The Karen apostle: or, memoir of Ko Thah-byu, the first Karen convert, with notices concerning his nation / by Francis Mason.

Francis Mason

Date:: 1843

Credit: The Karen apostle: or, memoir of Ko Thah-byu, the first Karen convert, with notices concerning his nation / by Francis Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Because they disbelieved God, Their language divided. God gave them commands, But they did not believe him; and divisions ensued/' Resurrection. \ r The astronomical systems of all the nations around the Karetis;'teach, that the sun, moon, and stars revolve round a great north mountain, in planes parallel to the surface of the earth; while the Karens retain the old idea, that tlie heavenly bodies go round the earth, descending under and rising above it. Under the earth, they suppose, that there is another world, where people go at death. It is enlightened by the same heavenly bodies as the earth ; but its days and nights are the reverse of ours, the sun rising there when he sets here. It is regarded as an intermediate state, where all the dead go, and where the inhabitants are employed much as the inhabitants of the earth, corresponding to the Jewish idea of Sheol. Connected with this subject, the Karens have an obscure notion of a final resurrection. One of their old prophecies says, “ 0 children and grandchildren ! you think the earth large. The earth is not so large as the Entada bean ! When the time arrives, people will be more numerous than the leaves of the trees, and those who are now unseen, will then be brought to view. 0 my children, there will not be a hiding place for a single thing on earth.’ The Karens explain this by saying, that the earth is as large as a bean when compared with the whole of God’s works. Concerning the numerous people that are to appear, they confess their ignorance, but think that the inhabitants of Hades [the invisible, or lower world,] are intended, whom God will cause to come up on the earth..$