Although Mr. Judson’s change in denominational attitude occasioned considerable irritation at the time, yet good and wise men of all religious bodies, viewing his conduct from the stand-point of the present, are agreed that it proved a blessing to the Christian world at large. It occasioned the formation of a second Missionary Society. There came to be two great benevolent forces at work, where there was only one before. What a history-making epoch that was! The action of those consecrated students at Andover led to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and of the American Baptist Missionary Union, the one the organ of the Congregationalists, the other of the Baptists of America. A watershed was upheaved, from which two beneficent and ever-widening streams flowed forth for the healing of the nations. Mr. Judson’s life also marks the beginning of that wonderful growth which has characterized the Baptist denomination in this country, for in gathering together and rallying for his support the Baptists awoke to self-consciousness. They arrived at the epoch, so momentous in the life either of a society or of an individual, when the infant passes out of a mere sort of vegetable existence into a consciousness of his being and power. “But as he grows he gathers much, And learns the use of ‘_I_’ and ‘_Me_,’ And finds ‘I am not what I see, And other than the things I touch.’” In the history of a social body, as well as of the human infant, the period of self-consciousness is the beginning of all real power. In 1812 the Baptists of America were a scattered and feeble folk, and lacked solidarity. There was little or no denominational spirit. The summons to the foreign field shook them together. A glass of water may be slowly reduced in temperature even to a point one or two degrees below freezing, and yet remain uncongealed, provided it be kept perfectly motionless. If, then, it is slightly jarred it will suddenly turn into ice. The Baptist denomination of America was in just such a state of suspense. It needed to be jarred and shaken into solid and enduring form. Mr. Judson’s words: “_Should there be formed a Baptist society for the support of a mission in these parts, I should be ready to consider myself their missionary_,” proved to be the crystallizing touch. ----- Footnote 6: See Map I. Footnote 7: For further particulars see “Memoir of Mrs. Harriet Newell,” by Dr. Leonard Woods. CHAPTER IV. BURMAH.