i. Notes Seve El Address SELEC BY THE SAME AUTHOR. AN EARNEST MINISTRY: OB, HOW TO WIN SOULS. A Tract for the Times. Small $vo. 6d. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES And Cams Loiidou ; , Is. Gd. ,1, I. per 100 E. 'ITSON. THOUUH rs AND APHORISMS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 18mo. cloth, 1*. 8d. Edited by the same. The Birthplace of Quala. page 230. litos in ijje MISSION-SCENES IN BURMAH. BY THE REV. JOHN BAILLIE, GONV. AND CA1US COLL., CAMBRIDGE. AUTHOR or "MEMOIKS OF HEWITSON," ETC. "MAKY shall come from THE EAST and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. viii. 11. SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, FLEET STREET; AND B. SEELEY, HANOVER STREET. LONDON. MDCCCLVIII. THE REV. WILLIAM MARSH, D.D. HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER, WHO, FOB MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY, HAS STOOD FORTH, THE EARNEST AND ENLIGHTENED FRIEND OF MISSIONS TO JEW AND GENTILE, SKETCHING THE WORKERS AND THE WORK IN BURMAH, WITH MUCH CHRISTIAN REGARD AND AFFECTION, r INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. nr //3 Oh, what a bright and blessed world This groaning earth of ours will be, When from its throne the tempter hurlM Shall leave it all, O Lord, to Thee ! " PREFACE. THE following Memoir of the Burmah Mission has been prepared at the suggestion of various friends, who, on account of the Mission's extraordinary results, desiderated such a brief but comprehensive narrative of its workers and work as might stimulate the Church of Christ, in these portentous days, to fresh zeal and faith in winning souls. The materials of the Memoir lie scattered over a variety of publications ; such as the Lives of Dr. Jud- son, of Boardman, of Ann Judson, of Ko-thah-byoo, of Sarah Judson, and of Emily Judson; "the Church Missionary Intelligencer ; " " the Missionary Magazine of the American Board of Missions ; " and sundry VI PREFACE. other works. It has been the Author's aim to weave the varied fragments into one connected whole. Modern missions can appeal to no such brilliant success. " While in Basle/' was the remark, to an American traveller, one day, of Dr. Hoffman, long at the head of the Missionary Institution in that city, and now one of the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries in Prussia, " I had the publications sent me from all the Missionary Societies in existence; and I have always considered your Karen Mission " (a branch of the Bur- man)." as the most successful in the world." The same traveller found Dr. Hengstenberg, at Berlin, " spelling out the English Memoir of Ko-thah-byoo " (one of the converts) . And a distinguished Indian judge writes : " As illustrations of the working of the gracious Spirit of God, through the simple preaching and reading of the Word, the Burman Missions are among the most important in the world. Nay, more, it may well be doubted, if the whole history of Missions since Apos- tolic days exhibits any more interesting and affecting manifestations of the divine energy of that Word, or more lovely and delightful fruits of the Spirit in newly converted disciples." It becomes, therefore, to the Church, a most grave PREFACE. VU inquiry " To what is this so signal success to be ascribed ? " The reader will find, as he proceeds, materials for arriving at a very decisive reply. The sect, to which Judson attached himself, has not been named. Like Bunyan, and Martyn, and Brainerd, Judson is the property, not of a sect, but of the whole Church of God. His light, like theirs, " so shone," that men, seeing his good works, glorified not his sect, but his Father in heaven. If ever there was a time when such a narrative was " in season," it is at this crisis in the history of those vast populations of the East, on which events so ap- palling have recently concentrated all eyes. Burmah, strictly speaking, is not India; its energetic and brave people look down upon the Hindoo with a kind of scorn ; and its superstition, also, is cast in another mould. But both the Burman and the Hindoo are formed after the same grand Asiatic type. And, at a time when atrocities so terrific have almost driven "the man of the dark skin" out of our hearts' possible sympathies, it is something to find, amongst the race, footprints bespeaking so unmistakeably the presence of the God of grace. The Author will feel amply recom- Vlll PREFACE. pensed for his labour, if, in any measure, these pages be used by the divine Quickener to stimulate the Church into new activity in going forth to those be- nighted nations with the gospel of the kingdom. London, December 15, 1857. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The FIELD The last of the Buddhs Atheists The palm-leaves The assassins The Burman country Woman The white ele- phant The god The LABOURER The boy A problem " I have found it!" "Old Virgil dug up" Youthful ambition The Deist Seeing the world The precipice The country-inn The death-chamber The awakening The surrender The man of one idea "Star in the East" Life-devotement ANOTHER LABOURER Early traits The first chill The ball The Nicodemus-corner The meshes The Cross The secret chamber The preacher at Bradford The meeting "One mourner" Self-dedication The living epistle The PRISONER The dungeon at Bayonne The Stranger The rescue Visit to London The voyage to India Scene on the Hooghly William Carey Juggernaut The oasis . . . Page 3 CHAPTER II. India and England Judson ordered off Burmah The shut door The Creole " Contraband" The tavern Sail for the Mauritius Aspirations Return to India The gloomy night The verandah The language His closet Loneliness The people Labours Gift of tongues Native conscience The pagoda Burmese grammar The little son Home-scene The cradle and the grave The well and the rope The press Translation Aa inquirer Brightening prospects CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. Planting of countries Missions A visitor The first day The day-star Native women Festival The viceroy Baptism of blood Scene at sea Persecuting decree The reprieve " Not alone" New labourers The meeting The palace Incident First preaching The zayat An inquirer The silent tear Another visitor First convert Scene at a pagoda "Wild foreigners" A hearer An opposer "I wish to be a disciple" Heavenly lessons "A worm" "Go forward" . . Page 55 CHAPTER IV. A panic The king "Gone up" New emperor Ominous rumours Reign of terror Swearing fealty Mockers Viceroy at zayat Inquirers "New-born soul" Two natives Corona- tion Contrast First baptism Night-scene " A molecule of matter" First Burman Prayer-meeting A sceptic "I know nothing" The spy -priest Threatened storm Must visit Ava ' ' A greater than the Emperor ' ' A fisherman ' ' Know not what it is to love my own life" First-traits Clouds lowering First visit to Ava Voyage Scene on the Irriwadi The palace "The golden foot" The petition Royal displeasure Repulse Prospects 77 CHAPTER V. The " iron mall " A persecutor Dismissal from Ava A visitor on the river The three disciples An appeal' The voice of God "I will pray" "Loneliness of lot" Scenes in the zayat A convert A group The "teacher" First female convert A parting Return to Rangoon The welcome A natrVe doctor The dawn Cottage -scene The Viceroy A reprieve New converts The death-bed A Burman officer Mrs. Judson's illness Visit to America Lessons of solitude Life's great business Return to Burmah Judson's one aim Second visit to Ava Interviews with the king Grant of land . . .96 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER VI. Third visit to Ava Scene on the river The royal palace Hard- ships Dark cloud -The British Suspicions " Spies " The " spotted face " Arrest The cord Imprisoned The cottage Faith The ruffian-guard Carousals The governor Bribe The prisoner Turnkey Scene in the palace Petition The confiscation Search "A true teacher" Rangoon British flotilla A panic The reprieve Escape The converts A good confessor Page 123 CHAPTER VII. PRISON-LIFE " Death-prison" The gaol-circle The gaolers The "tiger-cat" A ministering angel The first interview The ' New Testament The pillow A scene in the shed The mince- pie "Touch of nature " The mission-cottage The pale infant Felon-chains First kiss The flickering sun-beam New catastrophe The fetters False alarm British triumphs Retaliations An audience "I pity you" A secret Slow fever The Court- lion The charmer Iron-cage The British lion The den and the cage Burman dictator Fresh cruelties The prisoners carried off " J'ake care of yourself" The old pillow The "roll of hard cotton " Journey to the new prison A good Samaritan A victim The hovel The chained father and his babe Fall of the dictator -Release New sufferings The bamboo hut " That is noble" Scene in mission-cottage " She is dead" British advance Prisoner at Ava The governor Scene in the shed " What can it mean ? " Once more free Visit to the cottage The sick-bed " A human object " Scene on the Irriwadi . 139 CHAPTER VIII. Scene in the English camp The trembling culprit "Old acquaint- ances " A retrospect The silk umbr lla Deathly pale Xll CONTENTS. " Nothing to fear" New self-dedication Ann Judson's illness "Almost ethereal" Scene on the river A group Prophetic tears Fever Death The bereaved Burmese worship A volunteer Village-scenes Inquirers A change New awaken- ings "Little Maria" "Dark touch of death "The hopia- tree Aspirations A convert's death-bed Heavenly joy. Page 167 CHAPTER IX. A NEW LABOURER Early characteristics " A look " The college- circle A prayer Gleam of sunshine Ruling passion "A very little Christian" Literary honours The angel-call Another sickle Fair girl of Massachusetts Early training The Spirit-birth Missionary longings The elegy A meeting Joint- dedication Scene in Burmah Groups The " foreigner " " White foreigness " The jungle The bamboo-house Bur- man inquirers " Fire in the bones" A native preacher- Two boys "Not afraid to die" A deliverance Jiuison at Maul- main Zayat scenes " All wrong " " I will, I will " A native scholar Leighton " Eminently holy" Patterns Fashionable society Power of holiness Conversions Baptisms " Drink- ing in instruction " " Settlid for ever " .... 177 CHAPTER X. The Karens Strange longings A wild villager Gropings First convert "Help by water" Missionary tour "All ear" Inquirers Scene in the jungle Conversions A Karen preacher Little Sarah The bier Aspirations "Province in arms" Critical moment The wharf Escape Congratulations Old converts Itinerant preaching Power of the Word "So spake" Boardman's method An allegory Parting srene Judson at Maulmain Awakenings Force of truth New cases The school A Burman mother ''Lost to trade" Fana- tical rage Spirit of martyrs Prayer- First Burman pastor Fresh conversions " Cannot wait " A doctor A merchant CONTENTS. Xlll "Christ's for ever" Persecution "Chained wild beasts" Forsaking all " In his right mind" Filial affection "My own dear mother" Cottage in the woods Solitude Bible- translation "Slow and sure" Inner life Secret exercises " A life of prayer " Page 192 CHAPTER XI. Seneca Frail but secure The angel-call Hectic fever Hard- ships Heavenly longings "An unprofitable servant" Return to Tavoy A welcome Feeble whispers Scene in the town Scoffers A confessor Scene in the zayat The Supper New labourer The jungle Bamboo chapel An assembly Priva- tions Foretastes Water-side Group of converts "Work done" Parting words A convoy Thunder-storm " House of their gods" " Other lumps of clay " Thankfulness Going home Embarking "Come up higher" Weeping Karens Burial Joy and crown KAREN SCENES A birth-place A jungle family Quala Prophetic name First message The group A picture The visitor The midnight lamp Mis- sionary instincts Native appeal A caviller Silenced- -Doubt- ing and Believing New converts Prayer in the jungle A priest Protracted meetings Success Native evangelist Scene at a festival " A black foreigner" Ruling passion A valley "My buffaloes" A revival Anticipations . 215 CHAPTER XII. Scene on the Irriwadi The group of boatmen Inquirers The old shepherd " Give me one ! " The night-lamp Visit to Prome "A spy" New awakenings "Behold, he prayeth ! " A gathering storm British resident" A little grace " An adieu The garret at Rangoon A " living epistle " First duty A shining face Self-denial English travellers The dark ladder The "grand engine " " Lowliness itself" Daily dying Madame Guyon and Molinos Crowds Tidings from Tavoy XIV CONTENTS. Consolations "Tears of joy*' Native festival Macedonian cry Results All alone Strivings after holiness Snares Burnt letter The hermitage An arbour The "miracle" A grave Asceticism and Christian self-denial . . Page 244 CHAPTER XIII. Scene at Rangoon Royal tank A group Steadfast faith Two sleepers Bamboo-raft Converts Karen Bible Whitened fields "Feed the gnats " Village-scene The one tract " Fine-spun systems " Children of the forest Native ministry Three students Dress Satan fretting "Barking in concert " A chief Not daring to think The missionary life "Mere skeletons " The grindstone " Pride of humble men " " Genteel living" Power of gentleness Scenes on the river "Taking into port"- Aged convert "God is with me" Demon of diseases The translation Privacy Daily maxims Compas- sion for souls An appeal "Devoted for life " Tact "My anvil" The little triangular corner How to shine Sum of converts Missionary's business -r- Manuscript-Bible finished Great triumph ......... 267 CHAPTER XIV. The widow of Tavoy "How can I go ? " Visitors from the jungle " Have you prayed ? " A Karen death-bed A Chinaman Laughing for joy Willing sacrifices Schools East India Company No Bible " Utter repugnance " Mountain -passes A group An English officer Scene in the jungle A morning- party Karen communings A strange spell Marriage A farewell Judson at Maulmain A master-builder Evangelistic method New labourers Regions beyond Burman Bible Printed A retrospect Preaching Passion for souls A con- vert Wayside zayat Self-denial A stranger The bright- eyed boy The smile " Jesus Christ's man " The two walkers The turban "Wicked sorceries " "Cannot keep away" " My mother" " Did she ? " The palm-leaf The assistant CONTENTS. XV A mystery "Face of an angel" The medicine Cradle-scene Angel-call Bright hope The oath Scene in the zayat The sah-ya " Story of Jesus Christ " " One desire of my life " The inward monitor A writing Key to eternal life "Papa, hear him!" "I must go" The prayer Ripening for the golden country A message The cholera Death-chamber "Gone up" The mysterious voice "Only Jesus Christ" "God was here" Another death-bed Anxious look The smile The finger upward The child A New Testament " All three ! " Martyr-joy " Take me to-night" Living epistle A lordship ....... Page 291 CHAPTER XV. Another labourer Blood of souls Picture of Judson One theme Closet Secret prayer "What do I live for ?" Visitors Watching for souls An incident The straight line "Will you ? " Coleridge's aphorism Love Pity "A strange provi- dence " Mrs. Judson Inquirers A death -bed Home- affections " My mother" The fireside A thousand converts Missions and the Bible One golden lamp A wish- The two arms Illness Voyage to Bengal "Home is home" One longing Burman Bible "Hearse-like airs" God's aim Presentiments Mrs. Judson Sudden prostration Little Henry Grave at Serampore Praying always The voyage Twenty converts Labours Burmese dictionary Rules of life Grand motive Mrs. Judson Indescribable heavenliness "Stealing out" Voyage The parting Sudden sinking The last kiss St. Helena Lonely grave Desolate cabin The orphan United States , 316 CHAPTER XVI. Judson Visit to America Welcome Characteristic scene "The precious Saviour" A snare Emily Judson Rangoon The brick house The Karens Inquirers Persecution " Cover of the bushes" New visit to Ava Frustrated The invisible XVI CONTENTS. Burmese Dictionary "Any work" Scene in the study "A strange providence" Waiting for his change Ripe for heaven Brotherly love Sick-bed longings " So strong in Christ" " Not my will" Voyage to the Mauritius Answer to prayer " This frightens me" The parting " My only kindred" "All right there" " I am going" " Bury 'me ! " Sea-grave The tiny sapling "A real live oak" Burman work Karen jungle Native preacher One business Secret exercises Karen village The "two mites " Melody " Happiest day of my life" Awakening "What is it to believe?" San Quala British Commissioner " How do you live ? " " My heart sleeps" No guile Fifteen hundred converts .... Page 340 CHAPTER XVII. River-Scene A Gothic temple Eager listeners Songs of Sion Courage Rangoon " Sheaves" Midnight teachings God's anointed ones Bassein Power of the gospel Native assistants Winning souls "One settled design" A contrast London and Tavoy " Twenty pagans " Schools Attainments Giving Karen matrons The stocks Not angry " A great Bethel" The chief Conversions ' ' Decided Christians ' ' Bitterest foes Burmese war New openings New triumphs Favourite hymn Missionary method Direct preaching Men, not children The missionary not a schoolmaster The one weapon No pioneer A parallel Fresh successes A convert Burning zeal An aged saint "All is peace" A death-bed appeal " One cry" Burman pastors "A good degree" A forlorn hope "Ready to go" Village Scenes Grace, grace The chief's audience-hall American deputation Best mode of preaching Win souls Results A Burman Apostolic bearing An ordi- nation scene An inquirer Searching look Fresh triumphs The Dagon-pagoda " How we pray ?" Pointing to heaven Another welcome Family worship Old Covenanters Moun- tain-scene Christian villages Lamp of Life A little boy The smoked catechism A martyrdom Assembly of two thousand Motley groups Missionary zeal A confessor Happy to die, happy to live Results Conclusion . . . 359 MISSION- SCENES IN BURMAH. ONE misty morning in autumn, a traveller left Geneva to ascend the Grand Saleve. Reaching the foot of the mountain, he began the ascent by a zigzag pathway on its steep front, the mist so thick that not an object could be seen beyond a few yards. As he picked his way laboriously and exhaustingly, he suddenly emerged into a bright sunshine, the beams reflected with an almost dazzling brilliancy from the summits of the snow- capt Alps. Beneath was the mist, like some vast sea, smooth and white as a chalcedony ; and, as he listened, he could catch at intervals the lowing of the oxen, and the village-bell, and the busy hum of the haunts of men. Away in the far-East, where, amidst the magnificent scenery of Burmah's hill and dale, " The spring Perpetual smiles on earth with verdant flowers, Equal in days and nights," another traveller, some forty years since, might be seen gazing, day after day, and month after month, upon a B a THE MIST AND THE SUNSHINE. scene which he has crossed half the world to reach the poor benighted pagans down in that thick mist. Himself a child of the mountain-sunshine walking and rejoicing in the fellowship of Him who is the Light, JUDSON has heard of these children of the mist, and of the thick darkness ; and he has come to beckon them upward into the light of his sun. The story of his wondrous work of faith we are now to tell. The history of modem missions has no such bright page. THE FIELD. CHAPTER I. The FIELD The last of the Buddhs Atheists The palm-leaves The assassins The Burm an country Woman The white ele- phant The god The LABOURER The boy A problem " I have found it!" "Old Virgil dug up" Youthful ambition The Deist Seeing the world The precipice The country-inn The death-chamber The awakening The surrender The man of one idea " Star in the East" Life-devotement ANOTHER LABOURER Early traits The first chill The ball The Nicodemus-corner The meshes The Cross The secret chamber 'The preacher at Bradford The meeting " One mourner" Self-dedication The living epistle The PRISONER The dungeon at Bayonne The Stranger The rescue Visit to London The voyage to India Scene on the Hooghly William Carey Juggernaut The oasis. Six hundred and twenty-four years before Christ, amidst the splendours of an Indian court, "there was "born of human parents" a mysterious being "the last of the Buddhs" whose disciples were one day to number four hundred millions of souls. After "toiling to obtain his divinity," through a term of years repre- sented by four with one hundred and forty ciphers, 4 THE BURMAH GOD. * Gautama had appeared upon the scene as the only son of the reigning monarch. At the age of twenty-nine, he suddenly was moved to quit the court, with all its voluptuous attractions,* for the wilderness and its austerities. Six years passed over him; and, now clothed with the divine nature, he was declared to be " a god, and the supreme object of worship." f I n his eightieth year he died, obtaining the glory of "annihilation." But for five thousand years he was to continue the great Buddh, whom all hearts must worship, and to whom every knee must bow. Burmah's whitened pagodas, crowding her groves and mountains, are the dismal altars of this dark superstition. The Buddhist is an atheist, owning no living god ; and he has no immortality to cheer or to stimulate him, his highest ultimate destiny being to pass into annihilation.! " I take refuge in Buddh," says he, as * One of these was " a harem of eighty thousand Oriental beauties." f The author of the "Embassy to Ava in 1795," describes "a flat stone of a coarse grey granite," which he saw " laid horizontally on a pedestal of masonry six feet in length, and three wide," and " bearing what was alleged to be the genuine print of the foot of Gautama." He gives a facsimile, on which are upwards of a hundred emblematical figures, each in a separate compartment, and somewhat resembling the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Two convoluted serpents are pressed beneath the heel. It is a type of creation, and is held in profound reverence. In Ceylon, on a rock called "Adam's Peak," a similar impression is pointed out : Gautama placed one foot on the continent, and the other on the adjacent island. J The Hindoo has his Buddh also, but an incarnation of Vishnu. And the Hindoo aspires after absorption in the Deity an idea 'wholly distinct from the "annihilation" of the Buddhist. THE BUDDH. 5 he prostrates himself before the idol : " I take refuge in his doctrines; I take refuge in his followers." But, alas ! there is no power to touch the heart to guide the conscience to rule the life. In the island of Ceylon, and four hundred and fifty years after Gautama's annihilation, a prophet arose, whose mission was to inscribe on palm-leaves the divine "communications," which hitherto had floated amongst his devotees in the form of unfixed traditions. And, half a century later, another prophet appeared, com- missioned to enshrine these scriptures in certain "sacred rolls." The code forbids theft, adultery, falsehood, the use of intoxicating liquors, and the destruction of animal life. But, though obedience is rewarded with a higher stage of being, into which, at death, the soul passes in its progress towards " annihilation," the motive power is so feeble that the code is a mere dead letter. Cold-hearted, unfeeling, suspicious, inhospitable, deceitful, false,* they compel every stranger, as he * " While the law of Gautama," says a writer of authority, " forbids us to take the life of any animated being, the Burmans are bloodthirsty, cruel, and vindictive, beyond most of the nations of India. Murders are of very common occurrence, and the punishment by death is inflicted with every aggravation of cruelty. Whilst licentiousness is absolutely forbidden, they are said to be universally profligate. Whilst the law denounces covetousness, they are almost to a man dishonest, rapacious, prone to robbery, and to robbery ending in blood. The law forbids, on all occasions, treachery and deceit ; and yet, from the highest to the lowest, they are a nation of liars. When detected in the grossest falsehood, they indicate no con- sciousness of shame, and even pride themselves upon successful deceit." 6 THE ASSASSINS. gazes upon the bright tropical verdure of their hills, and contrasts with it the dark shadows of their degraded hearts, to lift up to God his grievous wail " Every prospect pleases, Only man is vile." One morning, in Burmah, just before daybreak, two foreigners were awoke by a sudden crash. Calling for a light, they looked round the chamber, and, to their con- sternation, found " every trunk and box broken open and robbed of their contents/' In the mosquito-curtains surrounding the bed were discovered two large holes, cut by a sharp weapon, just behind the pillow. The assassins had thus requited the self-denying labours of men whose only revenge was to dedicate anew to Burmah the lives thus spared. This people inhabit a fertile region, watered chiefly by the Irriwadi, which, in the rainy season, is navigable for large vessels, for nearly five hundred miles from the sea.* The climate is most salubrious; and the con- stitutions of the natives are singularly healthy and robust. f But a stern despotism represses all energy. The highest citizen may be ordered to immediate execution, by the mere will of the monarch. A chief officer of state has been seen, for some trifling offence, * Before the Burman empire was dismembered by the recent wars with Britain, it covered a space 1050 geographical miles in length, by 600 in breadth, and containing 194,000 square miles. f " The Burman shipwrights," says the author of the " Embassy to Ava," "are athletic men, and possess in an eminent degree that vigour which distinguishes Europeans, and which gives them a pre- eminence over the enervated natives of the East." THE WHITE ELEPHANT. 7 laid on his back for hours, with a weight on his chest, exposed to the meridian sun. Woman is sunk into the lowest misery. " In their treatment of the softer sex," says the author of the "Embassy to Ava," "the Burmans are destitute both of delicacy and of humanity ; they consider women as little superior to the brute-stock of their farms." An affecting instance of the people's moral degrada- tion is the homage yielded to a certain white elephant. Superbly lodged near the royal palace, and sump- tuously dressed and fed, the preternatural animal is honoured as next in rank to the king, being provided with special functionaries, and receiving from foreign ambassadors presents and other tokens of respect. Not less affecting is the spectacle of the idol- temple. Buddh is seated on a throne, encircled by a hydra, and clothed in a royal garb, his hair woolly like the Africans, and his ears long and distended. The worship is a vain repetition of certain phrases, coupled with an offering of rice, betel-nuts, incense, and flowers. The poor Burman is in " the region and shadow of death." Sin, atonement, forgiveness, a Saviour, are sounds unknown. "Without God and without hope in the world," is his brief but dismal history. We stand, forty years since, on one of his rock-pro- montories ; and, as we listen to the shout which ascends from the idol-crowd, we seem to hear from above this appeal "Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?" 8 THE LABOURER. " You will one day, Adoniram," said a citizen of Maine, some sixty years since, to his son, a youth of ten and, as he spoke, he patted him on the head with unusual affection, " you will one day be a great man." The boy is the future founder of the Burmese mission. The father of ADONIRAM JUDSON was one of those grave, stately personages whom it is easier to respect, and almost to reverence, than to love. "His white hair," says one who remembered him after he had passed his seventieth year, " his erect posture, his resolute will, and his somewhat taciturn manner, to- gether with the position which he naturally took in society, left you somewhat at a loss whether to class him with a patriarch of the Hebrews, or with a censor of the Romans." Himself unambitious of personal distinction, his fondest hopes were centred on his children's future eminence. In his third year Adoniram might be seen at his mother's knee, lisping his letters so promptly that, one evening, on his father's return from a short journey, he " surprised him by reading a chapter in the New Testament." At four years of age, he would gather together some neighbouring children, and, mounting a chair, would imitate his father's pulpit-exercises. On these occasions, it used to be noticed, the hymn com- monly sung was " Go, preach my gospel, saith the Lord." BOYHOOD. 9 In his seventh year he read one day that the earth is a sphere, and that it moves round the sun. " Does the sun, then," he asked himself, " move at all ?" " Yes," said his little sister, " it does move, for I can see it." " Ah ! but I dare not trust my senses, for they have deceived me more than once. I must have some positive proof/ 5 A day or two afterwards, he was missing at the mid-day meal ; and his father growing uneasy, for he had not been seen for several hours hastened away in search of him. At some distance from the house, as he hurried across a field, he found Adoniram stretched on his back, gazing intently up- wards through a circular hole which he had cut in his hat, his eyes swollen, and almost blinded, by the extreme heat and dazzling light. " I am looking at the sun," said he calmly, as his father began to frown ; and at home that evening, with the ecstasy of another Archimedes, he whispered to his little confidant, " I have found it now ! " It is his tenth year, and already his scholarship is talked of through the neighbouring little towns. " That's it ! I have got it ! " the boy exclaimed one evening, sending the bricks of a half-built house rolling about the floor. It was a problem which a citizen of Beverley had sent him, with the offer of a dollar for its solution. Shutting himself up in his room, he had spent over it an entire day, scarcely sparing a few moments for his meals. The next morning, as he was in the nursery, amusing his little sick brother, the boy had been intent for hours, first on one plan and 10 "OLD VIRGIL." then on another, when suddenly he hurried up-stairs to his chamber. The problem was solved, and he must record the result. His strung bow had gained a new firmness. In the grammar-school he went by the nickname of " Old Virgil dug up," a very ancient-looking hat, coupled with his studious ways, procuring for him this sobriquet. Oftener found, at play-hours, in some remote corner enjoying a stolen interview with Ben Jonson, or Richardson, or Fielding, than in the roar and din of the game, he yet had about him an energy, and an enthusiasm, and a genial kindness, which made him the general favourite of the school. And those grave and ponderous tomes which he devoured in his father's library during his ample hours of leisure ! Often often did the heart of the divine beat high, as he would silently forecast the destiny which such a taste betokened. One winter he had a severe illness, and he was reduced to such extreme weakness that his life trembled in the balance. Eternity for the first time cast upon him its dark shadow " Heaven from above, and conscience from within, Cried in his startled ear, Abstain from sin ! " But the illness subsided ; and, as he ' e lay long days and nights reflecting on his future course," visions of the wildest ambition would flit across his soul. Now an orator, now a poet, now a statesman, now "an eminent divine," he would AMBITION. 11 " Toil on up the steep gravel cliff, Whose yellow summit shot up far into the brazen sky." Then he would be " alarmed at his wicked soarings ;" and, after some twitches from the inner monitor, he would comfort himself with the thought that it was only " the fever in his brain." Or if, at times, a suspicion crossed him, that the true disciple of the lowly One must " be not a great worldly divine/' toiling for the same perishable objects as the other heroes of his worship, but " a humble minister of the Gospel, labouring only. to please God and to benefit his fellow-men I" was there not " a sublimity about that ? " If not here, at least as he entered the other world, would not the self-abjuring man have a reputa- tion worth possessing aye, the only one which should outlive this scene of shadows, and which he might carry with him elsewhere ? But this last kind of greatness was not so easily shorn of its attractions. True, there would flash on him again, " Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory ! " And he began to fear, what he dared not confess even to himself, that he " did not want to become a Christian/' The Master's word, " How can ye believe, who receive honouj.' one from another?" sounded like a death-knell through his soul : but his father had said that one day he would be a great man ; and might he not be religiously great ? At sixteen he entered Providence College,* where he " devoted to his studies every moment of his time." * August 17, 1804. 12 THE UNDER-GRADUATE. In the face of "the most powerful competitors," he was declared, at the close, " the first man of his class." " Dear father," he wrote, in a hurried note, " I have got it. Your affectionate son, A. J." And, a few days, later, the President added : " I most heartily congratu- late you on your cheering prospects in this very pro- mising son ; and I most heartily pray that the Father of mercies may make him now, while a youth, a son in His spiritual family, and give him an earnest of the inheritance of the saints in light." In the same college was an under-graduate, whose vivacious wit and commanding talent had entwined his name around Adoniram's heart. According to the fashion of the day, E had indulged in " free in- quiry," until now he boasted of having " Darkened and put out Eternal truth by everlasting doubt." He was "a confirmed deist;" and, with tastes so kindred and literary sympathies so keen, Judson was not likely to escape the snare. Often, of an evening, they would " discuss together the subject of their future profession ;" at one time, " proposing the law, as afford- ing so wide a scope for political ambition ;" at another, " exalting their own dramatic powers with a view to writing plays." They separated for a time ; and one thing only was settled, that each should, " like a man of spirit," reject his father's God. Young Judson, as yet, had seen but little of the world ; and he set out on a little tour through the SEEING THE WORLD. 13 Northern States. The wonder of the day was the newly-invented steamer; and, on the second trip of the Robert Fulton, he sailed from Albany to New York. The scenes were exciting, and his ardent spirit seemed to have woke up in a new world. One evening, in New York, he entered the theatre ; and the next day he contrived to attach himself to the company, " not with the design of entering upon the stage, but partly for the purpose of familiarising himself with its regula- tions, in case he should enter on his literary projects, and partly from curiosity and love of adventure." But a week had scarce elapsed, when a strange terror seized him. Before leaving home, he had com- municated to his parents his infidel views ; and, whilst the father had sternly reasoned, his mother had only wept and prayed. The tears now are before him he trembles he halts. He is "on the verge of such a life as he despises ;" and his soul is it safe ? " Like something precious ventured far from shore, 'Tis valued for the danger's sake the more." But a day or two pass, and the spell is on him once more. " I would not for the world," he whispers to himself, " see a younger brother in this peril ; but I I I do not need to fear. I am only seeing the world its dark side as well as its bright one; and I have too much self-respect to do anything mean or vicious/' A few days more, and he is on his way back to his uncle's in Connecticut for his horse, intending to pursue his travels westward. 14 SCENE IN THE INN. When he arrived at the parsonage that night, the pastor was from home ; but a young preacher was there, whose solemn and gentle earnestness attracted the student's heart. For hours he listened to the stranger's godly converse, as if to an angel of God ; and, far on in the morning, they at length retired to rest, Judson feeling a mysterious misgiving, " trembling all over/' The next morning he was on his journey, and at nightfall he arrived at a country inn. " I am obliged," said the landlord, gravely, as he conducted him by and by to his room, " to place you next door to a young man who is very ill indeed. I fear he is dying ; but I hope it will not occasion you any uneasiness." Had it been the plague or his own coffin in the next room, Judson could not have been more startled ; but, affect- ing a smile, he replied, he should have no feeling what- ever, and he bade his host a hearty good-night. Throwing himself on the bed, he tossed restlessly hour after hour ; the dismal sighs of the sufferer and the half-suppressed whispers of the watchers falling through the thin partition with a terrible distinctness on his ear. And then that word of the landlord " He is dying ! " Is he ready ? is he forgiven ? A blush stole over him for a moment. " Is this all my philo- sophy ? what would my college-friend say to me, if he saw me so weak ? " And, as the bright July sun poured in a bright flood of light, he smiled at his " superstitious illusions," and, sallying forth for break- fast, enquired for the " young man." " He is dead ! " replied the landlord. THE AWAKENING. ]5 "Dead?" " Yes, poor fellow, lie is gone ! the doctor said lie would probably not survive the night." " Do you know who he was ? " "Oh, yes; it was a young man from Providence College a very fine fellow; his name was E ." Stunned as by a thunderbolt, Judson's heart sank within him. " Dead ! lost ! lost ! " he muttered, at intervals, as he sat for hours in a small room in the inn, intending every moment to resume his journey, but unable to set out. " The Bible is true ! " he whis- pered to himself, fixing his haggard eye on a Testament which lay open before him; "I know it, and I am undone ! " The student was hit by the archer ; and, abandoning his projected travel, he turned his face homeward. One day, not long after his return, two Professors of the Theological Seminary at Andover arrived on a visit. Struck with his deeply earnest air, they urged him to enter the institution, not doubting that He who had wounded him would in due time heal. In its calm retreat, the light ere long dawned. " We refuse," he wrote afterwards, alluding to this season, " to open the window- shutters, and we complain that it is dark. God is waiting to be gracious, and to make us happy, if only we will not run away from Him.'" In less than six weeks, " a hope through the merits of Christ took possession of his soul, he scarcely knew how;" and he surrendered his heart to God with all his charac- teristic ardour. " From the moment I fully believed/' 16 THE MAN OF ONE IDEA. says he, " I have never had a doubt. I am as sure 1 am a new creature, as I am sure of my own existence." And his whole plans of life were at once reversed. Banishing for ever his old dreams of literary, or of political, or of clerical ambition, he now only asked, " How shall I so order my future being as best to please God?" "It may literally be said," writes one who knew him, "that he became a man of one idea; and that was, love to Jesus." One evening at Plymouth it was in the winter of 1810 the home-circle were talking complacently of Adoniram's splendid prospects. ( ' Dr. Griffin has been here," said the father, as his son came in, "proposing that you shall be his colleague in the largest church in Boston." " And you will be so near home," added his mother, smilingly. "And we shall all be so happy together," inter- posed his sister, evidently reckoning on the concerted plan as all finally adjusted. "No, sister," said Adoniram, after an ominous pause, his heart almost bursting ; " I shall never live in Boston. I have much further to go than that." Some months before, he had met with an appeal on behalf of the heathen Buchanan's " Star in the East ;" and, ever since, he had " devoured, with great greediness, every scrap of information concerning Eastern countries." Above all, the vivid pictures of the " Embassy to Ava " had awakened his sympathies for perishing Burmah. ANOTHER LABOURER. 17 And, impatient of anything short of a life-devotement, he had decided to go forth. Calmly, but fervidly, he described that evening the course which he had chalked out ; and with many and bitter tears did his mother entreat him to change his resolve. But He who " walks among the candlesticks" had prepared for Burmah this " shining light ;" and the time was drawing near when He was to carry it across the ocean to its place. In those years, God was preparing another labourer for the Burmah field. " I hope, my daughter/' said a grave matron, some- what sharply, to a sprightly, ardent girl in a thriving town of Massachusetts, " you will one day be satisfied with rambling/' ANN HASSELTINE was one of those rare spirits who live to turn with energy their own wheel, and the wheels of others. Even in childhood her earnest purpose would betray itself ; and as she rose into girlhood, a book would allure her from her most favourite walk, or from the gayest social circle. At twelve and thirteen, in the academy at Bradford, such was her decision of character, that not a teacher or an associate crossed her path who did not augur for her some peculiar destiny. Ann's religious life, up to her sixteenth year, was a medley of pharisaical duties and of stifled con- c 18 ANOTHER LABOURER. victions. Early taught by her mother to be a " good child," she had for years " made it a matter of .con- science" to " speak the truth/' to " say her prayers night and morning," to " abstain from her usual play on the Sabbath," not doubting that " she would at death escape that dreadful hell, the thought of which sometimes would fill her with terror." Balls and parties of pleasure pronounced by the religious circle in which she moved to be " innocent amusements" " completely occupied her mind/' " My conscience," she tells us, " reproved me, not for engaging in these amusements, but for neglecting to say my prayers, and to read my Bible ou returning from them ; but I finally put a stop to its remonstrances by thinking that, as I was old enough to attend balls, I was surely too old to say prayers." Surrounded by associates wild and volatile like herself, and enjoying full scope for indulging to the utmost her extreme taste for gaiety, she often would think herself " one of the happiest creatures on earth." " My fears," says she, " were quieted ; and for two or three years I scarcely felt one anxious thought re- lative to the salvation of my soul." One Sabbath morning, she was dressing for church ; and, as she left her toilet-table, she " accidentally " opened a little volume of Hannah More's, when those words (printed in italics, and with marks of wonder) met her eye : " She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth! /" " I stood," she writes, " for a few mo- ments, amazed and panic-stricken, and half inclined to EARLY GROPINGS. 19 think that some invisible agency had directed my eye to the words." And though, after a while, they seemed not so applicable to her as she at first ima- gined, and she " resolved to think no more of them," it was the dark cloud which " Chilled and darkened this wide-wandering soul." A few months passed, and she was intent on Bunyan's Pilgrim. " I finished the book on a Sab- bath," she says, " and it left on me this impression that Christian, because he adhered to the narrow path, was carried safely through all his trials, and was admitted into heaven. I resolved from that moment to begin a religious life." Retiring to her chamber, she " prayed for Divine assistance ;" and, as she rose from her knees, she felt pleased with herself, thinking she was in a fair way for heaven. But, " perplexed to know what it was to live a religious life," she " again had recourse to her system of works." She must " refrain from attending parties of pleasure, and be reserved and serious in the pre- sence of the other scholars." But, the very first after- noon after returning to school, one of her companions " came with a very animated countenance," announcing " a splendid party on New-year^s Day in a neighbour- ing town ;" ' ' and we are both," she added, " to be invited." " I cannot go/' replied Ann, coolly ; " I shall never again attend such a party." And, " much pleased with such a good opportunity of trying herself," she felt as if she had gained a triumph. 20 CAREER OP GAIETY. A few evenings afterwards, a neighbouring family sent for her and her sisters to join a little home-circle. On their -arrival, they found " two or three other families of young ladies/' Dancing was introduced her " re- ligious plans were forgotten" she "joined with the rest, and was " one of the gayest of the gay/ 5 Return- ing home, she saw on her table the invitation to the ." New-year's Day party ;" and she " accepted it at once." The night arrived, and its follies passed with- out awakening one qualm of conscience. The next five months, she " scarcely spent one rational hour." So far, indeed, did she outdo her friends in gaiety and mirth, that " some of them began to fear that she might have but a short time to continue in her career of folly, and that she would be suddenly cut off." In the town of Bradford, that summer, there was a strange " shaking " among the " dry bones." One evening, in a church, a vast multitude were gathered ; and, as the message of life was uttered with an un- wonted power, the great tear trickled down many a cheek unused to such lamenting. In a retired corner of the building, one hearer might be seen, seeking to hide from other eyes the emotion which harrowed her. It was Ann Hasseltine, trembling under this word " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." Again among her associates^ she assumed an air of gaiety ; but, as the appalling text ever and anon rose before her, she would groan out this sigh " Oh ! I think 7 shall be one of that number." " I lost,," she THE NICOBEMUS CORNER. 21 tells us, " all relish for amusements felt melancholy and dejected and the solemn truth lay with weight on my mind, that I must obtain a new heart or perish for ever." One Sabbath evening, she was listening to the preacher, as with searching power he exposed Satan's device in tempting to conceal from others the heart's convictions. Stealing away home, and retiring in the dark into a corner of the garden, she "wept in secret/* feeling " as if led captive by the devil at his will, and as if herself already in his grasp." And yet she " would not have any of her acquaintances know that she was under serious impressions no, not for the whole world." A day or two afterwards, she was on a visit to an aunt, " determined she should not know the state of her mind, though secretly hoping that her relative would tell her something of hers." They had not been long togethei*, when Ann was asked to read to her. She began, but could not govern her feelings, and burst into tears. " What is the matter ? " asked her aunt, kindly. " Oh ! " she exclaimed, with deep emotion, and forgetting unconsciously her resolution to hide her soul-trouble, " I'm afraid of my sins ; I am resisting the blessed Spirit : I cannot make up my mind to be the Lord's." " But, if you trifle with con- victions, which are evidently made by the Holy Spirit, you may be left to hardness of heart and to blindness of mind." Struck to the heart, she " resolved to give up everything, and seek to be reconciled to God." And the fear of man had vanished. " I was willing," 22 MORTIFICATIONS. says she, " that the whole universe should know that I felt myself to be a lost and perishing sinner." On her way home, she was seized with a misgiving. What if the society of her school-companions should spirit away her impressions ? And, if it did, her soul was undone ! That evening, a large party of the scholars were assembled at her father's house. " How," she thought, " can I be so rude as to leave the con- vivial circle?" And she thought again " If I lose my soul, I lose all." Exchanging with one or two a hasty word of welcome, she passed to her chamber, and spent the evening alone, full of anxiety and distress. ' " What," says Cowper, " What is all righteousness that men devise ? What but a sordid bargain for the skies ? " And again " See the sage hermit Wearing out life in his religious whim, Till his religious whimsy wears out him. His works, his abstinence, his zeal allow'd. You think him humble God accounts him proud." In those perilous meshes Ann Hasseltine was now entangled. " I shut myself in my chamber," she writes, " denied myself every innocent gratification, such as eating fruit and other things not absolutely necessary to support life, and spent my days in read- ing and in crying for mercy." And she adds : " I thought myself very penitent, and almost prepared, by voluntary abstinence, to receive the Divine favour. THE CRISIS. 23 After spending two or three weeks in this manner without obtaining the least comfort, my heart began to rise in rebellion against God. I thought it unjust in Him not to notice my prayers and my repentance." But " Christ as soon would abdicate His own, As stoop from heaven to sell the proud a throne." And Ann Hasseltine began to grow sullen. " I could not endure the thought," she writes, "that He was a sovereign God, and had a right to call one and leave another to perish. So far from being merciful in calling some, I thought it cruel in Him to send any of His creatures to hell for their disobedience." And another thing vexed her. " My heart was filled/' says she, "with aversion and hatred towards a holy God; and I felt that, if admitted into heaven with the feel- ings I then had, I should be as miserable as I could be in hell." It seemed as if all was over. " I longed," she says, " for annihilation ; and, if I could have destroyed the existence of my soul with as much ease as that of my body, I should quickly have done it." It was Satan's last onset, " casting down " his victim as Jesus drew near. One evening in July, she was sitting alone, with the Bible in her hand, when suddenly those words of the lepers caught her eye " If we enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there ; and if we sit still here, we die also." " I felt," says she, " that, if I returned to the world, I should surely perish if I stayed where 24 AT THE CROSS. I then was, I should perish, and I could but perish if I threw myself on the mercy of Christ." The wan- derer was at the Cross a new light had dawned. Cowper, recording his own arrival at the Cross, has written " There no delusive hope invites despair ; No mockery meets you, no deception there. The spells and charms that blinded you before, All vanish there, and fascinate no more." And Ann Hasseltine wrote : " Then came light, and relief, and comfort, such as I never had known before ; Christ appeared to be just such a Saviour as I needed. I saw how God could be just in saving sinners through Him. I committed my soul into His hands, and besought Him to do with me what seemed good in His sight." " I have sweet com- munion," she added, " with the blessed God from day to day; my heart is drawn out in love to Christians, of whatever denomination; the sacred Scriptures are sweet to my taste ; my chief happiness now consists in contemplating the moral perfections of the glorious God. Sin, in myself and in others, appears as that abominable thing which a holy God hates; and I earnestly strive to avoid sinning, not merely from fear of hell, but because I fear to displease and grieve His Holy Spirit." Henry Martyn once wrote "I found my soul ascending to God with a divine sweetness. Nothing seemed desirable but to glorify Him; all creatures SELF-DEDICATION. 25 were as nothing." And already the future missionary to Burmah wrote : " Nothing in life can. afford me satisfaction without the light of God's countenance. Oh my God ! let me never more join with the wicked world, or take enjoyment in anything short of con- formity to thy holy will ! In thy strength, God, I resign myself into thy hands, and resolve to live devoted to thee ! I am this day seventeen years old : and what a year it has been to me ! I find more solid happiness in one evening-meeting where divine truths are im- pressed on my heart by the Holy Spirit, than I ever enjoyed in all the balls and assemblies I have attended during the seventeen years of my life." And one who knew her then, says : (C Redeeming love was now her theme. You might spend days with her, and not hear any other subject named. The throne of grace, too, was her early and late resort. I have known her spend cold winter-evenings in a chamber without fire, and return to the family with a solemnity spread over her countenance, which told of Him with whom she had been communing. I fancy I see her, with deep emotion, inclining over her Bible, rising to place it on a stand, retiring to her chamber, and, after a season of prayer, proceeding to visit this or that family, that she might speak of Him whom her soul loved." And she herself adds : " Felt a willing- ness to give myself away to Christ, to be disposed of by Him as He pleases. Here I find safety and comfort. Jesus is my only refuge. I will trust His word, and rest my soul in His hands." 26 THE MEETING. In the course of that autumn, in one of the pulpits of Bradford, a youth of " erect, commanding figure," and of a " manly countenance glowing with celestial fire," was proclaiming, one day, with an unwonted ardour, the message of life. A day or two afterwards, the preacher was introduced by a mutual friend to Ann Hasseltine ; and, by a kind of intuition, she discerned in him the same consuming zeal which had just taken possession of her own soul. Was not the Master indicating His will that the two labourers should proceed together to the mission-field ? Adoniram Judson was not going forth blindfold. " I have now to ask," said he, writing to Ann Hassel- tine's father, with an almost prophetic anticipation of what was coming, " whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world- whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India, to every kind of distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death ? Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of Sion and the glory of God ? Can you consent to all this, in the hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her VOICES OF THE FUTURE. 27 Saviour from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair ? " And, a month or two later, he wrote to herself thus : " May this be the year in which you will change your name, and take a final leave of your relatives and native land, and cross the wide ocean to dwell on the other side of the world among a heathen people ! If our lives are preserved and our attempt prospered, we shall next New-year's Day be in India, and perhaps wish each other a happy new-year in the uncouth dialect of Hindostan or of Burmah. We shall no more see our kind friends around us, or enjoy the conveniences of civilised life, or go to the house of God with those that keep holy day; but swarthy countenances will everywhere meet our eye, the jargon of an unknown tongue will assail our ears, arid we shall witness the assembling of the heathen to celebrate the worship of idol-gods. We shall be weary of the world, and wish for wings like a dove, that we may fly away and be at rest. We shall see many dreary, disconsolate hours, and feel a sinking of spirit, and an anguish of mind, of which now we can form little conception. Oh, we shall wish to lie down and die ! And that time may soon come. One of us may be unable to sustain the heat of the climate and the change of habits, and the other say, with literal truth, over the grave ' By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed ; By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed ; By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned ;' but, whether we shall be honoured or mourned by 28 "ONE MOURNER." strangers, God only knows. At least, either of us will be certain of one mourner." And Ann was bravely girding up her loins. " No female," she wrote, " has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America to spend her life among the heathen ; nor do I yet know that I shall have a single female companion." All her friends were dissuading her. The scheme was "wild and romantic in the extreme." At times, she was " ready to sink, appalled by the prospect of pain and suffering, to which her nature was so averse." And then, was it certain, that, "if assailed by temptation, or exposed to danger and death, she should be able to endure, as seeing Him who is invisible?" But, "was it a call from God? would it be more pleasing to Him that she should spend her life in this way than in any other ? " Convinced of this, she should -be willing to relinquish every earthly object, and, in full view of the dangers and hardships, to give herself up to the work." A week or two passed, and she wrote again : " I now feel willing to leave it entirely with God. He can qualify me for the work, and enable me to bear whatever He is pleased to inflict. I am fully satisfied that difficulties and trials are more conducive than ease and prosperity to promote my growth in grace, and to cherish an habitual sense of dependence on God. Time appears nothing when compared with eternity ; and yet events the most momentous depend on the improvement of these fleeting years. Jesus, direct me, and I am safe ! use me in Thy service, and I ask no more ! I LONGINGS. 29 would not choose my position of work, or place of labour ; only let me know thy will, and I will readily comply ! Might I but be the means of converting a single soul, it would be worth spending all my days to accomplish. Yes, I feel willing to be placed in that situation in which I can do most good, though it be to carry the gospel to the distant, benighted heathen ! " And, a little later, she added: "I am now, not only willing to spend my days among the heathen in attempting to enlighten and save them, but I find much pleasure in the prospect. Yes, I am quite willing to give up temporal comforts, and live a life of hardship and trial, if it be the will of God. ' I can be safe and free from care On any shore, since God is there.' Oh, if He will condescend to make me useful in promoting His kingdom, I care not where I perform His work, nor how hard it be ! ' Behold the hand- maid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to thy word!'" And, about the same time, to another, thus : "My determination has not been hasty; nor has it been in consequence of an attachment to an earthly object, but with a sense of my obligations to God, and with a full conviction of its being a call in Providence, and consequently my duty. My feelings on the subject have been exquisite. Now my mind is settled and composed, and is willing to leave the event with God. How short is time, how boundless is eternity ! If we 30 THE LIVING EPISTL15. may be considered worthy to suffer for Jesus here, will it not enhance our happiness hereafter ? pray for me ! spend whole evenings in prayer for those who go to carry the gospel to the poor heathen." " I hear," said a lady, one day, to a friend, " that Miss Hasseltine is going to India. Why does she go ?" ' ' Why, she thinks it her duty : would not you go, if you thought it your duty?" "But I," returned the lady, with emphasis, "I would not think it my duty." Others, however, found in her self-devotion an impulse to a like consecration. "Ann Hasseltine called upon us this morning," wrote Harriet Newell, herself at a future day a missionary, "and informed me of her determination to quit her native land to endure the sufferings of a Christian among heathen nations to spend her days in the sultry clime of India. How did this news affect my heart ! Is she willing to do all this for God, and shall I refuse to lend my little aid in a land where divine revelation has shed its clearest rays ? I have felt more for the salvation of the heathen this day than I recollect to have felt through my whole past life." In the hold of a French frigate, amidst the din and the oaths of the common sailors, lay a youthful stranger one day, "excessively sea-sick," and "speechless, friend- less, comparatively moneyless/'' Two or three weeks after leaving New York, the ship had been captured by THE PRISONER. 31 the " Invincible Napoleon ; " and Adoniram Judson had been thrust rudely among the crew with an indig- nity most trying to his sensitive heart. He was on his way to England, to negotiate with the London Missionary Society a plan for his beloved Burmah; and, as he lay in the foreign ship, worn out and sorrow- ful, and unable to communicate even with the doctor who had come to visit him, a strange feeling began to creep over him it was the first moment of misgiving he had known. His thoughts went back to his " dear old Plymouth home " then to Bradford and finally to the Boston Church, " the biggest church in Boston." It was the tempter seducing him from his life-work : and instantly he was on his knees. He rose ; and, in the grey twilight of his prison, he " fumbled about for his Hebrew Bible." One day, the doctor, observing the Bible on his pillow, took it up, and, stepping towards the gangway, began to read; on his return, addressing his patient in Latin, he got to know who he was; and that evening he obtained a berth in the upper cabin, and a seat at the captain's table. Landed on the coast of Spain, Judson was marched, with the captured sailors, through the streets of Bayonne. As he passed along, he expressed his in- dignation with great vehemence in a few words of broken French, but only to raise among the crowd a smile at his expense. His next shift was to declaim in English against this oppression, hoping that some native or foreigner might understand him and pity him. " Lower your voice," at last said a stranger in English. 32 THE DUNGEON AT BAYONNE. "With the greatest possible pleasure," he answered eagerly, ' " if I have at length succeeded in making myself heard ; I was only clamouring for a listener." " You might have got," replied the stranger, " one you would have been glad to dismiss, if you had continued much longer." Explaining his circumstances in a few hurried words, and learning from the stranger that he was " an American from Philadelphia," Judson received a promise of friendly aid. ( ' But you had better go on your way quietly now," whispered his countryman. " Oh ! " said the prisoner, " I will be a perfect lamb, since I have gained my object." In a back-street of Bayonne might be seen, in those days, a dark, dismal structure, with its chief apartment underground. It was a dungeon, with a column in the centre, on which hung a solitary lamp ; and round the wall was scattered a quantity of damp, mouldy straw the prisoner's only resting-place. Into this abode Judson was conducted; and, pacing up and down in a kind of wild despair, he watched all night desire for anything but ' more of this sort of writing. 3 His whole conduct proves that he has something on his mind." In another room in the town there might be seen every Sunday a scene even more strange. It was a little circle of native women some fifteen or twenty whom Mrs. Judson had gathered beneath her roof., " to read the Scriptures to them, and to teach them about God." " I cannot," whispered one of them to her teacher, one day, as she lingered wistfully behind,, " 1 cannot think of giving up a religion which my mother, and grand- mother, and great-grandmother professed, and of accept- ing a new one of which I have so lately heard." " But do you wish to go to hell," asked Mrs. Judson, " because your ancestors have gone there ? " Another day, some weeks later, the inquirer said, with tears, 58 THE IDOL-TEMPLE. " I do believe in Christ ; and I pray to Him every day." We turn to the idol-temple. It is the great feast of Guatama. In the pagoda at Rangoon is a relic of the god ; and the river is crowded with boats full of priests and of people gathered from all parts to worship. After ascending a flight of steps, a huge gate opens, disclosing abruptly a wild fairy scene, more like some enchanted castle of romance than any reality of actual life. Images of lions, elephants, angels, demons, are scattered among the trees. Guatama, in every con- ceivable attitude, sitting, reclining, sleeping, standing, surrounded by images of adoring priests and attend- ants, meets at every turn the worshipper's eye, and receives all manner of offerings,* from the simple bouquet of the pariah to the magnificent sacrifice of the reigning prince. The crisis of the festival is the * A specimen of the offerings is the following : " A member of the government presented a kind of portable pagoda, worth twelve hundred dollars, made of bamboo and paper, and richly ornamented with gold-leaf and paintings. It was a hundred feet in height, and the circumference of its base about fifty. Half-way up its height was a man ludicrously dressed, with a mask on his face, white wings on his shoulders, and artificial finger-nails, two inches in length, in the posture of dancing. The figure was carried by sixty men, preceded by a band of music, and followed by the officer who presented it, and by his suite." It is in Burmah, as on other scenes of idol-worship first, abject adoration; then "rising up to play." " After kneeling and worshipping at the pagoda," says the same eye-witness, " they generally spend the day in amusements, such as boxing, dancing, singing, theatrical exhibitions, and fireworks." THREATENINGS. 59 arrival of the viceroy. In all the pomp and splendour of office, preceded by the royal insignia, and attended by all the members of the government, and by a vast multitude of people, he approaches the chief altar and kneels in lowly adoration. Glistening among the banyans outside are the polished spires of the pagoda ; and interspersed through the verdant landscape are large open buildings, each with its favourite' image. " Oh, my friend ! " exclaimed Judson, one day, re- turning from the 'scene, " was this delightful country made to be the residence of idolaters ? Shall not our souls be fired with a new zeal to rescue this people from destruction, and to lead them to the Rock which is higher than they ?" Signs were not wanting that the cross was not to be erected in Burmah without 1 a baptism of blood. " All tell me," we find Mr. Judson writing, " that it would ruin a Burman to adopt the new religion. My teacher was lately threatened in public for having assisted a foreigner in making books subversive of the religion of the country. He replied that he merely taught me the language, and had no concern in the publication. In view of these difficulties, our first thought is : God can give to the inquirers that love to Jesus, and that resolu- tion to profess His religion, which will overcome their fears. Our second thought is this : We are not under a free government, where every one is his own master, but under an absolute monarchy, where all are the property of one man. Is it not regular and prudent to say something to the master of this great family of 60 SCENE IN THE SHIP. slaves ? By and by it may be best for one of us to go up to Ava, and introduce the matter gradually and gently to the Emperor. I am fully persuaded that he has never yet got the idea that an attempt is making to bring in a new religion among his slaves. How the idea will strike him, it is impossible to foresee. He may be enraged, and order off the heads of all con- cerned." And he adds : " I have no doubt that God is preparing the way for the conversion of Burmah to His Son. Nor have I any doubt that we who are now here are, in some little degree, contributing to this glorious event. This thought fills me with joy. I know not that I shall live to see a single convert ; but notwithstanding, I feel that I would not leave my pre- sent situation to be made a king." " Water ! water ! water ! " exclaimed a poor fevered passenger one night on board a little craft on the coast of Coromandel. For two months, the vessel had been tossed by contrary winds and opposing tides, until the only food left for the last two or three weeks was a little mouldy broken rice, with a scanty supply of water. In one of the berths, filthy, close, and fetid, lay a stranger, pale and emaciated, and so feeble as to be unable to move. One day the craft came to anchor in the mud of Masulipatam, and the captain enquired if he would be taken on shore. " The shore ! land ! " he muttered, half incredulously, as if the illu- sion were too fanciful to be grasped; and, rousing himself, he scrawled feebly " to any English resident of Masulipatam" a pencil-note begging only " a spot on A SURPRISE. 61 the shore where he might die." An hour or two passed, and one of the sailors came below, announcing that a boat was putting off from the shore. Crawling to the window of his cabin, the sick man distinguished in the rapidly moving boat a soldier's uniform and a civilian's white jacket. Thrilled with joy, he threw himself on his knees and wept. The visitors entered; and there lay Adoniram Judson, " haggard, unshaven, dirty, and so weak that he could scarcely support his own weight." Regaining his self-control, he returned their cordial welcome ; and the " half-dead" one found in these good Samaritans a kindness which was graven on his heart for ever. The incident has a history which they who note the " hidden uses" of things will not pass unheeded. In the end of the year, to recruit his exhausted energy, he had left Rangoon for a voyage of ten or twelve days to Chittagong, intending, after a brief sojourn, to return by the same ship. One month passed, and then another, and all but another, and the vessel was still at sea, tossed by wind and current, and reduced almost to the extremity of famine. Mr. Judson's scanty wardrobe, prepared only for a few weeks' ab- sence, had been long since exhausted ; and the nervous affection of his head and eyes, aggravated by starva- tion, filth, and sickness, had brought on a slow fever, reducing him to the extremity in which he was found by the kind strangers of Masulipatam. A land-journey of three hundred miles brought him to Madras; but the chapter of disappointments b% THE HIDDEN USE. was not yet finished. Hastening to the beach, and enquiring for a vessel for Rangoon, he was mortified to find that none had sailed that year, or was likely, from the unsettled state of Burmah, to venture for some time to come. Another trial was added. It was now five months since he had left home, and he was " dis- tressed by the appalling recollection of the various business which was pressing upon him there," and which had made him " very reluctant to be away even for the shortest time." And then his tender heart was torn by the thought that his wife must be in the dark about him, fearing, probably, the worst; for all attempts to send a message to her had failed. "Where," his rebellious soul was ready to cry, " Where is the wisdom of all this ?" "But," he added, " it is wise, though blindness cannot apprehend. It is best, though unbelief is disposed to murmur. Be still, my soul, and know that He is God." Two months passed; and, as he was sailing up the Irriwadi, the pilot came on board with news which revealed the " hidden use." A storm had broken on the mission; and to his absence from the scene, pro- bably, was owing the fact that it was not wholly swept away. One morning in March three months after he sailed from Rangoon an order had arrived from the Government, demanding, in the most menacing terms, that Mr. Hough should appear forthwith at the court-house, to give an account of himself and of his proceedings. Some days before, a royal decree had SCENE AT RANGOON. 63 gone forth "for the banishment of all foreign teachers ;" and the delinquent, on his appearance, was warned that " if he did not tell all the truth relative to his situation in the country, he should write it with his heart's blood." Day after day the examination was prolonged, and the most harassing annoyances and indignities were heaped upon him. The " head and front of the offending" was the procedure of certain Portuguese padres ; and only the recent inaction of the mission caused by Mr. Judson' s prolonged absence seemed to promise any way of escape. The next Sunday Mr. Hough was again summoned, and the thought struck Mrs. Judson that she would herself appeal to the viceroy. It was the same personage whose wife she had on a former occasion visited; and no sooner did Mrs. Judson an- nounce her presence than he " called her, in the kindest manner, to come in and make known her request." The result was, a temporary suspension of the persecuting order. But the Damocles sword was still suspended. In the river there was only one remaining ship for Bengal; and, as Mr. Hough had decided to embark in it along with his wife and children, she prepared with a heavy heart to accompany them, for a threatened embargo on all English ships seemed now to render Mr. Judson' s arrival impossible, even if he were still alive. It was a critical moment for Burmah ; for if Mr. Judson should find his wife gone, he was not likely to remain long behind. The day arrived for the em- barkation ; and, urged by the others, she accompanied 64 THE TURNING-POINT. them, having previously disposed of whatever articles of dress or of furniture she could not take with her. A strange feeling, however, possessed her, that God was beckoning her to stay ; and scarcely had she got on board, when she felt impelled to return on shore. The tie binding her to the ship was, that she " knew not how to separate herself from the rest of the mission-family." But the vessel was several days in getting down the river; and one afternoon, just as it was putting out to sea, it was reported by the captain to be " in a dangerous state, in consequence of having been improperly loaded," and it " must be detained for a day or two in the place where it then lay." It was the turning-point of the Burmah mission. " I immediately resolved," Mrs. Judson writes, " on giving up the voyage, and on returning to town. Accordingly the captain sent up a boat with me, and engaged to forward my luggage the next day. I reached town in the evening, spent the night at the house of the only remaining Englishman in the place, and to-day have come out to the mission -house." And there she sat, " alone in that great house," without an individual near her but her little girl and the Burmans !" yet not alone, for HE was there, who never leaves His own. A fortnight elapsed ; and Mr. Judson, on his arrival in the river, received from the pilot the startling news. Too well did he know the Burman temperament not to detect at a glance " the precarious situation of the mission." But without hesitation he decided his course. N;E\V LABOURERS. 65 ' ' Faith/' says he, " is sometimes weak flesh and blood sometimes repine. Oh, for grace to strengthen faith, to animate hope, to elevate affection, to em- bolden the soul, to enable us to look danger and death in the face ! We feel encouraged by the thought that many of the dear children of God remember us at the mercy- seat." During these months there had been crossing the ocean, on their way to Rangoon, two young men, one of whom, before sailing, had written to his church in Boston, his native town, thus : " I voluntarily and joy- fully offer myself to be your missionary to the Burman empire. Since I came to this decision, my mind has not wavered. Mountains, indeed, have risen at times betwixt me and the Eastern world, but duty has con- stantly appeared the same. For this I can cheerfully leave my native land, and the bosom of my beloved friends. I look to Burmah as my home, and as the field of my future toils." And the other had written : " I would rather be a missionary of the Cross than a king on a throne. To Burmah would I go ; in Bur- mah would I live ; in Burmah would I toil ; in Burmah would I die; and in Burmah would I be buried." On the voyage, there had been given them the souls of several of the seamen ; and they arrived in the Irriwadi just after Mr. Judson's return,* to his great comfort and encouragement. " We had, I can truly say," he writes, " a most joyful meeting. Now, I * September 19, 1818. 66 A RECEPTION. trust, our prospects will again brighten, and cause us to forget this night of affliction, or to remember it as having been the means of preparing us for the reception of that greatest of blessings the conversion of some of the Burmans." A few days after their arrival, he introduced them to the viceroy. Preceded by a handsome present, they found him, with his officers, minutely examining it ; and, on entering, they were received with marked attention. " The new teachers," said Judson, " desire to take refuge in your glory, and to remain at Ran- goon." " Let them stay," replied the viceroy, gra- ciously ; " let them stay ; and let your wife bring their wives, that I may see them all." Mr. Judson was now master of the language. An incident is recorded in proof. A few months before, as he was sailing along the coast, and the boat had put in one morning for provisions, he sent ashore his Bur- mese tract. Conveyed direct to the governor of the town, and read aloud in his presence, it elicited the inquiry at the captain, " Who is the writer, and how long has he been in the country ?" " He is a foreigner," the captain replied evasively, fearing he might be detained on suspicion, " and he has been in Rangoon about four years." " No, that is not to be credited. You cannot make me believe that a foreigner in so short a time has learned to write the language so well. It must have been written by some other person." And, in possession of a key to the Burman mind, FIRST PREACHING. 67 and believing that God would open with His key the Burman heart and conscience, he resolved to " preach publicly the gospel of God's grace." The first step was to erect a zayat, or place of public resort. A site was selected near a great road leading to one of the principal pagodas, and consequently much thronged* The attempt was perilous, for under the Burman go- vernment a renunciation of the established superstition was punishable with death. But, strong in his God, he moved forward. " The building/' he writes, " is now going up ; and should this zayat prove to be a Christian meeting-house the first erected in this land of atheists for the worship of God a house where Burtnans, who now deny the very existence of Deity, shall assemble to adore the Majesty of heaven, and to sing with hearts of devotion the praises of the incarnate Saviour . But the thought seems too great to be realised. Can this darkness be removed ? Can these dry bones live ? On thee, Jesus, depend all our hopes. In thee is vested all power, even power to make sinful creatures instrumental in enlightening the heathen." In the month of April (1819), the work of preach- ing was begun. The congregation consisted of fifteen persons, besides children ; and there was much disorder and inattention. Two Sundays elapsed, and there entered the zayat a young man, wild and noisy in his bearing, but respectful, and at times absorbed in thought. Waiting till the public worship was over, he accepted a tract, and walked away. Two days 68 INQUIRERS. afterwards, as Mr. Judson was sitting in the verandah, in the cool of the evening, Moung Koo suddenly stepped in. The missionary expatiated on the love and sufferings of the Saviour; and more than once, during the two hours that they were together, the silent tear trickled down the stranger's cheek. " Though quick and sensible/' wrote Judson to a friend after he was gone, " and though he has some savage fire in his eye, he is very docile, and the truth seems to have taken hold of his mind. He engaged to come next Sunday promised to pray constantly and gave me his name, that I might pray for him that he might be a disciple of Christ, and be delivered from hell. My heart goes forth to the mercy-seat on behalf of his precious soul." The next morning had scarcely dawned when the youthful inquirer again appeared, and re- mained many hours, " drinking in the truth." The same day, another inquirer came. "Moung Nau," writes the missionary after a second visit from him, "has been with me several hours. I begin to think that the grace of God has reached his heart. He expresses sentiments of repentance for his sins, and faith in his Saviour. The substance of his profession is, that from the darknesses and uncleannesses and sins of his whole life he has found no other Saviour but Jesus Christ ; nowhere else can he look for salvation ; and therefore he proposes to adhere to Christ, and to worship Him all his life long. It seems almost too much to believe that God has begun to manifest His grace to the Burmansj but to-day I could not resist the COMMUNINGS. 69 delightful conviction that this is really the case. Praise and glory be to His name for evermore ! " One evening, the week following, the inquirer was sitting with Mrs. Judson, reading Christ's Sermon on the Mount. " These words/' said he, " take hold on my very heart ; they make me tremble. Here God com- mands us to do everything that is good in secret, not to be seen of men. How unlike our religion is this ! When Burmans make offerings to the pagodas, they make a great noise with drums and musical instruments, that others may see how good they are. But this religion makes the mind fear God; it makes it, of its own accord, fear sin." And, a little later in the evening, as they read that Scripture, " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," he said " It does not mean that we shall take the silver and gold from this world and carry them to heaven, but that, by becoming the dis- ciples of Jesus, we shall live in such a manner as to enjoy heaven when we die." Another day, after a visit from him of some hours, Judson wrote : " He appears to be slowly growing in religious knowledge, and manifests a teachable, humble spirit, ready to believe all that Christ has said, and to obey all that He has commanded. He is thirty-five years of age, no family, middling abilities, quite poor, obliged to work for his living ; and therefore his coming day after day to hear the truth affords stronger evidence that it has taken hold of his heart. May the Lord graciously lead his dark mind into all the truth, and cause him to cleave inviolably to the blessed Saviour ! " 70 CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM. A few days later, Moung Nau was again with Mrs. Judson ; and, as they talked together over the Scrip- tures, he said : " Besides Jesus Christ, I see no way of salvation. He is the Son of God, who has no beginning, no end. He so loved and pitied men, that He suffered death in their stead. My mind is sore on account of the sins I have committed during the whole of my life, particularly in worshipping a false god/' And again : " Our religion, pure as it may be, does not purify the minds of those who believe it ; it cannot restrain from sin. But the religion of Jesus Christ makes the mind pure; His disciples desire not to grieve Him by sin- ning." And again : " In our religion there is no way to escape the punishment due to sin ; but, according to the religion of Christ, He Himself has died in order to deliver His disciples. I wish all the Burmans would become His disciples ; then we should meet together, as you do in your country then we should all be happy in heaven. How great are my thanks to Jesus Christ for sending teachers to this country ! and how great are my thanks to the teachers for coming ! Had they never come and built that zayat, I should never have heard of Christ and the true God. I mourn that so much of my life passed away before I heard of this religion. How much have I lost ! " The next day, he was there again, and assisted Mr. Judson much in explaining things to new comers. And the day following, which was Sunday, he declared him- self a disciple of Christ in the presence of a considerable number. Early the following morning, he was to start DECISION. 71 for a distant part of the country, in pursuit of his calling ; and he came to take leave. " I took him alone/' Mr. Judson writes, " and prayed with him. He received my parting instructions with great attention and solemnity said he felt he was a disciple of Christ hoped he should be kept from falling desired the prayers of us all expressed a wish that on his return we should allow him to profess Christ in baptism and so departed. The Lord Jesus go with him and bless him ! He is poor. I felt a great desire to give him something, but thought it safer to put no tempta- tion in his way. If, on his return, he still cleaves to Christ, his profession will be more satisfactory than it would be if he had any expectations from us." Three days later, about noon, he unexpectedly entered the verandah, having given up his journey on account of the unfaithfulness of his employer. Regretting the want of a believing associate, he declared his deter- mination to adhere to Christ though no Burman should ever join him. "You have nothing, remember/' said Mr. Judson, "to expect in this world but persecution, and perhaps death." "Yes, but I think it better to die for Christ, and be happy hereafter, than to live a few days and be for ever wretched." " But are you not afraid to be the first Burman to confess Christ?" "No, it is a great privilege, and I hope you will receive me at once." Three weeks elapsed ; and, meanwhile, all the members of the mission at different times conversed with him, and were satisfied that a work of grace was FIRST BURMAN CONVERT. begun in his heart. At length, one evening, after par- taking of the Lord's Supper, they had a letter before them, expressing in the most affecting terms his faith and hope, and his desire for Christian baptism. "Whereas my Lord's three," said he, "have come to the country of Burmah, not for the purposes of trade, . but to preach the religion of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal God, I, having heard and understood, am, with a joyful mind, filled with love. I believe that the divine Son, Jesus Christ, suffered death, in the place of men, to atone for their sins. Like a heavy-laden man, I feel my sins are very many. The punishment of my sins I deserve to suffer. Since it is so, do you, sirs, consider that I, taking refuge in the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and receiving baptism in order to become a disciple, shall dwell one with yourselves, a band of brothers in the happiness of heaven ? And, therefore, grant me the ordinance of baptism." Other three weeks passed, and the zayat was crowded, one evening, with a group of eager listeners. At the close of the service, the preacher called before him Moung Nau; and, after asking several questions concerning his faith, and hope, and love, he baptized the first Burman convert. And, the Sunday following, they sat down together at the Lord's Table. "Oh, may it prove," was Mr. Judson's breathing that night, "the beginning of a series of conversions in the Burman empire, which shall continue in uninterrupted succession to the end of time ! " A scene of another sort was witnessed one night at a spot not far distant. Entering a zayat in the precincts SCENE IN A PAGODA. 73 of one of the most magnificent pagodas, the missionaries found it gorgeously lighted, the floor spread with mats, and a frame raised some eighteen inches from the ground for the preacher who was to address the people. The natives, as they came in, seated themselves on the mats ; the men on the one side, and the women on the other. At a given signal there was silence ; each worshipper took a flower and some leaves, and placing them be- tween his fingers, and raising them to his head, re- mained motionless as a statue. By this time the preacher, a man of a very pleasant countenance, and about five-and-forty years of age, had seated himself on the dais ; and now, starting to his feet and closing his eyes, he repeated from their sacred writings certain wild legends, describing the conversion of Gautama's two chief disciples, with their subsequent apotheosis and glory. At first dull and monotonous, he glided by degrees into tones the most mellifluous and soft, winning their way insensibly into the heart, and lulling the soul into that calm serenity which, to a Burman mind, somewhat resembles the boasted perfection of their ancient saints. The discourse lasted half an hour ; and at the close the whole assembly " burst forth into a short prayer," and, rising, prepared to retire. As the missionaries entered, all eyes had been turned on them, the whisper going round, " Here come some wild foreigners ;" and, as they sat down and took off their shoes, some had whispered, "No, they are not wild, they are civilised;" whilst others, recognising Mr. Judson, had added, with bated breath, " It's the 74 A NATIVE PRIEST. English teacher." And now, as the assembly was dis- persing, they were accosted by the preacher, and were invited to visit him. " We are missionaries," said Mr. Judson, "religious-making teachers" (as the term in their idiom implies). The preacher's countenance fell; and, suddenly separating from them, he disappeared. Returning to the mission-zayat, we are in front of a building of bamboo and thatch, some seven-and- twenty feet by eighteen, divided into three compart- ments, and raised four feet from the ground. In the division next the road, without doors or windows, or any protection to the front, and occupying a third part of the whole building, sits Mr. Judson all day long, saying to the passers-by, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; " whilst in the inner apartment is Mrs. Judson, surrounded by a group of female scholars, each with a torch and a black board, industriously writing and reading. Let us enter the front room for a few moments, and sit down beside the missionary. It is Monday morning; and, accompanied by a petty officer from a neighbouring village, a young man ventures in, slowly and modestly, as if some burden lay upon his heart. Last evening, at the service, he was observed by the preacher deeply solemnized; and now he stays almost all the day, intent on the great business of his eternity. And he has not come alone. A companion listens most attentively to the message of life ; and they leave, promising to return, to learn more perfectly the way of God. " Considerably encouraged to-day," writes Mr. Judson, after they are SCENES IN THE ZAYAT. 75 gone, " with the hope that God is preparing a people in this benighted land." Another evening we are in the zayat, and there steps aside from the highway for a few moments a wealthy native, attended by his suite. He has been over in Bengal ; and, having been poisoned by some foe to missions, he breaks out into a virulent tirade against Mr. Judson and his work. " I felt," the latter writes, "that he would most gladly be foremost in destroying us ; but, through divine grace, I was enabled to treat him with meekness and gentleness." And the opposer retires, ashamed. Scarcely is he out of sight, when another visitor approaches, with a grave and thoughtful mien. A re- spectable merchant, and formerly an officer, he is "not a little versed in Burman literature;" and long and earnestly he listens to the missionary's burning words. " I see," he at length says, " I am all wrong : how I regret that I have been two years in your neigh- bourhood without knowing you ! this is an auspicious day." " Read this tract," rejoins the missionary, kindly, as he rises to leave, " and come again as soon as you are able." " Yes," whispers the Burman, the tear glistening in his eye ; " I wish to be a disciple." It is a Saturday, the Burman day of worship ; and the zayat is "thronged with visitors throughout the day ; more or less company, without intermission, for about eight hours." Among them is a young man of twenty-seven, of very pleasant exterior, and evidently in good circumstances. He has been in several times ; 76 SUN-LIGHT TH110UGH THE MIST. and now, though apparently backward at first, he ap- pears to be really thoughtful. The next morning he is at worship, and stays through the whole day. There was an assembly of thirty, with whom, after worship, he had some warm disputation. " I begin to feel," writes Mr. Judson, as the evening closes, " that the Burmans cannot stand before the truth." On these scenes, the missionary himself was learning heavenly lessons. " I feel," he wrote, " more and more the inadequacy and comparative insignificance of all human accomplishments, whether in a minister or in a missionary, and the unspeakable, overwhelming import- ance of spiritual graces humility, patience, meekness, love; the habitual enjoyment of closet-religion; a soul abstracted from this world, and much occupied in the contemplation of heavenly glories. You know not, you cannot conceive, how utterly unfit I am for the work. I am, indeed, a worm, and no man. Yet I feel necessity laid on me to remain here and try to do a little some- thing." And Mrs. Judson added : " I know you often wish to know certainly whether I still approve the first step I took in the missionary cause ; and whether, if I had the choice again to make, with my present know- ledge and views of the subject, I should make the same. Well, I frankly acknowledge that I should do just the same ; with this exception, that I should commence such a life with much more fear and trembling on account of my unfitness, and should almost hesitate whether one so vile, so poorly qualified, ought to occupy a place of so much usefulness." A PANIC. 77 CHAPTER IV. A panic The king " Gone up" New emperor Ominous rumours Reign of terror Swearing fealty Mockers Viceroy at zayat Inquirers " New-born soul " Two natives Coro- nation Contrast First baptism Night-scene " A molecule of matter" First Burman Prayer-meeting A sceptic "I know nothing" The spy-priest Threatened storm Must visit Ava "A greater than the Emperor" A fisherman "Know not what it is to love my own life " First-fruits Clouds lower- ing First visit to Ava The voyage Scene on the Irriwadi The palace "The golden foot" The petition Royal dis- pleasure Repulse Prospects. A SUDDEN panic had seized Rangoon. The troops were under arms. Great news was whispered. " There is a rebellion/' said some : " The king is sick," said others : " He is dead/' breathed a third ; but none dared to say this plainly it would have been a crime of the first magnitude, for the " lord of land and water " was " immortal." At last, one morning, a royal dispatch- boat pulled up to the shore. An imperial mandate was produced. The crowd made way for the sacred mes- sengers, and followed them to the high court, where 70 THE NEW KING. the authorities of the place were assembled. " Listen ye," ran the royal order. " The immortal king wearied, it would seem, with the fatigues of royalty has gone up to amuse himself in the celestial regions. His grandson, the heir-apparent, is seated on the throne. The young monarch enjoins on all to remain quiet, and to wait his imperial orders." Ominous rumours soon began to get abroad con- cerning the truculent disposition of the new king. One uncle he had killed in cold blood ; and another he had dispatched by a slow death in prison. Ere long, a reign of terror set in. Visitor after visitor at the zayat whispered with bated breath the name of the ' ' owner of the sword," involuntarily looking round as if some bloodhound of death might be lurking behind the neighbouring wall. " He will not suffer any innova- tion," they said, addressing Judson, "least of all, a new religion ; and he will cut off all who embrace it. Why, then, stay here in Rangoon, talking to the common people ? Go direct to the ' lord of life and death/ If he approve the religion, it will spread rapidly ; but if not, no one will dare to continue his inquiries, with the fear of the king before his eyes." It is the first day of " Burman Lent ; " and all the members of the government are assembled at the great pagoda, to swear allegiance to the king. As the crowd disperses homeward, a large company enters the mission-zayat, bent on ridiculing and persecuting any who may look like inquirers. The tempest thickens ; and the convert Moung Nau one day withdraws. And, A RISING STORM. 79 at the same time, a report spread, that several who used to attend the zayat-worship have been privately to the pagoda, offering pagan-sacrifice. A few weeks later, at sunset one evening, the viceroy passed the zayat, returning from an excursion of pleasure, seated on a huge elephant, and attended by his guards and a numerous suite. It was the first time he had been that way since the zayat was built ; and, as he came up, the missionary and his wife were seated in the front apartment, surrounded by several Burmans. Eyeing the building narrowly and sus- piciously, they had not been past many minutes, when two of the viceroy's private secretaries returned, armed with a viceregal order, requiring that the printing materials should be sent forthwith to the palace. They were informed that the types had gone to Bengal, along with the teacher who understood their use; and they departed with evident chagrin. A day or two passed; andj at a brief interview, Judson, handed to the viceroy the tract as a specimen of their work. " It is the same," said he, somewhat roughly, " as I have already seen ; I want no more of that kind of writing." The viceroy's decisive tone, coupled with sundry other significant hints, indicated only too surely a rising storm. Was it not time, some one hinted, to seek an interview with the king ? "I have long thought it desirable," Judson replied, "but have never felt that the time had come. I would rather that God should open the way, than attempt to open it myself. Every- thing seems to say, ( Put your trust in God alone/ " 80 NEW INQUIRERS. Meanwhile, He who " openeth and none shutteth," was visibly carrying forward His work. A young man, who had lately been several times at the zayat, came in, one morning, wrapt in deep thought. " I am a sin- ner," he whispered, with much emotion, on being asked what was the state of his mind, "and I am exposed to future punishment : the Buddhist system has no way of pardon; your religion has, and it has also a way of enjoying endless happiness in heaven : I therefore want to believe in Christ." The same day, in the evening, a Burman woman was kneeling with Mrs. Judson and shedding many tears. " Oh ! " she cried, as they rose from prayer, "that I might obtain an interest in Christ ! " Another day, a new inquirer appeared in the person of Moung Thahlah. Of good natural abilities, and engaged, like Levi, at " the receipt of custom," he had arrived at Rangoon on government business ; but such was his sudden attachment to the religion of Jesus, that, like his prototype, he decided not to return. " To-day," writes Mr. Judson, " I had a conversation with him, which almost settled my mind that he is really a renewed man." And, three days later, he adds : " Had another conversation with Moung Thahlah, which at length forced me to admit the con- viction that he is a real convert ; and I venture to set him down as the second disciple of Christ among the Burmans. He appears to have all the characteristics of a new-born soul; and, though rather timid as to an open profession, he has, I feel satisfied, that love to NIGHT SCENE. 81' Christ which will increase and bring him forward in due time." A fortnight passed; and, as they were conversing one evening on some difficult passages in St. Matthew, Mr. Judson enquired, "Do you love Christ yet, more than your own life ?" "I purpose," he replied, understanding Mr. Judson's question, " to profess the Christian religion, and I begin to think seriously of being baptized." And another heart was quivering under the stroke of the divine archer. Not far from the zayat there had been living for some months, with his family, a Burman, whose regular attendance on worship and in- defatigable industry at the evening-school where, though in his fiftieth year, he had learned to read attracted not a little notice. In a conversation some weeks before, he had betrayed " a thorough legalism, relying on his good works, though evidently desirous of knowing and of embracing the truth." Now, however, a glimpse of the gospel of Goc['s grace had dawned upon him ; and, professing with much brokenness " a full belief in Jesus Christ," Byaa had expressed a desire " to become a Christian, and to be baptized with Moung Thahlah." Six weeks passed ; and, one night in the twilight, two natives entered the zayat, as if shunning the eye of any passer-by. It was Thahlah and Byaa, with a joint paper in their hand, professing their faith in Christ, and requesting to be privately baptized. A long colloquy ensued ; and, after not a little to gladden the hearts of the missionaries in token of their real 82 A CONTRAST. faith, they were recommended to wait for a little until they " loved Christ enough to be not unwilling to dare to die for Him." A fortnight later, the converts had mustered more courage ; and they presented an urgent petition to be baptized, not absolutely in private, but " about sunset, away from public observation." Again there was a protracted converse, and much earnest prayer. At length, assured by them that, if brought before the government, they " would not think of denying their Saviour," and convinced that they were " influenced rather by a desire of avoiding unnecessaiy exposure than by that sinful fear which would plunge them into apostacy in the hour of trial, they agreed to baptize them the succeeding night at sunset." During these days, Ava had been the scene of a most august and gorgeous festival. The grandees of the empire and all its leading citizens had been cele- brating the birthday and coronation of the king. And all the resources of barbaric splendour and of priestly vanity had been lavished, to swell the imposing mag- nificence of the ceremonial. But now Rangoon was to witness another scene, which He who rejoiced in the lowly anointing in the village on Olivet more delighted to honour. It was the Lord's day ; and, as the people dispersed from their evening -worship at the zayat, the two candidates, accompanied by three or four of their friends, were seen, about half an hour before sunset, on their way to the appointed spot. It was no light enterprise which they were taking in hand. A SPARK. 83 Burmah threatened to be the gospel's forlorn hope; and the little band whom now the Captain of the Lord's host was gathering seemed likely to be the first to storm the breach. But, " knowing whom they had believed/' they had come forward meekly to confess Him. " The sun/' writes Mr. Judson, " was not allowed to look upon the humble, timid profession. No wondering crowd crowned the overshadowing hill. No hymn of praise expressed the exultant feelings of joyous hearts. Stillness and solemnity pervaded the scene. We felt as a little, feeble, solitary band. But Jesus looked down on us, pitied and forgave our weak- nesses, and marked us for His own ; and perhaps, if we' deny Him not, He will acknowledge us, another day, more publicly than we venture at present to ac- knowledge Him." And another event transpired. "A spark," it has been said, "is ' A molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world.' " Such a spark was now kindled" in Burmah. " This evening,"* writes Mr. Judson, chronicling on earth what already God had chronicled in heaven, f " is to be marked as the date of the first Burman prayer-meeting which ever was held. None present but myself and the three converts. Two of them made a little begin- ning, such as must be expected from the first essay of converted heathens. We agreed to meet for this purpose every Tuesday and Friday evening." And, * November 10, 1819. t Mai. iii. 16. 84 A BURMAN PHILOSOPHER. four days later, he adds : " Have been much gratified to find that this evening the three converts repaired to the zayat, and held a prayer-meeting, of their own accord." One morning, a visitor entered the zayat with a very peculiar air. A teacher of considerable dis- tinction, and learned in all the Buddhist mysteries, he had got hold, some eight years before, of the idea of an Eternal Being ; and, ever since, it had been floating in his mind, a rude disturber of his peace. Half-deist and half-sceptic, Moung Shwa-gnong still worshipped at the pagodas, conforming to the prevailing superstitions. But a tract, lately brought to him by one of his ad- herents from the zayat, had induced' him that morning to visit the foreigner. Hour after hour one day from ten in the morning till quite dark, he disputed with Mr. Judson in the presence of some disciples whom he usually had with him ; the debate commonly ending where it began in apparent incredulity. One evening, however, after the others had retired, Shwa- gnong lingered behind. " Oh ! I know nothing ! " he exclaimed, with deep emotion, prostrating himself and performing the shiko ;* "will you condescend to instruct me ?" Eight days passed, and he was again for many hours at the zayat, when the issue was, an admission of the existence of an Eternal God ; and he left " half inclined " to accept the Scriptures as a reve- lation of His will. Another day, after listening to a * An act of homage which a Barman never performs but to an acknowledged superior. THE SPY-PRIEST. 85 declaration of the Christian idea of atonement, he replied, " That is suitable ; that is as it should be." But these visits were exciting alarm. A priest reported him to the viceroy, as a heretic who had " renounced the religion of the country." Deferring any decisive order, the governor pronounced the ominous wordy " Enquire farther about him." Hastening to the priest, he " apologised, explained, flattered," though not for- mally recanting. And, a day or two later, he was at the zayat, but "quite another man," he was cold, distant, reserved uttered scarcely a word and " took leave as soon as he decently could." A week or two afterwards, Mr. Judson was taking Lis usual ride one morning along one of the pagoda roads to bathe, when he was accosted by a spy-priest, who peremptorily forbad him to ride in future within the sacred ground, on pain of being beaten. The vice- roy had issued an order, levelled at " any person wearing a hat, shoes, or umbrella, or mounted on a horse ; " and, trifling as was the ex elusion^ from certain grounds, the proceeding was significant as a symptom that there was a secret purpose to put down the mission- work. And other symptoms were not wanting. Ever since the affair of Moung Shwa-gnong, there had been a visible falling off at the zayat. At times, though it was the finest part of the year, and many were con- stantly passing, the missionary would sit whole days without a single visitor. His object being now well known throughout Rangoon, no one called, as formerly, out of curiosity ; and none dared to call from a prin- 86 A NEW STEP. ciple of religious inquiry. Only a belief among the leaders in ecclesiastical affairs, that he would never suc- ceed in making converts, prevented the outbreak of direct persecution. A new step, therefore, was at length demanded. "Our business/' Mr. Judson wrote, "must be fairly laid before the Emperor. If he frown upon us and prohibit our missionary work, we shall be under the necessity of leaving his dominions. If he favour us, and be in any measure pleased with the Christian system, he will, we hope, give us at least such private encouragement as will enable us to prosecute our work without incurring the charge of rashness and enthu- siasm. But," he added, "there is a greater than the Emperor before whose throne we desire daily and con- stantly to lay this business. Lord Jesus, look upon us in our low estate, and guide us in our dangerous course ! " Meanwhile, the " greater than the Emperor" vouch- safed another visible token of His presence. A Burman fisherman had for some months been repairing at in- tervals to the zayat, evidently in deep concern. His mother, baptized a Roman Catholic in consequence of her connexion with a foreigner, had whispered to him " the idea of an eternal God ; " and, led one day to the zayat by an incident to be afterwards named, he had heard words which rooted the thought in his soul. " How I long/' said he, " to know more of Christ, that I may love Him more ! " Another day he was observed, during public worship, his whole soul FIRST VISIT TO AVA. 87 absorbed ; and, somewhat later, Mr. Judson wrote " He made me half inclined to believe that a work of grace was begun in his heart/' Within a few days, the mis- sionary added " He has begun to pray to our God. He is quite sensible of his sins, and of the utter inefficacy of Buddhism, but is yet in the dark concerning the way of salvation. Lord Jesus ! give him the knowledge of thine adorable self ! " The next week, after listen- ing in the zayat all day, he followed the teacher home. They conversed the whole evening, and his expressions satisfied them all that he was one of God's chosen people. Desirous to confess Christ by baptism, he was warned by Mr. Judson of the danger to which he was exposing himself. " Do you love Christ/' he enquired, " better than your own life ?" "When I meditate on this religion/' he replied, very deliberately and solemnly, " I know not what it is to love my own life." With these first-fruits four precious souls- God had been sealing the work as His. Satan, therefore, raged and sought to put it down. Each day the clouds were lowering into a darker gloom ; and it was at last finally resolved to proceed to Ava, and to lay their mis- sionary designs before the throne. Having purchased a boat, and having obtained from the viceroy a pass " to go up to the golden feet and lift up their eyes to the golden face/' he embarked one brilliant morning in December,* in company with his brother-missionary, and attended by a staff of sixteen. The boat, measuring six feet in the middle by forty * 1819. -88 THE VOYAGE. from stem to stern, was laid throughout with a deck of bamboos, on the hinder part of which constructed of thin boards and a covering of thatch and mats were two small rooms, just high enough to allow them to sit and to lie down. On board, as a present to the king, was an English Bible, in six volumes, covered, after the Burman fashion, with gold-leaf, and each volume enclosed in a rich wrapper; and, in addition, were sundry pieces of fine cloth, for the leading officials at court. " We are penetrating," Judson wrote, as the boat put off that day from Rangoon, ' ' into the heart of one of the greatest kingdoms of the world, to make a formal offer of the Gospel to a despotic monarch, and, through him, to the millions of his subjects. May the Lord accompany us, and crown our attempt with the desired success, if it be consistent with His wise and holy will!" Night came on ; and they moored at a village, where, two or three days before, a murderous onslaught had been made by a band of robbers on the boat of an English traveller, and the steersman and another man had been killed at a single shot. Another day, they met a special officer with a detachment of men in pursuit of a body of marauders, who had wounded and beaten off a whole boat's company, and had plundered it of a vast treasure. But " perils of robbers," like graver perils which were yet in store, did not move them; safe beneath the overshadowing wing, they declined a proffered escort, and proceeded. Now two hundred and sixty miles from Rangoon, AN ANCIENT CITY. they gazed one evening with mute amazement on the ruins of a magnificent city, once the seat of empire. Ascending a lofty edifice some ninety feet in height, they had around them a vast champaign covered with splendid monuments and pagodas some in utter ruin, others fast decaying, whilst a few exhibited traces of recent attention and repair. Remains of the ancient wall, the pillars of the gates, together with sundry grotesque, decapitated, architectural relics, chequered the motley scene, suggesting mournful ideas of the decaying remains of ancient grandeur. " Here," Judson wrote, " about eight hundred years ago, the religion of Buddh was first publicly recognised and established as the religion of the empire. Here the first Buddhist apostle of Burmah disseminated the doctrines of Atheism, and taught his disciples to pant after annihilation as the supreme good. Some of the ruins before our eyes are probably the remains of pagodas designed by himself. We looked back on the centuries of darkness which are past. We looked forward, and Christian hope would fain brighten the prospect. Perhaps we stand on the dividing line of the empires of darkness and of light. Will not the churches of Jesus one day supplant these idolatrous monuments, and the chanting of the devotees of Buddh die away before the Christian hymn of praise ?" Other ninety miles of rowing, and they descried in the distance, amidst the glittering pagodas of New Ava, the golden steeple of the palace where shone or frowned the "golden face." The next morning 90 THE SUSPENSE. found them in the verandah of the former viceroy of Rangoon, now a minister of state; and, bringing out a valuable present, and another for his wife, they recalled Mrs. Judson's interviews with the latter in that city, and the minister smiled a welcome. Not revealing as yet their precise object, they simply craved an audience of the king ; and, a favourite officer having been condescend- ingly charged to arrange it, they retired to their little cabin on the river. They were sitting quietly in the cool of the even- ing, committing their way in faith to God, " Not slothful they, though seeming unemploy'd," when the officer was announced, intimating that to- morrow morning he would conduct them into the royal presence. They lay down in sleepless anxiety, feeling that to-morrow's dawn would usher in the most eventful day of their lives. The next morning, they were on their way to the palace ; and they halted at the house of the minister. "The emperor," said his high- ness, " has been apprised privately of your arrival, and a message has come, ' Let them be introduced/ '' As they approached the palace-yard, they found an as- semblage of governors and petty kings waiting to be introduced. Ushered into an apartment in the yard, they were announced to the private minister of state, who, " receiving them very pleasantly," assigned them a seat of honour in front of the native dignitaries. " We are missionaries, your highness," said Mr. Judson to the minister softly, availing himself of a momentary THE ROYAL PALACE. pause, " propagators of religion, and we wish to pre- sent to the emperor our sacred books, and also this petition." Taking it from his hand, the minister glanced over its contents, and was proceeding to put some questions in a familiar way about the Christian's God and his religion, when suddenly it was announced from the palace that the golden foot was about to advance. Hastily rising, and donning his robes of state, the minister moved towards the king, whispering to Mr. Judson, as he passed, " I must seize this mo- ment to present you;" and adding, with an ominous gravity, " How can you propagate religion in this empire? But come along." It was the day of the celebration of a recent victory ; and that hour had been fixed for his majesty to come forth to witness a grand military and priestly display. Nothing could be more unpropitious; and, as they entered by a flight of steps a most magnificent hall, gorgeous on all sides with gold, and occupied by the great officers of state waiting for the king, those inauspicious words of the minister, and his peculiar tone in uttering them, weighed upon their souls like a nightmare, and " their hearts sank within them." On a raised dais at one end of the hall the minister took his seat, placing at his side the strangers and their somewhat suspicious present. Opening out from that end of the apai'tment was the parade-ground, where his majesty was momentarily expected ; whilst away in the distance, at the other end, seen through an avenue of splendid pillars, was the door from which 92 THE MONARCH. was to issue the haughty monarch. Five minutes passed, each courtier the while putting himself into the most respectful attitude, when suddenly from behind the dais a voice whispered " His majesty has entered ! " And there he is this " modern Ahasuerus " moving forward " in solitary grandeur," with " the proud gait and majesty of an Eastern monarch," his dress " rich, though not distinctive," and in his hand a gold-sheathed sword the terrific emblem of his power. His " high aspect " and " commanding eye " rivet every countenance ; and he strides on, each head now in the dust, and Judson and his brother kneeling, with hands folded, and their eyes intently fixed on the monarch. " Who are these ? " he enquired, suddenly stopping as he drew near to the spot where the strangers were doing homage. " The teachers, great king ! " replied Judson, respectfully, in his majesty's own vernacular. " What ! " rejoined the monarch, evidently taken with the sounds of his mother-tongue, issuing from the lips of foreigners ; " you speak Burman ! the priests that I heard of last night ? When did you arrive ? Are you teachers of religion ? Are you like the Portuguese priest ? Are you married? Why do you dress so?" These and other queries answered, a smile played on that fierce mien ; and, moving to an elevated seat, he sat down for a few moments, his hand resting on the hilt of the significant weapon at his side, and his eye fixed intently on the two strangers. THE AUDIENCE. 93 " Read the petition," said he, addressing the private minister of state, who stood at Judson's right hand. It was a brief appeal to the royal clemency on behalf of "the American teachers" and their work, begging that, "taking refuge in the king's authority/' they might "preach their religion in these dominions," and also that any who accepted it, whether foreigners or natives, might be " exempt from government molest- ation." The emperor listened ; and, stretching out his hand to the minister, he took it, and, beginning at the top, read it deliberately through. This over, and handing it back to the minister without uttering a word, he next accepted the tract, which Judson had taken care to have ready, " adorned in the handsomest style and dress possible." And, meanwhile, their hearts rose to God for a display of His grace. . " Oh ! have mercy upon Burmah ! " they secretly cried ; " have mercy on her king ! " For a moment, the king fixed his eye on the tract. "There is one eternal God," were its opening words, "who is independent of the incidents of mortality ; and besides Him there is no god." It was enough. A disdainful scowl gathered on the monarch's brow; and, rising abruptly, he dashed the paper upon the ground. Stooping forward, the minister picked it up, and handed it to Judson. And, at the same instant, from behind, the kindly officer who had come with them, adroitly displayed one of the beautiful volumes of the present, in the hope of arresting the royal displeasure. But all was over the king took no notice and the minister, interpreting 94 REPULSE. shrewdly his master's will, said "Why do you ask for such permission ? Have not the Portuguese, the English, the Mussulmans, and people of all other religions, full liberty to practise and worship according to their own customs ? " Then, assuming a tone of authority, he added " In regard to the objects of your petition, his majesty gives no order. In regard to your sacred books, his majesty has no use for them; take them away." The repulse was decisive. " Let them proceed to the residence of my physician, the Portuguese priest," said the king, catching some hint which had been dropped, in rising, about one of the strangers' skill in medicine ; " and let him examine whether they can be useful to me in that line, and report accordingly." And, striding forward a few paces, he threw himself down on a cushion, listening to the music, and gazing on the gay scene without. The strangers, and their present, were huddled up and hurried away. Passing from the hall, they were conducted first to the apart- ment of the minister of state, whom the officer had ap- prised of the issue, but in terms the mildest possible. They were next led to the house of the Portuguese priest, distant two miles, through the heat of a broiling sun, and through the dust of the streets of the city. " Can you secure the emperor from disease," asked the inquisitor, scornfully, " and make him live for ever ? " " No," they replied, " we have no such secret ;" and, taking leave, they hastened back to their boat. PROSPECTS. 95 The church in Burmah was not to languish into weakness under the sunshine of royal favour, but to he cradled into strength amidst rude storms. Like the confessors of the Roman catacombs, its saints were to sing praises, not in kings' palaces, but in caves and dens of the earth. And these ills were to be not un- compensated. The men of Thessalonica were not to be the last to " receive the Word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." " In the kingdom of His grace, granteth He omnipotence to prayer. Man ! regard thy prayers as a purpose of love to thy soul ; Esteem the providence that led to them, as an index of God's good will." 96 THE IRON MALL. CHAPTER V. The "iron-mall" A persecutor Dismissal from Ava A visitor on the river The three disciples An appeal The voice of God " I will pray " " Loneliness of lot " SCENES IN THE ZAYAT A convert- A group The " teacher " First female convert A parting Return to Rangoon The welcome A native doctor The dawn Cottage-scene The Viceroy A reprieve New converts The death-bed A Burman officer Mrs. Judson's illness Visit to America Lessons of solitude Life's great business Return to Burmah Judson's one aim Second visit to Ava Interviews with the king Grant of land. IN a prison in Burmah, some fifteen years before, there had lain, one day, stretched on the pavement, and sur- rounded hy a group of tormentors, a sufferer undergoing the torture of the " iron-mall.'" Loaded with chains, he had been gradually beaten from the ends of his feet up to his breast, until his body was one livid wound. At every blow he had pronounced the name of Christ, feeling, as he declared afterwards, little or no pain. An English stranger was there, secretly giving* money to the executioners, to induce them to strike gently. But another stood by, gloating with fiendish malice over his agonies, and urging the sternest vengeance. DISMISSAL FROM AVA. 97 The sufferer was a Burman teacher of distinction, who had embraced the Roman Catholic faith ; and the evil genius of the scene was his nephew, " compelling, him to recant." The nephew was now the Emperor's chief private minister of state. A day or two had passed since Judson's interview in the gorgeous hall, and an Englishman was in the audience-chamber, summoned before the king. " These foreign teachers ! " said his majesty, knowing his visitor to be their friend, and adopting a tone of mingled anger and scorn ; " What ! they have come presuming _to convert us to their religion ! Let them leave our capital. We have no desire to receive their instructions. Perhaps they may find some of their countrymen in Rangoon, who may be willing to listen to them." The message was intended for Mr. Judson and his associate ; and the monarch's whole bearing indicated that the decision was final. Even the minister, before so friendly, was now " cold and reserved." " Tell them," were his words to the same Englishman, who had in- terceded for them with the king, "that there is not the least possibility of obtaining their object, should they wait ever so long; therefore, let them go about their business." One thing only remained. " You must apply," said the friendly Englishman, " for a royal order, pro- tecting your persons while you remain in Burmah. Otherwise, as it will be notorious that you have solicited royal patronage and been refused, you will lie at the mercy of every ill-disposed person who may H 98 THE BROAD SHIELD. seek to molest you." Judson declined, both because it would cost them a good deal, and also because he preferred trusting in the Lord to keep himself and the poor disciples safe. And covered, like Luther at Worms, by Heaven's broad shield he quitted Ava, writing in his diary that morning, as he put off from the beach: "Between the desolation of our hearts and this sandy, barren bank, there is an apt and sad congruity. But the result of our travels and toils has been the wisest and best possible ; a result which, if we could see the end from the beginning, would call forth our highest praise. Oh ! slow of heart to believe and trust in the constant and overruling agency of our own Almighty Saviour ! " An evening or two afterwards, as they lay moored for the night off a town upon the bank, who should accost them but the teacher, Moung Shwa-gnong ! "We have been to Court," said Mr. Judson ; " and there is nothing for it but persecution and suffei'ing for any who dare to confess Jesus Christ." And, after narrating their adventures at Ava, he concluded with the story of the " iron-mall." " But I am not afraid," the teacher replied, rather boastingly ; " since you left Rangoon, I have not lifted up my folded hands before a pagoda." " It is not for you," said Judson, solemnly, "that I am concerned, but for those who have become disciples of Christ. When they are accused and persecuted, they cannot worship at the pagodas, or recant before the Mangen priest." He was struck dumb ; his conscience feeling the force of the needed rebuke. " Say nothing," A VISITOR. 99 continued Mr. Judson, after a brief pause ; " one thing you know to be true, if you had not in some way or other made your peace with the priest, your life would not now be remaining in your body." " Then, if I must die," he stammered out, labouring under deep emotipn, " I shall die in a good cause. I know it is the cause of truth. I believe in the eternal God, in His Son Jesus Christ, in the atonement which Christ hath made, and in the writings of the Apostles as the true and only word of God. It is true I sometimes follow the crowd, on days of worship, in order to avoid persecution ; but I only walk up one side of the pagoda and down the other." "You may be a disciple of Christ in heart," said Mr. Judson, beginning to hope he might have made some advance since they had last met; "but you are not a full disciple, you have not faith and resolution enough to keep all the commands of Christ, particularly that which requires you to be baptized, though in the face of persecution and death." Again, silent and grave, he stood, with his eyes fixed on the ground, buried in thought. " We may not be long now in Rangoon," resumed Mr. Judson, " since the Emperor prohibits the propagation of the Christian religion; and no Burman will, under such circum- stances, venture to investigate, much less to embrace it." " Say not so," he replied, promptly, roused into concern ; " there are some who will investigate, not- withstanding ; and, rather than you should quit Ran- goon, I will go myself to the Mangen priest and have a public dispute. I know I can silence him. I know 100 WHAT NEXT ? the truth is on my side." " Ah ! " answered the mis- sionary, feeling that he needed such a reminder, " you may have a tongue to silence him, but he has a pair of fetters and an iron-mall to tame you. Remember that." The inquirer had been up the river for a few days, visiting an old acquaintance who was dangerously ill. At first, he proposed to return with them ; but, as they could not wait till he was ready, they bade him adieu about nine, and retired to the boat to rest. Hour after hour passed in the little cabin, and still not an eyelid was closed. "What is to be done?" they again and again asked themselves, pondering their future course. What if they should find some disciples firm, and others seriously enquiring ? Might not the Lord have some chosen ones, whom He designed to call in under the darkest trials ? Might not He intend to prove that it was not by might nor by power, but only by His Spirit ? If so, ought they hastily to forsake the place ? Or again, would it not, in the face of a fixed purpose of the Government to persecute, be rash- ngss^ind a tempting of God to .maintain so forlorn hope? Could they .bear-to- .-see' their dear disciples in prison, in., fetters, under torture ? Could they stand h,y them, and encourage them to bear patiently the rage of their persecutors ? Were they willing to share the persecution with them ? Though the spirit might sometimes be almost willing, was not the flesh too weak ? Loosing the next morning at day-break, they rapidly descended the river ; and, arrived at Rangoon, THE THREE DISCIPLES. 101 they called together the three disciples, and told them how grave was their position. Not cooled in their first love, nor quailing before the persecutor's frown, they at once and to a man took courage. " If you leave Rangoon," said one of them, as Mr. Judson was hinting the probability of transfer- ring the mission to a tract of country betwixt Bengal and Arracan, " I will follow you to any part of the world. " " As for me," said another, " I go where preaching is to be had." The third, meanwhile, was .silent and thoughtful. He was married ; and it was a law of Burmah that no native woman should leave the country. Was he to leave his wife behind ? "I can- not follow you," he at last answered, in broken accents, " on account of my dear wife ; but, if I must be left here alone, I shall remain performing the duties of Jesus Christ's religion : no other shall I think of." Was not this " a movement of the divine Spirit ?" The interview gladdened Judson's heart ; and he praised God for the grace which He had manifested to them. Three or four days were spent in inquiries about Chittagong, as presenting an open door for the gospel, when unexpectedly one evening a visitor came in, anxious to see the missionary. It was Moung Byaa, one of the converts, accompanied by his brother-in-law, who once used to attend worship at the zayat. " I have come," said the disciple earnestly, "to entreat you not to leave Rangoon just yet." " It seems use- less," Mr. Judson answered, " to remain, as matters 102 AN APPEAL. now are. We cannot open the zayat ; we cannot have public worship ; no Burman will dare to examine this religion ; and, if none examine, none can be expected to embrace it." " Oh, teacher \" replied Byaa, with deep emotion, " my mind is distressed ; I can neither ^at nor sleep, since I find you are going away. I have been round among those who live near us, and I find some who are even now examining the new religion. Brother Myat-lah here is one of them ; and he unites with me in my petition." The other eagerly assented, and with an earnestness of feeling which went straight to Judson's heart. " Do stay with us a few months," Byaa continued. " Do stay till there are eight or ten disciples; then appoint one to be the teacher of the rest. I shall not, after that, be concerned about the event ; though you should leave the country, the religion will spread of itself even the Emperor cannot stop it." At that moment, another of the converts entered, also deeply moved. "You cannot leave now," said he, un- consciously touching the same chord. " I know of several who are enquiring, and who, I think, will yet become disciples in spite of all opposition." It sounded in their ears like the voice of God. " We could not," Mr. Judson writes, "restrain our tears at hearing all this. f We live/ was my reply, ' only for the promotion of the cause of Christ among the Burmans ; and, if there is any prospect of success in Rangoon, we have no desire to go to another place ; and we will, therefore, reconsider the matter/ " Two days passed, and the little assembly was THE RESPONSE. 103 gathered in the zayat on the evening of the Lord's day. The converts were there, and, with them, " a sedate and pleasant man/ 3 who had not before been known as an inquirer, besides other two whose faces had not been wont to meet the preachers eye. The humble company were breaking up, and had already risen from their seats to leave, when one or two were noticed lingering behind, as if some burden pressed their spirit. " Teacher ! " one of the converts at length ventured to say, the others instinctively gathering round, " your intention of leaving has filled us all with trouble. Is it good to forsake us thus ? Notwith- standing present difficulties and dangers, it is to be remembered that this work is not yours or ours, but God's. If He give light, the religion will spread nothing can impede it." " Let us all/' added another of them, elevating his arm, and his eye kindling into intense brightness, " make an effort, each for him- self. As for me, I will pray. Only leave a little church of ten, with a teacher set over them ; and I shall be fully satisfied." What was to be done ? " We cannot all," said Judson, as they met alone, after the natives had gone, "leave these people, in such affecting circumstances." It was decided that he should remain, meanwhile, at Rangoon, and that his surviving colleague should repair to Chittagong to plant a missionary outpost, both as a centre of a new enter- prise, and also as a harbour of refuge in the event of an outburst of the impending storm. A month elapsed ; and Colman embarked for Bengal, leaving the Judsons 104 THREE DAYS. once more to their " loneliness of lot." It was on March 27, 1820. In the humble zayat might be seen, one night, long after other eyes had been sealed in slumber, two young men in grave, earnest converse. "A throbbing con- science/' it has been said, " Spurred by remorse, Hath a strange force." That youthful Burman, listening so eagerly to Moung Thahlah, has felt lately the goadings of sin ; and his whole bearing betrays a soul " fleeing from the wrath to come." After leaving Mr. Judson in the evening, he has gone aside with his friend ; and they have " sat up together the greater part of the night, reading, and conversing, and praying." The next afternoon, the inquirer came in alone. " It only seems strange to us," Judson wrote at the close of the interview, "that a work of grace should be carried on so rapidly in the soul of an ignorant heathen. I feel satisfied that he has experienced a work of divine grace. From not knowing that there was such a being in the universe as a God, he has become a speculative believer, a penitent, a hopeful recipient of grace, and a candidate for bap- tism, all in the space of three days." An evening or two later, there kneeled in the zayat some Burman disciples and inquirers. They had gathered, of their own accord, to speak one to another of their common hopes, and to pray. Among them was Shwa-ba, the native just named, whom they were A COMMUNION SCENE. 105 commending to God and to the word of His grace. The Lord's day came ; and in the zayat was spread the simple Table, the four converts singing with lowly thankfulness " Thou hast restor'd us to this ease, By this thy heavenly blood." A fortnight later, Shwa-ba was on his way to his native village, " to communicate to his numerous rela- tions and friends the treasure which he had found." One evening, about a month after they had parted on the banks of the Irriwadi, the Burman teacher re- appeared at the zayat, accompanied by his wife and child, and asking Christian baptism. " I knew nothing," said he, with a degree of feeling not before manifested, " of an eternally existing God, before I met with you. On hearing that doctrine, I instantly believed it. But it was a long time before I closed with Christ." " Can you recollect the time ? " enquired Judson. "Not precisely; but it was during a visit, when you were discoursing concerning the Trinity, the divine worship of Jesus, and the great sufferings which He, though truly God, endured for His disciples. And oh ! the preciousness," he added, with a deepening emotion, " of that last part of the sixth chapter of Matthew, which you read the day before yesterday at evening worship!" Another month passed, and he was in the zayat once more. It was the Lord's day ; and, in the evening, after the others had retired, Shwa- gnong waited behind for a little private converse. " I 106 A BURMAN TEACHER. wish," said he, as they sat down alone in a quiet corner of the room, " to be a full disciple, and to be baptized ; but my wife and friends oppose me, and I am in danger of my life." "As thy day is," replied Mr. Judson tenderly, " so thy strength shall be. And then think," he added, " of the apostles and martyrs, and how good it is to suffer for Christ as they, and how glorious the unfading crown." The scene was too solemn for many words. " The thought," Mr. Judson writes, " of the iron-mall, and a secret suspicion that, if I were in his circumstances, I should, perhaps, have no more courage, restrained my tongue." They knelt together in the still silence of the night; and, rising, they "parted with much solemnity, understanding each other better than ever before." Three months intervened before another visit ; for " a man of his distinction could not be seen often at the zayat without extreme peril." Judson was on the eve of sailing, on a special errand, for Bengal, when, one forenoon, the inquirer came in. "I received him," he writes, "with some reserve, but soon found that he had not stayed away so long from choice, having been ill with a fever for some time, and occu- pied also with the illness of his family and adherents. He gradually wore away my reserve ; and we had not been together two hours, before I felt more satisfied than ever, from his account of his mental trials, of his struggles with sin, of his strivings to be holy, of his penitence, his faith, his exercises in secret prayers, that he was a subject of the special operations of the Holy THE TOUCHSTONE. 107 Spirit that he was, indeed, a true disciple." In the afternoon, two or three inquirers joined them ; and, as evening came on, Shwa-gnong, as if to "bring things to a crisis/' said, "My lord teacher, there are now several of us present who have long considered this religion. I hope that we are all believers in Jesus Christ." " If you believe," Mr. Judson replied, " that none but the disciples of Christ will be saved from sin and hell, how can you remain without taking the oath of allegiance to Jesus Christ, and becoming His full disciple in body and soul ? " " It is my earnest desire," he answered solemnly, " to do so by receiving baptism ; and, for the very purpose of expressing that desire, I have come here to-day." " May I ask when you desire to receive it?" "At any time you will please to give it: now this moment if you please." "Do you wish to receive it in public or in private ? " " At any time or in any circumstances that you please to direct." " Teacher ! " said Mr. Judson, much moved, " I am satisfied, from your conversation this forenoon, that you are a true disciple; and, therefore, I am as desirous to give you baptism as you are to receive it." The converts were overjoyed, and the inquirers amazed. " What ! " they whispered to one another, "will he profess the Christian religion ?" "Are you," said Mr. Judson, turning to one of them, whom he regarded as a true believer, "willing to take the oath of allegiance to Jesus Christ ? " " If the teacher Shwa- gnong consents," was his reply, "why should I hesi- tate?" "And if he does not consent, what then?" 108 A HAPPY COMPANY. " I must wait a little longer." " Stand by," said Judson, with a tender but solemn emphasis ; . " you trust in Moung Shwa-gnong rather than in Jesus Christ; you are not worthy of being baptized. I cannot consent to receive any to baptism who can remain easy without it." The little conclave broke up; and, the next morning, Shwa-gnong was there, a radiant smile sitting on his heaven-lit brow. All the forenoon he sat calmly among the worshippers ; and, as night came on, the confessor was baptized, and the happy company sat down together at the Table, rejoicing to be counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake. It was nine o'clock, and they had not yet left the Table, when another inquirer approached, asking to be baptized. For some months past, in company with two other women of her village, Mah Men-la had visited Mrs. Judson. Years before, an unknown hand had slipped into her basket, one morning, the mission- tract ; and, reading it eagerly, she had embraced the idea of an eternally existing God. " I have found the true wisdom now/' Shwa-gnong had whispered to her lately, one night, "in Jesus Christ, the Saviour;" adding, " Go to the zayat, and you will hear the way of life." She went; and, day after day, she had hung on Mrs. Judson's lips. " I am surprised to find," she had remarked to her on a recent occasion, with an affecting simplicity, "that this religion has such an effect on my mind as to make me love the disciples of Christ more than my dearest natural relations." FIRST FEMALE CONVERT. 109 Sitting among the inquirers that evening when the " teacher" boldly confessed Christ, she had been asked by Judson, " Are you willing to take the oath of allegiance to Jesus Christ ? " " Yes," she had replied, after a pause, " if you think I ought." " Ah ! if you can be content not to confess Him, I cannot baptize you." The following evening, as the teacher was pro- ceeding to the font, Men-la had been seized with a strange terror. "Ah!" said she, whispering to Mrs. Judson, who was with her alone, " he has now gone to obey the command of Jesus Christ, while I remain without obeying. I shall not be able to sleep this night. I must go home and consult my husband and return." She arrived as the converts were rising that night from the Table. Her mind was made up. " Will you receive me,", she said, " now ?" All present as- sented without hesitation, and with joy. "I rejoice," said Mr. Judson, " to baptize you, having been long satisfied- 4hat you have received the grace of Christ/' A noble matron, some fifty years of age, of great mental energy, and " among the Burmese women what the ' teacher ' was among the men," there she stood, the first woman of Burmah who had ever confessed the Saviour. ." Now," she said, firmly but meekly, as the rite was over, "I have taken the oath of allegiance to Jesus Christ ; and I have nothing to do but to commit myself, soul and body, into the hands of my Lord, assured that He will never suffer me to fall away." Burmah's first-fruits now numbered nine men and one woman.. Other inquirers, too, were on their way. 110 A BREATHING TIME. " Oh, that these poor souls," Judson writes, " who are groping in the dark, feeling after the truth, may have time and opportunities to find the precious treasure which will enrich them for evermore ! " And another work was going forward. " I have finished," the missionary adds, " the translation of the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is with real joy that I put this precious writing into the hands of the disciples. It is a great accession to their scanty stock of Scripture, for they have had nothing hitherto but Matthew." A brief breathing-time was given. Mrs. Judson was again prostrated by illness ; and, with great reluc- tance and much conflict of mind, Mr. Judson decided to accompany her to Bengal. The morning after the affecting scene just narrated, the converts and inquirers, to the number of one hundred, met at the zayat for wor- ship ; and at noon they followed the missionary to the river, the women crying aloud, and almost all deeply affected. He weighed anchor ; and, as he gazed from the quarter-deck upon the receding wharf, not a Bui-man moved until the ship had wafted from their sight him to whom they owed their all. " How impossible/' he wrote that night in his diary, looking back upon his brief sojourn, "it seemed, two years ago, that such a precious assembly could ever be raised up out of the Egyptian darkness, the atheistic superstition of this heathen land ! Why art thou ever cast down, my soul ? and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God the God of the Burmans, as well as David's God ; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of NEW CONVERTS. Ill His countenance, revealed in the salvation of thousands of these immortal souls. " An absence of six months had recruited Mrs. Jud- son's shattered health ; and one morning in January* they were once more in sight of the wharf. Straining their eyes to distinguish the faces crowded on the beach, the first to arrest their notice was the " teacher," who had hastened down to welcome them. In a few hours the entire company were bending around their spiritual father, praising God for the steadfastness with which in the face of deep trials each convert had, without exception, clung to his Christian profession. A week had scarcely elapsed after their return, when there was given to them a new trophy of grace. " Oh, how interesting it is," Mr. Judson wrote, one day, after an interview with a native doctor, " to see (you can almost see it with your eyes) the light of truth dawning upon a precious soul hitherto groping in darkness ! If Oo Yan prove a true convert, he will be a most precious acquisition to our cause." Some eighteen months before, he had first, in fear and trembling, begun to visit the zayat. Keeping at a distance during worship, and at its close dropping out stealthily, he at length one evening had come in to Mr. Judson alone ; and, after a protracted interview, the latter had ventured to indulge a little hope that, truth was beginning to work. " No mind," Mr. Judson * 1821. 112 A DOCTOR. had argued, at one of those colloquies, " no wisdom ; temporary mind, temporary wisdom ; eternal mind, eternal wisdom." A believer in " eternal wisdom " he had felt this brief sentence " sweep with irresistible sway through the very joints and marrow of his system/' " Your words are very appropriate," he had said, candidly owning his defeat in argument ; " how can I become a disciple of the God whom you worship ?" "But how," he had enquired next, "in the universe of a holy, almighty, wise, and eternal God, can sin and misery have place ? " And so cogent had been the missionary's reasonings that he " could not restrain laughing from pure mental delight." Months had passed ; and his heart and conscience now also yielded submission to the Word. " He has been repeatedly with me," wrote Judson, a fortnight after his return to Rangoon, " and now he gives me good reason to hope that he is a real convert." A day or two later, another inquirer entered the zayat. One evening, some months before, on their way home from a visit to Mr. Judson, two men had dropt into the house of a " teacher;'' and, after a few words about the " new religion," and the doctrine of " an eternal God," they had torn up the tract which they just had got, contemptuously making cigars of it. Meanwhile, an inmate of the dwelling, Moung Ing, had stood by, his thoughts strangely arrested by the unwonted converse. The truth, which the others de- spised, had " fallen like a lightning-flash on his be- nighted soul ;" and, the next morning, before sun-rise, THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE. 113 he was in the porch of the zayat. The sequel of that visit his earnest inquiries and his simple-minded faith we have recorded in a preceding page. And now, after the lapse of more than a year, he had returned, and was welcomed by Judson with the affection of a father. ," We unhesitatingly agreed to baptize him," says he, " next Lord's day ; not one of the disciples has given more decided evidence of being a sincere and hearty believer in the Lord Jesus." And, after " taking the oath of allegiance to Christ/' and bidding his brethren an affectionate farewell, he set out for his home up, the river, " laden with various writings for distribution amongst the people of the place." 'One morning Mrs. Judson was with the viceroy's wife, when an intimate friend came in and began to talk about the mission prospects. " Remember," said he, addressing Mrs. Judson kindly, but firmly and her highness, by her silence, assented "when the Emperor says that all may believe and worship as they please, the toleration extends only to foreigners residing in the empire, and by no means to native Burmans, for they are slaves of the king, and cannot be allowed to renounce the religion of their master." And Mr. Judson adds : " This accords with all that we had heard at Ava, and may be depended on as a correct view of the state of religious toleration in Burmah. It is a fact that, except in our own private circle, it is not known that a single individual has actually renounced Buddhism, and been initiated into the Christian religion. We will be content to baptize i 114 A VILLAGE UPROAR. in the night, and to hold worship in private; but we do pray that we may not be utterly banished from the land that we may not be cut up, root and branch. We are looking with anxiety to the golden feet." Meanwhile, however, the private favour of the viceroy secured to the infant Church a momentary reprieve. In a little village, about half a mile distant, there lived a respectable householder, rather above the middle class, and the father of a large family, who often of an evening had been observed in the zayat listening in- tently to the words of life. " Moung Myat-lah," Mr. Judson wrote about him, after a protracted interview, " appears to have obtained some of that light which, like the dawn of the morning, shineth more and more unto perfect day." And, after an interval of two months : " Another visit from Myat-lah and his wife, which has afforded good reason to hope that he also has become a true believer. ' Set me down,' he said to-day to me, ' for a disciple. I have fully made up my mind in regard to this religion. I love Jesus Christ/ >: Of her own accord the female inquirer now began to teach the boys and girls of the village to read, that they might not need to attend the idolatrous priests ; and, a week or two later, after evening worship, she also craved to be allowed to " take the oath of allegiance to Christ." No sooner had the news reached the village than all the neighbours were in an uproar ; but, not disheartened, she begged that the baptism might not be deferred till the Lord's day, " lest some measures should be taken to prevent it." Under cover A DEATH-BED. 115 of night she was welcomed into the little company, amidst deep and solemn thanksgivings. Some months elapsed, and she lay in her humble cottage, smitten with a fatal malady. A sore persecution had ovei-taken the little flock, and Mah Myat-lah and her husband were threatened with ejection from their lowly home. But a better mansion was now ready elsewhere. " I put my trust in Jesus Christ," she whispered meekly one night to her sister, Mah Men-la. " I love to pray to Him. I am not afraid of death. I shall soon be with Jesus Christ in heaven." An hour or two longer, and she was with her Lord. In the same village was another Burman, who, once an officer under government, had amassed con- siderable property, which he was spending in building pagodas and in making offerings. But finding no resting place for his soul, and hearing one day from Myat-lah of the religion of Jesus, he had repaired to the zayat, and, lingering hour after hour and day after day, had drunk in eagerly the water of life. " He has spent," Mr. Judson writes, " most of the day with me, and given undoubted evidence of being a true disciple. He now rests in this religion with con- scious security believes and loves all that he hears of it and prays that he may become ' fully a true disciple of the Saviour.' ): Mrs. Judson was again prostrated by illness ; and so rapid and alarming were its advances, that only a voyage to sea, and a cold climate, presented the least hope of life. " You will readily believe," she writes, 116 VOYAGE HOME. intimating to a friend at home her decision to visit the United States, "that nothing but the prospect of a final separation would have induced us to determine on this measure. Those only who through a variety of toil and privation have secured a darling object, can realise how entirely every fibre of the heart clings to that object. Had we encountered no difficulties, and suf- fered no privations, in our attempts to form a Chui-ch of Christ under the government of a heathen despot, we should have been warmly attached to the individuals composing it, but should not have felt that tender solicitude and anxious affection which agitate us now. Rangoon, from having been the scene of so much of God's faithfulness, and power, and mercy from having been considered for ten years past as my home for life, and from a thousand interesting associations of ideas has become the dearest spot on earth. But duty to God, to ourselves, to the Board of Missions, and to the perishing Burmans, compels us to adopt this course of procedure, though agonising to all the natural feelings of our hearts." Sailing from Rangoon in August,* and finding at Calcutta a ship bound for England, she reached its shores in renovated strength, and with two souls given her for her hire. " Her visit/' said a Christian member of parliament, who' welcomed her under his roof, " has reminded me forcibly of the apostolic admonition, ' Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby * 1821. SOLITUDE. 117 some have entertained angels unawares/ " And every- where, in England or in Scotland, she was welcomed with the same respect and affection. " I will never forget these scenes," she would often say, with a bright glow of thankful remembrance ; " they were to me a prelibatiori of heaven." Sailing for the United States, and at length arrived in her winter-home, she found in its pleasant privacy at once a balm to her shattered frame, and ' ' A music where the grateful heart In strains of feeling floats." " The retired life I now lead," she writes, " is much more congenial to my feelings, and much more favour- able to religious enjoyment, than where I have been lately in a continual bustle of company. Yes, it is in retirement that our languishing graces are revived, our affections raised to God, and our souls refreshed and quickened by the influences of the Holy Spirit. If we would live near the threshold of heaven, and daily take a glance of our promised inheritance, we must avoid not only worldly but religious dissipation. Strange as it may seem, I do believe there is something like religious dissipation in a Christian's being so entirely engrossed in religious company as to prevent his spiritual enjoyments. Much retirement from company of every description I find to be the grand secret of living for God, and for the right performance of duties incumbent on us." Some other lessons of the solitude she expresses thus : " How much of heaven might Christians enjoy, 118 ALL FOR CHRIST. even here on earth, if they would mate an effort if they would keep in view what ought to be their great object in life ! Only make the enjoyment of God your main pursuit, and how much more useful would your life become, and how much more rapidly should you ripen for eternal glory ! " And, another day : " Whatever is my situation, however flattering my prospects of a worldly nature, all is loss and dross unless I feel something of that spiritual peace and comfort which our Lord bequeathed to His disciples." And again : " Why am I spared ? May it be to pro- mote the cause of Christ in Burmah, and to be successful iu winning souls ! May we make it our great business to grow in grace, and to enjoy closet religion. Christ- ians must pray more, they must give more, and make greater efforts to prevent the missionary flame from becoming extinct. Every individual Christian should feel himself guilty if he lias not done, and does not continue to do, all in his power for the spread of the gospel and the enlightening of the heathen world. A little while, and we are in eternity; before we find ourselves there, let us do much for Christ. ' On earth we serve God, in heaven we enjoy Him/ is a motto I have long wished to adopt. When in heaven, we can do nothing towards saving immortal souls." And, another day, thus : "0 how frequently I think, should I be permitted to return to Burmah, that, in communicating religious truth, I shall depend more on the Holy Spirit than ever before ! Here, I believe, is the grand mistake of missionaries, and the principal reason why they have ASPIRATIONS. 119 no more success. They depend on their own exertions, not on the power of God." On a beautiful evening in June, she was accom- panied to the wharf at Boston by a large concourse of Christian friends, who bade her farewell with an almost prophetic foreboding that they should see her face no more. It was a prosperous voyage, loaded with many mercies ; and, after two years and a half of wandering, she found herself once more in her adopted home, "feeling more than ever the importance of being spiritual and humble/' that she might no more wander from Him who was deserving of all her services and of all her affections. ' Meanwhile, in his solitude, Judson also had been girding himself, unconsciously, for his future. " Mil- lions of Burmans," we find him writing, "are perishing. I am almost the only person on earth who has attained their language to such a degree as to be able to com- municate to them the way of salvation. How great are my obligations to spend and be spent for Christ ! What a privilege to be allowed to serve Him in such interesting circumstances, and to suffer for Him ! The heavenly glory is at hand. Oh, let me travel through this country, and bear testimony to the truth all the way from Rangoon to Ava, and show the path to that glory which I am anticipating ! Oh, if Christ will only sanctify me and strengthen me, I feel that I can do all things ! But, in myself, I am absolute nothingness; and, when through grace I get a glimpse of divine things, I tremble lest the next moment will 120 VISIT AT COURT. snatch it away." And, again : " Let me pray that the trials which we respectively are called to endure may wean us from the world and rivet our hearts on things above. Soon we shall be in heaven. Oh, let us live as we sball then wish to have done ! Let us be humble, unaspiring, indifferent equally to worldly com- fort, and to the applause of men absorbed in Christ, the uncreated Fountain of all excellence and glory." A month or two after Mrs. Judson's departure for the United States, there had arrived at Rangoon a missionary-physician, sent by the American Church to aid the Burman work. Dr. Price had not been long in the country, when certain rumours reached the capital about his skill in the removal of cataracts ; and an order was received from the king, requiring his immediate attendance at court. Provided with a boat at the public expense, he had at once set out, Judson accompanying him as interpreter in the hope of some opening for the gospel. On their arrival they were introduced to the king, "the doctor" being welcomed very graciously. " And you in black ! " enquired the Emperor one day, suddenly turning towards Judson, "what are you? a medical man, too?" "A teacher of religion, your majesty!" "Have any embraced your religion?" " Not here." " Are there any in Rangoon ?" " There are a few/' "Are they foreigners ?" The query was startling, for an answer might involve the infant Church in ruin ; but the truth must be spoken at any risk, and he replied, " There are some foreigners and some Bur- mans/' The king was silent for a few moments, as if ROYAL QUERIES. 121 weighing the ominous fact ; but at length his counte- nance relaxed into a smile. " Thanks to God/' Judson wrote that evening, " for the encouragement of this day ! The monarch of the empire distinctly understands that some of his subjects have embraced the Christian reli- gion, and his wrath has been restrained." They had now been in Ava two months, residing in a house adjoining the palace, and often invited into the royal presence, when one day they proposed to the king to purchase " a piece of ground within the walls, to build on it a kyoung or sacred place." His majesty assented ; but it had formerly been the site of a Buddhist temple, and the ministers overruled the royal will. "Well, give him some vacant spot," said his majesty at another interview; and the door thus re- mained open. "Are these converts real Burmans?" asked the king, turning to Mr. Judson, at a subsequent audience, where two English gentlemen happened to be present : " do they dress like other Burmans ?" " Yes," he replied hesitatingly, growing somewhat alarmed at the royal pertinacity. A day or two after- wards, he was again in the royal presence, intimating his purpose speedily to return to Rangoon. " Will you proceed thence to your own country?" enquired his majesty. " Only to Rangoon." The king gave an acquiescing nod. " Will you both go ? " asked the minister; "or will the doctor remain?" "The hot season is coming on," said Dr. Price ; " and our present dwelling is very close." " Then you will return here after the hot season ?" rejoined the minister, turning to 122 THE PLOT OF GROUND. Mr. Judson. "If convenient," replied the latter, fixing his eye on the king, " I will." Another " acquiescing nod and smile" conveyed the royal sanction; and, the doctor having again hinted the necessity of another dwelling, the king, turning to his minister, said, " Let a place be given him," and closed the audience. Just outside the walls, on a pleasant bank of the river, was a plot of ground which the chief minister had recently enclosed, with the intention of building a temporary zayat for his own use, when in that quarter of the city with the king. One evening, before em- barking, Judson waited on the minister with a petition asking for the spot, and begging to be allowed to express his gratitude by presenting a certain sum of money. After many delays, it was granted; and, at last, getting formal possession of the ground, he erected a temporary cot, stationing in it a Burman disciple with his family until he should return and commence a mission. The next morning he set out, and in seven days reached Rangoon. Though almost borne down by fever and ague, he completed in a few more weeks his New Testament. And towards the close of the year, on the return of Mrs. Judson, he was on his way back to the capital, not ungirt for the ordeal which was at hand, because feeling that "no beings were ever under greater obligations to make sacrifices for the promotion of God's glory." THIRD VISIT TO AVA. 123 CHAPTER VI. Third visit to Ava Scene on the river The royal palace Hard- ships Dark cloud -The British Suspicions "Spies" The " spotted face " Arrest The cord Imprisoned The cottage Faith The ruffian-guard Carousals The governor Bribe ' The prisoner Turnkey Scene in the palace Petition The confiscation Search "A true teacher" RANGOON British flotilla A panic The reprieve Escape The converts A good confessor. ONE evening, about a hundred miles from Ava, the boat's company were startled to find on the bank an encampment of Burman troops. The next day they encountered on the river, in his golden barge, the Bur- man general, Bandoola, followed by a fleet of golden war-boats, bearing another body of soldiers. It was a warlike expedition on its way to the British province of Chittagong, to seize certain Burman refugees alleged to be protected by British power. " Are you English 1" shouted an imperious voice from a war-boat which had been dispatched to hail the little company ; " and what is your errand ?" " We are Americans, not English," replied Judson ; " and we are on our way to Ava by 124 SCENE AT COURT. command of the king." Passing onward, they arrived at the capital to find a menacing cloud overhanging their future prospects. In all the grandeur of Oriental magnificence, the king arrived in the city one day to take possession of the new palace. Assembled on the scene were all the viceroys and high officers of the kingdom, dressed in their robes of state, and with the insignia of office. " The number and immense size of the elephants/' says an eye-witness, " the numerous horses, and great variety of vehicles of every description, far surpassed anything I had ever seen or imagined. The white elephant was there, richly adorned with gold and jewels. All the riches and glory of the empire were exhibited to view. The king and queen alone were unadorned, dressed in the simple garb of the country. Hand in hand, they passed along the streets of the golden city, hailed by the acclamations of millions." The proud monarch, intoxicated by the incense of this exuberant loyalty, was not in a mood to brook the dictation of a foreign authority ; and, having declared war against England, he was scarcely seated in his new palace, when he issued an order that no foreigner should be allowed to enter its precincts. Meanwhile the Judsons, with no home to shelter them from the burning sun by day, and from the cold dews by night for the dwelling of Dr. Price was so damp that Mr. Judson could not spend two or three hours within its wet walls without being thrown into a fever reared on the spot of ground formerly granted OMINOUS SYMPTOMS. 125 by the king a humble cot of three small rooms and a verandah ; protecting them indeed from the dews, but so close all day as to be " heated before night like an oven." Thankful, however, for the inestimable pri- vilege of being able to communicate to any poor Burman "truths which could save the soul," they welcomed every evening at worship a number of natives, whilst on the Sabbath Mr. Judson preached to a goodly gathering on the other side of the river in Dr. Price's house. Mrs. Judson, too, had around her each morn- ing a little group of children learning to read and sew, and hanging on her lips as she instilled into their won- dering minds the story of the Nazarene. At the palace, an ominous look of suspicion met any foreigner who still, notwithstanding the decree, was invited into the royal presence. The king, who, for some months after Mr. Judson' s visit, had been " enquiring many times about his delay/' now barely consented to receive him ; and on two or three occasions, when he was admitted, it was with a marked coldness and reserve. The queen, too, " had frequently ex- pressed a strong desire to see Mrs. Judson in her foreign dress ; " but now she made no inquiries after her, nor intimated any wish to see her. It only, therefore, remained to proceed calmly and quietly with their mis- sionary operations as occasions offered, thus endeavour- ing to convince the government that they had nothing to do with the present war. It was a Sabbath morning, and the simple worship had just been concluded in Dr. Price's house, when a 126 THE INVADERS. messenger arrived with the startling intelligence " The English have taken Rangoon ! " After laying the matter before the Lord, it was decided that Mr. Judson should wait on one of the princes who hitherto had been least suspicious, and gather the mind of the king. The reply was favourable. " I have been with his majesty," said the prince, in the evening, " and you need give yourselves no uneasiness : the Emperor orders, that the few foreigners residing at Ava, having nothing to do with the war, shall not be injured or molested." The whole city was in commotion. In three or four days, an additional force of ten or twelve thousand men was on its way to Rangoon, the chief occasion of haste being the apprehension that possibly the invaders, hearing of the advance of the Burman troops, might take flight on board their ships before there had been time to secure them as slaves. The golden war-boats floated down the river, the soldiers singing and dancing. " Bring me," was the last message from one of the palace exquisites, "six of the white strangers to row my boat." "And to me," added the wife of one of the ministers, " send four to manage the affairs of my house, as I hear they are trusty servants." The army had scarcely gone, when the king began to enquire, why those strangers had come to Burmah. " There must be spies among us," responded one mi- nister, " who have invited them over." " I hear," said another, " that an Englishman, who came here the other day, had with him Bengal papers stating his countrymen's purpose to take Rangoon." "And ARREST. 127 he has kept it a secret from your majesty/' added a third. Instantly, three Englishmen Captain Laird, Gouger, and Rogers were summoned and examined. They admitted having seen the papers, and were placed under arrest. A few weeks passed in painful suspense, when at length one morning an officer appeared at the mission, demanding the immediate attendance of Mr. Judson and Dr. Price at a court of inquiry which had just been summoned. " Have you been communicating to foreigners the state of the country," the court de- manded, "since you came to Burmah?" "We have often," Judson replied, "written to our friends in America, but have never corresponded with English officers or with the Bengal government." After a protracted investigation, they were released and allowed to return home. But only a few days had elapsed when suddenly, one evening, just as they were sitting down to dinner, in rushed a guard of twelve Burmans, headed by an officer holding a black book, and followed by an ominous personage, whom, from his spotted face, they recognised as an executioner, or "" son of a prison." The missionaries had been in the habit of receiving their money -remittances from home by orders on some mercantile house in Bengal ; and in the accounts of Mr. Gouger, one of the arrested Englishmen, had been found sundry sums entered as paid by him to Mr. Judson and to Dr. Price. At once the inference had been drawn, that they were in English pay : and what else could they be but spies ? The discovery had been 128 THE SPOTTED FACE. reported forthwith to the king ; and, full of rage, he had ordered their immediate arrest. "Where is the teacher ?" demanded the officer, who had hastened with his myrmidons to the mission, to execute the royal behest. " I am," said Mr. Judson, boldly. " You are called by the king/' said the officer, gruffly, em- ploying the ominous formula used at the arrest of any notorious criminal. Scarcely had he spoken, when the spotted man, producing the small cord or instrument of torture, seized Mr. Judson and threw him violently on the floor. " Stay ! " interposed Mrs. Judson, catch- ing hold of the executioner's arm ; " I will give you money." " Take her, too," growled the officer ; " she also is a foreigner." By this time, a crowd had gathered round the door ; some masons, at work on the house, had thrown down their tools and fled ; the little native children of the mission were screaming and crying ; the servants stood gazing in mute wonder; and the " spotted face," tightening the cords on Mr. Judson's person, was dragging him off with a fiend-like joy. Another entreaty from Mrs. Judson to " take the silver and loosen the ropes," only provoked a hellish yell; and, as the native disciple followed with the money in his hand, making another effort to mitigate the torture, they were scarcely out of the house when " the unfeel- ing wretches again threw their prisoner on the ground, drawing the cords still tighter, so as almost to prevent respiration." Arrived at the court-house, and arraigned before the governor of the city, he listened in horror to the order of the king, committing him to the death- SCENE IN THE COTTAGE. 129 prison. It was now dark ; and these demons of dark- ness hurried him off to the dungeon. The three Eng- lishmen were there before him ; and, binding him with three pairs of iron fetters, fastened to a long pole to prevent him moving, they left him for the night, like Paul and Silas, his " feet fast in the stocks," but his spirit not bound. We return to the cottage by the river- side. It is the dusk of evening ; and, as we approach, a frail form and firm brow and " Look commercing with the skies " meet us in the vacated room. It is the brave woman, committing her case to Him who in weakness can perfect strength. Rising from her knees, she whispers, in her inmost heart " Away, despair ! my gracious Lord doth hear. Though winds and waves assault my keel, He doth preserve it ; He doth steer, Ev'n when the boat seems most to reel. Storms are the triumph of His art : Well may He close His eyes, but not His heart.'* But stay ! a strange voice in the verandah ! She listens ; and a clatter of feet is outside the door. It is the magistrate of the district sent to examine her ; and she must " come out " forthwith. With her cha- racteristic self-possession, she seizes the moment to commit to the flames her every scrap of manuscript ; for her letters may disclose that they have correspond- ents in England, and her journal records every incident which has occurred since they reached Burmah. This K 130 THE RUFFIAN GUARD. done, she obeys the summons; and, after a searching examination upon every conceivable point, she is left for the night in charge of ten ruffians, who are com- manded to suffer no human being to leave the com- pound on pain of instant death. Summoning the four native girls to an inner apart- ment, she bars the door, in the hope of enjoying the poor consolation of privacy during the gloomy hours of night. Scarcely have they kneeled, when a hoarse voice is heard outside, demanding that she shall undo the bars and come out to them, or they will " break down the house." Obstinately refusing to comply, and threatening to complain of their conduct to a higher authority, she looked out at the upper window and found them maltreating the two Bengalee servants, fixing them in the stocks and beating them. Not able to endui'e this, she called to the head-man, promising to make them all a present in the morning, if only they would release the servants. After much delay, they consented ; and the ruffians fell to carousing, a diabolical execration ever and anon piercing the prisoner's heart. The morning dawned; and, herself still in close durance, she sent the native disciple to the death- prison with a little food for Mr. Judson, if still alive. Learning that they were in irons and suffering great anguish, she implored the magistrate to allow her to go to some member of the government to state her case. " No," was the reply, " I dare not, for fear you should escape." Another night came ; and, although THE SUPPLIANT. 131 nature was - almost exhausted, she scarcely closed an eye, the thought of her husband stretched on the bare floor, in irons, in the dismal dungeon, " haunting her mind like a spectre." The second day passed, and still no relief. But, on the morning after, the thought struck her, to send a message to the governor of the city, who had the entire control of prison affairs, de- siring permission to visit him " with a present." " Let her come into town," said his excellency, smiling at the prospect of the "present." "Desire the guard to conduct her here forthwith." Before an hour had elapsed, she was in the governor's presence, having previously passed to him secretly a handsome gift. " What do you want ? " he said to her, pleasantly. " The foreigners," she replied, " have been unjustly imprisoned;" and she detailed briefly, but earnestly, their wrongs. " It is not in my power to release them from prison or from irons," answered the governor, moved by the unwonted spectacle of "a white woman" thus a suppliant at his feet; "but I can make their situation more comfortable. Here is my chief officer ; you may consult with him as to the way." Glancing at the officer, she detected a countenance " presenting the most perfect assemblage of all the evil passions attached to human nature." " The prisoners," he whispered, taking her aside, " and yourself also, are entirely at my disposal, and their future comfort must depend on your liberality in regard to presents ; and these must be made in a very private way, unknown to any officer in the government !" " What must I do," 132 THE PRISONER. enquired Mrs. Judson, eagerly, "to obtain a mitigation of the sufferings of the two teachers ?" " Pay to me," replied the officer, "two hundred ticals (about one hundred dollars), two pieces of fine cloth, and two pieces of handkerchiefs ! " " There is the money," she answered softly, taking from a bag which she had brought with her the sum demanded; "the other articles you must not insist upon, for I have not any nearer than two miles." For a moment he hesitated, but the glitter of the coin was too much for him ; and, unwilling to let it slip, he transferred it to a secret wallet, promising to relieve the captives. Armed with an order from the governor, she hastened off to the prison. The door was opened, slowly and cautiously. " Stay ! " said the gaoler, roughly, glancing at the document, and keeping her outside ; " I will call the prisoner." Crawling to the door, loaded with irons, Judson was beginning to give some directions relative to his release, when the turnkey abruptly ordered her to depart. She pleaded her " order from the go- vernor ; " but the voice growled, " Begone, or we will make you go ! " But that evening, the prisoners were removed out of the dungeon into the gaol-enclosure; where Mrs. Judson was allowed to send them food, and mats to sleep upon, though not permitted to see them for some days. Lolling luxuriously on a rich carpet, and sur- rounded by a group of gay attendants, a princess was listening one day coldly and listlessly to a tale of poignant woe. It was Mrs. Judson before the chief CONFISCATION. 133 prince's wife, whom she had known in better days, pleading for her captive husband. " Your case is not singular," replied the lady, partly raising her head, and opening the present at her feet ; " all the foreigners are treated alike." "But it is singular," interposed Mrs. Judson, boldly, but respectfully; "the ' teachers' are Americans ; they are ministers of religion ; they have nothing to do with war or politics, and they came to Ava in obedience to the king's command. They have done nothing to deserve such treatment, and is it right they should be treated thus ?" " The king does as he pleases," said the princess. " I am not the king. What can I do ? " " You can state their case to the queen, and obtain their release. Place yourself in my situation. Were you in America your hus- band, innocent of crime, thrown into prison, in irons, and you a solitary, unprotected female what would you do ?" "I will present your petition," she re- plied. " Come again to-morrow." Meanwhile another injustice was perpetrated. "We will visit your house on the morrow," whispered the officers to her significantly, as they returned from Mr. Gouger's dwelling with a booty of fifty thousand rupees. And on the following morning, accordingly, there appeared at the mission the royal treasurer, one of the palace-governors, and a noble, attended by some fifty followers. With that fascinating spell which seemed to touch all who approached her, Mrs. Judson had scarcely been with them a few minutes "treat- ing them civilly, giving them chairs to sit on, and 134 THE SEARCH. refreshing them with tea," when, feeling ashamed to proceed to the business of confiscation, the royal secretary, with three officers, went from the verandah towards the apartments alone, ordering the attendants to remain outside. " It is painful/' they said, with an evident confusion, " to take possession of property not our own ; but we are compelled so to do by order of the king." She followed, shedding tears. "Where are your silver, gold, and jewels?" asked the royal treasurer tremulously. " I have no gold or jewels ; but here is the key of a trunk which contains the silver ; do with it as you please." Opening the trunk, they proceeded to weigh its contents, when Mrs. Jud- son, remembering the aversion of the Burmans to seize anything appropriated to a religious use, added, " This money was collected in America by the dis- ciples of Christ, and sent here to build a kyoung, and to support us while teaching the religion of Christ. Is it suitable that you should take it ?" " We will state this circumstance to the king," replied one of them ; " and perhaps he will restore it." " But is this all the silver you have ?" enquired another. " The house is in your possession," she answered, having hidden some treasure, yet scorning to utter an un- truth ; " search for yourselves." Her drawers and wardrobe were searched in her presence by the royal secretary ; but her open frankness so won their good- will that a list only was taken and laid before the king. " Judson," said the officer, in presenting it, " is a true teacher ; we found nothing in his house but SCENES AT RANGOON. 135 what belongs to priests. In addition to this money, there is an immense number of articles. Shall we take them, or let them remain?" "Let them remain," replied the king, " and put the property by itself; it shall be restored to him again, if he is found innocent." Scenes were to follow, of which years afterwards Mr. Judson was heard to say, " Oh, I dare not tell you half the horrors I have seen and felt." But, meanwhile, we must pause for a moment to glance at what had been passing at Rangoon. One morning in May,* there had arrived at the mouth of the river a flotilla bearing a British force of six thousand men. Its purpose was to strike a sudden blow, in anticipation of a threatened Burmese in- vasion of Bengal. The first step of the native au- thorities, on learning the approach of the English troops, was to arrest " every person in Rangoon who wore a hat." Two missionaries had lately arrived on a visit from Bengal ; and that night they were placed in irons, and put in close confinement under armed keepers. The next morning, the fleet was within sight of the town ; and the first shot fired by the invaders was to be the signal for a massacre of the " white" prisoners. A death -like pause followed: then "boom! boom! boom ! " and the keepers, panic-stricken, slank away into one corner of the prison, speechless, and almost breath- less. A few more minutes, and the fleet was abreast of the town, when another broadside made the prison * 1824. 136 ORDER TO BEHEAD. shake as if the next moment it would be down. The keepers hastened to the door, and, breaking it open, beat a precipitate retreat. The firing ceased ; and the eye of each prisoner was intently fixed on the door, in the belief that the troops were landing, and that there would be an immediate release. But, lo ! a savage yell, and in sprang fifty Burmans, savagely shouting revenge. The " teachers" were seized everything was stripped from them but their pantaloons their naked arms were corded behind and as tightly as the strength of one man would permit ; and, dragging them forth, they carried them through the streets to the place of execution, 11 almost literally upon the points of their spears." The " spotted man" was in waiting. The pri- soners were ordered to " sit upon their knees, with their bodies bending forward," that the executioner might " more conveniently" do his work. The order to " behead" was already given, and the weapon of death uplifted, when one of the teachers, requesting him to desist for a moment, proposed to the Yawoon to send him on board the ships, and he would intercede with the English commander to prevent any farther firing upon the town. " If the English fire again," said he, momentarily relenting, and catching at the proffered mediation, " there shall be no reprieve. But will you positively promise to put an immediate stop to the firing?" Just at that instant the guns which had been silent from the moment when the keepers in the prison fled fired, upon the very spot where the A SURPRISE. 137 ruffians were gathered, sundry heavy shots. The autho- rities, fleeing from the seat of judgment, took refuge under the banks of a neighbouring tank ; whilst the others, in a frenzy of terror, took to their heels out of the town. The prisoners, meanwhile, were kept in the van, compelled to accompany the fugitives, and expecting each moment to be their last. They had proceeded about half a mile, when they were overtaken by the authorities on horseback, likewise escaping for their life. Now another mile from the town, they halted for a few moments, and again placed the prisoners before them. The "teacher" renewed his petition; and, after a brief consultation, his irons were taken off, and he was sent on board the frigate, with a threatening of " certain death if he did not succeed." The other prisoners were obliged to move for- ward, until they reached a strong building at the foot of a golden pagoda, where they were confined for the night. The keeper, as it began to grow dark, was induced, by the promise of a present, to remove them into " a kind of vault," with a small aperture, just sufficient to admit air for breathing. During the night, scarcely an hour passed without some fresh alarm, the keeper himself at last making off. In the morning, the villains entered the pagoda, and not finding their victims in the room where they had left them, they concluded that they had escaped. Outside there . was an unceasing buzz all the morning, the captives dreading every instant they would be dis- 138 A CONFESSOR. covered, and dragged forth to death. At last the cry was heard, " The English are coming ! " and the Bur- mans took to flight. Still they dared not cry out for help; and it was as well, for after an hour or two voices were again heard, and they found themselves once more surrounded by natives. It was now noon ; and the English troops at length came up, to their inexpressible relief and joy. Released from the vault, and from his galling chains, the remaining teacher hastened to the mission, where he found his companion already arrived. The natives had fled to the jungles ; and any one betraying a desire to return to the town was put to death by the Yawoon. The result was an entire sus- pension of all missionary work. But the Lord's candle was not extinguished. " Do you intend to preach Jesus Christ?" said the governor to a disciple one day. " I shall preach," replied Moung Thah-a, meekly, but resolutely. " Jesus Christ is the true God." He did preach, and was put in the stocks for it more than once or twice the last time with his head downward, and with every conceivable indignity. But his faith did not fail. That man was to be honoured at a future day to baptize more than two hundred Burmans. PRISON-LIFE. 139 CHAPTER VII. PRISON LIFE " Death-prison " The gaol-circle The gaolers The "tiger-cat" A ministering angel The first interview The New Testament The pillow A scene in the shed The mince- pie "Touch of nature " The mission-cottage The pale infant Felon-chains First kiss The flickering sun-beam New catastrophe The fetters False alarm British triumphs Retaliations An audience "I pity you" A secret Slow fever The Court- lion The charmer Iron-cage The British lion The den and the cage Burman dictator Fresh 'cruelties The prisoners carried off " Take care of yourself " The old pillow The "roll of hard cotton" Journey to the new prison A good Samaritan A victim The hovel The chained father and his babe Fall of the dictator Release New sufferings The bamboo hut " That is noble" Scene in mission-cottage "She is dead" British advance Prisoner at Ava The governor Scene in the shed " What can it mean ? " Once more free Visit to the cottage The sick-bed " A human object " Scene on the Irriwadi. " DEVOUT faith," says Foster, alluding to a prison- scene elsewhere, " has, in some instances, risen so high, that a man in peril has been enabled to feel as if the question of his life or of his death was more God's concern than his own. ' If God wants my life for farther service, He will preserve it : if He does not 140 THE DEATH-PRISOX. want it, / do not/ " Such a faith was now to shine forth in Burmah ; and out of it was to come a harvest of souls without a parallel in modern missions. The Burmah " death -prison" was a structure of boards, without windows, and with no means of ad- mitting air, except " such crevices as always exist in a simple board-house." Its lack of security was com- pensated by a ghastly array of stocks and shackles, and by the sleepless surveillance of a ruffian guard. Whoever entered its " one small outer door" was regarded as a condemned felon whom nothing but the possible clemency of the sovereign could rescue from an ignominious death. Its inmates were a .motley crew from the court-favourite of yesterday, whom the caprice of the autocrat had thrust into its dismal cells, to the burglar or the murderer, who was await- ing the scaffold. That man in the corner is a decent tradesman, who has failed to execute with sufficient skill some royal order ; and this other, nearer us, is a merchant, whose growing wealth has awakened the avarice of some favoured noble; whilst between them are two villainous countenances, which could have been graven with such lineaments of badness only in the robber's den, or in the assassin's lair. From the prison's damp earth-floor was continually rising " a poisonous miasma," which, with the absence of all ventilation, caused " a sickening sense of suffocation," almost beyond endurance. To crown the horror, the wretched prisoners, " having no regular supply of food, were often brought to the very verge of starvation." THE KEEPERS. 141 On some worship-day the women would come in, as a religious duty, with rice and fruit ; and " the miserable sufferers, maddened by starvation, would eat and die." Corpse after corpse was carried forth the victim of disease, or of hunger, or of violence ; but " the place was always full." And those hideous beings the keepers or " chil- dren of the prison ! " They were branded criminals of the lowest grade ; some having their crime burned into the flesh of their foreheads or breasts ; others having a dark ring upon the cheek, or about the eye; whilst others had mutilated noses, were blind of an eye, or had their ears cut quite away. They formed a distinct class, " intermarrying only amongst themselves, and thus per- petuating vice." The wickedness which had prompted the first crime was " deepened and rendered indelible by constant familiarity with every species of human torture," until these creatures "seemed really to be actuated by some demoniac spirit." The most dis- gusting of the gang was the head-gaoler, who was branded on the breast "murderer," and passed in the prison by the terribly significant sobriquet of " the tiger-cat." Affecting great jocoseness in the midst of his most hideous tortures, he would " bring down his hammer with a jest when fastening manacles," and would affectionately embrace the prisoners as his "be- loved children/' pricking them meanwhile with sharp pins. In that den of horrors lay, week after week, and month after month, the saintly man who had forsaken 142 THE MINISTERING ANGEL. friends, and country, and home, for the sake of these tormentors. The foreigners were "strung" on a bamboo pole, which, with three pairs of fetters for each, kept them fixed in a row on the floor, without mattress or covering, and denied even the poor consolation of a little wooden block for a pillow. They were nine in number, and so closely crowded together that the outside berth was welcomed with the greatest joy. When suffered to walk in the little prison-yard, it was to the clanking of the three heavy fetters ; their ankles only a few inches apart ; and, behind, the hideous guards. And that "ministering angel" at the gateway, on her daily errand of love ! To win from the natives a kindlier welcome, Mrs. Judson had long worn the Burmese style of dress; and it gave to her graceful person an air singularly commanding. Her rich Spanish complexion not to be mistaken for the tawny hue of the native ; her " dark curls, carefully straightened, drawn back from her forehead, and a fragrant cocoa-blossom drooping like a white plume from the knot upon the crown ;" her " saffron vest, thrown open to display the folds of crimson beneath ;" and " a rich silken skirt, wrapped closely about her fine figure, parting at the ankle, and sloping back upon the floor, completed a whole whose attractions often- times would soften even these iron hearts. And all this at a time when her own inward anguish would have led her rather to wash her Lord's feet with her tears and to wipe them with her hair ! One day she waited on the governor, who had sent A GOOD CONFESSION. 143 for her in great displeasure. " You are very bad ! " said he, angrily, as she entered; "why did you tell the royal treasurer that you had given me so much money?" " The treasurer enquired," she replied, alluding to the confiscation-visit at the mission : " what could I say ?" " Say ? to be sure, that you had given nothing. I would have made the teachers comfortable in prison; but now I know not what will be their fate." " But I cannot tell a falsehood ; my religion differs from yours ; it forbids prevarication ; and, had you stood beside me with your knife raised, I could not have said what you suggest." " Very true ! " instantly interposed his wife, who sat at his side, and who from that day became her firm friend; "what else could she have done ? I like such straightforward conduct : you must not," turning to the governor, who had been asked by the royal treasurer to give up the money, and had been ever since in a dreadful rage, threatening to put all the prisoners back into their original place, " no, you must not be angry with her ! " His stern features relaxing, Mrs. Judson adroitly seized the auspicious moment to present him with a beautiful opera-glass which she had just received from England, adding, with her own pecu- liar grace, " Pray do not let your anger at me cause you to treat the prisoners with unkindness ; and I shall endeavour, from time to time, to make your highness such presents as will compensate you for your loss." " You may intercede for your husband only," said he, visibly softening down ; " for your sake, he shall remain where he is : but let the other prisoners take care of 144 THE PILLOW. themselves." She " pleaded hard " for Dr. Price ; but he would not listen, and Price was again thrown into the inner prison. At the end of ten days, however, the governor was mollified by a present of " a piece of broadcloth and two pieces of handkerchiefs ;" and he ordered him back to the outer court. For some days, the devoted woman succeeded in conveying, by a native, communications to her husband in writing ; but one night the messenger was detected, and was beaten and put in the stocks. A few weeks elapsed; and, by virtue of sundry bribes, she was permitted, after hanging about all day, to enter the yard after dark, and to converse for some moments with the captive. On one of the earliest of these visits, they were intent on a plan to preserve the manuscript translation of the New Testament, which Mrs. Judson had secreted, with her silver and a few articles of value, in the earth under the house. It was now the rainy season ; and the paper could not remain there any time without being ruined by the mould, whereas, if placed in the house, it might, at any moment, be carried away and destroyed. What was to be done ? The manuscript contained the greater part -of the New Testament, and many important corrections of the part already in print; it was, therefore, a treasure not to be lightly en- dangered. It was at last decided to sew it up in a pillow, " so mean in its appearance, and withal so hard and uncomfortable, that even the avarice of a Burman would not covet it;" and Mr. Judson was to be its guardian. "When people are loaded with chains/' SCENE IN THE PRISON. 145 was his remark long afterwards, to one who was expressing surprise at his successful execution of the little scheme, "and sleep half their time on a bare board, their senses become so obtuse that they do not know the difference between a hard pillow and a soft one." After a few weeks, she succeeded in bribing the officer to allow her to spend some hours with the prisoners in an open shed in the gaol-yard ; and, some- what later, she was permitted to build in the yard a little bamboo hut, where Mr. Judson might be a while alone, and where she might, at times, be privileged to spend with him two or three hours. His only food was what she provided ; and often it was not allowed to reach him. For weeks together, nothing was permitted but a little rice, savoured with an unpalatable preparation of fish. One day, however, the native disciple came into the prison-enclosure, bearing a little dish carefully wrapt up. It was a mince-pie, which Mrs. Judson, wishing to surprise her husband with something which should remind him of home, had, after much ingenious planning, contrived to concoct ' ' by the aid of buffalo beef and plantains." Moung Ing entered smiling, not doubting that his master must welcome the mysterious preparation which had cost Mrs. Judson so much labour. But the brave heart was thrilled by a pang almost deeper than it could bear. He had seen her in the prison-yard, calmly enduring taunts and insults ; and, when they had met in the bamboo hovel, they had sustained each other's drooping souls : he had heard of L 146 VISION OF THE PAST. her heroic mien before kings and governors, softening their iron hearts and not seldom moving them to tears ; and he had thanked God for the trials which developed a character so truly noble : but in this simple, home-like act (it is his own pen which delineates the scene), in this unpretending effusion of a loving heart, there was something so touching, so unlike the part she had just been acting, and yet so illustrative of what she really was, that he bowed his head upon his knees, and the tears flewed down to the chains about his ankles. The scene is changed ; and there flits before him a vision of the past. He sees again the home of his boyhood. His stern, strangely revered father, his gentle mother, his rosy, curly-haired sister, and pale young brother, are gathered for the noon-day meal ; and he is once more among them, and his fancy revels there. But he lifted his head ! Oh, the misery that surrounded him ! He moved his feet, and the rattling of the heavy chains was as a death-knell. The carefully prepared dinner was thrust into the hand of his associate; and, as quickly as his fetters would allow, he hurried to his own little shed. We are again in the mission-cottage ; and, late at night, reclining on a rocking-chair in one of its little rooms, is the noble woman just returned from the dreary prison, worn out with fatigue and anxiety, and forecasting the dark future. A premature labour comes on ; and there is ushered into the world a pale, puny infant the successor of that " baby-martyr" who already sleeps beneath the waters of the Bay of THE FIRST KISS. 147 Bengal, "a victim to Anglo-Indian persecution/' and of that "meek, blue-eyed Roger/' who has "his bed in the jungle-graveyard at Rangoon." Three weeks elapse; and she is in the prison-doorway, one day, bearing on her bosom the " little wan stranger," with its low, faint wail. The father comes crawling forth, in his felon chains, and imprints oil its brow, as it sleeps, the first parental kiss. In some lines, "composed in his mind at the time, and afterwards written down," he pours out his tender soul, thus : " Sleep, darling infant ! sleep, Hush'd on thy mother's breast ! Let no rude sound of clanking chains Disturb thy balmy rest. Sleep, darling infant ! sleep ; Blest that thou canst not know The pangs that rend thy parents' hearts, The keenness of their woe. Why ope thy little eyes ? What would my darling see ? Thy sorrowing mother's bending form ? Thy father's agony ? Wouldst view this drear abode, Where fettered felons lie, And wonder that thy father here Should as a felon sigh ? Wouldst mark the dreadful sight, Which stoutest hearts appal The stocks, the cord, the fatal sword, The torturing iron-mall ? 148 THE DARLING INFANT. No, darling infant, no ! Thou seest them not at all ; Thou only mark'st the rays of light Which flicker on the wall. Thy lips one art alone, One loving, simple grace, By nature's instinct have been taught : Seek, then, thy nestling-place ! Go, darling infant, go ! Thine hour has pass'd away ; The gaoler's harsh, discordant voice, Forbids thy longer stay." Maria had been two months in this vale of tears, and her father seven months in prison, when a hand of ruffians rushed, one day, into the yard, and, seizing " the white prisoners " and tearing half the clothing off their persons, riveted upon each of them two additional fetters, and dragged them into the inner cell. It was the beginning of the hot season ; and immured in that horrible dungeon were more than a hundred human beings. Night came on, and a whisper passed round the prison that at three in the morning the foreigners were to be led forth to death. " And am I to go at last/' was Mr. Judson's secret thought, " without one farewell word or even look to my unsuspecting wife and child?" But he thought again "Will it not spare her much anxious suffering, to know that all at once and for ever I am safe in glory ? The rudest of the Burmans will not dare to harm her ; and, fruitful in resources, will not she contrive some plan for making NEW CRUELTIES. 149 her way to the English camp, and placing herself under their protection ? " And then, the execution at night was not that a mercy ? As he passed his own door on the way, he might breathe out a silent farewell, whilst she was " spared the parting agony." And his beloved Burmah would not the English conquer it, and thus a free way be opened for the gospel ? And that pillow, which had just gone amissing in the hubbub might not its precious treasure be restored one day, and the land be illumined by its light ? But the fatal hour was drawing nigh ; and in the prison there was a death-like silence, broken, at intervals, only by the voice of Mr. Judson, as it rose in the accents of prayer. The morning wore on, and still no movement, till at length the door opened, and the gaoler entered, grinning maliciously at the terror depicted on sundry countenances ; for it was he who had originated the false alarm about the execution. " Ah ! " said he, " chucking under the chin " one after another, as they crept up to him with their anxious inquiries, ' ' I cannot spare my beloved children yet, just after I have taken so much trouble to procure them fitting orna- ments." And, suiting the action to the word, he " kicked the bamboo-rod, till all the chains rattled and the five rows of fetters dashed together, pinching sharply the flesh which they caught betwixt them." The Burmese army had been defeated by the Eng- lish in a pitched battle ; and the fresh severities inflicted on the unhappy prisoners seemed intended as a cowardly retaliation. That morning a message reached Mrs. 150 THE CATASTROPHE. Judson, announcing the new catastrophe ; and, seeing in it only a prelude to darker evils, she hastened to the governor to intercede. He was out ; but, anticipating her visit, he had, before leaving home, left with his wife this message " You are not to ask to have the additional fetters taken off, or the prisoners released; for it cannot possibly be done/' She next repaired to the prison ; and, as she stood in the gateway, all was still as the grave. She looked into the enclosure; everything was gone mat, pillow, the little bamboo hut ; and not a white face was to be seen. She asked to be admitted, but was sternly refused. In the even- ing she was once more at the governor's ; and, now at home, he gave her audience. As she entered, he looked up without speaking, his countenance betokening a mixture of shame and of affected anger. "Your high- ness," she proceeded, with that queenly dignity and womanly gentleness which were so peculiar to her, u has hitherto treated us with the kindness of a father. Our obligations to you are very great. We have looked to you for protection from cruelty and oppression. You have promised that you would stand by me to the last, and that, though you should receive an order from the king, you would not put Mr. Judson to death. What crime has he committed, to deserve such additional punishment ?" "I pity you, Tsa-yah-ga-dau," replied the old man, weeping like a child. " I knew you would make me feel; I, therefore, forbad your application. But you must believe me when I say that I do not wish to increase the sufferings of the prisoners. When THE COURT LION. 151 I am ordered to execute them, the least I can do is to put them out of sight. I will now tell you/' he con- tinued, " what I have never told you before, that three times I have received intimations from the queen's brother to assassinate all the white prisoners privately, but I would not do it. And I now repeat it," he added, though I execute all the others, I will never execute your husband. But I cannot release him from, his present confinement, and you must net ask it." Mr. Judson had been now a month in the horrible dungeon, worn out with incessant perspiration and loss of appetite, when he was attacked with a slow fever which threatened to destroy his life. His guardian angel, who had lately been allowed to go sometimes to the door for five minutes and to gaze upon the place of suffering, now removed from her own house, and, after many struggles, succeeded in putting up a small bamboo room in the governor's enclosure, nearly op- posite the prison-gate. A day or two afterwards a scene occurred, possessing a strange significance. Tidings had reached Ava that Bandoola, the king's favourite general, had fallen in battle ; and that the English, after completely destroying his army, were marching upon Prome. The court was panic-stricken, the Emperor 'giving up all for lost, and the Empress smiting upon her breast, and crying, " Alas ! alas ! " In the palace was a magnificent lion, which the king, solne time before, had received as a present from Bengal, and which, ever since, had been a special fa- 152 THE CAGE. vourite with his majesty and with all his courtiers. A whisper began to circulate, that on the English standard was emblazoned a lion rampant ; and, at a loss to ac- count for their recent alarming discomfiture, the queen's brother and sundry others about court had ever and anon of late been casting strange glances towards the noble beast, as possibly the demon whose evil influence gave to the enemy a certain charmed power. At first, not venturing to give the suspicion shape in words, they gradually had argued themselves into the belief, until at length it was demanded one. day that the royal pet should be committed to the death-prison ; and the queen 5 s brother had resolved that he should die. One morning an iron cage arrived in the yard, and in it the court-lion. The first night passed, and no food was given to him ; and the second, and the third. Writhing in the pangs of hunger, and parched with thirst, the animal roared with pain until the prison-foundations shook. As night came on, some compassionate woman would steal to the cage and thrust a morsel between the bars, but only to leave him raving more terrifically than ever. At other times a pail of water, thrown over him by one of the guards, he would greet with an " almost human shriek of pleasure," though only to lengthen out a little longer his term of agony. At last, one morning, he was prostrate in the cage, and the skeleton was dragged forth and buried. It was the British lion resisting in vain the victorious Burman ! That morning, as usual, Mrs. Judson appeared at the gate ; and her husband, " crawling with the upper A REFUGE. 153 part of his body, his feet still attached to the moveless bamboo rod/' hastened to broach to her a new plan of relief. The lion's empty cage what a comfortable retreat it might be made for him, whilst this distressing fever lasted ! The gaoler had refused it ; for it would be "an insult to royalty:" but the governor might not he relent? To the governor she at once repaired; day after day she pleaded with the old man, until at length, worn out with her entreaties, he allowed her to remove the sufferer from the den to the cage, and her- self to go in and out at pleasure, administering food and medicine. In the midst of the consternation at court since the disastrous news from the seat of war, an energetic officer, lately in disgrace for his crimes, had volunteered to repair the tottering fortunes of the empire by raising a new force. The offer had been accepted, and he had been created absolute dictator. A bitter enemy of all foreigners, he had scarcely assumed the reins of govern- ment, when the luckless inmates of the prison began to feel the weight of his iron rule. One morning Mrs. Judson was sitting in the cage solacing the sufferer, who was very low with the fever, when suddenly a message arrived from the governor, re- quiring her immediate presence. At first relieved to find that he " only wished to consult her about his watch," she discovered ere long that his real object was to detain her until another dreadful tragedy should be over in the prison. "All the white prisoners are carried away," whispered one of the servants to her, as she was 154 THE WARNING. passing from the governor's room to her little hut. Hastening back to the governor, she told him what she had just heard, adding, that she " could not believe it to be true." " I heard this morning they were to be removed," said the old man, with some emotion, " but I did not wish to tell you." Running into the street to get a glimpse of them before they were out of sight, she enquired of every one she met, where they were gone ; but no one took any notice. " They are away towards the little river," an old woman at length said to her ; " they are to be taken to Amarapoora." But, flying to the bank of the river, about half a mile dis- tant, she could find no trace of them. Another half hour passed, and she was again in the presence of the governor. She hastened back to the governor, and entreated to be informed of their destination. " Since you were here," said he, "I have learned that the prisoners are to be sent to Amarapoora, but for what purpose I know not. I will send off a man imme- diately, to ascertain what is to be done with them. You can do nothing more for your husband," he added, significantly ; " take care of yourself!" These last words of the governor haunted her that night, as she sat alone in the little hut, waiting until the darkness should make it safe to go over to the mission to prepare for setting out after the prisoners. " You must not go into the streets to-night alone," whispered the old man to her kindly, as she returned to him for a few moments to ask leave to deposit in his house two or three trunks of the most valuable articles THE PILLOW. J 55 still remaining, together with the doctor's medicine- chest : "I will send you in a cart, and a man shall go with you to open the gates." On her way, she was met by the disciple Moung Ing, who had just stumbled on a precious treasure. On the day that Mr. Judson was thrust so rudely into the inner prison, the old pillow with the New Testament manuscript had fallen into the hands of one of the keepers. A week or two afterwards, Judson had proposed to give in exchange for it a more valuable article, which his wife had just brought to him; and the keeper had gladly surrendered it, wondering, no doubt, at the white man's peculiar taste. This morning, the prisoners had scarcely been hurried out of the gaol, when a ruffian was seen untying the cover of the prized pillow, and throwing away the ap- parently worthless " roll of hard cotton." It was this roll which Ing had found on the road and brought to Mrs. Judson. Deposited that night in the mission, it was one day to form part of the Burmese printed Bible. On her return, she met a servant of Mr. Gouger, who had happened that morning to be at the prison, and had since been to Amarapoora. " I followed them/' he told her, " all the way. They were carried before the lamine-woon ; and to-morrow they are to be sent for- ward to a village distant some miles." What a day of agony it had been to them ! The moment Mrs. Judson left the prison, a gaoler had rushed into the cage, seized her husband by the arm, pulled him out, stripped him of his clothes, except his shirt and pantaloons, and, casting aside his shoes, 156 THE CHAINED GANG. hat, and bedding, and tearing off his chains, tied a rope round his waist, and dragged him off to the court-house, where the other prisoners had previously arrived. Tied two and two, they were delivered into the hands of an officer, who, himself riding on before on horseback, ordered his slaves to drive the gang, each slave holding the rope which connected the two together. It was May, and within an hour of noon ; and the sun poured down his scorching rays with an intensity almost intolerable. Unlike his fellow-prisoners, who had not possessed in an attached wife a " link betwixt them- selves and that humanity which could not well find existence in such a den," Mr. Judson had always kept his shoulders covered, and had never parted with his stockings and shoes; and so, now that they were for the first time torn away, he had not proceeded half a mile when his feet began to blister, and so great was his agony that in crossing the little river nothing but a sense of the sin of such an act prevented him " ending his misery there and then, by throwing himself into the water." They advanced ; and " the sand and gravel were to their feet like burning coals, soon making them perfectly destitute of skin." Four miles onward, they stopped for water; and Mr. Judson debilitated by fever, and not having tasted food that day begged the officer to allow him to ride his horse a mile or two, as he could not proceed further. The only reply was a fiend-like look, and a fresh goad- ing from the driver. For a mile or two, the English- man who was tied with him a strong and healthy HOREIBLE SUFFERINGS. 157 man kept him from sinking, by giving him his shoulder. And, just as the kind-hearted man found the burden no longer supportable, there came up another prisoner's Bengalee servant, who, seeing Mr. Judson's extremity, instantly took off his turban, and, tearing it in two, wrapped the cotton round his wounded feet, and also round his master's, at the same time offering Mr. Judson his shoulder, and almost carrying him the remainder of the way. Meanwhile, the brutal officer would not suffer one moment's halt, but drove them on mercilessly, until at length, as they passed through a little village, one of them expired. They were thrown into an old shed, without mat or pillow, or any vestige of covering. He bade them squat down for the night, as if they had been so many cattle. A woman of the village was curious enough to visit them ; and, moved to pity by their misery, she brought for their refreshment some fruit, sugar, and tamarinds. And, at last, falling asleep from sheer exhaustion, they closed the day of horrors. The next morning, after a welcome meal of rice, they were moved forward in carts. All the way, they anticipated martyrdom ; for at Ava a report had reached them that they were to be burned. In the forenoon, as they were conducted into an old dilapidated prison at Oung-pen-la, the rumour seemed to gather force; but some natives began to repair the building, and there must at least be a brief reprieve. They had not been there two hours, when Mrs. Judson arrived, carry- ing her infant, and accompanied by her Bengalee cook, 158 A SPECTACLE. and by two of the native children. tf Why have you come ?" asked Mr. Judson affectionately, as he caught the eye of his devoted wife, and seemed to feel as if in this other self his own pains were to be redoubled. " I hoped you would not follow, for you cannot live here." The afternoon passed, and she had obtained no refreshment either for herself or for him. And, as night came on, she asked one of the gaolers if she might put up near the prison, for a shelter, " a little bamboo house." " No," said he, coldly ; " it is not customary." And, stowing her away into a little hovel half full of grain, he gave her a little rice-water, and left her for the night. In that miserable place, with only a mat spread over the grain for a bed, and without a chair or seat of any kind, she was to spend the next six months. Attacked by small-pox, and unable longer to suckle her child, or to procure for it a nurse or a drop of milk, she prevailed on the gaolers, by sundry presents, to allow Mr. Judson to go out in his chains for a brief half hour once or twice a-day, and, with the poor emaciated babe in his arms, to beg in the village a little nourishment from those mothers who had suck- ling infants. What a spectacle ! That noble man, with a bearing and accomplishments such as might command the homage of the most refined and polished circles of the earth, carrying from door to door, in a rude Indian village, his poor little wailing child, with but a few inches of chain betwixt his shackled feet, a beggar at the breasts of pitying Hindoo mothers ! RELEASE. ]59 " Be this, then, a lesson to thy soul, that thou reckon nothing worth- less Because thou heedest not its use, nor knowest the virtues thereof." The Hebrew Lawgiver, at the water-trough in Midian, was another learner in the same school of God. It had been whispered about for some weeks, that Oung-pen-la was to be honoured with a visit from the military dictator. No good was augured, and sundiy gloomy surmises were abroad among the hapless pri- soners. But news arrived, one day, which relieved many an aching heart. Having raised an army of fifty thousand men, with which he was on the point of marching against- the English, the dictator was sud- denly suspected of treason, and, without the least examination, was instantly beheaded. The prisoners had scarcely heard the tidings, when the startling fact oozed out, that they had been ordered to Oung-pen-la by the villain for the express purpose of being* mas- sacred, and that the purposed visit was to afford him the satisfaction of witnessing the horrid scene. They had now been six months in this dismal abode, when a messenger arrived one morning from the palace at Ava, announcing that the king had ordered Mr. Judson's release. On first setting out for Rangoon, the Burman army had been provided by the haughty monarch with a pair of golden fetters, to bring bound to Ava the English Govern or- General ! But defeat upon defeat had begun at length to bend the spirit of the proud potentate ; and now the rapid approach of the British forces towards the capital had 160 NEW AGONIES. convinced him that something must be done to save " the golden city." Negotiations for peace were to be attempted ; and Mr. Judson was wanted as " translator and interpreter." The next day, he was on his way down the river. The little boat was so crowded that there was not room to lie down ; and exposed, without any covering, to the scorching sun by day, and to the heavy November dews by night he arrived the third day at Maloun, in a violent fever, which threatened to end all his sufferings. The bank of the river at this point was a wide expanse of white glittering sand, assuming in the sunlight an intense metallic glare, and reflecting such a heat as might come from a burning furnace. At some distance was encamped the Burmese force ; and into a small bamboo hut, half-way betwixt the camp and the river, was conducted by his guard the future interpreter, more dead than alive. Scarcely had 'he laid himself down in the miserable shelter, when he was summoned into the presence of the ge- neral ; and, unable to move, he was pronounced by the officers to be " stubborn." " We shall take measures," said they, menacingly, " which will make him obe- dient to our master's call, and will make him work, too, in spite of his pretences." And there he lay, in the floorless hovel, not an opening to admit one breath of air, and that intolerable white glitter pene- trating through the crevices in the sides, and the heat radiating from the burning sand and piercing the fragile bamboo-braids like gauze ! " Oh, that I were back to Ava in my chains ! " he cried, writhing FEVERED BRAIN. 161 in the unutterable agony ; "or that the fever searing in my brain would only make me quite mad ! " For a day or two, the officers, finding that he really could not move, brought to the hut certain papers to be explained ; but at length, one night, his wish was granted, and reason lost her seat. Day after day passed ; and there flitted across that fevered brain visions which seemed to grave into its tablet past scenes with a new terror. There was " a coming and going of sandalled feet ' ; the " solemn entrance of a shaven crown and yellow robe" and latterly a pro- cession out of the prison at Oung-pen-la to the fire where he was to be burned alive ! With returning conscious- ness, he found himself lying alone in a little room, formed by suspending a mat from the projecting eaves of a cook-house. Not from compassion, but from a selfish dread of losing his services, they had taken the alarm and removed him to this refuge. And, now that his mental vigour had returned, they brought to his bed daily papers for advice and explanation. Perceiving the panic which had come upon them, he laboured to ac- custom them to the concessions which he foresaw they soon must make, and also to inspire into their sus- picious minds a just confidence in the integrity and high principle of their conquerors. " That is noble ! " they would say, as he set forth with his own peculiar power the ideas and motives which actuate civilised nations ; " that is as it should be ! " " But," they would imme- diately add, the treacherous bent of the native mind again overbearing the " fine vein of truth and honesty" M 162 "SHE is DEAD!" which ran through it, " the teacher dreams ; he has a celestial spirit ; and so he thinks himself in the land of the Celestials/' Meanwhile, at the mission-cottage, Mrs. Judson had been seized with the " spotted fever." The fever raged violently for seventeen days, until at length she lapsed into unconsciousness. In the room were some Burmese neighbours, who had come in to see her expire. " She is dead ! " they were whispering, as she lay prostrated on the bed; "if the King of angels should come in, he could not restore her." But Dr. Price, who had also been released from prison, and had obtained leave to visit her, resolved to make an effort. Her hair was shaven off; her head and feet were covered with blisters ; and the Bengalee attendant was ordered to endeavour to persuade her to take a little nourish- ment, which she had obstinately refused for several days. By and by, consciousness returned; and the first thing she noticed was the faithful servant at her side, trying to induce her to take a little wine and water. Slowly she regained her strength, though at the end of a month she was scarcely able to stand. The "interpreter" had now been upwards of six weeks in the cot at Maloun, when news arrived at the camp that the English were advancing from Prome. Instantly Judson was ordered back to Ava ; and, at five minutes' notice, he was marched on board a little boat under a strict guard. On his way up the river, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the official commu- nication from the camp. " We have no farther use RETURN TO AVA. 163 for Yood-thau," it ran ; ' ' we therefore return him to the golden city/' Late in the evening, he approached Ava ; and, casting a wistful look at the mission-cottage, and observing at the window a feeble glimmer, he en- treated from his conductors permission to enter, if it were only for five minutes. But no ; they " had orders to take him direct to the court-house/ 7 and they "dared not disobey." Hurried onward, and arriving too late to be examined that evening, he was turned into an outbuilding, where, still under guard, he " crouched down" until morning. " From what place were you sent to Maloun ? " enquired the presiding officer, the next day, as the prisoner was brought up for examination. " From Oung-pen-la." " Let him, then, be returned thither." And he was conducted by the guard to an out-of-the-way shed used as a tem- porary prison, to remain until he should be conveyed to Oung-pen-la. As he passed along, he was recognised by a Burman, who hastened to the mission to inform Mrs. Judson. The shock was so dreadful, that "for some time she could hardly breathe." At last, regaining sufficient composure, and having committed her way to Him who had said, " Call upon me in the day of trouble, and / will hear, and thou shalt glorify me," she despatched Moung Ing for she was herself unable to rise with a message to the old governor, begging him to make one more effort on behalf of the prisoner ; " for," she added, " I know that he must suffer much, and I cannot follow him." The governor promised to present 164 FREE. to the high court of the empire a petition for his release, offering himself as his security. After a long search, the disciple found Mr. Judson in the " shed/' where he had been since morning without food. " Tell her/' was his message to Mrs. Judson, "to keep up courage one day longer; it is almost certain I shall be with her to-morrow." The interview with the faithful Burman had left a strange impression on Mr. Judson's spirit. That mysterious hesitation of manner in his answers about Mrs. Judson' s health what could it mean? The child was well; for he had said that unhesitatingly. But why so embarrassed about the other ? Could it be, could it really be, that anything serious had befallen her, and that he had been kept in the dark ? And yet she must be living ; else why those messages ? " She must have been living/' whispered a withering doubt within, " when she gave the directions to Moung Ing." The thought weighed all night upon his spirit, seeming to concentrate whole ages into those few hours. In the morning, the prisoner was brought up in court ; the kind old man was accepted as his security ; and Mr. Judson was once more free.* Hastening homeward in spite of his maimed ankles, he found the door " invitingly open ;" and, unobserved by any eye, he entered. In the first room, squatted * The imprisonment had extended altogether over one year and seven months ; including nine months in three pairs of fetters, two months in five, six months in one, and two a prisoner at large. THE CHAMBER. 165 among the ashes surrounding a little pan of live-coals, was " a fat, half-naked, Burmese woman," holding on her knees a wan, dirt-begrimed baby : that cou^d not be his ! he glanced at it, and passed on. The next room was reached ; and across the foot of a rude bed, " as if she had fallen there," lay "a human object," so pale, so ghastly, so emaciated, that, for one moment only, the question arose, " Can that be mine ?" and again he was about to pass on. But where else could she be ? for, as he glanced forward into the only remaining room, there was no human being there. Turning to the sleeper in the bed, he gazed in mute bewilderment. Where were the glossy black curls which used to adorn that finely-shaped head ? and that closely-fitting cotton cap, so coarse and so soiled and those so sharp features and that form so shrunken ! could this be she who, for so many months, had followed him from prison to prison, ministering so devotedly to his ne- cessities, and now herself without one hand to smooth her pillow, or one heart to beat in symp.athy ? He bent over her; arid a great tear trickled down that manly face. It touched her, and she awoke. But, ere long, the dark shadow passed. " What do you think," said he, one evening, months afterwards, as some friends were relating anecdotes of different men in different ages, illustrative of the highest type of enjoy- ment derivable from outward circumstances, " What do you think of floating down the Irriwadi, on a cool, moon- light evening, with your wife at your side, and your baby in your arms? free, all free! But you cannot 166 THE DELICIOUS THRILL. understand it ; it needs a twenty-one month's qualifi- cation : and I can never regret my twenty-one months of misery, when I recall that one delicious thrill. I think/' he added, " I have had a better appreciation of what heaven may be ever since." SCENE IN THE BRITISH CAMP. 167 CHAPTER VIII. Scene in the English camp The trembling culprit " Old acquaint- ances " A retrospect The silk umbrella Deathly pale " Nothing to fear" New self-dedication Ann Judson's illness " Almost ethereal" Scene on the river A group Prophetic 'tears Fever Death The bereaved Burmese worship A volunteer Village-scenes Inquirers A change- New awaken- ings "Little Maria" "Dark touch of death" 'The hopia- tree Aspirations A convert's death-bed Heavenly joy. IN the English camp there was witnessed one day a scene not a little grotesque. Peace had been con- cluded; and the Burmese commissioners had been invited by the English general to a magnificent dinner in celebration of the event. The company had arrived, and were now marching in couples, to the music of the band, towards the table, led by the general, who walked alone. As they came opposite a tent of more than ordinary dimensions, suddenly the music ceased ; the whole procession stood still ; and, as the Burmans gazed eagerly at each new incident of the august ceremony, the general entered the tent. In a few moments he reappeared, conducting a lady, whom he 168 THE PANIC. seated at his right hand at the table. The commis- sioners recognised her features, and were observed to shrink ^abashed into their seats. " I fancy, Mrs. Judson," said the general a little afterwards, remarking the bewildered countenances of his guests, and half- suspecting the cause, "these gentlemen must be old acquaintances of yours ; and, judging from their look, you must have treated them very ill.-" Mrs. Judson smiled; and the strangers, gathering from sundry symp- toms that the conversation related to them, looked blank with consternation. " What is the matter with yonder owner of the pointed beard ? " continued the general, still addressing Mrs. Judson, and directing his look to a Burman who was even more pale than the others; " he seems to be seized with an ague-fit." " I do not know," she replied, steadily fixing her eye upon him, and perhaps enjoying his confusion, " unless it be that his memory is too busy. He is an old acquaintance of mine, and may probably infer danger to himself from seeing me under your protection." One morning, some months before, when her hus- band was suffering from fever, with five pairs of fetters about his ankles, and almost stifled by the close con- finement, she had called at the house of a government dignitary to ask some slight relief. It was a broiling day ; and, after walking several miles, she had been kept waiting till noon before she was allowed to see him. " I cannot grant it," he replied, angrily, and she was turning sorrowfully away. " Stay ! " shouted a voice, imperiously; "what is that in your hand?" THE COLD STEEL. 169 It was a silk umbrella, which she had with her to shield her from the scorching sun ; and, as she approached, he seized it, adding, with a coarse grin, "This will answer me." " But I dare not walk home without it," she replied ; " and I have no money with me to buy anything to shelter me from the sun." After a pause, and seeing him determined to keep it, she added " If you will have it, at least give me a paper one to protect me from the scorching heat." Another laugh, and, turning into a jest the very cruelties which had wasted her, he added "It is only stout people who are in danger of a sun-stroke; the sun cannot find such as you;" and with that he had turned her rudely from the door. The heartless villain was now at the table ; and, as the tale was narrated, indignant glances at the culprit seemed to reveal to him all that was passing, despite the effort to maintain that courtesy with which English- men are wont to adorn their festive board. There he sat, deathly pale, the perspiration oozing from his face in large drops. And yonder, in the place of honour, sat the lady whom he had maltreated ; and a yard or two distant was her husband, just released from those fetters which he had done more than any other to rivet. A Burman so placed would have demanded the caitiff's head ; and the conscience-smitten commissioner looked as if he felt the cold steel already on his neck. But too tender-hearted to prolong his agony, Mrs. Judson said to him softly, in Burmese, " You have nothing to fear." Immediately the conversation turned into an- 170 THE LESSON. other channel, and every means was taken to restore his composure ; but conscience would not have it so, the poor creature trembled all the rest of the night. " I never," observed Mr. Judson, long afterwards nar- rating the incident, "thought I was over and above vindictive ; but really it was one of the richest scenes I ever beheld." After a few days, the Judsons set out for Rangoon, pondering on their way the strange experiences of these two years. "Why," they asked themselves, " were we permitted to go to Ava ? What good has been effected ? God's ways are not as man's." But He who took Paul three years into Arabia, and Luther one to Wartburg, and Elijah three to the solitudes of Cherith and of Zarephath, and Moses forty to Midian, had His lessons for Judson, such as only that discipline could teach. " We are sometimes induced to think," he wrote from Rangoon, after reviewing the mysterious leadings, " that the lesson we found so hard to learn, will have a beneficial though silent effect through our lives, and that the mission may, in the end, be advanced rather than retarded. Our faith assures us that He who has brought us in safety through so many narrow passages, will bring us into a wide field at last." The work baptized with so fiery a baptism, was to receive once more the stamp of heaven. But one of the labourers was first to be taken elsewhere. It had been noticed of late by observant eyes, that Mrs. Judson bore about with her a peculiar halo of heavenliness, as if she were drawing near, un- HEAVENLY HALO. 171 consciously, to the " celestial city." " She was seated," writes an English officer, describing a scene on the Irriwadi, " in a large sort of swinging chair, of Ameri- can construction, in which her slight, emaciated, but graceful form, appeared almost ethereal. Yet, with much of heaven, there were still the breathings of earthly feelings about her ; for at her feet rested a babe a little, wan baby on which her eyes often turned with all a mother's love ; and gazing frequently upon her delicate features with a fond, yet fearful glance, was that meek, intellectual-looking missionary, her husband. Her face was pale very pale with that expression of deep and serious thought which speaks of the strong and vigorous mind within the frail and perishing body ; her dark hair was braided over a placid and holy brow; but her hands those small, lily hands were quite beautiful ; beautiful they were, and very wan, for, ah ! they told of disease of death death, in all its trans- parent grace, when the sickly blood shines through the clear skin, even as the bright poison lights up the Venetian glass which it is about to shatter. When I looked my last on her mild, worn countenance, I felt my eyes fill with prophetic tears. They were not perceived. We parted, and we never met again." Six months had passed, since their escape from the fangs of the tyrant. Mr. Judson had gone with the British commissioner, at his urgent request, on an ex- ploring expedition into the provinces ceded by Burmah to England; and his wife surrounded by various fa- milies of converts who had followed her to Amherst, 172 THE MARTYR OF JESUS CHRIST. the new scene of missionary labour was rejoicing in the prospect of "calling the poor perishing Burmans to listen to the glad tidings of the Gospel," when sud- denly, one day, she was seized with a violent fever, which, from the first, she believed to be the messenger sent to call her home. A kind English physician, and the military officer of the station, laboured assiduously for seven days, procuring her every solacement which skill or Christian sympathy could devise ; but the severe privations and protracted sufferings of the Ava martyr- dom had done their work, and calmly and peacefully she "fell asleep" a martyr of Jesus Christ. " Eternity unveiled its brow, And God enshrined the soul." It was on the evening of October 24, 1826, and in her thirty-seventh year. Some weeks elapsed ; and the bereaved missionary stood at her grave, and then at the spot where they had last knelt in prayer and had exchanged the part- ing kiss. " I have lost one of the first of women," he wrote " the best of wives. Oh, with what meek- ness, and patience, and magnanimity, and Christian fortitude, she bore those sufferings in Ava ! And can I wish they had been less ? Can I sacrilegiously wish to rob her crown of a single gem ? Much she saw and suffered of the evil of this evil world; and eminently was she qualified to relish and to enjoy the pure and holy rest into which she has entered. I feel a strong desire henceforth to know nothing among NEW LABOURS. 173 this people but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and, under an abiding sense of the comparative worthless- ness of all worldly things, to avoid every secular occu- pation, and all literary and scientific pursuits, and to devote the remainder of my days to the simple declara- tion of the all-precious truth of the Gospel of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." A week or two after his return, aided by a mis- sionary who had just arrived from America, he com- menced worship in Burmese, the first for two years and a half. About twenty natives assembled, seven of them afterwards joining in the communion. One evening, after a meeting for prayer, Moung Ing ex- pressed an earnest desire to be sent forth to preach the gospel ; and, a fortnight later, he embarked on board a native boat for Tavoy, the first Burman evangelist. God prospered him in his work. " I am preaching/' he wrote some weeks afterwards, "the gospel to all I meet, in the streets, in houses, in zayats. Some contradict, some revile, some say, ' These words are good, but the religion is too hard for us/ One day I met a woman who praised the meritorious efficacy of religious offerings. I preached to her the vanity of such offerings, and the truth of Jesus Christ. The woman repeated my words to her husband. Soon after, as I was passing by, the husband called me in, and invited me to preach there. Next Sunday I went to the house, and found they had invited about fifteen of the neighbours to hear me preach. In the midst of preaching, some rose up and went away ; others stayed 174 FRESH CONVERSIONS. and listened till I had finished, among whom there are three or four persons who continue to appear well. I conduct public worship every Lord's day. Among other means of attracting company, I intend to prepare and suspend a religious writing in front of my house. But while man devises, God's pleasure alone will be accomplished; and, under this impression, I desire to continue in my work." Other tokens of God's presence were given. One day a native the wife of a French trader from Ran- goon intimated her desire to become a full " dis- ciple/' by being baptized. Mr. Judson explained to her "the necessity of the new birth, without which baptism would avail her nothing ;" and gradually the case became "very encouraging." A long conversa- tion satisfied him that she was a subject of renewing grace, and that " as a growing Christian" she ought to be admitted to those sources of nourishment which the Great Shepherd had provided for the sustenance of His flock. On another occasion, he welcomed three hopeful inquirers one of them the son-in-law of a Peguan chief of whom he writes : "At the close of the discourse to-day, which treated of the ' wisdom, right- eousness, sanctification, and redemption,' which Christ is to all believers, he broke out into some audible expressions of satisfaction. This led to some conversa- tion after worship, in which he professed a desire to know more of this religion; 'for,' said he, 'the more I understand it, the better I like it.' From being a noisy, talkative man, of assumed airs and consequence, A NEW STROKE. 175 he has become quiet, and modest, and docile." Another day, he wrote : " Had a novel assembly of thirteen, all, except one, ignorant of the first principles of Christ- ianity. They paid uncommon attention, and proposed several questions, which occasioned a desultory and animated conversation of some hours. One old Pha- risee expressed his fear that all his good works were nugatory, and declared his sincere desire to know the real truth." And, again : " A succession of company, from morning till afternoon some listening with much seriousness, particularly Moung Gway, a man of some distinction. It is his second visit, and his whole ap- pearance indicated real earnestness." And, once more : " Moung Shoon and Moung Pan-pyoo, two of our principal workmen, were with me a great part of the day ; and I cannot but hope that they are enquiring seriously after the truth." A new affliction visited him. The darling child the one remaining pledge of the love which lately had been so rudely torn was suddenly snatched away. " My little Maria," wrote he, " lies by the side of her fond mother. All our efforts, and prayers, and tears, could not propitiate the cruel disease; the work of death went forward ; and, after the usual process, ex- cruciating to a parent's heart, she ceased to breathe the day before yesterday, at three o'clock, P.M., aged two years and three months. We then closed her faded eyes, and bound up her discoloured lips, where the dark touch of death first appeared ; and we folded her little hands on her cold breast. The next morning, 176 A HAPPY DEATH-BED. we made her last bed in the small enclosure which surrounds her mother's lonely grave. Together they rest in hope, under the hope-tree (hopid), which stands at the head of the graves ; and together, I trust, their spirits are rejoicing, after a short separation of precisely six months. I am left alone in the wide world. My own dear family I have buried, one in Rangoon, and two in Amherst. What remains for me but to hold myself in readiness to follow the dear departed to that blessed world ' Where my best friends, my kindred, dwell, Where God, my Saviour, reigns ' ? " Some weeks later, a convert lay on her death-bed. " Now," said she, one evening, with a calm sweet smile, after having made her will, " I have done with all worldly things. My name, I know, is written in heaven ; and I am hastening to a blissful immortality." Another night, she spoke of the joy of meeting Mrs. Judson and dear little Maria and others whose names were fragrant to her, when suddenly she stopped short, and said, " But, first of all, I shall hasten to where my Saviour sits, and shall fall down and worship and adore Him for His great love in sending the teachers to show me the way to heaven." At length, one morning, quietly and serenely, without a groan or a sigh, she took her departure, " Speeding at a wish, emancipate, to where the stars are suns." Meanwhile, other fields were whitening; and the Lord of the harvest was preparing fresh sickles. ANOTHER LABOURER. 177 CHAPTER IX. A NEW LABOURER Early characteristics " A look " The college- circle A prayer Gleam of sunshine Ruling passion "A very little Christian" Literary honours The angel-call Another sickle Fair girl of Massachusetts Early training The Spirit-birth Missionary longings The elegy A meeting "Joint- dedication Scene in Burmah Groups The " foreigner " " White foreigness " The jungle The bamboo-house Bur- man inquirers " Fire in the bones " A native preacher- Two boys "Not afraid to die" A deliverance Judson at Maul- main Zayat scenes " All wrong " " I will, I will " A native scholar Leighton " Eminently holy" Patterns Fashionable society Power of holiness Conversions Baptisms " Drink- ing in instruction " " Settled for ever." IN the first year of the present century, early in spring, there was born at Livermore, in the State of Maine, a child who was destined for a brief but bright course. Early given to books, he was able, at the age of sixteen, to govern a turbulent school, calming " by a look " a scene of anarchy into the most settled order. "If a boy withstands a look," he would say, humorously, " I usually consider him a hopeless character." About that period, he was first awakened into deep concern 178 LIFE-DEVOTEMENT. for his soul. "I saw/' says he, "that, should God cut me off and send me to hell, He would be just. I wept over my sins, but found no relief." Entering college, he was thrown into a little circle who, com- passionating his anxiety, left no effort untried to bring him to Christ. The students slept two in a room ; and, one day, he discovered that his companion " constantly repaired to his chamber once a-day, and spent one quarter of an hour in earnest prayer for his conversion." At length, a gleam of sunshine broke upon him. He had been praying, that, if he "did not find peace in believing," he "might never find it in anything else;" and now " the love of Christ appeared truly incompre- hensible" his soul was "melted with that love" his heart " throbbed with joy " his " eyes were suf- fused with tears." A week or two afterwards, GEORGE DAVID BOARDMAN confessed Christ at His table. " I cannot," he says, " express the joy I felt on that occa- sion. The half of the enjoyment to be found in the service of God had not been told me. I almost fancied myself disembodied from the flesh, and desired to depart and to be with Christ." The salvation of souls now became his ruling pas- sion. " I want," said he, one day, " to tell the world what a Saviour I have found. Souls are perishing by thousands in heathen lands, without the knowledge of Christ. Oh, my God ! what shall I do ? where shall I go ? I am willing, so far as I know myself, to devote my all to the service of my God. Lord, direct me I Send me where Thou wilt 1 I am Thine. Only let THE FAIR GIRL OF MASSACHUSETTS. 179 me glorify Thee in all things, whether by life or by death." " You must be willing/' a friend observed to him, " to be a very little Christian'' " Dear Lord/' was his silent ejaculation, the tear glistening in his eye, " let me be the least of all saints. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness." Literary ambition presented its attractions ; he was offered a professorship in his college, with the prospect of its presidential chair. But, one evening, as he sat alone in his study, tidings from Burrnah announced that a youthful soldier of the cross had fallen, and that a fresh man was wanted to enter the breach. It sounded in his ears like a call from God ; and, in a few months, he was designated to the East. Another heart gave a responsive echo to the same call. In a pleasant town of Massachusetts, there lived a fair young girl, with " warm, meek, blue eyes/' the eldest of a family of thirteen, and early inured to toil and care, and to habits of patient industry. Years passed on, and Sarah Hall's undiminished cares did not hinder the budding of a singular talent for poetry ; and at seventeen she was immersed in such grave studies as Butler's "Analogy," Paley's " Evidences/' Campbell's " Philosophy of Rhetoric," in addition to Latin, Logic, and Geometry. As yet without God, she would at one moment tremble at the thought of death, whilst at another, she would be " all happiness, as though the earth were one vast flower, and she a butter- fly, moulded expressly to sip its sweets." But the 180 THE MEETING. "spirit-birth" came; and she wrote "I have this day* publicly manifested my determination to forsake the objects of earth and live henceforth for heaven. I have been pained," she added, "by the thought of those who have never heard the sound of the gospel. When will the time come that the poor heathen, now bowing to idols, shall own the living and true God?" At that moment, Sarah also heard the tidings of the death of Colman; and, in a touching elegy, she wrote : " The Spirit of love from on high The hearts of the holy has fired ; Lo ! they come, and with transport they cry, We will go where our brother expired, And labour and die." The ele^y was printed ; and, a week or two after- wards, it met the eye of the. youthful Boardman. "Where," he thought to himself, "can the harp be hidden, whose strings give so true an echo to that which vibrates in my own heart?" Ere long, they met; and their spirits, their hopes, their aspirations were one. A month or two more, and George and Sarah Boardman were on the wide ocean, feeling that " to point the wretched Burmans to the cross of Christ was to be the great object of their lives." It was a beautiful evening at Maulmain, the gorgeous sun setting behind the forest-crested hills ; and men " in loose garments of gaily-plaided cloth, with their long black hair wound about their heads and confined * June 4, 1820. SCENE IN BURMAH. 181 by folds of muslin/' might be seen, in the twilight, dropping in cautiously at the door of " the foreigner," and listening to his story of grace. As yet, he could utter only a few broken sentences; but there was a savour about them, and a tenderness, and a sympathy, which seemed to touch those rough hearts, and, night after night, they lingered on his lips, as if a more than mortal spell held them. Women, too, and children, would gather of a morning, to listen to the "white foreigness," her fair skin, and strange costume, and noble bearing, striking them with a certain awe ! It was the Boardmans on their destined field of labour. In front, was a broad, beautiful river, traversed by curiously shaped Indian boats, and, lying at anchor, an English sloop of war ; behind, a fine range of hills, surmounted at intervals by the white or gilded pagoda ; whilst, close at hand, was a thick jungle, from whose recesses in the night resounded dismally in their ears the bowlings of the tiger and of the hysena. After a brief sojourn with Judson, they had removed to that spot, erecting on it a small bamboo house. And, sur- veying the vast masses of idolaters on every side, they wrote : " These are the people for whom we are willing to labour and to die. We are in excellent health, and as happy as it is possible for human beings to be upon earth. We need only to be delivered from our inward corruptions, and we should enjoy a little heaven here below." One Sabbath morning, early, eight respectable Burmans called at the bamboo house. " Teacher ! " 182 FIRE IN THE BONES. they enquired anxiously, " is this your day for worship ? We have come to hear you preach; we wish to know what this new religion is." And, begging them to be seated, Mr. Boardman spent several hours with them, explaining the leading truths of the gospel. It was all new ; and they listened with an eagerness which seemed to augur the rise of the daystar in their hearts. Another day, the Boardmans were walking on the road with their "little babe," when in a few moments they found themselves surrounded by a " group of some sixty children, all under twelve years of age." "Oh, how we longed," wrote the missionary in his diary, <{ to be imparting to them the saving truths of the gospel ! Indeed, no one who has not been in similar circumstances can tell how a missionary feels on be- holding hundreds and thousands around him, perishing for lack of knowledge, with no one to point them to the Lamb of God. A fire is shut up in his bones ; he struggles to give it vent in language : but his tongue, chained in silence, cannot perform its office. May the Lord listen to our cries, and send salvation to this people ! " Late one evening, a convert arrived at the mission from a preaching tour in the neighbouring province of Mergui. It was Moung Ing, who, since he left Rangoon, had been labouring in season and out of season among his benighted countrymen. " Till to-day," wrote Mr. Boardman, "I have never had the pleasure of a free conversation with a Bui-man Christian. This evening, I have been conversing with Moung Ing. He has TWO BURMAN BOJS. 183 lately returned from Mergui, where he has spent a few months in preaching to his countrymen Christ and Him crucified. In my former conversations with Burmans I have been obliged to combat their prejudices, and to bear with their weaknesses ; but in Moung Ing I found a friend and a brother. While expressions of love and praise to the Redeemer flowed from this convert's tongue, the Burman language seemed much more musical than ever. It gave me a pleasure which I cannot describe, to hear him relate his conversion and his present feelings and hopes. He has a firm con- viction that, ere long, the gospel will spread over this whole country. Relying on the Divine power, and faithfulness, and grace, he says we need not fear, nor be discouraged. ' Christ has power/ he added ; ' and I daily pray in secret and in public that He will exert that power, and bring the nations of the earth to the knowledge of Himself/ " A. week or two afterwards, he was conversing in his room with two Burman boys who had come from Rangoon. "Do you remember your mother?" said he, alluding to one of the converts who had quietly fallen asleep in Jesus. "Yes, sir/' answered one of them, the tears gathering in his eye ; " we think of her every day." " What did she say to you when she was with you?" "She said we must give diligence to become disciples." "Did she sometimes pray with you?" "Yes, sir, every Lord's day; and sometimes, on other days, she took us into a retired place, and prayed with us." " When she was first taken ill, what 184 A DELIVERANCE. did she say to you ? " " She said, ' I will give you to the teachers; but I shall go to heaven to be with Christ/ She was not afraid to die." " What sort of place do you think heaven is ? " " God is there ; Christ is there ; and there is no pain, nor poverty, nor sickness, nor -old age, nor death, nor sin, but holiness and happiness." "Do you wish to become disciples?" "Yes, sir, very much." As they were lighting the lamps one evening at the mission, a strange "rushing of winds" burst upon them, " with the roar of a hurricane from the east." Running to the door, they saw the eastern hills, over a space of more than a mile, all in a flame, a violent tempest driving the fire directly towards them, and the dry grass and brushwood spreading the devouring element with a fearful swiftness. What was to be done ? If the fire reached them, the house with its bamboo and leaves must be in ashes in a few minutes. It was now dark ; and, packing up a few clothes, they took their stand at the door, with their beloved babe, ready for an instant retreat. Already the growl of the tiger and of the leopard was heard from the jungle, as the glare of the fire was driving them from their haunts ; and what if one of them should meet the fugitives in their path ? The fire was now within a few rods of the house, when suddenly the wind fell, and the fire subsided. It was the outstretched hand of their Father, preserving "them in Christ Jesus." In the month of November (1827), they were joined by Mr. Judson, as well as by Mr. and Mrs. NEW CONVERTS. 185 Wade, and by several of the converts and their families. In a large room in front of the house, arranged after the manner of a zayat, some seventy Burmans would assemble of a morning for worship, whilst afterwards as many as twenty or thirty women would follow the "foreigness" into a separate room to listen to her in- structions. " To-day," is Mr. Judson's record of one of those occasions, "we had an encouraging season. After worship, had some particular conversation with Moung Dwah, in which he gave considerable evidence of being a converted man. He declares that he loves the religion of Christ, and that it is about six weeks or two months since his mind became quite decided. His wife says, that so long ago he began to read the Scriptures more attentively, and requested her to pray for him and with him ; and this she did for some days, when he began to pray in the family himself. These things his wife related to Mrs. Wade with tears of joy." And, the same evening, an old opposer arrived from Rangoon. " I see," said he, with deep emotion, " that my opposition is wrong, and that the religion of Christ is worthy of acceptance ; and I am come here to spend the remainder of my life." The next Lord's day, there was seen entering the zayat a venerable, white-headed Burman, noted in the district as " a saint," and honoured by all the natives on account of his conscientious life and meritorious deeds. The Pharisee was broken into deep contrition ; and, like the flower opening to the morning sxm, his heart seemed expanding to the love of the Saviour. 186 A BURMAN PHARISEE. " We feel much interested in him," Mr. Judson wrote in his diary, " and daily pray for his precious soul." And, the same day, "just at night," another neighbour came in, the youngest of four brothers. It was evening worship ; and, as ' ' some plain truths " were spoken, he was observed in rapt attention. A few evenings passed ; and, again dropping in at worship, he lingered behind, that night, as if anxious to disburden his mind. " What shall I do to be saved?" he at last whispered, with deep feeling. " Believe," was the reply, " in the Lord Jesus Christ." " I do believe," he interposed, eagerly ; " I do believe. This religion is right. I have been all wrong. What shall I now do?" "Become the Saviour's servant," rejoined the missionary ; " do all His will ; give yourself, soul and body, into His hands. Will you do so?" " I will, I will," he added; and Moung Noo went on his way rejoicing. One day, a Burman scholar came to Mr. Board- man, asking to be allowed to read the Scriptures " all the next day," instead of attending to his usual studies. " Why," asked the missionary, " do you wish to read the Scriptures ? " " In order to become a disciple." " Do you, then, wish to become a disciple while yet so young ? " "I do, sir, because young people are exposed to death as well as others ; and, if I should die without becoming a disciple, I should go to hell ; but, if I become a disciple, I have nothing to fear." " Have you seen your sins ?" proceeded Mr. Boardman. " I have seen some of them," the lad answered, with much emotion. " What sin does your HEAVENLY GROWTH. 187 conscience charge you with ? 3> "I have neglected the true God, who has sustained me by night and by day, and who has fed and clothed me all my life, and I, notwithstanding, have worshipped false gods." " But you have not worshipped Gautama ? " " No, I have not worshipped him ; but I have neglected the true God." Then, speaking of Christ, the missionary asked, " Why should we love HIM ?" " Because," said the youth, with great depth of feeling, "He pitied us, and laid down His life to save us from hell." In an aphorism, quoted by Coleridge, Leighton has observed that the proper growth of the children of God is growth in holiness of heart and of life. And in another aphorism he says, that, if the preacher and the mission- ary would aim steadily at that mark, their hearts must be set on fire with holy zeal for God, and with the love of souls, kindled by the Holy Ghost who came down on the Apostles in the shape of fiery tongues. Amidst the solitudes of Burrnah, in the hearts of those apostolic men, there was going forward in these years, unobserved by any human eye, a work of heavenly growth, which found, its fitting -fruit in the scenes just recorded. " Let me, from this time to the close of life," Mr. Boardman writes, " endeavour, with all my might, to spend every moment of time in the holiest manner possible, and avoiding everything which I think in- consistent with the greatest glory of God. Is there tell me, my soul ! a secret lusting within thee for those things, or even for any one of them, which are inconsistent with an eminently holy life ? Is Christ's 188 HOLY LONGINGS. yoke burdensome ? Is there still a cleaving to the present course of life ? Is there anything repulsive or disagreeable to thee in a life wholly devoted to God ? Speak plainly and honestly ! Dost thou desire a more exact conformity to Christ ? Dost thou sincerely pray the Holy Ghost to influence and govern thee in all things ? Dost thou desire that there never may be one moment of relaxation during which thou shalt be exempted from the restraints of this heavenly guest ? Dost thou wish to be continually filled with all the fulness of God ? Dost thou not ask for even one moment to serve sin, to gratify the former appetites ? Ponder well these important questions, and answer truly ! I hope I can reply that I would not spare a single lust, and that I do desire the Holy Spirit to direct, control, and suggest all I think, and say, and do, from this moment till I die." And, another day, he writes : " Oh, to pant for holiness and glory ! to look, not at those who are behind, but at Him who is before me ! Why not press forward and join those who have taken the highest ground, who live so near the throne ? Is there anything in my outward circum- stances to prevent me being as devoted to God as Edwards, Brainerd, Pearce, or Baxter? I am con- strained to acknowledge there is nothing. I ask myself again, if I am not under as solemn obligations as these men were, to be holy ? Why should I say, as holy as these men ? Let me rather ask, Am I not under the most solemn obligation to be holy as God is holy ? I surely am. He claims from me all that SELF-DENIAL. 189 I can give Him my heart, and soul, and mind, and might, and strength." And, again : "I want to feel more as St. Paul did when he said, ' The love of Christ constraineth me/ Itis my desire that a sense of the unspeakable love of Christ may be the mainspring of all my actions to the end of life. The Burmans have a word which means ' to set before our eyes.' I want a faith which will ' set before my eyes' all the great things which the Word of God contains, that they may be as real to me as though I had seen them with my eyes and they were continually present with me." Mr. Judson aimed not less steadily at the same mark. The prized and honoured guest of the chief Com- missioner, and of other English gentlemen who governed the ceded provinces, he began to find that such social engagements engrossed too much of that time which he had dedicated exclusively to the Burmans; and, incapable of doing anything by halves, he resolved to drop all fashionable intercourse with his English friends. The first to whom he communicated the resolution was the British commander; and, amidst good report and evil report, he maintained it to the end of his life. No one ever had a keener relish for the amenities of cultivated society; but duty demanded the sacrifice, and he joyfully took up the cross. Others may be able to follow Christ without such cross- bearing; let them not judge Judson. In the presence of such men, Satan and his king- dom could not stand. The diary of the work is 190 INQUIRERS. filled with entries like the following : " Literally a crowd of company at the zayat, without any inter- mission, throughout the day. Among the rest, one San-lone, who has received same instructions from Moung Ing, appeared to drink in the truth. Two others stayed from morning till night, and manifested that inquisitive spirit which, I feel persuaded, will bring them again." " The two last, Tau and Yay, with another very sensible young man, and a fourth, the brother of a neighbouring chief, and two or three others, remained several hours, and all seem hopeful in- quirers/' Then, on subsequent days, one " desires, above all things, to find the light ;" another " fully approves the Christian religion in all its parts, though not as yet knowing how to encounter the reproach and ridicule which will ensue on embracing it ;" a third the chief's brother "has been gradually advancing in religious knowledge, and in decision of character, until he appears to be really a subject of divine grace ;" a fourth a very active, intelligent old man " drinks in the truth with singular avidity;" a fifth, a girl of seven, once a poor slave, falls asleep in Jesus, leaving " the most satisfactory evidence of having experienced true conversion;" whilst a sixth "a bright young man of twenty" " outstrips, in his clear and rapid experience, all the older inquirers." Three months had not elapsed from the opening of the zayat at Maulmain, when seven Burmans were bap- tized, all " giving evidence of being really converted ;" and some eight or ten " hopeful inquirers " were almost PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 191 daily " drinking in instruction/' And the work stood the test of time. " All who have been baptized/' writes one of the missionaries, weeks later, " give us great and increasing satisfaction. It is, I think, rather cha- racteristic of Burman converts, that they are slow in making up their minds to embrace a new religion ; but the point, once settled, is settled for ever/' 192 THE KARENS. CHAPTER X. The Karens Strange longings A wild villager Gropings First convert "Help by water" Missionary tour "All ear" Inquirers Scene in the jungle Conversions A Karen preacher Little Sarah The bier Aspirations "Province in arms" Critical moment The wharf Escape Congratulations Old converts Itinerant preaching Power of the Word "So spake" Boardman's method An allegory Parting scene Judson at Maulmain Awakenings Force of truth New cases The school A Burman mother "Lost to trade" Fana- tical rage Spirit of martyrs Prayer First Burman pastor Fresh conversions " Cannot wait " A doctor A merchant "Christ's for ever" Persecution " Chained wild beasts" Forsaking all "In his right mind" Filial affection "My own dear mother" Cottage in the woods Solitude Bible- translation "Slow and sure" Inner life Secret exercises " A life of prayer." IN a wild region of Burmah, dotted all over with villages, and sweeping down from those mountains whose lofty summits are seen in the distance as the traveller sails up the Irriwadi, there had lived for ages a simple artless people, who rejected with scorn the idols of the Burman and of the Hindoo. Poor, and A WILD VILLAGER. 193 groaning under oppression, the KARENS had been taught by their "elders" to look for a "foreign" deliverer. " Children, and grandchildren ! " said their teachers ; "as to the Karen nation, God will yet save them/' And, in their deep affliction, the people would cry " If God will save us, let him save speedily. We can endure these sufferings no longer. Alas ! where is God?" In one of their villages, some four days' journey north of the town of Bassein, a family numbered among its members a wicked and ungovernable lad of fifteen, who scarcely had left his father's roof when his rob- beries and murders made him the terror of the whole district. According to his own confession, Ko-thah-byoo had murdered no fewer than thirty persons. Drawn incidentally to Ilangoon, towards the close of the Bur- mese war, he had met a convert, who, on paying for him a debt of ten or twelve rupees, took him, according to the Burman law, into his family as a slave. The Karen, however, was so incorrigible, that Ko-thah-byoo was obliged to turn him adrift. By this time, the fame of that strange people had reached Mr. Judson's ears -, and, anxious to see the effect of presenting to the Karen mind the religion of the Bible, he took the man into his service, and laboured to instruct him in the things of God. Fits of ungovernable temper were con- tinually breaking out ; but his rude mind began at length to grope after truth, and his heart and con- science to bend before the Cross. In the course of a year, he was an accepted inquirer, and was welcomed into the little native church. 194 SCENE IN A VILLAGE. Setting out from Maulmaia to found a mission in " the regions beyond/' the Boardmans took with them the Karen convert and two others who were hopeful inquirers ; and scarcely had they reached Tavoy, when Ko-thah-byoo set out into the neighbouring villages to preach to his countrymen the way of life. For years, there had been current among the people a tradition that help would come to them one day " by water " and the appearance of the white foreigners in their river, together with the victory over their Burman oppressors, was hailed as a sure omen that " happiness had arrived." And the " white foreigner," said another tradition, " was to bring the word of God." In one of their villages there suddenly appeared, one day, the convert with his two friends. It was planting season ; and most of the villagers were on the hill-sides, busy with their spring-labours. The brother of the chief, however, was at home that morning ; and scarcely had the stranger begun to speak, when, after listening for a little with intense eagerness, he hastened away to the labourers, calling them to " come and listen." The villagers were instantly " all ear," as the convert an- nounced the wondrous message ; and, before a few days had gone by, four Karens were at Tavoy with Mr. Boardman, " professing a full belief of the truth of the gospel," and entreating him to visit them after the rains. Meanwhile, Mr. Boardman was singularly pressed in spirit concerning them. " I have hope," he wrote, "that God is about to do a great work among these A WELCOME. 195 sons of the wilderness." And the Lord was making ready His workman. " My religious enjoyment/' Mr. Boardman wrote again, " has of late been quite unusual. My mind is much occupied on divine things, and much in prayer to God for this people. My thoughts are continually employed about them how I shall address them, how I may best persuade them, and how I can most successfully recommend to them Christ and His gospel. In prayer, I feel a degree of fervour quite un- usual with me. Sometimes I feel a rising hope that God is about to display His grace. May His name soon be glorified here ! Night and day, sleeping and waking, my thoughts are upon this people. When shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, to enlighten this dark corner of the earth ?" At length, one morning, he set out. After a fatiguing journey through the jungle, and over a lofty range of mountains, he reached the village of one of the converts, where he found already erected for his use a convenient zayat, large enough to contain some sixty or seventy persons. The whole village turned out to welcome him, bringing with them presents of fowls, ducks, eggs, yams, fish, plantains, and various sorts of rice. " Ah ! you have come at last," they exclaimed, their faces beaming with joy; "we have long been wishing to see you." After some hours' rest, he addressed in the evening a group of about thirty natives, telling them (from John, iii. 16) of God's won- drous grace. " They listened," he says, " attentively ; and many of them spent the whole night with me in the 196 CONVERSIONS. zayat. Moung So, Moung Kyah, and Moung Kyah's father-in-law, in particular, seemed perfectly delighted, and gave the profoundest attention to the words both of myself, and of Ko -thah-byoo, who interpreted in Karen as much of my discourse as he could recollect. By this means, the women and others, who did not understand Burman, were enabled to hear, in their own language, the wonderful works of God." The next day was the Sabbath ; and, early in the morning, the zayat was be- sieged by an eager company of about fifty persons. At noon, he preached again ; and, once more, in the even- ing. All the day, a strange earnestness had pervaded the assembly ; and, at night, they loitered about the place, unwilling to leave. Just as the missionary was retiring to rest, worn out by the labours of the day, five natives came forward, declaring their faith in Christ, and de- siring to be baptized. And, some days later, he wrote : " A good number of Karens are now with us ; and Ko-thah-byoo is engaged day and night in reading and explaining to them the words of eternal life. It seems as though the time for favouring, this people had come." Scarcely had he returned to Tavoy, when the con- vert proceeded on another missionaiy expedition of his own. " It is surprising/' Mr. Boardman wrote, "how magnanimous a naturally weak man becomes, when the Spirit of Christ and the love of souls inspire him. This poor Karen, who, to say the least, does not excel in intellectual endowments or in human learning, is con- tinually devising new and judicious plans of doing LITTLE SARAH. 197 good. c There are many Karens,' says he, ' in the pro- vince of Mergui ; I wish to declare the gospel to them all. And, before long, I want to go across and visit the Karens in Siam, and afterwards to visit Bassein, my native place, near Rangoon. Many Karens live there.' " After an absence of seven weeks, he returned, bringing with him ten converts, who were received into the church. " Oh, it was a joyful and memorable occa- sion," Mr. Boardman writes ; " He who promised to be in the midst of two or three assembled in His name, was, I trust, in the midst of us." The Boardmans, meanwhile, were smitten by the Lord's chastening rod. " Sarah," the fond mother had just been writing, " is as plump and rosy-cheeked as we could wish. Oh, how delighted you would be to see her and hear her prattle ! She is a singularly lovely child. Her bright blue eyes, yellow hair, and rosy cheeks, contrast so strikingly with the little dark faces around her; and I often say " Thou art a sweet and fragrant flower, 'Mid poisonous, vile weeds blooming : A lovely star, whose cheering power Makes glad the heavy-footed hour When midnight clouds are glooming." Little more than thirty months had she been with them ; and she could talk both English and Bunnan, and also a little Hindostanee and Karen. She had learned, too, a better tongue ; for already she lisped the " new song." " Go back ! " she had said, one day, to two little girls who were with her, as her mother 198 THE TRUMPET-CALL. turned aside to a small house for prayer ; " I will go alone with mamma to pray." And, following her to the place, she had thrown herself on her knees, lifting up her heart to God. Two weeks had scarcely elapsed, when the darling child was in her shroud. " It never once occurred to me, all the time my child was with me/' wrote the bereaved mother, as she sat beside the little bier, " that she would die she seemed always so full of life and health." It sounded like a fresh trumpet-call in their ears, to be up and doing for Christ. " Some of these poor pagans, who are daily carried to the grave," she wrote, "may at last reproach me and say, 'You came, it is true, to the place where we dwelt, to tell of heaven and hell, but wasted much, much of your precious time in indolence, while acquiring our language. And, when you were able to speak, why were you not inces- santly telling us of this day of doom, when we visited you ? Why, oh ! why, did you ever speak of any other thing, while we were ignorant of the most momentous of all truths ? Oh ! how could you think on anything but our salvation ? How could you sleep, or allow yourself anything like ease or com- fort, while we were perishing, and you knew a Being who could save us, and that Being had promised to grant the petition of His children ? You told us that He was your Father that He heard your lowest whispers and most secret sighs ; why, then, did you not, day and night, entreat Him in our behalf?" There had been noticed, of late, by her anxiously " HALF AWAY." 199 observant eye, an ominous look about the sorrowing father, as if he, too, were hastening home. Those cheeks, a little more hollow, and that hectic flush ; those lips, sometimes of " clayey pallor," and some- times "glowing with crimson;" those fingers, longer and more thin ; and those eyes, brighter, and retiring more deeply beneath that transparent brow ! alas, he was no more his former self! And then the soul, looking through those chinks ! was it not already more than half away ? " God, in love," he wrote, " has sent us cup after cup of affliction here in Tavoy. how bitter ! how sweet ! What a blessed anguish I have sometimes felt ! A few weeks ago, while sitting by' my dear Sarah's sickbed, expecting her soon to leave me, I had such comfort as I cannot describe, in laying all my sorrows before my dear, loving Lord. I hope the fruit of all will be to take away sin. If you will believe me, I sometimes half doubt whether I knew anything about true religion when I left America. Christ, heaven, the cross, the grave, life, death, love, joy, grief, the Bible, the gospel, the throne of grace, all seem different from what they then did. Should we be so happy as to meet in heaven, what do you think we shall talk about first ? Till we get there, let us build a little tabernacle close by the cross of Cal- vary, and watch our Saviour, and hear what he will say, ' Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God/ Let us try to understand and experience this." One Sabbath morning, about four o'clock, there was heard at the mission a wild yell, proceeding from 200 PROVINCE IN REVOLT. a hundred savage voices. A few moments more, and a report of musketry startled the alarmed inmates. " Teacher ! Master ! " exclaimed a friendly native, ringing at the door with great vehemence, " Tavoy has risen ! all the province is in arms ! " Mr. Board- man looked out ; and collected near the gate was a large company, whose suspicious glances at the house seemed to intimate that the rebels were consulting what to do with him. Lifting up his heart to God, he conducted his wife and infant-child through a back-door into a retired retreat in the rear; and he himself remained in the house with a single Burman boy. The town was defenceless; the English officer in command of the detachment was on his death-bed ; and the resident was absent at Maulmain. The insurgents numbering upwards of two hundred, and armed with clubs, knives and spears, and occasionally a musket had broken open the prison, and had let loose one hundred ruffians, who were prowling about, ready for any crime. Balls began to whistle over him, passing through the house ; for, though a man of peace, he had a white face and an European dress, and that was crime enough. A skirmish ensued; and it was agreed to evacuate the town and retire to the wharf. On the fourth morning, a little before break of day, a party of five hundred marauders advanced from the town, and set fire to several houses and vessels near the wharf. A heavy rain extinguished the flames, and the handful of sepoys repelled the assault. Not long afterwards, a little steamer came up the river, ESCAPE. 201 having on board the British resident. Grasping the reins with decision, he ordered the little band of English soldiers to scale the walls and seize the town. The success was complete ; and, the next morning, Mr. Boardman returned to the zayat, to fin/1 it a scene of desolation. In a few weeks, however, it was repaired ; and the mission-work was resumed. Inquirers mul- tiplied rapidly ; and, among the visitors at the zayat, was a large number of Karens, who, hearing of his safety, had hastened from their jungle to present their congratulations. Among them was an old man of sixty-five, who some months before had applied for baptism, and who now would no longer delay. " Is it not," wrote Mr. Boardman, after baptizing him, along with several others who had come on the same errand, "a pleasing proof of the power of the gospel on the heart, that these persons, uninduced by any earthly prospects, should, in their old age, have given up the customs of their ancestors, and that they should, de- crepit as they are, traverse mountains, and rocks, and hills, and streams, a distance of fifty miles, to receive Christian baptism ?" Commencing a course of itinerant preaching, he visited three or four villages weekly, teaching publicly and from house to house. One day,*he was accosted by an elderly man, earnestly pleading for a Christian book. " Several months ago," said he, " I saw a book which condemned idolatry, and ever since I have not dared to worship idols or pagodas. I believe the book was true, and I have been longing to possess one." After 202 " SO SPAKE." an hour's serious consideration, the missionary gave him the book ; and, taking him aside into a little room, he proposed to engage in prayer with him. Prostrating himself, he repeated the words after him with deep feeling. " This," Mr. Boardman writes, " is not the first instance I have known of the word of God, with- out note, or comment, or preacher, being instrumental in enlightening a benighted soul." On his return to Tavoy, he welcomed one evening, at the zayat, the Karen disciple, Ko-thah-byoo, who arrived with a train of about forty inquirers, desiring to be baptized. And another disciple, Moung So, the head-man of his vil- lage, had told with such effect the gospel-message, that the Lord's day was now regularly observed as a day of rest, the greater part of the villagers assembling to pray and to have the Scriptures read, Christianity having become the religion of the place. It is said of Paul and Barnabas, on one occasion, that they "so spake, that a great multitude believed." Mr. Boardman's one aim, in all his teachings, was to exalt Jesus Christ. One day, at the zayat, after con- versing with nearly a hundred visitors, he wrote : ' ' I find, the more I preach l Christ and His cross/ the better attention I get." And, describing his method of preaching, he continued : " I gave a discourse on the Lord's opening the heart of Lydia. I made out an allegory something like the ship Grace. The plan was this : A sovereign forms the design of favouring every city in his realm with a visit. With his proper suite he proceeds, but finds the gates of every city shut AN ALLEGORY. 203 against him. The people of his suite call and call, but gain no admittance for themselves or their lord. In some cities, all are asleep, and will not be awakened ; in some, they are frightened, and run away ; in some, they will not believe that it is their sovereign ; in some, they rise up in arms against him : but all, with one consent, remain with closed gates. Every gate is fastened with a prodigious lock. The sovereign goes through his whole realm, and is not admitted into a single city. He repeats his tour once and again, but meets with no better success. At last, he resolves to try a wondrous key which he possesses; and at its touch the city gates fly open, and all the people, the moment they behold him, welcome their lord, and ac- knowledge him as their rightful sovereign. So with every city to the gate of which this wondrous key is applied. But to some gates it is not applied ; only, the ,call is repeated : but, on the citizens refusing to open to their sovereign, he marks down their conduct in his book, and passes on. The key," he added, " is the love of Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit. You will under- stand all the rest." He had now laboured in Tavoy for two years ; and, before removing for a time to Maulmain, he had a meet- ing one day with the various converts. " Towards even- ing," he writes, "we celebrated the Lord's Supper. It was altogether such a Communion-season as we never before had in Tavoy, either as to the number of communicants or the feeling manifested by them. It was, indeed, the house of God and the gate of heaven. I have made 204 A HINDOO. arrangements with the Karens, that, if I can visit Tavoy after the rains, I will meet them half way that is, just this side the great pass in the mountains, where they propose to build a zayat for the occasion ; and they say it is a central place, where men, women, and children can convene from all quarters. All the Karens seem delighted with the plan and place proposed/' And, just before parting : " The Karens, after having spent a long time in fervent prayer, have at length gone with melted hearts. Happy, very happy has been our interview. Such a spirit of love and prayer as we have enjoyed during the last three days, I have never before witnessed." Mr. Judson, meanwhile, and his fellow-labourers at Maulmain, had not been spending their strength for nought. Scarcely had the Boardmans left, when we hear of three Burmans attending, one Sunday, all the exercises of the day, and " giving considerable evidence of being really converted." And, two months later, he speaks of not having been a single day without some hopeful inquirer. One morning, he was visited by a native Hindoo, in great joy of spirit. A few years pre- vious, the young man had renounced heathenism, and been baptized by an English clergyman on the Madras coast ; but, falling in with some sceptics, he soon after had been reduced to a condition of the most harassing perplexity and darkness. Led one day to the zayat, he had heard "the doctrines of implicit faith in the word of God, and of regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit;" and they were so " satisfactory to his CONVERTS. 205 soul," that he had yielded at once to the force of truth, and he now was " a humble, teachable disciple of the divine Son." After a few days, he was admitted into the little church, having brought with him a large bundle, containing the tracts and publications which had given him so much trouble, and, at his baptism, burying them with his former character in the " watery grave." Another convert was a Burman, who had been a constant attendant at the zayat ever since it was built. Like his cautious countrymen, who " turn a thing over ten thousand times before they will take it; but having once taken it, hold it fast," Shway-pan had long been enquiring, but now was very firm and de- cided. A third convert was an aged woman, above eighty. For three or four months, she had been an eager listener at the zayat, to the great chagrin of her relations, on whom she was quite dependent ; and now, with tottering steps, bending under the infirmi- ties of age, she approached the baptismal font, literally renouncing all for Christ. A fourth convert was Ko-myat-kyau, a man of high rank, and of uncom- mon mental power, who, after seeking truth for many years, and diligently investigating the systems of Buddh, and of Brahma, and of Mohammed, had at length, in his fiftieth year, embraced Christianity with all his heart arid soul. All his relations and friends had proclaimed a fierce crusade, his wife suing for a divorce, and his brother publicly declaring that, if he had the power of death, he would instantly wipe out 206 SCENES IN THE SCHOOL. with his blood the foul disgrace brought upon their family; but he had borne it all " with the meekness of a lamb/' manifesting such forbearance and Christian love, that the tide was at length completely turned, his wife relinquishing her suit and beginning to listen to the word, his brother reduced to silence, and some of the relatives even beginning to speak in favour of the mission. Naturally eloquent, and with a zeal and ardour rarely found among his cool, considerate countrymen, he had been led to renounce all worldly business, and to devote himself to the missionaiy work. " It gives us great pleasure," Mr. Judson writes, " to see him sometimes sitting on a level with some poor beggar- woman, endeavouring, in language intelligible to her dark mind, to communicate some idea of the mys- teries of redemption/' In the female school, too, there had been a remark- able awakening, beginning with a word spoken in season to his daughter by Shwaba, one of the earliest fruits of the Burmah mission. One day, early in the morning, before any one was up, a Burman mother had arrived at the school-zayat, in great excitement about her daughter, who, the previous day, had been baptized. The door was opened by an elder sister, who, after experiencing pungent convictions of divine truth, had been induced, by alternate promises and threatenings, deliberately to reject the Saviour and to join her mother's party. The enraged woman rushed in, seized the youthful convert, and, after abusing and beating her, hastened off. An hour or two later, she returned ; " SPIRIT OF MARTYRS." 207 and, finding her daughter outside, she commenced beating her unmercifully on the head with an umbrella, and threatening to sell her for a slave. Running frantically to the town, she raised a tumult in the market-place, declaring that her daughter had entered into " a religion which prevented her lying and cheat- ing,^ so that she was quite lost to the purposes of trade. Then, carrying the alarming tale to the mothers of other two girls who had also just been baptized, she so stirred their fanatical rage, that half an hour had not elapsed when one of them was at the school, took hold of her daughter by the hair, and, dragging her out of doors towards a pile of wood, and arming herself with a weapon, seemed on the point of putting her to death, when a member of the mission came and rescued her victim by main force. The mother, thus baffled, moved off, muttering fierce vengeance. " The girls," says Mr. Judson, " bore all this abuse in silent submission, and really manifested something of the spirit of martyrs." A few weeks passed; and an- other girl, who had been baptized, came one morning to the missionary, trembling all over. " Mother has just arrived at the landing-place," she said, fearing that she had come to take her away by force; "and what am I to do ?" " Go and meet her ; and pray as you are going along." The poor girl had been praying for her, ever since she had learned to pray for herself; and God had heard her prayers, and had softened her mother's heart. They met ; and, instead of angry up- braidings, she drank in the truth from her daughter's 208 FIRST NATIVE PASTOR,. lips. Before many days had gone by, she followed her daughter's example, and herself confessed Christ. Another day, a convert arrived from Rangoon with joyful tidings. Since the close of the war, he had been preaching the word most zealously in the surrounding villages ; and in Rangoon he had gathered a little flock, who were hanging wistfully on his lips. Above fifty years of age, and of great steadiness and weight of cha- racter versed, too, in Burman literature and his whole soul devoted to the sacred work, Ko-thah-a ap- peared so evidently called of God to the ministry, that they did not hesitate to ordain him as the first native Christian pastor. With great thankfulness, they set him apart to the care of the flock at Rangoon, feeling that God had not forgotten their late sorrowing and weeping there. And others of the converts gave the most encouraging proof of growth in grace. " Moung Ing/' wrote Mr. Judson, " says it is his meat and drink to preach the Gospel; and when, for a time, he has had no good opportunity, he feels like a person deprived of his necessary food. Shwaba, again, has been lately advancing wonderfully in habitual self- denial and holiness of heart; his prayers savour of heavenly communion." Believers were added, almost daily, to the Lord. One was a Burman woman, whose husband had been for nearly a year a hopeful inquirer but could not make up his mind to forsake all for Christ. His wife had attained " an uncommon share of divine grace/' and had again and again postponed the baptism because her husband was NEW CONVERTS. 209 unwilling to have her go before him. But now her conscience would not suffer longer delay. They had been a very happy couple for five-and-twenty years, and she herself was of a disposition singularly amiable and kind ; but " this was a business/' she said to him one day affectionately, and with deep emotion, " which concerned her eternal interests ; she believed in Christ with all her heart, and she could not wait for him any longer." He had reluctantly assented, and she was bap- tized. Another case was a native of Arracan, lately a gross rcviler and blasphemer, but now zealous for the truth. A third was a native of Tavoy, about fifty years of age, by profession a doctor. A fourth was a Hindoo from the Madras coast, a doctor also, and an astrologer, quite ignorant of English and Burman, and converted through the agency of one of the converts, and through the reading of a Tamil Testament, which he had had in his hand day and night for the preceding six weeks. A fifth was a merchant of some property, and of very re- spectable connexions. And, in addition, were three women, one of whom, Mah Kyan, had at her breast a child which her enraged husband had threatened to tear from her, and to turn herself off; but they were " all decided and hearty in the cause/' " Our minds," said one of them, after the baptism, " are very happy : come life, come death, we are disciples of the Lord Jesus for life and for ever." Meanwhile, Satan was raging. " The opposition," writes Mr. Judson, "is most outrageous. I never saw anything like it in Rangoon ; for there we did nothing p 210 A BURMAN MATRON. in piiblic. The mass of the population, particularly in parts where converts have been made, show all the rage of chained wild beasts." But the persecution only dis- played more vividly the grace given to the converts. One day, some months before, an old lady, mother-in- law of a petty chief bitterly opposed to the gospel, had appeared at the zayat, timid and fearful, but anxiously enquiring the way of salvation. Now at peace with God, she came forward openly, desiring to confess Christ ; and, in the presence of the church, the vener- able woman stood, one evening, all eyes fixed upon her. " How old are you?" asked Judson. "Eighty years/' " Can you at such an age renounce the reli- gion which you have followed all your life long ?" "I see that it is false/' she replied, gently, but decisively ; " and I renounce it all." " Why do you wish to be baptized into the religion of Jesus Christ ?" "I have veiy, very many sins ; and I love the Lord who saves from sin." " Perhaps your son-in-law, on hearing that you have been baptized, will abuse you, and turn you out of doors ? " "I have another son-in-law, to whom I will flee." " But he is also an opposer ; suppose that you should meet with the same treatment there?" "You will, I think, let me come and live near you?" The missionary was silent ; for he desired to prove her sincerity by her willingness to bear the brunt alone. After a pause, she went forward, and confessed Christ. " Behold," Judson wrote, afterwards, " this noble woman, severing, at her time of life, all the ties which bind her to a large circle of connexions and ALL-CONQUERING GRACE. 211 friends hazarding the loss of a comfortable, respectable situation, the loss of character, the loss of a shelter for her grey head throwing herself on the charity of cer- tain foreigners, and all for the sake of ' the Lord who saves from sin ' ! Oh, blessed efficacy of the blood of Christ!" And another case occurred, scarcely less affecting. In a humble cottage by the roadside, a little way out of the town, might be seen, of an evening, one of the missionaries, receiving visits from inquirers; and at the door, waiting to welcome them, stood a meek dis- ciple, whose singularly gentle bearing never failed to inspire into the timid new courage. It was the hus- band of Mali Kyan, who, a few weeks before, had torn his- infant from the mother's breast, pursuing her through the street with a great knife. Now he was "become as a lamb ;" and the chief joy of his life was to aid the mission-work. In the midst of these varied labours, Judson was still the tender-hearted son. " Do not think, my dear mother," he wrote, " that I can ever forget you. When I used to carry about my poor little Maria, I thought how much my mother loved her little Adoni- ram, and carried him about, and took care of him. And, though he has now grown almost out of her knowledge, and been parted from her for so many years, and will probably see her no more on earth, he never can forget how much he owes to his own dear mother. It is my comfort, that, if truly united to Christ, we shall at last meet on the bright plains of heaven, where all our infirmities, and griefs, and sins, will have fled away 212 HOME-AFFECTIONS. for ever." And, on another occasion, he wrote : " I should exceedingly rejoice to be once more in the old mansion-house at Plymouth, and to sit and converse with my own dear mother; but that time can never come. Let us look forward to a happy meeting in the mansions of our Father's house on high." And to his sister: "You see, from the date, that it is the second anniversary of the triumph of death over all my hopes of earthly bliss. I have this day moved into a small cottage, which T have built in the woods, away from the haunts of men. It proves a stormy evening ; and the desolation around me accords with the deso- late state of my own mind, where grief for the dear departed combines with sorrow for present sin, and my tears flow at the same time over the forsaken grave of my love, and over the loathsome sepulchre of my own heart." And, a year later, to the same : " Now the third anniversary returns, and finds me in the same cottage, except that it has been removed nearer the mission-house, to make way for a Government-building. I live alone. When I wish to be quite so, Mrs. W. sends me my food; at other times, I am within the sound of a bell which calls me to meals. ' Blest who, far from all mankind, This world's shadows left behind, Hears from heaven a gentle strain Whispering love, and loves again ! ' But oh, that strain I have hitherto listened in vain to hear; or, rather, I have not listened aright, and therefore BURMAN BIBLE. 213 cannot hear." And he added : " Have either of you learned the art of real communion with God ? and can you teach me the first principles ? Is your faith of that kind which gives you more enjoyment in Jesus, from day to day, than you find in anything else ? " The solitude was occupied with a work on which he had long set his heart the translation of the Bible. " My object/' we find him writing, "is to produce a really good version, at whatever cost of time and of study. We wish to proceed slow and sure, and to see to it, that whatever we do, in re- gard to the inspired Word, is well done. About four months ago, being convinced that the New Test- ament, notwithstanding all my labour upon it, was still in a very imperfect state, Brother Wade and my- self undertook a thorough revision. After that, we propose to work and re- work at .the precious Book of Psalms, until we can venture to warrant that also. And so, God willing and giving us life and strength, we hope to go on. But," he added, " we beg still to be allowed to feel that our great work is to preach the gospel viva voce, and build up the glorious kingdom of Christ among this people. To this end we consider a good translation of the New Testament, the Psalms, and some other portions of the Old Testament, essen- tially necessaiy the whole Bible very desirable." Nor did his labours for a moment seduce him from the most scrupulous watchfulness over his inner life. Certain pencilled fragments, headed " Topics to en- courage Prayer," indicate his secret exercises: " 1. 214 INNER LIFE. Friend at midnight. 2. The unjust judge. 3. Satan fights neither with small nor great, save only with the spirit of prayer. 4. An effort made in aridity, in wan- dering of thought, under a strong tendency to some other occupation, is more pleasing to God, and helps the soul forward in grace more than a long prayer without temptation. 5. Whatever others may do, let my life be a life of prayer. 6. Get the king's daughter, and you get all ; the grace of devotion is the daughter of God. 7. Do nothing from your own will, but all from the will of God." FRAIL BUT SECURE. 215 CHAPTER XI. Seneca Frail but secure The angel-call Hectic fever Hard- ships Heavenly longings "An unprofitable servant" Return to Tavoy A welcome Feeble whispers Scene in the town Scoffers A confessor Scene in the zayat The Supper New labourer The jungle Bamboo chapel An assembly Priva- -tions Foretastes Water-side Group of converts "Work done" Parting words A convoy Thunder-storm " House of their gods" " Other lumps of clay " Thankfulness Going home Embarking "Come up higher" Weeping Karens Burial Joy and crown KAREN SCENES A birth-place A jungle family Quala Prophetic name First message The group A picture The visitor The midnight lamp Mis- sionary instincts Native appeal A caviller Silenced Doubt- ing and Believing -New converts Prayer in the jungle A priest Protracted meetings Success Native evangelist Scene at a festival "A black foreigner" Ruling passion A valley " My buffaloes " A revival Anticipations. LORD BACON has quoted a favourite saying of Seneca, that true greatness is to possess, at once, " the frailty of a man, and the security of a God/' A scene is now before us, where, in a sense which Seneca knew not, the maxim was translated into fact. A hectic fever, lasting oftentimes from noon to midnight a profuse perspiration, as the fever sub- 216 THE ANGEL-CALL. sided a constant, hollow cough a failing appetite, and gradually wasting flesh announced too plainly the angel -call which had reached the failing mis- sionary. "Death seems near/' Mr. Boardman wrote one day ; * " and I am closing my worldly concerns as fast and as far as strength will permit. I have given up all labours for the present, and all plans for fu- ture labour. A few months, I suppose, will end my earthly career, and usher me into the holy and blessed presence of my gracious God and beloved Redeemer. Death has no alarms, no terrors. My beloved family and the perishing heathen around me are all that make me in the least unwilling to die ; and even these I can resign into the hands of a gracious and covenant- keeping God. If you ask whether, under these circum- stances, I regret having corne to Burmah, I promptly answer, No ; only, I regret that I came with no more of the spirit of Christ, and with so much to require the chastising rod of Divine mercy. Are the Bui-mans/' he added, " to be left to ruin, because health may have been impaired or life shortened by our coming hither ? To spread the Gospel through Burmah is worth a thousand lives ! What if we do find an early grave ? Shall we regret it at the last day ? Oh, no ! " The illness had originated mainly in the hardships to which he was exposed in his village-preaching, when he would walk sometimes twenty miles a-day, preaching and teaching as he went, and at night would have no * August 25, 1830. "AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT." 217 shelter but an open shed, and no bed but a straw-mat spread on the cold, open bamboo-floor. And now, as a fresh laboui*er was on his way across the ocean, his only remaining wish was to conduct him to the field where he had himself gathered so many sheaves. Meanwhile, he was already breathing the very air of heaven. " In prayer," he wrote, " I feel a greater near- ness to God, and sometimes seem almost to see Him face to face to order my speech before Him and to plead with Him as a man pleadeth with his friend. Freedom from sin and pollution (my great burden here), and near- ness to my God and Redeemer, are ideas which fill my bosom with joy. I often wonder that I should be willing to be detained another day or hour in these low, sultry plains, when, by passing the narrow but gloomy stream of death, my weary feet would rest on the heavenly shore, and my soul be set at liberty from the bondage of sin, far beyond the reach of temptation, to exult for evermore in its nearness and likeness to its blessed Saviour." And, again : " If any man has cause to renounce all his own righteousness, his prayers, his tears, his self-denial, his labours for Christ and the gospel, and, in fact, all that he is, or has, or has done, or will do, or can do, and to trust entirely, and solely, and without conditions, to grace, sovereign grace, flow- ing through an atoning Saviour, I am that man. Grace, sovereign grace, is my only confidence. ' An unprofitable servant/ is the most appropriate epithet for my tombstone. True, I have laboured a few years for the spread of the gospel in this heathen land ; I 218 THE DARK VALLEY. have undergone some hardships and dangers, and have foregone the privilege of living near my friends, and in a Christian country : but, even supposing I had done all this with the purest and best of motives, in every respect and in every instance, and supposing my few years had been the whole period of my life, what a trifle what a mere atom is this, in comparison with the ten thousand talents I owe to sovereign mercy ! But, alas ! I have to mourn that two-thirds of my life were spent in sin, and that the remaining third has been so much cut up and divided between serving God and myself." And, another day, thus: "In thinking on the probability of dying within a few months, but two or three things occasion me any considerable unwilling- ness to meet the solemn event. One is, the sore afflic- tion I know it will occasion my dear family, especially my fond, too fond wife. Her heart will be well-nigh riven. But I must leave her with Him who is anointed to heal the broken-hearted, and to bind up their wounds. My dear little son is still too young to remember me long, or to realise his loss. I have prayed for him many times, and can leave him in my heavenly Father's hands. Another occasion of my being sometimes reluctant to die so soon is, the perishing state of the people around me. I have been studying now almost fifteen years, during the last ten of which I have studied with more or less reference to being useful among the heathen ; and now, if, just as I am beginning to be qualified to labour a little among them, my days be cut short, much of my study and preparation seems LAST VISIT TO TAVOY. 219 to be in vain. But I chide myself for thinking or saying so. If I had done no good whatever here in Burmah, I ought to submit, and be still under the recollection that ' God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts/ and that He giveth no account of His matters. But I trust God has made me of some service to a few poor benighted souls, especially among the Karens, who shall be my glory and joy in the day of the Lord Jesus. I know, too, that God, if He see fit, can accomplish His designs of mercy respecting these heathen without my services. He can raise up others ; or he can work by His Spirit, without our aid." In November, he set out for Tavoy. " Oh ! my dear mother," wrote Mrs. Boardman from the vessel's little cabin, " it would distress you to see how ema- ciated he is ! and so weak, that he is scarce able to move ! God is calling to me, in a most impressive manner, to set my heart on heavenly things. Two lovely infants already in the world of bliss my be- loved husband under a disease which will most as- suredly take him from me my own health poor and little Georgie ill ! Oh how little have I to attach me to this wretched, fallen world \" On their arrival, they were welcomed most warmly by the simple, thankful Karens. Flocking from their jungle-homes, they had hastened to the town to meet him; and, when they gazed on his pale, worn face, they shed many tears. He had not been there a fortnight, when a new party of inquirers arrived, eager to hear the gospel. " Some- times," writes his wife, describing the scene, " he 220 A SCENE IN TAVOY. sat up in a chair and addressed them for a few moments; but, oftener, I sat on his sick-couch, in- terpreting his feeble whispers. He was nearly over- come by the gladdening prospect, and frequently wept/' A motley group passed along, one evening, through the town, on their way to the place of baptism. Nine- teen Karens including five women all of them, a few weeks before, in utter ignorance of the true God, had chosen the reproach of Christ; and they were moving forward, that evening, in the face of sneers and obloquy, boldly to confess His name. Their road lay through a part of the town filled with monas- teries, over whose huge brick walls a bevy of priests anct novitiates were casting the most scornful looks. And the crowd in the streets poured forth upon the converts all manner of taunt and reviling. " See," said one of them insultingly, as Mr. Boardman, too ill to walk or to ride on horseback, was borne along by Karens on his little cot ; " see your teacher ! a living man, carried as if he were already dead ! " Passing on in silence, they reached the spot a beautiful pond surrounded by green trees; and, kneeling on the grass, the goodly company numbering, in all, fifty souls lifted up their hearts in thanksgiving to Him who had redeemed them with His own blood. One heart, especially, was thankful that day : an engaging lad, son of the chief native officer of the town, and the inheritor of a large estate, was there, not ashamed to cast in his lot with the ignorant Karens, who would be spurned from his THE SUPPER. 221 father's door. Naturally amiable and modest, grace had made him meek and lowly. A sore persecution seemed to await him, and, probably, the loss of his in- heritance; but he had counted the cost, and joyfully he "put on Christ." Pale and emaciated, the mis- sionary reclined on his couch before them all ; and Moung Ing, the native pastor, received them by bap- tism into the Church. The scene is shifted ; and they are assembled in the evening, in the zayat, around the Communion- table. The breathless silence is broken by one feeble voice it is their spiritual father pouring out his soul to them over the emblems of redeeming love. A strange unearthliness is about him all feel that it is probably the last time that they shall meet in this vale of tears. A few moments pass ; and earthly thoughts are merged in a sympathy profounder and more divine. " When he handed us the cup," writes one who was there that night, " it was to me as though our Saviour had been in the midst, and I could say ' How sweet and awful is the place With Christ within the doors ! ' The grief and anguish which I felt at the baptism had subsided into a calm ; and, in contemplating the agonies of our blessed Redeemer, I, for a moment, forgot the bitter cup preparing for myself." At length, one morning, his successor arrived in the river ; and the disabled soldier went down to the wharf, 222 THE JUNGLE. to welcome him. He had decided once more to visit the jungle, where the Karens were thirsting for the word of life; and Mr. Mason was just in time to accom- pany him. The villagers had arrived to carry him; and the dying man set out. On the third day, they reached the spot where, on a beautiful stream at the base of a range of mountains, the people had erected a bamboo chapel. Open on all sides, its only shelter was a small room, some five feet by ten, and so low in the roof that one could not stand upright, whilst it was so poorly enclosed as to admit the scorch- ing rays by day, and the cold winds and damp fog by night; and the Karens cooked, ate, and slept, on the ground by the river's side, with no curtain but the sky, and no wall but the trees of the forest. As the little cavalcade came up, nearly one hundred villagers were assembled, more than half of them eagerly waiting for baptism. Exhausted by the journey, Mr. Boardman no sooner caught a glimpse of the delightful spectacle, than a new vigour seemed suddenly to enter into his whole frame. Scarcely had they halted, when he was in the zayat, preaching almost as if he were in full health. And, day after day, as the converts gathered to him, asking baptism, he conversed with them, and prayed with them, from morning till night, until, a reaction coming on, his feeble frame was once more prostrated, and his wife entreated him to return. " The cause of God," he replied, with animation, as if his heart were moved to its lowest depths, " is of greater importance than my health ; and, if I return now, our THE WOUNDED SOLDIER. 223 whole object will be defeated. I want to see the work of the Lord go on/' His strength continuing to fail, he was again urged by her to return to town, where he might enjoy the quiet of a home and have medical attendance. But no ; these souls must be tended. " You know, Sarah," said he, " that coming on a foreign mission involved the probability of a shorter life than staying in one's native country ; and, yet, obedience to our Lord, and compassion for the perishing heathen, induced us to make this sacrifice. And have we ever repented that we came ? No ; I trust we can both say that we bless God for bringing us to Burmah, for directing our- footsteps to Tavoy, and even for leading us hither. Should I not, then, rather stay and assist in gathering in these dear scattered lambs of the fold ?" And then, tenderly gazing on her, he added: "You already know, my love, that I cannot live long I must sink under this disease; and, should we go home now, the all-important business which brought us out must be given up, and I might linger out a few days of suffering, stung with the reflection that I had preferred a few idle days to my Master's service. Do not, therefore, ask me to go, till these poor Karens have been baptized." Amidst trying privations and gradually increasing weakness, he continued his pleasant labour, enjoying in the intervals the most elevating foretastes of the rest into which he was so soon to enter. , " My medi- tations," he would say, "are veiy sweet; I shall quickly be relieved from shackles, and be where I can 224 CLOSING SCENES. praise God continually, without weariness. My thoughts delight to dwell on those words, 'There is no night there.' " One day, his wife, feeling that the time of separa- tion was fast approaching, said : " My dear, I have one request to make ; it is, that you would pray much for George during your few remaining days. I shall soon be left alone, almost the only one on earth to pray for him ; and I have great confidence in your dying prayers." Looking earnestly at the little boy, he replied : "I will try to pray for him ; but I trust many prayers will ascend for the child from our friends at home, who will be induced to supplicate the more earnestly for him when they hear that he is left father- less in a heathen land." Another day, in the morning, he was standing be- fore the glass ; and, noticing evident symptoms of ap- proaching dissolution, he remarked calmly, and with- out emotion: "I have altered greatly I am sinking into the grave very fast just on the verge." " Is there nothing we can do for you V asked Mr. Mason. " Had we not better call the physician ? Or shall we try to re- move you into town immediately ? " A brief consulta- tion followed; and, as the examination of the women and of the old men was now nearly completed, it was decided to baptize them that evening, and, the next morning, to return to town, the remaining candidates being able to walk in afterwards to Tavoy. A blessing was asked on the decision ; and the little party sat down to breakfast. " Brother," said he, in the course of the repast, addressing Mr. Mason, " I am heartily rejoiced LAST COMMUNION. 225 and bless God that you have arrived; and especially am I gratified that you are so much interested for the poor Karens. You will, I am sure, watch over them, and take care of them; and, if some of them turn back, you will still care for them." In the evening, a little before sunset, the converts, to the number of thirty- four, were gathered at the water-side ; and Mr. Board- man was carried out in his bed, so weak that he could breathe only by the continual application of the fan and of the smelling-bottle. Lifting with difficulty his languid head, he gazed with a calm ecstasy on the scene, as the missionary baptized the goodly com- pany. In the course of the day, he had been saying, more than once " If I live to see this one in-gathering, I may well exclaim with happy Simeon, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' '' And, now that it was over, he seemed to feel that his work was done. After dark, the confessors assembled in the chapel ; and, at tea, his cot was placed near the table, his head bolstered up. Gathering round, and steadily and anxiously gazing on him, they listened intently as he addressed to them a few parting words. " I did hope," said he, in a tremulous but urgent tone, " to stay with you till after Lord's day, and administer to you once more the Lord's Supper. But God is calling me away from you. I am about to die, and shall soon be incon- ceivably happy in heaven. When I am gone, remember what I have taught you ; and oh ! be careful to per- Q 226 THE CONVOY. severe unto the end, that, when you die, we may meet one another in the presence of God, never more to part. Listen to the word of the new teacher and the teacheress, as you have done to mine. The teacheress will be very much distressed. Strive to lighten her burdens, and comfort her by your good conduct. Do not neglect prayer. The eternal God to whom you pray is un- changeable. Earthly teachers sicken and die ; but God remains for ever the same. Love Jesus Christ with all your hearts, and you will be for ever safe." A few words of prayer followed ; and, each convert having got some tracts and portions of Scripture, the gathering separated for the night. The next morning, they were up with the sun. Their beloved teacher was to leave them ; and they were weeping like children. A convoy was formed of nearly all the males, and of some of the females ; and, leaving the others to disperse to their wilderness-homes, the little band started for Tavoy. During the day, the invalid was free from pain ; and there was no unfavour- able change until, overtaken about four o'clock by a violent thunder-shower, and with not a refuge within sight to flee to, they were forced to remain in the open air, the torrent of rain dashing upon him and drenching his mattress and pillows. Hastening on, they arrived at a native house ; but the inmates hated the " teacher," and refused admittance. They ran for shelter to an adjoining shed ; but it was the " house of their gods," and the host's anger burst forth in a storm of abuse. With tears in her eyes, Mrs. Boardman entreated him THE LAST NIGHT. 227 to admit the dying man into the house to sleep ; but the only concession was a covered corner of the verandah, and there the exhausted missionary was laid on the hard bamboo -floor. "Read," he whispered, after a little, to Mr. Mason, " the thirty-fourth Psalm ; " and then, almost spent, he said with a quiet smile : " This poor perishing dust will soon be laid in the grave ; but God can employ other lumps of clay to perform His will, as easily as He has this poor unworthy one." The night closed in ; and, having found for her little boy a spot where he might sleep without risk of falling through the openings in the floor, the devoted woman threw herself down, without undressing, beside her dying husband. " Oh, how kind and good," said he, on one occasion, during the night, his heart overflowing with thankfulness notwithstanding his extreme outward wretchedness, " our Father in heaven is to me ! How many are racked with pain, while I, though near the grave, am almost free from distress of body ! I suffer nothing, nothing, to what you, my dear Sarah, had to endure last year, when I thought I must lose you. And then, I have you to move me so tenderly. I should have sunk into the grave ere this, but for your assiduous attention. And brother Mason is as kind to me as if he were my own brother. And then, how many, in addition to pain of body, have anguish of soul, while my mind is sweetly stayed on God ! " In the morning, he seemed a little revived ; though, in giving him his sago, his wife remarked that his breath was very short. 228 " GOING HOME." By waiting till twelve, they could take him in a boat down a neighbouring stream, which passed within three or four miles of Tavoy ; and to this he gratefully assented. Towards nine, however, his feet and hands grew cold ; and the Karens, with tears in their eyes, rubbed them incessantly all the forenoon. "Do you feel as if you were going home ? " whispered his wife to him, about ten, thinking that the moment of separation had come. " Not just yet," he said, recovering his breath, which had seemed almost gone; and, sipping a little wine and water, he again revived. "You were alarmed without cause, just now, dear," he continued, after a little ; " I know the reason of the distress I felt, but am too weak to explain it to you." And, after a few moments, he added : " Since you spoke to me about George, I have prayed for him almost incessantly more than in all my life before." It was now time for embarking ; and the iron-faced owner of the boat was impatient to be gone. The affec- tionate Karens carried their beloved teacher on board, returning to bear Mrs. Boardman through the mud on the bank. Scarcely had she reached the boat, when the call arrived "Come up higher!" The Karens, according to his previous request, were summoned to watch his last breathings; and, in a few minutes, with- out a struggle, he calmly went upward. The weeping converts knelt in prayer. " My father, my father !" was the involuntary outburst of each heart. Moving in silence down the river, the faithful Karens placed his remains on the little cot, and bore THE PARTING. 229 them along towards the house. The first to meet them was the Burman pastor Ing, who burst into a flood of tears. Reaching the sleeping-room, they uncovered the face ; and, gazing for a moment upon the placid countenance, on which still sat a sweet smile, the whole assembled group sobbed aloud. The next morning, " devout men" his own spiritual children carried him to his burial, amid the tearful regrets of the whole community. It was on the 12th of February, 1831. George Boardman had not lived in vain. His labours, and his prayers, and his loving self-denial, were for the Karens the seed-corn of a harvest such as no other mission-field has yielded. Not without war- rant did the bereaved widow write : " Oh ! thine, indeed, is a bright abode ! And brilliant thy diadem The crown of life from the hand of God, Adorned with many a gem. For who are the crowds, with visage meek, That come from the mountains high ; The tear of penitence warm on each cheek, And hope in every eye ? There is manhood, and age with hoary head, And the child scarce touched with guile, And the forest-maid, from whose native shade Nor love nor pleasure could wile. The Karens, for whom thy parting breath Went forth in fervent prayer, Who knelt beside thy bed of death, Are thy crowii of gladness there." 230 SCENES IN THE KAREN JUNGLE. These scenes let us for a moment visit. Tn a Karen glen, and on the brink of a gorge through which leapt a gurgling stream on its way from the mountain-range where it had just had its birth, to a small lake a mile or two distant, stood a rude bamboo house, which every gust of wind, blowing down the mountain-sides, threatened to sweep into the depth beneath. Its owner was a long-bearded, austere, noble- looking man, whom the grievous wrongs of his nation had stung almost to madness. " The bamboo leaf/' he would be heard saying, in his moments of patriotic indignation, "it falls on thorns, the thorns pierce it ; thorns fall on it, the thorns spear it. Our habitation is a thorn-bush." And that fair, round- faced, smiling woman, planting the little cotton-field, weeding it, watching it, then gathering the crop, carding it, spinning it, dyeing it, weaving it into cloth, and converting it into tunics and shawls, the soul of the humble dwelling, and the centre of all its meagre joys ! A tradition had prevailed in the district, that, one day, certain "white men" would come from the sea and break the Burman yoke ; and, hearing of late indistinct reports of the arrival of white men's ships in the Bur- man waters, the father had given expression to the hope kindling in his heart, by naming a beautiful boy who had just been born to him, " Quala," or hope ; " because," said he, " we hope happiness will come to us in his days." The name, like Noah's, was "prophetic of the SAN QUALA'S BIRTH-PLACE. 231 man." The child the boy the lad was ever buoyant with hope. As he grew up towards man- hood, he treasured in his heart the floating tradi- tions of a great " deliverer/' who was to come from the West. He was already fifteen, when, accompanied by his parents, he went one day into Tavoy to see the " foreigners," who had just captured the town. Sum- moned into the presence of the English governor, he was treated with a kindness and a consideration which brought fresh up before him certain favourite stanzas which he had lisped at his mothers knee : " See, see ! the whites ! so fair, so neat ! With grace they go, they sit, they eat ; Most gracefully they stand and walk Most graciously they look and talk." Two or three years passed ; and there entered his father's house, one evening, a stranger who had been in the jungle that day, speaking earnestly to the people. As night came on, the neighbours of the glen gathered into the bamboo house, to listen to the wanderer's tale. The Karens regarded every stranger as an enemy ; and therefore a visitor was expected to trace his genealogy, to prove that he is a friend. But Quala that night heard from the stranger, not " endless genealogies," but a story so touching that it captivated his whole soul. The stranger was Ko-thah-byoo, the Karen con- vert, on his first preaching tour. And no sooner had the glad tidings reached Quala's ears, than he welcomed them with his whole heart. " I said to myself," were his words long afterwards, alluding to that occasion, " ' Is 232 A KAKEN FAMILY. not this the very thing we have been waiting for ? ' I believed, when I first heard." Among the group of inquirers who had crowded around the dying missionary that day in the jungle, longing to confess Christ, was a family of three a mother, and her son, and her daughter, who, at the three daily meetings, had been always the first to come and the last to leave. " If ever human being," writes an eye-witness, " received the gospel as glad tidings, that woman did. Were I an artist, called upon to depict Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, I should imme- diately transfer her to the canvas, from the picture on the tablet of my memory, as I have seen her seated at the teacher's feet, listening, through her large almond eyes, which beamed with intelligence and happiness, and fascinated every beholder." It was Quala's mother once a blinded atheist, but now a meek disciple of Christ. And that youthful convert, who, as the sun was sinking beneath the linden-leaved forest, and the dying man had dismissed for the night the last inquirer, lifted so joyously his cot-bed, and laid him down in the little bamboo hut ! And that mourner in the boat where the martyr was breathing out his ebbing life, and at the grave beside the lowly dwelling where he had prayed into being the Karen mission weeping such great tears, and solacing so tenderly the desolate and the bereaved ! And that missionary, in a street in Tavoy, passing from house to house, and leaving at each a tract and a frag- ment of Scripture, and addressing to the inmates a brief but urgent message ! And that midnight lamp, seen so often at the cottage-window ! and that shadow on SAN QUALA. 233 the rude curtain, as of one intent on some deep study ! and that grave divine, poring over the Burman Testa- iflent and Psalms, and, like Luther, lifting up his soul for " light ! " It was Quala, now at the feet of Jesus, and spending and being spent for HIM. " Preaching the gospel," says one who for years was an eye-witness of the wonderful work of God among that people, " is, with the converted Karen, a spontaneous act. He thinks as little about the duty to preach, as he does of the duty to eat when he is hungry. He does the latter from the instinct of his animal nature, the former from the impulse of his spiritual life." Quala, like others of his countrymen afterwards, took it upon him to speak of Christ every- where, and to all men ; and with him it was no more presumption than it was to take it upon him to pray. Here is one of his earnest appeals: "Against God, the only true God, have we all sinned in all our thoughts, in all our deeds. There is no part of us free from transgression. The hand has transgressed, the foot has transgressed, the eye has transgressed, the ear has transgressed, the mouth has transgressed, the mind has transgressed, the heart has transgressed. Our transgressions are greater than the hills, loftier than the mountains. It is not fitting we ascend to the presence of God. It is fitting we descend to the lowest depths of hell; and the great grace of God alone still keeps us here. These heavens so wide, this earth so great everything in the many waters and numerous lands God created. He formed man holy, exempt from 234 AN APPEAL. old age, from sickness, from death ; but he disobeyed God, obeying Satan, and thus brought misery on him- self and on all creation. Still God did not give us up. He had compassion upon us, and sent His only Son to save the slaves of Satan, who had no rest in his service. To deliver us from the hands of Satan, and to give us rest, He bought us with His own blood. He had no compassion on His own great life, but he had com- passion on men who were going down to hell. He died on the cross for us, on account of our sins, and thus drew open the gate at the foot of the road, so that man is made again acquainted with God." One day, addressing some Karens who were halting between two opinions, he said : " Our fathers and mothers did not hear what we hear, did not know what we know. It is of God's special grace that these things have come unto us. The elders of antiquity yearned to hear the word of God, but heard it not. That blessing was reserved for us. Still it is according to the saying, ' Lake pleasant, fish remain/ In a large lake, where there is nothing to devour the fish, and its waters never fail, the lake is pleasant ; yet, if there be no fish in it, it does not call the fish to come unwillingly. If the fish wish to dwell in it, they remain ; if not, they de- part. God is the lake, and we are the fish. Unless we are in God, ere long something will come and devour us. The fire of hell will devour us. Then dwell in God." Another day, a caviller objected before some Karens : " God is possessed of infinite power, and has a perfect knowledge of all things : why did He create Satan ? A CAVILLER SILENCED. 235 Did He not know that he would come and deceive men ? If He knew that he would come and destroy, why did He create him ? If God compassionates man if He loves him, why did He create the tree of temptation ? Did He not know, that, if man ate of it, he would die ? And, if He knew, why did He create it ? " Quala was there, and he replied : " God is above man, above kings, above all. Kings are obeyed without asking for reasons. We ought not to reply against God. He is our Father. The child understands not what the father does. The axe and the knife kill ; yet without them the father could not obtain food for the child. He did not permit his child to handle them ; but one with crooked ears, when unobserved by its father, takes hold of them and cuts itself. God acts according to His own will. The house-owner builds a house, and decides in relation to all its parts. He dis- poses of the timbers or bamboos according to their proper positions. God is the owner of the house, and we ought to submit to His dispensations in silence. Then He will use us as parts of His building ; that is, we shall become His children and servants. Some of God's judicial arrangements are in order that we may praise Him ; some, that we may repent of our sins ; some, that we may discern between good and evil ; some, that we may not hope in transitory things on earth ; some, that we may avoid hell, and go to heaven. None are made for the disadvantage, but all for the advantage of man. To those who murmur, the Holy Book says 'Who art thou, man, that repliest against God? 236 DOUBTING AND BELIEVING. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou formed me thus ? ' " " A Karen/' writes the same eye-witness, " never stands doubting. If he believes, there is no question in his mind but he has faith ; and, unsuggested, he pro- ceeds to show his faith by his works. Should he deceive himself, he discovers it, not by reflection, but by action. He says to himself, in the language of Goethe ' Try to do thy duty, and thou wilt quickly know what is in thee/ " Quala, one day, addressing some nominal believers in the Christian settlements, said: "When you are with Christians, you do as Christians do ; when you are with the world, you do as the world does. You do not love God; you do not fear sin. Think, and repent of your sins quickly. Remain not between Christians and the world, ever vibrating from the one side to the other. The Holy Scriptures say we cannot serve two masters ; so choose the Master who is able to save, and confide in earnest in Him. ' Go, till you arrive in the presence of God ; Rest not between. Go till you reach the feet of God ; Rest not away. Pray to God ; pray with the heart : Hereafter you will be happy. Should you vacillate to and fro, The coming state will be misery. Act for the future, That you may obtain grace : J .ehovah is the God of grace ; Trust ye in Him.' " AN AWAKENING. 237 Month after month, and year after year, sometimes alone, sometimes in the company of the missionary or of a brother Karen, Quala traversed the jungles and the glens of his country, carrying into every nook and hamlet the glad tidings of great joy. One scene he himself describes thus : " When the teachers and disciples prayed in earnest, the Holy Spirit came down upon the unconverted; and they came forward, request- ing to be baptized. Many of these were people with whom I had laboured and exhorted before the meeting ; and some had said to me, ' We will wait a year ; ' others, ' We will wait two years ; ' others, ' We will look on a while longer/ but, when the Holy Ghost touched them, they repented and became Christians. Many of those who had been among the unconverted came for- ward, and confessed their sins and transgressions publicly. They took up the habit immediately of private prayer in the jungle, and became very anxious for their unconverted relatives, going and inviting many to the meeting. Some confessed sins which had been committed in secret, and prayed with sobs and tears. Many others resolved to become Christians, and many Christians grew in grace." " These things," he adds, " are the work of the Holy Spirit, but they are spirit- ually discerned. Those whose minds are enlightened to see the power of God in them, wonder and praise the Lord. The advantages of these meetings for prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are great. The graces of Christians are increased ; the unconverted obtain new hearts ; and those who listen understand the easier." 238 ANOTHER AWAKENING. In the jungle, on one occasion, the missionary held a protracted meeting of three weeks, for preaching and for prayer. " It was not," he writes, " till nearly the close of the first week, that any effect was produced. On Sabbath evening, however, many expressed their conviction that God had poured out His Spirit in a remarkable manner ; adding, that they now had faith to believe and pray for greater things. Soon after, a feeling became manifest in the church, such has had never before been witnessed. It was evidently from God. Christians were crushed beneath the weight of their sins, and confessed them with many tears, as they had never done before. They soon began to feel for the impenitent ; and they went out in every direction to invite them to come in. And I would say it to the glory of God scarcely any one came and attended a few of our meetings in succession, without giving more or less evidence of conversion." During those three weeks, he could number nojt fewer than sixty-three converts. One evening, in the zayat, the names of some of the unconverted people in the neighbourhood were read over as subjects for prayer. Among them was a native priest a man of consideration in the district; who, hearing that his name had been thus used, said angrily "What business have they to pray for me?" A fortnight afterwards, on a Saturday after- noon, the priest was observed entering the meeting in company with his wife. " I have not come to be a Christian," he said, at the close, "but to hear." A TAVOYAN FESTIVAL. 239 The next day, he was again at the chapel ; and, be- fore that sun had set, he declared himself on the Lord's side. "I am determined/' said he, "to become a Christian." "When?" enquired the missionary. " Now." Meanwhile, Ko-thah-byoo, the earliest Karen convert, was labouring earnestly for souls. Once a- year, in an old walled town, distant some miles from Tavoy, the people of the city held a great religious festival. The town was the seat of the Tavoyans' most cherished idol a little brass image which had come floating up the river on a log, and had stopped near the town, but since had grown to the full stature of a man beneath the tree which sprang from the ominous log. Like some images and pictures elsewhere, the figure had been known, at the approach of war or of pestilence, to weep and to moan ; and, in honour of it, nearly the whole population of Tavoy made an annual pilgrimage to the shrine. One afternoon, just as the fete was drawing to a close, Ko-thah-byoo, in company with the missionary and another convert, arrived at the spot. The others set out on an exploring tour to the neigh- bouring villages, leaving the old man to rest himself and to enjoy a quiet sleep. But, returning in an hour or two, what was their surprise to find him surrounded by a large congregation of Burmans, whose attention seemed to be "riveted on his flashing eyes less, ap- parently, from love than from an indescribable power, which might best be compared to the fascinating in- fluence of the serpent over an unconscious brood of 240 "A BLACK FOREIGNER ! " chickens ? " " The first sentence I heard on coming up," writes the eye-witness, long afterwards, "was ( Your god is a black foreigner ! ' The words were ut- tered with such a peculiar expression of countenance, that the events of a dozen years have done nothing to efface the impression from my memory. ' If ever a man hated idolatry/ observed a brother to me, one day, ' Ko-thah-byoo did.' Yes, if I were able to throw on canvas Ko-thah-byoo's countenance at that moment, as it exists in the gallery of my mind, every one that looked on it would go away, and say, ' If ever a man hated idolatry, Ko-thah-byoo did."' Preaching was Ko-thah-byoo's ruling passion. One day, a boat in which he was sailing with another, was suddenly upset ; and he was in danger of losing his life. " I shall be drowned/' he cried, as he was struggling with the surge, " and never more preach the Word of God to the Karens." That was his one regret; all else was well. And the Lord was with him. Visiting, on one occasion, the eastern Karen settlements, where, with the exception of a single visit of two or three days from Mr. Boardman, he alone had laboured, an eye-witness wrote: "I cry no longer, ' The horrors of heathenism ! ' but ' The blessings of missions!' I date no longer from a heathen land. Heathenism has fled these banks. I eat the rice, and yams, and fruit, cultivated by Christian hands; I look on the fields of Christians, and see no dwellings but those inhabited by Christian families. I am seated in A CHRISTIAN VILLAGE. 241 the midst of a Christian village ; surrounded by a people who love as Christians, converse as Christians, act like Christians, and look like Christians. If it be worth a voyage across the Atlantic to see the Shenandoah run through the Blue Ridge, surely a voyage around the globe would be amply repaid by a Sabbath spent in this valley." And how he preached, may be gathered from some fragments. " A worldly man," he said one day, every eye intently fixed on him as he proceeded, " is never satisfied with what he possesses. Let me have more houses, more lands, more buffaloes, more slaves, more clothes, more wives, more children and grandchildren, more gold and silver, more paddy and rice, more boats and vessels; let me be a rich man. Of God he is quite unmindful. But watch that man. On a sudden, his breath departs. He looks around, and, astonished, exclaims 'Where are my slaves? where are my buffaloes ? I cannot find one of them. Where are my houses and my chests of money, my rice and paddy, and all the fine clothes which cost me so much ? I can find none of them : who has taken them ? And where are my wife and children ? Ah ! they are all missing : I can find none of them. I am lonely and poor, indeed. I have nothing. But what is this ?' ' Then, after describing the misery of the lost soul, he put into the man's mouth this closing lament " Oh ! what a fool have I been ! I neglected God, the only Saviour, and sought only worldly goods, while on earth: and now I am undone." And he added: R 242 FRUITS. " All in this world is misery. Sickness and pain, fear and anxiety, wars and slaughter, old age and death, abound on every hand. But hearken ! God speaks from on high 'Children! why take ye delight, and seek happiness, in that low village of mortality in that thicket of briers and thorns ? Look up to me; I will deliver you, and give you rest, where you shall be for ever blessed and happy .'" "I have called," said an inquirer one day to the missionary at Rangoon, " to get more light on the way of salvation by Jesus Christ." It was a Karen from the jungle, who had received some weeks before from Ko-thah-byoo a tract and a kind counsel about his soul. And all the surrounding villages had been stirred by his words, during a recent excursion he had made during a three -months' sojourn at Rangoon. " The Karens," wrote the missionary, " are thronging us from Dalla, Leing, Maubee, Kyadau, and many places I have not heard named, men, women, and children; and all anxiously enquiring about the re- ligion of Jesus. There are very many who already keep the Lord's day, read our tracts, and endeavour to instruct one another the best they can. They daily read the tracts, and all get together in their families, and sing and pray to the God who rules in heaven. There surely is the sound of rain I would say, of much rain. Pray for us, and for the Karens who are looking up to us for the bread of life, their eyes brightening as they hear of Jesus and the way to heaven." And he added : "The devil is sorely dis- CONFESSORS. 243 turbed, and is mustering his forces. What the issue of the campaign will be, we cannot say ; but those who were yesterday baptized, said ' If the magistrate should issue an order to cut off our heads, then let him cut them off : we believe in Jesus ; and, if we should be killed, we will go where Jesus is, and be happy/ " 244 A BURMAN GROUP. CHAPTER XII. Scene on the Irriwadi The group of boatmen Inquirers The old shepherd " Give me one ! " The night-lamp Visit to Prorne "A spy" New awakenings "Behold, he prayeth ! " A gathering storm British resident " A little grace " An adieu The garret at Rangoon A " living epistle " First duty A shining face Self-denial English travellers The dark ladder The "grand engine " " Lowliness itself" Daily dying Madame Guyon and Molinos Crowds Tidings from Tavoy Consolations "Tears of joy" Native festival Macedonian cry Results All alone Strivings after holiness Snares Burnt letter The hermitage An arbour The "miracle" A grave Asceticism and Christian self-denial. ON a beautiful summer evening, near sunset, a group of boatmen were gathered at a small village on the Irriwadi, listening intently to an earnest " stranger," who had landed for an hour from one of the river- craft which there found a constant rendezvous. It was Judson, on his way up to Prome, and (as his man- ner was) sowing beside all waters. On his passage from Maulmain, he had visited Rangoon, where he " had a great deal of company, some of whom heard and lived." His principal inquirer was Thah-tay, a JUDSON EVANGELIZING. 245 person of some little rank, whom he had formerly known at Tsa-gaing, and an intimate friend of his old protector, the north-commandant of the palace. All the disciples whom he met, appeared to be growing in grace.* A spirit of inquiry was more prevalent and more boldly indulged than formerly; and he felt that he had reason to thank God for all the past, and to take courage for the time to come. And, embarking for Proine, the great half-way house on the way to Ava, he had reached the village just named, where multitudes listened to his words and eagerly read his tracts. His way was to produce a few tracts or cate- chisms ; and, after reading and talking a little, and getting the company to feel kindly, he would offer one to the most attentive auditor present ; and, on showing some reluctance to give to every person, and on making them promise to read it attentively, and to consider and pray, they would get furious to obtain a tract, many hands being eagerly stretched out, and "Give me one ! give me one \" resounding from all sides. Just as he was leaving, that day, a tract fell into the hands of a respectable elderly man ; and, before they were out of sight, a little boat was seen hurrying up in pursuit. It was the Burman, bent on having another tract ; * " I asked pastor Thah-a to go with me," Judson writes ; "but he thinks it quite impossible, on account of having so many irons in the fire that is, hopeful inquirers, whom he must stay to bring for- ward and baptize. He is as solicitous and busy as a hen pressing about her chickens. It is quite refreshing to hear him talk on the subject, and see what a nice careful old shepherd he makes." 246 SCENE ON THE RIVER. and, having received the Gospel of St. Matthew, he went back as happy as if he had found a vein of gold. Another night, they arrived at a large village, situated in a beautiful region, the native country of the tamarind-tree. With the help of Moung Ing, he soon gathered a large and respectable assembly, to whom he held forth the word of life. Returning to the boat, they were followed by a succession of small parties begging very hard for tracts. As night closed in, the captain, not very kindly, pushed off into the river ; but, determined to gain their point, the people gathered upon the shore, calling out, " Teacher ! are you asleep ? We want a writing to get by heart." " We will give you one," shouted a voice from the boat, " if you will come and get it." Instantly a long canoe was put off, and they got so near as to be able to reach a paper stuck on the end of a long pole. This lasted till nine o'clock ; and, as the captain went ashore and passed through the village, he found in almost every house some native, at a lamp, reading aloud one of the tracts. After a sail of one hundred and seventy miles from Rangoon, he landed one morning at Prome; and, ac- companied by the only European resident, he repaired .to the house of the governor. His wife, who, in her husband's absence at Ava, was acting governor of the town, listened most earnestly to Mr. Judson's words ; but the " foreigner" was suspected by the people as " a spy," and, only with the greatest difficulty, did he obtain a grant of an old ruinous zayat. " We shall come and see you before long," said LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 247 some passers-by, one day, as he was taking possession of the spot. And visitors began to appear, listening with apparent anxiety, when, late on a Sabbath evening, a message arrived from the deputy-governor, demanding his name and title. The rumour spread, that he was a "spy in British pay ;" and the visitors suddenly dropped away, till he was left without a solitary inquirer. In his closet, that evening, he sat "extremely dejected;" but, " With a passion half divine," he only felt it a new call to a life of self-consecration. " Never so heartily willing/' he wrote, " to enter into my rest ; yet willing to offer, and I do with some pecu- liar feelings offer, my poor life to the Lord Jesus Christ, to do and to suffer whatever He shall appoint during my few remaining days. My followers/' he added, " feel some courage yet ; for they have, I hope, a little faith, and they know also that, whatever storm comes, it will beat upon their teacher first." A week passed ; and visitors again appeared. " I cannot but hope," was his entry in his diary, one even- ing, "that two persons have this day obtained some discovery of the way of salvation through a crucified Saviour. But it is really affecting to see a poor native, when first he feels the pinch of truth. On the one side is hell ; on the other, ridicule, reproach, confisca- tion of goods, imprisonment, and death." One of these inquirers was a bright young man, once bearing a con- siderable title, and attached to the imperial court, but recently placed under ban, the victim of a false accusa- 248 PERSECUTION. tion. " I cannot think/' were his words one day, " of embracing the religion of Christ, until the learned and the great lead the way." The day following, he " be- gan to speak decidedly for Christ." And, two days later, Mr. Judson wrote: "Moung A was with me in the afternoon : his case is becoming extremely interesting. He began last night to pray to the eternal God." And, five days afterwards " Oo Myat-pyoo appears to have taken the religion of Christ into his heart. He and Moung A bid fair to be the first-fruits of the mission here." The deputy-governor had reported him to Ava; but, strong in his God, and " resolved to labour while the day lasted," he lost not a moment in urging forward the work. One day, taking his stand in a public zayat about a mile from home, he had an uninterrupted suc- cession of visitors from morning till night ; and, with the aid of three native fellow-labourers who preached in other spots, he brought the Gospel intelligibly that day to the ears of at least one hundred and fifty people who never had heard it before. Another day, after the crowd had dispersed, one man remained with him till night ; and, two days afterwards, he " began to feel the force of truth." For two or three weeks, it appeared as if the whole town was roused to listen to " the news of an eternal God, of the mission of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the way of salvation through an atonement." But the storm again gathered. At Ava, ever since he had left them at the close of the war, he had been BRITISH RESIDENT. 249 regarded with extreme suspicion ; and now, summoned one day to the court -house, he was strictly examined con- cerning his past life since he joined the British camp. The report was forwarded to the capital ; and instantly the king's ministry was in conference with the British resident, begging his advice and aid. "Dr. Judson," said they, "is come up to Prome, and is distributing tracts and abusing the Burmese religion, much to the annoyance of the king." " He is now," replied Major Burney, "exclusively devoted to missionary pursuits. I possess no power or authority over him ; but I know him to be a very good man, who will not injure the king or his government in any way." "The king is much vexed with him for his zeal in scattering among the people writings which condemn the Burmese faith, and his majesty is anxious to remove him from Prome." " But the king arid his government have always been noted among civilised nations for their toleration to- wards all religious faiths ; and there are thousands whom the least molestation or injury of Dr. Judson would offend and grievously displease." " It is to avoid hurting him that we have consulted you. Will you write and advise him of the sentiments of the king?" "I repeat, he is no way connected with me or my government ; and I can issue no orders to him. I beg you to leave him alone." " No, we can- not : the king is greatly displeased. Will you only write?" "Well, I shall write : but remember, I have no right to interfere with him ; and, whatever letter he may receive from me, he will act as his own judgment 250 A RETROSPECT. and conscience may dictate." " Only recommend him to return to Rangoon, and to confine his missionary labours within that city." Meanwhile, he had some company at the zayat each day, and crowds on days of worship. Amidst many opposers, some were observed in distant corners listening eagerly, whilst five among them seemed to obtain "a little grace." But the "enemy's forces came on fresh and fierce;" the poor people became alarmed ; an imperial order was issued for his own removal ; and, in other ten days, he was afloat in his little boat manned by the three disciples, and was bidding adieu to Prome. At the water's edge, as the craft was gliding down the stream, there sat, pensive and sad, an inquirer a government writer who had paid sundry visits at the zayat, and had been hanging about there for hours before embarking. " Mark me as your disciple," were his parting words, uttered with much emotion : " I pray to God eveiy day ; do you also pray for me. As soon as I can get free from my present engagement, I intend to come down to Rangoon." The next day was the Sabbath ; and its hours of rest he dedicated to a solemn review of his three-months' sojourn in Prome. " There is no part of my missionary life," he wrote in his diary that day, "which I look back upon with more satisfaction, or, rather, with less dissatisfaction. This city was founded several hundred years before the Christian era. Through how many ages have the successive generations of its dark in- habitants lived and died, without the slightest know- A FAREWELL. 251 ledge of the Great Eternal, and of the only way of salvation which He has provided ! At length, in the year 1830, it was ordered that a missionary of the Cross should sit down in the heart of the city, and from day to day, for above three months, pour forth divine truth in language which, if not eloquent and acceptable, was at least intelligible to all ranks. Thou- sands have heard of God who never, nor their ancestors, heard before. Frequently, in passing through the streets, and in taking my seat in the zayats, I have felt such a solemnity and awe on my spirit, as almost pre- vented me from opening my lips to communicate the momentous message with which I was charged. How the preacher has preached, and how the hearers have heard, the day of judgment will show. Oh, how many will find their everlasting chains more tight and in- tolerable on account of the warnings and entreaties they have received from my lips ! But, blessed be God, there are some few whose faces I expect to see at the right hand of the great Judge." And, the next morning, as the city was disappearing in the distance, he added : " Farewell to thee, Prome ! Willingly would I have spent my last breath in thee and for thee. But thy sons ask me not to stay ; and I must preach the gospel to other cities also, for therefore am I sent. If hereafter thou call me, though in the lowest whisper, and it reach me in the very extremities of the empire, I will joyfully listen and come back to thee." Arriving in Rangoon, he found that in his absence new efforts had been made to check the work. Guards 252 THE GARRET AT RANGOON. had been stationed on the road leading to the house, at a little distance on each side. Heresy must be put down. A public example must be made. The result was, the crowds had vanished; and all the women, especially, had suspended their visits, lest they should be apprehended by government. But now the alarm had subsided ; and inquirers began to show themselves again at the zayat. " They come," he writes, some weeks later, " from all parts of the country ; and the thing is spreading and increasing every day." And, another day, he adds : " I have chiefly confined myself to the garret of the house we occupy, in order to get a little time to go on with the translation of the Psalms, which was begun three years ago, but has hitherto been post- poned for more important missionary work which was pressing upon us. Some of the disciples occupy the front part of the house below, and receive company and distribute tracts and portions of Scripture. The more hopeful visitors are shown the way up-stairs. But, not- withstanding this arrangement, I am interrupted about half my time. People find their way to me from all parts ; and some, I trust, return with that light in their heads, and that love in their hearts, and that truth in their hands, which will operate as a little leaven until the whole mass be leavened." "What have you been about, mother?" shouted three Burmans rudely and boisterously, one day, meeting unexpectedly their aged mother, who, after having been confined by them for weeks to prevent the deed, had just bjgen confessing Christ in baptism. Happy that HOW TO LIVE. 253 she was now a full disciple, life and death, praise and abuse, had become to her things of no moment ; and, meeting her sons courageously, she meekly replied " I have been baptized into the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the entire renunciation of the religion of our ancestors." The young men were awed, and, contrary to her fears, suffered her to proceed quietly home. His own inner life grew apace. " I send you this extract," he wrote that autumn to a missionary's wife, " not because I think you have not given yourself to God, but to stir up your pure mind by way of remem- brance. Remember, I pray you, that word of Brainerd, ' Do not think it enough to live at the rate of common Christians/ True, they will call you uncharitable and censorious; but what is the opinion of poor worms of the dust, that it should deter us from our duty? Remember that other word of the same holy man ' Time is but a moment, life a vapour, and all its enjoyments but empty bubbles and fleeting blasts of wind/ The first duty of every lover of Christ, is to enter constantly within the veil, offering himself con- stantly a sacrifice to God, to obtain some sensible com- munion with the great Invisible; and his second, to come forth with a shining face, as Moses, and be ready to speak and do whatever God, by His word, providence, and indwelling Spirit, shall appoint. If we reverse this order, and wear out our lives in the most indefatigable services, without an habitual sense of holy unction and divine communion, God may, indeed, in mercy to souls, bless our labours in some degree; but our own souls, 254 HEAVENLY ASPIRATIONS. just saved, will suffer great, irreparable loss through all eternity." And he added, in his own kind way : " I sometimes try to pray for little Elsina, that the first dawn of her intellect may be accompanied with the dawn of heavenly light. Perhaps, if you pray a few words with her alone every day, and endeavour to direct the first thoughts of her young and tender mind to the crucified Saviour, she will grow up a better saint than her own mother." An invitation reached him from America, to visit his native shores. "I am happy to inform the Board," he wrote, in reply, "that my health, which was rather impaired some time ago, is now quite good ; so that I should not feel justified in accepting their invi- tation to return home. At the same time, the kind feeling which dictated the invitation, and the affection, though undeserved, which breathes in every line, have made an indelible impression on my heart. I must confess, that, in meditating on the subject, I have felt an almost unconquerable desire to become personally acquainted with you all, as well as to rove once more over the hills and valleys of my own native land, to recognise the still surviving companions of my youth, and to witness the wide-spread and daily increasing glories of ImmanuePs kingdom in that land of liberty,' blest of heaven with temporal and spiritual blessings above all others. However, I anticipate a happier meeting, brighter plains, friends the same but more lovely and beloved; and I expect soon to witness yea, enjoy that glory, in comparison of which all on ENGLISH TRAVELLERS. 255 earth is but a shadow. "With that anticipation I con- tent myself, assured that we shall not then regret any instance of self-denial or of suffering, endured for the Lord of life and glory." Some English travellers, visiting Rangoon, appeared one evening at the mission, " extremely anxious to see him." Ascending by a ladder, they entered, through a space like a trap-door, a large room with a low roof of uncovered beams, and with open window-frames, the furniture consisting of a table in the centre, a few stools, and a desk, with writings and books neatly arranged on one side. Cordially welcoming them, he was soon drawn by their inquiries into the most animated and glowing conversation respecting Burmah and its hopes. "I have completed the New Testament," said he, pointing to his books and manuscripts, lying before him on the desk, " and am as far as the Psalms in the Old ; and, this once finished, I trust it may be the will of my heavenly Father to call me to my ever- lasting home." And then, speaking with confidence of the conversion -work going forward in Burmah, he added : " I do not doubt, that, when the flame of Christianity does burst forth, it will surprise even me by its extent and brilliancy." The bats began to take their evening round ; and, whirling closer and closer, they so disturbed the strangers with the flap of their heavy wings, that they reluctantly took their leave and departed. "And this, thought I, as I descended the dark ladder," writes one of the little party, " is the solitary abode of Judsou, whom after-ages will designate most 256 A SPECTACLE. justly the great and the good. It is the abode of one of whom the world is not worthy of one who has been imprisoned, chained, and starved, and yet who dares still to prosecute his work in the midst of the people who have thus treated him. And here he is, amidst the trials, sufferings, and bereavements with which it has pleased Heaven to afflict him, still standing with his lamp brightly burning, waiting his Lord's coming." Across the river stood clusters of villages, into which one of the converts went, one day, laden with tracts. He found the fields in that quarter also ready to the harvest. " I am more and more convinced," Mr. Judson wrote, alluding to this method of diffusing the light, " that Burmah is to be evangelised by tracts and portions of Scripture. They are a reading people, beyond any other in India. The press is the grand engine for Burmah. Eveiy pull of brother Bennett at the press sends another ray of light through the dark- ness of the empire. By tracts, I mean not the single sheets or handbills, containing merely a scrap of Scrip- ture, which, being wholly inadequate to give any full idea of the Christian religion, it is impossible to satisfy any poor soul with, when he holds out his hand for such spiritual food as his soul requires ; but by tracts I mean, 'The View/ 'The Catechism/ 'The Balance/ and 'The Investigator.' I earnestly beg the brethren to wake up to the importance of sending a regular supply of these articles. We want them by thousands. Yesterday, we were obliged to give away ninety-five " LOWLINESS ITSELF." 257 tracts and Scriptures, besides refusing several. This morning, I took twenty in my hand, as usual; and, although I avoided streets and kept to the jungle, and walked as fast as possible, yet, notwithstanding every precaution, they fleeced me of fifteen by sunrise/' And, to another : " I write in a hurry ; for I am in the middle of the sixty-fifth Psalm : and, though I keep snug in the garret, I have had, within an hour, one man from Mad-dee-yah, who has come for tracts, having heard the gospel from one of the disciples at Prome ; a writer from Kyouk-mau, brought hither by your in- quirer Moung Louk ; a disciple from An-au-len ; and Moung liming from Pan-ta-nau, who requests baptism, and brings also a message and request for tracts from Nah-kau-dau, who says he heard about Jesus Christ from a foreigner at Prome [Judson himself] . And, as I am alive, here come at this moment a priest and his followers. So farewell ! " Henry Martyn describes a Hindoo convert, whom he baptized one day, as " lowliness itself." And, another day, in his diary, Martyn wrote of himself, thus : " I would wish, like many, to be ever weeping at the feet of Jesus." And an older saint than either once said : " Now mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Dwelling in the same light, Judson was learning the same self- abhorrence. " I hope you will pray for me," he writes ; " for you have not such inveterate habits to struggle with as I have contracted through a long course of religious sinning. Oh, my past years in Rangoon are s 258 DYING DAILY. spectres to haunt my soul ; and they seem to laugh at me, as they shake the chains they have riveted on me. I can now do little more than beg my younger brethren and sisters not to live, as I have done, until the Ethiopian becomes so black that his skin cannot be changed. And yet," he adds, " I have sometimes sweet peace in Jesus, which the world can neither give nor take away. Oh, the freeness, the richness of divine grace through the blood of the cross ! I love you both most sincerely, and hope shortly to be happy with you in the world of light, where we shall under- stand many mysteries which now seem dark to our dark minds. However, we have a glimpse of that light which shineth more and more to the perfect day." He continued to grow personally in grace. " As to the other matter," he writes, some months later, " the land of Beulah lies beyond the valley of the Shadow of Death. Many Christians spend all their days in a continual bustle doing good. They are too busy to find either the valley or Beulah. ( Virtues they have, but they are full of the life and attractions of nature, and are unacquainted with the paths of mortification and death/ Let us die as soon as possible, and by whatever process God shall appoint. And, when we are dead to the world, to nature, and to self, we shall begin to live to God."* And these * Dr. Judson at this time was much interested in the Life of Madame Guyon, and used to ascribe to it not a little of his growth in grace. That remarkable woman was a disciple of Molinos, respect- ing whom the reader is referred to a small volume entitled, " Thoughts and Aphorisms on the Christian Life," lately published. LABOURS. 259 were not the pietistic reveries of a recluse. " On Tues- day/' he continues, respecting a great Burman festival, " we gave away three hundred tracts ; on Wednesday, eight hundred ; on Thursday, nine hundred ; on Friday (the full moon), seven hundred; on Saturday, eleven hundred ; on Sunday, eight hundred ; on Monday, five hundred. On Tuesday, the immense crowd of boats began to move off. That day, at the house, we gave away six hundred ; on Wednesday, seven hundred ; on Thursday (to-day), five hundred." And he adds : " We don't give to every one we meet, but to those only who ask earnestly. Don't think the tracts you print, and stitch, and trim, with a great deal of labour, and send here, are lost. I am persuaded, after a great deal of enquiry, that not one in a hundred is destroyed. And I trust that most of them will come to light in the day of judgment." The viceroy had lately been solicited by two sub- ordinate officers to persecute ; but, being a quiet, good- natured man, and wishing to preserve the peace, though in no way favourable to the gospel, he de- clined. Each act of worship was conducted so secretly, that the government scarcely knew that there were any native converts ; but the work, nevertheless, proceeded. " The most prominent feature in the mission at pre- sent/' Judson writes, " is the surprising spirit of inquiry which is spreading everywhere, through the whole length and breadth of the land. I sometimes feel alarmed, like a person who sees a mighty engine beginning to move, over which he knows that he has 260 " A MIGHTY ENGINE." no control." And he adds: "Our house is fre- quently crowded with company ; but I am obliged to leave them to Moung Ing, one of the best of assistants, in order to get time for the translation. Is this right ? Happy is the missionary who goes to a country where the Bible is translated to his hand." In the midst of these labours, a stroke startled him, deeply wounding his tenderly sensitive heart. " One of the brightest luminaries of Burmah," he writes, " is extinguished. Dear brother Boardman has gone to his eternal rest. I have heard no particulars, except that he died on returning from his last ex- pedition to the Karen villages, within one day's march of Tavoy. He fell gloriously at the head of his troops, in the arms of victory, thirty-eight wild Karens having been brought into the camp of King Jesus within the preceding two months, besides the thirty-two who were brought in during the two previous years. Disabled by mortal wounds, he was obliged, through the whole of his last expedition, to be carried on a litter ; but his presence was a host, and the Holy Spirit accompanied his dying whispers with almighty influence. Such a death next to that of martyrdom must be glorious in the eyes of Heaven. Well may we rest assured that a triumphal crown awaits him on the great day, and 1 Well done, good and faithful Boardman, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! ' I have great confidence in sister Boardman, that she will not desert her husband's post, but carry on the work which he has gloriously CONSOLATIONS. 261 begun." And to the bereaved widow he wrote : " You are now drinking the bitter cup, whose dregs I am somewhat acquainted with. I can only advise you to take the cup with both hands, and sit down quietly to the bitter repast which God has appointed for your sanctification. As to your beloved, you know that all his tears are wiped away, and that the diadem which encircles his brow now outshines the sun. Little Sarah and the other have again found their father not the frail, sinful mortal whom they left on earth, but an immortal saint, a magnificent, majestic being. What more can you desire for them ? While, there- fore, your tears flow, let a due proportion be tears of joy. Yet take the bitter cup with both hands, and sit down to your repast. You will soon learn a secret, that there is sweetness at the bottom. You will find it the sweetest cup that ever you tasted in all your life. You will find heaven coming near to you ; and familiarity with your husband's voice will be a con- necting link, drawing you almost within the sphere of celestial music." Some months passed; and another great Burman festival summoned vast multitudes from the remotest parts to worship at the Rangoon pagoda, where were enshrined " several real hairs of Gautama." Ten thousand tracts were given, in each case to those only who asked. And at the house there were not fewer than six thousand inquirers. " Sir," were the touch- ing words of some visitors, who had come two or three months' journey from the borders of Siam 262 INQUIRERS. and China, " we hear that there is an eternal hell. We are afraid of it. Do give us a writing, which will tell us how to escape it." " Sir/' asked another group, from the frontiers of Kathay, a hundred miles north of Ava, " we have seen a writing which tells about an eternal God. Are you the man who gives away such writings ? If so, pray give us one ; for we want to know the truth before we die." " Are you/' enquired a third group, from the interior of the country, where the name of Jesus Christ was now a little known, " Are you Jesus Christ's man ? Give us a writing which tells about Jesus Christ." From these scenes the Macedonian cry was wafted across the ocean. " It is most distressing to find," was Judson's burning appeal, " that when we are almost worn out, and are sinking one after another into the grave, many of our brethren in Christ at home are just as hard and immoveable as rocks just as cold and repulsive as the mountains of ice in the Polar Seas. But, whatever they do, we cannot sit still and see the dear Burmans flesh and blood like ourselves, and, like ourselves, possessed of immortal souls, that will shine for ever in heaven, or burn for ever in hell go down to perdition without doing our very utmost to save them. And, thanks be to God, our labours are not in vain. We have three lovely churches, and about two hundred baptized converts ; and some are in glory. A spirit of religious enquiry is extensively spreading throughout the country; and the signs of the times indicate that the great renovation of Burmah MACEDONIAN CRY. is drawing near. Oh, if we had about twenty more versed in the language, and means to spread schools, and tracts, and Bibles, to any extent, how happy I should be ! But those rocks, and those icy mountains, have crushed us down for many years." At Maulmain, meanwhile, new blanks had occurred ; for the Wades had been ordered home. And, at the re- quest of the enfeebled remnant, Dr. Judson returned, to the great joy of the native Christians, who crowded to welcome him on the shore. " I am startled and terrified to find," he writes, " that, by several unexpected moves, I am left, as it were, alone, there being not another foreigner in all the country who can preach the gospel to the perishing millions, north and south, or can feed the infant churches. My prayers to God, and my entreaties to my brethren at home, seem to have equal efficacy. Since the last missionaries left home, I per- ceive no farther signs of life. All seem to have gone to slumbering and sleeping." And he adds : " Pour out, Lord, Thy Holy Spirit upon all our feeble efforts, that we may be more successful; and upon Thy baptized people at home, that they may begin at last to wake up to the subject of missions, even though they have been sleeping these eighteen years not to say, centuries !" Aiming, with his -characteristic energy, at the utmost possible measure of communion with his God, he laboured to subdue every passion which might hinder his heavenliness. From his earliest youth, for example, he had felt a craving for fame ; and, even yet, 264 SELF-CRUCIFIXION. after all his sufferings, he was not without the emotion of the stricken warrior, who " Is glad that his wounds are salved with glory." A posthumous reputation was the form which the " sweet self-homage " now assumed. Startled one day by that saying of the Lord, " How can ye believe, who receive honour one of another?" he committed to the flames a letter of thanks which he had received from the Governor-general of India for his services, and gave the most peremptory instructions for the destruction of all his correspondence. Another snare which he dreaded, was his intense love for his friends. " How much I love you all, dear brethren, and sisters, and disciples," he had written, one day, from Prome, to friends in Rangoon and Maulmain, " I cannot tell ! And, did I not expect soon to meet you in heaven and be happy with you for ever, I should be quite unwilling to live an exile, far from you, in this dark land." But, finding, on his return to some of them, that they threatened to supplant in his heart the blessed God as the supreme object of his affection, he adopted the expedient of retiring to a small bamboo house in the jungle, where, for weeks together, he devoted himself to his studies and to converse with God, living on the most spare food, and seeing only inquirers who came to him for instruction. Once, for forty days, he retired from this hermitage to a thick jungle, so remote from all human habitation, that even a pagoda, once erected near it by some stern devotee of THE RETREAT. 265 Gautama, was now moss-grown and forsaken. Wan- dering over the hills each morning early with his Bible, he would sit down among the wild bushes to read, and meditate, and pray, returning at night to the hermit- age to sleep. One morning, on arriving at the spot, he found in it a rude bamboo-seat, surmounted by a canopy of branches to shield him from the scorching sun. Long afterwards, a friend discovered that the kind hand was that of a convert, whose warm affection for Judson had led him to go out in the dusk, in the face of prowling tigers and hyasnas, and do this little deed of love. The natives, when they heard of these forty days' retreat in the jungle, and of Judson's preservation from the wild beasts, used to pronounce it a repetition of the miracle of Daniel in the lions* den. Another temptation which beset him was " a peculiar form of the dread of death not the separation of the soul from the body, nor any doubt of his acceptance with God, but a nervous shrinking from decay and cor- ruption, from the mildewing and mouldering in dark, damp, silent ghastliness." It was the result, he be- lieved, of "pride and self-love;" and, to mortify it, he had a grave dug, and would sit for hours gazing into it, " imagining how each feature and limb would appear days, months, and years after it had lain there." Some will pronounce these austerities asceticism. But such acts, as well as a habit of frequent fasting which he continued to the close of his life, were done, not in the spirit of bondage, but in the exercise of a 266 HIDDEN LIFE. child-like confidence, and in the midst of unceasing labours on behalf of perishing men. They were done, not imitatively because other holy men had done them, but in the strong instinct of a soul craving a fellow- ship with the Eternal which he found so rudely hindered by " the body of this death." Who art thou, man, that sittest in the chair of the censor? Israel, strong in faith, marched victoriously through the sea : the Egyptians, assaying without Israel's faith to do the same act, were drowned. SCENE AT RANGOON. 267 CHAPTER XIII. Scene at Rangoon Royal tank A group Steadfast faith Two sleepers Bamboo-raft Converts Karen Bible Whitened fields "Feed the gnats" Village-scene The one tract " Fine-spun systems " Children of the forest Native ministry ^ Three students Dress Satan fretting "Barking in concert " A chief Not daring to think The missionary life "Mere skeletons" The grindstone " Pride of humble men " "Genteel living" Power of gentleness Scenes on the river "Taking into port" Aged convert "God is with me" Demon of diseases The translation Privacy Daily maxims Compas- sion for souls An appeal "Devoted for life " Tact "My anvil" The little triangular corner How to shine Sum of converts Missionary's business Manuscript-Bible finished Great triumph. AT Rangoon, one morning early, as the sun's brilliant rays were reflected from the gilded spires of a hundred pagodas, and multitudes of a snow-white bird, called the rice-bird, were filling with their orisons the beautiful grove of mango-trees, there were moving along towards a little lake, styled the " Royal tank," a happy group of Karens, longing to confess Christ. Among the com- pany were two youthful inquirers., whose baptism had 268 CONVERTS' STEADFAST FAITH. been delayed; the one because, "though exceedingly interesting/' he " appeared scarcely to have enough counted the cost ;" and the other, because he " had not sufficiently seen the evil of his heart." Now kneeling at the edge of the lake, the converts lifted up their hearts in thanksgiving; and, coming up out of the water, they returned to their jungle with a chastened, holy joy. They were the fruit of the labours of Ko- thah-byoo, in the neighbourhood of Rangoon. Not long after, one of them was seized by the head-man of their village, and was questioned somewhat roughly about his new religion. " I believe," was his prompt reply, "in Jesus Christ, and no more worship the gnats, or the pagodas, or images, nor drink spirits. I worship the Eternal God." He was fined sixty-five rupees, and was ordered to renounce the ' ' foreigners' religion." " Well, now," said Judson, as the convert was narrating the incident next day, " I suppose you are all very much afraid ? " " Some of the people are afraid," replied one of them, " not the disciples ; but they meet every Sabbath, one or two hundred of them, to hear Jesus Christ's law." "But, perhaps, the rulers will take your money or whip you : why are you not afaid?" "Because," said the Karen, with an air of quiet confidence, " the Eternal God governs." Under a broad-leafed plantain, two sleepers were awoke one morning by a strange rustling among the bushes. Within a few feet of them were the new-made footprints of a tiger. Another day, a slight bamboo- raft was rolling over a fall in the Tenasserim, and pre- KAREN NEW TESTAMENT. 269 cipitating its cargo into the seething waters beneath. The wanderers were San Quala and the missionary Mason, hastening from hamlet to hamlet and from glen to glen, preaching to the Karens the gospel of the kingdom. Before many weeks had passed, the converts numbered two hundred and fifty-seven. Another work was accomplished by them. There being no written literature, but only a mass of ficti- tious tales floating in the people's memories, and related in fire-side circles in the long rainy nights, Quala had committed to paper every poem or story which any one knew, and thus had created a Karen literature, in prose and in verse, of several manuscript volumes. In this way, the missionary, having ascer- tained the words current among the people, had taken in hand a translation of the New Testament. Day after day, and night after night, as intervals of leisure occurred in the work of preaching, the two labourers might be seen poring over the sacred page, longing to give to the people the word of life. And, at length, the pleasant task was finished, the Karens read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. " Con- sider the generation of the fathers," said Quala, one day, to his fellow-Karens ; " they had no books ; they had none to teach them anything ; they had no teachers. Of the things in heaven and the things on earth they knew nothing ; but now, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the American teachers from the West have come and taught us, and we have obtained books in our own language. Let us, then, in the 270 " THE GNATS." strength of God, put forth strenuous efforts to acquire a knowledge of books ; for, should the teachers leave, we should be left as orphans. While they are with us, let us make every possible effort to study, so that we may understand for ourselves independently, and, should the teachers be no longer with us, we may be able to instruct each other." Other publications followed; and so earnest was the study pursued in the diffe- rent schools, that, before many years, the "ignorant Karens" were to be on a level, in intelligence and in Christian knowledge, with almost any Christian community. The scene is shifted ; and we are in another village of the Karen jungle, listening to Ko-thah-byoo. Crowds have been coming and going all day long, so that the building is already breaking down ; and from morning to night he has been speaking to them of Christ. " Come among us/' is their cry, as the preacher is obliged to leave them, "and we will build zayats and school- houses." And the only answer he can give them is, " Oh, for labourers to enter this whitened field, and to gather the golden grain ! " " Come," said a Bur- man Karen to his neighbour, one day, after the mis- sionary was gone, "join our worship again, and feed the gnats." * " No," was the reply, unhesitating and decisive : " I mean to worship Jesus Christ to the end of my life." " But will Jesus save you from the power * The " gnats " are beings superior to man, but inferior to the chief god ; some of them inhabiting the lower heavenly regions, and others having dominion over different portions of the earth and sky. THE SOLITARY TRACT. 271 of the gnats ?" "I have been told so ; and I believe it. I know that the gnats cannot save me from sick- ness or from death, though I should feed them ever so much ; and I mean to go to Rangoon as soon as I can, and find out more of Jesus Christ." A week or two afterwards, the inquirer was told that this tempter had been employed by Satan to seduce him into sin. " I do not know," was the reply ; " but it looks very much like it." In a village, two days' journey from Rangoon, might be seen, every Sabbath morning, an assembly of about two hundred worshippers, exhorting one another, and praying, and reading their solitary tract the only publication except a spelling-book which had yet reached them in their language. " Send us," was the urgent petition of a deputation of their number one day at Rangoon, " send us some one to baptize the willing converts ; they are like fruit fully ripe in the wilderness, only wanting to be gathered." And, an- other day, a group arrived from the village, to join the mission-worship. It was Saturday evening ; and, after lifting their voices in prayer and singing a Karen hymn, they retired for the night to their mats on the verandah, from which rose once more the song of praise. The Sabbath was truly a feast of love. " These simple Karens," wrote the missionary, as they left the next day for their mountain-homes, "unshackled by the fine-spun systems of the Burmans, hear the gospel with cheering benefit." And, a Saturday or two later, another group appeared, earnestly desiring baptism. 272 PENTECOSTAL WORK. Four were accepted, making a total of twenty-two within the space of three weeks. "The instruments in this work of grace/' is the missionary's entry in his diary, " have been three men, and two lads under fifteen years, scarcely one of whom can read. How great is the grace of God, to render the truth so plain that the mere child may teach enough, if it be received with unwavering faith in God, to purify the heart and life, and to prove the salvation of the soul ! " A year or two passed ; and, for the first time, the village was visited by a missionary. Within the space of a week, one hundred and sixty-seven were baptized. "These children of the forest/' wrote an eye-witness who had lately arrived in Burmah, " sustained as good an ex- amination as any of an equal number I ever witnessed in America. The helpless condition of man as a sinner, and the way of salvation through Christ alone, were truths apparently understood by all ; and, though they had every reason to expect that cruel persecution would be the result of their professed allegiance to the Saviour, yet theirs were the confidence and the joy of those who could say, ' I know in whom I have believed.' In this section," he added, ' ' are probably a hundred or more believing Karens, who are still waiting for an oppor- tunity to be baptized." It had been Judson's steady aim to raise up a native ministry. Believing that without it Christianity could never take root among a people, he had surrounded himself with men whose gifts and graces seemed to promise success in the work of evangelisation. One NATIVE MINISTRY. 273 of his most marked characteristics was the art he pos- sessed of attaching labourers to his service, and of stimulating them to hopeful effort. Starting, for ex- ample, one day from Maulmain, he found in the jungle nineteen converts ; and, in the course of ten days, three of the most intelligent of them had arrived at Maul- main, with their wives and families, to attend the adult school, that they might be qualified to read and interpret the Scriptures to their countrymen. "The plan," he wrote, " will involve some expense, as they must, of course, be supported while at school. Each family will require six or seven rupees per month. But I know of no way in which a little money can be laid out to greater advantage for the promotion of the cause of truth among this people. Whilst the men are at school, their families will be acquiring a little civilisation and Christian knowledge, which will render them useful when they return to their native wilds." Three months passed ; and he again set out, taking with him the three scholars, and six ripened converts, " all good men and true." In one village, they found the little church lamenting the loss of its leader the first of those northern Karens who had arrived safe in heaven. In another place, a man and his wife had died in the faith ; they had not been baptized and had never seen any foreign missionary, but both had de- parted in peace, the man enjoining his surviving friends to lay on his breast the " View of the Christian Re- ligion," and to bury it with him. Arriving at another T 274 VILLAGE SCENES. village, they were "delighted with the prompt and intelligent replies" of a convert who had come from a neighbouring hamlet, desiring baptism. Adorned with "twelve strings of all manner of beads around her neck," and "with a due proportion of ear, arm, and leg ornaments," she was examined and approved with- out one remark on the subject of her decorations. But, the next morning, as the missionary was animadverting, at worship, on the female dress of the district, he was startled to observe the lady, as well as two others who were with her, divesting themselves, on the spot, of every article which could be deemed merely ornamental. It was done by them "with evident pleasure, and with good resolution to persevere in adherence to the plain-dress system." Prosecuting their journey, they had, in another village, "a crowded meeting," a venerable old man coming forward at the close and witnessing a good confession, whilst his son, though convinced of the truth, and giving some evidence of grace, " could not resolve at once on entire abstinence from rum." After baptizing eight converts, he pro- ceeded to another village, where one man and his wife " embraced the truth, at first hearing." The inquirer joined the missionary group ; and, two days afterwards, as they halted at another village, he exclaimed, " See, here is water ! will you baptize me?" At first, they hesitated ; and, " much disappointed and grieved," he said, "Ah, I may not live to see you again, and to have it in my power to confess Jesus Christ." The " NOT DARE TO THINK." 275 brethren received him ; and he returned home rejoicing, "resolving to tell all his neighbours what ' great things the Lord had done for him/ ' In a village about a mile inland, the whole little community, as one man, embraced the gospel. Two were baptized a man and his wife, the latter possessing " the best intellect, as well as the strongest faith," which the missionary had found among this people. Though rather advanced in life, they agreed to come to Maul- main the next rainy season, that they might learn to read, Mr. Judson promising to support them for a few months. " They followed us," he writes, " all the way to the boat ; and the woman stood looking after us, until we were out of sight." On their way down the river, they found at another village two men and their wives, who, having heard the gospel before, " gave good evidence of having the grace of God," and had now made up their minds to be baptized. The next day, they were welcomed joyfully into fellowship. Further on, a young man " drank in the truth," and promised to follow them to Maulmain; whilst, at another hamlet, a man threatened to turn his aged father out of doors, if he embraced Christianity "a thing," adds Judson, " perhaps not to be regretted, for Satan never frets without cause." Entering another place, they heard that the chief was favourable to the gospel ; but he had gone up the river, and the people " did not dare to think in his absence." A few miles further down, they came upon a village inhabited chiefly by Buddhist Karens. The children and dogs cried and barked in 276 A CHIEF. concert ; and, after sending word that, if any wished to hear him, he would come again in the evening, he relieved them by retreating to the boat. The chief sent a message, that, if he came, he would not refuse to listen. Arriving about sunset, he was sent off to an old deserted room; and the chief and a few confidential friends deigned at length to draw near. " And what a hard suspicious face did he exhibit \" writes Judson. "And how we had to coax him to join in a little regular worship ! It was, at least, an hour before he would consent at all. But, in the course of worship, his features softened, and his mind ' crossed over/ as he expressed it, to our religion ; and I returned to the boat inclined to believe that all things are possible with God." In another village, the chief volunteered a site for a zayat ; and one of the converts was appointed to superintend its erection, and afterwards to minister to the station : six hearers " appeared to be near the kingdom of heaven." And, two days later, the chief of a hamlet "listened with the utmost eagerness till after midnight," and, the following day, was baptized the first Karen chief in those parts who had been received into the church. His people, to a man, held back, taking side with his eldest son, who was a Buddhist priest. About a month elapsed ; and, during a second visit, his wife and eldest daughter declared themselves on the side of Christ. In the midst of these labours, a letter reached Judson one day, from a body of students in the United States, soliciting his advice regarding the "missionary life." THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 277 If ever a man was entitled to speak with authority on such a theme, it was this prince of missionaries. " First," said he, in reply, "let it be a missionary life; that is, come out for life, and not for a limited term. Do not fancy that you have a true missionary spirit, while you are intending all along to leave the heathen soon after acquiring their language. Leave them ! for what ? To spend the rest of your days in enjoying the ease and plenty of your native land ! Secondly : Take care that the attention you receive at home, the unfavourable circumstances in which you will be placed on board ship, and the unmissionary examples you may possibly meet with at some missionary stations, do not transform you from living missionaries to mere skeletons, before you reach the place of your destination. Thirdly : Beware of the reaction which will take place, after you have acquired the language, and have become fatigued and worn out with preaching the gospel to a disobedient and gainsaying people. You will sometimes long for a quiet retreat, where you can find a respite from the tug of toiling at native work the incessant, intolerable friction of the missionary grindstone. And Satan will sympathise with you in this matter ; and he will present some chapel of ease in which to officiate in your native tongue some government-situation some professor- ship or editorship some "literary or scientific pursuit some supernumerary translation or, at least, some system of schools; anything, in a word, which will help you, without much surrender of character, to slip out of real missionary work. Such a temptation will 278 POWER or GENTLENESS. form the crisis of your disease. If your spiritual con- stitution can sustain it, you recover ; if not, you die. Fourthly : Beware of pride not the pride of proud men, but the pride of humble men ; that secret pride which is apt to grow out of the consciousness that we are esteemed by the great and good. This pride some- times eats out the vitals of religion, before its existence is suspected. Fifthly : Beware of genteel living. Maintain as little intercourse as possible with fashion- able European society." And he concluded with a prayer that they might be " guided in all their delibera- tions, and that he might yet have the pleasure of wel- coming some of them to those heathen shores." Henry Martyn, one day, summed up the lesson which a scene in India had taught him, thus : " The power of gentleness is irresistible." A few days after writing these counsels, Judson was out in one of the Karen villages, and was startled by the sudden return of one of the converts, trembling all over with rage. Moung Zu-thee had been away preaching, and had en- countered a Burman priest with a train of novices, who, not liking his doctrine, had fallen upon him and given him a sound beating. Nothing would satisfy him but that Mr. Judson should forthwith assemble his little force, and, seizing the offenders, deliver them up to justice. " I did assemble them," Judson writes ; " and, all kneeling down, I praised God that He had counted one of our number worthy to suffer a little for His Son's sake, and prayed that He would grant unto us a spirit of forgiveness, and to our persecutors every blessing, NEW TRIUMPHS. 279 temporal and spiritual ; after which we left the field of battle with cool and happy minds." The work proceeded. Stopping, on the river, wherever they could catch a listening ear, they met at one place " two very attentive hearers," who sat up nearly all the night, drinking in the truth. One of them became urgent for baptism ; and, on narrating his present and past experience from the time he first had listened to the gospel, he was received into the fellow- ship of the church. The next day, in another village, the old man, whose son had threatened to turn him out of doors, came forward with his wife before a little assembly ; and both witnessed a good confession. "The truth," Judson wrote, on leaving it, "is evi- dently spreading here; one inquirer after another is coming over to the side of Christ." And, in a village several miles inland, he had " a profoundly attentive, though small, audience." "We felt," says he, "that the Holy Spirit sent home the truth in a peculiar manner. Some of the disciples were engaged in re- ligious discussions and prayer a great part of the night." One day, after visiting a village from which on a previous occasion he had received "a respectful message, desiring them to go about their business," and after having preached to some attentive listeners, he was sailing up the river, when he fell in with a boat con- taining several of the listeners of yesterday, one of whom declared his resolution to " enter the new re- ligion." That group was scarcely gone, when another 280 " TAKING INTO PORT." boat came up, full of men. " Do you wish," enquired Judson, auguring from the look of the party that they were bent on some such errand, " to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ ? " " Yes," exclaimed an elderly man, the chief of the party. " I have already heard much of the gospel; and there is nothing I desire more than to have a meeting with the teacher." " Our boats," Judson writes, " were soon side by side, where, after a short engagement, the old man struck his colours, and begged us to take him into port, where he could make a proper surrender of himself to Christ. We accordingly went to the shore, and spent several hours very delightfully, under the shade of the overhanging trees, and under the banner of the love of Jesus. The old man's experience was so clear, and his desire for baptism so strong, that, though circumstances prevented our gaining so much testimony of his good conduct since believing as we usually require, we felt that it would be wrong to refuse his request. The old man went on his way, rejoicing aloud, and declaring his resolution to make known the eternal God, and the dying love of Jesus, all along the banks of his native stream." And Judson adds : " The dying words of an aged man of God, when, waving his withered, death-struck arm, he exclaimed, 'The best of all is, God is with us/ I feel in my very soul. Yes, the Great Invisible is in these Karen wilds. That mighty Being, who heaped up these craggy rocks, and reared these stupendous mountains, and poured out these streams in all directions, and scattered immortal beings throughout " GOD IS WITH US." 281 these deserts, He is present by His Holy Spirit, and accompanies the sound of the gospel with con- verting, sanctifying power. 'The best of all is, God is with us/ ' In these deserts let me labour, On these mountains let me tell How HE died the blessed Saviour To redeem a world from hell.' " Satan, meanwhile, was not idle. Arriving at another village, they found a disciple who, in a moment of anxiety on account of the sudden illness of her child, had been tempted to make an offering to the " demon of diseases," and had remained ever since in an impenitent, prayerless state. She met the teacher with an averted eye, refusing to listen to his words. It was an affecting case. Her husband and herself were surrounded by enemies, who had been employing every art to induce them to apostatise; and, since their baptism at Mr. Judson's former visit, they had not seen the face of a disciple or heard one encouraging word. But now, blinded by the deceitfulness of sin, and refusing to express sorrow, they were suspended from fellowship, and were " left to the mercy and judgment of God/' It was thus that, amidst unequalled successes, the " earthen vessel " was taught where alone resided " the excellency of the power." Returning once more to Maulmain, after a month's wanderings in the jungle, and after baptizing nineteen Karens, he found brother Bennett arrived from Cal- cutta with a complete fount of types. And he wrote : 282 TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. "Must I, then, relinquish my intention of making another trip up the river before the rains set in ? Must I relinquish for many months, and perhaps for ever, the pleasure of singing, as I go ' In these deserts let me labour, On these mountains let me tell ' ? Truly the tears fall as I write." But, just at that moment, a missionary arrived from another station, who could take charge of the evangelistic work. And, finding that, by confining himself exclusively to the task, he would be able to finish the entire Burman Bible within the space of two years, he resolved to consecrate to it his whole energies. " I have, therefore," says he, "retired to a room which I had previously prepared, at the end of the native chapel, where I propose, if life be spared, to shut myself up for the next two years ; and I beg the prayers of my friends that in my seclusion I may enjoy the presence of the Saviour and that special aid in translating the inspired Word which I fully believe will be vouchsafed in answer to humble, fervent prayer." Six months elapsed ; and he had made such pro- gress with the Old Testament that he hoped to finish it before the end of another year. A veil rests over the privacy of that season; but a few vestiges may be traced, in certain rules which guided each day's business: " 1. Rise at light (in general). 2. Pray, morning, noon, and night. 3. Read nothing in English, which has not a devotional tendency. 4. COMPASSION FOR SOULS. 283 Never speak an idle word. 5. Check the first risings of anger. 6. Deny self at every turn, so far as consistent with life, health, and usefulness. 7. Embrace every opportunity of doing any favour to a child of God. 8. Learn to distinguish and obey the internal impulse of the Holy Spirit." And he yearned with a freshening tenderness over souls. " We are in distress," he wrote home, one day. " We see thousands perishing around us. Our hearts bleed, when we think of poor Mergui and the Karens in that vicinity, many of whom are ready to embrace the gospel and be saved. Of all the places which now cry around us, we think that Kyouk Phyoo cries the loudest. No ; we listen again, and the shrill cry of golden Ava rises above them all. Ava ! Ava ! with thy metropolitan walls and gilded turrets, thou sittest a lady among these Eastern nations ; but our hearts bleed for thee ! In thee is no Christian Church, no missionary of the Cross. God of mercy ! have mercy on Pugan and Prome (poor Prome !), on Ava and Bassein, on old Pegu and the provinces of Arracan, on all the Karens and the king- dom of Siam ! Aid us in the solemn and laborious work of translating and printing thy holy, inspired Word, in the languages of these heathen ! Oh, keep our faith from failing, our spirits from sinking, and our mortal frames from giving way prematurely under the influence of the climate and the pressure of our labours ! Have mercy on the churches of the United States; hold back the curse of Meroz; continue and perpetuate the heavenly revivals of religion which they have begun 284) " DRIVEN INTO THE WILDERNESS." to enjoy ; and may the time soon come when no church shall dare to sit under Sabbath and sanctuary privileges without having one of their number to represent them on heathen ground ! Have mercy on the theological seminaries, and hasten the time when one half of all who yearly enter the ministry shall be taken by thy Holy Spirit, and driven into the wilderness, feeling a sweet necessity laid on them, and the precious love of Christ and of souls constraining them ! Adorn thy beloved one in her bridal vestments, that she may shine forth in immaculate beauty and celestial splendour ! Come, our Bridegroom ! Come, Lord Jesus ! come quickly ! Amen and Amen." And his sympathies were ever flowing, wherever there was a weeping eye. "Infinite love," we find him writing to one whose little girls were sailing for America, " in the person of the Lord Jesus, is even now looking down upon you, and will smile, if you offer Him your bleeding, breaking heart. All created excel- lence and all ardour of affection proceed from Him. He loves you far more than you love your children ; and He loves them also, when presented in the arms of faith, far more than you can conceive. Give them, therefore, to His tender care. He will, I trust, restore them to you under greater advantages, and united to Himself; and you, who now sow in tears, shall reap in joy. And on the bright plains of heaven they shall dwell in your arms for ever; and you shall hear their celestial songs, sweetened and heightened by your present sacrifices and tears. "LIMITED-TKRM MISSIONARIES/' 285 1 Sovereign love appoints the measure And the number of our pains, And is pleased when we take pleasure In the trials He ordains.' " When Henry Martyn left England for India, " he left it wholly for Christ's sake, and he left it for ever." Nothing so wounded Judson as the temptations which he found the churches at home presenting to mis- sionaries to make a stepping-stone of the heathen- field. " It is with regret and consternation/' he wrote to the Secretary of the Board, " that we have just learned that a new missionary has come out for a limited term of years. I much fear that this will occasion a breach in our mission. How can we, who are devoted for life, cordially take to our hearts and councils one who is a mere hireling ? I have seen the beginning, middle, and end of several limited-term missionaries. They are all good for nothing. They come out for a few years, with the view of acquiring a stock of credit on which they may vegetate the rest of their days in the congenial climate of their native land. As to lessening the trials of the candidate for missions, it is just what ought not to be done. Mis- sionaries need more trials on their first setting out, instead of less. The motto of every missionary whether preacher, printer, or schoolmaster ought to be, l Devoted for life.' A few days ago, brother Kincaid was asked by a Burmese officer of govern- ment how long he intended to stay. ' Until all Burmah worship the eternal God,' was the prompt 286 " DEVOTED FOR LIFE." reply. If the limited-term system, which begins to be fashionable in some quarters, gain the ascendancy, it will be the death-blow of missions." And he added : " Excuse my freedom of speech, and believe me to be, with all faithfulness and respect, your ' devoted for life/ A. JUDSON." He had a singular tact in the management of men. An occasion for its exercise occurred in the remunera- tion of the native labourers. " I can assure you, from long experience," he wrote to a missionary, who had been soliciting his advice, "that you can seldom, if ever, satisfy Burmans, Talings, or Karens, by giving them stated, specified, known wages. However much it may be, they will soon be murmuring for f more 'bacco/ like their betters. Few of the natives that I pay know how much they get. No word on the subject ever passes between me and them. I contrive, at unequal intervals, to pop a paper of rupees five, ten, or fifteen into their hands, in the most arbitrary way, and without saying a word. But I take accurate note of every payment ; an,d at the end of the year, or of the period for which they are employed, I manage to have paid them such a sum as amounts to so much per month, the rate agreed upon by my brethren. This plan occasions less trouble than one is apt to think at first ; at any rate, not so much trouble as to be in hot water all the time about their ' wages/ However, I only show you my anvil. Hammer your tools on it, or on another of your own invention, as you like." The native assistants were never allowed " MY ANVIL/' 287 by the mission enough for their support, but enough with the aid which the respective congregations were required to furnish. The sum granted was four rupees monthly, and they " never lost a man worth retaining." The language of every one in the field was, " Were the teachers all to go away, I would still preach I would not forsake the work." At intervals, he would repair to the Karen jungle, speaking to many willing ears about Christ. But his main resort was the " little triangular corner," " toiling on at the Old Testament." " T have no family or living creature about," he writes from it, "that I can call my own, except one dog, Fidelia, which belonged to little Maria, and which I value more on that account. Since the death of her little mistress, she has ever been with me ; but she i now growing old, and will die before long, and I am sure I shall shed more than one tear when poor Fidee goes. It is near ten o } clock, and I am worn out with the day's work. I had a somewhat remarkable in- stance of Divine guidance last Friday, in a private case of conscience which had troubled me for some time. It was as if I had seen with my bodily eyes my own adorable Saviour pointing out the particular passage and shedding a flood of light on the sacred page. May you both be blessed, in body and soul, and be burning and shining lights in Rangoon, and through- out Burmah ! and you will be, if you venture to follow Christ throughout, and to be holy as He is holy." In the dozen years which had elapsed since Judson 288 RESULTS. landed, there had now been received into the Church's fellowship one hundred and forty-seven Burmans, two hundred and ninety-two Karens, and one hundred and fifty-three foreigners, making a total of five hundred and ninety-two. His great aim, as each new mission- ary appeared on the field, was to engage every voice, and every heart, in the direct preaching of the gospel. Burmah must be pervaded with it, and Arracan, and the whole Karen country. And he could not brook any delay. " Look at dear Boardman," he wrote, as some of them would " rust" at Maulmain, poring in private over the language. " In eleven months after landing at Amherst, he was in Tavoy. And what a light he kindled up during his short life ! And now, with the New Testament in hand, and with tracts and prayers all prepared, a young missionary can begin to preach and exhort very soon. Why should not he dash, for example, into Toung-oo, or some other place get the language from the living sounds and build up a church, thus kindling up a bright light which will never go out ?" And another work went forward. " I did hope at one time," he wrote, on the closing day of the year,* " to be able to insert, under this date, a notice of the completion of the Old Testament ; but, though I have long devoted nearly all my time to that work, I have found it so heavy, and my health (as usual at this season) so poor, that, though near the goal, I cannot yet say I have attained." At length, he completed his * 1833. BURMAN BIBLE. 289 great task. " Thanks be to God/' he wrote (Jan- uary, 1834), " I can now say that I have attained. I have knelt down before Him with the last leaf in my hand; and, imploring His forgiveness for all the sins which have polluted my labours in this depart- ment, and His aid in future efforts to remove the errors and imperfections which necessarily cleave to the work, I have commended it to His mercy and grace I have dedicated it to His glory. May He make His own inspired Word, now complete in the Burman tongue, the grand instrument of filling all Burmah with songs of praise to our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ! Amen." . If Judson had only done this work, he would not have lived in vain. The translation had been most labo- rious. There being no version of the Scriptures in any cognate language, he had been obliged to prepare one which was original like Morrison's Chinese, and Carey's Sanscrit and Bengalee, and Zeigenbalg's Tamil version. These served respectively as the basis of their cognate dialects ; and from the Burman, in its turn, will be derived, more or less directly, the Taling, the Siamese, the Karen, and other cognate versions. The translation was a master-piece of skill. "I dare riot pass encomiums upon a fellow-mortal in speaking of the Word of God," wrote a most competent judge ; " but the more I study it, the better I am pleased and satisfied with the translation. I am delighted with the graphic style of the narrative parts, and think many of the doctrinal passages are expressed with a force and u 290 GREAT TRIUMPH. perspicuity entirely wanting in our version. Last Lord's day, while reading a portion, I was affected to tears, and sometimes could scarcely proceed." And the writer adds : " The translation of the Bible into Burmese is an event to which thousands have looked forward with joyful anticipation, and for which thou- sands, now perishing in their sins, should fall on their knees in thanksgiving to God, and through which thousands yet unborn will praise Him for ever and ever." THE WIDOW OF TAVOY. 291 CHAPTER XIV. The widow of Tavoy " How can I go ? " Visitors from the jungle " Have you prayed ? " A Karen death-bed A Chinaman Laughing for joy Willing sacrifices Schools East India Company No Bible " Utter repugnance " Mountain-passes A group An English officer Scene in the jungle A morning- party Karen communings A strange spell Marriage A farewell Judson at Maulmain A master-builder Evangelistic method New labourers Regions beyond Burman Bible Printed A retrospect Preaching Passion for souls A con- vert Wayside zayat Self-denial A stranger The bright- eyed boy The smile " Jesus Christ's man " The two walkers The turban "Wicked sorceries" "Cannot keep away" " My mother" " Did she ? " The palm-leaf The assistant A mystery "Face of an angel" The medicine Cradle-scene Angel-call Bright hope The oath Scene in the zayat The sah-ya " Story of Jesus Christ " " One desire of my life " The inward monitor A writing Key to eternal life "Papa, hear him!" "I must go" The prayer Ripening for the golden country A message The cholera Death-chamber "Gone up" The mysterious voice " Only Jesus Christ "- "God was here" Another death-bed Anxious look The smile The finger upward The child A New Testament "All three!" Martyr-joy "Take me to-night" Living epistle A lordship. " WHEN I first stood by the grave of my husband, I thought I must go home with little Georgie. But these poor, enquiring, and Christian Karens, and the 292 THE MANTLE. school-boys, and the Burmese Christians, would then be left without any one to instruct them ; and the poor stupid Tavoyans would go on in the road to death, with no one to warn them of their danger. How, then, oh ! how can I go ? We shall not be separated long. A few more years, and we shall all meet in yonder blissful world, whither those we love have gone before us." So wrote the desolate widow at Tavoy, replying to an urgent invitation which had reached her to quit the mission-field, and to return to the happy home of her childhood. And she added : " I feel thankful that I was allowed to come to this heathen land. Oh ! it is a precious privilege to tell idolaters of the gospel ; and when we see them disposed to love the Saviour, we forget all our privations and dangers. My beloved husband wore out his life in this glorious cause ; and that remembrance makes me more than ever attached to the work, and to the people for whose salvation he laboured till death." The sainted Boardman had left, as he went up, his mantle on the shoulders of this woman; and scarcely was he gone, and the first stunning grief assuaged, when her whole soul was dedicated to the labours of the mission. " Every moment of my time is occupied/' she wrote, "from sunrise till ten o'clock in the evening. And now, although I would fain write you a long letter, I scarce know how to find time for a single line. It is late bed-time, and I am surrounded by five Karen women, three of whom arrived this afternoon from the jungle, after having been separated from us nearly five months KAREN CHARACTERISTICS. 293 by the heavy rains. The Karens are beginning to come to us in companies, and with them, and our scholars in the town, and the care of my darling boy, you will scarce think that I have much leisure for letter-writing." One day, not long after Boardman's removal, a disciple came in from the jungle to offer his tribute of sympathy. " We are living in love one with another," he said ; " we are enjoying God ; and the only thing to distress us is the loss of our beloved teacher ;" and, as he spoke, he was obliged to turn away his face to weep several times. The same day, in the evening, the widow was visited by a female convert from Rangoon. " I have been telling Moling Shwaybwen," she said, the great tears rolling down her cheeks, " that now you would be more distressed than ever ; and he sent me to speak soothing words." The next morning, a Karen woman called on the same errand. " Have you prayed ?" she enquired, after sitting down, not as if she doubted her habitual prac- tice of the duty, but in the same simple manner that she would ask if she had eaten breakfast. About thirty listeners assembled at worship ; and, when it was over, the female Christians met in Mrs. Boardman's room for prayer, all taking a part, some in Burman, and some in Karen. Another day, a convert was on his death-bed. He had taught his school in the jungle till within two days of his removal - } and, now no longer able to bear up against the growing prostration, he said to his scholars "I can do no more ; God is 294 A DEATH-BED. Calling me away from you ; I go into His presence ; be not dismayed." Taking an affectionate leave, he was carried to his father's house, a few miles off, fol- lowed by some of the scholars weeping. Up to his last moment, he continued exhorting and praying with all around him; and he calmly fell asleep. In the church at Tavoy there was a little Chinese disciple, whom Mrs. Boardman had for months most affectionately tended. One day, in the zayat, as Moung Ing was preaching, Sekkike took his seat among the hearers, having just returned from his grandmothers, whom he had been visiting for two or three weeks. " The dear child/' she writes, " could not help laughing with real delight, at once more finding himself in the midst of the disciples, and under the sound of the gospel. And, I confess, when I saw the joy beaming from his countenance, I had as little command over my feelings/' The church around Tavoy now num- bered one hundred and ten members. They were mostly Karens, living at a distance ; and, by their fre- quent visits to the town, over almost impassable moun- tains, and through deserts the haunts of the tiger, they evinced a love for the gospel seldom surpassed. " What would the Christians of New England," she wrote, " think of travelling forty or fifty miles on foot to hear a sermon and beg a Christian book ? A Karen woman, who had been living with us several months, told me, that, when she came, the water was so deep that she was obliged to wait until the men could fell trees to ci'oss on ; and sometimes she EAST INDIA COMPANY. 295 forded the streams herself, when the water reached her chin. She said she feared alligators more than anything else." In Tavoy and in the jungle, Sarah Boardman had established day-schools, which were now attended by one hundred and seventy pupils. The care of them devolved almost wholly upon herself. An allowance towards their support was granted by the East India Company, on the condition that the scholars should not be taught Christianity. No sooner did the condition transpire, than she wrote : "It is impossible for me to pursue a course so utterly repugnant to my feelings, and so contrary to my judgment, as to banish religious instruction from the schools in my charge. And, if such are the terms on which Government affords their patronage, I can do no otherwise than request that the monthly allowance be withdrawn." And she added : " The person who should spend his days in teaching this people mere human science (though he might undermine their false tenets) would, I imagine, by neglecting to set before them brighter hopes and purer principles, live to very little purpose. For myself, sure I am I should at last suffer the over- whelming conviction of having laboured in vain." A strange group might be seen, one day, gliding quietly through wild mountain-passes, braving swollen streams, and struggling through the tangled jungle and over craggy rocks. It was the devoted woman, on one of her many tours among her beloved Karens, her child borne beside her in the arms of some affectionate disciple, 296 AN ENGLISH OFFICER. and herself stimulating, by her wise and sympathising words, each new circle of inquirers who gathered to her feet. Her husband's successor was engrossed with the language ; and, to meet his lack of service, she grudged no sacrifice of time or of ease. One solitary scrap among her writings a note given to a party of men whom she had sent back to Tavoy for provisions, and containing directions about the things needed for her journey, gives a glimpse of her Christian heroism : " Perhaps you had better send the chair, as it is convenient to be carried over the streams when they are deep. You will laugh when I tell you that I have forded all the smaller ones." On one occasion, an English officer, on a hunting expedition from Tavoy, had strolled, with his few follow- ers, far into the jungle. The rains had set in earlier than usual ; and, all along his path, as the dark clouds poured forth their torrents, hung the dripping trailers, whilst beneath his feet were the roots of vegetables, half-bared and half-embedded in the mud. In the gloomy waste were scattered clusters of crazy bamboo- huts, with here and there by the way-side some lonely zayat, mouldering and moss-grown. Tt was breakfast- time ; and, just as they approached a zayat, a heavy shower forced them for shelter beneath its frail roof. In not the best of humours, the officer was standing near the door whilst breakfast was getting ready ; and, as he gazed out moodily upon the scene of desolation, what was his surprise to observe, not many yards distant, among a party of wild Karens who were A MORNING PARTY. 297 making for the same shelter, "a fair, smiling face," which looked more like a visitor from heaven than like any denizen of such a desert ? A graceful curtsey, and a pleasant salutation in English, set him at his ease; and, retiring, she was about to proceed in search of another shelter. But could he suffer the lady to go out into the rain ? Hastening after her, he hesitated, and stammered out something about his " miserable accommodation, and still more miserable breakfast," till her quick apprehension relieved him from his embarrassment, and, mentioning her name and errand, she added smilingly : " The emergencies of the wilder- ness are not new to me; give me leave to put my breakfast to yours, and we shall make a pleasant morning-party." A word to her Karens and, disap- pearing beneath a low shed an appendage of the zayat, she returned in a few minutes in dry clothing, and with the same sunny face. The officer was a fellow-disciple ; and the brief interview was remem- bered ever afterwards as if it had been an hour of heaven. The scene is shifted ; and she is in a zayat, at the foot of a mountain skirting the jungle. Mats are spread invitingly on the floor; and a group of Karens enter, glad of a moment's rest and shelter from the burning sun. " Meek, and sometimes tearful," says one who knew her, " she would speak in low, gentle accents, and with a manner sweetly persuasive," until the little company of wild men began to feel a strange spell upon them, as if a touch more than mortal was 298 SARAH JUDSON. on their consciences and hearts. It was the Lord per- fecting His strength in weakness, and bringing these rude denizens of the jungle into captivity to the obedience of Christ. In the spring of the year, she was united to Dr. Judson. " He is . a complete assemblage," she wrote in her diary, " of all that a woman's heart could wish to love and honour." And Judson recorded the aus- picious event thus : " To-day, having received the benediction of the Rev. Mr. Mason, I embark for Maulmain, accompanied by Mrs. Judson, and by the only surviving child of the beloved founder of the Tavoy station. Once more, farewell to thee, Boardman ! and to thy long-cherished grave. May thy memory be ever fresh and fragrant as the memoiy of the other beloved, whose beautiful, death-marred form reposes at the foot of the hopia-tree ! May we, the survivors, so live as to deserve and receive the smiles of those sainted ones who have gone before us ! And, at last, may we all four be re-united before the throne of glory, and form a peculiarly happy family, our mutual loves all purified and consummated in the bright world of love !" Judson was a wise master-builder. It was now more than ever necessary to place the mission on a footing which would make it take root ; and he wrote : " My ideas of a seminary are veiy different from those of many persons. I am really unwilling to place young men, who have just begun to love the Saviour, under teachers who will strive to carry them through a long THE SEMINARY. 299 course of study until they are able to unravel meta- physics, and calculate eclipses, and their souls become as dry as the one and as dark as the other. I have known several promising young men completely ruined by this process. Nor is it called for in the present state of the church in Burmah. I want to see our young disciples thoroughly acquainted with the Bible from beginning to end, and with geography and history, so far as necessary to understand the Scriptures and to furnish them with enlarged, enlightened minds. I would also have them carried through a course of sys- tematic theology. And I would have them well in- structed in the art of communicating their ideas intel- ligibly and acceptably by word and by writing. So great is my desire to see such a system in operation, that I am strongly tempted to make a beginning/' And he added : " I have now five native assistants, who spend an hour with me every morning in report- ing the labours of the preceding day, in receiving in- structions, and in praying together. These men pene- trate every lane and corner of this place, and of the neighbouring villages ; and, since I have adopted this plan about four months ago, there are some very encouraging appearances. As soon as I get through with the printing of the Old Testament, I want to double their number and devote part of my time to instructing them systematically. Now, ten such per- sons half students and half assistants cost no more than one missionary family ; and, for actual service, they are certainly worth a great deal more. This is 300 BIBLE PRINTED. the way in which I think missions ought to be con- ducted. One missionary, or two at most, ought to be stationed in every important central place, to collect a church and interest around him to set the native wheels to work, aud to keep them at work/' New labourers were arriving, and Judson wrote : "Assam presents a splendid opening for missionary efforts; and brother Brown, who is excellently fitted to take the lead in that great and important mission, embraces the proposal with instant enthusiasm. My heart leaps for joy, and swells with gratitude and praise to God, when I think of brother Jones at Bangkok, in the southern extremity of the continent, and brother Brown at Sadiya in Assam, on the frontiers of China immensely distant points ; and of all the intervening stations Ava, Rangoon, Kyouk Phyoo, Maulmain, and Tavoy ; and of the churches and schools which are springing in every station and throughout the Karen wilderness. Happy lot to live in these days ! Oh, happy lot, to be allowed to bear a part in the glorious work of bringing an apostate world to the feet of Jesus ! Glory, glory be to God ! " At the close of the following year,* the Old Testa- ment was at last issued, in three volumes. "Unite with me, my dear mother," he wrote, " in gratitude to God, that He has preserved me so long, and, notwith- standing my entire unworthiness, has made me instru- mental of a little good. I used to think, when first contemplating a missionary life, that, if I should live to * 1835. A CONVERT. 301 see the Bible translated and printed in a new language, and a church of one hundred members raised up on heathen ground, I should anticipate death with the peaceful feelings of old Simeon." And to his sister : " I am now in my forty-seventh year ; and, as we can- not expect to live so long in this climate as at home, I begin to feel that my work is mostly done, and to look upwards to that blessed world where, I trust, we shall all meet before the throne." But his whole soul was still bent on the work. " More preaching," be writes, a few months later, " has been done in Maulmain and the vicinity during the past year, than all the previous years together which we -have spent in the place. Five or six native assist- ants have been kept constantly at work. They have brought in several converts, and excited more religious inquiry and disposition favourable to the reception of truth than we have ever before known." One of the converts was a faithful old servant, who had stood by the Judsons at Ava during the gloomy transactions of the war. At length, after a protracted and deep strug- gle, he had yielded to the force of truth ; and now he came forward to make his formal request for baptism. He was above sixty, his cheeks quite fallen in, his long beard almost white, and he seemed to have but a short time to live. So intensely did he feel the responsibility of changing his religion, that he trembled from head to foot ; but, when the moment arrived, he confessed Christ joyfully. That year, in Burmah, one hundred and twenty souls were added to the Lord. 30.2 SCENE IN THE ZAYAT. We are with Judson, one day, in the zayat by the wayside. It is noon ; and the sun is pouring down his rays upon the thin, fragile roof. In the centre of the floor beneath is seated in a bamboo chair the mis- sionary, haggard and careworn, repeating over and over, to each new listener who enters, such simple truths as mothers are accustomed to teach the infant on her knees. At home, his study-table is loaded with papers and periodicals still unread ; and in his pocket is " a de- licious little book of devotion" which he has brought with him, promising to it the first leisure-moment. But this wayside preaching engrosses his whole thoughts; for, whilst his face is "hidden for a moment by his book," and his "mind intent on self-improvement," some poor passers-by may " lose a last, an only op- portunity of hearing the words of life." He takes up a Burmese tract written by himself, and familiar in every letter as a household word ; and, reading it aloud, he waits, hoping that some native, as he passes, may be arrested and may enter in. Just at that moment, a stranger, tall and dignified, whom he had often noticed in the town, and whose attention he had in vain endeavoured to attract, came up, leading by the hand a bright-eyed, sprightly boy. " Papa ! papa ! " said the latter, twitching by the hand the grave, staid, aristocratic Burman; "look, look, papa ! there is Jesus Christ's man ! Amai ! how shock- ingly white ! " The missionary, raising his eyes, darted upon the child, as he was disappearing at the corner of the zayat, one of his brightest smiles. The father did THE BRIGHT-EYED BOY. 303 not speak or turn his head; but the boy had caught the look of kindness, and the worn labourer " somehow felt that his hour's reading had not been thrown away." Day after day elapsed ; and the two walkers were on the road,, the father carrying the same imperturbable face past the zayat, and the child as regularly smiling at " Jesus Christ's man/' as if recognising in him a friend. At length, one day, as the pair came in sight, the missionary made a sign ; and in a moment the child was on his knee. Winding round his head a gay- coloured Madras handkerchief, he kissed him, and the boy was again at his father's side. " Very beautiful ! " exclaimed the child, touching his new turban, and look- ing into his father's clouded face. " Very beautiful," repeated the father, involuntarily, meaning, not the turban, but the indulged favourite's sun-lit brow. " You have a very fine boy there, sir," said Judson, in a kindly tone, stepping out to the roadside. A blush of confusion rose into his cheek ; and, with a low salaam, he passed on. " That zayat, Moung Moung," said the father, gravely, as they walked along, " is not a very good place to go to. Those white foreigners are ," he left the sentence incomplete, but a mysterious shake of the head supplied the rest. The child gazed into his face in silence ; and, after a pause, the father added " I shall leave you at home to-morrow, to keep you from his wicked sorceries." " I do not think he has hurt me, papa," at last whispered the child ; " but I cannot keep away, no, no." "What do you 304 "THE SORCERER." mean, Moung Moung?" said the father, startled by the child's manner, and especially by the strange bril- liancy of his eye. "The sorcerer has done something to me put his beautiful eye on me. I see it now." " Mai, Mai ! what a boy ! He is not a sorcerer only a very provoking man. His eye whish ! it is nothing to my little Moung Moung. I was only sporting. But we will have done with him. You shall go there no more " " If I can help it, papa." " Help it ! " replied the father, a strange restlessness coming over him. " Hear the foolish child ! What strange fancies ! " and, for a few mo- ments, as they walked along, there was a pause. " Is it true," asked the child, after a little, looking up smilingly, but with a certain air of seriousness, into the stern, bearded face, "that she my mother " " Hush, Moung Moung ! " " Is it true that she shikoed to the Lord Jesus Christ ? " " Who dares to tell' you so ? " "I must not say, papa : the one who told me said it was as much as life was worth to talk of such things to your son. Did she, papa ?" "What did he mean? Who could have told you such a tale ?" " Did she, papa ?" " That is a very pretty goung-boung the foreigner gave you." "Did she?" "And makes your eyes brighter than ever." " Did my mother shiko to Jesus Christ ? " " There, there ! you have talked enough, my boy ! " And the two again walked on in silence. As they proceeded, a woman, with a palm-leaf fan before her face, who had been following so closely in the shadow of the stranger as to catch THE STRANGER. 305 almost every word, stopped at a little shop by the way, and was soon intent, seemingly, on making purchases. The scene changes : and, returning to the zayat, we are seated once more beside the missionary, who, since the stranger passed on, that evening, has been wrapt in deep thought. " Ko Shway-bay ! " he at last called out, as if resolved to solve the mystery; and there appeared at the door of an inner apartment a native convert, bearing a large satchel which he had just been filling with tracts and books. " Did you ever observe the tall man who has just passed leading a little boy?" "I saw him." "What do you know about him?" "He is a writer under Government, a very respectable man haughty reserved " "And what else?" " He hates Christians, tsayah." " Is he very bigoted, then ?" " No, tsayah ! he is more like a pdramdt than a Buddhist. Grave as he appears, he sometimes treats sacred things very playfully, always carelessly." "But does the teacher remember," continued the convert, "it may be now three, four, I do not know how many years ago, a young woman came for medi- cine ? " "I should have a wonderful memory, Shway-bay," interposed the missionary, smiling, "if I carried all my applicants for medicine in it." " But this one," said the assistant, gravely, "was not like other women. She had the face of a natthamee" (goddess or angel) ; "and her voice the teacher must remember her voice it was like the silvery chimes of the pagoda bells at midnight. She was the favouvite wife of the sah-ya ; 306 THE DYING SAINT. and this little boy, her only child, was very ill. She did not dare ask you to the house, or even send a servant for the medicine ; for her husband was one of the most violent persecutors " " Ay, I do recollect her, by her distress, and by her warm gratitude. And so this is her child ! what has become of the mother ?" " Has the teacher forgotten putting a Gospel of Matthew in her hand, and saying that it contained medicine for her, for that she was afflicted with a worse disease than the fever of her little son ; and then lifting up his hands, and praying solemnly ? " "I do not recall the circum- stance just now. But what came of it?" "They say," answered the Burman, lowering his voice, and first casting an investigating glance around him, " they say that the medicine cured her." " Ah ! v " She read the book at night, while watching by her baby ; and then she would kneel down and pray as the teacher had done. At last the sah-ya got the writing." " What did he do with it?" "Only burned it. But she was a tender little creature, and could not bear his look ; so, as the baby got out of danger, she took the fever " "And died ? " " Not of the fever, altogether." " What, then ? Surely he did not " " No, tsayah ; it must have been an angel-call. The sah-ya was very fond of her, and did eveiything to save her; but she just grew weaker day after day, and her face more beautiful, and there was no holding her back. She got courage as she drew near paradise, and begged the sah-ya to send for you. He is not a hard-hearted man ; and she was more than life and soul to him : but he would not send. THE BOY. 307 And so she died, talking to the last moment of the Lord Jesus, and calling on everybody about her to love Him, and to worship none but Him." "Is this true, Shway-bay?" "/ know nothing about it, tsayah ; and it is not very safe to know any- thing. The sah-ya has taken an oath to destroy every- body having too good a memory. But " and the man again looked cautiously around him " does the teacher think that little Burman children are likely to run into the arms of foreigners without being taught ?" "Aha! say you so, Shway-bay ?" "I say nothing, tsayah/' " And what of the child ?" "A wonderful boy, tsayah ! He seems usually as you have seen him. But. he has another look so strange ! He must have caught something from his mother's face, just before she went up to the golden country." The missionary was again wrapt in thought ; and the assistant, after waiting a moment to be questioned further, slung his satchel over his shoulder and proceeded up the street. The next day, the sah-ya passed by on the other side of the way, and without the little boy ; and the next day, and the next, the same. But the fourth morning, who should spring up the steps of the zayat but the child, a light laugh playing on his beautiful features, and, behind him, his grave, dignified father ? The boy had on his head the new Madras turban, sur- mounted by a red-lackered tray, bearing a cluster of golden plantains. The gift he placed at Judson's feet ; and the father, with a courteous bow, took his seat upon the mat. "You are the foreign priest?" he 308 " THE BEAUTIFUL STORY." remarked, by way of introduction, after calling to his boy to sit down at his side. "I am a missionary." " And so," rejoined the stranger, smiling, and evidently conciliated by the missionary's frank use of the offen- sive epithet, which he in civility had avoided, "you make people believe in Jesus Christ ? My little son, here, has heard of you, sir," he added, with an air of assumed carelessness, but betraying to Judson's prac- tised eye a deep, wearing anxiety; "and he is very anxious to learn something about Jesus Christ. It is a pretty stoiy you tell of that man prettier, I think, then any of our fables ; and you need not be afraid to set it forth in its brightest colours, for my Moung Moung will never see through its absurdity, of course." " Ah, you think so ? To what particular story do you allude?" "Why, that strange sort of a being you call Jesus Christ a great gnat or prince, or some- thing of that sort dying for us poor fellows, and so Ha ! ha ! The absurdity of the thing makes me laugh ; though there is something in it beautiful, too. Our stupid pongyees would never have thought out any- thing one-half so fine ; and the pretty fancy has quite enchanted little Moung Moung here." " I perceive you are a pdramdt," " No ! oh, no ! I am a true and faithful worshipper of Lord Gautama ; but, of course, neither you nor I subscribe to all the fables of our respective religions. There is quite enough of what is honest and reasonable in our Buddhistic system to satisfy me ; but my little son," he added, with an embarrassed look, and laughing again as if to cover his THE KEY TO LIFE. 309 confusion, "is bent on philosophical investigation eh, Moung Moung ? " " But are you not afraid that my teachings will do the child harm ?" "You are a very honest fellow, after all/' said the visitor, looking with a broad smile of admiration; and then, turning to the child, he added, in a tone of mingled tenderness and apprehension, " Nothing can harm little Moung Moung, sir." "But what if I should tell you I do believe everything I preach as firmly as I believe you sit on the mat before me, and that it is the one desire of my life to make everybody else believe it you and your child among the rest ?" The sah-ya tried to smile ; but some inward monitor seemed to bid the smile away, and he answered quietly " I have heard of a writing you possess, which, by your leave, I will take home and read to Moung Moung/' "Sah-ya!" said Judson solemnly, holding out to him a tract which he had taken from a parcel lying 011 the table, " I herewith put into your hands the key to eternal life and happiness. This active, intelligent soul of yours, with its exquisite perception of moral beauty and loveliness" and he cast a significant glance towards the child " cannot be destined to inhabit, in another life, a dog, a monkey, or a worm. God made it for higher purposes; and I hope and pray that I may yet meet you, all beautiful, and pure, and glorious, in a world beyond the reach of pain or death ; and, above all, beyond the reach of sin." " Papa, papa, hear him ! " suddenly exclaimed the boy, springing forward. " Let us both love the Lord Jesus Christ. My mother 310 THE PRAYER. loved him ; and, in the golden country of the blessed, she waits for us." " I must go/' whispered the sah-ya hoarsely, and attempting to rise. " Let us pray/' in- terposed the missionary, kneeling down ; and the child placed his hands together on his forehead, bowing his head to the mat, whilst the father involuntarily re-seated himself. The prayer proceeded ; and, as it deepened in fervency, the sah-ya's head gradually drooped, and, placing his elbows on his knees, he covered his face with his hands. Prayer over, he rose ; and, taking the child by the hand, he bowed in silence and retired. Day after day elapsed; and the sah-ya, as he walked passed the zayat, would salute respectfully its inmate, but apparently shunning further acquaintance. The boy was not often with him ; but, occasionally, as the little fellow would come running up for a moment to ask for a book or to exchange a word of greeting, the missionary remarked a certain deepened thoughtfulness, as if he were growing meet prematurely for another place. At length, one night, very late, when all was still, and the wearied missionary had retired to rest, the faithful assistant roused him from his slumbers, crying, " Teacher, teacher ! you are wanted ! " The cholera had been sweeping through the town with fearful virulence ; immense processions had been thronging the streets, with gongs, drums, and tom- toms, to frighten away the evil spirits ; and the missionary and his assistants had been with the sick and dying. And now a victim was prostrated in the THE GOLDEN COUNTRY. 311 house of the sah-ya. " Who is it ?" enquired Judson, as Shway-bay, lowering his voice almost to a whisper, had, with his hands at each side of his mouth, pro- nounced, through a crevice in the boards, the words "At the sah-ya's." "I do not know, tsayah. I only heard that the cholera was in the house, and that the teacher was wanted ; and so I hurried off here as fast as possible." In a few minutes, both were hastening along in the direction of the house. " It is not good for either of us," whispered the Burman, as they approached the place, and pausing in the shadow of a bamboo-hedge, " that we go in together ; I will wait you here, tsayah." " No," said Judsori, " you need rest ; and I shall not want you; go !" The missionary entered the verandah. Passing through a crowd of relatives and dependants, he pro- ceeded to an inner room where was a wild wailing sound, intimating the presence of death. A few moments more, and he was gazing, in intense emotion, upon the corpse of a little boy. " He is gone up to the golden country," murmured a voice close to his ear, " to bloom for ever amid the royal lilies of paradise." Startled, and turning abruptly, he had before him a middle-aged woman, holding to her mouth a palm- leafed fan. And, half losing her individuality of utter- ance amid the confused wail of the mourners, and slurring over an occasional word which she dared not pronounce distinctly, she added " He worshipped the true God, and trusted in the Lord our Redeemer the 312 THE GOLDEN LAMB. Lord Jesus Christ ; he trusted in Him ; he called, and was answered ; he was weary weary and in pain ; and the Lord who loved him He took him home to be a little golden lamb in His bosom for ever." " How long since did he go?" "About an hour, tsayah." " "Was he conscious ?" " Yes, and full of joy." " What did he talk of?" "Only of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose face he seemed to see/' " And his father ? " enquired Judson anxiously. " His father ! oh my master ! my noble master ! he is going, too ! Come and see, tsayah ! " " Who sent for me?" "Your handmaid, sir." "Not the sah-yah?" "The agony was on him," replied the woman, shaking her head ; " he could not have sent, if he would." " But how dared you?" " God was here," said she, a certain unearthly smile lighting up her swarthy features. They moved forward together to the next apart- ment, where, stretched upon a couch, in the last stage of the disease the pain all gone lay the noble figure of the sah-ya. " It grieves me to meet you thus, my friend," whispered the visitor. The stiffening lips moved, but no sound. The only response was an anxious look, and a gesture of impatience, as if he would point at something. At length, laying his hands together, he with some difficulty placed them on his forehead, and calmly closed his eyes. " Do you trust in Lord Gautama at a moment like this ? " enquired the missionary softly, but with deep emotion, not sure that the act of worship was not intended for THE DYING SMILE. 313 the poor idol. The eyes were unclosed; and, with a look of mingled pain and disappointment, he dropped upon the pillow his death-heavy hands. " Lord Jesus, receive his spirit ! " exclaimed Judson, lifting up his eyes, and kneeling at the side of the dying man. A smile flitted across the sah-yah's pale face, as if the precious name had touched a kindred chord within. The finger pointed upward, then fell heavily on his breast; a moment longer, and he was with the Lord. " You had better go now," whispered the woman ; " you can do no further good, and may receive harm." " And who are you," enquired Judson eagerly, " that you have braved the danger to yourself of bringing me here?" "Pass on, and I will tell you." They were once more beside the corpse of the child, which the mourners, by the rush to the inner apart- ment, had suddenly left alone. " See ! " she said softly, and almost choked with emotion, and at the same moment reverently lifting the cloth. Judson looked, and on the boy's bosom lay a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew. "Who placed it there?" " He did, with his own dear hand Amai ! amai-ai ! " and her voice was again lost in an outburst of grief. " I was his mother's nurse," she proceeded, after a pause. " She got this book from you, sir. We thought my master had burned it; but he kept, and, maybe, studied it. Do you think that he became a true believer?" " To whom did he shiko at that last moment, Mah-aa ? " " To the Lord Jesus Christ 314 MARTYR-LIKE JOY. I am sure of that. Do you think the Lord would receive him, sir?" "Did you ever read about the thief who was crucified with the Saviour ? " " Oh, yes ! I read it to Moung Moung this very day. He was holding his mother's hook when the disease smote him ; and he kept it in his hand, and went up with it lying on his bosom. Yes, I remember." " The Lord Jesus Christ is just as merciful now as He was then." " And so they are all " she exclaimed, gathering before her mind's eye the three departed, now with Christ above. " Oh, it is almost too much to believe ! " " But where," asked Judson, " did you first become acquainted with this religion, Mah-aa? " " My mistress taught me, sir, and made me promise to teach her baby when he was old enough, and to go to you for more instruction. But I was alone, and afraid. I sometimes got as far as the big banyan-tree on the corner, and crawled away again so trembling with terror that I could scarcely stand on my feet. At last," she proceeded, " I found out Ko Shway-bay, and he promised to keep my secret ; and he gave me books, and explained their meaning, and taught me how to pray, and I have been getting courage ever since. I should not much mind now," she added, her eye brightening into a martyr- like joy, " if they did find me out and kill me. It would be very pleasant to go up to paradise. I think I should even like to go to-night, if the Lord would please to take me." These were Judson's " living epistles," his joy and THE LORDSHIP. 315 crown. And, as he gazed on them, he took new courage the Lord was with him of a truth. " My God, if writings may Convey a lordship any way, Whither the buyer and the seller please ; Let it not Thee displease, If this poor paper do as much as they." 316 ANOTHER LABOURER. CHAPTER XV. Another labourer Blood of souls Picture of Judson One theme Closet Secret prayer "What do I live for ?" Visitors Watching for souls An incident The straight line "Will you ?" Coleridge's aphorism Love Pity " A strange provi- dence " Mrs. Judson Inquirers A death-bed Home- affections "My mother" The fireside A thousand converts Missions and the Bible One golden lamp A wish The two arms Illness Voyage to Bengal "Home is home" One longing Burman Bible " Hearse-like airs" God's aim Presentiments Mrs. Judson Sudden prostration Little Henry Grave at Serampore Praying always The voyage Twenty converts Labours Burmese dictionary Rules of life Grand motive Mrs. Judson Indescribable heavenliness "Stealing out " Voyage The parting Sudden sinking The last kiss St. Helena Lonely grave Desolate cabin The orphan United States. THAT dreary winter, which the Judsons passed amidst the horrors of the Ava prison, had witnessed elsewhere the strivings of a soul amidst the miseries of a gloomier bondage. In the city of Boston, the arrow of God had wounded Lovel Ingalls ; and, after finding peace at the cross, he had been fired with " a burning desire to preach the gospel to the heathen." A year or two had . BLOOD OF SOULS. 317 passed ; and, after a prosperous voyage to Burmah, he was on his way, in the spring of 1836, from Maulmain to Arracan, to join the mission on that coast. Head- winds baffled the efforts of the seamen ; and the mis- sionary, turning aside to the city of Bassein, began his evangelistic labours. The timid magistrates interposed, and Mr. Ingalls was compelled to return ; but a brave heart like his was not to be beaten back. " I am willing to go," he writes, " and to abide the con- sequences. The present generation of Burmans are fast going down to death, and another generation, and another, come on the stage to follow in their footsteps, not because precious blood has not flowed for them, noj? for want of a command to GO and preach the gospel to each one of them, and not for want of an Agent to attend that preaching with life and power. In the name of God and of Christ, let me ask, In whose gar- ments will the blood of so many souls be found ?" Again setting out, and having reached the scene, he found his zayat thronged with visitors from morning to night; and within two months he rejoiced over fifteen converts. As the missionary had stepped upon the pagan field, he thus pictured Judson : " If I wished to see him, I always knew where to find him in his study. His conversation was ever upon the theme of the soul's salvation. The Burmans lay near his heart ; he was accustomed to spend a portion of each day in secret prayer for them. I had the privilege of enjoying some of those seasons, and shall never forget the hallowed 318 HIDDEN LIFE. hours. He not only prayed, but laboured ; the zayat was the place of his delight, and he had a peculiar tact to arrest the attention of the Buddhists. His mild, winning manner gained an influence over them. The disciples loved and revered him ; they reposed in him the confidence the child does in a father. It was thus he bad the power to build and sustain a Burmese Church." In his own diary, Judson writes : " Observe the seasons of secret prayer every day morning, noon, and night. Embrace every opportunity of preaching the gospel to every soul. Endeavour to keep the reso- lution of promoting brotherly love. Indulge in no foreign that is, English or American newspaper reading, except a regular course of some one religious paper, and sometimes an occasional article from other papers. Read a certain portion of Burmese every day, Sundays excepted. Go and preach the gospel every day." And, a week later, he addressed a friend thus : " I am now writing in a zayat by the wayside, not far from the mission-house, where I daily sit to receive company. I have some hopeful inquirers, and a few applicants for baptism. It is my earnest desire to spend the rest of my days in more direct missionary work than my studies for many years past have per- mitted. May the Lord grant my desire, if it accord with His blessed will, and fit me to be a faithful mis- sionary." It is a saying of Lord Bacon, that " there is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state of the ques- HOW TO GAIN TIME. 319 tion ; for it chaseth away many a frivolous speech as it is coming forth." Judson was ever and anon iterating the state of the question " What is the aim of my life ? " and the result was a gain of time such as few men deem possible. " Why, I can't do him any good/' was his remark one day as an officer was announced, who had more than once frittered away a precious half hour with him. "Must I see him?" He was no cynic every visitor was welcome ; but " for all who called upon him as a minister/' says one who knew him well, " he had one invariable rule after a few enquiries as to their temporal welfare, and after ascer- taining the state of their souls, he would read a half- dozen suitable verses from the Bible, offer a short but singularly appropriate prayer, and, with a cordial shake of the hand, dismiss the well-pleased visitor, without a single moment having been wasted." And the one end for which he cared to live, was, to watch for souls. " Look here ! " said he, on one occasion, to a native Christian woman, for whom he had sent, to warn her against a step on which he had heard that she had set her heart, and which he believed to be hurtful to her soul ; " look here ! " and, as he spoke, he had eagerly snatched a ruler from the table, and was tracing on the floor a not very straight line, " here is where you have been walking. You have made a crooked track, to be sure out of the path half of the time ; but then you have kept near it, and not taken to new roads, and you have not so much as you might have done, mind, but still to a certain 320 WATCHING FOR SOULS. extent grown in grace ; and now, with all this growth upon your heart and head, in the maturity of your years, with ripened understanding, and with an every -day deepening sense of the goodness of God, here," bringing down the ruler with emphasis, to indicate a certain position, " here you stand. You know where this path leads. You know what is before you some struggles, some sorrows, and, finally, eternal life and a crown of glory. But to the left" and he again traced a new line " branches off another very pleasant road ; and along the air floats, rather temptingly, a pretty bubble. You do not mean to leave altogether the path you have walked in all this while since you knew the Lord ; you only want to step aside and catch the bubble, and you think you will come back again; but you never will. Woman, think ! " he proceeded, warming into a deeper earnest- ness, and his tones softening into a still kindlier gentle- ness; "dare you deliberately leave this straight and narrow path, drawn by the Saviour's finger, and go away for one moment into that of your enemy ? Will you ? will you ? WILL you ? " The words told. ' ' I was sobbing so," said the woman afterwards, narrating the scene, u that I could not speak a word : but he knew, as he always did, what I meant ; for he knelt down and prayed that God would preserve me in my determination. I have made a great many crooked tracks since," she added, with tears ; " but, whenever I am unusually tempted, I see the teacher as he looked that day, bending over in his chair, the ruler placed on THE SEARCHING EYE. 321 the floor to represent me, his finger pointing along the path of eternal life, his eye looking so strangely over his shoulder, and that terrible 'Will you?' coming from his lips, as though it was the voice of God ; and I pray just as Peter did, for I am frightened." " He knows us, through and through," said one of the converts, on another occasion, " much better than we know ourselves. If we have done anything amiss, he will call us pleasantly, will talk so " and, suiting the action to the word, the Burman took up a toy which lay upon the floor beside him, and passed his finger gently round the rim " will talk, and talk, and talk, till suddenly, before we know it, he pounces upon us here," striking his finger violently on the centre of the toy, " and will hold us breathless till we have told him everything. Ah, no one will ever know us poor Burmans so again ! " " It is im- possible/' said another of the converts, " to conceal a sin from him. The culprit may be exulting in his fancied security, when suddenly he will find an eye fixed on him which is perfectly irresistible, and will be obliged, in spite of himself, to confess all." Coleridge has an aphorism, that, as the Jew will not willingly tread on the smallest piece of paper because possibly it may have upon it the name of God, so ought we to beware of trampling upon any man, for the name of God may be written upon that soul it may be a soul which Christ thought so much of as to give for it His precious blood. With the tenderness of Him who breaketh not the bruised reed, Judson Y 322 TENDERNESS. could never suffer even the meanest or most uncouth disciple to be treated unkindly. "Is she a Christian?" was his remark, one day, to a friend who had been expressing her dislike of some one. " Yes, I think so," was the somewhat reluctant reply. " Then Christ loves her," rejoined Judson; " cannot you?" A while afterwards, a similar remark escaped the same lips re- garding another. " Is she a Christian ?" he again pointedly asked. " No," replied his friend, with a certain confidence, as if feeling a sensation of relief; " I am sure, not." " Poor creature ! " was the con- demning rejoinder, " you ought to pity her too much for dislike." Another day, a convert came with a com- plaint against a brother. " Have you told him his fault," Mr. Judson enquired, suddenly interrupting his visitor, " betwixt you and him alone?" God, in these years, was graving more deeply in his heart the utter emptiness of the creature. One day, he was startled with the news of the loss, in the China seas, of a most promising missionary whom he had known in America and most tenderly loved. " A mysterious providence ! " exclaimed a friend ; " a dark dispensation ! how it will chill the ardour of the patrons of missions ! " Deeply affected even to tears for the personal bereavement, he sat for a few moments silent, as if contemplating the possibility of the result which his friend had hinted. " Oh, when will Christians learn," he at length broke forth, with deep emotion, " that their puny, polluted offerings of works are not necessary to God ? He permits them CREATURE-EMPTINESS. 323 to work, as a favour, in order to do them good per- sonally, because He loves them and desires to honour them not because He needs them. The withdrawal of any man from his harvest-field, however learned, and wise, and good however well prepared, even by a life-long discipline, for that particular part of the field is no loss to Him. As though the omnipotent God," he added, after a pause, " had so few weapons in His armoury that we must tremble and faint at the loss of one ! " Another labourer might be seen, in those days, spending and being spent for Christ. "My time," Mrs. Judson writes, " is chiefly devoted to the study of the Peguan, and to the instruction of the native Christians and inquirers. My female prayer-meetings are very interesting. Yesterday, twenty-six Burman women met with me at different times ; and we had six inquirers, four of whom I think very hopeful." And, another day : " The little ones play in the veran- dah adjoining the room where I sit all the day with my Peguan translator. It is open to the road, and I often have inquirers. Since I commenced this letter, I happened to look up, and saw a man leaning over the balustrade, looking at me very attentively. The thought occurred to me " He may be one of the dear chosen ones, and may have been guided to this place to hear the blessed Gospel." So I asked him what he wanted. He replied, he was looking to see me write. I immediately laid down my pen, invited him in, and he sat a long time listening to the truth. He promised 324 LIFE-DEVOTION. to pray to the Eternal God to give him a new heart, that he might believe in the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom he says he never heard till to-day. He is a Shan, who has been residing for a number of years at Pegu, and came here for trade. He lives in his boat ; and, while strolling about the streets, was led by curiosity hither ; and oh ! may it be for the salvation of his soul ! " And, on another occasion, she wrote to her parents, thus : " I am sure that you have never re- gretted giving up your beloved child, your first-born, to the cause of Christ. However unworthy the offering, it was valuable to you ; and, if given up in a right spirit, it has been the source of most precious blessings to your souls. It is in this state of existence only that we can testify our gratitude to the Saviour, by suffering and by denying ourselves for Him. Oh ! as we draw near eternity, and the bubbles of earth recede from our dazzled vision, shall we not lament that we have done so little for Christ that we have been willing to deny ourselves so little for His sake who gave up His life for us ? Oh ! let us live for the Saviour ! and then, after a long separation on earth, how sweet to meet at God's right hand, to part no more for ever ! " The glowing earnestness of these labourers attracted to Burmah other kindred spirits. " They must not come/' Judson had written, on one occasion, referring to the opening for female missionaries, " with the ex- pectation of finding snug quarters, and all things ready to their hands. They must come expecting, yea, de- siring, to occupy some solitary, perhaps remote, post, "A NEW-MADE GRAVE." 325 destitute of all resources for daily comfort but such as they shall find in God and their work." And one of those gentle but zealous workers, early taken, he thus laments : " We have just returned from our dear sister Osgood's new-made grave. She has left no one behind her who is more universally beloved. Though her mind, for a few of the last days was much deranged, we were sure, whenever a lucid interval occurred, to find her in the same place, trusting in Jesus, resigning all into the hands of God ; no clinging to life, no im- patience to depart. Her will seemed to be lost in the will of God ; and she enjoyed, in a very unusual degree, that peace which passeth all understanding. I do think that no person ever descended the banks of Jordan with a more even step ; none ever felt the cold waves dash- ing higher and higher, with less shrinking from the chill, less apprehension of being lost in the gulf beneath. The last sentiments which I am aware she made intel- ligible to us were, that her mind was happy, and that she was ready to go. How sure we all feel that the moment her mortal eyes were closed in death, the eyes of her spirit were opened to behold the face of Jesus in the paradise of the blessed ! Dear sister ! we feel sad to leave thee remote and lonely in yonder burial- ground. But we know that thou sleepest in Jesus, and that, when the night of death is passed away and the resurrection-morn appears, thou also wilt again ap- pear, blooming in celestial beauty and arrayed in thy Saviour's righteousness, a being fitted to love and be 326 HOME-AFFECTIONS. beloved throughout the ever-revolving hours of an eternal day." Amidst graver thoughts and labours, Judson had a place in his heart for the tenderest home-affections. " They gave me/' he writes to his mother and sister, on the arrival of a fresh missionary and his wife from America, " an account of their visit to Plymouth, and of their interview with you both, and how you looked, and what you said ; and he remembered the exhortation to ( preach the three Ws.' He remarked that my mo- ther was the very picture of the venerable; and she observed that everything about the house was kept in remarkably nice order. And they both thought, that, from your appearance and remarks, you were in the enjoyment of much religious feeling. How I wish I could see you once more ! I send you a copy of the Burman New Testament, which may be a gratifying curiosity, if nothing more." And he adds : " Little Adoniram is one of the prettiest, brightest children you ever saw. His mother says that he resembles his uncle Elnathan. Abby is growing fast. She runs about, and talks Burman quite fluently, but no English. She attends family and public worship with us, and has learned to sit still and behave herself. But Fen, or Pwen, as the natives call him, when he is brought into the chapel and sees me in my place, has the im- pudence to roar out Bah (as the Burmans call father) with such a stentorian voice, that his nurse is obliged to carry him out again." A THOUSAND CONVERTS. 327 And, after some months, to his sister, thus: " I have lately had the happiness of baptizing the first Toung-thoo that ever became a Christian. I hope he will be the first-fruits of a plentiful harvest. God has given me the privilege and happiness of witnessing and contributing a little, I trust, to the conversion of the first Burmese convert, the first Peguan, the first Karen, and the first Toung-thoo. Three of them I baptized. The Karen was approved for baptism ; but, just then brother Boardman removing to Tavoy, I sent the Karen with him, and he was baptized there. There are now above a thousand converts from heathenism, formed into various churches throughout the country. And I trust that the good work will go on, until eveiy vestige of idolatry shall be effaced, and millennial glory shall bless the whole land. The thirteenth day of this month * finished a quarter of a century that I have spent in Burrnah -, and on the eighth of next month, if I live, I shall com- plete the fiftieth year of my life. And I see that mo- ther, if living, will enter on her eightieth year next December. May we all meet in heaven !" And, four months later : " If it were not for my missionary obli- gations, and duty to the perishing heathen, how happy I should feel if we were all settled with you in the old mansion-house at Plymouth ! I feel more desirous than I did formerly, to do something to express my gratitude to dear mother for the love she felt and the pains she took for me when I was a little one. But I can do nothing but pray that her last days may be * July, 1838. 328 ROMISH AND EVANGELICAL MISSIONS. illuminated by the light of God's countenance, and that an abundant entrance may be administered to her into the kingdom of our Lord. It seems an unnatural thing that families should be broken up and scattered as ours has been. This missionary work, though a blessed work, is attended with severe trials and sacri- fices, especially of a domestic kind. These dear children I shall have to part with, I suppose, and send to Ame- rica, to be educated; and what a heart-rending trial that will be!" In his " Star in the East," l)r. Claudius Buchanan wrote : " The Romish Church preached Christianity in India without the Bible. What was the effect of giving the Hindoos the Bible ? It was the same as that which followed the giving the Bible to us, while we lay in almost Hindoo darkness, buried in the ignorance and superstition of the Church of Rome. It gave light and knowledge : God blessed His own Word to the conversion of the heart ; and men began to worship Him in sincerity and truth." Judson, following the same line, writes : " Modern missions have been dis- tinguished from the Roman Catholic, and indeed from all former missions since apostolic times, by patronising and honouring the Word of God. And I do believe that those missions which give the highest place to the divine Word, will be most owned of God, and blessed. There is only one book in the world which has descended from heaven ; or, as I tell the Burmans, there is one golden lamp which God has suspended from heaven to guide us thither. Shall we missionaries THE TWO ARMS. 329 throw a shade around it, or do aught to prevent the universal diffusion of its life-giving rays ? Oh ! that one complete volume of the Bible, and not merely the New Testament for the Word of God, though not such a book as human philosophy or logic would have devised, is doubtless, in the eye of Infinite Wisdom, a perfect work, and just fitted to answer the great end which God has in view oh ! that one copy of the Burman Bible were safely deposited in every village where the language is understood ! " For this, he had spent months and years in close study. The translation had, for some time, been com- pleted ; and now he was busy, early and late, super- intending the publication of a new edition. Nothing satisfied him but thorough work. " Seeing/' says he, " how some eminent missionaries divided their attention among several objects, at the risk of doing nothing well, I thought it incumbent on me, with less capacity, to aim at more singleness of object. And now I feel that it is the one main duty of my life to study and labour to perfect the Burmese translation of the Bible. I would not be understood," he adds, " to depreciate the preaching of the gospel, the grand means instituted by Christ for the conversion of the heathen. Only, all our preaching must be based on the written Word; and, when the voice of the living preacher is passed away from the village, the inspired volume may still remain to convict and to edify. I would say, therefore, that the preached Gospel and the written Word are the two arms which are to pull down the kingdom of darkness and build 330 SYMPTOMS. up the Redeemer's. Let us not cut off one of these arms; for the other will, by itself, be comparatively powerless, as the history of the Church in every age will testify/ 1 With a kind of prophetic presentiment, he was here unconsciously anticipating the silencing of his own voice. Symptoms began to exhibit themselves, such as soreness of the throat, and pain in the lungs indicating the approach of a disease which was by and by to remove him to his heavenly home. On one of a succession of voyages which he took for the renovation of his shattered health, he writes : " In the afternoon we lay at anchor, outside the buoy; and, though in the face of the sea-breeze, my cough was rather trouble- some all day and evening. Perhaps it was one of my bad days. We are now moving forward with a light wind. I think of you, and the house, and the chapel, and the compound, and all the scenes and occupations and endearments that are past past, perhaps, never to return ; but they will return, if not in this world, yet in another, purified, exalted, when all this mortal shall be invested with immortality." And, ten days later : "I am decidedly convalescent, at sea. It is sad dull work to go to a place which you have no wish to see, and where you have no object scarcely to obtain. I hope to be on my return before long. The bosom of my family is almost the only bright spot that remains to me on earth. You know I love you more than all the world beside." Arriving a few days afterwards at Calcutta, he added : " My cough has not returned on HOME. 331 shore, as I feared it would. The soreness remains about the same. I expect to return in about three weeks ; but we know not what a day may bring forth. I shall occasionally note down my adventures, that, if you should not see me again, you may get some shadow of me. And then, I take greater pleasure in writing to you than in anything else. ' Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee ;' thee, my most beloved wife, and you, my dear children, Abby Ann, Adonirani, and Elnathan ! " Two days later, the atmosphere of the place seemed to be bringing on a relapse ; and, in another fortnight, he was on his voyage back to Maulrmain, joyfully hoping to find again that " home was home." The Sunday previous to his arrival, he " made a trial of his voice by attempting to conduct Burmese worship in his cabin with the only native convert on board, but was dismayed to find the old soreness of lungs and tendency to cough come on." " The approaching rainy season," he wrote, on landing, "will probably decide whether my complaint is to return with violence, or whether I am to have a further lease of life. I am rather desirous of living, for the sake of the work, and of my family; but He who appoints all our times, and the bounds of our habitation, does all things well, and we ought not to desire to pass the appointed limits." The disease returning with fresh force, a voyage home to America was suggested, as the last remaining resource. " To this course I have strong objections," 332 CONTEMPLATIONS. he wrote. " There are so many missionaries going home for their health, or 'for some other cause, that I should he very unwilling to do so, unless my brethren and the Board thought it a case of absolute necessity. I should be of no use to the cause at home, not being able to use my voice. And, lastly, I am in my fifty-first year. I have lived long enough. I have lived to see accomplished the particular objects on which I set my heart when I commenced a missionary life. And why should I wish to live longer? My present expectation is, to use medicinal palliatives and endeavour to keep along for a few months until I see the present edition of the Bible completed, and then be ready to rest from my labours. But the very thought brings joy to my soul. For, though I am a poor, poor sinner, and know that I have never done a single action which can claim the least merit or praise, glory is before me, interminable glory, through the blood of the Lamb, the Lamb for sinners slain ! But I shrink back again, when I think of my dear wife and darling children, who have wound round my once widowed, bereaved heart, and would fain draw me down from heaven and glory. And then, I think also of the world of work before me. But the sufficient answer to all is, 'The Lord will provide.' " Meanwhile, the unfavourable symptoms abated. "God has been merciful to him beyond our fears," Mrs. Judson wrote, " and has so far restored him that he was able to preach last Lord's day, the first time for about ten months. His discourse was short, and he COMPLETION OP LIFE-WORK. 333 spoke low. I felt exceedingly anxious respecting his making the attempt ; but he has experienced no ill effects from it as yet. How pleased you would have been to see the joy beaming from the countenances of the dear native Christians, as they saw their beloved and revered pastor once more take the desk ! He applies himself very closely to study, though he is still far from well. He is revising the Scriptures for a second edition, quarto. They have already proceeded in printing as far as the Psalms. He revises as they print, and often finds himself closely driven. But God gives , strength equal to his day." And, in the same letter, Judson himself writes : " Dear Sister, I avail myself of the margin of this letter to mother, to say good morning to you across the wide world which divides us. Life is wearing away, and the time drawing on when, I trust, we shall all be reunited in one family, enjoying together eternal life and glory. Till then, I hope we shall daily remember one another at the throne of grace, and especially the little ones who have not hearts to pray for themselves. Do write often, long, and particularly." One-and-twenty years after his first landing at Rangoon, he had finished his translation of the whole Bible ; and, in the autumn of this year,* having occu- pied six more years in revising the great work, the last sheet of the new edition was printed off. It was the completion of his life-work. The Burman Bible has been pronounced by competent judges to be the most * 1840. 334 HEARSE-LIKE AIRS, AND CAROLS. perfect work of the kind which has appeared in India. It was the unfolding to a whole nation, in language per- fectly idiomatic and clear, of the precious word of life. " If you listen to David^s harp," says Bacon, in one of his essays, " you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols ; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon." Judson was now learning experimentally the same truth. " I have thought of late," he writes, " that God, in His dealings with us, aims particularly at our individual development and growth, with the ultimate object of fitting each one of us, personally, for the life to come ; and when, in His infinite wisdom, He sees that the recast of our original natures is so filed and rasped as to be ready for the position He designs us to occupy, He graciously removes us thither." For months past, Sarah Judson had been labour- ing in her home-circle, and in the mission, with a zeal which seemed to tell that her life-work was nearly over. A translation of the "Pilgrim's Progress;" a Burmese book of questions on the Acts, for the use of Bible-classes ; a Sabbath -school, numbering nearly a hundred children ; and a Bible-class of twenty adults, were some of the objects which had shared her daily labours with the care of her own little family. And, of the latter, three had scarcely recovered from a serious illness, when she was suddenly prostrated by a pulmonary attack which seemed to threaten her removal from this vale of tears. " The dear sisters of ANOTHER STROKE. 335 the mission," she wrote afterwards, " came to give me a last look and pressure of the hand ; for I was too far gone to speak. The poor children, three of whom were ill, were sent away ; and my husband devoted his whole time to taking care of me. I felt sure that my hour of release from this world had come that my Master was calling me ; and, hlessed be God ! I was entirely willing to leave all and go to him." Ordered to sea as the only means of saving his life, though no one hardly hoped that they could all get on board ship alive they had not been out four days when the vessel struck on a shoal, and, for about twenty minutes, was expected to be a total wreck. "I shall never/' she wrote, "forget my feelings as I looked over the side of the ship that night on the dark ocean, and fancied ourselves, with our poor sick, and almost dying children, launched on its stormy waves." The tide rose, and they escaped from the extreme peril. A few more days, and the sick mother obtained a temporary reprieve. But, meanwhile, another stroke descended. "Oh, my love," said Judson, as she arrived one night at Serampore from a day or two's sail, "you have come to the house of death." "What ! " she exclaimed, "oh, what is it?" "Dear little Henry," said the weeping fathei-, "is dying." Hastening to the chamber, she found the bright little boy, with eyes dim and cheeks colourless, and already in the icy grasp of death. " I had my cot," she writes, " placed so that my head was close to his. After a while, as I fell asleep, Mr. Judson sat watching him on the other side." She awoke ; and NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE. a soft whisper broke upon her ear. " Henry/' sobbed his father, " my dear son, Henry." And " the dear little creature opened his eyes and looked into his papa's face with all the intelligence and earnestness he was wont in days of health." But " suddenly/' she adds, " his coun- tenance changed his papa spoke to me I looked at him there was one gasp, and then all was over. The body had ceased from suffering; the spirit was at rest in the bosom of Jesus." And, the next day, she wrote : "He sleeps in the Mission burial-ground, where moulders the dust of Carey, Marshman, and Ward." Amidst these scenes, the missionary was learning new lessons. " Oh, that we had all more of the spirit of prayer ! " he writes. " ' Nothing is impossible to in- dustry/ said one of the seven sages of Greece. Let us change the word f industry ' for persevering prayer ; and the motto will be more Christian, and worthy of universal adoption. I am persuaded that we are all more deficient in a spirit of prayer than in any other grace. God loves importunate prayer so much, that He will not give us much blessing without it ; and the reason He loves such prayer is, that He loves us, and knows that it is a necessary preparation for our receiving the richest blessings, which He is waiting and longing to bestow." An instance of the power of prayer oc- curred, on leaving Serampore. Having accepted the generous offer of an English captain to convey him in his ship to the Mauritius, as a means of recruiting his own and his family's health, he made it a matter of special prayer to God that he might be of use to the THE AWAKENED SAILORS. 337 seamen ; and, before going on board, lie expressed a conviction that God had heard him, and that He would give him some, if not all, of the crew. On the passage, he laboured unceasingly for their souls ; his words " seldom failing to make the big tear roll down the weather-beaten cheeks of his hardy auditory." And, before their arrival at the Mauritius, three of the sailors were manifestly converted to God. On the voyage back to Maulmain, the converts were multiplied to twenty ; and they did not separate until they had entered into a solemn written " engagement before God to live as real Christians ought to live, avoiding all known sin, and striving to keep all His commands." . Judson was now able to preach at the mission once on the Sunday, and to conduct worship each alternate evening in the week. Burmah continued shut against the gospel ; and he had begun a Burmese dictionary, "plodding on while daylight lasted, and looking out for the night, ready to bequeath both the plodding and the profit to any brother who should be willing to carry on and to complete the work when he himself should have obtained his discharge." Nor was his own soul neglected. " Be more careful," he writes, laying down anew certain rules of life, " to observe the seasons of secret prayer. Never indulge resentful feelings towards any person. Embrace every opportunity of exercising kind feelings and of doing good to others, especially to the household of faith. Also, 1 Sweet in temper, face, and word, To please an ever-present Lord.' " Z 338 SARAH JUDSON'S FAHEWELL. And, renewing the rules, some months later, he added : " Resolved to make the desire to please Christ the grand motive of all my actions." It was now nineteen years since the fair girl of Massachusetts had bidden adieu to her pleasant home in Salem ; and never, amidst the many intervening vicissitudes, had she regretted for one moment her decision to be a missionary. " We are not weary of our work," she writes ; " it is in our hearts to live and die among this people." But a less elastic step, a more pensive drooping of the eyelid, and, above all, an indescribable heavenliness of the ripening soul, " stealing out" insensibly upon the face, betokened, to close observers, a gradual approach to her rest above. Each day, a little thinner, and a little paler, and a little weaker, she at last set out for America as the only hope of restoration. Borne to the ship amidst a circle of swarthy tear-bedewed faces, and the echo of the weeping farewell still falling sadly on her ear, she sailed west- ward, until she reached the Mauritius, so much improved in health that Judson was just about to leave her to pursue her voyage alone. As the parting moment ap- proached, she wrote on a scrap of broken paper thus : " We part on this green islet, Love ! Thou for the Eastern main, I for the setting sun, Love ! Oh ! when to meet again ? My tears fall fast for thee, Love ! How can I say farewell ? But go ; thy God be with thee, Love, Thy heart's deep grief to quell I HEAVENLY REST. 339 Yet my spirit clings to thine, Love ! Thy soul remains with me ; And oft we'll hold communion sweet, O'er the dark and distant sea." But another parting was come. Suddenly the invalid was prostrated once more ; and, embarking on board a ship just sailing for Boston, they both pursued for a few weeks their sad path over the great waters, when one evening they sighted St. Helena. In the little cabin, the three children had already imprinted on those pale lips the last kiss, and the fond husband was leaning wistfully over the death-pillow, when sud- denly the invalid was summoned on high. And, as they entered port next morning, the colours half-mast high, the precious dust was carried to a quiet, shady spot, to rest till the Lord should come. The same evening, the bereaved missionary and his motherless children were on their way to the United States. " And oh ! how desolate," he wrote, " my cabin ap- pears, and how dreary the way before me ! But I have the great consolation that she died in peace, longing to depart and be with Christ. She had some desire, being on her passage home, to see her parents, -and relatives, and friends, after twenty years' absence ; but the love of Christ sustained her to the last. When near dying, I congratulated her on the prospect of soon beholding the Saviour in all His glory; she eagerly replied, ' What can I want beside ? ' " 340 VISIT TO AMERICA, CHAPTER XVI. Judson Visit to America Welcome Characteristic scene " The precious Saviour ' ' A snare Emily Judson Rangoon The brick house The Karens Inquirers Persecution " Cover of the bushes " New visit to Ava Frustrated The invisible Burmese Dictionary " Any work " Scene in the study "A strange providence " Waiting for his change Ripe for heaven Brotherly love Sick-bed longings " So strong in Christ " " Not my will " Voyage to the Mauritius Answer to prayer "This frightens me" The parting "My only kindred" " All right there " " I am going " " Bury me ! " Sea-grave The tiny sapling " A real live oak " Burman work Karen jungle Native preacher One business Secret exercises Karen village The "two mites" Melody "Happiest day of my life " Awakening " What is it to believe ? " San Quala British Commissioner " How do you live ? " " My heart sleeps " No guile Fifteen hundred converts. JUDSON'S sojourn in America, extending to nine months, was one continuous ovation. The first missionary to leave his native shores, he had now for thirty years been in the brunt of the fight ; and so intense was the desire to see him, that, wherever it was known that the veteran was to appear, the largest buildings were thronged long before the hour of service. But, the WELCOME. 341 more his brethren were disposed to exalt him, the lower he lay in the dust. " It is one of the severest trials of my life," he said, or rather whispered, on one of those occasions, ' ' not to be able to lift up my voice and give free utterance to my feelings before this congregation ; but repeated trials have assured me that I cannot safely attempt it. I will only add, that I beg your prayers for the brethren I have left in Burmah for the feeble churches we have planted there and that the good work of God's grace may go on until the world shall be filled with His glory." f One evening, a characteristic scene occurred. An- nounced to address an assembly in a provincial town, and- a vast concourse having gathered from great dis- tances to hear him, he rose at the close of the usual service, and, as all eyes were fixed and every ear attent, he spoke for about fifteen minutes, with much pathos, of the "precious Saviour" of what He had done for us, and of what we owed to Him ; and he sat down, visibly affected. " The people are very much disap- pointed," said a friend to him, on the way home : " they wonder you did not talk of something else"