F

He

out-lived nearly all who were associated with him in the establishment of the Mission: Fuller, Sutcliff, Pearce, Fawcett, Ryland, amongst those at home; and Thomas, Ward, Chamberlain, and others who had been his fellow-labourers in the work abroad. During this prolonged residence in India, unbroken by any return to England, he had, however, experienced at several periods serious attacks of illness; especially was this the case in 1823, when through an accident, followed by severe fever, he was brought to the brink of the grave. From that illness he never appears to have fully recovered. But though he was under the necessity of somewhat restricting his manifold duties, he concentrated his efforts upon certain pursuits with that diligent persistency by which he had ever been characterised. His chief desire was to complete the last revision of the Bengalee version. And that great work he had strength sufficient to accomplish.

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Repeated attacks of fever, with other complications, gradually enfeebled his constitution. In 1831 he expected that his race was run, but the end was not yet, for, in the spring of 1833, his health had so much improved, that Mr. Leechman, who then arrived from England to assist him, was able to describe his condition and circumstances in the following terms :-" Our venerable Dr. Carey is in excellent health, and takes his turn in all our public exercises. Just forty years ago, the first of this month, he administered the Lord's Supper to the church at Leicester, and started on the morrow to embark for India. Through this long period of honourable toil, the Lord has mercifully preserved him; and at our missionary prayer-meeting, held on the first of this month, he delivered an interesting address to encourage us to persevere in the work of the Lord.... We have also a private monthly prayermeeting held in Dr. Carey's study, which is to me a meeting of uncommon interest. On these occasions we particularly spread before the Lord our public and private trials, both those which come upon us from the cause of Christ, with which it is our honour and privilege to be connected, and those also which we as individuals are called to bear. At our last meeting, Dr. Carey read part of the history of Gideon, and commented with deep feeling on the encouragement which that history affords, that the cause of God can be carried on to victory and triumph by feeble and apparently inefficient means. On these occasions, as we are quite alone, we give full expression to the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears, that agitate our spirits. Our friends at home are not forgotten on these occasions. Oh that our united prayers may be heard that Christ's kingdom may come."

With a view to lengthen his invaluable life, his friends strongly urged him to relax his labours, but with his inveterate repugnance to inactivity he would sit and work at his desk when his physical strength was altogether unequal to his mental energy. But that necessity which is inexorable compelled him at last to take almost entirely to his couch; yet even when thus prostrated he would have proof sheets brought to him for revision.

In the autumn he was able to write to his sisters the following letter, indicating, as it does most beautifully, the tranquil state of his mind :

"My being able to write to you now is quite unexpected by me, and, I believe, by everyone else; but it appears to be the will of God that I should continue a little time longer. How long that may be I leave entirely with Him, and can only say, 'All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.' I was, two months or more ago, reduced to such a state of weakness that it appeared as if my mind was extinguished; and my weakness of body and sense of extreme fatigue and exhaustion were such that I could scarcely speak, and it appeared that death would be no more felt than the removing from one chair to another. I am now able to sit and to lie on my couch, and now and then to read a proof sheet of the Scriptures. I am too weak to walk more than just across the house, nor can I stand even a few minutes without support. I have every comfort that kind friends can yield, and feel, generally, a tranquil mind. I trust the great point is settled, and I am ready to depart; but the time when, I leave with God."

His interest in his garden remained to the last. As long as his strength permitted he would be drawn in

a chair to visit his beloved resort. And when that enjoyment was no longer possible his head gardener was regularly summoned into his room to receive instructions. On one occasion, in a moment of depressed feeling, he exclaimed, "When I am gone, brother Marshman will turn the cows into the garden." "Far be it from me," instantly replied Marshman, "though I have not your botanical tastes I shall consider the preservation of the garden in which you have taken so much delight as a sacred duty!"

During his last days he was visited by many friends. Lady William Bentinck was most assiduous and kind in her attentions; Dr. Wilson, the Bishop of Calcutta, was encouraged and inspired by the interviews he requested, and earnestly craved the venerable missionary's blessing; Mr. Duff, the young Scotch missionary, hereafter to take so important a part in the educational and religious progress of India, was amongst those who sought his presence. An incident which occurred during one of Mr. Duff's visits is most affectingly narrated by Dr. Culross in his "Men Worth Remembering." “On one of the last occasions on which he saw him-if not the very last he spent some time talking chiefly about Carey's missionary life, till at length the dying man whispered, 'Pray.' Duff knelt down and prayed, and then said Good-bye. As he passed from the room, he thought he heard a feeble voice pronouncing his name, and, turning, he found that he was recalled. He stepped back accordingly and this is what he heard, spoken with a gracious solemnity: ' Mr. Duff, you have been speaking about Dr. Carey, Dr. Carey; when I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey-speak about Dr. Carey's Saviour. Duff went away rebuked and awed, with a lesson in his heart that he never forgot."

With Marshman and Mack and other of his fellow missionaries he held most delightful converse. Two days before his death, Mr. Mack wrote thus to Mr. Christopher Anderson of Edinburgh :—

"Respecting the great change before him, a single shade of anxiety has not crossed his mind ever since the beginning of his decay, so far as I am aware. His Christian experience partakes of that guileless integrity which has been the grand characteristic of his whole life. Often, when he was yet able to converse, has he said to his friends,-'I am sure that Christ will save all that come unto Him; and if I know anything of myself, I think I know that I have come to Him.' The ascertaining of that allimportant fact had been his object in much honest self-examination, and the result was the peaceful assurance that his hopes were well-grounded. Having pursued the inquiry to this result, when in the prospect of death, he seems to have been enabled to dismiss all further anxiety on the subject from his mind, and to have committed all that concerned his life and death to the gracious care of God in perfect resignation to His will. We wonder much that he is yet alive, and should not be surprised were he taken off in an hour. Nor could such an occurrence be regretted. It would only be weakness in us to wish to retain him. He is ripe for glory, and already dead to all that belongs to life."

On the 9th of June, 1834, in the seventy-third year of his age, his spirit passed away to the Saviour, whom, with such humble dependence, he so entirely trusted, and whom he had been enabled so long and so devotedly to serve. With every expression of profound esteem and sincere sorrow from representatives of the British Government, and of the Danish