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.