Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons | Page 9

many
admiring hearts.
How keenly Mrs. Judson felt her loss, may be learned from a letter
written from the Isle of France, whither she and her husband went on
being driven from Calcutta:--"Have at last arrived in port; but oh, what
news, what distressing news! Harriet is dead. Harriet, my dear friend,
my earliest associate in the mission, is no more. Oh death, could not
this wide world afford thee victims enough, but thou must enter the
family of a solitary few whose comfort and happiness depended so
much on the society of each other? Could not this infant mission be
shielded from thy shafts!" "But be still, my heart, and know that God
has done it. Just and true are thy ways, oh thou King of saints!"
Another heavy trial, was the separation of herself and husband from the
church in which they were both educated, from the missionary
association on which they depended for support, and from the
sympathies of those Christians in their native land who had hitherto
given them the most cordial encouragement in their enterprise. This
separation was in consequence of a change in their sentiments in regard
to baptism. So liberal has the church become at this day, that all now
look upon this change as having decidedly advanced the cause of
missions by enlisting a large and respectable body of Christians in this
country, not hitherto engaged in it. But in 1813, a step like this on the
part of beneficiaries of the Board, could not but be regarded with much
disfavor and prejudice, render those who had taken it highly unpopular,

and even subject their motives to unworthy imputations. Whatever may
be thought of the soundness of their new views, therefore, there is not
the shadow of a reason to doubt their conscientiousness in adopting
them. That they did it in the face of every worldly motive, their letters
and journals abundantly prove. Mrs. Judson writes: "It is extremely
trying to reflect on the consequences of our becoming Baptists. We
must make some very painful sacrifices." "We must be separated from
our dear missionary associates, and labor alone in some isolated spot.
We must expect to be treated with contempt, and to be cast off by many
of our American friends--forfeit the character we have in our native
land, and probably have to labor for our own support wherever we are
stationed." "These things are very trying to us, and cause our hearts to
bleed for anguish--we feel that we have no home in this world, and no
friend but each other." "A renunciation of our former sentiments has
caused us more pain than anything which ever happened to us through
our lives."
Thus "perplexed but not in despair, cast down but not destroyed," they
reached Rangoon, then the capital of the Burman Empire, and
established themselves in what they regarded as their future home. Here,
"remote, unfriended" and solitary--"reft of every stay but
Heaven"--they were destined to pass nearly two years, before their
hearts could be cheered by the intelligence from America, of the
general interest awakened for them there in the denomination with
which they had connected themselves; and the formation of a Baptist
Board of Missions, which had appointed them its Missionaries. Of one
thing, however, they must have felt sure, that they were conducted
there by the special providence of God. The honor of commencing the
Burman Mission, says Prof. Gammell, "is to be ascribed rather to the
Divine Head of the Church, than to any leading movement or agency of
the Baptist denomination. The way was prepared and the field was
opened by God alone, and it only remained for true-hearted laborers to
enter in and prosecute the noble work to which they had been
summoned."
CHAPTER IV.

DESCRIPTION OF BURMAH.--ITS BOUNDARIES, RIVERS,
CLIMATE, SOIL, FRUITS AND FLOWERS.--BURMAN
PEOPLE.--THEIR DRESS, HOUSES, FOOD, GOVERNMENT AND
RELIGION.
The Burman Empire being thus the place to which the feet of the first
"bringers of good tidings" from America were so signally directed, and
having been now, for nearly forty years, missionary ground of the most
interesting character, it is proper to pause here and give something
more than a passing glance at its natural features, its government and
religion, and the character of its population. For information on these
points we are indebted chiefly to the researches of the Rev. Howard
Malcom.
Burmah, or the Burman Empire, lies between the Salwen river on the
east, and the Burrampooter on the northwest and north, while its
western and southern shores are washed by the great bay of Bengal,
which separates it from the peninsula of Hindustan. Besides the noble
rivers which form its eastern and north-western boundaries, its entire
length from north to south is traversed by the Irrawaddy, which after a
course