“Surely It Is Worth While”: William Carey’s Personal Application Of His “Enquiry”

By Nathan A. Finn

For much of the eighteenth century, most English Particular Baptists were committed to High Calvinism and thus largely uninterested in foreign mission. But throughout the latter half of the century, younger ministers increasingly embraced an evangelical form of Calvinism that was compatible with pressing the claims of Christ upon all men. One such young evangelical was William Carey, whose 1792 booklet An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens is considered by many to be a major catalyst in the birth of the so-called modern missions movement. [1] That same year, Carey became the primary influence in establishing the Particular Baptist Missionary Society (BMS), which scholars note served as the archetype for evangelical voluntary missionary societies. [2] Though Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliffe, Robert Hall Sr., and other evangelical Calvinists played crucial roles in founding the BMS, it was Carey’s Enquiry that resulted directly in the society’s birth and provided a missiological model for BMS missionaries.

Most of the literature dealing with this period understandably focuses on the role of the Enquiry as a clarion call to engage in foreign mission. This essay argues that the Enquiry was not merely an apology for mission, but also a work of practical theology which Carey himself applied in his own missionary efforts. This will be demonstrated by summarizing the contents of the booklet and noting how Carey appropriated his own missiology on the field. The Enquiry was a multi-faceted work which argued for the divine mandate to engage in mission, rehearsed the history of mission, statistically described the need for mission, and suggested a strategy for engaging in mission. When Carey and John Thomas were sent to India as the first BMS missionaries in 1792, the booklet provided the context for both their appointment and their missionary strategy. Carey’s personal application of his Enquiry impacted his own missiology, his personal piety, and the Baptist Missionary Society’s corporate missionary efforts.

The Enquiry And The Great Commission

Carey’s Enquiry is divided into five sections, the first an extended discussion of the so-called Great Commission, a text which stood at the center of Carey’s theology. The Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:19-20, reads, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Carey believed there were three reasons the Great Commission continues as a binding command to every Christian beyond the apostolic era. First, if baptism follows disciple-making, then the cessation of disciple-making necessarily entails the cessation of baptism. Second, if the commission itself is limited to the apostles, then anyone preaching cross-culturally since the first century has acted without divine authority. Third, if the command to teach all nations was limited to the apostles, then the same is true of the promise that Christ is ever-present with His followers. [3]

Carey also argued against several theological and practical hindrances preventing Christians from obeying the command to preach the gospel to all nations. Although Carey was a postmillennialist, he rejected the view that heathen evangelization could only occur at the onset of the millennium. [4] He also repudiated the claim that world mission would detract from the evangelizing of Britain herself. [5] In Carey’s mind, the Great Commission was as relevant to contemporary Particular Baptists as it was to the first apostles.

Carey applied this interpretation of the Great Commission to his personal context. One application was the establishing of the BMS itself in 1792. In the fall of that year, Carey was invited to preach at the Northamptonshire ministerial fraternal. His sermon text was Isaiah 54:2, “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.” The sermon reached its crescendo when Carey admonished the brethren to “expect great things, attempt great things.” [6] Though the audience was apparently moved by the sermon, little more was said about missions until the business meeting the following day. After an initial discussion, no firm conclusion was reached. In desperation, Carey pleaded with Andrew Fuller that the brethren do something. [7] This prompted Fuller to propose the resolution that formed the Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, or the Baptist Missionary Society. [8] Significantly, Carey was appointed as one of the first two BMS missionaries and assigned to India.

Carey also applied his understanding of the Great Commission on the mission field itself. The Great Commission compelled him to desire more personnel for the field. He was keenly aware that without more missionaries, Christians would not be able to evangelize the world. In a letter to John Ryland Jr., Carey noted the need for more Christians to participate in foreign mission.

The state of the world occupies my thoughts more and more, I mean as it relates to the spread of the Gospel. The harvest truly is great, and labourers scarcely bear any proportion thereto.…After so many centuries have elapsed, and so many fields full of this harvest have been lost for want of labourers to gather it in, shall we not at last reflect seriously on our duty? Should not this be a specific matter of prayer and is there not need to labor hard to infuse this spirit into the churches? [9]

This desire to see missionary expansion was by no means limited to India. Carey was delighted to learn the BMS had established a mission station in Sierra Leone, promising his prayers for the African missionaries’ success and his hopes for the society’s ongoing prosperity. [10] By opening the Enquiry with a chapter on the Great Commission, Carey made clear the driving impulse behind his missionary convictions. Throughout a lifetime of missionary service in India, his commitment to the Great Commission remained unwavering.

The Enquiry And Historical Precursors In Missions

Though often considered the father of modern mission, Carey was keenly aware that he stood in continuity with a long tradition of cross-cultural evangelism. The Enquiry’s second chapter is titled “a short Review of former Undertakings for the Conversion of the Heathen.” [11] Carey began this section with an extended discussion of New Testament mission, especially the missionary journeys of Paul and his associates. He wrote that the book of Acts proves “the success of the word in the primitive times.” [12] He then surveyed mission during the Patristic and Medieval eras, claiming that authentic mission was eventually overwhelmed by the “popish” practice of forcing conversion upon conquered peoples. [13] After briefly discussing the Reformation era, Carey turned to Protestant missionary efforts in the 160 year period leading up to 1792, highlighting John Eliot’s and David Brainerd’s respective missions to Native Americans and the Dutch Reformed mission efforts in various African and Asian colonies. [14] He also noted that “none of the moderns have equalled the Moravian Brethren in this good work,” and concluded his historical survey by praising the recent missionary efforts of John Wesley. [15] Carey viewed his convictions as a continuation of a grand tradition of Christian mission.

He applied this knowledge of mission history to his personal missionary practice. In two articles surveying Protestant mission from Martin Luther to Carey, Kenneth Mulholland notes that Carey was influenced by the three historic “planks” of Pietist, Moravian, and Puritan missionary efforts. [16] The same was true of his associates. According to Timothy George, the famed “Serampore Trio,” comprised of Carey, William Ward, and Joshua Marshman, drew upon principles outlined by Christian Frederick Schwartz, the longtime Pietist missionary to Tranquebar. [17] Christopher Smith further argues that the Serampore mission was influenced by several historic missiological models, especially John Eliot, David Brainerd, and Roger Williams’s respective efforts to evangelize Native Americans in New England. [18]

Carey’s personal piety was also influenced by at least one of these historical precursors. Carey recorded in his diary that he relied on David Brainerd’s famous diary for spiritual nourishment when he was struggling with the long passage from Britain to India. [19] Reading Brainerd was apparently a normal devotional exercise for Carey; George claims that he read from Brainerd’s diary almost daily. [20] It should be noted that in Carey’s mind, history was not merely the rehearsing of past events. As a committed Calvinist, he held that God was sovereign over all creation, providentially moving history to its ultimate denouement. He saw himself as a participant in that history of God’s redemptive acts and George notes that “[f]rom first to last he was keenly aware of God’s sovereignty in awakening the Church from its slumber and sending it forth to accomplish His eternal purpose in bringing the lost to a saving knowledge of the Redeemer.” [21] As Andrew Walls notes, “Carey saw himself and those whom he was stirring to action as entering into a process already in motion, not as initiating that process.” [22] Carey was a student of mission history who consciously incorporated lessons from that history into his own thought and practice.

The Enquiry And The Peoples Of The World

The Enquiry’s third section is one of its most notable features. Carey devoted his booklet’s largest portion to “a Survey of the Present State of the World.” [23] In this chapter, Carey outlined the demographics of all the known nations of the world as nearly as he could ascertain them. Carey estimated the world’s population at 731 million, 420 million of whom were still in what he called “pagan darkness,” 130 million of whom were Muslims, seven million of whom were Jews, and the rest of whom were Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox. [24] His chief concern in the statistical analysis was not demographics, but world evangelization. Carey observed, “It must undoubtedly strike every thinking mind that a vast proportion of the sons of Adam remain in the most deplorable state of heathen darkness, without any means of knowing the true God, except what are afforded them by the works of nature; and utterly destitute of the knowledge of the gospel of Christ, or of any means of attaining it.” [25] Besides the heathen, there were also nominal Christians present in many Catholic and Orthodox lands whom Carey considered “ignorant,” “hypocritical,” and “immoral.” [26] Carey’s statistics painted a picture of a world filled with multitudes who did not know Christ and countless others who barely knew Him. Carey closed his analysis with a call to action. He assumed the heathen, despite their “barbarian” status, were intellectually capable of understanding the gospel if it were presented to them. [27] The presence of so many non-Christians in the world demanded that someone share the gospel with them.

Carey’s statistical analysis is remarkable for a man who had never ventured outside of England. Though he was not well-traveled, he was an avid reader; Christopher Smith notes that Carey was initially introduced to foreign cultures through reading Captain James Cook’s journal of his Pacific voyages. [28] Carey himself claimed that “[r]eading Cook’s voyages was the first thing that engaged my mind to think of missions.” [29] Cook’s journal was the original impetus for Carey’s missionary concerns, but he also read whatever other works he could find related to foreign nations and civilizations. According to Timothy George, Carey read several other reference works in addition to the international news section of the weekly Northampton Mercury. [30] His interest in other cultures became a passion for taking the gospel to those cultures. As Iain Murray notes, “[T]he end of Cook’s geographical feat [marked] the beginning of the missionary enterprise.” [31]

The Enquiry’s section on world statistics is evidence that Carey’s missionary theology was more than theory. Far from a work of abstract theology, the Enquiry was written for the ultimate purpose of spurring Particular Baptists to actually engage in mission with the various nations listed in all of the charts and tables. In Carey’s mind, knowing population statistics and religious demographics was simply another tool to utilize in the cause of world evangelization. As George observes, to Carey “[the] ‘heathen’ were not mere statistics…they were persons, eternal souls destined to live forever in the bliss of heaven or the darkness of hell.” [32] Carey’s true interest was in the people behind all the numbers, and he applied his statistical research in his own life by precipitating the Baptist Missionary Society’s birth and engaging in foreign mission himself.

Carey’s Answer To His Enquiry

In the Enquiry’s fourth chapter, Carey turned from diagnosing the problem to proposing a solution. Carey raised five specific obstacles hindering Particular Baptists from participating in mission. “The impediments in the way of carrying the gospel among the heathen must arise, I think, from one of the following things: either their distance from us, their barbarous and savage manner of living, the danger of being killed by them, the difficulties of procuring the necessities of life, or the unintelligibleness of their languages.” [33] After listing these possible hindrances, Carey answered each one in kind. Modern ships and the invention of the mariner’s compass made great distances less threatening than they were to previous generations.34 Against the argument that other civilizations were barbarous, he bluntly responded, “[T]his can be no objection to any except those whose love of ease renders them unwilling to expose themselves to inconveniences for the good of others.”35 In fact, “the uncivilized state of the heathen, instead of affording an objection against preaching the gospel to them, ought to furnish an argument for it.” [36] He responded to the fear of death by admitting that death and persecution were indeed possible, but the need outweighed the risk. Missionaries should trust in God’s sovereignty and remember that previous missionaries like Eliot and the Moravians were “very seldom molested.” [37] In answer to the question of the availability of necessities, he responded that gospel ministers should not concern themselves with such matters. Rather, ministers should obey God’s calling, trusting Him to provide as much as is needed. [38] From a practical standpoint, Carey suggested appointing missionaries in groups of two or more, preferably as married couples, and securing land on the mission field for farming and livestock. The latter would allow missionaries to become self-supporting as soon as was reasonable. [39] In terms of language learning, he encouraged missionaries to use whatever tools were at their disposal. A gifted linguist himself, Carey claimed, “It is well known to require no extraordinary talents to learn, in the space of a year, or two at most, the language of any people upon earth, so much of it, at least, as to be able to convey any sentiments we wish to their understandings.” [40]

After responding to possible objections, Carey described the character missionaries needed to possess and the duties required of them. In terms of character traits, missionaries should be pious, prudent, courageous, patient, theologically sound, divinely called to missionary service, simple in their lifestyle, and not easily offended. Requirements included preaching the gospel; traveling as necessary; instructing, exhorting, and rebuking converts; praying continually for the conversion and other needs of the heathen; and discipling indigenous Christian leadership among the converts. [41]

This chapter of the Enquiry laid the foundation for Carey’s theology and practice once he arrived in India. He regularly discussed missionary qualifications in correspondence with the BMS. In a letter written to John Ryland Jr. shortly after arriving in India, Carey reiterated a missionary’s character traits and duties as outlined in the Enquiry. He claimed, “The plan laid down in my little piece, I still approve of and think the very best that can be followed.” [42] Many Particular Baptists followed Carey’s exploits as they were recounted by Fuller and other BMS leaders. Soon others were answering the call to missionary service in India. By 1799, the same year that Carey relocated to the Danish colony of Serampore, four other missionaries joined him, including Marshman and Ward. [43] The Serampore missionaries enjoyed evangelistic success; their efforts resulted in upwards of 300 coverts by 1812. [44] A total of 1,407 converts were baptized by 1821. [45]

Though new missionaries continually arrived in India, Carey claimed there were never as many as were needed. In the Enquiry, he discussed the priority of training indigenous leadership, and over time that became one of the missionaries’ principle tasks. After admonishing Fuller to send BMS missionaries to the countries surrounding India, Carey expressed his hope God would call missionaries from among the Indians, observing, “I trust that men will by degrees be raised up here who will carry the gospel in one way or another all over India.” [46] Carey was excited when two Indian converts began planting churches in the environs around Calcutta. [47] It was the source of no little excitement when Krishna Pal, Carey’s first Indian convert, wrote a letter to the BMS in 1802 announcing that God had called him to the gospel ministry. [48] When Serampore College was opened in 1818, its primary mission was to train indigenous pastors and missionaries, though admission was never limited to Indian Christians. [49]

Carey’s education strategy was not limited to Serampore College. Education was among the principle means used to instruct Indians in both sound doctrine and practical skills. Christopher Smith notes that Carey and his associates “invested in schools on the grounds that they constituted an important praeparatio evangelica.” [50] Joe Coker argues that the Serampore Trio shifted their emphasis to education of indigenous leadership once they realized the BMS could not supply all the missionaries they needed. [51] Carey relayed to Ryland Jr. that he had established a school to teach the gospel and “useful science” to children of Indian Christian parents. [52] When Carey’s son Jabez established a mission in Ajmere, one of the first things father encouraged son to do was to open schools. [53] Elementary schools were started around the same time as Serampore College was founded, and Coker claims, “By the middle of the second decade of the nineteenth century, education had become firmly entrenched in the Serampore theory of how best to win India to Christ.” [54] In 1815-1816 alone, over 100 schools were founded near Calcutta, with an average attendance of 6,703 Indian pupils. [55]

Many scholars agree that Carey’s most enduring legacy is as a linguist. As soon as he arrived in India, he immersed himself in the Indian language and culture. In a letter to Ryland Jr., Carey admitted his amazement at the similarities between Hebrew and Sanskrit, noting he had decided to write a Sanskrit dictionary. [56] After the relocation to Serampore in 1800, translation and printing was a principle means Carey and his associates used to spread the gospel. The Trio immediately established the Serampore Press; Carey did the translation work while Ward operated the printing press. In February 1801, the first edition of the Bengali New Testament was completed. [57] According to William Smalley, by 1832, the Serampore Press had published 212 volumes in forty languages. [58] Though Carey’s translation work is considered flawed by contemporary scholars, his prodigious output led Timothy George to refer to him as the “Wycliffe of the East.” [59] Whether through calling for more missionaries, establishing schools, or printing tracts, Carey continually applied the insights of his Enquiry to his own experience on the mission field.

The Enquiry And The Christian’s Missionary Duty

In the Enquiry’s final section, Carey pressed upon his readers the need for deliberate missionary efforts. Carey claimed it was the Christian’s first duty to pray for mission. He observed that the Old Testament prophecies of worldwide conversion teach that prayer will play a crucial role in that process. Carey reminded his readers of the spiritual benefits many had received from holding monthly prayer meetings in their churches. He advised churches and other groups of believers to focus their corporate prayer efforts on world evangelization. [60] It should be noted Carey’s vision of missionary prayer was not limited to Particular Baptist churches; prayer was an ecumenical endeavor, “perhaps the only thing in which Christians of all denominations can cordially and unreservedly unite.” [61]

Carey knew that prayers alone would convert no one, so he echoed the Enquiry’s title by arguing that Christians should exert means in their efforts to obtain the object of their prayers.62 He used the analogy of a secular trading company to illustrate the lengths to which a group of like-minded individuals would go to accomplish their common purpose. Like a trading company, Christians were a group of like-minded individuals, though their common interests lie with the kingdom of Christ. As such, the rewards for diligent labor outweigh any earthly riches that might come from a trading firm. [63]

Carey based his boldest proposal on this concept of cooperation for a common purpose. He advocated that ministers and other sympathetic believers form a foreign mission society. This society would recruit worthy individuals to serve as missionaries and screen candidates according to their calling, character, and doctrine.

Besides recruiting and appointing missionaries, the society would also be responsible to make financial provisions for the missionaries. [64] The society would raise money from Christians of every financial class, through a variety of fund-raising methods, with all proceeds placed into a general fund. [65] It would send missionaries overseas, as well as “into most of the villages in England.” [66] After describing this theoretical society, Carey “propose[d] that such a society and committee be formed amongst the particular baptist denomination,” though he hoped other denominations would establish similar societies. [67] As far as he was concerned, there were enough heathen to justify as many missionary societies as Christians were willing to form. He closed his Enquiry with this exhortation: “Surely it is worth while to lay ourselves out with all our might in promoting the cause and kingdom of Christ.” [68]

Carey applied both of these principles in his own experience. The Northamptonshire Association had been committed to monthly prayer meetings since 1784; Carey encouraged his colleagues to focus their prayers on foreign mission. [69] Carey often wrote Fuller to ask for prayers. [70] After recounting some opposition encountered with the ruling government in Serampore, Carey noted in a letter to the BMS that he was comforted by the knowledge that the society was praying for the situation. [71] Carey also prayed for mission himself. He wrote in his journal in March 1794 that he had been contemplating the conversion of the heathen and the coming of Christ’s kingdom. [72] In a letter to his son Jabez, he promised he would pray about Jabez’s own missionary work. [73] In a letter to the BMS, Carey noted that he and his associates prayed for the society’s missionaries serving in Africa during a special prayer meeting held on the first Sunday of every month. [74] Prayer was an integral part in the Serampore Trio’s missionary strategy. They included fervent prayer, the kind they believed David Brainerd modeled, in their “Serampore Form of Agreement,” the missiological document adopted by the Trio in 1805. [75]

If prayer was the spiritual application of the Enquiry, then the Baptist Missionary Society’s formation was the institutional application. According to Peter Morden, although Fuller was secretary of the society from 1792 until his death in 1815, Carey was the central figure in the formation of the BMS. [76] Carey had proposed the formation of a missionary society in 1791, though no action was taken at the time. [77] As Brian Stanley notes, “It seems that the leading figures of the Northamptonshire Association no longer needed convincing of the theological case for a missionary endeavour; what Carey still had to persuade at least some of them of was that an immediate initiative on their part was both ‘prudent’ and realistic.” [78] Carey did persuade his reluctant colleagues a year later, but only after he had published the Enquiry.

Conclusion

Stanley notes in his discussion of Carey’s Enquiry, “The most important words in the title of the Enquiry were ‘Obligations’ and ‘Means.’” [79] Carey opened his Enquiry with an argument for the former and concluded his work with practical suggestions for the latter. The Enquiry is a seminal work in the history of Christian mission. In the booklet, Carey applied evangelical Calvinism to foreign missions, awakening the Particular Baptists from their missiological lethargy. The Enquiry’s legacy endures to this day; the work continues to be reprinted, and numerous versions are currently available on the internet. Many of Carey’s then-novel proposals are accepted as self-evident fact by contemporary missiologists. Countless thousands of missionaries have applied the booklet’s principles to their own ministries, not the least of which was Carey himself. The fruit of William Carey’s own ministry was a testimony to his Enquiry’s missiological usefulness.

Notes

1. William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, ed. John L. Prestlove (Leicester, UK: Anne Ireland, 1792; reprint, Dallas: Criswell Publications, 1988). Pagination follows this edition of the Enquiry. Not all historians agree that publication of the Enquiry marks the beginning of the modern mission movement. See Peter J. Morden, Offering Christ to the World: Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) and the Revival of Eighteenth Century Particular Baptist Life, Studies in Baptist History and Thought, 8 (Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Paternoster, 2003), 129.
2. See Andrew F. Walls, “Missionary Societies and the Fortunate Subversion of the Church,” in Walls, ed., The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1996), 241-54.
3. Carey, Enquiry, 5.
4. Ibid., 7. For a brief discussion of Carey’s eschatology and its implications for missions, see Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope: A Study in Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (London: Banner of Truth, 1971), 138-42.
5. Carey, Enquiry, 8.
6. Contrary to popular Baptist tradition, it is unlikely that Carey phrased the motto “expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.” See Morden, Offering Christ to the World, 135.
7. Iain H. Murray, “William Carey: Climbing the Rainbow,” Evangelical Review of Theology 17, 3 (July 1993): 361.
8. Brian Stanley, The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792-1992 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1992), 14.
9. Carey to John Ryland Jr., 16 August 1809, in Terry G. Carter , ed., The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey (Macon: Smyth and Helwys, 2000), 67.
10. Carey to BMS, 28 December 1796, in Carey, Journal and Selected Letters, 75.
11. Carey, Enquiry, 9.
12. Ibid., 18.
13. Ibid., 21.
14. Ibid., 23-24.
15. Ibid., 24.
16. Kenneth B. Mulholland, “From Luther to Carey: Pietism and the Modern Missionary Movement,” Bibliotheca Sacra 156, 621 (January-March 1999): 85-95; idem., “Moravians, Puritans, and the Modern Missionary Movement,” Bibliotheca Sacra 156, no. 622 (April-June 1999): 221-32. David A. Schattschnieder attempts to find a direct link between Moravian missiology and Carey, though he candidly admits “I have not yet been able to verify that Carey ever actually met a Moravian.” See Schattschnieder, “William Carey, Modern Missions, and the Moravian Influence,” Innternatioal Bulletin of Missionary Research 22, 1 (January 1998): 9.
17. Timothy George, Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey (Birmingham: New Hope, 1991), 41.
18. A. Christopher Smith, “A Tale of Many Models: The Missiological Significance of the Serampore Trio,” Missiology: An International Review 20, 4 (October 1992), 484. Timothy George notes that Eliot was an especially revered model among the Serampore missionaries because of his work as a preacher, translator, agriculturalist, church planter, and humanitarian (Faithful Witness, 44).
19. William Carey, “The Journal of William Carey, 1793-1795,” in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 25-26.
20. George, Faithful Witness, 44. In an article comparing the journals of Brainerd and Carey, A. de M. Chesterman contends that Carey deliberately followed Brainerd’s model of journaling. Chesterman observes several common themes in the two works, including a sense of spiritual weakness and failure and an outlook always focused on the task of world evangelization. See A. de M. Chesterman, “The Journals of David Brainerd and of William Carey,” The Baptist Quarterly 19, 4 (October 1961): 147-56.
21. George, Faithful Witness, 32.
22. Andrew F. Walls, “The Protestant Missionary Awakening in its European Context,” in Walls, ed., The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002), 204.
23. Carey, Enquiry, 25.
24. Ibid., 49.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid., 50-51.
27. Ibid., 50.
28. A. Christopher Smith, “The Legacy of William Carey,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 16, 1 (January 1992): 3.
29. Quoted in Michael A. G. Haykin, “‘A Wretched, Poor and Helpless Worm’: The Life and Legacy of William Carey (1761-1834),” n.d., an unpublished paper in the author’s personal possession.
30. George, Faithful Witness, 21.
31. Iain H. Murray, “Divine Providence and Captain Cook,” The Banner of Truth, no. 274 (July 1986): 7. Cited in Michael A. G. Haykin, “‘A Wretched, Poor and Helpless Worm.’”
32. George, Faithful Witness, 22.
33. Carey, Enquiry, 52.
34. Ibid., 52-53.
35. Ibid., 53.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., 54-55.
38. Ibid., 55.
39. Ibid., 56.
40. Ibid., 57.
41. Ibid., 57-58.
42. Carey to John Ryland, Jr., 26 December 1793, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 132.
43. Daniel E. Potts, British Baptist Missionaries in India, 1793-1837 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1967), 17.
44. Tom Hiney, On the Missionary Trail (London: Chatto & Windus, 2000), 21, cited in Haykin, “‘A Wretched, Poor and Helpless Worm.’”
45. Potts, British Baptist Missionaries in India, 47.
46. Carey to Andrew Fuller, 4 October 1809, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 133.
47. Carey to John Sutcliffe, 18 August 1812, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 151-52.
48. This letter is reprinted in George Smith, The Life of William Carey, D.D. (London: John Murray, 1887), 118. Pal was baptized by Carey in 1800.
49. Joe L. Coker, “Developing a Theory of Missions in Serampore: The Increased Emphasis upon Education as a “Means for the Conversion of the Heathen,” Mission Studies 28, no. 1-35 (2001): 50.
50. A. Christopher Smith, “Mythology and Missiology: A Methodological Approach to the Pre-Victorian Mission of the Serampore Trio,” International Review of Mission 83, no. 330 (July 1994): 465.
51. Coker, “Developing a Theory of Missions in Serampore,” 46.
52. Carey to John Ryland Jr., 31 August 1802, in Carter, ed. Journal and Selected Letters, 167.
53. Carey to Jabez Carey, 5 May 1819, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 169.
54. Coker, “Developing a Theory of Missions in Serampore,” 49.
55. G. E. Smith, “Patterns of Missionary Education: The Baptist India Mission, 1794-1824,” The Baptist Quarterly 20, 7 (July 1964): 293.
56. Carey to John Ryland Jr., 6 July 1797, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 143.
57. George, Faithful Witness, 139.
58. William A. Smalley, Translation as Mission: Bible Translation in the Modern Missionary Movement, The Modern Mission Era, 1792-1992, An Appraisal (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1991), 47.
59. George, Faithful Witness, 137. For a critique of Carey’s translation work, see Smalley, Translation as Mission, 47-50.
60. Carey, Enquiry, 59-61.
61. Ibid., 61. Scholars have made much of Carey’s ecumenism, especially his later call for an international, interdenominational missionary conference similar to the later Edinburgh Conference. For a discussion of Carey’s ecumenism in the Enquiry, see E. Glenn Hinson, “William Carey and Ecumenical Pragmatism,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 17, 2 (Spring 1980): 75-76. For a treatment of Carey’s dream of an international conference, see Ruth Rouse, “William Carey’s ‘Pleasing Dream,’” International Review of Missions 38, 2 (April 1949): 181-92.
62. Carey, Enquiry, 61.
63. Ibid., 62.
64. Ibid., 62-63.
65. Ibid., 63-64.
66. Ibid., 64.
67. Ibid., 63.
68. Ibid., 65.
69. Many of the Northamptonshire pastors had read Jonathan Edwards’s 1743 pamphlet, An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer. Inspired by Edwards, John Sutcliffe made the motion to establish the monthly meetings. Sutcliffe subsequently arranged to have An Humble Attempt reprinted in England. See Stanley, The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 4-5.
70. Carey to Andrew Fuller, 27 March 1809, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 202.
71. Carey to BMS, 2 September 1806, in Eustace Carey, Memoir, 328.
72. Carey, “Journal,” 13 March 1794, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 18.
73. Carey to Jabez Carey, 17 November 1818, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 253.
74. Carey to Society, 28 December 1796, in Carter, ed., Journal and Selected Letters, 252.
75. “The Serampore Form of Agreement,” included as Appendix A in A. H. Oussoren, William Carey, Especially His Missionary Principles (Leiden: A. W. Sijthoffs Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1945), 283.
76. Peter J. Morden, “Andrew Fuller and the Baptist Missionary Society,” The Baptist Quarterly 41, 3 (July 2005): 135-36.
77. Ibid., 138.
78. Stanley, The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 11.
79. Ibid., 12.