Serampore Mission
Serampore Mission
Serampore Mission
by
A Thesis
______________________________
Dr. Samuel Larsen, Project Mentor
ii
ABSTRACT
Serampore: the Telos of the Reformation
Samuel E. Masters
While many biographies of missionary William Carey have been written over the last two
centuries, with the exception of John Clark Marshman’s “The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and
Ward: Embracing the History of the Serampore Mission”, published in the mid-nineteenth century, no
major work has explored the history of the Serampore Mission founded by Carey and his colleagues.
This thesis examines the roots of the Serampore Mission in Reformation theology. Key themes are traced
through John Calvin, the Puritans, Jonathan Edwards, and Baptist theologian Andrew Fuller. In later
chapters the thesis examines the ways in which these theological themes were worked out in a missiology
that was both practical and visionary. The Serampore missionaries’ use of organizational structures and
technology is explored, and their priority of preaching the gospel is set against the backdrop of their
efforts in education, translation, and social reform. A sense is given of the monumental scale of the work
iii
For Carita:
Faithful wife
Fellow Pilgrim
iv
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements …………………………..…….………………..……………………...viii
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….9
The Father of Modern Missions ……………………………………..10
Reformation Principles ………………………………………….......13
Historical Grids ………………………………………………….......14
Serampore and a Positive Calvinism ………………………………...17
The Telos of the Reformation ………………………………………..19
2. REFORMATION ROOTS …………………………………………………..20
Religious Trends ……………………………………………………..22
Early Protestant Limitations …………………………………………24
The Power of Theology ……………………………………………...27
Sola Scriptura: Back to Biblical Authority ………………………….28
A Theology of Conversion …………………………………………..30
A Theological Road Block …………………………………………..32
Calvin, Evangelism and Missions …………………………………...34
From Theology to Mission Endeavor ………………………………..37
3. PURITAN EVANGELISM ……………………………………………….…38
The Last Puritan ……………………………………………………...39
Lights of the World …………………………………………………..45
Evangelical Literature ………………………………………………..49
The Puritan Hope …………………………………………………….53
Puritan Missions to the New England Indians ……………………….54
The Grandfather of Modern Missions ………………………………..59
4. BAPTIST REVIVAL ……………………….………………………………..63
Carey’s Spiritual and Theological Formation ……………………….65
Dismantling Hyper-Calvinism ………………………………………72
Carey and the Northamptonshire Association Baptists ……………..78
5. THE ENQUIRY ………………………………………………….…………..81
v
The Enlightenment and the Power of Ideas ……………………….…81
The Enlightenment and Evangelical Calvinism ……………………..83
Carey and Enlightenment Influences ………………………………..84
The Advocate ………………………………………………………..86
The Enquiry ………………………………………………………….88
A Binding Commission ……………………………………………...89
The Call of Duty ……………………………………………………..91
The Enquiry and Eschatology ……………………………………….93
An Urgent Call to Action ……………………………………………94
6. THE USE OF MEANS ……………………………………………………...99
A Blue Collar Approach ……………………………………………101
A Theology of Means ………………………………………………104
Means and Providence ……………………………………………...106
Providence, Prayer and Practicality ………………………………...109
Pitfalls ………………………………………………………….……112
7. INNOVATIVE INSTITUTIONS ………………………………….………..115
A Voluntary Society ......................................................................116
The Society and Baptist Polity ……………………………………...121
The Serampore Mission……………………………………………...125
Serampore’s Decline ………………………………………………..132
8. INDIAN CONVERSIONS AND THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS. …137
Hard Thumps – Satire in Apologetics……………………………….139
The Preaching of the Cross………………………………………......144
Conversion ………………………………………………………...…147
Expansion ……………………………………………………………151
Translation and Publication ………………………………………....152
Cross-cultural Preaching ………………………………………….…154
Indian Preachers……………………………………..…………….…155
Church Planting ……………………………………………………..157
9. SERAMPORE CHRISTIANITY AND INDIAN CULTURE …………......160
vi
For the Love of India………………………………………………...161
Opposing the Darkness ……………………………………………...162
Understanding India …………………………………………...........165
Engaging the Culture ………………………………………….…….166
The Bible Publishing Enterprise …………………………………….170
Caste and the Church ………………………………………………...175
10. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………..……….182
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………...184
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the Rev. Dr. Lalchungnunga and his wife Hliri for their kind hospitality at
Serampore College; the Rev. Dr. Dipankar Haldar of Serampore College for his insight on
Carey’s Bengali translation; Mrs. Dipti Rani Gine at the Carey Library and Research Center at
Serampore College for her help with resources, especially for making Daniel Pott’s transcription
of William Ward’s journal available to me; the Reverend Emma Walsh and her assistant Emily
Burgoyne for their gracious and able help at the Angus Library, Regents’ Park College, Oxford;
Margaret Williams for arranging tours of Carey related sites in Northamptonshire and for
providing a copy of “Carey’s Covenant,” the church covenant from Carey’s pastorate at Moulton
where she is a current member; Dr. Michael Haykin at Southern Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
for his encouragement with this project and his assistant Steve Weaver for making available to
in Kansas City for tracking down hard to find resources; Dr. James Adams of Cornerstone
Church, Mesa, Arizona for his encouragement, engagement with the project, and constructive
criticism; Dr. Sam Larsen, my thesis adviser at Reformed Theological Seminary whose course
on the history of missions whet my appetite for further study, and whose guidance and
encouragement were invaluable; Russell Johnson and the congregation of International Bible
Baptist Church in Miami for their support and generosity; Centro Crecer, mi familia, in Córdoba,
Argentina; my daughter, Sarah Jeffries, who reviewed the rough draft; and my wife Carita who
accompanied me on related trips, helped with the typing, ran interference to help me write, and
never complained when my mind wandered away to be with Bill and his buddies
viii
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The Hooghly River still flows 160 miles from the Ganges to Calcutta and the Bay of
Bengal. Small boats negotiate the tidal bore, but the broad river no longer fills with Danish
and British sails. On the right bank at Serampore, upriver from Calcutta, the Greek portico
of Serampore College looks out over the river towards Barackpore much as it did in the 19th
century; but the Serampore mission, once the most renowned Christian endeavor in the
world, ceased to exist as an independent organization in 1836. Much of its property was long
ago sold to a jute mill to meet the financial needs of the surviving college. Still, every
weekday before breakfast, ministerial students walk out the iron gates of the college, turn left
along the bank of the Hooghly and stroll past the jute mill to the chapel1 which 200 years ago
echoed with the voices of Joshua Marshman, William Ward, and William Carey. This daily
stroll takes them past the spot along the river where the first Baptist convert, Krishna Pal was
Serampore has rightly been called the “cradle of modern missions.”2 As such it takes its
place alongside Luther’s Wittenberg and Calvin’s Geneva. It is the place where the
1
The current chapel was the original mission house.
2
George Howells, The Story of Serampore and Its College (Serampore: Orissa Mission Press, 1927),
3.
9
The Father of Modern Missions
William Carey has been called the “father of modern missions.” The title appears in
the first major history of Serampore published in 18593 by John Clark Marshman who, as the
son of Joshua and Hannah Marshman, grew up at the mission. To describe William Carey’s
funeral procession he wrote, “He was followed to the grave by all the native Christians, and
by many of his Christian brethren of various denominations, anxious to pay the last token of
This designation is sometimes disputed on the grounds that he was not the first
missionary of the modern period. For example, Stephen Neill writes, “Books written in
English have frequently spoken of William Carey (1761- 1834) as ‘the father of modern
missions,’ and of the work he brought into being as the first Protestant mission of modern
Carey certainly was aware of his many predecessors. In the second section of his
seminal work An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion
of the Heathens,6 under the heading “Containing a short Review of former Undertakings for
the Conversion of the Heathen,” he mentions the New England Puritans, John Eliot and
David Brainerd; “Mr. Ziegenbalg” of the Danish mission to “Tranquebar, on the Coromandel
coast in the East Indies . . . ,” the Moravian Brethren who “none of the moderns have equaled
. . . in this good work”; and “the late Mr. Wesley” who “lately made an effort in the West
Indies.”
3
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward, (London: Longman,
Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1859), 2:477.
4
Marshman, 477.
5
Stephen Neil, A History of Christian Missions, 2d ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1986), 222.
6
Carey, An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the
Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 62-63.
10
Carey’s early biographers were also aware of Serampore’s predecessors. John Clark
Marshman documents the efforts of both the Danes and the Moravians in India prior to
Carey’s arrival, and the fervent, if unsuccessful, efforts of David Brown and Charles Grant to
stir the Church of England to action. Since Marshman was aware of Carey’s predecessors it
should be safe to assume that when he referred to Carey as the “father of modern missions”
he believed the designation was accurate in some sense beyond simple chronology. Carey’s
While Stephen Neill rejects the designation “father of modern missions,” he agrees
that Carey’s work represents a turning-point of some sort; he describes it in ethnographic
terms: “it marks the entry of the English-speaking world on a large scale into the missionary
enterprise—and it has been the English-speaking world which has provided four-fifths of the
non-Roman missionaries from the days of Carey until the present time.”7 This focus on the
role of English-speaking missions, while narrowly accurate, is problematic for at least two
reasons. If the key is that Carey was an English speaker, the turning point might just as well
be represented by John Eliot, or David Brainerd, John Wesley, or even John Thomas who
preceded Carey to India. Second, it fails to take into account the way in which Serampore,
by the diversity of its activities, the innovation of its structures and methods, and the sheer
audacity of its vision provided the pattern for all future Protestant missionary endeavors. It
also ignores the explosive growth in Protestant missions from many denominational sources
which followed the establishment of The Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel Amongst the Heathen8 which sponsored the Serampore Mission.
The Indian scholar S.D.L. Alagodi captures the epochal importance of Carey when he
writes, “In the modern history of Christianity two great men of God, Martin Luther and
William Carey, have played a very significant role in ushering in two different eras in the
7
Neil, 222.
8
Later named the Baptist Missionary Society.
11
history of the Christian Church.”9 Martin Luther ushered in the Reformation and Carey the
Wycliffe), but there is little doubt that his endeavors mark the dawn of the Reformation. In
similar fashion, it is true that Serampore did not spring fully formed from an historical
vacuum. Rather, it marks a critical turning point that connects previous developments to
future innovations.
Both periods, the dawn of the Reformation and the birth of the modern missionary
movement, were marked by extraordinary providential circumstances which amplified the
influence of Luther and Carey. Both periods, for example, were marked by an explosion of
knowledge about the geography and populations of the world. Columbus was the
representative figure of Luther’s times and Captain James Cook that of Carey’s. Both periods
were marked by geopolitical developments which aided the spread of Protestant ideas. In
Luther’s time the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V was distracted by political difficulties
with other European rulers and by the threat of a Turkish invasion which reached the gates of
Vienna. These circumstances provided the necessary political space for Protestantism to gain
a strong base in northern Europe. In Carey’s day, the Pax Britannica provided on a global
stage what the Pax Romana had provided in apostolic times. Britain’s control of the sea lanes
provided communication routes like the system of Roman roads, and their military strength
provided security even if, as in apostolic times, the empire’s policies were often anti-
missionary. Both Luther’s and Carey’s periods were marked by advances in communications
Serampore introduced printing to India and made heavy use of a newer development,
periodical literature such as newspapers and journals. Both periods were marked by
9
S. D. L. Alagodi, "Carey's Experiment in Communal Living at Serampore." Carey's Obligation and
India's Renaissance. Edited by J. T. K. Daniel and R. E. Hedlund. (Serampore: Serampore College, 1993), 18
Alagodi also quotes J. Herbert Kane, “What Luther was to the Protestant Reformation, Carey was to the
Christian Missionary Movement.”
12
important intellectual trends that led to complex interactions between Protestantism and the
culture at large; the Renaissance in Luther’s time and the Enlightenment in Carey’s. Finally,
both periods were shaped by new ecclesiastical structures. Luther’s period saw the universal
pretension of the papacy lose ground before the rise of national churches while Carey’s
achievement might be interpreted as the vindication of the congregational view of the church.
The accomplishments of the Serampore Trio (Carey, Marshman and Ward) represent
the first full flowering of the Protestant Reformation in non-western soil. Their efforts gave
rise to the great age of modern missions with results that must have exceeded the wildest
dreams of the first generation of the Reformation.
Reformation Principles
continuities and discontinuities. Serampore marks a new stage in the larger process of the
represents the natural end of that process. Sidney Rooy has written, “The modern
upon a genuine concern for the conversion of souls, the expansion of the church, and the
establishment of the kingdom of God.”10 The Serampore Mission was specifically rooted in
that line of theology that descends from Calvin through the English Puritans, Jonathan
Edwards and English Particular Baptists such as Andrew Fuller. That this line produced
Serampore was not just an historical accident. It was the very vitality of Evangelical
Of course, there are important connections to previous endeavors which grew out of
10
Sidney H. Rooy, The Theology of Missions in the Puritan Tradition: A Study of Representative
Puritans: Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, John Eliot, Cotton Mather & Jonathan Edwards (Laurel: Audubon
Press, 2006), 11.
13
commitment was inspiring to Carey and he used their example to prod his fellow Baptist
ministers to action. In addition, the Moravians communal lifestyle provided a model for the
living arrangements of the Serampore mission. This arrangement proved to be flawed and
did not outlive the first generation of missionaries, but the Moravian’s commitment still
speaks to us today. While the influence of the Moravians is beyond dispute, a close look
shows that primary theological influence on Carey comes from the Evangelical Calvinism of
Historical Grids
different ways. The five solas of the Reformation would provide a useful grid. Each can be
found to have influenced the development of Serampore in some way. Another grid is
Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s which has gained critical acceptance as an
crucicentrism, and activism.11 Some of Bebbington’s ideas have been contested, especially
the proposal that Evangelicalism should be dated from the 1730’s, but even where contested
they have been the source of fruitful discussion. All four of these characteristics were
evident at Serampore and with certain caveats, will be useful to us in examining the
development of the Protestant principles that led to the modern missionary movement.
movements than some scholars feel is warranted,12 the links between his four characteristics
11
For an example of constructive interaction see The Advent of Evangelicalism (ed. Haykin and
Stewart). Points that come under criticism include the idea that a new view of assurance taught by Jonathan
Edwards freed Protestants from excessive introspection to become activists. Another point of concern is the
tendency in Bebbington to downplay continuities with the Puritans and the first generations of Reformers and to
make too much of connections between 18th century Evangelicalism and the Enlightenment.
12
It is true that the Revivals in Britain and America led by Whitefield and Edwards involved
methodological innovations. The question is whether they represent a significant theological innovation that
14
and the five solas of the Reformation are fairly obvious. The 16th century emphasis on sola
scriptura – the unique and sufficient authority of Scripture – leads to the 18th century views
Bebbington calls biblicism. The Reformation insistence on sola fides, solus Christus, and
sola gratia in salvation lead to the 18th century’s emphasis on personal conversion and the
The four characteristics are often referred to as the Bebbington quadrilateral. This
label reflects the fact that Bebbington, for the most part, does not assign any particular order
be desired. What is missing, I think, is the way evangelicals themselves have often seen an
organic wholeness to their beliefs and practices, and that at the center is a profound passion
for submitting everything to the Bible. In that sense, what Bebbington calls “biblicism” (an
ugly way of putting it) might properly come first.”14 By insisting on the centrality of
biblicism, Carson provides a further link to the five solas where sola scriptura was seen as
the formal principle of the Reformation. It also allows us to see that the four categories can
be placed in an order that reflects the inexorable logic of their theological content: the
conversionism. The fourth characteristic, activism, grows out of the interplay between the
Activism doesn’t actually have a parallel in the five solas but it can be seen as their
evangelism or even missions. Bebbington presumably chose activism to reflect the broad
sets them apart from the Puritans and Calvin. Bebbington argues that the roots of Evangelicalism are to be
found in Edwards’s innovative development of the doctrine of assurance. Perhaps it might be better to argue
that revivalism grew out of theological tendencies already present among the Puritans and is to be attributed to
the work of the Holy Spirit and providential developments such as the growth civil liberties after the Glorious
Revolution. The innovation is to be found not so much in theology as in the chosen use of means.
13
The emphasis on conversion and the cross are, of course, found in Luther and Calvin as well.
14
D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 449-450.
15
range of activities in which Evangelicals became involved. However, his section on this
characteristic makes it clear that evangelism was the distinguishing priority of Evangelical
activity.15
“Persons, after their own conversion, have commonly expressed an exceeding great desire for
the conversion of others. Some have thought they should be willing to die for the conversion
of any soul. . . .”16 Bebbington makes reference to numerous examples of evangelistic zeal in
the 18th century and asserts that the spirit of activism led to the modern missionary
movement: “. . . the quest for souls generally drove Evangelicals out from the centres of
learning to the parishes and to the foreign mission field. The missionary movement of the
nineteenth and twentieth century centuries was the fruit of the Evangelical Revival. . . . [A]
direct result of the revival was the creation of new missionary societies, beginning with that
of the Baptists in 1792, that did so much to make the Christian faith a worldwide religion.”17
new basis for assurance. This assurance freed them from the habits of introspection typical
of an earlier period and redirected their energies towards greater activism. Whether this
thesis is an adequate explanation is beyond the scope of this introduction. Perhaps a more
easily defended premise would be that missionary activism grew out of the order of
understanding of individual conversion through the message of the cross. The experience of
conversion naturally led to the desire for the conversion of others. This desire would become
15
D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (Great Britain: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 10-12.
16
Bebbington, 10.
17
Ibid., 12.
16
Serampore and a Positive Calvinism
The influence of each of the five solas of the Reformation can be detected at
Serampore. The most obvious is sola scriptura which was immediately evident in efforts to
translate, print, and distribute the Bible. Not as obvious in the popular literature, but equally
important is the emphasis on solus Christus which was the focus of their evangelistic
preaching. Sola gratia also played a key role in the thinking of the Serampore Trio. In fact,
missionaries. It speaks to the debate about the role of human methodology in missions and
church planting. The five solas help place Serampore in the broad flow of the Reformation.
Bebbington’s thesis helps further locate Serampore in the somewhat more narrow
flow of Evangelical history. However, Carey, Marshman, and Ward were not just
theological safeguard against many of the excesses which developed later in the Evangelical
approach to theology rob them of evangelistic initiative. With the help of Jonathan Edwards,
Particular Baptist leaders from Carey’s generation recovered a biblical view of evangelism.
It was left to Carey to follow this theological development to its logical conclusion—if the
Carey found in the doctrine of God’s sovereignty a positive principle. Because God
is sovereign his commands must be obeyed. Because God is sovereign obedience will bear
fruit. “Expect great things from God! Attempt great things for God!”
This emphasis on active obedience logically leads to one of Carey’s great insights:
the fulfillment of the Great Commission requires the use of means. The use of means implies
the grasping of temporal cultural tools for the building of God’s eternal kingdom. Carey and
the Serampore team used means which they brought from England, printing for example. At
the same time they were sensitive to Indian culture, adopting those forms which they
considered compatible with the gospel. Carey, for example, took profound delight in the
17
beauties of the languages of the Indian sub-continent. The Serampore missionaries were
certainly not cultural chauvinists. While they were strongly opposed to the Indian custom of
widow burning and intolerant of the caste system, they were equally opposed to the class
prejudice which was typical of the English in India. Because their judgments were informed
by biblical principle, their policies did not fall neatly on either side of the Indian-English
cultural divide.
Abraham Kuyper defined the study of missions as, “The investigation of the most
profitable God-ordained method leading to the conversion of those outside of Christ.”18 The
description God-ordained implies that the Word of God is not only the content of the cross-
regulative principle. Specifically, their strong view of sovereign grace in salvation (sola
gratia) kept their emphasis on the use of means from descending into a reliance on human
efforts and it prevented their emphasis on the conversion of the heathen from descending into
The process of acculturation was not without difficulties. The movement from
concrete missionary project without digging one’s hands into the soil of culture—an
inherently messy experience. To begin with, on one level, theology itself is a cultural
product.19 Evangelicals hold to the authority and inerrancy of scripture. God’s Word is
unchangeable. But theology itself is a product of man’s interaction with God’s unchangeable
Word, and as such, it is both cultural artifact and artificer. What is more, because culture is
18
This does not require surrender to relativism. At the heart of missionary theology lies
the incarnation. The Word by its very nature is meant to be spoken into the world. As
Calvin said, “God . . . lisps with us as nurses are wont to do with little children. . . .”20 The
Word stoops to be understood—but the Word is still sovereign. In humility, the Word speaks
in our fragmented languages without suffering degradation. The Word remains and the
world is changed.
The history of the Serampore mission provides ample evidence that theological
principles emerging from the Reformation were the driving force behind all its endeavors.
The five solas and Bebbington’s quadrilateral are traceable at every stage. Moreover, by
their insistence on the use of means and engagement with culture, the Serampore Trio helped
extend the logic of the Reformation in ways which would allow it to break out to the broader
world. .
Whether or not we choose to call William Carey the father of modern missions,
Serampore set the pattern for the global expansion of Evangelical Christianity. More than
just the birthplace of modern missions, Serampore represents the telos of the Protestant
Reformation. The development of the powerful theological ideas unleashed by Luther can be
traced in a line that descends from Calvin through the English Puritans, Jonathan Edwards
and English Particular Baptists, such as Andrew Fuller, to the Serampore Trio. Carey,
Marshman and Ward were not theologians, but they were the very model of theologically-
driven practitioners. Their efforts produced the first full flowering of the Reformation on
non-western soil. These same efforts helped shape modern India and gave birth to a global
Protestant Christianity.
20
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (New Haven: Hezekiah Howe, 1816), 1.1.13.
19
CHAPTER 2
REFORMATION ROOTS
The Paulerspury Horticultural Society hosts its annual flower show in August. The
drive up from Heathrow takes about an hour and twenty minutes following the M1. If
August is not convenient there is a Jumble Sale in March or the Summer Fete in June
complete with tug-of-war competitions. Proceeds benefit the village church named for St.
Except for a red phone booth in the middle of the village, it is possible to imagine that
Paulerspury hasn’t changed since William Carey studied at the village school in the 1760’s.
London during the week and still raise their families in the village that shaped Carey’s early
years. The same fields that attracted Carey as a boy start just beyond the thatched houses.
William Carey was actually born in Pury’s End (August 17, 1761), a half mile walk
across a fence-lined dale. The cottage where he was born was pulled down in the 1960’s, but
the lane is still lined with cottages almost identical to the place of his birth. The square
tower of St. James the Great, visible from Pury’s End, must have served as a navigation
marker for William’s wanderings. He showed an early fascination with the natural world as
Of birds and all manner of insects he had numbers. When he was from home, the
birds were committed to my care. . . . Being more than five years younger, I was
indulged by him in all his enjoyments. Though I often killed them by kindness, yet
when he saw my grief, he always permitted me the pleasure of serving them again;
and often took me over the dirtiest roads to get at a plant or insect. He never walked
out, when quite a boy, without making observation on the hedges as he passed; and
when he took up a plant of any kind he always examined it with care.1
1
Samuel Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust), 18.
20
The church provided more than a geographical center for William Carey’s life. It had
been the focus of his family’s life since his grandfather Peter had settled in Paulerspury and
married Ann Flecknoe in 1722. As a tammy weaver, Peter Carey was surely poor, but
probably well educated since he was chosen as the school teacher and parish clerk. Peter and
Ann had three sons, Peter, Edmund and William, two of whom became school teachers as
well. William, a promising teacher, died when he was twenty and left behind a grieving
father who followed him to the grave in only two weeks. Peter junior joined the army and
participated in the siege of Quebec with General Wolfe. Edmund, the father of “the father of
modern missions,” eventually filled the role of teacher and town clerk. Locals still point to
the spot in the second pew where young William is said to have sat under his father’s
Paulerspury might seem an isolated place for the future “father of modern missions”
to spend his formative years, but the village was not entirely cut off from the currents of
history. Watling Street, an ancient road from the Roman period, ran by just a few hundred
yards from the village. Some locals believe that the Battle of Watling Street, Queen
Boudicca’s last stand against the Roman legions took place in the vicinity. In Elizabethan
times Sir Walter Raleigh may have visited the town. His wife, Bess Throckmorton, was a
lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth. Bess’s father, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton’ had acquired
the manor at Paulerspury. Bess’s marriage to Raleigh was performed without the queen’s
consent and resulted in his imprisonment in the tower of London. Nonetheless, local legend
2
Paulerspury Parish Council, Paulerspury Parish Website; available at
http://paulerspury.org/content/view/18/49/; Internet; accessed December, 2010.
21
By William Carey’s time the most exotic visitor to Paulerspury might have been his
uncle Peter returning from battling the French in what is now Canada. However, news of the
larger world reached Paulerspury and the other villages of Northamptonshire through
newspapers from Leicester and Northampton. For example, in 1766 a naval veteran, James
Cook, who, like Peter Carey, had served under General Wolfe began to make news. Cook
was commissioned by the Royal Society to sail to the Pacific to observe the solar transit of
Venus. By the time William was eighteen, Captain Cook had made three voyages of
exploration that changed European perceptions of the larger world. The publication of
Cook’s journals astounded an eager public with accounts of the South Sea Islands.
While Carey wandered the lanes and fields around Paulerspury, his mind reached out
to the wider world. His interest was not limited to botany; he showed an early fascination
with languages and geography. He was so fascinated by the voyages of Columbus that his
playmates called him by the name of the great discoverer.3 When at fourteen years of age
Piddington, he could not have imagined that his journey would eventually take him beyond
his High Church roots and to places as distant as those explored by Captain Cook.
Religious Trends
The church at Paulerspury reflects the history of English Christianity. The Domesday
Book mentions the presence of a priest at Paulerspury in the late 11th century. The church of
Saint James the Great dates from the 12th century. The Lord of Paulerspury Manor had the
3
S. P. Carey, 18.
22
right to appoint a priest to a church benefice as early as 1229.4 Carey’s family connection
with the church would have given them a certain respectability in spite of their poverty. He
might have followed his father as a schoolmaster and parish clerk, but currents in the spiritual
life of England and in the geopolitics of the world were to converge and sweep him from the
relative isolation of the midlands to the leadership of a movement as great as that of the
Reformation itself.
At the dawn of the Reformation, Paulerspury must have seemed far removed from the
great events which were changing the face of Europe. Before the Chunnel and Ryan Air,
news of Erasmus’s New Testament, of Luther’s thesis nailed to the Wittenberg door, of
Ulrich Zwingli’s death in battle, of Turkish armies at the gates of Vienna must have seemed
like distant rumors. But England was connected to the continent by the institutions of the
Catholic Church, the interrelationships of Europe’s royal families, and by the revolution in
communications produced by the invention of the printing press. Changes in the shape of the
institutional church, the decay of the feudal model of society, and the rise of commercialism
might have been slow in arriving in Paulerspury, but they did arrive.
Of course, changes that began on the European continent took on uniquely English
forms when they crossed the channel. The English Reformation, launched to facilitate the
serial marriages of Henry VIII, began with murder and proceeded through waves and
counter-waves of persecution and bloodshed until the reign of Elizabeth. While Henry’s
motives may have been suspect it became clear that great issues of the gospel itself and the
shape of the church and its relationship to the state were at stake.
The peoples of Scotland, Wales and Ireland were taken up in the convulsions.
Covenanters and Puritans struggled not just against the Catholicism but against spiritual
4
Paulerspury Parish Council.
23
apathy in the ranks of the Reformed. The Puritan vision of a pious church and society gave
birth to the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell and the colonies of Plymouth and
Massachusetts Bay. The collapse of these social experiments opened the way for new
considerable sway, but the trends were against its domination. A series of spiritual
awakenings had swept across English-speaking lands. George Whitefield and Jonathan
Edwards had shaken the world with their preaching and, “For thirty of Carey’s English years
John Wesley rode everywhere for his many daily preachings, ‘paying more turnpikes than
any other in the land’. Carey, as a lad of twelve, may have seen him at seventy in
Towecester; or more likely a few years later in Northampton and Leicester.”5 Great events on
the stage of world history conspired to make Britain the leading power on the world stage at
the same time that the English Reformation was succeeding in freeing its soteriology from its
erastian ecclesiology. Perhaps it is true that church history is best studied as a branch of
produced the greatest global expansion of Christianity in history. This expansion, however,
was late in coming. Significant missionary endeavors did not arise from Protestant sources
until the New England Puritans began working with the Indian nations in the middle of the
17th century, more than one hundred years after Luther nailed his theses on the Wittenberg
5
S. P. Carey, 8.
24
door. This delay can be explained by numerous circumstances. During the early years of the
Reformation, Catholic national powers were in the ascendant and dominated the trade routes
of the world. In this same period, the Reformation required an intense focus by the reformers
to consolidate the theology of the movement and to begin to establish new institutional
forms. This was done in an atmosphere complicated by political upheaval and constant war.
At times, the very survival of the Reformation was in question. It is difficult to think of
Protestant missionary efforts were initially hampered because they did not possess
obvious replacements for the Catholic institutions that had been instrumental in the
expansion of the church in its first one and one half millennia.6 The monastic orders had been
the driving force behind the earlier endeavors. Patrick in the fifth century and Francis Xavier
in the sixteenth enjoyed the backing of organizations that had the support of papal authority
Even today Protestants question from where missionary authority and backing are to
be derived. Catholics had a ready answer: from the apostolic church. The papacy had
universalist pretensions: all of Christendom united under the authority of one bishop. But
from where does authority and backing derive after the universal church has fragmented into
national churches and national churches dissolved into denominations and then independent
local congregations?
Catholic apologists were not shy about pointing out the weakness. Robert Bellarmine
(1542-1621) wrote:
Heretics are never said to have converted either pagans or Jews to the faith, but only
to have perverted Christians. But in this one century the Catholics have converted
6
Kenneth Scott Latourette, History of the Expansion of Christianity (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode,
1944), 3:25–30.
25
many thousands of heathens in the new world. Every year a certain number of Jews
are converted and baptized at Rome by Catholics who adhere in loyalty to the Bishop
of Rome; and there are also some Turks who are converted by the Catholics both at
Rome and elsewhere. The Lutherans compare themselves to the apostles and
evangelists; yet though they have among them a very large number of Jews, and in
Poland and Hungary have the Turks as their neighbors, they have hardly converted so
much as a handful.7
This criticism was largely true. That the Catholic position was undermined by the fact that
the ‘many thousands of converts in the new world’ were converted at the tip of the sword
Given the obstacles, it is not surprising that some Protestants developed an anti-
missions theology. Johann Gerhard (d.1637), for example, held that the Great Commission
was only incumbent upon the original apostles. “In their day the offer of salvation had been
made to all nations; there’s no need for the offer to be made a second time to those who had
already refused it.”8 This view was still prevalent in many quarters in the late 18th century
when William Carey began his ministry. In fact, Carey specifically rebutted this view in his
great missionary pamphlet, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for
In spite of this slow start, missions as known today, grew out of the Protestant
Reformation:
[By] what seemed a strange anomaly, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
witnessed a fresh surge of life in the Christianity of Western Europe. Through it
Christianity permeated the life of that region more effectively and brought it nearer
the ideals set forth in the New Testament than in any earlier time. From that surge
issued a missionary movement of unprecedented dimensions. The faith was planted
among more peoples than had ever known it. By the middle of the eighteenth century
no other religion had had as wide a geographic expansion as Christianity. Moreover,
earnest Christians fought the evils attendant upon the chronic wars between rival
dynasties and sought to check the exploitation of peoples by European conquerors,
7
Stephen Neil, A History of Christian Missions, 2d ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1986), 188-189.
8
Neil, 189.
26
explorers, merchants, and settlers and make the contacts with Europeans accrue to the
benefit of non-Europeans.9
motivated in part by deep concerns about corruption in both of these areas. But it should be
understood that the Reformation was first about ideas—specifically theological ideas,
biblical ideas. One historian writes of the period, “Ideas mattered profoundly; they had
independent power of their own, and they could be corrosive and destructive. The most
corrosive ideas of all were to be found in the Bible, an explosive unpredictable force in every
age.”10 These Biblical ideas corroded social and ecclesiastical forms which emerged from the
middle ages, but these same ideas brought new order out of the ensuing chaos.
The theological ideas of the Reformation are often summarized as the five solas; sola
scriptura, sola fides, sola gratia, solus Christus and soli Deo gloria. Reformed thinking
produced a rich and profound theology and helped shape the modern world through many
additional ideas such as the priesthood of all believers, the church as an assembly of
believers, and the sanctity of all vocations. But most of these ideas can be traced back to the
9
Latourette, 166.
10
Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation (New York: Viking, 2003), xxi.
27
Each of the five solas can be seen as a correction of Catholic error. For example, sola
scriptura affirmed that the Bible alone was authoritative in matters of faith and practice. This
represented a rejection of papal and conciliar authority. Sola fides proclaimed that salvation
was by faith alone. This countered the Catholic assertion that salvation was the result of faith
plus works as defined by the church. Sola gratia asserted that salvation is of God’s grace
alone. It denied the value of any human merit in salvation, and as Luther and Calvin taught,
this principle denies that the salvation of individuals is synergistic. In other words, God acts
alone based on his sovereign will and power apart from all human cooperation.
A simple summary highlights critical theological shifts on three important axes. First,
authority was now seen to be vested in the scriptures and not the church. Second, salvation
was by grace through faith and not by works as defined by the church. Third, inevitably,
given the first two shifts, the nature of the church itself was reinterpreted in numerous ways.
What was perhaps not seen initially with perfect clarity was how the force of these ideas
The five solas do not exhaust the theological innovation of the Reformation. In some
ways, it is best to see the upheaval not as theological innovation so much as a return to the
original teachings of scripture. This biblical renaissance was facilitated by two cultural
developments which eventually had repercussions in Serampore and beyond. The first was
the rise of humanistic scholarship. Scholars such as Erasmus of Rotterdam were leading a
movement that insisted on the value of ancient literature. Humanism originally was not a
28
philosophy to be contrasted with Christianity. It was more a literary movement which
declared “ad fonts”: a return to original sources. Originally, its purpose was the refinement
of rhetoric along classical lines. Petrarch and Boccaccio promoted Cicero as the very model
Erasmus led the way in applying humanistic techniques to the study of scripture. A
new seriousness in the study of the original languages led to Erasmus’ edition of the Greek
New Testament that would serve as the basis of Luther’s groundbreaking translation of the
Bible into the German vernacular. What began as a movement among the intellectual elite
who had the means and leisure to polish their classical languages and refine their Ciceronian
rhetoric, in the end had the effect of making the scriptures available in the language of
German peasants.
printing. The introduction of movable type around 1439 by Johannes Gutenberg made
possible the mass production of books. This produced an intellectual revolution that made
itself felt in the fields of religion, science, and the arts. The effects of this revolution are
ongoing and can be seen in our current transition to what some call an information society.
The effects on theology were profound. Gutenberg’s first major production was the
42-line Bible commonly called the Gutenberg Bible. This masterpiece was not only the first
book ever printed, it is also still one of the most beautiful. Bibles suddenly became
accessible to people beyond the confines of monastery walls. This technological innovation,
combined with the emphasis on translating scripture into the common languages of Europe
made the Scriptures a powerful force in a European culture dissatisfied with the Catholic
29
It was against this back drop that the Reformation asserted the doctrine of sola
scriptura. This doctrine involved the denial of the authority of the church over scripture.
The Catholic Church had claimed that the scriptures were a product of the church as an
institution. Protestantism asserted the opposite, that the church was a product of scripture.
The Protestant theology of scripture declared its sufficiency in matters of salvation and
sanctification. And it asserted the perspicuity of scripture. That is to say, the reformers held
that while there are certainly things difficult to understand in the Bible, in matters that are
essential the Scriptures are clear and able to be understood by all. While intellectual
hermeneutic dependent on the normal canons of reason were critical, Calvin insisted that
This change of understanding would drive the Reformation. As the scriptures became
the possession of common people entire societies were transformed. The same principle
would be the driving force behind modern missions. Carey’s translations of the Bible into
the languages of the Indian sub-continent would herald a new era in biblical scholarship, and
foreshadow ongoing efforts which have produced translations in every major language on
earth.
A Theology of Conversion
soteriology – the doctrine of salvation. Sola scriptura is often called the formal principle of
the Reformation since it is the basis for what is known as the material principle, sola fides.
Actually, sola fides, sola gratia and solus Christus are primarily soteriological principles.
30
Men are saved by God’s active and sovereign grace, through faith apart from works which
takes as its object Christ who atoned for sins through his cross.
Both Luther and Calvin had experienced a radical personal conversion. Salvation
was no longer mediated by the church, but by Christ himself. In the middle ages, the church
controlling access to the merits of the saints, and rites such as the mass. Now the spiritual
equation was modified. Under the Catholic Church justification was the product of
combining faith and good works; good works as defined by the church. Sanctification
produced salvation. The Reformation inverted the process. Faith was seen to result in
The accretion of hundreds of years was stripped away by the solvent of scripture. The mass
was removed from the center of church life and replaced by the public exposition of the
Bible. The reformation in Zurich began in 1519 when Huldrych Zwingli began a series of
sermons in which he taught through the gospel of Matthew in systematic fashion. Expository
preaching was soon common among the other reformers. Calvin, in Geneva, developed the
habit of speaking without notes directly from the biblical text after a period of study of the
passage in question. He favored a plain unadorned style that eschewed shows of erudition in
favor of a simple clarification of the text. The primary focus of these expositions was
pastoral. The reformers were concerned for the conversion and the growth in grace of their
hearers.
It is a small step from evangelistic preaching to missions. The five solas push
irresistibly in that direction. William Carey understood the Reformation in this way,
31
“Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, Bucer, Martyr, and many others, stood up against all the rest
of the world; they preached, and prayed, and wrote; and nations agreed one after another to
cast off the yoke of popery, and to embrace the doctrine of the gospel.”11 This comes from
the chapter in his Enquiry titled “Containing a short Review of Former Undertakings for the
Conversion of the Heathen” where Carey interprets the entire Reformation as missions!
Both Luther and Calvin stressed the sovereignty of God in salvation. Not only were
they convinced that the scriptures clearly taught that salvation was monergistic, they saw that
given a biblical view of human depravity, man’s only hope was to be found in God’s
sovereign grace. However, abstracted from its rich biblical context, the principle of God’s
sovereignty in salvation would be seen in the future by some as implying a prohibition, not
just of missions, but of evangelistic preaching itself. Hyper-Calvinism would maintain that if
only the elect can come to Christ it was wrong to make a clear offer of the gospel to sinners.
The stultifying effects of this view would kill evangelistic preaching and missions. But this
was not Calvin’s position and it is not legitimately derived from his theology or his practice.
A key to the matter is found in Calvin’s teaching on divine providence. Paul Helm
writes, “Providence is God's ceaseless, meticulous care for and control of not only the forces
and powers of the natural order but also of the various orders of his creatures, and especially
of mankind, 'the noblest work of God’, and, within the human race, especially of his
11
William Carey, An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of
the Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 61.
32
church.”12 God’s providence works through secondary causes. God is the first cause, but he
uses elements of his creation—secondary causes—to bring about his will. Calvin refers to
these secondary causes as means. God is not limited to secondary causes. In other words, he
can work miraculously. But we should not fail to see that what God achieves through
secondary causes, the ordinary use of means, is just as much the work of God as direct
miraculous intervention.
Calvin argues that God’s sovereignty does not relieve us of responsibility or the need
to exercise “due prudence.” His is not the determinism of the Stoics. He argues against
those who take the doctrine of providence as an argument against the effectiveness of
believers’ prayers, and he rejects the position of those who would, “. . . cancel all those plans
which have to do with the future, as militating against God’s providence, which, without
their being consulted, has decreed what he would have happen. Then whatever does happen
now, they so impute to God’s providence that they close their eyes to the man who clearly
God works by means. What will happen is not fated to happen but happens as the
result of the use of means. If I am destined to post the letter, then I am destined to use
the appropriate means to post it. This has for Calvin, a consequence that may seem
surprising. He says: ‘wherefore, with reference to the time future, since the events of
things are as yet, hidden and unknown, everyone ought to be as intent upon the
performance of his duty as if nothing whatever had been decreed concerning the issue
in each particular case.’14
This understanding has important implications for preaching and missions. Belief in
God’s sovereignty should lead not to vain speculation, but to willing obedience of his
12
Paul Helm, The Providence of God (Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 104.
13
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (New Haven: Hezekiah Howe, 1816), 1.17.215.
14
Helm, 104-105.
33
commands. It has pleased God to save men by the foolishness of preaching. And he has
Calvin did not limit the preaching of the gospel to those considered to be elect. He
explains his views more fully in his treatise on predestination: Since we do not know
who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, it befits us so to feel
as to wish that all be saved. So it will come about that, whoever we come across, we
shall study to make him a sharer of peace . . . even severe rebuke will be administered
like medicine, lest they should perish or cause others to perish. But it will be for God
to make it effective in those whom He foreknew and predestined.15
These principles would need to be rediscovered by Baptist leaders of Carey’s generation, but
it is important to recognize that the principles of the Reformation when properly understood
Calvin preached and defended the gospel. Against all stereotypes, he also called
Therefore, in keeping with the teaching Luke gives here, let us learn that we
constitute a true church of God when we try our best to increase the number of
believers. And then each one of us, where we are, will apply all our effort to
instructing our neighbors and leading them to the knowledge of God, as much by our
words as by our showing them good examples and good behavior. That is also why
holy Scripture exhorts us so often to win to God those who remain alienated from His
church, for we see unbelievers as poor lost sheep. Our Lord has not given us insight
into His truth for our advantage alone, but for sharing it with others. Because we see
them as madmen casting themselves into hell, we must, to the extent we can, prevent
them from doing so and procure their salvation. That, I tell you, is the zeal all
Christians must have if they are not to limit themselves just to the public worship of
15
Ray Van Neste, John Calvin on Evangelism and Missions, quoted from John Calvin, Concerning the
Eternal Predestination of God, trans. J. K. S. Reid (London: James Clarke and Co., 1961), 138; available from
http://www.founders.org/journal/fj33/article2.html; Internet; accessed December 2010.
34
God. They are to seek to encourage everyone to come willingly and affiliate with our
Lord Jesus Christ so that there will be only one God, one doctrine and one gospel.
Let us be so closely conjoined that we will all be able to speak with one voice as we
call upon God our Father. Unless we do that, we give a clear indication that we have
scarcely learned anything in the school of our Savior Jesus Christ. Each of us must
extend our hand to our neighbor and encourage one another to grow more and more
in the knowledge of God's truth, which He has been pleased to reveal to us” (Sermons
on the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1-7. p. 335).16
Paul Helms provides a series of quotations from Calvin which demonstrates his
commitment to evangelism and missions and foreshadow in some ways the missionary
theology of the Particular Baptists. For example, Carey’s later emphasis on God’s
[The meaning of this metaphor] is, that an opportunity of promoting the gospel had
presented itself. For as an opportunity of entering is furnished when the door is
opened, so the servants of the Lord make advances when an opportunity is presented.
The door is shut, when no prospect of usefulness is held out. Now as, on the door
being shut it becomes us to enter upon a new course rather than by farther efforts to
weary ourselves to no purpose by useless labour. So where an opportunity presents
itself of edifying, let us consider that by the hand of God a door is opened to us for
introducing Christ there, and let us not withhold compliance with so kind an
indication from God.17
Isaiah shows that it is our duty to proclaim the goodness of God to every nation.
While we exhort and encourage others, we must not at the same time sit down in
indolence, but it is proper that we set an example before others; for nothing can be
more absurd than to see lazy and slothful men who are exciting other men to praise
God.18
This is the very heartbeat of missionary activism. The following passage from Calvin almost
16
John Calvin, Sermons on the Acts of the Apostles: Chapters 1-7, (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth
Trust, 2008), 335-336. This quotation was suggested to me by James E. Adams who uses it in his Decisional
Regeneration Vs. Divine Regeneration.
17
Quotes by Paul Helm in this section are all from his chapter on Calvin, A. M. Toplady and the
Bebbington Thesis, in Michael A. G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart,ed., The Advent of Evangelicalism,
(Nashville: B & H Academic, 2008), 205. This quote is from Calvin’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:12.
18
Helm in Advent of Evangelicalism, 206, quoting Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah 12:5.
35
So at this day, God seems to enjoin a thing impossible to be done, when he requires
his gospel to be preached everywhere in the whole world, for the purpose of restoring
it from death to life. For we see how great is the obstinacy of nearly all men, and
what numerous and powerful methods of resistance Satan employs; so that, in short,
all the ways of access to these principles are obstructed. Yet it behooves individuals
to do their duty, and not yield to impediments; and, finally, our endeavours and our
labours shall by no means fail of that success, which is not yet apparent.19
This passage and prayer anticipates Carey’s call in the Enquiry to have compassion for the
lost:
[T]he godly will be filled with such an ardent desire to spread the doctrines of
religion, that every one not satisfied with his own calling and his personal knowledge
will desire to draw others along with him. And indeed nothing could be more
inconsistent with the nature of faith than that deadness which would lead a man to
disregard his brother, and keep the light of knowledge choked up within his own
breast.
Since you desire all men to acknowledge you as Saviour of the world, through the
redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, may those who do not know him, being in
darkness and captive to ignorance and error-—may they by the light of your Holy
Spirit and the preaching of your gospel, be led into the way of salvation, which is to
know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.20
It is true that Calvin taught that the Great Commission itself was only incumbent on
the first generation of Apostles. In his Enquiry, Carey demolishes this point of view. But
before Calvin is too quickly censured on this point, it should be understood that the two were
writing in different historical contexts. Calvin was intent on undermining, not world
evangelism, but the apostolic pretensions of the papacy. In spite of his statements on the
19
Helm in Advent of Evangelicalism, 206, quoting Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis 17:23.
20
Helm in Advent of Evangelicalism, 207, quoting Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah 2:3.
36
From Theology to Mission Endeavor
Not only does Calvin’s missionary theology foreshadow Carey, but also his
dissatisfaction with mere theoretical exposition; his theology drove him to seek avenues for
practical obedience. Under Calvin's leadership, Geneva became "the hub of a vast
missionary enterprise" and "a dynamic center or nucleus from which the vital missionary
energy it generated radiated out into the world beyond.” Protestant refugees from all over
Europe fled to Geneva; they came not merely for safety, but also to learn from Calvin the
doctrines of the Reformation so they could return home to spread the true gospel.”21
Calvin often met with the other pastors in Geneva. A partial record of those meetings
is found in the Register of the Company of Pastors which, in April of 1555, mentions for the
first time men sent out "to evangelize Foreign Parts." The register records the names of 88
men sent out but this is not a complete accounting. In 1562, religious wars broke out that
made it dangerous to continue recording the names of those sent. “In one year, 1561, though
the Register mentions only twelve missionaries, other sources indicate that at least 142
missionaries were sent!” Missionaries were sent to Italy, Germany, Scotland, England, and
France. Many were martyred. On August 25, 1556, The Register records that M. Pierre
Richier and M. Guillaume were sent as ministers to Brazil. This mission met with failure,
but it succeeds in disproving that Calvin’s theology or practice was anti-missions.22 To what
degree Carey was directly influenced by Calvin is not easy to determine. Whatever the case
may be, it is clear that in Calvin’s period, while the birth of the modern missionary
movement was many years in the future, the weight of Reformation theology inclined
21
Van Neste.
22
Quotations and information in this paragraph drawn from Van Neste.
37
CHAPTER 3
PURITAN EVANGELISM
In 1794, tigers carried off more than twenty men in the Sundarbans in the vicinity of
the salt works at Debhatta.1 In Carey’s day, this mangrove forest covered more than 6000
square miles along the Bay of Bengal in what is now west Bengal India and southern
Bangladesh. Once filled with villages and hamlets, the region had been depopulated by the
Mugs:2 raiders from the Burmese province of Aracan who took advantage of the power
vacuum created by the decline of the Mughal rulers in the 18th century. To repopulate the
region, the government offered rent-free land to those who would cultivate it.
That William Carey felt compelled to bring his family not long after their arrival in
India to this desolate forest to the south and east of Calcutta is a clear indication of the dire
financial situation they faced. Carey had travelled to India with his family and a colleague,
Dr. John Thomas, who promptly wasted the fund which was to have been for their support.
Failing to find any support among the expatriate community in Calcutta, and having no quick
way to communicate with his supporters in England, his situation was desperate. “I am in a
1
Terry G. Carter, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey (Macon, Georgia: Smyth &
Helwys Publishing, 2000), 25-26.
2
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward (London: Longman,
Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1859), 1:66.
38
strange land, alone, with no Christian friend, a large family, with nothing to supply their
wants.”3
Carey’s only option was to take advantage of the government offer of rent-free land
in the Sundarbans. Carey set out with his family in a boat to make the forty mile journey.
After several days on the waterways, just as their meager provisions were exhausted, they
spied a European man on the bank. While not a Christian, Mr. Short offered them shelter in
This period in Carey’s life represents one of the great epics of missionary endurance.
Before the family would find a permanent home in Serampore in 1799, they would endure
extreme poverty, the death of their son Peter, and the descent of Carey’s wife Dorothy into
violent insanity. In his isolation and distress, Carey found strength and encouragement from
what might seem an unlikely source. From a half a world away, the writings and ministry of
the New England pastor, Jonathan Edwards, consoled and guided him.
Carey was an avid reader and his journal gives an indication of his predilections.
While there is little evidence of firsthand knowledge of Calvin’s Institutes, it is clear that he
read widely from Puritans such as Bunyan, Witherspoon, and Flavel. He showed his high
estimation of the Puritans by including John Eliot and John Sergeant in his list of missionary
predecessors in his Enquiry.4 But Carey was especially drawn to David Brainerd and
Jonathan Edwards who both served as missionaries to the Indians on the Massachusetts
3
Marshman, 64.
4
William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the
Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 36.
39
frontier. Edwards, perhaps more than anyone else outside of Carey’s immediate circle, was
Jonathan Edwards has been called the last Puritan. His theology, which was
innovative in many ways, can also been seen as the capstone of Puritan thinking. It was this
theology that lay behind the Great Awakening and it was instrumental in the revival of
Baptist life in England that led to the launch of the mission to India. But Carey’s letters and
journal make it clear that he ministered to Carey in a very personal way during those critical
The first way Edwards influenced Carey was by publishing David Brainerd’s journal.
Though he died at the early age of 29 of tuberculosis, Brainerd’s zeal for the salvation of the
Indians became a touchstone for Carey and those who followed in his steps. Brainerd had
been a close friend of Edwards and he spent the last period of his illness in Edwards’ home.
In his own journal, Carey wrote of his struggles during the first years in India. On
April 19, 1794, he enumerates his frustrations from the time he sailed from England. The
entry gives insight into his life in India - and his admiration for Brainerd:
Since that I have had hurrying up and down; a five months imprisonment with carnal
Men on board the Ship, five more learning the Language; my Munshi not
understanding English sufficiently to interpret my preaching—[My Family my
accusers, and hinderers,] My Colleague separated from me, Long delays, and few
opportunities for Social Worship—no Woods to retire to like Brainerd for fear of
Tygers . . .—no Earthly thing to depend upon, or Earthly Comfort; except Food and
Raiment; Well I have God, and his word is sure; and the Superstitions of the Heathen
were a Million times more deeply rooted—and the Examples of the Europeans, a
Million times Worse than they are; if I were deserted by all, and persecuted by all.
Yet my hope, fixed on the sure word will rise superior to all obstructions, and
Triumph over all trials; God’s Cause will triumph, and I shall come out of all trials as
Gold purified by fire—Was much humbled today by reading Brainerd—O What a
Disparity betwixt me and him; he always constant, I unconstant as the wind . . .5
5
Carter, 25-26.
40
Brainerd’s example may have influenced Carey’s strategy. Like Brainerd, Carey was
concerned to acquire fluency in the languages of the people he sought to win and to provide
the scriptures and evangelical literature for his converts. He also showed concern for the
beyond all else, it was Brainerd’s self-sacrifice that provided an example to Carey. The
snowy forests of New England must have seemed like another world to Carey as he suffered
in the sweltering jungle; but Brainerd’s persistence, his luminous testimony which grew
journal. Edward’s writings, especially his published sermons, provided spiritual sustenance
during those first difficult years in India. Isolated from European company, Carey missed the
opportunity to join in “publick worship”. While Edwards was not his only reading, journal
entries from the first few years of Carey’s mission show that in a sense, through his sermons,
Edwards pastored Carey in these difficult years. For example, while still at sea, Carey wrote
A very heavy swell so that the Ship rolled much and some of us were Sick again – for
this week past have seen Shearwaters & mother Carey’s Chickens—and the 16th vast
numbers of Porposses were seen and a Calm succeeded on the 24th saw a number of
flying fish—have begun to write Bengali—and read Edward’s Sermons—Perlegs
Cowper’s Poems—mind tranquil and serene—I have of late found my mind more
impressed than ordinary with the importance of the work upon which I am going—
God grant that I may feel it more & more.6
6
Carter, 4.
41
On January 26th, 1794, Carey wrote, “Lord’s Day—all the morning I had a most unpleasant
time, but at last found some pleasure in reading Edwards on the Justice of God in the
Damnation of Sinners, Then went to visit our congregation of Natives again . . .”7
At times, Carey’s language seems to show the influence of Jonathan Edwards and his
aesthetic theology. In the quote above it is notable that he speaks of pleasure in reading the
sermon. While the point should not be overemphasized, other words such as edification or
blessing were available to him. Another example can be found in the Journal entry from July
7th 1793 while still aboard ship, “Lord’s Day—a pleasant and I hope profitable one; our
5th, 1794 he writes, “I want Wisdom to know how to direct all my concerns, and fortitude,
and affectionate concern for the glory of God, and Faith and holiness in all its branches . . .”9
The themes of God’s glory and the impact of religion on the affections may not have been
unique to Edwards, but it is difficult, given Carey’s many mentions of his writings, to not
Edwards’ sermons seemed to have filled the need for spiritual encouragement once
met by meeting with his friends. The days of meeting with fellow pastors such as Fuller,
Sutcliff, and Ryland for prayer, fasting, and reading of the scriptures were now a distant
memory. Carey’s loneliness was expressed in his journal. On March 8th 1794 he wrote:
Felt much remains of Dullness and indisposition to the things of God. I see now of
the Value of Christian Society. —When I had that advantage I often felt that visiting a
friend was like throwing Oil upon the fire, or like as Iron sharpeneth Iron, so have the
7
Ibid., 12.
8
Ibid., 5.
9
Ibid., 17.
42
Countenances of my friends stirred me up to an holy activity and diligence in the
things of God.10
This has been one of the most pleasant Sabbaths I have ever enjoyed since I have
been in this Country. Spent most of the day in Family Exercises, particularly had
much enjoyment in reading Edward’s Sermon upon, “The manner in which the
salvation of the soul is to be sought”—through the Whole Day enjoyed pleasure &
and Profit—11
The first days of April of 1794 found Carey struggling with numerous difficulties and
depression. “These three Days have not all been favourable to the Growth of Grace. The
Company of four of the first Gentlemen in the Settlement tho Civil, Genteel, and kind is yet
unfriendly to the Work of God within . . .”12 On the 4th he wrote, “This Day very much
dejected, my own Barrenness and the providential Delays which I meet with, are a weight
which depresses My soul, I make so little progress in the Bengali Language, and I am so
How Wicked is the Heart of Man, and what a Curse it be to be wholly under its
wicked Dominion . . . This awful Spirit so prevails in me that I can scarcely tell
whether I have the Grace of God or not . . . but be it as it may, I am resolved to spend
& and be spent in the Work of my Lord Jesus Christ.”14
Had some sweetness to day; especially in reading Edward’s Sermon, “the Most High
a Prayer Hearing God” —What a spirit of genuine piety flows thro all that great
Man’s Works—I hope I have caught a little fresh fire to Day—but how desirable,
and important it is that God would constantly fan the heavenly Flame . . .15
10
Carter, 18.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid., 22.
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
43
Carey’s esteem for Edward’s is made clear in his exclamation, “What a spirit of
genuine piety flows thro all that great Man’s Works.” But something of Carey’s own
spiritual inclination can also be discovered in this entry. Edward’s Sermon deals with, as the
title makes clear, the fact that God is a God who hears prayers. To the question of, “Why is
God so ready to hear the prayers of men?” Edwards answered, “First, because he is a God of
It cannot be from any need that God stands in of us, for our goodness extends not to
him. Neither can it be from anything in us to incline the heart of God to us. It cannot
be from any worthiness in our prayers, which are in themselves polluted things. But it
is because God delights in mercy and condescension. He is herein infinitely
distinguished from all other Gods. He is the great fountain of all good, from whom
goodness flows as light from the sun.17
Surrounded by the paganism of India, Edward’s assertion that God is, “herein
infinitely distinguished from all other Gods” must have been especially encouraging. A
careful reading allows us to see Carey apply Edwards’ teaching to his own situation. The
New England divine described God as “the great fountain of all good, from whom goodness
flows as light from the sun.” Carey took the imagery of the fountain and reflected on the
how this divine abundance is made available to the believer; a truth which was particularly
16
Jonathan Edwards, “The Most High a Prayer-Hearing God,” Bible Bulletin Board's Jonathan
Edwards Collection (Columbus, NJ: Bible Bulletin Board, 1986) available from
http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/prayer.htm; accessed Fall 2010.
17
Ibid.
18
Carter, 22.
44
While William Carey was not a theologian of the same order as Edwards, he had a
particular genius for applying theological truth through rigorous practical obedience. That is
not to say that there was anything superficial about Carey’s theology. He was drawing from
a deep well. He drew from Andrew Fuller whose theology produced a revival in Baptist life;
from Edwards and the Puritans; from Calvin and the deepest fountains of the Reformation.
Of course, their common source was the eternal spring of scripture itself
The clear links between Carey, “the father of modern missions,” and Edwards, “the
last Puritan,” hint at the extent to which the modern missionary movement is a product of
previous trends. Edwards was a thinker of great originality, but he was working within the
parameters established by the Reformed tradition. Both his theology and his mission activity
were the logical outworking of principles which came down to him through the Puritans and
David Bebbington recognizes the theological links between the Puritans and
Evangelicals in the period following Edwards. In the Puritans, he finds three of his key
characteristics, biblicism, conversionism and crucicentrism, but not activism. Sidney Rooy’s
thorough study of representative Puritans allows us to go a step further and affirm that
Puritan theology not only conforms to Bebbington’s pattern, but is also distinctively
missionary.19 While it must be conceded that Puritan missionary endeavors were not carried
out on a scale to match the explosion of efforts after Carey, neither were they negligible.
19
Sidney H. Rooy, The Theology of Missions in the Puritan Tradition: A Study of Representative
Puritans: Richard Sibbes, Richard Baxter, John Eliot, Cotton Mather & Jonathan Edwards (Laurel: Audubon
Press, 2006).
45
The name of Puritan has not always been a mark of respect. In its original context it
Conservatives, however, have rightly seen the Puritans as defenders and propagators of
Reformed theology and as models of self-sacrifice and passionate advocates of a faith that
It is possible that conservative admirers of the Puritans have tended to ignore the
degree of diversity which existed among them.20 They were not monolithic in theology or
For example, and perhaps most significantly, under the weight of both evolving
Puritan views of the relation of church and state, “excluded from the Established Church,
they started to rethink their traditional belief in religious uniformity, and reinvent themselves
as voluntary gathered churches.”21 Warfield famously said that the Reformation was the
ecclesiology in the Puritan period can be seen as the continuing aftershocks of that tectonic
shift. To extend Warfield’s phrase, the Puritan period down to Edwards is in part the history
of the changes required to bring Puritan ecclesiology into line with their Augustinian
soteriology.
characteristic that ties the Puritans together as a distinctive group. There was a continued
20
Michael A. G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart, The Advent of Evangelicalism (Nashville: B & H
Academic, 2008), 262-263.
21
Haykin, 261.
46
concern for the purity of the church, but the pursuit of biblical purity forced the evolution in
What tied Puritans together was an Augustinian or Calvinistic soteriology and the
passionate piety that resulted; and it was this that led to their concern with preaching,
evangelism and eventually world mission. “The Puritan position was that only God, by his
Spirit, through his word, can bring sinners to faith, and that he does this, not to our order, but
according to his own free purpose.”22 This same soteriology provides the critical link to
previous generations of the Reformation and to future progenitors of the modern missionary
David Bebbington would drive a wedge between the Puritans and later Evangelicals,
Coffey writes, “Bebbington concedes that the Puritans were biblicist, crucicentric and
conversionist, but doubts their activism.”23 Coffey’s defense of the Puritan’s at this point is
to highlight their ceaseless rounds of prayer, fasting, Bible reading, family worship,
missionary, the emphasis might best be placed on the Puritan’s views of preaching and
evangelism.
This thesis maintains that Serampore and the modern missionary movement is the
telos of the Reformation. The core of the thesis is the idea that Reformation soteriology
leads to world mission. To prove this thesis it is not necessary to show that every generation
prior to Serampore excelled in world mission. But it is helpful to show that they understood
the connection between a biblical view of soteriology and a biblical view of evangelism.
22
J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990), 163.
23
Haykin, 266.
24
Ibid.
47
William Carey never drew a sharp distinction between home and foreign missions.
While the distinction has a certain practical usefulness, it is not clear that it has any biblical
warrant. By that token, it would be unfair to say that the Puritan’s were devoid of missionary
spirit. They had inherited a country which was nominally Protestant, but in which the
majority of their countrymen were unconverted. Their passionate appeal to the lost
prefigures in many ways the Great Awakening and the preaching at Serampore:
Puritan preaching was Christ-centred in its orientation. ‘Young man said veteran
Richard Sibbes to fledgling Thomas Goodwin, ‘if ever you would do good, you must
preach the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus.’ Puritan preaching
revolved around ‘Christ, and him crucified’—for this is the hub of the Bible. The
preachers' commission is to declare the whole counsel of God; but the cross is the
centre of that counsel, and the Puritans knew that the traveller through the Bible
landscape misses his way as soon as he loses sight of the hill called Calvary.25
In their concern to reach their countrymen with the gospel, the Puritans grasped a
variety of means to increase their effectiveness. In this they foreshadow the modern
missionary movement. Three areas are worth noting. First, they were ardent promoters of
the printing and distribution of Evangelical literature. Second, they fostered the creation of
an Atlantic network of correspondents that supported evangelical causes. Third, they created
Knowledge to promote the spread of biblical truth. That this is true would seem to contradict
Bebbington’s contention that the Puritans showed little evidence of his fourth characteristic
missionary movement.
Like the first generation of reformers, the Puritans were often constrained by political
circumstance in reaching out on a broader basis. Many spent years in jail. They were also
hobbled by the lack of institutions to move the missionary enterprise forward. But it was
25
Packer, 286.
48
their struggle to be effective preachers that began to reveal the contours of a Protestant
missionary methodology. And it was their passion for the gospel that planted the seeds that
produced the Great Awakenings and eventually the modern missionary movement.
Evangelical Literature
The Puritans were concerned for the conversion of the lost and were willing to use all
evangelical literature. One of the most popular books of the period was a work by Joseph
Alleine titled An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners. Alleine (1634-1668), who studied at Oxford
and became an influential non-conformist minister, died young, worn out from his labors and
the effect of persecution and periods spent in prison. His book, which was published
posthumously, went through numerous editions. His biographer Charles Stanford wrote in
1861:
In 1671, his “Alarm to the Unconverted” first saw the light. It appears to be the
substance of sermons preached on conversion. Of this book Dr. Calamy, writing in
1702, remarks, “Multitudes will have cause for ever to be thankful for it. No book in
the English tongue (the Bible only excepted) can equal it for the number that hath
been dispersed: there have been twenty thousand sold under the title of the ‘Call,’ or
‘Alarm,’ and fifty thousand of the same under the title of the ‘Sure Guide to Heaven,’
thirty thousand of which were at one impression." “It is a wonderful amount of good”
says another writer, “which has been accomplished by the solemn and pathetic
appeals contained in the ‘Alarm to the Unconverted.”26
Since the book was based on Alleine’s sermons, it provides evidence of a gospel-centered
ministry. That it proved so popular reflects the existence of an Evangelical community eager
to use the book as a gospel tract as they sought the conversion of the lost.
26
Charles Stanford, Joseph Alleine: His Companions & Times (London: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder,
1861), 377.
49
In 1658, another great Puritan, Richard Baxter (1615-1691)27 published a small book
titled A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live. He provided a considerable amount of
practical advice that reveals his pastoral concern for the spiritual struggles of people,
“Deliver up yourselves to the Lord Jesus, as the physician of your souls, that he may pardon
you by his blood, and sanctify you by his Spirit, by his word and ministers, the instruments of
the Spirit. He is the way, the truth, and the life; there is no coming to the Father but by
him.”28
Baxter’s view of scripture was significant. First, he saw Scripture as the ordinary
means of conversion. Behind this view lie almost 150 years of Protestant thinking and action.
He saw the power of the Scripture mediated through the reading of scripture itself and
through public preaching and the reading of “holy writings”. His own book provided a
Gutenberg’s innovations.
This paragraph also reveals Baxter’s conception of the ministry. He was known for
his concern for his flock. His books, The Reformed Pastor and The Christian Directory can
be seen as the fountainhead of protestant views of pastoral ministry and Christian counseling.
This call demonstrates that Baxter saw evangelism as an integral part of pastoral ministry.
Matthew 5:14 is applied directly to ministers whom he calls “the lights of the world.”29 By
referencing Acts 26:17, he takes as his own Paul’s commission, “To open their eyes, and to
27
One edition of Alleine’s book contained an “Epistle to the Unconverted Reader” (Alleine 51) written
by Richard Baxter which began with a plea that demonstrates the passion with which the Puritans called men to
the Lord; “To all the ignorant, carnal, and godly, who are lovers of pleasure more than God, and seek this world
more than the life everlasting, and live after the flesh and not after the Spirit, these calls and counsels are
directed, in hope of their conversion to God, and of their salvation, ‘ He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.’”
28
Richard Baxter, A Call to the Unconverted, to Turn and Live (Boston: Lincoln and Edmands, 1831),
173.
29
Baxter, 172.
50
turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is
in me.”
The motivation for evangelism is found first in divine compassion for the sinner. “In
compassion to your sinful miserable souls, the Lord that better knows your case than you can
know it, hath made it our duty to speak to you in his name, 2 Cor. 5:11, and to tell you
plainly of your sin and misery what will be your end, and how sad a change you will shortly
see, if yet you go on a little longer.” He goes on to say that God “sees and pities you, while
you are drowned in worldly cares and pleasures, eagerly following childish toys, and wasting
that short and precious time for a thing of naught, in which you should make ready for an
The minister is also motivated by obedience to the divine command. “The Lord hath
made it our duty to speak to you in his name. Here again, Baxter appropriates as his own
Paul’s sense of mission by citing 2 Corinthians 5:11, “Knowing therefore the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made
call after you and tell you how you lose your labor and are about to lose your souls, and tell
you what greater and better things you might certainly have if you would hearken to his
call.”31
Baxter was not perfect. J.I. Packer describes Baxter as “a big man, big enough to
have large faults and make large errors.”32 He was “the most outstanding pastor, evangelist
30
Ibid., 8.
31
Ibid.
51
and writer on practical and devotional themes that the Puritans produced.”33 However, he
taught a version of the doctrines of grace which left much to be desired. In attempting to find
Particular Baptist pastor who had signed the Second London Confession and was a fruitful
church planter. He took Baxter to task for doctrinal positions that tended to undermine the
absolutely gracious nature of justification. At the same time, like Baxter, Keach was a
passionate evangelist.
“regeneration was entirely an act of God that preceded conversion. Regeneration was
passive, ‘the act of God's Spirit, by which he infuseth a vital principle.’ But, conversion is
active, ‘whereby through the power of that grace, the sinner being quickened, is capacitated
to believe and return to God.’”35 With this balanced emphasis Keach was able to maintain
the doctrine of limited atonement and total human depravity and still preach evangelistically.
Keach addressed sinners with great passion, “Your present Work and Business is to
believe in Jesus Christ, to look to him, who can only renew his sacred Image in your souls,
and make you New Creatures, which must be done, or you perish. O cry that he would help
your Unbelief: Come venture your souls on Christ’s righteousness: Christ is able to save you
32
Packer, 302.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid., 303.
35
William H. Brackney, A Genetic History of Baptist Thought (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2004),
117.
52
though you are never so great sinners.”36 Spurgeon had a great admiration for Keach and he
has been seen as a forerunner of the Evangelistic Calvinist Baptists Andrew Fuller and
The Puritans were motivated by the simple commands of Christ. Their view of the
Christian ministry included the imperative of preaching the gospel to the unconverted. They
found encouragement, as they obeyed the command to preach, in what we might call a
positive Calvinism. This positive Calvinism was fed by what Ian Murray has called The
Puritan Hope. While there was considerable variation in the precise details of eschatological
Their whole Calvinistic theology of the gospel, with its emphasis on the power given
to Christ as Mediator for the sure in-gathering of the vast number of his elect, and on
the Holy Spirit as the One by whom the dead are quickened, dovetails in here. They
rejected altogether a naturalistic view of the inevitable progress of history—so
common in the nineteenth century—but asserted that the sovereign purpose of God in
the gospel, as indicated by the promises of Scripture yet unfulfilled, points to the sure
hope of great outpourings of the Spirit in the future.38
That there was considerable variation in regards to eschatological details should not
distract us from the deeper point. Their eschatology was not ultimately rooted in a particular
scheme of interpretation for specific prophetic passages. Rather it was a working out of their
Trinitarian theology, in the same way as their soteriology and missiology. By the same
token, their missiology did not flow from a specific eschatology. Rather, their soteriology,
36
Austin R. Walker, “Benjamin Keach and the ‘Baxterian’ Controversy of the 1690s,” Reformed
Baptist Theological Review RBTR 03:1 (Spring 2006), 22.
37
Brackney, 117.
38
Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (Carlisle, PA: The
Banner of Truth Trust, 1998), 51.
53
missiology and eschatology all flowed in parallel from the common source of a theology
which emphasized God’s sovereignty. The details of prophecy might be murky, but it was
clear from their theology that God was Lord of history and his purposes would be worked
out. The Trinitarian God is active in history and the divine purpose cannot be thwarted.
An edition of Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted published in the 19th century contains
a preface described as “an account of this book given by Mr. Baxter himself, which was
found in his study after his death, in his own words.” In this account, Baxter rejoices in the
widespread dissemination of his work. He speaks of, “whole households converted by this
small book” 39 in England, Scotland and Ireland. The book was translated and used in
France and Germany and the message went to “many beyond the seas; for when Mr. Eliot
had printed all the Bible in the Indian language, he next translated this my Call to the
Unconverted, as he wrote to us here.”40 While Baxter may have not drawn a sharp
distinction between evangelism and missions it says something about his vision that he was
especially pleased that his book had been fruitful among the Indians of North America.
John Eliot, who was mentioned in the preface of Baxter’s work, is recognized in
Carey’s Enquiry as one of the missionary forerunners who inspired his own action, “In 1632,
Mr. Eliot, of New England, a very pious and zealous minister, began to preach to the Indians,
among whom he had great success; several churches of Indians were planted, and some
39
Baxter, 6.
40
Ibid.
54
preachers and schoolmasters raised up amongst them; since which time others have labored
Two points can be made about Eliot. First, Eliot was a Puritan and his ministry to the
Native Americans of New England is the logical progression from the Puritans emphasis on a
Bible-centered gospel ministry. Eliot held that it is “part of our Ministerial Charge to preach
to the World in the Name or Jesus, and from amongst them to gather Subjects to his holy
Kingdom.”42
the Old and New Testaments, as well as a catechism, into the language of the Indians. Like
the Serampore Trio years later, Eliot saw that a holistic approach was required. He
evangelized, planted churches, ordained ministers, established schools and set up Praying
Towns where his converts were gathered. The Bible was seen as the basis of community life,
“The Bible, and the Catechism drawn out of the Bible, are general helps to all parts and
places about us, and are the groundwork of Community amongst all our Indian-Churches and
Christians.”43 Eliot saw that for the Word of God to take hold his converts would need a
thorough education. He was impressed with their capacity and stated that, “while I live, my
purpose is, (by the Grace of Christ assisting) to make it one of my chief cares and labours to
teach them some of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the way how to analyze, and lay out
into particulars both the Works and Word of God: and how to communicate knowledge to
41
Carey, 62.
42
John Eliot, A Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel Among the Indians of New England
(Boston: John K. Wiggin & Wm. Parsons Lunt, 1868), 23.
43
Eliot, 24.
55
Puritans made significant efforts which foreshadow the modern missionary
Propagation of the Gospel in New England (the NEC, founded 1649), the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG, founded 1701), and the Society in Scotland
for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK, founded 1709)—all played significant roles
in Christianizing and civilizing the inhabitants of British North America.”45 This would tend
to undermine the view that the Puritan period was lacking in missionary endeavor.
It is true that these societies were not the equivalent of the later Baptist Missionary
Society, the London Missionary Society or the Church Missionary Society. They were not
dependent on grass roots support, but on the British Crown. Also, their primary purpose was
to promote the spiritual welfare of subjects of the Crown. However, it should not be forgotten
the extent to which Britain itself was a mission field at the beginning of the Puritan period.
Without the gospel efforts of the Puritans, and the eventual revivals lead by Edwards and
Whitefield, Britain would not have provided the basis of support for the missionary
The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) began as a voluntary
society in 1698, though it received a royal charter in 1701 which somewhat limited its range
of action:46
But their charter being limited to Foreign Parts, and the Business of that Corporation
being hitherto confined to the British Plantations in America, most of the original
Members of our Voluntary Society still continued to carry on, in that capacity, their
more extensive Design for advancing the Honour of God, and the Good of Mankind,
44
Ibid., 23.
45
Frederick V. Mills, Sr. “The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge in British
North America, 1730-1775” Church History (1994): 63:15-30.
46
Broughton, Thomas, An Account of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Society Minutes
(London: J. and W. Oliver, 1774), 4.
56
by promoting. Christian Knowledge, both at Home and in other Parts of the world, by
the best Methods that should offer.47
It is worth pointing out the global breadth of the original vision and the emphasis on using
“the best Method that should offer” which anticipates Carey’s theology.
Of the different corporations formed, “The New England Company had the longest
history and is the oldest Protestant missionary organization. The Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sent no fewer than three hundred missionaries to America
between 1701 and 1783.”48 The SPCK continues its labors even today,49 but the golden age
of Puritan missions might be said to begin with Eliot and to end with Brainerd and
Edwards.50
The contours of missions methodology were still taking shape. The relationship of
the church to sending agencies was still in flux. This issue could not be resolved until the
issue of church polity was sorted out. But Puritans had already made the logical jump from a
responsibility to preach to ones parish to the responsibility to preach to the world. We can
recall Baxter’s view of the Christian ministry, “The Lord hath made it our duty to speak to
This same sense of calling, and the same motivations are reflected in a sermon
preached by Ebenezer Pemberton, pastor of the Presbyterian church in the city of New York,
on the occasion of David Brainerd’s ordination. Pemberton took his text from Luke 14:23;
47
Broughton, 5.
48
Mills, 15-30.
49
Ibid.
50
R. Pierce Beaver, Pioneers in Mission: The Early Missionary Ordination Sermons (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1966), 13.
51
Baxter .
57
“And the Lord said unto the servant, Go into the highways and hedges, and compel them to
come in, that my house may be filled.”52 From this text Pemberton asked his hearers to
consider three points: first, the melancholy state of the Gentile world; second, the
compassionate care of the redeemer; third, the duty of the ministers of the gospel to “compel
them to come in”53 Pemberton’s approach to the exegesis of this text reveals an aggressive
missionary theology similar to that of William Carey, “Having finished his work upon earth,
before he ascended to his heavenly Father, he commissioned the ministers of his kingdom to
‘preach the gospel to every creature.’” He sent them forth to make the most extensive offers
of salvation to rebellious sinners, and by all the methods of holy violence to “compel them to
This sermon prefigures William Carey’s views in three ways. First, the theological
basis for missions is actually quite simple; we go because God demands it. Second,
compassion for the lost is an appropriate motivation for missions. It is not inconsistent with a
high view of God’s glory, for God himself is compassionate. Third, obedience requires the
grasping of those tools placed providentially within reach. Pemberton deploys a remarkable
phrase, “by all the methods of Holy violence,” a phrase which is consistent with Calvin’s
52
Beaver, 111.
53
Ibid., 112-113.
54
Ibid., 112.
58
The Grandfather of Modern Missions
marks the beginning of the Evangelical movement. While this thesis might be criticized for
neglecting the continuity between Edwards and those that came before him, it is certainly
hard to overemphasize Edwards’ importance. His personal influence on Carey has been
established. In the next chapter we will see the extent of his influence on the Particular
Baptists that established the Baptist Missionary Society. He is a key transitional figure. As
the ‘Last Puritan’ he drew on the deep resources of Calvinism and Puritanism before him to
helped lay the groundwork for the future modern missionary movement. If William Carey
merits the title ‘father of modern missions,’ Edwards deserves to be called the ‘grandfather of
modern missions.’55
Northampton, Massachusetts. He became a key figure by his writing and preaching in the
Great Awakening. Ironically, his pastorate in Northampton was cut short by conflict that
developed when he acted on his growing conviction that the Half-Way Covenant was
unsustainable. His belief that the church should consist of those who could give clear
testimony of their conversion brought him much closer to the views held by Particular
Baptists. His stand represents the end of the Puritan dream of a Christian society in the new
55
Ronald E. Davies, “Jonathan Edwards: Missionary Biographer, Theologian, Strategist, Administrator,
Advocate–and Missionary,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 21.2, (1997): 60. Quoted by Baines
Ronald S. Baines, “Thy Kingdom Come: The Missionary Theology and Practice of Jonathan Edwards,”
(Charlotte: Reformed Theological Seminary, 2006), 4; available from Academic Search Premier
http://search.epnet.com; accessed 18 July 2006.
59
world, but it also represents a final shaking off of erastianism. The ground was now clear for
the construction of the institutions which would support the expansion of Protestantism as a
world religion.
Stockbridge has not been fully appreciated.56 While Edwards took advantage of his years in
Stockbridge to complete some of his most important theological productions, his sojourn in
western Massachusetts was much more than a sabbatical forced on him by circumstances in
his Northampton pastorate. Baines writes that Edwards’, “deepest longings for the expansion
of the work of Christ on earth culminated in a robust missionary spirit and . . . his move to
Stockbridge was the fruit of years of sober reflection and the practical outworking of his
theology was found in missionary endeavor which included educating, civilizing, and
In 1747, while David Brainerd was slowly wasting away in his home, Jonathan
Edwards finished a short work with a long title, An Humble Attempt to Promote an Explicit
Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People thro’ the World, in Extraordinary Prayer, for
the Revival of Religion, and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, Pursuant to
Scripture Promise and Prophecies Concerning the Last Time. The work was written in
This would consist of special seasons of prayer in churches and prayer societies for the
56
Ronald S. Baines, Thy Kingdom Come: The Missionary Theology and Practice of Jonathan Edwards
(Charlotte: Reformed Theological Seminary, 2006), 5.
57
Baines, 5.
58
Ibid., 6.
60
“extraordinary applications to the God of all grace” for the revival of “true religion in all
parts of Christendom, and to deliver all nations from their great and manifold spiritual
calamities and miseries, and bless them with the unspeakable benefits of the kingdom of our
glorious Redeemer, and fill the whole earth with his glory. . . .”59
Early in his ministry Edwards had been one of the most important leaders of the Great
Awakening. His own preaching had been used in an extraordinary way by God and
remarkable fruit was seen not only in his own Northampton Massachusetts congregation, but
throughout the entire Connecticut River Valley. While his own ministry was more
conventional, he embraced the ministry of George Whitefield, the English preacher who
pioneered open air preaching in the fields. Edwards’ pen provided a defense of the revival
available to him. He was offered pastorates in Scotland, Virginia and even the leadership of
final decision, but he chose instead the leadership of an English congregation on the frontier
in Stockbridge where he could also minister to the Indians. It was a place which had been
and that of Eliot long before. He insisted on justice for the Indians in the face of colonial
exploitation and he believed in the spiritual and intellectual equality of the Indians. He
emphasized their education and sought their conversion. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that
these years were so rich in literary production. It was during his missionary period that he
59
Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003), 2:282.
60
Marsden, George, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven: Yale University, 2004), 362-365.
61
produced The Freedom of the Will, a work which, as we shall see, would be one of the keys
to launching the modern missionary movement towards the end of the eighteenth century.
In his Humble Attempt, Edwards had reported on recent awakenings around the
world. He mentioned revival in Germany, the British Islands, New England, and “and about
two years ago, a very great awakening and reformation of many of the Indians, in the Jerseys,
and Pennsylvania, even among such as never embraced Christianity before . . .”61 By
active obedience the sincerity of his prayers that God would “deliver all nations from their
great and manifold spiritual calamities and miseries, and bless them with the unspeakable
benefits of the kingdom of our glorious Redeemer, and fill the whole earth with his glory.”
More than a generation after his death, a group of Baptist pastors in the midlands of
England would take up his call to prayer. The result would be breakout of the Reformation
into the wider world: the modern missionary movement. As Jonathan Edwards had travelled
west to carry the gospel to the Mohicans, William Carey would travel east to take the gospel
61
Edwards, 282.
62
CHAPTER 4
BAPTIST REVIVAL
Almost forty years after Jonathan Edwards published his Humble Attempt, it was
republished by a Baptist Pastor, John Sutcliff, from the English Midlands. In 1784, Concerts
of Prayer began among English Baptists. Slowly, events began to unfold which led to the
modern missionary movement. Andrew Fuller published a groundbreaking work, The Gospel
Worthy of all Acceptation. In 1786, William Carey was ordained. He also wrote An Enquiry
into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. John
Brethren Fuller, Sutcliff, Carey, and I, kept this day as a private fast, in my study:
read the Epistles to Timothy and Titus . . . and each prayed twice—Carey with
singular enlargement and pungency. Our chief design was to implore a revival of
godliness in our own souls, in our churches, and in the church at large.1
It was not until 1792 that Carey’s Enquiry was published and the Baptist Missionary Society
founded. In January of the following year, Carey was approved as the first BMS missionary.
He sailed for India in June of 1793. By that time, nearly 50 years had passed since the
William Carey left home when he was fourteen in 1775. He had been apprenticed to
Clarke Nichols of Piddington, a shoemaker. Edmund Carey, William’s father had the
foresight to see that with the rise of industrial production his own trade of weaving did not
1
Michael A. G. Haykin, One heart and One Soul: John Sutcliff of Olney, His Friends and His Times
(England: Evangelical Press, 1994), 169.
63
offer a stable future. Piddington was about 8 miles from Paulerspury. He had no way of
knowing that his departure marked the beginning of a spiritual journey that would eventually
Clarke Nichols already had an apprentice named John Warr who was a dissenter. In
spite of the fact that at this stage of his life, William, according to his sister Mary, “was at
enmity with God, and in many things ridiculed his people . . . ,”2 he was still proud of his
roots in the established church. Warr attended the non-conformist meeting house in nearby
Hackleton. In Nichol’s workshop, the conversation often took a theological turn. The master
was not a particularly godly man but he was loyal to the established church. Carey often
argued with Warr, “I had, moreover, pride sufficient for a thousand times my knowledge. So
I always scorned to have the worst in discussion, and the last word was assuredly mine.”3
Although he generally won the argument, Warr’s steady testimony and godly life began to
During this time, Carey nearly lost his position as apprentice after being caught in a
dishonest transaction. He later attributed his eventual conversion in part to the mortification
he experienced at being found out. At the age of 17 he threw himself on the mercy of Christ
the Savior.4 Not long after he visited the meeting at Hackleton with John Warr. A lay
preacher spoke from Hebrews 13:13 “Let us go forth therefore to him without the camp,
bearing his reproach.” Carey felt the weight of this passage as he applied it to his rejection of
2
Samuel Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1923), 22.
3
S. P. Carey, 25.
4
Ibid., 26.
64
unwarranted by the text, his decision to join the dissenters provides early evidence of Carey’s
direct approach to the matter of scriptural obedience. And it foreshadows his reaction to the
Over the next few years William Carey would marry his wife Dorothy, the sister of
Thomas Old who became his master when Clarke Nichols died. He would grow in his faith
and begin to preach. At this early stage, two keys to Carey’s character become evident:
For a time, he was attracted to the disciples of mystic William Law, but he eventually
rejected Law’s teachings feeling they lacked scriptural substance. “One judgment which he
soon reached was that human speculations were too unreliable for trust. This was his
growing quarrel with the mystics. He wanted rock under foot. So he resolved to search the
Scriptures to discover as exactly as possible the message of God. He ‘pressed God’s lamp to
his breast.’”5 In this he was following a pattern that characterized Evangelicalism as a whole:
The history of English spirituality in the eighteenth century can be seen in one way as
a movement from inner to outer life, from the narrow confines of dwindling
independent churches and student Holy Clubs outward boldly into the turbulence of
society and the needy world, but also from a necessary deep inwardness of personal
spirituality to the pressures or active commitment to missionary enterprise at home
and abroad.6
After a period of flirtation with Law’s mysticism, Carey drew closer to the Baptist
5
S. P. Carey, 29.
6
Henry Bartsch, “The Spirituality and Theology of William Law (1686-1781), Biblical Spirituality, 12
May 2010; available from http://biblicalspirituality.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/the-spirituality-and-theology-
of-william-law-1686-1761.pdf p1; Internet; accessed December 2010.
65
Luck7 did not alleviate his spiritual struggles, and so he began visiting congregations in
providential. While it was far from the capital of London, it was blessed with godly men
who were instrumental in shaping an evangelical Calvinism. For example, John Newton, the
former slave-trader and author of Amazing Grace was the Anglican curate at Olney. Newton
developed a close relationship with John Sutcliff, the Baptist pastor in Olney who would play
a role in the future Baptist Missionary Society. The poet William Cowper was one of
Newton’s parishioners. Together they would produce a collection of hymns that influences
Northampton had been blessed by the ministry of Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), the
author of The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul which became an Evangelical classic
and was later cited by Carey and Spurgeon. Doddridge was a hymn writer to be compared
with Isaac Watts and the head of a school for dissenters that attracted students from all over
the British Isles.8 In 1741, Doddridge proposed a plan for the evangelization of the world at a
ministers meeting in Kettering which was fifty years ahead of its time.9
In Carey’s day, Thomas Scott was curate at Buckinghamshire and Ravenstone and
was later to replace Newton at Olney when Newton moved to London. Scott had come to an
evangelical faith under the influence of Newton. Like Carey he was self-taught. He referred
to the shoe-makers’ workshop at Hackelton as “Carey’s College.” Carey often sought him
out for advice. Scott was to become famous for his commentary on the Bible and other
works including a history of the Council of Dordt. In 1821, after Carey had been in India
many years, he sent greetings to Scott through Baptist pastor John Ryland:
7
S. P. Carey, 29.
8
Mark A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys
(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 42.
9
S. P. Carey, 81.
66
What led me to write now was a letter I received from Dr. Carey yesterday, in which
he says, ‘Pray give my thanks to dear Mr. Scott for his History of the Synod of Dort. I
would write to him if I could command time. If there be any thing of the work of God
in my soul, I owe much of it to his preaching, when I first set out in the ways of the
Lord.’10
With the help of Newton, Scott went on to help found the Church Missionary Society,
one of many missionary organizations which were begun in response to the founding of the
BMS. He became its first secretary. Carey’s early associations with independents and
Anglicans bore fruit well beyond the limits of the Baptist denomination which became his
home. The mutual influence of Carey, Scott and Newton illustrates how the core of the
missionary vision came down from the Calvinist soteriology inherited from the Puritans as
opposed to an ecclesiology that was still developing. Eventually, those groups that leaned in
the direction of congregational polity proved to be the most flexible in responding to the
challenge of missions.
Baptist church polity, of course, was strongly congregational. But before the
flexibility of their congregational polity could provide a missionary advantage, they had to
bring their soteriology into line with Evangelical Calvinism. While Carey found the hyper-
within in the geographic area of the Northamptonshire Baptist Association. Baptist leaders
10
John Scott, The Life of the Rev. Thomas Scott, D. D. (Philadelphia: W. W. Woodward, 1823), 172.
11
Ibid.
67
linked to this association were bringing about a revival in Baptist life. Before this time the
situation had become dire. Andrew Fuller, a Baptist pastor in Kettering, described the
condition of Baptist churches in strong terms “the Christian profession had sunk into
contempt amongst us; inasmuch, that had matters gone on but a few years longer the Baptists
would have become a perfect dunghill in society.”12 Fuller would play a key role in bringing
The source of the problem was, in part, an overly rationalistic theology. It was a
rejection of rigid theoretical formulations in favor of a simpler biblicism that allowed them to
break out into missionary effectiveness. Andrew Fuller would provide a useful taxonomy of
the differing systems.13 He described his own views as Strict Calvinism which he
differentiated from High Calvinism or hyper-Calvinism on one end, and moderate Calvinism
on the other. Fuller’s Strict Calvinism is essentially the same as Evangelical Calvinism, the
associated it with the errors of Richard Baxter—while hyper-Calvinism earned the additional
title of false Calvinism14 which Fuller maintained was more Calvinistic than Calvin.15
Too much can be made of Fuller’s statement “I do not believe every thing Calvin
taught, nor any thing because he taught it.”16 Like Edwards before him, and Spurgeon after,
Fuller was determined to derive his theology from scripture. The substantial agreement was
12
Haykin, 15.
13
Michael Haykin, The Armies of the Lamb: The Spirituality of Andrew Fuller (Dundas: Joshua Press,
2001), 41.
14
Haykin, 59.
15
Ibid., 27.
16
D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (Great Britain: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 63.
68
the result of drawing on a common source and not due to slavish dependence on the Genevan
Reformer.
Fuller and his fellow pastors of the Northamptonshire Association were committed to
the doctrines of grace. There was no wavering on the five points of Calvinism. Based on
biblical evidence and personal experience of his own heart, Fuller was convinced of the
doctrine of total depravity and saw that if this first point was true the only hope for man was
that the rest be true as well.17 Men are incapable of any meritorious works before God. The
absolutely hopeless condition of man requires the rest of the doctrines of grace. If man is
absolutely depraved he will not, and cannot choose God. So, God must choose man if he is
to be saved. And, since man is depraved, God’s choice must be unconditional. In addition,
doctrines require a limited atonement. If man is totally depraved, the atonement must be
active and effective. It must do more than make men savable, it must actually save them.
sufficient for all is not denied, but the doctrine of limited atonement denies it is effective for
any other than the elect. These doctrines imply the last two, effectual calling and the
This brief outline summarizes the doctrines of grace. It was these doctrines which
were given definitive expression at the Synod of Dordt which was convened to respond to the
teachings of Arminius. Carey’s appreciation for Scott’s history of Dordt is a strong indication
that he never wavered on the soteriological core of Calvinism. This is supported by the fact
17
Andrew Fuller, The Complete Works of Rev. Andrew Fuller (Philadelphia: The American Baptist
Publication Society, 1845), preface by Tom Nettles, 1.
69
that in 1808 William Ward, one of Carey’s Serampore partners, began to “translate the
Baptist Confession into Bengalee for our native brethren.”18 Ward also records that in 1799
“we presented to the Governor a Confession of Faith and Rippon’s Hymns.”19 In 1805, the
Serampore Trio published The Form of Agreement which was an expression of their
We are firmly persuaded that Paul might plant and Apollos water, in vain, in any part
of the world, did not God give the increase. We are sure that only those who are
ordained to eternal life will believe, and that God alone can add to the church such as
shall be saved. Nevertheless we cannot but observe with admiration that Paul, the
great champion for the glorious doctrines of free and sovereign grace, was the most
conspicuous for his personal zeal in the work of persuading men to be reconciled to
God. In this respect he is a noble example for our imitation.20
While these doctrines have often been cast in a negative light, they were seen by
gracious and sovereign God who through his Son and by his Spirit seeks out fallen men.
These doctrines were explained in the standard confessions like the Westminster Confession
and the Baptist London Confession of 1689 where they were supported with ample scriptural
evidence.
Hyper- Calvinism, however, went beyond the confessions and beyond the scriptures.
Scripture provided sufficient evidence to make the statement that God’s electing purpose was
determined in the councils of eternity. However, hyper-Calvinism made the eternal council
the lynchpin of its theological approach, and from this derived two principles that did not
18
William Ward, William Ward's Missionary Journal 1799-1811 (Compiled by E. Daniel Potts, 1799-
1811), 665.
19
Ward, 56a.
20
A. H. Oussoren, William Carey Especially His Missionary Principles (Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff's
Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V., 1945), 274.
70
have scriptural support. The first was that the non-elect were not responsible to heed the
gospel. The second was that ministers of the gospel should not make a free offer of
salvation.
These positions were essentially a denial of the use of means. Through the teaching
of John Brine, and to an extent which is debated by scholars, John Gill, these teaching came
to dominate Baptist life. The results were predictable. Their closed ecclesiology and hyper-
Calvinist soteriology made them suspicious of the ministries of not only Wesley, but
Whitefield as well; as a result, their congregations did not receive many of the benefits of the
revivals that swept Britain and the American colonies. By the time Fuller came on the scene
the churches were dying and Baptists were well on the way to society’s dunghill.
Andrew Fuller represented a new generation of Baptist pastors associated with the
Calvinism. These included John Sutcliff, John Ryland, Jr., and Samuel Pearce who, with
Fuller, became key figures in the future development of the BMS. They were joined by a
pastor of a generation before, Robert Hall senior who was the father of Robert Hall, Jr.
This group of younger pastors worked tirelessly to revitalize Baptist life. Their
In them, [Ryland, Sutcliff] I found familiar and faithful brethren; and who, partly by
reflection and partly by the reading of Edwards, Bellamy, Brainerd, etc. had begun to
doubt the system of False Calvinism, to which they had been inclined when they first
entered on the ministry, or, rather to be decided against it.21
It was into this circle of friends that Carey came as a young pastor. While the missionary
enterprise which Carey envisioned was certainly revolutionary, in retrospect it can be seen as
21
Haykin, 139.
71
natural to move from advocating the free offer of the Gospel to Englishmen to advocating the
Through Edwards’ influence, the influence of the Great Awakening was finally felt
among Particular Baptists, “More than any other eighteenth-century author, Edwards showed
Sutcliff, and fellow Baptists like Fawcett and Evans, how to combine a commitment to
Calvinism with a passion for revival, fervent evangelism and experiential religion.”22
Dismantling Hyper-Calvinism
that the unconverted non-elect were not responsible to heed the gospel. Second, that the
preacher should make no offer of the gospel. John Ryland explained the situation in this
way:
From the moral impotence which the oracles of truth ascribe to man in his fallen state,
a certain class of divines were induced to divide moral and religious duties into two
classes, natural and spiritual; comprehending under the latter, those which require
spiritual or supernatural assistance to their performance; and under the former, those
which demand no such assistance. Agreeable to this distinction, they conceived it to
be the duty of all men to abstain from the outward acts of sin, to read the Scriptures,
to frequent the worship of God, and to attend with serious assiduity to the means of
grace; but they supposed that repentance, faith in Christ, and the exercise of genuine
internal devotion, were obligatory only on the regenerate. Hence their ministry
consisted almost entirely of an exhibition of the peculiar mysteries of the gospel, with
few or no addresses to the unconverted. They conceived themselves not warranted to
urge them to repent and believe the gospel, those being spiritual duties, from whose
obligation they were released by the inability contracted by the fall.23
22
Haykin, 55.
23
Robert Hall, Help to Zion's Travellers: Being an Attempt to Remove Various Stumbling Blocks Out of
the Way, Relating to Doctrinal, Experimental and Practical Religion (Philadelphia: American Baptist
Publication Society, 1851), 17.
72
Both of these propositions were highly detrimental to the growth of the churches. Robert
Hall, Sr. would play a key role in demolishing the first proposition. Andrew Fuller would
which would later be published under the title Help to Zion’s Travellers.24 The subtitle of the
work describes Hall’s purpose, Being an Attempt to Remove Various Stumbling Blocks Out of
the Way, Relating to Doctrinal, experimental, and Practical Religion. Hall especially
Christ. The result of hyper-Calvinism was to cause the unconverted to seek subjective
evidence of God’s work of grace in his life. This was termed seeking a “warrant” to believe.
Andrew Fuller’s personal struggles before his conversion can be taken as typical. He
describes how he felt himself to be a “poor sinner” but did not feel he was “qualified to come
to Christ” since he could not identify the subjective “warrant of faith” which would confirm
his election.25
It was this type of stumbling block that Robert Hall wanted to remove. He wrote, “It
is frequently asserted, that a true faith in Christ is inseparably connected with the knowledge
of an interest in him . . .”26 The result of this was to place conversion on unstable ground.
What was required was not just faith in Christ, but faith in one’s faith in Christ. Hall
answered, “But there is no doctrine contained in the gospel, nor even any threatening in the
24
Peter J. Morden, Offering Christ to the World: Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) and the Revival of
Eighteenth Century Particular Baptist Life (Great Britain: Paternoster by Nottingham Alphagraphics, 2003),
44.
25
Michael Haykin, At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist (Great Britain:
Paternoster by Nottingham Alphagraphics, 2004), 6.
26
Hall, 124.
73
law of God, which is a bar to an undone sinner’s coming to Christ for salvation.”27 He went
on to say, “If any one should ask, Have I a right to apply to Jesus the Saviour, simply as a
poor, undone, perishing sinner, in whom there appears no good thing? I answer, Yes; the
gospel proclamation is, “Whosever will, let him take the water of life freely.”28
William Carey later reported that when Hall’s book came to his hands that while it
seemed like “rank poison’ to some, to him it seemed “the sweetest wine.”29 Robert Hall Sr.
eventually came to be numbered among those who served as a mentor to Carey in the early
years of formation, “it was one of my chief privileges, to be favoured with the kind advice
and kinder criticism of men of the greatest eminence, and their friendship was a jewel I could
not too highly prize.” Samuel Pearce Carey writes that Hall offered constructive criticism of
William Carey’s sermons, “as too matter of fact. They lacked windows. ‘There are not
enough likes in them, whereas the Master was always saying, ‘The kingdom is like seed or
treasure or leaven.”’30
Robert Hall also played a small role in helping Andrew Fuller as Fuller struggled with
conversation, he recommended that Fuller read “Edwards on the Will”. It is clear that at the
time Fuller was not yet familiar with Jonathan Edwards since he acquired a book called
Veritas Redux by an Anglican clergyman, John Edwards. He appreciated Veritas Redux but
was puzzled that it seemed to not have any bearing on the issues he had been discussing with
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid., 125.
29
S. P. Carey, 29.
30
Ibid., 58.
74
Robert Hall. It wasn’t until two years later he realized his mistake and acquired Jonathan
In 1785, Fuller wrote The Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation in which he defended the
practice of offering the gospel to the unconverted and stressed the duty of men to believe it.
His reasoning turned on the distinction between physical and moral inability. Michael
Haykin has written that, “Fuller’s appropriation of this distinction derived from a direct
reading of Edwards.”32 Morden explains the distinction, “Put simply, a person could not
come because they would not come.”33 C. S. Lewis makes a similar point when he affirms
that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.34 Edward’s saw that men’s inability to respond
to the gospel was not a physical or natural inability; it lies much deeper in a corrupted will.
Men are free to choose between things of moral indifference such as tea or coffee, but they
are not free to violate their very nature, and men by their very nature are haters of God.
Natural man is no more free to love God than God is free to do that which is unholy.
This was a critical distinction for the question of preaching. It was one thing if men
could not respond to the gospel because they were not able. It was another if they did not
because they would not. If the inability was ‘moral’ men were not relieved of responsibility
to heed the gospel and preachers of the gospel were required to preach the gospel to the
argumentation, the discussion might seem quaint to some. But it was this theological
31
Haykin, 138.
32
Ibid., 140
33
Ibid., 11.
34
Not that Lewis is an Evangelical Calvinist, C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York,
HarperCollins, 2001), 130.
75
Fuller’s work, and that of Hall, made four vital corrections. First, it corrected
misconceptions about the nature of saving faith. This can be seen in the discussion of the
nature of unbelief, the opposite of Faith, which Fuller held with another minister, “It was
common to speak of unbelief as a calling in question the truth of our own personal religion;
whereas, he remarked, ‘it was a calling into question the truth of what God had said.’ The
remark appeared to carry its own evidence.”35 Both faith and unbelief had as their object
something external to the individual. Hope was not to be found in ascertaining the quality of
one’s own subjective belief, but in the truth of God. Fuller stumbled on this in his own
conversion. He struggled to find internal evidence of election and the resulting saving faith
and failed to do so. In desperation, “He . . . came to this resolve, ‘I must, I will—yes, I
will—trust my soul, my sinful lost soul, in his hands; if I perish, I perish.’ As he looked away
from self, and fixed his eyes on a crucified Saviour, his guilt and fears began to dissolve . . .
and he found how true were the words of Christ, ‘come unto me all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give thee rest.’”36 Hope was not to be found in a subjective state but
The second correction was to turn from speculative theology towards the objective
revelation of God. Fuller stated, “God’s Word, and not his secret purpose, is the rule of our
conduct.”37 Solid ground was to be found in the scriptures, not in the subjective experience
of the individual, nor in the impenetrable inner life of the Trinity. This change of method is
evident in Fuller’s treatment of the free offer of the gospel. He is swayed more by the
35
Andrew Fuller, The Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller (Philadelphia: W. Collier, 1820) Preface, 1:3,
10.
36
Haykin, 6.
37
William H. Brackney, A Genetic History of Baptist Thought. (Macon: Mercer University Press,
2004), 123.
76
accumulation of examples of apostolic preaching from the New Testament than by
theological arguments. He stated that to neglect “exhortations, calls and Warnings . . . was
not the practice of Christ and his apostles.”38 He makes a great effort to bring his own
theology in line with the plain statements of Scripture. Fuller made a personal covenant with
the Lord, “to take no principle at second-hand; but to search for every thing at the pure
Third, he demolished the notion that there was no duty of ministers to call sinners to
repentance or for sinners to believe and repent. When Fuller was considering taking the
pastorate of the church at Kettering he wrote the congregation to clarify his position:
I believe it is the duty of every minister of Christ plainly and faithfully to preach the
gospel to all who will hear it; and as I believe the inability of men to spiritual things
to be wholly of the moral, and therefore of the criminal kind, —and that it is their
duty to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust him for salvation, though they do not; I
therefore believe free and solemn addresses, invitations, calls, and warnings to them,
to be not only consistent, but directly adapted as means, in the hand of the Spirit of
God, to bring them to Christ. I consider it as part of my duty that I could not omit
without being guilty of the blood of souls.40
This statement echoes the views of many of the earlier Puritans, but Fuller expresses it with a
The fourth correction Fuller brought to Baptist thinking had to do with the use of
means. In his Enquiry, Carey argued strongly for the use of means for the conversion of the
heathen. This point is the natural consequence of the theological development that precedes
it. As we shall see in a later chapter, Fuller played a key role in articulating a theology of
means. If Carey is the father of the modern missionary movement, Fuller is its theologian.
38
Joseph Belcher, The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller. (Philadelphia: American Baptist
Publication Society, 1845), 2.386.
39
Haykin, xix.
40
Haykin, 13.
77
He not only cleared away the choking brambles of hyper-Calvinism, but he replaced it with
an Evangelical and missionary Calvinism with sufficient vitality to spread around the globe.
missionary movement was born. Though distant from the center of influence in London, and
consisting of mostly small and impoverished congregations, it would take steps of faith that
would lead greatest expansion of biblical Christianity in history. Fuller was not the only
remarkable figure, even if the most prominent. It was amongst this group of men, students of
Jonathan Edwards and more importantly of the Scriptures, that Carey came of age as a
pastor.
Carey was ordained at the Baptist Church in Olney where John Sutcliffe pastored.
His first congregation was in the village of Moulton. At Moulton, he worked at his old trade
repairing shoes and also taught school, but he was unable to make ends meet. Nevertheless,
it was a productive period. He studied biblical and modern languages while he labored at his
cobbler’s bench. He made a leather map on which he wrote the information he was
collecting about the spiritual condition of the peoples of the world. And he preached, not just
walking great distances without food for lack of funds. In Andrew Fuller, Carey was to find
a lifelong friend and ministry partner. Their first encounter came after a message delivered
by Carey:
Carey had preached and there came pushing his way to him a man of thirty-three,
robust and broad-shouldered, with the lines of thought cut sharply in his face, but
78
with an almost feminine tenderness trembling in the eyes, under the shadow of the
dark eyebrows. Seizing the hand of the preacher, who had given utterance to
sentiments, which had for some time been struggling for room in his own heart, Fuller
said to Carey what became true—‘We must know more of each other.’41
Association grew, as did the individual congregations of the association. Carey experienced
a period of trials in the Moulton congregation, but was able to eliminate a divisive spirit and
the congregation saw spiritual growth. He led the church in adopting a church covenant that
emphasized the unity that should prevail in a church. This covenant committed the church to
man’s “total moral inability; and yet absolute inexcusableness.”42 The remedy was salvation
which, “from its first cause to its final consummation is a display of sovereign
Goodness. . . .”43
Carey’s covenant not only emphasized theological matters, but committed the church
to a New Testament code of conduct emphasizing loving respect for the pastor, concern for
maintaining a proper testimony before the world, and unity based on love among the
members. The result was growth that required the expansion of the church facilities, a project
He eventually took a pastorate in Leicester at the Harvey Lane Church. Here he had a
similar experience of bringing order and unity to a fractious congregation. He took the
radical step of disbanding the church and reorganizing with those who would accept the
41
S. P. Carey, 47.
42
From a copy of Carey’s covenant provided by Margaret Williams, current member of the Carey
Baptist Church of Moulton. 2009.
43
Ibid.
79
membership covenant. A letter from the church the year after Carey had left for India gives
an indication of the relationship which had developed and the fruitfulness of his ministry:
Dear Brethren,
Last year we observed that the Lord smiled upon us, and Healed our Divisions, and
Blessed us. Then we had some Increase. But this year He has shewed himself to Be a
God who answers Prayers (Perhaps more than at Former times) to us. We have this
year Received 19 members by Baptism and we have Reason to hope that more are
under Concern of soul, our Present Number of Members is 80ty. But in the midst of
our Expectations, and our growing Union, we where visited with a Blow which we
feel the weight, perhaps moore that You can suppose. Our Dear and Beloved pastor
was Called From us, to go and Preach the Gospel to Heathens. The Shock was great
—great indeed to think of Parting with a minister we so dearly Loved—with
faithfulness and with efection which he was posest of, Indeared Him to us moore and
more. But what can we do? His Heart had been Long set upon it, we had been Long
Praying For the Gospel to Be sent, and Now providence opened a way, and we were
called to make this Painefull Sacrifice, in answer to Prayers. We know that the Head
of the Church can Supply our Wants, and hope we shall Be remembered for good By
our sister Churches.44
The sacrifice of the church at Leicester would pay unimagined dividends. Carey’s
affectionate gospel ministry that had restored the unity of the church in Leicester would be
44
S. P. Carey, 102.
80
CHAPTER 5
THE ENQUIRY
The end of the eighteenth century was the age of manifestoes. In a letter to Tomas Paine,
Jefferson wrote, “Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the
sword: shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the body of
man, and be assured that it has not a more sincere votary nor you a more ardent well-wisher than
Yrs. &c.”1 It was a period that confirms the truth that ideas have consequences.
By this time, doctrines of the Reformation had long since morphed into unrecognizable
forms. The priesthood of every believer had through a series of permutations become the
inalienable rights of the sovereign individual. The standard of scripture had given way to that of
man’s own reason. While many of the ideas of the Enlightenment find their roots in the
Reformation, by the end of the eighteenth century they had come unmoored.
Radical ideas were expressed in the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau on the continent
and by Anglo-Americans such as Thomas Paine. The American Revolution fed on these ideas to
a degree. The writings of John Locke were certainly a key to the thinking of America’s
Founding Fathers. But it is also true that the American Revolution was a conservative
revolution. It was founded on a belief that in the king’s treatment of the colonies ancient rights
were violated. In the end, it was not a throwing off of every precedent or a turning from the law
1
“The Letters of Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826: To Thomas Paine Philadelphia, June 19, 1792,” American
History from Revolution to Reconstruction and Beyond; available from
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl99.htm; Internet; accessed December 2010.
81
Of course, the Enlightenment was not a homogenous intellectual movement. In the
American colonies the ideas of Jefferson were balanced by those of Adams. Not everyone in the
Anglo-American sphere were sanguine about the direction Enlightenment ideas were leading
France. It might be possible to argue that the enlightenment in France took more radical forms
because France had never experienced the Reformation. Whatever the case, there is no doubt
that French radicalism had an impact on the world that is felt down to this very day. Its effects
can be seen far beyond the immediate political and geopolitical events of the late eighteenth and
loosen Spain’s grip on its new world possessions. And Britannia, with the battles of the Nile and
Trafalgar finished consolidating its control of the sea lanes of the world. After the devastating
loss of its American colonies, Britain turned its face to the east and an empire that was growing
on the Indian subcontinent. All of these developments laid the groundwork for the expansion of
the gospel. We must be careful not to lazily accept a stereotypical view of the protestant
missionary as a tool of rapacious colonial expansion. The relationship between the colonial
powers and missions was never simple. Britain and its agents often resisted the arrival of
missionaries for fear that their presence would complicate their search for profits, but it is also
true that the expansion of the colonial system opened doors for the gospel.
The developments that led to the spread of Enlightenment ideas were the same that
produced the explosion of Christian missions. The power of the press had had a role since the
dawn of the Reformation. Books and pamphlets were printed and distributed by the thousands.
Periodicals began to play a role in shaping public opinion. These publications were circulated
amongst a network of intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic who shared a common language
and culture and were able to communicate ever more fluidly because of advances in
82
The Enlightenment and Evangelical Calvinism
David Bebbington has shown that there are significant links between the Enlightenment
and the rise of Evangelicalism. The question is what is the nature of that relationship? Is
show that Evangelicalism, especially that branch which can be called Evangelical Calvinism, is
descended directly from the Reformation, and that the modern missionary movement as
link has been overemphasized.2 The question is which movement gave birth to the other. Or is
Perhaps it is best to see Evangelicalism and the Enlightenment as parallel movements that
emerge from the same milieu. Neither movement was monolithic, and it is possible to hear in
the words of some Enlightenment thinkers3 echoes of Scriptural truth. John Locke in his Essay
Concerning Human Understanding writes that, “For though the comprehension of our
understanding comes exceeding short of the vast extent of things; yet we shall have cause
enough to magnify the bountiful Author of our being, for that portion and degree of knowledge
he has bestowed on us so far above all the rest of the Inhabitants of this our mansion. Men have
reason to be well satisfied with what God hath thought fit for them . . .”4 He goes on to quote the
Apostle Peter. The point is not that Locke was orthodox in all of his opinions, but to show that
Evangelicalism shared with the Enlightenment a common vocabulary shaped by the Scriptures.
Enlightenment usage of the Scriptures may have been highly selective, like Jefferson with his
customized New Testament, but the Bible had not been jettisoned entirely. While there is
2
D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (Great Britain: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 48.
3
Perhaps in some sense all Enlightenment thinkers were influenced by scriptural ideas.
4
John Wynne, An Abridgment of Mr. Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (London: F.
Nicholson, 1831), 7.
83
significant cross-fertilization it is difficult to see Evangelicalism, and more specifically
Evangelical Calvinism and the modern missionary movement, as the product of the
Enlightenment.5
While William Carey was certainly influenced by trends in science and political theory
associated with the Enlightenment, he might have been surprised if told his missionary drive was
rooted in John Locke’s theory of knowledge.6 Whatever Carey’s opinion might have been of
Locke, he had little use for the increasingly heretical drift of Enlightenment ideas as shown by an
entry from his journal while onboard ship bound for India, “All this Week nothing of moment
occurred. We meet every morning and Evening for family prayer, and meet with innumerable
civilities from every body on board. but have most awful proof of the [Awful] effects of human
depravity when heightened by bad principle—the Old Deist (Barnard) is one of the most daring
enthusiastic interest in scientific and social progress that modern historians perhaps too quickly
attribute to the Enlightenment. As parallel products of the Reformation, Evangelicalism and the
Enlightenment shared a common social space, and the cross-fertilization was extensive. Ernest
Payne illustrates the way in the two movements rubbed shoulders in his preface to Carey’s
Enquiry. In 1791, Thomas Paine released his work The Age of Reason. Its sequel, The Rights of
5
Michael A. G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart, The Advent of Evangelicalism (Nashville: B & H
Academic, 2008), 54.
6
Bebbington’s argument is that Evangelical activism was released by a new confidence gained when
Locke’s theory of knowledge was applied by Jonathan Edwards to spiritual matters. The new sense of assurance
provided by this innovation allowed Evangelicals to turn from introspection to outward endeavor. Whatever the
merits of this argument, and it is questioned by some, it is a less adequate explanation for the modern missionary
movement than that it was the natural outgrowth of Reformation theology and missionary endeavor as we have
traced in previous chapters.
7
Terry G. Carter, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey (Macon: Smyth & Helwys Publishing,
2000), 4.
84
Man, was released in 1792. The same year William Carey’s Enquiry was published in Leicester.
A week or so before the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society on 2 October, 1792,
a famous incident occurred in Johnson’s hospitable bachelor establishment at No. 72 St.
Paul’s Churchyard. Tom Paine and William Blake had been dining there. The former’s
Rights of Man had just appeared. Moved as it seemed by some intuition Blake said to
Paine; ‘You must not go home, or you are a dead man,’ and persuaded him to start at
once for Dover and Paris. As it transpired, Paine got away only just in time, for the
government had decided to prosecute him. As he slipped out of Johnson’s shop, did his
eye light, perchance, on Carey’s Enquiry?8
Paine would proceed to Paris where he became an honorary citizen and was elected to the
National Convention even though he spoke no French. As the revolution unraveled he was
arrested and only narrowly escaped the guillotine. There is no evidence that Thomas Paine was
ever aware of William Carey or his Enquiry, but he had some contact with Nonconformists.
Johnson the shop owner of the incident described by Payne was Joseph Johnson, “the son of a
north of England Baptist farmer” who had become an important printer and publisher. His
Radical politics and evangelical missions are not exactly binary opposites, but they do
represent two differing visions of how to improve the world. It should not surprise us that many
of the leaders of the modern missionary movement were at one time attracted to radical political
movements. Carey himself was reputed to have had republican sentiments,9 and he was also a
lifelong pacifist. While pastor at Leicester he was made the secretary of the Nonconformist
committee and found himself engaged in the struggle to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts
At Leicester Carey came into contact with others who were advocates of scientific
progress. Richard Philipps, for example founded the Philosophical Institute which was full of
8
William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the
Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 15.
9
Samuel Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1923), 60.
10
S. P. Carey, 59.
85
“’telescope, planetaria, and electrical apparatus. . . ,’ and he had set up a lightning-conductor—to
the people a thing as impious as dangerous!”11 Joseph Priestley, who was the scientist who
discovered oxygen and a theologian and dissenting clergyman, was an invited guest at the
Leicester Philosophical Institute. Carey showed a lifelong interest in science and eventually
made serious contributions in the field of botany. Both Priestley and Carey are evidence that at
this stage there could no clear distinctions between many ideas which are now viewed as the
province of the Enlightenment. As yet there was no rivalry between science and theology.
On the social and political front demarcations were also unclear. Carey was a vocal and
lifelong opponent of slavery. He suggested that to raise funds for missions, people might forgo
the use of sugar, an action that had the effect of undermining an industry dependent on slave
labor. In India, as we shall see, he campaigned against widow-burning and infanticide; causes
which were joined by others whose motivation owed more to the Enlightenment than
Evangelicalism. But Carey’s primary focus was the preaching of the gospel. He was willing to
make use of the latest in technology, science and education to benefit bodies and minds, but
The Advocate
Carey’s pastorates in Moulton and at Harvey Lane in Leicester provided him opportunity
for growth in ministerial skills. But his eyes were constantly raised to further fields. The
constant flow of information as the edges of the map were pushed back by the explorations of
Cook and others, in addition to the reports of the heroic missionary efforts of the Moravians,
In the Baptist pastors of the Northamptonshire Association, Carey found kindred spirits.
While it would take some time to convince them that a world missionary project was feasible,
the popular view that they were adamantly against the idea is largely apocryphal. There was a
11
Ibid., 60.
86
natural reluctance that grew from the sheer boldness of the vision, but who could blame them?
Fuller said of Carey’s proposals, “If the Lord should make windows in Heaven, could such a
thing be?”12
The Northamptonshire Association was the fertile soil required. The theology of Hall
and Fuller, with the help of Edwards, had already prepared the ground. They had gladly joined
Promote Extraordinary Prayer. Much has been made of an incident that occurred at an
association meeting. When the request was made that topics for discussion be suggested, Carey
advanced a precisely worded proposal, “whether the command given to the apostles to teach all
nations was not binding on all succeeding ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the
accompanying promise was of equal extent.”13 John Ryland’s response is well known, “Young
man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or
mine.”14
John Ryland Jr. later denied that his father had said this, but given Ryland’s tendency to
express ideas forcefully it would not have been out of character. What is most certainly an error
missions. Their slow response to Carey’s proposals is best seen as a natural reluctance on the
part of an impoverished group, far from the centers of influence, to a proposal of world-historical
importance.
Carey hoped that others, Sutcliff or perhaps Fuller, might lead the way in the missionary
enterprise he envisioned. He had no confidence in his own ability, but sought to influence the
others in one on one meeting.15 In 1787, while raising funds for the construction project at the
12
S. P. Carey, 49.
13
Ibid., 47.
14
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of the
Serampore Mission. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859), 1:10.
15
S. P. Carey, 49.
87
church in Moulton, Carey visited Thomas Potts, a wealthy Baptist deacon in Birmingham. Carey
shared his views on missions with Potts who said that while the public was not yet ready for such
an idea, he would underwrite the publication of a treatise if Carey would put his ideas on paper.16
The Enquiry
More than 200 years later Carey’s Enquiry still has power to motivate. Its power does
not spring from its artfulness; Carey relied on a spare argument which derives strength from its
simple directness. His argument is summarized in the full title of the work: An Enquiry into the
Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen. To the implied
question, Carey’s answer is an unequivocal yes. In an age of manifestoes by the likes of Thomas
Paine and Thomas Jefferson, it is ironic that this work composed in Carey’s workshop has
transformed the world the most. It is no exaggeration to state that, “it deserves a place alongside
The work is divided into five sections with equally self-explanatory titles. The weight of
his argument is carried in the first, fourth and fifth sections. In the first, he argues that the Great
Commission of Matthew 28 is still incumbent on Christians in every age. The second and third
sections provide supporting information. Section two reviews the history of missionary
endeavors down to his day. Section three provides information on the state of the world at the
time of the Enquiry’s publication. The detailed tables in this section provide early evidence of
the scientific curiosity and taxonomical thoroughness which would later merit Carey’s
membership in the Linnaean Society. In the fourth section, he discusses in general terms the
practicability of a missionary enterprise. In the last section he makes the necessary case for the
16
Marshman, 10.
17
J. Herbert Kane, Concise History of the Christian World Mission: A Panoramic View of Missions from
Pentecost to the Present (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1978), 85.
88
The Enquiry marks not just the beginning of the modern missionary movement, but of
modern missiology as an intellectual discipline. Samuel Pearce Carey states that his review of
previous efforts, “was the first modern attempt at a roll of world missionaries. The facts were not
readily to hand, for no one else was then studying this aspect of history, yet almost all the names
which modern missionary research discloses are here enshrined.”18 Carey brings a variety of
disciplines to bear on the subject; biblical exegesis, theology, church history, geography, and
A Binding Commission
Section 1 of Carey’s work is titled, An Enquiry whether the Commission given by our
Lord to his Disciples be not still binding on us. Again the title is a clear anticipation of the
direction his argument will take. Remarkably he deals concisely only with direct objections to
the view that Christians are responsible to carry the Gospel to the heathen. In spite of the
importance of the arguments over the free offer of the gospel which had occupied his
denomination during previous years, he simply proceeds to argue for carrying the Gospel to
allusion to Fuller’s point that we are guided by scripture and not God’s secret purpose.19
Carey argues that the apostolic commission, “to Go, and teach all nations; or as another
evangelist expresses it, go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” must be
applied in the most extended sense, both chronologically and geographically. The Commission
requires preaching to every creature in every place, and it does not expire until the advent.
To those who would limit the commission geographically, who would say that there was
much to be done at home first, he replied that while this is true there is a difference between
18
S. P. Carey, 57.
19
Carey, 40.
89
those places where churches exist in every town and the Bible is to be found in the local tongue
Carey anticipates the argument of the last chapter, which calls for practical steps to be
taken, by objecting to the point of view that “if God intends the salvation of the heathen, he will
some way or other bring them to the gospel, or the gospel to them.” God’s sovereignty should
not be used as an excuse to disobey God’s command. This is an echo of the opposition
supposedly expressed by John Ryland Sr. While they do not serve as confirmation that Ryland
actually made the statement it does tend to confirm that such sentiments were still prevalent
among some Baptists even after the great theological progress made through the writings of
To those who would limit the commission chronologically, Carey also argues that the
commission should be applied in the most ample extent in terms of chronology. He specifically
attacks the view that the Great Commission expired with the passing of the apostles. “There
seems also to be the opinion existing in the minds of some, that because the apostles were
extraordinary officers and have no proper successors, and because many things which were right
for them to do would be utterly unwarrantable for us, therefore it may not be immediately
binding on us to execute the commission. . . .”20 This had been John Gills position. In Gill’s
commentary on Matthew 28:18 he had written, “And Jesus came and spake unto them . . . To the
eleven disciples and apostles: for though there might be so large a number as before observed,
yet the following words were only spoken to the apostles. . . .”21 Carey’s answer is that if the
commission be limited to the apostles then so must the command to baptize, and so must be the
promise of His presence to the end of the world. Carey went on to argue that the Commission
could only be superseded by further revelation which, of course, did not exist.
20
Carey, 36.
21
Gill, John, John Gill, and John Gill. An exposition of the Old and New Testaments (Paris, Ark: Baptist
Standard Bearer, 1989), 375.
90
In the absence of a counter-revelation, the only thing that could render the commission
Non-binding would be the physical impossibility of “putting it in execution.” He writes, “It was
not the duty of Paul to preach Christ to the inhabitants of Otaheite,22 because no such place was
then discovered, nor had any means of coming at them.”23 This statement takes us to the heart of
Carey’s thinking on the matter. His missiology turned on the interaction between three concepts;
church. He offers duty as the primary motivation for missions. There are traces of other
motivating factors in the Enquiry, but in keeping with his direct style he only develops that of
duty. Some theologians have offered the desire for the increase of God’s glory as the primary
motivation for missions.24 This is implied in Carey’s introduction where he states that the
missionary endeavor is the proper response to the Lord’s command that his disciples, “pray that
his kingdom may come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. . . .”25 Years later he
would make an explicit statement. In a letter to John Williams he describes the resistance to the
Public disputes with them also in the streets, and any place where we meet with them and
always in the hearing or the common people have in some measure excited them to
reflect, but at present it has been of no use except to make them try to avoid disputes with
us and to excite a laugh against them among others who are not permitted to read for
themselves. I have no doubt but in the end the God of all grace will exert His almighty
power and vindicate His authority and establish the glory of His own name in this
wretched country; our labors may be only like those of pioneers to prepare the way, but
22
Tahiti.
23
Carey, 37.
24
Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
1993).
25
Carey, 31.
91
truth will assuredly prevail and this among the other kingdoms or the earth shall
assuredly see the salvation of our God.26
In 1821 he would write to his son Jabez, who was serving as a missionary in Ajimere:
[I] know the difficulties of the first engaging in this work are great and feel much for
your standing alone in that vast held but I am sure the Lord can give you strength
according to your day and that he will sustain all who with a single eye to his glory
engage in his glorious work. It is equally the same with him to help with many or with
few and to effect his great designs by weak instruments as by those which are, apparently
the strongest for in truth, all are weakness itself. The greatness of the power is in him and
must always appear so to be. It is therefore not unlikely that he may give as great and
even greater blessing to your labours who are working alone as to the combined effort or
those who appear to have every advantage. He is a Almighty God.27
These letters are a product of Carey’s latter years and may reflect a more mature missiological
vision, but given the fact that he does allude to this motivation, if somewhat obliquely, in the
Enquiry, it may be that Carey hoped to simplify the argument in the Enquiry.
consideration of the destitute and uncivilized state of most of mankind.29 Accounts of mankind’s,
“ignorance, or cruelty, should call forth our pity, and excite us to concur with providence in
In the end, the most direct theological argument for missionary endeavor is the call of
duty. God’s glory is a legitimate motivating factor, as is compassion for the souls of lost men,
26
Leighton and Mornay Williams, ed., Serampore Letters 1800-1816 (New York: Fleming H. Revell
Company, 1892), 62.
27
Sunil Kumar Chatterjee, William Carey and Serampore 3d ed. (Serampore: Sunil Kumar Chatterjee,
2008), 35-36.
28
Carey, 31.
29
Ibid., 95.
30
Ibid., 94.
92
but words of praise for God or expressions of concern for the lost are empty unless accompanied
In the Enquiry, Carey makes only passing references to eschatological views. In section
one he refers to the opinions of “some learned divines” that the heathen would not yet be
converted because “first the witnesses must be slain” and other prophecies must be fulfilled.
Carey expresses his doubts that this is an impediment for, among other reasons, “the success of
the gospel has been very considerable in many places already.”31 Here he is not concerned with
finding a motivation for missions but with removing certain eschatological views as
impediments.
In the fourth section of the Enquiry Carey appeals to prophecy in support of the use of
means. He quotes Isaiah 9:9, “Surely the Isles shall wait for me; the ships of Tarshish, first to
bring my sons from far. . . .” He explains, “This seems to imply that in the time of the glorious
increase of the church, in the latter days, commerce shall subserve the spread of the gospel.”
While this indicates something about Carey’s eschatological viewpoint it should be noted that his
primary focus here is to argue for the use of means. This is not to say that he was not motivated
by what Ian Murray has called The Puritan Hope, but simply that his argument in the Enquiry
touches on eschatology only tangentially. His primary line of reasoning follows elsewhere.
Of the New England Puritans it has been said that they were:
31
Carey, 39-40.
32
Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope: Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (Carlisle, PA: The Banner
of Truth Trust, 1998), 95.
93
Geographical details excepted, the same could be said of the Northamptonshire Baptists. Once
on the field Carey would write during a time of discouragement, “I know there are only two real
obstacles in any part of the earth, viz. a want of the Bible and the depravity of the Human Heart.
The first of them God has begun to remove; and I trust the last will be removed soon; and when
the Spirit is poured down from on high, all superstitions will give way.”33
While the Northamptonshire Baptists had taken Jonathan Edwards’ call to prayer in An
Humble Attempt to heart they reserved the right to disagree on eschatological details. When
Sutcliff reprinted Edwards work he stated “an author and editor are very distinct characters . . .”34
and he specifically pointed out that details of Edwards’s eschatology might be questioned.
However, while there was room for difference in eschatological detail there is no doubt the
Northamptonshire Baptists shared with Edwards and the Puritans the feeling that they lived on
“the very edge of time”35 and they were anticipating the growth of God’s activity in the world.
In the end, Carey’s argument is that duty is the primary motivation for missions. He
speaks of “obligation” and “obedience” and argues that “it becomes us,” it ‘behoves us,” and “it
is incumbent upon us.”36 The weight of this duty is augmented by the glory of the one who gave
the commission and the urgency is increased by the dire needs of the lost: but Carey’s argument
concentrates on the focus of duty and obedience. In this sense we see that Carey attempts to
keep his rationale very close to the actual logic of Biblical revelation.
Like the other great manifestoes of this period, The Declaration of Independence and The
Rights of Man, The Enquiry was more than a statement of principles; it was a call to action. The
33
Carter., 64.
34
Timothy George, Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William Carey (Worcester, PA: Christian
History Institute, 1998), 51.
35
George, 52.
36
A. H. Oussoren, William Carey Especially His Missionary Principles (Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff's
Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V., 1945) 129-130.
94
first two documents appealed to supposedly self-evident principles of human nature to argue for
an agenda of political reform. The Enquiry argued from Biblical principles for obedience to the
Great Commission. Carey occupies a place analogous to that of Jefferson who translated the
principles of Locke and Montague into a document which set the agenda for a program of
concrete action. Behind Carey we find Calvin’s principle of secondary causes and the use of
means, the Puritan’s sense of the duty of ministers to preach the gospel, and Edwards’ and
Fuller’s views on the nature of the human freedom and the duty to make free offers of the gospel.
Carey took the next step. While it is in line with those that came before, it represents a giant step
forward. At the same time, it is quite simple. The Great Commission is still binding and must be
obeyed.
this is an adequate explanation for Evangelicalism in general is debated. Whatever the case,
there is little in the Enquiry itself to support the view. Both Carey and Fuller struggled at times
over the years with doubts about their own spiritual condition. It is best to see the Enquiry as the
William Carey was impelled by an increasing sense of urgency. He was not entirely
confident of his own capacity to lead the endeavor, but found himself thrust into the forefront.
When Birmingham businessman, Thomas Potts, offered to underwrite the publication of the
Enquiry, Carey expressed doubts about his ability to produce the type of pamphlet required. Potts
advised him; “If you can’t do it as you wish, do it as you can, and I’ll give you £10 towards its
printing.”38 It was this practical approach characteristic of England’s working classes that Carey
37
As already alluded to, Bebbington uses the simple term activism, but the context of his statements (see
Bebbington, 41) supports the conclusion that the primary focus of this activism was missions and evangelism even
though it extended to broader social concerns.
38
S. P. Carey, 50.
95
Carey’s effort, while not polished by the literary standards of the day, proved to be
effective. Fuller eventually threw his whole weight behind the endeavor, but it would be four
years from the time it was suggested Carey write down his thoughts. In April of 1792 at an
association meeting in Clipstone, Fuller preached a message titled, The Pernicious Influence of
Delay in Religious Concerns. He dealt with the effect of delay in a broad range of spiritual
[so] few and feeble efforts have been made for the propagation of the gospel in the world.
When the Lord Jesus commissioned his apostles, he commanded them to—Go, and teach
all nations, to preach the gospel to every creature; and notwithstanding the difficulties
and opposition that would lie in the way. The apostles executed their commission with
assiduity and fidelity; but since their days, we seem to sit down half contented that the
greater part of the world should still remain in ignorance and idolatry.39
His development of this theme shows considerable dependence on the practical theology Carey
expresses in the Enquiry. The question arises, how much is the product of their personal
interaction? Fuller appeals to the motivating factor of the value of men’s souls and then raises
the issue of practical means with a reference to societies, “Are there no opportunities for
This sermon was included in The Memoirs of the Late Rev. Samuel Pearce which Fuller
compiled. In his sermon Fuller asks, “Ought we not then to try, at least, by some means to
convey more of the good tidings of salvation to the world around us . . . ?” This question is
It may not be amiss to inform the reader, that at the time of the above discourse being
delivered, the Rev. Mr.CAREY of Leicester, was present. After worship, when the
ministers were together, he moved the question, “Whether something might not be done
in the way of sending the Gospel into the heathen world?” It was well known at the same
time the Mr. CAREY had written a judicious piece upon the subject, which he had by
him in manuscript, shewing the duty of Christians in that matter, and the practicability of
39
Andrew Fuller, Memoirs of the Late Rev. Samuel Pearce, A.M. (London: J.W. Morris, 1800), 84.
40
Ibid., 84.
96
the undertaking. It was therefore agreed as the first step proper to be taken, that Mr.
CAREY be requested to revise and print his manuscript.41
A resolution to revise and print his Enquiry would not have been sufficient to satisfy
Carey. The next month at the association meeting in Nottingham Carey delivered what has come
to be remembered as “The Deathless Sermon.” He took as his text 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; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.” Verse four
feigns, “Fear not . . .” The sermon itself was not preserved, but its two principle points remain as
a missionary standard, “Expect great things, attempt great things.”42 In these six words Carey
compressed the essence of his missiology. There was an absolute dependence on a Sovereign
God. This dependence was not enervating, it produced bold action. This was Evangelical
wavered. Fuller was about to adjourn the meeting when Carey grabbed his arm and exclaimed,
“Is there nothing again going to be done, sir?”43 The final barrier crumbled and before the
ministers headed south into the night they approved Fuller’s motion: “Resolved, that a plan be
prepared against the next minister’s meeting at Kettering, for forming a Baptist Society for
propagating the Gospel among the Heathens.”44 It was appropriate that The Particular Baptist
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen was formed at Kettering where
41
Fuller, 85-86.
42
S. P. Carey, 72. There is some doubt on the exact form of the famous phrase. This is the form used by
John Clark Marshman.
43
S. P. Carey, 78.
44
Ibid.
97
Fuller pastored and where years before Doddridge had made his own missionary proposal.
Fuller would spend the rest of his life in service to the new society.
Carey’s Enquiry fulfilled its purpose. Hearts had been prepared by years of prayer in
response to Jonathan Edwards Humble Attempt, but Edwards himself had shown, by his
missionary years in Stockbridge, that the time comes when prayer alone is not enough. In
Carey’s words, “If you want the kingdom of God speeded go out and speed it yourselves; only
obedience rationalizes prayer: only missions redeem your intercessions from insincerity.”45
45
Oussoren, 16.
98
CHAPTER 6
Over the years, the missionary endeavor launched by Carey’s Enquiry grew beyond
all expectations. The activities of the missionaries would come to the attention of the
colonial authorities and would be heatedly debated in parliament. Great issues of colonial
governance and the relation of church and state were at stake, but the debates revealed
something of Britain’s views not just on religion, but on class as well. Differences were
highlighted that touched on views of work, money, community, and church organization.
In 1808 and 1809, the activities of the Serampore missionaries came under the critical
examination of the Edinburgh Review, perhaps the most prestigious publication of its day. In
its pages the missionaries were ridiculed for their religious fervor and criticized for holding
the unfashionable idea that the Indians should hear the gospel. They were described as “a
nest of consecrated cobblers,”1 as if they were as low and dangerous as vipers. One author,
Robert Southey, the biographer of Cowper and Lord Nelson, offered a qualified defense of
We . . . are neither blind to what is erroneous in their doctrine, nor ludicrous in their
phraseology: but the anti-missionaries cull out from their journals and letters all that is
ridiculous, sectarian and trifling: call them fools, madmen, tinkers, Calvinists and
schismatics: and keep out of sight their love of man, and their zeal for God, and their self-
devotement, their indefatigable industry, their unequalled learning. These low-born and low-
bred mechanics have translated the whole Bible into Bengalee, and have by this time printed
1
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of
the Serampore Mission. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859), 1:375.
99
it. They are printing the New Testament in the Sanscrit, the Orissa, the Mahratta, the
Hindoostanee, and the Guzerattee, and translating it into Persic, Telinga, Carnata, Chinese,
the language of the Sikhs, and of the Burmans, and in four of these languages they are going
Perhaps a little qualified support is better than no support at all. Southey does not
concede that their theology and background are not really of the better sort, but that they had
accomplished noble things in spite of the disadvantage of coming from the lower classes.
Although there was not a well-born gentleman among them, they managed to translate and
Extraordinary as this is, it will appear more so, when it is remembered that of these
men, one was originally a shoemaker, another a printer at Hull, and a third a master of
a charity school at Bristol. Only fourteen years have elapsed since Thomas and Carey
set foot in India, and in that time these missionaries have acquired this gift or tongues.
In fourteen years these low-born, low-bred mechanics have done more towards
spreading the knowledge of the Scriptures among the heathen, than has been
accomplished, or even attempted, by all the world besides.”3
Southey refers to the former trades of the members of the Serampore Trio. Carey had
been a shoemaker, William Ward a printer and newspaper publisher, and Joshua Marshman a
school teacher. While Southey’s defense was doubtless well-intended, it never occurred to
him that in the providence of God, the missionaries’ former occupations were not an
impediment but an actual benefit to the mission. Nor did it occur to him that a difference in
mindset may have been critical element in their success. Unconcerned with aristocratic
propriety, these “low-bred mechanics” were products of industrial England and their greatest
2
Marshman, 378-379.
3
Ibid.
100
Most of the men involved in the early years of the BMS and the Serampore Mission
were “low-bred mechanics,” men accustomed to earning their bread by manual labor. While
there were levels of English society that were preoccupied with how to leisurely pass the
time on annual income generated by a sizeable estates, that reality was a distant one for men
like Carey the cobbler and Fuller the son of dairy farmers. Survival for the working classes
required a practical prudence which was foreign to the better sorts of people that inhabit the
pages of a Jane Austen novel. The poor had to make the sort of practical evaluations which
led Carey’s father to apprentice him to a shoemaker. The family trade of tammy weaving
was being reshaped by the rise of industrial mills while shoemaking was a growing business
in Northamptonshire.
In Carey’s world, one prayed for God to provide and believed He would. But the
shoes still had to be made and the ten miles to Thomas Gotch’s house in Kettering had to be
walked to deliver them. Carey taught school to provide for his family, because the church
couldn’t afford to provide a salary. There was no living like that of an Anglican minister.
And like his father Edmund, Carey kept an ear to the ground to know what was happening in
the world because choosing the right apprenticeship could make the difference between
starving or not.
David Bebbington has asserted that activism is one of the “enduring hallmarks of the
Evangelical movement.”4 He sees Edward’s theology as the catalyst, even though, as our
earlier chapters have attempted to show, Calvin himself and the later Puritans made
4
D. W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain (Great Britain: Unwin Hyman, 1989), 41.
101
significant missionary efforts. Significantly, Bebbington recognizes that Edwards advocated
It was still believed by Jonathan Edwards for instance, that God exercises his
sovereignty in men’s salvation by bestowing the means of grace on one people but
not on another. Now, however, it was increasingly held that human beings could be
the appointed agents of bringing the gospel to unevangelized nations. We know,
wrote Edwards; that it is God’s manner to make use of means in carrying on his work
in the world. . . .5
With the Enquiry, particular Baptists take an additional step, “Means were now held to be
obligatory, for, as Carey contended, the Great Commission is still binding on believers.”6
Bebbington defines “means” fairly broadly but in a way that is consistent with Carey’s use of
the term: “’Means” was the key word signifying the whole apparatus of human agency.”7
activism in a new understanding of assurance which Jonathan Edwards derives from John
Locke’s theory of knowledge. This is debated by other scholars, and in Carey’s case, it is
perhaps best to see his missionary drive as the result of the development of Reformation
themes:8 the weight of Reformation theology and the examples of others outlined in previous
chapters brings him to see the Great Commission as personally binding. Outside influences
are admitted, the Enlightenment was providing new intellectual tools, and Carey was of
course stimulated by Cook’s voyages among many other elements now ascribed to the
Enlightenment, but perhaps not enough weight has been given to his working class origins.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
7
Ibid.
8
Themes which, are of course, neatly summarized by Bebbington’s quadrilateral.
102
Carey, as well as Ward and Marshman, came from what we would today call a blue
collar background. They were men who earned their bread by manual labor. As such, they
understood something basic about God’s creation. The world is malleable; matter can be
shaped and reshaped to suit a variety of purposes. Stone becomes walls and wood becomes
chairs. Leather can be cut and sewn to make shoes. In addition, matter can be shaped to
One of Carey’s great insights is that just as a farmer must use a plow, those who
would answer the missionary call must grasp appropriate tools. Ironically, it was
characteristic of both the Hindu and the British class system to look down on the mere
laborer. Hands calloused by the constant use of tools were not marks of respect.
In chapter five, we stated that Carey’s missiology, as developed in the Enquiry turned
on three related concepts: duty, providence, and means. We dealt with the first of these in
the last chapter. In regard to means, in the first paragraph of the Introduction to the Enquiry
Carey writes; “As our blessed Lord has required us to pray that his kingdom may come, and
his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, it becomes us not only to express our desires of
that event by words, but by the use of every lawful method to spread the knowledge of his
name.”9 The formula is simple: obedience (duty) to a sovereign God demands not just words
but action–and action must be channeled by means. Perforce, these means must be selected
Carey links the use of means to the ministry of the Apostles after the resurrection of
Christ, “When he had laid down his life, and taken it up again, he sent forth his disciples to
preach the good tidings to every creature, and to endeavor by all possible means to bring over
9
William Carey, An Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the
Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 31.
103
a lost world to God.”10 While he does not elaborate at this point on the means used by the
apostles, it is clear that he feels the use of means is biblically warranted. The use of the word
possible implies a standard of practicality. The perfect tool is not always available, but the
Carey’s specific suggestion in the Enquiry is that a Society be formed. Andrew Walls
has written that, “There never was a theology of the voluntary society. The voluntary society
is one of God’s theological jokes, whereby he makes tender mockery of his people when they
take themselves too seriously.”11 Strictly speaking, Walls is right. The Particular Baptists
did not develop a specific theology of the missionary society. Neither did those from other
denominations who followed with their own societies. However, their approach was not
atheological. Rather they came at the issue from a surprising direction. As we shall see, they
linked their missiology, not to ecclesiology but directly to theology proper. The result is a
missiology that perhaps could have only come in God’s providence from dissenting pastors
A Theology of Means
In the years that followed the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society,
Andrew Fuller worked tirelessly on behalf of the BMS. Understanding the key role the idea
played in their missiology he was a regular advocate for the use of means. He was of one
mind with Carey on the issue from early on; a fact made clear by a message he preached at
Clipstone on April 27, 1791 at the association meeting where Carey made a draft of his
10
Carey, 33 Emphasis mine.
11
Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (Edinburgh: Orbis Books, 1970),
246.
104
Enquiry available for consideration to his fellow pastors. The message was titled The
Pernicious Influence of Delay in Religious Matters. Although it dealt with a broad range of
We pray for the conversion and salvation of the world, and yet neglect the ordinary
means by which those ends have been used to be accomplished. It pleased God,
heretofore, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believed: and there is
reason to think it will still please God to work by that distinguished means. Ought we
not then at least to try by some means to convey more of the good news of salvation
to the world around us than has hitherto been conveyed? The encouragement to the
heathen is still in force, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved: but how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a
preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?”12
This message combined with the introduction of the Enquiry set a process in motion which
led to the birth of the BMS. The similarity in reasoning suggests that both the message and
the Enquiry owed something to the interaction between Carey and Fuller.
Not quite ten years later Fuller spoke at the annual meeting of the Bedford Union. In
a sermon titled God’s Approbation Necessary for Success he drew principles from the story
Thus it has long been in the Christian church the gospel having obtained a footing in
the western nations, we have acted as though we were willing that Satan should enjoy
the other parts without molestation. Every heathen and Mahomedan country has
seemed to be a city walled up to heaven, and the inhabitants terrible to us as the sons
of Anak. And even in our native country, an evangelical ministry having obtained a
kind of establishment in some places, we have long acted as if we thought the rest
were to be given up by consent, and left to perish without any means being used for
their salvation! If God means to save any of them, it seems, he must bring them under
the gospel, or the gospel, in some miraculous manner, to them: whereas the command
of the Saviour is that we go, and preach it to every creature. All that Israel gained was
by dint of the sword.13
12
Andrew Fuller, The Complete Works of Rev. Andrew Fuller (Philadelphia: The American Baptist
Publication Society, 1845), 1:148.
13
Joseph Belcher, ed., The Complete Works of the Rev. Andrew Fuller (Harrisonburg, Virginia:
Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 1:188.
105
Here again we hear echoes of Carey’s Enquiry. Like Carey, he attacks the notion that
obedience must depend on previous miraculous intervention. The command stands and
obedience requires the grasping of the means at hand, represented in this case by the sword
taken up by the Israelites. Fuller apparently continued to meditate on the use of means in the
history God’s working with Israel, because in 1814 he returned to the subject in an address
If it be the design of God to diffuse the knowledge of himself over the earth in these
last days, it might be expected that suitable means and instruments would be
employed to accomplish it. When he meant to rear a tabernacle in the wilderness, he
raised up Bezaleel and Aholiab, and other wise-hearted men, in whom he put wisdom
and understanding. Thus we might expect men to be gifted and qualified for the work
appointed them, and to be stirred up to engage in it. It might be expected, supposing a
great work designed to be accomplished, that societies would be formed, some to
translate the sacred Scriptures into the languages of the nations, some to give them
circulation, some to scatter tracts which shall impress their leading principles, some
to preach the gospel, and some to teach the rising generation to read and write.14
Fuller sees no contradiction between divine activity and human agency. The two
artisans commissioned to construct the tabernacle are taken as examples of the manner in
which men and their abilities are used by God to fulfill his purposes. At this stage, Fuller has
expanded the range of “lawful means” to include translation, publication, and education.
This goes beyond Carey’s suggestion in the Enquiry that a Society be formed, but it reflects
Carey and Fuller took as their point of departure for their missiology, not
ecclesiology, but a subject under theology proper. They built a theological framework for the
14
Fuller, 419.
106
use of means on the foundation of the doctrine of Providence. This can be seen in the first
section of the Enquiry where Carey argues that the Great Commission is non-binding if it can
only “natural impossibility” could make it non-binding. Paul had not been responsible to
evangelize “Otaheite16 because no such place was then discovered.” Carey devised a
missiological approach that begins with scripture and works outward to take into account the
actual condition of the world. In the process he cut the Gordian knot of Protestant missions
which was how to devise organizational structures that were coherent with their ecclesiology.
In one of the most compelling paragraphs in the Enquiry Carey demonstrates the
simple directness with which he used the doctrine of divine Providence to break through the
reigning inertia:
It has been said that we ought not to force our way, but to wait for the openings, and
leadings of Providence; but it might with equal propriety be answered in this case,
neither ought we to neglect embracing those openings which daily present themselves
to us. What openings of providence do we wait for? We can neither expect to be
transported into the heathen world without ordinary means, nor to be endowed with
the gift of tongues, &c, when we arrive there. These would not be providential
interpositions, but miraculous ones. Where a command exists nothing can be
necessary to render it binding but a removal of those obstacles which render
obedience impossible, and these are removed already.17
The doctrine of providence effectively bridges the gap between Carey’s view of duty and his
It would be a mistake to say that Carey and Fuller were unconcerned about other
areas of doctrine such as eschatology or ecclesiology. There is ample evidence to show that
they struggled to be faithful in matters of church order. What is more, a case can be made
15
Carey, 37.
16
Tahiti.
17
Carey, 38.
107
that their Baptist polity, which emphasized the independency of the local congregations, was
one of the providential factors which enabled the formation of the BMS. However, their
missiology was an off shoot of theology proper. The commands of a sovereign God must be
obeyed. And a high view of divine providence called for a laying hold of the means made
the doctrine of providence rather than their ecclesiology they unlocked the door of the
Behind this missiology lay the expectations of the Puritan Hope, but they were not
preoccupied with a minute deciphering of the signs of the times or in promoting specific
schemes about the future. They were convinced God was working out His purpose in history
in their own days and that the confluence of geopolitics, culture, and technology was divinely
ordered for the spread of the gospel. For example, Carey saw the invention of the “mariners
compass” as providential:
Men can now sail with as much certainty through the Great South Sea, as they can
through the Mediterranean, or any lesser Sea. Yea, and providence seems in a
manner to invite us to the trial, as there are to our knowledge trading companies,
whose commerce lies in many places where these barbarians dwell. At one time or
other ships are sent to visit places of more recent discovery, and to explore parts the
most unknown; and every fresh account of their ignorance or cruelty, should call forth
our pity, and excite us to concur with providence in seeking their eternal good.18
The doctrine of Providence was their north star in matters large and small. They not
only saw God’s hand in world-historical developments that made missions feasible, but in
departure to India were accompanied by many obvious signs. In later years, they came to see
God’s hand especially at work in their arrival in Serampore. John Clarke Marshman
18
Carey, 94-95.
108
provides a description of Carey’s arrival that must have been an echo of his parents’ own
views:
Mr. Carey arrived at Serampore with his family, consisting of four sons, and a wife in
a state of hopeless insanity, on the 10th of January. Thus were the missionaries
emphatically led "by a way they knew not." The opposition of Government, which at
first threatened to extinguish missionary efforts in Bengal, became, under Providence,
the occasion of removing the seat of the mission from one of the most unsuitable
localities to the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, yet beyond the reach of the
British authorities. . . . If the settlement of Serampore had not existed, or if it had not
been at the time under the Danish flag, Mr. Marshman and Mr. Ward would, in all
human probability, have been constrained to return forthwith to England, and the
mission might have expired in its cradle. Mr. Carey would not have been permitted
either to establish a press for the printing of the Scriptures at Mudnabatty, or to
receive any addition of missionaries, and his labours would probably have become
extinct on his death.19
While the missionary approach advocated by Carey and Fuller was eminently
practical it should not be confused with raw pragmatism. Their mission theology flowed
from their view of divine Providence, one that ran counter to the deism that had come out of
the English enlightenment. While men like Jefferson believed in a divine watchmaker, God
who at most had been active in the original creation, Carey and Fuller saw God as an active
shaper of history. God was shaping human cultures to provide the tools for the spread of the
gospel.20
century American, who saw in the “The Protestant form of association”21 an indication that
the modern period represents “‘the fullness of time’ for the world’s conversion. . . . Never,
till now, did the social condition of mankind render it possible to organize the armies
19
Marshman, 124.
20
A point of view that might be worked out in relation to the doctrine of the incarnation.
21
Walls, 223.
109
requisite for the world’s spiritual conquest.”22 This is passage is cited by Andrew Walls as an
example of what he calls the American approach to missions though he recognizes that this
perspective, “had been adumbrated half a century earlier by William Carey, himself wide
Andrew Fuller had expressed similar sentiments in his sermon The Increase of
Knowledge in 1814:
Who can observe the movements of the present time without perceiving in them the
finger of God? [The] institution of Sunday schools, as they are called, for the
children or the poor, took the lead about thirty years ago; since then, other institutions
of various kinds have followed; but they have all risen nearly together, and all
indicate a divine design. They form a whole, and, like the different parts of a
machine, all work together.24
This statement also reveals the practical approach of Fuller. In this case, he is
referring to the various educational institutions which had arisen as adjuncts to the
missionary enterprise. They all fit together like “parts of a machine.” The missionary task
was to be carried forward by human institutions designed with specific practical purposes in
mind. However, this was not seen to contradict that the missionary enterprise was wholly
dependent on God. It was carried out at His command and depended on his providential
“Establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands establish
thou it." It was the work of Moses and Joshua, and the rest of God’s servants, to
mould and form the people, especially the rising generation: to instruct them in the
words of the Lord, and impress their hearts with the vast importance of obeying them.
And this has been the work of God’s servants in every age. This is our object in our
stated and occasional labours, in village-preaching, and in foreign missions: this is the
object in the present undertaking: but all is nothing, unless God establish the work of
22
Ibid.
23
Ibid., 224.
24
Andrew Fuller, The Complete Works of Rev. Andrew Fuller (Philadelphia: The American Baptist
Publication Society, 1845), 1:419.
110
our hands. Except the Lord build the house, the builders labour in vain.” As we must
never confide in God to the neglect of means; so we must never engage in the use of
means without a sense of our dependence on God.25
This dependence on God found expression in urgent prayer. In the Enquiry, Carey
pointed to the effects of the associational prayer meetings which had begun after Sutcliff had
I trust our monthly prayer meetings for the success of the gospel have not been in
vain. It is true a want of importunity too generally attends our prayers; yet
unimportunate, and feeble as they have been, it is to be believed that God has heard,
and in a measure answered them. The churches that have engaged in the practice
have in general since that time been evidently on the increase . . .26
Carey enumerates what were in his view the results of that prayer; the resolution of certain
doctrinal controversies, increased calls to preach the gospel, the increase of civil and
religious liberty. He expected this would result in the retreat of Catholicism and the eventual
abolition of “the inhuman Slave Trade.” He saw in the establishment of a free settlement in
Sierra Leone “an effort which, if succeeded with a divine blessing, not only promises to open
a way for honourable commerce with that extensive country, and for the civilization of its
inhabitants, but may prove the happy means of introducing amongst them the gospel of our
Carey was convinced that the Lord who had given the Great Commission moved the
world by his hand of providence. Because of this, prayer could produce concrete change in
the political and social conditions that were the context for the task of missions. While his
focus on means was eminently practical it was never an expression of self-sufficiency. “If a
25
Fuller, 413 - Message titled “Desire for the Success of God’s Cause” delivered at the opening of a
new Baptist meeting house at Boston, Lincolnshire, June 25, 1801.
26
Carey, 79.
27
Carey, 105 This statement anticipates David Livingstone’s famous threes C’s: commerce,
Christianity and civilization.
111
temple is raised for God in the heathen world, it will not be by might nor by power, nor by
the authority of the magistrate, or the eloquence of the orator; but by my Spirit, saith the Lord
of Hosts. We must therefore be in real earnest in supplication his blessing upon our
labours.”28
Pitfalls
prayerful dependence on God and perseverant practical effort continues to be the secret of
missionary fruitfulness. This biblical balance must be maintained between two opposing
extremes. These extremes of error were illustrated in the early part of the 19th century by
developments related to the London Missionary Society. In the 1820s there was a growing
sense that the missionary movement had begun to lose its way by relying more on the human
One of the most vocal critics was Edward Irving, an eloquent Scottish minister who
eventually led a movement that in some ways foreshadows modern Pentecostalism. Irving
felt that, “missionaries, like the earliest apostles, should be sent forth ‘destitute of all visible
sustenance and of all human support.’ They should be compelled to rely on God alone. Why
should they need the bureaucratic organization of a missionary society to back them?”29
Some missionary organizations were forced to signal, “they were more than business
enterprises by opening their meetings with prayer”30 While Irving’s quixotic reading of the
28
Ibid., 103.
29
Bebbington, 77.
30
Ibid.
112
New Testament account of apostolic missions might be set aside, his critique had hit the
While Irving had identified a weakness, his prescription was as damaging as the
original ill. His theology was influenced in large degree by the philosophical fashions of the
day. At the time, romanticism was growing as a reaction to the utilitarianism that emerged
from the Enlightenment. Irving was influenced by figures like Wordsworth and Coleridge,
the last a close friend who admired his dramatic preaching style. Carey’s generation of
Baptist leaders, among others, had fought the negative effects of the Enlightenment with
biblical theology; Fuller had written against socinianism, and Joshua Marshman attacked the
Unitarian views of the Indian intellectual, Ram Mohan Roy. Irving’s response was to follow
Even before Carey’s generation had passed, many had lost the old Protestant sense of
Coram Deo: of living life before the face of God. Deism had banished God from the created
world and with Him the doctrine of Providence and the sense that God orders all things.
Without a strong doctrine of Providence, Carey’s insistence on the use of means becomes
utilitarianism. The only option then lays on one of the two extremes. The first is an embrace
of pragmatism to advance God’s kingdom entirely by human agency. The means become the
end; social aid replaces the Gospel. On the other extreme Carey’s balance is replaced with a
magical spirituality that values intense experience and fantastic testimonies of the miraculous
By building their missiology on theology proper Carey and Fuller not only cut the
they found in the doctrine of divine Providence a biblical principle which allowed them to
113
move outward into the world and forward into the future effectively employing the means
114
CHAPTER 7
INNOVATIVE INSTITUTIONS
The first collection for the Particular Baptist Missionary Society was taken in Andrew
Fuller’s snuff box. On a day that showed the first signs of the coming winter, October 2,
1792, the pastors of the Northamptonshire Association gathered in Kettering for a meeting
hosted by Fuller’s church.1
The day’s events were orchestrated by Fuller. They met early at the home of Fuller’s
deacon, Thomas Gotch. This same deacon had been Carey’s benefactor. As a business man,
he bought Carey’s production of shoes. Following Fuller’s advice, he one day told Carey to
bring him no more shoes because he would pay him a stipend to support him in his ministry
and studies. It was this eye for practical ways to promote the work that made Fuller the ideal
host for the inaugural meeting of the BMS and the obvious choice to be its first secretary.
Fuller had broken up the hard ground through his theological writings. Carey planted
the seed with his Enquiry and its concrete agenda but it was Fuller who in large part was
responsible for seeing that agenda enacted. In the morning meeting, John Ryland preached
from Isaiah 43:13, “I will work, and who shall let it?”2 Still, the pastors of the association
were reluctant to take the momentous step because they felt themselves inadequate for such a
cause. As pastors of small churches from small villages, the unprecedented project of world
evangelization seemed overwhelming. Fuller would write years later, “There was little or no
1
Samuel Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1923), 82.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid., 83.
115
Carey had brought to the meeting the latest issue of the Moravians Periodical
Accounts which told of fruit amongst the American Indians, and in the West Indies, and
efforts in Tranquebar and Africa. He appealed to the group in these terms “See what
Moravians are daring, and some of them British like ourselves, and many only artisans and
poor! Cannot we Baptists at least attempt something in fealty to the same Lord?” Following
Humbly desirous of making an effort for the propagation of the Gospel amongst the
Heathen, according to the recommendation of Carey’s Enquiry, we unanimously
resolve to act in Society together for this purpose; and, as in the divided state of
Christendom each denomination, but exerting itself separately, seems likeliest to
accomplish the great end, we name this the Particular Baptist Missionary Society for
the Propagation of the gospel amongst the Heathen.4
The minimum commitment was to be half a guinea. Thirteen men signed their names.5
Many were unable to meet their financial commitment on that day. One would have to
borrow money and one would take a year to raise his portion of the funds. But those who
gave on that day placed their offering in Andrew Fuller’s snuff box. For those who might
think the snuff box seems an inappropriate vessel, Samuel Pearce Carey notes that “a
A Voluntary Society
The Baptist Missionary Society was Carey’s answer to the instrumental question. If
the Great Commission was still binding and must be fulfilled, the next question must be
“How, then?” or to use terminology closer to Carey’s own, “by what means?” Fuller’s snuff
box is an example of an answer to the same question applied to the collection taken on the
day of the society’s founding. When the first collection was taken for the BMS, Fuller
looked around for available means. Though Samuel Pearce Carey points out that a scene of
4
Ibid., 84.
5
Ibid., 85.
6
Ibid.
116
Paul’s conversion was engraved on the lid, this does not entirely erase the impression that
there was something slightly inappropriate about the use of a snuff box. In the same way,
Carey looked about and found in the voluntary society a functional tool though it may seem
inappropriate and in need of improvement.7 The virtue in Fuller’s and Carey’s actions lies in
not allowing the ad hoc nature of the society to deter them from immediate action. They had
David Bebbington’s quadrilateral8 has provided us with a useful way of tracing key
themes through different stages in the development in the history of Protestant missions. The
quadrilateral does not cover the key issues of ecclesiology and institutional development.
had in common it simply could not include an agreement on ecclesiological forms. From the
dawn of the Reformation one of the biggest impediments to the growth of Protestant missions
had been the failure to fill the institutional vacuum which in the Catholic Church was filled
by the missionary orders. William Carey deserves the title of father of modern missions
because his proposals in the Enquiry, ad hoc as they may have been, filled that vacuum.
The Particular Baptist Missionary Society was the first of several organizational
forms that were adopted and adapted to serve the needs of the missionary movement. The
society was dependent on two organizations which existed prior to its birth; first, the local
Baptist church and second, a newer development, the Baptist association. Once in India
there were other organizational innovations. The Serampore Mission became the nerve
center for not only the work in India but all of Asia. In fact, for a time, it played a key role in
the BMS’s projects around the world. At Serampore, numerous adjunct ministries grew up
including a translation enterprise on a scale never before seen, a print shop which functioned
on an industrial scale, a publishing house which produced books and periodicals in English
7
This is reflective of the incarnational nature of missions.
8
Biblicism, coversionim, crucicentrism, activism.
117
and Indian languages, a bank, a school system that spread throughout Bengal, a seminary and
university. Each of these was developed in support of the true focus which was the
preaching of the gospel through a network of mission stations and the planting of local
churches. The mission station system, administered from Serampore, spread across India.
They made significant efforts as far away as Bhutan, Burma and Java.
The BMS was modeled in part on previous religious societies. Samuel Pearce Carey
points out that the name was deliberately reminiscent of the Anglican Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel. This choice highlights the roots of the modern missionary
movement in older Protestant ideas and institutions. At the same time the addition of three
words, describing the society’s objective, show how the Baptist society was an
[the] added words ‘amongst the Heathen’ marked a vastly greater and far more
courageous objective. The aim of the older Anglican Society, as its own charter
defined it, was ‘for the spiritual benefit of our loving subjects’, with just an added
bonus of blessing for their heathen neighbours. It was a colonial enterprise, while the
Baptist Society was a missionary one.9
There were other important distinctions. In many ways the model for BMS was
drawn from the culture at large, “In the mid-eighteenth century a plethora of new forms of
sociability–beyond the traditional bonds of family, state, court, and the established church–
arose in the cities of the European-controlled world. In contrast to those older forms,
voluntary entry was the most important criterion for the new clubs. . . .”10 As we have seen,
as pastor at Harvey Lane in Leicester, Carey had some experience in the new types of social
9
S. P. Carey, 85.
10
Stefan-Ludwig Hoffman, Civil Society (1750-1914). (New York: Plagrave MacMillan, 2006), 11.
11
S. P. Carey, 59-60.
118
Alexis De Tocqueville saw the voluntary society as one of the key characteristics of
Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions, constantly form
associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in
which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, - religious, moral,
serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans make
associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct
churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes. . . .12
De Tocqueville recognized that the voluntary society had its roots in English culture
even though it took on unique forms and dimensions in America. Of the English he said that
they “consider associations as a powerful means of action,” but Americans “seem to regard it
as the only means they have of acting.”13 What De Tocqueville did perhaps not clearly
perceive was the extent to which the principle of voluntary association was the product of the
development of Protestant church forms in England and America. The rise of congregational
forms of church government prepared the ground for the growth of these organizations.
When Carey proposed the formation of a voluntary society he was laying hold of a social tool
that owed its origins to the type of church government common to his own denomination:
Suppose a company of serious Christians, ministers and private persons, were to form
themselves into a society, and make a number of rules respecting the regulation of the
plan, and the persons who are to be employed as missionaries, the means of defraying
the expense, etc., etc,. This society must consist of persons whose hearts are in the
work, men of serious religion, and possessing a spirit of perseverance; there must be a
determination not to admit any person who is not of this description, or to retain him
longer than he answers to it.14
As a voluntary society it resembled others of its day. The great difference lay in its
purpose. It was unique in being the first voluntary society organized for world mission. In
12
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. (London: Penguin Books, 2003), 596.
13
Ibid.
14
William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of
the Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 108.
119
God’s providence, this step led to an unleashing of evangelistic energies not seen since the
[what] we see in Missionary, Bible, Tract and other kindred societies, not restricted to
ecclesiastics, nor to any one profession, but combining all classes, embracing the
masses of the people; and all free, open, and responsible . . . it is the contributors of
the funds who are the real association . . . the individuals, churches, congregations,
who freely act together, through such agencies for an object of common interest. . . .
This Protestant form of association - free, open, responsible, embracing all classes,
both sexes, all ages, the masses of the people—is peculiar to modern times, and
almost to our age.15
This openness of the voluntary society was evident at the founding of the BMS. The
lead had been taken by ordained ministers of the gospel, but lay people were brought into the
process early on. Thomas Potts had underwritten the publication of the Enquiry, Thomas
Gotch had provided a stipend to support Carey and he hosted the early morning meeting on
the day the society was formed. Appropriately, that historic day ended and the decisive step
to form the society was taken in the home of another layperson, “For the evening fellowship
and business the ministers were welcomed, as so often before, into the hospitable home of
Mrs. Wallis, the home that they called ‘Gospel Inn’ so many preachers having been guests
there through the twenty years of its standing. Deacon Beeby Wallis had died not long
While they may have felt they were a poor and unimportant group, the
Northamptonshire Baptists had providentially tapped into one of the great veins of history.
Their very lack of influence forced them into productive paths which may have been closed
to them had they had more influential members. De Tocqueville made a distinction between
British and American forms of voluntary associations, “Wherever, at the head of some new
15
Andrew F. Walls, The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History (Edinburgh: Orbis Books, 1970),
242.
16
S. P. Carey, 82.
120
undertaking, you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United
States you will be sure to find an association.” The insight of this statement is confirmed by
considering the role that Wilberforce played in the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. The
Particular Baptist Society, though lamenting an initial lack of influence, was actually in the
social vanguard in 1792. The society form was easily transferable to America and served to
subversion of the church.”17 Not every result of the growth of voluntary societies alongside
the church has been fortunate, but the phrase is useful to provide a focal point on the
significant changes which came about. At the same time, it is helpful to see that the degree
of subversion would have varied according to the nature of the church in question. The
voluntary society would have been most subversive of the established church. If the various
churches were placed on a scale limited on one end by the most hierarchical, and on the other
end the most congregational, it becomes clear that congregational churches would have
suffered the least disruption. In fact it might be argued, in the case of the Particular Baptists,
that the establishment of a society was a logical development of their own system.
The London Confession of 1644 expressed the Baptist point of view on the
independency of local congregations and their need to associate, “And although the particular
Congregations be distinct and several Bodies, every one a compact and knit Citie in it selfe;
yet are they all to walk by one and the same Rule, and by all means help one of another in all
needful affaires of the Church, as members of one body in the common faith under Christ
17
Walls, 243.
121
their only head.”18 The Northamptonshire Association held its inaugural meeting at Kettering
in May of 1765. “[T]hey could hardly have envisaged the way in which their association
would be instrumental in meeting the needs of many far from their fields, towns and villages.
For it was in this association that the Baptist Missionary Society would be conceived. . . .”19
The missionary society was in tune with the new environment of democracy, and was
capable of harnessing the energies of individuals and churches. While it would be a mistake
to say that it created no tensions, far from being a threat to the congregational form of church
It must be said that the missionary concern for India was not unique to the Baptists.
Carey himself documents previous efforts in the sub-continent. Not mentioned by Carey was
the Christian Knowledge Society, which had maintained a mission in Bengal to those of
European descent. While it did not have as its purpose the conversion of the heathen, it was
person of Charles Grant, a Scotsman who went out as a writer for the East India Company.
accumulated a significant fortune. He looked to promote Christian causes and was especially
concerned to awaken the British conscience to the need to evangelize the Indians. He
supported Dr. John Thomas, Carey’s first partner in India, for three years in the area of
Malda as he attempted to begin a mission work. In 1792, the same year the BMS was
founded, he wrote a pamphlet entitled Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic
18
William Latane Lumpkin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1959), 168-169.
19
Michael A. G. Haykin, One Heart and One Soul: John Sutcliff of Olney, His Friends and His Times
(England: Evangelical Press, 1994), 111.
20
Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1987), 348.
122
Subjects of Great Britain.21 This pamphlet would play a key supportive role in disputes about
return from India, he joined forces with William Wilberforce in support of Evangelical
causes.
In 1786, Grant had drawn up a plan for “A Mission to Bengal” which “embraced the
division of the province into eight missionary circles, in each of which a young clergyman of
the Church of England was to be stationed upon a salary of 350l. a year. He was to be
Grant, and a Church of England chaplain, David Brown, who joined him in the project, were
convinced that nothing could be done without the aid of the government. They approached
Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General who dismissed their proposal with the statement that,
“he had no faith in such schemes, and thought they must prove ineffectual.”23 Following this
disappointment they sent the proposal to the Archbishops of Canterbury and London and to
ministers aligned with the Evangelical wing of the Church of England. Wilberforce
supported the cause but they found few others willing to make an effort:
21
This article was written by Edward James Rapson and was published in 1890
Edward James Rapson, “Charles Grant (1746-1823)” A Web of English History, compiled by Marjorie
Bloy, http://www.historyhome.co.uk/people/grant.htm (accessed December 2010).
22
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History
of the Serampore Mission. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859), 1.31-32.
23
Ibid.
24
Marshman, 34.
123
In 1790, Grant returned to England and with the support of Wilberforce began an
effort to lay the proposal before the King and Prime Minister Pitt. Wilberforce’s political
allies, however, said the time was not right because of tensions on the European continent
and that the proposal should be ‘limited to the diffusion of knowledge generally, leaving it to
be inferred that Christianity would be included in the plan.”25 Wilberforce was an ardent
proponent and supporter of Grant’s ideas and came close to significant victories in
Parliament but without ultimate success. Years later Grant would write, "I had formed the
design of a mission to Bengal: Providence reserved that honour for the Baptists."26
It should be immediately noted when the BMS was formed it was opposed by
expressed no support. The Presbyterian General Assembly said the scheme was
revolutionary although John Erskine offered his support. And the Baptists of London, led by
Samuel Stennett refused their support. There were missionary minded individuals in every
denomination. The reason the modern missionary movement began with a group of
insignificant pastors in Northamptonshire is that as Baptists they did not need the approval of
25
Ibid., 35.
26
George Smith, The Life of William Carey, D. D. (London: John Murray, 1885), 54.
27
This statement is not offered as an argument in support of Baptist polity. It is simply descriptive of
the conditions surrounding the founding of the BMS, an event which led to the birth of many other societies
with a variety of relationships with established churches. The ideal relationship between local churches,
denominations, mission agencies, missionaries, field organizations, and national churches is still an open
question today, including among Baptists.
124
The Serampore Mission
The formation of the Particular Baptist society was only the first step in launching a
missionary enterprise. The Society gave structure to the support efforts of individuals and
churches in Britain, but a plan was needed for the mission field. In the Enquiry, Carey
actually dealt with field structure before he proposed the formation of a society. From the
beginning, it is clear that Carey was thinking of a team effort on a large scale. His proposal
involved sending more than one family and the specialization of tasks:
plot of land and the purchase of a cow and a bull; “Those who attend the missionaries should
understand husbandry, fishing, fowling, etc., and be provided with the necessary implements
There is a characteristic optimism in this passage which marked Carey all his life.
The reality, once they reached India, at least for the first few years, was quite different. He
attempted to farm in Sundarbans, but under great privation. His severe economic distress
was the result of difficulty of communication with the society at home, the disastrous
management of their common funds by John Thomas and the failure of the modest
commercial ventures they had counted on. His situation was only relieved when he took
himself, and have opportunities for evangelism and deepening his knowledge of the language
28
Carey, 99.
29
Ibid.
125
and culture through contact with the workers, this position led to his first serious conflict
with the BMS which questioned whether he had lost his original focus.
effective ministry proved to be a significant challenge. While he never lost his forward
thinking, one wonders if he ever saw the irony in the sentence he wrote in the Enquiry
concerning methods of self-support, “Indeed a variety of methods may be thought of, and
when once the work is undertaken, many things will suggest themselves to us, of which we at
present can form no idea.”30 Not only could he “form no idea” of what lay ahead, the BMS
consistently struggled to comprehend the true state of affairs in India as the years passed.
Serampore mission. It included the central Serampore community formed by three families,
a number of auxiliary ministries run by the missionaries and Indian coworkers, and a
growing network of itinerant preachers, mission outstations and church plants. The model
for each of these levels of ministry was different. The core Serampore community was
modeled on Moravian communities. The auxiliary ministries were of various kinds: printing,
publication, and education for example. The models for these ministries were taken from
British public life and adapted to the Indian setting. The model for the system of missions
stations was perhaps sui generis but owed much to the village preaching Carey had practiced
while a pastor in England. Ultimately, they formed local Baptist churches which differed
The Serampore mission as a community expired with the death of the first generation
of missionaries, but the auxiliary ministries, mission outstations and church plants continued
30
Carey, 100.
126
on. Some, such as the Serampore College and the Carey Baptist Church (the Lal Bazaar
The priority of Serampore was described in the full title of the Enquiry; “the
conversion of the heathen.” But the same title shows that the Enquiry is an argument for the
“use of means.” By means it becomes clear that Carey has in mind auxiliary organizations.
The Serampore Community, which served as the hub for all of the activities of Serampore
mission, was modeled on ideas drawn from the Moravians. That it survived until 1837 is a
testament, not to the wisdom of the model but the character of the first generation of
missionaries. Carey’s proposal in the Enquiry was based on his acquaintance with the
advance of the Moravian efforts around the world, but it was offered while still in a state of
In 1797 after Carey had been in India for five years, four families were prepared to
come out to India to join him. He sent a proposal to Fuller which echoed the ideas he had
expressed in the Enquiry. At that time, Carey was still living at Mudnabatty and he proposed
a community in the vicinity of Malda. He sent cost estimates based on arranging very
John Clarke Marshman, the son of one of those families, would grow up in the
Serampore community. As an adult he gained a reputation for his scholarship and for writing
the definitive history of the Serampore Mission. His history is one of the most valuable
resources on the mission. In it he defends his parents and Carey in terms which make his
admiration for them very clear. At the same time he was a clear-eyed critic of the
weaknesses of the Mission. His evaluation of Carey’s original plan is quite critical:
The primitive simplicity of his plan is a pleasing index of his zeal and
disinterestedness, but it is no proof of his judgment. Such a settlement could not have
127
held together for a twelvemonth. Even if his straw houses and mud floors had not sent
half the little community to the grave during the first rainy season, the inconceivable
distress to which the European missionaries and their European families must have
been subject in such a settlement, must have broken it up almost as soon as it was
formed. It will serve to show how little India was known at that time in England, that
a project so Utopian was not only received by Mr. Fuller with approbation, but that he
determined to give it a practical exemplification, and that four missionaries were sent
out immediately after to make an experiment of this Moravian settlement.31
But it appealed to Carey’s character. Carey would not have been Carey had he not
been willing to pay an enormous personal cost for the sake of the gospel. He was not,
however, as sensitive as might have been prudent to the needs of his family and others. This
lack of prudence was not due to callousness but to a certain level of impracticability. In the
In most countries it would be necessary for them to cultivate a little spot of ground
just for their support, which would be a resource to them, whenever their supplies
failed. Not to mention the advantages they would reap from each other’s company, it
would take off the enormous expense which has always attended undertakings of this
kind, the first expense being the whole; for though a large colony needs support for a
considerable time, yet so small a number would, upon receiving the first crop,
maintain themselves. They would have the advantage of choosing their situation, their
wants would be few; the women, and even the children, would be necessary for
domestic purposes; and a few articles of flock, as a cow or two, and a bull, and a few
other cattle of both sexes, a very few utensils of husbandry, and some corn to sow
their land, would be sufficient.32
The vision is idyllic. His reference to the women and the children, who would be
necessary for domestic purposes, gives an insight into his view of his family. He could not
conceive of his wife and children being any less dedicated to the grand project, or less
capable of adapting to extreme circumstances than himself. Discussion of the tragic results
of these expectations in his own family would require more space than we have available
here.
31
Marshman, 79.
32
Carey, 99-100.
128
Serampore became the center for the missionary activities by providential
circumstance. Carey had hoped to build the mission in Mudnabatty. His work on the indigo
plantations provided a certain amount of income and it was close to Malda, a cultural center
which would provide resources for their work in translation of the scriptures. After
establishing his family at Mudnabatty, he wrote the BMS telling them his position allowed
him to support himself.33 In spite of the fact Carey had always maintained the ideal of self-
support, and had made his ideas clear in the Enquiry, this report brought the censure of some
members of the society, particularly London Baptists, who after their initial refusal had
joined the society once the effort was on its way to success. Carey responded with a letter
that betrays the hurt he felt. He defended his position and pointed out that, though no one
had ever specifically mentioned working with indigo, the committee had suggested he find
ways to support himself by farming and trading in timbers. He defended his administration
of the funds which came to him saying they were spent on activities related to the gospel.
“The love of money has not prompted me to this indigo business. I am indeed poor, and
always shall be, till the Bible is published in Bengali and Hindustani, and the people need no
further instruction.”34 This distrust must have been doubly painful given the fact that due to
the problems of communications of the period they had received no communication from the
BMS for almost two years upon arrival and would have starved were it not for Carey’s
initiative.35
33
S. P. Carey, 155.
34
Ibid., 160-161.
35
Ibid., 159.
129
In 1799, six years after Carey’s arrival, the new missionaries arrived in India but were
not given permission to stay by the authorities. Providentially, they were offered a place at
missionaries involved. William Carey, Joshua Marshman, and William Ward are often
referred to as the Serampore Trio. This highlights the fact that the accomplishments of the
Serampore Mission were the product of teamwork between three unique men who
contributed their own talents. It fails to take into account the crucial role played by Hannah
Marshman who managed the domestic concerns of the mission, provided a mother figure for
Carey’s children and ran a growing system of schools that accomplished important ministry
they take a week’s holiday and participate in sporting activities such as cricket and football.
Four teams compete in the various sports under the names of Carey, Marshman and Ward.
John Clark Marshman provides a description of the early days of the community
It was determined to form a common stock, to dine at a common table, and to give
each family a trifling allowance . . . for personal expenses. All the missionaries were
to be considered on a footing of equality, and to preach and conduct social devotions
in turn. The superintendence of domestic arrangements and expenditure was to be
entrusted to each missionary in rotation for a month. Mr. Carey had charge of the
public chest as treasurer, and also of the medicine chest, for India was then
considered so unhealthy that a constant resort to medicine was deemed essential to
existence. Mr. Fountain was appointed librarian. One evening in the week was to be
devoted to the adjustment of differences and the renewal of their pledge of mutual
love; and it was resolved that no one should engage in any private trade, and that
whatever might be earned should be credited to the common stock.36
36
Marshman, 124-125.
130
Years later a visitor left a description of the day’s routine at Serampore:
In the afternoon we left for Serampore. We were met by Dr Marshman and Mr Ward,
who, with their wives, received us very cordially. The three families live in separate
houses, but eat together in a large hall. The buildings stand close to the river. The bell
rings at 5 for the boys to rise for school; at 8 for breakfast, and immediately after
breakfast for prayers in the large and elegant chapel: a hymn, Bible chapter and
prayer. On Sunday, English worship 11 to 1; Bengali in the afternoon, and English
again in the evening. Monday evening, a conference for the native Christians,
Tuesday evening, an hour spent in examining difficult Scriptures; Thursday and
Saturday evening, conferences. The garden is as superior to any in America, as
America's best is to a common farmer's. It consists of several acres, under the highest
cultivation. Fruit, flowers and vegetables grow in abundance. The pineapple grows
on a low bush, the plantain on a tall stock, and the cocoa-nut on a high tree.37
In a letter, Marshman supplied an anecdote that illuminates the frugal lifestyle of the
Serampore Community:
For fifteen years we made Bengalee rum a substitute for all wine and beer, merely
because it was a rupee a gallon, while beer was twelve rupees a dozen, or six rupees a
gallon. Now as a gallon of this country rum, mixed with water,—for I never knew it
drunk alone, —would make at least four gallons of beverage, this was a thirtieth the
price of beer, and our regard for missionary economy, which was then rigid almost
beyond belief fixed us to the nauseous drink. When the tumbler full of it was brought
to Dr. Carey, about nine in the evening, as he sat at his desk with his translations, he
would drink it down at one draft, simply to get rid of it.38
Over the years the mission company grew quite large. One visitor from America reported
over 100 people sitting down together at mealtime.39 There were families of the original
missionaries, plus pundits involved in translation work, students at the school, and a constant
flow of visitors both European and Indian. For many years it was the greatest center of
missionary activity in the world, but a variety of factors contributed to its demise upon the
37
S. P. Carey, 294.
38
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of
the Serampore Mission. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859) 2:109-110.
39
S. P. Carey, 295.
131
Serampore’s Decline
The first factor related to its eventual decline was its location. When Carey first
arrived in India missionaries were illegal. The Danish colony was a welcome haven outside
of British jurisdiction. At the same time it was close enough to Calcutta to provide important
advantages. After 1813, the work of the missionaries was legalized by Parliament and newer
missionaries were able to settle directly in Calcutta so the location at Serampore was no
longer crucial.
Second, conflict developed between the missionaries of the first generation and
younger missionaries who followed; and between the leadership of Serampore and a new
generation of leaders of the BMS in Britain after the passing of Fuller, Sutcliffe and Ryland.
There were several sources of this conflict. The second generation of missionaries was not
cut from the same cloth as the first. On the one hand, it was probably not realistic to expect
the newer missionaries to adapt to the same Spartan lifestyle as the Serampore Trio. On the
other hand, the new generation failed to measure up in the eyes of their elders. William
My dear Fuller, all that is human that we want at present is, one or two tried men,
qualified to translate and to govern honestly and mildly when we are dead and gone.
You send us raw young men, perhaps religious adventurers. One of them tells me he
once wanted to go to the West Indies, as a clerk, or something in a plantation then to
become an officer: last or all, he became a missionary. He is really a good man, but to
him the Mission is a sinecure.40
Concerned that the wrong people would gain control of the mission the Trio took
measures to safeguard the work; an action that created greater tension. Carey complained
that the younger missionaries were more interested in the comforts of Calcutta than the hard
work of itinerant preaching. Ward wrote to Fuller regarding one of the missionaries, “He
40
Marshman, 303.
132
translates in none of the languages; he has attempted no language but the Bengalee and in
this, I fear, he will never be worth a straw. He makes one blush every time he endeavours to
speak in this language, and as to his hearers profiting by this jargon, it is out of the
question."41 Carey was equally severe in reference to two of them, “They will do nothing,
Enquiry, Carey had emphasized the importance of this process and the necessary qualities of
the men to be recruited. “The Missionaries must be men of great piety, prudence, courage,
and forbearance; of undoubted orthodoxy in their sentiments, and must enter with all their
hearts into the spirit of their mission; they must be willing to leave all the comforts of life
behind them. . . .”43 Carey suggested the formation of a committee to, among other
responsibilities, review the candidates, paying special attention to their theological views.44
That the BMS failed to a degree is evident from the fact that in 1820 one of the missionaries
sent out made known his Unitarian convictions and severed his relationship with the BMS,
but not before demanding a share of mission funds for his own use.45
One wonders how Fuller failed in this regard, but it is useful to know that he found
himself fighting a losing battle against the growing influence of London Baptists. After his
death a new generation of leaders whose roots were not in the Northamptonshire Association
attempted to exert authority. The senior missionaries felt they were not being trusted and
41
Marshman, 458.
42
Ibid.
43
Carey, 100.
44
Ibid., 109.
45
Marshman, 226.
133
they resented the high tone adopted by the new leadership. They especially resented the
insinuation that they were mere employees of the society which Carey had himself founded.
The situation was aggravated by unethical actions on the part of some of the younger
missionaries, and the situation worsened till there was a definitive split between the BMS and
Carey was not totally above blame in the rupture which occurred in relations. His
Moravian scheme was not entirely practical. It was made less so by his insistence that the
missionaries all be considered equals; an innovation on the original Moravian model. This
was workable as long as those in question were Carey, Marshman and Ward, but the new
generation showed a different set of values. Ryland would write Carey, “Who of us
(members of the committee at home) ever advocated the democratic nonsense of every
apprentice we send you being equal the moment he set his foot on Bengal ground? You may
have had such notions; we never infused them into your mind.”46
One scholar finds the roots of the disharmony between the missionaries in the lack of
clearly defined roles for the younger missionaries, a responsibility that should have been
assumed by the committee before sending the new men out.47 In regard to the conflict
between the Serampore missionaries and the BMS, John Clark Marshman attributes it in part
and the BMS committee. The BMS saw the Serampore missionaries as their subordinates.
This might have been a more tenable interpretation of the BMS’s relationship with the newer
missionaries since they were entirely dependent on the financial support of the society. The
46
A. H. Oussoren, William Carey Especially His Missionary Principles (Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff's
Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V., 1945), 169.
47
Ibid., 171.
134
older Trio, however, had to a great degree lived by their own labors and had financed the
growth of the Serampore Mission from income which they produced themselves. This had
been Carey’s principle from the time of the Enquiry. This and their undisputed experience
led the Trio to the conviction they were entitled to run their own affairs. While Fuller was
alive, the BMS and the Serampore Mission functioned as effective partners, but with his
death the cordial relationship unraveled. The ensuing acrimony was played out in
[the] Trio after Fuller's demise took what they regarded as necessary measures to
thwart any attempts by the B.M.S. to exert control over their funds or proceedings.
Specifically, the Mission establishment—schools, printing plant, houses, church—
was placed in trust under their own control, and a statement drafted that no one then
in India nor anyone who came later was to have any authority over the Mission unless
conferred by the three trustees, Carey, Marshman and Ward. The B.M.S. professed
alarm at this plan which merely legalized the situation which had long existed. In
answer to protests, Carey reminded John Ryland, then Secretary, that 'we are your
Brethren, not your servants'. After further acrimony the Society formally disclaimed
‘any intention to interfere with the management of the property at Serampore.'48
It has been said that the first half of Carey’s missionary career was spent in conflict
with colonial authorities and the second half in conflict with his own society. The conflict
cut Serampore off from significant sources of support in England, and with leaders of BMS
in England actively working against them, from a growing source of support in America.
The conflict was a great source of grief to Carey in his last years, but Serampore’s outreach
continued to grow up to the time of his death. The mission itself was never an end in itself.
As we shall see, it existed to support a wide spread network of itinerant preachers, both
Indian and European, who established mission stations and then local churches. By the time
the Serampore Trio had all passed away, the Serampore mission had begun to be eclipsed by
48
E. Daniel Potts, British Baptist Missionaries in India (Cambridge: University Press, 1967), 25.
135
other growing works in India, including that of Baptists from America. But they all followed
136
CHAPTER 8
Modern Kolkata overwhelms the first time visitor like a flood. Just beyond the doors
of the air terminal the visitor is swept into a cataract of people: modern India surging from
the innumerable fountains of the past. Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs jostle each other to greet
a family member or stop a taxi. Multiple languages: English, Bengali, and Hindustani, bubble
in the air.
Except for the taxis and other modern flotsam, Carey’s first impression on landing in
Calcutta must have been similar. His first contact with the people of India came on
November 9th, 1793, when two boats came alongside their ship as it headed for port. John
Thomas, Carey’s first colleague, asked the men in one boat a leading question. To the query
of whether they had any Shastra’s [holy writings] they answered “We are poor men—those
who have many cowries—(or are rich) read the Shastras but we do not know them.”1 Carey
felt affection for the men from the start. He wrote, “They appear to be intelligent persons tho
of the lowest caste—rather beneath the middle stature and appeared to be very attentive to
whatever we said to them.” In this journal entry, the final one at sea, he anticipates the
coming labors, “O may my Heart be prepared for our Work–and the Kingdom of Christ set
As they neared Calcutta the missionaries went ashore in a native boat before the ship
docked. Since they came without a license they wanted to avoid contact with port
authorities. As they waited for the tide they found themselves near a market where Thomas
1
Terry G. Carter, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey (Macon: Smyth & Helwys
Publishing, 2000), 7.
137
took the opportunity to preach. Carey could understand almost nothing of Thomas’s Bengali
sermon but he was impressed with the way the people listened as Thomas spoke for three
hours.2 While his hope for quick conversions was to be frustrated, the work had begun in
methodology that Carey and the Serampore Trio were to adopt in the years ahead. They
engaged the religious beliefs of the people and spoke from the true Shastras: the Bible. Their
activism were the central preoccupation of Carey from the day he first walked on Indian soil.
The Trio was convinced that the greatest need of the inhabitants of India was for conversion.
meant the preaching of biblical message of the cross of Christ with a view to the conversion
of the heathen. In support of this primary ministry, they developed many auxiliary efforts
giving precedence to those that would allow the people of India to read the Bible in their own
Carey had come to India to preach the gospel, but before he could carry out his
purpose he had to learn the languages and the culture of the people. The degree to which
communication is a culturally conditioned process is not always clear to the missionary until
he is actually on the field. Complicating the task is the fact that the gospel itself can only be
process which produced the cultural categories that make the work of Christ comprehensible.
When the gospel is to be carried to a cultural setting outside the West with its Judeo-
Christian heritage, the task is enormous. The language or languages must be learned and the
culture must be understood and scouted for points of contact, for bridges which will bear the
2
Carey, Samuel Pearce. William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1923), 134.
138
weight of the gospel; and idols must be marked for destruction. Preaching can never be done
Carey had shown an aptitude for languages before leaving England. He had taught
himself Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Dutch and French. On the voyage, he had begun his studies
of Bengali. Once in India he engaged a pundit, Ram Basu, who would be beside him even
I feel as a farmer does about his crop; sometimes I think the seed is springing up, and
then I hope; a little time blasts all, and my hopes are gone like a cloud. They were
only weeds which appeared, or if a little corn sprung up, it quickly died, being either
choked with weeds, or parched up by the sun of persecution. Yet I still hope in God,
and will go forth in his strength, and make mention of his righteousness, and of his
only. I preach every day to the natives, and twice on the Lord's day constantly,
besides other itinerant labours.3
Once they were established in Serampore, the missionaries preached at the Danish
church. However, they soon began itinerant preaching. The method itself, to go from village
to village preaching, can be seen in direct relation to that of earlier evangelical revivalists.
The large difference was to be found in Bengal itself, a territory with no active churches
Carey felt that the religious views of the Indians required him to engage in aggressive
apologetics. In a letter to Fuller in November of 1800 he wrote, “We know nothing of the
disputes which you in Europe are engaged in; ours bear a nearer resemblance to those of the
Protestants with the Papists at the Reformation. . . .”4 He goes on to say that their apologetic
3
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of
the Serampore Mission (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859), 1:89.
4
Carter, 148.
139
task might actually more resemble that “of the old Fathers, with the Heathen, and Gnosticks
In his apologetics, Carey frequently turned to satire and ridicule as a strategy against
the beliefs of the Hindu’s. William Ward, in his journal, summarized Carey’s approach on a
number of occasions. Under the heading “Lord’s Day, Feb. 16 [1800]” he records:
Brother Carey went amongst some washermen, &c. this morning. They were pretty
attentive. Several women were also present. One of them asked Brother C. what she
should eat in order to be saved? Brother C. preached at home from, ‘Awake thou that
sleepeth.’, &c. In the evening Brother C. went amongst the natives. We caught a
number gazing at a god in a box. After exposing to ridicule this hawker of gods, who
sneaked off very soon, Brother C. disputed and explained for some time.6
Brother Carey had warm dispute with the natives in the street in the evening. One
argument was that there really were no Brahmans for they were all drowned in the
deluge. If they had not they would have lost caste since, either by drinking spirits,
which is now very common, or by eating with those who do. The family saved in the
deluge were not Brahmans. One man contended that God had created a new race of
Brahmans after the flood, but he was not able to establish his point.7
Samuel Pearce Carey collected some of Carey’s more notable responses to Hindu
beliefs, “’You think you'll be saved by the incessant naming of your god or debtah? A
parrot’s holiness and yours is one.’ Seeing some idol he would ask. ‘what is that?’ ‘our god,’
they would reply. He would then retort: ‘Did that make men, or did men make that?’”8 To a
wandering Hindu monk who claimed an ability to change water to milk he said, on inviting
him to dinner, that if he had scruples about eating with them, he “need not fear, even should
5
Ibid.
6
William Ward, William Ward's Missionary Journal 1799-1811, Compiled by E. Daniel Potts, 69
Typewritten copies are held by the Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, England and the Carey
Library and Research Centre, Serampore College, Serampore, India.
7
Ibid., 70.
8
S. P. Carey, 190.
140
the food be forbidden. A person who can change water into milk can surely change forbidden
Carey was especially aggressive with the Brahmans. William Ward records an
occasion in September of 1800 when two Brahmans challenged Carey to a debate when he
visited their village. Carey lingered a considerable time. When one of the Brahmans said he
must leave or be late for worship Carey replied, “if he was anything of a Brahman he might
order the evening to stay for him, as a Brahman was said to have done formerly, when he had
overslept himself. . . .”10 Carey went on to inform the Brahman that he despised his gods - to
which the Brahman responded that he had the power to kill him, but would not since for the
moment he was relating to Carey as a man not a god. The Brahmans were taken aback by
Carey’s knowledge of their Shastras and soon learned to not challenge him in debate.11
Carey was also aggressive in his encounters with Muslims. In one encounter, he
asked a Muslim if he knew how each chapter of the Koran began. When he answered that
that he did not (each chapter begins with the phrase “in the name of God, gracious and
merciful”) and that he could not read it because it was in Arabic, Carey asked, “how can you
Carey attempted to use the Koran and Hindu Shastras as a point of contact with the
people:
I took occasion to observe that both in the Shastras and Koran there were many good
observations and Rules, and which ought to be attended to, but that one thing. they
could not inform us of, viz. how God can forgive Sin, consistent with his Justice, and
save sinners in a Way an which Justice and Mercy could Harmonize. I told them that
9
Ibid.
10
Ward, 97.
11
S. P. Carey, 190.
12
Carter, 10.
141
their Books were like a Loaf of Bread in which was a considerable quantity of Good
Flour, but also a little very malignant Poisounn. which made the whole so poisonous
that whoever should eat of it would die. . . .13
William Ward, Carey’s Serampore colleague and some of Carey’s biographers. Samuel
Pearce Carey implies there was an evolution in Carey’s speaking from aggressive apologetics
to a more cross-centered preaching.14 Daniel Potts says the same thing in more explicit
terms.15
Perhaps there was some development in Carey’s approach to evangelism, but it is also
possible to show that his evangelism, and that of his coworkers at Serampore, consistently
contained two elements: a critique of India’s religions and a positive presentation of the
message of the cross. There may have been some adjustment in the proportions of these two
elements and some modification of tone, but both elements are found consistently across the
As early as August of 1795, while Carey was still at Mudnabatty, he wrote the
First, Munshi reads a Chapter in Bengali. Then we Sing; afterwards I pray, and
preach to then in that Language. Partly from Local Circumstances, and partly from
paucity of Words, my Preaching is very different to what it was in England; but the
Guilt and depravity of Mankind and the Redemption by Christ, with the presence of
God’s Mercy; are the themes I most insist upon. . . .16
While the Serampore missionaries made the preaching of the cross central to their
evangelistic efforts, they still felt that part of their task was to discredit false religious beliefs.
13
Ibid., 58.
14
S. P. Carey, 191.
15
Potts, 37.
16
Carter, 84.
142
Potts recognizes this when he quotes an article from the Friend of India published in the later
[the] Trio said that they knew that “to insult a man . . . [was] . . . not precisely the
mode best suited to gain his confidence and win his affection’- but added that ‘as men
of integrity and common sense’ they were forced to inform the Indians ‘that “their
stock” is really “a doctrine of vanities”; their books esteemed sacred, merely human
compositions; and that to obtain salvation, they must turn from dumb idols to serve
the living and true God.17
While Carey’s approach may have seemed strident at times, he explained his
motivation, “I am like one finding his neighbor asleep with his house on fire. I fetch him hard
thumps to warn him of danger and promote his escape.”18 Ward described his demeanor as
he addressed the lost, “Our Lord’s Day evening congregation of servants is composed of
Hindoos, Mussulmans, and Hindoo Portuguese. Brother C. was very earnest and affectionate
this evening, & addressed each class according to the delusions in which they were brought
The Serampore Trio came to see their apologetics as an appropriate method in the
context of Hinduism. Marshman wrote, “The Hindoos are not so much afraid of becoming
Christians as of being made Christians; of embracing a doctrine when previous and ample
examination has convinced them of its truth as of being compelled to embrace it while they,
familiar with the Hindoos; it agrees with their taste, and the country is almost full of it.
17
Potts, 38.
18
S. P. Carey, 190.
19
Ward, 97.
143
Among the various sects of the Brahmans it is carried to a surprising extent, and it has been
models such as Jonathan Swift. However, as Ousseren points out, there were models readily
Joshua Marshman carried out a public debate with one of the great figures of India
during the early 19th century. Ram Mohan Roy was an influential intellectual who promoted
the modernization of India and was an ally of the Serampore missionaries in the battle to
abolish sati—the practice of widow-burning. Roy was a great admirer of the teachings of
Jesus but did not see him as the Son of God. His position was much closer to that of English
Unitarians. Joshua Marshman engaged him in a series of articles in the Friend of India, a
publication of the Serampore Press. These articles were published as a book in 1822 titled A
Defence of the Deity and Atonement of Jesus Christ. The exchange was noted for the civility
of its tone.22 Since the debate was published it allowed the Serampore Mission to make a
stand for the truth that had an effect back in England as well.
While it may be that Carey’s apologetic style evolved, the preaching of the cross was
always his central concern. In 1794, before he had mastered the languages of India he wrote
20
Joshua Marshman, Advantages of Christianity in Promoting the Establishment and Prosperity of the
British Government in India (London: Smith's Printing Office, 1813), 3.
21
Oussoren, 204.
22
Marshman, 2:239.
144
Through mistake spent this Day as the Sabbath. I have however abundant reason to be
thankful for the mistake, it has been a time of refreshing indeed to me; O what is there
in all this world worth living for but the presence and service of God—I feel a
burning desire that all the World may know this God and serve him—O how long
will it be till I shall know so much of the Language of the Country as to preach Christ
Crucified to them; but bless God I make some progress.23
In April of 1796 Carey wrote to his sisters from Mudnabatty a letter that captures his
I know not what to say about the Mission. I feel as a Farmer does about his crop;
sometimes I think the seed is springing, and then I hope; a little time blasts all and my
hopes are gone like a Cloud. Twas only weeds that appeared; or if a little Corn spring
up. it quickly died, being either choked with Weeds, or parched up by the sun of
Persecution. Yet, I still hope in God and will go forth in his strength and make
mention of his Righteousness, even of him only.
I preach every day to the Natives, and twice on the Lord’s Day constantly, besides
other itinerant labours, and I try to speak of Jesus Christ and him crucified, and of
him alone, but my soul is often much dejected to see no fruit. This morning I
preached to a number from “to know the Love of God which passeth knowledge”. I
was much affected myself filled with grief and anguish of Heart, because I knew they
were going to Idolatrous and Mohammedan feasts immediately after, this being the
first day of the Hindu Year; and the new Moon Ramadan of the Mohammedans. They
are going I suppose to their Abominations at this moment, but I hope to preach to
them again in the evening. I spoke of the Love of God in bearing with his Enemy’s, in
supporting and providing for them, in sending his Son to die for them, in sending the
Gospel to them, and in saving many of them from eternal Wrath.24
Years later Carey’s advice to his son, Jabez echoes the concerns he expressed in Mudnabatty,
“I rejoice that you have begun to preach in Malay. Consider this as your greatest work and
labour to build up the people in Faith and Holiness but above all labour to lay Christ
Crucified as the foundation on which you build for all that is not built on that foundation will
fail.”25
23
Carter, 21.
24
Carter, 85.
25
Sunil Kumar Chatterjee, Family Letters of Dr. William Carey (Serampore: Non-Liner, 2007), 121.
145
In 1805, the Serampore missionaries published The Form of Agreement which
outlined the guiding principles of the mission. These principles grew out Carey’s earlier
vision but reflected the mature experience of the Serampore Trio. The fifth statement dealt
with the centrality of the cross in evangelism. They distinguished between general “truths”
In preaching to the heathen, we must keep to the example of St. Paul, and make the
greatest subject of our preaching, Christ Crucified. It would be very easy for a
missionary to preach nothing but truths, and that for many years together, without any
well-grounded hope of becoming useful to one soul. The doctrine of Christ's
expiatory death and all-sufficient merits had been, and must ever remain, the great
means of conversion.26
This doctrine, and others immediately connected with it, have constantly nourished
and sanctified the church. Oh that these glorious truths ever be the joy and strength of
our own souls and then we will not fail to become the matter of our conversation to
others. It was the proclaiming of these doctrines that made the Reformation from
Popery in the time of Luther spread with such rapidity. It was these truths that filled
the sermons to the modern Apostles, Whitefield, Wesley, etc., when the light of the
Gospel which had been held up with such glorious effects by the Puritans was almost
extinguished in England.27
In their view the message of the cross was the link that connected the first generation of
Reformers with the Puritans and the later leaders of the Evangelical Revival. While they do
not say so explicitly, it is clear that they saw their own ministry as another link in the chain.
They go on to mention the centrality of the cross in the preaching of the Moravian and then
So far as our experience goes in this work, we must freely acknowledge, that every
Hindoo among us who has been gained to Christ, has been won by the astonishing
and all-constraining love exhibited in our redeemer’s propitiatory death. O then may
26
Oussoren, 276.
27
Oussoren, 277.
146
we resolve to know nothing among Hindoos and Mussulmans but Christ and Him
crucified.28
Conversion
The BMS missionaries preached for seven years before winning their first convert in
December of 1800. Appropriately, he came to Christ through the testimony of John Thomas
who had actually been actively seeking the conversion of the Bengals for fourteen years since
1786.29 Perhaps it is also appropriate that Krishna Pal had heard the gospel from Moravian
missionaries many years before. He had also heard it again earlier that year from the Baptist
missionaries.30 He came to Christ after dislocating an arm in a fall by the river. He was
attended by Dr. John Thomas who was visiting the Serampore mission at the time.
Upon his conversion the missionaries gave him a devotional chant in “rhyming
Krishna Pal was baptized on Sunday, December 28, 1800. His family soon followed
him, and in spite of stiff persecution, persevered in the faith. In 1802, he addressed a letter to
Serampore
12 October, 1802
To the Brethren of the Church of our Saviour Jesus Christ, our souls' beloved, my
affectionately embracing representation. The love of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
28
Ibid., 276-277.
29
Arthur C. Chute, John Thomas, First Baptist Missionary to Bengal (Halifax: Baptist Book and Tract
Society, 1893), 16.
30
S. P. Carey, 195.
31
Ibid.
147
was made known by brother Thomas. In that day our minds were filled with joy.
Then judging, we understood that we were dwelling in darkness. Through the door of
manifestation we came to know that sin confessing, sin forsaking, Christ’s
righteousness embracing, salvation would be obtained. By light springing up in the
heart we knew that sinners, becoming repentant, through the sufferings of Christ,
obtain salvation. In this rejoicing, and in Christ’s love believing, I obtained mercy.
Now it is in my mind continually to dwell in the love of Christ; this is the desire of
my soul. Do you pour down your love upon us that,. as the chatak, we may be
satisfied—the bird that opens its bill, when it rains, and catches the drops from the
clouds, I will tell to the world that Christ hath saved me. I will proclaim His love with
rejoicing. Christ, the world to save, gave His own soul! Such love was never heard,
for enemies Christ gave His own soul! Such compassion, where shall we get? For the
sake of saving sinners He forsook the happiness of Heaven. I will constantly stay near
Him. I will dwell in the town of joy.
Krishna32
The letter was translated by the missionaries, but the unique syntax surely represents
Krishna’s Bengali voice. There is evidence of the teaching Krishna received. The phrase
“sin confessing, sin forsaking” is from the original Bengali chant given him at the time of his
conversion. The sentence, “By light springing up in the heart we knew that sinners,
becoming repentant, through the sufferings of Christ, obtain salvation” seems to echo a
become an effective preacher, known of his “considerable grace of manner and address,”34
perhaps more effective than the missionaries themselves. He wrote a hymn which came to be
sung in large parts of the English speaking world. The version which gained popularity was
polished by Joshua Marshman, but a more literal translation retains the power and allows a
32
Ibid., 227.
33
See Edward’s sermon A Divine and Supernatural Light
http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards/works2.iii.i.html.
34
S. P. Carey, 358.
148
1. Never again forget. Make this the essence [core]
Jesus, the [true] Brahma. For salvation His is the name.
Chorus-
That One who gave up His own life,
Sinners to redeem,
O my soul, do not forget Him. 35
Here the Spirit of the Reformation, with its emphasis on gospel truth expressed in the
vernacular, and on teaching converts through catechisms and hymns makes its appearance in
Indian form.
Krishna, a carpenter, was of the Sudra caste, the lowest of the four traditional varnas.
More conversions followed including, from the higher castes. The first Kshatriya, a caste
which traditionally consisted of nobles and warriors, was converted in 1801.36 The first
Brahman, the caste of priests and teachers, was converted in 1803.37 Carey had written
Fuller, “When Krishna and Goluk rejected their caste, many wondered at it; but the majority
endeavored to carry it off with a high hand, and tauntingly asked, have any of the Brahmins
and Kayusts believed on him? What great thing to have a carpenter and a distiller reject their
caste?”38 Carey wrote that the conversion of members of the higher castes “had deprived
35
Ibid., 227.
36
Marshman, 1:154.
37
Ibid., 1:176.
38
Ibid., 1:156.
149
them of that small consolation.” The first Brahmin to convert had long before begun to
doubt the truth of Hinduism. He had been affected by the memorization of a metrical version
That Krisha Pal became an effective teacher, preacher, and hymn writer is ironic; as a Sudra
By the end of 1802, they had “thirteen native communicants in the Church and eight
inquirers.”40 By 1807, they could report that they had baptized one hundred converts,
including 12 Brahmins, 16 of the writer class, and 5 Muslims.41 In 1813 alone they baptized
one hundred and sixteen converts.42 By 1821, they had baptized approximately 1400
converts.43 The Serampore missionaries were dissatisfied with this number but they could not
have imagined that by the twenty-first century, while Christianity remains a small proportion
of the total population of India, by one estimate, with 1.7 million Baptists, it is the second
largest Baptist country in the world following the United States.44 This, of course, does not
Krishna Pal can be taken as emblematic of all the converts that followed. He gave a
great portion of his life to itinerant preaching. William Ward recorded in his journal that
39
Ibid., 1:155.
40
Marshman, 1:174.
41
Ibid., 1:324.
42
Ibid., 2:76.
43
Potts, 36.
44
Study and Research Division, Baptist World Alliance, “Who are the Baptists? India and Burma,” We
Baptists (Franklin, TN: Providence House, 1999), 13-15 available from http://www.bwa-baptist-
heritage.org/hst-ind.htm (accessed December 2010).
150
when asked by a European if he had converted for money, he responded simply that he
received no money, “it was the work of love, in doing which he got much joy and comfort.”45
Samuel Pearce Carey writes that, “As he lay dying at Serampore, Krishna was asked if he
still loved Christ. “‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but not as much as He loves me.’”46
Expansion
Not long after establishing the mission at Serampore, the Trio began itinerant
preaching tours. They extended these tours out to ever greater distances. In 1802, Marshman
led the first trip to Jessore, about ninety-five kilometers to the north east of Serampore in
what is now Bangladesh. In 1803, they began regular preaching in Calcutta which would
lead to the eventual establishment of a church at Lal Bazaar.47 In 1807, they began efforts in
Burma. 48 In 1809, Carey’s son Felix attempted to lead a mission which eventually failed
amidst tragedy (his family was drowned in an accident) and personal weakness but which
would lead eventually to the great work of American Baptists under Adoniram Judson.49 In
1808, an expedition was sent to Bhutan, five hundred kilometers to the north at the foot of
the Himalayas.50 In 1812, a team was sent to Agra, more than 1100 kilometers to the north-
west. In 1812, a first abortive effort was made in Java.51 In 1813, Carey’s son, Jabez
45
Potts, 132.
46
S. P. Carey, 358.
47
Marshman, 1:178.
48
Ibid., 1:298.
49
Ibid., 1:412.
50
Ibid., 1:385.
51
Ibid., 1:494.
151
managed to establish the Java station on a permanent basis.52 In 1814, John Chamberlain, a
missionary who came out to India after Ward and Marshman, made a fruitful trip to Delhi,
The Serampore missionaries worked hard to make the gospel accessible to the people
of India. Their efforts included the translation and publication of the scriptures in the
languages of India. Their efforts in translating and printing tend to become the main focus of
studies of Serampore because of their monumental proportions, and because as time went
along Carey dedicated more of his time to this work. However, it should be seen that their
preoccupation with translation and printing was part of their larger project of evangelization
In their annual report to the BMS from 1815, they laid out the relationship between
their translation efforts, their educational efforts and their evangelism and church planting:
First, the formation of stations, where the “the standard of' the Cross shall be erected,
and the Gospel preached to the people, and from whence ultimately spring churches."
Secondly, the translation of the Scriptures: and, thirdly, the instruction of youth in the
knowledge of the Bible and of the literature suited to the state of the country: that thus
divine knowledge may be diffused abroad, and teachers and pastors be raised up to
make known the Gospel. These three objects, they remark, were intimately linked
together in the prosecution or the great work.53
This describes a missionary cycle, beginning and ending with the preaching of the gospel,
first by the missionaries and then national “teachers and pastors raised up to make known the
Gospel.” This statement makes it clear that their first priority was the preaching of the
52
Ibid., 2:74.
53
Marshman, 2:97.
152
Like their Protestant forebears they were convinced that the publication of the Bible
in the vernacular was a necessary precondition to the spread of the gospel. What is more,
they were convinced the Bible itself was sufficient to bring readers to Christ. In 1801,
William Ward had left a copy of Carey’s Bengali translation of the New Testament in Ram
Krishanpur. “A certain Krishna Das read it, and kept rereading it to his neighbors, till the
village was transformed.”54 Three years later they sent an embassy to Serampore to thank the
publishers. “These were Jaganath Das, who had long since smashed his idols, Sebak Ram,
former ringleader of lewd songs, and fisherman Gobhardan.”55 Amidst rejoicing they were
baptized by the missionaries. In the BMS annual report for 1819 they mention another case,
“Tarachund, a zealous native preacher, who, with several others, was converted from
The press at Serampore was kept busy printing not only Bibles, but tracts with
portions of scripture. This led to the conversion of Petumber Sing who became one of the
Petumber Sing . . . was nearly sixty years or age, of an active and inquisitive mind,
and great simplicity of character. He had read all the native religious works which
then existed in manuscript, and had travelled to many shrines to discover a system of
religious belief in which he could place confidence. The result of his inquiries,
however, only served to increase his dissatisfaction with the national creed, and he
quietly relinquished the worship of idols. In this state of mind, one of the tracts
distributed by Mr. Ward, in his recent missionary tour, fell into his hands, and told
him that the missionaries at Serampore had come from a distant land to promote the
eternal happiness of the Hindoos, and that salvation was to be obtained only through
the atonement of Christ. He lost no time in proceeding to Serampore, a distance of
thirty miles, in order to hear more of this “new way." After receiving instruction for
two or three days, he returned to his family to impart the glad tidings to them,
54
S. P. Carey, 243.
55
Ibid.
56
BMS Annual Report 1819, 33.
153
promising to return in a fortnight. He was again at Serampore before a week had
elapsed, and threw up his caste by eating with the missionaries. . . .57
Cross-cultural Preaching
The Trio also tried to find culturally effective ways of preaching. Sometimes they
missed the obvious. Ward wrote, “Preaching in black cloth in this climate is a sad burden.
My clothes have been saturated with perspiration three times today, and the very papers in
my pocket are dyed black. . . .”58 One wonders why they did not adopt local dress. John
Thomas did because it was “economical and efficient.”59 He was delighted with the results.
When he visited Serampore, the missionaries failed to recognize him and spoke to him as to a
Bengali.60
While the Serampore Trio might have benefited from adopting Thomas’s Bengali
dress, they adapted their evangelistic approach in other ways. William Ward described an
innovative method, “In this country it is common for a few of the poorest of the people to
take up the trade of ballad-singers for they have no written nor printed books to sell.”61 They
took advantage of this custom for the propagation of the gospel. “This morning, Carey,
Marshman and I made our stand where four roads meet and began singing our ballad. People
looked out of their houses; some came, and all seemed astonished to see three sahibs turned
ballad-singers. This evening three of us went one way, and three another.”62 The Serampore
missionaries took advantage of the interest to distribute copies of the Christian hymns.
57
Marshman, 1:154-155.
58
Marshman, 1:434.
59
C. B. Lewis, The Life of John Thomas (London: Macmillan and Co., 1873), 360.
60
Lewis, 362.
61
S. P. Carey, 187.
62
Ibid., 187-188.
154
Ward recounts an episode in 1800 when they went to a village where they had
preached before, but found the place they used occupied by a large crowd listening to
Bengali musicians:
We were afraid we had lost the day; but we made a stand within sight of Creeshno’s
(Krishna) worshippers, and like so many ballad-singers began “Who besides can
recover” in Bengalle. Parbotee sang lustily. Presently the Bengallee performers were
left destitute and sheered off. We had a company which filled the street. Bro. C. so
preached that one Brahaman wept & many seemed affected.63
Ward reported that this approach produced a constant flow of visitors to the premises of the
Serampore mission “and no small portion of Mr. Carey’s time was occupied in answering
Indian Preachers
The Serampore missionaries were convinced that national preachers were the key to
reaching India. They were concerned to adapt their own methods where possible to make
their own preaching more effective and they placed a premium on acquiring the greatest
possible fluency, but they recognized that the key was “native” preachers. In 1819, in their
report to the BMS they outlined the advantages of raising up Indian preachers of the Gospel.
These included the native’s ability to travel more economically, his greater endurance in
India’s climate and his greater effectiveness since, “he knows the way to the hearts, as well
63
Potts, 88.
64
Marshman, 1:129.
65
BMS, 56.
155
To train the Indian preachers they took them on their itinerant preaching tours, “Carey
took Pitambar Singh to Sukh Sagar, and Krishna Pal to Jessore. Ward took Krishna Pal to
Debhatta, and later, Krishna Prasad and Ram Ratan as far as Dinajpur and Mudnabati.” 66
When Serampore College was founded the Trio reported that its objects were, “to train up
pious youth for the Christian ministry, to augment the biblical knowledge of such as are
already employed in preaching, and to enable those who by loss of cast, have bent reduced to
The wisdom of this approach was confirmed when in 1806 after the Vellore Mutiny
Krishna Pal and Jagannath Das ventured into Burdwan with, as Ward put it, 'the spirit
of martyrs.’ The brethren could endure to be silenced so long as men like these
openly preached. Indeed their speech was often more compelling than their own-as
Ward felt when listening to a gifted young evangelist in Hindi. 'Oh, I saw that the
Gospel was as sweet in this as in any other tongue! At his aptness and tenderness I
could scarcely hold back tears.’68
Serampore’s strategy depended on the training of Indian preachers. This strategy had
given ample evidence of its effectiveness, but when John Clarke Marshman published his
history of the Serampore Mission in 1859, he lamented that the vision of Carey, Marshman
and Ward had been abandoned. He quoted Ward who in a letter to Ryland explained their
vision:
It be vain to expect that the Gospel will ever spread widely in this country, till God so
blesses the means as that native men shall be raised up, who will carry the despised
doctrine, brought into the country by the Mlechas (barbarians, non-Hindus), into the
very teeth of the brahmins, and prove from the Scriptures that this is indeed the Christ
that should come into the world.69
66
S. P. Carey, 226.
67
BMS, 12.
68
S. P. Carey, 253.
69
Marshman, 1:182.
156
At this point JC Marshman inserts his own evaluation of developments after the passing of
The Serampore Trio believed in the potential of the Indian people. Sadly, their biblical
Church Planting
All of the efforts that went into establishing a missionary society as sending agency,
and of forming the Serampore mission and its many auxiliary ministries, were for the
Each station ideally consisted of a European missionary and an Indian preacher. The
churches that were established were formed on the Baptist model. Their development
The congregation at Serampore, and later the Lal Bazaar church in Calcutta, dealt
with several cases of church discipline. While the situations were painful, it did not occur to
the missionaries to treat the Indian converts with lower expectations than they would have in
England. Carey dealt with the issues that arose in much the same manner that he had dealt
with problems in his pastorates at Moulton and Leicester. The Indian Christians were
157
In the same way, the congregations themselves were treated with the same dignity as
Baptist churches in England, with their emphasis on independency. In 1815, in the midst of
the crisis generated by the change of leadership caused by the death of Fuller, Carey wrote
John Ryland, “The churches in India also are as independent as they are in England. We may
give an opinion or even advice at Berhampore or elsewhere, but we have no authority over it;
and we want none.”71 The offer of advice was well within the Baptist view of the need for
local churches to be related by associations. Again, this is not meant as a defense of Baptist
polity. Rather, it is offered as evidence that Carey’s ecclesiological convictions had not
wavered. All of the machinery of society and mission were set in motion to provide the
infrastructure required for the planting of New Testament churches in the Baptist mold.
Carey at least, saw no conflict between the society approach and his Baptist view of the
church.
In 1835 a report from Serampore gave the following details of the work:
There are now eighteen mission stations and eleven out stations. The surface over
which the mission extends is very large. Delhi is as distant from Serampore as the
capital of Sweden is from England; and the extreme distance between the stations is
more than that of Petersburg from London. At these stations we have at least fifty
European and Asiatic laborers, while the number is continually, though gradually on
the increase. Of these fifty, forty-two or forty three have been turned from darkness
to light on Indian ground; and of this number not fewer thirty-eight were born in
India.72
A letter that adds additional details from Joshua Marshman dated November 5, 1835 was
As I am greatly press for time, I can enlarge no further than to say, that our gracious
Redeemer has neither forsaken us at Serampore, nor left us wholly without tokens of
his gracious presence and approbation. Our nine missionary stations he has increased
to eighteen, in these last seven years; and of the brethren who labor in them, nearly
71
Letters from the Rev. Dr. Carey (London: Parbury, Allen and Co., 1828), 2.
72
Ira Mason Allen, from the Church Register, The Triennial Baptist Register. no. 2. 1836.
158
fifty of different nations, (for with us there is no difference of blood or color, since
HE hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth,) all with the exception of five
have been by his grace raised up in India itself. And I feel thankful while I add, that
if we may adopt the primitive maxim, as old as Tertullian, “Ubi tres ecclesia est,”
there are among those eighteen stations, twenty-six infant churches rising up, the
greater part of whose members are natives of India.
When Marshman penned this letter he was the sole surviving member of the
Serampore Trio. William Ward had died of cholera in 1823. William Carey had passed
away on June 9, 1834 after a series of debilitating bouts of illnesses. His strength had held
out long enough to finish the final revision of his Bengali translation.73 Marshman would live
73
Marshman, 2:475.
159
CHAPTER 9
India achieved independence from the British Raj in 1947. The first days of modern
India were turbulent and marked by bloodshed. The country was torn into three parts as
Muslim-dominated regions split away to become Pakistan and Bangladesh. When Gandhi
was assassinated in 1948 by a Hindu nationalist, those who loved India must have despaired.
But modern India has turned a corner. While enormous challenges remain, India has taken its
place among the most influential nations on the planet. The creativity of Indians across a
wide range of technical fields has begun to produce economic benefits, and its role as the
world’s most populous democracy has made India’s voice an important one on the geo-
political stage. India has retained the parliamentary system which is a legacy of the British
Raj, but in its constitution has made significant advances over the British status quo by
Indian scholar and Christian activist Vishal Mangalwadi finds the roots of modern
India’s advance not just in the efforts of Gandhi and the figures of the independence
movement, but in William Carey’s career at Serampore; “India’s independence in 1947 was
not only a victory for Mahatma Gandhi and the ‘freedom fighters,’ but even more
fundamentally a triumph for Carey’s evangelical England. It marked the victory of the early
missionaries over the narrow commercial, political, and military vested interests of England,
1
Ruth and Vishal Mangalwadi, The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a
Culture (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1999), 102.
160
For the Love of India
The Serampore Trio loved India and its people. We have already seen Carey’s first
reaction upon arriving in India. William Ward also recorded his impressions when he
arrived. His enthusiasm on encountering an elephant reflects his feeling for the entire
country:
This is indeed a wonderful animal. I am filled with wonder every time I see one. A
man placed by his side seems a dwarf looking up at the Irish giant, & yet a little child
can command him. When ordered, he prostrated himself; a ladder was then reared
against him, & we ascended [to] the seat fastened on his back, where we sat as
comfortably as in a two-armed chair. One rode on his neck, with a thick stick pointed
with iron in his hand; another sat on his rump holding the umbrella over us, & another
man came behind having in his hand another pointed club. Thus we marched across
the country about 10 miles; the elephant with his trunk pulling down the branches of
trees in our way with the utmost ease.2
Samuel Pearce, a Baptist pastor who supported the work of the Serampore
missionaries and corresponded with them was impressed with much of what he read in a
work titled Code of Hindoo Laws.3 He wrote, “How much is there to admire in it, founded on
the principles or justice. The most salutary regulations are adopted in many circumstances.”
He felt, however, it was a pity that, “so much excellence should be abased by laws to
establish or countenance idolatry, magic, prostitution, prayers for the dead, false-witnessing,
theft, and suicide?” Their moral state moved him to compassion, “How perfect is the
morality of the gospel of Jesus: and how desirable that they should embrace it. Ought not
2
E. Daniel Potts, "William Ward's Missionary Journal 1799-1811." The Baptist Quarterly 25 (Baptist
Missionary Society), 1973: 111-114, 60.
3
Probably “A Code of Gentoo laws, or, Ordinations of the Pundits : from a Persian Translation, Made
from the Original, Written in the Shanscrit Language” by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed which was printed in 1776.
4
Andrew Fuller, Memoirs of the Late Rev. Samuel Pearce, A.M. (London: J.W. Morris, 1800), 54.
161
As Carey’s knowledge of Bengali deepened he became an advocate for its
development as a literary vehicle. In the early twentieth century the great Bengali scholar
Dinesh Chandra Sen quoted Carey on the title page of his History of Bengali Language and
Literature, “This language, current through an extent of country nearly equal to Great
Britain, when properly cultivated, will be inferior to none in elegance and perspicuity.”5
Sen’s citation does the double service of showing Carey’s regard for the language and Sen’s
Carey and Serampore are still honored in modern India. Some ideologues would
reject all links to the past associated with colonialism, but more mature observers try to
separate the good from the bad. A great country that has so much to offer the world is not
diminished by recognizing benefactors from the past. While many would reject Carey’s
faith, and the bluntness in which certain opinions were expressed, it is clear that Carey and
While the missionaries loved India, at times they were shocked by the religious
practices they observed. Carey described the Indian practice of “self tormenting”:
To Day self tormenting was carried to a greater length than Yesterday–A number of
people came near to our Gate with Drums, and Dancing; when presently a Man had
two pieces of Bamboo–of twenty feet Long, and each as thick as a Man’s finger,
these were passed through his sides–and held at each end by two Men; while he
danced backwards and forward in a manner almost frantic, but seemingly insensitive
to pain. . . .”6
5
Dinesh Chandra Sen, Bengali Language and Literature (Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1911),
from the title page.
6
Terry G. Carter, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey (Macon: Smyth & Helwys
Publishing, 2000), 23.
162
Serampore was located in a region noted for its worship of the Juggernaut
enormous carts with wooden wheels capable of crushing a man. Some devotees would throw
themselves under the wheels. Certain contemporary sources would deny the violence of
Juggernaut worship, but it is attested by the eyewitness accounts of Claudius Buchanan, the
Anglican chaplain who travelled in Orissa and Bengal.7 If this were the only example of the
disregard for human life perhaps it might be possible to conclude that Buchanan exaggerated.
However, other customs such as infanticide by exposure and sati (sutee), the burning of
widows, were amply attested and opposed not only by the Christian missionaries but
“enlightened heathens” such as Ram Mohun Roy. In April of 1799, Carey wrote Ryland to
When a quantity of dry Cocoa leaves, and other substances were heaped over them to
considerable height, and then Ghee–melted preserved butter poured on top. Two
Bamboos were then put over them and held fast down, and fire put to the Pile blazed
which immediately very fiercely owing to the dry and combustible materials of which
it was composed. No sooner was the fire kindled than all the people set up a great
shout, “Hurree Bol, Hurree Bol”–which is a common shout of joy, and invocation of
Hurree the wife of Hur or Seeb [Shiva?]. It was impossible to have heard the Woman
had she groaned, or even cried aloud on account of the mad noise of the people, and it
was impossible for her to stir, or struggle, on account of the Bamboo which were held
down on them like the levers of a press.8
Carey was not one to mince words and he speaks of the effects of India’s religions in
the strongest terms. In his journal, for example, he describes Hindu cosmology in detail, and
7
Claudius Buchanan, The Works of the Rev. Claudius Buchanan (Boston : Samuel T. Armstrong,
1812), 106-107.
8
Carter, 80.
163
ridiculous.”9 Carey also expressed a low opinion of the conduct of many Indians saying they
were, “abundantly supplied with a dreadful stock of low cunning and deceit.”10
This was not an expression of racism; Carey did not believe in the innate superiority
of the European. He had written a defense of the “barbarous heathens” in the Enquiry, “they
appear to be as capable of knowledge as we are; and in many place, at least, have discovered
uncommon genius and tractableness. . . .”11 Although he was not referring to India in this
passage—he probably had in mind incidents from Captain Cook’s voyages - it is a clear
indication of Carey’s views on race. He goes on to defend the “heathen” against those who
considered them especially violent attributing their reactions to the provocation of
Europeans. He was also a stern critic of the moral condition of Europeans, “It is also a
melancholy fact, that the vices of the Europeans have been communicated wherever they
themselves have been; so that the religious state of even heathens has been rendered worse
The Serampore Trio was convinced that all nations were “of one blood.”13 Their
theology told them that all men were depraved, European or Asian. All men needed Christ.
A statement in the Form of Agreement makes this clear by pointing to the depravity of the
Oh! may our hearts bleed over these poor idolaters, and may their case lie with
continued weight on our minds, that we may resemble that eminent Missionary, who
compared the travail of his soul, on account of the spiritual state of those committed
to his charge, to the pains of childbirth. But while we thus mourn over their miserable
condition, we should not be discouraged, as though their recovery were impossible.
9
Ibid., 13.
10
Leighton and Mornay Williams, ed. Serampore Letters 1800-1816 (New York: Fleming H. Revell
Company, 1892), 61-62.
11
William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of
the Heathens (London: The Carey Kingsgate Press, 1961), 89.
12
Carey, 90.
13
Ira Mason Allen, from the Church Register, The Triennial Baptist Register. no. 2. 1836.
164
He who raised the Scottish and brutalized Britons to sit in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, can raise these slaves of superstition, purify their hearts by faith, and make
them worshippers of the one God in spirit and in truth. The promises are fully
sufficient to remove our doubts, and to make us anticipate that not very distant period
when He will famish all the gods of India, and cause these very idolaters to cast their
idols to the moles and to the bats, and renounce for ever the work of their own hands.
14
Understanding India
which contained, among other things, Carey’s thoughts on the culture of India. First, Carey
felt the Hindus were limited, not by any racial inferiority but by what we would today call
their worldview. “I suppose that no people can have more completely surrendered their
reason than the Hindoos. In all matters of business and every thing relating to this world, they
are not deficient in knowledge, but in all things relating to religion, they are apparently void
of all understanding.”15 Notice that while the limitation is religious at its roots, in Carey’s
Second, their religious worldview controlled their lives, but offered no tangible
benefit, “Their books abound with the most abominable stories, and the characters of their
gods are drawn in colour so black that even the father of wickedness himself would scarcely
own. The Hindoos are not fond of hearing in detail the vices of their gods, yet so devoted are
they to their old customs, that they constantly adore characters the most detestable.”16
William Ward expressed a similar point of view in his journal, “Their religion is the off-
14
A. H. Oussoren, William Carey Especially His Missionary Principles (Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff's
Uitgeversmaatschappij N.V., 1945), 275.
15
Williams, 61-62.
16
Ibid.
165
spring of fear, & and their feelings the same as those of man believing in ghosts & evil spirits
Third, their religion had a formative effect on their moral life, “It is not to be thought
that the moral character of a people should be better than that of their gods. Men made
themselves idols after their own hearts, and therefore to look for good morals among
idolaters is the height of folly. The conduct of the Hindoos but too fully proves the truth of
this observation, for they are literally sunk into the dregs of vice.”18 Carey might well have
agreed with T. S. Eliot who saw “the culture of a people as an incarnation of its religion.”19
Before 1813, the policy of the East India Company was to meddle as little as possible
in the culture of India. They resisted attempts to convert, or even to educate the people.
They preferred an unchanging status quo that guaranteed maximum profitability. This began
to change with the Charter Act of 1813. A debate eventually developed over the language of
instruction to be used in India. Before this time, the national employees of the East India
Company had been educated in Persian and Arabic, but in 1835 Thomas Babington
English. Macaulay is now a controversial figure, but most observers would concede that his
intentions were benefic towards India. While in India, he drew up the Indian Penal Code
17
Potts, 60.
18
Williams, 61.
19
T. S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture (New York: Harcourt, 1948), 105.
166
which still serves as the basis of Indian law. However, his views, which prevailed on
education, are disputed. The introduction of English has been a benefit to India, but it is
interesting to contrast these with those of William Carey and the Serampore Trio. At
Serampore, they were intent on providing the intellectual tools which would allow Bengali
and other Indian languages to become modern literary vehicles. It is not an exaggeration to
say that their work began a process that led to the work of Nobel Laureate Rabindranth
Tagore.
chief figure behind the Moravians remarkable missionary endeavors. Both agreed that
conversion must come before an attempt to civilize a people. They differed significantly,
acknowledge any difference between the nations in matters relating to the heart. A Hottentot
must lead exactly just the same life as an Englishman or German.”20 Carey’s approach,
however, was to “guide the native life in such a way that it really makes the missionaries
superfluous and that all the treasures of the native culture are Christianized.”21 While that
which was unbiblical must be abandoned, Ousseren maintains that Carey attempted to “lead
their culture to the cross.” The result would not be a copy of European culture but a new
Catholicism sacrificed its Christian principles to preserve the local culture. Carey had
20
Oussoren, 265.
21
Ibid., 264.
167
The Jesuits indeed once made many converts to popery among the Chinese; but their
highest aim seemed to be to obtain their good opinion; for though the converts
professed themselves Christians, yet they were allowed to honour the image of
CONFUCIUS their great law-giver; and at length their ambitious intrigues brought
upon them the displeasure of government, which terminated in the suppression of the
million, and almost, if not entirely, of the Christian name.22
The Serampore Trio found a biblical balance between the syncretism of Catholic missions
and the cultural leveling of Zinzendorf. Their position better reflects the unity and diversity
The Serampore Trio made the preaching of the gospel their first priority, but they saw
no contradiction in engaging in social action to end some of the worst practices of Hindu
society. In this they joined with Ram Mohun Roy, the Indian intellectual who was
influenced by Christianity and the Enlightenment. Throughout his career Carey actively
opposed sati and infanticide. In 1803, the Serampore mission took it upon itself to gather
data to make the extent of the problem of sati known. They paid agents to make inquiries in
a 30 mile radius of Calcutta. Then they paid ten men to watch key areas along the Hooghly
River for a period of six months. They determined that there were 300 cases during that
period. The Trio submitted their data to the colonial government, but no action was taken for
another quarter of a century.23 After considerable deliberation, on December 4th, 1829, the
colonial government under Lord William Betnick issued a regulation making those involved
in the practice chargeable with homicide. The regulation was immediately forwarded to
William Carey at Serampore for translation into Bengali. Though it was Sunday, Carey
22
Carey, 90.
23
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of
the Serampore Mission. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859), 1:221-223.
168
decided to not go into the pulpit that day because any delay might mean the loss of more
human life.24
On these issues the Serampore Trio considered there was no neutral ground.
Ultimately, they evaluated all elements of the culture through the filter of Scripture as best
they could. Not every judgment was negative. As we have seen, Carey had a profound
appreciation for the languages of the sub-continent. Other elements were more difficult to
judge. They did not require new converts to change their pagan names. They felt the New
Testament provided sufficient examples of Greek Christians who retained their original
names. They did require women converts to not wear their jewelry, presumably in response
to New Testament injunctions to avoid excessive adornment. However, they did not require
Brahmin converts to quit wearing the poita, the sacred thread that identified the upper castes
as “twice-born”:
The converts were . . . baptized and preached to their fellow-countrymen with the
poita across the shoulder. This practice gave great umbrage to the Hindoo priesthood;
and, on one occasion, the wealthy natives of Serampore lodged a complaint on this
ground in the magistrate's court, and demanded that he should restrain those who had
renounced Hindooism from appearing in the poita; but he rejected their petition. The
missionaries, in their anxiety not to interfere unnecessarily with the national habits
and customs of the converts, did not deem it necessary to make any rule on the
subject. The brahmin convert continued to wear the thread for nearly three years after
his baptism, and then he, and another convert of the same class, renounced it
voluntarily. Mr. Ward remarks, on this event, “How much better is love and
illumination than force! If we had compelled these brethren to leave off their poitas,
perhaps they might have been attached to them while they lived.”25
The Serampore missionaries engaged the culture through a broad range of initiatives.
Their first priority was preaching of the gospel. As a result, their activities clustered around
the tasks of reaching the lost, training national leaders and planting new churches. These
24
John Clark Marshman, 2:412.
25
Marshman, 1:176-177.
169
priorities were similar to those of the leaders of Evangelical revival and can be fairly
was an expanded range of activities due to the differing cultural and historic circumstances.
First, the leaders of the Evangelical revival had benefitted from the work of the earlier
reformers in making the scriptures available in the vernacular. It was possible to preach in
the field because the scriptures were already available in the King’s English. The Serampore
missionaries had to do in one generation what had been had been spread across multiple
generations in Europe. Second, the Serampore missionaries had to make church-planting and
the training of nationals a priority in a way which had never been necessary before. The
leaders of the Evangelical revival, as well as the initial generation of leaders of the
Reformation worked against the background of preexisting church structures. Their goal was
It is possible that the largest enduring impact on Indian culture was the product of
their efforts to provide the scriptures in the languages of the people. William Carey is
probably most famous for his colossal feats of translation. However, the Serampore mission
expanded its efforts to include the printing of the Bible and the creation of a literate
matter how significant, they are only a part of all that Serampore accomplished.
At its height, there was nothing like the translation enterprise in the world. While
Carey was at the center of the activities, it should be understood that he led a team of
170
missionaries and Indian pundits. The work was done with great thoroughness. Ward
At an early period each new pundit's first attempts were brought to the test, when,
after he had advanced some way his MS. was put to the press, and the first sheet was
examined by an initiated native assistant sitting by the side of this original native
translator. The first and second proofs were thus corrected, which brought the sheet as
near as these could to the original Sanskrit. The third proof was then carried to Dr
Carey by the translator himself, and they went over this together, and over as many
more proofs of the same sheet as the Doctor thought necessary, sometimes more and
sometimes fewer, and after this the sheet was ordered to the press.26
Carey had finished the greater part of his first translation of the Bible into Bengali,
with the assistance of his pundit and John Fountain, during the five years at Mudnabatty.27 At
Serampore he expanded his efforts. As the years passed he came to dedicate the greater part
of his time to this area where he was particularly gifted. The responsibility for itinerant
preaching passed to others, especially after he was offered a post at Fort William College
which kept him in Calcutta for a part of each week. This post provided needed income which
was contributed to the common fund at Serampore. More importantly it put him in touch on
a daily basis with the greatest Indian pundits. It should be noted that at this juncture, Carey’s
own reputation as a scholar was such that he was asked to teach Bengali at the college
Carey’s translation efforts have at times been subject to criticism. Henry Martyn, the
great Anglican missionary wrote to a friend that, “I have grievous complaints to make, that
the immense work of translating the services into the languages of the East is left to
Dissenters, who cannot in ten years supply the want of what we gain by a classical
education.”28 No doubt Carey and the other members of the Serampore Trio would have
26
Samuel Pearce Carey, William Carey (London: The Wakeman Trust, 1923), 388.
27
S. P. Carey, 178.
171
preferred a classical education at the great English public schools had such an opportunity
been open to dissenters. While the quality of Martyn’s education was doubtless above
reproach, one wonders how well he was able to judge the quality of the work at Serampore at
this stage since by his own admission he had only been in the country four months and he
had seen, “little more of it than what 1ies between Serampore and Calcutta: and the little time
that can be spent out of doors affords very small opportunities of acquiring local knowledge.
Carey’s translations were certainly not perfect. He recognized this himself and made
a thorough revision of his Bengali Bible. The enduring value of Carey’s work is attested to
by Dr. Dipankar Haldar, a New Testament scholar who has been Secretary of the Calcutta
Auxiliary of the Bible Society who states that the Bible Society in India has found it difficult
to promote newer translations because Cary’s Bengali translation remains the favorite of
Samuel Pearce Carey provides a chart that shows that Carey translated the whole
Bible into nine languages; Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, Punjab, Pashto,
Kashmir, and Sanskrit.31 He translated the New Testament into an additional twenty-one
The translations were at the core of Serampore’s literary effort, but their listing does
not cover all that was produced. Carey wrote grammars for Sanskrit, Bengali and Marathi.
He also composed books of dialogues for aiding the teaching of these languages. He also
28
Henry Martyn, Journals and Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, B. D. Edited by S. Wilberforce.
(London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1837), 1:360.
29
Ibid .
30
The author interviewed Dr. Haldar at Serampore College in November of 2009.
31
S. P. Carey, 397.
172
translated the Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic that Andrew Fuller derogatively called
“that piece of lumber” but Carey saw as an important piece of literature in spite of its
polytheistic nature.32 William Ward produced one of the first important scholarly studies of
Hinduism, A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos Including a
Minute Description of their Manners and Customs, and Translations of Their Principle
Works. He also published a broader study titled A View of all Religions. Joshua Marshman
produced a translation of the Bible into Chinese and polemical works that engaged the unique
In addition to their individual publications, the Trio cooperated to produce the first
magazine ever published in any oriental language, the Dig-dursun, and the first newspaper
printed in an oriental language, the Sumachar Durpun.33 These publications printed local
news stories and articles designed to produce a spirit of enquiry among the Indian population.
For example, the first issue of the Dig-dursun contained an article on the geographic limits of
‘Hindoostan” and an account of the discovery of America. They also published The Friend
As you enter, you see your cousin, in a small room, dressed in a white jacket, reading
or writing, and looking over the office, which is more than 170 feet long. There you
find Indians translating the Scriptures into the different tongues. or correcting proof
sheets. You observe, laid out in cases, types in Arabic, Persian, Nagari, Telugu,
Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Chinese, Oriya, Burmese, Kanarese, Greek, Hebrew and
English. Hindus, Mussulmans and Christian Indians are busy - composing, correcting,
distributing. Next are four men throwing off the Scripture sheets in the different
languages; others folding the sheets and delivering them, to the large store-room and
six Mussulmans do the binding. Beyond the office are the varied type-casters. Besides
32
Ibid., 217.
33
Marshman, 2:161-163.
173
a group of men making ink; and in a spacious open walled-round place, our paper-
mill, for we manufacture our own paper.34
A few things bear examination. First is the sheer scale of the operation. Its holy
ambition is breathtaking. The list of typefaces shows that the Trio saw Serampore as a center
not just for reaching the Indian sub-continent, but all of Asia. For a time Chinese was taught
and studied at Serampore and Marshman completed a Chinese translation of the bible.
Second, the comprehensiveness of their efforts. Carey’s translation efforts were significant
in their own right, but to this they added the entire chain of production–not just printing, but
as a matter of necessity the manufacture of paper. Paper imported from England was too
expensive so they took it upon themselves to make their own paper mill. For this purpose
they imported what may have been the first steam engine in India, a machine which became a
local attraction. They were also obliged produce their own ink, and to make their own type
foundry, and they found talented Indians who became experts in the field and who produced
the first typesets for many of the languages of the sub-continent. Third, while the reference
to “low bred mechanics” referred to earlier was obviously meant to denigrate the Serampore
Trio, it is doubtful that a member of the English aristocracy would have had the practical
mindset, skills and work ethic to achieve what the Serampore Trio accomplished. This
approach to work and the world stood in stark contrast to that of Brahminsim as well.
Fourth, the key roles given to nationals foreshadows modern productive India.
the fields of education and science. Carey contributed articles to the prestigious Asiatick
Researches. His induction into the Linnaean Society for his contributions to botany and
34
S. P. Carey, 284.
174
Indian agriculture provides an indication of the breadth of Serampore’s engagement with the
larger culture, both that of India and of the global community of the day.
The Serampore Trio took a stand in one specific area that ran not only counter to the
pervading Hindu culture, but to the position taken by other Christian bodies. Their biblical
system. To have taken another stance would have put him in opposition to the principles of
unity that had guided Carey in his pastorates at Moulton and Leicester. While they did not
seek government intervention, they saw that Hinduism and the caste system were the biggest
obstacles to the conversion of Indians and to their progress. Samuel Pearce Carey
summarizes Carey’s views on caste and the effect of the Hindu worldview:
‘Never was a people more willing to hear, yet more slow to understand.’ they heard
of the new way, but followed the old. Custom was king. The past forbade the least
change. 'Caste,’ he said, has cut off all motives to inquiry and exertion, and made
stupid contentment the habit of their lives.’ Their minds resembled their mud
homesteads, destitute of pictures, ornaments, and books. ‘Harmless, indifferent,
vacant,’ he writes, ‘they plod on in the path of their forefathers; and even truth in
geography, astronomy, or any other science, if out of their beaten track, make no
more impression on them than the sublimer truths of religion.’35
The Serampore Trio repeatedly referred to Hinduism and the caste system as “binding
chains.” It is notable that the Serampore missionaries did not appeal to the colonial
authorities to abolish the caste system. Instead they saw it as something to be barred from
the life of the church. They countered the evil at three critical points. First, new believers
were not allowed to maintain Hindu rules of commensality. The Hindu idea of ritual
contamination from sharing a meal with a person of a lower case was obviously contrary to
35
S. P. Carey, 162.
175
the spirit and letter of the New Testament. When Krishna Pal, the first convert was baptized,
he was immediately invited to dine with the others at Serampore. By this Krishna effectively
To have given ground at this important point would have placed in jeopardy the very
idea of Christian communion. Samuel Pearce, an English pastor who was a friend of Carey
and Fuller, and an ardent supporter of the Baptist Missionary Society, got to the heart of the
Oct. I8. I dreamed that I saw one of the Christian Hindoos. O how I loved him! I long
to realize my dream. How pleasant will it be to sit down at the Lord's table with our
[black]36 brethren, and hear Jesus preached in their language. Surely then will come to
pass the saying that is written, In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free, all are one in him.37
To have allowed Hindu rules of commensality to prevail would have destroyed the
symbolism of the Lord’s Supper. Andrew Fuller wrote the believers at Serampore that, ‘To
unite with the church below is to be akin with that which is above. Satan divides men from
The second critical point at which the caste system was overturned was marriage. In
April of 1803, the Serampore community celebrated the first marriage between converts. In
a simple ceremony on mats under a tree, Krisnu-prisad, a Brahmin, wed the daughter of
Krisha Pal who was a Sudra. That a Brahmin married a Sudra was remarkable in itself;
William Ward pointed out an additional fact - when the bride and groom signed the marriage
36
The type in the edition available to me is almost illegible at this point, but appears to be the word
‘black’.
37
Andrew Fuller, Memoirs of the Late Rev. Samuel Pearce, A.M. (London: J.W. Morris, 1800), 48.
38
S. P. Carey, 202.
176
agreement it was the first “to which a Hindoo female had probably put her name for
centuries.”39
The third point at which they acted to counteract the caste system was in the handling
of death. During his early years in India, Carey had felt the impact of Hindu customs when
his child died and no one could be found to bury it. In the same year as the first wedding, the
first baptized Hindu died after short illness. John Clarke Marshman reported that his
peacefulness at death produced a positive effect on the other new believers. The Serampore
missionaries had purchased a plot of land to serve as a cemetery. When the time came for
the burial, the coffin bearers were chosen to make a strong Christian statement. “There, in
the presence of a silent and astonished multitude, Mr. Marshman and Mr. Felix Carey,
Bhyrub, a baptized Brahmin, and Peeroo, a baptized Mahomedan, placed the coffin on their
shoulders, and singing the Bengalee hymn, ‘Salvation through the death of Christ,’ carried it
through the streets. . . .”40 John Clarke Marshman sums up, “This procedure may be
considered as having completed the abolition of caste among the native Christian
community.”41
The Serampore Trio showed a remarkable clarity of vision on the issue of caste. It is
all the more remarkable for the fact that many European Christians did not grasp the
importance of the issue. The Serampore missionaries showed flexibility in other areas, but
The first missionaries on the Coromandel Coast had allowed the system to continue
with disastrous results. The outcasts (Dalits) were excluded from the Lord’s Supper and
39
Marshman, 1:181 Ruth Mangalwadi has pointed out the role of Carey and Serampore in dignifying
women. Their opposition to sati and infanticide was opposition to the Hindu treatment of women.
40
Ibid., 1:185.
41
Ibid.
177
eventually separate churches were formed. John Clarke Marshman’s comment on the issue
can be taken as an echo of the sentiments of his father and the other Serampore missionaries:
This institution, which might be considered as the great bulwark of Hindooism, the
converts had been permitted to take with them into the Christian church, and this
idolatrous distinction had been allowed to intrude itself into the solemnities of the
holy communion; the Brahmin Christian received the elements before the Soodra
Christian, and the cup of blessing was thus converted into a chalice of abomination.42
The Serampore missionaries clearly saw caste as “the bulwark of Hindooism” and they
The Serampore position on caste anticipates Abraham Kuyper who wrote that
Calvinism teaches the equality of men before God, “Hence Calvinism condemns not merely
all open slavery and systems of caste, but also covert slavery of woman and of the poor; it is
Other Europeans tended to see it as a similar system to their own class system and
excused it on that basis. To do otherwise was seen as dangerous since to admit that the caste
system was evil would eventually bring the European system into question. Lord Wellesley,
when Governor General of India, favored the conversion of the heathen; but he expressed
concern about the circulation of the Bible because, “it taught the doctrine of Christian
equality.”44
Carey himself had been the object of both European and Hindu prejudice. One well
known story tells that while he was professor at Fort William College he entered the
classroom one day to discover a pair of shoes hanging from his desk; an allusion to his days
as a shoe maker, a trade that was seen as unclean since it involved the handling of animal
42
Ibid., 1:177.
43
Abraham Kuyper, Calvinism. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1931), 19.
44
Potts, 90.
178
skins.45 On another occasion, “A young British staff-officer sitting next to Carey in India at
him if he had not once been a shoe-maker. ‘No’, Carey replied. Then to the surprised and
This prejudice on the part of Europeans led to the founding of the Lal Bazaar Church
in Calcutta. David Brown, the senior chaplain in Calcutta visited Carey to inquire if the
missionaries might be persuaded to give attention to the lower classes. There were those who
bore, “the Christian name, [but] were too low in the scale of society to intrude into the
patrician congregations of the Mission Church and the Presidency Church. . . .”47
These attitudes were found among the second generation of BMS missionaries as well
and were a factor in discontinuing Serampore’s program of preparing Indian preachers after
the death of Marshman, the last member of the Trio. Eustace Carey was William’s nephew
but he had little of his uncle’s spirit. He argued that the Indians were “only newly awakened
from heathen superstition’ and had “little previous mental culture”48 and so could not be
trusted to be faithful exponents of Chrisitanity. In addition he felt that too much emphasis on
preparing Indian misionaries would discourage the recruitment of Europeans. In contrast, the
Another part of our work is the forming of our native brethren to usefulness, fostering
every kind of genius, and cherishing every gift and grace in them. In this respect we
can scarcely by too lavish of our attention to their improvement. It is only by means
of native preachers that we can hope for the universal spread of the Gospel
throughout this immense continent.49
45
S. P. Carey, 260.
46
Ibid., 30.
47
Marshman, 1:175.
48
Potts, 34.
179
The Indian Constitution has outlawed caste-based descrimination, but related issues
still bedevil India. Dr. B. R. Ambdekar, a leader of India’s dalits and the chief architect of
the Indian constitution said, “Hinduism is not a religion but a disease. People of every caste
should flee from it as from the plague. When Hindus have extracted nectar from poison, let
them begin to talk of extracting salvation from Hinduism.”50 His strong statement echoes the
Serampore Trio’s conviction that Hinduism was a form of spiritual bondage. Ambdekar
swore he would not die as a Hindu. He reportedly considered Christianity for a time before
turning to Buddhism. Perhaps the outcome would have been different had the church’s
derived from the checkered history of missions in India. The homogeneous principle
promoted by Donald MacGravan, a former missionary in India, states that people like to
become Christians without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers. MacGavran should not
be dismissed lightly. For example, his criticism of the mission station system deserves to be
considered in light of Serampore’s experience. But the homogeneous principle does not
seem to rise to New Testament standards. As another missionary from India, Lesslie
Newbigin, writes, “McGavran (if I understand him) thinks that in the interest of effective
evangelization the Christians should be organized in separate groups according to their caste
origins. This, in his view, would make it easier and more natural for Hindus from the same
49
Oussoren, 279.
50
Monodeep Daniel, “Models of Leadership in the Indian Church: An Evaluation.”Studies in World
Christianity (Edinburgh University Press) 67-90, 74.
180
caste to be converted.”51 Newbigin goes on to state that most of the Christians he knows in
Madras, “would reject this on ethical grounds, believing that it is an essential part of
This last statement echoes the convictions of the Serampore Trio: Indian Christians
are not only abundantly capable of sharing the gospel with their fellow countrymen; if we
will listen, they might teach those of us in the West something about the gospel as well.
51
Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission (Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1995), 145.
181
CHAPTER 10
CONCLUSION
In 1793, not long after William Carey arrived in India, he wrote the Baptist
Missionary Society urging greater efforts, “Africa is but a little way from England,
Madagascar but a little farther. South America, and all the numerous and large islands in the
India and China seas, I hope will not be passed over.” His outward voyage must have still
been in his mind, and under the great weight of his missionary vision the world’s dimensions
seemed to be compressed and the opportunities enlarged, “A large field opens on every side.
Oh, that many labourers may be thrust out into the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
that the Gentiles may come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in him."1
Thirty years later in February 1823, Carey wrote to his son Jabez who at the time was
The cause of God and truth is evidently gaining ground in different parts of the world;
all accounts from almost all parts contain something more or less encouraging upon
that head. I trust that the Lord will give more and more success to the word of his
grace till the knowledge of his name shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 2
By that time the greatest expansion of Christianity in history was well under way.
Referring to the period that followed the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society,
1
John Clark Marshman, The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward: Embracing the History of
the Serampore Mission. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1859), 1:160-61.
2
Sunil Kumar Chatterjee, Family Letters of Dr. William Carey (Serampore: Non-Liner, 2007), 53.
182
unbounding vitality and a daring unequalled in Christian history. Through it for the first time
plans were seriously elaborated for bringing the Christian message to all men. . . .”3
Congregationalists. In 1796, the Presbyterians began the Scottish Missionary Society and the
Glasgow Missionary society. In 1799, members of the Clapham group and other Evangelical
members of the Church of England started the Church Missionary Society. Other
organizations followed in quick succession; the Religious Tract Society and the British and
was the first significant stream, but through the new course it cut burst the pent-up waters of
the Evangelical awakening. The Northamptonshire Baptists were the forerunners, but their
role is not proof of superior virtue, but of Providence’s preference for doing great things with
Scholars such as Andrew Walls and Philip Jenkins have pointed out that significant
changes are still taking place in world Christianity. “Whatever Europeans or North
Americans may believe, Christianity is doing very well indeed in the global South—not just
surviving but expanding.”5 Jenkins writes that, “By 2050, only about one-fifth of the world’s
3 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic whites.”6 Africa and Latin America will compete
These statistics include the Catholic Church, but it is true that the most dynamic
movements in the two-thirds world can trace their roots to the surge of missionary endeavor
3
Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1953), 44.
4
Latourette, 1033.
5
Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom" The Coming of Global Christianity. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002), 2.
6
Jenkins, 3.
7
Ibid.
183
which found its first streamed from Serampore. William Carey lived more years of his life in
India than in Europe. He never returned to England and was buried at Serampore. The
English can claim him, but he belongs to India. Ideologues would drive a wedge between the
first generations of missionaries and the churches they birthed. If this were allowed the
church of the south would be deprived of important parts of its heritage: a theological lineage
that can be traced back through Carey and Fuller to Edwards, Brainerd, and the Puritans;
back through Calvin and Luther at the dawn of the Reformation; back yet further through
Augustine of North Africa; and further still to Paul who was born in Asia Minor; and Thomas
who first carried the gospel to India.
The future of world mission to an ever increasing degree now depends on the
churches of the global south. Ironically, the task of replanting the gospel in the European
heartland of the Reformation is falling to missionaries from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
While the Serampore Trio might have been surprised at this development, surely their advice
to this new generation of missionaries would be the same as the watchword they lived by:
expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.
184
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