Twenty years after Adoniram Judson reached Burma the New Testament was translated into the Burmese tongue. In 1824, when war was waged between England and Burma, Mr. Judson was thrown into prison, and Mrs. Judson buried the precious manuscript, just ready for the printer, in the earth beneath their house. But as mold was gathering upon it, on account of the dampness caused by heavy rains, with a woman's ready wit, she sewed the treasure inside a roll of cotton, put on a cover and took it to the jail to be used by Mr. Judson as a pillow. In nine months he was transferred to the inner prison, where five pairs of fetters were upon his ankles, and it was announced that he, with a hundred others, fastened to a bamboo pole, were to be killed before morning.
During this terrible night, much prayer ascended for the precious pillow. It had fallen to the share of the keeper of the prison, but Mrs. Judson, producing a better one, induced him to exchange. Mr. Judson was not killed, but was hurried away to another place, and again the pillow was his companion. But one of the jailers untied the mat that served as its cover and threw the roll of cotton into the yard as worthless.
Here a native Christian, ignorant of its value, found and preserved it as a relic of his beloved master, and with him months afterward its contents were discovered intact. After the close of the war this New Testament was printed, and in 1894 the whole Bible was translated into the Burmese language--a language peculiarly difficult on account of its construction and curious combinations. --Stories of Bible Translation
Be the first to react on this!
