Ten years in Burma

by Julius Smith

These foreigners on their shores were then, as all are now, regarded as representatives of the Christian religion. In Asia every man is regarded as an adherent of some religion. Little account is taken of whether he represents his faith or misrepresents it. His Government and his personal and social life are supposed to flow from his religion; so that the Christian religion, as represented by the Portuguese, was probably despised as cordially by the Buddhists as their commercial prestige and Government authority were hated by the Burmese people. And when they made war to the extermination of the Portuguese settlements and their fortified city, and sunk their ships in the river, they also dealt a fatal blow to Catholic missions in Burma. There remains little trace of their old-time teaching. This is very unfortunate; for it is only just to say that even the Catholicism of two centuries ago taught more truth concerning God and God’s dealings with men than Buddhism ever did in its best state. Nominal Christianity, even when half idolatrous, kept the name of God alive in the minds of men, while they waited for a better day in which the gospel would be preached in its purity.

With the beginning of the nineteenth century the British began to get control of Burma, and this advantage has been followed by further acquisitions of territory until in 1886 Upper Burma was annexed, and so the whole land has come under the English flag. During this century, with its better Governmental conditions, the Catholic Church has re-established its institutions in all parts of the province. For many years its growth was slow, and even now, in numbers, it is far exceeded by the Baptist mission. But in the last ten years there has been a marked growth in the Catholic community. This has been to some extent by immigrants from India, who are Catholics. But the Church has been aggressive in every respect. Its priests are multiplying in the cities, and they also have occupied strategic points in the interiors. They are especially far-seeing in the acquisition of great properties in cities like Rangoon and in building schools and charitable institutions. They are now engaged in building a great cathedral, to add to their already enormous properties in the capital city, and, as usual, have chosen a most conspicuous location, near the great Government offices.

Of course, in Burma, as elsewhere, they need the Protestant Churches, though they will not admit it. They regard us all as heretics. But they have been improved by Protestant missions, and need a great deal more of the same influence. While they give Protestants no recognition, save in an external civility, they are indebted to Protestant activity for the revival of that which is best in their own methods of work, especially in education; and we will still have to teach a pure, spiritual, experimental religion as a protest against their mechanical ritualism and exclusive pretension, and, most of all, against their semi-idolatrous practices. A concrete example of this is found in the usages that make the Catholic cemetery on “All Souls’ Day” look like the adorning of a Buddhist feast; that make them still celebrate mass annually with great pomp for the repose of the soul of their late bishop, a noble man, whom we Protestants would gladly believe to have been accepted of God in Christ Jesus, and not needing the unbiblical fiction of purgatory to purify his soul and fit it to dwell with God.

But the greatest missionary labors wrought in Burma have been wrought by the American Baptists. From Adoniram Judson, who landed in Burma in 1813, until the present generation of missionaries, there has been an increasing force of faithful and heroic men and women who have devoted their lives to the redemption of Burma. It is safe to say that the sum of the work of all missionaries of all other societies combined would not equal that done by the Baptists. It is also true that the number of their converts from among the people of Burma equal, or exceed, the sum of all others. The mere outline of their extensive mission, with a history of eighty-eight years behind it, can not be given in the space allowed in the plan of this book. It is the writer’s joy, however, to make the fullest recognition of their great work that space will allow, and also in justice to others and the field, to point out some of their limitations as a mission.

It is well known that the quality of their spiritual work is of the best. They are faithful teachers of experimental religion, and they lead blameless lives. They are, and have been from the beginning, faithful examples and witnesses for a sterling morality in a land where lax morals were too common. They have been advocates of total abstinence in a land where dram-drinking was, until recently, almost universal, and is still deeply intrenched in social usage, as liquor-selling is in business.

These same missionaries were pioneers in education, having extensive schools long before the Government had an educational system. They had given the Karens, among whom they have had their greatest successes, a written language, as well as having led tens of thousands of them into the Christian Church. The census of Burma in 1891 says the Karens have been preserved as a people only by the labors of the missionaries. These people now have many primary schools, as well as some of higher grades.

There are two institutions of this higher education worthy of special mention. One is the Baptist college of Rangoon, with Rev. J. N. Cushing, D. D., and a full corps of well-equipped teachers, and an attendance of more than five hundred students, including primary grades. In schools of higher education in the East the lower grades are always taught also; hence the large total. The other is their theological school at Eusein, near Rangoon, with which Rev. D. A. W. Smith, D. D., has been connected for nearly forty years. This school has from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty students preparing for the ministry. They represent several races, but are mostly Karens, corresponding with the greater numbers of these people in the Baptist Churches in the province. A large amount of the money for the support of this theological school is paid by the Karen Churches.

Here may be noted another important feature of the successful work of the Baptist mission. They have probably done as much toward teaching the native Churches self-support as any other great missions of Southern Asia. They have many churches and schools practically supported by the villages in which they are found. It is true that most of these are in the Karen villages, where the people live apart from all others and do not migrate much. It is noteworthy, also, that all peoples in Burma are in possession of far more means than in any other portion of the Indian Empire, and they can give more easily and more in amount than in Upper India, the Telegu missions. Yet, after all allowances are made, the fact still remains, and it is most creditable to the mission, that they have developed self-support to an encouraging extent, by which other missions could profitably be instructed.

This mission has a large publishing-house, and a great quantity of literature, mostly periodicals and tracts, is published. It also circulates many books and pamphlets. The young Church has need of much of this, especially the Karens. This same press issues several different styles of Judson’s translation of the Bible into the Burmese tongue, and also the Karen, Shan, and Kachin, translations of the entire Bible, or portions of the Scriptures.

It is here, however, we meet a serious lack. The Burmese read more than any other Oriental people, unless the Japanese be excepted. Yet the literature adequate to carry on a great campaign of Christian enlightment of these Buddhists has never yet been produced. Perhaps this lack is due to several causes, one of which is that there are only a comparatively few Burmese Christians. But still, all missionaries should face this need, and provide for it.