and France, that
is, from A. D. 1000 to 1200. When one sees at Pagan an area along the
Irrawaddy River eight miles long and only two miles wide, with nearly
five thousand pagodas, multitudes of them small and in ruins, but many
still standing great and splendid in their proportions, it seems
impossible to doubt that a certain genuine religious impulse, however
blind and mistaken, led to their erection. There they stand, mere relics
of a magnificent past, but now erect in the midst of desolation, with
only scattered huts about them, where once there must have been a dense
population, rich and lordly. The fate of these towering monuments of
idolatry and superstition, now for the most part given over to the moles
and the bats, shows what God can do for pagodas, and encourages us to
believe that missionary effort will be mighty through God to the pulling
down of similar more modern strongholds, together with all the high
things that exalt themselves above the knowledge of his truth.

This leads me to speak of the great missionary work that is now
honeycombing and undermining the foundations of heathenism in this
pagoda-land. We came to Burma to see what God has wrought. The labors
and sufferings of Adoniram Judson appealed to us even in our
childhood. We wished to see how the mustard-seed which Judson sowed in
faith has grown up to bear fruit. So we went to Aungbinle, where for
twenty long months Judson was imprisoned and tortured. There we seemed
to hear God's word to Moses: "Take off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place where thou standest is holy ground." We were reminded
also of the burning bush, which was ever burning but not consumed.
Great forward movements in history are born in suffering. Through
death to life, and the cross before the crown--that was the way of
Christ, and it will be the way of his followers. We gathered, a small
group of missionaries and visitors, in the little chapel that has been
built upon the site of that old prison, and we prayed, with a lot of
dusky villagers and children before us, that God would yet more
gloriously prosper the work of missions.

We had every advantage in our investigations in Burma. Thirteen of my
former pupils are now missionaries in that land. For many years they
have been inviting me to visit them. Nine missionaries met us at the
dock, as we landed from Singapore and Penang. They have made our visit
delightful by their affectionate and boundless hospitality. Mor