THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY MAY 1 1914 HARVARD H42, 611 Carey COPYRIGHT, 1892 BY LEIGHTON AND MORNAY WILLIAMS Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by PREFACE. THE introduction of Mr. Wright presents very clearly the English setting of the letters included in this collection, and the notes which have been interspersed among them give sufficient explanation to form a continuous narrative. A word, however, may be premised here as to the special interest of the letters in connection with the centennial of the Baptist Missionary Society. The letters throw a new and unexpected light on the American connection with the Serampore Mission of the English Baptists. The obstacles placed in the way of the English missionaries by the East India Company made it necessary for them to make the voyage by way of America, and they were thrown on the hospitality of their American brethren. A regular correspondence thus sprang up between the society at home and the Serampore missionaries, carried on from this country mainly by Dr. William Rogers, of Philadelphia, and the Rev. John Williams, of New York. A warm friendship seems thus to have grown up be tween the brethren on both sides of the sea, a friendship which, in the providence of God, proved of no little benefit to the Baptists in this country. The letters furnish also important evidence of indebtedness to the English brethren in the commencement of work in America, as will be seen by the letter from William Carey to John Williams announcing the conversion of Judson to Baptist views. The letters have a third source of interest in the evidence which they afford of the active missionary sympathies and efforts of the New York churches at this early period. The credit of the formation of the Missionary Union has hitherto been given almost exclusively to the Baptists of Massachusetts; but it will appear from these records that the earliest missionary society in this country was formed in New York City, and that of that Society John Williams was a Director and Dr. Carey a correspondent. Before the date of Judson's departure for India a Baptist Society had also been formed in this city in connection with the Baptist Association; and even before the formation of the Society the Association itself had supported the Rev. Elkanah Holmes as a missionary to the Indians. In this work of Mr. Holmes, Carey seems to have felt the deepest interest. When the Baptist Missionary Society was formed in New York, John Williams became its first president, and John Cauldwell, a deacon of his church, was elected its treasurer, and later the first treasurer of the Missionary Union. We have thus the evidence of a share in the origin of the Missionary Union on the part of the New York brethren fully as large as that rightly claimed by those in Boston. But after all, perhaps the chief interest of the letters to the general reader will be found in the vivid portraiture which they bring before us of the man to whom, under God, the work of modern missions is most largely indebted, as his character is presented unconsciously to himself in the thoughts and feelings to which he gives expression in these letters to a friend whom he had never seen, but whom he knew to to be like-minded in faith and purpose. From the example which they afford of wide, unselfish interest, and a firm, unshaken faith and determination, we may well glean lessons of the highest value to ourselves, as well as a juster appreciation of the narrow resources and deep draughts on faith out of which this great work has grown. Our grateful acknowledgments are due to the friends who have aided in this compilation, especially to Thomas Wright, Esq., and to Sir William Thomas Lewis. It is proper to state that the letters are given as they were written, and that in all cases the spelling of native names has been left unchanged. |