“EXPECT GREAT THINGS”

“Expect Great Things”

Contemporary ministers called him “the hare-brained enthusiast,” but we know him as the father of modern missions.

WILLIAM CAREY was born in 1761 to a poor Anglican family in rural England. He wanted to become a professional gardener, but a skin disease prevented him from working out in the sun. He therefore began training as a shoemaker’s apprentice at the age of fourteen. This was a providential career shift because a fellow apprentice, John Warr, was a Christian.

Being from a staunch Anglican family that despised Dissenters, Carey was uneasy with the evangelical arguments Warr presented to him. However, over time Carey began to feel a “growing uneasiness and stings of conscience gradually increasing” with regard to Warr’s beliefs. After a traumatic incident when Carey was caught trying to pass off a counterfeit coin as real money to his employer, he was so ashamed that for the first time he began to see himself as morally bankrupt and in need of salvation. Over the next two years he came to “depend on a crucified Saviour for pardon and salvation.”

Although he did not attend high school or college, Carey possessed a keen intellect. He taught himself five languages, and by the end of his life knew dozens of languages and dialects.

Carey became a Calvinistic Baptist preacher and followed a rigid system of study. He studied the classics on Mondays, science and history on Tuesdays, and the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures the rest of the week. During this time he became increasingly burdened for overseas missions. He published a pamphlet called An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.

For years Carey tried to convince fellow Baptist ministers of the need to form a missionary society in order to spread the gospel across the world. Although the leaders of the denomination kept putting him off, he persisted.

On the evening of May 30, 1792, Carey preached at the annual Baptist association meeting. His text was Isaiah 54:2-3, and his theme was “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” He urged his fellow pastors to commit to venturing forth among the nations with the gospel, having confidence that God would bless the message and extend his kingdom. Carey’s address made a profound impression on the ministers in attendance.

However, despite Carey’s stirring sermon the day before, at the business meeting the next morning the ministers went about their annual agenda in the usual manner and were about to adjourn the meeting without acting on Carey’s proposal for overseas missions. Carey was greatly distressed and gripped the arm of Andrew Fuller, imploring him, “Is nothing again going to be done?”

Whatever reservations Fuller and the others had, that day, May 31, 1792, they agreed to form the “Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen.” Fuller passed around his snuffbox to collect contributions for the new undertaking, later renamed the Baptist Missionary Society.

In 1793 Carey and two other men sailed for India as missionaries. Carey worked there until his death in 1834 without ever taking a furlough. His comprehensive approach to missions included evangelization, church planting, and Bible translation but also included working for social reform. He established schools, hospitals, and a savings bank; founded the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India; started a Bengali newspaper; and supervised the start of India’s first printing press, paper mill, and steam engine. He also taught languages at a local college, wrote a Bengali-English dictionary, and founded the first Christian college in Asia. In all, Carey translated the complete Bible into six languages and portions of it into twenty-nine others.

He expected great things from God, and attempted great things for God, and God brought them to pass.

Reflection

Do you expect great things from God? Do you attempt great things for God? If you do, God can bring them to pass just as he did for William Carey.

The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. Yes, ask anything in my name, and I will do it!

John 14:12-14