XIV. DR. CAREY AND THE BAPTIST MISSION.1 "I have brought myself by long meditation to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfilment."-LORD BEACONSFIELD: Endymion. I. HACKLETON AND OLNEY, 1775-1787 (TWELVE YEARS). AMONG the famous men whose names are inseparably connected with Olney, one of the most remarkable was the eminent missionary and Oriental scholar, William Carey. He was born on the 17th of August 1761 at Paulerspury, a village near Towcester, in Northamptonshire, where his father occupied the position of parish clerk and schoolmaster. At an early age he evinced great love for reading. Books on natural history and botany and records of voyages and travels were his especial delight; and he used to explore the whole neighbourhood in search of what he had read about, coming home loaded with spoil from the woods and spinnies. His extraordinary passion for flowers clung to him, as we shall see, throughout life. Of insects, a literal menagerie, in every stage of development, and confined in boxes of all shapes and sizes, flourished in his own little room. His parents were too poor to assist him in prosecuting his studies, and at the age of fourteen, as he was unable to work in the fields on account of a scorbutic disorder, he was bound apprentice to Charles Nickolls, a shoemaker at Hackleton, in Northamptonshire, a village about five miles from Olney. When he became apprenticed his sister Polly took charge of his birds (whether or not her protectorate extended over the insects we cannot say); but so fond was she of her brother that she killed them all with kindness. 1 Compiled in part from "Carey, Marshman, and Ward," by J. C. Marshman. At Hackleton he not only learned the gentle craft, but made some acquaintance with the Greek New Testament, being aided in his studies by a certain Thomas Jones, a journeyman weaver of the same village, who had formerly been well-to-do, but had become reduced in circumstances owing to his dissolute habits. At the death of his master, which occurred about a year after his arrival in Hackleton, Carey transferred his apprenticeship to a neighbouring shoemaker named Old. It was here that he first met with the Rev. Thomas Scott, who at that time was residing at Ravenstone. After delivering an address in the village Scott paid a visit to Mr. Old, whom he seems to have made a point of calling on whenever circumstances led him to Hackleton. Carey, "a sensible-looking lad, in his working apron," whose attention had been riveted on the address which had just been given, "exhibited tokens of great intelligence. He said little, but occasionally asked questions so much to the point that Mr. Scott was led to remark that he would prove no ordinary character." 1 In after days, when Carey had become distinguished, Scott used to speak of Mr. Old's house as "Carey's College." He now began more and more to turn his attention to the study of the Scriptures, and, owing chiefly to the ministrations of Mr. Scott, whom he took every opportunity to hear, he made rapid advances in Christian knowledge. His last doubts and difficulties having been removed by the perusal of the work of Mr. Hall, sen., "Help to Zion's Travellers," he realised the importance of true religion, and furthermore became eager to tell others of the Christ he had found for himself. His first appearance in the pulpit was at the age of nineteen, and for about three years and a half he preached in the villages of Hackleton and Earl's Barton. He had previously been attached to the Established Church, but during this period his views on the subject of baptism changed, and accordingly he was rebaptized by Dr. John Ryland, on the 7th of October 1783, in the river Nen, a little beyond Dr. Doddridge's chapel in Northampton. 1 ་་ Carey, Marshman, and Ward," by J. C. Marshman, At Mr. Old's death Carey, who was only twenty, took over his stock and business, and at the same time made what was perhaps the one great mistake of his life-he married Mr. Old's sister, an illiterate, weak-minded woman, who never had the slightest sympathy with his undertakings, and was utterly unsuited for his companionship. After residing for about eighteen months at Hackleton, where he was reduced to great distress by reason of ill health and dulness of trade, he removed to Piddington, the next village, still continuing to make shoes and to preach, though several times brought low with ague and fever, which rendered him bald for the rest of his life. The cottages in which he lived at Hackleton and Piddington are both standing, but have been much altered; and the room in which he preached his first sermon and the spot where stood his pulpit are still shown. The pulpit itself is now in the Hackleton Meeting-house. Carey now joined the church at Olney, under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Sutcliff, his chief reason for doing so being because he could not see with the people of Hackleton, who were hyper-Calvinists. After his name in the Hackleton church-book are the words "Whent away without his dismission." Mr. Sutcliff put a Latin Grammar into his hand, and through his help Carey began to read the Scriptures in Greek and Hebrew. The following extracts from the church-book belonging to the Baptist church, Olney, are in Mr. Sutcliff's handwriting : “June 17, 1785. A request from William Carey of Moulton, in Northamptonshire, was taken into consideration. He has been, and still is, in connection with a society of people at Hackleton. He is occasionally engaged with acceptance in various places in speaking the Word. He bears a very good moral character. He is desirous of being sent out from some reputable and orderly church of Christ, into the work of the ministry. The principal question debated was, 'In what manner shall we receive him? by a letter from the people of Hackleton, or on a profession of faith, &c.' The final resolution was left to another church meeting. "July 14, 1785. Church Meeting. W. Carey (see June 17) appeared before the church, and having given a satisfactory account of the work of God upon his soul, he was admitted a member. He had been formerly baptized by the Rev. Mr. Ryland, junr., of Northampton. He was invited by the church to preach once next Lord's day evening. "July 17, 1785. C. Meeting, Lord's Day Evening. W. Carey, in consequence of a request from the church, preached this evening. After which it was resolved that he should be allowed to go on preaching at those places where he has been for some time employed; and that he should engage again on suitable occasions for some time before us, in order that further trial may be made of his ministerial gifts." "When the question," says Mr. Marshman, "of his receiving a call for the ministry came under discussion, the members expressed a doubt whether he possessed sufficient ability to make a useful minister, and the point was carried chiefly through the personal influence of Mr. Sutcliff." The sermon which he preached on this occasion he himself, some years afterwards, described " as having been as crude and weak as anything could be, which is called, or has been called, a sermon." The other notices of Carey in the church-book at Olney are the following: "June 16, 1786. The case of Bro". Carey was considered, and an unanimous satisfaction with his ministerial abilities being expressed, a vote was passed to call him to the ministry at a proper time. "Augst. 10, 1786. Church Meeting. This evening our brother William Carey was called to the work of the ministry, and sent out by the church to preach the Gospel wherever God in His providence might call him. "April 29, 1787. Ch. M. After the ordinance our Bro'. William Carey was dismissed to the church of Christ at Moulton, in Northamptonshire, with a view to his ordination there." II. THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY, At Moulton for a time he kept a school, but he had no notion of managing his boys, so it turned out a failure; besides, his total income was only £16 a year. He therefore turned again to his former trade for a subsistence, and once a fortnight might have been seen walking to Northampton with his wallet full of shoes on his shoulder, and then returning home with a fresh supply of leather. The common impression that Carey made but poor work at his shoemaking is altogether wrong. His own words emphatically contradict the report. In one of his letters home he declares that he was accounted both "a skilful and an honest workman." 1 And as the most widely known anecdote concerning him attests, he was never ashamed of the conditions under which this and the previous part of his life had been passed. Some thirty years after, dining one day with the Governor-General, Lord Hastings, at Barrackpore, one of the guests made the inquiry of another whether Dr. Carey had not once been a shoemaker. He happened to overhear the conversation, and immediately stepped forward and said, "No, sir; only a cobbler." It was whilst perusing "Cook's Voyages" and teaching his pupils geography that the great project of his life was formed, for no sooner had he become acquainted with the spiritual degradation of the heathen than he felt desirous of communicating the Gospel to them. As he sat in his little workshop he turned his eyes every now and then towards a large map suspended on the wall, on which he had rudely represented the spiritual condition of the various countries, and as much information as he had been able to gather regarding the national characteristics and the population. In this workshop, as Mr. Wilberforce afterwards said in the House of Commons, the poor cobbler formed the resolution to give to the millions of Hindoos the Bible in their own language. Very few of his ministerial friends gave him any encouragement. Mr. Fuller himself was so startled by the novelty and magnitude of Carey's proposal that he described his feelings as resembling those of the infidel courtier in Israel, "If the Lord should make windows in heaven might such a thing be?" At a meeting of ministers held about this time at Northampton Carey suggested as a topic for discussion, the duty of Chris1 'Life of Andrew Fuller," by T. E. Fuller, L |