©2007, Grace Publications Trust, Distributed by Evangelical Press, 309 pp. incl. index in hardback

“How can I be involved in world missions?” This question burdened young William Carey for a number of years. The question was increasingly burdensome because of the lost souls in faraway lands.

Carey was born into an Anglican home in the mid-eighteenth century. Two entirely different revolutions – the Industrial and French – brought unrest to England. Carey, while serving as an apprentice in a shoe shop, slowly became impacted by a far different revolution. As he worked beside a strong Christian, he became interested in the basics of the Gospel. By God’s grace, his life was turned inside out when he became a Christian.

His peers saw no need to reach other nations for Christ while England had so many spiritual needs. Carey left the Anglican church, began to preach some and took on additional responsibilities that marriage brings with it. Carey remained unbothered by his poverty. He focused on the wealth of the Gospel and the opportunities he had as an ordained Baptist pastor to proclaim the truth. Carey’s heart continued to burn and be burdened to reach the lost in unreached lands.

Finally a missionary society was founded in 1892. This formation of this society was only the first of many hurdles Carey and his friends faced in order to take the Gospel to foreign shores. The author does an excellent job, without getting immersed in details, of relating the Society’s growth in the midst of the great problems of funding missionary endeavors, ascertaining gifted missionaries and communicating with their missionaries on foreign fields. The author also keeps the reader informed about Carey’s many trials: a wife who did not want to leave England and who later had severe mental problems on the field, the death of children, the slowness of kingdom growth, and communication with the Society back in England.

In all these difficulties Carey did not waver in his focus on evangelism. His zeal brought problems from the natives in India when he was called to minister, as well as from officials in the East India Company who had no interest in the merits and need of evangelism. Naturally as Christianity began to take root in society cultural practices had to be confronted.  Carey was not silent about such practices as infanticide, the burning alive of widows with their deceased husbands, and the caste system.

Carey continues to be noted as a Christian who persevered in establishing world missions interest among reformed Baptist pastors in England and in laboring in translation and education on the field. God used him to lay a solid foundation for missionaries who would tread the path he blazed to the Serampore area of India and beyond. Through his recognized success he kept his humility. At some point he stated, “I can plod.” He saw himself as responsible to use his talents to advance God’s kingdom. Even when no advance seemingly occurred he continued to “plod”, resting in God’s providence. This set a great example for others to work for God using the gifts God had given them. Sadly, this example was not always followed by the next generation of missionaries.

The author’s subject is appropriate for him to address, because Appleby, as was Carey, is committed to the Reformed faith. He served in India as a missionary and is thus acquainted first-hand with the culture and also with Carey’s impact in that land. The author also portrays missionaries as the humans they are. Some missionaries faltered in the field and had to be called home. Individual pride was fertile ground for quarreling and jealousy.

This is a realistic book and also one of encouragement. Carey willingly sacrificed much in order to take the Gospel to the unreached. God’s providence overruled man’s plan time and again. The reader will also see the importance of supporters at home to the work on the field. The fact that Christianity changes culture cannot be overlooked. All of these lessons from Carey’s life are good reminders for God’s people today as we seek to be diligent in the advance of God’s kingdom.

Review ©2008 Byron Snapp, Hampton, Virginia