Everlasting Place
  • Home
  • One way
    • Proof
  • Sadie Sparrow
    • Sadie Sparrow Excerpt
    • Author Chat
    • Articles
    • Book Reviews
  • Memoir
    • Memoir Excerpts
    • Reviews, interviews & endorsements
  • Blogs
    • Eternal eyes: a blog about forever
    • Golden years: a blog about the elderly
  • Old folks
    • Planting tips for Christians
  • Messages from Chris Carrillo
  • Library
  • Bookstore
  • Contact

Subduing “superstition and ignorance”

9/4/2019

2 Comments

 
Picture
Okay, so I’m admittedly obsessed with Adoniram Judson and his wives, missionaries to Burma in the first half of the 19th century. You can read my comments on two books about them here and here. I won’t say much more about them right now (although I intend to reread To the Golden Shore this winter, Lord willing, and reserve the right to say a lot more on the subject by spring).
 
But I didn’t want to close this chapter on my mania without highlighting a fascinating passage from Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons, published in 1855—a passage that underscores the fundamental difference between Christianity and man-made religion. Here, on pages 20-25, author Arabella Stuart provides a fabulous description of the allegedly impregnable Buddhism that Adoniram and first wife Ann encountered when they arrived in Burma. 
 
Some excerpts:
 
“A curious feature of Buddhism is that one of the highest motives it presents to its followers is the ‘obtaining of merit.’ Merit is obtained by avoiding sins, such as theft, lying, intoxication, and the like; and by practicing virtues and doing good works.  The most meritorious of all good works is to make an idol; the next to build a pagoda … If they give alms, or treat animals kindly, or repeat prayers, or do any other good deed, they do it entirely with this mercenary view of obtaining merit.”
 
Why, one might ask, would a Buddhist want to obtain merit? Stuart tells us:
 
“This ‘merit’ is not so much to procure them happiness in another world, as to secure them from suffering in their future transmigrations in this; for they believe that the soul of one who dies without have laid up any merit will have to pass into the body of some mean reptile or insect, and from that to another, through hundreds of changes, perhaps, before it will be allowed again to take the form of man.”
 
Granted, it seems a silly worldview, especially since there’s absolutely no evidence that it’s true. But if everyone is working towards the goal of not waking up as a cockroach in the next life, at least it must make for a loving and selfless culture?
 
Not exactly, according to Stuart:
 
“This reliance on ‘merit,’ and certainty of obtaining it through prescribed methods, fosters their conceit, so that ignorant and debased as they are, there is scarcely a nation more offensively proud. It also renders them entirely incapable of doing or appreciating a disinterested action, or of feeling such a sentiment as gratitude. If you do them a favor, they suppose you do it to obtain merit for yourself, and of course feel no obligation to you.”
 
The result?
 
“The simple phrase, ‘I thank you,’ is unknown in their language.”
 
Stuart goes on to quote the Foreign Quarterly Review, which reported that the highest rank to which a Buddhist can obtain is “no other than that diseased animal, the White Elephant.”  This creature supposedly houses “a blessed soul of some human being, which has arrived at the last stage of the many millions of transmigrations it was doomed to undergo, and which, when it escapes, will be absorbed into the essence of the Deity.”
 
Stuart concludes her account thusly:
 
“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.”
 
For many Burmese, this trust was enough. When he died in 1850, Adoniram Judson left behind more than 8000 Burmese converts to Christianity. And thanks in large part to his work, today there are over 4 million believers in Burma (now Myanmar)—approaching 10% of the population (per Christian History, Issue 90, Spring 2006, pages 35-37). That’s an enormous army of men and women who have turned from wishing on White Elephants to trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
And just think: as believers ourselves, one happy day we’ll get to hear, first-hand, precisely how He set them free!
2 Comments
Barbara Harper link
9/4/2019 03:00:16 pm

I love To the Golden Shore and have read it at least twice. I've read The Three Mrs. Judsons a long time ago and need to do so again. It truly was a David and Goliath situation, to bring Christianity into such an atmosphere. But God's light is stronger than the enemy's darkness. Hallelujah!

Reply
Kitty Foth-Regner link
9/4/2019 03:17:12 pm

Why am I not surprised that you love To the Golden Shore, Barbara? Or that you read Stuart's book on the three Mrs. Judsons?!? Let's visit the Judsons together when we get Home :--)))

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

    Archives

    May 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Care to subscribe?

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from tracie7779, Luci Correia, Maxwell Hamilton, giardinaggio, Doug1021, Angel Xavier Viera, Damian Gadal, Reboots, leoncillo sabino, mRio, HikingArtist.com, guymoll, csath07, Guudmorning!, fred_v, homegets.com, ishaip, jinxmcc, freeparking :-|, CallMeWhatEver, BryonLippincott, simpleinsomnia, csread, nicephore, Doug Beckers, mandydale, berniedup, tontantravel, h.koppdelaney, Jill Clardy, anieto2k, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, QuidoX, Ryo | [ addme. ], ShebleyCL, TinyTall, proggy-yahoo, Infiniteyes, Genista, kippster, Speculum Mundi, HerPhotographer, Tauralbus, megallypuff, harshxpatel, Waiting For The Word, CoreBurn, Gordon Chirgwin, {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}, John McLinden, Patrick Feller, jikatu, Peter O'Connor aka anemoneprojectors, byzantiumbooks, bizmac, H o l l y., Peter Blanchard, sheriffmitchell, Tony Webster, hectorir, City of Overland Park, luis_cunha, Sam Howzit, bertknot, QuotesEverlasting, iturde, ejmc, VARNISHdesign, Cimm, Good Book Reader, Renaud Camus, banjipark, romana klee, 00alexx, erix!, branestawm2002, amsfrank, m01229, cbcmemberphotos2477, rhode.nel, Veronique Debord, joshjanssen, zenjazzygeek, h.koppdelaney, Laurel Mill Players, quinn.anya, *ErinBrierley*, Ben Pugh, Photographing Travis, BarnImages.com, anees.waqas, swambo, Alan Miles NYC, glenngould, Patrick Feller, davecito, wade in da water, Endre Majoros, France1978, dainamara, theseanster93, insightpest, eliduke, volker-kannacher, cogdogblog, Editor B, poshdee, brewbooks, J D Mack, ThomasKohler, mayeesherr. (in West Bengal!), TEDxHouston, Ms. Phoenix, PBoGS, Eselsmann™, Inside Guide To London, ShironekoEuro, Tom Anderson, flequi, cogdogblog, njaminjami, Search Engine People Blog, ShanMcG213, Julie Edgley, randihausken, pescatello, Waiting For The Word, moriza, Iain Farrell, Arizona Parrot, digitalmindphotography, enjosmith, www.WeisserPhotography.com, STC4blues, Holidayextras, Randy Roe, goprogresswent, BenDibble, kstoyer, Rennett Stowe, williac, ImNotQuiteJack, Life Mental Health, Jose Antonio Cotallo Lopez, gruntzooki, electricinca, adactio, miheco, Zemlinki!, bnilsen, chispita_666