Outline of Christian Missions in Burma
Christianity entered Burma with the incoming of traders and Governments
from the West, as it did in the other portions of Southern Asia.
Some of these traders and some of these representatives of nominally
Christian Governments were unscrupulous adventurers. They were seldom
men of strict moral integrity, much less spiritual Christians. They
would not measure very high by present-day social standards, much less
by the lofty standards of the gospel. They were Christians in name
only. The Portuguese gained some footing in Burma, as in all this
tropical world, in the sixteenth century, and continued with varying
influence for nearly two hundred years. They gained a foothold in
Burma, and built a city called Syrian, and still bearing that name,
just across the Pegu River from the present site of Rangoon. Here,
however, they met utter defeat and destruction at the hands of the
great Alombra, the founder of the Burmese Dynasty, of which King
Thebaw, deposed at Mandalay in 1886, was the last sovereign. This great
king completely overthrew the Portuguese Government, and with it the
only form of Christianity then known among them, that represented by
the Roman Catholic Church of that day.
These venturesome Portuguese carried with them their religious
observances, and their priests always were active missionary agents.
They built a church at Syrian, the well-defined ruins of which still
remain. They made converts among the Burmans. Whether their methods in
converting the Burmese were as unscrupulous as the Portuguese traders’
methods were, we have no detailed account. But in this matter we are
not left in much doubt, as their attempts to convert the Burmese could
not have been much different from that employed in India at the same
period, which unhappily we know only too well were in utter disregard
of the true Christian spirit. But these missionaries of the Catholic
Church counted their converts by possibly the hundred thousand.
These foreigners on their shores were then, as all are now, regarded
as representatives of the Christian religion. In Asia every man is
regarded as an adherent of some religion. Little account is taken of
whether he represents his faith or misrepresents it. His Government and
his personal and social life are supposed to flow from his religion;
so that the Christian religion, as represented by the Portuguese, was
probably despised as cordially by the Buddhists as their commercial
prestige and Government authority were hated by the Burmese people. And
when they made war to the extermination of the Portuguese settlements
and their fortified city, and sunk their ships in the river, they
also dealt a fatal blow to Catholic missions in Burma. There remains
little trace of their old-time teaching. This is very unfortunate;
for it is only just to say that even the Catholicism of two centuries
ago taught more truth concerning God and God’s dealings with men than
Buddhism ever did in its best state. Nominal Christianity, even when
half idolatrous, kept the name of God alive in the minds of men, while
they waited for a better day in which the gospel would be preached in
its purity.
With the beginning of the nineteenth century the British began to get
control of Burma, and this advantage has been followed by further
acquisitions of territory until in 1886 Upper Burma was annexed, and so
the whole land has come under the English flag. During this century,
with its better Governmental conditions, the Catholic Church has
re-established its institutions in all parts of the province. For many
years its growth was slow, and even now, in numbers, it is far exceeded
by the Baptist mission. But in the last ten years there has been a
marked growth in the Catholic community. This has been to some extent
by immigrants from India, who are Catholics. But the Church has been
aggressive in every respect. Its priests are multiplying in the cities,
and they also have occupied strategic points in the interiors. They are
especially far-seeing in the acquisition of great properties in cities
like Rangoon and in building schools and charitable institutions. They
are now engaged in building a great cathedral, to add to their already
enormous properties in the capital city, and, as usual, have chosen a
most conspicuous location, near the great Government offices.
Of course, in Burma, as elsewhere, they need the Protestant Churches,
though they will not admit it. They regard us all as heretics. But they
have been improved by Protestant missions, and need a great deal more
of the same influence. While they give Protestants no recognition,
save in an external civility, they are indebted to Protestant activity
for the revival of that which is best in their own methods of work,
especially in education; and we will still have to teach a pure,
spiritual, experimental religion as a protest against their mechanical
ritualism and exclusive pretension, and, most of all, against their
semi-idolatrous practices. A concrete example of this is found in the
usages that make the Catholic cemetery on “All Souls’ Day” look like
the adorning of a Buddhist feast; that make them still celebrate mass
annually with great pomp for the repose of the soul of their late
bishop, a noble man, whom we Protestants would gladly believe to have
been accepted of God in Christ Jesus, and not needing the unbiblical
fiction of purgatory to purify his soul and fit it to dwell with God.
But the greatest missionary labors wrought in Burma have been wrought
by the American Baptists. From Adoniram Judson, who landed in Burma in
1813, until the present generation of missionaries, there has been an
increasing force of faithful and heroic men and women who have devoted
their lives to the redemption of Burma. It is safe to say that the sum
of the work of all missionaries of all other societies combined would
not equal that done by the Baptists. It is also true that the number
of their converts from among the people of Burma equal, or exceed, the
sum of all others. The mere outline of their extensive mission, with a
history of eighty-eight years behind it, can not be given in the space
allowed in the plan of this book. It is the writer’s joy, however, to
make the fullest recognition of their great work that space will allow,
and also in justice to others and the field, to point out some of their
limitations as a mission.
It is well known that the quality of their spiritual work is of the
best. They are faithful teachers of experimental religion, and they
lead blameless lives. They are, and have been from the beginning,
faithful examples and witnesses for a sterling morality in a land
where lax morals were too common. They have been advocates of total
abstinence in a land where dram-drinking was, until recently, almost
universal, and is still deeply intrenched in social usage, as
liquor-selling is in business.
These same missionaries were pioneers in education, having extensive
schools long before the Government had an educational system. They had
given the Karens, among whom they have had their greatest successes,
a written language, as well as having led tens of thousands of them
into the Christian Church. The census of Burma in 1891 says the Karens
have been preserved as a people only by the labors of the missionaries.
These people now have many primary schools, as well as some of higher
grades.
There are two institutions of this higher education worthy of special
mention. One is the Baptist college of Rangoon, with Rev. J. N.
Cushing, D. D., and a full corps of well-equipped teachers, and an
attendance of more than five hundred students, including primary
grades. In schools of higher education in the East the lower grades
are always taught also; hence the large total. The other is their
theological school at Eusein, near Rangoon, with which Rev. D. A. W.
Smith, D. D., has been connected for nearly forty years. This school
has from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty students
preparing for the ministry. They represent several races, but are
mostly Karens, corresponding with the greater numbers of these people
in the Baptist Churches in the province. A large amount of the money
for the support of this theological school is paid by the Karen
Churches.
Here may be noted another important feature of the successful work
of the Baptist mission. They have probably done as much toward
teaching the native Churches self-support as any other great missions
of Southern Asia. They have many churches and schools practically
supported by the villages in which they are found. It is true that
most of these are in the Karen villages, where the people live apart
from all others and do not migrate much. It is noteworthy, also, that
all peoples in Burma are in possession of far more means than in any
other portion of the Indian Empire, and they can give more easily and
more in amount than in Upper India, the Telegu missions. Yet, after all
allowances are made, the fact still remains, and it is most creditable
to the mission, that they have developed self-support to an encouraging
extent, by which other missions could profitably be instructed.
This mission has a large publishing-house, and a great quantity of
literature, mostly periodicals and tracts, is published. It also
circulates many books and pamphlets. The young Church has need of
much of this, especially the Karens. This same press issues several
different styles of Judson’s translation of the Bible into the Burmese
tongue, and also the Karen, Shan, and Kachin, translations of the
entire Bible, or portions of the Scriptures.
It is here, however, we meet a serious lack. The Burmese read more
than any other Oriental people, unless the Japanese be excepted. Yet
the literature adequate to carry on a great campaign of Christian
enlightment of these Buddhists has never yet been produced. Perhaps
this lack is due to several causes, one of which is that there are only
a comparatively few Burmese Christians. But still, all missionaries
should face this need, and provide for it.
The translation of the Bible into Burmese would alone render the name
of Judson immortal. But it has one serious defect that can not be
overlooked in writing even a sketch of missions in Burma. He, being
an ardent Baptist, has fixed the extreme Baptist teaching on the mode
of baptism on the translation of the New Testament. Other bodies
justly contend that this is not translating, but interpreting a modern
doctrinal controversy into the text of the Burmese Bible. The Baptists
declare they can not yield anything of this position, and all other
missions are equally convinced they can not use a biased text. After
long negotiations seeking ground for a compromise, but failing, it has
been decided to put out another translation of the New Testament, which
alone, in the Judson translation, bears this particular defect. This
new translation is now in progress under the direction of the British
and Foreign Bible Society. On this question the great Baptist mission
needs the teaching of other Protestant bodies on the mission-field as
they do in the home lands.
While noting the extensive work of the Baptist mission in Burma, and
so cordially rejoicing in their success, it becomes necessary to point
out another limitation of this very successful mission. This defect
is merely a limitation in the means to an end. Much as has been done,
this great society _can not evangelise Burma alone_. It is exceedingly
difficult for the people at home to understand that Burma is a very
great country, and her peoples are diverse to a degree an American who
has not lived in Southern Asia can not understand.
The population of Burma numbers more than 8,000,000. Of these the
Burmese Buddhists number more than 6,000,000. From these millions of
Buddhists there are less than 4,000 converts in all the evangelical
missions in Burma. Karens number less than 500,000, and yet there is
a Christian community of nearly 100,000 among these people. So far
as evangelization is concerned, the ingathering from the Karens has,
to date, been nearly twenty per cent, while among the Burmans it has
not been one-fifteenth of one per cent. Yet the Burmese people are
the important people of the land in numbers and influence. They are
superior people to the Karens, and they assert that superiority. It was
hoped that the Burmese would be evangelized by the Karens, but that
hope has not been realized, and it is not within practical missionary
expectation to look for it longer. There must be a stupendous and
prolonged missionary campaign made to convert the Burmese millions.
This will require every devoted man and woman of every society that can
be rallied to this gigantic task. The further fact should be noted,
also, to show its urgency. While the Karens have been converted by the
scores of thousands and the work of conversion and organization goes
right on, though at a slower pace than at one time, it is probably true
that the Karens are being Burmanized and converted to Buddhism faster
than they are being converted to Christianity. Hence our greater
missionary campaign has yet to be planned, and it must be fought out
with Buddhism, and this will require all the available men and women
and all the money all the societies now at work in Burma can get.
Here we witness a providential ordering. God has called missionaries
into Burma from various lands and set them to a common task. Each
set of missionaries may easily think they alone are, or should be,
assigned to this field; but God, whose plans are far greater than man’s
narrow vision, thrusts diverse agencies into the field, and the writer
believes each could have abundant justification of its presence and
hard work in the land.
One of the Churches longest represented in Burma is the Church of
England. It is the policy of this Church to provide some service
for its people in remote regions. With the early planting of the
British flag in Burma, as elsewhere, came some representatives of
the Established Church. They were not always very devoted men, but
some of them have been among the godliest servants of our Lord. They
usually have ministered to the English-speaking people as chaplains of
civilians or of the military. As such they are found in every locality
where Europeans or their descendants congregate. Had this considerable
number of clergy always been spiritual men, their influence for good
would have been of incalculable value. Had the majority stood for
evangelical truth, as a few have, had they been teetotalers in a
land of dram-drinking, and had they spoken with moral and spiritual
authority against the licentiousness of many, they would have saved the
people and themselves, and won an unfading crown and the favor of all
who love righteousness. Some have so lived. One such died in Rangoon a
few years ago, one of the most devoted and best loved ministers I have
ever known.
These ministers of the Church of England have had the ears of the
people as none others could have had, by reason of their social and
official standing. But because they have not always pursued their
calling with single-eyed devotion, others have been required to help
them save the neglected people.
The Church of England has not been primarily a missionary Church in
Burma, though latterly it is doing a good deal of work directly for the
non-Christian peoples. Their greatest native work is among the Karens,
who came to them years ago chiefly by a secession from the Baptist
mission. They have held most of these seceders, but have not gained
rapidly from among the heathen Karens. It is among a people like this
that strict habits of life tell so much. The Karens as a race are much
given to drunkenness. Most missionaries--all of the Baptists--are total
abstainers and constant advocates of this most wholesome practice. But
some of the Church of England and Catholic missionaries are habitual
dram-drinkers. The effect of this practice among the missionaries is
very bad in its effect on the native Church. It is not a pleasant thing
to write of these defects, but this drink-habit is so common among
Europeans, and the example of men who assume the office of missionaries
counts for so much for good or bad with native Christians who have this
vice to fight that the unwillingness of the missionaries to abstain
from strong drink is most reprehensible. This fact is only a little
less important among ministers to Europeans. I have yet to see the
minister of any class whose influence for good is not dissipated by
taking the intoxicating cup under any circumstances.
The fact that any considerable number of clergymen in a mission-field
drink intoxicating liquor will surprise most people in America, where,
if a clergyman tipples, he is at once under a social ban. But it is a
pleasure to write that the reprehensible practice is growing less in
the entire East. The Churches and ministry which make total abstinence
an unyielding rule would be needed in this mission-field for their
testimony and practice of total abstinence, if for no other reason.
We dare not gather a native Church and leave them under the curse
of drink. We dare not keep silent and by our practice encourage the
drink-habit among Europeans and their descendants. The minister or
missionary who has the temerity to do it takes great responsibility for
wrecked lives of those who follow his practice. It would seem to be
as clear as sunlight that, knowing the evil of the drink-habit in the
East, as they do, all ministers and missionaries would stand unitedly
and unwaveringly for total abstinence.
The Catholics, Baptists, and Church of England have been operating in
Burma through the greater part of the century that has just closed.
But the Methodist Episcopal mission and the Wesleyans came upon the
scene much later. Of the Methodist Episcopal missions I have written
elsewhere. It is only necessary to indicate here that, in the language
of Bishop Thoburn, “our work in Burma was thrust upon us rather than
sought by us.” It was taken up as a far-away outpost of our beginnings
in Calcutta. It has since become one of the important smaller missions
established in all strategic centers from Karachi to the Philippine
Islands. Our organization in Rangoon dates from 1879. We have only
fairly gotten our footing, and hope soon to move forward with a good
degree of momentum. A detailed account of the mission is found in
following chapters.
The Wesleyans began their work in Burma in 1886, just after the
annexation of Upper Burma. They made the great city of Mandalay their
chief center of labor, and they have occupied important towns on the
Irrawaddy River, the Chindwin, and on the railway. Their location
was wisely selected, and their advance has been made with equal good
judgment.
They wisely selected the Burmese people as their objective from the
first, and excepting their first superintendent, they have made the
mastering of the language the first duty of every new missionary. In
this they have been exceedingly clearsighted. While the mission has
not been large in numbers, it has maintained a good working force,
and had latterly sent forward re-enforcements. They maintain nine or
ten missionaries, men and women, who are in the full vigor of their
earlier manhood and womanhood, and they are steadily gathering a native
Church. Meantime, they have added English work and taken up the lepers,
mentioned elsewhere, as a specialty. They have the vigor and hope of a
healthful young mission.
There are two other special features of their mission worthy of note.
They have strongly-fortified themselves with Christian schools, one of
the most potent agencies for breaking down Buddhism. Buddhist schools
must be met by Christian schools.
Then, they require five years’ service from every young man entering
their mission before they allow him to marry. This gives a period of
probation at small outlay of money, and insures that the young man
will acquire the language and be safely proven worthy and suited to
his calling before the mission becomes responsible for his family.
It has one disadvantage. When the young missionary does marry, his
wife is a novice in the land, wholly unacquainted with the people and
their language, and can hardly hope to become her husband’s helpmate,
as she could have done if they had entered upon their missionary life
together. Yet, on the whole, it is a policy worthy of careful study and
wider application.
This outline of missions in Burma leaves much more unwritten than it
records. It is only intended to give a general survey of the forces
that are gathering which shall make the Burmese, the Shans, the Karens,
the Chins, and all the nations and tribes truly Christians. They all
aim at the speedy redemption of this stronghold of Buddhism with its
attendant demonology.