But with all this mental activity and zest for knowledge there was no moral purpose in his life, and as he grew older he became more and more loose and careless in his habits, and, as he himself would have it, even vicious, until he came to be about eighteen years of age. But there is no proof of any evil conduct to justify the use of such a term as "vicious" in describing his life at this time. He spoke of himself, no doubt, after the religious fashion of the age, and judged his early conduct by the severe moral standard adopted by his co-religionists. His complete mental awakening, like that of Samuel Drew, seems to have come as a result of the moral change wrought in him at the time of his religious conversion. A variety of causes, as is the rule, led to this crucial event in his life, "that vital change of heart which laid the foundation of his Christian character." First of all he was indebted to the good example of a fellow-workman, then to the earnest preaching of the Rev. Thomas Scott. Mr. Marshman says, "It was chiefly to the ministrations of Mr. Scott that Carey was indebted for the progress he made in his religious career, and he never omitted through life to acknowledge the deep obligation under which he had been laid by his instructions." Brought up as a strict Churchman, he was confirmed at a suitable age, and regularly attended the services at the parish church. But at the time we are speaking of, when personal religion became the chief subject of his thoughts, he sought light and help by every available means. The little Baptist community, among whom he had many friends, showed him much sympathy: he began to attend their meetings for prayer, and eventually cast in his lot among them. They encouraged him to become a preacher, and his first sermon, delivered at Hackleton when he was nineteen years of age, was delivered in one of their assemblies. For three and a half years he was on the preachers' plan, and regularly "supplied the pulpits" in this village and Earl's Barton as a kind of pastor. "It was during these ministerial engagements," says his biographer, "that his views on the subject of baptism were altered, and he embraced the opinion that baptism by immersion, after a confession of faith, was in accordance with the injunctions of Divine Writ and the practice of the apostolic age. He was accordingly baptized by Dr. John Ryland, his future associate in the cause of missions, who subsequently stated at a public meeting that, on the 7th of October, 1783, he baptized a poor journeyman shoemaker in the river Nene, a little beyond Dr. Doddridge's chapel in Northampton."[38] [38] "The Story of Carey, Marshman, and Ward," p. 4.