“The peculiarly retired situation of the mission-house has long rendered the erection of such a building, or a change of residence, a very desirable measure. After much hesitation and perplexity about our duty, we were so fortunate as to procure, at a very moderate price, a piece of ground which is contiguous to the mission premises, and at the same time opens on a public road. The building is now going up, with such scanty materials and means as we can afford, or, rather, as we think you can afford. The whole concern will cost about two hundred dollars. And should this _zayat_ prove to be a Christian meeting-house, the first erected in this land of atheists, for the worship of God—a house where Burmans, who now deny the very existence of Deity, shall assemble to adore the majesty of heaven, and to sing with hearts of devotion the praises of the incarnate Saviour——But the thought seems too great to be realized. Can _this_ darkness be removed? Can _these_ dry bones live? On Thee, Jesus, all our hopes depend. In Thee all power is vested, even power to make sinful creatures instrumental in enlightening the heathen.
“You want to hear of some poor benighted Burman brought to taste that the Lord is gracious; but O, not more than I want to speak of it. I hope, I do hope, my dear sir, that we shall both one day be gratified.”
On April 4, 1819, even before the _zayat_ was completed, the first public service was held. Mr. Judson was thirty-one years old, and had been in Rangoon nearly six years before he ventured to preach to a Burman audience in their own tongue. This marks an era in the history of the Burman mission; for it is a noteworthy fact that the institution of public worship was soon followed by the first in a series of conversions.
It was on June 27, 1819, about seven years and four months after Mr. Judson left America, and about six years after his arrival in Rangoon, that he was permitted to baptize the first Burman convert, Moung Nau. The secret of that sublime faith which enabled him to endure without a misgiving so many long, weary years of sowing without the joy of seeing a single blade of grain, may be learned from the following lines, which he wrote in pencil on the inner cover of a book which he was using in the compilation of the Burman dictionary:
“In joy or sorrow, health or pain, Our course be onward still; We sow on Burmah’s barren plain, We reap on Zion’s hill.”
The following extracts from his journal, with a letter of Mrs. Judson’s, afford a vivid description of the commencement of public worship among the Burmans, and the progress of that religious movement which culminated in the baptism of the first three converts, Moung Nau, Moung Byaa, and Moung Thahlah:
“_April 4, 1819._ My close application to the Burman dictionary during the year 1817, and my subsequent loss of nearly a year in the unsuccessful attempt to visit Chittagong, have occasioned a long interruption in my journal. Since my return to Rangoon, the little I have to say I have communicated in letters. With this day, a new, and I hope important, era in the mission, I resume the journal.
“To-day, the building of the _zayat_ being sufficiently advanced for the purpose, I called together a few people that live around us, and commenced public worship in the Burman language. I say _commenced_, for, though I have frequently read and discoursed to the natives, I have never before conducted a course of exercises which deserved the name of _public_ worship, according to the usual acceptation of that phrase among Christians; and though I began to preach the Gospel as soon as I could speak intelligibly, I have thought it hardly becoming to apply the term _preaching_, since it has acquired an appropriate meaning in modern use, to my imperfect, desultory exhortations and conversations. But I hope, though with fear and trembling, that I have now commenced a course of public worship and regular preaching. This would have taken place just a year ago, had I returned to Rangoon as I expected, and still earlier, had I not been under a Government where I thought it prudent to gain a considerable acquaintance with the language before commencing public operations, lest I should be unable properly to vindicate my conduct when called to a judicial account.
“The congregation to-day consisted of fifteen persons only, besides children. Much disorder and inattention prevailed, most of them not having been accustomed to attend Burman worship. May the Lord grant His blessing on attempts made in great weakness and under great disadvantages; and all the glory will be His.
“_April 25. Lord’s day._ Yesterday we completed the _zayat_, set up the front stairs, and laid open the entrance from the road. This morning I took my seat on the floor in the open porch, under some solemn impression of the great responsibility attached to my new mode of life.