Sermons, Addreses and Lectures (T-Z) -- "William Carey and 1792"

r\

WILLIAM CAREY AND 1792
by Samuel Hugh Moffett

This is the year to celebrate William Carey and the
birth of the modern missionary movement. Some trace the
beginnings of Protestant global missions to John Calvin's brave
but failed attempt to send an evangelical mission to Brazil in
155*; or to the chaplains of the Dutch East India Company in
Indonesia in the early 1600s. Others point to the first
Lutherans sent to India in 1706, or the Moravians in the West
Indies in 1732.

But for world-wide, enduring missionary impact, no
rapid sequence of events in the history of Protestant missions
can match what was accomplished between May 1792 and June 1793 by
a thirty-one year old, part-time shoemaker, part-time school
teacher, and part-time Baptist preacher who had recently flunked
his ordination exams.

In the short space of that one year, four momentous
incidents changed the history of missions: the publication of a
book, the preaching of a sermon, the organization of a society,
and the sending of a missionary. The central character in all
four was William Carey, and each of the four has a missionary
lesson for today.

The first was the book, Carey's An Enquiry — into the
Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the
Heathen. It was Carey's answer to the common misapprehension in
the Protestantism of his day that the Great Commission of Jesus
Christ had already been accomplished by the church, and that the
whole world had been reached. But Carey's open Bible, next to a
leather globe of the world which he had placed near his cobbler's
bench told him differently. According to his calculations from
scripture and geography, more than three-fourths of the world's
population was still unreached. That is the first missionary
lesson from 1792: get the facts about the mission right.

The second lesson is in a sermon he preached shortly
after the book was published. It is not enough to convince the
mind with facts and statistics? the challeng to mission must
reach the heart. So Carey stood up to preach at a meeting of the
Baptist Minister* Association. He took as his text, Isaiah 54:
2-3. His sermon had two points? one on faith, and one on works,
an important combination. The first point was "Expect great
things from God" . The second was "Attempt great things for God" .
The missionary must believe in God's great purpose for the world,
and be ready to do something about it. The lesson is: to the
right facts, add the right motives

But it was the organizing of a missionary society four
months later that put the muscle, the necessary structural fiber
into the mission. It was the forming of this Society in October
1792 that is generally taken to mark the beginning of the modern
missionary movement. It calls to mind the practical injunction
of a more recent missionary statesman, John R. Mott. "Pray as if
everything depended on prayer? organize as if everything depended
on organization." To the facts and the motives, add the right
kind of organization.

However it was all still on paper. It was only theory.
Not until when in June 1793 Carey actually sailed himself as a
missionary to India, instead of remaining to be the president of
the missionary society, only then did it all come to life, and
only then did Carey give Protestantism its modern model of a
missionary. He did not even wait until reaching India to begin
his work. All the way on board his ship he studied Bengali and
began to translate Genesis into that language.

In 1805 Carey and his colleagues drew up what they
called the Serampore Form of Agreement to guide them in their
missionary methods. Here is a sampling, paraphrased:

1. The human soul is of inestimable value, and is in mortal
danger of eternal punishment. But Christ can save them.

2. We must gain all the knowledge we can of the Indian mind
and the Indian religions.

3. We must not offend Indian sensibilities by vaunting our

English ways and attacking theirs.

4. We must "watch all opportunities of doing good" —
preaching, itinerating, talking to all who will listen.

5. The "great subject of our preaching" must be "Christ the
Crucified" .

6. We must do everything necessary to win the confidence of
the people.

7. We must remember the importance of native leaders, of
building up the Christian lives of our converts. We must value
the work of our female colleagues in the Mission in their
important work with women.

8. We must in all possible ways promote the development of
Indian leadership and the formation of Indian churches led by
Indian pastors.

9. We must "labour with all our might in forwarding
translations of the sacred scriptures in the languages of
Hindoostan" .

10. We must remember that to be fit for these "unutterably
important labours" we must be "instant in prayer and the
cultivation of personal religion".

Carey died in 1834. He had translated the Scriptures
into 35 languages and dialects? he had founded a college which
still grants the degrees for most of the Protestant schools of
Christian higher education in India; he was honored by some of
the most prestigeous academic societies of England. But on his
tombstone, the only words inscribed at his request besides his
name and dates were these:

"A wretched, poor and helpless worm,

On Thy kind arms I fall".

Stop talking about Dr. Carey, Dr. Carey? it's Christ you must
remember, he told his friends at the end.

Samuel Hugh Moffett
150 Leabrook Lane
Princeton, NJ, 08540
Nov. 5, 1991