William Carey and the Modern Missionary Movement

In 1792 William Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (Carey, Enquiry, title page). Its first section takes up the opinion that Christ’s commission to “teach all nations” was given to the apostles alone; if that were so, Carey answers, baptism would have ended with them too, and so would the promise “Lo, I am with you always” (Carey, Enquiry, section 1). He reviews earlier missions, from the apostles to the Moravians (Carey, Enquiry, section 2), and answers the practical objections one by one: distance, danger, the difficulty of living and of learning languages (Carey, Enquiry, section 4). He ends with a plan: Christians should pray, and they should also act. He supposes that “a company of serious Christians, ministers and private persons,” were to “form themselves into a society”, with a committee to choose missionaries and collect money (Carey, Enquiry, section 5). He proposes that his own Particular Baptist denomination begin, and that congregations subscribe a penny or more a week (Carey, Enquiry, section 5).

The society’s own record tells how it came about. Carey wrote the Enquiry at Moulton, where he lived from 1786 (Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, vol. 1, p. 1). At a ministers’ meeting at Clipstone in 1791 Carey had asked whether it was not their duty to attempt something toward spreading the gospel in the heathen world, and was asked to publish his thoughts (Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, vol. 1, p. 2). On 31 May 1792, at Nottingham, he preached from Isaiah 54:2 and pressed two things, that they should expect great things and attempt great things (Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, vol. 1, pp. 2–3). On 2 October 1792, at Kettering, the ministers resolved to act together “agreeably to what is recommended in brother Carey’s late publication” as the Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel amongst the Heathen; twelve of them subscribed £13 2s. 6d., and Andrew Fuller was made secretary (Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, vol. 1, pp. 3–4).

On 10 January 1793 the society agreed that brethren Thomas and Carey should go to the East Indies (Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, vol. 1, p. 94). Carey embarked with his family on 13 June 1793 (Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, vol. 1, p. 157).

On 7 October 1805 the missionaries, by then settled at Serampore in Bengal, agreed on a statement of the principles of their work (Serampore Form of Agreement (1805), title, p. 441). They would keep out of sight whatever in English manners gave offence, and would neither do violence to images nor interrupt worship (Serampore Form of Agreement (1805), article 3, pp. 442–443). Their preaching was to keep to “Christ the Crucified” (Serampore Form of Agreement (1805), article 5, p. 444). They held that the gospel could spread through India only by Indian preachers, and that Indian churches should choose pastors from among their own countrymen (Serampore Form of Agreement (1805), article 8, pp. 446–447). They bound themselves to translate the Scriptures into the languages of India and to open free schools (Serampore Form of Agreement (1805), article 9, pp. 448–449), and to hold all things in common, no one trading on his own account (Serampore Form of Agreement (1805), closing articles, p. 450).

Carey’s proposal was a voluntary society of ministers and private persons, paid for by subscriptions (Carey, Enquiry, section 5). The British and Foreign Bible Society, founded twelve years later, was likewise a society of subscribers (British and Foreign Bible Society, Reports, Laws and Regulations I–V, p. 3); see the British and Foreign Bible Society. For the earlier Protestant missions that the Enquiry reviews, see the Tranquebar Mission and the Moravians at Herrnhut.