To every unrepentant sinner we would say, Down to that bottomless pit of torment and despair the law of sin and death is now urging you. We pray you lay this truth to heart; and this. the more because-(2.) There is now in Christ a perfect liberty from this law available for all who will accept it. Awake! Arise Cry aloud for help! Lay hold, by faith, of the hope now set before you in the Gospel of Christ. Remember that, "by the grace of God," He "tasted death for every man ;" and therefore is mighty to save, -"able to save to the uttermost" all them "that come unto God by Him," and able to save you. Flee at once to Him; submit to Him; entrust your soul to Him; and you shall never perish. Then, 2. Having secured this inestimable liberty, see that you keep it fast. We speak now more directly to Christian believers. You remember well when first you obtained this deliverance; when the sweet consciousness of peace with God in Christ first welled up within your soul; when it was as though the Saviour Himself had said to you, "Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven; ......go in peace." In the fulness of that newly-awakened joy, you possessed a more than human power to live to God. See that you suffer nothing to rob you of the precious treasure. Let your faith reason freely as taught by the Holy Ghost: "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life;" (Rom. v. 10;) and thus "hold faith and a good conscience." But, withal, maintain your liberty wherewith the Son hath made you free. Listen not to those who would fain lead you to believe that a man may retain his state of acceptance in the Beloved, and yet live in the practice of known sin. Heed not those who would persuade you that to be guilty of frequent transgression is a sad necessity for us, so long as we remain in these animal bodies. Remember who hath said, "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin." (1 John iii. 8, 9.) "Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." (Gal. v. 1.) "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." (Rom. vi. 12, 13.) Then can you truly cry,— "Earth now a scale to heaven shall be; Sense shall point out the road; The creatures all shall lead to Thee, W. T. 879 WILLIAM CAREY. II. THE Serampore Mission encountered two fierce storms of opposition from the English government, the first in 1807, the second in 1812. Lord Minto was Governor-General. Personally he was not unfavourable to the missionaries; but his fears and inexperience and weakness were played upon by the old Company's officials, whom long residence in India had thoroughly Brahmanized. The proximate cause of the first storm was the Vellore Mutiny of 1806. What had missions to do with this? Nothing in the world. The mutiny was the fruit of official blundering and incapacity but it suited some to throw the blame on the native alarm at the spread of Christianity, just as was done in the greater mutiny fifty years later. Unfortunately the Serampore press had furnished a handle to its enemies. A tract was published which spoke in severe terms of Mohammed. The missionaries regretted what was opposed to their own practice, and hastened to explain that the offending epithets were the work of a convert and had been allowed to pass by an oversight. But the opportunity was too good to be lost. The British government demanded the removal of the press to Calcutta. This would have been equivalent to its extinction. The Danish governor was firm in refusing consent, and as the employment of force would have been a declaration of war, and ample explanations and securities were offered, the demand was not pushed to extremities. The matter blew over in India, but in England the discussion lasted longer. The old Indian antagonists of missions took up the cry: one ex-civilian declaring that the Serampore preachers and printers would destroy our eastern sovereignty, another recommending the immediate recall of every missionary, another-Colonel Stewart, the convert from Christianity to Hinduism-going into raptures over the vast superiority of Hindu doctrines, morals, and worship to anything found in Christianity. Sydney Smith amused the sneerers by pictures of "Brother Carey's Piety at Sea; Mr. Ward admires the Captain; Mr. Ward frightened by a Privateer; Mr. Ward feels a Regard for Sailors; Mr. Fountain's Gratitude to Hervey." He dishonoured himself and the "Edinburgh Review" by such passages as the following:-" In rooting out a nest of consecrated cobblers, and in bringing to light such a perilous heap of trash as we were obliged to work through in our articles on Methodists and Missionaries, we are generally considered to have rendered a useful service to the cause of rational religion." Again: "Tho missionaries complain of intolerance. A weasel might as well complain of intolerance when he is throttled for sucking eggs. Toleration for their own opinions,-toleration for their domestic worship, for their private groans and convulsions, they possess in the fullest extent; but who ever heard of toleration for intolerance? Who ever before heard men cry out that they were persecuted because they might not insult the religion, shock the feelings, irritate the passions, of their fellow-creatures, and throw a whole colony into bloodshed and confusion?" Sydney Smith's "trash" found able opponents, and Serampore able defenders, in Southey and Mackintosh. The first wrote: "We who have thus vindicated them are neither blind to what is erroneous in their doctrines nor ridiculous in their phraseology, but the anti-missionaries cull out from their journals and letters all that is ridiculous, sectarian, and trifling; call them fools, madmen, tinkers, Calvinists, and schismatics, and keep out of sight their love of men and their zeal for God, and their self-devotedness, their indefatigable industry, their unequalled learning. These 'low-born and low-bred mechanics' have translated the whole Bible into Bengalee, and have by this time printed it. They are by this time printing the New Testament in the Sanscrit, Orissa, the Mahratta, the Hindustani, the Guzeratti, and translating it into Persic, Telinga, Carnata, Chinese, the language of the Sikhs and the Burmesc. Extraordinary as this is, it will appear still more so, when it is remembered that of these men one was originally a shoemaker, another a printer at Hull, and the third the master of a charity-school at Bristol. Only fourteen years have elapsed since Thomas and Carey set foot in India, and in that time these missionaries have acquired this gift of tongues. In fourteen years these low-born, low-bred mechanics have done more to spread a knowledge of the Scriptures among the heathen than has been accomplished or even attempted by all the world beside." Mackintosh says: "Mr. Twining's pamphlet is the most singular publication I have seen. He seems to think that the preaching of Christianity is generally acknowledged to be a crime so atrocious as to be hated needs but to be seen.' He publishes extracts of the proceedings of a society which proposed to circulate the Bible in India as he would private papers proving a conspiracy to commit treason, which require no comment, and must of themselves excite general indignation. The only measure which he could consistently propose would be the infliction of capital punishment on the crime of preaching or embracing Christianity in India, for almost every inferior degree of persecution is already practised by European or native anti-Christians." Such testimonies prove that English public opinion was tending in favour of opening India wide to Christianity. And still better evidence is that the Board of Control in its reply to the Calcutta government implicitly condemned its recent arbitrary acts. The despatch ended thus: "The court approved of their having refrained from resorting to the authority vested in them by law against the missionaries, and relied on their discretion to abstain from all unnecessary and ostentatious interference with their proceedings in future." The second storm, in 1812, was even fiercer. One missionary newly arrived was actually compelled to return to England. The salvation of the mission in these trying circumstances was the firmness of the Danish authorities, and the wise, conciliatory conduct of the three missionaries. Both were beyond all praise. Carey and his brethren bent to the storm which it would have been destruction to resist. Instead of taking high ground and using big words, while never stooping to what was unmanly or unworthy of Christians, they offered explanations, sought personal interviews with the Governor-General, and dwelt on their services to the public weal. They remembered that their weapons were not carnal, and yet found them mighty. Men less discreet, sensible, and prudent would in their position have ruined the infant mission for the time. Mr. Ward seems to have resented the injustice of their treatment most keenly. Once when Government was in better mood he wrote, "Now we shall be tolerated like toads, and not hunted down like wild beasts." The infamous measures adopted, such as sending spies into the congregations and sham inquirers to the missionaries, were never sanctioned by Government, but were simply the work of mission-hating officials, who delighted thus to show off their authority and wreak their miserable spite on greatness they could not emulate. The devil rages most when he knows his time is short. The next year, 1813, the Company's Charter had to be renewed. The friends of missions resolved not to let the opportunity pass without an effort to break down the monopoly. William Wilberforce led the forces in Parliament. He was well seconded by public opinion outside. Andrew Fuller was unwearied in stimulating popular interest. Night after night petitions came pouring in to the number of nine hundred in favour of freedom, till Lord Castlereagh said, "This is enough, Mr. Fuller." But victory was not won without a struggle. Old Indian after old Indian rose in the House to protest against England's tolerating Christian missions in India. It is amusing now to mark the character of the debates. Speaker after speaker defended what had never been attacked, denounced measures that were never contemplated, and pleaded in pathetic tones for the virtues of heathenism. One member declared that he had seen Mr. Carey preaching from a tub, and hardly saved from death at the hands of an infuriate people: when this was denied by Mr. Fuller, he was for sending a challenge to Fuller. The "missionary clause " passed only by a majority of twenty-two; but the door was open, Christianity in India was free. We have mentioned Andrew Fuller's name. He was in England to the mission what Carey was in India, its guiding eye, its burning heart. Original, far-seeing, genial, indefatigable, he was ever at his post, advising, repelling attacks, spreading information, kindling zeal. Some of his letters to Serampore are eminently characteristic. Once, when he feared danger, he wrote, "Beware of the counsels of Mr. Worldly Wiseman. He will draw you from the simplicity of Christ, and under pretence of liberality you will be shorn like Samson of your locks." Again: "It may be that you should go on without a toleration, that the hand of God in preserving the bush on fire from being consumed may be more apparent...... Of late, some have said, the Baptists mean well, but have no security. True, and by our want of strength and security, if we properly feel our dependence on God, we may be more likely to pray and succeed. God has fixed you in a post of eminence and difficulty, but hitherto He has helped you. It may be His will that we should have no legal security granted us in India, that it may appear to be, not by might, nor by power, but by His own Spirit......I rejoice in all your literary undertakings, as they afford not only the means of spreading the Word of Truth, but a shelter to you. Had you been a company of illiterate men, humanly speaking, you must ere now have been crushed. God gave Daniel and his companions wisdom for a protection." At VOL. XIX.- FIFTH SERIES. 8 L the time of the agitation about the Charter he wrote, "Our liberty folks are mad for getting the Roman Catholics into power, while they are very cool as to obtaining even toleration for you. But God is above all." With Fuller's death in 1815 the bright days of the mission ended. The new committee and officials at home had little acquaintance and less sympathy with the peculiarities of Serampore. Into the dissensions, which dragged through twelve years, and ended in a formal separation, we need not enter. The committee wanted the mission to be put on a new footing, that of complete subjection, instead of the free, independent position it had hitherto occupied. It could hardly be expected that men who had made everything around them, would endanger all their plans by placing themselves and their work, without reserve, in the hands of a distant Board. Amid multiplying difficulties the men of Serampore held on their way. As to their frugal life we are told, "For fifteen years we have made the country rum a substitute for all wine and beer; because it was a rupee a gallon, while beer was twelve rupees a dozen, or six rupees a gallon. By mixing it with water it was reduced to the thirtieth part the price of beer; and our regard for missionary economy, which was rigid almost beyond belief, fixed us to this nauseous beverage. When the tumbler of rum and water was brought to Dr. Carey about nine in the evening, as he sat at his desk with his translations, he would drink it down at one draught, simply to get rid of it." Thus wrote Marshman of Carey. And these were the men whom malicious pens were accusing of revelling in power and luxury. Carey wrote as follows of his colleagues: "I have for years been obliged to drag myself on, to subject myself to rules, to impose the day's work on myself, and after all to sit down in confusion at my indolence and inertness. I often compare myself with my brethren Marshman and Ward. The first is all eagerness for the work. Often have I seen him when we have been walking together eye a group of persons, as a hawk looks at his prey, and go up to them with a resolution to try the utmost effort of Gospel reasons on them. In point of zeal he is Luther; I am Erasmus. Brother Ward has such facility of addressing spiritual things to the heart, and his thoughts run so naturally in that channel, that he fixes the minds of all who hear him on what he says; while I, after making repeated efforts, can scarcely get out a few dry sentences, and should I meet with a rebuff at the beginning, sit like a silly mute, and scarcely say anything at all." It is characteristic that when Carey's son, who had been a missionary, entered the service of the Burmese king, and came to Calcutta in great state, the father was bitterly mortified at his "sinking from a missionary to an ambassador !" The first of the band to be taken was Ward, who died suddenly of cholera, March 7th, 1823. The heavy expenses of their translations, the new college, the commercial panics and failures in Calcutta, and the alienation of many friends through the misrepresentations circulated in England, put them in great straits, from which they were only relieved by special appeals to God and man; they first sought God, and found favour with both. A spectator says: "The two old men were dissolved in |