he natives ran from
their houses, calling on the names of their gods; the sensation is most
awful; we read the forty-sixth Psalm. This fearful prodigy was
succeeded by that desolating disaster, the Serampore fire. I could
scarcely believe the report; it was like a blow on the head which
stupefies. I flew to Serampore to witness the desolation. The scene
was indeed affecting. The immense printing-office, two hundred feet
long and fifty broad, reduced to a mere shell. The yard covered with
burnt quires of paper, the loss in which article was immense. Carey
walked with me over the smoking ruins. The tears stood in his eyes.
'In one short evening,' said he, 'the labours of years are consumed.
How unsearchable are the ways of God! I had lately brought some things
to the utmost perfection of which they seemed capable, and contemplated
the missionary establishment with perhaps too much self-congratulation.
The Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply to Him.' Who
could stand in such a place, at such a time, with such a man, without
feelings of sharp regret and solemn exercise of mind. I saw the ground
strewed with half-consumed paper, on which in the course of a very few
months the words of life would have been printed. The metal under our
feet amidst the ruins was melted into misshapen lumps--the sad remains
of beautiful types consecrated to the service of the sanctuary. All
was smiling and promising a few hours before--now all is vanished into
smoke or converted into rubbish! Return now to thy books, regard God in
all thou doest. Learn Arabic with humility. Let God be exalted in all
thy plans, and purposes, and labours; He can do without thee."

Carey himself thus wrote of the disaster to Dr. Ryland:--"25th March
1812.--The loss is very great, and will long be severely felt; yet I
can think of a hundred circumstances which would have made it much more
difficult to bear. The Lord has smitten us, he had a right to do so,
and we deserve his corrections. I wish to submit to His sovereign
will, nay, cordially to acquiesce therein, and to examine myself
rigidly to see what in me has contributed to this evil.

"I now, however, turn to the bright side; and here I might mention what
still remains to us, and the merciful circumstances which attend even
this stroke of God's rod; but I will principally notice what will tend
to cheer the heart of every one who feels for the cause of God. Our
loss, so far as I ca