Judson, Adoniram, 1788-1850; Missionaries -- Burma -- Biography; Missionaries -- United States -- Biography
Again and again he sent to Maulmain the cheering news of conversions and
baptisms; and when, a year and a half after his ordination, Mr. Judson
visited him at Rangoon and invited him to go on a missionary tour up the
country, he declined, “on account of having so many irons in the
fire”—that is, hopeful inquirers—that he must stay to bring forward and
baptize. And Mr. Judson adds, “He is as solicitous and busy as a hen
pressing about her chickens. It is quite refreshing to hear him talk on
the subject, and see what a nice, careful old shepherd he makes. The
Lord bless his soul and the souls of his flock!”
Neither did Mr. Judson forget the deserted mission-field at Amherst,
where lay the precious dust of his wife and child. Like the Apostle
Paul, he felt the deepest solicitude for the spiritual welfare of the
converts whom he had left along the track behind him. Moung Ing was
ordained and sent to be pastor of the disciples at Amherst.
“The church,” Mr. Judson writes, “consisted of three—Mah Loon-byay,
who was baptized while we lived there, and has never left the place;
Mah Kai, and her daughter, Mee A, who have lately moved thither. To
these are now added pastor Moung Ing and his wife, Mah Lan. May the
five become five hundred. May the seed formerly sown in weakness and
tears yet spring up and bear fruit. May the last efforts of the one we
have lost, whose setting rays sunk in death beneath the hope-tree,
prove not to have been in vain; and may the prayers which ascended
from her dying bed be yet heard and answered in blessings upon
Amherst.”
Moung Ing, however, though diligent and faithful, and extremely desirous
of doing good, seems to have proved rather a failure as a minister. The
prospects at Amherst darkened; and Mr. Judson sadly wrote:
“Moung Ing has had no success at all, though he has not been wanting
in diligence and faithfulness. At length we advised him to remove to
Tavoy. He, however, preferred Rangoon, and is now co-operating with Ko
Thah-a. His wife remained behind. Her conduct has been very
exceptionable since her baptism, and soon after her husband’s
departure she became openly vicious. She is now suspended from
communion—the first case of church discipline that has occurred among
the native members.”
One feels his heart drawn out toward the poor fisherman, Moung Ing, one
of the very earliest Burman converts, Mrs. Judson’s only dependence at
Ava and Oung-pen-la—the first bearer of the Gospel to the Tavoyans, and
yet a man whose mission in this world, in spite of zeal, fidelity, and
untiring industry, seemed to be ever to fail. In a subsequent letter of
Mr. Judson’s, there occurs a pathetic account of his death. His humility
and disinterestedness shone forth with a steady ray even in his latest
hours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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