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I can plod

Willliam Carey and the early years of the first Baptist missionary society

Visionary pioneer?

I CAN PLOD
By John Appleby
William Carey and the early years of the first Baptist missionary society
Grace Publications (dist. by Evangelical Press). 310 pages. £14.95
ISBN 978-0-946462-74-2

Although much has been written already about these events 200 years ago, thoughtful readers will still find plenty to stimulate their thinking today. Since Appleby himself served in South India for many years with the Grace Baptist Mission and writes from a Reformed standpoint, he is well-placed to handle the many facets of William Carey’s life as pastor, evangelist, pioneer missionary, team leader, linguist, translator, educationalist, botanist horticulturalist, and social reformer.

Carey was a man of extraordinary breadth and depth, a visionary Calvinist who longed to see the gospel taken across the world, and was ready to stand up against criticism and opposition from whatever source in order to see those visions fulfilled.

In 1993 a conference of scholars met in Serampore to consider Carey’s Obligation and India’s Renaissance, including the perceptions of Indian scholars. In the same year a bicentennial history of the Baptist Missionary Society was published in Britain and as a result of this research, new aspects have arisen, including the part played by the Particular Baptists who first sent Carey out. There is also a sympathetic approach to the tragic life of William’s first wife, Dorothy. Appleby is the first biographer to draw some of this recent research together and it is a pity there is no index.

At a time when the work of mission boards, churches and missionaries are in a state of flux, everyone involved in this area would do well to ponder the tragic breakdowns in relationships which almost destroyed the work of the Serampore team 200 years ago and could still do so today. Studying this book in house groups or away-days might be a useful exercise in getting people involved in thinking about mission strategy in modern times!

Valerie Griffiths
spent 23 years in Japan and Singapore in evangelism, church-planting and teaching; a member of Guildford Baptist Church