The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & MissionarySmith, George
Religion
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary
Smith, George
Carey, William, 1761-1834; Missions -- India
The manifestation of Christ to the Bengalees could not be made without
rousing the hate and the opposition of the vested interests of
Brahmanism. So long as Carey was an indigo planter as well as a
proselytiser in Dinapoor and Malda he met with no opposition, for he
had no direct success. But when, from Serampore, he and the others, by
voice, by press, by school, by healing the sick and visiting the poor,
carried on the crusade day by day with the gentle persistency of a law
of nature, the cry began. And when, by the breaking of caste and the
denial of Krishna's Christian daughter Golook to the Hindoo to whom she
had been betrothed from infancy, the Brahmans began dimly to apprehend
that not only their craft but the whole structure of society was
menaced, the cry became louder, and, as in Ephesus of old, an appeal
was made to the magistrates against the men who were turning the world
upside down. At first the very boys taunted the missionaries in the
streets with the name of Jesus Christ. Then, after Krishna and his
family had broken caste, they were seized by a mob and hurried before
the Danish magistrate, who at first refused to hand over a Christian
girl to a heathen, and gave her father a guard to prevent her from
being murdered, until the Calcutta magistrate decided that she must
join her husband but would be protected in the exercise of her new
faith. The commotion spread over the whole densely-peopled district.
But the people were not with the Brahmans, and the excitement sent many
a sin-laden inquirer to Serampore from a great distance. "The fire is
now already kindled for which our Redeemer expressed his strong
desire," wrote Carey to Ryland in March 1801. A year later he used
this language to his old friend Morris at Clipstone village:--"I think
there is such a fermentation raised in Bengal by the little leaven,
that there is a hope of the whole lump by degrees being leavened. God
is carrying on his work; and though it goes forward, yet no one can say
who is the instrument. Doubtless, various means contribute towards it;
but of late the printing and dispersing of New Testaments and small
tracts seem to have the greatest effect."
In a spirit the opposite of Jonah's the whole brotherhood, then
consisting of the three, of Carey's son Felix, and of a new missionary,
Chamberlain, sent home this review of their position at the close of
1804:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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