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Genealogy IndexChapter V. Table of Contents Chapter VII.
Smith, George, C.I.E., LL.D.
Life Of William Carey - Shoemaker & Missionary
Chapter VI.
The First Native Converts And Christian Schools. 1800-1810. A carpenter the first Bengali convert--Krishna Pal's confession--Caste broken for the first time--Carey describes the baptism in the Hoogli--The first woman...
FOR seven years Carey had
daily preached Christ in Bengali without a convert. He had produced the
first edition of the New Testament. He had reduced the language to
literary form. He had laid the foundations in the darkness of the pit of
Hindooism, while the Northamptonshire pastors, by prayer and
self-sacrifice, held the ropes. The last disappointment was on 25th
November 1800, when "the first Hindoo" catechumen, Fakeer, offered himself
for baptism, returned to his distant home for his child, and appeared no
more, probably "detained by force." But on the last Sunday of that year
Krishna Pal was baptised in the Hoogli and his whole family soon followed
him. He was thirty-five years of age. Not only as the first native
Christian of North India of whom we have a reliable account, but as the
first missionary to Calcutta and Assam, and the first Bengali hymn-writer,
this man deserves study.
Carey's first Hindoo convert was three
years younger than himself, or about thirty-six, at baptism. Krishna Pal,
born in the neighbouring French settlement of Chandernagore, had settled
in the suburbs of Serampore, where he worked as a carpenter. Sore sickness
and a sense of sin led him to join the Kharta-bhojas, one of the sects
which, from the time of Gautama Buddha, and of Chaitanya, the reformer of
Nuddea, to that of Nanak, founder of the Sikh brotherhood have been driven
into dissent by the yoke of Brahmanism. Generally worshippers of some form
of Vishnoo, and occasionally, as in Kabeer's case, influenced by the
monotheism of Islam, these sects begin by professing theism and opposition
to caste, though Hindooism is elastic enough to keep them always within
its pale and ultimately to absorb them again. For sixteen years Krishna
Pal was himself a gooroo of the Ghospara sect, of which from Carey's to
Duff's earlier days the missionaries had a hope which proved vain. He
recovered from sickness, but could not shake off the sense of the burden
of sin, when this message came to him, and, to his surprise, through the
Europeans--"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." At the same
time he happened to dislocate his right arm by falling down the slippery
side of his tank when about to bathe. He sent two of the children to the
Mission House for Thomas, who immediately left the breakfast table at
which the brethren had just sat down, and soon reduced the luxation, while
the sufferer again heard the good news that Christ was waiting to heal his
soul, and he and his neighbour Gokool received a Bengali tract. He himself
thus told the story:--"In this paper I read that he who confesseth and
forsaketh his sins, and trusteth in the righteousness of Christ, obtains
salvation. The next morning Mr. Carey came to see me, and after inquiring
how I was, told me to come to his house, that he would give me some
medicine, by which, through the blessing of God, the pain in my arm would
be removed. I went and obtained the medicine, and through the mercy of God
my arm was cured. From this time I made a practice of calling at the
mission house, where Mr. Ward and Mr. Felix Carey used to read and expound
the Holy Bible to me. One day Dr. Thomas asked me whether I understood
what I heard from Mr. Ward and Mr. Carey. I said I understood that the
Lord Jesus Christ gave his life up for the salvation of sinners, and that
I believed it, and so did my friend Gokool. Dr. T. said, 'Then I call you
brother--come and let us eat together in love.' At this time the table was
set for luncheon, and all the missionaries and their wives, and I and
Gokool, sat down and ate together."
The servants spread the news,
most horrible to the people, that the two Hindoos had "become Europeans,"
and they were assaulted on their way home. Just thirty years after, in
Calcutta, the first public breach of caste by the young Brahman students
of Duff raised a still greater commotion, and resulted in the first
converts there. Krishna Pal and his wife, his wife's sister and his four
daughters; Gokool, his wife, and a widow of forty who lived beside them,
formed the first group of Christian Hindoos of caste in India north of
Madras. Two years after Krishna Pal sent to the Society this confession of
his faith. Literally translated, it is a record of belief such as Paul
himself might have written, illustrated by an apostolic life of twenty-two
years. The carpenter's confession and dedication has, in the original, an
exquisite tenderness, reflected also in the hymn11 which he wrote for
family worship:--
"SERAMPORE, 12th Oct. 1802.
Such is the first epistle of the Church of
India. Thus the first medical missionary had his reward; but the joy
proved to be too much for him. When Carey led Krishna and his own son
Felix down into the water of baptism the ravings of Thomas in the
schoolhouse on the one side, and of Mrs. Carey on the other, mingled with
the strains of the Bengali hymn of praise. The Mission Journal, written by
Ward, tells with graphic simplicity how caste as well as idol-worship was
overcome not only by the men but the women representatives of a race whom,
thirty years after, Macaulay described as destitute of courage,
independence, and veracity, and bold only in deceit. Christ is changing
all that.
"To the brethren
of the church of our Saviour Jesus Christ, our souls' beloved, my
affectionately embracing representation. The love of God, the gospel of
Jesus Christ, was made known by holy brother Thomas. In that day our
minds were filled with joy. Then judging, we understood that we were
dwelling in darkness. Through the door of manifestation we came to know
that, sin confessing, sin forsaking, Christ's righteousness embracing,
salvation would be obtained. By light springing up in the heart, we knew
that sinners becoming repentant, through the sufferings of Christ,
obtain salvation. In this rejoicing, and in Christ's love believing, I
obtained mercy. Now it is in my mind continually to dwell in the love of
Christ: this is the desire of my soul. Do you, holy people, pour down
love upon us, that as the chatookee we may be satisfied.12 I was
the vilest of sinners: He hath saved me. Now this word I will tell to
the world. Going forth, I will proclaim the love of Christ with
rejoicing. To sinners I will say this word: Here sinner, brother!
Without Christ there is no help. Christ, the world to save, gave his own
soul! Such love was never heard: for enemies Christ gave his own soul!
Such compassion, where shall we get? For the sake of saving sinners he
forsook the happiness of heaven. I will constantly stay near him. Being
awakened by this news, I will constantly dwell in the town of joy. In
the Holy Spirit I will live: yet in Christ's sorrow I will be sorrowful.
I will dwell along with happiness, continually meditating on
this;--Christ will save the world! In Christ not taking refuge,
there is no other way of life. I was indeed a sinner, praise not
knowing.--This is the representation of Christ's servant,
"KRISTNO." "Nov. 27.--Krishna, the man whose arm was set,
overtook Felix and me, and said he would come to our house daily for
instruction; for that we had not only cured his arm, but brought him the
news of salvation...
Carey
thus describes the baptism:--"Dec. 29.--Yesterday was a day of
great joy. I had the happiness to desecrate the Gunga, by baptising the
first Hindoo, viz. Krishna, and my son Felix: some circumstances turned up
to delay the baptism of Gokool and the two women. Krishna's coming forward
alone, however, gave us very great pleasure, and his joy at both
ordinances was very great. The river runs just before our gate, in front
of the house, and, I think, is as wide as the Thames at Gravesend. We
intended to have baptised at nine in the morning; but, on account of the
tide, were obliged to defer it till nearly one o'clock, and it was
administered just after the English preaching. The Governor and a good
number of Europeans were present. Brother Ward preached a sermon in
English, from John v. 39--'Search the Scriptures.' We then went to the
water-side, where I addressed the people in Bengali; after having sung a
Bengali translation of 'Jesus, and shall it ever be?' and engaging in
prayer. After the address I administered the ordinance, first to my son,
then to Krishna. At half-past four I administered the Lord's Supper; and a
time of real refreshing it was...
"Dec. 5.--Yesterday evening Gokool
and Krishna prayed in my room. This morning Gokool called upon us, and
told us that his wife and two or three more of his family had left him
on account of the gospel. He had eaten of Krishna's rice, who being of
another caste, Gokool had lost his. Krishna says his wife and family are
all desirous of becoming Christians. They declare their willingness to
join us, and obey all our Saviour's commands. Gokool and his wife had a
long talk; but she continued determined, and is gone to her relations.
"Dec. 6.--This morning brother Carey and I went to
Krishna's house. Everything was made very clean. The women sat within
the house, the children at the door, and Krishna and Gokool with brother
Carey and I in the court. The houses of the poor are only calculated for
sleeping in. Brother Carey talked; and the women appeared to have
learned more of the gospel than we expected. They declared for Christ at
once. This work was new, even to brother Carey. A whole family desiring
to hear the gospel, and declaring in favour of it! Krishna's wife said
she had received great joy from it.
"Lord's-day,
Dec. 7.--This morning brother Carey went to Krishna's house, and
spoke to a yard full of people, who heard with great attention though
trembling with cold. Brother Brunsdon is very poorly. Krishna's wife and
her sister were to have been with us in the evening; but the women have
many scruples to sitting in the company of Europeans. Some of them
scarcely ever go out but to the river; and if they meet a European run
away. Sometimes when we have begun to speak in a street, some one
desires us to remove to a little distance; for the women dare not come
by us to fill their jars at the river. We always obey...
"Dec. 11.--Gokool, Krishna, and family continue to seek
after the Word, and profess their entire willingness to join us. The
women seem to have learnt that sin is a dreadful thing, and to have
received joy in hearing of Jesus Christ. We see them all every day
almost. They live but half a mile from us. We think it right to make
many allowances for ignorance, and for a state of mind produced by a
corrupt superstition. We therefore cannot think of demanding from them,
previous to baptism, to more than a profession of dependence on
Christ, from a knowledge of their need of Him, and submission to Him in
all things. We now begin to talk of baptism. Yesterday we fixed upon
the spot, before our gate, in the river. We begin to talk also of many
other things concerning the discipled natives. This evening Felix and I
went to Gokool's house. Krishna and his wife and a bràmmhàn were
present. I said a little. Felix read the four last chapters of John to
them, and spoke also. We sat down upon a piece of mat in the front of
the house. (No chairs.) It was very pleasant. To have natives who feel a
little as we do ourselves, is so new and different. The country itself
seems to wear a new aspect to me...
"Dec. 13.--This
evening Felix and I went to see our friends Gokool and Krishna. The
latter was out. Gokool gave a pleasing account of the state of his mind,
and also of that of Krishna and his family. While we were there,
Gokool's gooroo (teacher) came for the first time since his losing
caste. Gokool refused to prostrate himself at his feet while he should
put his foot on his head; for which his gooroo was displeased...
"Dec. 22.--This day Gokool and Krishna came to eat tiffin
(what in England is called luncheon) with us, and thus publicly threw
away their caste. Brethren Carey and Thomas went to prayer with the two
natives before they proceeded to this act. All our servants were
astonished: so many had said that nobody would ever mind Christ or lose
caste. Brother Thomas has waited fifteen years, and thrown away much
upon deceitful characters: brother Carey has waited till hope of his own
success has almost expired; and after all, God has done it with perfect
ease! Thus the door of faith is open to the gentiles; who shall shut it?
The chain of the caste is broken; who shall mend it?" "Thus, you see, God is making way for us, and giving success
to the word of His grace! We have toiled long, and have met with many
discouragements; but, at last, the Lord has appeared for us. May we have
the true spirit of nurses, to train them up in the words of faith and
sound doctrine! I have no fear of any one, however, in this respect, but
myself. I feel much concerned that they may act worthy of their
vocation, and also that they may be able to teach others. I think it
becomes us to make the most of every one whom the Lord gives us."
Jeymooni, Krishna's wife's sister, was the first Bengali
woman to be baptised, and Rasoo, his wife, soon followed; both were about
thirty-five years old. The former said she had found a treasure in Christ
greater than anything in the world. The latter, when she first heard the
good news from her husband, said "there was no such sinner as I, and I
felt my heart immediately unite to Him. I wish to keep all His commands so
far as I know them." Gokool was kept back for a time by his wife, Komal,
who fled to her father's, but Krishna and his family brought in, first the
husband, then the wife, whose simplicity and frankness attracted the
missionaries. Unna, their widowed friend of forty, was also gathered in,
the first of that sad host of victims to Brahmanical cruelty, lust, and
avarice, to whom Christianity has ever since offered the only deliverance.
Of 124,000,000 of women in India in 1881, no fewer than 21,000,000 were
returned by the census as widows, of whom 669,000 were under nineteen
years, 286,000 were under fifteen, and 79,000 were under nine, all figures
undoubtedly within the appalling truth. Jeymooni and Unna at once became
active missionaries among their country-women, not only in Serampore but
in Chandernagore and the surrounding country.
The year 1800 did
not close without fruit from the other and higher castes. Petumber Singh,
a man of fifty of the writer caste, had sought deliverance from sin for
thirty years at many a Hindoo shrine and in many a Brahmanical scripture.
One of the earliest tracts of the Serampore press fell into his hands, and
he at once walked forty miles to seek fuller instruction from its author.
His baptism gave Carey just what the mission wanted, a good schoolmaster,
and he soon proved to be, even before Krishna in time, the first preacher
to the people. Of the same writer caste were Syam Dass, Petumber Mitter,
and his wife Draupadi, who was as brave as her young husband. The despised
soodras were represented by Syam's neighbour, Bharut, an old man, who said
he went to Christ because he was just falling into hell and saw no other
way of safety. The first Mohammedan convert was Peroo, another neighbour
of Syam Dass. From the spot on the Soondarbans where Carey first began his
life of missionary farmer, there came to him at the close of 1802, in
Calcutta, the first Brahman who had bowed his neck to the Gospel in all
India up to this time, for we can hardly reckon Kiernander's case. Krishna
Prosad, then nineteen, "gave up his friends and his caste with much
fortitude, and is the first Brahman who has been baptised. The word of
Christ's death seems to have gone to his heart, and he continues to
receive the Word with meekness." The poita or sevenfold thread
which, as worn over the naked body, betokened his caste, he trampled under
foot, and another was given to him, that when preaching Christ he might be
a witness to the Brahmans at once that Christ is irresistible and that an
idol is nothing in the world. This he voluntarily ceased to wear in a few
years. Two more Brahmans were brought in by Petumber Singhee in 1804, by
the close of which year the number of baptised converts was forty-eight,
of whom forty were native men and women. With the instinct of a true
scholar and Christian Carey kept to the apostolic practice, which has been
too often departed from--he consecrated the convert's name as well as soul
and body to Christ. Beside the "Hermes" of Rome to whom Paul sent his
salutation, he kept the "Krishna" of Serampore and Calcutta.
The
first act of the first convert, Krishna Pal, was of his own accord to
build a house for God immediately opposite his own, the first native
meeting-house in Bengal. Carey preached the first sermon in it to twenty
natives besides the family. On the side of the high road, along which the
car of Jagganath is dragged every year, the missionaries purchased a site
and built a preaching place, a school, a house for Gokool, and a room for
the old widow, at the cost of Captain Wickes, who had rejoiced to witness
their baptism. The Brahman who owned the neighbouring land wished to sell
it and leave the place, "so much do these people abhor us." This little
purchase for £6 grew in time into the extensive settlement of Jannagur,
where about 1870 the last of Carey's converts passed away. From its native
chapel, and in its village tank, many Hindoos have since been led by their
own ordained countrymen to put on Christ. In time the church in the chapel
on the Hoogli became chiefly European and Eurasian, but on the first
Sunday of the year, the members of both churches meet together for solemn
and joyful communion, when the services are alternately in Bengali and
English.
The longing for converts now gave place to anxiety that
they might continue to be Christians indeed. As in the early Corinthian
Church, all did not perceive at once the solemnities of the Lord's Supper.
Krishna Pal, for instance, jealous because the better educated Petumber
had been ordained to preach before him, made a schism by administering it,
and so filled the missionaries with grief and fear; but he soon became
penitent. Associated with men who gave their all to Christ, the native
members could not but learn the lesson of self-support, so essential for a
self-propagating church, and so often neglected in the early history of
missions, and even still. On baptism Krishna received a new white dress
with six shillings; but such a gift, beautiful in itself, was soon
discontinued. A Mohammedan convert asked assistance to cultivate a little
ground and rear silkworms, but, writes Mr. Ward bowed down with missionary
cares, "We are desirous to avoid such a precedent." Although these first
converts were necessarily missionaries rather than pastors for a time,
each preacher received no more than six rupees a month while in his own
village, and double that when itinerating. Carey and his colleagues were
ever on the watch to foster the spiritual life and growth of men and women
born, and for thirty or fifty years trained, in all the ideas and
practices of a system which is the very centre of opposition to teaching
like theirs. This record of an "experience meeting" of three men and five
women may be taken as a type of Bengali Christianity when it was but two
years old, and as a contrast to that which prevails a century after:--
"Gokool. I have been the greatest of sinners, but I
wish only to think of the death of Christ. I rejoice that now people can
no longer despise the Gospel, and call us feringas; but they
begin to judge for themselves.
Carey was not only founding the Church of North India; he was
creating a new society, a community, which has its healthy roots in the
Christian family. Krishna Pal had come over with his household, like the
Philippian, and at once became his own and their gooroo or priest. But the
marriage difficulty was early forced on him and on the missionaries. The
first shape which persecution took was an assault on his eldest daughter,
Golook, who was carried off to the house in Calcutta of the Hindoo to whom
in infancy she had been betrothed, or married according to Hindoo law
enforced by the Danish and British courts. As a Christian she loathed a
connection which was both idolatrous and polygamous. But she submitted for
a time, continuing, however, secretly to pray to Christ when beaten by her
husband for openly worshipping Him, and refusing to eat things offered to
the idol. At last it became intolerable. She fled to her father, was
baptised, and was after a time joined by her penitent husband. The subject
of what was to be done with converts whose wives would not join them
occupied the missionaries in discussion every Sunday during 1803, and they
at last referred it to Andrew Fuller and the committee. Practically they
anticipated the Act in which Sir Henry Maine gave relief after the
Scriptural mode. They sent the husband to use every endeavour to induce
his heathen wife to join him; long delay or refusal they counted a
sufficient ground for divorce, and they allowed him to marry again. The
other case, which still troubles the native churches, of the duty of a
polygamous Christian, seems to have been solved according to Dr.
Doddridge's advice, by keeping such out of office in the church, and
pressing on the conscience of all the teaching of our Lord in Matthew
xix., and of Paul in 1st Corinthians vii.
"Krishna Prosad. I have
this week been thinking of the power of God, that he can do all things;
and of the necessity of minding all his commands. I have thought also of
my mother a great deal, who is now become old, and who is constantly
crying about me, thinking that I have dishonoured the family and am
lost. Oh that I could but once go and tell her of the good news, as well
as my brothers and sisters, and open their eyes to the way of salvation!
"Ram Roteen. In my mind there is this: I see that all the
debtahs (idols) are nothing, and that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.
If I can believe in him, and walk in his commandments, it may be well
with me.
"Rasoo. I am a great sinner; yet I wish
continually to think of the death of Christ. I had much comfort in the
marriage of my daughter (Onunda to Krishna Prosad). The neighbours
talked much about it, and seemed to think that it was much better that a
man should choose his own wife, than that people should be betrothed in
their infancy by their parents. People begin to be able to judge a
little now about the Christian ways.
"Jeymooni. In this
country are many ways: the way of the debtahs; the way of Jagganath,
where all eat together; the way of Ghospara, etc. Yet all these are
vain. Yesoo Kreest's death, and Yesoo Kreest's commands--this is the way
of life! I long to see Kreest's kingdom grow. This week I had much joy
in talking to Gokool's mother, whose heart is inclined to judge about
the way of Kreest. When I was called to go and talk with her, on the way
I thought within myself, but how can I explain the way of Kreest? I am
but a woman, and do not know much. Yet I recollected that the blessing
does not come from us: God can bless the weakest words. Many Bengali
women coming from the adjoining houses, sat down and heard the word; and
I was glad in hoping that the mercy of God might be found by this old
woman. [Gokool's mother.]
"Komal. I am a great sinner;
yet I have been much rejoiced this week in Gokool's mother coming to
inquire about the Gospel. I had great sorrow when Gokool was ill; and at
one time I thought he would have died; but God has graciously restored
him. We have worldly sorrow, but this lasts only for a time.
"Draupadi. This week I have had much sorrow on account of
Petumber. His mind is very bad: he sits in the house, and refuses to
work; and I know not what will become of him: yet Kreest's death is a
true word.
"Golook. I have had much joy in thinking of
God's goodness to our family. My sisters Onunda and Kesaree wish to be
baptised, and to come into the church. If I can believe in Kreest's
death, and keep his commands till death, then I shall be saved."
In 1802 Carey drew up a
form of agreement and of service for native Christian marriages not unlike
that of the Church of England. The simple and pleasing ceremony in the
case of Syam Dass presented a contrast to the prolonged, expensive, and
obscene rites of the Hindoos, which attracted the people. When, the year
after, a Christian Brahman was united to a daughter of Krishna Pal, in the
presence of more than a hundred Hindoos, the unity of all in Christ Jesus
was still more marked:--
"Apr. 4, 1803.--This morning early we went to attend
the wedding of Krishna Prosad with Onunda, Krishna's second daughter.
Krishna gave him a piece of ground adjoining his dwelling, to build him
a house, and we lent Prosad fifty rupees for that purpose, which he is
to return monthly, out of his wages. We therefore had a meeting for
prayer in this new house, and many neighbours were present. Five hymns
were sung: brother Carey and Marshman prayed in Bengali. After this we
went under an open shed close to the house, where chairs and mats were
provided: here friends and neighbours sat all around. Brother Carey sat
at a table; and after a short introduction, in which he explained the
nature of marriage, and noticed the impropriety of the Hindoo customs in
this respect, he read 2 Cor. vi. 14-18, and also the account of the
marriage at Cana. Then he read the printed marriage agreement, at the
close of which Krishna Prosad and Onunda, with joined hands, one after
the other, promised love, faithfulness, obedience, etc. They then signed
the agreement, and brethren Carey, Marshman, Ward, Chamberlain, Ram
Roteen, etc., signed as witnesses. The whole was closed with prayer by
brother Ward. Everything was conducted with the greatest decorum, and it
was almost impossible not to have been pleased. We returned home to
breakfast, and sent the new-married couple some sugar-candy, plantains,
and raisins; the first and last of these articles had been made a
present of to us, and the plantains were the produce of the mission
garden. In the evening we attended the monthly prayer-meeting.
In the
same year the approaching death of Gokool led the missionaries to purchase
the acre of ground, near the present railway station, in which lies the
dust of themselves and their converts, and of a child of the Judsons, till
the Resurrection. Often did Carey officiate at the burial of Europeans in
the Danish cemetery. Previous to his time the only service there consisted
in the Government secretary dropping a handful of earth on the coffin. In
the native God's-acre, as in the Communion of the Lord's Table, and in the
simple rites which accompanied the burial of the dead in Christ, the
heathen saw the one lofty platform of loving self-sacrifice to which the
Cross raises all its children:--
"Apr. 5.--This evening we all went to supper at
Krishna's, and sat under the shade where the marriage ceremony had been
performed. Tables, knives and forks, glasses, etc., having been taken
from our house, we had a number of Bengali plain dishes, consisting of
curry, fried fish, vegetables, etc., and I fancy most of us ate
heartily. This is the first instance of our eating at the house of our
native brethren. At this table we all sat with the greatest
cheerfulness, and some of the neighbours looked on with a kind of
amazement. It was a new and very singular sight in this land where clean
and unclean is so much regarded. We should have gone in the daytime, but
were prevented by the heat and want of leisure. We began this wedding
supper with singing, and concluded with prayer: between ten and eleven
we returned home with joy. This was a glorious triumph over the caste! A
Brahman married to a soodra, in the Christian way: Englishmen eating
with the married couple and their friends, at the same table, and at a
native house. Allowing the Hindoo chronology to be true, there has not
been such a sight in Bengal these millions of years!" "Oct. 7.--Our dear friend Gokool is gone: he departed
at two this morning. At twelve he called the brethren around him to sing
and pray; was perfectly sensible, resigned, and tranquil. Some of the
neighbours had been persuading him the day before to employ a native
doctor; he however refused, saying he would have no physician but Jesus
Christ. On their saying, How is it that you who have turned to Christ
should be thus afflicted? He replied, My affliction is on account of my
sins; my Lord does all things well! Observing Komal weep (who had been a
most affectionate wife), he said, Why do you weep for me? Only pray,
etc. From the beginning of his illness he had little hope of recovery;
yet he never murmured, nor appeared at all anxious for medicine. His
answer constantly was, "I am in my Lord's hands, I want no other
physician!' His patience throughout was astonishing: I never heard him
say once that his pain was great. His tranquil and happy end has made a
deep impression on our friends: they say one to another, 'May my mind be
as Gokool's was!' When we consider, too, that this very man grew shy of
us three years ago, because we opposed his notion that believers would
never die, the grace now bestowed upon him appears the more remarkable.
Knowing the horror the Hindoos have for a dead body, and how unwilling
they are to contribute any way to its interment, I had the coffin made
at our house the preceding day, by carpenters whom we employ. They would
not, however, carry it to the house. The difficulty now was, to carry
him to the grave. The usual mode of Europeans is to hire a set of men
(Portuguese), who live by it. But besides that our friends could never
constantly sustain that expense, I wished exceedingly to convince them
of the propriety of doing that last kind office for a brother
themselves. But as Krishna had been ill again the night before, and two
of our brethren were absent with brother Ward, we could only muster
three persons. I evidently saw the only way to supply the deficiency;
and brother Carey being from home, I sounded Felix and William, and we
determined to make the trial; and at five in the afternoon repaired to
the house. Thither were assembled all our Hindoo brethren and sisters,
with a crowd of natives that filled the yard, and lined the street. We
brought the remains of our dear brother out, whose coffin Krishna had
covered within and without with white muslin at his own expense; then,
in the midst of the silent and astonished multitude, we improved the
solemn moment by singing a hymn of Krishna's, the chorus of which is
'Salvation by the death of Christ.' Bhairub the brahmàn, Peroo the
mussulman, Felix and I took up the coffin; and, with the assistance of
Krishna and William, conveyed it to its long home: depositing it in the
grave, we sung two appropriate hymns. After this, as the crowd was
accumulating, I endeavoured to show the grounds of our joyful hope even
in death, referring to the deceased for a proof of its efficacy: told
them that indeed he had been a great sinner, as they all knew, and for
that reason could find no way of salvation among them; but when he heard
of Jesus Christ, he received him as a suitable and all-sufficient
Saviour, put his trust in him, and died full of tranquil hope. After
begging them to consider their own state, we prayed, sung Moorad's hymn,
and distributed papers. The concourse of people was great, perhaps 500:
they seemed much struck with the novelty of the scene, and with the love
and regard Christians manifest to each other, even in death; so
different from their throwing their friends, half dead and half living,
into the river; or burning their body, with perhaps a solitary
attendant."
Preaching, teaching, and Bible translating were
from the first Carey's three missionary methods, and in all he led the
missionaries who have till the present followed him with a success which
he never hesitated to expect, as one of the "great things" from God. His
work for the education of the people of India, especially in their own
vernacular and classical languages, was second only to that which gave
them a literature sacred and pure. Up to 1794, when at Mudnabati he opened
the first primary school worthy of the name in all India at his own cost,
and daily superintended it, there had been only one attempt to improve
upon the indigenous schools, which taught the children of the trading
castes only to keep rude accounts, or upon the tols in which the
Brahmans instructed their disciples for one-half the year, while for the
other half they lived by begging. That attempt was made by Schwartz at
Combaconum, the priestly Oxford of South India, where the wars with Tipoo
soon put an end to a scheme supported by both the Raja of Tanjore and the
British Government. When Carey moved to Serampore and found associated
with him teachers so accomplished and enthusiastic as Marshman and his
wife, education was not long in taking its place in the crusade which was
then fully organised for the conversion of Southern and Eastern Asia. At
Madras, too, Bell had stumbled upon the system of "mutual instruction"
which he had learned from the easy methods of the indigenous schoolmaster,
and which he and Lancaster taught England to apply to the clamant wants of
the country, and to improve into the monitorial, pupil-teacher and
grant-in-aid systems. Carey had all the native schools of the mission
"conducted upon Lancaster's plan."
In Serampore, and in every new
station as it was formed, a free school was opened. We have seen how the
first educated convert, Petumber, was made schoolmaster. So early as
October 1800 we find Carey writing home:--"The children in our Bengali
free school, about fifty, are mostly very young. Yet we are endeavouring
to instil into their minds Divine truth, as fast as their understandings
ripen. Some natives have complained that we are poisoning the minds even
of their very children." The first attempt to induce the boys to write out
the catechism in Bengali resulted, as did Duff's to get them to read aloud
the Sermon on the Mount thirty years after, in a protest that their caste
was in danger. But the true principles of toleration and discipline were
at once explained--"that the children will never be compelled to do
anything that will make them lose caste; that though we abhor the caste we
do not wish any to lose it but by their own choice. After this we shall
insist on the children doing what they have been ordered." A few of the
oldest boys withdrew for a time, declaring that they feared they would be
sent on board ship to England, and the baptism of each of the earlier
converts caused a panic. But instruction on honest methods soon worked out
the true remedy. Two years after we find this report:--"The first class,
consisting of catechumens, are now learning in Bengali the first
principles of Christianity; and will hereafter be instructed in the
rudiments of history, geography, astronomy, etc. The second class, under
two other masters, learn to read and write Bengali and English. The third
class, consisting of the children of natives who have not lost caste,
learn only Bengali. This school is in a promising state, and is liberally
supported by the subscriptions of Europeans in this country."
Carey's early success led Mr. Creighton of Malda to open at
Goamalty several Bengali free schools, and to draw up a scheme for
extending such Christian nurseries all over the country at a cost of £10
for the education of fifty children. Only by the year 1806 was such a
scheme practicable, because Carey had translated the Scriptures, and, as
Creighton noted, "a variety of introductory and explanatory tracts and
catechisms in the Bengali and Hindostani tongues have already been
circulated in some parts of the country, and any number may be had
gratis from the Mission House, Serampore." As only a few of the
Brahman and writer castes could read, and not one woman, "a general
perusal of the Scriptures amongst natives will be impracticable till they
are taught to read." But nothing was done, save by the missionaries, till
1835, when Lord William Bentinck received Adam's report on the educational
destitution of Bengal.
Referring to Creighton's scheme, Mr. Ward's
journal thus chronicles the opening of the first Sunday school in India in
July 1803 by Carey's sons:--
"Last Lord's day a kind of Sunday school was opened, which
will be superintended principally by our young friends Felix and William
Carey, and John Fernandez. It will chiefly be confined to teaching
catechisms in Bengali and English, as the children learn to read and
write every day. I have received a letter from a gentleman up the
country, who writes very warmly respecting the general establishment of
Christian schools all over Bengal."
Not many years had passed
since Raikes had begun Sunday schools in England. Their use seems to have
passed away with the three Serampore missionaries for a time, and to have
been again extended by the American missionaries about 1870. There are now
above 200,000 boys and girls at such schools in India, and three-fourths
of these are non-Christians.
As from the first Carey drew converts
from all classes, the Armenians, the Portuguese, and the Eurasians, as
well as the natives of India, he and Mr. and Mrs. Marshman especially took
care to provide schools for their children. The necessity, indeed, of this
was forced upon them by the facts that the brotherhood began with nine
children, and that boarding-schools for these classes would form an
honourable source of revenue to the mission. Hence this advertisement,
which appeared in March 1800:--"Mission, House, Serampore.--On Thursday,
the 1st of May 1800, a school will be opened at this house, which stands
in a very healthy and pleasant situation by the side of the river. Letters
add to Mr. Carey will be immediately attended to." The cost of boarding
and fees varied from £45 to £50 a year, according as "Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, Persian, or Sanskrit" lessons were included. "Particular attention
will be paid to the correct pronunciation of the English language" was
added for reasons which the mixed parentage of the pupils explains. Such
was the first sign of a care for the Eurasians not connected with the
army, which, as developed by Marshman and Mack, began in 1823 to take the
form of the Doveton College. The boys' school was soon followed by a
girls' school, through which a stream of Christian light radiated forth
over resident Christian society, and from which many a missionary came.
Carey's description of the mixed community is the best we have of
its origin as well as of the state of European society in India, alike
when the Portuguese were dominant, and at the beginning of the nineteenth
century when the East India Company were most afraid of
Christianity:--"The Portuguese are a people who, in the estimation of both
Europeans and natives, are sunk below the Hindoos or Mussulmans. However,
I am of opinion that they are rated much too low. They are chiefly
descendants of the slaves of the Portuguese who first landed here, or of
the children of those Portuguese by their female slaves; and being born in
their house, were made Christians in their infancy by what is called
baptism, and had Portuguese names given them. It is no wonder that these
people, despised as they are by Europeans, and being consigned to the
teachings of very ignorant Popish priests, should be sunk into such a
state of degradation. So gross, indeed, are their superstitions, that I
have seen a Hindoo image-maker carrying home an image of Christ on the
cross between two thieves, to the house of a Portuguese. Many of them,
however, can read and write English well and understand Portuguese...
"Besides these, there are many who are the children of
Europeans by native women, several of whom are well educated, and nearly
all of them Protestants by profession. These, whether children of
English, French, Dutch, or Danes, by native women, are called
Portuguese. Concubinage here is so common, that few unmarried Europeans
are without a native woman, with whom they live as if married; and I
believe there are but few instances of separation, except in case of
marriage with European women, in which case the native woman is
dismissed with an allowance: but the children of these marriages are
never admitted to table with company, and are universally treated by the
English as an inferior species of beings. Hence they are often
shame-faced yet proud and conceited, and endeavour to assume that honour
to themselves which is denied them by others. This class may be regarded
as forming a connecting link between Europeans and natives. The
Armenians are few in number, but chiefly rich. I have several times
conversed with them about religion: they hear with patience, and wonder
that any Englishman should make that a subject of conversation."
While the Marshmans gave their time from seven in the morning
till three in the afternoon to these boarding-schools started by Carey in
1800 for the higher education of the Eurasians, Carey himself, in
Calcutta, early began to care for the destitute. His efforts resulted in
the establishment of the "Benevolent Institution for the Instruction of
Indigent Children," which the contemporary Bengal civilian, Charles
Lushington, in his History extols as one of the monuments of active
and indefatigable benevolence due to Serampore. Here, on the Lancaster
system, and superintended by Carey, Mr. and Mrs. Penney had as many as 300
boys and 100 girls under Christian instruction of all ages up to
twenty-four, and of every race:--"Europeans, native Portuguese, Armenians,
Mugs, Chinese, Hindoos, Mussulmans, natives of Sumatra, Mozambik, and
Abyssinia." This official reporter states that thus more than a thousand
youths had been rescued from vice and ignorance and advanced in usefulness
to society, in a degree of opulence and respectability. The origin of this
noble charity is thus told to Dr. Ryland by Carey himself in a letter
which unconsciously reveals his own busy life, records the missionary
influence of the higher schools, and reports the existence of the mission
over a wide area. He writes from Calcutta on 24th May 1811:--
"A year ago we opened a free school in Calcutta. This year
we added to it a school for girls. There are now in it about 140 boys
and near 40 girls. One of our deacons, Mr. Leonard, a most valuable and
active man, superintends the boys, and a very pious woman, a member of
the church, is over the girls. The Institution meets with considerable
encouragement, and is conducted upon Lancaster's plan. We meditate
another for instruction of Hindoo youths in the Sanskrit language,
designing, however, to introduce the study of the Sanskrit Bible into
it; indeed it is as good as begun; it will be in Calcutta. By brother
and sister Marshman's encouragement there are two schools in our own
premises at Serampore for the gratuitous instruction of youth of both
sexes, supported and managed wholly by the male and female scholars in
our own school. These young persons appear to enter with pleasure into
the plan, contribute their money to its support, and give instruction in
turns to the children of these free schools. I trust we shall be able to
enlarge this plan, and to spread its influence far about the country.
Our brethren in the Isles of France and Bourbon seem to be doing good;
some of them are gone to Madagascar, and, as if to show that Divine
Providence watches over them, the ship on which they went was wrecked
soon after they had landed from it. A number of our members are now gone
to Java; I trust their going thither will not be in vain. Brother
Chamberlain is, ere this, arrived at Agra...We preach every week in the
Fort and in the public prison, both in English and Bengali."
Carey had not been six months at Serampore when he saw the
importance of using the English language as a missionary weapon, and he
proposed this to Andrew Fuller. The other pressing duties of a pioneer
mission to the people of Bengal led him to postpone immediate action in
this direction; we shall have occasion to trace the English influence of
the press and the college hereafter. But meanwhile the vernacular schools,
which soon numbered a hundred altogether, were most popular, and then as
now proved most valuable feeders of the infant Church. Without them, wrote
the three missionaries to the Society, "the whole plan must have been
nipped in the bud, since, if the natives had not cheerfully sent their
children, everything else would have been useless. But the earnestness
with which they have sought these schools exceeds everything we had
previously expected. We are still constantly importuned for more schools,
although we have long gone beyond the extent of our funds." It was well
that thus early, in schools, in books and tracts, and in providing the
literary form and apparatus of the vernacular languages, Carey laid the
foundation of the new national or imperial civilisation. When the time for
English came, the foundations were at least above the ground. Laid deep
and strong in the very nature of the people, the structure has thus far
promised to be national rather than foreign, though raised by foreign
hands, while marked by the truth and the purity of its Western architects.
The manifestation of Christ to the Bengalees could not be made
without rousing the hate and the opposition of the vested interests of
Brahmanism. So long as Carey was an indigo planter as well as a
proselytiser in Dinapoor and Malda he met with no opposition, for he had
no direct success. But when, from Serampore, he and the others, by voice,
by press, by school, by healing the sick and visiting the poor, carried on
the crusade day by day with the gentle persistency of a law of nature, the
cry began. And when, by the breaking of caste and the denial of Krishna's
Christian daughter Golook to the Hindoo to whom she had been betrothed
from infancy, the Brahmans began dimly to apprehend that not only their
craft but the whole structure of society was menaced, the cry became
louder, and, as in Ephesus of old, an appeal was made to the magistrates
against the men who were turning the world upside down. At first the very
boys taunted the missionaries in the streets with the name of Jesus
Christ. Then, after Krishna and his family had broken caste, they were
seized by a mob and hurried before the Danish magistrate, who at first
refused to hand over a Christian girl to a heathen, and gave her father a
guard to prevent her from being murdered, until the Calcutta magistrate
decided that she must join her husband but would be protected in the
exercise of her new faith. The commotion spread over the whole
densely-peopled district. But the people were not with the Brahmans, and
the excitement sent many a sin-laden inquirer to Serampore from a great
distance. "The fire is now already kindled for which our Redeemer
expressed his strong desire," wrote Carey to Ryland in March 1801. A year
later he used this language to his old friend Morris at Clipstone
village:--"I think there is such a fermentation raised in Bengal by the
little leaven, that there is a hope of the whole lump by degrees being
leavened. God is carrying on his work; and though it goes forward, yet no
one can say who is the instrument. Doubtless, various means contribute
towards it; but of late the printing and dispersing of New Testaments and
small tracts seem to have the greatest effect."
In a spirit the
opposite of Jonah's the whole brotherhood, then consisting of the three,
of Carey's son Felix, and of a new missionary, Chamberlain, sent home this
review of their position at the close of 1804:--
"We are still a happy, healthful, and highly favoured
family. But though we would feel incessant gratitude for these gourds,
yet we would not feel content unless Nineveh be brought to repentance.
We did not come into this country to be placed in what are called
easy circumstances respecting this world; and we trust that
nothing but the salvation of souls will satisfy us. True, before we set
off, we thought we could die content if we should be permitted to see
the half of what we have already seen; yet now we seem almost as far
from the mark of our missionary high calling as ever. If three millions
of men were drowning, he must be a monster who should be content with
saving one individual only; though for the deliverance of that one he
would find cause for perpetual gratitude."
In 1810 the parent
mission at Serampore had so spread into numerous stations and districts
that a new organisation became necessary. There were 300 converts, of whom
105 had been added in that year. "Did you expect to see this eighteen
years ago?" wrote Marshman to the Society. "But what may we not expect if
God continues to bless us in years to come?" Marshman forgot how Carey
had, in 1792, told them on the inspired evangelical prophet's authority to
"expect great things from God." Henceforth the one mission became fivefold
for a time.