Saint of the Week: William Carey
10/22/2025
William Carey
Minister, Missionary to India, Social Reformer
1761 – 1834
Known as the father of modern missions, William Carey was an English missionary, a Reformed Baptist minister, a translator, a social reformer and a cultural anthropologist. Apprenticed as a shoemaker at age 14, a coworker convinced him to leave the Anglican Church and introduced him to a group of Reformed Baptists. Noting his love for Scripture and gift for oratory, they invited him to try his hand at preaching. Baptized in 1783, he was a regular preacher at a church in Moulton two years later. By 1789, he was a full-time pastor at Harvey Lane Baptist Church in Leicester. There, in 1792, he wrote a pamphlet, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, arguing for global evangelism, inspiring the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society, and ultimately influencing his relocation to India. Carey preached a pro-missionary Deathless Sermon, using Isaiah 54:2-3 as his text, in which he repeatedly used the epigram which has become his most famous quotation: Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God. He moved to Calcutta in 1793, but angry non-Baptist Christian missionaries forced him to leave British India for more favorable environs. He found one among Baptist missionaries in Frederiksnagore, a Danish colony in Serampore. His first project established schools for indigent children, teaching reading, writing, accounting and, of course, Christianity. In Serampore, he founded India’s first theological university to offer divinity degrees, co-founded the Serampore Press and advocated successfully for laws abolishing infanticide and the practice of suttee (burning widows alive on their husband's funeral pyre). The Asiatic Society commended Reverend Carey for his eminent services in opening the stores of Indian literature to the knowledge of Europe and for his extensive acquaintance with the science, the natural history and botany of this country and his useful contributions, in every branch. A gifted linguist, he translated the Hindu classic Ramayana into English, and The Bible into Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya, Assamese, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit. Not only was he a successful reformer and illustrious Christian missionary, but his work on the Bengali language earned him the title of father of Bengali prose. When Carey died, Serampore Press was already publishing Christian works in 44 languages or dialects. He and two of his three wives are buried in the Serampore Missions Burial Grounds.
Merciful God, you called William Carey to missionary work in India and gave him a zeal for your Word that led him to translate Scripture into many local languages and dialects: Give us a heart for the spreading of your Gospel and a thirst for justice among all the peoples of the world; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who sheds your light and peace throughout humanity, and who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
