great nation. He solemnly addressed the crowd. Silence and deep feeling prevailed. Brave old Governor Bie shed manly tears. The waters went over the Hindu, and the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, sounded across an arm of the Ganges. That evening the Lord's Supper was first celebrated in the language of Bengal. The cup of the missionaries was full of joy and hope. Krishnu was but one, but a continent was coming behind him. Perhaps we feel all the more touched with this ceremony from the fact that we are thorough anti-immersionists. It is as certain that "dip" in our English version is never baptize in the original, as it is impossible to say where three thousand people could be immersed in a day in Jerusalem. Besides, we do not believe that any living soul ever saw one man immersed by another (unless he were a European Baptist) in all the East on any occasion. We have watched for the phenomenon in India, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine; but never once saw a native of those countries immerse himself. No doubt they do dive or duck sometimes; but we never saw it. They go down to a piece of water; sit by it or in it, and dash it over themselves, or go in to the shoulders, or swim, though seldom; but diving or ducking must be very rare. There was a tale told, we know not how true, of a Baptist translation into Bengalee which, in making the word "baptize" mean "immerse," got a term which meant "to drown." When the people heard of multitudes being "drowned" by John, they innocently murmured, What a sinner!" 66 About six weeks after the first baptism came another great and holy event. The blessed New Testament was placed complete in the hand of its happy translator. The first copy was solemnly laid on the communion table; and the whole mission group, with the native converts, gathered around to offer up fervent thanksgiving. Men talk of making history; but of all the history-makers in the annals of a nation, none is equal with him who gives it the word of God in the mother tongue. From that hour the names of Carey and Serampore were touched with that true immortality which lies in the principle, "The word of the Lord endureth forever." As in many other languages, the New Testament was the first prose work printed in Bengalee, except a code of laws. Three eventful years of progress and toil had passed; and another great occasion came in the Mission-the first Christian marriage of Hindu converts; the first solemn inauguration of that happy institution, the Christian family, before which the seraglios of Bengal were eventually all to disappear. The pair to be united were a young Brahman and a girl of the carpenter caste; thus setting aside the prejudice of ages. Under a tree in front of the father-in-law's house, the faithful Krishnu, the first convert, gathered the party. The natives sat on mats, the Europeans on chairs. Mr. Carey performed the service, and the youthful couple signed the agreement-the first time the hand of a Hindu female in North-India had performed that act. All the missionaries signed as witnesses; and we feel sure that they were happier men that day than proud fathers attesting a flattering alliance. That night they partook of the wedding supper. The repast began by singing a hymn of Krishnu's own, which still lives; and then the Brahman husband, the European missionaries, the Sudra father-in-law, all feasted together; nothing wonderful in the eyes of England, a prodigy and a portent in those of India. Another solemnity soon came. The little band of converts was called to sec one of their number die-the same whose heart failed him the first day of baptism, but who " afterwards repented and went." The first Christian death was a scene of tranquil hope and joy in prospect of immortality. It strengthened the souls of the converts. How was the Christian to be buried? Usually persons of this creed were borne by drunken Portuguese, and among the Hindus a corpse is touched only by those of the same caste. A crowd gathered around to witness the novel ceremony. To their stupefaction the missionary Marshman, and young Carey, Byrub a Brahman, and Perroo a Mohammedan, placed the coffin of the Sudra on their shoulders. Singing a Bengalee hymn, "Salvation through the death of Christ," they marched the funeral march of caste among the Christians of Serampore. The German missionaries in South-India had unhappily permitted caste to enter among the converts; but in the North it was faced at first, and the benefit has been great. The first labors of a native evangelist soon followed. The Serampore Mission of state, was seated the magnificent Mar- aries early perceived that the most fruitful of all their works would be sending They kept this carforth native laborers. dinal point steadily in view. They daily and carefully trained their converts, and prayed much and earnestly in all their undertakings. The first who had gladdened their hearts as a convert, Krishnu the carpenter, was also the first to go forth on Christ's errand among his countrymen. In this journey tracts were freely distributed, thus bringing two powerful agents The eagerness of the into play at once. people to receive the strange thing, a printed book, was very great. Some of the books thus given away brought inThe position of professor in the Fort quirers from a great distance to Serampore, who, following the light first showed William College, to which his preeminent by the book, found the teachers and be- talents had carried him, was advantageous The first convert to him in many ways, and all these were came true Christians. from the Kayusts, the caste next to the turned into advantages to that for which Brahmans, came in this way from a dis- he lived-his mission. In point of litertance of thirty miles: and the first from ary labor he and Marshman were scarcely the Brahmans themselves, a fine young men, they were a sort of miracles. They man, came by the same means from the dealt with languages, hard and untried neighborhood where Carey had passed a languages, as other men might with poetry. miserable month in the Sunderbunds. The To learn one language well is a work of history of every mission in India shows some skill; and all agree that one Indian many cases of this kind. Yet good men, language is about equal in point of diffieven missionaries, are found zealously op-culty to five European ones. They learned posing a free distribution of books, ay, even the word of God, in regions where, at the present rate of progress, a missionary can not reach for ages. Crotchets can stop the simplest efforts at usefulness, as well as the most elaborate. Now came the effort to establish stations on British territory. One was tried, but the missionary had to retreat under shelter of Serampore. Nearly twelve years had passed since Carey was smuggled into Calcutta, and sheltered in a hovel by the charity of a heathen. It was a high day at Government House-that superb residence built at a cost of £145,000, for the GovernorsGeneral, by the most splendid of their line. The fashion, wealth, and beauty of Calcutta crowded its noble throne-room. "The most eminent men in the native community; the learned Brahmans from all parts of the empire, in their simple attire; the opulent rajahs and baboos, and the representatives of the native princes of India, in their plunied and jeweled turbans, were assembled to do honor to the majesty of British power." On the dais at the head of this grand assembly, surrounded by the judges and high officers the living and the dead, those spoken at "How large a space of fleeting life is lost!" And how many lives would have to be doubled a dozen times before it could be done at all! The man who did this was earning £2000 a year, with his wife, for the Mission, by a boarding-school. They lived out of the common stock, and had besides £100 a year for their family expenses. So Carey's salary as professor, and Ward's earnings as printer, went to increase the funds for their work. Let it be remembered that they were not paid by a Society on a scale to support them; but only allowed something to eke out their earnings. Yet, gigantic in intellect, and noble in heart and reputation, as these three were, the younger men who joined them, from time to time, could ill brook their wellmerited precedence in managing the Mission affairs. They claimed equality; and the noble seniors yielded to this intolerable injustice too far. Mr. Fuller said plainly: "Who of us ever advanced the democratic nonsense of every apprentice we send you being equal the moment he set his foot on the soil of Bengal ?" Yet this nonsense, and worse, this conceit and naughtiness, embittered many precious hours of men whose name will be dear to the catholic Church forever. When they had been ten years at Serampore, the glowing mind of Mr. Ward reviewed the mercies they had witnessed. "Amidst all the opposition of government they had succeeded in settling four stations in Bengal; they had sent a missionary to Patna, and planted stations on the borders of Orissa and Bootan, and in Burmah; the number of members in church-fellowship exceeded two hundred; they had obtained a footing in Calcutta, where a chapel had been erected at a cost of more than £3000, and a large church and congregation collected; the Scriptures had been printed, in whole or in part, in six languages, and translations had been commenced in six others. And now, dear brethren,' concludes the Report, 'has not God completely refuted the notion that all attempts to disseminate the Gospel among the heathen are vain? This happy degree of success, which surprises us who are on the spot, has been granted within the space of about nine years; for it is no more since the baptism of the first Hindoo." "Vol. i. pp. 421, 422. The opening into Calcutta here alluded to, offers points as lamentable as any thing in the moral history of our nation. That great metropolis growing with the rapidity of London, to rival the magnitude of Pekin, lay at the door of the missionaries, and their souls longed to enter it. There were its swarming heathen. There were Armenians and other Christian bodies. There were multitudes of neglected creatures, descended from European fathers. Yet they were shut out from preaching to them. In all the evil doings of the East-India Company's servants, few things are more calculated to rouse feeling in England than Mr. Marshman's calm and lucid narrative of the way the missionaries were beset and persecuted in their attempts to preach the Gospel in Calcutta. They were followed by spies; called up in police-courts; stopped again and again; and dragged through scenes of humilia tion and sorrow. Yet, like true men, we find no railing at the authorities, no abuse or ill-will, but a meek manliness in pursu ing their end, and a loyal British heart that does one good. They were glorious days for the Christian soul of Ward when he could preach, and preach again, in the midst of the Calcutta multitudes; but they were slowly and painfully arrived at. Even after Carey had been installed as Professor for years, the Mission owed its escape from ruin to Denmark. First, of fense was taken at a tract prepared by a native, which abused Mohammed: and the press was ordered to be removed from Serampore to the Company's territory at Calcutta. By patient and manly resistance on their part, and on that of the Danish governor, this was averted. Once in Calcutta, the press soon would have been made harmless enough. Then the arrival of additional missionaries was made the occasion of terrible menaces. Mr. Marshman narrates, more patiently than any one could whose life had been spent under English liberty, the mean and wicked ways in which those proceedings were conducted, till five missionaries were actually banished. The tale of these proceedings throws floods of light on the moral career of the Company, and fixes an everlasting stain on the name and government of Lord Minto. But they were the last deeds of the persecutors. In 1813 the British Parliament ended their power to do what a Christian government in the darkest ages had never done-forbid the Gospel to be preached to the heathen. From this moment a new era set in for India; the word of God was not bound, and those who had so long struggled against a powerful government, were left to contend with their natural enemies, the superstitions and darkness of India. Yet all the sorrows of Serampore were not past. The system of missionaries being partly supported by a public body, and partly by their own earnings, is inherently writings did much to bring the mission not only before his own denomination, but the public at large. After having preached one Wednesday evening, he was next day seized with cholera, and speedily rested from his labors. "The three old men," says the historian, "had lived and labored together for twenty-three years, as if one soul animated them, and it was difficult to' realize the fact that one of them was gone." Grief turned a partial deafness of Dr. Marshman into a total one. "I never," he said " did any thing, I never published a page without consulting him." He had first gained the missionary's reward, and his brethren had yet to wait and labor. Twelve years longer the two Titans of Indian philology toiled on in love and one The great passion of Dr. Carey's life was to give the holy Scriptures to all India in the mother tongue of each province. Few things more clearly display the magnitude of the country, than the difficulty of learning how many languages are spoken in it. At Serampore a map was published, according to the best lightness. Marshman more than once fell, for of the day, showing where each tongue prevailed, the errors of which are a touching proof that India is a region so vast as to baffle not only conception, but even inquiry, for a length of time. Pundits of different nations were assembled at Serampore, and labored under the direction of the missionaries in producing versions in the various languages. Seven years was the shortest period given to the preparation of any one version; but several proceeded simultaneously. In the year 1822 the New Testament had been published in twenty of the languages of India. This prodigious performance overtaxed the resources at their command, and brought them into straits. These, and the painful separation from the Society in England through questions of property, clouded many of their later days. It was more than thirty years since Dr. Carey, now renowned and honored, had landed friendless on the shores of Bengal. For the chief part of that time his two great coadjutors had been joined with him in every success and trial. They were not alike, but well suited. They had misunderstandings with their colleagues, struggles with the government, controversies with persons of other denominations, and heart-burning differences with their Society in England; but between themselves had always subsisted a firm and happy union. Ward was the most genial, affectionate, and eloquent of the three. He was eminently devoted to the service of God, and happy in the active work of seeking souls, to bring them to the Redeemer. He had been to Europe and America, where his speaking and a season, under the effects of melancholy, but was mercifully delivered from it, and enabled to "enjoy almost a heaven upon earth" with his Bible, and in his glorious work. Carey had generally good though not robust health. He had reached his seventy-third year. More than forty had been spent in Bengal without a break. He was, as Sir Charles, afterwards Lord, Metcalfe expressed it, "surrounded by his own good works, and attended by the respect and applause of all good men." He had the feeling of every good servant strong in him-a dread of "becoming useless." To labor till the hour of his final rest sounded, by his Master's order, was his ambition. Yet he was gently laid aside for a little while before the moment for meeting his Lord. The two old men loved each other like boys, and took counsel together like patriarchs, standing on the banks of the deep river we have all to cross, with the unseen but not unknown shore only hidden below the horizon. Dr. Marshman "visited him daily, often twice in the day, and the interviews were always marked by cheerfulness. They had lived and labored together in the same spot for nearly thirty-five years. They were the last survivors of a generation which had passed away, and they seemed peculiarly to belong to each other." "The progress of Christian truth in India was the chief topic of conversation with the various missionary friends who visited Dr. Carey during his illness. While confined to his couch, Lady William Bentinck repeatedly came over to visit him, and Dr. Wilson, the Bishop of Calcutta, came to his dying-bed, and asked his benediction. In the prospect of death Dr. Carey exhibited no raptures and no apprehensions. noble volumes of which we are about reluctantly to take leave? daughter, now Lady Havelock, barely es A frightful danger from which his caped with life, shook the old man. He rapidly failed: "but he was supported by the blessed hope of immortality, and the richest consolations of the Divine presence were vouchsafed to him. The resignation of his mind and the serenity of his feelings afforded the clearest evidence of the value of Christian truth at the hour of approaching dissolution. When apparently unconscious, he repeatedly exclaimed: The precious Saviour! He never leaves nor forsakes.' Frequently after a night of broken rest and bodily suffering, the triumph of joy beamed in his eye in the morning, as he informed his friends that he had experienced the greatest delight in communion with God. A week before his death, the swelling began to subside, and he felt a degree of lightness of head, but his mind was still fixed on the work in which he had been engaged; he prayed in Bengalee, and conversed in that lan He reposed the most perfect confidence in the all-meritorious atonement of the Redeemer. He felt the most cheerful resignation to the Divine will, and looked at his own dissolution without any feeling of anxiety. Respecting the great change before him,' writes Mr. Mack, 'a single shade of anxiety has not crossed his mind since the beginning of his decay, as far as I am aware. His Christian experience partakes of that guileless integrity which has been the grand characteristic of his whole life . . . We wonder that he still lives, and should not be surprised if he were taken off in an hour; nor is such an occurrence to be regretted. It would only be weakness in us to wish to detain him. He is ripe for glory, and already dead to all that belongs to life." His decease thus came softly on his relatives and associates. On Sunday, the 8th of June, Dr. Marshman engaged in prayer at the side of his bed, but was apprehensive that he was not recognized: Mrs. Carey put the question to him, and he feebly replied, 'Yes;' and for the last time pressed the hand of his colleague. The next morning, the 9th of June, his spirit passed to the mansions of the blest. He was followed to the grave by all the native Christians, and by many of his Christian breth-guage on spiritual subjects. Soon after, he apren of various denominations, anxious to pay the last token of reverence to the father of modern missions. Lord William Bentinck was at the time at the Neelgirry hills, but Lady William sent over a letter of condolence, and desired her chaplain to attend the funeral."-Vol. ii. pp. 476, 477. Three lonely years the last of the giants traveled cheerfully on, expecting to overtake his happy comrades. He reached close on his seventieth year; bowing to his honored grave "in graceful poverty," says his son, "after having devoted a sum little short of forty thousand pounds to the mission-and that, not in one ostentatious sum, but through a life of privations." On this point the words of the old man were: "I have never had a misgiving thought for having done it, though I have two sons unprovided for." Ah! how many have, and ought to have, misgivings for not devoting thousands to such works, on the plea of providing for children-meaning, thereby, leaving them very rich! And of the sons so left, how many rear to the father who enriches and, perhaps, ruins them, such a monument as the two peared to regain his strength, both of body aud mind, and at his own request was carried about in his 'tonjohn,' or sedan chair, to take his last look at the various objects on the premises. On Thursday morning he caused the bearers to convey him to the chapel where the weekly prayer-meeting was held, and to place him in the midst of the congregation; and, while seated in his 'tonjohn,' he gave out in a firm voice the missionary hymn, which he and his colleagues had been accustomed to use in every season of difficulty, till it came to be identified with their names, and to be designated the chant of the Serampore missionaries.'"-Vol. ii. p. 516. His last act was to inquire "if there was any thing more he could do for the cause." So slept the last of the Serampore fathers, three wonderful instruments of Providence, the contemplation of whose course makes us feel that He who draws such men from the cottages of shoemakers and weavers, holds indeed in His hand the power to raise up laborers for the widest harvest. Already the lives of the three are a wonder; in a few centuries the tale told in this book will be considered a part of the history, not of the Baptist denomination, or of Bengal, but of the human race. |