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat.
10. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, by David Livingstone
Livingstone's own account of sixteen years in Africa, including his mission work, his crossing of the continent from coast to coast and his first sight of the Victoria Falls. It is long and full of geography and natural history, so dip into the opening sketch and the closing chapters first. Read Missionary Travels.
Amy Carmichael's India
Carmichael spent more than fifty years in South India and wrote some of the most honest missionary books ever published. Her author page lists them all.
11. Things as They Are
Written in 1903 to tell churches at home the plain truth instead of cheerful reports: the hold of caste, the cost of confessing Christ, and the temple children "married to the god." It is a hard book and was meant to drive readers to prayer.
God looks down on all the world; and for every one of the millions who have never crowned Him King, Christ wore the crown of thorns.
Things as They Are, chapter 29
12. Walker of Tinnevelly
Carmichael's biography of her colleague Thomas Walker: camp evangelism among the villages, training Indian workers, missions to the old churches of Travancore and his last days at Dohnavur. Read Walker of Tinnevelly.
13. Ragland, Pioneer
A short retelling of the life of Thomas Ragland, a Cambridge fellow who became a pioneer of itinerant preaching in South India. Carmichael shows his struggle to surrender and what came of his quiet faithfulness fifty years later. Read Ragland, Pioneer.
Less famous, just as moving
14. A Memoir of Richard Williams, Surgeon, by James Hamilton
Williams was an English surgeon who joined Captain Allen Gardiner's mission to Tierra del Fuego and died there of starvation with the rest of the party. Built largely on his own journal, the memoir shows his joy in Christ to the end.
The love of Christ fills my heart; but with this love which loves him supremely, I love you as I never did before.
A Memoir of Richard Williams, chapter 9
Read A Memoir of Richard Williams.
15. Chinese Diamonds for the King of Kings, by Rosalind Goforth
Fourteen short true stories of Chinese men and women converted under the Goforths' work in Honan: a general, a nobleman, a blind famine refugee, a little slave girl. Goforth wrote them to answer the question whether there are real Christians in China. Read Chinese Diamonds.
More to explore
H. Clay Trumbull's Old Time Student Volunteers gives short sketches of some forty missionaries he knew, including Judson and Moffat, and makes a good bridge to the longer lives. The library also has biographies of William Borden of Yale and Pastor Hsi of North China, both by Mrs. Howard Taylor; their texts come from old scans and still have errors, so start with the books above.
A good order for a first year: Paton, A Retrospect, Mimosa, Brainerd, Judson, then the rest as they catch you. Browse every book on missions and biography, or read more about George Müller, whose faith in God for daily needs encouraged the young Hudson Taylor.