1 of 2

At age 8 Felix Carey went to India as a companion to his missionary father. He picked up Bengali even faster than his father did.

With his father absorbed in mission work, though, Felix was neglected. He became characterized by, as Hannah Marshman put it, “obstinacy and self-will.” With the arrival of William Ward (who became his “spiritual father”) and Hannah to India, he got hold of himself. He and William Ward and Krishna Pal (William Carey’s first Indian convert) had many discussions, which eventually led to the baptism of him and Pal on the same day.

Young Felix, along with Joshua Marshman and two Indians of upper caste, once carried the coffin of a lowcaste believer—a monumental act that initiated the breakdown of the caste system among believers in that area.

In 1807, at age 21, Felix was sent as a missionary to Rangoon [Burma], but mission life proved costly. His wife died within a year, and seven years later, he lost his second wife and his children in a boating accident.

Having noticed Felix Carey’s linguistic and medical gifts (he had introduced smallpox vaccination to Burma), the king of Burma offered Felix an ambassadorship to the governor-general in Calcutta. The weary Felix accepted, resigning from mission activities in 1814. His disappointed father commented: “Felix is shrivelled from a missionary into an ambassador.”

Felix lived in fine ambassadorial style in Calcutta (with “a red umbrella with an ivory top, gold betel box, gold lefeek cup, and a sword of state,” he wrote), soon overspending and drinking heavily. He was recalled to Burma in disgrace. Felix then disappeared across the border into Assam, where he wandered for three years.

Missionary William Ward persuaded him to return to the Serampore mission. There Felix worked on the mission newspapers, contributed major translation work, and wrote a treatise in Bengali on anatomy and physiology. Cholera struck him down at age 37, during the same few months that it took Krishna Pal and William Ward.

Krishna Chandra Pal lived a life of “firsts.” He worked near Serampore as a carpenter and heard of Jesus while working for some Moravians there. By the time he met Carey and the other Serampore missionaries, he had broken from formal Hinduism into a sect that embraced the theism and egalitarianism of Islam.

One day, while going to the river to bathe, Krishna slipped and dislocated his shoulder. He sent his children to the mission house, where he knew the medical doctor, John Thomas, was staying. As Thomas took care of the shoulder, he spoke with Krishna about the healing of his soul and gave him a tract in Bengali.

After that, Krishna called frequently at the mission. William Ward and Felix Carey read and discussed Scripture together. Soon Krishna told Thomas, “I am a great sinner, but I have confessed my sin and I am free!”

“Then I call you brother,” Dr. Thomas said. “Come and let us eat together in love.” This caused a great stir among the Indian servants, for by eating with Europeans, Krishna had broken caste.

Despite being mobbed and called “traitor!” by fellow Indians, Krishna was baptized. He was the first native convert in seven years of missionary labor and prayer.

Krishna’s wife and sister also made commitments to Christ, as did his four daughters; a neighbor, Gokul, and his wife; and a neighbor widow. They formed the first indigenous Christian community in that area, and not surprisingly, the group experienced spiritual growing pains: feuds, jealousies, and instances of immorality.

next page... |  1 of 2

share this page

RSS Feed   RSS Help