William Carey
"The Father of Modern Missions"
Born: August 17, 1761
Paulerspury, Northampton, England
Died: June 6, 1834
Serampore, India
William Carey, an impoverished English shoemaker, was an unlikely candidate for greatness. Yet, he has been appropriately designated as the "Father of Modern Missions." More than any other individual in modern history, he stirred the imagination of the Christian world and showed by his own humble example what could and should be done to bring a lost world to Christ. Although he faced many oppressive trials during his forty-year missionary career, he demonstrated a dogged determination to succeed, and he never gave up. His secret? "I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything." Carey's life profoundly illustrates the limitless potential of a very ordinary individual. He was a man who, apart from his unqualified commitment to God, no doubt would have lived a very mediocre existence.
Carey was born in 1761 near Northampton, England. His father was a weaver who worked on a loom in the family living quarters. Though poverty was the norm for families like Carey's, life was simple and uncomplicated. The Industrial Revolution had only begun to replace the cottage industries with grimy sweat shops and noisy textile mills. Carey's childhood was routine, except for persistent problems with allergies that prevented him from pursuing his dream of becoming a gardener. Instead, he was apprenticed, at the age of sixteen, to a shoemaker and continued in that vocation until he was twenty-eight. He was converted as a teen-ager and shortly afterwards became actively associated with a group of Baptist Dissenters and devoted his leisure time to Bible study and lay ministries.
In 1781, before he had reached his twentieth birthday, Carey married his master's sister-in-law. Dorothy was more than five years older than he, and, like many eighteenth-century English women of her background, she was illiterate. From the beginning it was a mismatched union, and as time passed and Carey's horizons broadened the chasm dividing them grew even wider. The earliest years of their marriage were filled with hardship and poverty. For a time, Carey not only had the responsibility of his own wife and fast-growing family, but also cared for the family of his late master's widow and her four children.
Despite the economic hard times, Carey did not turn aside from his study and lay preaching; and in 1785 he accepted a call to become the pastor of a tiny Baptist church where he served until he was called to a larger church at Leicester, though even here he was forced to seek other employment to support his family. During these years in the pastorate his philosophy of missions began to take shape, sparked first by his reading of Captain Cook's Voyages. Slowly he developed a biblical perspective on the subject, and he became convinced that foreign missions were the central responsibility of the church. His ideas were revolutionary. Many, if not most, eighteenth-century churchmen believed that the Great Commission was given only to the apostles, and therefore converting the "heathen" was no concern of theirs, especially if it were not tied to colonialism. When Carey presented his ideas to a group of ministers, one of them retorted: "Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine." But Carey refused to be silenced. In the spring of 1792 he published an eighty-seven page book that had far-reaching consequences and has been ranked alongside Luther's Ninety-five Theses in its influence on Christian history.
The book, An Enquirey Into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (and that being a shortened title), very ably presented a case for foreign missions and sought to deflate the arguments dramatizing the impracticality of sending missionaries to faraway lands. After publishing the book, Carey spoke to a group of ministers at a Baptist Association meeting in Nottingham, where he challenged his audience from Isaiah 54:2-3 and uttered his now famous quote: "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." The following day, largely through his influence, the ministers decided to organize a new mission board, which became known as the Baptist Missionary Society. The decision was not made lightly. Most of the Association ministers were, like Carey, living on very meager incomes, and involvement in foreign missions meant tremendous financial sacrifices from both them and their congregations.
Andrew Fuller, the most prominent minister in support of the new society, became the first home secretary, and the first missionary appointee was John Thomas, a Baptist lay-man who had gone to India as a doctor for the royal navy and stayed on after his term of service to minister as a free-lance missionary doctor and evangelist. Carey immediately offered himself to the new society as a "suitable companion" to Thomas and was eagerly accepted.
Although Carey had long been avidly interested in missions, the decision to offer himself for foreign service was nothing less than rash. The fact that his church was distressed at losing its pastor and that his father judged him "mad" could be easily overlooked, but his wife's response should have at least slowed him down. With three little ones and another on the way, it is no wonder Dorothy adamantly opposed leaving her home-land to embark on a hazardous five month voyage (complicated by France's very recent declaration of war against England) to spend the rest of her life in the deadly tropical climate of India. Other women had willingly made such sacrifices and thousands more would in the future, but Dorothy was different. If there is a "Mother of Modern Missions," it is certainly not she. She defiantly refused to go.
If Dorothy thought her refusal to accompany her husband would change his mind, she was wrong. Carey, though distressed by her decision, was determined to go, even if it meant going without her. He went ahead with his plans, which included booking a passage for Felix, his eight-year-old son. In March of 1793, after months of deputation, Carey and Thomas were commissioned by the Society; and the following month they, along with Felix and Thomas's wife and daughter, boarded a ship on the Thames River that was to take them to India. But the trip to India ended abruptly at Portsmouth, England. Money problems (centering around Thomas and his disgruntled creditors) and failure to have a license prevented them from going further.
The delay was a disappointment for the missionaries, but it led to a dramatic change in plans. Dorothy, having delivered her baby three weeks before, grudgingly agreed to join the mission party with her little ones, providing Kitty, her younger sister, could accompany her. Obtaining funds for the additional passengers was a difficult hurdle, but on June 13, 1793, they boarded a Danish vessel and set sail for India. The long and dangerous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope was not without its terrifying moments, but on November 19 they arrived safely in India.
The time of their arrival was not favorable for establishing mission work. The East India Company was in virtual control of the country, and its hostility to mission work was soon made plain. The company feared anything that could possibly interfere with its profitable commercial ventures, and Carey quickly realized he was very unwelcome. Fearing deportation, he moved with his family to the interior.
Here, surrounded by malarial swamps, the Careys lived in dire circumstances. Dorothy and the two oldest boys became deathly ill, and family cares required Carey's constant attention. His idealistic dreams of missionary work were rapidly fading. Likewise, it grieved him that his wife and Kitty were "continually exclaiming against" him and were resentful of the Thomas family, who were living in affluence in Calcutta. After some months their plight was alleviated by the kindness and generosity of Mr. Short, an East India Company official who, though an unbeliever, took pity on them and welcomed them into his home for as long as they desired to stay. Soon, however, the Careys moved on to Malda, nearly three hundred miles north, where Carey was able to obtain a position as a foreman in an indigo factory.
The years in Malda were difficult ones. Although Carey was happy in his new position and found the indigo factory to be a choice language school and field for evangelism, family troubles persisted. Kitty, who stayed back to marry Mr. Short, was no longer with them, and Dorothy's health and mental stability steadily declined. Then, the tragic death of the little bright-eyed five-year-old Peter in 1794 pushed her over the brink. She never did fully regain her mental faculties. it was a pitiful situation, and she was later described by co-workers as being "wholly deranged."
Despite his traumatic family situation and his continued factory work, Carey did not forget his purpose for being in India. He spent hours every day in Bible translation work, and he preached and set up schools as well. By the end of 1795 a Baptist church had been established in Malda. It was a start, even though its entire membership equaled only four, and they were Englishmen. The services, however, drew large crowds of Bengali people, and Carey could confidently assert that "the name of Jesus Christ is no longer strange in this neighborhood." But there was no fruit. After nearly seven years of toil in Bengal, Carey could not claim even one Indian convert .
In spite of his lack of outward success, Carey was satisfied with his missionary work in Malda and was keenly disappointed to leave in 1800. New missionaries had arrived from England, and in order to avoid continual harassment from the East India Company, they settled near Calcutta in the Danish territory of Serampore. Carey's help was urgently needed in setting up the new mission station to accommodate them, so he reluctantly departed with his family from Malda.
Serampore soon became the center of Baptist missionary activity in India, and it was there that Carey would spend the remaining thirty-four years of his life. Carey and his co-workers, Joshua Marshman and William Ward, known as the Serampore Trio, would become one of the most famous missionary teams in history. The mission compound, which housed ten missionaries and their nine children, enjoyed a family atmosphere. The missionaries lived together and kept all things in common, even as the early church had done in the Book of Acts. On Saturday nights they met to pray and to air their grievances, always "pledging themselves to love one another." Responsibilities were divided according to abilities, and the work progressed smoothly.
The great success of the Serampore Mission during the early years can be credited to a large extent to Carey and his saintly disposition. His own willingness to sacrifice material wealth and to go beyond the call of duty was a continual example to the rest. Moreover, he had an uncanny ability to overlook the faults in others. Even in regard to Thomas, who mismanaged the mission funds and was an embarrassment because of careless indebtedness, Carey could say, "I love him, and we live in the greatest harmony." Describing his co-workers, Carey wrote: "Brother Ward is the very man we wanted....He enters into the work with his whole soul. I have much pleasure in him....Brother Marshman is a prodigy of diligence and prudence, as is also his wife...."
Serampore was a harmonious example of missionary cooperation, and there were results to show for it. Schools were organized, a large printing establishment was set up, and, above all, translation work was continually being done. During his years at Serampore, Carey made three translations of the whole Bible (Bengali, Sanskrit, and Marathi), helped in other whole Bible translations, and translated the New Testament and portions of Scripture into many more languages and dialects. Unfortunately, his quality did not always match his quantity. Home Secretary Andrew Fuller scolded him for inconsistent spelling and other problems in the copy he sent back to England for printing: "I never knew a person of so much knowledge as you profess of other languages, write English so bad.... You huddle half a dozen periods into one.... If your Bengal New Testament should be thus pointed I should tremble for its fate.. . ." Fuller's fears were well-founded, and Carey, to his bitter disappointment, found that some of his work was incomprehensible. But the indefatigable translator did not give up. He went back to the drawing board and completely reworked his translation until he was satisfied it could be understood.
Evangelism was also an important part of the work at Serampore, and within a year after the mission was established the missionaries were rejoicing over their first convert. The following year there were more converts, but on the whole evangelism progressed slowly. By 1818, after twenty five years of Baptist missions to India, them were some six hundred baptized converts and a few thousand more who attended classes and services.
Despite his busy schedule of translation and evangelistic work, Carey always found time to do more. One of his greatest achievements was the founding of Serampore College in 1819 for the training of indigenous church planters and evangelists. The school opened with thirty-seven Indian students, more than half of whom were Christians. Another area of educational achievement involved his secular teaching. Soon after he arrived at Serampore he was invited to become the Professor of Oriental Languages at Fort William College in Calcutta. It was a great honor to Carey, an uneducated cobbler, to be asked to fill such an esteemed position, and with the enthusiastic support of his colleagues he accepted. The position not only brought in much needed income to the missionaries, but also placed them in better standing with the East India Company and gave Carey an opportunity to improve his language skills while being challenged by his students.
As busy as he was, Carey was unable to give his children the fathering they so desperately needed. Even when he was with them his easy-going nature stood in the way of firm discipline, a lack that was plainly exhibited in the boys' behavior. In speaking of this situation, Hannah Marshman wrote, "The good man saw and lamented the evil but was too mild to apply an effectual remedy." Fortunately, Mrs. Marshman stepped in. Had it not been for that dear woman's stern reprimands and William Ward's fatherly concern, the Carey boys would have gone entirely their own way.
In 1807, at the age of fifty-one, Dorothy Carey died. It was no doubt a relief to Carey. She had long since ceased to be a useful member of the mission family. In fact, she was a hindrance to the work. John Marshman wrote how Carey often worked on his translations "while an insane wife, frequently wrought up to a state of most distressing excitement, was in the next room...."
During his years at Serampore, Carey had developed a friendship with Lady Charlotte Rumohr, born into Danish royalty and living at Serampore in hopes that the climate would improve her poor health. Though she came to Serampore as a skeptic, she attended services at the mission, was converted, and was baptized by Carey in 1803. After that she began devoting her time and money to the work of the mission. In 1808, only a few months after the death of Dorothy, Carey announced his engagement to Lady Charlotte, and in so doing caused an upheaval in the usually tranquil mission family. So great was the opposition that a petition was circulated in an effort to prevent the marriage; but when his colleagues realized his mind was made up, they backed down and accepted the inevitable. The marriage, conducted by Marshman, took place in May, just six months after Dorothy had been laid to rest.
Carey's thirteen-year marriage to Charlotte was a happy one. During that time he was truly in love--perhaps for the first time in his life. Charlotte had a brilliant mind and a gift for linguistics, and she was a valuable assistant to Carey in his translation work. She also maintained close relationships with the boys and became the mother they had never had. When she died in 1821, Carey wrote, "We had as great a share of conjugal happiness as ever was enjoyed by mortals." Two years later, Carey, at the age of sixty-two, married again, this time to Grace Hughes, a widow seventeen years younger than he. Though Grace was not as well-endowed intellectually as Charlotte had been, Carey praised her for her "constant and unremitting care and excellent nursing" during his frequent illnesses.
One of the most devastating setbacks that Carey faced during his forty uninterrupted years in India was the loss of his priceless manuscripts in a warehouse fire in 1812. Carey was away at the time, but the ominous news that his massive polyglot dictionary, two grammar books, and whole versions of the Bible had been destroyed could not be concealed. Had his temperament been different, he may have never recovered; but as it was, Carey accepted the tragedy as a judgment from the Lord and began all over again with even greater zeal.
Carey's first fifteen years at Serampore were years of cooperation and teamwork. Except for occasional problems such as the one relating to his second marriage, the little Baptist community in India lived in harmony. Perhaps the situation had been too good to be true, but at any rate the peace did not last, and the fifteen years that followed were filled with turmoil. The spirit of unity was broken when new missionaries arrived who were unwilling to live in the communal fashion of the Serampore missionaries. One missionary demanded "a separate house, stable and servants." There were other differences, too. The new missionaries found their seniors--particularly Joshua Marshman--dictatorial, assigning them duties and locations not to their liking. The new missionaries no doubt were justified in feeling slighted. The senior workers were settled into their system, and they were not open to change. But had the junior missionaries manifested the love and long-suffering that had been so characteristic of the Serampore team, the differences could have been worked out. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Bitter accusations were made against the senior missionaries, and the result was a split between the two groups. The junior missionaries formed the Calcutta Missionary Union and began working only miles away from their Baptist brethren. "Indelicate" was the word William Ward used to describe the situations
The ordeal became even more critical when the Home Committee received the news and became involved. The original committee headed by Andrew Fuller no longer existed. That little committee of three had increased its size several times, and most of the members knew Carey only through his letters. Fuller and one of the other original members had died, leaving the home committee clearly stacked in favor of the junior members whom it had personally commissioned as missionaries. While Fuller had been at the helm he had insisted for two reasons that Serampore be self-governing: "One is, we think them better able to govern themselves than we are to govern them. Another is, they are at too great a distance to wait for our direction." But the reconstructed home committee strongly disagreed. The members believed that all the important affairs of the Serampore Mission should be under their direct control. Finally in 1826, after years of wearying conflict, the Serampore Mission severed its relationship with the Baptist Missionary Society.
The final split between Serampore and the Baptist Missionary Society was a financial blow to the Serampore missionaries. Although the Serampore team had been financially self-sufficient during most of its history, receiving only a small percentage of its funds from England, times were changing. There were missionaries at more than a dozen outstations who needed support, and medical care was needed for others, No longer could the Serampore team support them all. Carey and Marshman (Ward having since died) had no choice but to swallow their pride and submit themselves and the mission to the authority of the Society. Soon after that a substantial sum of money and kind letters arrived from the home committee. The healing process had begun.
Carey died in 1834, but not before leaving his mark on India and on missions for all times. His influence in India went beyond his massive linguistic accomplishments, his educational institutions, and the Christian following he shepherded. He also made a notable impact on harmful Indian practices through his long struggle against widow burning and infanticide. But otherwise, he sought to leave the culture intact. Carey was ahead of his time in missionary methodology. He had an awesome respect for the Indian culture, and he never tried to import Western substitutes, as so many missionaries who came after him would seek to do. His goal was to build an indigenous church "by means of native preachers" and by providing the Scriptures in the native tongue, and it was to that end that he dedicated his life. But it was not just in India where Carey's influence was felt. His work was being closely followed not only in England, but also on the Continent and in America where the inspiration derived from his daring example outweighed in importance all his accomplishments in India.
[from
http://www.thefathersheart.org/william_carey.htm]
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