William Carey

William Carey

William Carey
1761-1834
The father of modern missions. William Carey was born at Northamptonshire, England, and became a cobbler at the age of 14. He studied privately on his own, and mastered Dutch, French, Greek and Hebrew before he was 20 years of age. Two years later, at the age of 22, he joined the Baptist church, and began preaching immediately, mostly on the theme of missions. He helped organize the English Baptist Missionary Society and was one of its first missionaries to India. His services there were remarkable for their range and depth.

In addition to soul-winning, Carey founded the Serampore College, and, with the aid of other linguists, he translated the Bible into 44 languages and dialects. Through his efforts, the Bible was made available to 300,000,000 people before the American Civil War.

He was also instrumental in developing grammars and dictionaries in Bengali, Sanskrit, and other native tongues.