“We are never to forget that the most fruitful impulse to what we now call mission work, came neither from Bishops nor High Churchmen, but from a Baptist cobbler. His name was William Carey. Teaching a poor school; brooding over a map of the world which he posted up for his geography lessons, and seeing how vast a part of the globe was covered by waste places – he read at a meeting of Ministers, a paper on the duty of attempting to spread the gospel among the heathen. At firs it awoke no echo. These Ministers had nothing better to say to him than that his plan was highly preposterous, and that If God wished to convert the heathen, He would do so of Himself. Such was the torpid assurance of stereotyped religionism. In their ignorance they had not even observed that God works by men. Yet, the work of mission, indeed, began in that obscure setting.
At about the same time, a shop-boy of fifteen, carrying a parcel of books for his employer, stopped for a moment to rest, and burst into tears to think that his life would have to be spent in carrying those heavy books! He lifted up his eyes and saw some statues of a few great men who had worked for God and, being filled with a new determination, he went on with a happier heart. His name was William Marshman, and when he grew up, he joined Carey to become the man who translated the Book of books into more than twenty languages. Such were God’s beginnings.”