|
WILLIAM
CAREY
Father of Modern Protestant Missions
"Expect great things;
attempt great things."
At a meeting of Baptist leaders
in the late 1700s, a newly ordained minister stood to argue for
the value of overseas missions. He was abruptly interrupted by
an older minister who said, "Young man, sit down! You are
an enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, he'll
do it without consulting you or me."
That such an attitude is inconceivable today is largely due to
the subsequent efforts of that young man, William Carey.
Plodder
Carey was raised in the obscure, rural village of Paulerpury,
in the middle of England. He apprenticed in a local cobbler's
shop, where the nominal Anglican was converted. He enthusiastically
took up the faith, and though little educated, the young convert
borrowed a Greek grammar and proceeded to teach himself New Testament
Greek.
When his master died, he took up shoemaking in nearby Hackleton,
where he met and married Dorothy Plackett, who soon gave birth
to a daughter. But the apprentice cobbler's life was hard-the
child died at age 2-and his pay was insufficient. Carey's family
sunk into poverty and stayed there even after he took over the
business.
"I can plod," he wrote later, "I can persevere
to any definite pursuit." All the while, he continued his
language studies, adding Hebrew and Latin, and became a preacher
with the Particular Baptists. He also continued pursuing his lifelong
interest in international affairs, especially the religious life
of other cultures.
Carey was impressed with early Moravian missionaries and was increasingly
dismayed at his fellow Protestants' lack of missions interest.
In response, he penned An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians
to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. He argued that
Jesus' Great Commission applied to all Christians of all times,
and he castigated fellow believers of his day for ignoring it:
"Multitudes sit at ease and give themselves no concern about
the far greater part of their fellow sinners, who to this day,
are lost in ignorance and idolatry."
Carey didn't stop there: in 1792 he organized a missionary society,
and at its inaugural meeting preached a sermon with the call,
"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!"
Within a year, Carey, John Thomas (a former surgeon), and Carey's
family (which now included three boys, and another child on the
way) were on a ship headed for India.
Stranger in a strange land
Thomas and Carey had grossly underestimated what it would cost
to live in India, and Carey's early years there were miserable.
When Thomas deserted the enterprise, Carey was forced to move
his family repeatedly as he sought employment that could sustain
them. Illness racked the family, and loneliness and regret set
it: "I am in a strange land," he wrote, "no Christian
friend, a large family, and nothing to supply their wants."
But he also retained hope: "Well, I have God, and his word
is sure."
He learned Bengali with the help of a pundit, and in a few weeks
began translating the Bible into Bengali and preaching to small
gatherings.
When Carey himself contracted malaria, and then his 5-year-old
Peter died of dysentery, it became too much for his wife, Dorothy,
whose mental hecaptionh deteriorated rapidly. She suffered delusions,
accusing Carey of adultery and threatening him with a knife. She
eventually had to be confined to a room and physically restrained.
"This is indeed the valley of the shadow of death to me,"
Carey wrote, though characteristically added, "But I rejoice
that I am here notwithstanding; and God is here."
Gift of tongues
In October 1799, things finally turned. He was invited to locate
in a Danish settlement in Serampore, near Calcutta. He was now
under the protection of the Danes, who permitted him to preach
legally (in the British-controlled areas of India, all of Carey's
missionary work had been illegal).
Carey was joined by William Ward, a printer, and Joshua and Hanna
Marshman, teachers. Mission finances increased considerably as
Ward began securing government printing contracts, the Marshmans
opened schools for children, and Carey began teaching at Fort
William College in Calcutta.
In December 1800, after seven years of missionary labor, Carey
baptized his first convert, Krishna Pal, and two months later,
he published his first Bengali New Testament. With this and subsequent
editions, Carey and his colleagues laid the foundation for the
study of modern Bengali, which up to this time had been an "unsettled
dialect."
Carey continued to expect great things; over the next 28 years,
he and his pundits translated the entire Bible into India's major
languages: Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit
and parts of 209 other languages and dialects.
He also sought social reform in India, including the abolition
of infanticide, widow burning (sati), and assisted suicide. He
and the Marshmans founded Serampore College in 1818, a divinity
school for Indians, which today offers theological and liberal
arts education for some 2,500 students.
By the time Carey died, he had spent 41 years in India without
a furlough. His mission could count only some 700 converts in
a nation of millions, but he had laid an impressive foundation
of Bible translations, education, and social reform.
His greatest legacy was in the worldwide missionary movement of
the nineteenth century that he inspired. Missionaries like Adoniram
Judson, Hudson Taylor, and David Livingstone, among thousands
of others, were impressed not only by Carey's example, but by
his words "Expect great things; attempt great things."
The history of nineteenth-century Protestant missions is in many
ways an extended commentary on the phrase.
**********************
People of passion are people of One Thing,
They only see One Thing,
They care only for One Thing
They only live for One Thing
And that One Thing is to Please God
and to advance His Glory.
Bishop J. C. Ryle
|
|
