Carey's Difficulty

William Carey has been called the Father of Modern missions but that was not because of the church of his day, but in spite of it. In his book, The Challenge of life, Oswald J. Smith wrote that even though they had no vested interest in the church, the East India company opposed it. In fact they presented a resolution to Parliament in response to Carey’s determination to go to India which read:

The sending out of missionaries into one Eastern possession is the maddest, most extravagant, most costly, most indefensible project which has ever been suggested by a moonstruck fanatic.’”

In 1796, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passed a resolution which read: ‘To spread the knowledge of the gospel amongst barbarians and heathens seems to be highly preposterous.’ One speaker in the House of Commons said that he would rather see a band of devils let loose in India than a band of missionaries.

But Carey didn’t waver. He stood the tead and became the father of modern missions. He translated the bible into several Indian dialects and blazed the trail for Adoniram Judson and others who later came. And that’s not all. You see he blazed a trail for you and me as well? How can I say that? Because of what Jesus said. He said that he who sows and he who reaps “rejoice together.” Evangelism is a cooperative thing. It is cooperative historically, but . . .