EMQ » April–June 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 3
By Matthew R.
I learned the hard the way how important it is to pay attention to the “check oil” light. Knowing our car had a slow oil leak, I was in the habit of seeing the light and occasionally adding a quart of oil as needed. But this time I thought I could make it a little further before adding more oil. I was wrong. The friction of moving parts in the engine was too much, and the engine locked up completely. What could have been remedied with an inexpensive purchase of engine lubricant ended up costing my wife and me dearly.
Missions and missions teams are comprised of living, moving parts. These moving parts are the men and women that make up the mission. With so many moving parts, there is also friction. Many a missions team has fallen apart when this friction has not received the attention it needed. In thriving missions, however, there are often certain people—often behind the scenes—that help reduce friction. Like a soothing oil, their presence exerts a calming, peacemaking influence on those around them. William Ward was such a person in the Serampore Mission in the early nineteenth century in Bengal, India. At critical junctures, his irenic influence and wise counsel reduced friction and helped preserve the Mission.
Brief Biography
The only “William” from the Serampore Mission with whom most are familiar today is the “Father of Modern Missions,” William Carey (1761–1834). But like most missionaries today, William Carey was part of a team. His two closest colleagues in ministry were Joshua Marshman (1768–1837) and William Ward (1769–1823). Together, they made up the Serampore Trio and served alongside each other for over twenty-three years. Though numerous missionary biographies have been written about William Carey, the historical reality is that he, Marshman, and Ward worked together as a leadership team. For several decades they complemented one another in an intricate way. Indeed, very few people in Britain ever realized how dependent Carey was on his partners for insight and a wide range of initiatives.[i] William Ward played many vital roles at the Serampore Mission, but sadly, after he died, “he slipped from the memory of succeeding generations almost as soon as he was laid to rest.”[ii]
William Ward was born in the town of Derby, England, October 20, 1769. He was born into a working-class family to a carpenter father and a pious Methodist mother.[iii] As a young man, Ward apprenticed as a printer under John Drewry, a printer and bookseller in Derby.[iv] Ward went on to work as a newspaper editor for about four years—first for The Derby Mercury and then for the Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette.[v] But Ward was not to remain in the newspaper business. Though the details are not clear, Ward began to align himself with Particular Baptists around 1791.[vi] He made a public profession of his faith in Christ around 1794 or 1795[vii] and was baptized a year later while attending the Baptist church on George Street in Hull.[viii] Following his baptism, he began to preach in the villages around Hull[ix] and eventually attracted the attention of a patron, one Mr. Fishwick, who offered to sponsor Ward’s preparation for gospel ministry.[x] This took place under the direction of prominent Particular Baptist minister, John Fawcett (1740–1817), at his residence of Ewood Hall.[xi] It was there that he met one of the members of the newly formed Particular Baptist Missionary Society, probably John Sutcliff (1752–1814).[xii] Perhaps, at this time, Ward recalled Carey’s words to him prior to his departure for India: “If the Lord bless us, we shall want a person of your business, to enable us to print the Scriptures; I hope you will come after us.”[xiii] What is certain is that soon after this visit from the PBMS member, Ward wrote to Society secretary, Andrew Fuller, to express his “readiness to engage in this great cause.”[xiv]
On May 7, 1799, Ward, along with Daniel Brunsdon (1777–1801) was “set apart to the work of a Christian Missionary.”[xv] Seventeen days later, William Ward, Joshua and Hannah Marshman (1767–1847), and Daniel Brunsdon and William Grant and their spouses boarded the Criterion and embarked for India, and four and a half months later, they arrived in Serampore, Lord’s Day morning, October 13, 1799.[xvi] Apart from one international tour toward the end of his life, Serampore would be the center of Ward’s life and ministry for the rest of his days. Though Ward is primarily known for his role of printer at the Mission, he came, in time, to fill many vital roles in the Serampore Mission and beyond. These included “peacemaker, personnel manager, pastoral counselor and publisher,”[xvii] preacher, evangelist, mentor, mission administrator, missiologist, theologian, historian, draftsman, author, college professor, pastor, husband, father, and friend.
The Context and Nature of Ward’s Spirituality
What is now called “spirituality,” Ward called “real religion.” He writes, “For a more correct idea of real religion can hardly be formed by us, than that it is a deep and lasting impression of the immeasurable importance of the truths of the Gospel, and fervency of spirit in seeking to be brought permanently under their influence.”[xviii] In Ward’s understanding, spirituality or “real religion” was a matter of “seeking to be brought permanently under” the influences of the truths of the Gospel. The spirituality he esteemed could be measured objectively by the degree to which one’s life adhered to Scripture. Put another way, one’s spirituality is shaped by one’s theology.
In Ward’s case, he stood in a theological stream that ran from the Reformers of the sixteenth century to the English Puritans of the seventeenth century to George Whitefield (1714–1770) and Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) in the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s. Those affected by Whitefield’s ministry included Dissenters (including Ward’s Particular Baptists) and Anglicans alike. Though denominationally different, these all shared a common love for the doctrines of grace. Regarding these doctrines Ward writes,
The more we know of mankind, and the more we know ourselves, the more shall we see of the importance of the doctrines of grace; that there is an imperious necessity that these doctrines should be faithfully and fearlessly preached and as thoroughly and heartily received, seeing the very life of religion within us, the very life of the churches, and the success of the ministry, depend upon it.[xix]
From this theological foundation, four themes emerge in William Ward’s spirituality. These are readily identified from both his memoir and his swansong, Reflections On The Word of God For Every Day In The Year, a two-volume daily devotional which he wrote about five years before his death. These themes are love, prayer, humility, and usefulness. These traits coalesced to form a warmhearted, theologically robust spirituality that had a salutary effect on both the Serampore Trio and Mission. Many examples could be given to illustrate the impact of Ward’s spirituality on the Serampore Trio and Mission, but only the following two examples are included in this article.
The Effect of Ward’s Spirituality on the Serampore Trio and Mission
Until 1813 when the East India Company charter was renewed with terms more favorable to mission endeavors, Ward and company labored under the constant threat of expulsion from India and the extinction of their mission. To maintain control over Bengal and other areas of India, the Company relied on its sepoy army comprised of local Hindu and Muslim soldiers.[xx] Because of this, British rulers could not afford to risk offending local religious sentiments. This was tragically illustrated on July 10, 1806 when Muslim sepoys massacred fourteen officers of the garrison, including the colonel, in addition to ninety-nine commissioned officers—while they were asleep and unarmed![xxi] It seems the mutiny stemmed from an order that sepoys should wear a new turban that was repugnant to them as it bore strong resemblance to an English hat. This repugnance morphed into revolt as family members of the defeated Tipu Sultan spread the report that this was a first step toward full-scale forced conversion of the Indian populace to Christianity.[xxii]
Following this mutiny, Company rulers were especially alert to anything that might inflame local passions. A year later, in this combustible environment, an overzealous convert from a Muslim background struck a match by writing a tract that referred to the Prophet Muhammad as a “tyrant” and the Qur’an as an “imposture”—i.e., a work which is intended to deceive. It slipped through the press without Ward’s knowledge and was deemed by the government “sufficient to excite rebellion among the Mussulmans.”[xxiii] With so much at stake the British authorities could not take any chances. A little over a week after the Serampore missionaries first learned of the inflammatory tract they received an alarming letter from the Company Government demanding that the house of worship in Calcutta be closed, and worst of all, that the Mission’s Press “be transferred to this Presidency where alone the same Controul that is established over presses sanctioned by Government, can be duly exercised.”[xxiv]
On receipt of this news, the Mission was brought very low. Carey “wept like a child.”[xxv] They called a special prayer meeting. Their ally and protector, Danish Governor Krefting declared that “he would strike the flag, & surrender himself a prisoner, but that he would not give up the press.”[xxvi] A showdown was brewing between the Serampore Mission and their Danish protector, and the British government of the East India Company.
In the midst of this tense situation, with the continued existence of the Mission on the line, Ward offered his colleagues some sagacious counsel. First, he reminded them of all they stood to lose if they could not find a way to assuage the Company’s ire. They could lose Carey’s salary which would put an end to translations and send them to jail for debt. The Government could stop the circulation of any and every item issued from their Press. They could prohibit their entering British territories altogether.[xxvii] Second—and in lieu of their dire reality—Ward recommended the following pacific course:
We should entreat their clemency, & try to soften them. Tender words, with the consciences of men on our side, go a long way. We can tell them to take the press to Calcutta would involve us in a heavy and unbearable expence, break up our family, &ca . . . that we are willing to do every thing they wish us, except that of renouncing our work and character as Ministers of the Saviour of the world . . . . If they listen to this we are secured, with all the advantages of their sufferance. If they are obstinate, we are still at Serampore. I entreat you dear Brethren, to consider these things, and give them all the attention that our awful circumstances [require].[xxviii]
In the end, the missionaries had to submit for a time to certain “restrictions imposed upon them” by the Government, but they were able to keep their press and continue printing Bengali Bibles.[xxix] Ward knew that his actions might be interpreted in England as a compromise of their gospel calling. But given what would have happened had they remained estranged from the ruling powers, Ward felt justified in the decision they had made. To help Fuller see things from their perspective he challenged, “I suppose, for the sake of preaching at the bull-ring in the market-place, you would not think it right to quarrel with the mayor of Northampton, if you knew that the result of this quarrel would be the silencing of all the Gospel Ministers in England. ‘If they persecute you in one city, flee’, &c.[xxx]
Conclusion
A few years after the Persian Pamphlet Controversy, Ward was involved in another standoff. But this time, he faced off not against the East India Company, but against his closest colleagues, William Carey and Joshua Marshman. They differed over whether communion at the Mission Church should be open or closed. Through the years they had practiced both at different times. However, in March 1811, Marshman, convinced by Andrew Fuller, prohibited an independent missionary from observing the Lord’s Supper with them. And with that, the Mission Church resumed the practice of closed communion.[xxxi] So strongly did Ward resent this move that he rejoined, “[I] would rather die than go into such a measure.”[xxxii] But in the end, he did what he had said he would do should such a decision ever be made:
We admit paedobaptists to communion with us; but should the Serampore church change its practice, which, in my opinion, is its glory, I would take all proper occasions to protest against its spirit; but should I abandon all means of doing good, because they acted wrong? Would not my opinions, mildly and properly urged, be more likely to do good, than if I left the church, and placed myself at a greater distance from my fellow-christians?[xxxiii]
Or, as he expressed his rationale to John Ryland (1753–1825) over four years later, “I throw away the guns to preserve the ship.”[xxxiv]
Ward’s spirituality is both relevant and imitable. Many a missionary who departed for the field with intentions of serving a lifetime, has returned a short time later because of team conflict. Consequently, mission fields and agencies are in sore need of William Wards today. Unlike the independent trailblazer, William Ward is a missionary hero of a different kind.
Matt R. has served for almost fourteen years in South and Southeast Asia as church planter, Team Strategy Leader, Language and Culture Coach, and pastor. He currently lives with his family in Thailand where he serves as an Area Leader with his organization. He holds an MDiv. from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and graduated May 2019 with his Ph.D. in Biblical Spirituality from the same institution.
[i] A. Christopher Smith, The Serampore Mission Enterprise (Bangalore, India: Centre for Contemporary Christianiry, 2006), 3.
[ii] Smith, Serampore Enterprise, 46.
[iii] Samuel Stennett, Memoirs of The Life of the Rev. William Ward, Late Baptist Missionary in India; Containing A Few Of His Early Poetical Productions, and A Monody to His Memory (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1825), 6.
[iv] Stennet records his master’s name as “Drewry” while J. C. Marshman spells the same “Drury.” Stennett, Memoirs, 10;John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward (1859; repr., Serampore: Council of Serampore College, 2005), 1:93
[v] A. Christopher Smith, “William Ward, Radical Reform, and Missions in the 1790s,” American Baptist Quarterly 10, no. 3 (September 1991): 221–22.
[vi] Smith, “William Ward, Radical Reform,” 230.
[vii] Stennett, Memoirs, 13–14.
[viii] J. C. Marshman, Life and Times, 1:96; Smith, “William Ward, Radical Reform,” 233.
[ix] Stennett, Memoirs, 29.
[x] J. C. Marshman, The Life and Times, 1:96; Smith, “Radical Reform,” 237; Stennett, Memoirs, 30.
[xi] [John Fawcett, Jr.], An Account of the Life, Ministry, and Writings of the late Rev. John Fawcett Who Was Minister Of The Gospel Fifty-Four Years, First At Wainsgate, And Afterwards At Hebdenbridge, In The Parish Of Halifax; Comprehending Many Particulars Relative To The Revival And Progress Of Religion In Yorkshire And Lancashire; And Illustrated By Copious Extracts From The Diary Of The Deceased, From His Extensive Correspondence, And Other Documents (London, 1818), 284.
[xii] Stennett, Memoirs,49. Smith feels the visiting BMS member was probably John Sutcliff. Smith, “William Ward, Radical Reform, and Missions in the 1790s,” 237.
[xiii] Stennett, Memoirs,49. Smith feels the visiting BMS member was probably John Sutcliff. Smith, “William Ward, Radical Reform, and Missions in the 1790s,” 237.
[xiv] Stennett, Memoirs,50.
[xv] Stennett, Memoirs, 61.
[xvi] J. C. Marshman, Life and Times, 1:111.
[xvii] Smith, Serampore Enterprise, 24; H. Helen Holcomb, Men of Might in India Mission (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1901), 89.
[xviii] William Ward, Reflections On The Word of God For Every Day In The Year: In Two Volumes (Serampore: Mission Press, 1822), 2:138.
[xix] Ward, Reflections, 2:66.
[xx] “Sepoy” is an Anglicization of the Persian and Urdu words sipahi which means “soldier.”
[xxi] J. C. Marshman, Life and Times, 1:263.
[xxii] J. C. Marshman, Life and Times, 1:261-65.
[xxiii] Ward, Journal MSS, Thursday, September 3, 1807, 580.
[xxiv] Ward, Journal MSS, Friday, September 11, 1807, 589.
[xxv] Ward, Journal MSS, Tuesday, September 15, 1807, 592.
[xxvi] Ward, Journal MSS, Monday, September 21, 1807, 594.
[xxvii] Ward, Journal MSS, Monday, September 21, 1807, 595.
[xxviii] Ward, Journal MSS, Monday, September 21, 1807, 595-96.
[xxix] Ward, Journal MSS, Saturday, October 10, 1807, 601-02.
[xxx] Ward, Journal MSS, Monday, September 21, 1807, 596
[xxxi] Ward, Journal MSS, Lord’s Day, March 3, 1811, 749. Mr. Pritchett is called an “independent missionary” in J. C. Marshman, Life and Times, 1:461.
[xxxii] J. C. Marshman, Life and Times, 1:460.
[xxxiii] Ward to a friend, March 3, 1810 in Stennett, Memoirs, 245.
[xxxiv] Ward to Ryland, November 14, 1815, BMS MSS.
