I Cannot But Rejoice

A portion of a letter from missionary William Carey, to his pastor-friend in England, Andrew Fuller. Carey had received letters from Fuller and was thankful. He said, "Few things afford me more pleasure than your letters do." In his reply, Carey gave a report of baptisms for the year 1809. It took seven years before the mission work saw its first baptism but he was able this particular year to report that there had been many. The letter was written December, 1809.

I believe the number baptised within the last year, in all the Churches of Bengal, is sixty seven. Two or three of them have been excluded or suspended, but a greater number of those who had been formally excluded, have given satisfactory proof of repentance, and have been re-admitted to the Lord's table. All the churches are supplied with pastors and have the Word regularly dispensed among them, and some new stations have been attempted, and old ones strengthened. Upon the whole, I cannot but rejoice in what the Lord has done and is now doing among us.

The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey, collected and edited by Terry G. Carter, Smyth & Helwys, 2000, pp. 202-03.