William Carey Part 3

For seven years Carey had daily preached Christ in Bengali without a convert. He had produced the first edition of the New Testament. He had reduced the language to literary form. He had laid the foundations in the darkness of the pit of Hinduism, while the Northamptonshire pastors, by prayer and self sacrifice, held the ropes. It was on the last Sunday of the year 1800 when Krishna Pal, Carey's first Hindu convert, was baptized, and his whole family soon followed him. He was thirty-five years of age. Not only was he the first native Christian of North India of whom we have a reliable account, but he was the first missionary to Calcutta and Assam, and the first Bengali hymn-writer.

Sore sickness and a sense of sin had led him to join Brahmanism. For sixteen years Krishna Pal was himself a faithful follower. He recovered from sickness, but could not shake off the sense of the burden of sin, when this message came to him, and, to his surprise, through the Europeans--"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." At the same time he happened to dislocate his right arm by falling down the slippery side of his tank when about to bathe. He sent two of the children to the Mission House for Dr Thomas, who immediately left the breakfast table and reduced the injury, while the sufferer again heard the good news that Christ was waiting to heal his soul, and he and his neighbor Gokool received a Bengali tract. Krishna later told the story: "In this paper I read that he who confesseth and forsaketh his sins, and trusteth in the righteousness of Christ, obtains salvation. The next morning Mr Carey came to see me, and after inquiring how I was, told me to come to his house, that he would give me some medicine, by which, through the blessing of God, the pain in my arm would be removed. I went and obtained the medicine, and through the mercy of God my arm was cured. From this time I made a practice of calling at the mission house where Mr Carey would read and expound the Bible to me. I said I understood that the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life up for the salvation of sinners, and that I believed it, and so did my friend Gokool." Krishna and his wife, their four daughters, and his sister-in-law; Gokool, his wife, and a widow of forty who lived beside them, formed the first group of caste Christians in India north of Madras.

Jeymooni, Krishna's sister-in-law, was the first Bengali woman to be baptized. Rasoo, Krishna's wife, soon followed; both were thirty five years old. The former said she had found a treasure in Christ greater than anything in the world. The latter, when she first heard the good news from her husband, said "there was no such sinner as I, and I felt my heart immediately unite to Him. I wish to keep all His commands so far as I know them."

Following the baptism of Krishna, Gokool, and their families, Carey writes: "Thus, you see, God is making way for us, and giving success to the word of his grace! We have toiled long, and have met with many discouragements; but at last, the Lord has appeared for us.