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