To redeem a world from hell.’
“March 12. Alas! how soon is our joy turned into mourning! Mah Nyah-ban, of whom we all had such a high opinion, joined her husband, not many days after their baptism, in making an offering to the demon of diseases, on account of the sudden, alarming illness of their youngest child; and they have remained ever since in an impenitent, prayerless state! They now refuse to listen to our exhortation, and appear to be given over to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. I was therefore obliged, this morning, to pronounce the sentence of suspension, and leave them to the mercy and judgment of God. Their case is greatly to be deplored. They are quite alone in this quarter, have seen no disciples since we left them, and are surrounded with enemies, some from Maulmain, who have told them all manner of lies, and used every effort to procure and perpetuate their apostasy. When I consider the evidence of grace which they formerly gave, together with all the palliating circumstances of the case, I have much remaining hope that they will yet be brought to repentance. I commend them to the prayers of the faithful, and the notice of any missionary who may travel that way. In consequence of the advantage which Satan has gained in this village, the six hopeful inquirers whom we left here have all fallen off, so that we are obliged to retire with the dispirited feelings of beaten troops.
“I respectfully request and sincerely hope that this article may be neither suppressed nor polished. The principle of ‘double selection,’ as it is termed, that is, one selection by the missionary and another by the publishing committee, has done great mischief, and contributed more to impair the credit of missionary accounts than anything else. We in the East, knowing how extensively this principle is acted on, do scarcely give any credit to the statements which appear in some periodicals, and the public at large are beginning to open their eyes to the same thing. It is strange to me that missionaries and publishing committees do not see the excellency and efficacy of the system pursued by the inspired writers—that of exhibiting the good and the bad alike. Nothing contributes more to establish the authenticity of the writing. A temporary advantage gained by suppressing truth is a real defeat in the end, and therefore μονη θυτεον αληθεια.
“March 27. Ran down the river without touching at any place by the way. At night reached Maulmain, after an absence of nearly a month, during which I have baptized nineteen, making eighty Karen Christians in connection with the Maulmain station, of whom one is dead and two are suspended from communion. Am glad, yet sorry, to find that brother Bennett arrived a fortnight ago from Calcutta, with a complete font of types, and yesterday sent a boat to call me, which, however, passed us on the way. Must I, then, relinquish my intention of making another trip up the river before the rains set in? Must I relinquish for many months, and perhaps forever, the pleasure of singing as I go,—
“‘In these deserts let me labor,
On these mountains let me tell’?
Truly, the tears fall as I write.”
At the close of the year 1832 Mr. Judson reported one hundred and forty-three baptisms: three at Rangoon, seventy at Maulmain, sixty-seven at Tavoy, and three at Mergui. This made five hundred and sixteen who had been baptized since his arrival in Burmah, only seventeen of whom had been finally excluded.
On the first day of the new year a party of new missionaries arrived in Maulmain from America. These reinforcements seem to have come in response to a stirring appeal for help sent by the missionaries nearly a year before:
To the American Baptist Board for Foreign Missions.