The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-03 00:00:00

THE GOSPEL AMONG THE KARENS.

The religion of the Karens forms one of the most
singular features of their character and history.
While civilisations have fallen into all forms of
gross idolatry ; while philo:ophers falsely so called,
have invented and discovered all sorts of anti-
Christian systems, these simple tribes have pre-
served among themselves, for hundreds of years,
the knowledge of one God, and have honoured Him
above all, without images, as their Ono Supreme
Lord. They have handed down from generation to
generation, the most singular traditions concerning
the creation, the fall of the first human pair, the
deluge, and the dispersion of the human race. They
have described to their children how, for the sins of
their fathers, God took away His sacred book from.
among them, and left theni to fall into ignorance
and suffering ; and how in His good time, He would
bring among them white teachers from the West,
who should restore the book again. Whence these
singular traditions came, none have been able to
discover ; but that they existed, that they prepared
the minds of the people in the most wonderful man-
ner to receive the Gospel, and that the Gospel has
been accepted with avidity, are facts which lie be-
yond dispute. Before the emancipation of Pegu,
the Karen mission had become a marked success. In
all the settlements, too, great improvement was
made in the habits of the people. Their villages
were built in order and with care ; and the straight
streets, the pretty gardens, the plots of vegetables,
the orchards and nurseries, and the well-tilled rice
fields, bore testimony to a settled life and patient
industry on the part of a people who had hereto-
fore been most rude and wild. Large tracts of
country were reclaimed from the jungles, in which
roamed wild elephants and beasts of prey. The de-
cent worship, the neat dress of the congregations,
the union prevalent. in the " associatee churches,
and the orderly rule maintained in a church govern-
ment which fell so largely on the people themselves,
proved that these signs of peace and prosperity were
not merely the result of outward influence, but
sprang from powerful inward principle. The fol-
lowing admirable rules, adopted for their mutual
guidance by the Tavoy churches, furnish a singular
il'ustration of the completeness with which they
sought to Christianise all the principles both of
their outer and their inner life, and to remove from
their midst the elements of heathenism which had
oppressed them for so many generations. Numer-
ous Christians in this country have not learned to
act upon them yet. 'Rules for the TavoyiChurehes
—" 1. We will avoid that superstitious forsaking
of property [such as quitting a house because a per-
son has died in it, and a thousand things of that
kind,] which was practised by our ancestors, but is
contrary to the Scriptures. 2. We will avoid all
vain oaths, particularly such as refer to the name of
God. 3. We will avoid all attempts to frighten
our children into obedience, by telling them what
is not true, (as that some fearful thing will happen
to them, a tiger will bite them, and the like) ; also,
we will endeavour to avoid all kinds of deception,
and lying words. 4. We will avoid all, kinds of
vain and foolish songsAsuch as the heathen used to
excite their passions. 5. We will avoid all kinds
of personal contests, as wrestling, betting, and the
like. 6. We will avoid all charms and amulets,
and all those supposed medicines which the heathens
regard as securities against superstitious ills ; tat-
tooing, and so on." The imperfect enumerations
yet made of the successes of this wonderful Karen
mission, reckon Ihe number of church members at
the present time at fifteen or sixteen thousand;
and the native Christians of all ages, brought under
regular instruction are more than one hundred
thousand. When we remember that the first con-
vert was baptized only thirty years ago: that seven
years ago there was not a single Christian at Toun-
goo, now so full of converts, we stand amazed at
the marvellous progress of this • valuable mission.
and exclaim with joy, "What bath God wrought r
-" Eclectic" for September.

RAISING THE SCHOONER DON.—This clipper ves-
sel, belonging to the Aberdeen line company, while being
towed through Halfway-reach, on Tuesday afternoon, in.
order to take in her ballast at Erith, was sunk on the north
shore, immediately opposite the Halfway-house, owing to
a sudden squall catching her quarter and capsizing her.
The c ew were rescued by the tug, and the captain having
applied ineffectually at Woolwich Dockyard for assistance
to raise the vessel, the services of the small derrick were
procured. The necessary chains for hoisting the schooner
were bent on to her during Thursday night, and yesterday
the derrick brought the vessel up to the London Docks
' moorings, suspended in the chains to the boom of the
machine.

EXTRAORDINARY DISASTER ON THE BIRMING-
HAM CANAL—On Tuesday evening an alarming accident
occurred on the Birmingham Canal at Dudley Port. The
canal at Dudley Port runs over in its course a limestone
mine belonging to Messrs. Giles, and the amount of stone
worked from under the surface has gradually weakened the
earth until it has been unable to withstand the pressure
from above. On Tuesday evening a watchman in the em-
ploy of the Canal Company noticed the canal banks gra-
dually sinking, but before he could well summon assistance
the banks sank eight or nine feet with a fearful crash. On
the spot where the earth sank the two bodies of water from
each side met with a report like thunder, and carried the
bank, together with some hundred tons of rubbish, t
an
adjoining hollow, which, with all the lower ground
neighbourhood, was completely flooded.
An
rounded, and all the furniture, , linnothe
old man and
hB.llesewas afloat. The rush.
womangreatd residingim
u l ty inre
sac
uceodtt;agtheeneaor the cwanaaaloobarplowteelrye wisurth.-
osofmweatteirroionto
Fthoeurpiptsitswbeillioup
also stopped from the waterc having
near the spot is fearf y
da-
mage has been done to .
an
Sandars, and Messrs. ba K to Messrs. Bagnall are
reye-gn.t their being worked for
flowed in. The earth_
nil racked in places, and great
theworks of Messrs. Badger, Messrs.
re m . At
.Messrs. Sandars's the
d At Messrs. 'Badger's the roof was
and the stocks, furnaces, steam pipes, and.
thrown down,
wallsmachin weerrye tdhisrpolwaroredo. wn, andtheelgmes, boilers, and other
ery broken and shaken. At each of these large.
eancdangei;
workgiont owro 'yllahr
yards in
n tf
front
0 nb et
osfus theirp e ndwe suspended,
vs
etsh,
dry 0
will have no other means of removing their iron and other
material. No loss of life occurred, although there were
fmorhinnfdr:
several narrow escapes. The pecuniary loss is estimated at.
an immense amount, practical men stating that some thou-.
sands of pounds will not cover the loss. It will probably,
. be a month or more before the repairs will be completed'
. The traffic to Birmingham and Wolverhampton will be
conducted on another branch of the canal.