Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM WARD,
One of the Serampore Missionaries.

MR. WILLIAM WARD was
born at Derby, where some of
his relations still reside, October
20, 1769. His mother was a pious
woman, who was accustomed to
ascribe the beginning of her serious
impressions to a discourse by a fe-
male Quaker in the Town-hall of
Derby. Her son, therefore, like
many other eminent servants of
the Redeemer, enjoyed the privi-
lege of maternal example and coun-
sel; and appears, early in life, to
have himself become the subject of
that momentous and happy change,
without which no man can see the
kingdom of God.

evident that he was endowed with qualifications for the ministry of the Gospel. To this sacred employment he was advised to devote himself; and in order that he might be the better furnished to engage in it, a generous friend, still living, undertook to place him for a season, under the care of the late amiable and pious Dr. John Fawcett, who then kept a flourishing seminary for youth near Halifax. Of this important period of his life, the following notice occurs in the Memoirs of Dr. Fawcett, lately published.

behalf of the heathen have raised him in

"A residence of about a year and a At the usual period he left home half at Ewood Hall endeared Mr. Ward for business, and was apprenticed as much to the family, as his exertions in to a printer. While thus engaged the esteem of the public. They witnessed in acquiring the knowledge of that the first appearance of that missionary art, which he was afterwards to spirit, which induced him afterwards to consecrate to the noblest purposes sacred cause. relinquish every other engagement for this His most delightful emon the distant plains of Bengal, heployment was to preach in hamlets wheremade a public profession of reli- ever he could collect a congregation; and gion; and having been baptized, by the dispersion of short tracts, &c. to was united to the church in George lead careless as well as inquiring souls to a serious attention to the best things." Street, Hull, now under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Before Mr. Ward left Ewood Thonger. Thus introduced into Hall, he had expressed his inclinaChristian society, it soon became | tion to engage as a Missionary to

[ocr errors]

India; and at a Committee Meet- || (with Mr. Brunsdon) was set apart

ing held at Northampton, Sept. 20, 1798, the Secretary was requested to invite him to attend, and preach at Kettering in the following month. With this invitation he complied, and the result was so satisfactory, that it was unanimously resolved that he should be accepted as a Missionary in connexion with the Society, and that preparations should be made for his going out to India in the spring of 1799. At one of these interviews, Mr. Ward related an incident which seems to have made considerable impression on his mind. When in company with Mr. Carey, a little before he embarked in 1793, that devoted Missionary remarked, "If the Lord bless us, we shall want a person of your business to enable us to print the Scriptures: I hope you will come after us. Thus the words of the wise are as goads; and there can be little doubt that this transient observation contributed, under the direction of Him who worketh in us to will and to do, not a little to its own fulfilment about six years after, and as a consequence to the multiplied benefits which India has since derived from the long residence of Mr. Ward in that country!

99

Early in the year 1799, Mr. Ward spent several months at Birmingham, supplying the church at Cannon Street, and thus became intimately acquainted with the excellent Samuel Pearce. Between two kindred souls, strongly bent on the same grand object, it is not wonderful that a close and affectionate union was speedily formed. On earth, indeed, it was not of long duration, as Mr. Pearce died before the end of the year; but it is cheering to think, that it has since been renewed, in that world where divine love has its proper habitation, and where it can never, never be interrupted more!

The service, in which Mr. Ward

[ocr errors]

to the work of a Missionary, was held at Olney, May 7th. The work of the day was accompanied, according to the primitive pattern, with fasting and prayer, and the whole occasion was very interesting and affecting. In answer to some questions proposed by Mr. Fuller to the Missionaries respecting the motives of their undertaking, and the religious sentiments they meant to propagate, Mr. Ward replied,

"I have received no new revelation on the subject: I did not expect any. Our Redeemer hath said, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; and lo, I am with you always to the end of the world.' This command I consider as still binding, since the promise of Christ's presence reaches to the utmost boundaries of time. corner of the earth, and to the utmost While I was at Ewood Hall I received an invitation to carry the Gospel and a printing-press to India, where brother Carey and others

have erected the standard of the Cross. I prayed to God, and advised with my friends. In complying with this invitation I gave up all other prospects, and devoted myself to that of attempting to bless a nation of heathens. Since that time my peace and joy in God have more and more abounded. Duty and pleasure have in my employment gone hand in hand. Sometimes I have been enabled to say,

"No joy can be compared to this,
"To serve and please the Lord."

"In his strength, therefore, I would go forth, borne up by your prayers, hoping that two or three stones at least may be laid of the foundation of Christ's kingdom in India, nothing doubting but that the fair fabric will rise from age to age, till time shall be no more."

A passage had been previously secured in the American ship Criterion, Capt. Wickes, in which Mr. Ward, with Messrs. Marshman, Grant, and Brunsdon embarked, and left the river, May 24, 1799. It added not a little to their comfort that the Captain of the Criterion was a truly pious man, who considered it an honour to convey the servants of Christ to the scene of their labour, and gladly availed himself of their assistance to maintain the worship of God on board during the voyage.

While at sea, Mr. Ward was || This was, at the time, a severe diligently employed in those exer- disappointment, and it caused concises which tended to prepare him siderable pecuniary loss to the Sofor the great work to which he had ciety; but circumstances have dedicated himself. Among other since proved that the arrangement employments of this nature, he pe- was guided by Infinite Wisdom, rused the Missionary Accounts of and that the great ends of the the Moravian brethren with much Mission have been far more effecsatisfaction. His own remarks on tually answered at Serampore, than this subject are characteristic they could have been in any other "I have read Crantz's History of spot in Bengal. Greenland, I trust with much profit. I feel towards the first Greenland Missionaries a kind of enthusiastic reverence. To say they were Howards or Thorntons would be a poor compliment, however it might embellish their names, or embalm their memories. Their testimony in favour of the blood of Immanuel will, I trust, be mine; to that I would cleave-that I trust will be the centre to which I shall be drawn, and from thence deduce every important truth. . . I can scarce ever go to a throne of grace now, but I carry thither the congregations of Greenlanders, Esquimaux, Negroes, South Sea Islanders, and Hottentots. Thank you, Moravians ! ye have done me good. If I am ever a Missionary worth a straw, I shall owe it to you, under our Saviour."

At

For a long time previous to the arrival of these welcome fellowlabourers, Mr. Carey had been diligently employed in translating the New Testament into the Bengalee; and soon after Mr. Ward had established his press at Serampore, he had the pleasure of printing the first edition of that important work, in a thick octavo volume of 800 pages. In the same year (1800), Kristnoo and several members of his family embraced the Gospel; and by eating with the Missionaries, publicly and deliberately renounced caste-an event which all who know the force of this ancient and formidable institution had deemed absolutely hopeless. All our servants," say the Missionaries, in relating this memorable occurrence, "were astonished; so many had said that nobody would ever mind Christ, or lose caste. Brother Thomas had wait

away much on deceitful characters. Brother Carey has waited till hope of his own success had almost expired; and after all, God has done it with perfect ease! Thus the door of faith is opened to the Gentiles; who shall shut it? The chain of the caste is broken, who shall mend it ?"

After a favourable voyage of twenty weeks, Mr. Ward and his companions arrived at Calcutta, Oc-ed fifteen years, and had thrown tober 11th, but as at that time no legal provision had been made for the residence of Missionaries on the British territory, they were under the necessity of proceeding to Serampore, a small Danish Town about fifteen miles above Calcutta, on the banks of the Ganges. that time Mr. Carey resided at Mudnabatty, a village considerably higher up the country, and he was very solicitous that the newly arrived Missionaries might be permitted to join him there. But all his efforts to procure this accommodation proved unavailing; and therefore the whole party were constrained to fix at Serampore.

In May, 1802, Mr. Ward entered into the marriage relation with Mrs. Fountain, widow of Mr. John Fountain, a Missionary, who survives to mourn his loss. Two daughters were the fruit of this union, who are both living, and the elder of whom has lately been united to the church at Serampore.

[ocr errors]

For a number of interesting || the middle size. His countenance bore evident marks of a long residence in an Eastern climate, and was further distinguished by a con

facts, connected with Mr. Ward's residence and labours in India, we must refer to the Periodical Accounts, which contain copious ex-spicuous mark over the right eye, tracts from his journals. occasioned by an injury sustained

was not forward; and occasionally it appeared difficult to obtain from him that information respecting India, which he was so well quali

Declining health rendered it ne-in childhood. In conversation he cessary for Mr. Ward to revisit his native country; he arrived at Liverpool in June, 1819, and attended the public meetings in London on the 23d of that month.fied to impart ; but this was far His address on the morning of that more than compensated by the ediday at Great Queen Street Chapel, fying strain of his remarks, and and his Sermon in the evening at the solicitude which he seemed haZion Chapel, in which he forcibly bitually to feel for the spiritual indepicted the abominable idola-terests of those around him. Withtries" of India, made a very deep impression on the numerous auditories. His health being mercifully and speedily restored, he visited many parts of the United Kingdom, and afterwards proceed-upon the great concerns of eternied to Holland and to America. His principal object was to collect pecuniary aid for the education of pious native youth for the ministry in the College lately founded at Serampore, towards which object he obtained in all about £6000.

Mr. Ward was thus occupied about two years, and set sail with renovated health and cheerful spirits for India, in the Abberton, Capt. Gilpin, on May 28, 1821. He arrived in Calcutta, after an agreeable and expeditious voyage, early in October, and immediately resumed his labours in the Printingoffice, and among the native converts, with all the ardour that Christian zeal and affection could inspire. Younger than either of his excellent colleagues, and having had so long the advantages of his native air, it seemed reasonable to anticipate that he might be the last who should be called to leave his work and enter into rest. But in the event which we are now called on to lament, we have a fresh proof that The Lord's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts.

In person, Mr. Ward was about

out obtruding the subject in an unnecessary or offensive way, he would generally introduce something, be the conversation or the note ever so short, which bore

ty; and instances have occurred in which his private intercourse has proved the means of converting a sinner from the error of his way. It was evident that his whole soul was in the work-that he naturally cared for the souls of men-especially of the heathen-and that every thing in which he engaged was made subservient to this ob||ject.

Mr. Ward is advantageously known as an author. In the year 1811, he published at Serampore, in 4 vols 4to. his "Account of the Writings, Religion, and Manners of the Hindoos," containing a mass of valuable and authentic information, which he had been occupied in collecting for several years. This work was reprinted in 1815; and a third edition has since been published in this country, in 4 vols. 8vo. He also published a small volume, containing Biographical Accounts of four Converted Hindoos, a Funeral Sermon for the Lady of N. Wallach, Esq. of Serampore, and a Sketch of the character of his reyered friend, the late Rev. Andrew Fuller. While in England he printed a

Sermon on 2 Cor. v. 20, which on earth, must continually furnish; may be considered as affording a our brother was not a man who tolerably correct idea of the spirit confined his regard for the cause and style of his pulpit addresses. of God to one denomination. He In compliance with the suggestion loved all who loved the Redeemer, of some of his friends, he compiled, and sought to promote his cause. also, on his voyage from America, a Hence his death is a public loss to volume of "Farewell Letters," in religion; and those particularly which he has, under respective whose spiritual good he laboured heads, digested the substance of to promote, and whose hands he the information he was accustomed laboured to strengthen by his to communicate in his speeches preaching, his prayers, and his and sermons. Since his return to extensive correspondence, whether India, there have appeared from they be in India, Europe, or Amerhis pen, a Brief Memoir of Krish-ica, cannot but feel this bereavenapul (or Kristnoo) the first Hin- ment.

doo convert, and a work in 2 vols. "But while we thus mourn the duodecimo, containing Short Med-loss of our beloved brother, and itations on various passages of cherish the most tender affection Scripture, arranged for each day for his memory, it becomes us to in the year, in a manner resem- beware of sinning against God unbling "Bogatzky's Golden Treasu-der this dispensation. It becomes

ry.

[ocr errors]

Thus did this holy man of God work while it was day. Blessed is that servant, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find so doing!

As we have already given a statement of the last illness of Mr. WARD, (vide p.' 231, vol. iv.) we shall dismiss this Memoir by introducing a few reflections from the

funeral Sermon, delivered by Rev. Dr.

MARSHMAN, at Calcutta.

us to recollect that every thing which rendered him so dear to us, and such a blessing to the cause of God, arose wholly from the grace God so richly manifested in him. This grace still remains an inexhaustible fountain. While we mourn his loss in the deepest manner, therefore, to suffer our hearts to sink in despondency as though the Great Redeemer did not still live to carry on his own work, who is the Sovereign Head of his "In reviewing this sudden and Church, and from whom come not afflictive providence, various re- only every gift intended for the flections crowd on the mind. The use of his cause, and all that dilifirst are, those of almost indescrib- gence and love which may enable able distress at the loss sustained, a man possessing such, to labour not only by the denomination to even more abundantly than others, which our brother belonged, but but the blessing which must renby the church and the cause of der these gifts and this labour efGod at large, particularly as far fectual, and without which even a as relates to India. For although Paul might plant, and an Apollos his family and his immediate col- water wholly in vain,-would be leagues in the work of God feel to sin against God, and to act conthe sense of their loss increased trary to the examples left us on by all that recollection of his Divine record. When Saul, and worth as a man, a Christian, a above all Jonathan, was removed, husband, a father, a colleague, and by whom the Lord had done such brother, which the space of nearly great things for Israel, David in twenty-four years, spent in per- the midst of grief perhaps never haps the greatest degree of social exceeded, "bade them teach the happiness capable of being enjoyed || children of Judah the use of the

JAN. 1825.

2

« AnteriorContinua »