The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & MissionarySmith, George
Religion
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary
Smith, George
Carey, William, 1761-1834; Missions -- India
Such was Dr. Carey's position in the Christian world that the Dyer
party considered it important for their interest to separate him from
his colleagues, and if not to claim his influence for their side, at
least to neutralise it. By trying to hold up Dr. Marshman to odium,
they roused the righteous indignation of Carey, while outraging his
sense of justice by their blows at the independence of the Brotherhood.
Dr. Marshman, when in England, met this course by frankly printing the
whole private correspondence of Carey on the subject of the property,
or thirty-two letters ranging from the year 1815 to 1828. One of the
earliest of these is to Mr. Dyer, who had so far forgotten himself as
to ask Dr. Carey to write home, alone, his opinion of his "elder
brethren," and particularly of Dr. Marshman. The answer, covering
eleven octavo pages of small type, is a model for all
controversialists, and especially for any whom duty compels to rebuke
the minister who has failed to learn the charity which envieth not. We
reproduce the principal passages, and the later letters to Christopher
Anderson and his son Jabez, revealing the nobleness of Carey and the
inner life of the Brotherhood:--
"SERAMPORE, 15th July 1819.
"MY DEAR BROTHER--I am sorry you addressed your letter of January the
9th to me alone, because it places me in a most awkward situation, as
it respects my elder brethren, with whom I have acted in concert for
the last nineteen years, with as great a share of satisfaction and
pleasure as could reasonably be expected from a connection with
imperfect creatures, and whom I am thereby called to condemn contrary
to my convictions, or to justify at the expense of their accusers. It
also places me in a disagreeable situation as it respects my younger
brethren, whom I highly respect as Christians; but whose whole conduct,
as it respects the late unhappy differences, has been such as makes it
impossible for me to do otherwise than condemn it...
"You ask, 'Is there no ground for the charges of profusion, etc.,
preferred against Brother Marshman?' Brother Marshman has always been
ardently engaged in promoting the cause of God in India, and, being of
a very active mind, has generally been chosen by us to draw up our
Reports, to write many of our public letters, to draw up plans for
promoting the objects of the mission, founding and managing schools,
raising subscriptions, and other things of a like nature; so that he
has taken a more active part than Brother Ward or myself in these
public acts of the mission. These things placed him in the foreground,
and it has been no uncommon thing for him to bear the blame of those
acts which equally belong to Brother Ward and myself, merely because he
was the instrument employed in performing them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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