{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 60,
  "chapterName": "1796. Carey on Methods of Evangelism",
  "pageFrom": 71,
  "pageTo": 71,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 71,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n71\n60. CAREY ON METHODS OF EVANGELISM (1796 A.D.)\nThe work of William Carey and his colleagues at Serampore and\nCalcutta played an important part in the development of the modern\nmissionary movement. Here Carey describes his evangelistic methods\nin his journal of 11 January 1796. Cited in Eustace Carey, Memoir\nof William Carey, pp. 255-258.\nI wish to say something about the manner of my preaching,\nbut scarcely know how. As a specimen, however, I will just describe\nthe season at a large village, about four miles from Mudnabatty,\ncalled Chinsurah. I went one Lord's Day afternoon to this place,\nattended by a few persons from Mudnabatty. When I got into\nthe town, I saw an idolatrous temple, built very finely with bricks.\nIn order to excite attention, I asked what place that was they\nsaid it was Thakooranne, that is a Debta. I asked if it was alive;\nthey said, yes; well, said I, I will see her, and accordingly went\ntowards the place, when they called out, 'No, Sir, no, it is only a\nstone.' I however mounted the steps, and began to talk about\nthe folly and wickedness of idolatry. A bazaar or market, near,\nwas very noisy; I therefore removed to a little distance under a\ntamarind-tree, where we began by singing the hymn 'O who besides\ncan deliver.' By this time a pretty large concourse of people\nwas assembled, and I began to discourse with them upon the things\nof God. It is obvious that giving out a text and regularly dividing\nit, could not be of any use to those who never heard a word of the\nbible in their lives; I therefore dwelt upon the worth of the soul\nand its fallen state, the guilt of all men who had broken God's\nrighteous law, and the impossibility of obtaining pardon without\na full satisfaction to divine justice. I then inquired what way of\nlife consistant with the justice of God was proposed in any of their\nshastras. They, said I, speak of nine incarnations of Vishnu past,\nand one to come, yet not one of them for the salvation of a sinner.\nThey were only to preserve a family, kill a giant, make war against\ntyrants, &c.; all which God could have accomplished as well\nwithout these incarnations. An incarnation of the Deity, said I,\nis matter of too great importance to take place in so ludicrous a\nmanner and for such mean end purposes. Mutchee Obeetar, or fish\nincarnation said I, was to become rudder of a boat, and preserve a\nfamily in a great flood; and the wild hog incarnation was to kill\na giant and draw up the earth out of the sea when it was sinking;\nbut this God who created it could have accomplished without any\nsuch interposition. I then observed how miserable they were,\nwhose religion only respected the body, and whose shastras could\npoint out no salvation for the sinner. I then spoke of the way of\nlife by Christ, his substitution in our place, suffering in the sinner's\nstead and the like.",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}