|
WILLIAM CAREY
What is a Missionary? One Obedient to the Command of Jesus Christ
(1761-1834)
William Carey is often called the father of modern
missions (1761-1834). He was of lowly
English birth but with a brilliant mind.
While still in his teens, he could read the Bible in six languages and
later, as a missionary in India,
translated and printed parts or all of the Bible in 36 languages and dialects.
He was a plodder by his own
admission, but a very stubborn one. He
said, "If I begin a thing, I must go through with it." Would to God more were like that.
As a teenager of 14 he was
apprenticed to a shoemaker, and through the faithful witness of a
co-apprentice, John Warr, he was convicted of his sin. At age 17 he accepted Jesus Christ as his
Savior. The young cobbler studied the
Scriptures avidly in the original languages, having taught himself Greek and
Hebrew. Isaiah became a favorite of his,
and particularly chapter 54 stirred his heart.
He began to expound the Word and in due time pastored several Baptist
churches as well as taught in a village school.
He frequently took his text from
Isaiah 54, such as verse 5 "Thy redeemer shall be called the God of the whole
earth"
Who? Thy Redeemer.
Whose
Redeemer? Thy Redeemer.
Is the
promise assured? Thy Redeemer shall
be called.
Is the
promise limited? The whole earth.
He was exercised by the Lord's
command in Mark 16:15. Without a doubt God means what He says.
When He
says "Go," He means go.
When He
says "Go ye," He means go ye.
When He
says "Into all the world," He means into all the world.
When He
says "Preach the Gospel," He means preach the Gospel.
When he
says "Go to every creature," He means to every creature.
Surely God
means what He says.
Carey felt that the missionary
enterprise is the church's highest and holiest endeavor. His vision included the whole world:
"God
so loved the world."
"Go
ye into all the world."
"Christ,
the Savior of the world."
"God
in Christ reconciling the world."
"A
propitiation for the sins of the world."
"Thy
redeemer, the God of the whole world."
He preached his first sermon in the
meeting house in Hackleton. In the same
village, he also had his first cobbler's shop.
May 24, 1791, Carey was
ordained to the pastorate of the chapel in Leicester. He published a little treatise entitled An Inquiry, which has become the charter
of modern missions. In An Inquiry, we see repeatedly the
following words: obligation, obedience, it behooves us, it is incumbent upon
us, it becomes us, it is not impossible.
There was an association of Baptist pastors in that area of England of
which Carey was a part, and at Nottingham on Wednesday, May 31,1792, he
preached a sermon from Isaiah 54:2-3 in which his famous quotation was first
pronounced: "Expect great things from
God. Attempt great things for God." After his preaching with compassion
concerning missions, the congregation left unmoved. He turned to a friend and with agony of heart
said "Are we not going to do anything?
Oh, let us do something in answer to God's call."
The next day, June 1, 1792, Carey presented his idea
to a group of ministers concerning the establishment of a missionary
society. One of the group, an older man,
retorted "Young man, sit down. When God pleases
to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid, or mine." The next meeting of the association was held
at Kettering on October 2, 1792, where
Andrew Fuller had his church. There were
12 ministers there, all from small village churches, some with less than 25
members. Later, meeting in a small back
parlor of Mrs. V. B. Wallers' house-her late husband had been a deacon in
Andrew Fuller's church, and they had been a very hospitable family.
Something was done; a mission
society was formed. The name given to it
was "The Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among The
Heathen." They made the following
resolution: "Humbly desirous of making
an effort for the propagation of the Gospel among the heathen according to the
recommendation of Carey's ‘Inquiry,' we unanimously resolve to act in society
together for this purpose. To accomplish
this great end, we name this ‘The Particular Baptist Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel Among the Heathen'."
The grand sum of 13 pounds, 2 shillings, and 6 pence was subscribed.
It was also determined that India would be
the first field, but who would go?
Isaiah 54:6a leaped out at Carey. Those first six words "For the Lord
hath called thee..." constituted a call to Carey.
He left all to follow that call.
January 17, 1793, Carey wrote a letter to his father, a portion of which
reads "I hope, dear father, you may be enabled to surrender me up to the Lord
for the most arduous, honorable, and important work that ever any of the sons
of man were able to engage in. I have
many sacrifices to make. I must part
with a beloved family and a number of most affectionate friends, but I have set
my hand to the plough, I remain your
dutiful son, W. Carey."
The first party, along with Marshman
Ward and Dr. John Thomas, arrived in Calcutta November 11, 1793. There were many discouragements, but Isaiah
54 remained his stay. Verses 5 "Thou
shalt not be ashamed. Thy redeemer shall
be called the God of the whole earth."
The missionaries soon organized a church with William Carey as
pastor. They continued to pray for their
first convert. One promising inquirer, a
Mohammedan, expressed faith, but disappeared before his baptism. One day, a Hindu named Krishna Pal, came to
the Serempore compound with a dislocated shoulder. The missionaries immediately summoned John
Thomas, who was a medical doctor, to help with the medical emergency. Carey and others assisted by bracing and
holding the injured man against a tree while Thomas relocated the shoulder
without the benefit of anesthesia. The
grateful Krishna then listened to the Gospel
presentation. Eventually, he became this
long-prayed-for first convert to Christianity.
Carey had hoped that his son Felix
would join him in the missionary labor, but rather he became a special agent of
the British Government to Burma. It was a keen disappointment, and at the time
Carey wrote "my son has chosen to be an ambassador of the king of England when he
might have risen to the status of being an ambassador of the King of kings."
As the Apostle John tells of seeing
an angel who gained authority over the nations by the power of a book that was
opened in his hand, so Carey saw that it would be the open book in the hands of
the masses of India that would break the power of darkness; and by his efforts,
he placed the open book into the hands of millions.
Carey had a consuming concern for
the souls of men. Once while still in England, he was
criticized for preaching to the neglect of his shoe business. He replied "My real business is to preach the
Gospel and win lost souls. I cobble
shoes to pay expenses." While teaching,
he would weep as he studied a map of his own making and say to his students
"The people living in these areas are pagans.
They're lost-hundreds of millions of them not knowing the Blessed
Savior."
Today there are more than six times
as many people in the world than when William Carey went to India in
1793. In sheer numbers, there are also
more non-Christians than ever before. If
it was a most arduous, honorable, and important work in Carey's life, it is
even more so today. Although there are
more than six times as many people on planet earth as in the year Carey went to
India in 1793, the command is the same-all the world, every creature. Would to God we had more men and women with
hearts hot for souls.
He was 40 years in India, never
returning to his homeland England. He died June 9, 1834. At his own
request, his grave marker had only his name, dates of birth and death, and two
lines of an Isaac Watts' hymn:
A
wretched, poor, and helpless worm,
On
Thy kind arm I fall.
His reward Isaiah 54:8, "In a
little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer."
P.S. Carey's church in Leicester, I am
told, is now a Hindu temple. What a sad
travesty!
John A. Dreisbach
11/11/98
|
