Upon Mr. Hough’s arrival he immediately put the printing-press into operation. One thousand copies of the tract above mentioned and three thousand copies of a catechism which had just been completed by Mrs. Judson, were struck off and put into circulation. This strange new religion could not fail of at least catching the attention of the inquisitive Burmans. As the fishermen attach many hooks to a long line stretched across a river, hoping that at least a few of the many fishes swimming past may be taken, so our missionaries, with much care and toil, adjusted their trawl of tracts in the midst of the dense Burmese population, and anxiously, prayerfully awaited the result.
After only a few weeks of suspense they caught the first inquirer. In a letter to the Corresponding Secretary, dated Rangoon, March 7, 1817, Mr. Judson writes:
“Since the beginning of this year, we have printed two tracts, the one a view of the Christian religion, seven pages, one thousand copies; the other a catechism of six pages, 12mo, three thousand copies. After which, finding that we had paper sufficient for an edition of eight hundred of Matthew, we concluded to undertake this one gospel, by way of trial, and as introductory to a larger edition of the whole New Testament. I am now translating the eleventh chapter, and in the printing-room the third half-sheet is setting up. Having premised thus much concerning the present posture of our affairs, I proceed to mention the circumstance which induced me to take up my pen at this time. I have this day been visited by the first inquirer after religion that I have ever seen in Burmah. For, although in the course of the last two years I have preached the Gospel to many, and though some have visited me several times, and conversed on the subject of religion, yet I have never had much reason to believe that their visits originated in a spirit of sincere inquiry. Conversations on religion have always been of my proposing, and, though I have sometimes been encouraged to hope that truth had made some impression, never, till to-day, have I met with one who was fairly entitled to the epithet of inquirer.
“As I was sitting with my teacher, as usual, a Burman of respectable appearance, and followed by a servant, came up the steps, and sat down by me. I asked him the usual question, where he came from, to which he gave no explicit reply, and I began to suspect that he had come from the Government house, to enforce a trifling request which in the morning we had declined. He soon, however, undeceived and astonished me, by asking, ‘How long time will it take me to learn the religion of Jesus?’ I replied that such a question could not be answered. If God gave light and wisdom, the religion of Jesus was soon learned; but, without God, a man might study all his life long, and make no proficiency. ‘But how,’ continued I, ‘came you to know anything of Jesus? Have you ever been here before?’ ‘No.’ ‘Have you seen any writing concerning Jesus?’ ‘I have seen two little books.’ ‘Who is Jesus?’ ‘He is the Son of God, who, pitying creatures, came into this world, and suffered death in their stead.’ ‘Who is God?’ ‘He is a being without beginning or end, who is not subject to old age and death, but always is.’ I can not tell how I felt at this moment. This was the first acknowledgment of an eternal God that I had ever heard from the lips of a Burman. I handed him a tract and catechism, both which he instantly recognized, and read here and there, making occasional remarks to his follower, such as ‘This is the true God; this is the right way,’ etc. I now tried to tell him some things about God and Christ, and himself, but he did not listen with much attention, and seemed anxious only to get another book. I had already told him two or three times that I had finished no other book, but that in two or three months I would give him a larger one, which I was now daily employed in translating. ‘But,’ replied he, ‘have you not a little of that book done, which you will graciously give me now?’ And I, beginning to think that God’s time is better than man’s, folded and gave him the first two half-sheets, which contain the first five chapters of Matthew, on which he instantly rose, as if his business was all done, and, having received an invitation to come again, took leave.
“Throughout his short stay, he appeared different from any Burmans I have yet met with. He asked no questions about customs and manners, with which the Burmans tease us exceedingly. He had no curiosity, and no desire for anything, but ‘MORE OF THIS SORT OF WRITING.’ In fine, his conduct proved that he had something on his mind, and I can not but hope that I shall have to write about him again.
“March 24. We have not yet seen our inquirer; but to-day we met with one of his acquaintance, who says that he reads our books all the day, and shows them to all that call upon him. We told him to ask his friend to come and see us again.”
In a letter written almost a year afterward, Mrs. Judson alludes to this same inquirer:
“January 30. The Burman Mr. Judson mentioned some time ago as being the first serious inquirer, and one who has excited the most hope, came to-day to the mission-house. It is now almost a year since he first came, and with much apparent anxiety inquired, ‘How long time will it take me to learn the religion of Jesus?’ We have since frequently inquired, but obtained little information respecting him until to-day. Soon after his first visit, he was appointed governor of a cluster of villages situated on the Salwen River, in the country of Pegu. He has been at Rangoon but once since, and then on business by order of the viceroy, and obliged to return immediately.
“I asked him if he had become a disciple of Jesus Christ. He replied, ‘I have not yet, but I am thinking and reading in order to become one. I can not yet destroy my old mind; for when I see a handsome patso (a cloth the Burman men wear) or a handsome gownbown (the handkerchief worn on the head), I still desire them. Tell the great teacher, when he returns, that I wish to see him, though I am not a disciple of Christ.’ He requested the remaining part of Matthew’s gospel, also catechisms and tracts for his followers. I gave all of his attendants tracts; on which he said to them, ‘Take and read them attentively, and when you have embraced the doctrines they contain, come here, and converse with the teacher.’”
As no further mention is made of this first inquirer who caused such a leap of hope in Mr. Judson’s heart, we are left in the dark as to his subsequent life, as in the case of the young man who asked our blessed Lord what good thing he should do that he might have eternal life, and having heard the reply, went away sorrowing. Did this eager inquirer for “more of this sort of writing” learn to cherish a secret faith in the Christ, so earnestly commended to him by the pale-faced stranger? or, rejecting the Saviour, did he make what Dante calls “the great refusal”?[[22]]