Life of William Carey by George Smith - The Jesus Army

carnation of Christ and his sufferings in our stead, and of the necessity of conversion, holiness, and faith, in
order to salvation. They hear with attention in general, and some come to me for instruction in the things of
God.”
“It was always my opinion that missionaries may and must support themselves after having been sent out and
received a little support at first, and in consequence I pursue a very little worldly employment which requires
three months’ closish attendance in the year; but this is in the rains--the most unfavourable season for exertion.
I have a district of about twenty miles square, where I am continually going from village to village to
publish the Gospel; and in this space are about two hundred villages, whose inhabitants from time to time
hear the Word. My manner of travelling is with two small boats; one serves me to live in, and the other for
cooking my food. I carry all my furniture and food with me from place to place--viz. a chair, a table, a bed,
and a lamp. I walk from village to village, but repair to my boat for lodging and eating. There are several
rivers in this extent of country, which is very convenient for travelling.”
Carey’s first convert seems to have been Ignatius Fernandez, a Portuguese descendant who had prospered as
a trader in Dinapoor station. The first Protestant place of worship in Bengal, outside of Calcutta, was built by
him, in 1797, next to his own house. There he conducted service both in English and Bengali, whenever Carey
and Thomas, and Fountain afterwards, were unable to go out to the station, and in his house Thomas and
Fountain died. He remained there as a missionary till his own death, four years before Carey’s, when he left
all his property to the mission. The mission-house, as it is now, is a typical example of the bungalow of one
story, which afterwards formed the first chapel in Serampore, and is still common as officers’ quarters in Barrackpore
and other military stations.
Side by side with his daily public preaching and more private conversations with inquirers in Bengali, Carey
carried on the work of Bible translation. As each new portion was prepared it was tested by being read to hundreds
of natives. The difficulty was that he had at once to give a literary form to the rich materials of the language,
and to find in these or adapt from them terms sufficiently pure and accurate to express the divine
ideas and facts revealed through the Hebrew and the Greek of the original. He gives us this unconscious
glimpse of himself at work on this loftiest and most fruitful of tasks, which Jerome had first accomplished for
Latin Christendom, Ulfila for our Scandinavian forefathers, Wiclif for the English, and Luther for the Germans
of the time.
“Now I must mention some of the difficulties under which we labour, particularly myself. The
language spoken by the natives of this part, though Bengali, is yet so different from the language
itself, that, though I can preach an hour with tolerable freedom so as that all who speak the language
well, or can write or read, perfectly understand me, yet the poor labouring people can understand
but little; and though the language is rich, beautiful, and expressive, yet the poor
people, whose whole concern has been to get a little rice to satisfy their wants, or to cheat their
oppressive merchants and zameendars, have scarcely a word in use about religion. They have no
word for love, for repent, and a thousand other things; and every idea is expressed either by
quaint phrases or tedious circumlocutions. A native who speaks the language well finds it a
year’s work to obtain their idiom. This sometimes discourages me much; but blessed be God I
feel a growing desire to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, and I know that my labour
shall not be in vain in the Lord. I am much encouraged by our Lord’s expression, ‘He who
reapeth’ (in the harvest) ‘receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto eternal life.’ If I, like David,
only am an instrument of gathering materials, and another build the house, I trust my joy will
not be the less.” This was written to the well-beloved Pearce, whom he would fain have had beside
him at Mudnabati. To guide the two missionaries whom the Society were about to send to
Africa on the salaries which he and Thomas had set free for this extension, Carey adds: “They
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