Ten years in Burma

by Julius Smith

The translation of the Bible into Burmese would alone render the name of Judson immortal. But it has one serious defect that can not be overlooked in writing even a sketch of missions in Burma. He, being an ardent Baptist, has fixed the extreme Baptist teaching on the mode of baptism on the translation of the New Testament. Other bodies justly contend that this is not translating, but interpreting a modern doctrinal controversy into the text of the Burmese Bible. The Baptists declare they can not yield anything of this position, and all other missions are equally convinced they can not use a biased text. After long negotiations seeking ground for a compromise, but failing, it has been decided to put out another translation of the New Testament, which alone, in the Judson translation, bears this particular defect. This new translation is now in progress under the direction of the British and Foreign Bible Society. On this question the great Baptist mission needs the teaching of other Protestant bodies on the mission-field as they do in the home lands.

While noting the extensive work of the Baptist mission in Burma, and so cordially rejoicing in their success, it becomes necessary to point out another limitation of this very successful mission. This defect is merely a limitation in the means to an end. Much as has been done, this great society can not evangelise Burma alone. It is exceedingly difficult for the people at home to understand that Burma is a very great country, and her peoples are diverse to a degree an American who has not lived in Southern Asia can not understand.

The population of Burma numbers more than 8,000,000. Of these the Burmese Buddhists number more than 6,000,000. From these millions of Buddhists there are less than 4,000 converts in all the evangelical missions in Burma. Karens number less than 500,000, and yet there is a Christian community of nearly 100,000 among these people. So far as evangelization is concerned, the ingathering from the Karens has, to date, been nearly twenty per cent, while among the Burmans it has not been one-fifteenth of one per cent. Yet the Burmese people are the important people of the land in numbers and influence. They are superior people to the Karens, and they assert that superiority. It was hoped that the Burmese would be evangelized by the Karens, but that hope has not been realized, and it is not within practical missionary expectation to look for it longer. There must be a stupendous and prolonged missionary campaign made to convert the Burmese millions. This will require every devoted man and woman of every society that can be rallied to this gigantic task. The further fact should be noted, also, to show its urgency. While the Karens have been converted by the scores of thousands and the work of conversion and organization goes right on, though at a slower pace than at one time, it is probably true that the Karens are being Burmanized and converted to Buddhism faster than they are being converted to Christianity. Hence our greater missionary campaign has yet to be planned, and it must be fought out with Buddhism, and this will require all the available men and women and all the money all the societies now at work in Burma can get.

Here we witness a providential ordering. God has called missionaries into Burma from various lands and set them to a common task. Each set of missionaries may easily think they alone are, or should be, assigned to this field; but God, whose plans are far greater than man’s narrow vision, thrusts diverse agencies into the field, and the writer believes each could have abundant justification of its presence and hard work in the land.

One of the Churches longest represented in Burma is the Church of England. It is the policy of this Church to provide some service for its people in remote regions. With the early planting of the British flag in Burma, as elsewhere, came some representatives of the Established Church. They were not always very devoted men, but some of them have been among the godliest servants of our Lord. They usually have ministered to the English-speaking people as chaplains of civilians or of the military. As such they are found in every locality where Europeans or their descendants congregate. Had this considerable number of clergy always been spiritual men, their influence for good would have been of incalculable value. Had the majority stood for evangelical truth, as a few have, had they been teetotalers in a land of dram-drinking, and had they spoken with moral and spiritual authority against the licentiousness of many, they would have saved the people and themselves, and won an unfading crown and the favor of all who love righteousness. Some have so lived. One such died in Rangoon a few years ago, one of the most devoted and best loved ministers I have ever known.

These ministers of the Church of England have had the ears of the people as none others could have had, by reason of their social and official standing. But because they have not always pursued their calling with single-eyed devotion, others have been required to help them save the neglected people.

The Church of England has not been primarily a missionary Church in Burma, though latterly it is doing a good deal of work directly for the non-Christian peoples. Their greatest native work is among the Karens, who came to them years ago chiefly by a secession from the Baptist mission. They have held most of these seceders, but have not gained rapidly from among the heathen Karens. It is among a people like this that strict habits of life tell so much. The Karens as a race are much given to drunkenness. Most missionaries—all of the Baptists—are total abstainers and constant advocates of this most wholesome practice. But some of the Church of England and Catholic missionaries are habitual dram-drinkers. The effect of this practice among the missionaries is very bad in its effect on the native Church. It is not a pleasant thing to write of these defects, but this drink-habit is so common among Europeans, and the example of men who assume the office of missionaries counts for so much for good or bad with native Christians who have this vice to fight that the unwillingness of the missionaries to abstain from strong drink is most reprehensible. This fact is only a little less important among ministers to Europeans. I have yet to see the minister of any class whose influence for good is not dissipated by taking the intoxicating cup under any circumstances.

The fact that any considerable number of clergymen in a mission-field drink intoxicating liquor will surprise most people in America, where, if a clergyman tipples, he is at once under a social ban. But it is a pleasure to write that the reprehensible practice is growing less in the entire East. The Churches and ministry which make total abstinence an unyielding rule would be needed in this mission-field for their testimony and practice of total abstinence, if for no other reason. We dare not gather a native Church and leave them under the curse of drink. We dare not keep silent and by our practice encourage the drink-habit among Europeans and their descendants. The minister or missionary who has the temerity to do it takes great responsibility for wrecked lives of those who follow his practice. It would seem to be as clear as sunlight that, knowing the evil of the drink-habit in the East, as they do, all ministers and missionaries would stand unitedly and unwaveringly for total abstinence.

The Catholics, Baptists, and Church of England have been operating in Burma through the greater part of the century that has just closed. But the Methodist Episcopal mission and the Wesleyans came upon the scene much later. Of the Methodist Episcopal missions I have written elsewhere. It is only necessary to indicate here that, in the language of Bishop Thoburn, “our work in Burma was thrust upon us rather than sought by us.” It was taken up as a far-away outpost of our beginnings in Calcutta. It has since become one of the important smaller missions established in all strategic centers from Karachi to the Philippine Islands. Our organization in Rangoon dates from 1879. We have only fairly gotten our footing, and hope soon to move forward with a good degree of momentum. A detailed account of the mission is found in following chapters.

The Wesleyans began their work in Burma in 1886, just after the annexation of Upper Burma. They made the great city of Mandalay their chief center of labor, and they have occupied important towns on the Irrawaddy River, the Chindwin, and on the railway. Their location was wisely selected, and their advance has been made with equal good judgment.