HOW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN BURMA.
UNDER the above head the Rev. David Gilmore, of Rangoon, Burma, tells the readers of the Missionary Review various ways by which the Gospel makes its way in Burma. Among them, these will be found of interest:— “In working among the Karens, we find events taking a course somewhat different from that outlined above [among the Burmese]. When the people of a Karen village have heard of Christianity, and been favorably impressed by what they have heard, they do not at first ask to be received into the church, as a rule. They generally ask the missionary to send them a school-teacher. The reason why the Karens do this, and the Burmans do not, is because the heathen Burmans have schools of a sort already, the heathen Karens have none. “When a Karen village asks for a school-teacher, the missionary aims to send a consecrated young man there as soon as he can. The people of the village provide a place to hold school in, and do what they can toward the support of the teacher. The mission does the rest. The teacher teaches the four R’s—reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic, and religion—to his pupils. But this is not all he does. As he has opportunity, he makes known the truths of the Gospel to the people of the village, and tries to bring them to Christ. In due time it becomes necessary for an ordained minister to visit that village and administer baptism. Scores of Karen churches have had their origin in just such a way as this. The establishment of a Christian school in a heathen Karen village means the organization of a church later on. In many places, the school is the only way in which a Christian worker could secure a foothold. “An illustration of the usefulness of the school as an evangelistic agency is found in the work of a young Karen man in the Maulmain district. The young man had no unusual ability or education; but he had a desire to lead souls to Christ. With this end in view, he entered a heathen village and set up a primary school. With this as a base of operations he labored on, patiently and quietly, until the village came over to Christianity. He then left it, to repeat the same work in a second, and, subsequently, in a third village. “The work of the medical missionary is second to none as a means of preparing the way of the Gospel. Lovers of missions generally understand how the Gospel is proclaimed in the dispensary and during the professional visit. But at Maulmain there has recently been an interesting development of medical missionary work, under the care of Miss E. E. Mitchell, M.D. Dr. Mitchell secures the houses of grateful heathen patients for the holding of Sunday-schools. Then the young people from the church and school, under the lead of their teachers, go out to these houses on Sunday, gather together the heathen children, and teach them about Jesus and the Bible. “The distribution of tracts and scripture portions has always been, in Burma, a favorite way of spreading the Gospel, and a way whose usefulness has been demonstrated again and again. A fragment of a tract, picked up by the wayside, was the beginning of a considerable ingathering in one of the suburbs of Rangoon. The man who picked it up had his curiosity excited by its very incompleteness, and went to the nearest mission school to learn more about it. Man as he was, he sat as an humble disciple at the feet of Ma Mee, the Burmese head mistress, to learn more of the religion taught by that tract. He was converted himself, and was the means of leading several of his neighbors to Christ. Cases have occurred where men have been baptized whose conversion was due under God to tracts received years before. “One way of spreading the Gospel, which I suppose to be peculiar to Burma, is at what are known as funeral meetings. The Burmese Christians have a custom, borrowed from the Buddhists, of holding meetings for religious discussion at any of their houses where there has recently been a funeral. Heathen neighbors are generally willing to attend such meetings, and can not take umbrage if (in a Christian house) Christianity comes to the front in the discussion. Through these funeral meetings it is often possible to reach people who would not be willing to attend the services at the meeting-house. “There is one way in which the Gospel has of late years been spreading more than was formerly the case, and in which many of us expect to see great developments in the near future. I refer to the evangelization of heathen Burmans by Christian Karens. The Karen Christians have always shown a praiseworthy zeal in laboring for the unconverted of their own race; but until recently they have not felt that they could do much for the Burmans, by whom they were once bitterly persecuted, and by whom they are still looked down upon. But as the Karens, increasing in education and wealth, are coming to command the respect of the Burmans, they begin to feel a responsibility for the evangelization of the Burmans. This sense of responsibility shows a tendency to grow. Not long ago a Burmese church was organized in a village near Henzada, as a result of the labors of the Karen church in a contiguous village. One by one the Burmans were led to Christ, and baptized into the fellowship of the Karen church, tho they could not understand a word that was said in the meetings of that church. When they were sufficiently numerous, they were dismissed to organize a church where they could worship in their own language. Truly not in vain is it written, ‘By men of strange lips and with another tongue will He speak to this people.’” “Mention ought to be made of the large number of native evangelists commissioned and supported by organizations of native Christians. Our native Christians in Burma have societies for the prosecution of both home and foreign missions, and through these societies many native preachers are kept at work. And in the last analysis, the converted native is the best means for spreading the Gospel; and the efficiency of any missionary society will depend largely on the use it makes of this instrumentality. Our American Baptist mission in Burma has always made great use of the native laborer. But we are not content with employing as many native helpers as our means will allow. We consider it more important to induce the native churches to support as many native workers as their means will allow, and, most important of all, to induce the membership of our churches to do what they can, personally and individually, to make known the Gospel to those that have it not.”