IT has pleased God, in the choice of His ' instruments for the carrying on of His work, ofttimes to employ persons of very humble origin. George Whitfield was potman in his mother's inn in the city of Gloucester; William Carey was the son of a poor schoolmaster, and himself a cobbler; and, to go back farther to more notable instances, several of the apostles were fishermen.
It was so in the case of John Chamberlain. He was a village lad, and his parents, though industrious, were poor and lowly. He was born at Welton, Northamptonshire, in 1777. Of feeble frame and health, he was sent, at twelve years of age, to Market Harborough to be a farm servant, with the hope that agricultural work would invigorate his constitution. From Harborough he removed to Braunston, and here, when eighteen years of age, he was led to Christ, and, the following year, made a public profession of his faith. The young man felt his heart stirred and his mental powers invigorated by the Christian life upon which he had entered.
Removing to Naseby in 1797, he was favored in having an earnest Christian man as his master. At Naseby, a hundred and fifty years before, Oliver Cromwell had won one of his greatest victories. There the future missionary began his life-long fight with error and sin, ignorance and crime, by starting a prayer meeting, and originating a Sunday-school.
The missionary fire which had been kindled at Kettering, a few years before, warmed many hearts, and young Chamberlain felt its fervent glow. The periodical accounts from Mr. Carey and the formation of the London Missionary Society, reports of which John read from time to time, caused the fire to burn yet more strongly.
He resolved, by God's grace, to be a missionary. An ambitious resolve, some would say, for a farm servant. But let us see.
Young Chamberlain had already begun to preach in the neglected villages, and Mr. Haddon, his master, was so satisfied as to his abilities and sincerity, that he recommended him to the missionary committee, as a candidate for the mission field. A year under a well-qualified pastor at Olney served to prove both his capacity for learning and his zeal in the cause of the Redeemer. For some reason or other, but probably from want of funds, his candidature was dropped, and his hopes for the time dashed, though far from quenched. At length the Academy at Bristol opened its doors to him, and he set out to walk to that city "very low-spirited because of the indifference of the roads." Being called to preach at Coventry, he was enabled to take the coach, and reached Bristol on the 24th of September, 1800.
Here he became a diligent student, an early riser, and a careful reader of theological works, especially the practical and the devotional. Here, too, he continued his evangelistic labors. He visited and preached in the lowest parts of the city, both indoors and out of doors.
In the month of May, 1802, having been accepted for work in India, Chamberlain left the shores of England with his young wife, and proceeded, by Way of America, to Serampore. This route it was necessary to take because the East India Government forbade making the voyage in a British ship. He reached the Danish colony of Serampore in 1803.
If before he left England the young missionary's heart was on fire, it burst into a stronger flame, when he met the brethren who had preceded him, and heard their reports, and especially when he saw for himself the ignorance, superstition, follies and abominable wickedness of idolatry.
But his impressions did not waste themselves in mere feeling; he applied himself vigorously to acquire the language, that he might proclaim the gospel of God of pardon, cleansing, and salvation through faith in Christ. His diaries are full of the record of his labors, his compassion for souls, and his faithful testimony against sin and concerning the one way of forgiveness, cleansing and eternal life.
In order the more effectually to convey the truths of the gospel to the minds of the natives in a manner to engage their attention, he not only studied their language and read their best authors, but made himself familiar with their shasters, or sacred books; and seeing these are adorned with the graces of poetry, he sought to set forth the truths of the gospel in a similarly attractive manner, and his hymns were much in use.
"The number of places he would visit, together with the number of times he would address different congregations in one day," says Dr. Yates, the eminent translator of the Bible into Indian languages, " was truly astonishing. I attended him several times, . . . . and the simple travelling from village to village, and from place to place in the different villages where he preached, appeared to me a sufficient exertion for one day; while he, from the hour he set out, about eight in the morning till five in the afternoon, continued to travel and preach without cessation, allowing himself time to take a little dry provision only as he went from one hamlet to another. In this manner he would visit five or six villages in one day, and in some of them preach at two or three different places, a considerable distance from each other."
While still at Serampore he was sent, with Felix Corey and two native helpers, to the Island of Gunga Sagor, which is one of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in India. It is situate at the junction of the Ganges with the ocean, where the so-called sacred river is supposed to possess the most purifying virtue. Here, at that time, the people came from immense distances, and in numbers varying from one to two hundred thousand. There is no great town or city there, but the pilgrims make it a vast camping ground, full of streets and lanes, and bazaars, where everything to eat, drink, and wear might be bought, especially all the requirements for their worship of Gunga.
Chamberlain has left a record of this visit :—
“We soon left the boats, and went among the people. Here we saw the works of idolatry and superstition. Crowds upon crowds of infatuated men, women, and children, high and low, young and old, rich and poor, bathing in the water, and worshipping Gunga, by bowing, making salaams, and spreading offerings on the shore, consisting of rice, flowers, and cowries, for the goddess to take when the tides rose. The mud and water are esteemed very holy, and are taken hundreds of miles upon the shoulders of men."
He spoke to them of the folly of their conduct, and of the message of salvation by Jesus Christ. "Turning to the Bengalees," he says, "I spake to them after this manner:—
“On what account are you come hither?'
“To bathe in Gunga Saugar, sahib.'
“By bathing in the Gunga what fruit have you obtained?’
“Holiness,' says one; 'Good for the future,' says another.
“Thus you say, but how do you know? Is not all this without evidence? Are you so void of reflection as to suppose that Gunga can save you? What is Gunga? Is it larger than other rivers? No, I have seen larger. Is its water better than other water? Certainly not.
Why do you act so unwisely? There is but one God; worship Him. Know that your minds are defiled by sin; which defilement, Gunga, though you should bathe in it a thousand times, can never wash away. Hear, brethren, why we are come hither. Not to bathe in Gunga, but to publish among you the good news of God. What is this good news?
It is this: God, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, the Maker and Preserver of us all, seeing us all overwhelmed with sin, hath had very great compassion on mankind, and hath given His own Son to be our Savior. He came down from heaven, assuming our nature, and, to procure our salvation He has suffered in our stead. He performed many wonderful works: to the blind He gave sight, to the deaf He gave hearing, the sick He healed, and the dead He raised to life. Afterwards He gave His own life a ransom for us. After three days He arose from the dead and ascended into heaven, first giving this command: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.' Besides Jesus Christ there is no way to heaven. Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. God will pardon your sins, and receive you into His presence forever.’”
In this simple way he spoke to them; they listened attentively, and who can tell into what hearts the good seed fell, and what was its result in the different and distant regions whence they came?
After leaving Serampore, he established a mission at Cutwa, seventy miles from Calcutta, and here, in the midst of his labors in the town and the villages around, he lost his beloved wife.
He was much blessed of God at Berhampore among the soldiers in cantonments, fifty-three of whom professed Christ by baptism.
Towards the end of 1810 he removed from Cutwa to Agra, where, among the natives and the soldiers, his labors were crowned with success. In less than two years, however, he was expelled for the crime of preaching the gospel to the military, for which full liberty is now granted in India as elsewhere. But God opened a door for him at Sirdhana, where he became tutor to the great grandson of the Begum of that principality. He accepted this post on condition that he should have freedom to prosecute his beloved work of preaching the gospel to the heathen. This he did to large audiences, sometimes extending to thousands. His success aroused the timeserving government of the East India Company, and a letter was sent to the Begum by the Governor-General, requiring her to dismiss Chamberlain from her service. She was compelled to do this, though it cost her many tears and much distress. Chamberlain returned, in February, 1815, to Serampore.
His next station was Monghir. He was now an invalid, worn down by excessive toil, and the climate had done its work. His zeal, however, knew no abatement. He held services in an old disused heathen temple, and was spared to see a more suitable building erected, largely through the liberality of Captain Page, a military officer who had been brought to Christ by his instrumentality. Captain Page had a son, whom he named, after his pastor, John Chamberlain Page. This son became a missionary, and one of the most efficient it has been the writer's happiness to know.
Chamberlain pursued his usual course of preaching in all the villages within reach, and distributing Christian literature. At length, however, his overtaxed strength gave way. He was so ill that a voyage to England was recommended as his only hope of recovery. He embarked on board the “Princess Charlotte," and sailed November 18th, 1821. Twenty days after, he surrendered his spirit to God, and his body was committed to the deep to await the resurrection.
A missionary who has himself recently gone home, after many years of work in India in a prominent position, says of him, “Mr. Chamberlain, like many others of God's servants, was made strong `out of weakness'. Those who knew him at the outset of his Christian course, little thought how much of excellence and of ability would be developed in his afterlife. His history shows that the least promising beginnings may issue in great things in the kingdom of God. The untaught plough-boy, who had enjoyed almost no earthly advantages, under the influence of a grand, self-denying ambition (purpose, we would rather say), soon became, perhaps, the most efficient missionary of his day."
He had a strong and unshaken faith in the great truths of the gospel, and he labored to spread them with equal humility and zeal. He was bold in declaring the truth of man's utter ruin by sin; of his guilty, condemned, and hopeless state as a sinner apart from Christ; of the love of God in the gift of Christ, of His all-sufficient merits and precious atoning blood; and, while relying on the Holy Spirit to make the truth effectual to the salvation of the soul, he warned every man, and everywhere proclaimed the freeness and completeness of salvation to whomsoever believeth in Jesus.
R. S.