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