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 convert--The first widow convert--The first
convert of writer caste--The first Christian Brahman--The first native
chapel--A Bengali "experience" meeting--Carey founding a new community
as well as church--Marriage difficulties solved--The first native
Christian marriage feast in North India--Hindoo Christian death and
burial--The first Christian schools and school-books in North
India--The first native Sunday school--Boarding schools for the higher
education of country-born Christians--Carey on the mixed Portuguese,
Eurasians, and Armenians--The Benevolent Institution for destitute
children of all races--A hundred schools--English only
postponed--Effect on native opinion and action--The leaven of the
Kingdom--The Mission breaks forth into five at the close of 1810.
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 hymn[11] which he wrote
for family worship:--
"SERAMPORE, 12th Oct. 1802.
"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."
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.
"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...
"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?"
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...
"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.
"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."
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.
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.
"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!"
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:--
"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.