William and Felix

We tend to think that if we are making progress on ordinary days we are doing well but Proverbs 24:10 says If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! This is illustrated strikingly in the contrasting stories of William Carey and his son Felix.

William

See pp 240, 241 of Appleby:

By now a translation of the whole Bible was printed and published in Bengali; the New Testament was published in Sanskrit, Oriya, Marathi and Hindi; translated, but not yet printed, were New Testaments in Telegu. Kanarese, Gujarati and Punjabi; work was beginning on translations in Kashmiri, Burmese and even Chinese. Then on the night of Wednesday 11 March 1812 William Ward suddenly found the warehouse and printing office on fire. Despite attempts by him and some native employees to quench the fire by pouring on buckets of water all through the night, large stocks of paper, valuable manuscripts, a library of grammar books and dictionaries and founts of type were lost. The roof of the building collapsed and the whole premises was engulfed in flames. The cause was never discovered. The labour of twelve years was lost in a few hours. In monetary terms the loss was estimated at £10,000; the loss in terms of time and energy over the years and of valuable manuscripts was incalculable.
Sikh and Telegu grammars and ten Bible versions were gone ... volumes of the Ramayana translation destroyed for ever ... worst of all was the loss of the Polyglot Dictionary of all the languages derived from Sanskrit which would have perpetuated Carey’s name in the first rank of philologists. (Smith 197)
Carey’s response was typical of the man. He wrote to John Ryland:
The Lord has smitten us, he had a right to do so, and we deserve his corrections. I wish to submit to his sovereign will, nay, cordially to acquiesce therein, and to examine myself rigidly to see what in me has contributed to this evil. (Smith 198)
Carey’s first sermon after the event was based upon Psalm 46:10 dividing his material under two headings - 1.God’s right to dispose of us as he pleases and 2. Man’s duty, to acquiesce in his will.

Felix

See 252, 253 of Appleby:

Young Felix Carey had been working in Burma for nearly seven years and had prepared a translation of Matthews Gospel in Burmese and a manuscript for a dictionary of the Burmese and Pali languages. His preaching and helpfulness among the people had earned him the respect of the king and high officials. The royal wish was that Felix should set up a mission station in the capital of Ava, together with the installation of a printing press. Serampore donated one of their presses and in 1814 Felix conveyed it across to Rangoon accompanied by his second wife, a son from his former marriage, and a new baby. From Rangoon a boat journey was involved on the lrrawaddy river and there tragedy struck the little family. A sudden storm caused the boat to capsize plunging the family and the printing press into the river. Felix supported his wife and baby until he sank with exhaustion. Coming to the surface again he could find neither his wife nor the baby: nor could he reach his son. He struggled to the riverbank only to realise that his new wife, two children, the press and a precious manuscript of Matthew’s Gospel had all been lost – a loss which affected him so much that his behaviour became eccentric and unpredictable. The Burmese king, perhaps thinking it to be a form of therapy, sent him back to the familiar Calcutta as an ambassador. Felix resigned from the mission, causing Carey to write to Fuller that ‘Felix is shrivelled from a missionary to an ambassador’. In Calcutta’s high society life Felix became addicted to drink and accumulated many debts which his father struggled to repay. Returning to Rangoon to report to the king, Felix learned that he was out of favour and fled to the border of Burma and Assam. He drifted about, a lost soul, until in 1818 William Ward came across him when visiting Burma and persuaded him to return to Serampore. The whole story meant an agony of distress for his father. Felix died in 1822 at the early age of thirty-seven. Until the day of his own death in 1834 Carey never lost his sense of grief over the collapse of Felix.

What a contrast in reactions. presumably many of the same influences had shaped them yet when it came to the test one was found wanting. What a mystery here but also a warning that when we assess ourselves, as we must, we must not be misled by thinking only of how we cope in easier times.