The latest accounts from Palestine state that Asaad is still in confinement, but remains firm to the principles he has embraced. In a letter from Mr. Goodell, dated April, 1830, we find the following sentence.—"Asaad Shidiak is still alive, and there is every reason to believe that he loves and obeys the truth, that he is sanctified by it, rooted and grounded in it, and ready to suffer for it." We take our leave of this interesting narrative, commending the suffering subject of it to God, and the word of his grace, accounting him more blessed if he perseveres steadfast unto the end, than if his brows were endowed with an imperial diadem.
CHAPTER IX.
PERSECUTIONS OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONARIES IN INDIA, DURING THE YEAR 1824.
Account of the Scenes at Ava during the War.
Mr. and Mrs. Judson were among the number of the first missionaries who left this country for India. After labouring for some time in Hindostan they finally established themselves at Rangoon in the Burman Empire, in 1813. In 1824 war broke out between the British East India Company and the emperor of Burmah. Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Dr. Price, who were at Ava, the capital of the Burman Empire, when the war commenced, were immediately arrested and confined for several months. The account of the sufferings of the missionaries was written by Mrs. Judson, and is given in her own words.
The sufferings of the missionaries, during this long and disastrous period, surpassed all that the most alarmed and fertile imagination had conceived. Of the dreadful scenes at Ava, a minute account was written by Mrs. Judson to Dr. Elnathan Judson. It will be read with strong and painful interest. Fiction itself has seldom invented a tale more replete with terror.
"Rangoon, May 26, 1826.
"My beloved Brother,