I have been a missionary for over 50 years, yet I have only just come across an extraordinary document called “The Serampore Form of Agreement” (or “The Bond of the Missionary Brotherhood of Serampore”). It is a profoundly challenging document, one which is quite extraordinary for the values that it defines for those involved in cross cultural missionary work – the more amazing because it was written over 200 years ago, yet defines values that are today core biblical missionary values. No wonder that “missions-minded believers, especially young field workers and students, should immerse themselves in this rich text, ponder the pioneering spirit it embodies, and pray for the Lord’s grace in granting to us the sort of dedication” that Carey and his band boasted.
The agreement was written by The Serampore Trio, the name given to three pioneering English missionaries in India, William Carey (1761-1834), a shoemaker, Joshua Marshman (1768-1837), a schoolteacher and William Ward (1769-1823), a printer. William Carey had arrived in Bengal in 1793 and Marshman and Ward arrived in 1799. “They had selected as their base a Danish trading post in the village of Serampore, 13 kilometres (8.1 miles) north of Calcutta. Hence the name of the document.”
The document was signed by these three pioneer missionaries and by 6 others in 1805. It consisted of eleven sections, and the heading describes it as embodying “the great principles upon which the brethren of the mission at Serampore think it their duty to act in the work of instructing the lost.”
In 1805 Carey had been twelve years in Bengal and more than five years at Serampore. The small band of Indian converts was growing in number. The missionaries were reaching out ever farther afield into Bengal, preaching in Calcutta, Catwa, Dinajpur and Dacca. New recruits were arriving from England.
As they thus began to establish new mission stations and therefore new churches, they felt the Agreement was needed. It was to be read at every mission station three times a year, on the first Sunday in January, May and October. The heading describes it as embodying “the great principles upon which the brethren of the mission at Serampore think it their duty to act in the work.”
Carey and Marshman lived the longest of the original nine signatories, serving until 1834 and 1837 respectively. “To the very end they remained faithful to the principles set out so eloquently in the Agreement, carrying it out to the best of their ability ‘in all weathers.’” “The paragraphs dealing with a missionary’s personal conduct might be taken as an unconscious’ description of Carey’s, Marshman’s and Ward’s simplicity of life and complete self-dedication, their unremitting toil, their constancy in prayer, the concentration of their preaching on the theme of the Cross, their brotherliness towards India’s converts. Clauses 7 and 8 dealing with the parts which European women might play and Indians must play in the conversion of India, show them as far ahead of most of their generation. Their confidence in the power of the Scriptures and of the written word is plainly stated in Clause 9, together with the place of education in mission strategy.”
“The Redeemer, in planting us in this nation, rather than in any other, has imposed upon us the cultivation of peculiar qualifications. We are firmly persuaded that Paul might plant and Apollos water, in vain, in any part of the world, did not God give the increase… We cannot but observe with admiration that Paul, the great champion for the glorious doctrines of free and sovereign grace, was the most conspicuous for his personal zeal in the work of persuading men to be reconciled to God. In this respect he is a noble example for our imitation. Our Lord intimated to those of His Apostles who were fishermen that He would make them fishers of men, intimating that in all weathers, and amidst every disappointment they were to aim at drawing men to the shores of eternal life. Solomon says, ‘He that winneth souls is wise’, implying, no doubt, that the work of gaining over men to the side of God was to be done by winning methods, and that it required the greatest wisdom to do it with success. Upon these points, we think it right to fix our serious and abiding attention.”
So do you and I, I trust, though we might express the same sentiments in more modern English! I hope to do that over the next few weeks in these Sunday posts. I am humbled by the amazing insights and values of this extraordinary missionary document. Tune in next Sunday for article 1 of “The Serampore Form of Agreement.”
Source: Baptist Quarterly, January 1947.
TheologyontheWeb.org.uk
Read the original document here
