This is the first of a three-part series on the life of William Carey and his commitment to missions and his influence on the modern missions movement.
It has been well-noted by a historian that “The history of Christian missions is the story of God employing individual believers to spread the Gospel message around the world.”[i] Such is the historical legacy of William Carey. His story is not his story as much as it is His story — the work of God in using redeemed men to redeem unredeemed men for the glory of God. So, just who was this man used by God, and what might believers today learn of God from his life?
A brief overview of Carey’s life
William Carey was born on August 17, 1761 in the tiny village of Paulerspury in England.
He died, at the age of 72, on June 9, 1834 in Serampore, India — just over 170 years ago.
He was born into a humble and poor family. His father was a schoolteacher, though he himself would receive only the equivalent of an elementary school education.[ii] And yet God used this man of humble means, background, education and status, to revolutionize world missions and to make an impact on the world that is still being felt.
One great irony of Carey’s life is that almost no original biblical or theological works of his remain in existence (apart from his many translations). There are no manuscripts of any of his sermons.[iii] He left no theological writings, except his Enquiry[iv], which he wrote as a 30-year-old, prior to leaving England. In contrast, the collected writings (primarily sermons) of C. H. Spurgeon filled 63 volumes and totaled between 20 and 25 million words — the equivalent of the entire 27-volume collection of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition.[v] Consequently, most of what is known about Carey’s theology is gleaned from his journal, which he kept during his first two years in India (1793-1795) and through his many letters. In large part, his personal writing reveals that which motivated his ministry and that which sustained him when discouragement set in, and ultimately, how God prospered him in his ministry.
Several life events are particularly helpful in understanding the man of God that Carey was.
When Carey was a mere 11 years of age, he went to work as an apprentice for a shoemaker named Clarke Nichols. Nichols had another apprentice by the name of John Warr, who became a Christian and then began to influence Carey with the gospel. Carey’s first response was resistance, but then over time[vi], Carey too, became overwhelmed with a sense of his sin, and trusted Christ for forgiveness. In 1779 Carey and Warr, still working for Nichols, were graciously allowed to introduce the dying man to the Savior, Jesus Christ. “His death-chamber was changed into a soul’s birthplace.”[vii]
Subsequent to Nichols’ death, Carey was sent to work for another cobbler (who was a relative of Nichols) and thereby was introduced to other believers in the neighboring town of Olney. Through these influences, Carey came to be baptized by pastor John Ryland Jr. on October 5, 1783. At the time, the significance of Carey’s profession of faith was lost on the participants. Ryland himself wrote of that event some 30 years later,
5 October, 1783, 1 baptised in the Nene, just beyond Doddridge’s meeting-house, a poor journeyman-shoe-maker, little thinking that before nine years elapsed he would prove the first instrument of forming a society for sending missionaries from England to the heathen world, and much less that later he would become professor of languages in an Oriental college, and the translator of the Scriptures into eleven different tongues.[viii] [This would later total about 41.]
During this same time, Carey met and married Dorothy Plackett on June 10, 1781. She was five years older than him and illiterate (she signed their marriage license with an “X”). Yet she came from a puritan home and the first years of their marriage were happy. Carey would later baptize Dorothy, as he would also baptize his other two wives, Charlotte and Grace.[ix]
Two other significant events took place in those years. The first was the publication of the adventures of Captain Cook in the South Seas. Those writings captured Carey’s attention on two fronts: they appealed to his sense of adventure and they ignited within him a passion to be a missionary. Yet he himself was skeptical about the prospects of mission work in any area of the world.
It is very unlikely that any measure of this kind should ever be seriously thought of, as it can neither serve the purpose of public ambition nor private avarice; and, without such inducements, I may pronounce that it will never be undertaken.[x]
The roots of his own later trouble with the British East India Trading Company and the government of Great Britain are revealed in that statement.[xi] The dominant interest in going to new lands was founded on financial purposes, and missionary endeavors were seen as a hindrance to the financial development of those new areas. In addition to this resistance was the reluctance of churches to engage in evangelism.[xii]
The second significant event of those years was Carey’s movement into the pastorate. While he began preaching soon after his baptism, his ordination was a difficult one. The church at Olney initially rejected him in 1785. It was another year before that congregation ordained him with “unanimous satisfaction.”[xiii] Through that ordination, he was named pastor of a church in the town of Moulton. In many ways, those too were difficult years: the initial rejection of his ordination was compounded by the death of his daughter Ann in the third year of his marriage.[xiv] And Carey and his wife were so very poor that it took three jobs for Carey to support his family: pastor, cobbler, and village teacher.[xv]
Yet these also were highly formative years spiritually, and the seeds of his passion for mission work grew strong. In his cobbler’s workshop, Carey made a large homemade map of the world and began collecting data on the world’s population. This later was incorporated into his 87-page book, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of Heathens, in which the religious state of the different nations of the world, the success of former undertakings, and the practicability of further undertakings, are considered. This “‘little piece,’ as Carey called it, would become the manifesto of the modern missionary movement.”[xvi] His passion for the salvation of the lost is seen throughout the document, but perhaps most boldly in his statement, “I question whether all are justified in staying here, while so many are perishing without means of grace in other lands.”[xvii]
This work was finally published in early1792. Later that year, on May 31, 1792, Carey was asked to speak to a group of pastors from an association of 24 churches. He chose as his text Isaiah 54:2-3. His chosen text follows that of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. In this chapter, the prophet details the saving work of that suffering servant — a work that will expand the influence and descendants of Israel, God’s chosen nation.[xviii] It may be that Carey was encouraged to pick this text by lines written by William Cowper,
Behold at Thy commanding word,
We stretch the curtain and the cord. [xix]
Regardless of his inspiration, there is no doubting the clarion call of Carey that day.[xx] It was offered in few, passionate, poignant words: “Expect great things; attempt great things.” While no copy of that sermon remains, those words have been repeated often in the context of missions and the spiritual life. The meaning is abundantly clear — God is the provider of all and many great things, and on the basis of those truths, the believer is to attempt similarly great things that will bring honor and glory to the name of God.
The next day, the association was about to dismiss, yet without having done anything in response to Carey’s petition for evangelism and missions. The man who was gripped by the heartache of unregenerate men going to hell rose and asked one more passionate question: “Is there nothing again going to be done, sir?”[xxi] Unable to avoid Carey’s voice any longer, the pastors agreed to form a plan “against the next minister’s meeting at Kettering, for forming a Baptist Society for propagating the gospel among the heathen.”[xxii]
This formation of that society would in a short time offer a significant influence on the world.
In November of that same year (1792), this society received a letter from John Thomas, who had already served eight years as a doctor and missionary in India and was looking for someone to return to India with him to continue together in ministry. Carey was the obvious choice of the society, and in June of 1793, he left England with his wife and children, her sister, and John Thomas and his family. None of them would ever see England again. All died in India, Carey after almost 41 years of labor there.
What was the result of Carey’s ministry in India? He either translated or directly oversaw and edited 41 partial or complete translations of the Bible.[xxiii] He was instrumental in the planting of Lall Bazar Chapel in Calcutta in 1809 — a church that continues in ministry to this day, now under the name Carey Baptist Church. During his ministry they oversaw the opening of over 100 schools for the Biblical education of Indians. The man who had an elementary education was given a doctorate in linguistics and served as a Department Chairman of the Fort William College in Calcutta for 30 years (from 1801 until 1830). He also was instrumental in the abolition of infanticide, abortion, slavery and sati in India.[xxiv] And by the time of his death in 1834, there were 50 missionaries serving in 18 mission stations in India.
Carey was a simple, common man who was used by God for remarkable purposes. His life was marked by the simple statement made in his 31st year: “expect great things; attempt great things.”
[i] Terry G. Carter, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey, Macon, GA: Smith & Helwys, 2000, p. ix.
[ii] Despite his lack of formal education, Carey loved languages and learning; he taught himself Latin at the age of 12, simply by studying an old textbook. He also taught himself Greek by studying a borrowed Greek grammar and lexicon, and Hebrew with the help of a friend. He also taught himself to read Dutch and French. “It is known,” he said, “to require no extraordinary talents to learn, in the space of a year, or two at the most, the language of any people upon the earth, so much of it, at least, as to be able to convey any sentiments we wish to their understandings.” See Timothy George, Faithful Witness, Birmingham, AL: New Hope, 1991, pp. 23-24.
[iii] Personal email from Bennie R. Crockett, Jr., Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Co-Director Center for Study of the Life and Work of William Carey D.D., William Carey College, June 25, 2004.
[iv] See below for a more detailed discussion of this work. A .pdf version of this document is available online at a variety of places, including http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey.
[v] Eric W. Hayden, Christian History, Issue 29, p. 2.
[vi] Carey never was able to definitively document the date and time of his conversion, though he did recall that on Sunday, Feb. 10, 1779, he became a “Nonconformist,” a group of dissenters that crossed denominational lines and who were generally considered Calvinistic in their theology. This theological tradition introduced him to the writings and influence of people like John Newton, William Cowper, William Wilberforce, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, and David Brainerd — men whose writings and theology influenced him all his life. Additionally, his own work stimulated a host of other missionaries and theologians, including men like Charles Simeon and Henry Martyn. See S. Pearce Carey, William Carey, London: The Wakeman Trust, 1993, p. 27 and George, pp. 135-136.
[vii] Carey, p. 28.
[viii] Carey, p. 34.
[ix] Dorothy preceded him in death on December 8, 1807; Charlotte preceded him on May 30, 1821.
[x] Carey, p. 36.
[xi] See Carey, pp. 246-63 and 293-307 for details of these hardships.
[xii] The resistance to Carey’s encouragement to the church to engage in evangelizing the lost was profound. After proposing to a group of ministers that they discuss the topic “the duty of Christians to attempt the spread of the gospel among heathen nations,” John Ryland Sr., the father of the man who baptized him, is said to have responded, “Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine!” He apparently was also called a “miserable enthusiast” by another pastor for making his suggestion. See George, p. 53.
[xiii] George, p. 18.
[xiv] The same fever that took the life of his daughter left him prematurely bald at the age of 22. He often wore a wig to cover the baldness, but on the trip to India threw his wig overboard, and never wore one again.
[xv] At his pastorate in Leicester, they were sustained better financially, yet his schedule was no easier. In a letter to his father on Nov. 12, 1790, he wrote, “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 I 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 dissentors 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.”
[xvi] George, p. 21-2. A sample of one of the many charts from that work is illustrated below (reproduced from George, p. E-30):
[xvii] An Enquiry, p. 73.
[xviii] That influence and expansion is seen in the language “enlarge the place of your tent…stretch out the curtains… lengthen your cords…strengthen your pegs.” All these speak to a tent that must be made larger (because there are more inhabitants within it).
[xix] Carey, p. 75.
[xx] William Carey’s nephew, Eustice Carey, offered this recollection of that sermon: “After observing, by way of introduction, that the church was here compared to a poor desolate widow, who lived alone in a small tent; that she who had thus lived in a manner childless, was told to expect an increase in her family, such as would require a much larger dwelling; and this because her Maker was her husband, whose name was not only the Lord of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel, but the God of the whole earth; he proceeded to take up the spirit of the passage in two exhortations, which he addressed to his brethren: 1. Expect great things from God; 2. Attempt great things for God. The discourse was very animated and impressive.” Eustace Carey, Memoir of William Carey, D.D.: Late Missionary to Bengal; Professor of Oriental Languages in the College of Fort William, Calcutta, Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1836. Accessed on http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/careymemoir/eustace.htm, June 24, 2004.
[xxi] George, p. 33.
[xxii] Ibid.
[xxiii] A complete listing of these translations can be found at: http://www.wmcarey.edu/carey/bibles/translation.htm. See also, Carey, pp. 393-4, who says that Carey made 35 partial or complete translations. George suggest a number of approximately 40 (Faithful Witness, p. 173) or 41 (“The Life of William Carey,” audio message).
[xxiv] This is commonly known as “widow burning,” when a man’s widow would be burned alive with her husband’s remains.
Words of Grace 