The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & MissionarySmith, George
Religion
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary
Smith, George
Carey, William, 1761-1834; Missions -- India
This house-chapel, with two acres of garden land and separate rooms on
either side, continued till 1875 to be the nucleus of the settlement
afterwards celebrated all over South Asia and Christendom. The chapel
is still sacred to the worship of God. The separate rooms to the left,
fronting the Hoogli, became enlarged into the stately residence of Mr.
John Marshman, C.S.I., and his two successors in the Friend of India,
while beyond were the girl's school, now removed, the residence of Dr.
Joshua Marshman before his death, and the boys' school presented to the
mission by the King of Denmark. The separate rooms to the right grew
into the press; farther down the river was the house of the Lady Rumohr
who became Carey's second wife, with the great paper-mill behind; and,
still farther, the second park in which the Serampore College was
built, with the principal's house in which Carey died, and a hostel for
the Native Christian students behind. The whole settlement finally
formed a block of at least five acres, with almost palatial buildings,
on the right bank of the Hoogli, which, with a breadth of half a mile
when in flood, rolls between it and the Governor-General's summer house
and English-like park of Barrackpore. The original two acres became
Carey's Botanic Garden; the houses he surrounded and connected by
mahogany trees, which grew to be of umbrageous beauty. His favourite
promenade between the chapel and the mill, and ultimately the college,
was under an avenue of his own planting, long known as "Carey's Walk."
The new colleagues who were to live with him in loving brotherhood till
death removed the last in 1837 were not long in attracting him. The two
were worthy to be associated with him, and so admirably supplemented
his own deficiencies that the brotherhood became the most potent and
permanent force in India. He thus wrote to Fuller his first
impressions of them, with a loving self-depreciation:--"Brother Ward is
the very man we wanted: he enters into the work with his whole soul. I
have much pleasure in him, and expect much from him. Brother Marshman
is a prodigy of diligence and prudence, as is also his wife in the
latter: learning the language is mere play to him; he has already
acquired as much as I did in double the time." After eight months of
study and evangelising work they are thus described:--"Our brother
Marshman, who is a true missionary, is able to talk a little; he goes
out frequently, nay almost every day, and assaults the fortress of
Satan. Brother Brunsdon can talk a little, though not like Marshman.
Brother Ward is a great prize; he does not learn the language so
quickly, but he is so holy, so spiritual a man, and so useful among the
children."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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