MR. and Mrs. Judson were not able to return to their much-loved work in Rangoon so quickly as they had hoped. Their absence lasted nearly six months. They must often, I think, have wondered why they were obliged to be away so long, when they were so greatly needed by the little band of native Christians, who, as you will remember, were not able to read the word of God for themselves, as only one or two portions of the New Testament in their own language were at that time to be had.
These few scattered copies of the gospel by Matthew were, we may be sure, very precious, they were valued as hid treasure—treasure which they longed to share with others; so, often in the silence and darkness of night, the possessor of one of these copies would invite a few of his friends to listen to "the wonderful words of life.”
They felt their own weakness, too; and so there was much real prayer, earnest waiting upon God for the grace and strength they needed to confess Christ as their Savior and Lord in the midst of so much that was trying and painful.
One bright morning in January 1821, news reached Rangoon that the teachers' boat had been seen slowly sailing up the river, and very soon the converts, with a few other friends of the mission, gathered at the landing-stage, all eager to meet and welcome those from whom they had been parted so long.
The meeting must have been one of the deepest possible interest. Going at once to the mission-house they united in thanking God for the way in which each of the converts had been kept from going back to idol-worship; then the native Christians told Mr. and Mrs. Judson how hard it had seemed to them at first to go on without their beloved teachers; but the very feeling of how weak and lonely they were had really proved a blessing to them, as it had cast them upon the Lord in prayer, as well as drawn them closer to each other. So they had a great deal to praise as well as to pray about.
Hardly a week after Mr. Judson's return, a Burmese doctor, On Yan, was converted. He was a man of great intelligence, and one who, having received a good education, had been in the habit of thinking deeply, and some words he had heard on his first visit to the zayat had led him to visit Mr. Judson, ask questions, and at last to accept with the simple faith of a child salvation as the free gift of God.
"How interesting it is," Mr. Judson wrote to a friend in America, "to see—and I can almost see it with my eyes—the light of truth dawning upon a precious soul who has long walked in darkness.”
Not many days after On Yan's visit a stranger entered the zayat; he, too came, to ask "How a sinner could be saved.”
Moung Ing was the name of the new-corner, and his story was indeed a strange one. Some months before Mr. Judson had given a tract beginning with the words "There is but one true and eternal God" to two men. On their way home they had called at the house of a friend; the "new teaching," as it was called, had been the subject of conversation. The three Burmans had grown angry and torn up the tract; but before doing so had read a few sentences aloud. And so a tiny seed of truth had fallen into good ground, into a heart prepared by the Holy Spirit to hear and believe the word of God, for Moung Ing had been present.
And so another Burmese disciple was led to the Savior's feet, and at his own request Moung Ing was publicly baptized. He had only been on a visit to Rangoon, his home being in a distant part of Burmah, and soon, all too soon, we may be sure the time came for him to say "good-bye" to his friends at the mission-house.
But the Savior in whom he had believed was, they well knew, "able to keep him from falling." (Jude 1:2424Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, (Jude 24).) And so they commended the new convert to God in prayer, giving him also a large parcel of tracts, &c., which he promised to give to his countrymen.
I have already told you how, in many ways, the viceroy or governor of Rangoon had shown himself a real friend to the missionaries. His wife, too, seemed much attached to Mrs. Judson, and would often invite her to visit her at the palace. It was during one of these visits she said that the new king, though he did not wish to force foreigners living in Burmah to attend the idol temples, had given fresh and very strict orders that all his subjects should do so. He did not know, Mrs. Judson was told, that even one native Christian was to be found in his kingdom.
Mr. and Mrs. Judson could hardly help feeling anxious, not for themselves, but for those whom, in God's hands, they had been the means of leading out of darkness into light.
You will, I think, remember my telling you in an earlier chapter of Mr. Judson's visit to Ava. He had, it is true, been unable to obtain permission from the emperor for any of his subjects who wished to become Christians to do so. Yet he often wondered if he ought not to take "Try, try again" as his motto, and pay another visit to the royal city. Perhaps he might get on better at a fresh interview than he had done at the last. Might not "God who openeth, and no man shutteth," make him willing to listen to, and even to accept the gospel? But just at that time the hands of the missionary were very full of work.
In a village not more than half a mile from the mission station, two souls were seeking the way of life. A tradesman and his wife, who had for some time attended the evening preaching at the zayat, had become truly anxious for salvation. After many long talks, and much Bible reading and prayer, Mr. Judson felt sure they were real, though timid Christians, and agreed to baptize them on the following Lord's day. Much to his surprise the female convert called at the mission-house a day or two later, and asked Mr. Judson if he would baptize her as soon as it was dark? It must have seemed a strange request, and of course Mr. Judson wanted to know why she made it.
She told him with tear-filled eyes that her father and brothers, having heard she had become a Christian, were very angry, and said they would go to the zayat with a number of their friends, and the priest of the idol temple, and carry her off by force, rather than allow her to be baptized.
And so the soft, pale moonlight fell, and the stars shone on a strangely solemn scene that night, the baptism of another convert from idolatry. Her love to Christ soon found a way of telling itself out in service. She began at once to teach some poor children, who lived near her cottage, to read, saying as she did so, “There will be no need now for their parents to send them to the idol priests to learn.”
She did what she could, but her opportunity of serving Him, whom having not seen, she loved, was soon over. Six months later and she lay pale and gasping for breath on what proved to be her death bed. She had been stricken down by fever, and when told that she was dying, said, "I am not afraid to die," for I know that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and very soon I shall see His face in heaven.”
A few hours later and the Lord gently took her to be with Himself.