“I’m a dreamer and continue to dream of what can and will be”. Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God”, is the life motto and one of the most sublime statement accredited to William Carey, the acclaimed “father of modern missions”.
In the Beginning
William Carey (17 August 1761 – 9 June 1834) was born to a poor British couple, Edmund and Elizabeth Carey from the little town of Paulerspury in Northampshire, England. William, whose childhood hero was Christopher Columbus received an early good education in the village school where his father was appointed the head and this became the foundation that sharpened his naturally inquisitive mind for the physical sciences. As a child, Carey possessed a rare inclination towards languages, was captivated by botany and history and maintained an incredible collection of plant and animal specimens as a hobby.
All the above seemed to have prepared him for the inauspicious life of a missionary but one which he accomplished with brilliance and epic fervor, a legacy for succeeding generation on how to accomplish our parts in God’s eternal purpose.
Early years of William Carey
At the age of fourteen, William’s father apprenticed Clarke Nicholson, a shoemaker, in the nearby village of Piddington. In the cobbler’s workshop, he was led to Christ by John Warr, who lent him a Greek grammar and glossary book and having also a New Testament Bible prepared with Greek commentary which he discovered in the workshop, Carey taught himself the Greek language. After the death of Nicholson, Carey joined the workshop of Thomas Old in Hackleton, to continue his internship and here got married to Thomas Old’s sister-in-law Dorothy Plackett in 1781. Both of them had seven children with four surviving.
Carey took ownership of the shoemaking workshop after the death of Old; and simultaneously attended to business whilst studying and proceeded to independently learn the Hebrew, Italian, French and Dutch languages.
Carey’s conversion to Pentecostalism and friendship with John Warr led him to worship with a group commonly referred to as the “Dissenters” and by the age of 22 years was receiving bi-monthly invitation to preach in the local Baptist churches. He was finally ordained a full-time pastor of the Harvey Lane Baptist Church, Leicester and partnered with John Ryland (who baptized him), John Sutcliff, and Andrew Fuller, in the gatherings of the “Particular Baptists”.
Carey had an early appeal towards missions as he would later say, “My attention to missions was first awakened after I was at Moulton, by reading the Last Voyage of Captain Cook.” He got the call to missions in his cobbler’s shop stating, “If it be the duty of all men to believe the Gospel … then it be the duty of those who are entrusted with the Gospel to endeavor to make it known among all nation,” and responded to the call in prayerful tears saying “Here am I; send me!”
It was not all smooth sailing for Carey, as he would experience opposition from Church leaders who believed it was not the responsibility of all Christians to propagate the gospel of Christ to unreached places; a view which stood in conflict with Carey reading of the accounts of Apostle Paul in the New Testament and the biographies of David Brainerd. He published his persuasions on the necessity of foreign missions in a small handbook titled, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, where he wrote against the life of ease of fellow Pentecostals, “Multitudes sit at ease and give themselves no concern about the far greater part of their fellow sinners, who to this day, are lost in ignorance and idolatry”.
He stated that the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 is mandatory to all Christians and opines “That there are thousands in our own land as far from God as possible, I readily grant, and that this ought to excite us to ten-fold diligence in our work, and in attempts to spread divine knowledge amongst them is a certain fact; but that it ought to supersede all attempts to spread the gospel in foreign parts seems to want proof”.
This little but well-researched and practical handbook extolled the life and works of men like Wesley and Brainerd and provided practical ways world-wide missions can be funded and operated. Carey in closing, stated the rewards for obedience and called for the establishment of a missionary society. In 1792, with his influence, the Baptist Missionary Society was inaugurated.
In November 1793, William Carey and Dr. John Thomas, a medical missionary, after hearing of the spiritual condition of India set sail with their families for India and arrived in Calcutta after a tortuous sea journey. He settled in Bengali and later the Danish settlement in Serampore, where he spent the rest of his life without furlough. His time in Serampore was marked by tragic experiences of the deaths of his son Peter by dysentery and wife who suffered mental delusions.
Carey’s family lived under such austere circumstances and physical neglect that the young children were even denied basic education or learning. These initial problems did not diminish from his contributions to humanity and missions initiatives.
Outline of William Carey’s Achievements and Legacies
The history of the Church in India or Christianity in general will not be complete without the pioneering contributions of William Carey, whose major achievements are briefly stated below.
William Carey, changed the negative attitude towards missions in Pentecostal circle by his revolutionary introductions, setting up the theological justification for mission works and pioneering the establishment of missionary societies.
As an educationist, William Carey, founded Serampore College, which became the first degree awarding institution in Asia and taught as a professor of Bengali in Calcutta University amongst many other roles. He introduced the literature lending scheme to India and encouraged his friends in England to ship tons of books to Indian libraries.
In the field of literature, Carey was the influence behind the setting up of the largest printing press in India, in Serampore, which became the center for the distribution of the Scripture to other parts of India and the world. With his team, Carey, translated and printed the Bible or parts into about forty-four languages and dialects. Today, Carey is known as the missionary who gave India a Bible. He also published the first newspapers ever in the Orientals, “The Samachar Darpan” and “The Friends of India”.
Humanity also owes a lot to Carey in the area of social reforms; the abolition of devilish and inhuman practices such as female infanticide, voluntary drowning, and leper and widow-burning, the caste system and human slavery. He discouraged gender discrimination and promoted the education of females in India.
In 1820, Carey organized the Agric-Horticultural Society of India, to further the development of agriculture and introduced species of unknown crops; initiated forest conservation and planted beautiful gardens.
The greatest legacy of William Carey was his mission works and to this he devoted majority of his life. The innovations he brought into modern Christian mission led to the greatest century of missionary and evangelistic movements, inspiring men like David Livingstone, Hudson Taylor and Adoniram Judson.
William Carey retired to a more quiet life of preaching, discipling young missionaries and teaching in institutions following a rift with the recently appointed secretary to the Missionary Society of England. He died at the age of 73 and was buried in his beloved city of Serampore.
Moses E. Oputah is the Managing Editor of Kingdom Times