第 9 节
作者:垃圾王      更新:2021-02-24 22:51      字数:9322
  n as possible let them know the errand for which they were sent。  They must endeavour to convince them that it was their good alone which induced them to forsake their friends; and all the comforts of their native country。  They must be very careful not to resent injuries which may be offered to them; nor to think highly of themselves; so as to despise the poor heathens; and by those means lay a foundation for their resentment or rejection of the gospel。  They must take every opportunity of doing them good; and labouring and travelling night and day; they must instruct; exhort; and rebuke; with all long suffering and anxious desire for them; and; above all; must be instant in prayer for the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the people of their charge。 Let but missionaries of the above description engage in the work; and we shall see that it is not impracticable。
  〃It might likewise be of importance; if God should bless their labours; for them to encourage any appearances of gifts amongst the people of their charge; if such should be raised up many advantages would be derived from their knowledge of the language and customs of their countrymen; and their change of conduct would give great weight to their ministrations。〃
  This first and still greatest missionary treatise in the English language closes with the practical suggestion of these meansfervent and united prayer; the formation of a catholic or; failing that; a Particular Baptist Society of 〃persons whose hearts are in the work; men of serious religion and possessing a spirit of perseverance;〃 with an executive committee; and subscriptions from rich and poor of a tenth of their income for both village preaching and foreign missions; or; at least; an average of one penny or more per week from all members of congregations。  He thus concludes:〃It is true all the reward is of mere grace; but it is nevertheless encouraging; what a treasure; what an harvest must await such characters as Paul; and Eliot; and Brainerd; and others; who have given themselves wholly to the work of the Lord。 What a heaven will it be to see the many myriads of poor heathens; of Britons amongst the rest; who by their labours have been brought to the knowledge of God。 Surely a crown of rejoicing like this is worth aspiring to。 Surely it is worth while to lay ourselves out with all our might; in promoting the cause and kingdom of Christ。〃
  So Carey projected the first organisation which England had seen for missions to all the human race outside of Christendom; and his project; while necessarily requiring a Society to carry it out; as coming from an 〃independent〃 Church; provided that every member of every congregation should take a part to the extent of fervent and united prayer; and of an average subscription of a penny a week。  He came as near to the New Testament ideal of all Christians acting in an aggressive missionary church as was possible in an age when the Established Churches of England; Scotland; and Germany scouted foreign missions; and the Free Churches were chiefly congregational in their ecclesiastical action。  While asserting the other ideal of the voluntary tenth or tithe as both a Scriptural principle and Puritan practice; his common sense was satisfied to suggest an average penny a week; all over; for every Christian。  At this hour; more than a century since Carey wrote; and after a remarkable missionary revival in consequence of what he wrote and did; all Christendom; Evangelical; Greek; and Latin; does not give more than five millions sterling a year to Christianise the majority of the race still outside its pale。  It is not too much to say that were Carey's penny a week from every Christian a fact; and the prayer which would sooner or later accompany it; the five millions would be fifty; and Christendom would become a term nearly synonymous with humanity。  The Churches; whether by themselves or by societies; have yet to pray and organise up to the level of Carey's penny a week。
  The absolute originality as well as grandeur of the unconscious action of the peasant shoemaker who; from 1779; prayed daily for all the heathen and slaves; and organised his society accordingly; will be seen in the dim light or darkness visible of all who had preceded him。  They were before the set time; he was ready in the fulness of the missionary preparation。  They belonged not only to periods; but to nations; to churches; to communities which were failing in the struggle for fruitfulness and expansion in new worlds and fresh lands; he was a son of England; which had come or was about to come out of the struggle a victor; charged with the terrible responsibility of the special servant of the Lord; as no people had ever before been charged in all history; sacred or secular。  William Carey; indeed; reaped the little that the few brave toilers of the wintry time had sown; with a humility that is pathetic he acknowledges their toll; while ever ignorant to the last of his own merit。  But he reaped only as each generation garners such fruits of its predecessor as may have been worthy to survive。  He was the first of the true Anastatosantes of the modern world; as only an English…speaking man could beof the most thorough; permanent; and everlasting of all Reformers; the men who turn the world upside down; because they make it rise up and depart from deadly beliefs and practices; from the fear and the fate of death; into the life and light of Christ and the Father。
  Who were his predecessors; reckoning from the Renascence of Europe; the discovery of America; and the opening up of India and Africa? Erasmus comes first; the bright scholar of compromise who in 1516 gave the New Testament again to Europe; as three centuries after Carey gave it to all Southern Asia; and whose missionary treatise; Ecclesiasties; in 1535 anticipated; theoretically at least; Carey's Enquiry by two centuries and a half。  The missionary dream of this escaped monk of Rotterdam and Basel; who taught women and weavers and cobblers to read the Scriptures; and prayed that the Book might be translated into all languages; was realised in the scandalous iniquities and frauds of Portuguese and Spanish and Jesuit missions in West and East。 Luther had enough to do with his papal antichrist and his German translation of the Greek of the Testament of Erasmus。 The Lutheran church drove missions into the hands of the Pietists and MoraviansWiclif's offspringwho nobly but ineffectually strove to do a work meant for the whole Christian community。  The Church of England thrust forth the Puritans first to Holland and then to New England; where Eliot; the Brainerds; and the Mayhews sought to evangelise tribes which did not long survive themselves。
  It was from Courteenhall; a Northamptonshire village near Paulerspury; that in 1644 there went forth the appeal for the propagation of the Gospel which comes nearest to Carey's cry from the same midland region。  Cromwell was in power; and had himself planned a Protestant Propaganda; so to the Long Parliament William Castell; 〃parson of Courteenhall;〃 sent a petition which; with the 〃Eliot Tracts;〃 resulted in an ordinance creating the Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England。  Seventy English ministers had backed the petition; and six of the Church of Scotland; first of whom was Alexander Henderson。 The corporation; which; in a restored form; Robert Boyle governed for thirty years; familiarised the nation with the duty of caring for the dark races then coming more and more under our sway alike in America and in India。  It still exists; as well as Boyle's Society for advancing the Faith in the West Indies。  The Friends also; and then the Moravians; taught the Wesleys and Whitefield to care for the negroes。  The English and Scottish Propagation Societies sought also to provide spiritual aids for the colonists and the highlanders。
  The two great thinkers of the eighteenth century; who flourished as philosopher and moralist when Carey was a youth; taught the principles which he of all others was to apply on their spiritual and most effective side。  Adam Smith put his finger on the crime which had darkened and continued till 1834 to shadow the brightness of geographical enterprise in both hemispheresthe treatment of the natives by Europeans whose superiority of force enabled them to commit every sort of injustice in the new lands。  He sought a remedy in establishing an equality of force by the mutual communication of knowledge and of all sorts of improvements by an extensive commerce。5 Samuel Johnson rose to a higher level alike of wisdom and righteousness; when he expressed the indignation of a Christian mind that the propagation of truth had never been seriously pursued by any European nation; and the hope 〃that the light of the Gospel will at last illuminate the sands of Africa and the deserts of America; though its progress cannot but be slow when it is so much obstructed by the lives of Christians。〃
  The early movement which is connected most directly with Carey's and the Northamptonshire Baptists' began in Scotland。  Its Kirk; emasculated by the Revolution settlement and statute of Queen Anne; had put down the evangelical teaching of Boston and the 〃marrow〃 men; a