with good, reduces all sin to a thing of
little importance. "If any man sin" in Burmah, his religion tells him of
no "advocate with the Father" on whose altar he may lay the tribute of a
believing, penitent, obedient and grateful heart; but instead, it tells
him he may repeat a form of words, he may feed a priest, he may build a
pagoda, he may carve an idol, and thus balance his iniquity with merit.
If any man suffer in Burmah, his religion points him to no place where
"the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest," and where
"God himself will wipe away all tears from all faces;" but it dictates a
proud submission to unalterable fate, and flatters him that his
sufferings here may purchase immunity from torment in some unknown
future existence; and finally if any man die, in Burmah, his religion
tells him of no Saviour who has "passed through the grave and blessed
the bed," and "swallowed up death in victory;" but it threatens
degradation, perhaps into a soulless brute; or at best, a place of
expiatory misery;--in short, "living or dying," the Burman may be said
emphatically to be "without hope, and without God in the world."

Such was the stupendous system of superstition and ignorance, which two
feeble missionaries armed like David when he met the Philistine with
"trust in the Lord his God," ventured to attack, and hoped to subdue.

CHAPTER V.

RANGOON; LETTERS FROM MRS. JUDSON.

Rangoon, one of the chief seaports of the Burman Empire, situated on one
of the numerous mouths of the Irrawaddy, and having a splendid harbor,
is yet one of the meanest, and most uninteresting cities that can well
be imagined. It is situated in a flat, marshy plain, and is merely a
vast collection of bamboo huts, with narrow streets, and here and there
an ugly building of brick or wood, and would give a stranger a most
unfavorable impression of the noble country to which it is the entrance.

On their arrival at this city, Mr. and Mrs. Judson took up their abode
in a deserted mission-house just outside the wall, which had formerly
been occupied by some Baptist missionaries from Serampore. The house was
large and not unsuited to the climate, but unfinished and comfortless.
However, it had a garden full of flowers and fruit-trees, and the
scenery around it was rural and pleasant. Here they found one Christian
female, the only person remaining of the former mission family, and she
was a native of the country. Mrs. Judso