A Burman and His New Testament
An interesting account of the work effected by a Burmese New Testament is given in a recent volume, entitled “Among the Burmans,” by H. P. Cochrane. The Testament fell into the hands of a Buddhist, who has himself related the circumstances of his conversion:— “I kept my New Testament in my jacket pocket wherever I went. When resting from my work, I would take out my Testament, and read a little, slowly going on through Matthew, Mark, and Luke; but I understood nothing of what I read. I read about the birth of Jesus Christ, his teaching, his wonderful miracles; but who Christ was, I did not know. “Then I came to John. In the first chapter I read, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ Then a little farther down I read, ‘That Word everything created; and without a Divine creating was not so much as one thing.’ Is that so? I said. Did that Word make me, and not only me, but everybody and everything in all this great world?” “And then I read that he was the light, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness would not receive it. Why, I said, that is just the way it is here. These people are in the dark, and will not believe what the preachers of the Jesus Christ religion say to them. Then farther down I read, ‘The Word took the state of man, and lived among us.’ “And as I read on, I found that the Word that was with God and was God, and created all things, and became flesh and lived on the earth, was the same Lord Jesus Christ that I had been reading about in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. “I went home, and told my wife that I had become a Christian, and that as the preacher said that all who enter the Jesus Christ religion must receive the dipping ceremony, I am going to get baptism.” “Were you not afraid your heathen neighbors would make trouble?” I asked him. “What trouble could they make, teacher? Nearly all of them were in debt to me. But when I told my heathen wife, she was very angry, and said, ‘Very well; if you want to be baptized, be baptized, but I will not be a Jesus Christ wife. I never, never will live with you.’ “Finding that she did not relent, I said, ‘Do not go away. All this trouble is not because of your changing, but because of my changing. If anybody is to suffer, I must be the one to suffer. There are the eleven buffaloes, and six rice-fields, and the house, and the banana garden; take everything, only let me have the thirty rupees in the box, and I will go away. I will go to Toungoo. If they will not baptize me there, I will go to Bassein. If they will not baptize me there, I will go to Moulmein.’ I had taken the Jesus Christ religion with my whole mind, and I was determined to be baptized.” This was no idle boast. He meant just what he said, and, like Paul, was ready to suffer the loss of everything, that he ‘might gain Christ, and be found in him.’ His example, so unlike his former self, soon softened his wife’s heart, and she now said, ‘Never mind; do as you like. We will live together.’ She, too, soon became a Christian.—Selected.