The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary — John Shaqi
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & MissionarySmith, George
Religion
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary
Smith, George
Carey, William, 1761-1834; Missions -- India
Carey and Thomas, an ordained minister and a medical evangelist, were
at this meeting in Kettering, on 10th January 1793, appointed
missionaries to "the East Indies for preaching the gospel to the
heathen," on "£100 or £150 a year between them all,"--that is, for two
missionaries, their wives, and four children,--until they should be
able to support themselves like the Moravians. As a matter of fact
they received just £200 in all for the first three years when
self-support and mission extension fairly began. The whole sum at
credit of the Society for outfit, passage, and salaries was £130, so
that Fuller's prudence was not without justification when supported by
Thomas's assurances that the amount was enough, and Carey's modest
self-sacrifice. "We advised Mr. Carey," wrote Fuller to Ryland, "to
give up his school this quarter, for we must make up the loss to him."
The more serious cost of the passage was raised by Fuller and by the
preaching tours of the two missionaries. During one of these, at Hull,
Carey met the printer and newspaper editor, William Ward, and cast his
mantle over him thus--"If the Lord bless us, we shall want a person of
your business to enable us to print the Scriptures; I hope you will
come after us." Ward did so in five years.
The 20th March 1793 was a high day in the Leicester chapel, Harvey
Lane, when the missionaries were set apart like Barnabas and Paul--a
forenoon of prayer; an afternoon of preaching by Thomas from Psalm xvi.
4; "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God;"
an evening of preaching by the treasurer from Acts xxi. 14, "And when
he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, the will of the Lord be
done;" and the parting charge by Fuller the secretary, from the risen
Lord's own benediction and forthsending of His disciples, "Peace be
unto you, as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." Often in
after days of solitude and reproach did Carey quicken his faith by
reading the brave and loving words of Fuller on "the objects you must
keep in view, the directions you must observe, the difficulties you
must encounter, the reward you may expect."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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