In his book, 10 Who Changed the World, Danny Akin cites the following excerpt from the great Baptist m William Carey on his 70th birthday, just three years before his death:
“I am this day seventy years old, a monument of Divine mercy and goodness, though on review of my life I find much, very much, for which I ought to be humbled in the dust; my direct and positive sins are innumerable, my negligence in the Lrd’s work has been great, I have not promoted his cause, nor sought his glory and honor as I ought, notwithstanding all this, I am spared till now, and am still retained in his Work, and I trust I am received into the divine favor through him. I wish to be more entirely devoted to his service, more completely sanctified and more habitually exercising all the Chrstn graces, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness to the praise and honor of that Savior who gave his life a sacrifice for sin.”
Three years later, Carey’s tombstone would read as follows:
“A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, on thy kind arms I fall.”
This humble self-assessment by the “father of the modern missions movement” may surprise us, for as Akin points out, “William Carey may have been the greatest missionary since the time of the apostles”. However, Carey’s words remind us that even those who are used by Gd in remarkable ways are used, not due to their own ability, but rather in spite of their inability.
All is of grace.
“I am this day seventy years old, a monument of Divine mercy and goodness, though on review of my life I find much, very much, for which I ought to be humbled in the dust; my direct and positive sins are innumerable, my negligence in the Lrd’s work has been great, I have not promoted his cause, nor sought his glory and honor as I ought, notwithstanding all this, I am spared till now, and am still retained in his Work, and I trust I am received into the divine favor through him. I wish to be more entirely devoted to his service, more completely sanctified and more habitually exercising all the Chrstn graces, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness to the praise and honor of that Savior who gave his life a sacrifice for sin.”
Three years later, Carey’s tombstone would read as follows:
“A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, on thy kind arms I fall.”
This humble self-assessment by the “father of the modern missions movement” may surprise us, for as Akin points out, “William Carey may have been the greatest missionary since the time of the apostles”. However, Carey’s words remind us that even those who are used by Gd in remarkable ways are used, not due to their own ability, but rather in spite of their inability.
All is of grace.
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