.... “In comparing labors among a people without a national religion to labors among idolaters or Mussulmans, Dr. Judson used a figure which ought to be published in the _Macedonian_ in reply to some things which have appeared there and elsewhere, to the import that difference of success among Burmans and Karens is owing to difference of labor performed among them. He supposed a man offering to fill two jars, one of which stands empty, the other filled with earth oil. Now, the force of the illustration will not appear to you as to us, because we are so familiar with this oil; and you are not, as we are, obliged to make frequent use of it; but you can judge of its character by a translation of the Burman name for it, ‘stinking water.’ The smell of it can not be extracted from a jar which has been emptied of it, except by burning. I should never think of using a vessel which had once contained it for any other purpose. To return to the illustration. A man goes to the owner of the empty jar, and asks if he may fill it with pure and sweet water. ‘O, yes, I shall consider it a favor.’ So the Sandwich Islander, so the Karen receives the truth, the benefits of a written language, and instruction in books, and the elevation that follows, as favors conferred; and as there are no stains of ancient superstitions, they are better Christians than converts from heathenism. When I say _no_ stains, of course comparatively is meant.
“Let the missionary next go to the owner of the jar filled with earth oil. He must first empty it, which the owner considers robbery. He would say, ‘You are taking away my property; this is my merit, which I have been many years gathering. You wish to deprive me of my offerings. I will apply to the king and priests to uphold me in clinging to my property.’ But the missionary says, ‘If you drink that oil it will be poison to you; let me give you water, which will insure life eternal.’ ‘O, my ancestors have all drunk of this, and I wish to do the same; this is good for me, and yours for you. My books are good for me, and my religion, and so yours for you.’ But, after long argument and persuasion, he gains the man’s consent to give up his earth oil, and he labors through the process of dipping it out, and cleansing the jar; he rubs and washes; the man all the while begging him not to deprive him of _all_ of it; to allow him some of his former customs, and some of the practices of his worldly neighbors and relatives; and often so much of the oil is left, that the water is very offensive, and by-standers say, ‘We do not perceive that the water is any sweeter than the oil.’ Sometimes the man himself joins in, and says he does not know but the smell is as bad as before, and the change has been of no use; so he upsets the jar and apostatizes.”
When these considerations are taken into account, the tangible results which Mr. Judson left behind at his death seem simply amazing. But these are only a small part of what he really accomplished. Being dead, he yet speaketh. The Roman Church has preserved an old legend that John, the beloved disciple, “did not die at all, but is only slumbering, and moving the grave mound with his breath until the final return of the Lord.”[71] And in a sense it is true that a great man does not die at all. You can not bury a saint so deep that he will not sway the lives of those who walk over his grave. The upheavals of society are mainly due to the breath of those who have vanished from the surface of the earth and lie beneath its bosom.
The early actions of Mr. Judson and his fellow-students at Andover resulted in the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. This society, representing the Congregationalists of this country, may justly claim to be the mother of American foreign missionary bodies. It was organized for the support of certain young men while they were engaged in the work to which the Lord had called them. Societies do not call men into being, but men create societies. The society is only a convenient vehicle through which the Christian at home can send bread to the missionary abroad, whose whole time is devoted to feeding the heathen with the bread of life.
In the year 1880, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions received and expended over six hundred thousand dollars. It is conducting successful missionary operations in Africa, Turkey, India, China, Japan, Micronesia, Mexico, Spain, and Austria, as well as in our own western land. In these different countries it has two hundred and seventy-two churches, over seventeen thousand church members, and sixteen hundred and eighty-five missionaries, native pastors, and assistants.