East India Company

O WORSHIP THE KING

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O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, Whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old;
Established it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

O measureless might! Ineffable love!
While angels delight to worship Thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall all sing Thy praise.

About the writer: Robert Grant was born in India in 1785. His father was a leading officer of the East India Company. He graduated from Cambridge in 1804 and was admitted to the bar in 1807. He later was appointed Governor of Bombay in 1824. He died in India in 1838. He was the author of several volumes on the work of the East India Company and also of 12 hymns; which his brother, Lord Glenelg, published the year after his death. “O Worship the King” is considered by many to be one of the greatest hymns ever written. 

Key Verses: Praise the LORD, I tell myself; O LORD my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and with majesty; you are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens. –Psalm 104:1, 2

Carey, William

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William Carey (1761-1834) is considered the “father of modern missions.” He was born in Paulersbury, England to a poor weaver. As a young man, he worked as an apprentice to a shoemaker but spent his spare time studying for the ministry. Amazingly, while still a teenager, he was able to read the Bible in six languages. This gift for languages would serve him well as a missionary. In 1787 he became pastor of a Baptist church where, in 1792, he preached a sermon with the famous line, “Expect Great Things from God, Attempt Great Things for God.” He helped organize the Baptist Missionary Society and became one of the group’s first members to go abroad when he went to India in 1793. He suffered greatly during the early years of his ministry due to financial setbacks, the death of his children, and the mental illness of his wife. In 1799 he was able to purchase a small indigo plantation and it was from here that he started his first successful mission. Opposition from the East India Company forced him to shut down his operation, however, so in 1800 he moved to Serampore where he and other missionaries preached, taught, and started Serampore Press to distribute Christian literature. In 1831 Carey was appointed professor of Oriental languages at Fort William College in Calcutta, a position he held for 30 years until his death. During this time he was largely responsible for translating the Bible into 36 dialects, making the Scriptures available to over 300 million people. His philosophy toward missions – missionaries and natives should live equally and missionaries should be self-sustaining – revolutionized the work of mission societies and led to field successes previously unmatched.