Evangelism and Historic Calvinism — Walter Chantry

I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone when I thank the people of the Trinity Church here in Allentown for very gracious hospitality and for their prayerful preparation of this conference that's been a great blessing to my heart.

I've noticed some things they do differently here. This is the first time I've ever been anywhere that they have a fellow in the front row with a stopwatch. But there's been no evidence of any bad spirit in having that stopwatch, however.

Historic Calvinism and World Missions

Now we've already just heard a message on evangelism and historic Calvinism in Bob Saltzman's message to us about our dearly beloved saint of our own country. But I am also going to limit my paper, How Can You Talk About All of Historic Calvinism and All of What's Evolved in Evangelism, by talking about one man who ought to be dear to us, that is Baptists who are Calvinists, and by limiting our consideration to one aspect of evangelism, and that is world missions.

Large volumes ought to be recorded to tell about the fiery evangelism of Calvinists in history, and significant chapters should be written on the direct cause of their evangelistic spirit than is nothing else than a hard understanding of their Calvinistic distinctive.

Our mind has been remembering Jonathan Edwards, and I've chosen the brief life of a man who also came from a place called Northampton, but over in England. Some of the biblical convictions that lit the fire of zeal in his heart we'll notice as we go through his life.

On October 2 in 1792, as you know, in the town of Kettering in England, there were 14 men gathered together to form a mission society that was destined to be the most influential in modern missions. There were 12 pastors there, and one student, and one deacon.

All were Calvinistic Baptists, though they had a broad Catholic spirit, and they promised from the very start that they'd do anything that they could to help the Presbyterians and Moravians in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

At this meeting, they formed the society which was to become the great impetus for modern missions, that was to set the pace and the standard practice for taking the gospel to the ends of the earth that prevails to this very day.

Of course, the pastor most remembered among them is William Carey. And many of you know, too, the first secretary of the mission who was elected on that day, Andrew Fuller, the author of The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, a classic for the free offer of the gospel and an excellent refutation of Hyper-Calvinism.

Also present were John Sutcliffe, who was a pastor who, because he was influential in reprinting Jonathan Edwards' works in England and because of his own sermons, stirred up a prayerful spirit of longing for another revival.

It was John Sutcliffe who, eight years earlier, had moved the Northampton Association of Particular Baptists to have monthly prayer meetings for the conversion of the heathen all throughout the world in each of their churches they were to have such a prayer meeting.

And this was three years before the association ever met William Carey. So the whole idea that William Carey stood alone against a bunch of stodgy old Hyper-Calvinists who had no interest in missions, and he alone brought the Baptists to their missionary zeal is a myth.

This John Sutcliffe was a great force for missions before Carey came on the scene. Also at the meeting was John Ryland, who had just become president of the Baptist College in Bristol. And there was another youthful pastor in that small room, ten by twelve, and he's the man that we're going to focus our attention on.

He's Samuel Pierce. He was twenty-six years old when they formed what they called the Particular or Calvinistic Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel Among the Heathen. A subtle title, wasn't it?

He had been a pastor, Samuel Pierce, for barely two years, and he was almost a stranger to the Northampton Association. He didn't know the leaders of that association very well. But he was to become a major force in modern missions.

The Calvinistic Baptist Society, with these humble beginnings of fourteen men, was destined in God's providence to inspire the world, the English-speaking world, with giving their money and sending men throughout the earth in preaching the gospel.

And the profound influence that they had is embedded, of course, to the heroic, sacrificial labors of Carey. But Carey was, for the most part, laboring in India through most of the history of the mission, and he could not by himself hold the fascination of the English-speaking world and spread, with untold effort, their missionary spirit.

It was rather Andrew Fuller and Samuel Pierce at home that spread the fame of Carey and inspired Great Britain with missions, be they Baptist, Anglican, or Presbyterian. While Carey was plunged into the obscure and time-consuming work of translation, Pierce and Fuller preached, wrote, traveled through Britain, talked about missions, and inspired men to go all over the world in preaching.

The Missionary Responsibility of Reformed Churches

Now there's something missing in our own Baptist circles. We have so many young men who are training for the ministry. A third of the men at Westminster are Baptists and Calvinists who are training for the ministry.

Reformed Episcopal Seminary is almost a misnomer. Take away the Reformed Baptists and there wouldn't be too many students left. And then think of the men at Reformed Seminary in Jackson and in other seminaries across the country, Covenant.

Large numbers of men. I only know of one who is seriously and prayerfully aiming at taking the gospel somewhere else in the world besides the United States. And he didn't even come from our country. He had to come from Great Britain for that preparation.

Now there's something wrong if we do not see some of our young men inspired with the task of taking the gospel to other lands, to other nations. And that fault is not in the heart of the young men, in not feeling inspired to go and to preach the gospel.

But it must lie with the pastors at home who aren't talking much about it and urging men to do it. It was Pierce and Fuller at home that was the spearhead of the mission to send money and men to taking the gospel to India and also to other parts of the world.

Samuel Pierce’s Conversion and Evangelistic Calling

Samuel Pierce was born at Plymouth, England in July 20, 1766. His father was a silversmith and a deacon of a Calvinistic Baptist church that held to the Confession of 1689. Being raised in a church with a sound gospel ministry, Samuel Pierce experienced a childhood that's very much like the childhood of some of your sons and daughters.

There were periods when he was strongly convicted of sin and miserable in his heart. But there were other times when his life was marked by eager pursuit of sin. Nothing open and gross because he would have gotten it too if he had been open with his sins.

But he felt his heart strongly attracted to the world and he knew that selfishness was ruling in his soul. When he was 15 years old, Samuel's father asked him to help with his deaconing duties. He sent him to visit a man in the neighborhood who was dying to inquire if there was anything that the church could do for his condition, to help his wife and family, to help with defraying medical expenses and so forth.

And Samuel left the silver shop in a cheerful mood. But while he was in that neighbor's house, he heard the dying man cry out, I am damned forever. And these dreadful words pierced the heart of this young man so that he determined that he must find God and he must escape hell.

About one year later, while listening to his pastor preaching a sermon, the Spirit of God applied the gospel remedy for sinners to Samuel's heart. And he recalled of that day, I believe few conversions were more joyful.

The change produced in my views, my feelings and my conduct were so evident to myself that I could no more doubt of its being of God than of my existence. And then Pierce records a profound yet a very simple observation about Christians.

He said it is very common for young converts to feel strong desires for the conversion of others. And that's a biblical remark. We know that Andrew went and sought out Peter when he found the Messiah, that Philip at once had to find Nathanael.

And throughout history, the saints of God trace the origin of their evangelistic spirit to the hour of their conversion and the excitement and the thrill of meeting God, not just hearing about Him, but now coming to know Him as their Savior and Redeemer.

So evangelism is the instinct of the Christian species. And it's not surprising if non-Calvinists who are true Christians are interested in evangelism. Samuel Pierce said, these desires immediately followed the evidence of my own religion.

And I remember that they were particularly fixed upon the poor heathen. I believe the first week that I knew the grace of God and truth, I put up many fervent cries to heaven in their behalf, and at the same time felt an earnest desire to be employed in promoting their salvation.

Soon he was baptized and he joined the church at Plymouth. And he thought of going to New Zealand to preach the gospel there. And he talked about it so much to people that it became the rumor of the town that this young Christian was going to actually go to New Zealand as a missionary, which was unheard of.

They didn't have missionaries going out to lands like that. He gave up the idea, however, because he didn't know how to go about it. Soon it became evident to everyone in the church that his spirit was breathing the response of Isaiah.

Here am I, Lord, send me. And so they made him a probationer. It's interesting to notice the procedure of the church in days gone by. They made this young man with spiritual interests a probationer to teach and preach within their own church.

And seeing that he really had some gifts for the ministry, they suggested that he go to Bristol Baptist Academy. One note from his career at the academy suggests the abiding evangelical spirit of the young man.

Now I'm reading his own account. Being sent by my tutor to preach two Sabbaths at Colford, I felt particular sweetness in devoting the evenings of the week to going from house to house among the colliers who dwell in the forest of Dean.

And coal miners then were the very poor class of the society, very despised socially and a very rough bunch. Pierce says that he spent the evenings conversing and praying with them and preaching to them.

In these exercises, I found the most solid satisfaction that I have ever known in discharging the duties of my calling. In a poor hut with a stone to stand upon and a three-legged stool for my desk, surrounded with 30 or 40 of the smutty neighbors, I have felt such an unction from above that my whole auditory have been melted into tears whilst directed to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

And I, weeping among them, could scarcely speak or they hear for interrupting sighs and sobs. Many a time did I then think, thus it was with the apostles of our Lord when they went from house to house among the poor heathen.

In work like this, I could live and die. Indeed, had I at that time been at liberty to settle, I should have preferred that situation to any in the kingdom of God. He was experiencing revival in a real sense even when he was a student in school.

Again, notice the method that the Baptist church has used in the 18th century. In 1789, after he finished his schooling at Bristol, Robert Hall, the famous Baptist preacher, recommended Samuel Pierce to a particular Baptist church in Birmingham.

And again, he went to Birmingham as a probationer. And he preached there for a full year before he was called as pastor and ordained. In 1790, William Carey visited Birmingham and Pierce met him for the first time.

At that time, Pastor Carey was the pastor of the Moulton church and still teaching in school and making shoes to support his family. The two, of course, had a kindred spirit with their interest in the heathen.

Pierce had already stirred up interest in missions by his monthly prayer meetings. And his monthly prayer meetings were the largest and strongest in the whole Northampton Association. This is what Pierce himself says.

I continued to preach much upon the promises of God, respecting the conversion of the heathen. And by so doing, and by always communicating to my people every piece of information I could obtain, respecting the present state of missions.

They soon imbibed the same spirit. That's how people got interested in going and in giving. By preaching God's promises that the nations of the world must be converted to Christ and by giving them every piece of information available concerning missions.

And then he went on to say, from that time to this, they have discovered so much concern for the more extensive spread of the gospel that in our monthly prayer meetings, both stated and occasional, I should have been as much surprised at the cause of the heathen being omitted in any prayer as at the omission of the name and merit of Jesus Christ.

The Kettering Mission and the Promise to the Nations

When Pierce heard of the meeting at Kettering in 1792, October, and no doubt heard it through Cary, he was not very familiar with the leaders of the Association, but he couldn't resist going. This meeting fired Samuel Pierce even more, if possible.

And we find that the next week after the meeting, he wrote these words to a friend in the letter. This was the breathing of his spirit. Oh, when will the time, the longed-for time, arrive when the Messiah's ensign shall be lifted high and Jews and Gentiles, pagans and Mohammedans, Africans and Indians be gathered unto it?

One journey I made to Northamptonshire was with a view to assist in setting on foot a mission to the unconverted heathen. It has long engaged the unusual concern of many ministers in our connection about the center of the kingdom.

Brother Cary of Leicester published on the subject, and last Wednesday evening we drew out a sketch of an institution for so great a design. May he whose glory I trust we have in view direct all future deliberations and make the embryo effort ripen and succeed till future ages prove that the plan begun at Kettering in October of 1790 comprehended in its consequences the salvation of the world.

There were 14 men there. Listen to the way he's speaking. Soon, my brother, soon it is said, Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God. May we, like our divine master, not fail nor be discouraged until the gospel be established in the earth and the waiting aisles have received the law of him who is the approaching desirer of all nations.

That was the spirit of the men, the Baptists, who met in Kettering in October of 1792. Now it's interesting that Pierce and Fuller and Cary and others dwelt much on the divine sovereign increase of the church.

And they used texts like Psalm 67, 3, glorious things of the earth spoke in those city of God. And they spoke of the texts that deal with the conversion of the heathen, like Psalm 68, 31, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.

Now, to some degree, it was their view of prophecy that was affecting their great zeal for the evangelism of the church. But even more fundamentally, it was their distinct views of the sovereign grace of God.

We read, for instance, Samuel Pierce writing, Oh, what praising living Christians should we be if we lived as our obligations to sovereign mercy teach us, dead to the world, alive to God, far from gloom, full of glory.

Now these few quotes hint to us of the doctrinal sparks which kindled and rekindled the missionary spirit of Pierce and Fuller and Cary. And an examination of the record will find these elements prominent in the awareness of evangelists and missionaries that we revere all across the ages.

And they stick out all over Jonathan Edwards as you read his works. First, he hints of sovereign mercy. The Baptists of 1792 were staunch believers in the biblical doctrines of grace. Far from dampening the fires of evangelistic zeal, their Calvinism was the oil that kept it burning.

The doctrines of sovereign grace put wings to the feet of ambitious service. We read these words written by the first missionaries who were in India. We are sure that only those who are ordained to eternal life will believe.

They'd never get into mission societies today. And that God alone can add to the church such as shall be saved. Nevertheless, we cannot but observe with admiration that Paul, the great champion for the glorious doctrines of free and sovereign grace, was the most conspicuous for his personal zeal in the work of persuading men to be reconciled to God.

Tremendous, and really the sum and substance of what we're saying today. They saw that of zeal, of acts of service, and believing in the sovereign grace of God, those two elements were knit together in their own hearts, and in the hearts of those who have been most influential in the work of mission.

Sovereign Grace as Fuel for Evangelistic Zeal

Let me point your attention to one text that you may be familiar with. In Acts chapter 18, it points out how Paul was sparked to his missionary enthusiasm. In Acts chapter 18, verses 9 to 11, Paul has been incarnate, he's preached at the synagogue, there were a couple converted, but then the Jews threw him out of the synagogue, and now he's in justice's house, in Acts 18, beginning with verse 9.

Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city.

And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Paul was lying in justice's house, he was afraid of men. In other cities, he had felt the stones pelting against his own flesh, and when you feel that, it doesn't make you any more bold to face them a second time, and he was afraid.

And God said, Be not afraid, for I am with thee. But I think Paul was also discouraged and afraid of failure. We tend to over-romanticize what Paul accomplished in the heathen world. His churches were like your churches, rather than like the huge churches of our nation.

They were little struggling groups of believers, they were not huge cathedrals filled with thousands and tens of thousands. There were only a few that got converted, and after they believed what he preached, he had to go on being driven out by persecution, and he left them to struggle in the little society themselves being persecuted.

What was the use of going on? Well, God tells him what the use was with going on. He said, I have many people in this place. I have much people in this city in particular. Now what was God saying? Not that many were already converted, because that wasn't true.

There were only a few. But that God the Father had sovereignly chosen many in Corinth before the foundation of the world. That God the Son had spilled his blood for many in that place. And that precious blood, O Son of God, shall never lose its power, till all the ransomed church of God shall be saved.

Just say no more, as our hymn goes. That the Spirit would certainly without fail enlighten many eyes and regenerate a multitude. Many were ordained to eternal life in Christ from eternity past. There were many whose sins propitiated on Calvary's hill had just recently had the atonement paid.

There were many who would yet be quickened by the Spirit in the future. And what did Paul react to that? Certainty that there would be much people in the city converted. Did Paul say, well, if it's so certain, why bother?

Might as well sit back and relax and watch it happen. I'm convinced the Arminians don't know much about human nature. If I tell a fisherman, a real fisherman, that the stream is well stocked with brook trout, and they're biting so well now that if you throw in your line you're sure to get a strike right away, what will that fisherman say?

Will he lay his pole down and say, well, what's the use in trying? If it's such a certain thing, why bother? Why go to any effort? Boy, he'll grab that rod and be down by the stream faster than you could tell him the story.

And even the half-hearted want to get in on it when they're really biting. If it's the last quarter of a football game and your team's ahead by 35 points, do the players say, don't send me in, coach.

It's all over. No reason to fight. Do the subs walk wearily on the field muttering, well, there's no contest. So the weariest of the football players taste a certain victory, and they find adrenaline limping through their body, and we find people even playing beyond their ability.

The joy of certain success gives a satisfaction that enables the person to give himself utterly to the work. Tell a farmer that there's a great harvest out there. Put in a sickle and, man, you'll have your barn full.

Does he say, well, I'll go back to bed then? No, sir. He rushes to the field. Tell a businessman he has a sure thing, and he'll be busy at work and up early in the morning to do it. So Paul is filled with enthusiasm when he knows that God has much people in the city, and he labored there faithfully for a year and six months, as we read in verse 11.

Service rests not on the whims of man's will, but salvation is of the Lord. God has chosen. Christ has redeemed. The Spirit will bring. We read Jesus saying in John 10 that his sheep must be brought into the fold.

The Holy Ghost will convince of sin and righteousness and judgment. He promises it in John's Gospel. Praise God, this evangelistic work is jolly good fishing then, as our British brethren will tell us.

Hope should surge through your veins that the glory of our sovereign God, exalting his glorious grace through insignificant vessels like us as instruments, will indeed grip the souls of men and bring them to Christ.

I'll tell you that will take away your blues. When you're discouraged, when you're fearful, when you think little is happening, then look at the Word of God and the certainty of God's great, triumphing grace, and it should encourage you, and it should stir up your lazy feet to work, and it should surge through the veins of men until they go to the end of the world.

They believe the doctrines of grace. But even in this passage, the doctrines of grace are peculiarly joined to something about which very little is said in our generation. And I, even when I was an Arminian and I went to missionary societies, I didn't hear this note.

And it's a note that you can hold concerning prophecy, whether you pre-mill, amill, or post-mill. And that is that there is a glorious present reign of Jesus Christ in the Baptists of 1792, believe that.

There is right now in our day a glorious, sovereign reign by Jesus Christ. It is true that when a man is saved, he is saved by sovereign operations of the triune God. But it is also true that he has expressed in the Scriptures promises concerning our age, which are broad and far-reaching.

It's not just that man is so sinful that if any of them happen to get saved, it'll be by the operation of God's Spirit. But when you read that Bible, you find that it is God's purpose to save a multitude that no man can number, greater than the stars of the heaven, more numerous than the sand on the seashore.

We read in Psalm 110, that great psalm concerning Jesus Christ as our exalted Lord after his ascension to heaven, after he offered up atonement for his people. We read in that passage these words, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.

Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. These are words that God spoke concerning our age. Not when he would come back again to triumph openly over them and to subdue all of his enemies under his feet, but when he would rule in the midst of his enemies.

And in that day, his people shall be willing. And that's this day. His people in the day of his power. Turn to Psalm 22. Our good brother John Riesinger turned you to it yesterday. And I hope you know that Psalm 22 is a psalm that predicts the words of Jesus Christ himself on the cross.

They begin with that saying which our Lord spoke on the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And in the first part of the psalm, our Lord in the prayer encourages himself on the cross. And in the latter part of the psalm, there is a note of triumph, with assurance that he will be heard by the Father.

And notice verses 27 and 28 in that section of Psalm 22. Where the Lord, as the Spirit looks forward in history, is seen to be praying on the cross,. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,.

And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee,. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. Because of what Christ was doing on the cross, All the nations of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord.

I'm sure there was joy in Christ's heart on the cross, Because he saw his seed, as we were talking about yesterday. But he also saw that his Father would be glorified throughout all the reaches of the earth, Because of what he was doing on the cross.

And so we read triumphant notes in the scripture, like in Psalm 46 and verse 10. Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen. That ought to make you want to go. At least pray about whether you ought to go to some of these heathen nations and preach the gospel.

I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. Turn to Isaiah chapter 54, and the first five verses. This was the text that William Carey used in preaching to the Northampton Association in 1792.

And it was this sermon that stirred them to meet at Kettering on October 2nd and form their mission. And what was he preaching, but that the sovereign God who alone saves men, Has certainly purpose to bring the heathen to himself.

Isaiah 54, all you need to do is read the first five verses. Sing, O barren. The prophet is speaking to the church that's pictured as barren and living alone in a tent. Sing, O barren, and thou that didst not bear.

Break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not prevail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent.

Let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations. Spare not, even to the ends of the world, spare not. Lengthen thy cords. Strengthen thy stakes. Why? For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left.

And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles. This is the glory of the church foreseen in the book of Isaiah. The Gentiles shall be brought in and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed.

Neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth. And shalt remember the reproach of thy widowhood. Shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore.

For thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. And thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. And then notice the name that's given to him. The God of the whole earth shall he be called. The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Isaiah’s Vision of the Gentiles Coming to Christ

Flip over a few pages in the book of Isaiah to chapter 60. And notice this note again. And it's all about these heathen being brought to the Lord. Arise and shine, for thy light is come. And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon thee. And his glory shall be seen upon thee. When? And the Gentiles shall come to thy light.

And kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about and see. All they gather themselves together they come to thee. Thy sons shall come from far. Thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Then thou shalt see and flow together. And thine heart shall fear and be enlarged. Because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee. And the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee.

The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All they of Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense. And they shall show forth the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Keter shall be gathered together unto thee.

The rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee. They shall come up with acceptance on mine altar. And I will glorify the house of my glory. Who are these that fly as a cloud and as the doves to their window?

Surely the isles shall wait for me. And the ships of Tarshish first to bring thy sons from far. Their silver and their gold with them. Unto the name of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel. Because he hath glorified thee.

Oh, the great expectation that's given to the church. And all because, as we see in verse 11, the forces of the Gentiles and their kings are going to be brought. We know from the New Testament that men of every nation and tongue and people shall sing before the throne of the Lamb and the throne of God in the last day.

And so the stream is well stopped. We have a sovereign God who can save. But we have a sovereign God who has purpose to save a great number from every nation and tongue and tribe and people across the face of the earth.

Christ, when he speaks in the New Testament, speaks of fields that are ripened with grain. No problem with the harvest. We pray like there's a problem with the harvest. The problem's with the laborers.

Jesus said, I look out and I see a great harvest. Pray God to send laborers into the harvest. We tend to look at the problems of missions and say, well, there just isn't much happening. There isn't much of a harvest.

There aren't people being converted. Pray God to send laborers into the harvest. And when these two truths come together, of sovereign grace being the pattern, the source of man's salvation, and the promises of God's intent that great hosts shall be saved through the world.

When these two truths are laid together, they're like two logs that come together and increase the flame one of the other until they burst into a holy zeal for the Lord of Hosts. It kept Cary going, these two truths.

When he was in India for five years, he still didn't have one convert to Christ. And William Cary wrote home and said, the work to which God has set his hands will infallibly prosper. It has begun to besiege this ancient and strong fortress and will assuredly carry it.

Was he saying he was sure they'd get converted while he was there or that he would be the instrument? No such thing. When God told Paul that he had much people in the city of Corinth, did he mean that they'd all get converted by Paul's preaching?

Samuel Pierce’s Ministry at Home and Support for Carey

Not at all. But God is doing a great work and his people ought to come with a thrill to doing that work. Well, speaking of Cary in India, we're getting a little ahead of the story of Samuel Pierce. By the spring of 1793, the Missionary Society proposed to send Thomas and Cary to the Hindus.

At this time, Samuel Pierce was in the midst of a small revival in his church. He was having revival on the home front. And from the very first, there were many converts under his ministry. In February of 1793, he wrote a friend that in the past five months, 40 persons were converted.

And the way he knew they were converted is that they sought out the pastor and asked what they must do for the salvation of their souls. And yet, when the plan was formed to send Cary to the mission field, he traveled throughout Great Britain to secure financial aid and prayer support for the missionaries who were going.

And when he traveled through the regions preaching, there was sometimes revival just from his being there. When he was in the city of Dublin, he was the talk of the city because he preached so convincingly against sin that there was a little revival in the midst of the churches.

And he prayed fervently himself for the conversion of the heathen. News of Cary's departure prompted the formation of other societies, and always it was Fuller and Pierce who were called on to give advice as to how to go about the work.

A year after Cary went to the field, Pierce offered himself to go to India. And we find that during that year, in addition to a prosperous ministry at home in Birmingham, and having a heavy itinerant schedule for missions, he had learned one of the Indian languages late at night in his study.

Pierce told his brethren, the more spiritual I have been in the frame of my mind, the more love I have felt for God, and the more communion I have enjoyed with Him, so much more disposed have I been to engage as a missionary among the heathen.