“Expect Great Things; Attempt Great Things.” ~ William Carey
William Carey was the eldest of five children born to Edmund and Elizabeth Carey in Northamptonshire, England. His parents were weavers and belonged to the Church of England (Anglican). At the age of six, William began to show increasing interest in the natural sciences, specifically botany and began to teach himself Latin.
By fourteen, Carey’s parents entrusted him to a shoemaker (cobbler/cordwainer) in the nearby village. His master, Clarke Nichols, belonged to the protestant faith and influenced Carey to leave the Anglican Church and join a congregational church nearby. During this time, Carey met a well-educated weaver named Thomas Jones, who taught him the Greek language.
When Clarke Nichols died, Carey began working as a cobbler with another shoemaker, Thomas Old. Carey married Old’s sister-in-law, Dorothy Plackett, in 1781. Dorothy and William had seven children, five boys, and two girls. Unfortunately, both girls died in infancy, and one son died at five years of age. Soon after Thomas Old died, and Carey assumed the family business. During this time of incredible transition, Carey taught himself Hebrew, Italian, Dutch, and French.
William joined the local association of Particular (Calvinist) Baptists. In this fellowship, he met and became friends with John Ryland, John Sutcliff, and Andrew Fuller. Carey was re-baptized by John Ryland, and he committed himself to the Particular Baptist denomination.
By 1785, Carey was appointed as principal of the school at Moulton and served as the local pastor of the congregation there. He acquired books and pamphlets by Jonathan Edwards and John Cook. He learned of great missionaries like John Eliot (1604-1690), the puritan missionary to the New World, and David Brained (1718-1747). Carey’s biographers indicate these “cannonized heroes” became “enkindlers” of Carey’s passion for Christian Missions.
Four years later, Carey penned his life’s manifesto, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. This work is widely available today on the internet, free of charge in electronic versions. In his work, he lays the doctrinal foundation for his passion for missions, there pointing out Jesus’ command to make disciples of the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20) and the binding responsibility upon all Christians to uphold this mission. The latter half of the book outlines historical events related to other missionaries of his time, including John Wesley.
Carey preached his most notable sermon (“the Deathless Sermon”) based on Isaiah 54:2-3. Unfortunately, no copies of the sermon have survived, but church historians and others in the congregation took copious notes. It was delivered on May 30, 1792, at the Friar Lane Baptist Church in Nottingham before an assembly of many ministers and church leaders. In the sermon, he stoked the fire of his friends to intentional missionary action. From notes, Carey’s sermon had two points, (1) “Expect Great Things From God” and (2) “Attempt Great Things for God.” These became his most famous lines.
Initially, historians record that the audience was unmoved and unimpressed by his sermon. The doctrine of predestination and the unconditional election was deeply held by many in the audience. However, over time these leaders began to evaluate these doctrines in light of the Great Commission. In the same year, his sermon became the spark that led to the founding of the “Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel to the Heathen.” The group’s name was later changed to “Baptist Missionary Society.” William Carey would be their first ordained missionary, and he left to serve in India.
In April 1793, Carey and his family left for Calcutta by ship and arrived in November of that year. He began to search for means to support himself and his family while they established their mission. He learned the Bengali language and translated the New Testament for the people. Later Carey and other missionaries sent by the Society acquired a printing press and began publishing the Bible in the Bengali language.
Dorothy Carey died in 1807, and William married Charlotte Rhumohr. They were married for thirteen years until her death in 1821. He married a third time to a widow named Grace Hughes.
Life in India was difficult. Brian Pennington describes the following: “Plagued with anxieties and fears about their own health, regularly reminded of colleagues who had lost their lives or reason, uncertain of their own social location, and preaching to crowds whose reactions ranged from indifference to amusement to hostility, missionaries found expression for their darker misgivings in their production of what is surely part of their speckled legacy: a fabricated Hinduism crazed by blood-lust and devoted to the service of devils.”
These missionaries were a suffering community struggling with extreme poverty and deteriorating health. Nevertheless, Carey and his associates completed the publication of the Bible in Bengali, Sanskrit, and other major dialects of the region—44 languages in total. Many of these languages existed only in oral form, with no letter, character, or cipher existing to communicate the text. One of his associates, William Ward, created “punches” to use for typing the text, while at the same time Carey was busy translating the ancient “sacred texts” of Hindus into English for study and training of missionaries.
Carey spent 41 years in India without a furlough. His mission counted over 700 converts, which is not that many, considering it was in a country of millions of people. However, he laid the groundwork for all Christian Mission work for centuries to come.
Vishal Mangalwadi, an Indian-Christian philosopher, wrote, “[Carey] saw India not as a foreign country to be exploited, but as his heavenly Father’s land to be loved and saved… he believed in understanding and controlling nature instead of fearing, appeasing or worshipping it; in developing one’s intellect instead of killing it as mysticism taught. He emphasized enjoying literature and culture instead of shunning it as maya (“a magic show”).”
After leaving his formal missionary position, Carey retired to Serampore College, which he helped found, and continued his work revising the Bengali Bible, preaching, and teaching. He died on June 9, 1834, at the age of 72.
Today, William Carey’s notoriety lives on in various forms. A church dedicated to his name, Carey Baptist Church, is in Reading, England, and the William Carey University in Meghalaya, India. The Southern Baptist Convention, in partnership with the Mississippi Baptist Convention, established the William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
While at Oxford University in March 2020, I saw the collection of Carey letters, sermons, and documents held at the Angus Library (Regent’s Park College). There in the archives is his Bible and several items from his time as a cobbler at the shoemaker shop. Today Regent’s Park College (of Oxford University) is a center for Baptist heritage, training, and mission.
References
William Carey. An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792; reprint, London: Carey Kingsgate Press) 1961
Vishal Mangalwadi. The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture. (Crossway Books: Wheaton, IL) 1999.
H. Leon McBeth. The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville: Broadman Press) 1987.
Brian K. Pennington. Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction. (Oxford University Press, 2005) pp. 76–77
