Below is a behooving excerpt of notes taken from the class History of Baptist Missions at Maranatha Baptist University, compiled by Dr. David Saxon and Mr. Brian Trainer.
Are we so cumbered by time and effort that we ignore this Great Commission to which we are so clearly commanded?
That I may continue to win disciples as I am going, no matter the time or the cost...
Life is ministry. Ministry is global.
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In February 1789
Carey received a call from Harvey Lane Chapel, Leicester. Many trials awaited
him there, but “firmness and tact, patience and faith, triumphed.”[1]
Radical surgery was employed and blessing followed. If anything, his workload
increased. An idea of Carey’s regular activity is inadvertently recorded for us
in a letter written by him to his father and dated 12th November, 1790:
On Monday I confine myself to the study of the learned
languages, and oblige myself to translate something. On Tuesday to the study of
science, history, composition, etc. On Wednesday I preach a lecture, and have
been for more than twelve months on the Book of Revelation. On Thursday I visit
my friends. Friday and Saturday are spent in preparing for the Lord’s Day, and
the Lord’s Day in preaching the Word of God. Once a fortnight I preach three
times at home; and once a fortnight 1 go to a neighbouring village in the
evening. Once a month I go to another village on the Tuesday evening. My school
begins at nine o’clock in the morning, and continues till four o’clock in
winter and five in summer I have acted for this twelve month as
secretary to the committee of dissenters; and am now to be regularly appointed
to that office, with a salary. Add to this occasional journeys, ministers’
meetings, etc., and you will rather wonder that I have any time, than that I
have so little.
Then, this most telling comment which explains so much
of Carey’s outlook:
I am not my own, nor would I choose for myself. Let God
employ me where He thinks fit.[2]
Yet, despite
pastoral problems, domestic difficulties and a telling workload, his burden for
the evangelization of the world was not lessened. Fuller writes:
The other ministers … had been compelled to think of the
subject by his repeatedly advancing it, and they became desirous of it, if it
could be accomplished; but feeling the difficulty of setting out in an unbeaten
path, their minds revolted at the idea of attempting it.
It seemed to them
something too great, and too much like grasping at an object utterly beyond
their reach.[3]
But this actually represented a considerable advance on
the prejudice that had first greeted his concern in 1786. Now, at least, there
was a company of men no longer opposed in principle to the notion. They just
thought it impossible for the time being.
It was, in fact,
Andrew Fuller who gave the decisive answer to this objection and fresh impetus
to Carey’s vision. On 27th April, 1791 there was a meeting of the
Northamptonshire and Leicestershire ministers at Clipstone at which Sutcliff
and Fuller were preachers. No doubt both sermons were intended to bring the
issue to a head. Sutcliff spoke of the “Zeal for the Lord of Hosts” and
Fuller’s text was Haggai 1:2. “Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, This
people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be
built.” The title of his sermon was, “The Instances, Evil Nature, and the
Dangerous Tendency of Delay in the Concerns of Religion.” In his introduction
he points out that:
There is something of this procrastinating spirit
running through a great part of life, and it is of great detriment to the work
of God. We know of many things that should be done, and cannot in conscience
directly oppose them; but still we find excuses for our inactivity. … We quiet
ourselves with the thought that they need not be done just now.
This plea … prevents us from undertaking any great or
good work for the cause of Christ or the good of mankind. … There are
difficulties in the way, and we wait for their removal. We are very apt to
indulge in a kind of prudent caution (as we call it) which foresees and
magnifies difficulties beyond what they really are … It becomes us to beware
lest we account that impossible which only requires such a degree of exertion
as we are not inclined to give it. … Perhaps the work requires expense. …
Perhaps it requires concurrence, and we wait for everybody to be of one mind, which
is never to be expected. … Instead of waiting for the removal of difficulties,
we ought, in many cases to consider them as purposely laid in our way in order
to try the sincerity of our religion.[4]
Later he goes on:
Let it be considered whether it is not owing to this
principle that so few, and so feeble efforts have been made for the propagation
of the Gospel in the world. … Are the souls of men of less value than
heretofore? No. Is Christianity less true or less important than in former
ages? This will not be pretended. Are there no opportunities … to convey the
Gospel to the heathen? This cannot be pleaded so long as opportunities are
found to trade with them, yea, and (what is a disgrace to the name of
Christianity!) to buy them and sell them, and treat them with worse than savage
barbarity. We have opportunities in abundance: the improvement of navigation
and the maritime and commercial turn of this country furnish us with these; and
it deserves to be considered whether this is not a circumstance that renders it
a duty particularly binding on us.
The truth is, we wait for we know not what: we seem to
think “the time is not come, the time for the spirit to be poured down from on
high.” … We pray for the conversion of the world and yet we neglect the
ordinary means by which it can be brought about... how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?[5]
At the
sermon’s close, Carey at once urged that the ministers present resolve to form
a missionary society. But they still hesitated. Several adjourned to the manse
to discuss Carey’s proposal. They sat up late into the night; so late as to
require a second supper! Eventually, and partly to humor their enthusiastic
brother, they recommended a revision of his book and its printing “for the
consideration of the religious public.” He revised the manuscript.
