William Carey, the father of modern missions. We're wanting to look at examples of excellence. One of the best ways of learning anything, in this case missions, is from examples of excellence, which is in the book The Greatest Century of Missions, which we will give to you when you leave this morning or before lunch. William Carey is the father of modern missions. It's impossible. It can't be done. Don't be ridiculous. What difference can one person make? Have you ever encountered those kinds of reactions? Anyone who embarks on a challenging enterprise, especially those determined to end legal abortions or eradicate pornography, or establish a Christian school or Christian teacher training college, or stop the ongoing slave trade in Sudan, or work for national reformation and revival, or evangelize a Muslim nation, will encounter those people who seem to believe that they have the gift of criticism and a ministry of discouragement. This isn't the right time, you're not the right person, this isn't the right way. A lot of people who are there to discourage you. Then, of course, there are those who maintain that Christians should not be involved in social issues at all. When you tell them of the abortion holocaust or the pornography plague, they mutter, all we can do is pray or just preach the gospel. It's a sign of the last days. Heard those before? We suspect that such attitudes are often motivated more by laziness and cowardice or a selfish desire to shirk responsibility and hard work than anything else. Certainly those people who resort to such superficial excuses are being disobedient to the clear commands of scripture. Love your neighbor as yourself. That includes your unborn neighbor who's about to be killed through abortion. Go and do likewise. We're meant to be good Samaritans, caring for a stranger even. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Rescue those being led away to death. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Make disciples, teaching obedience to all things the Lord has commanded. Anyone then who knows the good that he ought to do and does not do it, sins. Sins are not just sins of commission, things we do. Sins are also sins of omission, good things we fail to do. On the Day of Judgment, the Lord describes the Day of Judgment in Matthew 25 in these words, that he will be saying to those on his left, you did not You did not give food to the hungry. You did not give drink to the thirsty. You did not give clothes to the naked. You did not visit those in prison for their faith. You did not care for those who were sick. Depart from me, you cursed in the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. What is their sin? They did not care. They didn't do anything. The day of judgment is described by the Lord in Matthew 25, not so much in terms of the bad things we've done, serious as that is, but the good things we fail to do, sins of omission. Those who maintain that Christians should not be involved in social or political issues display the ignorance of both the Bible and church history. Over 70% of the Bible deals with social, political, and national issues. Abraham used military force to rescue Lot and his family from the four kings. God raised up Joseph to be prime minister, governor of Egypt. Samuel, Nathan, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezra. In fact, almost all the prophets were heavily involved in politics as advisors to kings, and they sought to exert a godly influence on national affairs. Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist publicly confronted and rebuked wicked rulers. King David was described as a man of the God's own heart. He was a shepherd, a soldier, and a king, man of the God's own heart. Daniel and Mordecai became governors in pagan Babylon and Persia in the governments, yet without compromising their faith. God raised up Deborah to be a judge in Israel and Queen Esther to national leadership positions. Joshua, Gideon, Nehemiah, they also held senior political positions. Ezekiel 22 verse 30, I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it. God is looking for a man to stand in the gap. All too often the men are off playing sports or watching TV, so sometimes God raises a woman like Deborah or Queen Esther to stand in the gap. Those who maintain that Christians should not be involved in political and social issues are not only ignoring the word of God, but also showing the ignorance of church history. This is a beautiful painting in Switzerland in the Palace of Justice in Lausanne, and it's called Justice Lifts the Nations. Lady Justice is holding the sword and the scales of justice, weighing the evidence. In the one hand, with the other hand, her sword is pointed downwards to an open Bible. The elders of the city, look to her for wisdom, principles of justice, while the people are arguing their cases about different issues in the foreground. Justice lifts the nations. The Bible applies to all areas of life. Before the advent, the coming of Christianity, every culture in the world practiced slavery and human sacrifice. In the Roman Empire, abortion, infanticide, and even the abandonment of unwanted babies was legal and complex. They literally threw their children to the wolves. and Christians adopted these, children have been abandoned. The Aztec Empire in Mexico, the Inca Empire in Peru, the Mayan Empire in Central America engaged in slavery, ritual rapes, mass human sacrifices. Slaves are marched up the stairs of pyramid-like temples. At the top, a priest would rip out their beating hearts, one by one. When Cortes went to Montezuma's capital in Mexico, He found over 80,000 human skulls on the skull racks of just one of Montezuma's many temples. Only the coming of Christianity introduced a respect for life, a respect for the sanctity of life, and ended the rampant infanticide and human sacrifice. This is true for every culture on Earth. Every culture, no respect for life, no respect for property. Enslaved people, murdered people, ate people before Christianity brought an end to it. Similarly, slavery was eradicated as a result of the tireless efforts of Christians like William Wilberforce and David Livingston. The whole concept of charity, being kind to strangers, was a Christian innovation, a Christian invention, as were hospitals. What is the universal symbol of a hospital? Not a crescent moon, not a hammer and sickle, not a star. It's a cross, a red cross. Why? because Christians invented hospitals. But of course, these monumental achievements were not easily achieved. Every victory for life and liberty was accomplished by much sacrifice and ingenuity over many, many years of hard work and failures and disappointments, discouragements. If you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the immensity of the task before you, Or if you feel discouraged by seemingly never-ending series of obstacles and opposition and frustrations and failures, take heart. The man whom God used to launch the modern mystery movement faced all this and much, much more. Undereducated, he never had more than a standard four education. Underfunded, he didn't have any money at all. Underestimated, William Carey seemed to have everything against him. He was brought up in abject poverty, never had the benefit of high school, but he had a thirst for knowledge. He read widely. He had a keen interest in nature. Carey's formal education ended in junior school. Yet at age 12, Carey had taught himself Latin. He went on to master on his own Greek, Hebrew, French, and Dutch. He eventually became Professor of Bengali, Sanskrit, and Marathi at the prestigious Fort William College in Calcutta, where the British trained their Indian civil servants. William Carey and his co-workers, William Ward and Joshua and Hannah Marshman, started over 100 Christian schools for over 8,000 Indian children of all castes. He launched the first Christian college in Asia, Serampore College. This college continues today, something like 2,500 students. William Carey finally succeeded in translating the whole Bible into six Asian languages. and New Testaments and Gospels into another 29 languages. That's 35 languages he mastered. And that's Asian languages, not counting some of the European languages, like Dutch and French that he mastered and Danish. William Carey's achievements are all the more astounding when you consider that his bold project to plant the gospel among the Hindus in India was completely illegal. By an act of British Parliament, it was illegal for any missionary to work in India. For the first 20 years, William Carey's mission to India had to be carried out under ingenuity and with circumspection. It was illegal. He had to be based under Danish protection in a small Danish colony of Serampore. The Danish king and queen gave him protection because it was illegal to be a missionary in British India at that time. When at last the British Parliament, under pressure from evangelical members of parliament like William Wilberforce, when they reversed their policy, and they compelled the British East India Company to allow missionaries in India, sometimes the students saw him in tears while he was teaching geography, talking about when he was a teacher back in England. Here he would point to various places on the map and cry, and these are pagans, pagans, so concerned, no one has taken him to gospel yet. William Carey was considered a radical in his day. He boycotted sugar. He wouldn't use sugar because he was so intensely opposed to slavery, and sugar from the West Indies was produced with slave labor. So he wouldn't have sugar. William Carey took the extremely unpopular stand of supporting the American War of Independence against Britain. He said, they are only rights. They've been denied the chartered rights that they should be given, according to Magna Carta. And King George III is not providing them what Magna Carta requires. For example, they don't have trial by jury, and they're having their property possessed by the government without compensation, things like this. So he said, the king is not fulfilling his chartered rights, his coronation oath. The British Parliament is violating Magna Carta. And so you can imagine, in a time of war, to take the side of the enemy is very unpopular. In fact, they call it treason. They used to chop people's heads off in England for that sort of thing. He was also subjected to vicious criticism and gossip. Under the extreme heat and in abject poverty, initially with daily dangers from snakes, crocodiles, and tigers in a remote, mosquito-ridden jungle house, William Carey's very simple wife, Dorothy, went insane. She would have probably managed in England, but she couldn't manage under the heat and climates of India, and she literally went out of her mind. She would rant and rave about the imaginary unfaithfulness of her husband. On several occasions, she attacked him with a knife. She is diagnosed by the doctors as insane and had to be physically restrained with chains for the last 12 years of her life because she was a danger to others and herself. The Careys also lost their five-year-old son, Peter, who died of dysentery in 1794. Every member of the Carey family suffered from malaria, dysentery, and other tropical diseases frequently. William Carey's first co-worker, John Thomas, squandered all their money and bankrupted the mission within the first few months, forcing William to work on a plantation to provide for his malnourished family. In the first seven months in India, the Careys had to move home five times. Very disruptive. And although William Carey wrote home to family and mission society frequently, it was 17 months in the field before they received their first letters. Imagine writing 17 months to get any letter. And one of the first letters was from the Missionary Society, where he was criticized for being swallowed up in the affairs of a merchant. Well, it's not like they were supporting him much. What else could he do? Somehow, while often sick, holding down a full-time job, surrounded by domestic turmoil, with an insane wife literally screaming from the next room, Kerry mastered Bengali and Sanskrit, and by 1797, the New Testament was translated to Bengali and ready for printing. Kerry also established several schools, and he is preaching regularly in Bengali. However, after seven years of tireless toil in India, Kerry still did not have a single convert. How did William Kerry manage to maintain such a productive schedule while having to endure all those crushing disappointments, the endless distractions, the undeserved criticisms, the physical ailments, and heartbreaking tragedies? How did he manage to persevere and keep on keeping on without the encouragement of a single convert, not one convert, to justify all his effort and sacrifice? To understand what motivated this most remarkable man, we need to look back at what inspired him in the first place. One of the most influential sermons in world history was preached on the 31st of May, 1792, by William Carey in Northampton in England. what today is called Cary Baptist Church. The text of this historic sermon was Isaiah 54 verse two to three. Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes for you shall expand to the right and to the left and your descendants will inherit the nations and make desolate cities inhabited. The theme of the sermon was summarized as Expect great things for God. Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God. Yet riveting as the sermon was, the result was initially indecision. William Carey was considered an enthusiast, which is the word they used to use for fanatic. He is considered an embarrassment because he had a B in his bonnet about missions. This is where their mission was launched, in this room. William Carey persisted until five months later. 12 Reformed Baptist ministers formed the particular Calvinist Baptist Society for propagating the gospel among the heathen. The first collection from these past amounted to 13 pounds, two shillings, and sixpence, and that they launched the first mission society in this house. Carey's sermon literally sparked the greatest century of Christian advance. It marked the entry of English speakers into world missions. Since that time, English speakers made up 80%, over 80% of the Protestant missionary workforce in 200 years. That's absolutely remarkable. What inspired Carey's landmark book, An Inquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen, and this prototype Pioneer Missionary Society was his eschatology of victory. teaching on the end times. William Carey was a post-millennialist, believing that God who commanded his church to make disciples of all nations would ensure that the Great Commission would ultimately be fulfilled before the Lord's return. The work to which God has set his hands will infallibly prosper. We only want men and money to fill this country with the knowledge of Christ. We are neither working at uncertainty nor afraid for the result. Christ must reign until Satan has not one inch of territory. Time and again, in the face of crushing defeats, disappointments, diseases, disasters, Carey reiterated his unwavering optimistic eschatology. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, and the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse. Though I were deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith, fixed on that sure word, would rise above all obstructions and overcome every trial. God's cause will triumph. And Carey's faith was most certainly vindicated. The years of hard work and wholehearted sacrifice were graciously rewarded by God. Carey's ministry literally transformed India. When Kerry stepped ashore at Calcutta on the 11th of November, 1793, India was in a terribly degraded state. If an infant was sick, it was assumed that he was under the influence of an evil spirit. The custom was to expose these infants to the elements, perhaps hang them up in a basket. Near Mulder, Keri found the remains of a baby who had been offered as a sacrifice to be eaten alive by white ants. At the Salgamere, where the Ganges River flows into the sea, Keri witnessed her mothers threw their babies into the sea to drown, or to be devoured by crocodiles. This, the Hindus regarded as a holy sacrifice to the mother Ganges. Carey undertook a thorough research into the numbers, the nature, the reasons for the infanticide and published his reports. He presented several petitions to the government until in 1802, infanticide was outlawed. This marked the first time that the British government interfered directly with the religious practice in India. It set a precedent for the abolition of other practices. Hinduism had an extremely low view of women. It was often said, in Hinduism, there's no salvation for woman until she is reborn, reincarnated as a man. Her only hope lay in serving men in complete subjection. Many female babies were smothered, strangled, or drowned at birth because the family didn't want too many girls. Girls were married as young as four years old. Widows were perceived as a bad omen who had brought about the deaths of their husbands. So widow was also seen as an economic liability. Bereaved widows had to shave off all their hair, remove all their jewelry, and were forbidden to remarry, but were required to cohabit with their deceased husband's nearest male relative. Here's a picture of a widow who had to mourn for 50 years, shaving off her hair, wearing unattractive clothes. Tremendous pressure was placed on the widow to submit to suti, or immolation, to be burned alive on the funeral pyre of her husband. Among the weaver caste, widows were buried alive. So because of Hindu practices of sati, a child who had lost their father would now also lose their mother and be orphaned at the same time. And the Hindu practice of polygamy compounded the problem. Understand that part of this was greed, that the dead man's possessions were not inherited by his children, not inherited by his wife, but by nearest male relatives. And so there was a lot of greed behind this. And of course, the man might have several wives. On one occasion, William Cary documented 33 wives of one man, burned alive at his funeral. 33! On another occasion, an 11-year-old widow was burned on a funeral pyre by her husband, 11 years old. For lepers, they were rejected by the families and society and they were burned alive because Hinduism taught only a fiery, violent end could purify your body and ensure transmitigation into a healthy new existence. Euthanasia is also widely practiced. They killed those afflicted with various diseases. The infirm were regularly carried out to be left exposed to cold and heat to insects and crocodiles left by the riverside. William Carey fought against these and other evils, including child prostitution, child slavery, the caste system. He publicly criticized the government for inaction and passivity in the face of murder. He organized public debates and he spoke out often against these atrocities. At first, he met with official indifference. The politicians didn't care. They didn't want to get involved. The Indian Supreme Court in 1805 ruled that sutti had religious sanction and therefore it could not be questioned. William Carey established the first newspaper ever published in an oriental language, the Samarsar Dharpan, an English-language newspaper, Friends of India. William Carey pioneered mass communication in India. He launched the social reform movement because he believed that above all forms of truth and faith, Christianity seeks free discussion. William Carey was the first man to stand up against the brutal murders and widespread oppression of women. Through female infanticide, sex selection, abortions effectively, they're still doing it in India, through child marriage, through polygamy, through enforced female literacy, through widow burning, through forced euthanasia. He conducted systematic research and he published his writings to raise public protest both in Bengal and in England. He educated and influenced a whole generation of civil servants through his lectures at Fort William College, which is the main university for training civil servants in India. Kerry fought against the idea that a woman's life ceases to be valuable after her husband's death. He undermined the oppression and exploitation of women by providing women with education. He opened the first schools for girls in Asia. Education was a major emphasis of his mission, to empower the people. In 1800, William Kerry was invited to lecture on Bengali, Sanskrit, and Marathi at Fort William College. In 1806, he was made a professor. This is kind of extraordinary. A man who hadn't passed by standards four or grade six in formal schooling, but he became a teacher, a translator, a missionary, a lecturer, a professor of oriental languages, the most accomplished linguist in Asian languages of his time and maybe of all time. At one time, a woman was trying to belittle William Carey and said, Mr. Carey, I believe that you were a shoemaker. He says, no ma'am, I was just a cobbler. So a shoemaker makes shoes, a cobbler just repairs them. She's trying to belittle him at this professor that he once was just a shoemaker. He said, no ma'am, I was only a cobbler. How can you insult a man who takes the insult and takes it even lower? Serampore College. In 1818, he and his colleagues launched Serampore College, which taught theology, botany, zoology, Sanskrit, Arabic, and English literature. And a lot more later, but that's what it started with. Here you can see the charter issued by the King of Denmark, Frederick VI, by the grace of God, King of Denmark. Let it be known to all that William Carey, Joshua Marshman, Doctors of Divinity, and John Clark Marshman, inhabitants of a town of Fredericksburg or Serampore in Bengal, being desirous of founding a college to promote piety and learning, particularly amongst the native Christian population of India. have to secure this object erected suitable buildings and purchased and collected suitable books, maps, et cetera, and have humbly besought us to grant them and such persons as shall be elected by them and their successors to form the council of the college in a manner to be named hereafter a royal chart of incorporation that they may be more effectually carried into execution, the purposes above mention. We being desirous to encourage a laudable undertaking have of our special grace and free motion, ordained, constituted, granted, and declared, that by these presence, we do for ourselves, our heirs in success, ordain, constitute, and grant, and declare, William Carey, Joshua Marshman, and John Clark Marshman, and such other persons as shall be successively elected and appointed the council of the said college, in manner hereafter mentioned, shall be virtually's presence, be forever hereafter one body politic incorporate in the name of Serampore College. It was William Carey's relentless battle against sooty for 25 years, which led finally to the famous edict in 1829 banning widow burning, which is called Carey's Edict. Carey was also the first man who led the campaign for a humane treatment for leprosy, and he ended the practice of burning widows alive. All this took a lot of work. William Carey certainly had a comprehensive view of the Great Commission. He ministered to body, mind, and spirit. William Carey introduced ideas of savings banks to India to make investment, industry, commerce, and economic development possible. Why savings banks? To enable poor people to be able to build their own homes, own their own homes, be able to help them develop themselves. He founded the Agricultural Horticultural Society in the 1820s, 30 years before the Royal Agricultural Society had established in England. He was a trendsetter. He was way ahead of the government on things like agriculture and forestry, and in this case, horticulture. He introduced the steam engine to India. He pioneered the idea of lending libraries. in India to make knowledge available to the common people. He persuaded his friends in England to ship out tons of books to regenerate and reform India. William Carey also introduced the study of astronomy into India. You see, the Indians believed in astrology, which is a superstition. Astrology, you read the stars to decide what's going to happen to you this week in accordance with the stars. That's superstition. He introduced the science of astronomy. Astrology leads to fatalism and superstitious fears. But astronomy enables us to be those who plan and work and organize maps and calendars for the future. So he saw that the superstition and fatalism of astrology had a terribly destructive consequence. Hinduism's astrology makes us subjects with our lives determined by the stars. But the Christian science of astronomy sets us free to be rulers, to devise calendars, to introduce geography, to identify directions, to better plan our life and our work. William Carey was the first man in India to write essays on forestry. 50 years before the government made its first attempts at forestry conservation, William Carey was already practicing conservation, planting, cultivating timber, He understood God has made man responsible on the earth. Cary was also a botanist who cultivated beautiful gardens such as Serampo Gardens and Calcutta Botanical Gardens. He frequently lectured on science, botany and zoology because he believes all our works praise the Lord. He knew that nature is worthy of study. Cary pointed out even the insects are worthy of attention. They're not souls in bondage. They're creatures with a God-given purpose. William Carey was the father of print technology in India. He introduced the modern science of printing. He built what was then the largest printing press in India. He devised the fonts in these strange alphabets. In 1812, a devastating fire destroyed William Carey's warehouse with his printing presses, his paper stocks, and his manuscripts, representing many years of work. Even in the face of this catastrophe, Carey praised God that no lives had been lost, and he quotes at Psalm 46, be still and know that I am God. He resolved to do better translations than the ones that were now ashes, and he consoled himself that every branch that the Lord prunes, he purges, that it may bring forth good fruit. The Lord has laid me low that I might look more simply to him. However vexing it may be, a road the second time traveled is usually taken with more confidence and ease than at the first. He quoted Isaiah 61 verse 1 to 4, and he trusted God for better printing presses, more accurate translations, a phoenix rising from the ashes. Cary was hit not only by the fire, but by deaths in each of the seven missionary families. Kerry himself just buried a grandson. William Kerry had to endure unjust and unbalanced criticisms from the young new missionaries who were arriving, actually split from Serampore Mission, and slanderous accusations from the Mission Society in England, as well as an earthquake and a flood. You see, William Kerry never went back home. He spent the last 41 years of his life in a field in India. He was buried in India. He never went back to England. And a new mission board came to pass in England who didn't even know him. And they believed the criticisms of those youngsters who came, who gave up, who came back, and who wanted to justify their failure by criticizing him. And so they took the side with him, and they even kicked him out of his mission, the mission he had founded at a time. One of his sons, Felix, also caused much embarrassment when he backslid, adopted a lavish lifestyle. start to drink heavily. The British made him an ambassador to Burma because he could speak the language so well. Ultimately, however, Felix came back to the Lord and became fully committed to the mission. Yet despite all these controversies and calamities and conflicts, William Carey's monumental achievements outshine all his critics. He was a dedicated Christian whom God used in extraordinary ways to launch the greatest century of missionary advance to translate the scriptures into more languages, 35 languages, more than any other translator in the history of the world, and to save literally millions of lives by his compassionate social action and his tireless labors. He excelled as a missionary and as a strategist. He was humble, hardworking, industrious, and persistent. He persevered for over 41 years without any furlough, no holidays in the field. We need to follow his example by ministering to body, mind, and spirit, by persevering through all disappointments and opposition with an unshakable faith in God's sovereign power. In 2009, Cary Baptist Church in Serampore put this plaque, founded January the 1st, 1809, by William Cary, Joshua Marshman, and William Ward. This tablet has been placed here in January 2009 as a testimony to God's providence and the faithfulness of his people in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ from this place uninterruptedly for 200 years. What an achievement. Here's the Baptist mission press that he founded in India. And some of the students and staff of Serampore College, one of the graduating years. Serampore College today in India. An extraordinary achievement. Here is the notice in the newspaper of the death of Reverend Dr. William Carey. India published this first day cover on the William Carey bicentenary. In 1993, India published a six rupee postage stamp on William Carey. And notice, they've got Serampore College, education, and his Bible translation, translation and education, his two main works being honored. And India is not a Christian government, but they honored him. I don't think Britain published a stamp honoring William Carey, but India did. Department of Posts in India, six rupee William Carey stamp. There are universities around the world called William Carey International University, We have founded a correspondence program called William Carey Bible Institute, which puts a lot of things online. And we have a William Carey Bible Institute Facebook page, which often posts materials that those of us who want to be well-read and effective in the field would find useful. India was transformed by William Carey. This is in the greatest commission manual, but also in The Greatest Century of Missions book, which you will be receiving just before lunch now. On our website, frontlinemissionessay.org, you'll get many of these different articles on inspiring missionaries, mission newsletters, Persecute Church links to podcasts. Also, the Frontline Fellowship Facebook page can often have useful materials. But this is the book. I've just given you a summary of the chapter. on William Carey, the father of modern missions. Any questions, any comments, observations? William Carey, the father of modern missions, yes. William Carey said he was a plodder. He had no great skills in his mind. He said everything is achieved by plodding. You know what I mean by plodding? Like just keeping going. Like he was like, he compared himself to the tortoise. Other people might have been the rabbit who could run fast. He went slowly, but he never stopped. He kept going. William Carey had a disastrous marriage. His first marriage, Dorothy Carey, she was illiterate. She couldn't even sign her name. In the wedding register book in the village church in England. She's just got an ex. She couldn't even sign her name. She was a very simple person. Now, plainly, William Carey did not marry someone who was suitable for him, either for the work or for missions. She was a very simple person who literally became insane in the last 12 years of his life. So he chose very badly who to marry. He was obviously not wise in in making that decision. Of course, how was he to know at that stage that he would end up being a missionary leading such an important work? He then married after Dorothy died. He had a second wife who was a very high-born Danish noblewoman who was very intelligent, helped him with the work a lot. But she died quite young. I think she died at age 42, if I remember right. And then there was a third Mrs. Carey. There's a book I've got called The Three Mrs. Careys. His wives didn't last as long as he did. And of course, it's still death to his part. So William Carey is not an example, probably, of the best choice of who to marry, at least not the first time. He must have learned something later on, though, because he had very intelligent wife number two and number three. So William Carey. Plainly, he didn't choose his co-workers very well. At the very beginning, his first co-worker, Thomas, was not only irresponsible, he was actually quite dishonest, and he bankrupted them horribly with what he, I think it was Dr. Thomas, he bankrupted the whole thing within just a few months by just irresponsible spending and so on. So he must have learned from these experiences how to be a better chooser people. I think a person who can focus on his translation and language work while his boys were running wild and wife was screaming from the next room, he obviously had an ability to tune everything else out and focus. So he probably wouldn't have won Father of the Year award either or Focus in the Family's Husband of the Year award. But he was a dedicated, focused plodder. Kept going. When you look at Missionaries, William Carey must be the most uneducated, unfunded, and underestimated missionary of all time. He came from the most unexpected place, a cobbler from the poorest of families, poorest of communities. But how did he get out of it? By reading. He was so self-read and so self-taught, he was able to outstrip all other professors and translators. And he said, I can plot. I mean, that was it. Wasn't brilliant, he's just a plodder. Persistent, never gave up. Other questions? Comments? Yes? On the pharmacy. Oh, the pharmacy. Yeah. Okay, well, even in a Muslim country, they will often use a green cross instead of a red cross, but hospitals started through Christianity, nursing profession through Christianity, and so on. The, even what they use for ambulances, it's the serpent on the stake. When the children of Israel were being punished with the plague of serpents, Moses was told to lift up a bronze serpent on a stake, and the people had to look at that, and that symbolized the cross that Christ had done, and the serpent on it, our sin, Christ became sin for us. Today, the symbol for paramedics and ambulances is the serpent on the stake. And even for veterinary surgeries, and they've got the V in front of the serpent on the stake. You can ask the average paramedic and medical person, pharmacy people, do they know where this comes from? Most of them don't even know it comes from numbers, from John 3, as the serpent, as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. So, the healing power of the cross. Red cross and the bronze serpent on the stake. Those are the symbols for the medical professions today, even ambulances, paramedics. Interesting. Is that your question? Good. Other questions? Yes. I mean, really, Ethiopia's got this rich Christian history going back 2,000 years, very unique. Unique everything. Your calendar's different, your alphabet's different. You know, the difference between a man and a woman is already so huge. So if you want to add cultural linguistic other things, oh, gee, you're only going to make it harder and harder for yourself. So I would certainly advise not. Yes. But this isn't a marriage counseling class, even though William Carey is one of the warning examples out there. Yes. Well, we did mention William Ward and Joshua Marshman, who were very key co-workers. In fact, William Ward handled the printing side, and the Marshmans handled very much the school side. So William Carey had a good team. Of course, there were a lot of workers who came who were more of a burden than a blessing. They say everyone is a blessing. Some people bless you by coming, others bless you by going. And sometimes there are, as one missionary said, when God calls you to do an important work, Satan will send people to waste your time. And unfortunately, that's true. There are people who are blessing and other people are a burden. Some people are just a bunch of problems, and all they can do is criticize, backstab, undermine, cause grief, and they have blessing when they leave. And others are blessing by staying. Now, of the many people who came to Serampore, the Marshmans and William Ward were major blessings. They really strengthened William Carey and made him much, much, much better. But unfortunately, many of the others who came, they didn't understand. They didn't stay long enough to understand. They just criticized, and then they went back and undermined the support base, and even got the mission site to kick out Kerry and Marshman and Ward on the testimony of these deserters who'd fled the field, gone back and bad-mouthed, gossiped, slandered back in England. But this is normal. You can see the Apostle Paul faced this. Scriptures speak about these people, like Demas, who loved the world, and Hymenaeus and Alexander, who had opposed Paul's work greatly, and so on. So we see in the scripture this is normal, this is human nature. Some people are teachable and loyal, and other people are just selfish backstabbers who try to undermine what others are doing, and they become Satan's servants. The devil refers to him being the accuser of the brethren. Satan means the enemy. And so, when we become accusers of the brethren, it is, we're putting ourself with the enemy's side. Other questions or comments? Let me ask you a question. What was the theme of the sermon that launched the Modern Mystery Movement? What was the theme of William Carey's sermon that launched the modern missionary movement? Oh God, yes, very good. Who can give the text which passage of scripture? What's the scripture reference that he preached from? Good, okay, thank you. You had a question. Were you asking a question? Please, don't get confused. Well, he worked in a plantation. William Carey basically had to work full time in a secular employment to fund himself in missions for many years. And it took a long time before he got enough support. So the Mission Society back home was not supporting him enough to sustain his family or his work. And so he often was in indigo was the type of plantation where there were particularly dying to get different color dyes, pink and purple and red and so on from plants, and then making cloth of that color. So that's where he got a lot of his funding from. When you've got to work full time at the same time as doing your mission, that's very hard.