The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & MissionarySmith, George
Religion
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary
Smith, George
Carey, William, 1761-1834; Missions -- India
Andrew Fuller was not only the first of Foreign Mission Secretaries; he
was a model for all. To him his work was spiritual life, and hence,
though the most active preacher and writer of his day, he was like
Carey in this, that his working day was twice as long as that of most
men, and he could spend half of his time in the frequent journeys all
over the kingdom to raise funds, in repeated campaigns in London to
secure toleration, and in abundant letters to the missionaries. His
relation to the Committee, up to the last, was equally exemplary. In
the very earliest missionary organisation in England it is due to him
that the line was clearly drawn between the deliberative and judicial
function which is that of the members, and the executive which is that
of the secretary. Wisdom and efficiency, clearness of perception and
promptitude of action, were thus combined. Fuller's, too, was the
special merit of realising that, while a missionary committee or church
are fellow-workers only with the men and women abroad, the Serampore
Brotherhood was a self-supporting, and to that extent a self-governing
body in a sense true of no foreign mission ever since. The two
triumvirates, moreover, consisted of giants--Carey, Marshman, and Ward
abroad; Fuller, Sutcliff, and Ryland at home. To Carey personally the
death of Fuller was more than to any other. For almost the quarter of
a century he had kept his vow that he would hold the rope. When Pearce
died all too soon there was none whom Carey loved like Fuller, while
Fuller's devotion to Carey was all the greater that it was tempered by
a wise jealousy for his perfectness. So early as 1797, Fuller wrote
thus to the troublesome Fountain:--"It affords us good hope of your
being a useful missionary that you seem to love and revere the counsels
of Brother Carey. A humble, peaceful, circumspect, disinterested,
faithful, peaceable, and zealous conduct like his will render you a
blessing to society. Brother Carey is greatly respected and beloved by
all denominations here. I will tell you what I have foreborne to tell
him lest it should hurt his modesty. Good old Mr. Newton says: 'Mr.
Carey has favoured me with a letter, which, indeed, I accept as a
favour, and I mean to thank him for it. I trust my heart as cordially
unites with him as though I were a brother Baptist myself. I look to
such a man with reverence. He is more to me than bishop or archbishop;
he is an apostle. May the Lord make all who undertake missions
like-minded with Brother Carey!'" As the home administrator, no less
than as the theological controversialist, Andrew Fuller stands only
second to William Carey, the founder of Modern English Missions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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