AT THE LORD’S DISPOSAL
Rev. Dr. Selvam Robertson
AT THE LORD’S DISPOSAL
AT THE LORD’S DISPOSAL
Introduction
Although the traits of prophet,
priest, preceptor or a reformer can be discerned from the life of William Carey
I do not know whether he was one among them in the strict sense but am sure,
like them, he too was ‘at the Lord’s disposal’. The following description is to
illustrate his life so that we may learn a few characteristics of people who
are at the Lord’s disposal. It is also fitting that the Serampore College
(William Carey established) celebrated this year (2018) its bicentenary and
centenary of the Senate of Serampore College.
Early
Life
William Carey was born on August 17, 1761 in a little
village called Paulerspury, in Northamptonshire of England. His father became a
parish clerk in James Anglican church when his traditional weaving gave way. Consequently
he had the additional duty as schoolmaster of the parish school. The family moved to the school house in 1767.
William was the eldest among five children. He started
schooling at six in the parish school, worked as an altar boy and attended choir
in the Church. While still in school he read every book he could find. He also
developed interests on birds, insects, plants, seeds, etc and did things with
never-give-up spirit.[1]
Gardener
In
1773, at the age of 12, William finished school and began working as a
gardener. Soon he had to be stopped from this work as he became sick due to
heat. His father found him another work.
Shoe Maker Cobbler at Piddington
(1775-1785)
William
began his apprentice work as a shoemaker (under Clarke Nicholes) in Piddington,
seven miles from Paulerspury. There, he met John Warr (3 years older to him) of
Potterspury who was also working under the same master. They became friends.
1n 1776 during a Christmas season
William replaced a counterfeit shilling with his master’s. When the matter came
to light William was afraid but his master allowed him to continue his work.
This made William draw closer to God and began to pray for Clarke Nichols
(married in October 1777).
William was an Anglican but John Warr, led him to become
a Baptist and won the seventeen year-old William to Christ.[2]
The prayer of William and John Warr drew Nichols closer
to God before his untimely death in September 1779. Soon after his death, the
widow’s cousin, Thomas Old of Hackleton told that he will take over the shop
and we must do everything possible to ease the widow’s grief.
Marriage
Thomas
Old’s wife Elizabeth, introduced her sister Dorothy Plackett to William.
William and Dorothy were married on June 10, 1781. They began a simple life,
even friends collected money to help them. William’s mother seemed frailer each
year. Polly, one of his sisters now fourteen, suffered a nerve disease, now
parts of her body became numb. Her elder
sister Ann now seventeen said ‘the tender mercies of the Lord can be cruel’.[3] William continued to be active in the
Hackleton Meeting House which became a church in May 19, 1778.
Carey and Dorothy dwelt in their
cottage for six years. Their first child was born in the summer of 1782. She
(child) fell sick and died in 1784. William was sick for a long time to the
extent he lost his hair on the head.
Dorathy feared for William’s life. But he told her, it shows you don’t
trust the Lord.
Thomas Old died unexpectedly in 1783 when not even forty.
Carey had to shoulder the responsibility of taking care of his wife’s widowed
sister and her four orphans as well as the business.
On October 20, 1785, a second child
was born to William and Dorathy and they named him Felix which means
“happiness.”
Skills and Vision
William
was a gifted linguist. At twelve, he memorized a Latin vocabulary book. After
coming across a Greek New Testament in Nichols’ shoe shop, immediately, he
bought a Greek Dictionary and a Grammar book and began to learn Greek. Thomas
Gotch a shoe dealer financially helped William to concentrate on language study
and ministry in the church.
After the marriage
of John Warr in April of 1780, William was often in the shop alone and even he
began to attend the Church of England again. Once he listened to Thomas Scott,
an Anglican and was shocked to learn Scott had mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew!
William began to learn Hebrew too with Scott’s help and books.
William made a large map drawn by
hand on several pieces of paper/leather stuck together and marked on it
information about each country as he had found them in his reading.
Anglican to Baptist
On
10th February 1779 William Carey joined the Protestant church much
to the disappointment of his parents.[4] He
was baptized on 5th October, 1783. Just a few weeks later his
sisters also were baptized.
Teacher at Moulton (1785-1789)
William
struggled to keep food on the table all through 1784. On March 25, 1785, he
moved to Moulton and started a school there. The church at Moulton invited him
to be pastor. He also continued his business of shoe making. The strength as
well as income of the school declined when a previous school teacher returned
and restarted his school. William continued to learn different languages.
William was ordained on August 1, 1787 in the Baptist
Church of Moulton, Just weeks after his mother’s funeral. His coat for the occasion was bought by
collection made among friends.
Pastor Carey
When
twenty and married the church at Hackleton asked the apprentice shoemaker,
William, to preach.
The congregation of Baptists at Earls Barton, east of
Northampton, even persuaded him to preach there every other week. Even there
was a request to preach once a month at Paulerspury.
William Carey was now twenty-two, preacher, shoemaker and
bald headed. To others it seemed he had a thousand problems. To himself he was
enraptured by faith. His faith was blossoming, he was sure. He was now being
tested by sickness, mourning, and poverty, but no longer doubt.
William recovered his health again.
At the Hackleton Meeting House he joined discussions. Once a month now they
discussed the churchman’s [sic] obligation to evangelize, not just within his
parish but the entire world. William found himself drawn more and more to the
idea that the “Great Commission”[5]
did indeed require churchmen to spread Christ to the entire world.
He also served the
Baptist Church at Olney and the Harvey Lane Church in Leicester.
Missionary urge
The
birth (1790) and death of a daughter, Lucy, made the ordeal even worse. Lucy’s
tender innocence reminded William he could fail too.[6]
From his early days William was intensely interested in
the people of other lands. His conviction grew that it was the duty of the
Church to take seriously Christ’s command to go ‘into the entire world and
preach the gospel,’ and he began to press for the formation of a society to
further this aim.[7]
He was careful about bringing up the subject in
association meetings. In 1788 while raising money in Birmingham for the church
building in Moulton he met Thomas Potts, a businessman who supported (offering
£10 towards the cost of printing) William to publish his book: An
Enquiry into the Obligations to Use Means for the conversion of the Heathens
[sic], in Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the
Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings
are Considered. It was published on
May 12, 1792.[8]
In this book, he rebutted all ideas against mission/great
commission, discussed history of mission from apostle to the present, countries
and their religious statistics including cruel practices, practicality of
undertaking mission, responsibility of Christians and ended with a future hope.
Once in a ministers’ meeting William asked them to
discuss “if the command to the disciples to teach all nations did not mean all
ministers to the end of the world”. To that, Ryland, as chairman of the
meeting, answered: “Young man, sit down. When God pleases to save the people of
other lands, He will do it without asking you or me.”[9]
Baptist Mission Society
In a
meeting held in May 30-31, 1792 William preached a sermon (Isaiah 54: 2-3) and
ended with the famous saying:
Expect
great things from God
Attempt
great things for God.
The
same year The Baptist Mission Society was established in England. William’s
father feared that he would offer himself to go as a missionary. William
replied that he was at the Lord’s disposal
but had little expectation of actually going to a foreign country himself. Dr. John Thomas, volunteered to be the first
missionary to India. William could not contain himself any longer and offered
himself as Dr. Thomas’s assistant!
To India
The
Baptist Missionary Society had agreed to send William and Thomas as
missionaries to Bengal as its first field. Dorothy blindly rejected and she did
not want o go. East India Company was
not giving permission to missionaries to travel. But Thomas out of his previous
experience suggested not getting licenses is not a problem. The ship in those days was small and
uncomfortable. But Carey was not afraid of facing such hardships.
Captain White of the Earl
of Oxford agreed to take them to India without the licenc. Soon a team of seven was aboard the Earl of Oxford. Finally, one day in
early May the captain summoned Dr. Thomas to come immediately. It seems someone
has warned the captain that the authorities in Calcutta have been put on notice
that there is one passenger aboard without a license. William, his son and
Thomas were de-boarded from the ship.
Next Ship
William
took it that it happened for good. They
went home and waited until they came to know that a Danish ship Krön Princess Maria was going to Bengal.
Meanwhile, Thomas persuaded Dorothy to join William. Dorathy insisted that her
sister Kitty should go with her. Kitty, after prayer, agreed. With that Dorothy
finally agreed to go to India. Money was collected for their tickets. The ship had arrived. Two hours later they
were on the ship. Soon it was sailing. They were on their way to India at last.
And best of all, Carey had his whole family with him, including Jabez, less
than two months old. Since he now had his family with him, William never expected
to return to England.
During the voyage Carey was dangerously ill. God healed him. Then faced a storm and the
tidal waves almost sank the ship. In the mornings and evenings and Sundays
William led a worship service in their large cabin for their own eight and a
fairly constant dozen others.
A black woman and her infant were not so fortunate. They
died before the Kron Princessa Maria
could reach Cape Town. The entire ship offered up their prayers as their bodies
were claimed by the deep.
A few days later a
ship’s carpenter died. A third body was
claimed by the sea. William prayed it was their last sacrifice to the sea. And at long last the ship entered the Hooghly
River. The voyage took nearly five months; eventually William Carey with family
and companions arrived in Calcutta, India on 11th November, 1793.
Carey used the time (in ship) by
having Thomas teach him the Bengali language. Thomas had translated the gospels
of Mark and Matthew into that language. Now he and Carey worked together to
translate Genesis.
In India
Advised by the friendly Captain Christmas of
the Danish vessel Maria, Carey landed at the mouth of the River Hooghly and, to
avoid opposition of the British officials, reached Calcutta in a native fishing
boat!
The missionaries had
gone ashore at a very large market. Thomas had already made various
arrangements. He had sent a messenger to the house where his wife and the three
others were staying. They were to meet the new arrivals north of Calcutta in a
Portuguese settlement called Bandel.
In
Bandel Thomas introduced Ram Ram Basu (interpreter) to William. They traveled
by boat and by foot to the small villages around.
But at Bandel, Felix, then Dorathy, became very sick with
what was called the “bloody flux.” It was a form of diarrhea so severe it was
accompanied by blood. It was the bane of foreigners in India.
Manicktullo
From
Badel the family moved to Monicktullo and stayed in a rented house. His wife
grew unhappy. William visited some Englishmen in Calcutta during the day, only
to be treated with contempt. Even a prominent clergyman to whom he had an
introduction written by John Newton had refused to see him. Dorathy and her
sister became more and more discontented.
Departed to Sundarbans
With the help of a money lender William found free land
in Debhatta. On the evening of February 3, 1794, Carey, now thirty-two years
old, Dorathy, who had just turned thirty-eight, and Kitty, thirty, stepped into
a boat with the boys: Felix, eight, Willy, five, and Peter, four. Dorathy carried
nine-month-old Jabez. Ram Ram Basu also went.
William and Felix walked to their land each day ad
cleared it. The two laid out a garden, then William paced off the dimensions
for a house. The house, built on stilts high off the ground, would be framed
and floored with bamboo, then walled and roofed with mats. Until they completed
the work they lived in the bungalow of Charles Short.
One day Charles Short got a letter for William from Dr.
Thomas. George Udny was now an important East India Company official there, one
entrusted with encouraging business enterprises. Would Dr. Thomas be interested
in running an indigo processing plant near Malda? he had asked. The salary was
fixed and quite substantial. The plant manager would have a nice house, even
servants. So Thomas had agreed to run the indigo plant at Mahipaldighi.
Would William be interested in running a similar plant
near Mudnabati? The generous salary would be the same! And William too would
have a nice house and servants. Udny believed he could even pull strings to get
the two men licenses, so at least they would be free from the threat of being
arrested. If William was interested, he must write to Thomas at once. Then
Thomas would send him the money to make the three-hundred-mile trip north.
William abandoned his bamboo house. He spent all his time
learning Bengali.
And what could be more ambitious, festering in
a muddy forest with a distraught wife, then to begin translating the Bible into
Bengali? But that was exactly what he began to do with Ram Ram Basu’s help.
At last the money came from Thomas. It was nearly the
last week in May, the traditional start of the monsoons. William hurriedly
loaded a large, canopied boat he had hired in advance. Kitty decided to marry
Charles Short.
Malda
On
the dawn of May 23, 1794, without Kitty, the Careys headed north. They were welcomed warmly by the George
Udnys. The house pleased Dorathy. William developed a garden. As steward of God’s gift, he also intended to
raise ducks, chickens, cattle and sheep. Soon he hoped to even have the luxury
of a horse!
William
continued to labor on his translation of the Bible into Bengali. This was very
important. Its by-product was to be a mastery of Bengali sufficient to actually
preach to the natives. He started a school, church and a clinic to help the
people.
William and his five year
old son Peter fell sick- Jungle fever. On October 11 Peter died. The death and
the events following the death shattered Dolly. She began losing control of her
mind.
Indigo plantation further north
Due
to heavy flood the indigo business suffered. Udnys wanted to shut the plant.
Thus William decided to move further north to establish another plant. And make
provisions for accommodating new missionaries. But the new missionaries went to
Serampore. They invited William to Serampore.
Moving to Serampore
By
January 1, 1800, William with all his goods headed to Serampore. There with the help of other missionaries set
up a printing press. He became professor of Bengali, Sanskrit and Marathi at
fort William College in Calcutta. During the free hours he concentrated in
translation, preaching etc.
He translated the bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, Oriya.
Marathi. There are reports that during his time the bible was translated into
more than 30 languages in full or in part. From there missionaries were sent to
China, Burma. During their fast moving printing activity their printing press
met with a huge fire accident. William was also involved in social
concerns.
Although the Serampore missionaries enormously
contributed to education, journalism, etc, in 1818 the Serampore College was
established, a vision William waited for so long. Subsequently the King of
Denmark granted a Royal charter authorizing the college to confer degrees.
[1918, Bengal Government by an act authorized the establishment of the Senate
of Serampore College]
Successful End
William
was the one who said: Attempt great things for God
and expect great thinks from God
The emblem of the Serampore College has in it a Bible,
cross and a pelican feeding the young ones from her own blood.
One day William used his meager remaining energy to
admonish a visitor who had repeated praise too often, “Dr. Carey this, Dr Carey
that! Cried William, ”Please, sir, after I am gone, praise nothing about Dr.
Carey. Praise only Dr. Carey’s Savior!”
William instructed that the following words be written on
his tomb:
A wretched, poor, and helpless worm,
On
Thy kind arms I fall.
William
Carey died at sunrise on June 9, 1834. Funeral was attended by Hindus, Muslims,
Christians…
Conclusion
A
few insights can be underlined from the life of William Carey who was ‘at the
Lord’s disposal.’ The life and journey of God’s servants go through
multifaceted experiences, uncertainties and even very rugged path. God’s choice of his servants is not based on
family and status but perseverance and full dedication. God’s servants attribute overcoming of
failures to the grace of God. Being in God’s service does not mean being free
from sorrow and pain but having strength to withstand and be focused. All loses
and heavy burdens in the process of God’s service are not to abandon service
but move forward in the midst of them. For servants of God poverty and hardship
are not obstacles. They always look for opportunities to dedicatedly serve
without being discouraged bust steadily moving forward.
Religion and Dialogue
Bibliography for further study
Beck, James R. Dorothy
Carey: The Tragic and Untold Story of Mrs. William Carey.
Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1992.
Carey, Eustace. Memoir
of William Carey D.D. Hartford: Canfield and Robins, 1837; microfiche,
Louisville:
Lost
Cause Press, 1996.
Carey, S. Pearce. William
Carey, D.D., Fellow of the Linnean Society. London: Hodder
&
Stoughton, 1923. Reprint, London: WakemanTrust, 1993.
Carey, William. An
Enquiry into the Obligations to Use Means for the Conversion of the
Heathens.
Leicester:Ann Ireland, 1792, new facsimile ed. With intro by Ernest A. Payne.
London: Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961.
Drewery, Mary. William
Carey: A Biography. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979.
Finnie, Kellsye, William Carey: By Trade a Cobbler.
London: Kingsway Publications, 1986.
Gardner, Brian. The
East India Company. New York: McCall, 1971.
George, Timothy. Faithful
Witness: Life and Mission of William Carey. Birmingham, Ala:
New
Hope, 1991.
Marshman,
John Clark. The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward, 2 vols., London:
Longman, Brown, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859; microfiche.
Potts, E. Daniel. British
Baptist Missionaries in India, 1793-1837: History of Serampore
and Its Missions.
Cambridge: U Press, 1967.
Prabhudass,
P. L. William Carey. Madras: Glad
Tidings Distributors, 1993.
Smith, George. The
Life of William Carey. 2nd ed. London: John Murray, 1885;
microfiche.
The
Council of Serampore College. The Story
of Serampore and its College, 4th ed.
Serampore: The Council of Serampore
College, 2005.
Wellman,
Sam. William Carey: Father of Modern Missions. Indian ed.
Secunderabad:
OM Books, 2004.
Woodworth, Ralph. Father of Modern Missions: William Carey
D.D. Hyderabad:
Authentic Books, 2012.
[3]
Sam Wellman, William Carey: Father of Modern Missions,
Indian ed.(Secunderabad: OM Books, 2004), 38.
[5]
Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole
creation.”
[6]
Sam Wellman, William Carey: Father of Modern Missions,
Indian ed.(Secunderabad: OM Books, 2004), 56.
[7] E. L. Wenger, “The Serampore Mission and its Founders,”
in The Story of Serampore and its College,
4th ed. (Serampore: The Council of Serampore College, 2005), 1.
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