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A Cenotaph to a Woman of the Burman Mission (1851)
A Cenotaph to a Woman of the Burman Mission - 1851 Author:Francis Mason Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VIEW V. DOMESTIC MISSIONARY LIFE. Although Mrs. Mason purchased her " outfit" in the " City of Palaces," where the most expensive and fashionable articles ... more »are always recommended as "the cheapest in the end," she did not furnish herself with damask couches, mahogany side-boards, cut glass, or even silver forks. " I wish to live," she would say, " in such a manner, that were the poorest contributors to missions to walk into my house, they would not feel offended with anything they might see :—for we are the representatives to the heathen, of a Saviour who chose to be poor." Her whole establishment was in keeping with the house she occupied; which was of bamboo, and cost the mission less than one hundred and fifty dollars, with an annual ex- :' ' -U .; i!-- !! i . ,J inu- .:. , : . i . .1 .. .. In- . i . ' . i:-h .' .ui'i !!, iH, " i. alwui tvi. . '. MOav' ,-"-iil-i (if ; i, ,..'' ..ii , . Dl Hf - .. ' 1 ' , r i . bur ju- L- a L-n" Ire.. .... ' pense of about sixteen more. Her drawing- room and parlor served, also, for dining, sometimes for conferences, and often for recitations. Instead of stuccoed walls, glazed windows, rich hangings, and pier-glasses, a bamboo partition, about two cubits high, separated it on three sides from the verandah, beyond which were seen the sapphire windows of heaven, and the emerald carpet of earth. The room was fitted up with a teak-wood dining table, side-table, stand, book-case, a few common chairs, an old couch, and a vase of flowers. Though Mrs. Mason was a lover of the fine arts, yet, instead of " portfolios of rare prints," there lay upon her table some religious periodicals, and in place of articles of vertu, were a few choice shells, gathered from the bordering shores. She never dreamed of keeping a...« less