tance more. On a certain night in the month of November, the people
will not look at the moon. The reason assigned for this, is as follows.
Once, when the elephant-faced god Pulliar was dancing before the gods,
the moon happening to see him, laughed at him, and told him that he had
a large stomach, an ear like a winnowing-fan, etc. This so enraged him,
that he cursed her. This curse was inflicted on the night above
mentioned.

How does the wretchedness of a people, both in reference to the things
of this world and of the world to come, show itself where the Bible is
unknown. If this blessed book was not an inspired book--if it did no
more than remove the temporal miseries of men, how invaluable would it
be! Of how much more value then, is it, in reference to the removal of
their spiritual miseries?

O, why is it that Christians have not long since sent this Bible to
them? Why is it that they do not send it to them _now_? This is a
mystery, which we must leave to be unravelled at the judgment-seat of
the last day. My dear children, you are to stand before that
judgment-seat. Shall any of these heathen among whom I dwell, rise up at
that awful season--stretch out their hands towards you, and say, There
stand the children who might have sent us the Bible, but they did not
send it; and now we must be lost--_lost for ever!_

CHAPTER XX.

BURMAH, CHINA, ETC., ETC.

My dear children--If you will look on your map of Asia, you will see,
adjoining Hindostan, at the east, a country called Burmah. This is
another land of idols. Here the "Baptist General Convention for Foreign
Missions" have one of the most interesting and flourishing missions in
the world. The people of Burmah are, if possible, still further removed
from divine knowledge than the people of India. They are in reality
atheists, or, in other words, people who do not believe in a creator or
preserver of the world. But still they worship gods, who, they say, have
become so by acts of religious merit. He whom they now worship is called
Gaudama, or Boodh. He is reputed to be the son of the king of Benares,
and, if their history be correct, was born six hundred years before
Christ. The Boodhists are all idolaters. They have many temples erected
to the honor of Boodh and his image. Before this image they present
flowers, incense, rice, betel-nuts etc. Like all other idolatrous
nations, the Burmese are very wicked. They do not respect their females
as they shou