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"
<f Why, what did they want ?" he replied ; " I pre-
sented the most interesting subject in the world, to the
best of my ability." "But they wanted something

different a story." " Well, I am sure I gave them

a story the most thrilling one that can be conceived
of." "But they had heard it before. They wanted
something new of a man who had just come from the
antipodes." " Then I am glad they have it to say, that



342 CHARACTERISTICS.

a man coming from the antipodes had nothing better to
tell than the wondrous story of Jesu's dying love. My
business/' he went on to say, with great animation,
" is to preach the gospel of Christ ; and, when I can
speak at all, I dare not trifle with my commission.
When I looked upon those people to-day, and remem-
bered where I should next meet them, how could I
stand up and furnish food to vain curiosity tickle
their fancy with amusing stories, however decently
strung together on a thread of religion ? That is not
what Christ meant by preaching the gospel. And
then, how could I hereafter meet the fearful charge
' I gave you one opportunity to tell them of ME ; you
spent it in describing your own adventures t"

On another occasion, about the same period, a
sermon which he had just heard was " eliciting warm
praises from a parlour-circle." He sat silent, evidently
sad at heart. "But how did you like it?" at last
whispered one of the company to him, after the others
had retired. " It was very elegant," he replied ; "every
word was chosen with care and taste; and many of the
thoughts were exceedingly beautiful. It delighted my
ear so much, that I quite forgot that I had a heart ; and
I am afraid all the others did the same." And, another
day, speaking in glowing terms of a sermon, to which
he had listened with evident interest, he suddenly
recollected himself, and broke off thus : " But such
are not the sermons to arouse a dead sinner, or to feed
the sheep. No man could say there to-day, ' The poor
have the gospel preached/ This tendency," he added,



EMILY JDDSOX. 313

" of cultivated people to visit the house of God in quest
of intellectual gratification, rather than for their spirit-
ual good, is the most dangerous snare in the path of
the rising ministry."

In the city of Philadelphia, there lived, in those
days, a lady of singular accomplishments, and occupying
a high place in the literary circles of her country, whom
Judson sought out to aid him in embalming the memory
of his deceased wife. Emily Chubbuck entered on the
task with all the fervour of her affectionate nature.
And, as the time drew near for the distinguished Apostle
of Burmah to return to his sphere of labour, the other
had consented, with a rare self-devotion, to leave her
litejary laurels, and to go forth as his fellow-labourer.
In July, 1846, they were married; and, a few days
afterwards, they embarked for Burmah. Four months
passed ; and now, " Off Amherst," he wrote : " The
wide expanse of the ocean is again crossed ; the Maul-
main-mountains loom in the distant horizon." And, a
fortnight later : " We are here at last. I have set up
housekeeping in my old house. Emily makes one of
the best wives, and kindest mothers to the children,
that ever man was blessed with. I shall now go on
with the dictionary and other missionaiy work as
usual."

After a while, he set out for Rangoon, desiring to
carry the gospel once more into Burmah Proper. But,
though invited by the governor to settle in the town
and to labour at his dictionary, he was warned that it
was as the minister of a foreign religion, teaching the



344 RANGOON INQUIRERS.

foreigners in the place, that his presence was sanctioned,
and not at all as a missionary, or propagator of religion
among the natives. " The young heir," he writes,
" and his younger brother, who is premier and heir-
apparent, are rigid Buddhists. Buddhism is in full
feather throughout the empire. The prospects of a
missionary were never darker. But let us aim to
obtain the praise bestowed upon Mary, ' She hath done
what she could/ If we give up all to God, He will
take care of us, and bring light out of darkness, and
good out of evil, I do believe ; and we shall praise Him
for ever, that He led us through some dark ways in His
blessed service." And again : " I have hired the
upper story of a brick house, and am bringing my
family to a place dreary, indeed, and destitute of almost
all outward comforts, but one which will afford an
opportunity of building up the feeble church by private
efforts, and of seizing the first opening for more public
efforts which God in His providence may present, in
answer to the prayers of His people in beloved, far-
distant America."

Scarcely were they settled in Rangoon, when the
Karens began to flock in from different parts. They
came at all hours between daylight and ten o'clock, and
dispersed as gradually. " We have plenty to do,"
he says. " What with a little missionary work, and
what with our studies, and what with visiting, our
hands are full. Oh, for that humility and contrition !
oh, for that simplicity of faith, which will secure the
indwelling glory ! He dwelleth in the contrite soul ;



CONVERSIONS. 345

and the rays of indwelling glory appear more resplen-
dent, gleaming through the chinks of the humble tene-
ment." Four hopeful inquirers appeared, one of whom
he baptized soon afterwards at the same spot where,
twenty-eight years before, he had baptized the first
Burman convert. " Our missionary efforts," he writes,
" being conducted in secrecy, must necessarily be very
limited. It is, however, a precious privilege to be al-
lowed to welcome into a private room a small company,
perhaps two or three individuals only, and pour the
light of truth into their immortal souls, souls that, but
for the efficacy of that light, would be covered with the
gloom of darkness darkness to be felt to all eternity."
- Persecution again showed itself. One Saturday
morning, they were startled by some private intima-
tions that the ' ' Bloody Raywoon " (as one of the vice-
governors was called) had his eye on them. A little
before evening, police-officers were set at the house, to
watch for any who " favoured Jesus Christ's religion."
That morning, only two appeared; and with them the
missionary had a very interesting and affecting time in
a private room, and they got off undiscovered. Another
day, he was visited by a fine young man, son of one of
the oldest converts ; and, in the dusk of the evening,
they repaired to the old baptizing-place, where, " under
cover of the bushes," says he, " we perpetrated a deed
which, I trust, our enemies will not be able to gainsay
or invalidate to all eternity."

He had left the care of the churches at Maulmain
and among the Karens, and had repaired to this dark



346 ILLNESS.

spot, chiefly with the view of proceeding to the capital,
wishing to make one more effort to present the gospel
to the blinded people. " I tell yon," he said, one day,
as he contemplated setting out, " if we had but the
power to see them, the air above us is thick with
contending spirits the good and the bad striving
for the mastery. I know where final victory lies ; but
the struggle may be a long one." The church at
home, however, failed to forward the usual supplies;
he saw in it an intimation of God's will that he should
not go to Ava ; and, with a childlike acquiescence, he
returned once more to Maulmain.

For months, he laboured on, his voice scarcely al-
lowing him to speak, but his whole energies concentrated
on his dictionary, as the object most likely to forward,
indirectly, the mission-work. " Work of all sorts," he
writes, " must be done. I would not choose for myself.
It is a great privilege to be allowed to do anything for
the King of kings and Lord of lords." At length, the
first part of the dictionary the English and Burmese
was printed, in a quarto volume of six hundred pages.
And the second part the Burmese and English he
pored over, week after week, until, at last, one night
in November, he was seized with an illness which seemed
to touch the springs of life. "There cannot," he wrote,
as if consciously drawing near his heavenly rest, " be
many links of my chain remaining. It is time to set
my house in order, and to take leave of all further earthly