Life of William Carey by George Smith - The Jesus Army

on probation, there were five survivors of the band of converts called from time to time to the ministry--
Krishna Pal, the first, who is entered on the list as “the beloved”; Krishna Dass, Ram Mohun, Seeta Ram, and
Seeta Dass. Carey’s third son Jabez was soon to become the most advanced of the three brothers away in far
Amboyna. His father had long prayed, and besought others to pray, that he too might be a missionary. For the
last fifteen years of his life Jabez was his closest and most valued correspondent.
But only less dear than his own sons to the heart of the father, already in 1817 described in an official letter as
“our aged brother Carey,” were the native missionaries and pastors, his sons in the faith. He sent forth the
educated Petumber Singh, first in November 1802, to his countrymen at Sooksagar, and “gave him a suitable
and solemn charge: the opportunity was very pleasant.” In May 1803 Krishna Pal was similarly set apart. At
the same time the young Brahman, Krishna Prosad, “delivered his first sermon in Bengali, much to the satisfaction
of our brethren.” Six months after, Ward reports of him in Dinapoor: “The eyes of the people were
fixed listening to Prosad; he is becoming eloquent.” In 1804 their successful probation resulted in their formal
ordination by prayer and the laying on of the hands of the brethren, when Carey addressed them from the
divine words, “As my Father hath sent me so send I you,” and all commemorated the Lord’s death till He
come. Krishna Dass was imprisoned unjustly, for a debt which he had paid, but “he did not cease to declare to
the native men in power that he was a Christian, when they gnashed upon him with their teeth. He preached
almost all night to the prisoners, who heard the word with eagerness.” Two years after he was ordained, Carey
charged him as Paul had written to Timothy, “in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the
quick and the dead,” to be instant in season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering
and teaching. Ram Mohun was a Brahman, the fruit of old Petumber’s ministry, and had his ability as a
student and preacher of the Scriptures consecrated to Christ on the death of Krishna Prosad, while the missionaries
thus saw again answered the invocation they had sung, in rude strains, in the ship which brought
them to India:
“Bid Brahmans preach the heavenly word
Beneath the banian’s shade;
Oh let the Hindoo feel its power
And grace his soul pervade.”
So early as 1806 the missionaries thus acknowledged the value of the work of their native brethren, and made
of all the native converts a Missionary Church. In the delay and even failure to do this of their successors of
all Churches we see the one radical point in which the Church in India has as yet come short of its duty and its
privilege:
“We have availed ourselves of the help of native brethren ever since we had one who dared to
speak in the name of Christ, and their exertions have chiefly been the immediate means by
which our church has been increased. But we have lately been revolving a plan for rendering
their labours more extensively useful; namely, that of sending them out, two and two, without
any European brother. It appeared also a most desirable object to interest in this work, as much
as possible, the whole of the native church among us: indeed, we have had much in them of this
nature to commend. In order, then, more effectually to answer this purpose, we called an extraordinary
meeting of all the brethren on Friday evening, Aug. 8, 1806, and laid before them
the following ideas:
“1. That the intention of the Saviour, in calling them out of darkness into marvellous light, was
that they should labour to the uttermost in advancing his cause among their countrymen.
“2. That it was therefore their indispensable duty, both collectively and individually, to strive by
every means to bring their countrymen to the knowledge of the Saviour; that if we, who were
76