The Northampton Mercury, Friday, January 31, 1896
V – Carey House.
(1) April 1st
1795. “At our Church Meeting we Agreed to send one of our Members
to Clipston to the ministers’ Meeting, for advice on Account of our
Minister’s Deinieng (denying) the Godhead of Christ.”
(Chapel
Book, Moulton)
(2) June 7th, 1795] “The Church of Christ
Meeting at Moulton holding the Doctrines mentioned at the Head of the Circular
Letter, to the ministers and Messengers at an Association at Kettering, June
1795 – Sendeth Christian Love.”
The Letter proceeds to set forth the sad case of their
minister.
“Bretheren in the
Lord,
‘Since your Last Annual Meeting Various has been the trials and
difficulties which we have had – trials from the World, trials in the Church,
that of giving up our Late Minister is not one of the least.
We loved him as a christian And a teacher
But by no Means can or Do we Wish to embrace his present Sentiments.
We pray that God may appear for him and bring him back to the tru<unreadable
letters> it is in Christ. But
when we consider that the O<unreadable word> of Christ is in so low a
State With us this is the Greatest of All Trials.
Since the Last Association We have lost two members by Death – and
there Does Not appear that Aney Are At present Willing to fill up their Place
Excepting the restoring of one member that had been separated – from the time
of our present Minister Coming Amongst us.
We have many store People to hear the Word but what Effect it may have
Must be Left to the Pleasure of our Great Master who Sends By Whom he will And
blesses his own Message to whom he please.
We hope that the Lord Will turn again and Bless us Indeed.
When our dear Pastor Mr Carey Removed from us Mr Payne of Walgrave has in
some things Stood in his Place and we are much indebted to him And the Church at
Walgrave for their kindness And We hope that the Ministers Will as much as Can
be convenient Give us assistance and if Good should be Done your Reward from God
will be Great. May the Lord bless
and be with you all.”
The
letter from which the above has been transcribed was sent to the Kettering
Association. It is without
punctuation, and many words are wrongly spelt – but a kind of Christian spirit
runs throughout. Drawn up at
“Moulton, June 7th, 1795” this letter was “signed in the name
of the church” by Daniel Ward, Thomas Ward, Robert Byfield, John Law, and
Robert Smith.
Mr Edward Sharman came from Cottesbrook, Northamptonshire,
about the year 1789. “It is
difficult to ascertain” says the Rev W. A. Wicks, in his admirable little
sketch of the History of the Baptist Church at Moulton (1886), “whether he
came to the village in 1789 or two years later, the minutes of the Church Books
are, for a wonder, at this point, somewhat contradictory.
Nothing is recorded concerning Mr Sharman’s work here.”
He became a member of the College-lane Church, Northampton, July 13,
1779, and two years later (2 Sept 1781) was dismissed to Guilsborough.
His dismission was “granted and sign’d” in company with two other
brethren, viz. “Will Pell and Andrew his brother both of Guilsbor’ . . . .
in order to their forming a new Church at Guilsbro’,” in manner and form
following:-
“We
the Church of Christ assembling for religious Worship in College lane
Northampton under the pastoral Care of the Revd. J Ryland senr. & J Byland
junr. Rejoicing in the increase of our dear Redeemer’s Kingdom & hearing
with great Pleasure of the Work he has begun & is carrying on at Guilsbro’
in this County <Missing Lines
– not in Photocopy>
<Missing Lines – not in Photocopy>
... to each other according to His will; hereby declaring
that whenever they do in the presence of Christ, solemnly covenant and agree to
walk together, as a Church of Christ, in the Faith and Order of the Gospel, and
formally and actually take upon them such a Relation to Christ and each other:
then their membership here ceases,.&, we shall look upon them & such as
may join with them in those solemn engagements as constituting a separate and
distinct Sister Church, independent of us, tho’ we hope, ever to be connected
with us in mutual Affection, to whom we would wish Prosperity in the Name of the
Lord.” This parting letter was “Sign’d in behalf of the whole Church at
our Church meeting Sept 2, 1781” by nineteen persons: John Ryland, aenr., Jn.
Ryland, junr. ; Wm. Cooper, Joseph Dent, Thos Triader, Geo. Copeland, Reuben
Archer, Benj. Freeman, Tubalcain Mellows, Wm Ager, Cha Fitzhugh, Thos Berry,
John Copeland, John Manning, Thos Tilley, Benj. Evans, Tho. Vaughan, Tho. Wykes,
and Wm Brown. In the Moulton
“Church Book” are these entries, in addition to that quoted above :
“1789,
May 7. Our Pastor [Dr. Carey] informed us that he had accepted the Call to
Leicester, on which report we agreed to apply to the Revd. Sharman, of
Cottesbrook, which was done in a Day or two and he accepted the Call.”
And in 1790 or
1791, December 4:-
“At our Church meeting it was purposed to give Mr Sharman a call to the
office of pastor amongst us.”
On April 1st, 1795, the climax was reached.
Edward Sharman had denied the divinity of Christ, and the congregation of
the faithful resolved to appeal for advice to the Minister’s meeting at
Clipston. This was done, and by
June 7th he had left the little community to fight its battles alone.
Sharman was undoubtedly a man of worth, far in advance of his own flock,
and more than a match for the generality of his critics.
Mr John Taylor has placed on record four pamphlets written by Edward
Sharman during the years 1795-1800, the title of which were as follow:
(1) A Letter on the
Doctrine of the Trinity; addressed to the Baptist Society, at Guilsborough,
Northamptonshire
London 1795
(2) A Second letter on the
Doctrine of the Trinity; ; addressed to the Baptist Society, at Guilsborough,
Northamptonshire
Market Harborough 1796
(3) A caution against
Trinitarianism; or, an Inquiry whether those who now follow the example of the
Ancient Fathers, by invoking God’s servant the Messiah as Supreme Deity, are
the only True Worshipers of the one Almighty God revealed in the Bible, or do
not deserve the name of idolators: In five letters addressed to the Reverend Mr
Davis, Wigston, Leicestershire; containing some Remarks upon his late
Publication, stiled ‘A Caution against Socinianism, &c’ By a
Northamptonshire Farmer
Market Harborough 1799
(4) A second caution
against Trinitarianism; or an Inquiry whether that system has not some Tendency
to lead people into Deism and Atheism. In
a Letter Addressed to the Rev. Mr Fuller, Kettering.
By a Northamptonshire Farmer
Market Harborough 1800
Meanwhile what had become
of the late Pastor, the well-beloved William Carey? In the month of July 1789, he had removed to Leicester owing
to his straightened circumstances; had been ordained pastor of Harvey-lane
Chapel, May 1791, and after a stay of nearly four years had embarked for India
(June 13th) in a Danish East Indiaman, arriving “ at Balasore the 7th,
on shore the 10th, and at Calcutta the 12th November,
1793.” During 1794 he “went up
the country to Madaabatty, near Malda,” where he remained until his settlement
at Serampore; 7 February, 1801.
In 1792 he had preached his famous sermon from
Isaiah liv., 2, 3, summing up its truths in noble language:- “Expect great
things from God; Attempt great things for God.”
The Baptist Missionary Society was the outcome of this and Carey, as yet
but thirty three, volunteered to be its first missionary.
“There is a gold mine in India,” said Andrew Fuller, “but it seems
as deep as the centre of the earth: who will venture to explore it?”
And Carey made answer – “I will go down, but remember that you must
hold the rope.” “The missionary
party and their baggage were on board the Earl of Oxford,”
writes Bishop Walsh (“Modern Heroes of the Mission Field”, 1887),
“and the ship was just ready to sail when an information was laid against the
captain for taking a person on board without an order from the [East India]
Company, and forthwith the passengers and their goods were hastily put on shore,
and the vessel weighed anchor for Calcutta, leaving them behind, disappointed
and disheartened. They returned to
London. Mr Thomas, who was
Carey’s companion and brother missionary, went to a coffee-house, when, to use
his own language, ‘to the greatest joy of a bruised heart, the waiter put a
card into my hand, whereon was written these life giving words: “A Danish East
Indiaman, No. 10 Cannon Street.” No more tears that night.
Our courage revived; we fled to No. 10 Cannon Street, and found it was
the office of Smith and Co., agents, and that Mr Smith was a brother of the
captain’s; that this ship had sailed, as he supposed, from Copenhagen; was
hourly expected in Dover Roads; would make no stay there; and the terms were £100
for each passenger, £50 for a child, and £25 for an attendant’.”
Through the generosity of the agent and ship-owner, Carey and his party
embarked for Dover within twenty-four hours of their return to London; and
shortly after “they found themselves on board the Kron Princess Maria, where
they were treated with the utmost kindness by the captain, who admitted them to
his own table, and provided them with special cabins.”
Hence, a hundred years ago, Carey was working in far-off India, where
“he set himself to the acquisition of the language, he erected schools, he
made mission tours, he began to translate the New Testament, and above all he
worked at his printing press, which he set up in one corner of the factory, and
was looked upon by the natives as a God.”
In 1786 he was mending boots and shoes at Moulton; but by <missing
word> he had attained fame and eminence in Asia.
His thoughts were oft-times with the simple villagers, and he would look
back with pride to his poverty-stricken days, with their trials and
discouragements. Dining one day at
the Governor General’s one of the guests “asked and A.D.C. present, in a
whisper loud enough to be heard by the Professor, whether Dr Carey had once been
a shoemaker. ‘No sir,’
immediately answered the doctor, ‘only a cobbler!’ Whether he was proud of
it we cannot say; that he had no need to be ashamed of it we are sure.
He had outlived the days when Edinburgh reviewers tried to heap contempt
on ‘consecrated cobblers’ and he had established his right to be enrolled
amongst the aristocracy of learning and philanthropy.” (Right Rev. W. Pakenham
Walsh)
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