CHAPTER XII. Distant Sunsets. "CAN we whose souls are lighted With wisdom from on high, Can we to men benighted The lamp of life deny? The joyful sound proclaim, Till earth's remotest nation Has learned Messiah's name." I. DR. CAREY. II. THE APOSTLE TO THE BURMESE. III. HENRY WATSON FOX. IV. RICHARD MUNN. V. THE FRENCH GOVERNESS. M I. DR. CAREY. ODERN Christian missions had their rise at an earlier date than the landing of William Carey on India's soil in 1793. They were born at Herrnhut in 1731, and of the seven years' prayer meeting which the Moravian brethren held by relays, in their Christian sanctuary there, for the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon mankind, and the ingathering of the nations within the pale of the church of Christ. In that year Count Zinzendorf, attended by a suite suitable to his rank, went to Copenhagen to be present at the coronation of Christian VI., king of Denmark, Whilst there he met with a Christian negro, who had been brought from Jamaica to be a servant in a gentleman's family, and who, through the instructions of Christian persons, had learnt the story of God's love, made Christ his trust, and was happy in the knowledge of sins forgiven and of sonship in the Divine family. He begged hard of the Count and his Christian attendants to think of the slaves of his island home, and send to them Christian teachers to put them in possession of what he himself now enjoyed, and which made him happy. Thus was the spirit of Christian missions awakened in the heart of the Count and his followers. But the spirit could not be confined to their own breasts. It diffused itself among their fellow-members of the congregation at Herrnhut, and in the following year two young men laid themselves on the altar of surrender to God, and sailed for Jamaica. Others followed their example, and went in after-years to other fields of missionary labour in different parts of the world. Yet no nobler man ever gave himself to the service of the heathen than William Carey, or accomplished a greater service for the evangelization of millions of souls. He was born at Paulerspury, in Northamptonshire, in August, 1761. "His father was the parish clerk and schoolmaster of his native village, and from him he derived whatever education as a boy he received. He soon showed great fondness for reading, and devoured whatever books he could lay his hands upon." When fifteen years of age he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and found in a fellowapprentice one who was the means of leading him to religious thoughtfulness. Having found salvation and rest in Christ, he identified himself with a Baptist church, and soon began to preach in surrounding villages that gospel which he had learnt to value, and felt to be the power of God for purification and peace of mind. Entering the Christian ministry, he became the pastor of a small Baptist church at Hackleton, in his native county. Suffering greatly from poverty and ill health here, he removed to the village of Moulton, and opened a school, as the people forming his |